Don’t Give In
Opening and Announcements
Amen. Well, good morning. I hope y’all are happy to be in the house of the Lord. It’s a joy to be with y’all. Wasn’t it great to sing to the Lord? God is so good. So glad that God brought each of y’all here with us to worship. And I’m praying we’d encounter Jesus today. Amen. Feel the presence of God today.
You know, Wayne shared about the touch-a-truck and truck retreat. Actually, someone I reached out to—many of y’all remember our dear sister in Christ, Linda Snow, and her son is with the fire department. And right when I texted him to see if they had a truck, he’s like, “I’m already relaying it. Anything for my mama’s church.” But really, that’s just another way we want to reach out to the community. You know, when we do any kind of fall event, we have fun. We make it fun, but we always want to share the love of Jesus. And just anytime we can have opportunities to invite people and to share the gospel with them, we want to do that. We’re hoping we can get a couple fire trucks maybe, or a fire truck, maybe we can get someone with law enforcement. If anybody has a contact with law enforcement or maybe a rescue squad and that kind of thing, but also I would love to see a couple—a handful of our people decorating their own car. Tabitha is decorating the church bus, so that’s going to be cool. And we can also use candy. But this is going to be a great opportunity. We’re certainly excited, like what Blaine shared about the survey.
I’ll tell y’all just the testimony. You know, when Crystal answered the call to open the school, it was total faith. It wasn’t what you normally plan. You normally have money. We don’t have money in the church budget—any money for that. We don’t have preschool-age kids. It was just a call from God. And it was so cool that last week the school started with one child, and that mother was brokenhearted because her kid was having trouble at two schools. She’s three years old. And she went on the Wilmington moms’ page and just shared, “I’ve never met better teachers than the teachers at Long Leaf Christian Preschool.” And Crystal and Miss Terry are the ones—Miss Terry’s also been volunteering to help with the preschool. And it was cool, and the grandmother came in in tears because they just wanted their kid to be loved on, you know. But it’s really cool to just see it’s starting with one kid, but it’s so exciting to just see how God’s faithful. So just keep praying for that ministry of our church, the Christian preschool.
Recap of Recent Messages in James
But we’ve been in James for preaching the last probably about a month or so, somewhere in there. We’ve been in James 1. If you’ve got your Bibles, go ahead and open up there. Whether you got a copy of God’s Word holding with you, whether it’s on your phone, I encourage you to open up to James chapter 1.
I’ll just do a quick recap. I believe around verse 2 or 3 of James 1, it says, “Count it all joy when you encounter various kinds of trials.” We started this off with a sermon titled “Count It All Joy.” Even, you know, we go through hardships. Amen. Just when you think you’re doing good, all of a sudden the enemy attacks. Amen, man. But the Bible says we can count it all joy. Even when we’re in the midst of trials, one reason we can count it all joy is because we got God through it. No matter how hard it is, we’ve got God through it. I see Helen here today. Helen, we’re praying for you and the pastor, Miss Carolyn, and you did an amazing job just caring for her. Y’all, many of y’all heard the call out. Miss Carolyn Hagens passed away yesterday, late afternoon, early evening. And I’m so glad Helen called. We heard, and Chris and I were able to go see her Friday evening, but she’s now present with Jesus. Amen. But when we lose loved ones or when we go through any kind of trial, God’s there with us. And God can use those trials to help us grow in our relationship with the Lord.
A few—the Sunday after that we went to the next verse which talks about if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all liberally and without reproach. And we were just talking about the value of wisdom and how so many times when we need guidance we ask everybody. It can be good to ask people, but it can be bad too. We ask anybody and everybody, or we ask ChatGPT or we ask Google, but we oftentimes if we’re not careful we forget to ask God, and the Bible tells us go to God.
The next Sunday after that we went to the next verse in James 1, and the title was “Asking in Faith,” and we were just talking about the importance of us as a people. We need to be a praying people. Amen. And when we pray we need to pray with faith. It says—the Bible says there in James 1 with no doubting. A lot of times we get weak and we doubt, but it says you won’t receive anything if you’re doubting. So that we be a people that, you know, for our church, there’s a lot to pray for. Amen. There’s a lot to pray for with people in our church, and there’s just a lot of needs in general for the church. One thing I always love praying for in our church is for peace and unity amongst God’s people and just for the Spirit of God to work mightily in this place to see the kingdom of God grow and to see people in our church growing in the Lord. And as we’re growing, we want to live more and more and more for the Lord. And one way we grow is our prayer life. The prayer room there says, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things that you do not know.” Jeremiah 33:3. There is power in prayer, but we have to have faith.
So that idea, that reminder about asking in faith—last Sunday we went to the very next verses where it talks about the rich and the poor in James 1, and it especially speaks about the rich, and we were reminded we shouldn’t be seeking after earthly riches. We should be seeking to be rich in the Lord. So many times we can be guilty of seeking after earthly things, but all the earthly things in the world, they don’t last. They’re temporal. And we’re not taking any of them with us. My grandma was trying to give me something. I told y’all that last Sunday one time. I said, “Well, you don’t have to give me that, Grandma.” She was getting older. She’s like, “I ain’t taking it with me.” We aren’t taking anything with us. And earthly riches don’t last, but things of God, that’s lasting.
Reading James 1:12–15
Today, we’re picking up in the very next verse where we left off last Sunday. We’re going to verse 12. We’re going to read James 1 verse 12 through verse 15. The title of the message today is Don’t Give In. I invite anybody that would like to stand with me in honor of the reading of the Word of God.
James 1, beginning in verse 12, the Word of God says:
“Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 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. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”
Prayer
God, thank You for Your Word. And I pray today as we dig into Your Word, You’d work in our hearts, God. I pray—I don’t know all the needs in this place, but I know this life on this earth, we go through hard things. And I just pray that today as we continue to worship You and as we break open Your Word and unfold Your Word as the psalmist says we’re to do. I pray it speaks to our hearts, and I pray You use it to mold us, God, to help us to walk more faithfully to You. And I pray if there’s someone here today that’s never fully surrendered their life to You, that they would do that this very day and they’d make it known today. And I pray if there’s somebody that needs to return to You and get back to living for You, they make that decision to rededicate today. God, work today in hearts and use it for Your glory. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray. All God’s people said, Amen.
The Main Idea: Temptation
Well, a lot of times when you’re studying the Bible and a passage, it’s good to get an idea what’s the main idea of that text, right? What’s the main idea of that passage?
Well, here in the passage that we read, James 1:12–15, there’s a word that’s used, I believe, six times—a word or a form of that word. It’s temptation. It doesn’t say temptation every time. It might say tempt or a form of it, but I believe it’s six times that word. So we get a pretty good idea that the main focus here when James is writing this under the inspiration of God is about this idea of temptation.
When you look up temptation, a definition I read was temptation is defined as the strong desire to have or do something that you know you should avoid or that’s wrong. Another way to put it for us as Christians, those of us that are born again, is temptation is when we are tempted to do something that we know is sinful. Temptation is when we have this desire to do something that we know God would not be pleased with.
Do you ever remember times you’ve been tempted? I think if we’re being honest, every one of us have had times we’ve been tempted. And when we say tempted, again, tempted to do something that, you know, as a believer, the Holy Spirit tells you and convicts you that’s sin and you’re not supposed to do that. Every one of us have been tempted. In fact, I would say it starts at a young age, doesn’t it? And maybe at a young age, it’s kind of more innocent, but it might be hard to think back, but maybe you even remember as a child something maybe even as seemingly as innocent, but you knew you weren’t supposed to do it. Kind of like your mama might have said, “You ain’t getting that cookie. You don’t need any more sugar. You’re not supposed to get that.” But when your mama wasn’t looking, you start to think about it. “I really want that cookie.” Maybe some of y’all have memories of something like that. And when your mama’s not looking, you might have even taken that cookie. Said, “Nobody will catch me.”
I don’t remember all the details of this one, but I got to imagine I had some temptation. I was a little boy and my mom and dad—they there were seven of us. There were never almost never anything sweet in our house. My mom had us eat very healthy. I don’t know how she did it. She had Monday was this night, split pea soup. Tuesday night, sloppy joe. We had a—we didn’t get, “Oh, let me choose what I want at Chick-fil-A.” Now we got you got what you get and you don’t have a fit. That was a kid that Crystal used to teach would always say that. We got what we got and we either ate it or we didn’t. There was nothing else. A lot of y’all remember that. Not all these choices. Well, anyway, we did not have sugar. And I remember hearing how I used to always go in the refrigerator and my mom would come and get me because I’d be biting a stick of margarine. I don’t know why. Maybe it felt like—does margarine have sugar? I don’t know. But I got to imagine I can just picture myself as a little boy hardly even knowing. My mom I’m sure had told me not to, but I was tempted to get that butter. As a kid, we can go through temptations. And as we get older, it doesn’t stop. Temptations are still there, right? Right. Everyone in here, even though you’re older, you have times where you’re tempted to do something that you know God would not want you to do.
Examples of Temptation
You know, there’s all kinds of ways we can be tempted. Somebody before they steal money, chances are good they’re going to have a temptation to steal it first, right? I heard a story about a lady who it was suspected she was stealing from work. So they decided to test her and I think they put about $200 extra dollars in the drawer. And someone that’s already stealing, they might be tempted to steal again. And sure enough, you know what happened? She stole the extra money and they fired her. Sometimes a person will be tempted to steal and even though that person knows it’s sin, but they’ve got that temptation.
Sometimes a temptation—you know, there could be a temptation to speak bad about somebody, to gossip about somebody, to slander somebody, even though if you’re a believer you know that’s sin. There could be a temptation to tell a lie. You might be tempted to lie to get out of a situation, or you might be tempted to lie about whatever it is. Or if you’re in school, you might be tempted to cheat on a test, and you know that lie or that cheating is wrong, but you still got this temptation. You know, you might have a temptation to go out and get drunk or get high, but in your heart, you know—you know that drunkenness is sin. You know that living that life where your mind is taken from you and you’re partying to the point you don’t even control yourself. You know you’re not supposed to, but you’re tempted to do it anyway. Maybe it’s a temptation with sexual sin. Sex before marriage, even though you know the Bible says wait. Lusting, even though you know Jesus says to lust after someone, you’ve already committed adultery in the heart. Pornography, even though you know that’s sin. Committing adultery. There’s so many ways people, men and women, are tempted for sexual sin. And there’s so many different ways that people are tempted in general. And again, the heart of this passage, it’s speaking about that idea of temptation. It’s something that every human being struggles with because every human being’s a sinner, right?
Temptation Is Not of God
One thing about temptation that we read in this text that we should remember when you are tempted—because when you’re tempted it can be a strong desire, right? When you’re tempted, it can be this strong desire that makes you feel like you want to do it even though you know it’s wrong. When you’re tempted, remember this as a Christian: it’s not of God. So when that temptation comes, remember you know from God’s Word, this temptation is not of God. Therefore, it is not good.
Watch what it says: “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.” It’s pretty clear there, right? It makes it clear when there’s a temptation that’s evil. When there’s a temptation that would lead to sin if you give in, it’s not of God. So that temptation, next time you experience it or are experiencing it, remember that as a child of God, it’s not of God. It says there, I believe in verse 14 of James 1, that when we’re tempted, it’s not of God, that rather we’re drawn away. And I believe what it means by that is drawn away from God and drawn into our sinful desires. But being tempted, it’s not of God.
Temptation Can Lead to Sin
And you know, when we think of temptation, a lot of times what we think of is sin because it can lead to that. Watch what it says in Genesis 3 beginning in verse 1. This is the first sin, but it started with temptation.
“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Has God indeed said, “You shall not eat of every tree of the garden”?’ And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, “You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.”’ Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’”
But what did Satan do there before the first sin? One thing Satan did was Satan tempted Eve to sin. And one way Satan will tempt you is he’ll lie. Satan lied. And Satan also he made Eve do what? He made Eve doubt God’s Word. He made Eve doubt the truth of God’s Word. Satan tempted Eve to do something that God had told Adam and Eve not to do. And we know, most of us know the passage. We know that Eve and Adam, they gave into the temptation. And what did it lead to? It’s a three-letter word. Sin. And that’s something about temptation. When we give into temptation, there’s a point where there’s temptation, but if we’re not careful, there’s a point where we could give in, and that’s where it gets sinful. When we give into temptation, it leads to sin.
Watch what it says: “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away.” Again, I read that to mean drawn away from God and starting to go towards sin. “Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.” So the enemy will try to tempt us and try to get us by something we will desire. You read in Galatians 5 when Paul writes, what does he write about? One thing he writes about there is the flesh and the Spirit. And Paul talks about how we’ve got flesh inside, but if we’re a believer, we’ve also got the Spirit of God inside. And if we want to walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh, we got to feed the Spirit of God inside of us. It says, “Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” When we give into the temptation, the enemy will start with temptation, but then when we give into the temptation it leads to sin.
Getting back to Genesis 3 where the first sin is recorded. We see where the sin happens. It says in verse 6, first it was the temptation, then it led to sin. Verse 6 of Genesis 3: “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes”—the enemy will try to tempt you through what you see and what you touch—“and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.”
The devil tempted Eve. She saw it with her eyes. The fruit looked good. And that’s one way Satan will tempt you or tempt me or tempt any of us is try to make you see something, try to make you desire something of the flesh. We see she gave into temptation and it led to what? It led to sin. Not just sin for her, but for Adam, too. In Genesis 3:8, it says, “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.” Why did they hide themselves from God? Sin. They were ashamed. Sin. Both of those—that they had sinned and now they were ashamed. Y’all know when we sin, we’re ashamed of it, right? That should tell us something. We know it’s wrong. And when we’re tempted, if we do not give in, we can avoid the sin. But once we give in, it leads to sin.
You know, something I think about is as children of God, if you’re a believer today, you’re not meant to live in sin. Do we agree on that? That’s not who you and I are meant to be. We’re meant to live for God. And when you face temptation, it does good to remember, if you are, that you’re a child of God. And it does good to remember that is not of God. That is of the devil trying to get you to give into flesh. That temptation, it could be a temptation for all kinds of things. It could be a temptation to have wrath and pour it out on somebody. You know, it could be a temptation to steal, could be a temptation to lie. That temptation is not of God. And remember, that’s not who you’re meant to be.
Sin Has Consequences
Something else we see about temptation is that when we give into temptation, like we talked about, it leads to sin. And with sin, there are consequences. Amen. There are consequences to sin.
Going back to Genesis 3 again, it started with temptation. It led to sin. And then what we see after the sin is there were consequences. Genesis 3:9 it said, “Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ So he said, ‘I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.’ And He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?’ Then the man said, ‘The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.’” Here he goes blaming his wife. But he ain’t the only one that blames somebody. Eve did the same thing. “And the Lord God said to the woman, ‘What is this you have done?’ The woman said, ‘The serpent deceived me, and I ate.’”
That’s one thing. We have a tendency to blame others for our own sin. We have a tendency to try to make somebody else out to be the bad person when it’s ourselves that have sinned. We have a tendency to want to hide from our sin. We have a tendency to want to be ashamed of our sin. But what we see here is there are consequences to sin. And in the first sin recorded in the Bible, we read about them. In verse 16 of Genesis 3, God says to the woman, He said, “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”
Sin has consequences. We can face temptation. And when we get to the point that we give into sin, there are consequences. When the enemy tempts you, it might look enticing. The enemy is going to try to make it look good, but Satan’s a liar. We know that. The Bible says he’s the father of lies. And sin—when we give into temptation it leads to sin. Sin has consequences. There can be consequences on this earth for sure. And there most certainly if the sin is not addressed can be consequences for eternity.
And you know, that’s one thing about again temptation is the main idea, but temptation when we give in it leads to sin. That’s one thing everybody here—I hope everybody here hears this. We’re all sinners. We have all sinned. We’ve all fallen short of God’s glory, of the glory of God. And we have to have addressed our sin problem. And there’s only one way to address it and make us right in God’s eyes. And that’s through faith in Jesus. There is no other way. Jesus is the only way to be forgiven of sins. Calling on Jesus and having a full faith and trust in Jesus is the only way to be forgiven of sins. And if you have not done that more than anything today, I pray today—today is the day—you fully surrender your life to Jesus. You give your life to Jesus. You can’t be on the fence about it. You can’t be like, “I might have, I might not have.” You got to have faith in Jesus. And it’s not okay that you’ve just gone to church all your life. You got to make that decision to fully give your life to Jesus. There’s no other way for your sins to be wiped out. There’s no other way for you to get to heaven. There’s only one way. Jesus died for you. He suffered. He died. And He rose on the third day. But you must believe. Hallelujah. That’s the only way. The only way.
And if we’ve done that, He’ll forgive us. But if we’ve truly done that, we don’t want to be giving into temptation. We don’t want to be giving into sin. We won’t be in fellowship. We’ll be miserable if we are. And that’s not who we want to be. We don’t want to live that way. But when we give into sin, there are most definitely consequences.
Don’t Give In
There’s a phrase a lot of y’all heard about sin. Again, this passage talks about temptation. Giving into temptation leads to sin. “Sin will take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.”
The temptation might just be to step over here just a little bit. Doesn’t seem like that big of a deal, but you still know it’s wrong. And if you start to step here, you know what the enemy will do next? He’ll get you to step a little further and a little further and a little further. And that phrase is so true. It says sin will take you further than you want to go. You start going that way. If you don’t address it with God, you’re going to keep going that way and you’re going to go further in sin than you ever thought you could go. You’re going to go to a place you never thought you could be. And it says it’ll—sin will take you further than you want to go. This again is a phrase: keep you longer than you want to stay. There’s something about sin that it’ll trap you if you’re not careful. It’s dangerous. I mean, it’s like somebody that says, “Yeah, I’ll try that drug out. Just try it one time.” Be careful. You try it one time, it leads to two times. You try two times it leads to three times. You keep trying—before you know you’re addicted. Anybody could get addicted. Anybody could fall into sin and be trapped. I think about Bible words, Galatians 5:1. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free.” He’s made you free, “and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” That’s the thing about sin. It’ll keep you longer than you want to stay. It’ll entangle you if you let it. If we start getting into that temptation, the enemy is not going to stop. We give the enemy an edge and try to take a mile. We’ve got to be on guard.
And when we give into sin, boy, does sin have consequences. I have not been watching the news anytime lately. I’ve not been doing great about paying attention to things, but I was listening to somebody that has. Some of y’all probably heard about the person that led the guy that led music in Ohio, Caleb Flynn. I don’t know if you have or not. And I’m kind of summing it up, but it’s a sad evil story. And it’s certainly a story of temptation that leads to sin that leads to being trapped in sin that leads to awful consequences on earth. There was this guy, it says a long time back he tried out for American Idol. Some people knew him from that. And then he led music in Ohio at a church. He was married with two daughters. And back about four years ago, if I’m remembering right, there was a 20-year-old intern who started singing and he led music and they started having an affair. Started with something innocent, it led to an affair. And then he got trapped in that and he was going on sin and committing adultery. Then what seems to have happened is he got obsessed with wanting to get out of his marriage by killing his wife. And there were texts to show where he had sent his mistress texts about wanting to kill her. And my understanding is many months before he killed her, there were texts. He thought he got rid of the evidence, but iCloud or whatever. Didn’t get rid of it. And then my understanding is there was a text the night before her murder that something like, “I’ll be free after tonight.” Anyway, his wife was murdered and what he had said was a burglar broke in and didn’t kill any—his daughters are able to—kill his wife. But long story short, he just got proven guilty in court. But I think about that story and I just think about how far a human can go with sin if they let themselves.
I think about the story, I think about David. David looked at Bathsheba and then he lusted after her and then he had adultery and then what did he want to do? Kill her husband while he was in war, Uriah. And I certainly think about that phrase, sin will take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay.
And I guess the challenge that God really put on my heart is really the title of the message today. Don’t give in. What? Temptation is dangerous. Temptation when we get tempted and everybody has been. I mean, I don’t think anybody deny that. Everybody’s faced temptation. When we give into temptation, it leads to sin. Sin can trap you. Sin can take you further than you want to go. And sin has consequences on this earth and consequences for eternity. So the takeaway I have, the challenge I have for all of us, me, you, all of us, is don’t give in to temptation. Don’t give in. When we give in, it’ll lead to sin. And you don’t know how far that sin will go. But first off, just know you’re a child of God. You know that’s not who you’re meant to be. And when the devil tries to tempt you, maybe right now the devil is tempting you. I don’t know what it’s about. I don’t need to know. You can tell me if I need to pray. You don’t need to tell me. But if you know the enemy is tempting you, I hope that this message and God’s Word that God’s Word speaks to you. Don’t give in. The devil would love more than anything for you to give into that temptation. Even if it just seems like it’s not much, the devil would love for you to just give in a little so that you’ll give in more and give in more. It’s not worth it. And remember that phrase, sin will take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay. The enemy will try to tell you lies about temptation. The enemy will try to tell you it’s no big deal. The enemy will try to say nobody will know. It doesn’t matter. God will look the other way. Whether somebody finds out or not, you are sinning against God when you give in. It does matter. It does matter. The enemy will try to tell all kinds of lies, but I hope that phrase sticks with us all. Don’t give in. Don’t give in to that temptation. Whatever way, because the enemy is powerful. God’s more powerful. I mean, the enemy will try to stir and wreak havoc in families. The enemy will try to wreak havoc in lives. The enemy will try to wreak havoc in the church. But we’re children of God. And when the enemy tries to tempt you to do something you know is wrong, you know is sinful, don’t give in.
How We Can Be Helped Not to Give In
Sometimes temptation can seem like overwhelmingly strong, right? I mean it is—the enemy is powerful. But how can we be helped not to give in? Well, I think about the Scripture, 1 Corinthians 10:13. “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is 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.” The temptation you’re facing, it’s not new. The enemy has done the same things for generations. The temptation you’re facing or you do face. You’re not the only one who has been through that temptation. And don’t stay on that island. The enemy loves it when you just try to keep it all to yourself. You don’t have a person helping you. You don’t pray to God about it. The enemy will try to get you alone and say it’s no big deal. We’ll try to lie to you. But how can we get help to not give in? Remember what that verse says. The enemy will try to make you feel like there’s no way to get out of it. But the Bible clearly says but with the temptation will also make a way of escape. There’s no temptation you’re going to face that God can’t help you not give into that temptation. Now, if we start to draw away and turn from God, well, we’re in trouble. We got to rely on God.
And how can we be helped? You know, we got flesh and we got Spirit. We have to choose that we’re going to say, you know, I’m a child of God and I’m going to live for God. And we should really choose that before we face the temptation. We should really make that decision to say, “I’m not giving in ’cause I know I’m saved. I know I’m a child of God and I’m not going to get to the point where I give in.” So we got to choose to say, you know, I want to live for the Lord. I don’t want to live for fleshly things. And I tell you, boundaries are important, right? If you know you struggle in an area, you might have faced drug addictions. You might have faced alcoholism. You might have had problems with sexual sin. You might have had problems with lying. You might have problems with stealing. Every one of us are sinners. If you know you’ve got an area you struggle with, set some boundaries. And accountability partners when it’s the right person can be such a blessing. I mean, and if you’re an accountability partner for somebody, remember your trust is important. Remember, that’s not for you to go around or any of us to go around and tell their business. That’s meant for you to help that brother or that sister. You know, sisters in Christ, having an accountability. Brothers in Christ, having a brother that’s an accountability partner is such a blessing when we got someone that we can talk to, knowing we can trust them, knowing it’ll be in confidence, knowing we can pray for each other because we need help, right? This walk is not easy. So set boundaries, have accountability partners, and if we’re going to be helped and not give in, rely on the Lord. We got to call on the Lord for help.
And you know what Jesus did when He was tempted? He fought back with the Word of God. You know what He did when He was tempted in the garden and in agony in the garden? He prayed. Have fighting verses. If you don’t have fighting verses yet, get some fighting verses ready. If you don’t know those fighting verses by heart, memorize them or at least write them down somewhere where when the enemy’s attacking, you speak the Word of God. You speak the name of Jesus against Satan. We’re in a spiritual battle. It’s real. The battle is real. The enemy is powerful. We can’t fight back against the enemy without God. We have to have verses and fighting verses. We have to pray. And when the enemy attacks, we got to think on things of the Lord.
Closing
And I want to tell you something to close up. When we don’t give into temptation and sin, it’ll bless us. That’s what the Bible says. “Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” That makes me think of going to heaven. And one sign that we’re truly a believer is clearly none of us are perfect. But one thing that gives evidence that you’re a believer, that I’m a believer is that we’re living for Jesus. But if we’re trapped in sin all the time, it’s not my place to judge whether or not someone’s saved. But like we shouldn’t be going on and going on and going on and living in sin. You know, we’re a child of God. And therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away. When we don’t give into temptation and sin, it’ll bless us. Best of all, we can be blessed for eternity if we trust in the Lord. But also, there’s just something so sweet, isn’t there, about walking with God. If you—any of us know what sin is. It’ll make you miserable. You won’t find joy. You won’t find peace with sin. But if you want to have joy and peace on this earth, you’re going to find it when you don’t give in and when you walk with God and when you live for the Lord.
So I just the takeaway I just close with today. If the enemy is tempting you or the next time the enemy does tempt you, don’t give in. Ask the Lord to help you.
