As we proceed into this new year, we’re reminded that God is greater!  God is greater than anything that we’re leaving behind last year.  God is greater than anything that we will face this year.  God is greater than any of our highs or lows!  God is greater!

Not only is He greater, but His plans for us are far grander, too!

Ephesians 3:20 (AMP)

Jesus is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us.

In context, we pray for one another the prayer that Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus:

Ephesians 3:16-21 (AMP)

16 May He grant you out of the riches of His glory, to be strengthened and spiritually energized with power through His Spirit in your inner self, [indwelling your innermost being and personality], 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through your faith. And may you, having been [deeply] rooted and [securely] grounded in love, 18 be fully capable of comprehending with all the saints (God’s people) the width and length and height and depth of His love [fully experiencing that amazing, endless love]; 19 and [that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience], that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself].

20 Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.

What a prayer!  What a reality!  To experience the love of Christ; to be filled up with the complete fullness of God!  The One who is able to do superabundantly more than anything that we can even think, ask, or imagine!

What is required of us to have these types of encounters with God?

What is required of us to live this type of supernatural lifestyle with God?

Remember this from last week?

Colossians 1:23

if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.

Faith and hope are all that God requires of us.  The rest is up to Him!  That’s the great news because nothing is too hard for God!  Nothing is impossible for God!  The miraculous is common to Him!

Life is fleeting and so much is here today and gone tomorrow, but there are three things that endure; three things that remain; three things that outlast any and all opposition!  Faith, hope, and love!

1 Corinthians 13:13 (AMP)

And now there remain: faith [abiding trust in God and His promises], hope [confident expectation of eternal salvation], love [unselfish love for others growing out of God’s love for me], these three [the choicest graces]; but the greatest of these is love.

How do these three endure?  Because they are all connected to our eternal God.  Why is love the greatest?  Because God is love and, well, there is nothing greater than Him!

Love is Jesus enthroned in Heaven, hope is the rope that is anchored to Christ and cast out to every one of us, faith is our choice to grip that rope in fullness of trust and to never allow ourselves to be moved or shaken from it.

This morning, we’re being reminded of two different things that God is greater than as we head into this new year.  God is greater than temptation and bitterness.

For a while, I tried to head down one path or the other in this message, but just couldn’t.  God is revealing truths this morning with the intent to lead us into true and complete freedom.  There is a definite connection between temptation and bitterness.

Whereas hope is the connection between us and an abundant life, sin is the connection between our temptation and bitterness.

Sin can be described in many ways.  Breaking God’s laws, rebelling against Him, missing the mark, and more.  Sin separates us from God.

These are truths, however, they can lead us down a path of misunderstanding about the nature of sin.  Sin isn’t really about God.  It isn’t about Him setting too lofty or unobtainable of a standard for us.  It isn’t about God looking down on us in a demeaning way.  It isn’t about angering or disappointing Him or putting Him in a bad mood.

Sin is really about us.  It is about us being created by God with a purpose.  It is about us missing out on the way for us to live our lives to their fullest.

It isn’t about God being angry with us or against us.  It is about God loving us and wanting only the best for us.

Sin separates us from God not because God runs away from us in our sin.  Sin separates us from God because it is us running away from Him.

Sin doesn’t affect just us, either.  Our sin negatively affects all of those connected to our lives.

David has this revelation after being confronted by the prophet Nathan about his own sin:

Psalm 51:5

Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

All of mankind was born into sin.  That’s why Jesus said that we need to be born again.

John described sin in 1 John 2:16 as coming from three sources; the lust of the flesh [craving for sensual gratification], the lust of the eyes [greedy longings of the mind], and the pride of life [assurance in one’s own resources or in the stability of earthly things].

Sin is essentially not trusting God; a lack of faith.  It is thinking that we deserve better or that we don’t need Him.

The first to sin against God wasn’t a human, though.  It was the devil.  The most beautiful of all of God’s creation, but pride corrupted his wisdom and he thought himself to be equal to God.  Unlike us, there is no path for salvation for him.

As a result, he is determined to corrupt us, who were created in the image of God, with lust and pride and to lead us away from God.  If he can’t be saved, he doesn’t want any of us to be, either.

Thankfully, God is greater!

Before sin always comes temptation.

James 1:13-17

13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

1 Corinthians 10:13

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. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

God is greater than our temptation!  Remember that even Jesus was tempted by the devil, but did not sin.  To be tempted is to be human, but it does not have to result in us sinning.

God never, ever, ever tempts us to sin!  In fact, God makes sure that we never get tempted beyond what we can bear and He always makes a way out of it.

The source of temptation lies within us.  The words used in James for this act are actually fishing terms.  “Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.”

The Greek word for “dragged away” is exelkō meaning to lure out from a hiding place.  The Greek word for “enticed” is deleazō meaning to catch by bait.

When fishing with lures, the fisherman chooses a lure that is usually bright and shiny or one that looks just like something natural that a fish would eat such as a worm, minnow, or frog.  Often a fisherman will just use live bait that the fish typically eat.  The intent is that the chosen lure will be so irresistible to the fish that they will swim out from their shelter and chase and eat the lure.

Then, once the lure is in the fish’s mouth, the hook is set and all that is left is to drag the fish onto shore and into the frying pan.

This is temptation.  Our own internal desires are leveraged against us. 

The devil casts out something at just the right time and in just the right way to catch our attention.  He doesn’t mind if we just flirt with it for a while.  He knows that if we’re not choosing to flee from it, eventually we’ll take the bait. 

What he is offering to us is usually counterfeit just like fake lures.  Even if he uses live bait, there is still a hook.  We may not realize that he has a foothold or a stronghold in our lives for quite some time.  It isn’t until we try to pull away or resist that we realize that the hook has been set and we are held captive.

How do we know whether what is floating our way is an open door and a blessing from God or the bait of Satan?  How can we know without taking a bite and seeing where it leads us?

Well, that’s why we’re called to live by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).  Things can look very good, even godly.  Remember, the devil isn’t a spooky and scary creature with horns and a tail.  He is the most beautiful of all created things (Ezekiel 28).  He masquerades as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14).

We cannot rely on anything of ourselves to discern what is from God and what is not.  It must be spiritually discerned and revealed.

Proverbs 3:5-6

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart

    and lean not on your own understanding;

6 in all your ways submit to him,

    and he will make your paths straight.

We can justify and reason and defend any of our decisions and even back them up with scripture.  Didn’t the devil, himself, back up his temptation to Jesus with scripture?

The only thing greater than temptation is God who reveals all things.  He will reveal if this is temptation and He will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear and He will make a way out of it.  We can only recognize and stand up under temptation by submitting ourselves to God!

James 4:7

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

It isn’t that God doesn’t care about us or that our desires are necessarily wrong, either.  God created us with our desires and He wants to satisfy those desires with good things!  It isn’t our desires, but what we choose to satisfy them with and what we choose to crave that becomes sin or blessing. 

Living by faith requires us to trust Him and truly believe that what He has for us is best and that His timing is perfect and that He will satisfy our desires with good things.

Psalm 103:2-5

2 Praise the Lord, my soul,

    and forget not all his benefits –

3 who forgives all your sins

    and heals all your diseases,

4 who redeems your life from the pit

    and crowns you with love and compassion,

5 who satisfies your desires with good things

    so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

When we choose to give in to temptation and sin, bitterness can begin to set in.  Satan heaps shame and guilt and condemnation on us for sinning and then offers up what looks like an escape to those feelings, but it is sin.  It does make us feel better for a little bit, but then heaps even more shame and guilt and condemnation on us for sinning and then…

It’s a vicious cycle!  This is what keeps us bound.  Sin can only lead us to one place and that is death.  Some sin is obvious and leads to death quickly.  Other sin slowly seeps into our life and is easy to keep hidden.  Some sin is even socially acceptable, but it all still kills.

Sin kills us.  Emotionally, relationally, spiritually, financially, and even physically!  Sin always kills some aspect of our lives.

Praise be to God, there is freedom from this cycle available!

There is salvation from the death caused by sin!

There is freedom from the bondage of sin!

There is a path away from the curse of sin!

Jesus lived a sinless life perfectly fulfilling God’s law and then took the penalty and curse of sin upon Himself.  He now freely extends His righteousness to us forgiving all of our sin.  Even better, He crosses us over from death to life rebirthing us through the Holy Spirit so that we can overcome temptation and choose not to sin!

Sin also results in bitterness.  Even when we have been forgiven of our sin, the natural consequences of our sin remain.

The person that I murdered does not come back to life.

The money that I gambled away is not refunded.

The words that I spoke are not removed from everyone’s memories.

The abuse that I put someone through is not undone.

You get the idea.

God doesn’t undo what has been done, but He can transform it!  God is a god of rebirthing and renewing and restoring!  Unfortunately, even when we are forgiven for our sin by God, even when we forgive other people for sinning against us, this still leaves an opportunity for bitterness to grow.

Join us next week as we learn about how God is greater than our bitterness!

The post God Is Greater: Temptation appeared first on New Hope Assembly of God in NuMine, PA.