Will they?
Won’t they?
Will they?
Won’t they?
The 1960’s Sandford University Marshmallow test is a
wonderful insight into the pain of temptation!
It may only be a marshmallow but for those youngsters it’s a
big temptation.
It is the sheer humanity of Jesus that makes his message so
real.
He too was tempted … just as we are.
And they were three pretty big temptations.
esus returned from the
Jordan full of the Holy Spirit and was led by the Spirit into the desert,
2where he was tempted by the Devil for forty days. In all that time he ate
nothing, so that he was hungry when it was over.
3The Devil said to
him, “If you are God's Son, order this stone to turn into bread.”
4But Jesus answered,
“The scripture says, ‘Human beings cannot live on bread alone.’ ”
5Then the Devil took
him up and showed him in a second all the kingdoms of the world. 6“I will give
you all this power and all this wealth,” the Devil told him. “It has all been
handed over to me, and I can give it to anyone I choose. 7All this will be
yours, then, if you worship me.”
8Jesus answered, “The
scripture says, ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve only him!’ ”
9Then the Devil took
him to Jerusalem and set him on the highest point of the Temple, and said to
him, “If you are God's Son, throw yourself down from here. 10For the scripture
says, ‘God will order his angels to take good care of you.’ 11It also says,
‘They will hold you up with their hands so that not even your feet will be hurt
on the stones.’ ”
12But Jesus answered,
“The scripture says, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
13When the Devil
finished tempting Jesus in every way, he left him for a while.
If you are God’s Son … the temptation comes three times.
Three times Jesus drew on God’s word in the Bible and said,
“The Scripture says …”
Tempted to gratify selfish desires and change stones into
bread Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 It is written “Human beings cannot live on bread alone.”
Tempted to seek wealth, power or fame as he was shown all
the kingdoms of the world, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:16 “The Scripture says,
“Worship the Lord your God and serve only him!”
Tempted to doubt God’s power and throw himself from the
highest point of the Temple ,
Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:13, The Scripture says, “Do not put the Lord your
God to the test.”
What temptations come your way? What happens when someone tempts you with an
offer that’s hard to refuse?
God cares about sin.
Doing those things we know we shouldn’t, saying those things we know we
shouldn’t, thinking those things that we know we shouldn’t – and leaving out
all the things we should say and think and do.
It’s not that our faith is all riddled with guilt. But it’s the recognition that when you do
against your conscience it has a damaging effect, it spoils, it mars, it
diminishes the very humanity that God wants to delight in as he offers us life
to the full.
So what is sin?
It’s a little word that has the letter ‘i’ in the middle of
it!
When I am at the middle of everything things go wrong.
Sin is putting ourselves at the centre and leaving other
people and God out of the reckoning.
Sin has been described as ‘the self-elevating and
self-centred condition of the human heart.
It’s when we put ourselves up here, in charge and put God
down there and keep him down.
Jesus, God’s Son, offers us a very different way of living
our lives.
What does that involve?
Think of the equally tiny word, Son. There’s just one letter different.
This time at the centre of the word Son is the letter ‘o’ ,
a circle.
To follow in the footsteps of Jesus is to follow in the footsteps of the Son (that little word with a circle at its centre).
To follow in the footsteps of the Son we must put God at the
centre of a circle that embraces other people and reaches out into the world
around us with love.
You can think of it as a challenge – or you can think of it
as a liberating insight that releases a whole new way of living into our lives.
The idea of our services is not just to come up with some
interesting thoughts … but to come up with practical suggestions of things we
can actually do in the week that’s to come.
So in a moment or two we are going to do just that and look
at a few practical ways we can counter temptation and put in its place Godly
thoughts and Godly living.
Don’t imagine, however, that our practical suggestions are
techiques that will make you holy!
Far from it!
They are more like an athlete’s training program – such a
program releases the athlete to realise their potential and be all that they
can be.
These are practical things we can do to make space in our
lives for that unseen and yet very real presence of God, the Holy Spirit, to
come into our lives and enable and empower us to realise our potential, live
the lives God has in store for us and live life to the full.
STL 16 God to enfold me
God to enfold me
God to surround me
God in my thinking
God in my words
God in my sleeping
And in my waking
God in my watching
God in my hopes
God in my life,
God on my lips,
God in my heart and my soul
In my sufficing
And in my slumber
In my eternal and living soul.
After the Song the
Hy-Tec’ers go to their group to explore the practical suggestions while the
rest of us remain in church and continue
We want to share practical things that can make a difference
in the week that’s to come. They are
adapted from A Spiritual Formation Workbook by James Bryan Smith and Lynda
Greybeal (Harper Collins 1993)
Respond to temptation with God’s Word – you could try
memorising the tree responses Jesus made –
Tempted to gratify selfish desires “Human beings cannot live
on bread alone.”
Tempted to seek wealth, power or fame, “Worship the Lord
your God and serve only him”
Tempted to doubt God’s power “Do not put the Lord your God
to the test.”
Take that one step further and make it much more
personal. We all know the things that
tempt us – there will be things we are very aware of. Is there a particular verse in the Bible,
maybe a promise, that you need to bring to mind each time that temptation comes
to you. You could write that down, make
a note of it. And when you are conscious
of that temptation bring it into your mind.
Respond to temptation with the Word of God.
Try a twenty-four hour partial fast – the suggestion in the
book is to go from lunch one day to lunch the next day. Don’t eat but keep on taking fluids, it’s
important to drink and keep those fluids up.
Jesus fasted in the Desert and it’s something that can be
helpful.
Tradition has it that it is Jesus’ brother James who wrote
the letter that bears the name of James towards the end of the New Tesatment.
He in his wisdom identified the tongue as one of the sources of a great
deal of wrong. After all what we say
often reveals what’s in our heart. So
two exercises that involve taming the tongue!
Go a day without saying anything negative.
Go a day without saying anything dishonest.
There’s one final exercise.
And this is one I would like to finish with.
You could do this exercise with the whole of 1 Corinthians
13. That’s the chapter that celebrates
love.
God is love. The two
greatest commandments involve love.
Love God. Love your
neighbour.
We are going to focus on 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
First, let’s read these words …
Love is patient and
kind;
it is not jealous or
conceited or proud;
love is not ill-mannered
or selfish or irritable;
love does not keep a
record of wrongs;
love is not happy with
evil, but is happy with the truth.
Love never gives up;
and its faith, hope,
and patience never fail.
Thinking of what’s going on in our lives at this moment – as
one week ends and another begins, think of those times when we are tempted to
do the opposite
… pray that God in that unseen yet real power that is the
Holy Spirit will come deep within you to resist those temptations that all too
often get the better of you and put in their place that love that is the very
love of God.
So, let’s gather our thoughts in prayer and for a few
moments be quiet …
Gracious, loving God
When the temptation comes
to be impatient, unkind, jealous,
conceited, proud, ill-mannered,
selfish and irritable …
When the temptation comes
to keep a record of wrongs,
to be happy with evil and unhappy with the truth,
to give up,
to lack faith, to lose hope and to abandon patience …
… pour into our hearts that unseen yet real power that is
the Holy Spirit;
Come deep within us
and grant us that power from beyond ourselves
to resist the temptations that all too often get the better
of us
… pour into our hearts that unseen yet real power that is
the Holy Spirit,
Come deep within us
And fill us with that love that is the very love of God
in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Such Love is patient and kind;
it is not jealous or conceited or proud;
love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable;
love does not keep a record of wrongs;
love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth.
Love never gives up;
and its faith, hope, and patience never fail.
Amen.
Hymn 550 May the mind of Christ my Saviour
1 May
the mind of Christ my saviour
live in me from day to day,
by his love and power controlling
all I do and say.
2 May the word of God enrich me
with his truth, from hour to hour;
so that all may see I triumph
only through his power.
3 May the peace of God my Father
in my life for ever reign,
that I may be calm to comfort
those in grief and pain.
4 May the love of Jesus fill me
as the waters fill the sea,
him exalting, self abasing -
this is victory!
5 May his beauty rest upon me
as I seek to make him known;
so that all may look to Jesus,
seeing him alone.
We went on to share in the Lord’s Supper.
live in me from day to day,
by his love and power controlling
all I do and say.
2 May the word of God enrich me
with his truth, from hour to hour;
so that all may see I triumph
only through his power.
3 May the peace of God my Father
in my life for ever reign,
that I may be calm to comfort
those in grief and pain.
4 May the love of Jesus fill me
as the waters fill the sea,
him exalting, self abasing -
this is victory!
5 May his beauty rest upon me
as I seek to make him known;
so that all may look to Jesus,
seeing him alone.
We went on to share in the Lord’s Supper.
After communion we sang a short prayer that means a great
deal to me, one that I often choose when leading a Communion service.
It is 500 years this year since it was first printed in
English. It was found at the beginning
of a Book of Hours printed in London
by Richard Pynson and dated 12th May 1514. It had already appeared in a number of
similar publications in French dating from around 1490.
God in all of my living
God be in my head
And in my understanding
God be in my eyes
And in my looking
God be in my mouth
And in my speaking
God be in my heart
And in my thinking
God be at my end
And at my departing.
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