This morning, we’re going to be talking about Overcoming Temptations. What is a temptation? A temptation is a desire or thought to do something contrary to God’s will. The Greek word for temptation means to either tempt or test. So, a temptation tests whether we will be obedient to God. If we resist or overcome the temptation, we pass the test. If we give in to temptation, we fail the test and sin. Sin has negative consequences in our lives. Sin interferes with our relationship with God and our relationships with others.
How can we overcome the temptations that we are prone to give in to? The message series that we’re in is entitled Following Jesus. We want to learn how to overcome temptations by following Jesus’ example. Last Sunday, we saw how Jesus underwent two baptisms, water baptism and Spirit baptism. To follow Jesus’ example as believers, we need to receive those same two baptisms as well. These two baptisms prepare and strengthen us to face difficult temptations. We’re going to see how this worked out in Jesus’ life this morning. Let’s look at a wonderful promise from God’s Word about temptation.
1 Corinthians 10:13 (ESV) No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
First of all, we all have temptations. Your temptations are no different or more powerful than the ones we all face. The promise is that God creates a protective zone around you. This protection ensures that you will not receive a temptation that is too strong for you. God will always provide an escape hatch for you to escape and resist that temptation. We can never say, the devil made me do it, I had no choice.
Temptations have and will test all of us throughout our lives. But we can overcome them with God’s Word and God’s Spirit. The result will be that rather then temptations destroying us, they will make us stronger. The devil’s aim in temptation is to weaken our relationship with God. When we successfully overcome temptation, they strength our relationship with God. Our story this morning begins in …
Luke 4:1-2 (ESV) And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.
After Jesus Spirit baptism, He was now full of the Holy Spirit and led by the Spirit in a new and powerful way. He was led by the Spirit to be tempted, that is tested, in the wilderness. The one tempted Him there was the devil or Satan, our adversary. Jesus underwent a voluntary forty day fast in His warfare with Satan. At the end of the forty days, when He was the weakest and hungriest, the temptations begin. Satan always schemes to tempt us when we are at the weakest and most vulnerable. So, let’s learn how Satan tempts and how we can overcome him by following Jesus’ example. In order to overcome temptations you must …