238 Sermon Illustrations on Temptation

”No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. 1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV

Temptation … we’ve all been there. Satan’s silver bullet designed just for our heart. “No one will ever know, besides it won’t hurt anybody!” some mysterious voice sounding like our own whispers inside our head. Even if those two statements were true, and they never really are, it would matter because something inside of us caved in to what we knew was wrong. One line of defense is to simply remind ourselves we are not alone in this temptation — others have faced it and conquered it, so we can too, by God’s help and the power of the Holy Spirit.

Success is a great deodorant. It takes away all your past smells

A new staff couple had just arrived with their U-Haul truck, moving to our area from the Southwest. And a bunch of us were there to meet them and help them move into their apartment. Well, the kinda neat thing is that our four-year-old grandson insisted on joining the moving crew. I was inside the truck, handing out items as helpers came to the get some more, and no one made more trips than the youngest mover there. No, I didn't give him the couch to carry ... or the dresser or the TV set. No, I gave him small boxes, small appliances, lighter objects to carry. There's only so much a four-year old can handle. Or even someone who's a lot more than four years old -- like me, for example!

Now, I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about “Never More Than You Can Carry.”

We all have some loads to carry -- that's the nature of life. And sometimes it's so heavy that it takes everything we've got to keep from dropping it or caving in beneath the weight. This might be one of those seasons of heavy burdens for you. I've got some good news for you -- news that's contained in our word for today from the Word of God in 1 Corinthians 10:13. Here's your Heavenly Father's promise: “God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted” -- that word can also be translated “tested” -- “beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

Never more than you can bear. Just like that day I handed loads to grandson for him to carry. I knew what he could handle. I wouldn't give him more than he could carry. Neither will your Father in heaven who loves you infinitely and knows you completely. Everything that comes into your life as a child of God has to be Father-filtered first. Whether your Father sends it or allows it, no burden or temptation can come into your life unless He has first signed off on it. Now, will He allow burdens that take you to the limit? Yes. Ask any athlete who's ever used the weight room -- the only way you can get stronger is if you have to lift something heavier than you've lifted before. But God knows your limit, and while He may allow you to go the edge so you can experience His power, He will never allow you to go over the edge.

Maybe you feel like Mother Teresa who is reported to have said, “I know God will never let me have more than I can handle. I just wish He didn't trust me with so much.” In a very real way, God's trust is what your burdens are all about. Look at Job. He had no idea that his motives for serving God were being challenged by Satan himself in heaven. And the devil knew he couldn't do anything bad to Job unless God allowed him to. And God looks at his servant Job and says, “I can trust this man with a very heavy load. He will not betray me. He will not stop trusting me.” And with one tragedy after another flooding into his life, Job proves he is a man God can trust. And, in the process, humiliates the devil who was sure he could embarrass God with Job's betrayal.

If you're having to carry something really heavy right now, realize that you're indeed being trusted by God with this burden. He believes you can handle it, with His unlimited power as your strength. He believes you won't let Him down. And He knows you will emerge from this struggle stronger and more valuable than you've ever been. For Job, it meant receiving twice what he had lost during his time of testing.

Your Father loves you. Your Father knows what you can handle. He knows what He can trust you with. There's something much bigger, something much more eternal going on here than you can possibly imagine -- maybe even a contest over you between the devil and God Himself. Carry your burden faithfully, with undiminished allegiance to your Lord and daily downloading of the mighty grace of God. And as your Father hands you today's load to carry, be sure that He knows how much you can handle -- and He'll never give you more than you can carry.

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Copyright © Ron Hutchcraft Ministries, Inc., PO Box 400, Harrison, AR 72602. Used by permission. Written by Ron Hutchcraft. "Practical Answers to Real Life Issues"

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Luke 4:1–13 — Satan Tempts Jesus

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A. Led into the Wilderness, Luke 4:1–2 (NKJV): 1 Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.

1. how would you unite these verses with

a. the words in the model prayer, Luke 11:4 (NKJV): And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.

b. and the truth in James 1:13–14 (NKJV): Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

2. note that Matthew records the temptations in a different order

3. John sums up man’s sinful actions in this fashion, 1 John 2:16

a. (Weymouth): For the things in the world — the cravings of the earthly nature, the cravings of the eyes, the show and pride of life — they all come, not from the Father, but from the world.

b. (NRSV): for all that is in the world — the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches — comes not from the Father but from the world.

c. and in some ways, the three recorded temptations reflect this three-fold division

B. Desire of the Flesh, Luke 4:3–4 (NKJV): 3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’”

1. What does this temptation call into question?

a. obviously: « that Jesus is indeed the Son of God »

b. but also: « that God’s words can be trusted (at the baptism) »

2. What is the essence of the temptation? « Satisfy your physical need with your divine power. »

3. What would be the wrong committed? « Disbelief of God’s words, giving the physical priority over the spiritual, not trusting God for His physical need »

4. What would cause Jesus to apply Deuteronomy 8:3? « The preamble to this verse is that God had sustained Israel for 40 years in the wilderness; God had just sustained Jesus, the true Israel, for 40 days in the wilderness … He can rely on God. In fact, all of Jesus replies are from Deuteronomy 6:13 through 8:3, verses which recount the wilderness experiences of Israel »

C. Desire of the Eyes, Luke 4:5–8 (NKJV): 5 Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.” 8 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’”

1. what does this temptation call into question?

a. « that God is the true ruler (Daniel 4:17, 25) and Satan only rules temporarily by God’s sufferance (John 12:31) »

b. « that Christ’s mission required the cross (John 12:27) »

2. what is the essence of this temptation? « Compromise; the end justifies the means; you don’t have to do it God’s way. »

3. why would these kingdoms not have been sufficient for Jesus to accomplish His purpose? « Because Jesus’ mission was not that of a political reformer but to establish a heavenly kingdom (John 18:36) »

4. what is the important point in Deuteronomy 6:13? « The word “only” — the worship of God is exclusive; the Lord our God is a jealous God (Exodus 34:14 et alii); He will not give his glory to another (Isaiah 42:8) »

D. Pride of Life, Luke 4:9–12 (NKJV): 9 Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. 10 ‘For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you,’ 11 and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” 12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’”

1. what does this temptation call into question?

a. obviously: « that Jesus is indeed the Son of God »

b. but also: that you can rely on God’s promises … and,, if you don’t do this Jesus, then you don’t trust God!

2. what could Satan do to Jesus? … what could He not do?

a. « he could transport Jesus to the top of the temple »

b. « he could not cast Jesus down »

c. what do we learn from this? « Satan can only suggest the temptation, we alone can act upon it. »

3. what is the essence of this temptation? « Let God prove that He is with you by your using God’s promises to control Him … make God do your bidding because of His promise »

4. Deuteronomy 6:16, which Jesus quotes, refers to a way that Israel tempted (tested) God; what was the essence of their sin (Exodus 17:1–7)? « They needed to have proof that God was with them; Jesus is saying, I do not need proof that God is with me in the fashion that Psalm 91 describes — I trust Him. »

E. Tested, without Sin, Luke 4:13 (NKJV): Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.

1. Matthew 4:11 adds the following: Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

2. how thorough do you think Satan’s testing was? « “In all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” — in one sense, complete; in another, inadequate! »

3. Satan was defeated; did he quit? What should we learn? « Though he is a defeated foe, that does not mean he has left the field of battle as we are warned in Scripture. »

4. Was Jesus trust in God justified? « Yes, by God’s meeting Jesus’ needs through ministering messengers. »

An elderly Cherokee man was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, “A fight is going on inside of me; it is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One wolf is fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. The other wolf is joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.

This same fight is going on inside you and inside every other person too.”

They thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, ”Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee man replied simply, “The one you feed.”

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We are seeing that once we have been given a vision of what God wants us to do for Him, the next thing that happens is that the vision dies. The reason for this is that Christian character must be developed in us before God can accomplish His purpose in our lives, and this can only be done by God bringing our vision down into death. Many Christians have been baffled by this strange strategy which God uses to develop Christlikeness in us, but it is yet another illustration of the principle that death must precede life. An important thing to remember is that Satan is extremely operative at this time, for his purpose is to get you to fulfil the vision by your own human effort. And whenever you do this, you will finish up in conflict. Remember what happened to Abraham? Rather than waiting for God to bring the vision into being at His own time, he tried to "help" God by having a son through Sarah's maidservant, Hagar (Gen. 16:3-4). The result of that was conflict between Isaac and Ishmael - a conflict that has continued to this day. In our reading today, we see Peter being used by Satan to talk Christ out of facing death on Calvary, but Jesus recognised the true source of his ideas and responded with the words: "Get behind me, Satan!" One writer comments on this passage: "Satan often uses those who are closest to us to 'protect' us from what we know God has called us to do." Even close Christian friends sometimes fail to understand that before we can live for God's purposes, we must die to our own.

PRAYER: O Father. I sense that Your ways are written, not only in Your Word, but also in me. Something within me echoes to truth. Help me to be always willing to die to my own purposes so that I can be alive to Yours. Then I will live abundantly. Amen.

FURTHER STUDY: Eph. 6:10-18; 2 Cor. 2:11; 11:3

1. How can we withstand Satan's schemes?

2. Do it today.

The second channel of temptation through which Satan came to Adam and Eve related to his lie concerning the consequences of disobeying God. God had said that death would accompany disobedience, but Satan said, “You surely shall not die!” (Genesis 3:4). He was appealing to Eve’s sense of self-preservation by falsely assuring her that God was wrong on the issue of sin’s consequences. “Don’t listen to Him; do what’s right in your own eyes,” he urged. The forbidden fruit was a delight to her eyes (verse 6), so she and Adam ignored God’s command in order to do what appeared to serve their own best interests.

The lust of the eyes subtly draws us away from the Word of God and eats away at our confidence in God. We see what the world has to offer and desire it above our relationship with God. We begin to place more credence in our own perspective of life than in God’s commands and promises. Fueled by the lust for what we see, we grab for all we can get, believing that we need it and deceived that God wants us to have it. Wrongly assuming that God will withhold nothing good from us, we lustfully claim prosperity.

Instead of trusting God wholeheartedly, we adopt a “prove it to me” attitude. That was the essence of Satan’s second temptation of Jesus: “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down [from the pinnacle of the temple]” (Matthew 4:6). But Jesus wasn’t about to play Satan’s “show me” game. He replied, “It is written, ‘You shall not put the LORD your God to the test’” (verse 7).

God is under no obligation to us; He is under obligation only to Himself. There is no way you can cleverly word a prayer so that God must respond to it. That not only distorts the meaning of prayer but puts us in the position of God. The righteous shall live by faith in the written Word of God and not demand that God prove Himself in response to our whims or wishes, no matter how noble they may be. We are the ones being tested, not God.

Forgive me, Father, for the times I have listened to the enemy’s lies and tried to meet my needs the way I saw fit. You are God, not me. I look to You to supply all my needs in Your own way.

You will be better prepared to resist temptation in your life when you realize that, according to the Scriptures, there are only three channels through which Satan will entice you to act independently of God. They are summarized in John’s instructions to believers concerning our relationship to this world: “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15-17).

The three channels of temptation are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The lust of the flesh preys on our physical appetites and their gratifications in this world. The lust of the eyes appeals to self-interest and tests the Word of God. The pride of life stresses self-promotion and self-exaltation. Satan confronted both the first Adam and the last Adam through each of these three channels of temptation.

Notice how Satan used precisely those three channels to deceive Eve: “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food [lust of the flesh], and that it was a delight to the eyes [lust of the eyes], and that the tree was desirable to make one wise [pride of life], she took from its fruit and ate” (Genesis 3:6).

The first Adam failed miserably and we still suffer the results of his failure. But the last Adam — Jesus Christ — met Satan’s threefold temptation head-on and succeeded triumphantly. In Him we have the resources and the power to conquer every temptation Satan throws at us.

Dear God, please tear down any pride or self-deception I may have concerning Satan’s strategies of temptation. I know I can never become complacent about spiritual warfare.

Sermon in Abraham series, #2. Genesis 12:10-20

ENDING UP IN EGYPT

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I. New Jersey politicians - fine moral examples.

II. An obscure passage, again and again.

A. Genesis contains three episodes with the same scenario.

B. What is the moral issue here?

III. The story unfolds.

A. Abram's situation.

B. Dilemma of a beautiful wife.

C. Abram's deception.

D. God's intervention.

IV. Echoes of the past and future.

A. Sarai provides an echo of the Garden of Eden.

B. Parallels with the future Exodus.

V. Lessons to be learned.

A. Even people of great faith can have great fears.

B. Deception doesn't work.

VI. God will fulfill his promises - maybe in spite of us.

A. If God has made a promise, he will keep it.

B. Fortunately for us, God is gracious in his goodness.

C. One of his greatest promises is found in John 10:28-29:

True humility is not self-abasement, but magnification of God.

“Humility,” writes Gale D. Webbe in THE NIGHT AND NOTHING, “is the hardest of all virtues to acquire.” Hard though this virtue may be to acquire, it is not difficult to find opportunities to practice it. The following reflections are excerpted from chapter 2 of his intriguing book about the stressful points of spirituality.

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Enormous raw material for growth in humility is ready at hand in our temptations.

The self-made man reacts with irritation when his weak spots are thus sought out; in the same experience a spiritual person relearns the depths of his own incapacities for good. He uses the constant proof of his potential sinfulness to lead him into deepening dependence upon God -- “there, but for the grace of God, go I.” Perhaps from time to time he rejoices in the thought that the Devil must be experiencing great despair at having his best assaults thus turned to his own confusion.

Another unfailing flow of opportunity to grow in humility is found in humiliation itself. An ample inner supply of this is always available in our sins and (perhaps not so often, for we are clever at concealment) in the humiliation of being discovered in them. Seeking out humiliation is usually quite unnecessary. It is sufficient in our fallen world that we accept with all grace the humiliations which the world flings our way. The entire armor of a sinful, stupid, and unjust environment -- misunderstandings, misquotations, slanders, failures -- that makes the natural man red-faced, disappointed, discouraged, or even despairing, is the finest kind of material for learning humility, when rightly used.

Temptation and humiliation are, as it were, steady daily teachers in the school of humility. In addition, on occasion a visiting examiner comes to test our progress. Every life has its critical moments, when we know with special clarity that we do not dare trust our own strength. There are times-as when we face a serious operation, or undertake a new job, or watch our business fail, or in any way become lost in the woods-when the whole human and cosmic affair is too big for us. We are adrift on a tiny raft in the middle of a boundless ocean. In this situation, when a person is thrown back upon really basic resources, he can easily be reckless or despairing in a hundred different ways. On the other hand, profiting from the experience, he can learn a deeper degree of dependence on the strength of God.

These three factors -- temptation, humiliation, crisis -- that come our way in the providence of God or the maliciousness of events provide the most excellent material for growth in humility. Our own cooperating life of prayer, as we grope toward the virtue, is the final factor that will be mentioned here.

Humility does not originate in our squashing ourselves down. Such self-abasement is born of pride. True humility, on the contrary, comes through magnifying God. (Indeed, everything that can be said on our subject is in commentary on the Magnificat.) It is born and flourishes as a by-product of the cultivated habit of looking up and away from oneself. A mountain range, the endless ocean, the sweep of stars at night -- contemplation of these things often helps the viewer see his true size. In the same manner the prayer of adoration (von Hügel has shown us that the essential religious attitude is adoration) recognizes the centrality of God and the peripheral location of the adorer. This right proportion is the essence of humility.

It follows that the prayers of praise and thanksgiving, the attitudes of worship and adoration, are the fundamental ones that must be the ever-growing elements in our total prayer life. As through deliberate cultivation they come to bulk larger and larger in our life of a prayer, the growing knowledge of our own creatureliness will slip in from the side.

This striving is the cultivation of what is dangerously called “holy indifference,” which is not so much a passive as an active desire for God's will. Holy indifference desires what God desires, in his time and manner. It doesn't care whether one is president or janitor, so long as that is what God wants. It doesn't care whether life is lived in exhilaration or deadness, by flashing inspiration or dry duty, so long as that is what God wants at the moment.

The essence of the matter is that holy indifference doesn't fuss about itself, but attends to God. Indeed it does not so much fight self, or argue with self, as merely drop self as being of no particular consequence in comparison with God-yet as being safely in the hands of God. This is the morning that dawns at the end of the night of humility.

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Gale D. Webbe, an Episcopal priest, has served parishes in western North Carolina, and was headmaster of Christ School in Arden. This article was excerpted from THE NIGHT AND NOTHING (Harper & Row, 1964).

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Rev. Bruce Dunn has a preacher friend in Toronto who kept a scrapbook about wayward preachers. The news clippings and pictures about any preacher who went astray was filed in his scrapbook under the various categories of Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, Pentecostal, etc.

When someone came up to him as they often did and someone said to him that he read about some straying preacher, he would say, “Do you have a few minutes? Come into my study.” Then he would pull down his scrapbook and say, “What is your denomination?” The man would say, “Well, I’m a Methodist.” “Oh, let’s turn over to the Methodist section here.” Then he would read them about what some straying Methodist ministers had done.

The Bible says, “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!” (1 Cor. 10:12).

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Not long ago, in the wall of an old castle in Italy where some repairs were being made, the workmen found a relic that told a tale of ancient barbarity and crime. Some baron of the old days put an enemy in a little niche in the wall, just large enough to hold a man, and then set the masons at work building the wall around him. Slowly the masonry crept up, as stone was laid on stone, until at last it arose and left the man standing there in his living tomb.

"Ah," you say, "such horrible forms of torture were only possible in days of darkness, when men exercised their ingenuity inventing new modes of cruelty." Shall I tell you of something worse that is modern? A man starts out to build a structure, which he calls "Success." Slowly, as the years pass, he walls in his soul. Duty calls, and he answers, "I cannot sacrifice my interests for you." Pity pleads, and he says: "I really cannot afford to do anything for you." Righteousness rings out with its prophetic demands, and he says: "It will injure the stock market if I join in these agitations."

Day by day, year by year, every lofty ideal, every summons of sympathy, every project of truth, every purpose of purity, finds him making the same old excuse: "Beware of going too far!" "Keep your eye on the main chance!" "Look out for number one!" "Be just good enough to gain your ends!" "Use men, use your city, use the world to advance those plans of material prosperity and commercial power that minister to your own self-aggrandizement!" So he builds his living tomb. So he suffocates his soul.

"Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8).

There is a story told of an old Christian slave in the South whose master was an infidel. One day the master went duck-hunting with his slave, and turning on him suddenly said: "How is it, Tom, that the devil never tempts me, and always worries you? Why should he tempt a Christian more than an infidel?"

Before the slave could find an answer, a flock of ducks came within shooting distance, and the master fired into them. He then directed the slave to make haste to secure the wounded birds first, and let those that were dead wait until last. When the slave returned to his mater he had found his answer.

"You see, master, I reckon it is this way about the devil. He thinks I am only a poor wounded soul that he wants to make sure of first, but you are surely his, and so you can wait!"

Perhaps the slave's master thought he was getting a little too personal in his remark, but until a man is truly born again through faith in Christ, the devil can wait to expend any special attention on him. It is the men made alive by the Spirit of God whom he has to hound and harass in order to draw them away from Christ.

There will come a world where there will be no temptation-a garden with no serpent, a city with no sin. The harvest day will come, and the wheat be gathered safe into the Master's barn. It will be very sweet and glorious. Our tired hearts rest on the promises with peaceful delight. But that time is not yet. Here are our tempted lives, and here, right in the midst of us, stands our tempted Savior. If we are men, we shall meet temptation as He met it, in the strength of the God who is the Father of whom all men are children. Every temptation that attacks us attacked Him, and was conquered. We are fighting against a defeated enemy. We are struggling for a victory which is already won. That may be our strength and assurance as we recall, whenever our struggle becomes hottest and most trying, the wonderful and blessed day when Jesus was "led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil."

And the peace of God, which passeth all ‘understanding, shall keep (guard or garrison) your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. — Philippians 4:7.

A garrison has two things attending it. It is exposed to assaults of enemies; and safety lies in it from their attempts. So with our souls — they are exposed to temptations, assaulted continually; but if there be a garrison in them, or if they be kept in a garrison, temptation shall not enter, and consequently we shall not enter into temptation. Now, how is this done? Saith He, “The peace of God shall do it.” What is this peace of God? A sense of His love and favor in Christ Jesus. Let this abide in you, and it shall garrison you against all assaults whatever. Lay in a store of gospel provisions, that may make the soul a defended place against all assaults. — John Owen.

The peace that comes when He is near,

the rest He gives so free from fear,

The hope in Him so bright and clear,

is more than tongue can tell. — J. E. Hall.

Who of us has not entertained the thought that, had we been Adam or Eve in the Garden of Eden, we would not have fallen for the serpent’s scheme? Comfortably situated in paradise, what would have been the attraction of eating from one more tree? In truth, however, I know that I fall prey all the time to the same lies from the same schemer, presented the same way.

When the serpent approached Eve, the very first words we read that he said to her were, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” I guess when a strategy works, Satan likes to re-use it because ever since he has been asking the question, “Did God really say...?”

The most obvious area in which I see God’s Word constantly undermined by this question is the area of human sexuality. “Did God really say that sex was reserved for marriage?” “Did God really say that homosexuality is wrong?” “Did God really say that he created us male and female?” Rarely is the argument made that Scripture condones promiscuity or alternative sexualities, but sometimes the question itself is aimed at undermining the sacredness of our sexuality. The Bible presents human sexuality as a sacred creation of God, and He intended sex to be enjoyed only within the covenant of marriage.

There are even more subtle ways that Satan uses this question to tempt us to stray from the path God has revealed. I find one of the most challenging biblical commands to be Jesus’s words in Matthew 18:15: “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you.” This goes against my intuitive ideas of savvy ways to handle conflict. It is far easier to win everyone else to your point of view by talking behind the back of the person who’s wronged you. Besides, nursing grudges is one of life’s guilty pleasures. When I believe I’ve been wronged by another person, I would rather adopt any other way of resolution than to go to that person privately. In such a case, I find myself asking, “Did God really say I had to do that?”

There are other difficult commands of which I often think, while God may have said it, surely He couldn’t have meant it. For example, “Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matthew 5:39). When you feel like someone is taking advantage of you, a willing spirit is the least natural response. But God did say this, and He gave many other hard commands that Satan would like us to question.

When, by God’s grace, I’ve been able to silence my own questioning and live by God’s Word, even his difficult words, I have found that unexpected blessings result. This doesn’t always come in obvious ways, but there is no greater blessing than a soul light with the favor of God.

Although at times God’s commands may seem restrictive or undesirable, we must keep in mind that, as our creator and the Lord of the universe, He knows best by which laws we should operate. There really isn’t a better alternative to be found than trusting his omniscient, omnibenevolent perspective. In situations where I can listen to the serpent’s question or trust the Word that my Father has given me, I find myself echoing the words of Simon Peter in John 6:68, when he said to Jesus, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

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Copyright © 2006 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

A horrible thing happened to me today… ..a thief broke into my house. It happened shortly after I awoke this morning. I got up and began rushing about. I had a thousand things on my list and was already running behind. Quickly, I gulped down breakfast, took a shower and got ready for work.

In my rush, I forgot to turn the security system on at my house. It was just about a half an hour later that the thief broke in. Of course, he didn’t make a sound. Just kind of snuck inside, not drawing any attention to himself. In fact, none of the neighbors ever saw him. But, I did.

You see, I WAS HOME when the thief broke in. He naturally startled me, as I was unprepared for his visit. He, of course, didn’t announce that he was coming and I certainly had not invited him over. And yet, I found myself face to face with danger and I felt so powerless. I also felt so very stupid, because this whole incident could have been avoided if I had just taken the time to turn the security system on.

You better believe I’ll be turning it on tomorrow morning! I thought I’d warn you about this guy, because he’s still on the loose. Chances are, he’s in your area. Possibly even headed for your house. His name? His name is Satan. You see, this morning when I jumped up in my haste to get started on my busy day, I skipped my prayer time -opting to “pray later today.”

In other words, I DIDN’T TURN ON THE SECURITY SYSTEM. My defense wasn’t on, my guard was dropped… ..and when the thief came into my home to attack me, I was unprepared to do battle. He tempted me and I felt powerless. Like I said, I also felt so very stupid, because I could have avoided the incident if I had just taken the time to pray.

My friend, the thief has come to “steal, kill and destroy.” And, as a Child of God, you are on his “hit list.” He’ll probably pop over to your house today. He may be lurking outside your door right now, just waiting to catch you off guard. Take time to pray this morning. Ask God to bind Satan from your very presence, to protect you and empower you to do battle. In short… don’t forget to turn your security system on…

Most of us have used expressions like “Faustian bargain” and “selling your soul to the Devil.” That, unfortunately, is all we know about the legendary Dr. Faust and the transaction that turned his name into an adjective.

“Unfortunately” because Goethe’s poem articulates, in dramatic form, parts of the human experience that still — if you’ll pardon the pun — bedevil us today: our longing for freedom from any kind of authority, our thirst for knowledge, and our desire to bend nature to our will.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe didn’t invent the character of Dr. Faust. The German legend of the man who sold his soul for knowledge dates back to at least the 16th century.

In the age of the Reformation, the story of Faust was seen as an object lesson and a warning. But in Goethe’s era, the Enlightenment, Faust was a prototype of man’s ideal aspirations. Faust had become a symbol of man’s emancipation from authority. His salvation no longer mattered — what mattered was his courage in seeking to obtain previously unobtainable knowledge.

Goethe’s idea of a hero as one who shakes off the bonds of religion in order to seek knowledge was central to the Enlightenment worldview, and turned the Christian message on its head.

In Part One of Faust, a scene reminiscent of the prologue of Job, we see God and Satan, called Mephistopheles in Goethe’s poem, debating the merits of Dr. Faust. Mephistopheles questions Faust’s goodness and devotion to God, citing Faust’s ceaseless search for knowledge and the inner turmoil this causes.

God acknowledges Faust’s turmoil but says that ultimately Faust’s soul will be saved. Mephistopheles bets God that by offering Faust what he strives for, he can turn Faust away from righteousness.

Mephistopheles offers to show Faust the secrets of the world and let him experience the profoundest pleasures in exchange for his immortal soul. Faust agrees, seeing himself as risking little, since he doubts the immortality of the soul.

In the end Faust is “saved,” but his redemption is anything but Christian. He is saved not because he repents of pursuing knowledge and pleasure but because he strove after them. Goethe employs Christian imagery to turn Christian beliefs upside down.

According to Ken Boa, Goethe’s Faust is the supreme expression of faith in man’s humanity — humans as the center of everything. That this is expressed using Christian imagery makes the rejection of the Christian worldview that much clearer and exposes the same “bargain” that we’re being tempted with every day. I wish all politicians could understand this.

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Copyright (c) 2009 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

A few months ago Harvey Mansfield, Harvard professor of government and 2011 Bradley Prize winner, wrote a provocative piece on the distinctive characteristics and faults of men for The Weekly Standard.

Several years ago, Mansfield penned the highly controversial book Manliness (Yale, 2006). Enjoying the freedom only tenure can bring, Mansfield has questioned gender absolutes in the academy and suggested that men and women are different. These are fighting words in many circles today. I have benefited from his insights and applaud his courage, even if I have some essential disagreements with him.

In his Weekly Standard piece, Mansfield notes that “men are more adventurous and aggressive than women. This is true for good as well as ill.” Mansfield’s insights are based in his observations, not in Scripture. They resonate, however, with certain tenets of the Christian worldview. From start to finish in the Bible, men are appointed as leaders of God’s church and their homes (with 1 and 2 Timothy providing the essential New Testament data on the matter). As they go, so go their families, churches and societies. When men excel in righteousness, others flourish (see, in a general sense, Israel under David’s reign -- 1 and 2 Samuel). When men fall into gross sin, others suffer (see the book of Judges). The sins and strengths of men have an outsize impact on others.

Mansfield is right. Men are aggressive. Men are adventurous. Men find monogamy more challenging than women. When men act on their base instincts, channeling their aggression into fornication and marital affairs, they set women up for heartbreak and pain. As Kay Hymowitz has shown in her recent book “Manning Up” (Basic, 2011), in the new sexual economy, men are loosed from traditional cultural bonds, which only increases the risks for women, children and society.

All of which leads Christian men -- men captured by the Gospel of Jesus Christ -- to realize that this is an age of tremendous opportunity. Godly men have a remarkable chance in this day to show how the Holy Spirit transforms a man. When God gets a hold of a man, He doesn’t merely tinker with him, making him cuss less and smile more. When God saves a man, He looses him to destroy sin and bless his family, church and society. Christian men are not normal men who sleep less on Sunday and wear Dockers with no creases. Christian men are transformed men, other-worldly men, residents of a new kingdom, servants of a great King, as Randy Stinson and Dan Dumas make clear in their insightful and challenging book “A Guide to Biblical Manhood” (Southern Seminary, 2011).

Not every unsaved man will stray, and indeed, the media can make it seem as if every man is out to destroy the traditional family. These ideas are plainly not true. Many men, Christian or not, will not ruin their families. The point stands nonetheless: Godly men have a fantastic opportunity in a society rightly jaded by the failures of so-called “great men” -- actors, athletes, politicians, celebrities -- to demonstrate the transformative power of the Gospel in a man’s life.

We face all the same temptations as lost men. Our flesh pulls at us to compromise our marriages, to take our sacrificial wives lightly, to ignore our children in order to play golf or be more successful or have more fun, to flirt when traveling, to speak ill of marriage, to generally not live sacrificially in the image of Jesus Christ and spend ourselves for the betterment of those God has entrusted us (Ephesians 5). Our flesh encourages us to allow small temptations to grow into strong desires, then to usher those desires into daring actions, then to allow those actions to blossom into patterns of sin that will, when discovered, blow our families and churches apart.

But the Gospel, praise God, is stronger. The power of God is inside us, enabling men to exchange the role of pleasure-driven narcissist for that of self-sacrificing pillar of strength. The power of God is at work in His local church, where sinful men find fellowship in the company of brothers who bear the same weaknesses but through the power of the Spirit stand as oaks of righteousness. Instead of comparing black book conquests and planning the next hedonistic plunge, these men link arms to kill sin, love their families, and propel the church’s witness. Whether in a massive church or a tiny one, this band of brothers provides an awesome witness to a fallen world of the mysterious power of the Gospel. Men who genuinely find pleasure in their families, in service of the church, and in their vocations show the world that it is not a secular lifestyle for which we were made, but the far more pleasurable way of life sketched out for us in Scripture.

This very day, every man -- whether a global leader or an unknown tradesman -- has an opportunity to show the world that the Gospel does not kill pleasure or aggressiveness. Rather, as Jonathan Edwards has shown, it frees Christians to experience true pleasure and to act in manly ways for a far greater cause than ourselves. We grieve the trajectory of modern men, and we feel special pain for the wives and children who are, through no fault of their own, deeply damaged by the sins of men. In a broken world, we pray to God to show the world a better way, a greater joy, and a magnificent Savior, who delights in taking sinful men and turning them into agents of His glory.

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Owen Strachan is instructor of Christian theology and church history at Boyce College, the undergraduate school of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.

If “hallowed be thy name” is the most misunderstood line in the Lord’s prayer, the two lines “Lead us not into temptation” and “Deliver us from evil” certainly come a close second. For one thing, the two lines mean almost the same thing. Secondly, it probably has little to do with the daily temptations we face. In summary, they mean, “God keep us from being oppressed.” This may seem confusing, but perhaps we can explain it a bit:

What is evil?

When we say something is evil, we mean that it is lacking morality. If we say a person is evil we mean that they are not as moral as most people. But when Scripture speaks about “evil”, it is more specific than just morality. If a person is in an “evil circumstance” it means that they are in dire straits, a very difficult situation that destroys them physically, emotionally or spiritually. When Scripture speaks of someone — like Satan — as being an “evil one” it does not mean that Satan is lacking in morality. It means that he puts people in difficult — seemingly impossible — circumstances. This is like Job, the righteous man of the Old Testament. Satan killed his children, destroyed his wealth, destroyed his property and gave him a plague on his body. This is what the Bible calls “evil” — terrible, devastating circumstances. When we are praying for God to deliver us from “evil” or “the evil one”, we are asking God to get us out of terrible circumstances — oppression, sickness, persecution, not having enough for our needs, sorrow, death, etc.

How is this “tempting”?

But evil circumstances aren’t just uncomfortable, they have a spiritual component to them. Most everyone has been through such a terrible trial that it has led them to doubt God’s existence, or His goodness. This happened to Job as well — his difficulties were so hard that he questioned God’s justice. Some trials are so hard that they cause us to doubt our faith. The Greek word that is translated “temptation” would probably be better translated, “a difficulty so bad that it makes us question our faith.” Difficulties in our lives can lead us to do things we know are disobedient to God. Trials can cause us to turn away from God — sometimes in practice, sometimes in our belief. Suffering can make it so that we no longer trust God. When we pray the Lord’s prayer, we are asking God not to put us in these kinds of circumstances.

Does God lead us to this kind of evil?

The fact is, God, at times, DOES lead us to difficulties to test us. God tested Abraham’s love of Him. God tested Israel in the wilderness with hunger and thirst. The Father tested Jesus by sending him to Satan. And God allowed Jesus to suffer through the ultimate test: willingness to die on the cross for us. Frankly, Jesus begged and pleaded for God to take him out of that circumstance. But God put him into it anyway.

This does not mean that God tempts us to DO evil. Yes, God places us in difficult, even terrible circumstances, sometimes. But what we do in those circumstances is our own choice. We can choose to obey God, even if it hurts us. We can choose to trust God, even if we see no way out of a terrible situation. We can love God, even though He allowed people to hurt us. We can have our hope in God, even though God gave permission to Satan to take away our health. If we sin, if we do evil to others, if we give in to our dark impulses, we were not tempted by God, but tempted by our evil desires.

What if we don’t deserve it?

There are some people that God punishes because they have sinned before God, disobeying Him, and He is training them, or others, not to do that. But God allows everyone to have circumstances like that, sometimes. Some more than others. For some, this is punishment. But people who are right before God are also put into trials that test their faith, like Abraham, Job and Jesus. Why does God do this? Because God wants to see and display his people’s true character.

How do we know who we really are? Not by what we say — we deceive ourselves too readily. Not even by what we normally do — society can form us and make us what we are not. Who we truly are is seen when we are in difficult circumstances. When we are sick, when we are persecuted, when we are hated, when we are publicly humiliated, when we are physically torn apart — those are the times we show what we are really made of, what our real character is. What God is testing is how far He is in us. If He is firmly planted in us, then when we are going through difficulties, He will show through. But if our Christianity is just a farce, just a façade, then our true nature will show itself — our complaining, our anger, our hatred, our lust, our greed and all the other things that come with human nature. So God sometimes leads us into evil circumstances to test our faith.

How can we not be led to this trial?

Sometimes it is just our time to be brought into testing. This is the case with Jesus, who escaped many deaths and difficulties, until it was his time to be tried, and then, no matter what his pleading, he wouldn’t go into trial. But at the time of Jesus’ trial, he was telling the disciples what to do to not enter into the trial. It wasn’t their time, it was his, and so they didn’t have to suffer with him yet. How could they have avoided this? Jesus told them, “Keep watching and praying that you do not enter into temptation.” (Mark 14:38). If it isn’t our time to enter our test, then we need to do two things — First of all, we need to be alert to the circumstances as they are coming our way. The disciples were sleeping, they weren’t paying attention. Peter said later “Be alert for Satan is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.” (I Peter 5:8). Secondly, we need to pray that God wouldn’t allow us to be tested when it isn’t our time. We need to recognize our weaknesses, and we need to beg God that He not test us when we aren’t ready for it. This is what Jesus commanded his disciples to do — both on the night of his test, and in the Lord’s prayer.

How are we delivered?

Sometimes, however, we weren’t alert. Sometimes we didn’t pray. Or sometimes it is our time to be tested. But that doesn’t mean there is no hope. God always grants us hope — and that hope is deliverance. When we find ourselves in the circumstances that we cannot handle, we can ask God to deliver us out of them. God gave Abraham and Job a way out of these trials. Jesus’ way out was through resurrection. But everyone can have an opportunity to escape the difficulties they are in — through healing, through justice, through freedom, through mercy by a follower of God. But, again, we need to ask. This is what Jesus told us to do. Ask God for deliverance from evil. And then trust Him to do what is right.

In this way, the Lord’s prayer guides us to know what to do when we are in the worst times in our lives. It tells us to trust God, to plead with Him for help, to ask Him not to put us in these terrible circumstances in the first place. Ultimately, we are placing our hands at God’s disposal, trusting that He will pull us through, eventually.