The years ahead may well be the most difficult in recent history for pastors and churches. Satan is fighting his last-ditch battle against all our Lord stands for, and the church is at the center of that battle. The temptations and problems that will be faced in this work are not new, but in terms of intensity, they have reached new heights.

The battle is, in fact, as old as Man. It was in the First Church of the Garden (also referred to as Eden First) that Satan set the pattern he has followed ever since. His method was to get to the pastor, Adam, through the church and to get to the church through the pastor. In other words, he tries to make an adversarial relationship out of what God intended to be a relationship of love equalled by no other. Time has proven that in this Satan was "wise as a serpent", although certainly not "harmless as a dove." And just as Satan established his pattern of attack through the First Adam, so did God establish His pattern for victory through the Second Adam.

The first congregation consisted of Adam and Even, and later, Cain and Abel. Still others were added as time passed. Adam was the shepherd and they both were the congregation. (It is one of God's mysteries that the pastor is as much a part of the congregation as the congregation is. That's not a good sentence, but if you can figure it out, it has truth in it. It is one of the reasons I believe in looking first within the congregation for pastors.)

So how did he (Satan) proceed? He put forth the three temptations that Man has never been able to withstand without help. John stated them simply and pointedly in his first pastoral letter, in chapter 3, verse 16. He called them the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. In Genesis 3:6 Satan presented these three to Eve, and through her, to Adam. She saw that the tree was "good for food" (lust of the flesh), was "pleasant to the eyes" (lust of the eyes), "and a tree to be desired to make one wise" (pride of life). So successful (seemingly, anyway) was this first attack, that Satan has not deviated from it since.

Let's think about these one at a time as they relate to the calling as a shepherd of a flock that God loves. Remember, as these temptations came to Adam through Eve, they will likely come to you through the very congregation for whom God has given you responsibility. Thieves, robbers and wild animals (the three temptations) will seek to devour the flock. It is the calling of the shepherd to defend the flock against these attacks. In order to do that you must, yourself, find a strong defense against these things.

Satan is having a field day in the world with this one. I wish I could say that it is only the world that is having a problem here, but you know, as I do, that the church is under violent attack at this point. It includes many things. In fact, it includes anything that ministers to the desires of the flesh. It can include overeating, alcohol, drugs, laziness, a filthy mouth, and many, many other things. However, this is going to specifically deal with sex.

Sex is a beautiful gift from God in its God-given context. It is only when it is removed from that context that it becomes destructive. The purpose of sex is twofold; procreation of God's Kingdom, and the development of the "one flesh" union of husband and wife. The proper context is, of course, marriage.

To put it simply and directly, Satan has at his beck and call a women -- young or old, light or dark, short or tall, slender or heavy -- who will give herself freely to you. The same can hold true for a woman in ministry, where Satan will send a man. You have only to name your hidden desires to him and he will send someone, nearly always from within the congregation, to meet them. The effectiveness of the ministry to which God has called you ends with your surrender to Satan's siren call. There is, of course, redemption of ministry even in such a fall, but few ever find it. How much better to avoid it.

Your protection lies in two things: your commitment to God, and your commitment to your spouse. I would encourage you to renew both these commitments now. I would encourage you to speak to the God whom you live and tell Him that you will, with His help, remain faithful to His teachings about man/woman things, which include the determination never to flit around, much less enter into, a sexual relationship outside marriage. Even ego-building, seemingly harmless flirting has in it the nitroglycerin of destruction. It can explode without warning.

You need to renew your commitment to your spouse regularly. You must restate your love constantly in word and deed. A wife's fulfillment and security lie in being loved by her husband and having constant reaffirmation of that love. I would also say to a wife that her husband's fulfillment lies in her respect of him and that there is a need for reaffirmation of that respect. Both husband and wife need to read Ephesians over and over, with special emphasis on verse 33. In that one verse is God's "secret" for happy marriage.

Keep in mind always Paul's admonition in I Thessalonians 5:22 that you "abstain from all appearance of evil." Keep your spouse informed of, and as much as possible, involved in your close contacts with the opposite sex in your congregation, even in such endeavors as counseling. If it could appear wrong to the uninformed, then it probably has the potential for wrong within it.

A philosopher once said that the eye is the window of the soul. Whatever comes in through the eye becomes a permanent part of the record that is kept in the mind. To say it another way, we never forget anything that comes into our minds. It is always there. And whether it be by the eye, the ear, the nose, the touch or the taste, it will tend to surface at some time when we are least equipped to handle it. So it behooves us to guard carefully what we see, read, listen to, or receive into our minds (souls) in any way.

Satan is having his way with the people of God in this area. Television, the movies, radio, records, the print media, all seem to be dedicated to feeding into our minds that which will corrupt and defile. If it just went in and then out it would be bad enough, but remember that it comes in and stays. Its effect is cumulative; it piles up and up and up, like old garbage. Too often it results in what the Bible calls "vain imaginings".

Add to that the attitude of society that any who resist such an influx of filth are just prudes who don't understand the liberties of modern living, and you have the potential for true depravity. When the load of filth becomes big enough, a spirit of depravity will come along to increase it and break us.

There is a way of dealing with such things. As wrong images come before us that have entered through the eye or the ear (and to a lesser extent the other senses) we need to confess them as sin and ask God to forgive us for harboring them. Then we need to consciously lay them at the foot of the cross and ask Jesus to bring them to death. (I Corinthians 10:3-5)

Do I mean every evil thought needs to be dealt with individually? What about what Jesus did for us on the cross? Jesus dealt with the penalty of our sin on the cross, but if we will face reality we will find that the fruit of our sin is still with us. The only way a memory can be erased is by the grace of God, and it is that grace that we must invoke if we are to be free of the effects of past sin on our souls.

How important it is, then, that we do not add more to the burden of sinful thoughts by allowing further garbage to enter. Be careful what you read, what you listen to, what TV and movies you watch. Be careful even in idly thumbing through a magazine at the news shop. And if something does creep in, don't ignore it; deal with it.

We live in a wonderful time in that the calling of pastor is still the focus of much love and respect. (This may seem to be changing rapidly, but for the moment it is mostly true.) Because of this there is a tendency for the congregation, individually or collectively, to promote the pastor to the role of a god. (Note the small "g".)

This is inherent even in our interpretation of the role of the pastor. The Bible teaches us that God gave gifted men to the church, some of them to be apostles, some pastors, some prophets, some evangelists, some teachers. For the most part we have, in our modern, streamlined approach to church, rolled all five of these into one and given this superman the title "Pastor". If a man happens to be talented enough to meet, even in limited measure, all of these demands, the congregation will try to elevate him to a place a few steps above the archangel and only slightly short of the Holy Spirit. When a church does this and the man comes to believe them, a fall is inevitable. Recognition, fame, veneration, all carry within them the seeds of destruction of the man and the ministry.

What is the antidote? It is the main requirement of the shepherd; the heart of a servant. Above all other things I would want to impart to you this heart. If you have it, Satan's temptations will be of no effect in your ministry. Without it, you will be easy pickings for the enemy.

Someone drew an organizational chart of the church once in the shape of a pyramid. The pastor was at the apex, with the church leadership just under him, the faithful membership of the church under them, and the nominal church members ( the majority, usually) spread out under all of them. I looked at it and cried out, "It is upside down." You see, the pastor is under all, supporting the leadership, carrying the load of faithful membership, and most of all, loving and supporting those whose faith is as yet weak and unformed. (Notice that the rest of the church is also in the position of supporting the least faithful.)

Lest that precious gift of the servant's heart be hardened, pay constantly that He fill you and refill you daily with that love for the Lord which He demonstrated through His lesson to Peter, "Peter, do you love me? Then feed my sheep."

Read and reread the parable of the prodigal son. What the father recognized in him when he returned was the servant's heart. It was not a scheming mind, but true change that caused this young man to say, "Make me as one of your hired servants."

I do not wish to overwhelm you with the pitfalls and necessities of your calling. I just want you to hear again that your help is in Jesus. You really are inadequate to the task before you, and so am I, and so is every other person in any calling of God. He calls inadequate people who will lean on Him. As I say it sometimes in a sermon, "He didn't call us for our strengths, but for our weaknesses, for in our strengths we rely on ourselves, but in our weaknesses we are forced to rely on Him."

We have a Christ who was, in everything, tempted like we are. Remember His encounter with Satan in the wilderness? Read it again in Matthew 4. He was tempted to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. In every case He resisted the best Satan had to offer, and in verse 11 we are told that the devil left Him.

James teaches us about resisting the devil in chapter 4. In verse 6 he points out that God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Then in verse 7 and 8 he gives us what I the "Overcomer's Sandwich". Those who are enamored of their own strength like to read, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you." Those who have learned the real secret of overcoming put the meat of resisting between the pieces of bread. The Overcomer's Sandwich becomes, "Submit to God ... Resist the devil ... Draw nigh to God."

In Him we are Overcomers. Really!