Overcoming Temptation
Good Morning
Stand with me and lift up your bible and repeat after me.
This is my Bible.
I am what it says I am.
I can do what it says I can do.
I am going to learn how to be what it says I can be.
Today I will learn more of the word of God.
The indestructible, never ending, living word Of God.
I will never be the same.
I will never be the same.
In Jesus Name
Turn with me in your bible to Matthew Chapter 26 verse 41 and say, ‘Amen” when you are there.
“Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Temptation.
I have a question for you.
Have you ever been tempted?
I mean a real temptation..
I have been tempted to do a few things that I have not done even though they were very tempting.
Like stopping by at a Dunkin Donuts and getting a dozen powdered donuts and enjoying all of them my myself. You know the kind I mean. The ones that are like a small cake with a whole in the middle.
Seeing how far out I could swim into the ocean without worrying about coming back.
Going for a walk across the United States and back like Forrest Gump did in the movie.
Jumping out of an airplane by myself with a parachute.
I have come close to doing a few of them. I only ate 6 donuts at one time.
How about you. Have anything that you can think of?
Temptation is in our lives all the time.
It is all around us.
Look on TV. Look on the internet.
There are ads for you to do something, look like something, or buy something all the time.
Some are ads for medicines to buy. I guess you need to know about them by the commercials so you can tell you doctor what you need.
90 percent of the commercials on TV or the Internet are about the temptation to buy something.
10 percent are either about something positive or to make you aware of what you can do to help someone or change someone’s life.
I am going to share with you a really good temptation.
Actually, not a good one, but a great one.
It is about overcoming temptations and become tempted to start having a better personal relationship with those you love. But most of all, a better relationship with someone who loves you more than you can imagine.
Some of us have a minimal relationship with the Lord. We call on Him when we are having a tough time or someone that we know is and once in a while we say, “Thanks”
I was there. When I accepted Jesus into my heart, I felt better but I did not know how to have a relationship with Him. I did not realize how things would be if I worked on that. And I did not know how to.
I first thought that things would be perfect but I started learning in my daily life that nothing would be perfect in life until I left my time here on earth to spend eternity in heaven.
Wow, that was kind of disappointing. Have you been disappointed like me?
You thought life would be just right after you asked Him into your heart and you made Him first in first in your life.
But the road here on earth is full of hills and valleys and storms.
The nice part is as we develop our relationship with the Lord, we go through them together with Him.
When we walk with Him in life and let Him be our pilot, we look at things differently.
Here is an example with in our relationships with people.
People come into your life and you know right away that they were meant to be there. To serve some sort of purpose, teach you a lesson or help you figure out who you are or who you want to become.
You never know who these people may be but when you lock eyes with them, you know that very moment that they will affect your life in some profound way.
And sometimes in our life with the Lord, things happen to us at the time that may seem horrible, painful and unfair, but in reflection we realize that without overcoming those obstacles we would have never realized our potential, strength, will power or heart.
Everything happens in our lives for a reason. Nothing happens by chance or by means of good luck.
Illness, injury, love, lost moments of true greatness and even sheer
stupidity all occur to test the limits of our souls. Without these small
tests, life would be like a smoothly paved, straight, flat road to nowhere.
Safe and comfortable but dull and utterly pointless.
The people you meet affect your life. The successes and downfalls that you
experience can create who you are, and the bad experiences can be learned
from to help you grow in life. In fact, they are probably the most poignant and important ones.
If someone hurts you, betrays you or breaks your heart, forgive them because they have helped you learn about trust and the importance of being cautious to whom you open your heart.
If someone loves you, love them back unconditionally, not only because they love you, but because they are teaching you to love and to open your heart
and eyes to little things. Make every day count.
Appreciate every moment and take from it everything that you possibly can,
for you may never be able to experience it again.
Talk to people you have never talked to before, and actually listen to them and get to know another human being that God has created.
Let yourself fall in love, break free and set your sights high with life.
Hold your head up because you have every right to. Tell yourself you are a great individual and believe in yourself.
Because you should.
Your past and your future will help you overcome the temptations that come up in our lives.
Turn in your bibles to 1st Corinthians and say, “Amen” when you are there.
“No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”
There is no time in our lives that we will not have a temptation. The only thing that we have to decide is what we want to do in life.
Follow the temptations or not.
The best way to decide each time is to ask, Jesus.
Let’s go to Him in prayer. Please bow your heads.
