Sermon Notes
Top 3 Temptations for Men
1. Sex
2. Substance abuse (drugs, gluttony)
3. Shirking responsibility (lazy)
Top 3 Temptations for Women
1. Critical or condescending Spirit (Pride)
2. Jealous (Envy)
3. Bitterness (Anger)
Temptation
Luke 4:1–2
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit . . . was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.
“Victorious living does not mean freedom from temptation, nor does it mean freedom from mistakes.”
—E. Stanley Jones
Hebrews 4:15
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.
Whenever we are tempted, there is always a brief moment in between the involuntary desire for something and the voluntary movement to act on it.
Luke 4:1–2
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.
Temptation is not evil. Temptation raises the possibility for evil.
Luke 4:3-9
The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread. . . The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. . . The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.
Ephesians 6:12
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Luke 4:13
When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
The vulnerability of the modern Church is not that we no longer resist the Devil, it’s that we have invited him into our homes.