If you have been following along in our series, you have heard me say at the beginning of each one of these articles that the devil has one purpose: to get us to curse God and quit. That was his overall purpose for Job in the Bible! You might ask why curse God? The devil is trying to get us a blame God for what the devil does to us. The reason we are sick is because the devil tricked us in the garden saying, “Surely God didn’t mean you would die.” Now we get sick and die. Just like the other articles, I am not talking to you about the 10 commandments, but where the devil tries to tempt us in our everyday lives. The temptations we overlook but shouldn’t.

Temptation #4 is being tempted to be satisfied with our relationship with God. To be blunt, the only reason some people go to church is because they are looking to escape hell, not to have a relationship with God. Satan wants you to be satisfied right where you are, which is lukewarm. Most people that work in the church do it for self-gratification, to be praised, to be in charge! We try to claim in America that we are suffering saints. Research.lifeway.com reports 360 million Christians around the world suffer significant persecution for their faith. There is very little suffering here in America compared to other world countries. We are not talking about whether the temperature was too hot or too cold in our church. We are not talking about they forgot to make the coffee or buy the donuts, or that the pastor went too long in his sermon. They are talking about being beat, and even as many as 100,000 a year are murdered for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. We have become such a lukewarm church. We are satisfied with one service in the morning, and we are lucky to go to just one of them in a month. We do not even know what the theological statement of our church is. Have we checked it out to see if it is truthful theology or heresy? We have churches that are sprouting up all over America that will tell you that it is OK to sin every day. John 14, from the words of Jesus Christ himself says, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. If you love me, you will obey my teaching. In 15 verses, Jesus repeats that five times. Not only does that mean to keep the 10 commandments, but everything else that Jesus taught about loving your neighbor, sexual immorality, forgiveness, etc. Just to prove my observation, when was the last time that you went to the altar in your church and cried to the Lord? Sometimes I will cry to God for healing, but have you really cried for a closer relationship with God? Have you cried for your lost loved one, such as a wife, husband, or child, so they don’t go to hell? Have you ever said, God I want to be as close to you as I can be, just like one of the disciples. In that same chapter of John 14, it says that God would send us the Holy Spirit to teach us so we would remember all that Jesus has taught. Jesus also told us the Holy Spirit is there to convict us of right and wrong. Have we said, God I want to make heaven at all costs? Help me to be as close as I can be to you. When is the last time your church had a revival. Are you glad when the weather turns bad, so you have an excuse to stay home? You’ll probably have fallen to the 4th temptation when you’re satisfied, which means you think you have arrived. We never arrive until we get to heaven, and it is called being glorified. The devil has already won, and you have quit pursuing truth and a closer relationship. Take a challenge. Read Romans 1 and believe every word of it. Read Galatians 5:16 to the end of the chapter and believe it. Read Colossians 3, the whole chapter. It will help you grow closer to God. Don’t let the devil trick you in temptation #4.