Watch/Listen
Topic: Temptation
Redeeming Pleasure
This week we heard from a guest speaker, Jeremy Jernigan, teach on the topic of his new book, Redeeming Pleasure. The topic of pleasure within the church has often been shied away from because of an assumption that pleasure is connected with guilt and shame. Jeremy emphasized the need to seek pleasure on God’s terms where we will experience maximum pleasure rather than seeking pleasure on our own terms which ultimately leads to less pleasure. Read More
Twisted Scripture: Genesis 6:1-7
Greg Boyd finishes our Twisted Scripture series by delving into the passage in Genesis 6:1-7 on the issue of the Nephilim. This controversial passage deals with the creation of hybrid beings, the Nephilim, that are the offspring of fallen angels and daughters of humans. This passage has led to many distracting theories and conspiracies that have served to move us away from the tasks of the Kingdom of God. Our job, as Kingdom people, is to stay vigilant to all the ways the principalities and powers of this fallen world are constantly trying to spiritual engineer the Kingdom and our identity in Christ out of this world. We need to fix our eyes on Jesus and be careful of this temptation to slowly lose our Kingdom calling. Read More
The Temptation and Testing Trilogy
In order to understand Jesus’ temptation in Matthew 4, we have to look back to the stories of temptation and testing that preceded it. In this sermon, Vanessa Williams shares with us how we can stand strong during these times. Read More
Can God Trust You?
Every day we confront choices that reflect and form our character. Will we live for ourselves, or for the Kingdom? God wants us to be trustworthy for Kingdom service and it’s true that he tests us to refine our character, but he doesn’t tempt anyone. If that’s true, why does Jesus teach us to pray, “lead us not into temptation?” Read More
Life is not JUST a Test
All humanity faces temptation. Part of being completely human is to deal with times of strong temptations. Jesus was fully man and fully God, therefore, His humanity allowed Him to face these temptations and to overcome them with the same tools He has given us-God’s word. Jesus was “led into the desert by the Spirit”, but once there he found that part of this wilderness experience was to be a time of testing and temptation for Him. Read More
Putting Away Childish Things
We are constantly tempted to focus our time and energy meeting the expectations of other people instead of meeting God’s expectations for our lives. This is an extremely strong temptation! Even Jesus, as Messiah, was expected by others to act and be a certain way. But God has given every one of us a unique identity to receive. The goal of our Christian life is to grow into and manifest this God-given identity, so that we can reflect His love to others. Read More
Competing Faiths
Every human being faces temptations. Even our Lord Jesus was tempted. After being led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, Jesus was tempted by the Devil. There are a number of reasons to suggest that the scenes of Jesus’ temptation played out within his mind. That does not mean that the temptations were not real. In fact, all temptation … Read More
Resisting the Devil
We live in a war zone! It is a world that is ruled and co-opted by evil schemes and plans, brought forth by a real enemy, Satan. It is into this world that Christ came to bring forth a new Kingdom, not of this world, but expressed through the radical beauty of God’s love. As believers in Christ, we are participants in this new Kingdom, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to resist the lies and temptations of this world. Read More
The Temptation of Practical Goodness
When people think about “temptation”, they often think about thoughts or behaviors that seem obviously evil or negative. Because of this idea, it is sometimes assumed that temptation is something that can be easily avoided. What people forget is that something does not have to be evil in order to be a temptation. Sometimes, there may be several options to choose from that seem good, but that pull us away from what God would want us to do. Read More
Neil Anderson, 11:00 a.m. Service
**Please note, this study guide is only applicable to the 11:00 a.m. service. Unfortunately, we did not anticipate that Neil would give three different sermons for each service! Though very generous on his part, it was a surprise to us!** This message challenged us to be content as children of God, walking freely in the Spirit, and it warned us of the two things that might prevent us from experiencing the freedom we have: legalism and license. Read More
