CrossPointe Community Church

Month: March 2019

  • Avoiding Temptation

    Matthew 6:7-13
    I Peter 5:8-11

    If you were only 8 years old and saw a commercial advertising a delicious Big Mac how far would you go to get your hands on one of those famous cheeseburgers? A boy from East Palestine, Ohio was not going to be deterred from getting one. While his parents slept, he tuned into YouTube on how to drive a car, grabbed his 4 year old sissy to ride shotgun and took off for the mile and half journey to the nearest McDonalds. When he pulled up to the drive-through window to get his hands on that burger, the attendant thought it best to call the law, who allowed them to satisfy their cravings while waiting to be picked up by their grandparents. Local police later discovered from cameras and eye-witnesses that the boy did a great job of driving through four lighted intersections where he stopped and waited till one red light turned green and then yielded to on-coming traffic to make the left into McD’s. 1

    For that 8 year old, it was a Big Mac.

    What is it that tempts us beyond our capacity to resist? For to be sure, each one of us have certain temptations that are particularly troubling to us. And the world, the flesh and the devil work well together at finding our weakest points and seducing us with them.

    Before we take the next step in this journey that will focus on overcoming temptation, it would behoove us to consider some ways that will help us avoid temptation in the first place. And all are rooted in the phrase, “Lead us not into temptation” (Matthew 6:13).

    This is one of the verses we looked at last week where we saw that at first glance it looks as though Jesus is laying the blame for temptation at the feet of His Father.

    But we very clearly saw that the rest of the New Testament is clear that God is not the one who tempts us. James 1:13 is representative: “And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and He never tempts anyone else.”

    So what does, “Lead us not into temptation mean?”

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  • Overture to Temptation

    Today as we open a Biblical inquiry into the subject of ‘temptation, ’I begin with an ‘overture.’ That is I’d like to talk about temptation in very general terms, while at the same time giving a preview of where we are headed in this series. With that in mind, let’s turn to the Bible as our foundation.

    Genesis 3:1-6
    Psalm 25:1-5
    James 1:12-16

    Four priests were on a spiritual retreat weekend and on Saturday evening they decided to confess their biggest temptations.

    The first priest said, “Well, it’s kind of embarrassing, but I admit I do enjoy Playboy magazine, for the articles, of course.”

    “My temptation is worse,” said the second, “Gambling, yep; once, instead of preparing my homily I went to the track to bet on the greyhounds.”

    “Mine is worse still,” said the third; “I sometimes can’t control the urge to drink. One time I actually broke into the sacramental wine.”

    The fourth priest was quiet as he carefully considered what they had confessed. “Brothers, I hate to say this,” he said, “but my temptation is worst of all. I love to gossip.”

    What’s your weakness? Or weaknesses? This past Monday we arrived in Florida and Paige said, “Randy, guess what I bought for you?”
    I don’t know, what did you buy for me?”
    “A 1 pound 4 ounce bag of Peanut M & M’s and some Cape Cod Potato chips.”
    Not a good combination for a guy who needs to lose 10 or 12 pounds.

    The truth is things like Peanut M & M’s and Potato Chips are the least of our worries in comparison with many other things we can be tempted by.

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  • A Broken Orchestra

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    Acts 6:1-7
    I Thessalonians 5:12-13

    Reader’s Digest Life in These United States: A week after a father applied to enroll his son in a private school, he received a questionnaire. One of the questions was: “Is your son a leader or a follower?” He thought about it and then indicated his son was a follower. A couple weeks later, he was informed his son was one of 200 students accepted. The letter also said, “You may be interested to know that of the 200 accepted 199 were marked as leaders and only 1 follower.”

    What is that old saying? Too many chiefs and not enough Indians?

    Every organization has to have leaders who will initially define what that organization is about, how it is going to function effectively by encouraging participation by the people of that organization and then monitor it to make sure that it does.

    That applies to the largest of organizations; take the good old USA, for example, which was organized by our Founding Fathers, who took the responsibility for drawing up principles set forth in the Constitution that would govern these United States of America.

    Manufacturers and businesses have CEO’s/CFO’s/managers, etc. who are responsible to create, implement and monitor policies and procedures that will enable that business to function profitably and effectively.

    What’s good for countries and manufacturers and retail businesses is also good for the church. Every church must designate leaders who are responsible for creating and then implementing policies and procedures that will enable that church to function effectively.

    That’s exactly what Luke is describing in Acts 6. The early church was growing in numbers, quite dramatically. The 12 Apostles were up to their ears with too many responsibilities so they made a wise decision to recruit other folks who would help them out so that they could focus on what they felt they were gifted and called by God to accomplish. It is probably true that Numbers 11 had some influence over their decision. In that chapter, Moses is the overwhelmed leader who takes the advice of his father-in-law, Jethro, to recruit others to give him a hand.

    As it was with Moses before them and then the Apostles in the early church, so it is now.

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