BACKGROUND:
As a corrective for his sinful nature, David petitioned God for inward renewal of his heart attitude, preservation in service, and restoration of joy. He was aware that he had become indifferent in his attitudes so he needed renovation. He was also aware that Saul was removed from the kingship for his sin (signified in the OT by the departure of the Holy Spirit), so David asked that God not take away His Spirit and depose him too. In the New Testament the Spirit does not leave believers; at the moment of salvation He indwells them (John 14:16; Romans 8:9). But a Christian may be cast aside from service because of sin (1 Corinthians 9:27). David was also aware that in order to experience the joy he once had in his salvation, he needed God’s inner spiritual renewal.
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what i have read today?)
All week long, we've been talking about avoiding a fall morally and spiritually and protecting your heart. Don’t just pray. Watch and pray.
Once you know the pattern of you sin here’s step number two.
#2. Plan to avoid it.
You don’t wait until you’re in the situation to decide am I going to give in to this or not? No, you decide before your emotions kick in to gear.
When I used to be a youth pastor many years ago, I would tell kids that they needed to plan their dates. Don’t just go out on a date and say, what do you want to do? You’re going to end up in the back of a car. Because you’re bored. There’s nothing else to do. You’re either going to go by your plans or your glands. So I said plan your dates. Know where you’re headed. Parents you need to teach that to your kids. Don’t just go out saying we don’t know what we’re going to do. Plan to avoid it. You need to know what you’re going to do.
The Bible says this. “Plan carefully what you do. Avoid evil. Walk straight ahead. Don’t go one step off the right way.”
Temptation always begins with a natural desire in you. Temptation, if you didn’t have a natural desire it would never key in to it. Often temptation is fulfilling a legitimate desire in the wrong way. Or fulfilling a legitimate desire at the wrong time. Or in the wrong amount.
You have a natural desire to eat. You have a need to eat. You have natural desire to drink. To sleep. You have natural sexual drives. Where do you think you got them? God gave them to you. Those are not evil. What is temptation? Temptation is when we abuse and misuse what God has given us. That’s temptation. When we abuse and misuse something that God has given to us for good.
Fire is good. But if you use it and misuse it it’s going to burn up your house. Water is a good thing. Your body is ninety- percent water. But if you get too much of it you’re going to drown. So there’s nothing wrong with water. It’s just misused and abused it becomes a temptation.
So temptation, what it does, it turns a routine desire into a runaway desire. I gotta have it. And I gotta have it now. And now, now, now. Wrong time, wrong way, wrong amount. It becomes more important than anything else. It’s all you think about.
Any good God-given desire out of control becomes a sin. So you have to plan in advance. “I know I get tempted in sports bars.” Simple. Don’t go to sports bars. “I get tempted to pick up porno magazines in 7-11s.” Don’t go to 7-11s. It’s real simple. If you don’t want to get stung you stay away from the bees.
So you know the when, the where, the why, the who, the what, the how that makes you vulnerable. Then you plan to avoid that area.
#3. Step number three: I guard my heart.
I must guard my heart. This is very, very important because the Bible says that out of the heart everything comes. Out of the heart a man speaks and all of the issues of life.
Temptation always starts inside of you. We think temptation is on the outside. No, it is not. The trigger is on the outside but the temptation is actually inside you. If there were no natural temptation inside you based on your shape and your nature it wouldn’t have any attraction for you. It’s like a magnet; it doesn’t attract plastic because there’s nothing inside the plastic that’s metal to pull it up.
The Bible says this in James 1:14 “We are tempted by our own desires that drag us off and trap us.” And look at this next verse. The Bible says “It is inside you, out of a person’s heart [that’s why you have to guard your heart] come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, the desire to kill people, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceitfulness [that’s when you manipulate other people] lust, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness. All these vile things come from not outside, but inside.”
If you’re serious about breaking some bad habits and breaking a bad temptation, you’ve got to do a little heart check up first. So let’s do a little x-ray, a spiritual x-ray of your heart right now. Below are ten questions. What I want you to do is score yourself on each of these questions - one, two, three, four.
When you're done we’ll add up the points and I’ll interpret them for you. This is going to be a real eye opener for some of you.
1. Right now, your emotional experience, do you feel more physically exhausted (0) or do you tend to feel more energetic and in shape (4)? (2-3 somewhere in between those two statements) Just give yourself zero, one, two, three four.
More physically exhausted – are you tending toward that end. Or are you tending more toward “I feel energetic and in shape.”
How about the next one…
2. Right now, how are you feeling right now? Are you more discouraged and pessimistic about your life, about the economy, about your family, your faith, whatever? (0) Or are you more encouraged and hopeful? (4) Rate yourself – zero, one, two, three, four.
3. Right now, are you feeling in your life more bored with your life, more discontented with your life? (0) Or are you feeling at the other end more challenged and contented? (4)
4. Right now, do you feel more spiritually dry or spiritually empty? (0) Or do you feel, I feel spiritually alive and I feel like I’m really growing? (4) (2-3 somewhere in between those two statements)
5. Right now, are you feeling more alone a lot of the time or distant from others, especially those you love? There’s not a lot of conflict going on. (0) Or are you feeling right now, close to those you love? (4)
6. Do you feel more insecure or unsure about yourself? (0) Or are you feeling right now more confident and secure? (4)
7. Are you feeling wounded? Are you feeling deeply hurt? (0) Or do you feel loved and understood? (4) (2-3 somewhere in between those two statements) Give yourself zero to four.
8. Right now, do you tend to feel more bitter or angry about something that’s happened in your life that you’ve just gone through? (0) Or are you feeling, I really have forgiven everybody in my life? I’m not holding on to any regrets or any resentments. (4)
9. Where are you on the happiness-sad continuum? Are you feeling more sad these days? (0) Are you feeling more happy these days? (4)
10. The last one. Have you felt recently more like you’ve failed? (0) Or have you felt more recently you have been succeeding at whatever you are doing? (4) (2-3 somewhere in between those two statements)
What I want you to do is just count up that number right now and write your score at the bottom. I’m going to interpret it for you. Just add them all up. Count up all the ones and the twos and the threes and the fours. Add it all up.
Obviously if you’ve got all zeros, you’ve got zero. If you’ve got all ones you’ve got a ten. All twos would be twenty. All fours would be forty. So you’re not going to have more than forty. Add that up.
Here we go. If your total is thirty to forty, you’re in good shape. You’re in really good shape and you’re going to be much more resistant to temptation than most people would. That’s a really good sign.
If you have between twenty to thirty points, friends, you’re in danger. The yellow lights are flashing in your life right now. You need to be aware that you are being set up by Satan for a fall. Because he always hits you when you’re down. You just need to be aware of that. Twenty to thirty points.
If you’ve got less than twenty points on your score, friend, you are in serious danger and you don’t even know it. You really need to call the church and set up an appointment with one of the pastors. Or talk to somebody in your LIFE group. Or get a reference for a Christian counselor. Or somebody. You are in crisis right now. And you seriously need some support, some energy in your life.
Once you know the when, the where, the how, the who, the what and you know all this, how your heart is going, you need to ask yourself, How long have I been at this level? The longer you’ve been at the twenty level the more vulnerable you are. The longer you’ve been at the condition you’re in, the more serious it is.
When you mix all of these together – you mix several of these like frustration and anger and hurt – it is a powerful combo and all of a sudden you’ll hear somebody start whispering in your ear. “I deserve to have some relief. I deserve to have some fun. I deserve to be loved.” That’s not God whispering that in your ear at that moment. You’re being tempted and you’re being set up.
The Bible says this “Do not give the devil a foothold.” How do you give the devil a foothold? What is a foothold? It’s a mental state. It is a negative emotion. Any time you hold a negative emotion in your life for an extended period of time whether it’s anger or worry or fear or bitterness or envy or jealousy or all of these other things. The longer you hold that you are allowing the evil one to get a stronghold in your life, in your brain.
So you’ve got to guard your heart. I am praying for you guys. I love you guys. I believe in you guys. I am here for you as your pastor and will walk with you any way I can. Stay faithful. Stay the course.
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