Date: January 30, 2022
The Pitfall of Temptation
The Point: Remembering what is at stake helps us overcome temptation.
Get Into the Study
Use the following information to introduce Question #1.
Begin by sharing this news item:
Last October, the EatThis,NotThat! website published a list of the most popular snack foods in America. Based on their survey results, here are American’s favorite snacks:
(1) M&M’s (this includes all the M&M’s candies—plain, peanut, minis)
(2) Hershey’s milk chocolate candy bars and Hershey Kisses
(3) Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
(4) Oreo cookies
(5) Pillsbury – all their baking products included boxed mixes and refrigerated cookie dough
(6) Ritz crackers
(7) Doritos chips
(8) Planters peanuts
(9) JIF peanut butter
(10) Betty Crocker cake mixes
Say: Maybe one of your favorite snacks made the top 10 list. (Or maybe you’ve got a favorite that is not on the list.) Then call attention to Question #1 (What food or treat do you have a hard time resisting?) and invite volunteers to respond.
Information for this post was gleaned from:
https://www.eatthis.com/most-popular-snack-foods-america/
Study the Bible
Use the following information to introduce Question #2.
Each year, Forbes magazine publishes the Forbes 400 List of Richest Americans. The 2021 list, released in October, placed Jeff Bezos (founder and chairman of Amazon) at the top of the list. Bezos is worth $201 billion. Elon Musk (CEO of Tesla Motors), second on the list, is worth $190.5 billion. Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Facebook) is third on the list, and Bill Gates (co-founder of Microsoft) is fourth. The youngest person on the list is Sam Bankman-Fried (cryptocurrency entrepreneur) who is worth $22.5 billion. Everyone on the Forbes List of 400 is worth at least $2.1 billion.
Say: It’s probably a fair guess that most of us will never make the Forbes 400 list. But Americans in general live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, enjoying advantages that people in less-developed countries cannot even imagine. Then call attention to Question #2 (What are some dangers we face when things are going well for us?) and invite volunteers to respond.
Information for this post was gleaned from:
Study the Bible (Option from Advanced Bible Study Teacher Guide, p. 46)
As you follow the instructions in the option, share these statistics:
- 28,258 users are watching porn every second.
- $3,075.64 is spent on porn every second on
the Internet. - 1 in 5 mobile searches are for pornography.
- Just 55% of adults 25 and older believe
porn is wrong. - Teens and young adults 13-24 believe not
recycling is worse than viewing pornography. - The first exposure to pornography among men is
12 years old, on average. [https://www.covenanteyes.com/pornstats/]
— Donna McKinney wrote these Leader Extras. Donna is retired from a career with the federal government of the United States. She is a veteran Bible study group leader living in North Carolina.
Additional Questions
Icebreakers
- When have you been tempted by an advertisement recently to make a purchase?
- What advice would you give a young person about how to avoid giving in to temptation?
- Do temptations ease up or just change in nature as you grow older? Explain.
Genesis 39:1-7
- What are the benefits of resisting temptation?
- What do we gain by resisting temptation?
- How can recognizing God’s work in our lives help us resist temptation?
Genesis 39:8-10
- How has the Word of God helped you resist temptation?
- How have you handled opportunities that would have required you to violate your principles?
- How would you summarize Joseph’s argument for resisting temptation?
Genesis 39:11-12
- What temptations do we need to run from in our daily lives?
- What might it look like in today’s culture to run from temptation?
- How can we tell when it is time to flee from temptation?
For Those in Your Group
Send the following link to your group members as either a teaser before the group meets or as a follow-up thought:
Podcast
Click here for a 20-minute podcast for both the group member and the leader.
Podcast (adultsleadertraining): Play in new window | Download
Great – needed the help!