Women's Bible Study - September 11th, 2024 - Overcoming Temptation Through God’s Strength

September 11, 2024 · Natalie Yates

Scripture referenced 18 passages

The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.

James 1 chapter cited on temptation, desire giving birth to sin and then death

1 James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion: Greetings.
2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations,
3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.
4 Let endurance have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him.
6 But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.
7 For that man shouldn’t think that he will receive anything from the Lord.
8 He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
9 But let the brother in humble circumstances glory in his high position;
10 and the rich, in that he is made humble, because like the flower in the grass, he will pass away.
11 For the sun arises with the scorching wind, and withers the grass, and the flower in it falls, and the beauty of its appearance perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in his pursuits.
12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him.
13 Let no man say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God can’t be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one.
14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed.
15 Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin; and the sin, when it is full grown, produces death.
16 Don’t be deceived, my beloved brothers.
17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, nor turning shadow.
18 Of his own will he gave birth to us by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
19 So, then, my beloved brothers, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger;
20 for the anger of man doesn’t produce the righteousness of God.
21 Therefore, putting away all filthiness and overflowing of wickedness, receive with humility the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
22 But be doers of the word, and not only hearers, deluding your own selves.
23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror;
24 for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.
25 But he who looks into the perfect law of freedom, and continues, not being a hearer who forgets, but a doer of the work, this man will be blessed in what he does.
26 If anyone among you thinks himself to be religious while he doesn’t bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, this man’s religion is worthless.
27 Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

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James 1:14-15

quoted directly: each person is tempted when dragged away by their own evil desire, desire conceives sin, sin gives birth to death

14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own lust, and enticed.

15 Then the lust, when it has conceived, bears sin; and the sin, when it is full grown, produces death.

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Matthew 3

Jesus baptized, Spirit descending like a dove, voice from heaven saying this is my beloved Son

1 In those days, John the Baptizer came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying,

2 “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!”

3 For this is he who was spoken of by Isaiah the prophet, saying, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, make ready the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight.”

4 Now John himself wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.

5 Then people from Jerusalem, all of Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him.

6 They were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for his baptism, he said to them, “You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

8 Therefore produce fruit worthy of repentance!

9 Don’t think to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I tell you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.

10 “Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down, and cast into the fire.

11 I indeed baptize you in water for repentance, but he who comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.

12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing floor. He will gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.”

13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him.

14 But John would have hindered him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?”

15 But Jesus, answering, said to him, “Allow it now, for this is the fitting way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him.

16 Jesus, when he was baptized, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him. He saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him.

17 Behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

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Matthew 4:1-11

Jesus led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil for forty days

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

2 When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward.

3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

4 But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”

5 Then the devil took him into the holy city. He set him on the pinnacle of the temple,

6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will put his angels in charge of you.’ and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you don’t dash your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus said to him, “Again, it is written, ‘You shall not test the Lord, your God.’”

8 Again, the devil took him to an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory.

9 He said to him, “I will give you all of these things, if you will fall down and worship me.”

10 Then Jesus said to him, “Get behind me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and you shall serve him only.’”

11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and served him.

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Matthew 4:2-3

after fasting forty days the tempter said if you are the Son of God tell these stones to become bread

2 When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward.

3 The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

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Matthew 4:5-6

devil took Jesus to the highest point of the temple and said throw yourself down

5 Then the devil took him into the holy city. He set him on the pinnacle of the temple,

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Matthew 4:8-9

devil showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and said all this I will give you if you bow down and worship me

8 Again, the devil took him to an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory.

9 He said to him, “I will give you all of these things, if you will fall down and worship me.”

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Genesis 3

the fall, serpent tempting Eve with the fruit, lust of flesh, lust of eyes, pride of life paralleled to Jesus' temptations

1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’”

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees of the garden,

3 but not the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden. God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it. You shall not touch it, lest you die.’”

4 The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t really die,

5 for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took some of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate it, too.

7 Their eyes were opened, and they both knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made coverings for themselves.

8 They heard Yahweh God’s voice walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the garden.

9 Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”

10 The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

11 God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”

12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”

13 Yahweh God said to the woman, “What have you done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

14 Yahweh God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed above all livestock, and above every animal of the field. You shall go on your belly and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.

15 I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”

16 To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain you will bear children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”

17 To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and ate from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ the ground is cursed for your sake. You will eat from it with much labor all the days of your life.

18 It will yield thorns and thistles to you; and you will eat the herb of the field.

19 By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

20 The man called his wife Eve because she would be the mother of all the living.

21 Yahweh God made coats of animal skins for Adam and for his wife, and clothed them.

22 Yahweh God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand, and also take of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever—”

23 Therefore Yahweh God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken.

24 So he drove out the man; and he placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

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1 John 2:16

cited to show the three categories of temptation: lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life come not from the Father but from the world

16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, isn’t the Father’s, but is the world’s.

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Psalm 16:11

in your presence is fullness of joy and at your right hand pleasures forevermore, contrasted with sinful short-lived pleasure

11 You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. In your right hand there are pleasures forever more.

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Psalm 119

referenced for Martin Luther's three rules: prayer, meditation, and tension

1 Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to Yahweh’s law.

2 Blessed are those who keep his statutes, who seek him with their whole heart.

3 Yes, they do nothing wrong. They walk in his ways.

4 You have commanded your precepts, that we should fully obey them.

5 Oh that my ways were steadfast to obey your statutes!

6 Then I wouldn’t be disappointed, when I consider all of your commandments.

7 I will give thanks to you with uprightness of heart, when I learn your righteous judgments.

8 I will observe your statutes. Don’t utterly forsake me.

9 How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.

10 With my whole heart, I have sought you. Don’t let me wander from your commandments.

11 I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

12 Blessed are you, Yahweh. Teach me your statutes.

13 With my lips, I have declared all the ordinances of your mouth.

14 I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies, as much as in all riches.

15 I will meditate on your precepts, and consider your ways.

16 I will delight myself in your statutes. I will not forget your word.

17 Do good to your servant. I will live and I will obey your word.

18 Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things out of your law.

19 I am a stranger on the earth. Don’t hide your commandments from me.

20 My soul is consumed with longing for your ordinances at all times.

21 You have rebuked the proud who are cursed, who wander from your commandments.

22 Take reproach and contempt away from me, for I have kept your statutes.

23 Though princes sit and slander me, your servant will meditate on your statutes.

24 Indeed your statutes are my delight, and my counselors.

25 My soul is laid low in the dust. Revive me according to your word!

26 I declared my ways, and you answered me. Teach me your statutes.

27 Let me understand the teaching of your precepts! Then I will meditate on your wondrous works.

28 My soul is weary with sorrow: strengthen me according to your word.

29 Keep me from the way of deceit. Grant me your law graciously!

30 I have chosen the way of truth. I have set your ordinances before me.

31 I cling to your statutes, Yahweh. Don’t let me be disappointed.

32 I run in the path of your commandments, for you have set my heart free.

33 Teach me, Yahweh, the way of your statutes. I will keep them to the end.

34 Give me understanding, and I will keep your law. Yes, I will obey it with my whole heart.

35 Direct me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in them.

36 Turn my heart toward your statutes, not toward selfish gain.

37 Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things. Revive me in your ways.

38 Fulfill your promise to your servant, that you may be feared.

39 Take away my disgrace that I dread, for your ordinances are good.

40 Behold, I long for your precepts! Revive me in your righteousness.

41 Let your loving kindness also come to me, Yahweh, your salvation, according to your word.

42 So I will have an answer for him who reproaches me, for I trust in your word.

43 Don’t snatch the word of truth out of my mouth, for I put my hope in your ordinances.

44 So I will obey your law continually, forever and ever.

45 I will walk in liberty, for I have sought your precepts.

46 I will also speak of your statutes before kings, and will not be disappointed.

47 I will delight myself in your commandments, because I love them.

48 I reach out my hands for your commandments, which I love. I will meditate on your statutes.

49 Remember your word to your servant, because you gave me hope.

50 This is my comfort in my affliction, for your word has revived me.

51 The arrogant mock me excessively, but I don’t swerve from your law.

52 I remember your ordinances of old, Yahweh, and have comforted myself.

53 Indignation has taken hold on me, because of the wicked who forsake your law.

54 Your statutes have been my songs, in the house where I live.

55 I have remembered your name, Yahweh, in the night, and I obey your law.

56 This is my way, that I keep your precepts.

57 Yahweh is my portion. I promised to obey your words.

58 I sought your favor with my whole heart. Be merciful to me according to your word.

59 I considered my ways, and turned my steps to your statutes.

60 I will hurry, and not delay, to obey your commandments.

61 The ropes of the wicked bind me, but I won’t forget your law.

62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks to you, because of your righteous ordinances.

63 I am a friend of all those who fear you, of those who observe your precepts.

64 The earth is full of your loving kindness, Yahweh. Teach me your statutes.

65 Do good to your servant, according to your word, Yahweh.

66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I believe in your commandments.

67 Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now I observe your word.

68 You are good, and do good. Teach me your statutes.

69 The proud have smeared a lie upon me. With my whole heart, I will keep your precepts.

70 Their heart is as callous as the fat, but I delight in your law.

71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes.

72 The law of your mouth is better to me than thousands of pieces of gold and silver.

73 Your hands have made me and formed me. Give me understanding, that I may learn your commandments.

74 Those who fear you will see me and be glad, because I have put my hope in your word.

75 Yahweh, I know that your judgments are righteous, that in faithfulness you have afflicted me.

76 Please let your loving kindness be for my comfort, according to your word to your servant.

77 Let your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; for your law is my delight.

78 Let the proud be disappointed, for they have overthrown me wrongfully. I will meditate on your precepts.

79 Let those who fear you turn to me. They will know your statutes.

80 Let my heart be blameless toward your decrees, that I may not be disappointed.

81 My soul faints for your salvation. I hope in your word.

82 My eyes…

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Philippians 2:6-8

Jesus did not consider equality with God something to exploit but humbled himself even to death on a cross

6 who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,

7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.

8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, yes, the death of the cross.

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1 Peter 1

trials prove the genuineness of faith, of greater worth than gold refined by fire

1 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the chosen ones who are living as foreigners in the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

2 according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood: Grace to you and peace be multiplied.

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4 to an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance that doesn’t fade away, reserved in Heaven for you,

5 who by the power of God are guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

6 Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been put to grief in various trials,

7 that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ—

8 whom not having known you love; in whom, though now you don’t see him, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory—

9 receiving the result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you,

11 searching for who or what kind of time the Spirit of Christ, which was in them, pointed to, when he predicted the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that would follow them.

12 To them it was revealed, that not to themselves, but to you, they ministered these things, which now have been announced to you through those who preached the Good News to you by the Holy Spirit sent out from heaven; which things angels desire to look into.

13 Therefore prepare your minds for action, be sober, and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ—

14 as children of obedience, not conforming yourselves according to your former lusts as in your ignorance,

15 but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior;

16 because it is written, “You shall be holy; for I am holy.”

17 If you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man’s work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear:

18 knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers,

19 but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish or spot, the blood of Christ;

20 who was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was revealed in this last age for your sake,

21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead, and gave him glory; so that your faith and hope might be in God.

22 Seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth through the Spirit in sincere brotherly affection, love one another from the heart fervently:

23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, through the word of God, which lives and remains forever.

24 For, “All flesh is like grass, and all of man’s glory like the flower in the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls;

25 but the Lord’s word endures forever.” This is the word of Good News which was preached to you.

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Galatians 5

walk by the Spirit, desires of flesh versus fruits of the Spirit listed

1 Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

2 Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing.

3 Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.

4 You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace.

5 For we, through the Spirit, by faith wait for the hope of righteousness.

6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision amounts to anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love.

7 You were running well! Who interfered with you that you should not obey the truth?

8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you.

9 A little yeast grows through the whole lump.

10 I have confidence toward you in the Lord that you will think no other way. But he who troubles you will bear his judgment, whoever he is.

11 But I, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been removed.

12 I wish that those who disturb you would cut themselves off.

13 For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom for gain to the flesh, but through love be servants to one another.

14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

15 But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you don’t consume one another.

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh.

17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire.

18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

19 Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness,

20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies,

21 envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith,

23 gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

24 Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.

25 If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit.

26 Let’s not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another.

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1 Corinthians 10:13

no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind, God will provide a way out

13 No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

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Ephesians 6:10-18

the full armor of God described: belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, feet fitted with gospel of peace, shield of faith, helmet of salvation, sword of the Spirit

10 Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might.

11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

12 For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

13 Therefore put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.

14 Stand therefore, having the utility belt of truth buckled around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness,

15 and having fitted your feet with the preparation of the Good News of peace;

16 above all, taking up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one.

17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

18 with all prayer and requests, praying at all times in the Spirit, and being watchful to this end in all perseverance and requests for all the saints:

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James 5:16

confess sins to one another and pray, the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective

16 Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.

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Deuteronomy

Jesus quoted from Deuteronomy when responding to the devil's three temptations

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Recap

The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.

Natalie Yates taught from Matthew 4 on the subject of temptation, tracing how the same three temptations that tripped up Eve in the garden were brought against Jesus in the wilderness, and how Jesus resisted each one. She drew on her own story of addiction and recovery to make the danger of temptation concrete, and she closed by walking through the armor of God in Ephesians 6 as the practical answer to a fight no one can win alone.

What was said

Natalie opened by placing Matthew inside a larger framework, showing how the first five chapters of Matthew mirror the first five books of the Old Testament. Matthew 1 echoes Genesis in tracing a genealogy, Matthew 2 echoes Exodus in the flight to Egypt, Matthew 3 echoes Leviticus in the baptism of Jesus, Matthew 4 echoes Numbers in forty days of wilderness wandering, and Matthew 5 echoes Deuteronomy in the Sermon on the Mount. The point was not just a literary pattern but a theological one: the same God is authoring both testaments, fulfilling in Jesus what he promised through Moses and the prophets.

She then read the temptation account in Matthew 4, framing each of the devil's three moves with a label from 1 John 2:16. The first temptation, turning stones to bread, is the lust of the flesh, an appeal to physical need and appetite. The second, throwing himself from the temple, is the pride of life, the desire to possess qualities that belong to God alone, things like omnipotence, omniscience, and self-sufficiency. The third, bowing for all the kingdoms of the world, is the lust of the eyes, the coveting of everything the world offers when the world is the one doing the offering.

She then turned back to Genesis 3 and read the fall, showing that Eve was tempted in exactly the same three ways: the fruit was good for food, pleasing to the eye, and desirable for gaining wisdom. Sin loves company, she noted, and Eve brought Adam along with her. The contrast she drew was direct: Jesus did what Eve could not. Temptation itself is not sin, but acting on it is, and Jesus, being perfectly God and perfectly man, resisted it entirely.

Natalie addressed why God would allow temptation at all. She cited Martin Luther's reading of Psalm 119, that prayer, meditation, and agonizing struggle together are what move a person from head knowledge about God to the experiential knowledge Deborah had introduced the week before. She also pointed to 1 Peter, which says trials prove the genuineness of faith the way fire purifies gold, burning off impurities until the surface becomes a clean mirror.

She was direct about the danger. Citing C. S. Lewis's Screwtape Letters, she noted that the safest road to hell is the gradual one, and that in a wealthy, comfortable, distracted society the enemy rarely needs to tempt anyone toward dramatic evil. The drift toward busyness, comfort, control, and envy is quiet enough to go unnoticed. She named her own decade of struggle with disordered eating and destructive behavior as an example of how small choices compound, and she described what finally worked: admitting powerlessness, believing God could restore her, and surrendering the fight to him, twenty-four hours at a time.

She closed by walking through the armor of God in Ephesians 6. The belt of truth holds everything else in place; without it the breastplate of righteousness falls off. The shield of faith, she noted, was the size of a door in a centurion's kit, and when soldiers locked shields they created a wall together, which she held up as a picture of what Christian community is for. The sword of the spirit is the word of God, and she pointed out that every one of Jesus' responses to the devil in the wilderness was a direct quote from Deuteronomy. He did not fight the enemy with his own words; he used God's.

Doing a Bible study?

Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.

Natalie walked through how Matthew chapters one through five mirror the first five books of the Old Testament, showing God telling one consistent story across centuries. Where have you seen that kind of pattern or consistency in your own walk with God, where something from your past turned out to be preparation for something later?
Natalie described three temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness as the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, and the lust of the eyes, and then showed the same three at work in Genesis three with Eve. Which of those three do you find most active in your own life right now, and what does it tend to look like day to day?

and 3 more questions in the guide

Open the study guide

Read the full transcript 9,963 words

Find in this transcript

Good morning, How are you today on this beautiful rainy day? Let's stand and worship together.

Wraps and darkness tries to hide trembles at his voice trembles at his voice how great is our God. Sing with me how great is our God. Oh, we'll see how great, how great is our God.

Sounds beautiful. Lift your voice. Let me hear

you sing it. How great is our God. Sing with me.

Let's Yes. With your eyes closed, take a minute. Clear the distractions from your mind. Lord, we mean this. We could never know how much it cost, how much it cost you.

To see our sin on that cross that you chose us before we ever chose you. That you first loved us. We worship you, Lord, because you are such a good, good father that you laid down your life, your son's life for us. We worship you today because you are worthy. And despite whatever obstacles or circumstances or burdens are set before us today, we just declare that you are worthy.

You are the name above all other names. Even time is in your hands. Just think about that line. You're the beginning and the end, the alpha, the omega, the author, and the perfecter of our faith. And that's why we're here today, Lord.

Just continue to do good work in us. Sing this. You're the name above.

Is our God. Sing with me how great our God. Oh, we'll see how great it be Oh, it may be. May it be a sweet, sweet sound in your

Yes, Lord. And Lord, we tell you that we're here to meet with you today, that this is all about you and this is time is all for you. Pray that you would honor the time that these ladies are giving this week and our busy busy schedules to come to read your word, to draw close to you this morning. Thank you that you always have more for us. We tell you we love you in Jesus' name.

And everybody said, amen. Go ahead and have a seat and Julia's gonna come and bring us the plan for the day. Great worshipers.

Good morning. Here I am, Julia with the plan. Welcome back. This week, some of you may be your first week. And if you missed the first week, I'm gonna recap that real quickly.

And I wanna thank you all again for obeying the Holy Spirit that led you here, and here you are. So you accomplished something today. Good job. Woo hoo. Note number one, please silence your phones if you haven't done that yet.

So some of you are new this week, and what I'm gonna do briefly is recap, the leaders that I introduced last week so that you know, if you're new, who your small group leader is. So those of you if Nancy Irwin would please stand. This is Nancy Irwin, a southern doll. Christina Fates isn't here this morning. So who is leading Christina's group this morning?

Hey. Kenlyn Long. So if if you were in Christina's group, you'll go see Kenlyn. Casey McCooey and Jill Stradley, moms group. Good team mom team.

Both Sammy Robinson and Christy Hammond are are, absent today, so Deborah will be taking their group. So you'll meet downstairs with Deborah today. Heidi Summers and Mandy Dornan. If you're with these two doll babies, you'll go to the Nursing Room with them. No.

No. Wrong. Fellowship Hall cafeteria. Right. Sorry.

Addie Hair? You're with Addie? She's in the Nursing Room. Janet Whitmire and Bobby Daly. Where are you guys?

Okay. And they will be in the sanctuary. You'll stay right in here. And Arlen and Erin, they're downstairs next to the nursery. So, follow your leader.

And we do leave directly from here after the lesson is given this morning to go directly down there so we don't, lose any time. As a recap from last week, there's notes on your table, and that is applied to last week, not today. And these are Deborah's notes. You remember Deborah talking about epignosis. This is referring to your experiential knowledge and that we don't wanna just have intellectual head knowledge.

We want the word of God to go straight into our heart, to pierce our heart. So it's a spiritual, which is more of an eastern Christian way of of God is in the heart, and he goes deeper and more personal. We have to push back against the false narratives. What are you playing over and over in your head from your childhood, from from your past that's not serving you well? Jesus is all you need, and we just need to say, no.

I'm not gonna hear that voice anymore. And we wanna hear God's word filling our heart, and that's where we go and get our our positive input. And what are you taking in audio and visual? Are you editing what you're listening to and what you're watching? Are we staying God centered?

Pushing back on some of our habits, how we spend time and what we give our attention to. Do your actions match your priorities? If someone's watching you and seeing what you're doing, that's your priority. And that's not to say you're not you know, working is a good priority. Childcare is a good priority.

Marriage is a good priority. Scrolling through instant yeah. Instagram, InstaFace, whatever it is, is not probably the best use of your time. So where that you know, you're how we spend our time reflects that. Pushing back against the lies that as a Christian, you have to say yes to everyone who wants to be your friend.

Stand stand firm on God's word. And if this world is trying to get you to think that something's okay that we know is not okay because it's in God's word that it's not okay, be kind, but you don't have to accept that. You don't have to, you know, walk in that light if it's dark. So be the light, always stay faithful to God's word, and don't allow others in society to to pull you aside from that. Your thoughts and actions must align with God's word.

And pushing up against giving up on God when things get difficult, God is faithful. He's always faithful. And it might not be the timing that you want in answering a prayer. You're waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting. But I assure you, he is faithful.

He will answer the prayer. And it might not be the prayer the answer you want, but his ways are always right. And he will give you the answer that's best for you. You must trust. As we go into this week, Natalie will be teaching on a little bit more on spiritual warfare.

And the stronger your faith grows, the more beautiful you become to God and the more Satan wants to get his cause in you. And we have to be aware that there are dark forces working against us as Christians. So when you're working on your lesson and you're trying to find time and you're you're busy, I wanna introduce one of the busiest people I know. She's a mother. She has a major career and yet and she helps with the website and yet she has found time and does find time for God.

And I would like to introduce to you Natalie Yates who will be delivering today's message. My business. Thank you, Doria.

Yes. Oh, I should be on here. Okay. Perfect. Well, that's ironic because one of the things, very things we're gonna talk about today is the temptation of busyness and how it has led to my downfall over the last twelve months.

I see a lot of familiar faces, but yes, for those of you who I haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Natalie Yates. I moved to The Valley five years ago from Dallas. I attended my very first Bible study that fall of twenty nineteen at the invitation of a neighbor and I have been running with a lot of these ladies, a lot of you and Deborah ever since. Like many of you, Deborah is one of my spiritual mentors, I call her one of my spiritual mamas, and two years ago, she asked me to consider teaching, which is not something I had ever envisioned for myself, but it turns out that when your spiritual mentor is praying for it and you're praying for what's next in my life and she says it's teaching, you obey. So this is a step of obedience, I will say.

I am far from qualified to be taking the pulpit. I never went to seminary, but I do know the word of God, and I have been walking with him for the last ten years, but I am not I'm far, far from perfect. So I just wanna say in complete humility, it is an honor and a privilege to be up here today with you unpacking the Lord's word. And we have a lot to cover today, so I want you to turn to the empty notes page at the back of chapter or week one. I didn't create a note handout for you because I actually am gonna direct us directly to our bibles today, and we're gonna actually take some notes in your Bible if you're comfortable with that.

But I want you to open that notes page because I'm gonna tell you, write this down, write this down, so you're gonna build your own outline along the way. But first, I just wanna start in prayer. Heavenly father, thank you so much for bringing all these ladies here safely today. Thank you for the rain. As Nancy pointed out this morning, we just pray that it quenches those fires that are burning right now.

Lord, you bring the sun and you bring the rain and you give us all that we need. Lord, I pray that as I'm teaching today that anything that is not from you would just just go in one ear and write out the other. Lord, my heart is to empower these ladies with your word and present it in a way that just speaks to them this morning and I pray you would do that. In your name we pray, amen. So context is important.

Last week, Deborah introduced Matthew as one of the authors of the gospels. He is one of Jesus' 12 disciples and the theme in the book of the gospel of Matthew is Jesus' kingship. So I just want you guys to remember that, the framing of Jesus is king. The first four books of the Bible, if you are not as familiar with reading your Bible, chapter The first four chapters of the New Testament are known as the gospels and gospel means good news. It is the telling of the good news that God has sent his son to save us And if you remember nothing else today, I want you to think about this Bible not as a book of rules, but as a love story.

It is stories throughout centuries and generations of God going to great lengths to rescue his people. So Levi is one of those people. Levi was the former name of Matthew. All throughout scripture, Jesus and God have have a tendency to rename people once they come to Christ. So Levi, we know was a tax collector from the town of Capernaum and he was a Jew.

And in those days, religion was tied to bloodline, so he was Jewish, he was part of the chosen people, but he was hated by his community, by the religious leaders, by his peers because of his profession. So in those days, the Jews were being oppressed by the Roman government and the tax collector's job was to collect money from all of his people and pay the Roman government. Not only that, but they were known for skimming some off the top. So Matthew was also very wealthy at the expense of his very own community, so he was an outcast. And Jesus has a tendency to use those outcasts, the least of these, to fulfill his ministry.

And that's what we're gonna learn about today is Matthew's gospel one through four, chapters one through four and actually one through five. We're gonna do a really quick outline and an echoing of the old testament because our God is so creative that not only did he create more than 400 prophecies that were fulfilled in the New Testament, but he also foreshadows a lot of the things that happened in Jesus' lifetime centuries before in the Old Testament. So we're gonna do just a flyby. I could speak probably for three hours today on all of this content so bear with me, it's gonna be quick but I want you to write this down so you can go revisit it if it piques your interest. Okay?

So the first five chapters of the Old Testament are known as the Pentateuch. You might recognize the root word penta meaning five and the Pentateuch is what comprises the Jewish Torah that is shared scripture between our faiths. And the Jews in Matthew's time would have been very familiar with the Pentateuch. This was their scripture and their law. So creatively, our God has outlined for the peep his people, the Jews, look at how this aligns with the scripture that you already have.

So Matthew one is an echo back to Genesis. I'll show you how, so write this down. Matthew one Genesis. Matthew one is the genealogy of Jesus. Do you know what the word Genesis means?

It means generation or genealogy. Genesis deals with the generations of the earliest people of God and the emergence of the people of Israel or God's people and it provides the general background, generational background from where his people came from. Similarly, Matthew one provides a general background, generational background for Jesus tracing his lineage all the way back to David and then all the way back to Abraham, also fulfilling old testament prophecy, so generations. Matthew two is an echo of Exodus. In Exodus, the Israelites were living in bondage in Egypt under their king Pharaoh.

Pharaoh commanded the mass genocide of all Jewish baby boys for fear that one day, those very boys would become men that could rise up against him and threaten his power. So ironically, this command, this sinful, powerful ruler, his decree is what actually birthed the story of Moses. Moses was born to Jewish family and so they knew their son their baby boy was going to be murdered. They put him in a basket and sent him down the Nile River to hide him in hopes that he would be saved. Do you know who finds Moses in the basket?

Pharaoh's daughter. He is raised in the household of Pharaoh. One of the people he was trying to actually eliminate is now dwelling with him but he has no idea that Moses is from the Jewish lineage and so God actually uses that story and raises up Moses to be the very one that leads Israel out of the exodus from Egypt. Similarly, in Matthew two, he read the story this week. What does that sound like?

King Herod. King Herod hears the story of baby Jesus the Messiah and thinks, if this is true, this could be a real problem because it would be a threat to my dominion and my power. So he also issues a decree to have all of the Jewish baby boys killed and through divine intervention, his dad Joseph takes the family and flees where? To Egypt. Do you see the similarities?

And then through divine guidance, he's brought back to Israel. So Moses actually foreshadows the life of Jesus. Both were born during the time when the Jews were under oppression, both were miraculously escaped death as infants, both lived as immigrants in a land that was not their own, both had a public ministry that brought people from bondage to freedom but Jesus is the one greater than Moses as was prophesied in the old testament. Matthew three, write this down, Leviticus. So the book of Leviticus focuses primarily on the laws and rituals of salvation.

In Matthew three, we read the story of Jesus fulfilling one of the very first laws and rituals of salvation which is baptism. Now mind you, this is Testament framework. So what I want you to hear loud and clear is that the act of baptism is not necessary for salvation nor is it the path to salvation. As we know today, in the fulfillment of all these scriptures, Jesus made way for that. So baptism is simply a public proclamation of a decision that we have already made in our hearts.

Scripture says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and in your heart that God has And believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved. That is the condition for acceptance into the kingdom, it is not baptism, that is simply an act of faith. But after his baptism, God calls out from the heavens to Jesus saying, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. He calls Jesus. The Hebrew title for the book of Leviticus is, Wei kairo, which actually means the Lord called.

Matthew four is an echo of the book of Numbers. Numbers recounts forty years of wandering and suffering and temptation of the children of Israel in the desert. Matthew four, Jesus wanders for forty days in the desert, in the wilderness suffering temptation. And then Matthew five, we're giving a little preview of what Deborah's gonna unpack next week but Matthew five from seven is actually a reflection of Deuteronomy. The book of Deuteronomy is a second telling of the law that Moses received in Exodus.

You might remember the 10 commandments. Deuteronomy actually means second law. So beginning in Matthew five, Jesus delivers the Sermon on the Mount which is essentially a renewal and an updating of this old mosaic law that was given in the old testament. So in summary, what I want you to hear today is Matthew, in the book of Matthew, he details more than a 120 of these fulfilled prophecies. He's proving to his people Jesus is the guy that we've been talking about in the old testament.

He is the Messiah and our God creatively knit these stories together so that we can look back and see this is the same author fulfilling the same narrative that he has promised throughout time and it is a love story to rescue his people. Today, we're gonna settle in in Matthew Matthew four and talk about temptation. And as I was thinking about temptation, well first of all, there's just a lot in here and I know you guys recognize that in your study this week. Every single chapter was a deep dive on something completely different which I loved. It was so rich and so deep, but for the last four weeks, I've been meditating on this and praying as I've been hiking, God, what do you want these women to hear?

And the word was temptation, so we're gonna cover temptation today. Twenty years ago, almost to the day, I guess to the month, my family packed up our old Ford Explorer, I was busting at the seams and we drove 1,200 miles south in a straight line from Midland, Michigan down to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. I was going to college. And when I arrived in Tuscaloosa, the next four years became what I can only describe as the most blatant form of temptation in my life. It was truly an illustration of temptation and here's why.

I grew up in a Midwestern, pretty modest town. I showed up on campus, the girls all looked like Barbie dolls. They were this thin, they were dressed to the nines with blonde hair and all of the makeup and I had kind of mousy brown hair and my little Abercrombie denim, I had no idea what seven jeans were at the time, and my Abercrombie t shirts and they were wearing these beautiful clothes and jewelry. I had my clunky North Face backpack and all the girls had these beautifully monogrammed Vera Bradley tote bags in every color of the rainbow and every pattern. And if you're from the South, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing against any of these things. I'm just showing you what was in my heart. Something I'd been completely unaware of up until this point now had my full attention. Full attention and I lived for the things of the world. It was a physical manifestation of what I was craving so deeply in my heart and I set out to get the best degree I could to make the most money to buy all the things that I was seeing all around me, the nice cars, the nice bags.

I was gonna marry the best looking guy that I could find and I was going to have it all. I sought perfection. We're gonna circle back to that later but I just wanted to give you an illustration. See, without an anchor of truth during these formative years, I easily gave in and I was living fully for the world and all it had to offer. I indulged in every pleasure, pursued every perfection nearly to the point of physical death but God used that.

It took me being flat on my back to be able to look up. See, James one says, and write this down, James one is a great reference when we're talking about temptation, the entire first chapter of James. Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin and sin when it is full grown gives birth to death. I thought I was living big, pursuing all the things the world had to offer, all the things the world told me would bring happiness but inside I was wasting away.

And by the end of my struggle, I was truly a walking zombie. I was dead inside. I had no feelings or connections left. Now pause because I just wanna also make it clear. Nice cars, nice bags, nice things, those things are not inherently sinful.

It is what our hearts are wired, how our hearts respond to those things that is the true test. So if you I mean, look, live in a nice big house in Jackson Hole. Who am I to speak? But the point is it can quickly become coveting, those things. And so that's what I really had to learn and discern, and that's what we're gonna unpack today.

I want you to open your Bibles, hopefully you brought them with you since that was the core of our study this week. If not, no worries, pull it up on your phone, but I want you to turn to Matthew four and I'm gonna start reading right before, I think two lines before chapter four. So as soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment, heaven was opened and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting him and a voice from heaven said, this is my son with whom I am well pleased. Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

The Greek word for temptation here, you can write this down. Temptation means to test. Immediately after Jesus was baptized and called, he's led away to be tested. This blew my mind. God does not tempt first of all.

He is not the tempter, the enemy tempts. James also says that for God cannot be tempted by evil nor does he tempt anyone but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desires and enticed. And while God did not test Jesus, he allowed Jesus to be tested at this pivotal moment. We'll talk about why in just a moment but the point I want to pull out here is that the enemy came to tempt him after he made this bold proclamation of faith in obedience to the Lord And he waited until a moment of weakness. Jesus had been fasting for forty days.

Fasting is a wonderful discipline. I've started fasting for myself the very first time six months ago and it has created a new awareness just about how quickly I can go to certain things. It creates a heightened awareness of the presence of the Lord, but in this specific instance, he was completely empty. He had nothing left. Forty days is about as long as you can survive without any nourishment.

So that's my first point is the enemy is waiting to strike in our weakness. The wilderness is where Jesus would retreat to be with his father and this is also a good practice. This is something we should do regularly but he was all alone in that moment. Oftentimes, we're the most vulnerable to attack when we're alone or empty. But what else is happening here?

Jesus has also made this bold proclamation of faith. He is activated. The enemy hates when we are at work for God. My husband became an elder in this this church this year and we had a few people tell us just be on alert, be on guard. And it happened.

He came for us. The enemy attacked our marriage and the last twelve months has been the hardest twelve months in our ten years of marriage but he used it and he's using it to refine us which we're gonna talk about today. So we're gonna read the first temptation, so skip down just a little bit in chapter four. So after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry and the tempter came to him and said, if you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread. I want you to underline that.

Tell these stones to become bread. Write in your Bible if you're comfortable and then I want you to write something. Lust of the flesh. This is the first temptation, the lust of the flesh. It's an appeal to his physical body and his needs.

Turn these stones into bread, he said. Notice the devil did not set forth a huge banquet filled with all the food and things to entice Jesus, no, he was cunning in the way that he tempted him. It wasn't so obvious as to set a whole plate of cookies in front of Jesus. He said turn these stones into bread And he had fasted for forty days. Is eating a sin?

No. But in this case, he understood who was offering the food and he understood that it actually represented something more which was giving into a physical weakness. I also want to point out that we can take amoral things like food. It was meant to be a gift. It was meant to nourish our body and we can misuse them.

Food is a provision that can be used sinfully. On one hand, you might be an overeater, you might turn to food when you're stressed out or anxious, food might be your coping mechanism, maybe it's gluttony. On the other hand, you can use soup food to manipulate your own body, restricting. That's what I did in college. I wanted to look just like those Barbie dolls and so I wouldn't eat or I'd only eat very specific things.

Another provision from God, sex. This is a gift that he gave us that was meant to be used in the context of marriage to bind husband and wife in an intimacy that couldn't be experienced anywhere else but used outside of marriage, which it is a lot. I misused it. It's promiscuity, it's perversion. We take that gift and we use it for ourselves.

Back to the scripture, the second temptation, the devil took us to the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you are the son of God, he said, throw yourself down. Underline this. If you're the son of God, throw yourself down. If you're God and you jump off the grand, what's gonna happen to you?

Nothing. The pride of life. Write that down, the pride of life. It is the desire to be godlike. It is the temptation of pride to have the things that only God can have.

Now, rewind a second because we are all made in the image of God. I wanna make that very clear. So there is a God likeness about us. However, there are attributes that belong Omnipotence means God is all powerful. Who here loves to be in control?

Okay? Omniscient, God is all knowing. I'll tell you what spun me up into an oblivion in my twenties was all of the unknowns. Who am I going to marry? Where am I going to live?

What job am I going to have? Will I have kids? All of those question marks created such anxiety because I wanted to know. I wanted to know the future. What about justice?

Who wants to get people back when they're offended? No, that that belongs to God. It's not ours to seek revenge. Justice belongs to the Lord. And what about self sufficiency?

I hate having to pin on other people. That's an attribute that only meant for God. He wants us to be God sufficient, not self sufficient. So that's what the pride of life means. It's the desire to possess God like characters that only are meant for the Lord.

And then I want you to turn again back to your bibles. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world in all of their splendor. He said, all this I will give you if you will bow down and worship me. Underline that. Lust of the eyes.

I will give you the world and everything in it, all of its splendor, it's coveting. This is me at Alabama, I want it all. It's worldliness but look who is offering it. The enemy is saying, it is yours if you bow down to me. This stopped me in my tracks.

The things of the world belong to him, the things of the spirit belong to the Lord. What are we living for? It's not a sin to drive a nice car or live in a

big house. We've already talked about that.

Same as the first test of food and sex, these are often amoral things but they require moral decision making and there's a difference between enjoying the gifts that he has given you and coveting them. We often desire the gift without the giver. And then I want you to write down this verse. You don't have to scribble down the whole thing but just make reference. First John two sixteen and listen closely, for everything in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life comes not from the father but from the world.

Isn't that cool? Now there's something else that's pretty remarkable about the way Jesus was tested. As I said, our God is creative and he likes to foreshadow things. So I want you to turn, mark that page and turn all the way back with me to the very beginning of your Bible. It's probably in the first 10 pages in Genesis three.

And if you don't have your Bible, just write in the margin Genesis three so you can make note to go back and reference that. Okay? So this is the fall. The Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve, the story of the apple but we're gonna read it together. Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made.

He said to the woman, did God really say you must not eat from that tree in the garden? Twisting truth just a little bit, planting the seed of doubt. The woman said to the serpent, basically, we can eat all of this fruit, all of these trees, the banana trees, the pineapples, the peaches, the cherries. God said we can eat all of this, just not from this one, this apple tree. Also, he said if we touch it, we'll die.

So pause right there. God actually was blessing Adam and Eve with the entire garden, but he just had a boundary on this one thing to protect them. Sometimes we read this story and think, oh God didn't want them to eat, but no. God provided this majestic garden for them to dwell in and take care of and he allowed them provision with all of it. He just said, this one thing is dangerous and I want to put up guardrails to protect you.

But it was so tempting because it was the thing that was off limits. Then what does the serpent say? He says, certainly you won't die. Who dies from touching an apple? That's ridiculous.

Planting seeds of doubt. For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food, the lust of the flesh was pleasing to the eye, the lust of the eye, and was desirable for gaining wisdom, knowing good and evil, being like God, the pride of life. She took some and ate it. Then what does she do?

She took some to her she gave some to her husband and he ate it. Doesn't sin love company? Isn't it easier to justify? Oh, of course I can do this thing or that thing or buy this or that because my friend does it, actually everyone does it, sin loves company. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked.

They realized for the very first time, God made them naked and unashamed in that garden and for the first time, they experienced shame. And what did they do? They took fig leaves and they covered themselves because now they were aware of their nakedness. And then the man and the wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day and what did they do? They hid.

They hid from God. Don't we do this too? We isolate in our deepest, darkest moments, we don't want anyone to know, we keep that to ourselves. We pull it in. She was tempted in the very same way, The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, but Jesus did what Eve could not.

He resisted the devil. Temptation is not a sin but it is a sin to act on it. Jesus was perfectly God and perfectly man so he had the power to resist temptation for his entirety on earth. He lived a sinless life. Ladies, I'm not saying you have to live a sinless life.

It is impossible. I bet most of us in this room actually already gave into a temptation today. And you might think, that's ridiculous, no I didn't. Well just after we unpack some of this, you're gonna rewind and be like, yep, I did that and I did yep. Actually, I've already lived for the world a lot today.

And that's okay, there's grace for that. But it's What I wanna do today is not condemn that, I wanna create an awareness because of what we're about to unpack. Okay? So point number one, the purpose of testing. Why would the spirit lead Jesus to be tempted?

And now I've actually lost my whole place in Matthew so hopefully you don't come back to that. Why would the spirit lead Jesus to be tempted? Philippians two six said Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be used for his own advantage. Rather he humbled himself. He took on the nature of a servant, made himself in human likeness, he became obedient even to death on a cross, the most humiliating and excruciating form of death.

He humbled himself. Jesus endured temptation so that he could identify with us. Our God is not a distant God ruling from some far off throne. No, he's a personal God. He sent his son so he could identify and we could know, no, he walked that path too.

Our God is a very personal God. And he also endured this temptation just to show that he was God, that he could resist the temptation even though he felt every feeling that we feel, he could stand firm against it perfectly. James also tells us, again why James is so important in the scriptures on temptation is James also tells us that the testing of our faith produces steadfastness. So we know what happens immediately before, it was a bold proclamation of faith and we know what happens immediately after because I know you all did your homework. He begins his three year ministry and he endures ridicule, he is misunderstood, he is rejected by his own family and hometown and then he dies the most horrific death you could imagine.

This is the third purpose is God is preparing Jesus. He's preparing him for something that he had the purpose he had set before him to fulfill. So Jesus endured temptations so that he could identify with us, so that he had proved his sinless character and that he could prepare him for his ministry. But why then would God allow temptation in our lives? And before I go any further, I just wanna acknowledge trials, trials, difficult circumstances.

I know in this room alone, what I am aware of, I'm sure there's many more situations that I'm not aware of, four loved ones have been taken from us, and there's grief in this room because of that. I know at least in four different situations, there are families and friends grieving for lost loved ones, including myself. We lost my mother-in-law this summer. And trials and temptations are from different places. Trials are external things.

Right? Temptations come from within, but both are a test that can produce fruit and goodness as God prepares us for something bigger. But I also just wanna take a moment to say, if you showed up here today and you're in the midst of grief in circumstances that you can't control, we're so glad that you're here. This is the right place and just have faith and know that all throughout scripture, God is using the horrible things, the worldly broken horrible things to write a beautiful story. Sometimes generations later that we could never even foresee and that we may never know here on earth but we may get to see all of that glory in heaven.

So why would Jesus or why would God then allow temptation in our lives? So we already saw that the Holy Spirit led Jesus to the place where he would be tempted. So that tells me, okay, God's gonna allow it in our lives too. If he allowed it in Jesus' life, he's gonna allow it in ours. But it's in these trials and temptations that we can grow in intimacy with the Lord And sometimes, like me, you have to self destruct in order to know that you need a Lord.

Martin Luther believed that a deep understanding of God is anchored in three rules that are actually illustrated in Psalm one nineteen and I'm not gonna read it, You can mark that down so you can revisit Psalm one nineteen, but the themes are prayer, meditation, and temptation or sorry. Prayer, meditation, and tension. And tension in in those terms meant an agonizing struggle. He wrote that conflict is what teaches you not only to know God, to know what these words say, but to have a deep experience and understanding of the word of God. Where have we heard that before?

Epagnosis. This is the key to progressing past knowing about God to knowing God personally as your father. This is how we grow in experiential knowledge. First Peter says that trials are gonna prove the genuineness of our faith, of greater worth than gold which is which perishes even though refined by fire. Do you

know how God or do

you know how gold is purified? It's heated in a crucible into liquid form, extreme temperatures, and then the impurities rise to the surface and when the gold hardens again, they can just be wiped away. And that process is repeated over and over and over and over again until that gold is a perfect mirror. You could see the reflection in it. So all of the heat and the conflict and the testing and the trials have a purpose to purify and refine our faith.

But temptation is dangerous. That's my second point. The danger of temptation is that it's a slippery slope. No one wakes up one day and decides that they're going to have an affair. No one spends their way into mountains of credit card debt intentionally.

No one seeks addictions to substances. No one goes off to college planning to become anorexic nor did I realize that the small choices I was making along the way would lead to a decade of struggle. You see, sin starts small. And as we read in James, it's the desire that gives birth to sin and when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death. You see, temptation is seductive because it holds out the promise of pleasure.

Back to Eve in the garden, she thought God was withholding something good from her. Psalm one sixteen or sorry, Psalm sixteen eleven says, in your presence there is fullness of joy and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore. So sinful pleasure, short lived thrills of lust or greed, laziness, envy, these are always gonna be so appealing in the moment if we do not have our hearts set on fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. And fullness of joy does not mean that you're going to be happy every single day, but it means even in the depths, you can find deep purpose, connection, and meaning. Galatians five says, walk by the spirit.

Write down Galatians five as well. This is an important one to revisit. Galatians five says, walk by the spirit and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to prevent you from doing what you would. That's terrifying.

To prevent me from doing what I naturally would just in my human state. He wants us not to do that. God hardwired us as humans to have free will but he's saying, I'm giving you the choice and it's gonna be hard but you have to resist what it is your flesh wants to do. So what are the desires of the flesh? I'm so glad you asked.

In Galatians five, Paul gives us a list. We don't even have to think of these on our own. Now, this is not an exhaustive list, but it's an example, and you could derive even more from this, but just a few. Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality,

you don't have to write all

these down. It's in Galatians five. Idolatry, Idolatry. Sorcery. Never experienced that until I moved to Jackson, but it does exist here.

Enmity. Enmity. Enmity. That's what happened. Me and my husband this year, we're set aflame and he puts enmity between us.

Strife, jealousy, fits of anger. I'm glad y'all did not see me in the last three weeks of summer with my kids. Rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these, he says. The list goes on. In contrast, what are the fruits of the spirit?

If you grew up in church, you know the fruits of the spirit. Okay. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. It's all in Galatians. Okay?

So that's how you know, is this of the Lord or is this not of the Lord? If it's not of the Lord, you'll be able to tell. We all face temptations daily, no question. But our ability to recognize them and desire to turn from them is gonna be dependent on your understanding of temptation and sin. This might be all new to you.

You might be totally mind blown today saying, I didn't know I wasn't supposed to be doing that. I'm not telling you again to condemn you, I'm telling you to bring an awareness because there is a war going on for our souls. Whether you believe it or not, it exists. And we're told that there's an adversary that prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. If you're in the midst of an affair or addiction or another acute struggle, you know exactly what this temptation is.

Okay? You don't have to go looking for it. And fighting it is going to depend on your answer to one question. Are you ready to give it up? Are you ready to let go?

I'll give you a teaser. If you're if you're ready, if you are ready, if your chest if your heart is beating out of your chest right now, I think the spirit is probably calling you to examine that. If you if and when you are ready to give that up, there's 12 step programs. I went through one, I led one for five years, and I'm gonna give you a little teaser to the first three steps on repeat. One, I'm powerless.

It's out of my control. I have no control over my life anymore and I am powerless. Number two, I believe God can restore me. He can restore the situation. And number three, I'll surrender, and I'm gonna let God fight that for me.

I fought my own bulimia and addictions for ten years, white knuckled it, failed every time. It wasn't until I started giving it to God and understanding who he was that I was successful in breaking those chains. In the beginning, it was twenty four hours at a time. I was on my knees multiple times a day, begging him to take it away, begging him to fight that fight for me. And pretty soon, strung together a week, and then a month, and then a relapse.

Discouragement. And I'd recommit to twenty four hours, to a week, to a month, and pretty soon it became a year, and now I am ten years sober from a lot of destructive behaviors. Enduring addiction and recovery was a gift because it allowed me to experience God. Epignosis. But what if your temptation is more subtle?

This is probably more akin to my life now. I fought the biggies, but I still fight the siren's call when it comes to comfort and control and envy, a glass of wine when I'm stressed, a new outfit when I'm overwhelmed. Are these things really thin? It's a slippery slope. In Screwtape Letters, CS Lewis writes, it does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the light and into nothingness.

Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed, the safest road to hell is the gradual one. The gentle slope, soft underfoot without sudden turnings, milestones or signposts. In our wealthy, busy, over committed society that thrives on instant gratification, the enemy doesn't have to do much, ladies. We're already very distracted.

But if you look in parts of the world like China or Iran or Africa, where there's true strife and where temptation and sin looks more like murder and rape and the dark things of the world, people are on fire there. I think the danger here and now in The United States is more of one of comfort and ease, like the enemy is lulling us to sleep in our own little world. Meanwhile, in countries where we would actually have to be doing this at 02:00 in the morning in someone's basement under candlelight, the gospel is exploding, Millions upon millions being saved in countries where it's not allowed. Church ladies were called to live holy set apart lives. Write this down, holy, a holy life.

Holy, I used to think, how can I live a holy life? God's supposed to be holy, but holy means set apart. He says, you're supposed to live a life that looks different from the world around you. If people look at your life and it looks no different than your neighbors and your neighbor is not walking with the Lord, then how are they supposed to tell you apart? The church, which is doesn't have to be a building with a steeple.

The church is God's people. All of us, all y'all. Here and in China and across the world. The church is God's plan to show the world who he is. We are God's physical manifestation on earth because we are living temples of the Holy Spirit or we are meant to be.

And God's people are meant to be his hands and feet here on earth. He's offering fullness of joy, pleasures forevermore but we're settling for cheap thrills and we're distracted. So this brings me to my third point, fighting temptation. You can write that down. Point number three, fighting temptation.

Martin Luther said, you cannot keep birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair. This was my husband's addition to our teaching today. In other words, you can't keep the devil from suggesting thoughts, but you can choose whether or not you dwell on them or act on them. First Corinthians ten thirteen says, no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful.

He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. And when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. This was my verse on repeat for ten years. Write that down. You don't have to write the whole thing.

First Corinthians ten thirteen. He promises. He promises that it's nothing we can't handle. It might feel like it, but sometimes he takes us to places where we cannot survive on our own strength. We have to rely on his.

God will provide a way out. Turn with me now to Ephesians six. This is gonna be way in the back of your Bible in the New Testament. And if you don't have time or you're still scrambling, just write down Ephesians six in your notes so that under the way out, Ephesians six. So Ephesians six starts with finally or ends with rather, finally be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, the authorities and the powers of this dark world and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. He says it right there, ladies. This is beyond our comprehension and it is beyond our power. There is a war being waged for your souls and it is important to be alert and to equip yourselves for this battle.

He also says to put on the armor. So that implies that we're not already wearing it. This is a conscious decision that you get up in the morning and you decide, am I gonna just start my day or am I gonna arm myself this morning with the armor of God? So I want you to skip down just a little bit. Stand firm then with your belt of truth.

You can underline belt of truth. So truth comes from the word of God. It's not the word of God, but it is derived from the word of God. Without truth, there's nothing to fight for because you're not taking a stand against something or other. This is our true north.

This is the compass that guides us and it is the belt that stands or that fastens around a soldier's waist and that belt holds up, you can underline the breastplate of righteousness. That's that's protection for a soldier's organs and his his heart. So the breastplate of righteousness is meant to be God's righteousness, not our own. We're If doing this on our own strength, it becomes self righteous but we're doing it on God's strength, it is his righteousness and in Isaiah, we're actually told that our righteousness is not enough to fight the enemy. It's God's righteousness that we need so he said, I'm giving you mine.

I'm imputing it to you so that you can use it in my name to fight him back. But the crazy thing about this breastplate is that without a belt, the breastplate actually will fall off. So without that belt of truth, there's actually no protection for the heart. And then it goes along and says, feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. A soldier's shoes were like cleats so that they could grip in slippery situations and they could always be ready to launch into a sprint and the gospel of peace is this, it's the good news.

You always be ready to give an account for what you believe. In addition, take up the shield of faith. So I didn't know this but centurion shields were actually like the size of a door and what's really cool is if you all if a bunch of soldiers bound together and held out their shields, they could create an impenetrable wall around them, that's community. And they could also be used to push back as a weapon to push back against the opposing forces. And then last, there's the helmet of salvation, protecting your head, guard your mind, guard your heart.

The assurance of salvation is what gives you the power to say, don't have to think that thought, I don't have to fear the future, I don't have to worry about the what ifs because I know God's got me and I know what the end means, guard your mind. And last is the sword of the spirit. When we skipped through Jesus' testing, what I didn't read was Jesus' responses. I initially thought I was going to read that but I left it for the end because it ties in so perfectly. You see Jesus fought with his sword of truth which Ephesians says is the word of God.

Jesus fought back not with his own words but Jesus' The red letters in your Bible, Jesus' words in response to the devil's temptation are quoted from Galatians. Sorry. Galatians, Genesis, Exodus. Hold on. It's in my notes, but I'm all off script now.

Oh, Deuteronomy. Sorry. They're quoted from Deuteronomy. So Jesus' first line of defense is actually quoting Deuteronomy from the Torah. He is using God's words, not his own, to fight off the enemy.

And then last, it says, and pray in the spirit on all occasions and all kinds of prayers. Ladies, confess your sins to each other and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective, says James five sixteen. As we break into our small groups today, I'm gonna ask Lissa to come up, but I want you to consider something bold. If God has placed something on your hearts today to confess and if your heart is just pitter pattering out of your chest right now, I want you to consider that his call.

It might be time to bring it to light. And if you're ready to turn from that temptation that you've never had the courage to, or if you're exhausted, filled with guilt and shame trying to fight it on your own, we're gonna invite God in right now, today, in your small groups. There's a lot to unpack, so you might choose to go back and do the questions in the guide. But ladies, if you feel led to talk about temptation today in your own life, you can confess that to your small groups and your leaders. I think we can spend all afternoon talking about it.

Right now, I'm gonna invite God in because we cannot defeat the enemy on our own. We need the word of God and the truth of God to stand firm. Heavenly Father, we come before you today with a new awareness of the war that is going on for our souls and God, you are mighty. Whatever it is that these women are facing today, the temptation of busyness and distraction and over committedness like me or something big or if, God, you are giving them a trial. If they're in the depths of grief and despair, Lord, protect their hearts and minds.

God, you promise us that you're not gonna give us anything that we can't handle with you. So, God, we invite you into these places today, and we confess the things that are holding us back from being empowered in you. And, Lord, I just pray that you take it all. The heaviness, the fear, what happens when I give this up, what happens if I bring it to light, and God replace all of that fear and uncertainty with peace. We love you, Lord.

Amen.

Let's just with our eyes closed for just one more moment, just do a little business with him. Let's just confess our weakness, confess our sin, confess those areas that were tempted. Lord, we come before you. Just talk to him from your heart for this next minute before we go into small group time just between you and him.

Found is where you are. And where you are, Lord, I am free. My righteousness. Oh, God, I need you. One more time.

Just think about that. You're my one defense, my righteousness. Oh, God, how I need you.

Lord, we just thank you for the truth. We thank you that you've given us everything that we need. And just like Natalie said, we have everything that we need. You provided all the armor for us. Help us as we dig into our small group time today.

Help us to just dig in deep into what you're speaking to each one of us individually. We give you all the praise and all the glory in Jesus' name. Amen.

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Addiction Recovery Armor Of God Fighting Sin Spiritual Growth Spiritual Warfare Temptation

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