This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to day four of our look together through James chapter
one in daily drive time devotions. We're going to be looking at verses 13 to 21
today. We've been talking at the beginning of this incredible letter from James
about how faith works.

Faith works to make a difference in our lives. And James one 13 to 21, tell us
how faith works when temptations come. A temptation in one sense is always an
opportunity to accomplish a good thing in a bad way.

God does want joy in your life, but we go after some temporary form of
happiness. God does want relationships in your life, but we go after them in the
wrong way. God does want you to have some measure of success in the things that
you do, but we get filled with pride.

We go after them our way rather than God's way. And temptation is man's oldest
problem. You can see it back in the Garden of Eden.

In each case of temptation, a legitimate need in our lives, Satan takes it and
he twists it into too great an importance or too great a priority or our way of
getting it, and it becomes a temptation. And James one 13 to 21 tell us how God
closes the door on temptation in our lives. In fact, six ways we're going to look
at in these verses that he closes the door.

Now we're going to run through these fairly quickly. You might want to listen through
this again sometime or even jot these down as we walk through. These are the
ways that James tells us.

God closes the door when temptation comes into our lives. Number one, the door
closes when I realize that I'm not alone, but I am understood. So when
temptation comes, don't feel alone, do feel understood, James one 13 and 14.

When tempted, no one should say God is tempting me, for God cannot be tempted by
evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when by his own evil
desire he is dragged away and enticed. These verses remind us from the beginning
that temptation is not an option when tempted, not if temptations come, but when
temptations come.

They come into everyone's life. Everyone's tempted just like you. In fact, the
Bible tells us that even Jesus was tempted.

Now the difference is he never sinned. All of us have sinned, we've said yes to
the temptations, Jesus never sinned, but we all face temptations because
temptation is a part of living on planet Earth. We have temptations.

The Bible says we are not to carry the burden of temptation alone. That, that is
when Satan gets you. It's like putting you off all by yourself and you feel cold
and lonely and all of a sudden you fall to the temptation.

Do not carry the burden of temptation alone. Realize that Jesus carries the
burden for us. You go to him for forgiveness and renewed strength for living and
you also realize that others carry the burden with us.

The Bible tells us in Galatians six that we're to bear one another's burdens.
When tempted, don't say God's tempting me. God can't not be tempted by evil and
he doesn't tempt anyone.

So don't begin blaming God and that leads to a second way to close the door on
temptation and that is don't blame. Do accept responsibility, but don't blame.
Who's responsible for your desire to do the wrong thing?

Some people blame God. After all, he made these desires, didn't he? So it must
be his fault.

No, there are desires. He made us in the Garden of Eden to live in perfect
relationship with him, but he also made us with choice where we could choose to
do what we wanted to do and we often choose the selfish way. Other people blame
Satan.

He sent the invitation, so it's his fault. That's the old the devil made me do
it explanation. Well, Satan may have sent the invitation to do wrong, but you're
the one who accepted the invitation.

Some people blame other people. Oh, it's their fault, it's his fault, it's her
fault. I wouldn't have fallen into this if they hadn't done it.

These verses are so clear. Each one is tempted when by their own evil desire
they're dragged away and enticed. When you start blaming, you stop deciding.

And the Bible here says that you're enticed by your own evil desire. The word
entice here has the idea of a bait on a hook. Yes, Satan puts out the bait, but
it's our own evil desire that causes us to want that bait and to go after the
hook.

Don't blame, do accept responsibility. And so when I'm tempted to close the
door, I have to not feel alone, but know that God understands. I have to not
blame, but accept responsibility.

And then there's a third thing I have to do. I have to, instead of fighting my
thoughts, I have to write my thoughts. I have to focus my thoughts on God.

Here's what the Bible says about temptation in James 1. 15. It tells us how it
happens.

Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full
grown, gives birth to death. Those are the four stages of temptation.

Did you hear them? Desire, deception, decision, and death. First I have a
desire, and then after that desire has conceived, I'm deceived into thinking
this is what I need to do.

And then I make a decision and I go after the sin. It gives birth to sin. And
then I get the result of sin.

The wages of sin is death. So when it comes to temptation, if I'm going to face
temptation, how am I going to defeat it? The weak point of temptation is at the
beginning, before it's even conceived, before the desire is conceived and gives
birth to sin.

The truth is, when it comes to temptation, you cannot stop the thoughts, the
ideas of temptation. Remember, even Jesus had those. But you can, by trusting
God, keep those thoughts from becoming desire.

You can avoid the trap. You can choose to avoid the trap. And here's the secret
to this.

When I have a desire to do the wrong thing, fighting that desire, saying in my
mind, I'm not going to do that, I'm not going to do that, I'm not going to do
that, it actually feeds the temptation. Because the more you focus on what
you're not going to do, the more you are thinking about what you're not going to
do, and the more likely you are to do it. What do I do instead?

Instead of fighting those thoughts, I write my thoughts. Instead of focusing on
the temptation, here's the secret. You decide to focus on God.

Whenever you fight your desire, it feeds your desire. So instead of fighting
against doing what's wrong, you decide to do what's right. Because you're
inevitably going to be drawn towards what you're focusing on.

So you decide, I'm desiring to do the wrong thing, I'm going to focus on doing
the right thing. That's what I'm going to go after. Instead of fighting your
thoughts, you write your thoughts.

There's a fourth thing that you do to close the door on temptation, and that is,
instead of saying I'm missing out, you say I'm looking up. That's the sneakiness
of Satan when it comes to temptation. He wants you to think you're missing out.

But instead of that, you look up to what God can do. That's what verses 16 to 18
talk about. Don't be deceived, my dear brothers.

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of
heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us
birth through the word of truth, so that we might be a kind of first fruits of
all that he created. One of the attractions of temptation is this lie that Satan
feeds us that you're missing out on something.

God is holding out on you. That is one of Satan's favorite tricks. He started it
back in the Garden of Eden.

Remember the fruit that was on the tree? God doesn't want you to eat of that
fruit, Eve, because he knows if you do, you'll be like him. God is holding out
on you.

You are missing out. That trick is still just as popular today. Now, why would
God hold out on you?

He loved you. He loves you. He made you.

He created all things for you to enjoy. And in fact, these verses remind us
anything good in this world, anything worth going after, it's coming from God,
not from Satan. There's two simple thoughts in this that can change the way you
live your life on a daily basis.

Thought number one, the tempter has nothing to offer. Absolutely nothing. Satan
can't make anything, any happiness, any joy.

There's pleasure and sin for a season, but it's a short season. Satan tempts you
to ruin everything. The tempter has nothing to offer, ultimately.

And God has everything to offer, because every perfect gift, everything that
lasts, everything that's worthwhile, it is from God. James is saying it clearly
here. Every good thing in your life is from God.

So trust him and not the temptation. In fact, verse 18 we just read is one of
the examples of those good things that God gives. He gave us the word of truth,
and through that we have new birth.

The word of truth, by the way, is the gospel, the good news of what Jesus has
done for us. And that gave us the gift of new birth. We have a new life because
of him, and we look forward to all that God wants to do.

When I'm facing temptation, I want to close the door. There's a fifth thing that
I've got to do. I've got to not get angry.

I've got to get smart. It's interesting that verses 19 to 20 are in this section
about temptation. Right after talking about what I need to do to look up when
I'm tempted, James says this in those verses, "My dear brothers, take note of
this.

"Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, "and slow to become angry.
"For man's anger does not bring about "the righteous life that God desires. "
Now these verses about anger apply to all of our relationships.

You could use them in a lot of different applications. But the context that
they're spoken in here is the context of temptation. And it is tempting to get
angry at a situation in order to get more quickly what you want.

But notice, man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God
desires. Anger is a temptation to get something by a quick fix, not a permanent
solution. But anger never works for the long term.

You need God's wisdom to accomplish that. Stop using your anger as a means to
get what you want. That is a temptation.

In fact, stop using your anger as a means to defeat your temptation. It's not
going to work in the long run. It's trusting God, getting mad at the temptation and
trying to reject it that way.

In the long run, that's not going to work. These verses are about relationships.
Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.

We all struggle with anger. Some of us more than others. We all struggle with
it, though.

And these verses remind us that the secret weapon against anger is your ears.
You listen. If I'm going to close the door to temptation, there's a sixth thing
that I have to do.

And that is instead of accepting defeat, I've got to accept God's word. Listen
to this, verse 21. "Therefore, get rid of all moral filth "and the evil that is
so prevalent "and humbly accept the word planted in you, "which can save you.

" I can't trust myself to do what's right. You can't trust yourself to do what's
right. But I can trust God's word planted in me to show me how to do what's
right.

And when Jesus was tempted by Satan, you can read it in the Gospels, he shared
God's word with Satan as his way to defeat temptation. I need to do the same
thing. In fact, I encourage you, make a practical commitment to memorize verses
of scripture and let them speak to you when you're tempted.

You don't always have a Bible there when you're tempted, but if you memorize a
verse, it has the power to make a difference in your life. When you're worried,
you remember Philippians 4:6. Don't be anxious about anything.

When you're discouraged, you remember Hebrews chapter 12 verse two, which says
that you're running the race with perseverance. When you have lust, you remember
Philippians 4:8. Fix your thoughts on what's good and honorable, right and pure
and lovely.

When you're angry, you remember the verses we just looked at. Be quick to hear,
slow to speak, slow to become angry. Put verses in your mind so they can come up
against the temptation.

And we've talked about six ways to defeat temptation in our lives. They all
focus on one thing. They're all focusing on God.

So let's do that right now. And as we pray, I want to encourage you, instead of
focusing on the temptation and saying even in prayer, God, I'm not going to do
that. I'm not going to do that.

In prayer right now, say, God, I take my mind off the temptation and I put my
mind on you. And I ask, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do
about this temptation?

What do you want me to do about life? What do you want me to do about my
relationships? In order to follow you today, I choose, God, to focus on you and
your goodness instead of this temptation.

And I pray that you would deliver me from evil and lead me not into temptation.
I pray that as I follow you, I'd find that good life, those good and perfect
gifts that you have to give to me. I trust you, God, in this moment.

And I pray you'd help me to trust you throughout this day. And when I'm tempted
again, help me to trust you once again. If I slip and fall to sin, I pray that I
would once again come to you and trust you again, never giving up on trusting
you.

I pray this, Jesus, in your name, amen.