Temptation That Comes When Things Go Smoothly

This passage deals with the event in which the prophet from Judah, who went to Bethel at God's command and tore down the king's altar, was deceived by an old prophet's lie right after completing his mission and strayed from the path of obedience. He had already passed through a moment of faith in which he witnessed God's amazing power and judgment and firmly refused, but then, leaning on a sense of relief and on social authority, he watered down God's word with his own judgment and disobeyed.

The sermon notes that the time believers most often fall is just before they bear the fruit of obedience, when everything is going smoothly. Satan, like a roaring lion, watches for any gap, and uses the hearts of people who know God yet make easy compromises with the world to make believers fall. In the end the prophet from Judah is judged for having turned back from the way he was going, because although he had heard God's word directly, he abandoned obedience for his own thinking.

We must realise that we must not let our guard down until the last moment of our mission, but obey absolutely the word God has given us. What should we prepare in order to discern the temptations and deceptions that come when things go smoothly, and, knowing that our lives are not our own, not to turn back from the way we are going to the end?