Message Notes

How to Avoid Temptation and Overcome Bad Habits.
2 Samuel 11:1-5

Adventure
2 Samuel 11:1 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.

This one verse has been given to us by God to explain the situation.  The situation 

The Trap, Boredom, the cure adventure.

I have come that you might have life and life abundant

To the full even honey is detestable.

Thought tempered, there is a yearning in the heart of every human being to have adventure, excitement, and risk.

One may want to have adventure with periods of peace and rest but there is an underlying desire for adventure all the same.  

One may want to have excitement with stability, but there is a desire for excitement all the same. 

One may want to have risk with security.  But there is an underlying desire for risk all the same.

Work
Ecclesiastes 2:24 A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God,

Ecclesiastes 9: Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the realm of the dead, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

1 Thessalonians 4:11 and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you,”

Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters,

Ephesians 4:28 Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

Ecclesiastes 4:5 Fools fold their hands and ruin themselves.

That is exactly what happened with David.  Instead of going to work, instead of fulfilling his kingly duties, he stayed home, and it ruined him.  Now there is grace, but there was serious consequence for him internally as well as externally.

Yet God gives us this story so that we can avoid ruining ourselves.  

The Right kind of Community
Genesis 2:18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

Proverbs 27:17 As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 

1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

Rest.
Now while I talked about all these things we should do.  There is also a serious lesson learn here in verse one.  2 Samuel 11:1 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.

In the spring.  You may have seasons in your life, like a winter season where you take a break, you take some rest.

The idea of Holidays is a Bib lical idea.  God gave the jewish Peopl a command to celebrate cerian High holy days and week long festivals as a break fromt eh gridn of work.  

He provided the land a Sabbath year, and a year of Jubilee.

He commanded the sabbath, one day a week to rest and worship. 

A big problem in America today is burnout.  And burnout often comes from not settin proper boundaries.

What leads to temptation

Burnout 

Boredom

Conclusion
Eash of us are tempted wene we are dragged away by our won evei ldesire and enticed.

But the only thing the enemy has ever done, is perverted, and twisted Gods belessings and desires for us.

You have a God given desire for adventure, The enemy entices you to find it in the wrong way.  

You have a desire to propseper and succeed, the enemy twists it into Greed.

You have a desire for love the enemy twists it into Lust.

You have the desire to find fulfillmet in your work, the enemy twists it into workaholism and burnout.

You have a dsire snad an God given need for rest and celebration, the enemy tiwsits it into laziness.  

James 1:16-19 16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

God has given you hjealthy holiy desires And he knows how to fulfill them 

Proverbs 10:22 The blessing of the LORD enriches, and He adds no sorrow with it.

3 John 1:2 Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul prospers.