Kingdom Victory
The title of our message today is Kingdom Victory. We are going to be talking about living in victory over sin. In God’s kingdom, God wants to give you the power to have victory over sin. To go back to a sermon just a few weeks ago, God doesn’t want you to snuggle with sin, we ought to struggle with it. We should grapple with the realities of sin in our lives.
Sin isn’t something that we are bound to or don’t have power over. In fact, we have been granted total, complete, and full victory over sin. We either don’t know this, don’t believe it, or don’t know how to implement this as kingdom people. In God’s kingdom, you have the power to have victory over sin.
When we read this in the context of the passage, Jesus is speaking here to the temptation to sin, but also the temptation to cause others to sin. There is a lie from the enemy today that tells you that your sin doesn’t affect anyone else but you, but that isn’t true! It should bother us enough that we are sinning, but especially with the fact that it will also hurt those around us.
In the kingdom we have a responsibility to lead others toward Christ, not away from Christ. St. Francis of Assisi famously said, “preach the gospel! And if you have to, use words.” What gospel are your actions preaching today? Others are watching you.
If you are serious in your walk with the Lord, you will be telling others about this Jesus that changed your life. In doing so, do your actions match that testimony? For some, we are the only Bible that someone else will read. Do our actions preach the gospel of Christ or the gospel of the world?
Jesus is teaching us how to live in the kingdom here. For both our lives, and for those around us. Victory over sin is a victory for us and for those God has entrusted us with. It is vitally important.
Temptation is inevitable
John 16:33, In this world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” Temptation is part of living in a fallen world. We are guaranteed to have temptation. There are two kinds of people who are not tempted: dead men and liars. We ALL face temptation!
Woe to the one from whom temptation comes, who does it come from? James 1:13-15, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
Temptation isn’t always a sign that you are doing something wrong. We shouldn’t get into the habit of feeling guilty about temptation. Sometimes temptation comes randomly in the form of an attack. There is an old saying, if you aren’t being attacked by Satan you must be doing something wrong. Sometimes temptation comes because we are doing things right.
The main idea of this point is this: temptation is a guaranteed part of this journey, and we should prepare as one expecting it to happen. Why is this an important point? Because if you aren’t preparing for it, you will be losing to it. We lose the most when we prepare the least.
Sometimes it is the enemy that tempts you, but sometimes we need to own up to our part as well, sometimes it is simply our flesh. It is something we have sown into our lives.
I was talking to a friend who struggled with a certain issue in his life. He said he was mad at God because God won’t take it away. He doubted in God for not helping him. But I had to remind him, how many years did you sow this into your life for? You have created neural pathways in your brain for years and years and years that need to be undone. God can deliver you from this, but 9 times out of 10, it is a process.
We need to know that temptation is an ongoing process in our lives. An ongoing chance to trust in God and see him use it in powerful ways in our life.
Temptation is dangerous
A big concern that I have for the church is its comfortability with temptation. I get this question a lot: “Pastor, if I do X is that considered a sin?” We are asking the wrong question. This line of thinking can be summed up in this: how close to the line can I get without getting burned. Our question should be, how close can I get to Jesus and how do I leave behind all the things that might impede on that process?
We don’t take temptation as serious as we should. We take consequences seriously though, don’t we? We loathe the pain and the consequences of our actions, but play with temptation like a downed power line.
We need to take temptation seriously. This is why I wrote a few weeks back about snuggling with sin and struggling with sin. We just established in our first point that simply because we live on this earth, have a sin nature, and have an enemy that is actively against us, we will face temptation. We will wrestle, we will struggle. But unfortunately, I see a lot of snuggling instead.
Jesus has a radical approach to temptation: cut off and throw away. Let me clarify on something here, is Jesus being literal when he says to cut off your hand or foot if it causes you to sin and throw it away? Of course not. Otherwise, we would all have no limbs or eyes. And for some of us no tongue…
No, but he is using metaphoric language to show us how serious we ought to deal with temptation. We cannot allow temptation to linger, we must act quickly and with prejudice. John Owen famously said, “be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” Sin is like a tiger that we allow to live in our home. It doesn’t belong there! “But I raised it from a cub, and it is cute.” Sin isn’t cute.
Sin is not a cute, fun hobby. It isn’t a place to spend our time or a thing to be friendly with, it is exceedingly dangerous. It is something that is so serious it can eternally separate you from your maker and your true God. It will cost you everything that you have and destroy all that is good in your life. It is ruthless, dangerous, and without prejudice in who it can and will destroy.
When we snuggle with sin, we teach others to do the same. God will hold us accountable to that. We have to think outside of ourselves: how are we leading those around us? What example are we leaving for our children, our friends, our neighbors, and our coworkers?
Temptation has a solution
What I love about Jesus is that he is the perfect example of who and what we need to be. WWJD movement. We need to sit back more and ask what Jesus would literally do in this situation. And oh hey, look, there is an example in the Bible of Jesus literally being tempted in the wilderness.
Matthew 4. We don’t have time to go there, but did you notice what Jesus uses? Scripture. What should we turn to during temptation? If you aren’t in the word daily, you are probably getting beaten up daily by temptation. But what I love about Jesus, he doesn’t just know that scripture, he lives it. He owns it fully. We need to do the same.
Jesus experienced all the temptation that we have yet did not sin. Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”
Jesus shows us the path forward in how to lead our life and the life of those around us. Jesus was an example for us, and now we need to be that example for others. We need to represent Christ in a way that people see the true Jesus in us. They might not pick up a Bible but they will rub shoulders with you. You can show them the power of Jesus Christ and the person he wants us all to be. We can preach by living as an example to those around us.
But we need to know this deep in our hearts. We need to bleed the truth that we have victory over temptation in this life. Because I don’t think we truly believe it. We say we do, but our actions are so different. Our outlook isn’t a positive one at all. We believe that we will die with the sin that first killed us.
We don’t know our rights. We don’t know our privileges as sons and daughters of the king. We act like orphans when we are in the lineage of royalty. We have a tremendous misunderstanding of who we are. Belief is what feeds the actions of our life.
Are you standing on the power and privileges that Jesus offers you? Some powerful verses that have been vital to my victory over temptation in life:
1 Corinthians 10:13, No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
2 Peter 1:3, His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.
Ephesians 6, be strong in the Lord, the armor of God!
Psalm 119:11, I have hidden your word in my heart so I will not sin against you.
God’s plan for your life is victory over temptation. He has given you the power to accomplish this, and he will use your testimony of victory and battle in the lives of others. Remember this, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ (Romans 8:1). Your past is a story that can encourage someone else. You can share your experience in victory to encourage them in their journey to victory.
That is exactly what Jesus does for you. The same power that raised him from the dead lives in you. He had that power, and so do you. We need to walk in it and trust in and hope in our one and only savior.
Conclusion
There is a concerning theology going around today called cheap grace. German Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was the one that came up with this idea in 1937 and defined it as this:
Bonhoeffer defined “cheap grace” as “the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.” Do you want to go from a casual consumer to a determined disciple? You need to stop living for cheap grace. You need to fight and get serious about your walk with the Lord.
We learned first that temptation is inevitable. If you walk around on this floating green and blue ball and you are a human being, you will be tempted. There is no way in avoiding it.
Temptation is serious. Actions always lead us toward something. It can be either leader us toward God or toward the enemy and the world. We need to take seriously the decisions and the actions that we take in this life. Our eternal life depends on it. Not in a way where one action will lead us to hell. But one action can change our mindset to run into the arms of something other than our savior and endanger us forever.
And temptation has a solution, it is Jesus Christ. Jesus died so you could be free. He rose from the grave to display that he has authority over sin and death. And the same Spirit that raised Christ from the grave lives in you. That same power that raised a dead man is right inside of you. You just need to tap into it. You need to believe. You need to walk in your royal identity in Christ. Your heavenly Father’s will for you is to live and walk in victory, won’t he help you do it?