How Can I Overcome Temptation?

“the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. (vv. 12–14)”
― Dr. David Jeremiah, Where Do We Go from Here?: How Tomorrow’s Prophecies Foreshadow Today’s Problems

Over and over again, both in the biblical stories that I have read and in the stories of others outside the Bible, I have found that we are most prone to temptation, not when we’re at our lowest moment, but we’re at our highest moment.
The Bible says if you think you stand, be careful that you don’t fall.
Proverbs 16, 18 puts it this way. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall.
Pride is Satan’s number one sin.
Pride to get you in trouble about as much as anything that you allow into your life.
Don’t start reading your own press coverage is, don’t start thinking you’re something special.
Don’t listen too much to the good things people say about you, thank God for him and keep on moving because he’s gonna send somebody tomorrow to tell you how bad you are.
Keep even, don’t get too high, don’t get too low except the fact of your humanity.
Thank God for the blessings he’s brought into your life.
But don’t get to thinking about yourself that you’re something special because as soon as you get up on that mountain, you’re about to tumble and that is the record of the word of God and that is the history of mankind introducing Dr David Jeremiah’s newest 365 day devotional every day with Jesus inside this beautiful leather soft volume, you’ll find 365 daily inspirational readings from Dr Jeremiah every day with Jesus is yours in appreciation of your gift of any amount in support of this program.
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How can I be sure of my salvation?
How can I overcome temptation? How can I get victory over worry?
How can I find forgiveness? Is there only one way to God?
Why do Christians have so many problems? Why don’t my prayers get answered?
Is there a sin? God cannot forgive? What is faith?
What is the greatest commandment?
How can I overcome temptation?
That question reminds me of something, the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde once said, he said out loud, what a lot of people secretly think?
He said I can resist anything but temptation.
That’s a humorous statement that reflects a serious challenge we all face.
How to say no to temptation or to put it in the Bible’s practical terms.
What is the way of escape? Hello, I’m David Jeremiah.
Resisting temptation is easier when we understand its source and how to defeat it.
In my series 10 questions Christians are asking today’s message will provide a biblical strategy for achieving the victory.
You desire my messages called, how can I overcome temptation?
And it’s coming up on today’s edition of turning point, let God turn your question marks into exclamation points with Dr David Jeremiah’s book 10 questions Christians are asking inside Dr Jeremiah has gathered 10 spiritual questions he has found weighing on believers hearts and minds during his lifetime of ministry questions that you may have to like, how can I be sure of my salvation?
Is there sin God cannot forgive?
Why don’t my prayers get answered and more then take your study deeper and reflect on discussion questions at the back of each chapter on your own or in a group.
10 questions Christians are asking is yours in appreciation when you support this program with a gift of any amount.
And if you give $50 or more, Dr Jeremiah will, I’ll send you the 10 questions Christians are asking study set inside.
You’ll find Dr Jeremiah’s book and his current teaching series on Your Choice of CD or DVD album.
Plus a 10 questions. Christians are asking bookmark only available in this study set, replace your doubts with confidence, order.
This book and study set. When you support the ministry of turning point today, A 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 First Corinthians, we have a verse of scripture that is so powerful when it comes to this issue that we all face.
So I’m gonna 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 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 experience of every believer, the common experience of temptation.
He says there is no temptation that has 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, I’m temptation.
I’m gonna 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 to be like Christ in this world, we must more or less be tempted because he was tempted.
Rick Warren says in one of his sermons that since God intends to make you like Jesus, he will take you through the same experience as Jesus went through.
That includes loneliness, temptation, stress, criticism, rejection, and a lot of other problems.
So temptation will always be a part 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 overcome. Ear’s 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 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 everyone of you and for me as well, the common experience of temptation.
Now, here’s the second thing you need to know from first Corinthians 1013 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 face 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 are 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 Lewis Sperry Chafer.
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.
They’re 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 gonna 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 Chapter one.
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 four and first Thessalonians three.
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 limitations are.
He never allows us to be tempted beyond what we can bear.
Remember, temptation is not based upon what you think you can handle, but on what God knows you can handle.
Paul says several times in his writings that in every situation that we find ourselves as followers of Christ, we are never without the delivering power of the Almighty.
Now, the third thing we learn 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 first Corinthians 1013.
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.
I’ve talked to hundreds of people about this subject and almost every time I hear this story, Dr Jeremiah, there was a moment when I really knew this was wrong and I almost walked away from it but I didn’t.
And now look what’s happened. I read a story this week about the war that took place in Bosnia in the late 1990s that was made famous by the escape of Scott O’Grady.
The downed American flyer evaded capture for days in enemy territory until rescue helicopters found him.
And when the helicopters landed in the clearing near where o’grady was hiding, he did not relax in the brush and wait for the pilot to come and get him.
He shook off his fatigue, fought through the bushes, drew his weapon out and with every ounce of energy he had, he ran to the escape that had been provided for him.
His actions parallel the engagement. God requires of us in spiritual warfare.
We should not assume that because God promises to provide a way out of temptation that we have no role in our own rescue.
God provides the way but we have to take the way.
So when you’re in the midst of temptation, and I’m not going to describe any particular temptation today because it runs the gamut of everything you and I face from one day to the next.
There will always be a moment in that temptation where God has provided for you a way out.
It is not that the way is not provided.
It is the fact that we do not take that way when it is provided.
So in first Corinthians 10 13, we learned these three things that you’re not alone in your temptation.
It’s a common experience. Temptation will never be too much.
God will never allow that to happen and He will always provide a way for you to be victorious over it if you will look for it.
Now, having said those things, I want to kind of finish this up with some practical principles that come not only from first Corinthians, but from other places in the Bible.
I want to give you as much ammunition to be victorious over temptation as I can pack into the few moments that I have in front of you today.
So here goes recognize the possibility of it.
Therefore, let him who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall.
In other words, right before the verse on temptation, we are given a principle and that principle is be careful of an arrogant attitude about your own invulnerability.
The Bible says, when you think you stand, then you’re the most vulnerable.
And you know, the Bible also gives us some illustrations of people who are at a pinnacle of success.
And in that moment, fell into temptation. Proverbs 16 18 puts it this way.
Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall.
Pride is Satan’s number one sin prior to get you in trouble about as much as anything that you allow into your life.
Because as soon as you get up on that mountain, you’re about to tumble and that is the record of the word of God and that is the history of mankind.
Number two, did you know that you should pray about temptation before it ever happens?
Request help in advance of temptation?
I found two scriptures in the New Testament that tell us that you should pray about temptation before it ever happens.
First ones in the Lord’s prayer.
Have you ever read that and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
We should pray every day about temptation in a devotional time.
Lord, today I’m gonna face something that the enemy is going to throw in my way to try to get me off course.
Please help me to be sensitive to it and to see it coming and to be victorious over it.
And then in Matthew, we’re told to watch and pray that you what enter not into temptation, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
And we can all say an amen to that. So pray about this in your devotional time.
The reason many of us fail in battle is because we wait for the crisis to get spiritually involved.
And let me just say one other thing about this.
And I’ve told young people this ever since I was a youth pastor back in my first days out of seminary, this might sound a little bit crude to you.
But it gets the point across the place to decide what you believe about premarital sex is not in the steamy backseat of a car.
You better have that conviction in your heart long before you get yourself into any situation where compromise is a possibility.
Decide what you believe about the important things of life before the crisis comes.
Pray about temptation before it ever happens. Ask God to give you victory over the temptation.
You don’t even know what it is yet. And that’s what the scripture says.
Recognise the possibility of it, request help in advance of it.
And here’s one I love, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
James 47 says therefore submit to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
Do you remember how Jesus resisted the devil?
He quoted scripture to him and the Bible says when he got done, Satan left him resist the devil and he will flee from you.
But notice, submit to God and resist the devil and he will flee from the Bible.
Doesn’t say that this is a passive thing we’re dealing with were to be actively involved in dealing with temptation.
And then notice number four, retreat from certain kinds of temptation. What does that mean?
That means that the Lord Jesus has through the Holy Spirit.
Given us some instruction in his book about certain kinds of temptation.
There are three things in the Bible that we are told to run away from.
One of them is immorality, the other is greed and the other one is idolatry.
Never try to fight idolatry, immorality or greed.
Get as far away from it as you can you say, why is that?
Because those sins particularly seem to have an incredible power over humans.
And when you try, especially if you do it in your own strength to stand up against it.
If you don’t run from it, you will be victimized by it. Don’t say well, that’s cowardly.
I’m gonna stand and fight. Well, I’m telling you what the word of God says.
Don’t mess with those three sins. Get as far away from I told young people years ago.
The best way to fight immorality is the finest pair of Adidas you can buy and then the Bible tells us you should remove any means of sin far from you.
Proverbs 4 14 says, do not enter the path of the wicked, do not walk in the way of evil.
Avoid it, don’t travel on it, turn away from it and pass on.
Romans 13 14 says put on the Lord Jesus Christ, make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lust, men and women instead of setting ourselves up for failure.
We should get rid of the things in our lives that cause us to be defeated.
One of my favorite stories that I’ve told you.
I think once before is about a young man who was trying to get rid of his addiction to donuts.
He was overweight and he knew that he needed to lose weight and he could just scarf down donuts like crazy 567 at a time.
So he finally got away from the donut shop, got away from donuts and he lost some weight and he was doing a really great one day, he showed up at work and he had a donut and his buddy said to him, what’s going on, man?
I thought you gave that up.
He said, well, I woke up this morning and I had a real temptation for a donut.
So I prayed to the Lord and I said to the Lord, if the parking place right in front of the donut shop is open, when I drive by, I’ll know it’s alright for me to have a donut.
And he said sure enough, the 11th time around the block there it was.
Now you see what I’m saying? I mean, we all get that, don’t we? You say?
Well, why was he tempted? Well, first of all, don’t drive by the donut shop or don’t drive by the porn shop or don’t go where temptation will find.
You use a little common sense and protect yourself against the things that you find yourself vulnerable to.
Let me just cut right to the end of all of this and tell you that you need to refocus your life.
What I’ve learned is this is that a temptation must be overcome by a passion greater than the temptation itself.
Someone has said it’s the dog principle.
If you’ve ever trained a dog to obey, you will know this scene.
A bit of meat or bread is placed on the floor near the dog and the master says no, which the dog knows means that he must not touch it.
The dog will usually take his eyes off of the food because the temptation to disobey would be too great and instead he will fix his eyes on the master’s face.
That’s the lesson of the dog always look to the master’s face.
May I say to you especially the man I know who perhaps faced this kind of temptation that’s been in the background of this message not only should you keep the face of your heavenly master in front of you.
Keep the face of your bride in front of you, keep the pictures of your Children and your grandchildren in front of you and ask yourself really?
Is it worth ruining everything in my life for a moment of pleasure?
When in doing it, I will deny the master who I love.
My friends and my family who look to me for an example.
Bible says, we don’t have to be victimized by temptation Almighty God in this book.
And I’m just giving you the highlights of it. He’s given us so much truth to help us be victorious.
And the Bible says, we have not because we ask not.
Perhaps it’s better said we have not because we do not. God wants us to be victorious.
And I know in your heart you want to be victorious.
And maybe today, I’ve said something that will help you deal with some particular issue in your life.
I pray to God that I have. Here’s, here’s the final bottom line.
Truth be not hearers of the word, but doers of the word don’t just come and say, yeah, Dr Jeremiah made sense.
He said some good stuff, but I said something that was particularly for you and you don’t do it.
I can’t make you do anything.
I can just tell you this is God’s holy book given to us for holiness and righteousness.
And if we follow it. We will find joy in obedience.
If we disregard it, we’re headed back into the cavern of temptation and sin.
Dr Jeremiah will return in a moment with one more inspirational word to close today’s program right after this.
Let God turn your question marks into exclamation points with Dr David Jeremiah’s book 10 questions Christians are asking inside Dr Jeremiah has gathered 10 spiritual questions he has found weighing on believers hearts and minds during his lifetime of ministry questions that you may have to like, how can I overcome temptation?
Is there only one way to God?
What is faith and more then take your study deeper and reflect on discussion questions at the back of each chapter on your own or in a group.
10 questions Christians are asking is yours in appreciation when you support this program with a gift of any amount.
And if you give $50 or more, Dr Jeremiah will send you the 10 questions Christians are asking study set inside.
You’ll find Dr Jeremiah’s book and his current teaching series on Your Choice of CD or DVD album plus a 10 questions Christians are asking bookmark only available in this study set, replace your doubts with confidence, order this book and study set when you support the ministry of turning point today.
And now with one last word for today’s program here is Dr Jeremiah.
Something happens when we meet Jesus Christ, our desires and our values change we have new interests and new desires.
And for the first time in life, we want to choose the right thing. We want to resist temptation.
And that’s because we are a new creation in Christ.
The first step in conquering temptation is being born again through faith in Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit will give you new desires and new power to make godly choices.
I would like to send you two of our turning point resources that will help you know Christ and grow in him.
One is a booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point and the other is our monthly devotional magazine called Turning Points.
They have been a great encouragement to many people and will gladly send them both to you completely free of charge.
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Go to David Jeremiah dot org slash bible strong today who is seated on the throne of your life.
It’s either you or God. If it’s you, you’re gonna worry a lot.
But if you can learn how over the long haul to put your life in the hands of Almighty God, that’s the first step.
Join us next time for Dr Jeremiah’s message.
How can I get victory over worried here on turning point?