Breaking the Hold of Temptation
David Cawston
Romans 7:1-8:4
INTRODUCTION:
The one thing about temptation is: A little goes a long way.
Temptation usually starts in a small way - it's just ''one little area.''
We reach out to touch it, and get a little bit of it on us. We try to shake off and find out it's sticky. No matter what we do, it doesn't let go. In fact, it starts moving up our arms and eating our way through us until it consumes us.
''Temptations, unlike opportunities, will always give you second chances.'' - O. A. Battista
When this process goes beyond a certain point, temptation becomes an addiction.
We are all aware of the obvious addictions like drugs, tobacco, alcohol and sexual addictions.
But there are a lot of addictions that are not so obvious.
A man may be addicted in his moral actions.
If we could peer into his mind, we might be very surprised at what we see.
In fact, some of us do with our minds what most people would never do with their bodies because they become addicted in the way of their thinking.
Obviously not everybody is addicted.
Temptation is a fact of life for all of us - Christians or non-Christians.
The difference is: If you're a child of God, you have a supernatural power available to you to say no to temptation and to live a life that pleases God.
Since temptation is an ever-present reality, we need to know how it works, and why trying to conquer it in our flesh won't work.
We need to get past the excuses.
We need to learn from a brother in Christ who thoroughly understood the lust of the flesh and the wiles of Satan - who struggled in this area more than you might think.
I'm talking about Paul - the Apostle to the Gentiles.
If you know your Bible, you're probably not surprised that Paul spoke so frankly about his struggles with temptation and sin.
He was open and forthright about those.
He wrote more books of the New Testament than anyone else, and it's more likely that ...
David Cawston
Romans 7:1-8:4
INTRODUCTION:
The one thing about temptation is: A little goes a long way.
Temptation usually starts in a small way - it's just ''one little area.''
We reach out to touch it, and get a little bit of it on us. We try to shake off and find out it's sticky. No matter what we do, it doesn't let go. In fact, it starts moving up our arms and eating our way through us until it consumes us.
''Temptations, unlike opportunities, will always give you second chances.'' - O. A. Battista
When this process goes beyond a certain point, temptation becomes an addiction.
We are all aware of the obvious addictions like drugs, tobacco, alcohol and sexual addictions.
But there are a lot of addictions that are not so obvious.
A man may be addicted in his moral actions.
If we could peer into his mind, we might be very surprised at what we see.
In fact, some of us do with our minds what most people would never do with their bodies because they become addicted in the way of their thinking.
Obviously not everybody is addicted.
Temptation is a fact of life for all of us - Christians or non-Christians.
The difference is: If you're a child of God, you have a supernatural power available to you to say no to temptation and to live a life that pleases God.
Since temptation is an ever-present reality, we need to know how it works, and why trying to conquer it in our flesh won't work.
We need to get past the excuses.
We need to learn from a brother in Christ who thoroughly understood the lust of the flesh and the wiles of Satan - who struggled in this area more than you might think.
I'm talking about Paul - the Apostle to the Gentiles.
If you know your Bible, you're probably not surprised that Paul spoke so frankly about his struggles with temptation and sin.
He was open and forthright about those.
He wrote more books of the New Testament than anyone else, and it's more likely that ...
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