The worship team came together and said, "If James is about faith at work, then let's show Ginghamsburg at work every week." Are you amazed when you see the impact of the dimensions of what it going on in ministry in this place? Tomorrow afternoon, I fly to New York to present our partners at UMCOR with a million-and-one-hundred-some-thousand-dollar check for the work we're doing in Darfur. I knew when I was 27 and came here; I don't have time to be part of a church that's all about self-help and finding ways to get to heaven, but to be part of people to get heaven's purpose into earth. Every week, I'm feeling fulfillment because I get to serve with you. We don't argue about what we agree with or what we disagree with, but it's about loving Jesus, being committed to Jesus, and being the hands and feet of Jesus in the world. I'm so thankful every week that that's what it means to be a part of this church.

We are going to continue our study in James with the whole issue of temptation. What are some things that tempt us? Food. Okay, food is one of the first things that tempts us. Lust. Mountain Dew - we all have temptations in various ways. Money. Isn't it interesting that all temptations are really a perversion of the good gift. Internet, oh wow, isn't that true. We don't even have to talk about pornography, we can talk about things for learners in the house, where you look up something and just keep following the rabbit trail and all of a sudden you can spend hours on the internet. What else? Peer pressure. Comfort. Sometimes never finding meaning because you never take risks or step out of your comfort zone. That's a huge risk or temptation. Anything else that you can think of? Power or control - major. Drugs and alcohol. Ego. TV, wasting a lot of time watching brainless stuff. Greed.

Remember that James is writing from a Jewish perspective and most of us, when we read the Bible, have been overly influenced by a Greek mindset and Greek is always thinking about other world. Hebrew is thinking about practical life right now. It's like sometimes some of your Jewish friends will say to you when someone close to you dies, "It must be nice to have your belief in heaven and afterlife." Many Jews are focused not about afterlife, but right now. So James was focused on right now. Open your Bibles to James 1:12, "Blessed are those who persevere under trial because when they have stood the test, they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him." So much about this first chapter is about testing; character is forged in the fire. When James was writing this, he was not thinking from a Greek perspective, like I'm going to go to heaven in the end because I've persevered. No, he's thinking, crown. The victor is who gets the crown, the one who wins the race. So when you persevere through the trial, and deal with temptation in an appropriate way, then you're going to be the victor in your relationship, in parenting, in leadership. So he's talking about having victory in his life. Verse 13, "When tempted, no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each of you is tempted when you are dragged away by your own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. He chose to give us birth through the word of truth that we might be a kind of first fruits in all he created." Pray with me. "Father, all of us have come here with desires that can torpedo our character and sink everything that we hold dear. So, we pray today, Lord, that you give us the strength and the honesty to be the people you need us to be - and the people our families believe us to be. We pray this is Jesus' name. Amen."

I don't know how it turned out this way, but Ginghamsburg is a church that is filled with recovery people. About five years ago, we began to notice this and began to get more intentional about being a recovery church. But, really, everyone who is a follower of Jesus is in a process of recovery. Every follower of Jesus comes to that point of repentance where you admit that you are broken and that you can't and you need somebody else to help create this process of transformation in your life. In the recovery community, we're always talking about working the 12 steps. That's what I love about the book of James, it's not claiming faith or believing in faith, it's working the faith, working the word. The fourth step in recovery is what we call making a fearless moral inventory. We're talking about character issues and paying attention to character issues - self awareness; and dealing with your own inner desires on a continual basis and paying attention to those warning signs.

We mentioned earlier about TV being one of those sources where you can waste a lot time. In no time, three hours of an evening can be brain dead between House and Grey's Anatomy - I'm telling you some of my favorites. Can you believe that the young staff in this church calls me House? Mr. Empathy, they're calling House. Sometimes, I try to watch Discovery Channel and was watching something the other night on Pearl Harbor. What so blew me away is how they ignored all those warning signs and how all this destruction happened. Four months before the attack, the American Ambassador to Japan, wired Washington and said that Japan was planning to attack Pearl Harbor; and Washington said, "No, it can't happen. They can get us in the Philippines or someplace like that, but they can't get us in Pearl Harbor." Here's one of the biggest ones: for a whole week before the attack, the Americans lost the whole Japanese Pacific fleet. In that last week, the Japanese made no communication, they locked all of their code keyboards. The Americans didn't crack the Japanese code, but they could hear that the Japanese were sending code and when they heard the code they could identify where the ships were. Well, that week before, they totally lost them. For four days before the attack, the admiral in Hawaii said to his folks, "Are you telling me we don't know where the Japanese Navy is, and they could be coming around Diamond Head right now?" Our folks said, "Yes." And yet they did nothing about it. They ignored the warning signs. Self awareness is so important. When you're not aware of those kinds of inner desires, if you're not dealing with those desires within yourself - even Superman knows that he has to stay away from Kryptonite - it's like Pearl Harbor, in a moment, these broken desires in your life can torpedo your character and sink the things that you value the most. Just think of the destruction that can come in a moment's time.

Just this past week, Karen Smith, who manages my blog, called me and said, "Hey, Mike, your daughter is the first on your new blog. The first post, the first response. I think you want to check your blog." My daughter is 29 years old and lives in Boston. Here's what my daughter wrote. "I am so thankful to have a father and a pastor that's always standing for what is right, even when others don't agree. You are a great example of a Christian man, and I'm super proud of you. I love you, Dad." I want to tell you, I have the potential to implode. I could mess around, smoke dope, and do anything by one o'clock this afternoon. When you're not dealing with all of this stuff, when you're in denial thinking you have it under control, then in a moment that twisted desire can torpedo your character and destroy in a way that you can never get back the respect of your children. God can forgive you, but you can never ever get back the respect of your children. There's a danger to overconfidence. Remember what Peter said to Jesus, not long before Jesus' crucifixion, "Lord, you don't have to worry about me. I'm not like the other dudes that keep screwing up; I've had a long season of sobriety. I'll never deny you." And what happened? In that moment that Peter lost that self-awareness of his own broken desires, he blew it, not once, but three times he denied Jesus. The whole key about this recovery step four of continually making this fearless moral inventory is when I am weak, that's when I'm strong. When I know what I am capable of, how I can implode any and every day, then I'm forced to talk about it and depend upon God.

The Bible tells us that Jesus was tempted in all things. Any of the temptations that we named here, or every kind of temptation that you've every experienced in your life, Jesus experienced. The only thing that Jesus had that we don't have is that he never sinned; he never succumbed to the temptation. But he had no superpowers. Most people don't understand that, they think Jesus was Superman. No, the Bible tells us that he set all of the privileges and powers of God aside before he came to Planet Earth. Because Jesus was tempted in every way, he knew how he could implode and fail to be who God needed him to be, so he lived in total dependence upon the Father. Here's what happens when we become too self-secure in our own abilities. Jesus had long work hours. We read that even when Jesus continued to work long into the night, he never failed to get up before dawn and spend time with God. He knew that he could do nothing on his own. This is what he said, "I do nothing on my own; I only do what I see my Father doing."

All of us fail. Someone told me awhile ago that they never failed a test, they meant a written test. But then they failed a cholesterol test. Have you ever noticed that failure can make you stronger? Faith is not the absence of failure. Faith is turning to God in your failure. Jesus said to Peter before he failed, "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail and when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." Turned back means that in your failure, you don't live in self condemnation, that you turn back to Jesus where you find grace, mercy and strength. Peter was stronger because of his failures. Character is forged in a fire.

I'll tell you a time that I failed. I was in my early 20s, had become a Christian by that time, and was in seminary working on my graduate degree. I graduated from the University of Cincinnati, magna cum laude with a 3.67 - no Cs. When Jesus came into my life, I had a radical change, so I was rather proud. I had Dr. John Oswalt in History and Criticism of Old Testament. I had a big paper, 25% of my total grade for the semester and I got it back marked 'O for plagiarism.' That's not just failure, that's zero. Twenty-five percent of my grade means that if I get 100 per cent on everything else, I end up with a 75. And anything lower than a 71 is failure. Those of you in graduate school know how a grade changes things. So I went to Dr. Oswalt and said, "What do you mean plagiarism? I footnoted every quote in this paper." He said, "Well, you footnoted every quote, but on page 16, you've got an idea that came from Dietrich Bonhoeffer and you have to give credit for ideas, not just quotes." I didn't know that. How many in the room didn't know that you have to give credit for ideas, not just quotes? So he said, "Mike, if I let you slide on this one, you're going to cheat your people every Sunday for the rest of your ministry." You know what I think of every week as I prepare to come to this place? Dr. Oswalt, and not cheating my people. Character is forged in the fire. I'm stronger because of it. As a result of Peter's failure, Jesus made him the charge of the church. Everyone fails. Jesus had two disciples that failed miserably. One was named Peter and the other was named Judas. Peter's failure was not less than Judas' failure. There's just a difference. Peter had faith and understood that God is not a God of condemnation, but redemption. Jesus said "when you turn back" and he turned to God to find mercy, grace and strength. Judas did not have faith in his failure because he saw God as a God of condemnation.

It's so important for all of us, as we deal with this temptation, to be aware of those vulnerable seasons in our life. Think of the people, people that I know of in this church, presidents, pastors - in a moment, one moment, the enemy can come around the Diamond Head of your life and sabotage and sink everything you hold dear. It's very important to be aware of those vulnerable seasons in your life and naming them. One vulnerable season is loneliness; all of us have lonely seasons. When Satan wanted to attack Jesus, he picked that time of isolation when Jesus had been in the wilderness for forty days. Times when you're so busy doing something else that you don't have those people around you who keep you real and who keep you transparent and the normal support systems, the healthy support systems aren't there. Some of you know what I mean when I say I'm an introvert and can be lonely in a crowd. You can be lonely in a marriage, you can be lonely in a crowd and those are vulnerable seasons in your life and you have to recognize those seasons and work harder intentionally to keep people around you who are you going to hold you accountable and keep you real.

Here's another season of vulnerability in our life: you're vulnerable sometimes after a long season of success. One of the great examples in the Bible of someone who had a tailspin after success is Elijah. He just had an incredible victory against the prophets of Baal and then went into a tailspin of depression. There are several things that can happen when we're so vulnerable after success. One of the things is you can forget where that success comes from. Look with me again at verse 16. "Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters, every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." You can begin to think that you had something to do with your success. If these other people just worked harder like I worked, then they'd have the same success instead of recognizing that that success and your dependence upon that success comes from the hand of God himself. Another reason you're vulnerable after a long season of success, you've probably been working pretty hard, so there's a fatigue factor there that makes you vulnerable. How many times have we seen pastors blow up nationally who have been very prominent. A president - Bill Clinton had the best run of balancing the budget, reducing welfare roles and so forth. A CEO - Ken Lay at Enron Corporation. You can begin to see yourself as the exception rather than the example. We need to understand that we exist for a purpose and all leadership is about being humble servants of God's mission in the world. So we begin to see ourselves as the exception instead of the example of humble servanthood.

Here's another temptation for a vulnerable season: idleness. King David is a great example in the Scriptures. I've studied David for years as to what it means to be a Godly man and a godly leader, and all of a sudden you come to 2 Samuel 11:1 about when he hooked up with a married woman. Could I do that? Yes. Self-awareness. When I am weak, I'm strong when I'm aware of that to which I'm susceptible. But here's what happened to David, "In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem." Idol hands are the playground of the devil.

I had the weekend off last week, did you miss me? Did anyone notice that I wasn't here?  Kevin did a great job on humility. Carolyn and I were at our cabin in North Carolina where we have this little, cabin cabin. It's on a mountain and from one side we look over to the North Georgia Mountains and Lake Chattooga below, and from the back we look to the ridges of the North Carolina Mountains and we were sitting outside watching the sun go down last Sunday evening. We'd been to church that morning and someone had come up our mountain and given us a coffeecake for visiting the church. I said to Carolyn, "I'm not made for retirement." She said, "Retirement? You had four days off." But I'm getting nervous because the Methodist church forces you to retire at 70 and I'm 56. People say, "We're looking forward to retirement. I'm going to go off and fish." That's called idle hands. What I need in my life is that I always have to be serving God's purpose in a way that I'm over my head, doing something that only God can do, that I've got to depend on God. We were talking in senior management team this week about getting ready to make this giant leap to Ft. McKinley and begin working in community development. I don't know what I'm doing! I had to get up a four o'clock this morning to start praying about this stuff. I find that when I'm out there serving God's purpose beyond my own ability, it creates this God edge in my life. When I'm idle, I'm dangerous. Idleness is a vulnerable season.

Here's another vulnerable season: when we begin to question or doubt God's purpose for our life. We all go through these seasons. Can you recognize these times in your life? I go through this one too. What did the devil pull on Eve? God is a good God and God told Eve that all this stuff was made available to her and there was only one thing that was withheld from her and that was one tree. That tree was the knowledge of good and evil. Remember in Hebrew, when you hear the word no or knowledge, it means intercourse, deep intimacy. So what God was saying to Eve was he created everything for good for her that comes from his hand, but he didn't want her to have intimacy with evil which was not from his hand. So what happens is that the devil will make you think, now wait a minute here, God's really trying to deny you of something. This is where the word says, "Don't be deceived, brothers and sisters, because every good gift comes from the hand of God" and all of a sudden when you begin to doubt God's goodness and purpose for your life. You begin to think, "Aha, I can be God for myself. I can as an individual decide what is right and what is wrong for me." America is a culture of individualism. The highest value in the American culture is not the will of God, it's personal choice. How did we get into this whole abortion mess? What is that about? It doesn't take into consideration if the life of the fetus is viable. This stuff really scares me when we get into these late term abortions and what some of the candidates are saying. Even if a baby is about to be born viable, late term abortion can be used to murder the baby after the baby has been born. The whole thing is based on personal choice. There are no absolutes, but right or wrong is relative and determined for every person. Let's go back and look at this again. Verses 16 and 17, "Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters, every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." Truth is not relative. When we think there can be a separate truth or an individual truth for me, that's when we become vulnerable.

Next week we're going to get much deeper into how Jesus dealt with temptation. Ultimately, it comes down to commitment to no compromise or shortcuts. Look at verse 18, "He chose to give us birth through the word of truth." It is a commitment to zero compromise when it comes to the word of truth. Zero compromise. Do you remember when Jesus was tempted with turning the stone into a loaf of bread? That's about immediate gratification, and Jesus responded to the tempter at that point, "Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." So when you're tempted, don't even entertain it because here comes the enemy around Diamond Head. One of the things I do is stay out of stores. This morning, I picked out a sweater to wear; this sweater is about 10 years old. My newest sweater is about four years old. This morning, I decided I need some new sweaters. But every time I go into stores, I buy something I don't need. This past fall, I went into a store and came out with really expensive jeans. I got home and Carolyn said, "Why didn't you get Levi jeans?" "Well, they didn't look as good." Well, we had a little discussion. You know how you do, "Well, the devil made me do it." She said, "Why didn't you say, get thee behind me, Satan?" I said, "But he said they even look better from back here!" Flee temptation as soon as it's recognized. In the recovery community, we say call your sponsor. Again, everyone fails and when you find yourself in the middle of that failure, confess that failure immediately and turn to Jesus Christ where you find mercy, grace and strength.

I want you right now to identify the areas of compromise in your life. It might come out of loneliness; or you become too self-sufficient in seasons of success; idleness in serving God's purpose; doubting that the word of God is God's intention for you or that you're the exception. Faith is not the absence of failure; it's turning to God in your failure and receiving his mercy, grace and strength. "Lord Jesus, as we approach the season of Your death and resurrection, it is our prayer that You fulfill Your word in me, that You serve Your purpose through me and that You reveal Your light in and through my life so that truly I may be who You need me to be and who my family believes me to be. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen."