Temptation: The Battle For Your Life

Real Life presents the Jack Kibb's podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. Well listen, temptation is a part of your life. It's a part of our life's battle and in a moment we're going to be opening of our Bibles and finding out how do we deal with temptation and what does God's words say about it? You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to Jack Kibb's dot com slash podcast. Today if this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us, that's like saying amen or yes, then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Kibb's. Well church, the fact of the matter is regarding temptation that you and I can be rest assured of this very fact that if you are breathing, you are subject to temptation. In fact, the truth is being alive in this world is something that the enemy will not let go unchecked. That's right. You and I have an enemy. The Bible teaches and not only does the Bible teach, but from the very words of Jesus himself that he had come to show us how to deal with the wicked one, how to deal with the temptations that Satan launches at our lives. So a lot of people misunderstand temptation. What is it? Temptation, remember this, please, now is not sin. Temptation would be the package that the sin is wrapped in. Temptation is delivered, you know, every day we seem to be getting a package at our front door from Amazon, right? Well, what's going on? I didn't order the package. I ordered what's inside. And so what Satan does is that he orders up a temptation that is tailor made for you, tailor made for me. Now I believe Satan does not know our thoughts. I don't believe that Satan can read our minds. I just think that he's very, very smart. He's been around a long time. And I think that humans are pretty predictable. So what happens is he delivers to us sin wrapped in temptation. For you and I to experience the temptation is not to sin, to give into the temptation is the sin. So what do we do about that? When it happens and it's going to happen today in your life, my life, we take our thoughts captive. We arrest our thoughts and we get them under control by the very word of God. That's why here on real life, we constantly give you the word of God. This is how we fight the spiritual life of spiritual warfare. For example, listen to this, brilliant, can I put it this way? Brilliant, military, tactic given by Commander Paul the Apostle, if you don't mind me saying so. He said that for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments in every high thing. Imagine that, that it sculpts itself against the knowledge of God. Here it comes, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. That's 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 4 through 5, epic, epic, passage of Scripture for our warfare. So we need to remember this. You are not some sort of subterranean Christian because you're being tempted. In fact, I would like to believe that the temptations that come against you and me have come at great skill and great plan by the wicked one. Why? Because I want to believe that if Satan is seeking to tempt me, he's trying to destroy me. Why would he want to destroy me? I want to believe because my walk with Jesus in this world is a threat to him. He doesn't want me to succeed. He doesn't want me to draw closer to Jesus. And so, he ships that package, delivers it into my eyes or my ears or my thoughts by temptation, wrapping it up. The sin is wrapped up. It's in that temptation package and it shouldn't surprise us because guess what? The first temptation that ever happened, the first launch as a war of one of his arrows to deliver that package to a place in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve. He came and he saw that God loved Adam and Eve and Adam and Eve loved God and Satan hated that. And so, he launched an attack on the human race. Listen, so for example, the Bible says, when the woman saw with her eyes, that is, saw the tree, that it was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes and that it was desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave it to her husband with her and he ate, Genesis chapter 3, verse 6. What happened? So powerful is this truth that Satan comes along, delivers the package of temptation. Eve unwraps it, takes it and then turns around and hands it to Adam who enters into that now sinful relationship with her. It's called the human race and by the way, that is the explanation as to why things are the way they are in the world today. But Satan knows exactly what will entice us, what will entice you. There's no doubt about that. He knows what floats your boat. He knows what gets your attention. Each of us are a little different, but again, he's been around a long time. He knows exactly what he's doing. So think about it, temptation is such a powerful tool of the enemy that does not have to succeed. In fact, we know this for a fact that when Jesus Christ was led into the wilderness, the Bible tells us he was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to be tempted by the devil. You say, Jack, what? Yeah, that's the opening ministry of Jesus himself. Jesus Christ was announced to the world as the Messiah, right? He's now an adult. He has grown up. It's time for him to embark upon his earthly ministry. What an amazing thing the Bible says. The Bible tells us that he was then sent into the wilderness of Judea. And during that time, the Bible says for 40 days, Satan came and tempted Jesus with all kinds of, listen, viable temptations, real ones. What Satan said to Jesus were actual real temptations, incredibly important. But how did Jesus fight those temptations? He fought them by going to the Word of God, going back to what we mentioned a moment ago in the book of Corinthians that for you and I to be suited up as Christians in the 21st century is to have our Bibles basically covering our lives in our head. And so when things come knocking on our door, here's the part that we've got to be careful about. Attemptation looks great. Oh boy, here comes the Amazon. I've been waiting for a package. The thing is what's inside the package that's coming to your door is something that Satan has ordered up, not you yourself. It's not the delivery you're looking for. It's the one he's wanting to deliver to you. And it's always going to be a snare, it's always going to look enticing, expect it to be glittery and smooth and slick and appealing. And if I just had one of those or if I just had her, my life would be so much better. We want to be careful. We want to take everything that comes into our lives as believers before God through his Word. What is this from you? Is it real? Is that true? That's what we need to do to get our minds in the place of what the Bible calls walking in the Spirit. The first of all, remember a Christian that being tempted is not a sin. We've talked about that. Being tempted doesn't mean that you are displeasing God. In fact, if anything, being tempted could prove that you are a threat to the enemy. So that's good news. But listen, first of all, let's look at this. The key to breaking temptations and lurement is to stop loving the world. I know that sounds easy. Just stop it. We've had our parents tell us growing up. Just stop that. Or maybe you have an addiction, right? And somebody says, stop it. Well, it's easier said than done. The fact of the matter is the Bible does say strongly. And by the way, the words are military commands in the Greek language, stop loving the world. It implies that we already love the world. And I don't think that's a new revelation to you that we already love the world. That's our problem. So the Bible says, stop it. So, Jack, how do I stop it? First of all, acknowledge that temptation is a danger. You don't want to get anywhere near opening that package. So you want to say, Lord, show me temptation when it's coming. Give me discernment when temptation is near. That's very, very important. And another thing that we want to consider Satan's tactics, Satan will dangle bait in front of us. He'll choose the right type of bait to lure you out from your protection. Think about someone who's a very skilled angler. They will cast that lure or that fly or that jig or whatever it is that's to bring the bass or the trout or whatever it might be out from its protection. Satan is skilled at this. He will throw out right in your proximity within the line of sight or your ability to hear something like, could be, I'm making this up right now, but it's real life stuff. Somebody at work could be complimenting you, right, on how smart you are. Oh, you're so nice. You got to watch out for that workplace stuff, man, because first of all, you get up in the morning, right? You brush your teeth, you comb your hair, you take a shower, whatever. And you look your best, whatever the best might be. And you go to work and you're not at home. You're at work. You look good. You're doing the thing that you're skilled to do. And in that environment, Satan loves to work in that setting to lure people away because he takes the opportunity while we are at our best and he tries to flip it on us. So we want to be very, very careful about that. So listen, the Bible says that each one of us, when we are drawn away by our own desires, we're enticed. And then when desire, the Bible says, has conceived, think about that. It's conceived within us. It gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is brought forth to full growth and maturity, it brings forth death, James chapter 1 verses 13 to 15 tells us. So the Bible is extremely clear. It's so direct. Without apology, watch out for temptation. It's going to eat you alive if you're not careful. And if we want to overcome temptation, we must determine now my friend who fights. It doesn't happen without an effort on our part. You see, I thought Jesus saved me. Yes, he saved you, but when he saved you, he brought you into a whole new world of existence. It's why our programming is called real life. When you become a believer, you enter into the real life of the very reason why you were created. And it is a fight. It is a war. There's no doubt. So do keep that in mind. To be a Christian, listen, to be a Christian is to be fighting a spiritual battle. Let's be honest. Before we were Christians, we just went along with whatever the world said. Hey, there's a party Friday night. Oh, great. I'll bring the beer or the drugs or the guys or the girls. I mean, we just do do do do. We went right after it because we were like those that were hooked in the jaw and pulled into the temptation without any fighting on our part. We went along with it. In fact, we even called people up and said, hey, you want to come on over? We're going to have this blow out fast. I'll see you there. We planned on sending. Now as believers, we don't plan on sending anymore. What we do is we fight. The temptation comes into our mind, Satan will launch it at you. And the thought enters, what do you do with it? You take it captive as we've been learning. You fight back. You push it back. It's extremely important that we do that. You've got to fight. In fact, listen, before we move on, the Christian, if they're not in a fight against spiritual darkness, kind of doubt if you're Christian at all, but Christians are called to wage war against this enemy, knowing that there are only two options. Be killing sin, or it will be killing you, said John Owen. And that's a tremendous statement. That's true. Start thinking of it that way. That every day you get out of bed, you're going to war, right? We're going to war against an invisible enemy. That's incredibly and seriously important. So listen, though, we will never become sinless, never, not until we die. We will fight sin in this life, and there will be times when we will give in. We don't want to, but it could be a thought life issue, whatever it might be. It could be an actual stunt that we wind up doing against God. The point is this, we as people become sinless in doing sinless, not sinless, but we begin to sinless as we grow along with Jesus. As Christ grows within us, and we take the Word of God seriously, we become more, listen for it, we become more of His disciples. That's the key. To be a disciple of Jesus Christ is to become someone who's following Him. And when He says, I'm going to lead you, I'm going to guide you. Makes me think about what David said in the 23rd Psalm. Lord, lead me beside still waters. Take me to pastures that are green. Cause me to be safe. And that's exactly what will happen to you in this warfare. God will give you the strength, and you will be safe because of your proximity to Christ, not sin, not temptation. So watch this as we wrap this up. Don't be the kind of Christian that is thinking, well, how close can I live to the world and still be a Christian? Christians don't think like that. The way that we think is that we want to press into Jesus more and more. We want to draw closer to Him. We want to get closer every day with Him. And that's why we're doing these programs. I think, look, you're sitting here watching, and I'm standing here talking to you. We could all be doing other things, right? We could go snow skiing, sailing, beach, ride bikes, whatever it is. So what are we doing here right now? We are committed here at real life to bring you content that is going to suit you up for battle. We believe this is real. Jesus said it's real. If you're honest with yourself, you know that the battle is real, and we're all about getting you suited up in the Bible by putting on the armor of God. So if you'd like to find out more, you can go simply go easy to jackhibs.com and find out that there's more teaching, there's more material. There are more things there for you to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. So we encourage you to do that, but my friend do remember this. If you're tempted, you are not sinning. If you're tempted, you are called to fight. Fight the temptation. And as you fight the temptation, you'll be drawing from the Word of God. As you draw from the Word of God, you are pressing into Christ. To do that, you are becoming his disciple. When Jesus said come and follow me, look at the places he took them. When he said come and follow me, I'll make you fishers of men. He didn't take them to Disneyland. He didn't take them on a picnic. He took them to the strongholds of Satan himself. Is that awesome? Friends, listen, if Christianity to you is boring, you're doing it wrong. Something's wrong. Your Christian experience should be radical, dynamic, full of life, full of battles, full of victories, full of engagements. I don't know about you, but that sounds thrilling. And you know why this is true? Because though I may be a Christian, maybe you are, not sure. Maybe you're contemplating Christ, thinking about Him. That's one thing I know for sure. I'm not involved in any religion. I don't care about religion. I don't want anything to do with religion. And by the way, Jesus spoke out against organized religion more than anybody in the Bible. God is inviting you to have a personal relationship with Him. And you simply experience that by saying, Lord, forgive me, I'm a sinner. I ask you to wash my sins away because you died on the cross for me. You rose again from the dead. You're my savior. I recognize what the Bible says that it's all about you, Jesus. And I want to give you my life. Help me read your word. Help me find a church of worship that I might grow and meet other Christians. But God, thank you for saving me. Because if you pray that prayer, that you believe that Jesus died on the cross and rose again from the dead, for you, personally, he's a personal savior. Your mom can't decide that for you. Your dad, your parents, your brother, sister, your priest, your Pope, the pastor can't decide that for you. You've got to make that decision on your own. But if you make that decision, the Bible says, based on the Word of Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of you. And in that moment, you become a new creation. And in that moment, you begin to live a brand new life. God does it. You don't have to push Christianity up a hill. Christianity is the Holy Spirit's work of putting Christ inside of you. And from that moment on, your life will begin to change. Your thoughts will begin to change. Your life will begin to change. You'll start to reassess your values. And your morals will begin to change. The things that we're appealing now are not so appealing anymore. And new thoughts will end in your mind. God will be speaking to you. And all the while, he's making you a new creation. He's fashioning you into a little representation of who he is. Following Jesus is the greatest thing in the universe. It always has been. It always will be. A friend, listen, with all of your heart, give yourself to Jesus Christ. You will never regret it. He said, I will never leave you or forsake you. He will never abandon you. Jesus said, all those who will come to me, I will never turn away. Let's pray right now. Lord Jesus come into my life. I want you to save me from my sins. And I want this truth I've been hearing about. I want to turn over my life into your hands. And I hand the reins of my life, the controls of my life, into your hands, Jesus. And I ask you to save me. I ask you to make me your child. I ask you to write my name in your book of life. I am today becoming a follower of Jesus. In your name I pray, amen. This Jack Hibbs podcast, as well as all the broadcast out reach opportunities are listener supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected. We love you. Kid is walking up the slide. Hi all, again, really? Auto trader. Buy your car online, really.