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I want to welcome you to our last day, day five of our Look Through Hebrews
chapter two. Some great verses today about how God can work in your everyday
life. This is really the end of his talk about angels and it also has something
to say to us about how you and I can face temptations in our daily life and see
victory.

Verse 16, 16 to 17 say this, "For surely it is not angels he helps, but
Abraham's descendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in
every way in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in
service to God and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. "
There's some powerful phrases here.

Jesus made atonement for our sins. He paid for our sins. There's a lot of depth
of meaning in that.

We're going to look at that more as we walk through the book of Hebrews. Jesus
is our merciful and faithful high priest. There is a depth of meaning there that
the writer of Hebrews is going to bring out again and again and again because
when I understand what it means for Jesus to be not only my Savior but also my
high priest, I understand what it means to live in a new kind of confidence, new
kind of boldness before God.

Now, what I'm saying is in these great verses, we're going to look at these more
later, so I'd like to hold those truths for some of the later chapters of
Hebrews and focus today on the last verse in this second chapter. Verse 18 says
this, "Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those
who are being tempted. " This is a verse we can all relate to because guess
what?

We all face temptation. We all face temptation. If you think, "Oh, I don't face
temptation anymore," you just fall into the temptation of pride thinking that
you don't face temptation anymore.

We all face temptation in this world and there are two phrases in this one verse
that will give you great power, the power of God as you face temptations in your
life, the power for victory. The first phrase is, "He was tempted," and the
second phrase is, "He is able. " If you can run those phrases through your mind
when you face temptation, it can give you a brand new perspective and a brand
new connection to the power of God.

He was tempted. Jesus was tempted and he is able. Jesus is able.

Let's break those phrases down. First, he was tempted. Jesus was tempted.

What does that mean for you and I as we face temptation? Well, it means I should
refuse to feel guilty. It means I should remember I'm not alone.

It means I should recognize the source of my temptation. First, it means I
should refuse to feel guilty. Jesus was tempted.

Jesus was tempted and he never felt a temptation. He is perfect. We're going to
see that in chapter four.

He never felt a temptation, but Jesus was tempted because he came into a human
body. He shared our humanity. One of the things he shared is being tempted.

So the fact that you are being tempted does not mean you should feel guilty and
if you fall into a temptation, you go to God, you ask for forgiveness, and you
let go of that guilt then too. It is not a sin to be tempted. Jesus was tempted
plenty of times, but he never sinned.

Jesus was tempted in every way. Jesus was tempted to be angry. Jesus was tempted
to materialism.

Jesus was tempted to let the emotions of his life run his life. Jesus was
tempted sexually. He was tempted in every way.

Now that last one makes you feel a little uncomfortable, doesn't it? He was
tempted sexually. The reason is most of us equate sexual temptation with sexual
sin.

We think just because I'm tempted, that means I've sinned. If you believe that,
you're falling into the trap of Satan. It is not a sin to be tempted.

And here's what Satan wants. Satan wants you to feel guilty just because you've
been tempted. And then you think, "Well, I feel guilty.

I've been tempted. I may as well go ahead and sin because I already feel guilty.
" You ever been in that trap?

Of course, all of us have. It's one of the favorite tricks of Satan. Remember,
Jesus was tempted.

He was tempted. He was tempted. He went through it.

So I refuse to feel guilty just because I'm being tempted. The second thing out
of this simple truth he was tempted is, "I remember I'm not alone. " Satan's
trick is to make you feel like you're the only one when you're being tempted.

"I'm all alone. No one else understands. No one else in the world has ever faced
this temptation.

" Well, I want to tell you, that's just not true. That's just not true. Everyone
else in your church is facing the same temptations.

Everyone else in your home is facing the same temptation. Everyone else in your
office is facing the same temptations. Everyone else in your carpool is facing
the same temptations.

And if you're listening to this in your car right now, don't look at each other,
but you know what I'm talking about. We're all facing the same temptations, the
same common temptations. They're talked about again and again in the Bible.

Passion and possessions and pride. Passions. When the physical is in charge.

When sex or drink or food begins to control my life. Or possessions. When things
become the reason for living.

When I want to get more and more to myself. Or pride. The temptation of power
over people.

My way at any cost. Passions and possessions and pride. Jesus faced those
temptations and he understands that you face those temptations.

In fact, did you notice it says Jesus suffered when he was tempted? Jesus didn't
go through temptation. Sometimes we think, "Well, he was tempted, but because
he's God, it wasn't tempting to him to be tempted.

" Well, it wasn't a temptation then. He was truly tempted. He suffered when he
was tempted.

Now, he wasn't tempted the same way we were. When Satan came and tempted him in
the desert, he tempted him to create a shortcut where he became Lord of all
without having to go through the cross. So his temptations were in one sense
different, but one in sense not.

They were still about pride. They were still about not trusting in the Father.
Jesus suffered when he was tempted.

He had to suffer through the temptation and trust in God. So he knows what it's
like. Because Jesus suffered, I can know that he understands.

He understands what I'm facing when I'm tempted. He was tempted. A third truth
that's behind this, the fact that he was tempted, is you need to recognize the
source when you're tempted.

With Jesus, we know how he was tempted. We're told in the Bible that Satan came
to him. Satan himself came to him.

Well, there's only one Satan and he can only be in one place at one time. His
demons can be other places. So Satan is certainly not tempting every one of us.

In fact, if you do a close study of the Bible, you see there are three major
sources of temptation, the world, the flesh, and the devil. The world is the
selfish system that's around us. The flesh is the selfishness that's within me.

And the devil is Satan who's brought it all into this world and sometimes comes
straight against me. Where's it coming from? With Jesus, it was straight from
Satan.

With us, it might be the world, the flesh, or the devil. But in the end, it's
all about the same thing, isn't it? It's about selfishness.

It's about me trusting me rather than me trusting God. And Jesus was tempted to
trust himself as just one part of the Godhead rather than trusting the Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, the whole of the Godhead. You and I are tempted to trust
ourselves as human beings.

I trust that I know what's best for myself. I trust that I know what's going to
make me happy. I trust that I know what I need right now.

And when Satan gets us caught up in that way of thinking, we're going to fall to
the temptation. So consider the source. Consider the source and reject the
temptation.

And you begin by saying these three words, "He was tempted," in your mind. But
don't forget the second phrase. Then you say to yourself, "He is able.

" He is able to help those who are being tempted. He's able to help me. When
you're tempted, choose God's way out.

Choose the "he is able" way out. Our way out, trusting in myself, that's a dead
end. That's a dead end.

Trusting in my own self-discipline, dead end. Never going to work. Might work
for a while, but it's not going to work forever.

The key is finding God's way out. So I can take the words, "I just couldn't help
myself" out of my vocabulary because he is able to help. God promises us that we
will never face a temptation that's greater than we can handle, ever, ever.

He is able to help. There is no such thing as an irresistible temptation. You
can know that by the truth of God's word.

So you might do this little spiritual exercise sometimes. When a temptation
comes your way, just stare it down and say to it, "We both know that Jesus is
able to help me. We both know that if I fall to you, it isn't going to be your
fault.

It's going to be my choice to not accept his help. " It's not irresistible
because he is able. It is not irresistible because he is able.

Now, I know it often feels irresistible. And one of the reasons temptations feel
irresistible is because we wait until we're halfway in or nine-tenths of the way
in to try to get ourselves out. Benjamin Franklin once said, "It's easier to
suppress the first desire than satisfy all that follow.

" That's not scripture, but there's some truth there. The point is you need a
strength outside of yourself to enable you to truly be yourself, to say no to
the temptation. And you need to call on that strength, that help, as soon as the
temptation comes.

Jesus is our example in this. That temptation that came from Satan. Satan
offered him the world.

He peeled to his pride. And Jesus resisted that temptation with a decision to
serve God, to trust in God's word. We are often, when it comes to our
temptation, we are our own worst enemy.

We've become focused on what we're not going to do more than focus on Jesus who
can help. And if you focus on what you're not going to do, you're focusing on
the temptation and you're going to get inevitably drawn into it. You instead
say, "He is able.

" You focus on the one who's going to help. How do I say no to temptation? I say
yes to God.

You don't fight your thoughts, you write your thoughts. Fighting feeds
temptation. Writing stars temptation.

How do I say no to the temptation? I say yes to God. If you're tempted to
adultery, you say yes to your marriage, God's plan.

You say yes to God. If you're tempted to think only of yourself in a situation,
you say yes to serving someone else. You say yes to God's plan.

If you're tempted to materialism, you say yes to giving. Instead of trying to
fight the temptation, no, no, no, no, no. Where can you start to say yes, yes,
yes?

He is able. Let's take a minute, pray together. Jesus, we all face temptation.

We've all fallen to temptation because we've all trusted in ourselves. It's the
easiest thing to do when we're tempted. We think we know what's best and we
don't call it pride in that moment, but it is.

It is. Lord, we want to live a different way. We don't want these temptations,
these sins to rule our lives.

We want to live your way. We want to live the life that you've given to us.
Lord, I pray for myself.

I pray for each of us that these two phrases would run through our mind when the
temptation comes. He was tempted. He is able.

Jesus, you understand. Jesus, you can give power. You can give power for
something different, a different choice.

So even right now, the temptation that I'm facing, you might pray this, Jesus,
even right now, the temptation that I'm facing, I choose to trust in you, the
fact that you are able. You are able. In your name, I trust you.

Amen. Join us next week. Chapter three talks to us about Jesus being better than
Moses and also focuses on the power of encouragement in your life.