Overcome Temptation in Your Life

Bishop T.D. Jakes speaks on TBN’s Praise about how the wilderness seasons in our life often lead to temptation, but how faith in God’s blessings can help us overcome!

God is saying to you today:
“You have the power to make a difference in the lives of others. “l am the vine; you are the branches. Remain in Me to bear much fruit. You are chosen and called for a purpose. Walk boldly in it.”

Are you being offered? What you already got?
Are you trying to find a peace that you already possess?
Are you, are you seeking a wisdom externally that you already have internally?
Isn’t it true that the very fact that you are hungry for?
It is an indication that you are functioning on a level to know that it exists.
Matthew 41 through 11.
I want you to be prepared to take some notes because I think I’m gonna say some things that are worth remembering.
I came too far not to say something that’s worth forever. I’m not the cheerleader type.
I, I got a, I got a word. I didn’t bring a happy meal. I brought you.
I brought you some filet mignon. Yeah, a chicken.
Yeah.
Then was Jesus led up to of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil and imagine that the spirit led him to be tempted of the devil.
The demons didn’t do it. The enemies didn’t do it. The haters didn’t do it.
The holy ghosts led him into a place of temptation of the devil in the wilderness.
Somebody say the wilderness and when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights. He was afterward and hungry.
And when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread.
But he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of then the devil take them up into a holy city and set him on a pinnacle of the devil and said on Him.
If thou be the Son of God cast thyself down for it, he’s written it.
He shall give his angels charge concerning the and in their hands, they shall bear the up, bless it any time thou shall pass th foot against the stone.
Jesus said on him. And he’s written again, thou shalt not tip the Lord thy God again, the devil taking him up into an exceeding high mountain to show him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and said unto him, all these things will I get the, I’ll give it to you.
I’ll give it to you. You can’t give me, I’ll give it to you.
Oh, you can’t get, I’ll give it to you. Can’t give me. I give it all.
See will I give, if thou shalt fall down and worship me, then say Jesus unto him.
Get the I get out of my face devil for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord.
Thy God and he all this shall thou then the devil is scampering on the way and behold the angels came and ministered unto him.
You may be seated in the presence of the Lord.
You can’t give me what’s already mine.
II, I wanted to spend a little time on this text because I think I think this text is quite profound.
It, it is profound in several uh several ways that are quite notable uh preceding the text, Jesus has reappeared after 18 years of obscurity.
We know nothing about the life of Jesus from the age of 18, from the age of 12 to the age of 30 18 years of total obscurity that are not shared with us in the text.
At 30 years old, the young man comes down to the Jordan river and runs into the premier pre late preacher of his day to the Baptist baptizing in the Jordan.
Nobody even knew who Jesus was.
And you know, when people don’t know who you are, they run over top of you trying to get to who they do know Jesus was just a face in the crowd.
And while John was baptizing in the Jordan river, he said, he looked out and saw him and said, behold the lamb of God who has taken away the of the world.
And in one flash, he went from obscurity to notoriety. One flash. That’s the amazing thing about life.
One thing can happen and turn everything around.
That’s why you have not never commit suicide because 11 thing can turn the whole thing around here.
One phone call, one, I don’t care how bad it is.
I don’t care what you’re going through right now. Just 11 thing can turn everything around.
John was about time and looked up and glanced and say, oh, look at there, there’s a lamb of cop and take away the sin of the world.
And they went where, where, where, where, where and God will make somebody point you out, you know, and uh he’ll make somebody put you out.
And, and all of a sudden the crowds parted and Jesus stepped from obscurity to notoriety to step right into his destiny, step right into his purpose, step right into it and came down to the river of Jordan.
And there he was baptized in the river of Jordan and then the holy, then the father collaborated and coordinated and defined who he was in an even greater way than John Could.
For the Bible said the heavens roll back and the father spoke from heaven.
This is my beloved son in whom I’m well pleased. Jesus is baptized in the Jordan river.
The heavens roll back. The father affirms him. The Holy Spirit descends like a dove.
And this is a great moment, great moment, awesome moment.
I mean, you know, I’ve seen some dedication service and consecration service, some coordination services, but never where the heavens roll back and the father spoke from heaven that, that kind of shuts everybody’s mouth when the heavens roll back and the father speaks from heaven and say, here, ye him, it makes you stick your chest.
I say, yeah, that’s right. He talked about me. It’s a great moment.
It’s a great moment. And, and then the oxymoron of the moment is that after a magnanimous moment, the spirit leads him, you would think maybe to the temple to preach, to the synagogue for coordination that you would think would lead him uh to see the palace or something to celebrate for lunch.
And no leads him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
This I can stay there all night. Yeah. Yeah. Spirit leading me to wilderness. Yeah.
And, um that, that, that I can be in God’s will and God’s will can be God’s will can be in the wilderness.
God’s will in the wilderness.
I, I, most of the time people get in the wilderness, they say, you know, how in the world could I get in the wilderness?
The devil did. There’s no, the devil didn’t do this. The spirit let him into the wilderness.
The will of God let him into the wilderness any time God’s will leads you into a wilderness.
It is for a divine purpose.
It is for the divine purpose.
And he brought him out there to be tempted by the devil. And, and, and, and, and this, this temptation.
Let’s, let’s use the word test, this test that he has in the wilderness where he has a confrontation uh with, with Satan is, is quite powerful.
I, I didn’t really get it uh until I was uh touring uh Jerusalem and I was touring, I was invited uh to Jerusalem.
I went on tour in Jerusalem and then I was a guest of the king of Jordan.
Uh after King Hussein died, I was invited uh to go over to make a presentation uh to Queen King Abdulla who has taken over the throne over in Jordan.
And so I went from Jerusalem, which is in Israel over into Jordan, uh which the relationships are strained and uh our God that went with us, uh He only went to the border and, and stopped him at the border.
There were all these M-16s and, and, and uh and I crossed on over to the other side, on the other side of the Jordan on over into Jordan.
And, and I was looking around at the, at the scenery and my wife was looking at the M-16s.
I was all caught up in what happened in the Bible and this spot and what happened in the Bible and that spot and she wouldn’t, she didn’t even crack her Bible.
She was just looking at these big M-16s everywhere and noticing that our God’s face was getting smaller and smaller and smaller in the rear mirror.
But I was, I was taken away because, because over as we crossed over, just, just not even a mile or so down the road, I looked over to the left and there’s this huge mountain and, and, and the driver told me that’s, that’s Mount Nemo.
And I said, oh my God, I got to go up there, my, get that close.
My girl, the devil is a lie.
I’m going up there so I can stand where Moses stood.
I needed me a wooden staff so I could go up there and stand on my and, and oh my God, it was amazing.
My wife didn’t like it, but it was amazing. I don’t know what’s wrong with her. Pray for her.
You know, there I am on Mount Nebo.
And when I got to Mount Nebo, you know, Mount Nebo is a place where Moses ended his journey.
That’s where everything came to conclusion and finality of Mount Nebo.
It’s kind of where Moses had flunked the test, you know, and he, he could see the promise land, but he couldn’t go into the promised land.
Mount Nebo. He could see it but he couldn’t go into.
That’s a torture thing to see something you’re forbidden to go into to have more vision than you have permission.
That’s a terrible thing. It’s a terrible thing.
It’s very frustrating to see it and not be, it actually breaks the law because generally anything you can see you can be.
And and, but God said my punishment to you is I’m gonna let you see it and not be it.
All of that happened on Mount. But anyway, that’s a distraction for me.
I got cleared away but there I’m, I’m on the top of Mount and, and to my, let me tell you what it look like.
Oh, up under the mountain at the, at the bottom of the mountain, everything is and dry and sandy and lifeless.
And, and then the Jordan river is right over here.
And then on the other side of the Jordan, everything is green and plush and beautiful.
And I could understand for the first time what it was like for the Children of Israel to get after going through all of those miles of dry mouth parching terrain to finally come to something green, a land that flows with milk and honey where the grapes were so big that the giants cared the grapes to be over to come to that place.
And there he was to see it and all they had to do was cross the Jordan to get to it.
It. But, but before they could cross the Jordan, there’s this dry, barren parch uh lifeless place in that place is the wilderness.
Wow. It is the wilderness that Israel was coming out of.
This is the wilderness that now Jesus is led into it.
Is this wilderness where Moses flu. The Test. Yeah.
Moses the Old Testament, Pastor Moses introduces us to, to the first time.
The understanding of the church in the Old Testament is pastor by Moses Ecclesia. Out ecclesia called out Ecclesia.
Moses called out the Children of Israel out of Egypt.
He was the pastor of the old church, the Old Testament Church and the pastor of the Old Testament Church was leading the Children of Israel from Egypt to the promised land.
But the pastor flunked the test at the last moment.
Wow, it is here at this place where Moses flunked the test just near to this place.
He flunked the test because you remember how he smoked the rock the first time and the waters came out of the rock and, and, and, and, and, and the Children of Israel drank it.
He was supposed to smite it the first time because the rock is the type of Christ and for him to smite it the first time was an indication that he was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruise for my iniquity for chastisement of my peace was upon him.
And with his stripes, we are healed. That was the first lick.
But when he smoked it the second time, he shattered the type because he implied that Christ would be crucified resh which, which broke the typology, but also in the picture of an apostle Children of Israel who believed in them, backed away.
And he Bruce talked about if he be crucified or fresh for you have taste it once of the heavenly gift to draw back again is to be so, so Moses is smiting the second time.
It’s not only a picture of a backsliding Israel who once embraces Christ and then backs away and crucifies him again.
It also shadows the typology to say that the first strike was not enough.
If I sat down right now, that’s enough word.
And, and so here he is here he is.
Jesus is getting ready to bring the New Testament Church into existence.
But he, but he has some old business on that has to be cleared up.
And so the first agenda coming up out of the Jordan is the spirit said, you gotta fix what Moses broke you.
You, you got to go to the place where the old pastor blew it and mend the tear to let the devil know that he has not gotten the victory.
This is a fresh look at an old text because all of a sudden, we begin to understand why the prerequisite for Christ starting his ministry now begins with the point that he now stitches, reconstructs, redefines, uh verifies validates and passes the test that Moses fluck.
So he goes into the wilderness and he fasts y’all with me so far.
And the Bible says that he was led into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
It doesn’t say that he was led into the wilderness to fast.
It said he was led into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
But the Bible says that he, after he fasted for 40 days, so he’s getting ready.
He’s getting ready. He said this is a great showdown at the ok Corral.
And I gotta get ready for it. He fast for 40 days. And after he fasted, he then being hungry.
Now, Satan comes to tempt him to tempt him. He’s been, he’s done that before.
He’s tempted the last pastor with frustration.
And to, he’s tempted the last pastor, not only with frustration, but to use his power to appease his frustration.
Now, if you miss that, you miss the whole night, he the temptation with Moses, he said, Moses, you got that rod that’s got all the power in and the people got on your, have gotten on your nerves.
Use your power to vent your frustration.
Mike the rock, bless my soul.
Moses smoked the rock the second time and that stopped him from getting to the promised land.
Here comes Jesus out into the wilderness and the first test he faced is about a rock. Wow.
Somebody saying back to the rock again, isn’t it funny how God will bring you full circle and make you confront the very thing that you had to confront before face the place of your failure.
He will bring you back to the rock again.
I’m gonna come down here and talk to you all a little bit.
If it’s ok, he bring them back to the rock.
And here, now Jesus has come to the rock and here is the issue.
The Bible says afterward, he hungered and, and the enemy said, uh if thou be the Son of God, use your power, use your power now to turn this stone to bread.
The last pastor turned it into water. One sweet. Yeah.
He said, I’m gonna augment the test a little bit for you.
I’m gonna, I’m, I’m gonna take it into the next level.
He says, I want you to turn it into stones.
I want you to take the stone and turn it into bread.
I want you to take the stone and turn it in the bread.
I want you to take the stall and, and, and Jesus said it is written, man should not live by bread alone.
That’s what he said. But by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, I, I started to preach that, you know, I started to preach it is written and, and, and I was gonna use the subject, throw, throw the book at him, but I won’t bother that tonight.
See be because because really what is going on, they’re both throwing the book at each other.
But that’s another thing. OK. See. See. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
This is a preacher’s message. I got my back on this. Yeah.
So, so if, if uh it is, it is written, man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
Now, now here’s the irony of it all.
If there’ll be the Son of God, turn this stone to bread.
I got hung up there because if, if I’ll be the son of God, first of all, if yes, that’ll be He is the son of God.
There ain’t no question about that.
He is the son of God and the devil knows he’s the son of God or he wouldn’t be tempting him.
The devil only attacks you when he doesn’t have you from Genesis to revelation.
You can show me nowhere in the Bible where Satan has ever fought.
What was his only church people do that?
Uh uh Satan is so united that Jesus said of Satan. Satan have a kingdom.
And if that kingdom be divided against itself, how shall it stand?
Even Jesus had to acknowledge that Satan is so unified that he never fights. What’s his?
So the very fact that he’s fighting him indicates that he understands who he is.
In fact, the very fact that he’s fighting you is an indication that he understands that’s good.
Are y’all listening you with me in the balcony?
You whi me everywhere, touch your neighbor and say the devil knows who I am.
The devil knows who I am. The devil knows, you know. Yeah.
Yeah, that I know that the devil have intelligence because later in the book, you will you will see where, where the demon spoke out of a man and said, Paul.
I know and Jesus, I know. But who are you?
You ought to do something that lets the devil know who you are or somebody who got, that makes some noise in this foot.
Yeah. Yeah. Looking for, for, yeah, he knows me. Yeah. Yeah.
We, we, we, we’ve been at it a few times. He knows me.
I, I did enough to be on his radar. Glory to God.
You, you can’t be sitting there with low self esteem.
You must be somebody for him to be fighting you like he’s fighting you.
You must have a destiny and a purpose and a calling and a gift over your life.
Somebody shout I oh you didn’t know it.
But when you said I am, you were calling God by his name. Who shall I say? Shit, man.
So oh I feel it.
Something that’s gonna happen in here tonight. Can you feel that word?
Just building up, just building up, just building up? Somebody’s gonna get drenched in the word of God.
They’re gonna get saturated in the word of God. You gonna go home speak the word of God tonight.
Every yoke is gonna be broken. Every demon is gonna have to move out of your way.
That storm that’s in your life. You will speak to it and say peace be still.
But wait a minute, sit on.
I ain’t got to the point yet. I mean, this is his first point.
He says, so see, see, oh, I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m caught up in this thing about this, this stone.
If, if thou be the Son of God, turn this stone in the bread and Jesus threw the book at him and it is, it is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God, that was the first clue to me that something was going on because he tempted Him to turn the stone to bread if he was the Son of God.
But if you know your Bible, you know that the Son of God is bred, that’s it.
Because I believe the book said, ah, your father did eat manna in the wilderness.
But I am the true bread that come down out of heaven.
If any man eat of this bread, he shall never perish again. So, what are you doing? Offering me?
That’s what are you doing? Offering me?
You can’t give me, you, you come in my life like you gonna add something to me.
How you gonna add something to me? How you gonna offer me what I already am? Do you think?
I don’t know that I am the bread that fell down out of heaven. Do you not understand that?
I’m the guy that took the bread and said, take, eat. This is my body that was broken. For you.
Don’t you understand? At the Passover?
I told you my body is bread and how can you me with what I tell somebody, tell me you can’t give me what I already done.
So he says, he says, so I’m just talking to you a little bit.
Let’s see. So he says, he says, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Now he is offering him the bread and Jesus is hungry.
There’s no doubt about that but he is offering him what he already is. No.
Yeah. The thing that you hunger for you already got.
If you hunger for intimacy, you have to be an intimate person to be hungry for.
If you hunger for love, you have to be a loving person to be hungry for it.
Because people who are not loving don’t even know what you’re talking about.
They can’t understand what you’re not satisfied about.
They don’t even understand what you are looking for because you have to be it to hunger for it.
If you hunger for excellence, it’s only because you are excellent because only excellent people.
Oh y’all ain’t gonna talk to me tonight. Glory to God.
Look at somebody say I am that what I’m looking for is somebody who is a reflection of what I already am.
Somebody who functions on the level that I function. Somebody who needs what I need and wants what I want.
Somebody who has the same standards that I have and the very fact that I’m hungry for it is a sign that I am that if I didn’t have that mentality, I wouldn’t want that.
It’s, oh my gosh. Oh my God.
And do you not know the devil is still trying to get bread, people to hook up with stones?
Yeah. Don’t say nothing because you might have married a stone and you can’t say nothing about it.
Just sit there and be just as cool as you can.
I’m gonna get you out of this in a minute and spend the next 15 years of your life trying to turn a stone.
You was a bread person.
You wanted bread when you got them, you knew it was bread you needed, you knew you didn’t quite see it in them.
But all of these years you’ve been trying to turn a stone and, and when red people hook up with stone people, they don’t communicate well because what the bread person is trying to do is trying to get something out of you that’s not in you.
And the person is looking back and saying what’s wrong, what’s wrong?
You expect too much. You ought to be satisfied for me to just sit here.
See, because in appearance, the stone and the bread look alike is this.
Have you ever got with somebody that appeared to be something that, that when you really try to really get down to it, I’m not gonna bother, I’m not gonna bother.
I’m a somebody in here ought to say man II I, if you’re afraid to say amen, you can, you can tweet me and amen just at Bishop Ja because I know you don’t want them to know that I’m preaching your message tonight.
But you act like you get that tape for somebody at work and then get home and get in your car and fall out because I don’t care how hungry you are.
You can’t get bread out of stony.
People ain’t no need in trying to turn it into something that it ain’t.
It is what it is.
Don’t you be trying to use your power to deceive yourself in the thinking that just because it’s shaped like bread that it tastes like bread, don’t break your teeth.
How many will make a commitment that you are through breaking your teeth on hard stuff, through deceiving yourself into thinking that rocks are bred through, draining your power trying to get the stone to be something that it is not.
And all of the energy that you’re putting into trying to make something be that it is not.
You should have put into discovering what God put in. You becomes a very fight.
That’s your hunger for it is a sign that you are in only excellent people hunger for excellence only why as people hunger for wisdom, I can tell the level of a preacher by how well they receive the word because you know, just because you wear a crazy shirt, don’t mean you’re a preacher.
But when you start preaching the word to a real preacher, something in him will ignite down in his soul.
Something in her will start leaping up because lack knows, lack deep nose, deep, rich knows rich class knows class, anointing nose anointing and ain’t no way I’m going home with rocks when I can have some bread, touch your neighbor and say look at me, I am bread.
I am nutrition. I am sustenance.
Whoever gets me gonna be better off than they were before I got something to offer.
I’m not faking the fuck. I got something about me that whoever gets this ain’t gonna get back.
So he says to let me hurry on.
I don’t wanna take too long to you know, he says now he takes him up to a high place in the temple in the synagogue and says now if, if you fall off this temple, cast yourself down for it is written, see, they’re throwing the book at each other.
Yeah. Somebody gonna go preaching that I already know, pay your, pay your tax now and, and he says it is written that the angels will be the less you dash your foot against the stone.
OK? And Jesus said it is written, they throw in the book back and forth that thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God.
Isn’t that what he said? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
And, and so he I’m not gonna use my power to, to prove who I am because when you know who you are, you don’t have to prove what you got.
WW When you know, see, let, let me help you all out with this.
When, when you see these preachers banging on the pulpit talking about how the pastor of this church, they’re not when you see these men be on the, I’m the man at his house, his art.
When you are something, you don’t have to convince anybody of what you are.
When you walked in the room, everything in that, oh, y’all ain’t helping me preach this tonight sort of.
Then he says, he says, uh enough of this angel stuff and, and, and he says, I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do.
He’s, he said, come on up here. He said, come on up here. Take a look.
He said, go on up here, I’ll live here. He said, you see all of that.
He said, all the kingdoms of the world will I give you if you bow down and worship me?
And Jesus said, this is not no good deal, don’t you know the earth is the Lord’s the fullness of and the world and they that dwell there in all the, in, in all three cases, the enemy didn’t.
The Bible say the kingdoms of this world should be the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ.
All three cases, the enemy was offering him what do you already have?
What does that mean to you? Wow.
Are you being offered? What you already got?
Are you trying to find a peace that you already possess?
Are you, are you seeking a wisdom externally that you already have internally?
Isn’t it true that the very fact that you are hungry for?
It is an indication that you are functioning on a level to know that it exists.
Yeah.
And, and, and, and one more thing I wanna say this, this, this talk you gave about the angels that, that, that Jesus had to throw himself down off the temple for the angels to come, the angles.
We’re coming. Anyway, the touch somebody and tell them the angels are coming.
Anyway, I came, I actually been coming from Dallas this time.
I flew from New York. I’ve been on the plane all day flying from New York to get here to tell you the angels are coming.
The angels are coming. No, no.
Wait, wait, wait, I want you, I want you to understand.
This is not the word for the happy people. This is for the hungry people.
This is for the weary, tired at my witch end, out of breath, tired. Can’t take any more.
If something don’t break through in a minute, I’m gonna lose my mind. People.
This is for the people that’s been in the wilderness, been through hell and high water.
Your backs been up against the wall. You’ve been wondering Lord, how long do I have to go through this?
Is there anybody in here like that if you are in here like that make some noise right now.