INTRODUCTION
• SHOW COOKIE TEMPATION VIDEO (Meatloaf Media)
• SLIDE #1
• I think I would have been quieter!
• Over the last four weeks we have look at four of five things we need to know. I hope that you have taken the time to reflect on these items because they will help you to grow.
• WE can trust God to direct our paths if we will trust Him to do so. Proverbs 3:5-5.
• We can ask of God through Jesus. John 16:24
• We have a legacy of faith to pass on to others. 2 Timothy 3:14-15
• 2 Timothy 3:16-17 reminds us that the Bible can equip us to be what God wants us to be!
• Today, we are going to look at the final of our five life verses. The verse we will endeavor to examine together will help us to deal with a universal problem.
• Back to our cookie boy video.
• What drove that man to sneak into the kitchen to snack on those cookies? I want you to think about that as we look at our life verse today.
• We all stand in the face of temptation every day.
• Do you ever feel like you are caught in a trap and you cannot get out? How many times have we succumbed to temptation because we felt like we could not escape it, like there was not way out?
• How many have fallen because they saw that woman or that man they should have stayed away from?
• How many times have you stared temptation right in the face only to give in to it and later feel like a loser?
• How would you like to be able to stand in the face of temptation and win the battle!
• Do you know that God has set it up so that you do not have to lose the battle with temptation?
• Today we are going to look at a passage that gives us a wonderful promise. This promise helps us to realize that we do not have to give in!
• Let’s turn to 1 Corinthians 10:13
• SLIDE #2
• 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NASB) 13No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.
• We are going to mine three truths out of this passage this morning that I would like for you to focus your thoughts on this week as you work to memorize this passage.
• SLIDE #3
• Let’s begin with our first truth
SERMON
I. YOUR SITUATION IS NOT UNIQUE.
• No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man…
• I think this is something that we really need to understand. Have you ever felt that you were the only one going through the temptation you were facing?
• Satan likes to make us feel like we are isolated on an island. If he can convince you that you are all alone, you will not turn to anyone for help.
• Loneliness and a feeling of hopelessness can take the fight right out of us.
• Temptations come into every Christian’s life—no one is exempt. Temptation is not sinful; the sin comes when the person gives in to temptation.
• Whatever the temptation you are facing is, it is not unique, it is something that everyone else has or will face.
• Jesus Himself faced the temptations we face.
• SLIDE #4
• Hebrews 4:15 (NASB) 15For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
• As Hebrews tells us, Jesus faced the temptations we face and He defeated them. Since He defeated temptation, He can understand what we are dealing with and He can help us to overcome the temptation through the work of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us.
• We cannot use the excuse of saying that no one understands my situation and that my special situation is an excuse to fail.
• You do not understand, my spouse is not giving me what I need so I know that God provided me with this other person to take care of me.
• We cannot be shocked by the fact we are facing temptations. We cannot feel like we are all alone, we need to go right to God when we are in the midst of temptation.
• Temptation itself is not a sin, succumbing to the temptation is the sin.
• God does not tempt us, but He allows the temptations to happen. (James 1:13)
• SLIDE #5
• James 1:13 - 15 (NASB) 13Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. 14But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. 15Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.
• When “Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matt. 4:1) it is clear that both God and Satan participated in the testing.
• God intended the test to prove His Son’s righteousness, but Satan intended it to induce Jesus to misuse His divine powers and to give His allegiance to Satan.
• Job was tested in much the same way. God allowed Job to be afflicted in order to prove His servant was an “upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil” (Job 1:8). JOB
• Satan’s purpose was the opposite: to prove that Job was faithful only because of the blessings and prosperity the Lord had given him and that, if those things were taken away, Job would “surely curse You to Your face” (v. 11).
• The temptations come to us as a test.
• SLIDE #6
• James 1:2 - 4 (NASB) 2Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, 3knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
• The testing and temptations are an opportunity to grow.
• The second truth we need to grasp as we wrestle with temptation is that God knows your limits.
• SLIDE #7
II. GOD KNOWS YOUR LIMITS.
• and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able…
• Part of feeling helpless in dealing with temptation comes from thinking that God has left us, that He has allowed us to be tempted beyond our ability to handle it.
• In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus says that we should ask God not to “lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matt. 6:13).
• “Evil” is better translated “the evil one,” referring to Satan. In other words we should pray that God will not allow tests to become temptations, in the sense of inducement to evil.
• The idea is, “Lord, stop us before Satan can turn your test into his temptation.”
• I think it is interesting that Paul tells us that God is faithful concerning this promise.
• You do have to feel like you HAVE to give in, you do not have to feel overwhelmed by the temptation you are facing.
• SLIDE #8
• 2 Peter 2:9 (NASB) 9then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
• One of the ways that God rescues us by the fact that He does not allow the temptations to go beyond what we can handle.
• How many times do we fail because we feel defenseless to fight off the temptation?
• Our mind-set is so important because if we feel overwhelmed and defeated before we face the temptation.
• I have seen this in some of the teams I have coached. If the girls feel like they cannot win before they take the field, they will not win. We have to have the attitude that we can take whatever is thrown at us so we can overcome what life throws at us.
• You have a promise of protection from God.
• SLIDE #9
• 2 Thessalonians 3:3 (NASB) 3But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.
• WE are told that we will be protected and strengthened.
• Do you believe you serve an almighty God? Do you believe that you are a child of the King?
• God does not leave his people to Satan’s whims. God is not a spectator; he does not leave his children alone to face whatever temptations Satan can throw at them. Instead, God is faithful.
• He will not always remove the temptation, because facing it and remaining strong can be a growing experience; however, God does promise to keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it.
• This means that there exists no temptation that a believer cannot resist. But the believer must resist and stand against it.
• Each temptation can be resisted because God made it possible to resist it. The secret to resisting temptation is to recognize the source of the temptation and then to recognize the source of strength in temptation.
• God promises to give his people the strength to resist. (LAB)
• SLIDE #10
• The third truth we need to grasp in order to be able to stand up in the face of temptation is that you are not trapped.
III. YOU ARE NOT TRAPPED.
• We are not ever put in a hopeless situation. We are put in some very difficult situations, but never hopeless with no way out.
• We escape temptation not by getting out of it but by passing through it. God does not take us out; He sees us through by making us able to endure it.
• You need to know that with EVEY temptation you face, there is a WAY out, and escape hatch for us to go through.
• The passage indications that there is ONE way of escape.
• It will take self-discipline to look for that “way out” even in the middle of the temptation and then to take it when it is found. The way out is seldom easy and often requires support from others.
• There are at least three ways we can seek the way of escape.
• One is simply common sense. Sometimes a good dose of common sense will lead us to the way of escape. Many times the answer is staring us on the face and common sense would dictate that we take the way out. The struggle comes from actually doing it.
• If you know that you will be tempted in certain situations, then you should stay away from them.
• Another way to seek the way of escape is prayer.
• SLIDE #11
• Mark 14:38 (NASB) 38“Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
• Prayer is so important. I so wish we all would realize the power that is available to us through the gift of prayer.
• A third way is to focus on Jesus.
• Jesus is the one who saved us, He is the one who has been tempted in all ways as we have and yet was without sin.
• When you are struggling, when you are looking for a way out, you can trust Jesus to help you.
• Where else would you turn? If you are having marriage problems, do you want to go to a person who has been divorced 5 times or someone who has a good marriage?
• SLIDE #12
• Hebrews 12:3 - 4 (NASB) 3For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. 4You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;
• When we are struggling, we need to remember what Jesus dealt with and that He did it for us. He did not quit in the middle of trying to give us an opportunity to be saved.
• Jesus can inspire us to work through the temptations we face.
CONCLUSION
• When you are faced with temptation, you DO not have to fall prey to it.
• Take this life verse and live it!
• God will do what He promises us, ALWAYS!
• When we realize that today’s life verse is something we can claim as a promise to us from God, we will be able to deal at whatever life and Satan throws at us.
• Do you want to win the battle over temptation? It needs to start with Jesus.
