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Sermon Illustrations: Temptation

Some Christians … suppose that God severs fellowship when a believer sins. Actually, a believer sins because he had already broken fellowship with God. He wouldn't have sinned if he had stayed in fellowship with God.1

Baboons are inquisitive creatures. In order to catch one in the Kalahari Desert, the bushman digs a hole in solid rock large enough for a baboon's hand to pass through while extended. He does this while making sure the baboon is watching then drops in some nuts. The baboon is so curious that after the man has gone, he comes down to investigate and puts his hand in the hole to get the nuts. Once his hand is in, the bushman comes running to catch him, because as much as the baboon wants to escape he will not let go of what's in his hand and he cannot get his clenched fist back through the hole.

The good plants do not push out the bad plants, the bad plants choke out the good one. Malcolm MacGregor

A really bad man has a wife and children who go to church. He drinks, smokes, swears, watches pornography and abuses his family. One night, his family come home from a great church meeting. They come to the front door and remember the man will be waiting for them. The TV is on, but he's not watching it. His Scotch is in the glass, but he's not drinking. His cigarette is sitting on the corner of the ashtray, but he's not smoking. He's dead. "Sin has no more power over him. Sin has no more attraction for him. And sin produces no more reaction from him." Illustration by Derek Prince while commenting on Romans 6:6.

Many Christians have a simplistic concept of temptation that goes something like this: Satan, at a particular moment, flits to our side and whispers "Do it," and we either do or do not, depending upon our spiritual strength at that moment. We might be more consistently victorious in not "doing it" if we realised that there is much more to temptation than the overt, momentary solicitation to evil and that our strength or weakness at that moment is based upon attitudes that have been forming weeks, months, even years prior. We do not fall in a moment; the predisposition to yield to sin has been forming, building, germinating - but not necessarily consciously so. Sin has both a cumulative and a domino effect. Satan plants subtle stimuli, often subliminal ones; he influences an attitude; he wins a "minor" victory - always in preparation for the "big" fall, the iron-bound habit.2

I discover that I must program Scripture into my heart. The end product of this is the fruit of the Spirit… But if I do not build Scripture into my mind and heart, the satanic world system's influences have uncontrolled access to my mind and heart. I then will be captivated by every sensation. I become a victim of my environment… As I see it, some Christians resemble a pressure cooker with the lid ready to blow off. They have permitted the satanic world system to pump more and more pressure into their thought lives: selfish ambitions, worry, lust, anger, resentment, fear. They suppose that adding heavier lids will keep these things from exploding into their behaviour. They are mistaken, of course, because eventually the heaviest lid will blow and the blast will be enormous. Obviously, the answer doesn't lie with external restraints…. The only way to withstand the influences of a satanic world is to fill our thoughts with God's Word. This will counteract the pressures we face, keep us cool, and hold the lid on.3

Every time Satan knocks at the door, I let Jesus answer. (Derek Prince relating what an old lady replied when asked the secret of her victorious life.)

"Pastor, I want you to hold me accountable. I really need your help." Matt was the youth pastor. A part-timer, he was not in the building much on weekdays. He had made a point to come to the pastor's office that day. Russ at the big desk, looked at Matt sitting across from him. "I found the first pornographic site accidentally," Matt said. He hesitated. "I was looking for something else, and it was just - there. I was stunned by it and I turned the computer off right away, but - later," he confessed, "I went back." "More than once?" "Yes. Several times. But I felt really guilty about it. I've prayed about it. I told my wife. I asked her forgiveness. But I need someone who will help me control this urge to - to look." Russ fidgeted with the keyboard. "What do you want me to do?" "I need someone who'll look me in the eye sometimes and ask if I've kept myself pure." The two men prayed and Matt left. Russ knew he would never initiate the subject with Matt again. How could he? Like Matt's experience, his had started innocently…4

Parable told by Reinhard Bonnke: A man had a 2-storey house. He heard a knocking, opened the door, and found Jesus there, so he invited Him to live in the house and gave Him a room in the top floor. Jesus will only take what you give Him. The man was sleeping and heard a pounding on the door, opened the door a crack and the devil barged in. He had a terrible fight, trying to resist the devil and his temptations, yelling out for help all the time. Eventually, he managed to throw the devil out. In the morning, he said, "Why didn't you help me last night? Couldn't you hear me calling for help?" Jesus: "The problem is, you've got this whole big house to yourself, and I've only got one room." Man: "Ah, I see your point. You can have the whole top floor, and I'll keep the bottom floor." The man was sleeping and heard a pounding on the door, opened the door a crack and the devil barged in again. He had another terrible fight, trying to resist the devil and his temptations, yelling out for help all the time. Eventually, he managed to throw the devil out. In the morning, he said, "Why didn't you help me last night? Couldn't you hear me calling for help?" Jesus: "The problem is, I have the top floor, but you still have the bottom floor to yourself." Man: "Ah, I see what you mean. From now on, the whole house is yours." That night, the man was asleep, and there was a pounding at the door again. This time Jesus went to the door, opened it wide, and stood in the doorway. The devil looked at Him, bowed very low and said, "I'm sorry, but I think I knocked on the wrong door."

A man was trying to lose weight and decided that it was best if he not drive past his favourite bakery on the way to work each day. So he took an alternative route. This worked well for some time. But one day he absentmindedly took his old route to work. When he realised what he was doing, he thought, "This must be a sign from the Lord." So he kept driving. But just to make sure he wasn't deceiving himself he said, "I'll drive past, and if there's a parking spot, I'll take it as a sign from the Lord that He wants me to buy something there." And the funny thing was, on the eighth time around…

1 Radmacher, Earl D You And Your Thoughts
2 Kohl, D.G. Sneaky Stimuli and How To Resist Them (in Christianity Today, 31-1-75)
3 Radmacher, Earl D You And Your Thoughts
4 Reed, Eric, Leadership - Winter 2001, p88