The 911 Handbook Study Guide Answers
© 2000 Kent Crockett
Lesson 4/Chapter 4
When You Are Tempted: Adam & Eve's Instruction Manual
Answers are written in italics
If Adam and Eve would have written an instruction manual, they would have taught us eight lessons.
Lesson #1: We can reduce temptations by avoiding the places of temptation.
How are some ways we can avoid places of temptation?
Make up our minds ahead of time not to go there, or be with people who will take us there.
What did Jesus mean when He said, "Lead us not into temptation"?
God can lead us in such a way where we avoid the places of temptation.
Lesson #2: We open ourselves to temptation when we decide to provide for the flesh.
Read Romans 13:14. What does it mean to provide for the flesh?
Satisfy our selfish desires in our own way.
Discuss how your decision is the pivotal point in the temptation process.
Decisions are an act of the will that will determine which way we go.
Lesson #3: When we move into the place of temptation, Satan will be waiting there to tempt us.
How did Satan know to be waiting at the forbidden tree for Adam and Eve?
He knew that was the place where they would be the most vulnerable.
What does it mean to make no place for the devil (Eph. 4:27)?
Don't give him an opportunity, so as to take advantage of us.
Lesson #4: After we have entered into temptation, we become blinded to the consequences.
Discuss the difference between how we see consequences when we are outside the temptation versus after we have entered into temptation.
The consequences outside the temptation are obvious. After we have entered in, we think there won't be any consequences, or at least not to us.
Why do we become blinded after we have entered into temptation?
Satan has a way of hypnotizing people through temptation.
Lesson #5: The pull of temptation increases the closer we get to the forbidden fruit.
How does the following statement apply to us today: "It is hard to pick fruit if you are a hundred yards away, but it is easy if you are at arm's length."
Closeness to the temptation makes it that much easier to do.
Why does willpower grow weaker when we are nearer to the temptation?
Temptation is like a magnetic field. Further away, the less pull.
Lesson #6: We must run away from temptation rather than try to resist it.
Why is it impossible to successfully overcome temptation by trying to resist it?
(See Matt. 26:41).
The flesh is weak and is not strong enough to overcome temptation's pull.
How is the best way to get out of temptation? (1 Cor. 6:18, 2 Tim. 2:22).
Flee, or run away from it.
When we flee, what are we running out of?
We are fleeing out of the area of temptation we have entered into.
Lesson #7: Forbidden fruit is never as sweet as you have been told it will be.
Discuss what Adam and Eve must have thought immediately after they ate from the forbidden fruit.
Shame and disappointment, realizing that they had been tricked.
Just from observing people, do it look like people are enjoying today's forbidden fruit? No.
What can we learn from this?
Don't fall for the same trap by yielding to the temptation. Learn from other's mistakes.
Lesson #8: When we are full of God's fruit, we won't be hungry for forbidden fruit.
Discuss how eating the legitimate fruit would have prevented Adam and Eve from eating forbidden fruit.
They would have been full, and their hunger drive fulfilled.
How does this apply to us today?
If we will satisfy our desires in God's way, we will reduce temptations.
What is God's remedy for victory over temptation? (Gal. 5:16)
Walk in the Spirit. Let Him give us His desires.