HOW DO I RECONCILE TEMPTATION AND GOD’S GOODNESS?
James,
February 5 Weekend
“Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.” James 1:16
What really convinces the soul is E__________________.
Between the world’s preaching, and our dabbling, we deceive our d_________.
“Deceived Desires”.
- The quiet ones fly under the radar. Deep down
- inside that desire is there, it is deceived, and it is ready to be activated.
The boiling kind. The kind Paul calls passionate desire or burning desire.
Any sinful desire, if it is fed enough, can come to a boil.
They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing for another man’s wife. Jeremiah 5:8
The reason it is happening is that desire has somehow made its way onto the throne of your heart.
“At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another.” Titus 3:3
Sin deceives us and then it enslaves us.
When you became a Christian, you were freed from sin. We are free, but when we allow a desire to become deceived, we voluntarily re-e_________________ ourselves to sin.
Areas Where We Are Most Deceived:
ABOUT S__________________:
“The Donut”
Take Away: In that single moment, what just happened to your desire for that donut? What happened to your desire? It went away when you found out the truth about the doughnut.
THE LIE OF SIN PROMISES GOOD DAYS, BUT FAILS TO D_____________.
“The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day. But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble.” Proverbs 4:18-19
“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:17
The cure for loneliness is drawing near to God. Sin puts distance between you and God and makes you even lonelier.
All those lies are just variations on the one lie:
You can get the life and good days
you are craving through sin.
“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Romans 1:20
"God is light, in him there is no darkness at all" 1 John 1:5.
Theological word: IMMUTABLE,
we are saying that GOD NEVER CHANGES. NEVER! NEVER! NEVER!
HIS P_____________________ DO NOT CHANGE
HIS D__________________, WHAT GOD HAS SAID, DO NOT CHANGE
"Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." Jer. 31:3,
The good news today and for all eternity is this: God is infinitely good. He has never had and will never have more goodness than he has now. He is unchangeably good. He stands like an eternal sun in a cloudless sky radiating unbroken goodness upon us.
"Every good and perfect gift is from above [all good comes from above], coming down [in unending succession] from the Father of the heavenly lights [the good framer of the universe], who does not change like shifting shadows [his goodness stays at unchanging, eternal high noon]." James 1:17
"He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created" v. 18.
“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5 God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” Ephesians 1:4-5