Greg Laurie - Lies We Tell Ourselves

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Greg Laurie, senior pastor of Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California, began his pastoral ministry at age 19 by leading a Bible study of 30 people, which God has since transformed into a congregation that is among the eight largest churches in America. In 1990, Greg began holding public evangelistic events called Harvest Crusades. Since then, nearly three million people have attended Harvest Crusades across the United States and in Australia. Greg is the featured speaker on the nationally syndicated radio program A New Beginning, heard nationwide and overseas. He is also the featured host of the television program Harvest: Greg Laurie, which is seen internationally. He is the author of a number of books, including the Gold Medallion-Award winner The Upside-Down Church. In addition, Greg has authored the study notes for two New Living Translation study Bibles. He and his wife, Cathe, have two children and live in Southern California.

Greg Laurie
Harvest Ministries
6115 Arlington Avenue
Riverside, CA 92504
www.harvest.org

Also From Greg Laurie

Are These the Last Days?

How to Live Expectantly
in a World of Uncertainty
Greg Laurie

R enowned pastor and evangelist Greg Laurie helps unravel some of the mystery surrounding end-times events as he examines what the Bible has to say about life in the last days and explores topics such as:

Important signs of the last days

The difference between the Rapture and the Second Coming

Israel's significance in end-times events

America's mysterious absence in Bible prophecy

Life during the Tribulation period

Are These the Last Days? will help you take some of the guesswork out of understanding the last days and will encourage you to live confidently and expectantly in an uneasy and uncertain world.

Available at Bookstores Everywhere!

CHAPTER 1

THE TRUTH ABOUT TEMPTATION

During a busy lunch hour in a crowded downtown, a pastor frantically searched for a parking place. He circled several blocks again and again, but a car sat at every meter and every parking ramp flashed a Full sign. Desperate to get to an important meeting, the pastor finally decided to double-park. He took out his business card and wrote a note in case a police officer might come by to ticket him.

Dear Officer, the pastor wrote, I circled this block a dozen times, but I could not find a place to park. I have an appointment to keep. Smiling to himself, he closed his note with, Forgive us our trespasses.

About an hour later, the pastor returned to find a parking ticket under his windshield wiper. Handwritten on the back of the ticket were these words: Dear Reverend, I have patrolled this block for a dozen years. If I don't give you a ticket, I'll lose my job. The officer had signed his name and badge number, and then added the kicker: Lead us not into temptation.

Lead us not into temptation! Those words are from what we call the Lord's Prayer, one of the most well-known passages in the Bible. This reminds me of a bumper sticker I once read: Lead us not into temptation. We can easily find it ourselves!

We generally think that all temptation is bad. Yet it may surprise you to know that testing, and even temptation, can have a positive effect. The Bible tells us, Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him (Jas. 1:12).

Right off the bat, from this verse we learn three things about temptation:

1. We can endure temptation: Blessed is the man [or woman] who endures temptation.

2. God promises a reward when we endure it: He [or she] will receive the crown of life.

3. We will be happier people if we resist the pull of temptation: Blessed is the man [or woman] who endures.

Martin Luther once said, One Christian who has been tempted is worth a thousand who haven't. It's also been said, Christians are a lot like tea bags. You don't know what they're made of until you put them in hot water.

You never know when temptation will come your way. I once heard about a young salesman who went to bid on a job for his firm. When he was ushered into the purchasing agent's office, he couldn't help but notice a competitor's bid lying there on the desk. Unfortunately, the actual figure was covered by a can of juice. The temptation to see the amount soon became too much for the salesman, and he slowly lifted the can. As he did so, thousands of BBs poured from the bottomless container and scattered across the floor. His heart sank. It was a trap, and he got busted for giving in to his temptation.

And you and I will, too. That's why we must learn to resist temptation. Benjamin Franklin once wrote, It is easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TEMPTATION

In the next few pages, we'll be getting up close and personal with this whole issue of temptation. In fact, we'll zero in on some very specific questions, such as:

When does temptation come?

Where does it come from?

Whom does it come to?

In Luke 4, we find the story of Jesus being tempted by Satan. We'll look at this account again later in more detail. While this story recorded in Scripture is briefhardly more than a few versesit is filled with truths that can help us face the daily barrage of temptations that come our way at breakneck speed. Jesus set the example.

Now, let's set the scene. Jesus was ready to officially begin His public ministry. But before that could happen, He had to take a couple of very important steps. The first was to be baptized. The other was to face His temptation in the wilderness.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus needed to be baptized? He had never sinned! He had no need to undergo the baptism of repentance that his cousin, John the Baptizer, was advocating. So why did Jesus do it? Because He wanted to set an example for all of us. And that, by the way, is also why He faced this series of temptations.

It's essential that we see Jesus as a man facing Satan. In other words, Jesus did not use His divine power to be delivered or to run Satan out. He showed us how to handle temptation when it comes our way. Jesus occupied ground that we can occupy as we heed the words of Philippians 2:5: Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

As Christians, we constantly face at least three enemies the flesh, the world and the devil. The flesh is the evil desire we all have within usthat vulnerability or propensity to do the wrong thing. The world is the place where we can find all kinds of temptations that lure us into indulging in our evil desires. The devil, of course, is Satan, who wants us to give in to our evil desires because that willat least temporarilybuild walls in our relationship with God.

Another way to think about these three enemies is to consider the flesh, with its evil desires, as the internal foe. The world, with its enticements, is the external foe. And Satan, with his temptations, is the infernal foe.

It can seem so tough to resist temptation. After all, temptation is sotempting! Yet the effect of giving in to temptation can be absolutely devastating. By yielding to temptation, in just a split second we can lose everything that it might have taken an entire lifetime for us to gain. However, in order to be able to resist temptation, it's important for us to first understand where temptation comes from, when it attacks, what its target is and how it gains a toehold in our life.