(ill) I saw some reminders this week of how much the world has changed. An incoming freshman in college this year, 18 years old, was born in 1984. They have

- have no memory of the Reagen presidency.

- never saw Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley, The Waltons or Hawaii 5-0 (and have no idea who Mork is)

- the compact disc was released two years before they were born

- have no memory of the Cold War or the Iron Curtain

- the Vietnam War is as ancient history as the Civil War

- never heard of the Los Angeles Rams, the Baltimore Colts or the Disco Duck

- cannot remember a time without ATM?s, MTV, or AIDS

T/S: Does that make you feel old? (The other night I said "Good night, John-Boy" and my kids looked at me as if I were speaking Chinese!)

Well, for all the changes in this world, I read the Bible and see that some things remain constant. Greed. Deceit. Lust. Immorality. Gossip. Selfishness. Covetousness. Anger. Hatred. Prejudice. Lying. Stealing. Murder. Infidelity. SIN. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

In the book of Genesis, at the beginning of Creation, there is the record of Adam and Eve?s facing and falling to temptation. At the beginning of the New Testament, there is the account of Jesus being tempted in the desert by Satan. Along the way you can read of the temptations of Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Saul, David, Elijah, Peter, John, Paul and countless others. No matter how the world has changed, temptation has been and remains a constant part of it.

(ill) Discipleship Journal recently had a poll of readers? greatest spiritual challenges.

1. Materialism

2. Pride

3. Self-centeredness

4. Laziness

5. (Tie) Anger/Bitterness

5. (Tie) Sexual lust.

7. Envy

8. Gluttony

9. Lying

T/S: Whether your particular struggle appears on that list or not, this remains true: temptation unchecked leads to sin. Sin separates us from God and enslaves us to the devil. *You cannot live victoriously, you cannot live with the complete joy, peace and freedom of Christ, until you learn how to overcome temptation.

Pierre Baudelaire said "The Devil's most beautiful ruse is to convince us that he does not exist." Temptation is the devil?s weapon against us in the spiritual war, and if we are going to overcome his schemes and live abundant, holy lives for God .. we need to fight back with the right weapons. Neal Anderson reminds us of the Scriptural arsenal.

To overcome temptation, I must ....

claim the right promises

obey the right commands

believe the right truths

There is no such thing as ?The devil made me do it." Sin is a choice. Sin is always a choice. Sin will always be a choice. Here?s the catch. Before you become a Christian, you can?t help but to make the wrong choices. You are bound to sin, a slave of the world, Satan and temptation. But after you born again through Jesus, you have the power to say ?No? to sin.

I claim this promise! "God will give me a way out!"

(Greater is He that is me than he that is in the world.)

You and I don?t have to be weak, incapacitated, mediocre Christians. God has called us to be holy, because He is holy .. to be perfect because He is perfect .. to be righteous, because He is righteous! Too many Christians have settled for saying "Nobody can be perfect, so I can?t be perfect" -- and use that as an excuse to keep on falling to temptation.

(Greater is he that is in me, than he that is the world.)

Some How-To?s from this verse:

1. Pray the promise! Lord, I?m feeling the heat, and I need You right here, right now! Jesus taught us to pray like that. "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Matthew 6:13

In 1 Chronicles 4:10, Jabez prayed "lord keep me from evil."

2. Avoid temptation. Stay away from tempting people, places or situations. Alcoholics don?t pass time in bars. Covetous people don?t read the Lifestyles section of the paper. Gossips don?t pick up The National Enquirer. Lusters don?t hang out at adult bookstores.

(ill) On the TV show Hee Haw, Doc Campbell is confronted by a patient who says he broke his arm in two places. The doc replies, "Well then, stay out of them places!"

T/S: That?s good advice!

3. Be accountable. Have someone that holds your feet to the fire. That?s why Jesus sent out the disciples two-by-two. Proverbs says two are better than one, and that we sharpen each other like iron sharpens iron.

It could be your spouse. It could be your best friend. It could be a small group. It could be all of these.

(ill) Long before there was Enron or WorldCom, there was Barings bank of London. Remember? On February 26, 1995, Barings, the oldest bank in Britain, announced it was seeking bankruptcy protection after losing nearly one billion dollars in a stock gamble, according to Time magazine.

In late 1994, the chief trader at Barings's Singapore office began betting big on Japan's Nikkei market. Then disaster struck. An earthquake hit Kobe, Japan, and on January 23, 1995, the Nikkei plunged more than one thousand points.

Barings Bank lost big money. But instead of cutting his losses, Barings's Singapore trader doubled his investment, apparently hoping that the Nikkei would rebound. It didn't. Barings's London office put up nearly $900 million to support its falling position on the Singapore investments. Finally, Barings ran out of capital and declared bankruptcy.

How could one 28-year-old trader in Singapore lose nearly a billion dollars and ruin a 233-year-old British bank? According to Time, the problem was lack of supervision.

(qu) Accountability to another is the only way to safeguard against poor judgment, unconscious motivations, and self-deception. -Dr. Archibald Hart

One of the ways God gives you strength or gives you a way out is through loving, caring, wise, godly friends who are keeping us accountable for our thoughts, words and actions.

Circle "SUBMIT" Now circle "RESIST" God?s commands for our battle plan against temptation. 31 is to submit to Him. #2 is to resist Satan. There is something you have to understand -- there is no answer to temptation apart from submission to God. We?ve all agreed that is easier said than done, AMEN?

Well, the How -To is next. "Come near to God and He will come near to you." Submission to God and resistance to the devil are made possible by drawing near to the Father.

(qu) If within us we find nothing over us we succumb to what is around us.

-- P.T. Forsyth,

This is about your life. Your mission and roadmap and purpose. We are created to draw close to God. The closer we get to Him and His will, the farther we get from Satan and evil. That?s the goal of life!

You cannot control who knocks at the door, but you can control who you let in.

An act of the will, to control what you think. Who will you choose to be a slave to? God unto righteousness or sin unto death? (Paul asked that in Romans)

(qu) We are not masters of our own feeling, but we are by God's grace masters of our consent.

-- Francois Fenelon

T/S: Christians .. we need to quit giving in so easily to the devil deceptions, and give ourselves over more easily and completely to God?s reign and rule.

Sin looks good. That?s why we participate. We buy the lie of Satan that what seems appealing for a moment will satisfy us forever. What really is the case is that sin is always a misuse of God?s gifts, and God?s creation. We were created with a God-given need for food -- we need to eat to live -- but when we start living to eat (the Bible calls that gluttony) it?s a sin. The lie is that food will satisfy us, when Jesus has clearly said that life fulfillment comes from Him.

We were all created with a sexual drive, that God intended to be a beautiful, wonderful part of marriage. But to satisfy that drive apart from marriage is to distort God?s gift. It is to buy the lie that pleasure satisfies us.

We all need to stop and relax, but a life dominated by inactivity is idleness and sloth and laziness ... and that?s sin. The lie is that we can achieve rest apart from God.

* And you?ll find out that sin?s satisfaction is temporary and fleeting. And sins handcuffs are tight.

Overcoming temptation is not about a power encounter, Neal Anderson says. It?s about a truth encounter. If we are in Christ, we have the Holy Spirit in us, we have the power. trouble is, we don?t believe that we do.

(qu) Anderson says People are in bondage to the lies that they believe.

The way Satan works is to lie to us. To tell us that we slaves to our past. To tell us that we are weak, and unable to resist, and lack faith, and lack goodness. He lies to us and tells us that we can?t win, and that God doesn?t really love us and that if we follow his way, we can be like gods.

The truth is- in Jesus, we are free and complete. We have everything we need.

"I am complete and free in Jesus!"

Satan would have you forget that in Christ there is forgiveness. In Christ, there is perfect love. I Christ, there is strength to do all things (Philippians 4;13). Satan?s lies and Satan?s accusations are destroyed in Jesus.

(ill) If we or the world could be saved through human kindness or clear thinking, Jesus either would have formed a sensitivity group and urged us to share our feelings or would have founded a school and asked us to have discussions. But knowing the ways of God, the way of the world, and the persistence of human sin, he took up the cross, called disciples, gathered the church, and bade us follow him down a different path of freedom.

-- William H. Willimon,

I?m asking you this morning to choose your path. The church needs a Spirit-filled revival. The church needs that new wind of God, because we Christians need a Spirit-filled revival. The world will sooner come to Christ, when Christians submit to Christ first. When our lives are full of God and His presence and power. When our lives demonstrate the truths we say we believe .. the world will sit up and notice.

Because the world is dark, hopeless and without the answers to questions about meaning and significance and joy. The answer is Jesus.

Hear me, I?m not talking about pursuing sinless lives so that we can be saved. You cannot be good enough to earn salvation. If you are a Christian, then you are not trying to become a child of God. You ARE a child of God, becoming like Jesus.

Are you, this morning, a child of God? The only way is through a faith relationship with Jesus, His Son.

Are you connected, engaged and participating in a Bible-believing,, ,life-affirming fellowship of believers? If not, I want to invite you to be a member of Community Christian Church. I believe that this congregation is right here at this spot, at this moment in time, for a God-ordained reason. People matter to God. It?s not just our slogan, it?s the truth! God desires that we help each other, love each other, that we strengthen, and encourage and build each other up. That?s why I know He is about to do a great work here at Community. I?m inviting you to be a part of it.

And I?m inviting you to be a part of God?s family.