This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome to week three, day four of our look through the book of
Matthew. We're taking a look at both chapters three and four this week, the
temptation of Jesus the last few days. Remember yesterday, we heard Satan's
temptation.

Why don't you tell these stones to become bread? Today we're going to hear the
answer that Jesus had to give. And as we hear the answer and the other
temptations that Satan brings his way, we learn some more things about how you
and I can face temptation.

Jesus answered Satan, it is written, man does not live on bread alone, but on
every word that comes from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy
city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you're the son of
God, he said, throw yourself down.

For it's written, he will command his angels concerning you and they will lift
you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
Jesus answered him, it's also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test.
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the
kingdoms of the world and their splendor.

All this I will give you, he said, if you will bow down and worship me. Jesus
said to him, away from me, Satan. For it is written, worship the Lord your God
and serve him only.

Then the devil left him and angels came and attended him. So what did we learn
from the story of Jesus facing temptation that has to do with the story of how
I'm going to face temptation, how you're going to face temptation? Well, yesterday we
talked about the truths that you gotta realize is not a sin to be tempted.

Even Jesus was tempted. And also you have to take temptation personally. Where's
it coming from?

It's coming from Satan. So you don't resist the temptation, you resist the
tempter. Number three, you learn in these temptations that Satan sent Jesus his
way.

Number three, you recognize that there is no new temptation. There's no new
temptation. In fact, the temptations, they all fit into the world's value system
that we see around us.

The three basic temptations, you can read about them in 1 John, are the lust of
the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The lust of the flesh,
the pleasures of life, the lust of the eyes, the possessions of life, and the
pride of life. That's all about power or position in life.

The lust of the flesh, that's hedonism. The lust of the eyes, that's
materialism. The pride of life, that's narcissism.

In all of these temptations, the same theme that's been there from the very
beginning, literally from the very beginning. You can see these same three in
the first temptation in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis chapter three, six, Adam
and Eve are tempted.

It is good for food, that's the lust of the flesh. It's pleasing to the eye,
that's the lust of the eyes. And you'll become like God.

That's the pride of life. And you see these same three temptations reflected in
how Satan tempts Jesus here. He knows what works.

In fact, he doesn't have any other tools. So he says, turn stones to bread.
Jesus is hungry.

Turn these stones to bread and you can eat right away. That's the lust of the
flesh. Then he says, all these things I will give you.

That's the lust of the eyes. Then he says, jump off this peak and I'll give you
all the kingdoms of the world. I will give you everything you've ever wanted.

That's the pride of life. Somehow you can short circuit things. You don't have
to go to the cross, he's almost tempting him.

And I'll just give you the world now. Now there's genuine temptation here. We
could spend a long time theologically talking about the fact that the
temptations that Satan sent Jesus' way, they're not fake, they're real.

Satan's the prince of this world. He was genuinely offering him something. But
Jesus said, no, you worship the Lord.

That's what you do. This fact that there's no new temptation, that's important
for us to realize because there is something about our human nature that loves
to think that our temptations are unique. No one has ever faced the kind of
pressures that I'm facing.

I mean, I know other people could face their temptations, but the pressures I'm
facing, no one's ever faced this. Well, don't flatter yourself. You're just not
that creative.

There's nothing new under the sun. We are facing the same temptations that
people faced thousands of years ago. People used to covet their neighbor's
horse.

Now it's our neighbor's Porsche. It's the same temptation. Some of the words
have changed.

Some of the venues have changed, but the temptation is the same. And there's
something good about recognizing there's no temptation except what is common to
man. We're all facing the same things.

We all have the same solutions. And that gets to number four. The fourth thing
that we are reminded of in Jesus facing temptation is God has always provided
and will always provide a way out.

1 Corinthians 10 13 says, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to
man, and God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can
bear. But when you're tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can
stand up under it.

" Now, always provide a way out? Yes, always. Let me emphasize it, always.

It's God's promise. He will do this. You can take the phrase, "I just couldn't
help myself" out of your vocabulary.

God's promise here, and God's promise in the example of Jesus, is that you'll
never face a greater temptation than you can handle, never. For the Christian,
there is no such thing as an irresistible temptation. Now, I'm not talking about
before you come to know Christ.

Before you come to know Christ, Satan can tempt you with anything and everything
he wants. There's many irresistible temptations, but in Christ, there is no such
thing as an irresistible temptation. And that is a powerful truth.

The moment you stop looking at the temptation and you start looking for the
escape, that temptation loses its power. You stop looking at the temptation, and
you start looking for the escape. You're not going to find any hope in the
temptation, so stop looking at it and start looking for the escape.

Now, maybe you say, "Hey, I've looked for God's way out. I can't find it. " Is
he hiding it?

No, he actually gives us in the Bible specific directions for dealing with the
types of temptations that we talked about earlier. When you're tempted by
pleasure, God's way out is passion for the things of God. You flee youthful
lust, and you pursue, the Bible says, righteousness, faith, love, and peace with
those who call the Lord from a pure heart.

So you run towards what God has. You don't just sit in your seat trying to
resist the temptation on your own. No, you run towards with passion what God has
for you in your life when you're tempted by pleasure.

When you're tempted by possessions, God's way out is thanks and giving, those
two things. You thank God for what you have, and you give to others out of what
you have. That's what you do out of that one.

When you're tempted by pride, the Bible says again and again, how do you handle
that when you're tempted by pride? God's way out is to serve. You don't just sit
there and try to fight the pride mentally.

No, you think God's tempting me to be a prideful, full of ego person. Who could
I serve today? Am I being overwhelmed by sense of pridefulness right now?

I need to look for somebody to serve. Here's the bottom line in all of this. The
best way to learn to say no to temptation is to begin to say yes to God.

Forget about saying no to the temptation. Satan wants to get you in a tug of war
where he's going to win every time 'cause he's more spiritually powerful. What do
you do?

You drop the rope. You turn to God. You say yes to God.

So you're tempted to adultery. You say yes to your marriage like you never have
before. Throw yourself into that marriage.

You're tempted to think only of yourself in a situation. You say yes to helping
somebody else. You're tempted to find your happiness in things.

You say yes to the real joy of giving something away. And Jesus here teaches us
in the way that he dealt with Satan, he teaches us the key to finding the
strength for God's way out. You use God's word.

God's way out, those ways that I just shared with you, they're found in God's
word. And if you have a temptation that's hitting you again and again, you need
to memorize some verses from the Bible about God's way out for that temptation.
Jesus had, Jesus had memorized verses.

Now I know, he wrote the Bible in one sense, but he's also God and man. He had
to memorize those verses that he quoted back to Satan. It is written, worship
the Lord your God and serve him only.

Each time Satan tempted him, Jesus had a verse for that temptation. And Satan
even tried to twist God's word and use it against him, but Jesus said, no, no,
you're not getting me with that one, Satan. I know it too well.

Here's what God's word says. It's so simple, this idea of God's word, when it
comes to temptation, that I'm afraid sometimes we try to make it work while
ignoring this most powerful of all truths to get out of the temptation. You
can't do it on your own strength.

You need God's strength. You can't do it on your own word. You need God's word
in your life.

You need God's power in your life. When Jesus was tempted, he turned to the
Bible. He countered Satan's invitations with God's truth.

So how do you need to do that? What verse do you need to memorize? Now, I just
want to remind you, because it says here at the very beginning that the Spirit
led Jesus out to be tempted like this.

Why would that happen? I want to remind you that in every temptation, there's
also a potential positive. God uses temptation to teach us to obey him.

God never tempts us. Bible's very clear about this. Literally says, God does not
tempt.

He never tempts us to do the wrong thing. But God is able to use the temptations
that the evil one means to harm us to do good in our lives. Now, how does he do
that?

Every temptation provides a choice. I can choose in that temptation to follow
God, and when I do that, I grow. I get closer to God.

Character is built by making good choices. And the only way to make good
choices, oftentimes, is to be presented with bad choices. Every temptation is
the opportunity to make a bad choice, but it's also the opportunity to make a
good choice to follow him.

If you think about God's way out, just take a minute to talk to the one who
provides that way out. Would you pray with me? Our Father, you see our hearts.

You see how much our emotions get caught up in our temptations. And we feel that
the wrong thing to do is the right thing to do. And we feel sometimes that
following that is what's going to make me happy.

But our experience tells us that's not true. Maybe for a moment, but in the end,
we feel further from you. In the end, it begins to rip up our life, our
relationships, our business.

So Father, we trust you. We want to learn to trust you like never before. We trust
you to provide the way out.

We trust you to grow us as we say yes to you. Lord, I pray specifically for me,
for every one of us, that you'd help us to begin to think differently. From this
day on, to stop resisting the temptation, and to resist the evil one.

From this day on, to stop focusing on the temptation, and to instead focus on
the way out. To stop saying no, no, no to the temptation, and instead look for
the way that we can say yes to you. We pray this together, in Jesus' name, amen.

Well, tomorrow we're going to see Jesus calling his first disciples, and we're
going to learn some things about real commitment.