How Can I Overcome Temptation? | Dr. David Jeremiah | 1 Corinthians 10:13

God Turned My Question Marks Into Exclamation Points!

Message Description:

We have been given instruction on how to overcome the attacks of the world, the flesh, and the devil – learn how in this message.

all of us are tempted whatever we’re going through please remember that you’re not in this thing alone you’re not the only person to have passed this way you’re in good company everybody feels Temptation and the pull of Temptation that’s even tugging at you right now in fact even the Saints of scripture struggled mly with sin look through the Old Testament and you’ll read about Noah’s drunkenness and Abraham’s ception in Moses temper and Elijah’s murmuring David’s sexual sin

and Jonah’s rebellious Spirit when you come to the New Testament you’ll see Peter’s denial and John Mark’s defection and Paul’s arguing with Barnabas all of these people had the same problems that we have every single person who’s ever walked the face of the Earth has been tempted and that even includes Jesus Christ my pastor had parked his car at a No Parking Zone in a large city because he was short of time and he couldn’t find a space with a meter so he put a note under the windshield wiper that

read I have circled the block 100 times if I don’t park here I’ll miss my appointment forgive us our trespasses when he returned to the car he found a citation from a police officer along with this note I have circled this block for 10 years if I don’t give you a ticket I’ll lose my job lead us not into temptation in the book of 1 Corinthians we have a verse of scripture that is so powerful when it comes to this issue that we all face so I’m going to put the verse up on the screen and I’d like you

to read it with me out loud no temptation has overtaken you except as common to man but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able but with the Temptation will also make the way of Escape that you may be able to Bear it here for our benefit is Paul’s answer to the question of Temptation and how to deal with it he begins in this verse with a reminder to us that temptation is the common EXP exp erience of every believer the common experience of Temptation he says there is no

temptation that is overtaken you except one that is common to man in other words everybody is tempted there isn’t such a thing as a Christian who’s never tempted you may have come to church today thinking because I’m preaching on Temptation I’m going to tell you how to get rid of it I can’t do that because it’s not possible every single person who’s ever walked the face of the Earth has been tempted and that even includes Jesus Christ for these are the words of Hebrews 4:15 for we do not have a high

priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin so Temptation will always be a part of of our life this is not a sermon about how to get rid of Temptation This is a sermon about how to deal with it how to be Overcomers when it comes to Temptation so I want to read the verse again this time through the paraphrase of Kenneth Taylor in the living Bible this is what he says as he deals with this verse but remember this the wrong desires that come into your life aren’t

anything new and different many of others have faced exactly the same problems before you so I don’t know if you take comfort in the fact that you’re not alone in this but you should we’re all in this boat together we’re all humans we all face Temptation nobody is exempt so I can be absolutely certain that this is not a sermon for you so you can share it with your friends this is a sermon for you for every one of you and for me as well the common experience of Temptation now here’s the second thing

you need to know from 1 Corinthians 10:13 that while temptation is a common experience it takes place in a controlled environment listen to what the Lord Jesus says through Paul but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able in other words Temptation itself is not evil we’ve already discovered that Jesus was tempted and if temptation is evil then we don’t have a savior because he was the sinless son of God and the sinless Son of God fa Temptation so to be tempted is not evil to yield to

temptation is evil everybody is tempted Martin Luther said it this way you cannot stop the birds from flying over your head but you sure can keep them from building a nest in your hair the Bible does not give us hope that we will ever be free of temptation but it does offer encouragement in order to fight it the way I see it the more you become mature in Jesus Christ the greater The Temptations will be someone has said that Satan does his fiercest fighting with those who were walking closest to the king we never get away

from it in fact the founder of the Seminary that I attended Dallas Theological Seminary was a man by the name of Lewisberry chaffer he was a very godly man and one day I read something in one of his books and this is what I read it has been well said that the spiritual Believers are honored with Warfare in the Frontline trenches there the fiercest pressure of the enemy is felt maybe you thought well if I get to a certain level of spiritual maturity then I won’t have to deal with temptation not if you get to a level of spiritual

maturity your Temptations will be more subtle but they will not be any less Fierce Temptation will follow us all the way until we get to heaven and we best learn how to deal with it if we’re going to be victorious it’s also true men and women that we should never blame God for Temptations God does not tempt us he may test us but he never tempts us here is the word of God from James chap 1 let no one say when he is tempted I am tempted by God for God cannot be tempted by evil nor does he himself tempt

anyone you see it’s the devil who tempts Us in fact twice in the Bible he’s called by that name the tempter in Matthew 4 and 1 Thessalonians 3 so if you’ve been a Christian for very long you know the tempter he’s visited you on occasion the Bible says he Roars like a lion going to and fro seeking whom he may devour that means he probably passed you sometime this week and me too but God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able what does that mean when God allows temptation to come into

your life or into mine he promises to limit the kind of test and the intensity of it he knows what our limit ations are he never allows us to be tempted beyond what we can bear now the third thing we learned from First Corinthians 10:13 is that not only is Temptation the common experience of all of us and it happens in a controlled environment but if you read the scripture carefully it also teaches us that there is a promise of certain escape the certain escape from Temptation notice 1 Corinthians 10:13 but with the Temptation God will make

the way of Escape that you may be able to Bear it now look up here for a moment whenever we are tempted God sees the Temptation from the beginning to the end he doesn’t enter Temptation the way we do wondering how it’s going to turn out he already knows where it’s going the moment the test begins the way out is always already available he doesn’t wait to see how we’re doing he provides a means of escape from that Temptation at the very beginning the way out of Temptation is always there in the midst of the