Bible: James 1:12-18

Wow, we had a large crowd today!  Even Hector’s father and younger brother came.  I came in with Bea and Emily, who couldn’t believe it was me (hadn’t seen each other in awhile, especially with my new haircut).  We played an icebreaker from Jessie where we hold up our ten fingers.  We went around the circle, saying what we had never done (e.g. “I’ve never been to Taiwan”).  Then whoever HAS done it puts down one finger.  The goal is to be the last one with fingers still up.  It’s supposed to be a get-to-know-you game but of course by the end the goals shifts to survival, with them telling me (since the three of us came in late we were the last ones standing) to say “I’ve never peed standing up” in order to eliminate Hector’s brother.  Joe led the study today, about How to Win Over Temptation:

CONNECT:  What kind of goals motivate you to persevere?  To be established and stable before marriage, to get a degree, to be good at a skill and be accepted into a “club,” to pass.  It feels different to achieve it versus to have it handed to you.

GROW

• Trials from God are designed to cause growth.
  Temptations from the devil are designed to cause sin.
• Be realistic, responsible, ready, reFOCUSed, and reborn.
• Steps used to deceive us:  desire, deception, disobedience, then death.
• Resources:  fellowship and His Word.
• Some pitfalls we face are (1) denying our vulnerability to temptation and (2) failing to take responsibility for our own actions.  We blame others, downplaying sins as not a sin/gray area/unimportant/not serious, rationalize in the moment when our thoughts/focus is already out of whack/warped.  “Well, if I give in, then the temptation is gone!”  Some people even marry to circumvent the physical temptation but then they never learned to deal with it and the temptation is still there….
• I John 2:16 describes the process of temptation as the lust of the flesh (to do), the lust of the eyes (to have), and the pride of life (to be).  They’re all interrelated.  What are some everyday examples?  “reading the menu but not ordering”, window shopping, digital gadgets, laziness and sleep, gossip.
• What can we do against temptation?  Replace impure thoughts with Bible verses and what committing the sin could truly bring (the severity of the consequences).

SERVE:  According to Matthew 26:41 and Ephesians 6:10-18, what can you do to avoid falling into temptation?  Which of these admonitions do you think is most important for you to be mindful of as you serve God and others?  watch/alert and PRAY with the armor.  Bathroom break - to pray.  If we deny our vulnerability, how can we get help?  but even in marriage, if shared, then there are not just one but at least TWO who are praying to overcome! and where one or two gathers, God is in the midst of them.  So much Scripture that the only words out of our mouths are verses!  wow!

SHARE:  When has another believer’s way of life been a real encouragement to your faith?