{"id":45021,"date":"2009-07-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-07-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/choosing-easy-route-when-battling-temptation\/"},"modified":"2009-07-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2009-07-13T00:00:00","slug":"choosing-easy-route-when-battling-temptation","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/choosing-easy-route-when-battling-temptation\/","title":{"rendered":"Choosing the Easy Route When Battling Temptation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jack Handey, known for his odd sense of humor frequently expressed in an old <em class=\"citation\"> Saturday Night Live<\/em> segment titled &quot;Deep Thoughts,&quot; wrote an equally odd book entitled <em class=\"citation\">Fuzzy Memories<\/em>. In it Handey relates the story of a bully who demanded his lunch money every day when he was a child. Because Handey was smaller than the bully, he simply gave the bully his money.<\/p>\n\n<p>&quot;Then I decided to fight back,&quot; Handey says. &quot;I started taking karate lessons, but the instructor wanted $5 a lesson. That was a lot of money. I found that it was cheaper to pay the bully, so I gave up karate.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>Unfortunately, many Christians have the same attitude about Satan and the temptations that come their way. It&#39;s easier to pay the bully than to learn how to fight him.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[310],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[406,411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3429,3463,3549,3762,3764,3775,3903,3996,4176,4201,4580,4814,4883,5064,5085,5134,5140,5191,5265,5300],"tax_ctp_topics":[378],"class_list":["post-45021","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-appetites","tax_ctp_tags-avoiding-temptation","tax_ctp_tags-carnality","tax_ctp_tags-depravity","tax_ctp_tags-desert","tax_ctp_tags-devil","tax_ctp_tags-evil","tax_ctp_tags-flesh","tax_ctp_tags-human-condition","tax_ctp_tags-idealism","tax_ctp_tags-overcoming","tax_ctp_tags-resisting-temptation","tax_ctp_tags-satan","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-warfare","tax_ctp_tags-strength","tax_ctp_tags-temptation","tax_ctp_tags-testing","tax_ctp_tags-trial","tax_ctp_tags-weakness","tax_ctp_tags-world"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Choosing the Easy Route When Battling Temptation - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/choosing-easy-route-when-battling-temptation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Choosing the Easy Route When Battling Temptation - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jack Handey, known for his odd sense of humor frequently expressed in an old Saturday Night Live segment titled &quot;Deep Thoughts,&quot; wrote an equally odd book entitled Fuzzy Memories. 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