Everyone has temptations, Jesus had temptations, I have temptations, you have temptations. Temptations are part of life, you can’t get away from them. Temptations come in all sorts of sizes and flavors. The traditional seven deadly sins are: pride, envy, anger, laziness, greed, gluttony and lust. Those cover a lot of our temptations.
Temptations come at us in an instant. We often don’t take time to think things through, we just react and give into temptation. Someone says something sharp to us and we speak back in anger. We compare our house to the neighbors and envy theirs. We come home from a hard day at work and turn into a couch potato, giving in to laziness. Sometimes were are tempted to just have too much of a good thing.
A Veggie Tales movie my children watch compares temptation to eating too many chocolate bunnies. In this case the temptation was gluttony. One chocolate bunny was not wrong, but eating chocolate bunnies for 30 minutes was.
What is the chocolate bunny in your life? Something that appears good, something that is pleasurable to give into, yet in the end it will make you sick. People get addicted to the chocolate bunnies they are offered in their lives. I’m convinced that most of the sins in our lives are things that we are addicted to. They’re not one offs, they are habits that we have developed, habits of going after our own chocolate bunnies. Some chocolate bunnies are OK in moderation, others are wrong no matter the amount. What are the chocolate bunnies, the temptations in your life that you can’t seem to overcome?
This morning I want to talk about overcoming your temptations, learning how to say “No” to your chocolate bunnies and walk free.
2 Timothy 2:22 (NIV) Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
The evil desires of youth don’t just remain in youth, they are there with us all our lives. You will never outgrow temptation. In order for God to use you, you have to have a pure heart a heart that overcomes temptation. In order to see God, you have to be an overcomer of temptation. In order to overcome temptation you need to work with God to change your life. Whatever temptation you’re battling in your life, here are the keys to overcoming.
Listen to my April 25, 2010 message “Overcoming Your Temptations” (message-notes).
Hi, I am a Muslim girl and face several temptations each day, so while googling for ways to overcome them, i came across your wonderful website and listened to your talk. It’s really amazing. We Muslims and Christians have so many things in common ……….like so many things u talked are d same in ours also…….
I really liked your talk and am imagining you to be a really nice, god fearing person. I want you to ponder over few things and help me also grow in my understanding of Christian faith
1. Trinity: three in one and one in three- god needs a son and den dat son faces extreme hostilities and den he dies on d cross – now whoever believes in christ as god is safe: so does dat mean dat christians can go on sinning now if dey dont aspire for any higher position in heaven.
2. Monasticism: unmarried people for the sake of God are better than married people. I strongly feel that it is against human nature and is necessary for life to survive
3.Original Sin and Intercession : I remember somewhere the Bible says- every soul will be responsible for its own sins : little babies have not committed any sin -so why dis original sin. Dey are infact d purest of us all, i guess. God is my creator- its only him dat i actually have in dis world. i dont want anyone to intercede for me to god coz its only god who knows d actual piety of all his creations. a simple farmer can be far better in God’s eyes den a maulana in our religion….its only and only god knows who z better….and all of us have a direct relationship wid him.
i love it. i always face temptation and most of the time i face them, i don’t win the victory. i want to overcome temptations but i have a hard time overcome it…
Amri,