(to see the first part, go to “How to Beat Temptation – Part 1)

2.   Foundational work is best.  All three of these Scripture passages talked about      the importance of building a relationship with God over time.  In the second message we looked at the passage in Matthew (Matthew 7:24 – 27) about building your house upon the rock.  By that Jesus meant you need to go to the trouble to  build a strong foundation with God.  You must not quit because it’s a struggle.      Who wouldn’t rather dig in sand than pound on a rock with a primitive hammer and chisel.  The Lord is telling us that doing foundational work with God will not       always be easy.  Reading through the Bible is not just reading Psalms or John. 

      It’s also reading Deuteronomy, but there’s a reason God put that in the Book.  So be willing to have some bloody knuckles so when the battle with temptation  comes, you will be ready.

      This is not something you can do by relying on Sunday school, church, or your small Bible study group only.  It requires effort on your part.  I can’t urge enough the importance of reading the Word of God daily, talking to God daily, journaling when you reach a sticking point, and practicing spiritual disciplines like fasting, charity work, and accountability.  In short, make as much of an effort in your relationship with God as you do with anything else.  Make more effort if you really haven’t been that much into effort in your life.

  3.  A changed nature is the only way.  All three of the solutions offered in this Scripture passage assume you need a nature that is receptive to God.  This is not    man’s normal nature.  That’s why in Romans 12:2 Paul said, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  The renewed mind is the mind made receptive by your working at spiritual growth.

      One way to look at what transformation involves is that before we are born again we’re like a radio that is neither turned on nor tuned in to God’s broadcast frequency.  When we are born again God turns on our ability to receive His message and tunes us in to His channel.  This means we become naturally   receptive to Him, but it does not mean that it requires no effort on our part.  The business of transformation, like the business of presenting our bodies to the Lord, is something we must do on a regular basis.

       As we grow in grace, our ability to hear and understand His Word becomes more and more natural, our desire to do His will more and more natural, and our willingness to yield to temptation more and more unnatural.

       I don’t know how much you are working in your life at dealing with temptation early rather than late, at doing the foundational work necessary to be able to do that without a lot of struggle, and to grow in changing your nature, but these are by far the best ways to handle temptation successfully.

Temptation is something we must all learn to handle or it will handle us.  This past Sunday (January 24) we studied James 1:14-15 and saw that before we can be tempted, we must first be “carried away” from a place of safety.  Staying in that place of safety could be called the preventive approach to handling temptation, and like all approaches to life, temptation is the cheapest and least painful approach to any problem.  It’s also the life skill the believer is best suited for and, unfortunately, the one we frequently ignore.

             Every believer has been given the word of God and the ability to understand it. He has also been given the Holy Spirit by whom he can know his own vulnerabilities and possess the ability and desire to combat them.

             I talked to a young man who was struggling with pornography on the internet but overcame the struggle by a preventive strategy.  It began by his being honest with himself about what the Scripture said about looking on a woman with lust and admitting to himself and to God that he was not in God’s will about this matter.  He then talked it over with some of his best friends who also were struggling.  After months of fighting (often unsuccessfully) they came up with a preventive strategy.  They each installed blocks on each other’s computers so only the installers could remove the blocks.  Therefore, each person’s personal computer could not access the forbidden fruit on the internet.  He said it was a tremendous relief to know that even if he had the desire, he lacked the means. Over time, the desire became less intense and less regular. 

             If you are a born-again believer, you have the Holy Spirit, and by His power you have the creative capacity to come up with your own preventive strategies.  Several years ago when the scourge of video poker was about, another young man I know who couldn’t stay away from it had greatly reduced – but not stopped – his habit by shear willpower.  He now only played when he needed gasoline, which he always purchased at a convenience store.  While he was there he played some video poker.  He said although it was not nearly the financial burden it had been, it felt to him like a seed that was always there in his life and could sprout at any minute, and he didn’t like the feeling.  Under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, he developed a strategy by which he would never buy gasoline alone (sounds crazy, huh!).  Now when he bought gas, he always took his wife and children.  If he was going to be on a trip out of town, he would make sure he filled the tank in town.  He really worked at this.  He also made sure he only went with his wife and/or children to gas stations where there was no video poker.  He said that over time, his desire diminished and the desire to be with his wife or children on these short trips became so pleasurable that it began to replace the phony, damaging pleasure of playing video poker. 

             Prevention is the best strategy.  It is something you can do. What are you struggling with and what can you do to prevent it?

I’ve been reading Walter Isaacson’s biography of Albert Einstein.  I got bogged down in his section on the theory of general relativity but decided I would pick it back up and try to finish.  It has gotten interesting again.  A great many people wrote about Albert Einstein that he was making science relative the way philosophy had made truth relative.  Einstein was very upset by this because he believed in absolutes – both absolute moral truths and absolute scientific truths. 

             I wish there could be more people like Albert Einstein who were clear about the existence of immovable truths and that how you feel about it or how it interferes with your desire to enjoy life is of little consequence.  It is still true…even absolutely true. 

             I had a conversation with an acquaintance who was part of a more liberal expression of Christianity who said to me, “You need to stand up and be counted in the more moderate camp of the Southern Baptist Convention.”   I said to him, “I’m not about to do that.”  He said, “Why?”  I said, “They are selling freedom, and the conservatives are selling truth.  I had all the freedom I wanted in the sense that I could do whatever I felt like doing without any prior restraint before I became a Christian.  When I became a Christian, I wanted some truths that did not move in my life.  I signed up for the prior restraint of Scripture.”  I don’t need protection for my self-centeredness.  I do need accountability and immovability for my developing walk with God.

 Christianity is based on immovable truth.  God is good in that He allows us a great deal of discretion about how we dress, what kind of music we like, and other things of that nature.  But there are certain things about which we are completely and absolutely restricted.  A great many moral requirements come to mind.  Our beliefs about who God is and what He expects come to mind. 

 I wonder if you are a person who is uncomfortable with the notion of truth being imposed on you.  If you are, you are uncomfortable with Christianity because that is what it is about.  It is not about getting God’s help in doing what you want.  It is about you getting the help of the Holy Spirit in doing what God wants.