The enemy wants us to have an eroded trust in God and elevated trust in ourselves.
Welcome! (2 minutes)
Welcome to Session 5 of It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way. A key part of getting to know God better is sharing your journey with others. Before watching the video, briefly share with one another any personal revelations you’ve had since the last session.
Opening Discussion (15 minutes)
Answer the following questions to prepare for this week’s video teaching:
• What insights did you discover in your personal study from last week or in chapters 9–10 of It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way?
• Share you answer to this question from last week’s pesonal study: What would running forward with freedom look like for you?
VIDEO
When the Enemy Comes Against Us (16:30 minutes)
LEADER:
Play the video segment for Session 5. Instruct your group to use the outline below to follow along or take additional notes on anything that stands out.
THIS WEEK’S STATEMENT TO HOLD ONTO:
The enemy wants us to have an eroded trust in God and elevated trust in ourselves.
Shallow seeking will lead to shallow believing.
[Your Response Here]
James 1:15: “Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”
[Your Response Here]
Fears can either move us closer to God or draw us away.
[Your Response Here]
1 John 2:15–17: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life
[Your Response Here]
Genesis 3:6: good for food (lust of the flesh), pleasing to the eyes (lust of the eyes), and desirable for gaining wisdom (pride of life)
[Your Response Here]
MATTHEW 4:1–11
v. 3: command these stones to become bread (lust of the flesh)
[Your Response Here]
v. 9: all this I will give you if you bow down and worship me (lust of the eyes)
[Your Response Here]
vv. 5–6: throw yourself down and he will command his angels concerning you (pride of life)
[Your Response Here]
Look, linger, longing. We will steer where we stare.
[Your Response Here]
God knows best. He can be trusted.
[Your Response Here]
(45 minutes)
LEADER, READ EACH NUMBERED PROMPT TO THE GROUP.
1. What part of the teaching resonated with you the most?
[Your Response Here]
2. Have someone read 1 John 2:15–17 aloud to the group:
15“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.”
• What does “the lust of the flesh” mean? How do you see it play out in everyday life?
[Your Response Here]
• What does “the lust of the eyes” mean? Give some examples of things we might lust for with our eyes.
[Your Response Here]
• What is “the pride of life”? How might we be driven by it?
[Your Response Here]
3. When John says, “Do not love the world,” he’s referring to idolatry—the things we love and prioritize above God. Discuss some examples of how we might have misplaced desires and affections that pull us into idolatry.
[Your Response Here]
4. Let’s face our misplaced desires head-on. Finish the following sentences as if God is not part of the equation:
I need ______________________________________.
I desire ______________________________________.
I deserve ______________________________________.
Now complete the same sentences with God as your focus:
I need ______________________________________.
I desire ______________________________________.
I deserve ______________________________________.
5. What did you learn about yourself from completing these sentences? How could the first set of statements make you vulnerable to temptation?
[Your Response Here]
6. Often it’s fear that leads us into temptation regarding our perceived needs, misplaced desires, and things we think we deserve:
Lust of the flesh: “God’s not going to provide what I need. I need to find comfort, pleasure, or relief my own way.”
Lust of the eyes: “God won’t give me what I desire. I’m not satisfied with the things I have so I’m justified in getting more my own way.”
Pride of life: “God won’t give me what I deserve. I’ll pursue what makes me feel significant my own way.”
• As a group, make a list of godly responses to each of the above three attitudes. Discuss how we can be intentional in times of temptation to remember the difference between our will and God’s will.
| LUST OF THE FLESH | LUST OF THE EYES | PRIDE OF LIFE |
| [Your Response Here] | [Your Response Here] | [Your Response Here] |
(25 minutes)
If your group meets for two hours, include this activity as part of your meeting.
Satan lures us away from God’s best by encouraging small desires that grow and give birth to sin that eventually give birth to death (James 1:13–15). In order to counter these desires before they take us a direction that will cause destruction, we need to remind ourselves daily of God’s Truth.
1. What are the obstacles and distractions that prevent us from spending time in the Scriptures every day?
[Your Response Here]
2. How can you overcome these obstacles and distractions?
[Your Response Here]
3. Have someone read Matthew 4:1–11 aloud to the group. Underline the words “It is written” every time they appear.
1Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
4Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
5Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ ”
7Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
8Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”
10Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ ”
11Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
• Why do you think Satan quoted Scripture to Jesus (v. 6)? What do you learn about Satan from this?
[Your Response Here]
• Jesus fought back against Satan’s temptations by quoting Scripture. Every time He said, “It is written,” He referred to verses from Deuteronomy chapters 6 and 8 in the Old Testament. Because He knew important passages of Scripture, He had them available in His mind when He needed them. What is a verse you could memorize that correlates to a temptation you’re facing right now?
[Your Response Here]
Please note: In chapter 10 of the book It’s Not Supposed to Be This Way there are several pages of what Lysa calls “fighting words”—words to use when you need some help bringing your thoughts, emotions, and actions in line with what God says is true. This section of the book is a good place to start looking for Scripture to memorize. In your personal study this week, you’ll take a couple of days to begin doing just that. The goal will be to think about what you’ve chosen to memorize so that Truth can sink deep into your heart and begin to influence the way you perceive life.
• Lysa described the process of temptation as one of looking, lingering, and longing. What is lingering? Why is it a problem? Give some examples where lingering can be a gateway to sin.
[Your Response Here]
4. Turn in your Bible to James chapter 4. Have someone read verses 1–3 aloud to the group.
• According to James, what happens when we are left to our own desires?
[Your Response Here]
5. Select another person to read verses 6–10 aloud to the group. This is James’s antidote to the quarreling and coveting he talked about earlier.
• What do you think it means to submit yourself to God?
[Your Response Here]
• How do we resist the devil when it comes to needs, desires, and what we think we deserve?
[Your Response Here]
What I Want to Remember (5 minutes)
Complete this activity on your own.
1. Briefly review the outline and any notes you took.
2. In the space below, write down the most significant thing you learned in this session—from the teaching, activities, or discussions.
WHAT I WANT TO
Remember
FROM THIS SESSION
Personal Prayer
(8 minutes)
Write a personal prayer here that reflects the area of this week’s teaching you feel most in need of prayer.
[Your Response Here]
(2 minutes)
LEADER, READ THIS PRAYER ALOUD OVER THE GROUP BEFORE DISMASSAL:
Lord Jesus, we are surrounded and bombarded by temptations and subtle schemes of the enemy to pull us away from You. We have wrong beliefs about our needs, our desires, and what we deserve that are deeply ingrained in our hearts. We need Your help to reorient ourselves around what You say is true and what You want us to have. Lord, we know You are good and have our best interests in mind even when hard things are happening to us. Please help us walk in Your Truth. Please show us how we can help each other. We pray this in Your name, amen.