252 | Luke 4: How to Handle Temptation

good morning good morning man I'm so glad you guys are here hopefully you are awake today we are gonna study God's Word and if you are new to God's Word I just want you to know there is no better way to change your life than to study in God's Word I don't care where your marriage is where your life is where your heart is you want to change the direction of your life change the content of your life and start studying God's Word I promise you it will change you if you allow God's Spirit to speak to you and through you from his word it will transform your life we're in a series called 252 where we're going to be looking at the Book of Luke and acts all year long it's two books 52 chapters one author Luke and he challenges us to become like Jesus and thought in mind and in actions and we're trying to memorize Luke 2:52 which is Jesus Christ grew in wisdom and in stature in favor with God in favor with men and that's the verse where I got our vision being real with ourselves being real with God and being real with others and so today we're gonna look at something that's just a reality of the Christian life I don't care where you are I don't care how old you are how long you've been a Christian every day you try to follow Jesus is a day you will be tempted to not follow Jesus every day you try to do what's right is a day that you will be tempted to do what's wrong and so some of you are not Christians I want to welcome to you you're brave you're at 8:30 a.m. service I mean that you got to be closer to God than most Christians so I'm glad that you're here but for many of us that go to the 8:30 service a lot of times our Christian life becomes regimented and we when we play these games when we pretend like we're not struggling and so I just hope that God would open your heart today and I hope that you would allow him to challenge you and say God you know that God would say it show you where you're being tempted where's an area of vulnerability in your life so that you could be armed and ready so that you don't throw your life away and lose your walk and lose your faith in Jesus Christ so let's pray today as we learn from Jesus how to handle temptation so let's pray together Heavenly Father god I pray for all of us who are gathered today I pray God that you would open our hearts and our minds and reveal to us the reality of temptation God that you would empower us with your Holy Spirit to do the right thing and to walk in the right way God bless us today with a spirit of authenticity we pray these things in your name Amen now let's take a look at Luke 4 you're going to be studying Luke for the this week you're gonna be reading it talking about it in your homes going over it in your small groups all week long beaten Luke 4 it's an amazing chapter and I can't cover all of it in one sermon so we're gonna look at the first thirteen verses where Jesus actually struggles with temptation now if you're new to Christianity let me define who we have believed historically Jesus is as Christians there's this huge fight over who Jesus is was he God was he man and all of the Christian councils decided and agreed upon this to be a Christian we believe that Jesus Christ is both God and a man he was both not in conflict not in confusion but he was both he perfectly represented God and he perfectly represented humanity thus bridging the gap that was broken by sin between us and God so Jesus is the perfect mediator between you and God he's the only one that can negotiate a deal between you and God that's why we believe in him that's why we worship Him so as God Jesus would never be tempted to sin but as a human being in order to experience what you and I experience he must be tempted to sin otherwise he has not lived a human experience and so Paul and the Bible says that he emptied himself of his divinity and he took on the form of a human being and so he walked like we walk he dealt with the things that we dealt with he went through the pain the suffering and he experienced the temptation the author of Hebrews would say we do not have a high priest who does not understand us sometimes we feel like write our pastor doesn't understand us for Catholic our priest didn't understand what we were going through you don't have to worry about Jesus he knows what you're going through he's walked it he felt it he lived it and so the author of Hebrews says that we do not have a high priest who doesn't understand us but he does and he was tempted in every way that we are and not only was he tempted in every way that you are he was more tempted he was more pressured he he engaged in more temptation and we're going to look at this story where Jesus Christ literally went through the toughest forty days of any human being ever on the hit in the history of the earth he was tempted for forty days straight by the devil so let's look at this Luke chapter 4 verse 1 then Jesus full of the Holy Spirit we're gonna talk about that so just let that sit in your mind some of you you don't know what that means we're gonna talk about that what does it mean to be full of the holy spirit so Jesus full of the holy spirit returned from the Jordan River last weekend we talked about the baptism of Jesus Christ the one guy who didn't need to be baptized was baptized by John why because he always gives a picture for us of what it is that we're supposed to do he doesn't ask us to do things that he doesn't do himself so he's baptized and then he was led by the spirit into the wilderness now let's stop there look at this verse 1 this is this is power-packed for those of you who know your Bibles some things should start awakening and some things should start tingling because when you think about the Holy Spirit and wilderness those two always kind of go hand in hand if you look at your Bibles and hopefully you have your Bibles open in Luke chapter 4 but if you look in your Bibles in the very first chapter Genesis chapter 1 begins this way in the beginning God created the heavens in the earth that's Genesis 1:1 in Genesis 1:2 the Holy Spirit comes on the scene the Bible says that the earth was null and void which is actually a horrible translation let me give you a better translation of the Hebrew word Tove mewho the word Tove mewho you won't know what it really means it means wild the earth was wild it was not suitable for man so anybody ever wondered where the dinosaurs were they were in the toe of mewho it was not suitable what did dinosaurs do to people they eat us if you did not watch Jurassic Park watch that and then Genesis 1 2 will make sense okay you and a t-rex don't go good together okay because you're gonna be in the t-rex is belly and so the Bible says not that the earth was null and void it was not empty it was not nothing it was wild and so the Holy Spirit hovers over the wilderness and begins to create something that is more suitable for mankind it's absolutely mind-blowing and so here we have the Holy Spirit not listen not pulling Jesus out of the toe of mewho but guess where he's leading him into that which is not suitable for man so Jesus Christ is going to the place that you and I couldn't go he's going into the wilderness he's going into the wild he's going to the place that is unsafe for mankind why because that's what Jesus does for you and I he goes where you and I can't because he loves us and he cares about us and so he's led by the spirit into the wilderness now now the wilderness is this huge picture right because the people of Israel when they sinned they were kicked out of the garden that God made for them in Genesis chapter 2 in Genesis chapter 3 and they were made ultimately to wander in the wilderness for forty years so there's this huge picture right the people of Israel wander in the wilderness for forty years Jesus is in the wilderness for forty days see what's happening here it's symbolic now the people of God when they were in the wilderness for forty years did they do what was right no they constantly did what was wrong they sinned they didn't believe they didn't trust they complained they went their own way why that's what we do that's who we are it's in our nature Jesus goes into the wilderness for forty days and he's obedient to God okay he's obedient so his chip trip was a lot shorter because he did the right thing so he was tempted by the devil for underlings for forty days now for forty days the Bible says Jesus ate nothing all that time anybody in your ever tried to fast okay not very many of you because it's difficult if you don't believe that you can meditate people tell me that's all though I don't know what meditation is I'll tell you what meditation is fast and you will learn very quickly what meditation is because you will think all day long on food that's meditation okay if you don't think you can meditate fast you be like oh my gosh Krispy Kreme Krispy Kreme right you'll be just totally focused you will meditate on food all day long people will try to talk don't talk about haven't eaten I'm following Jesus right that's the way it comes out because you're fasting now I've never ever tried to fast for 40 days I've had a friend that tried made it eighteen days almost died almost died okay the longest I've ever fasted was seven days it was brutal absolutely brutal my wife said if I ever did that again she would leave me because I was just irritable ugly and nasty and became nothing like Jesus I fasted for 40 days and I became our 42 seven days became more like the devil okay alright that's her spiritual leader and that should encourage you okay so the devil said to him so wait so Jesus ain't nothing for all that time he became very hungry so some of you you've never even fasted a meal like you like like you like oh my gosh I'm starving I just ate an hour ago I need my snack what are you for right you know okay little fishes that you carry around with you I can't fast okay so he hasn't eaten for 40 days then the devil said to him if you are the son of God tell this stone to become a loaf of bread now this is not a temptation if you just came from the Golden Corral right if you just walked out of Hometown Buffet is bread a temptation for you no because you just gorged yourself but Jesus is not only starving listen to me he's dying if you haven't eaten for forty days your body is shutting down and it's dying your body is now eating through all of the fat resources that you have in your body and now it's eating muscle intendant's he's dying okay he's starving like we used that word so ridiculous is America serving no you just ate okay he's actually starving now think about the smell of bread anybody ever been really hungry and walked into a subway oh my gosh it's like crack isn't it not that I've done crack just saying just saying I'm sooo mning that's what it's like but you walk in the subway and it's just like oh I got to eat it all right I mean you're getting a footlong there's no there's no 6-inch there footlong baby I'll have to I mean that's why they get you buy one for $5 you get another one for you know eighty million you don't care you're buying it because that smell gets you and so he uses the metaphor of bread the the metaphor of baking bread he says listen if you are the son of God and so here's one of the first ways the devil tempts us he tempts us with our identity who are you you see you know when we you know when we're tempted to sin when we forget who we are are you a Christian are you a follower of Christ what's your identity and so oftentimes the first thing that trips us up is we forget who we are we act like everybody else we don't act like we're a child of God you don't act like a son of God you don't act like a daughter of God you act like a you forget who you are you forget you forget who you represent and so so Satan says if you are the son of God if you truly are the son of God then turn this stone to bread does anybody remember what happened in the wilderness for 40 years how did God feed the people of Israel with bread from heaven it's called manna okay I don't know who came up with the word manna but let me tell you what the Hebrew actually says you know what manna actually this is how you translate manna what is this because the people of Israel didn't know what it was what is this God said eat it but what is it he said that's what it is right it's like my kids in their little we lied to him all the time they would say what is this we'd lie if it was fish we'd say it's chicken fish oh this is good I like chicken fish right cuz if it's new kids don't eat it no so you just lie to him that's what your pastor says stricken fish enjoy it what is this right so what's amazing here is the devil's playing a trick on Jesus God cared about Israel in the wilderness and he fed him God's care if God cared about you wouldn't he feed you now we know from Scripture does Jesus have the ability to miraculously feed people so so it's not that he doesn't have the power Satan's messing with his pride if you really are God's Son then why can't you do this because Jesus has been led into the wilderness to fast for 40 days so this is a question of obedience and he's he's tempting his pride if you really are the son of God then make this happen then make this happen right here right now and so the second way that Satan tempts us is he tempts us with our desires I want you to listen very carefully because what I'm about to say is very offensive but it's biblical the world says that the desires that you have are natural and god-given and that God would never give you desires if he didn't expect you to be able to act them part of being a Christian is learning to say no to the natural desires that you have being a Christian doesn't mean we say yes to every physical desire that we have you see oftentimes the way that we listen to the spirits desires is we say no to ours Jesus has a physical desire to eat food it is a natural desire it is a normal desire it is totally regular and there is nothing wrong with wanting to eat except for the fact that God said don't eat for forty days and so God has asked Jesus to withhold food from himself and so what does he do he withholds they're going to be things in your life that you want to do things that you want to taste things that you want to touch and God has asked you to withhold yourself from those things and the world says no enjoy partake God says no no that's not for you and so you just need to understand this that as a Christian oftentimes the way we say yes to God is we say no to ourselves and that's the way the Christian walk works is it easy no do you think saying no to fresh-baked bread would be easy if you hadn't eaten for forty days no it wouldn't be easy matter of fact it would be impossible it would be impossible but Jesus Christ he handles the temptation so what does Jesus say he says no the scriptures say people do not live by bread alone what is Jesus saying the scripture says it's not just about our desires it's not just about our impulses it's not just about the things that we want Jesus doesn't say I don't want bread Jesus doesn't say I'm not hungry why that would be lying he wants bread he is hungry but he says the Christian life is not just about my desires it is about being obedient to God then the devil took him up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time how do you do this I have no idea I don't know if they levitated I don't know if they flew I don't know if they took a 747 I don't know how this happened somehow the devil within his power was able to show Jesus all the kingdoms of the world at one time listen way says Satan says this he says I will give you the glory of all these kingdoms and I will give you authority over all of them the devil said and some of you are like I don't understand how can the devil give the earth to Jesus if the earth is God's because the Bible says that the earth is temporarily under the authority of Satan it's temporary it is God is God the devil is a devil and the devil has authority over this planet called Earth CS Lewis writes a great space trilogy called the the silent planet I would encourage you to read it it's amazing absolutely amazing about what's wrong with Earth and why we're separated from all creation it's fantastic ok it's not the Bible but it's just a fantasy understanding of why the earth is the way it is and so the next time you know you're wondering why do tsunamis happen why are you there earthquakes why are these awful terrible things if God is so good why ok I can't answer all of those questions but many of our questions are answered with who's in charge why are say Wyrick nations the way they are why if there's so much food are there people starving why are all of these awful things have it happening because we're still under the authority of the Prince of the power of the air that's why and Satan says I will give you all of these kingdoms because they are mine they're mine he says I will give it all to you if you will what worship me this is what Satan does Satan tries you and to get you and I to worship anything and everything but God look at this you got to have this you got to do this you got to be this you got to own this you got to experience this you see our actions show what we worship and for most of us we worship ourselves we don't worship the devil but we worship ourselves but ultimately worshiping yourself is worshiping the devil because the devil is the god of selfishness he chose himself over God's will God's desires God's plans he does what he wants he's Satan and so selfishness at its root is the worship of Satan that's what it is we're saying no to God we are rebellious by nature Satan is the ultimate rebel he says I will give it all to you if you will worship me right remember Jesus hasn't eaten for forty days he's hungry he's tired he's grown up a poor kid in Nazareth think about this the Bible says Jesus Christ is the king of kings he's the Lord of lords he's supposed to rule he's supposed to reign everything's supposed to be perfect the king's son is supposed to get whatever he wants and yet he has lived a life where he gets nothing that he wants and so Satan is tempting him look man if you'll just take my plan I'll give it all to you now and let me just tell you so much of the Christian life is this temptation God promises to bless us later the devil promises to bless you now and it's always that way God always says wait the devil always says there's Drive Thru let's drive through you can have it right now you don't have to wait you don't have to worry I'll give it all to you now and so much of the Christian life is saying no to pleasure on earth so that we can experience pleasure forever with God in heaven and we need to understand that our desire for immediacy I gotta get married now I got a date now I got to have sex now I got I got to be a millionaire now I gotta have a job now I gotta have friends now I got to know all this now all of that stuff the devil has always got a fast-track plan but you see God is far more interested in the process than he is just giving you everything you want because what God is interested in is changing you from the inside things don't change us on the inside the way God wants us to be changed things ruin us on the inside okay you want to ruin your life get rich get rich last week Tammy and I played the lotto anybody play lotto okay senators raise your hands yeah gamblers for Jesus I I gotta be honest with you I was actually worried I might win I'm not kidding you I had a moment of stress I had a moment of stress my wife was stressing me out because she bought her tickets and I bought mine and she was like well if I win I was like whoa get behind me Satan right it was weird and I was all stressed out was all stressed out you know why because they've done specials on it you know what money does it ruins people it destroys them and so when you're asking God to win the lottery a lot of times you're saying God please destroy my life please please stop me from heaven all right and gods like I'm not gonna zap you the devil's like I will I'll zap you I'll give you everything you want and oftentimes that's the very thing that God needs to save you from is what you want mm-hmm okay listen what he says he says if you just worship me you can have everything you want Jesus and Jesus said you must worship the Lord your God and serve him only Jesus says that life is not about what we want life is about what God wants where you at Jesus says life is about what God wants the devil says life is about what you want so listen to me very carefully let me tell you what hell is hell is the place where people get what they want do you understand that hell is the place where everyone gets everything they ever wanted and Jesus says you don't want to go there you don't want to go there because what heaven is is when God gets what he wants and it's the best for everyone it's the best all right every loving parent knows that their child will ask from time to time for things that will destroy them and the loving parent says no because you love the child more than the child's initial happiness you want to destroy your kids give them everything they want and you will experience not just hell forever but here on earth all right that was free okay then so the devil's not done then the devil took him over to Jerusalem to the highest point of the temple I've been to the spot where they think this is it's fantastic listen what he says the devil took him to the highest point of the temple and he said if you are the son of God circle these words jump off jump off listen what the devil says he says for the scriptures say and now he's quoting scripture right he will order his angels to protect and guard you and they will hold you up with their hands and you won't even hood hurt your foot on a stone the devil says jump and God will take care of it and there's so many Christians today there are so flippant with their lives because they don't think their stupid choices matter and a lot of you are this way you're careless with your life you smoke cigarettes you go well when it's my time is my time you drive your motorcycle or you ride your motorcycle 150 miles an hour on the freeway when is my time is my time my guardian angels with me no your guardian angel can only fly at 80 miles an hour you left him two miles back and there's gonna be a lot of people in heaven who are dead they're like oh it must have been my time and Jesus like no you're 54 years early okay and so often times at funerals it drives me crazy I just want to scream at funerals it's always God God did it God did it God did it listen let me tell you why I say why Jesus didn't jump because if he jumped God's created a law called gravity that which the Son of Man when he became a human being submitted himself to and he would have gone just like every other idiot that jumped and so Satan might be quoting scripture but let me just help you out here there's nothing more dangerous than a with a Bible verse I run into this all the time just because you memorized a verse doesn't mean you're wise the devil knows scripture some of you something like well the Bible says here you should just jump and trust God okay shut up the Bible also says don't listen to fools and you're one okay man so much of my life is trying to help people just because you know a verse doesn't mean you get it yes the Bible says God will protect the Messiah yes God says that he will watch over him but the Bible also says don't be stupid listen what Jesus says Jesus responded the Scriptures also say so he doesn't refute what the what the devil just said because it's true what he says is what the Bible also says you must not test the Lord your gun so don't jump out of an airplane without a parachute and expect Jesus to show up I mean he'll show up after you hit the ground and be like what are you doing you may be the dumbest Christian yet look it I got to clean up your mess you're gooe you know it's all irritated with you you know how long it's gonna take to get a resurrection body out of this you knucklehead so look at verse 13 when the devil had finished tempting Jesus right he never tempted him again right no it says he left him until underlying these words the next opportunity came you know when the devil is gonna tempt you when the next opportunity comes that's how he works that's what he does and if you believe you are no longer tempted you're a liar the only way you're never gonna be tempted again is when you're dead every single person is tempted and one of the things that drives me crazy in churches is we pretend like we're not tempted oh the other day I almost sinned but by the grace of God again I was faithful I mean I can't go to a church where the pastor's like I almost had an impure thoughts thank God I'm so focused on the cross okay I can't I can't go there every single person except Jesus Christ is tempted and gives in it's a reality let me just say this if Jesus was tempted don't you think your pastor is right your pastors in Jesus everybody gets tempted everybody does so let's talk about how to handle temptation how to handle temptation in your life Jesus was tempted you ain't Jesus you're gonna be tempted so how to handle temptation number one write this down could you please learn to expect it the number one reason so many Christians get tripped up is they're shocked when they're tempted the other day my son and I were alone together little father-son time we're in a restaurant we're all alone having some lunch together getting a sandwich two good-looking young girls walk in my son's 13 the boy's changing he noticed he's eating a sandwich and he's trying to look without looking you know that's like right I said son you know those girls he's what girls what girls I said those those two girls I said you know that he says no I said well you're looking at him like you know them I'm just just really hungry dad so I went home and told his mother I said the boys changing he's noticing girls she says where's he get that from I said I don't know I only have eyes for you ladies this is free I love you I love you but sometimes you're silly you're silly I love you so much of the counselling that we do with young couples that are married is their wives can't believe that their husbands still have eyes I don't I just I don't I don't understand it when we got married he said I was the only one yeah but you're not there's like four billion other women and they're not helping okay ladies get together get together help each other don't dress naked that will help that will help get together have a meeting girls sisters we're not helping each other okay it's amazing and ladies you look - you look - I remember the first time I saw my wife looking I said what are you doing what what I said why would you look at a burger when you have a steak every night right I was like what I would have said something to him but he was way bigger right it's embarrassing everybody's 10th everybody's tempted okay everybody is and if you're not you're blind now the problem is we're all tempted in different ways okay for some of you it's Twinkies you can't stop oh oh for some of us it's when girls wear Twinkies right that's that's the problem I mean it's it's just a reality we're all tempted in different ways so how did the hell did the devil try to tempt Jesus with pride and that's where some of you are now on I'm not saying I'm gonna go to a church where the pastor's not tempted okay then you're gonna go to First Church of denial that's that's where you're gonna go first Church of unreal with self got and other it's some of you you're tempted to be angry right that just ticks me off no you're just ticked off right we see that just makes me so bad no you're mad the Bible says that sin ladies maybe you're not physically turned on by guys that are not your husband but you're envious well wish my husband would pray like that and read the Bible I don't know why I had to marry the devil right we ought we shouldn't call it Instagram it should be envious gram right that's what it should be oh look at him out with his family you know and you're all envious and bitter angry oh look at them they're on vacation again wish I could go on vacation but I can't cuz I'm here praying for your soul right some of us it's lying we lie all the time we're tempted to lie right we don't we don't we want to be truthful some of us are tempted with greed wit will constantly focus on money we want more stuff listen Jesus says this to his disciples he says there will always be temptation to sin always does that help anybody there we'll all thank you Jesus that doesn't help there were always the temptation to sin always the devil's waiting for you outside for some of you he's right in this room and he's tempting you there were always be temptations to sin so we've got to learn to expect it don't be surprised don't be shocked if in your marriage in your friendships in your relationships you know you're tempted it's real easy to be sexually pure singles when you're not dating I'm just so pure so focused on the Lord yeah cuz you're by yourself talk to me when you're dating oh my gosh it's a temptation yeah welcome to life you know you judgmental hypocrite listen up right now and by the way that's what churches do is we always pick on the sins that we don't have that's what we do we focus on listen what James says and remember that when you are being tempted and don't say that that God is tempting me okay God has never tempted to do wrong and he never tempt anyone God's not tempting you he says temptation comes from our own desires which entices and drag us away you know you-you-you-you I've had guys selling I just can't go to sandals cuz you have women on stage that's a you problem that's a you problem what are you thinking about during worship what are you thinking about it ain't Jesus I just I've got to go to another church okay go but I'm pretty sure you're gonna run into a woman somewhere right it's amazing it's amazing it's absolutely amazing all right so we got to expect it and number two we got to learn to prepare for it listen it says temptations in your life are no different from what others experience every single person in this room is struggling with temptation not everyone is struggling with the same temptation but we are all struggling with temptation temptations in your life are no different from what others experienced and God is faithful he will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand amen amen some of you feel like I can't beat this addiction I can't you can't you can't Philippians 4:13 I can do all things in Christ who gives me strength Jesus is stronger than heroin Jesus is stronger than porn Jesus is stronger than whatever it is that you're facing you can overcome this addiction why because God will never allow you to have something in your life that you can't overcome when you are tempted he will show you a way out so that you can endure you gotta learn to look for the exit signs that's what you gotta learn to do so how do we prepare for it first we got to be full of God's Spirit anybody notice how how Luke began the text Jesus Christ full of the Holy Spirit full of the Holy Spirit listen when we are full of God's desires we can say no to our desires you have two choices in this life you can be full of God's Spirit or you can be full of yourself those are your choices you can be full of God's Spirit or you can be full of yourself if you're full of yourself you're gonna live for yourself you're gonna fall in a pit by yourself you're gonna destroy yourself so the Bible says so I say let the Holy Spirit guide your lives let the Holy Spirit guide your life then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves every single one of us has a sinful nature every single one of us there's something inside of us that wants to sin and if you don't believe me have children okay there's a reason that God makes little kids cute because if they weren't cute no one would have them I'm serious you ever seen a two-year-old man it's like it's like Satan that's a very lovely child you have there sandy I'm gonna just take a step back before it bites me it's amazing but you know what you know what changes between a toddler and a 20 year old nothing just camouflage that's it as we get older we just learn to camouflage the sinful date nature that's inside inside we're stopped we're still that person but it sounds well I guess well I've been praying and I feel like the Lord wants me to have this okay the sinful nature wants to do evil every single one of you has this inside of you but if you're a Christian you also have the Holy Spirit the Spirit gives us the desires to do the opposite of what the sinful nature desires these two forces underline this passage are constantly fighting each other when you become a Christian the war isn't over it just started if you're not a Christian you do whatever you want you don't feel bad about it when you become a Christian you didn't have a new conscience you have a new heart you have new desires the Holy Spirit lives inside you and your life just changed so you got to be full of God's Spirit next you got to be full of God's Word all of Luke 4 let me summarize Luke 4 for you basically not a perfect summary but it's all about God's Word Jesus is quoting scripture Jesus is refuting a misunderstanding of Scripture Jesus is fulfilling Scripture and Jesus is teaching scripture all four of these things are happening in Luke 4 why because Luke wants you and I to know that the only way we can ever follow God is to know his word and be obedient to it you cannot call yourself a Christian and be ignorant of God's Word you can't you're not following God if you don't have the map in front of you and so many of you like I'm just following God no you're taking a walk you're not following Jesus because he's going in a specific direction so we got a we prepare with God's Spirit we prepare with God's Word and lastly we prepare with God's people I told you there's nothing more dangerous than a with a Bible verse some of you you know the people that are giving you our advice they don't they don't know Scripture Satan was giving advice with Scripture with Scripture listen I love this verse plan succeed through good counsel underline this don't go to war without wise advice when you're being tempted listen to me you're at war with a devil and your soul is at stake your very existence your life the trajectory of your family where you're going where you're going to spend eternity who you're going to be what you're going to be about you are in a battle for your soul you better get good counsel you better get some good advice listen to me guys you know when maybe you know your wife's on you and your nagging you about some stuff and and you know you're not doing all these things and you go to work and somebody says oh you look nice today and it feels good you're in a battle you're in a battle for the existence of your marriage for the trajectory in the direction of your children's future it's not just flirting you're fighting with Satan himself and you need to know you need people in your life to speak truth into you hey buddy take that energy go home and work it out with your wife work it out with your husband focus on it listen to me singles when you're dating somebody you shouldn't be dating you need friends in your life who tell you the truth who guide you in the right direction front siders you-you-you need fellow Christians and say look man this is what we're not about we don't need to go here we don't need to do this we need God's Spirit we need God's Word when you God's people but here's here's their here's the reality no matter how much of God's Spirit you have in your life no matter how much of God's war you know and no matter how many of God's people surround you every single one of us is gonna fall from time to time that's a reality no one in here will perfectly live out their faith in Jesus Christ there's a bloody cross that hung on Calvary 2,000 years ago that says you can't do it on your own no matter how hard you try no matter how much you want it you and I are sinners and we are going to struggle until Jesus takes us home so what do you do when you mess up don't carry it confess it you know why so many of you are downtrodden and heavy just carrying burdens and you're not happy and you're depressed and you're discouraged because you're carrying your sin and there's only one pair of shoulders that's ever walked on the face of the earth that can carry the burden of sin there's only one and your shoulders aren't broad enough and your arms are not strong enough your sin will crush you your sin will destroy you don't carry it confess it the Bible promises that when we confess our sins to God that he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness he takes it away I love this verse it's a core verse for us here at Santos Church and this is a real with self moment it says confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed you want to be healed you got to get real you've got to learn to confess your sins listen here I am right I'm preaching a message on temptation and so guess what happened this week I got tempted with some thoughts in my mind I had some stuff rattling around in my mind that wasn't good and I and I couldn't get it out and so I met with pastor Andrew and I met with Pastor Dan Crowley and I said guys I just need to confess something to you I said I got this thought rolling around in my mind and I got to confess it and at first I gotta be honestly they were a little surprised like whoa I said what do you mean whoa I'm not the Pope it's Matt it's not Pope Matt Pope Matteo it's not snot this nun who I am it's just Matt and I need to confess this to you guys now I need to ask for forgiveness let me tell you something I don't just ask you to confess I confess and I'll tell you why because I've spent way too much time in my life in darkness and don't ever want to go back I don't ever want to live that life I don't ever want to play pretend anymore because I know what it felt like to carry the burden and the weight of sin and I don't want to carry it learn to confess it we've got to create a culture of confession at Sandals Church that's the only way we're ever going to be Christ wants us to be so let me pray for you and let me pray for us as we close and I pray that God would just minister to your heart as he has ministered to you through my words that you would be equipped to handle temptation because you will face it you will face it and if you fail from time to time you know how to handle it confess it and confess it quickly let's pray Heavenly Father God thank you for this amazing church and these amazing people I pray your Holy Spirit upon all of us I pray that we would be full of the Spirit this morning God that we would be full of your word and that we would begin to embrace community God we're not created to be alone but we were created to be with you in community worshiping you together father I pray for a spirit of authenticity in this church not one of us is perfect only Jesus was and even he was tempted help us father to be real about this issue in our lives I pray this in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Sandals Church

Views: 10,777

Rating: 4.8888888 out of 5

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Id: Zy0K39VyGOw

Length: 43min 7sec (2587 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 24 2016