Sometimes it's as easy as sitting back and pausing, and saying: wait a minute - this is going to affect my future; the future of the people I love; and more importantly - my faith!
I've found is that: almost nobody believes their way out of Christianity.
I have people all the time coming to me and they say: Shane, I just don't believe this Jesus stuff anymore. If they'll let me get into it with them, almost 100 percent of the time, this is what I find - at some point in their past, they had a moment, that they just thought was between them and God.
They compromised something that was very important, and it started chipping away at their faith. So they ate the one cookie, and it chipped away at their faith; because they met their own need - they didn't need God right then. They met their own need - it was a legitimate need; and they met it in an illegitimate way, so it chips away at their faith; and 10 years down the road, they don't believe anything anymore.
Most people do not believe their way of Christianity; everybody behaves their way out of Christianity.
Do you understand that in Jesus' situation, if He turned stones into bread, it might have started sabotaging His faith enough, that maybe the next day He meets His own need, and maybe the next day, and maybe the next day. So by the time it comes time for the cross, the faith that it took for Him to get on the cross, just isn't there any more.
If His faith is sabotaged, then the cross is sabotaged; and if the cross is sabotaged, then we are sabotaged. It is never just about you, and God, and the moment. It is always about you, and God, and the moment - and your future; and the future of the people you love; and your faith.
But the good thing is, Jesus died so that this couldn't be your master.
So I want us to end this session with a word of faith confession, that will leave you feeling empowered okay? Say this with me:
“Temptation: you're not going to take my future”.
“You're not going to take the future of my loved ones…”
“…and you're not going to take my faith”.
I want you to position yourself for Faith: Tefillah, Teshuvah, Tzedakah.
I want you just to: “turn your head and face the one who can bear the burden”.
I want you to have a moment of Repentance, for where you've given in.
I'm not saying we're not good-hearted people when we do it. You want to think like a kingdom person, to just take that position: I am a kingdom person. I am a person of God's.
Your future, the future of the people you love, and your faith, will be secure; because we will stand against it.
WE WILL TRUST GOD. WE will not compromise for the one cookie. We will trust God for the three.
Just let that empowerment settle up in you. Sin can't tell you what to do, one more day. That anger has no power of you. That rejection doesn't have any power over you.
You can stand against it today, and be a better leader in the kingdom of God.
Temptation can't have our future; it can't have the future of the people we love; and it cannot have our faith.
WE will overcome, for WE will trust God. Amen.