session 9: What does the Garden of Eden have to do with us? session 10: Bait and switch? session 11: What is the true source of the brokenness around us?

session 10

The ad is for a very low price, but when consumers arrive to buy the item, they find out that there was only one available at that price and it’s sold already. Too bad only one item available at this price! A free accessory is offered with the purchase of a product, but when shoppers arrive, they find out the free items are gone and are then pressured to buy a similar accessory instead. So what if our supplies are only two items? A company promotes a really low rate for financing an item, but the consumers then find out that there’s a long list of conditions required to get the low financing. If you can meet this long list of conditions ... Low price is for this cheaper model, not the one in the photo, of course! A company offers a low price next to a photo of an item. The catch is that the photo shows a similar item, but the price applies to a lower-end product.

1. What is temptation? Genesis 3:1–6 Revelation 12:9, 20:2 John 8:44

2. What does temptation lead to? Genesis 3:6 James 1:13–15

Eve’s sin … step by step She saw. A great deal of sin comes in at the eye. Let us not look on that which we are in danger of lusting after (Matthew 5:28). She took. It was her own act and deed. Satan may tempt, but he cannot force; he may persuade us to cast ourselves down, but he cannot cast us down (Matthew 4:6). She did eat. When she looked perhaps she did not intend to take; or when she took, not to eat: but it ended in that. It is wisdom to stop the first motions of sin. She gave it also to her husband with her. Those that have done ill, are willing to draw in others to do the same. —Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible

3. How can we resist temptation? Matthew 4:1–11

to entice us to distrust and disobey God. Bait and switch? As God’s and our enemy, Satan uses doubt, deception, and lies to entice us to distrust and disobey God.

“Even the smallest sin is an act of rebellion against God. Every sin is an act of cosmic treason, a futile attempt to dethrone God in His sovereign authority.” —R.C. Sproul

Copyright © 2013 Great Commission Publications. All rights reserved. So What? Identity & Purpose Copyright © 2013 Great Commission Publications. All rights reserved. Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2007 This publication contains copyrighted images from Thinkstock Corporation © 2013, and its licensors. Used under license. Bait-and-switch examples adapted from “Examples of Bait & Switch Advertising” by Arnold Anderson, Demand Media, Houston Chronicle, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-bait-switch-advertising-10575.html, accessed 2012. Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2000), 6. Duplication of copyrighted material is not permitted. Great Commission Publications 3640 Windsor Park Drive Suwanee, GA 30024 800-695-3387 www.gcp.org www.sowhatstudies.org