Unhooked Resisting Temptation's Snare --- Ed Young
Transcript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:03 Hi, how are you?
00:14 You're kidding me.
00:15 Our fellowship is everywhere.
00:17 Yes, sir.
00:17 Tell me your name.
00:18 J.C.
00:19 What's up, J.C.?
00:20 How's business today?
00:21 Pretty good, sir.
00:22 Good.
00:22 You don't believe it.
00:23 You know where I'm going?
00:24 Where?
00:25 I'm going to catch a great white shark tomorrow.
00:28 What?
00:28 And tag it.
00:29 And release it.
00:32 Savannah, Georgia.
00:33 The gateway to a giant great white shark.
00:39 It's been a dream of mine ever since I can remember
00:41 to just to see a great white shark.
00:43 Very few people have seen them, much less catch them
00:46 with a rod and reel.
00:47 I'm sitting on flight with EJ, Dave Clark.
00:56 You might be asking, why?
00:58 Where are you going?
00:59 Well, I'll tell you where we're going.
01:02 We're going after great white sharks.
01:05 We're flying into Savannah and then driving to Hilton Head,
01:09 spending the night in a local Marriott hotel,
01:12 waking up at dark 30.
01:14 All of our supplies in the back for like a 12 to 14 hour day.
01:18 Going out with Chip Michael Love to the great white shark
01:23 fishing grounds.
01:24 Chip is, I think, the only guy that has a certificate
01:29 to actually handle, catch, and tag great whites
01:34 using a rod and reel.
01:37 So can't wait.
01:38 Fire it up.
01:39 I can't believe I'm fishing for great white sharks.
01:45 It's been a dream of mine my entire life.
01:48 I happen to meet my friend, Captain Chip Michael Love.
01:52 And he is like the guy, the man, with great white sharks.
01:56 The only guy, I think, in the world that has a permit
01:59 to catch them with a rod and reel.
02:01 But not only does Chip catch them, he tags them.
02:05 Chip, not to reveal any of your secrets, but we also--
02:09 you're doing some chumming right now.
02:11 Tell us about-- some people are going to see this and go,
02:14 what is chumming?
02:15 I mean, what is that?
02:16 Well, chumming is just putting out a fragrance, an oil,
02:19 a mixture of oil, blood, chunks.
02:22 We've got a bag over the side, and it's slowly releasing this.
02:25 And what we're doing is we're creating a highway.
02:27 This highway is going straight behind the boat,
02:29 and it acts as kind of like-- I think
02:31 of it as like smoke coming off of a cigarette.
02:35 Anything that crosses that line just tracks it right in,
02:38 just slowly comes right at us.
02:40 We've got the chum rolling.
02:41 We've got all some bait out.
02:42 And the bait we're using--
02:44 We're using a mixture of everything.
02:46 You know, I've used false albacore, amberjack, tarpon.
02:51 I've used mackerel, barracuda, anything oily.
02:55 Blood is important, but amazingly, oil
02:57 is more important than the blood.
02:59 And Chip, talk to me about patience,
03:01 because you have to have a lot of patience.
03:04 I'm talking about--
03:05 A lot.
03:06 You have to be willing to accept failure over and over and over.
03:12 It takes a lot of sitting and waiting and sitting
03:18 and waiting and sitting and waiting.
03:22 But once you set the hook, once they feel the steel,
03:34 they go crazy, don't they?
03:35 They go crazy.
03:36 They go crazy.
03:36 They're trying to free themselves,
03:38 and we're just holding on--
03:39 That's right.
03:40 --for one wild ride, and everything's a go.
03:43 We just need a volunteer.
03:45 I like it.
03:45 We just need one volunteer to show up here any second.
03:48 It could go off right now.
03:49 It could go off in two or three hours from now.
03:52 That's a wide.
04:00 That's a wide, baby!
04:01 Woo-hoo!
04:02 That's him!
04:03 That's him looking at Whirlpool!
04:05 [INAUDIBLE]
04:06 Yeah!
04:08 Hold on, you're not clipped in.
04:11 Get in there.
04:12 Oh, look at him.
04:13 Look at him jumping.
04:14 Look at him jumping.
04:15 Right there.
04:16 Look at the water.
04:16 Look at it.
04:17 Look at it.
04:17 He's up there.
04:18 He's up there.
04:18 Right.
04:19 See the water moving?
04:22 Oh, my god!
04:24 How about that?
04:25 Woo-hoo!
04:27 [MUSIC PLAYING]
04:30,
04:57 Use your imagination with me just for a second.
05:01 Pretend that you are this great white shark.
05:07 And you're swimming, having a great day,
05:12 in the Atlantic Ocean.
05:15 You're a great white shark.
05:16 All you think about is eating and making
05:23 little great white sharks.
05:26 Something gets your attention.
05:30 Some blood in the water, some fish oil,
05:32 and you make a U-turn and see something you normally
05:37 don't see.
05:38 You see a big chunk of sashimi.
05:43 And you're thinking to yourself, I never
05:49 see something like that.
05:51 I mean, I've never seen a shark like that.
05:54 I mean, all I do is chase down dolphins and seals,
05:59 and I'll eat a human being now and then.
06:02 This is too good to be true.
06:10 So you decide, because you're a great white shark,
06:15 to eat the sashimi.
06:18 You eat it, and you are just swimming off,
06:22 having a great time.
06:24 You feel a little kind of resistance, but after all,
06:28 you're one of the strongest fish in the ocean.
06:31 That just kind of happens.
06:32 Maybe you have a pulled muscle or something.
06:34 And then your mouth feels weird.
06:37 You feel and experience some resistance,
06:44 thrashing and splashing.
06:45 And you find yourself pulling a little boat around the ocean,
06:49 finally tiring out.
06:52 You've been caught.
06:53 Well, I just described to you what it's
07:00 like to be reeled in.
07:05 But I also described to you what it's like to be reeled in
07:11 by the enemy.
07:15 I described to you the process that everyone deals with,
07:23 temptation.
07:26 Temptation.
07:29 Temptation is a process followed by an event,
07:34 and then an event followed by a process.
07:42 Every single person hearing my voice deals with temptation.
07:48 It's inevitable.
07:52 We're going to be tempted.
07:55 Before I continue with this talk,
07:57 I'm going to give you the upside of temptation.
08:01 This is not going to be like a depressing message.
08:06 This is going to be a message that should give all of us hope
08:09 and strength and confidence.
08:13 But I want you to think about this process,
08:17 because the book of James-- in fact,
08:21 the half-brother of Jesus wrote the book of James--
08:23 is a treatise on temptation.
08:27 And James says that we are enticed.
08:35 That's the word he uses, enticed.
08:37 In the Greek, it's "excelkomenos."
08:40 It means to bait a fish.
08:45 It means to lure a fish out of cover.
08:50 It means to capture something.
08:55 You might be going, "Well, I just thought you were
08:58 "using something that happened in your life
09:01 "and trying to relate it to Scripture."
09:03 No, no, no. Scripture says temptation, in a nutshell,
09:06 is luring a fish, baiting a fish,
09:11 capturing a fish, and that, my friend,
09:15 is what the enemy wants to do in your life and mine.
09:19 When you see the word "temptation" in the book of James,
09:23 there are two types of temptation,
09:25 and it's critical that we differentiate between the two.
09:29 The first type would be a trial
09:33 or a testing allowed by God.
09:39 His purpose is to induce strength and victory.
09:47 It's allowed by Him, sometimes caused by Him.
09:51 So James says when those situations happen,
09:54 we should be joyful.
09:56 I'll talk about that in a second.
09:58 The other definition, the other type of temptation
10:02 used in this text comes from our fallenness,
10:07 our sin nature.
10:10 It can be caused by the ultimate angler, the devil,
10:15 and that is an inducement for evil.
10:19 It's to mess us around, to keep us from being
10:23 the kind of people that God desires.
10:26 So do you understand what I'm talking about?
10:28 There are two different types.
10:29 There's the trials and the testings.
10:31 Allowed by God for our good.
10:34 Then you have the temptation from our sin nature
10:37 and from the enemy that's for our bad,
10:40 is for us missing the mark.
10:43 Those are the differences.
10:46 James comes along and says in James chapter one, verse 13,
10:52 "When tempted," again, it's gonna happen, right?
10:57 "No one should say, 'God is tempting me.'
11:00 "Don't tag your temptation on God."
11:04 The Bible says, "For God cannot be tempted by evil,
11:07 "nor does he tempt anyone."
11:10 There is no bait the devil can dangle in front of God.
11:16 He is complete, he is good.
11:19 There's not a scintilla of weakness in his character.
11:24 And how many times, I mean, have I blamed
11:28 other people and even God for my temptation?
11:33 You probably haven't.
11:36 You remember in the garden, Adam,
11:38 he was caught red-handed, what did he do?
11:40 He blamed his wife.
11:43 That's easy, isn't it, guys?
11:45 It's her fault.
11:48 Her issues.
11:50 And then Adam pulled out the big guns,
11:52 "God, it's you, you're the one who gave me this woman."
11:56 (congregation laughing)
11:59 "You're the one who put me in this resort."
12:03 You know?
12:05 In a crowd this size, we're handling temptation
12:07 in three different ways.
12:09 I definitely know that.
12:11 You might be here, you could be
12:13 at one of our different locations.
12:15 Three ways we handle temptation.
12:17 Number one, some are like, "Temptation?
12:22 "I don't feel any temptation."
12:26 You're going, you're moving with the enemy.
12:32 You're trafficking with the devil.
12:37 You just don't feel it.
12:40 You're living like an animal.
12:42 Have you ever realized that so many people
12:46 in our world today live like animals
12:49 just for self-gratification?
12:53 Some people don't feel any temptation.
12:55 Now, when you become a believer,
12:58 temptation will be ratcheted up,
13:00 but here's the good news.
13:02 You'll have the horsepower of the Holy Spirit
13:04 that can dominate that.
13:07 Other people here deal with temptation
13:12 by gritting their teeth,
13:16 pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps,
13:20 listening to a podcast by Jocko or David Goggins.
13:26 "I can't have the willpower.
13:28 "I can't have the strength to overcome it myself."
13:33 No. No, you can't.
13:37 Others here, those here who are followers of Christ,
13:41 you're tapping into, again,
13:44 the horsepower of the Holy Spirit
13:46 to give you strength and victory over temptation.
13:51 Question, how does a shark become that big?
13:58 Answer, by letting a lot of bait go by,
14:04 by swimming around nets,
14:07 by taking a look at the hook,
14:12 by looking forward,
14:15 looking past the temptation.
14:21 So James says, "Hey, when tempted, don't blame God,
14:27 "for God cannot be tempted by evil,
14:29 "nor does He tempt anyone,
14:31 "but each person is tempted
14:34 "when they are dragged away
14:36 "by their own evil desire and enticed."
14:41 Say "desire" with me.
14:43 - Desire. - Desire.
14:45 God is the God of desire.
14:48 God is pro-passion. Did you know that?
14:51 If we didn't have the desire,
14:53 basically, to eat, we'd die,
14:55 to drink, we would die,
14:56 to procreate, we wouldn't be here.
14:59 I think you understand that.
15:01 Yet temptation is when I want to use
15:07 a God-given desire in a God-forbidden way,
15:13 and I do so.
15:14 It's about desire.
15:16 That's why I had you repeat the word, "desire."
15:20 In the process of temptation,
15:23 you come to a point where your desire
15:27 asks your will, "Will you?"
15:30 And if your will says, "I do,"
15:35 you have a marriage,
15:37 then you have a bouncing baby called sin.
15:43 After desire has conceived,
15:45 it gives birth to sin,
15:46 and sin, when it's full-grown,
15:48 gives birth to death.
15:53 That's kind of a bad name to name a baby.
15:58 Let's name him Sin.
16:01 That's what happens in temptation.
16:05 And then when sin is fully developed,
16:09 it leads to death,
16:10 because I know what some of you are thinking.
16:12 "Oh, man, I know someone living like hell,
16:15 "and they have everything.
16:17 "They've got the women, they got the money,
16:19 "they got the planes, they got the islands."
16:23 All the returns aren't in yet.
16:26 Sin has not reached puberty yet.
16:31 Sin has not matured yet,
16:33 because the Bible says the wages of sin is death.
16:39 Death.
16:41 Death of a marriage, death of a family,
16:43 death of a career, death of a church,
16:46 death of a company, death of a team.
16:48 The wages of sin is death,
16:50 and we see it all the time.
16:52 The devil is patient.
16:55 He's the ultimate angler.
16:58 So think about him.
16:59 He rigs, rigs strategically.
17:06 We didn't just go out for great white sharks.
17:08 I hope you know that.
17:11 That's just a fun video.
17:13 The work behind it was unbelievable.
17:18 The custom rod, the custom reel,
17:22 the custom line.
17:24 Tying the best leaders.
17:26 Having a boat that's nimble.
17:29 Understanding the anchoring system.
17:32 Understanding the continental shelf.
17:34 Understanding the currents.
17:36 It goes on and on.
17:37 You've got to rig strategically.
17:40 Also, not only do you rig strategically,
17:43 we chum, chum seductively.
17:48 We threw out oil, blood,
17:52 and you know,
17:54 the great whites love that.
17:58 When blood's in the water,
18:00 are you kidding me?
18:02 That's how Satan works in all of our lives.
18:06 He's just chumming.
18:08 Oh, he's rigged up specifically to catch you and me.
18:12 Specifically.
18:14 And now he chums.
18:16 He knows your weaknesses.
18:18 He knows your strengths as well.
18:20 He's just chumming.
18:21 I mean, he's been doing this for thousands of years.
18:25 He fishes patiently.
18:28 He waits.
18:30 And waits.
18:32 And waits.
18:35 I've been skunked so many times in fishing,
18:38 you wouldn't believe it.
18:40 I've been skunked going after great whites.
18:44 Hour after hour after hour after hour after hour after hour after hour.
18:50 Staring into the ocean.
18:57 The enemy's that way too.
18:59 He waits.
19:01 And waits.
19:03 And waits.
19:04 But notice something else he does.
19:06 He then displays us publicly when he catches us.
19:11 We take the sashimi, the bait.
19:15 We feel the steel of the hook.
19:18 We're thrashing and splashing.
19:21 We're pulling the boat around.
19:23 Then he captures us,
19:27 takes us to the taxidermist,
19:31 and mounts us and stuffs us.
19:39 In his man cave.
19:43 I caught that one with pornography.
19:47 Satan says, I caught her with materialism and poor discernment.
19:55 I caught him through greed.
19:59 And we think, man, if that's me, is my life over?
20:05 No, your life isn't over.
20:08 God practices catch and release.
20:12 You give your life to him, he'll renew you.
20:15 He will remake you and release you.
20:24 Now, we're still going to face the consequences of our behavior.
20:29 He doesn't take those away.
20:31 But we're new and fresh and can be used in a wonderful way.
20:37 Temptation happens when you really boil it down.
20:42 It happens in three different zones.
20:44 In fact, let me make a broad brush statement.
20:46 Every temptation is in one of these three categories.
20:50 Everything you face and I face and ever will face in these categories.
20:55 Number one, the lust of the flesh.
21:01 The lust of the flesh, that means to do.
21:04 What's that?
21:05 It's whatever meets a physical desire in a way that competes with Christ's desire.
21:12 Promiscuity, adultery, any sex outside of marriage, homosexuality, substance, too much drink,
21:23 prescription medication out of whack, weed.
21:32 Then we have food. Too much food or we limit through anorexia, bulimia, and so forth.
21:42 The lust of the flesh.
21:48 Then we have the lust of the eyes.
21:51 The lust of the eyes would be to have.
21:54 That's the sinful desire to possess what we see or to have those things which have visual appeal.
22:05 Possessions and things and that desire to acquire that's gone haywire.
22:13 The Bible is not anti-things.
22:16 Some of the most transcendently wealthy people you can imagine were some of the writers of the Bible.
22:23 However, do we have things or do things have us?
22:30 I mean, this could come into play, for example, when you're paid, when I'm paid, or when you close a deal.
22:38 You know, if you're a believer, that the first fruits, the first 10% goes to the house.
22:45 But you say to yourself, you know what? I did it.
22:49 I'm a self-made man.
22:53 And you put your stuff over God's. That's just a practical way of how that happens.
23:00 Also, the pride of life would be the third zone.
23:03 Pride is the precursor of all sin.
23:06 We have to be prideful before any sin.
23:09 That is the desire to be God versus the desire to serve God.
23:14 That would be popularity.
23:19 Do a straw poll. Talk to young people.
23:21 What do you want to be? What do you want to do in your life?
23:24 Most will say, I want to be famous.
23:29 I want to be famous.
23:31 That's what Satan said. That's what Lucifer said in the heavenlies.
23:35 He was a lead worshiper.
23:37 I want to be famous. I want to be more famous than you, God.
23:40 He tried to usurp God. He was kicked out. He became the devil.
23:44 And a third of the demons, or a third of the angels fell with him.
23:48 And now they're in the world of the demonic.
23:53 Pride.
23:55 Pride is something that we don't see in ourselves.
24:01 Pride. But that's how we're tempted.
24:04 So, so the lust of the flesh says, will you?
24:11 The lust of the eyes, will you?
24:14 The pride of life, will you?
24:17 And when we say yes, you've got sin.
24:25 Whew.
24:27 That's tough stuff, isn't it?
24:29 Temptation.
24:33 That's the downside of it.
24:36 The enemy wants to keep you from being who God wants you to be.
24:44 God, though, is omnipotent.
24:49 Omniscient, omnipresent.
24:52 God loves you. You matter to him so much that he secured your salvation by sending Jesus to die on the cross
25:01 for our sins to rise again.
25:05 He offers us eternal life.
25:08 He offers us life and the power to live victoriously.
25:15 So what's the upside of temptation?
25:17 When temptation hits, or a trial, or a test,
25:20 number one, enjoyment.
25:23 Ed, you've got to be kidding.
25:25 Enjoyment? Yes, enjoyment.
25:27 The decision for joy.
25:31 James says in James chapter 1, verse 2, "Consider it pure joy."
25:35 I like that.
25:36 "My brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
25:42 we need to realize the greatness of God.
25:45 We need to lean in to the things of God, even though we don't always feel like it.
25:53 Our thoughts many times have to tamp our feelings.
25:59 Also, endurance, James says.
26:02 You realize when you face a trial, a testing, a temptation,
26:05 it's an opportunity to build endurance,
26:09 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
26:12 Verse 3. Oh, that's good.
26:14 And then empowerment. James 1, 5, "If any of you lacks wisdom,
26:19 you should ask God, who gives generously to us all."
26:24 It's the blessings of God.
26:28 When we swim around, when we swim through these situations,
26:35 we're going to live in the blessed place.
26:40 Blessings, the word "blessed" means to be on the receiving end
26:45 of the tangible and intangible favor of God.
26:52 So here's some handles.
26:55 As I said, look beyond the hook and understand that we need God-centration.
27:02 Made the word up. God-centration.
27:06 I'm focusing on you, God, and what you have for me in all of these areas.
27:11 Number two, look around your waters at the God-sequences.
27:18 See those eyes?
27:20 You ever in the movie "Jaws"--you can search this on YouTube.
27:24 One of my favorite lines, Captain Quint said,
27:28 "You know a shark's eyes, they're like doll's eyes,
27:35 black and lifeless.
27:38 When the shark bites, you hear the scream,
27:42 and the eyes roll back in his head."
27:45 Check that out this afternoon.
27:52 So look around for the God-sequences.
27:55 Look at people here--you don't have to come to church,
27:58 you don't have to be involved in church--
28:00 look at the people here who are walking in victory.
28:04 And then--so we look beyond the hook, right?
28:08 We look around your waters, Atlantic Ocean.
28:13 Then we look within to the Lord, and that is God-fidence.
28:21 Faith.
28:23 Trust.
28:25 So I'm going to tell you, you have the horsepower of the Holy Spirit,
28:31 the gospel active and engaged in your life.
28:37 God will do and wants to do amazing things.
28:46 A couple of verses and then we'll go.
28:48 James 1, 16 through 18.
28:52 "Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.
28:55 Every good and perfect gift is from above,
28:58 coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights,
29:01 who does not change like shifting shadows."
29:05 He chose to give us--say it with me.
29:08 Say it better than that.
29:10 Birth.
29:12 Isn't it funny, though, he's talking about fishing, then birth?
29:16 He had to have ADD or maybe he was trying to connect with the men,
29:21 then he was like, "Okay, I'm losing the women,"
29:23 then he talks about childbirth.
29:24 I don't know. I love that, though.
29:26 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth.
29:29 Through the word of truth, birth.
29:31 So when you become a Christian, the word of God gets together
29:34 with the Spirit of God and you have a child of God.
29:37 Just like the desire gets together with the will, you have sin.
29:40 Do you see that? Nod your heads.
29:42 Okay, okay, I thought you would.
29:45 He chose to give us birth through the word of God
29:47 that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
29:51 So this last thing I will tell you--
29:53 you're not supposed to say that when you speak, did you know that?
29:55 Finally, in conclusion, if you speak, don't say that.
29:59 So I broke the major rule of communication.
30:01 You're now going, "Okay, autopilot. I'm ready to go."
30:04 No, no, just stay with me here.
30:06 The last thing I want you to think about is
30:08 when you're dealing with all of this stuff,
30:10 remember your birth order.
30:15 What?
30:16 I was born March 16th.
30:19 Remember that. It's coming up.
30:22 3/16, right?
30:28 I was born again at his second birthday,
30:31 and I can say I was born again by John 3/16.
30:36 It's interesting that throughout the Old Testament,
30:40 God rejects the firstborn some of the time
30:45 and receives the second.
30:47 Like he rejected Cain, received Abel,
30:52 rejected Esau, received Jacob.
30:56 God rejects my first birth.
31:02 Because I cannot fight temptation or deal with it
31:05 if I'm relying on 3/16.
31:08 But I can if I rely on John 3/16 after my second birth.
31:14 Have you been born again?
31:16 And if you are, are you maturing?
31:20 Are you being sanctified?
31:22 Are you developing into that full court follower of Christ?
31:26 Because God uses these issues.
31:32 He uses trials, testings, and temptation
31:37 to make us understand what it means to swim
31:44 with freedom and victory beneath the surface.
31:51 Would you bow for prayer?
31:54 Lord Jesus, I want to give many an opportunity
31:59 to give their lives to you right now.
32:02 And you can do that by praying a prayer with me.
32:06 Just right where you are, say this.
32:08 Just say, "God, I've been trying to do life my own way,
32:11 by my own rules,
32:13 and I realize, God,
32:17 that I'm a sinner,
32:19 that I can't do it on my own.
32:21 I admit to you I'm a sinner.
32:23 I turn from my sins."
32:24 Just say that and turn to you, Jesus.
32:26 "I believe you died on the cross for my sins.
32:30 You conquered death by rising again.
32:34 And right now, I know you've chosen me,
32:37 but I've got to choose you,
32:39 and I choose you to come into my life
32:43 for forgiveness, for cleansing, for power,
32:47 for a home in heaven,
32:49 for victory starting today."
32:57 I want to pray for others here
32:58 who are really fighting temptation.
33:00 You're fighting something at the office.
33:02 You're fighting something around the neighborhood.
33:04 You're fighting temptation in your thought life.
33:09 I know the Holy Spirit
33:12 is using, God, your words
33:17 to convict, to change, to empower.
33:21 Others here, Lord, maybe need to become a part
33:24 of Fellowship Church.
33:26 We give this time to you.
33:27 We ask all these things in Jesus' name.
33:30 Amen.
33:31 - Hi, guys.
33:32 Thank you so much for watching
33:33 the Ed Young YouTube channel.
33:35 - That's right, and if you want to be inspired,
33:37 encouraged, and challenged like never before,
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