"Crown of Life or Death?"

Keep the faith! Stand the test! Never give up! The battles that we face often start, not with outside sources, but with internal temptations. You can stay strong if you understand the process.

Crown of Life or Death

(James 1:12-15)

Introduction:

A.  1 Peter 5:8-9, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”  Quite a warning.  James takes a similar approach.

B.  There is a difference between trials and temptations.  Many times in the Bible trails come from outside sources while temptations often have an internal struggle.  Trials are something you endure while temptations are something you resist.

C.  Now look at the text that was just read.  For the person who perseveres, or endures, the trial, that person is blessed by God.  That person has an inner peace and strength that only God can give.  But what this person really receives is not a better life now, but a crown of life from God.  Now, look at the result of the person who, when facing temptations fails the test and sins – the end result for that person is death.  Ask yourself as we begin, “Do I want to receive the crown of life or death?”
D.  We know that Satan can masquerade as an angel of light, but we also know that God provides a way of escape or the ability to bear up under temptations.  My point is you don’t have to fail.  You don’t have to die.  There is an option.

I.  Internal Struggles

A.  Think about overcoming struggles that we face from within.  Think about how hard it is win that battle. I heard a story about a mother told her son that he was not allowed to go swimming that day. However, when he returned home that afternoon his mother noticed that his hair was wet and that he carried under his arm a wet bathing suit.

B. “Johnny!” his mother scolded, “I told you not to go swimming today.” “I couldn’t help it, Mom. I walked by the lake and it looked so clear and inviting. I was just going to stick my feet in it for a minute, and the water was so warm and felt so good on my legs. I just couldn’t resist!” he said with a big wide smile.
C.  Mom looked at Johnny and said, “One question son, why did you take your bathing suit with you when I had told you that you couldn’t swim today?” “I didn’t trust myself Mom, so I took it with me just in case I was tempted.”
D.  There isn’t a day that goes by in any of our lives where we aren’t tempted in some way. Temptation comes packaged in a variety of ways; we are tempted to lie, cheat, gossip, over eat, to hold grudges, to steal, and yes, to not give the Lord the first fruits of our treasure, time and talent.

E.  Watch the process of temptation.  Watch it take you away from the blessing of God, that crown of life, and watch it take you down the road that leads to death.

II. The Path of Temptations

A.  The first step in the wrong direction is called the “blame game.”  We are all familiar with the blame game.  “If you only just…then I wouldn’t…”  “You make me so mad I just had to…” or “It’s not my fault, I was simply caught in the middle.  What was I to do?  Really, you wouldn’t have done any different than I did.”  We rationalize our sinful actions, we blame someone for our behavior or we simply seek to make it of no effect.  But the truth is we refuse to accept personal accountability for our own thoughts and actions.

B.  James says, “When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me.”  When God asked Adam “Who told you that you were naked?  Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”  Adam’s responded, “The woman you put here with me.”  Stop right there.  That is Adam blaming God for the temptation.  For some reason people think that because God is good that God should not allow any temptation to come down our pathway.  Just because God allows it does not mean that he is inducing you to sin.  In fact, just the opposite, he looks for you to succeed.  Ask Abraham or Job if God was tempting them to sin or testing their faith.

C.  The pathway of sin starts within man himself.  Don’t blame God, look within at your own self.  It like a fish being drawn to bait only to find a hook in its mouth and being pulled out of the water to die.  That’s the process.  Satan and his demons know what entices man.  And they work deep within us as the bait drawing us to the hook of death.

III.  The Mind of Man

A.  Sin begins with the lure and enticement.  It starts from within, it starts in the mind.  The mind is powerful and can cause us to rise up against all odds and go into battle.  It can cause to dream of things that others thought were impossible and make them come true.  But it is also in the mind’s eye that sin begins.

B.  2 Cor. 10:3-5.  Take every thought captive.  Demolish the strongholds.  You don’t have to die, you can have the crown of life.  But you have to take the fight deep within you, back to the root, the very desire that began this temptation and fight it there.  A person does not just sin, they think about it first.  In fact, we plan it, prepare for it and even enjoy the process of bringing it about, but you don’t have to fall.  Fight brethren, fight!

C.  Paul understood the struggle.  In Rom. 7 he cries out that the struggle is within and so often he fails.  He asks, “O wretched man that I am, who can save me from this body of sin and death?”  His answer, “Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord.”  He calls upon the Christians in Rome to “be transformed by the renewing of the mind.”  He tells them to “keep in step with the Spirit.”  The battle for the mind is the battle for the soul.  For the one who falls to sin, falls to death.

D.  Let me ask you, do you know your triggers that happen before you sin?  Do you know what it is that pushes you over the edge?  Is it your anger?  Is a something visual?  Is it a place that you ought not to be?  Then don’t go there even in your mind.  Stop it before it happens and surrender yourself to God.

E.  David didn’t walk away from the temptation after seeing Bathsheba taking a bath.  It started in his mind and he could have stopped it, but he didn’t and the cost was huge.  Do you really want to pay that cost?  Is the sin you are thinking about worth it?

Conclusion:

A.  Go back to verse 12.  Blessed is the man who endures the trial.  That man has a crown of life.  Sin only brings the contrast, death.  Which crown will you wear?  You can wear the crown of life.  You can live in victory over sin by the power of the Holy Spirit.  If you are a Christian than He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.  Wear the crown and praise God for his gift.