(Clip) Resisting the devil

Temptation knows your price Temptation knows where you are defenseless and Susceptible and will relentlessly keep making offers to your soul That's what temptation does it keeps knocking making the offers upping the ante There is a promise about these relentless offers that gives me hope in the book of Isaiah. Here's what it says Isaiah 54 17 no weapon That is formed against you hallelujah Will prosper folks. I don't know about you, but that's good news today But it's very interesting to me that the word formed is a very personal word The word form when it says no weapon formed against you that word actually means tailor-made custom-built It's a word for someone that was used for ordering pottery and wants it made to order and when Isaiah Is doing is giving us a sobering warning that every battle you face and I face get this now Is custom built for us and where you're at in your heart and soul, which means they are demonically engineered weapons made Specifically to harm you and go after your weakest areas These aren't these aren't random things coming against you folks These things are that these these temptations are Demonically engineered for some it's intellect you get so buried in Intellect you lose faith For some it's fear fear of health fear of dying For others, it's loneliness and even a fear of being lonely It's for others It's greed and this desire to be rich because all you your family is known is to be in poverty for others It's lust and it's it's the chains of pornography and here's the bad news Satan goes after your most vulnerable spot. That's the bad news. That's the the tailor-making but here's the good news No weapon formed against you has to prosper Let's make sure today that we figure out and know what the Bible says about winning What we would call spiritual warfare see temptation is Fighting the tailor-made Offers and attractions. Let me say that again Taylor spiritual warfare And as we're dealing with this is temptation get this now is Fighting those tailor-made offers and Attractions I want to say something to you that that I had to just kind of keep digesting get this now You're gonna see it in order for temptation to be temptation. It has to attract me It has to have Something I want now for some of you are going like well, of course, that's it But folks this is what makes it makes it even more difficult to understand Jesus's three temptations Would not be temptations if there wasn't something there that the enemy wasn't going after He was trying to lure Jesus in Matthew chapter 4 and that's hard to say because I'm just going Jesus would be invincible but because Jesus was tempted in in all points as we are listen to it Hebrews 415 We have one who has been tempted in every way Just as we are But here's the good news yet. He did not sin See, it's the old Puritan writer said it like this The devil had an apple for Eve a grape for Noah a change of Raymond for the Gehazi Silver for Judas we can keep adding to that. He had Raymond and gold bars for Aitken He can dish out his meal to all palates. That's the tailor-made part of that He knows what is going to be the thing that will begin to hit those vulnerable and Susceptible areas, but the good news is not that you they don't have to prosper But the good news gets a little bit better get ready. This is good news the same Presence and power of the Holy Spirit who enabled Jesus to resist hallelujah resides in every Christian but sometimes I have to remember that the same spirit who enabled Christ to overcome and resist temptation that Holy Spirit resides in you if you're a born-again Christian and Folks, I can't see it any other way the day you become a Christian you are an enemy of hell Temptation begins to come your way and 1st Peter 5 8 Satan Is given the description that makes me shudder. He's called a roaring lion Who is looking for a meal listen to it be of sober spirit and be on the alert your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour Seeking someone to devour means Satan is not only on a mission, but he's on a mission to destroy and Here's what I have determined here. It comes now church. This is what I have determined going forward I Don't want to be the devil's next meal Folks, let me put it to you this way. The first warning that the fire is waning is when you are lukewarm Now let me let me some of you going like I've heard about that in Revelation 3 Let me explain to you what lukewarm is best definition. Here it is Lukewarm means this I still believe in God. I'm just not that excited about him anymore Folks look at me look at me for a second You know how you know the fire is waning is if you can sit here when people are calling out and you're sitting here with Your hands in your pocket or by your side and people are calling folks Let me just tell you something we start calling on God I'm the most desperate man in this place because I know that lion lurks if you want to sit there and look Sophisticated then God I was gonna not bless you God help you because outside these doors Those lions are lurking and looking for some folks I'm telling you the greatest way you can keep a fire going is lift those hands lift those voice Ask God just to come and listen stay in fellowship Don't be a straggler that doesn't think you need the family of God. This is your herd. This is your herds This is the one that you're next to you need them Because when sometimes when we don't see the pounce the lurking there we need each other I don't want to be the devil's next meal I don't want to be that the devil prowls looking for those operating by themselves The stragglers who have distanced themselves from the people of God He's looking for those who have let the fire go out The devil is out to devour the easiest the young the old the sick and the careless And the devil will lie in wait and pounce There has to be a fight in us. There has to be weapons against this we are in a battle But with God this battle can be won The great Scottish preacher Robert Murray McShane said this he says I know well that when Christ is nearest Satan is also the busiest Thank God he is close to us But the scariest thing is that the whisper of temptation sometimes can be heard much easier than the loudest call to duty And I'm gonna give you a call to duty today and this verse is so powerful in the fight over temptation It's probably the the verse I've leaned upon in so many different ways. Here's what that says Paul says it like this Here's your call to duty. No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man and God is Faithful Folks here comes the good news who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able But with the temptation, this is good news will provide the way of Escape so that you will be able to endure hallelujah hallelujah Here is what we're being told get this now you can never be delivered from being tempted But you can experience victory from giving into temptation folks Listen, you are going to be tempted until you get to heaven But let's just be honest When you get saved folks, the sensitivity goes up in us spiritually But that temptation is always going to come see here's the good news It's Second parts good news Christ was tempted. So we will be tempted Christ overcame so we can overcome That's the good news about this Let me just for a moment just to kind of get us thinking this way Just put it in a little bit of today's language Listen to it in Ken Taylor's version the the paraphrase the Living Bible Ken says it like this. He says but remember this The wrong desires that come into your life aren't anything new and different we all get it Many others have faced exactly the same problems before and no Temptation. Hallelujah is Irresistible and then he says this you can trust God to keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up Against it for he has promised this and will do what he says He will show you how to escape temptations power so that you can bear up patiently Against it. Hallelujah. That's good news to me with the temptation at your face. God says this I'm Faithful that I'll provide a way out of this thing That that it's not the end does not have to be you become the devil's next meal So, let me give you three tools and we'll go through this fast the escape route out of this here It is let me talk to you about that Providing the way of escape. So here's the first one number one because I this is this is so key number one the Word of God Here it is folks. Listen Jesus in Matthew chapter 4 comes face to face with Satan what is called the three temptations and Folks, I believe Jesus was setting a precedent for us He was saying I'm about to fight Lucifer not some devil from from hell or a demon, but I'm fighting Lucifer himself Satan himself and Jesus shows us plainly how victory comes now listen, if you are if you're finding yourself constantly hearing the knock and Unbolting the door. I want you to understand this there is you you can get all the counseling you want Folks you can show up to church all you want You can get people laying hands on you not just anointing with you oil They can pour Crisco on you until you are doused with oil But I'm telling you if you don't have this part of your life You can't win that knock you'll answer the door folks. You cannot do okay here it is get get this down. Let me let me really make you mad a wordless Christian is a powerless Christian If you don't have if you think that you've just eating on Sunday is enough to to keep the door locked When Satan keeps coming and and with the tailor-made Demonically engineered invites and if you think we have them it's impossible folks Let me say it to you this way if Jesus Needed the Word of God to defeat the devil. What makes you think you can win without it Here it comes here. It is three times Jesus said to the devil it is written Folks, he went back to the word every single time and here's what's amazing Because Jesus what he does is something that is just amazing because he he says to Satan three times it is written it is written it is written and Jesus Says let me set the precedent for you. I'll do it out of one book of the Bible So if you're gonna do that, I'm going like man, I'm New Testament wasn't written at this time So I'm going like go go Psalms Go Proverbs That'll take him out. You know what Jesus does He says it is written three times and all three passages man shall not live by bread alone You shouldn't tempt the Lord God, you know where they all come from Deuteronomy I Can't even spell it. I had to look at I had to go Wait, is it you before e or e before you and this and Jesus goes Jesus goes I'm gonna choose a book that every one of you are trying to skip through the Bible in the year that you're and Jesus goes No, no, no Don't skip that because what you think what you think doesn't matter if those words come out of my mouth Then those words have power to set you free You can declare it is written and God I'm telling you will bring the victory Every single time. Okay, number two. Here it is. I don't know why I'm yelling number two number two prayer Jesus Was in one of the most vulnerable second most vulnerable place probably after the wilderness would have been Garden of Gethsemane He was fighting the temptation of not drinking the cup of pain that would lead him to the cross The the agony the loneliness was so intense Luke describes it as sweat turning to drops of blood that blood vessels were bursting because of the agony of the intensity and Jesus who felt alone the men that he brought with him that he thought would be praying with him and maybe standing watch with him fell asleep and Jesus Speaks these words in Matthew 26 keep watching and pray Why that you may not enter into temptation? Spirits willing but the flesh is weak This is so important on how important prayer is the word Keeps the door shut the word makes me walk in the right way The word makes me choose the right fork in the road The great Baptist theologian r.a. Torrey said it like this The reason why many fall in battle is because they wait until the hour of battle The reason why others succeed is because they have gained their victory on their knees long before the battle came They knew they've got listen, but Jesus even adds one of the thing to the prayer part. He says watch and pray Keep an eye that you're not finding yourself in areas or in relationships He says pray, but you better keep an eye on stuff Because remember that lion lurks he lurks keep an eye on stuff The problem with some of us is we're looking at everything else around us what prayer does it? Makes me look right at him and keeps my eyes focused on God I'm gonna jump at it fast and it's this submission James chapter 4 James teaches us that binding is not simply done with the mouth, but it's done with the life It's done with a submissive life. Listen to it James 4 7 don't miss us get this Submit yourself to God Resist the devil and He will some of us have the word flee or he will run away from you See if you just go resist the devil and he and I've heard people say that resist the devil and he will think that's not What it says The hard part of this see I grew up with resist the devil. I bind you say that's what I grew up with No one ever said to me submit to God That's the submission every part. That's the part that takes it simply from the words of your mouth and says it has to do with your life Submission is hard work But a powerful one submission is the fighting word to the devil and so easily missed by the Christian submission starts with recognizing God's authority It's when you recognize God is the authority in your life and you're saying not only is God more powerful than me But God is wiser than me so when I read something in here, I yield to it or I Submit to it Submission let me say it again Submission says you're smarter than me so when the Bible says Don't be unequally yoked What that means is this You minister to everybody But the Bible says light can't have fellowship with darkness It says but he loves me. Okay, let me help you He loves you by his definition Not by this first Corinthians 13 love is patient love is kind Love is not selfish. This is this is so we submit to this So when the Bible says young lady when the Bible says Don't don't get entangled Don't commit your life to someone who is not a Christian. What here's what submission does You're wiser than me God You know because the knocks are always gonna come on the door to try to say you're not gonna be lonely anymore You're not gonna have to be lonely anymore And what we said with temptation with temptations when we look at it, it's not just what it offers. I got a man I got a husband I'm gonna finally be a mom and you're all you're talking about was what it offers but you never talk about what it's gonna take from you and What would God would got when God lays something out God goes I'm not gonna give you all the details I'm just gonna go don't be unequally yoked and I'm not gonna go because of ABCD and E He says I need you to trust me that I'm the all-wise God That I know what I'm doing here. I know what's happening here It's impossible To resist the devil in any area if there's not submission to God in every area Don't miss this. Let me say that again It's impossible to Resist the devil in any area if there's not submission to God in every area That's why the greatest binding you can do is by saying yes always to God Submission to God is the believers way of binding Satan from their lives. It's the Word of God You can't win without the Word watching and praying is essential and our voices are hollow without submission So the call to duty was this no temptation overtaking which is not common to me God will always provide a way of escape But it's interesting before that verse comes was as if the Apostle Paul slaps us in the face He says let me let me just remind you here Listen to 1st Corinthians 10 12 He says this therefore Let him who thinks he stands Take heed that he does not fall We're gonna begin if you're here today and just say pastor and I Need the the temptations when I walk out it at my university at my job in my apartment in my Country in in my occupation in in my family They just keep knocking it knows my price it keeps going it keeps going and it's hard I feel like I've lost the brakes My mouth is saying something my mind is lost lost the brakes on This and lost the brakes here my heart the fantasies that keep coming Of a broken marriage and all you do is fantasize what it would be like to be a single man again You fantasize Thinking what is it like when I don't have to be married to them anymore be responsible I am speaking to someone in this place right now, and you've lost the brakes Because you knew when those divorce thoughts came you used to put a stop to those things But now you've lost the brakes on this. I am telling you listen listen This is your runaway ramp today to stop a divorce that you think if I can get out of here It's hard. She doesn't respect me, and I'm speaking to a man in this place today I'm telling you right now walk out of this building You'll file for divorce hit the runaway ramp God will rescue you today You stand there and know what's happening, and you know that God is speaking to you right now This is a day of Liberty it's a day of freedom today The brakes have been locked But I'm telling you this is gonna be a day that God is gonna get the glory victory is gonna come back to your lives today Victory is gonna come back to your lives today But it takes honesty takes transparency takes vulnerability to go I've lost brakes But I'm taking the runaway ramp today. I'm not going off this cliff. I'm not going this way. I'm not finding myself I've realized the losses, but I'm gonna today today today I'm realizing no weapon formed against me is gonna prosper. I'm gonna trust God on this God I'm going back to the word. I'm going back to prayer Listen there is victory in this house today. God's gonna set you free today