Temptation Songs of Praise

Oscar Wilde famously said,

"I can resist everything except temptation."

and looking at these you can rather see what he meant.

But Wednesday is the start of Lent

and it's a time when many of us think about resisting temptation

and giving up things we love.

So I've only got a few days left!

Um, chocolate flapjack, please.

Tonight we hear the personal stories

of three people for whom some of the more

serious temptations of our modern world

proved too powerful to resist.

And there are hymns for Lent

from St George's Church, Gravesend in Kent.

When I think of temptation, I automatically think of food.

The last thing that tempted me recently was a woman.

Mostly money, actually. Mostly money.

A bag of five donuts.

Disappearing all at one sitting.

I go on my Xbox way too much.

There's nothing quite so tempting as being tempted by chocolate.

We can't escape temptation, obviously,

it's part of being human,

and it usually takes on a lot more subtle forms

than a cake or even a diamond ring.

It's what we do about it that matters.

There's a very powerful story in the Bible

about Jesus spending 40 days and 40 nights

in the wilderness being tempted.

That's what our first hymn is about.

And it's sung by the congregation

gathered at St George's church in Gravesend.

"Then Jesus was led by the Spirit

"into a wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

"After fasting for forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

"The tempter came to him and said, 'If you are the Son of God,

"'tell these stones to become bread.'"

Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man shall not live on bread alone,

"'but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

The verses have intrigued Bible scholars for centuries.

So what was Jesus being tempted in the wilderness -

40 days and 40 nights - all about?

I think that when people think of temptation,

they think of a kind of niggling voice in their head

that's just going round and round.

And it's just coming from their own thoughts

and it just needs to be ignored

but here we see Jesus doing something quite different.

He doesn't ignore this voice, he actually addresses it.

"Then the devil took him to the Holy City

"and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.

"'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.'"

Jesus answered him, "It is also written:

"'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

And then we have this temptation to leap off

from the top of the temple. What are we seeing there?

Yes, here we're seeing this misunderstanding

that unlimited freedom is the root to happiness.

It's actually the reverse and if we don't live within the boundaries

that God has set in place,

it can be very harmful for us and in some cases devastating.

"Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him

"all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour.

"'All this I will give you,' He said, 'if you will bow down

"'and worship me.'

"Jesus said to him, 'Away from me, Satan!"

"'For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and him only.'"

So what can we learn from this over all, would you say?

What we see from these verses

is that temptation itself isn't wrong

because Jesus himself was tempted in every way

and yet didn't do anything wrong.

It isn't wrong to actually be tempted,

it's what you actually do with it that counts.

# If ye love me

# Keep my commandments

# And I will pray the Father

# And I will pray the Father

# And he shall give you another comforter

# That he may bide with you forever

# Even the spirit of truth

# Even the spirit of truth

# That he may bide with you forever

# That he may bide with you forever

# Even the spirit of truth

-# Even the spirit of truth.

-#

Alex Arthur dreamt of becoming a boxer from the age of ten.

I took it upon myself to ask my friend

if he would take me along to the local boxing club

and then he also told me that he attended church on a Sunday

and that they had a little football team with a huge spread afterwards.

So I kind of found church and boxing on the same day, basically.

Alex went from amateur boxer to professional champion

with one win after another.

So, this is your trophy cabinet - what have we got?

Up here, we've got the IBF International,

the first professional belt I won,

-and this is the World Championship.

-Can I feel it?

-Yeah, of course.

-It's heavy and lots of bling!

-Yes!

You need shades every time you come over to the cabinet.

It was after winning his gold Commonwealth medal

that Alex got a taste for fame.

I noticed that people were acting differently towards me,

people wanted to be around me that didn't before,

I was being invited to so many different parties and things.

Then I started, you know,

getting exposure on Sky TV

and, you know, and BBC and ITV.

I wanted that a little bit more all the time. So, after a fight,

I'd wear all-new clothes - I wouldn't go out two days running with the same clothes on.

Then I would go off the rails a little bit again.

What was it that was so seductive, so tempting, about fame?

It made me feel invincible. It even started to show in my boxing.

I just didn't believe there was anyone that could even come close

to even giving me a tough fight.

All I need to do is show up at the fight, hit the guy, he'll go over,

I'll get another ton of money

and I'll go away and enjoy myself again.

-And so what happened?

-I got knocked on my backside!

Michael Gomez beat Alex, taking away his title

and at the same time bringing him straight back down to earth.

I remember waking up in the hospital bed that morning, thinking,

"I've got to change everything."

And I had this really strong, strong feeling inside myself

telling me, "You're doing everything wrong, Alex. You need to change."

I can recall getting home, picking up my Bible

and randomly opening it - and it was Psalms.

And I remember just starting to read some scriptures

and it was explaining to me in the scriptures how God disciplines you

if you go on the wrong track and it's because you're His child

and He loves you and wants the best for you.

So he's not got a problem with basically giving you a wake-up call

and it was just so shocking to me.

I remember just closing it and putting it down, thinking,

"I don't know if I'm quite ready for that yet."

What have you learned about the temptations of fame?

I know exactly how to deal with it now.

It's been there again, it's there all the time.

But you just have to know how to deflect it, you know?

Now that I know, it's a lot more easy to deal with it every day.

'I thought I had a perfect marriage

'but giving in to temptation actually ripped it apart.'

Alison and Simon were married in 1974,

after being brought together by a love of music.

We went into our marriage

with a firm commitment, that we thought was...for life.

They were happily married for 15 years and had three children

but then, Simon was tempted by another woman.

I'd never looked elsewhere.

It was just a surprise when I succumbed subtly to...

someone who made me feel...

appreciated, perhaps, in a way that was different, a bit flattering.

I was not able to express this because, you know,

I was the person who could cope. I was a church leader...

and so I thought that I'd be able to handle the situation.

But I didn't deal with it and, eventually, things went seriously wrong.

As a result of the affair,

Simon moved out of the family home and lived alone.

Temptation works bit by bit.

You have a thought, it gradually turns into

something that dwells in your mind

and then it turns to action and, bit by bit, you get ensnared.

I really did feel that I had turned into a pretty nasty person

because it went contrary

to everything that I'd promised to my wife.

I really hit rock bottom when the, er...

the relationship with the other person...ended

and so I really felt I'd lost my wife, my children, my nice home,

my reputation.

That was my lowest ebb.

Inside, I was really, really, er... destroyed, I think.

I think if you are down a hole,

someone needs to kind of reach down and...

Alison reached out to me, in a way.

She came to see me in my bedsit flat.

After a dark period of separation,

Alison eventually forgave Simon and took him back.

Many people said it was not

the right thing to do but I felt in my heart it was.

I believe God really gave me a strength

and it encouraged me to carry on.

Alison and Simon are about to celebrate their 38th wedding anniversary.

TOGETHER: # Well, then, what's to be the reason

# For becoming man and wife... #

Their experience has taught them that temptation is real

and not to be ignored.

'I can't honestly say it won't happen again.'

I think we have to be on our guard.

We have to be aware and alert to the things that first, erm...

started to invade our marriage in the first place.

# There is no... #

'Certainly, I've learned that temptation is...

'powerful and can be persistent.'

I believe sharing and talking about temptations in the future

would be a way to avoid succumbing to them

and receive strength from friends, our partners,

our wives, our church,

to help us deal with the issues that we face.

Today, Dan Head seems like anyone else you would pass on the street

but inside he battles with the temptation that nearly killed him.

It all started with, er...with peer pressure.

Back when I was 13,

I...I used to hang about with...

with guys older than me

and really wanted to be accepted by them

and one way to do that was to take the drugs that they were taking.

Heroin was just another drug that, in my eyes, could be enjoyed

and that was the temptation.

It was almost that unknown, the forbidden fruit, if you like.

By the time he was 17, Dan was homeless and a heroin addict.

'It stripped me of my dignity, of my self-worth,'

it stripped me of my family, of friends, of hopes,

of any dreams that I had, really, and left me as a shell,

just trying to cope with the shame and the guilt

and the self-loathing that was inside me at that time.

And, unfortunately, the only thing that made THAT bearable was heroin.

Heroin pushed him into a cycle of drug abuse, crime and then prison.

But ultimately it was prison

that led him to his first steps of recovery.

In prison I was given an option to clean toilets or to go to church

and the church just sounded like the better option at that point.

When I went to church,

I met a gentleman that played a very major part

in showing me God could help me to change my life.

After a long journey through rehabilitation,

Dan finally got his life back.

He's now a counsellor at Yeldall Manor,

where he helps other addicts to recover.

'At this moment I'm seven years clean and I'm married.

'I have an amazing job, helping people overcome their addiction

'and watching them grow and leave this place.'

And yet...

I'm still tempted...to take heroin.

I wish I could say I knew why.

And I don't! I don't know why that is.

I don't know why, erm...why it comes

so quickly and so harshly sometimes.

It can be at home on my own, it can be on the street,

it can be anywhere when the urge hits.

And the only thing that I can do is...

is overcome that urge and keep fighting that.

'While I focus in on God and while I'm looking to God for that

'and drawing my strength from God...

'I know that I'll never go back to prison, or back to taking heroin.'

And, in that respect, God plays...

the biggest part of all within my life and my recovery.

# Cast your cares on Him

# All that weigh you down

# All that scares and fills your mind with fear

# Cast your cares on Him

# All you want to be

# All you want to leave behind

# And all you want to see

# For He is the same

# Yesterday, for ever

# And He has a name

# Strong enough to save

# And He shares with you

# Inheritance and blessing

# For eternity

# It will belong to you

# Cast your cares on Him

# For everyone you love

# Draw near to His presence

# Trust in mercy from above

# Cast your cares on Him

# Because He cares for you

# Stop trying to trust yourself

# And work out what to do

# For He is the same

# Yesterday, for ever

# And He has a name

# Strong enough to save

# And He shares with you

# Inheritance and blessing

# For eternity

# It will belong to you

Cast your cares on Him

# He can see ahead

# Hold His hand so tightly

# He'll raise your weary head

# For He is the same

# Yesterday, for ever

# And He has a name

# Strong enough to save

# And He shares with you

# Inheritance and blessing

# For eternity

# It will belong to you. #

Lord, help us to trust in you and not in the trappings of fame.

Bring us to a place where we are rooted in the security of your love.

Lord, give us the humility

to recognise our weakness and vulnerability

and the wisdom to walk away from all that we know to be wrong.

Lord, give us the strength

to overcome all that threatens to overwhelm us

and help us to recognise the false promises of forbidden fruits.

May the God of love,

who guided His son, Jesus Christ, through the desert,

be with you in the temptation, trials and troubles of this life

and strengthen you to persevere in following Him.

And the blessing of God Almighty,

the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit

be among you and remain with you now and always.

Amen.

-ALL:

-Amen.

-Thanks.

-You're welcome.

SHE CHUCKLES

I don't suppose giving into the lure of a chocolate flapjack

is terribly important in the scheme of things

but as we've seen, temptation can be searingly difficult to resist.

As our final hymn shows, though,

the Christian story tells of a God who's been there himself.

Next week, Aled takes a trip to the zoo

to explore our love of all creatures great and small.

He visits a school where the pupils share their playground with alpacas,

meets a dog who's more than man's best friend

and introduces some great hymns

celebrating the wonderful world of animals.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd