Pastor Wayne Cordeiro
October 22, 2006 - W0643

All of us will face temptations and challenges in our lives and sometimes they will seem too much to bear.  Whether it’s a period of financial struggle, trouble in your workplace, or devastating news about your spouse or child, you will be tested.  In these times, we may feel like giving up or giving in, but the best thing for us to do is to give it to God.  You see, it is in the valley of despair – not on the mountaintop – where God is most with us.  Though things may seem overwhelming, we have this assurance to stand on…

“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” (1 Cor. 10:13 NKJV)

We don’t know when tests will come and what will be on them.  It often seems that our hardest tests come when we’re tired, tempted, and under pressure.  During those times, it’s hard to think straight so how do we prepare for those times?

1.     PREPARE IN ADVANCE FOR TESTS BEFOREHAND!

That statement seems redundant but for good reason:  preparing in advance is perhaps the single most important factor in determining how we will do when tested.  When does an athlete prepare for a race?  In advance.  When does a student prepare for an exam?  In advance.  When does a musician prepare for a performance? In advance.  In any discipline where we expect our skills to be tested, we understand that practice and advance preparation are usually the keys to our success.  However, why don’t we seem to understand that for our life situations?  When facing a divorce, a family crisis, or financial hardship, we’re rarely ever prepared in advance.  Instead, we tend to wait until we crash and burn.

The fact is God compares us to athletes and reminds us how much greater our reward is:  “Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things.  They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable” (1 Cor. 9:25).  For example, the New Hope paddling team trains about 10 months a year for the annual 41 mile Molokai Hoe canoe race.  When we’re done, our prize is a medal about the size of a half dollar that we may put into a sock and throw in a drawer!  How much greater is the reward that awaits us for the heavenly tests we will be put through?

Each of us will go through the furnace of affliction at some time in our life.  It is an opportune time for the enemy (the Devil) because he knows we’re more susceptible to him during this time; but it’s also an opportune time for God because our biggest growths occur in the valleys.  “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction” (Is. 48:10).

The word for “test”, in its original biblical language, doesn’t really mean test.  It more closely translates to “selected” or “chosen”.  So the message of this passage is that we are selected or chosen by God from the furnace of affliction. It suggests that while we are going through the furnace of affliction (being challenged and tempted), God monitors how we do and chooses us (graduates us) into His Kingdom based on how well we do.  When we make wise decisions in the furnace of affliction, God graduates us into His Kingdom.

So where do we prepare for those kinds of decisions?  We need to prepare well in advance for these tests because…

·    EVEN CHRISTIANS WILL BE TEMPTED.

“The woman of folly is boisterous…Calling to those who pass by, who are making their paths straight” (Prov. 9:13, 15).  The “woman of folly” refers to a prostitute and it says here that she calls out to those who are “making their paths straight”.  Notice that it does not say she is targeting those who are off of the path.  The enemy does not target those who are off of the path because he already has them.  Instead, the enemy is targeting those who are making their paths straight because they are the threat to his kingdom.

Think of it this way…Jesus already defeated the Devil at the cross so the Devil can’t attack Him.  Instead, the Devil goes after His children; but remember, God assures us He will never put us in a situation that we cannot handle.  So how can we prepare beforehand?

·    CHOOSE TO DO DAILY DEVOTIONS

In the story of sisters Mary and Martha, Martha was busy preparing, cleaning up, and serving while her sister Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus.  Martha complained to Jesus and told Jesus to have Mary help her but Jesus responded, “…only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42). 

When Jesus responded, He made it clear that Mary had chosen the good part.  This is a reminder to us that we need to choose to prepare in advance.  We need to choose to know God and to learn His voice so well that we are not confused or deceived by imitators.

The Bible says that sheep know the voice of their shepherd and because of that, they will not inadvertently follow the wrong shepherd.  Likewise, we need to know our Shepherd’s voice so we will not be deceived when the Devil tries to lure us with his counterfeit voice.  The Devil is defeated but he is not stupid. He’s crafty.  However, when you know the Shepherd’s voice well, you will be able to detect imperceptible counterfeits and therefore not be deceived.

Again, one of the best ways to get to know the Master’s voice is to do your daily devotions.  Through your devotions and journaling, you will hear the voice of God and you will come to know His heart.  With His guidance, you can set up parameters and guardrails that will help you navigate the curves of life.  Then, when you’re tired and tempted, and your focus is not as sharp as it should be, these guardrails will help keep you on the right path.  When you are under pressure and tempted, it’s as if you are operating on auto-pilot so if you have established godly guidelines and values as your base mode of operation (or auto-pilot), they will serve as warnings to you and help keep you on the path so…

2.     CHOOSE TO BE GODLY.

“…the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation…” (2 Pet. 2:9)

If you choose to be godly, you are enabling God to help you.  When the enemy knows your mind is set – that you have a singlemindedness for God – it’s amazing how temptation will fade away. 

Do you want to know a secret?  The Devil’s most strategic weapon on you is…to withhold consequences because if you do something wrong and there are no consequences, you aren’t motivated to change.  The Devil withholds consequences, then one day, he’ll open the floodgates and you will be wiped out.  Your family will be gone or your finances will be in ruins.  He will have taken your life ministry away from you.  When the Devil withholds consequences, be wary because he’s setting you up!

·    WHEN THERE ARE NO CONSEQUENCES, REPENT!

How do you know when you’re being set up?  God gives you a conscience.  “God’s law is written within them, for their own consciences either accuse them or tell them they are doing what is right” (Rom. 2:15 NLT).  When you have a God-healthy conscience in you, it acts like a rumble strip on the road.  When you start to fall asleep at the wheel and veer off course, the rumble strip will wake you up.  And then, if that isn’t enough, if you’ve established godly parameters and guardrails in your life, they will stop you from plummeting into the ravine!

God put a conscience in you to tell you when you’re doing wrong and when you’re doing right.  When you are hit with temptation, you want to be sure that you’re well prepared in advance.  You don’t want to end up like Samson who, when tempted by the beautiful Delilah, let his guard down and told her the secret of his strength. 

“He awoke from his sleep and said, ‘I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.’  But he did not know that the Lord had departed from him” (Judg. 16:20). (See Prov. 7:20-24).

You need to prepare in advance because you do not know when you’re going to be tested.  And in the midst of temptation, you may need to rely on godly guardrails.

You may be wondering, “But what happens if you stumble or fumble?  Don’t you feel really guilty?”  My answer is, “No,” because I…

3.     RUN TO WIN, NOT TO… “NOT LOSE.”

“Run in such a way that you may win” (1 Cor. 9:24). 

When you are running the distance to win, you may stumble and fumble sometimes but don’t give in to the God of guilt.  Get back up and keep running!  If you think about it, the joy of your life should not be that you’ve never made a mistake or stumbled, but rather that you’ve run hard after the Lord.

When you stumble, as most of us will at some time or another, get back up and keep running.  When we mess up, we can feel guilty or we can learn something from it to do, or be, better.  Consider this:  “…even though Jesus was God’s Son. He learned obedience from the things He suffered” (Heb. 5:8).

Everyone stumbles.  Everyone suffers.  The question is, “What are you going to do about (or with) it?” What purpose does guilt serve?  It’s not what God wants.  On the contrary, the Bible has this assurance for us, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

In the 1 Corinthians 10:13 scripture we started out with today, God assured us that He would never allow us to be tempted beyond what we are capable of bearing. On the other hand, when we do make mistakes (as we inevitably will), 1 John 1:9 assures us that God is faithful to forgive us if we humble ourselves before Him.

In this series on Divine Decisions, we’ve been talking about the importance of our decisions and what skills are necessary to make “divine” (wise, God-honoring) decisions.  Today, our focus has been on the decisions we make when we are tempted…with the understanding that we don’t know when these tests will occur, what we will be tested on, and what circumstances surrounding the decision will be.  Knowing that we are more susceptible when we are tired and under pressure, there is a good chance that our most challenging tests will occur when we’re not at our peak so the best advice for ensuring divine decisions when we’re tempted is to establish a godly base for everyday decisions.  That way, our “auto-pilot” mode is preset to do what is right even when we’re not at our best.  In order to do this…

1.      Prepare in advance for tests beforehand!

2.      Choose to do daily devotions (so God’s heart is within you).

3.      Run to win, not to… “not lose”.

And when we finally make it home, we can look forward to God’s welcome, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”

DISCUSSION SUGGESTIONS

1.      What have you done to prepare yourself in advance for the decisions you’ll face in your life?

2.      Are you doing devotions daily?  If not, why not?  What can you do to start doing devotions regularly?  For example, start by reading a passage or two each day and work your way up to 20 minutes a day.  Or commit to doing devotions at least once a week and gradually increase your frequency over the next few weeks.

3.      What does it mean to be “godly”?  Give an example of godly behavior that you try to practice daily.

4.      Think of a time when you thought you “escaped” the consequences of your actions.  How did that affect your behavior?

5.      What does it mean to “run to win” and not just to run “not to lose”?  Give an example of a time when you’ve done that, or give an example of a time when you didn’t do that and what you could have done differently.

"All scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong with our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God’s way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do.” (2 Tim. 3:16-17 NLT)

 Sermon Notes Ministry: Debbie Chang, Doreen Rabaino, Leighton Loo,

                                                Jay Tsukayama & Rhonda Pang