Understanding Temptation

Good afternoon, everyone. On this beautiful day, I must say that spring has sprung here on the campus. Very, very beautiful spring. Trees are budding, the flowers are out. A very special time of year, but while we think about that, everyone, probably the Passover and the days of unleavened bread are still fresh in our minds. The spring Holy Days are on our minds, and we are progressing towards Pentecost.

So, this is a very special and important time coming up as we progress and move towards Pentecost; but, brethren, enough time has passed, and maybe you started to think about those struggles that you identified during the days of unleavened bread during Passover, the things that you’ve been thinking on, the things that you’ve been working on, and enough time passed that some of those things that you’ve been working on might have reared their head. So, you begin to think... I’m going to give you some examples of the things that might’ve occurred already.

It might’ve in your life or somebody that hears this message. These are examples that I’m going to use, but it says that maybe you felt a sudden surge of anger. Think about maybe you traveled on the roads. There’s enough time that you travel to work, maybe to class, and somebody suddenly cuts you off, and you just have that surge of anger. You start to think of something or say something in your mind, or maybe even out loud, and then suddenly you regret that. But something happened just a moment before you had that surge of anger.

What about another example? You promised yourself, “I would never do this again.” Think again on the things that you worked out during the days of unleavened bread that you wanted to overcome. But after a long day of work, you are alone, you’re tired, and then you reach out and you do that thing, that one thing you can fill out or fill in the blank as you wish. But moments before that, something happened. Just before you did that thing or watched that thing that you didn’t want to partake in anymore, something happened just a moment before that.

Another example could be somebody hurt you, hurt your feelings. You told yourself that you forgave them, but when you saw them, there’s that surge of maybe anger or bitterness, a wave that comes into your mind, and you replay that offense again back in your mind. And you thought, “I forgave this person.” Again, what happened maybe moments just before you saw that person, just before you thought about that moment that your feelings were hurt in the past?

Here’s another example. Everyone’s life seems to be going well. Their families, their careers, their lives, and you start to resent your own life. You feel discontent, or maybe if you look at another person’s life, you feel even that you have envy towards them. Brethren, what happened maybe not just moments before, but maybe time that led up to this point, that you felt that something happened again moments before, or maybe long before that?

In all these examples, something happened prior to that moment that you felt that you might have slipped or even sinned. You can fill in more examples. I just gave you a couple of examples this afternoon. But to find out what is that one thing that happened just before that, brethren, let’s turn to First Corinthians chapter ten. All of us experience this probably multiple times before today, before this message started, and certainly during the time leading up to where we are after the days of unleavened bread and Passover. You are in First Corinthians chapter ten. And I’m going to pick up in verse thirteen.

We want to focus on verse thirteen. But I will just begin by reading verse twelve, going into thirteen. “Therefore let him that things he stands take heed lest he fall.” Maybe you felt when I went through those examples and you thought about maybe other examples, I might have fallen, I might have slipped. But here it says, everyone, “There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man but God is faithful, he will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.” So, what are we talking about today?

What happened maybe moments before that anger, or the moment that you felt you slipped, or envy crept in, or unforgiveness, or bitterness? And that is everyone a temptation. A temptation happened or occurred, maybe leading up to that or just moments before that. That’s something for us to consider today. And there are three things here in this verse in chapter thirteen that we will highlight today that will help us, everyone. Our goal this afternoon is simply to understand temptation, why it happens, and how we can overcome it.

This is hopefully going to help you, everyone, to understand temptation a little bit more. Many of the brethren that attend with us are fairly new. Some of us might not have heard something or read something about temptation recently, and this will be helpful. Especially during this time of year, as we move a little bit away from the days of unleavened bread and pass over towards Pentecost. Again, it is a very important time for us all. So, let’s begin and look at that very first thing right here in this verse, brethren. We will stay with this verse, and you can keep a bookmark there. We will come back and reference it several times. But I want to pick out the very first thing here in this verse.

And that is here it says, “There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man.” Have you ever thought about temptation as being common? Common to man? What does that mean? If we think about temptation and we want to understand it and we want to know why we go through it, and we want to overcome it, how can this help us to know that temptation... God wants us to know that it is common.

So, when you think about something that’s common, you can say it is something that’s shared by many people. Think about it’s something that’s possessed or experienced by a large number of people. An example would be people have a common interest in music. That’s just a physical example that you would say, this is something that happens commonly, or it is common. But when you think about and talk about temptation, what does that mean?

And it simply means, brethren, just what it says, it’s common to man. It doesn’t say that it’s only common to Christians. It says it’s common to man. That means everyone, every person. We can exclude infants and children as they begin to grow up, and human nature begins to work on you. We could probably exclude them for now. But as every person grow up, ultimately, not just you and me, everyone, but every man and woman, think about back to the garden, has faced some type of temptation in their lives.

Another way to think about that it is common would be that something that’s frequent. Something that happens often or happens in many places. Again, a simple example would be in the morning or in the afternoon, we talk about rush hour. It would be common to see a lot of traffic during rush hour. If you think about the common flu, it is something that’s common. It happens regularly. You and I have... during the flu season, when the seasons change, we get and can be susceptible to the common flu.

It means a lot of people get the flu, but also you can get it, or feel the symptoms, or experience those symptoms frequently. So, how do we apply that to temptation? Brethren, God almost levels the playing field to tell us that temptation is common to man, but also it takes away the mystery the fact that we can know it is common in our lives. It happens frequently. As I mentioned, maybe even before you entered this room today, that you might be tempted in some shape or form. What happens when you and I are tempted?

Let’s go to James. James chapter one. God wants us to understand temptation, brethren. Sometimes there can be this mystery, and certainly for newer people as well. What is God’s mind on temptation? And we want to make it in this message today understandable, so that we can understand what it is. So, what happens when we are tempted? And you are in James chapter one. I’m reading here from verse fourteen, verse twelve on to about verse eighteen, touch on the subject of temptation.

But I want to specifically pick out verse fourteen. Pick on verse fourteen a little bit for a moment here. “But every man is tempted...” Again, coming back to that, it is common. “Every man is tempted, when he’s drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” So, there’s something within you and me, our human nature, that allows us to be enticed. So, a definition for temptation would be simply a test or something that entice you to sin.

So, what does it mean to be enticed? Or here it says, “He’s drawn away,” drawn away from what? If you look at the definition of drawn away and enticed, it’s, some of us are good fishermen, or you have probably seen programs about fishing. But when you entice a fish or try to draw it away, each and every fish has its own lure that you have to entice them. That thing that entice them, that lure that you use, the fishermen use to entice them. And that’s what this means, to draw away or to entice from that secret spot.

If you think about big-mouth bass will use a different type of lure or sunfish. Sometimes you just press your finger into the water, and sunfish will come, and they will bite on your finger. They are lured away from that place of safety or protection to come and be lured out or to be enticed, drawn away from a safe position. What are those things, everyone that can lure you and me? It says that every man is tempted when he’s drawn away, when he allows himself... those things that are in us can allow us to be drawn away.

We need to know those things, and I’m sure that we examine those things during the days of unleavened bread. And many of these will help us, this message will help us to remember or maybe learn some new things along the way. But what are those things that can potentially lure you away, brethren, to sin? It doesn’t mean that it is sin, but it means to lure you away from it.

The danger for us with temptation, everyone, is that there is an element of deception. If it wasn’t there, if a fisherman didn’t need to use a lure to entice a fish, it wouldn’t bite on it. Certain fish just don’t respond to a certain type of lure. You need a specific one, a specific lure for a specific fish. If there wasn’t some type of deception, what would be the temptation for us?

And the word, if you go back to First Corinthians, if you had your finger there, everyone, that I want to focus on here in verse thirteen, it says, “There has no temptation taken you.” Taken there means to take by craft or with deception, take possession of, or to seize you. So, the goal of temptation is to lure you away from a safe spot and to seize you, to take hold of you, your mind, and your actions.

Let’s go back to James. James one there. I want to pick up from verse fifteen. We can read verse fourteen again and then go to verse fifteen. “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. That when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin.” So, brethren, something that we have to clarify for us is when we are tempted, yes, there’s that level of deception that lures us away, but temptation is not sin yet. There is a time frame or there is a distance between you... we could say between you and sin.

Temptation is to entice you to sin, but it doesn’t mean that you have sinned yet. So, there is a time for us to respond, a time for us to understand what temptation is, why we go through it, and then to overcome it when we are faced with it. And that’s what we want to focus on today, that we do not have to sin. When you are tempted, it doesn’t mean you are going to automatically sin. And that’s another thing, Brethren, that sometimes we feel guilty just because we are tempted. “Why am I tempted? Why do I have to face this temptation? I thought I overcame this thing and now I’m faced with it again, and again and again.” As we said, it is common. It happens frequently.

It can happen regularly. And we will look at why we go through it, Brethren. And that ultimately will encourage you when you begin to understand why we go through it. God has a purpose for that. But while we are tempted, everyone, it’s important for us to know the source of temptation. Here in James, we already looked at our flesh. If you write down Galatians five and verse seventeen, speaking about certain attitudes or pulls of the flesh, wrong patterns in our lives, wrong habits. Those are things... our own flesh, the world, society, that is one of the things that can tempt us.

But another one, brethren, as we turn, please turn with me to Peter, is something that we should be vigilant about when we are tempted about who is involved, who is using that deception. Either our own fleshly pulls, our own human nature. But here in First Peter verse five... or chapter five, excuse me, verse eight, it says, “Be sober, be vigilant.” We don’t want to walk into a temptation and take it lightly. We want to be sober and vigilant. “Because your adversary,” our adversary, “the devil as a roaring lion, walk about...”

He’s using those lures. He is trying to fish, so to speak, “seeking whom he may devour.” So, he is not just a fisherman, he is a lion that wants to devour us. That’s a great source, the devil, Brethren. Think about it when you are tempted. Do not just walk into a temptation or see it and then don’t think and realize that the devil is most likely present, involved in this, and that should make you sober. It should sober you but also make us vigilant to know that we should do the following as we are tempted.

Brethren, knowing that temptation is common helps us to understand it, why we are tempted, and will help us to overcome it. And that brings us to the second point this afternoon, and that is, let’s go to Second Peter. You are in First Peter. We will go back to Corinthians pretty soon, but Second Peter chapter two. Second Peter chapter two, and I’m picking up here in verse nine. We’re going to look at... now that we understand it’s common, there’s the second part here in Corinthians, that verse that we read.

But let’s first look at Second Peter two verse nine. It says, “The Lord...” brethren, “God knows how to deliver the Godly out of temptation.” You and I that are striving to live a godly life. Those of us, we that obey God strive to live his way of life. He knows to deliver the godly out of temptation. Those that are in the world, they go through it. They are tempted. They might not even know that they are tempted. It leads to sin and the consequences of sin without knowing it, and not with... they are not being delivered. God says He knows to deliver you. He knows to deliver you and me.

And it continues, and it says, “out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished.” Meaning that the sin conceived or temptation conceived into sin, and the sin ultimately leads to death. But for us, brethren, as you turn back to one Corinthians ten, verse thirteen, this is important in this verse right here in the middle of the verse, that we understand the following. We talked about that it’s common to man, and it says here, right here in the middle, if you throw your eye on the middle, “but God is faithful, He will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able.”

We want to focus there, just for a moment, on the fact that God is faithful. Brethren, you and I... the point is, you and I can count on God every time that we go through a temptation. We can count on him. He is there to deliver us. He knows how to do it. We will look at how to do it, but you can count on him. You do not want to count on yourself when you’re tempted. Remember, there’s that level of deception might... you might go into temptation and not realize that even that you are tempted, but something that you and I have to know in advance is that God says, “I am faithful.”

Let’s go to Hebrews. Keep your finger again in Corinthians. Go to Hebrews chapter four. God is faithful. How can He be faithful, brethren? How does He know how to deliver you and me out of temptation? How does he do it? How does he know it? Hebrews chapter four and verse fifteen, one verse here. You probably read it many times during the days of unleavened bread, and we had messages touching on this verse, but I want to focus on it for a moment here again. “For we have not a high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.”

Meaning that feeling of our infirmities, somebody that has compassion for what you go through, the weaknesses that you have, the shortcomings, the pulls of the flesh. Christ knows, God knows, brethren, what those are, “but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” There, it’s the focus again, that temptation, brethren, just making that point again, temptation is not sin. Christ was tempted in all points, but he did not sin.

So, when you think about all points, you might have a list, and you can write down a list of the temptations that you go through, and let’s say we would take up all the papers that you have. We’re not going to do it in reality, but let’s say you know what things you are tempted, and maybe one of us has five points on our list. Another one has six points, another one, three. If we compile all our lists together and put all the... exclude all the ones that are common and you count them from one to a certain number, we can say that Christ was tempted in all the points, not just your individual points, but all the points that we all go through, without sin.

That means, brethren, He understands what to do during temptation. You can count on him that the temptation that you are going through is not something new to him. It was even common to Christ. Let’s go to one chapter... two chapters before. We were in chapter four, let’s go to chapter two and read verse eighteen. Again, thinking about how is it that God is able to deliver you, brethren? Because you want to count on him. How can you know that you can count on him?

Verse eighteen, chapter two of Hebrews, it says, “For in that he himself has suffered being tempted.” Sometimes you and I feel we are suffering during a temptation. It drags you down when you’re tempted. Why am I tempted again? Here, it says Christ suffered during temptation. But it says also He’s able to secure them that are tempted, a fancy word, secure, that actually just means to help or to aid. Because He knew how to deliver us, He trusted... Christ trusted on the Father. He knew that he could count on the Father during every temptation that he went through.

Brethren, you and I can count and must count on God. We must know that He is faithful. He can help you. He wants to help you. You need help. Brethren, God’s faithfulness is not theoretical. Often, we might think about it and say, “Will I receive help?” Just the fact that temptation is common and it happens regularly, we need to know that we need regular help. We need somebody that understands what we are going through in that moment and somebody that’s able to deliver us, and God is that person. Christ went through all of that so that he can help us.

In that pressure cooker of temptation to sift through the deception, to not allow it to lead to sin, we need somebody that understand it, and it’s not theoretical. What He says there in Corinthians, you and I can apply, and each time that we are going through temptation, God wants us to remember that, that you can trust me. Count on me. When you are feeling tempted, brethren, the verse doesn’t tell you... Corinthians chapter ten verse thirteen doesn’t tell you to rely on your own strength. It points to God’s character.

The fact that He is faithful. It’s not you that says, “I can do this because of my own strength. I’m strong. I’ve been growing as a Christian.” Yes, you might have grown as a Christian, but each time that we’re tempted, we have to have this thought in our mind that says, “I’m not strong.” You can handle this because God is faithful. You will be able not to sin because of God’s faithfulness, not because of your own strength.

Again, we are facing an enemy, Satan, that’s like a lion or a fisherman that wants to entice you, want to use deception. Think about how easy it was for him to deceive Adam and Eve, and he’s very good at it. And just the fact that you and I know, and we need forgiveness of sins, we also know and understand that it’s so easy to allow temptation to fester, and to grow, and to conceive, and to become sin. The point is not, brethren, to let us feel guilty about it. It’s actually to help us today to understand temptation that we can create a distance, and that we do not allow sin or temptation to become sin. That is a promise that God says, you can count on me.

Let’s go back to James for a moment. Thinking again about the sources of temptation that we touched on, but here in James one verse thirteen, I started earlier on in verse fourteen. Verse thirteen says, “Let no man say when he’s tempted, I’m tempted of God.” This is another promise, brethren, that God gives us. It continues, “For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempt He any man.” So, temptation is common, but not one of those temptations comes from God. He allows it.

Think about the life of Job. God allowed temptation in his life, and he allows temptation in our lives, but it is not coming from him. Again, we can trust him. We can count on him to know... when you are tempted, brethren, you need to understand what is going on. You need to see things clearly. And one of the points is to know this is not of God. He wants you to overcome the temptation. He wants you to resist the temptation, but you can know, and I can know, it will never be him that tempts you.

That is helpful knowledge to have in our mind. Why are we… we said, brethren, we want to know why are we tempted. Let’s go. Why are we regularly going through temptation? There must be a benefit. There must be a reason for that. Let’s go to First Peter. Why does God allow it? Why is it common? Why is it not just once a year, maybe just year before Passover or before the Feast of Tabernacles? We talked about the tests and trials that we face. Why is it maybe not just two or three times a year? Why does God allow it to be common?

First Peter, chapter one, and we will pick up in verse six. It says, “Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if needs be.” Brethren, there’s a need for you and me. It means needs be, there’s a necessity for us to go through, as Peter says here, “You are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” Manifold just means many temptations. There’s a need, there’s a necessity for you and me to go through that. “That the trial of your faith...” In verse seven, “The trial of your faith.” That’s one of the reasons why we go. We said that temptation is a trial.

Here, it says, it puts our faith on trial. Our faithfulness, brethren, are tested during a temptation. We know God is faithful, but He wants to see our faithfulness. He wants to see our faith, and He wants to see that we also know where our level of faith is. That maybe it is high or maybe it is low. I can grow in that area, but it’s your faith that’s being tested. “Your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ.”

The end goal is for our faith, brethren, to give God glory and honor through the fact that we understood, we knew why we went through temptation, and ultimately, we were able to overcome it. That’s one of the reasons why we go through temptation is to test our faith. It’s necessary. What is another reason? Let’s go back to James. Several reasons, brethren. This is maybe not even an exhaustive list that I’m giving you for the reasons why we have to face it, but to help you to be encouraged during a temptation to know it’s not useless.

There’s a purpose for that if we overcome.

Let’s read James one, verse two. It says, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations.” There, James says as well, temptations are common. Just as Paul and Peter said, he just used the word “diverse.” But brethren, how often do you and I count it joy? When we are sometimes tempted, it feels like you are dragged down. I’m sure we do not count it joy each and every time, but God says, “Count it joy.” You are going through temptation on a regular basis, and when you understand it, know why you go through it, and know that you can trust and count on God, you begin to count it as joy. There’s one in the morning. There’s one in the afternoon. There’s one yesterday and tomorrow.

And each time that you go through a temptation, you count it one, you count it two, you count it three. And your hands become full each and every time, and then you begin to count maybe on your toes, the many times that you are tempted, but you count it joy when we go through many temptations. Verse three, “Knowing...” You understand temptation. You know why you go through it. It’s not a mystery to you and me. “Knowing that the trying of your faith works patience.” It works Godly character. It works to make you and me faithful like God is, building our character.

“But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” Meaning, wanting nothing, we are growing to become mature Christians. Temptation is necessary for you and me, brethren, to grow stronger, to mature as Christians, to become like God. But each time that we are tempted, we can know, it doesn’t matter where your maturity level is. If you are a young Christian, baptized ten minutes ago, or a week ago, or a year ago, or anyone that’s been in God’s Church for many years, that you can know, you have somebody that you can count on every time. But one of the reasons why we go through it is to help us to grow spiritually.

To learn to be dependent on God. That’s necessary each time. That’s one of the reasons why we go through it, and go through it commonly, brethren, frequently, is to learn to be dependent on God. Then the third thing that we want to touch on today, everyone, is if you go through and back to First Corinthians. The third thing that First Corinthians ten touches on is, here at the end of the verse, after it says, “God is faithful, that you will not be tempted above that you are able; but God,” it says, everyone, “will with the temptation,” this is a promise, “also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

Now, escape and bear there, bear is to endure, we can see it in two different ways. God wants you and me to do two things when we face temptation. We are now thinking about escaping it. How to overcome temptation. We said we want to understand it, we want to know why we go through it, but we want to overcome it as well. How can you overcome it? And one of the things God says always during temptation is that He will not tempt you above that you are able. You are able to escape. It means to create a distance between you and the temptation.

This is something more in the short term. You might be in a situation, everyone, you go to the grocery store and you walk down an aisle and maybe something that is a lure to you, let’s say it’s alcohol, or the magazines in the magazine rack, or the cigarettes in the cigarette aisle, or the vapes that people use today, that’s something that lure you, that draw you closer, that can tempt you. But God says He will make a way to escape. So, you and I need to create a distance. Flee from temptation. We sometimes have to take drastic steps to know when we are tempted, who is tempting us, but we don’t want to just step in a temptation and allow us to be tempted.

Remember, brethren, that a temptation wants to seize you, grab you, ultimately to sin. So, we want to create a distance from temptation to sin, make that as far as possible that we can endure it, meaning that we can escape without sinning, just as Christ was able to do without sinning. It’s always possible. There’s always a way. God will never allow you that you are tempted and then you have to say, “I have to sin in this situation. There wasn’t a way to escape.” In other situations, everyone, the second thing that He wants us to do when faced with temptation is to endure it.

Sometimes you cannot create a physical distance. You cannot flee from fornication, or you cannot flee from the temptation right in front of you. What do you do then? That might be a situation at work. It might be a situation at home where you have to endure it. It’s facing that temptation often, maybe for a long period of time. What do we need to do then? What can we do to create a distance or to escape? How do we do that?

James chapter four and verse eight it says, we can pick up actually in verse seven going to verse eight, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil in that situation, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” If you draw closer to God in prayer, brethren, when you are tempted, and if it goes on for a long period of time, and you cannot escape it right away. You want to pray during any type of temptation, but this is one where you cannot escape immediately.

You want to draw closer in prayer, in Bible study, and sometimes even fasting is necessary to draw closer to God. And if you draw closer to him, you automatically create a distance between you and him that tempts you. It says that Satan will flee from you. Sometimes you have to endure that temptation. It’s not something that you overcome immediately. There’s time involved, but still then, Brethren, whether you escape in a moment, in a short-term fashion, a short-term situation like in the grocery store, or a situation again in your family at home and work, you know those things, Brethren, that you are tempted with, that you need to endure. But God promises there is a way out.

I’m going to give you a list here. Just things that we already covered, other things that I want to point out. Again, this is not an exhaustive list of things that we can do of how we can overcome, how we can escape and endure temptation without sinning. The first one here, everyone, is to recognize that temptation is common. That we said takes away the mystery of temptation. All people go through it. And when you look to your left and look to your right, all of us in this room and across the Church in God’s way listening and hearing this message know that we are tempted. Rely completely on God when you are tempted. Know that He is somebody that you can count on every time.

Grow, everyone, in self-constraint. There’s a little bit of difference between self-constraint and growing in temperance. Temperance is something that you grow over a long period of time, a characteristic that, if you apply self-constraint over a long period, you begin to grow in temperance. But you can think about, everyone, if we go to First Corinthians, you have your bookmark there. I’m going to read to you First Corinthians seven, and we can pick up in verse five.

One of the reasons why we are tempted. Paul said, “Defraud not...” This is more speaking about in marriage, but there’s a principle here that we can apply, “Defraud you not one the other, except you with consent for a time, that you may give yourself to fasting and prayer; and come together again, a husband and wife coming together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinence,” meaning your lack of self-constraint. In that moment when you want to say something like, when we started this message, and you know you shouldn’t say that thing. Use self-constraint.

Do not say and let come out of your mouth what is in your heart, that you can constrain yourself. That you do not respond in anger, like we initially said. Brethren, another thing is, know that you will never be tempted with something that you cannot overcome. That’s helping us to know when you’re in temptation, God will not allow this to overthrow us, to let us fall, but we have to be vigilant, meaning sober and vigilant. You have to look around and realize who is involved. The seriousness of temptation, as we already said in First Peter five, verse eight, we have to be sober and vigilant. Know your environment. Know the people that you are with.

Know where you are, that you realize maybe I need to stay away from this situation because I will be more easily lured and tempted. Create a distance between you and temptation. Sometimes you have to take drastic steps, Brethren, and flee temptation. Replace temptation. That’s another one that you can use. An example would be if you’re in a conversation and you are tempted to begin to gossip about somebody, replace the conversation, turn the conversation to another subject, change it to something more positive. It means if you are tempted and you know you struggle with gossip, go in a different direction to replace it.

Brethren, another thing is to count it all joy each time. Grow in joy. Have that joy. Don’t allow it to pull you down. If you have that joy and know that you can count on God, you will be able to successfully overcome temptation each time when you are. Keep yourself busy, keep your mind and your hands busy. Meaning if you are alone and you are easily tempted with certain things, have a hobby, read, do exercise, do certain things, serve other people.

Keep your hands and your mind busy so that you are not easily tempted. And then, Brethren, keep the benefits in mind as well. Brethren, today we simply went through one verse, First Corinthians ten verse thirteen. We learned that temptation is not rare, it’s not unique, and it’s not unbeatable. It’s common to man, and you and I can overcome it. The encouraging part is to know that second point that we learned that God is faithful. You can count on him each and every time that you are tempted. Never forget that.

Never allow temptation, brethren, that it will crack you down. Know that you can count on God each and every time. And when escape isn’t possible, He will give you the strength to endure it without falling, knowing that you don’t have to sin. So, the next time when you are feeling temptation rising, brethren, whether it’s anger or bitterness, or lust, or envy, or even discouragement, pause and remember, this is not about your weakness. It’s about God’s strength. This is not only about your trial, but it’s about the training that you are going through. God is always near. You can always trust him. He understands what you are going through.

There’s always a path, everyone, that doesn’t lead to sin, but it leads to spiritual victory.