Today my message is entitled “Overcoming Your 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. There’s a Veggie Tales movie in which temptation is represented by 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 dose.
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. NIV 2 Timothy 2:22 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 but 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.
To hear more about this topic, listen to my August 13, 2006 message entitled Overcoming Your Temptations