Trials and Temptations 

James 1:1-1:15 

All of us deal with temptation. If a person is not a Christian they just give in to temptation. But temptation is difficult even for people who are genuine followers of Jesus.

Temptations can be of two kinds: those things that come to us from the outside and those that come on the inside. James covers both of these, one he calls trials, and the other he calls temptations. We are to be glad when we face trials from the outside, because they strengthen our faith. But nowhere are we told to rejoice at being tempted, rather we are told to resist it.

Christians must ENDURE trials:

In our American way of thinking the best thing is to avoid trials altogether. We are pleasure oriented rather than spiritually oriented.  So when it comes to trials we would prefer to be spared from them rather than learn from them. This even translates over to our spiritual lives. I mean, you expect that when you become a Christian that everything will smooth out and your problems will be over, “Right?!” and then when trials come it throws you. But the Bible teaches us to expect trials, to have a positive attitude towards them. In fact, we are told to rejoice over our trials, because they will increase our faith. We can’t really know the depth of our character until we see how we react under pressure. These trials will teach us to trust God.

W.I.N – Hebrews 12:1

W - hatever you do, do your best

 I  - nvest your time and talents

N  - ever give in, give up or give over

Every Christian must RESIST temptation:

· James 1:13-14

James is using fishing and hunting lingo when he talks of temptation enticing us and dragging us away. The hunter uses a decoy which looks like the real thing but is not. The fisherman uses bait. To the fish it looks wonderful - just what he was looking for, but what he could not see was the hook. The hook is barbed so that it does not come out once it is in. In the same way, the devil plays us for a sucker. He carefully places his decoy to lure us toward the trap. He places the bait skillfully on the hook. He lures us and then he sets the hook. What we thought was going to be something that fulfilled our needs is instead something destructive, effecting our whole life. Jesus said, “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation” (Matthew 26:41). Jesus taught that we are to take temptation seriously. We are not to

entertain them. We are not to linger where they wait. We are to avoid them and flee from them. If we value our relationship with God then we will see temptation as the enemy calling us to do his bidding. It is his attempt to trap us and drag us away from God.

Only one game to play - play it well!
Only one life to live - live it well!

· Play the game!

· Play it fair!

· Play it clean!

· Play your best!

· Play it to the last whistle

· Play it with Jesus!

· II Timothy 4:7

We must be RESPONSIBLE for our own lives:

The great comfort we have in all this is that Jesus gives us the power to overcome the temptations of this world. He said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

“My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging.” -Hank Aaron

“Greater is He [Jesus] that is in me then he [Devil] that is in the world.” -I John 4:4

4 types of people:

Cop-Outs

Hold-Outs

Drop-Outs

All-Outs

To be an All-Out BELIEVER, you must . . . challenge your excuses! “Live the Difference!”