Overcome Temptation with Scripture
Notes
Transcript
A reporter was interviewing an old man on his 100th birthday. "What are you most proud of?" he asked. "Well, " said the man, "I don't have an enemy in the world." "What a beautiful thought! How inspirational!" said the reporter. "Yep," added the centenarian, "outlived every last one of them."
We are not going to outlive the devil on this earth. We will however outlive him if we are children of God but as long as we are on this earth we will have to learn to defeat him as much as possible. Is it possible to overcome your temptation? Do you struggle like I do with temptation? It seems like I can do really well with my actions and it never fails in one fail swoop I begin to stumble and before you know it I am on the floor wondering how I got there and what I need to do to get back up. Temptation comes in all forms and fashions. You will often look for the big ticket items like drug use, pornography, and gambling. Those are the gauge right. Well I am not doing those things so I am OK. Lust, adultery, and all other sexual sin are often easier to overlook because they are easier to hide. How about idolatry and not keeping the sabbath? What about mistreating your neighbor or those God has called you to love? Sin and the temptation to follow through with it comes in so many forms it can be completely overwhelming. How can we win against temptation? In order to overcome and defeat temptation we must know how it operates. It is said to keep your friends close and your enemies closer. Today you will see 3 aspects from Matthew 4:1-11. First you will see that Temptation comes when you are in the wilderness. Second you will see that Temptation attacks your humanity. Lastly, you will see that Temptation in fact can be defeated. Read with me Matthew 4:1-11
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,
“ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,
“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
and
“ ‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’ ”
11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
Lets look first at where temptation finds you.
Temptation comes in the Wilderness
Temptation comes in the Wilderness
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
The temptation found Jesus when he was in the wilderness and after he had fasted for forty days and forty nights and was hungry. Jesus was in a place of elevated weakness. Jesus was away from the cities and away from his friends and family and was in the wilderness by himself. Temptation will always find you in your wilderness. What does this wilderness look like for you? As a Christian the wilderness is often found when you have quit going to church. You are no longer surrounded by brothers and sisters of faith and are no longer being encouraged in the Word. As a Christian the wilderness is found when you have stopped spending time in the Word of God. For you as a Christian the wilderness is found in those times of life when the though is that things are ok. The risk of attack wears off and the idea is that you are safe. You no longer treat your spiritual life as if it is under attack. I read an article on shark attacks.
Last week was shark week and as any Floridian would do we loaded the kids up and went to the beach. Now I do not get in the water. I am not a shark guy and do not ever want to see a shark unless it is dead. I will stand with my kids in about 3 inches of water at the most at the beach. I just don't get it. I have a swimming pool because I can see the bottom and know what is in it. You cannot do this at the ocean. There are hidden dangers from rock fish to jelly fish, to people who ought not be in swimming suits. I have no fear of a shark attack because I don't go in the water but because of shark week we are flooded with articles and shows on sharks. One of these articles found its way to my desk at work and the question was asked. How long after a shark attack at your local beach would you stay out of the water? The article was fascinating as it focused on a population of people who seemingly havEpe no concern about sharks and their dangers. The average response to this question of how long do you stay out of the water was a few hours. A few hours!!!! You literally just saw a scene from Jaws and think to yourself, what the heck lets go for a swim! How about never. That is the right answer. Yeah no, I can enjoy the ocean on my flatscreen tv or in the sand on the shore. No need to enter the water at all.
This however is how temptation like a shark catches the Christian. You begin to feel confident that you have this thing and that life is going well so there is no reason to really worry anymore. You begin to slack on your daily devotion and you begin to spend less time in prayer. You begin to get comfortable and forget that you must guard yourself as there is a deadly lion seeking who he may devour.
8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.
Temptation finds you in your wilderness, when you are separated from the Lord and away from His Word. You must avoid the wilderness at all costs. That is why church is so important. That is why reading your Bible every day is important. That is why praying to the Lord is so important. It keeps you our of the Wilderness. Let’s face it though we spend far too much of our time in the wilderness. We allow God to pull us out of the wilderness and we fix it for a little while and then just like those who get back into shark infested waters we all walk back into the wilderness. You in here are just as guilty of this as I am and none of us in here can stand with clean hands in front of the Lord. The best person in this room has sins that no one knows about so don’t look at others and expect that this message is for them because it is not, it is for you! it is for Me! It is for anyone who breathes oxygen. We must stay out of the wilderness. When temptation finds you in the wilderness it does not simply walk away. Temptation then begins to attack your humanity.
Temptation attacks your humanity
Temptation attacks your humanity
Read with me Matthew 4:3-4
3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written,
“ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
The tempter found Jesus in the wilderness and preyed on Jesus physical needs. The tempter understood that Jesus was fully human and that he was hungry. Jesus was in fact just like you and I.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Jesus was hungry and the tempter knew it. The devil was going to do anything he could to exploit Jesus’ weakness. In the same manner the Devil will exploit your weakness. I have never hidden any of my weaknesses from anyone and will gladly talk about my failures with anyone. I have struggled with pornography in the past and do you think the devil does not remember that weakness? Do you think that those tv ads are coincidences, do you think that those emails that no one would know you opened are coincidences? no they are from the devil. The Devil stands ready to throw his fiery darts at you.
16 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one;
You are human and just like me you have your own weaknesses and failures and you must understand them and prepare to defend against them.
27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
Paul understood the concept of training and keeping his humanity in check. You will be tempted based on the known weaknesses in your life. Why do you think it is a bad idea for a recovering alcoholic to have an AA meeting at the local bar. The problem with our humanity often times is that we believe we can do it all on our own. You have it handled right. You have grown comfortable and are back in the water with the sharks.
A school teacher lost her life savings in a business scheme that had been elaborately explained by a swindler. When her investment disappeared and her dream was shattered, she went to the Better Business Bureau.
"Why on earth didn't you come to us first?" the official asked. "Didn't you know about the Better Business Bureau?"
"Oh, yes," said the lady sadly. "I've always known about you. But I didn't come because I was afraid you'd tell me not to do it."
The devil is going to attack your humanity look again at what he did to Jesus. Matthew 4:3
3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
What is your hunger, what is your weakness. Are you aware of what it is? Have you told yourself that you dont have one? I can assure you that you do. How can I be so sure?
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
There are no stalls here at this church and no room for anyones high horse. Have you grown comfortable in your wilderness thinking that you can handle it on your own? Do you really want to defeat your temptations? Acknowledge them, understand them, guard agains them. So now we know that Temptation finds us in our wilderness, and that it is going to attack our humanity. So how do you defeat it?
Temptation can be defeated
Temptation can be defeated
4 But he answered, “It is written,
“ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,
“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’
and
“ ‘On their hands they will bear you up,
lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written,
“ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God
and him only shall you serve.’ ”
11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
Jesus defeated temptation and the tempter. Jesus did this by hiding the Word of God in His heart and guarding against what the devil would bring. Temptation can be defeated if you are prepared for what the devil is bringing to the fight. understanding your weaknesses and sharing them with brothers and sisters actually does help you to guard against the devil. You may think that it is weakness and foolishness to share with others your sin and struggles but the Bible says the opposite.
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
share your weaknesses with each other and help each other overcome them. Prepare your heart for the attacks of the devil. What did Jesus do to prepare for his Wilderness experience?
40 And the child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom. And the favor of God was upon him.
52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
Jesus spent time in syn agog where He studied the scriptures, not that He did not already know them because we know that Jesus was around from the beginning of creation. Jesus defeated temptation with preparation of scripture. There is no greater fire extinguisher than the word of God. To every challenge Jesus provided scripture and modeled for us how He wants us to defeat temptation in our lives. We are to understand the Scripture and to study it and to hide it in our heart.
11 I have stored up your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.
In School if I put my mind to something I was able to perform pretty well. I would make A’s and B’s most of the time with minimal effort but it did take some effort. I would study and do my homework most the time. My senior year came around and I decided that I had done enough studying and that US government and economics was a joke class with very little to really study. For most the class time I slept and did none of the homework. I was finally told that I was going to fail the class but that there was an essay coming up that could help me raise my grade to a passing grade so I would not have to take the class my second semester and risk not graduating. Well like any wise senior in High School I did the right thing. I acted like I didn't need to study. Spent my nights going to the local coffee shop and hanging out with friends. I spent alot of my time doing anything but studying and preparing. The day before the essay was due I began to write it straight off of the internet. My school was a little behind and we didn't get computers until I was in my Junior year so I knew for a fact that my teacher would never catch what I was doing. So copy and paste a way I went. I didnt know at all what I should be writing other than the essay was a highly rated essay from others who had forged it. I turned in my paper with the utmost confidence that I was going to pass. The next day walking into class I was ready to recieve my A and move on with my life. Mrs. Floyd was there with the principle though. I was selected as well as another student to make a special trip to the principles office. Seems that we both had the same idea and had forged the same essay. Needless to say we both spent the last few months of highschool stressing about passing US government and economics.
Jesus defeated the temptre with Scripture and He did this because He studied and prepared for what He knew was coming. We are called to Love the Lord with all of our Heart and we must spend our time preparing for our wilderness times understanding that we are human and we are going to find ourselves in that wilderness with our humanity and unless we are prepared we will fail. Think about the fact that had Jesus failed our eternal salvation would need to be raised up from some other place and history as we know it would have been altered completely. This was not some easy task for Jesus. The devil understood the temptation he was presenting to Jesus. What he understimated was Jesus’ love for God and His preparation for the temptation. In closing this morning you will find yourself in the wilderness and that is when temptation will find you. Temptation is going to attack your humanity and try to use your weakness against you. You can however defeat this temptation if you are prepared with understanding your humanity and preparing with Scripture and with prayer. Prepare yourself now when you are not in the wilderness by sharing your weaknesses and sins with your brothers and sisters in Christ and allow them to pray and share scripture that will strengthen you.
