The guys discuss how temptation is a constant and unavoidable part of the Christian life, but believers are not alone in the fight. Through Scripture, prayer, spiritual discipline, and community, Christians are equipped to resist temptation and grow in Christlikeness. The fear of the Lord acts as a shield, and memorizing Scripture allows the Holy Spirit to bring truth to mind in moments of weakness. Practices like fasting and consistent prayer strengthen believers spiritually, while humility and gratitude keep their hearts aligned with God. Standing strong also means walking with others who are pursuing Christ, staying aware of personal weaknesses, and embracing accountability. Like Joseph fleeing from Potiphar’s wife, Christians must be ready to refuse, reason, resist, and run—trusting that God's strength is greater than any temptation they face.
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Learn more about the hosts of this podcast.
Ray Comfort
Emeal (“E.Z.”) Zwayne
Mark Spence
Oscar Navarro
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today how to guard against the temptations of the
world.
I wish you could somehowcondense temptation into an
object, dissect it andunderstand it, because, man,
it's such a reality.
I mean, when you think aboutthe element of temptation.
(00:22):
To me, elephant of temptation,good way to put it right, it's a
big element of temptation,elephant of temptation, good way
to put it right, it's a big boy, a big, fat elephant of
temptation Wants to sit on you.
To me it's as real as the law ofgravity.
It's just such a reality and asChristians, it is the constant
(00:45):
element that we are battlingagainst and fighting against.
But we're all in this togetherand my hope from today's episode
is really to dispenseencouragement, to remind
believers that you're not aloneand that we battle this together
.
So temptations, oscar, I don'tknow, say something.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
I love the way you put it.
I think I was just talking tosomebody at the conference that
I was at and he came to me andhe, with tears in his eyes,
confessed sin that he's beenstruggling with.
And he was like I'm so afraidto tell anybody about this and I
don't know what to do.
And I, he was like what can Ido to stop overcome this sin
that I've been struggling withsince I was 13, 14 years old.
(01:24):
And I told him, man, I saidSatan wants you alone in this.
He does not want you to sharethis with your friends.
He doesn't want your pastor toknow.
The Lord tells you that if youconfess your sins, you will be
forgiven.
That's not that he's holdingback grace, but he's holding
back a healing bomb, or I shouldsay you are holding back a
(01:47):
healing bomb from yourself toinvite others in.
And so you make a great point,which is to just simply
recognize to be a Christian isto be tempted by sin.
Those two things go hand inhand.
Jesus himself was tempted and,of course, did not sin.
I love John Owen saying whichis temptation?
Is anything that lures us fromobedience.
(02:11):
The devil wants you to notparticipate in obedience.
You are not alone in that.
And to your point, man, wefight temptation together.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Yeah, Amen, yeah.
Ray Oscar mentioned Christ inthe wilderness and the
temptations he faced from Satan.
What was the key to himovercoming Satan's temptations?
Ray in the wilderness, the.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Iron Dome.
Yes, israel's got an Iron Domeand I'm fascinated by this very
sophisticated radar system thatdetects and neutralizes incoming
missiles.
And for the Christian, the dome, the Iron Dome is the fear of
the Lord.
When Potiphar's wife startedSending missiles towards Joseph,
(02:59):
it was the fear of the Lordthat caused him to run.
And that's what we need.
An Martin said you can only getin the realm of deliberate sin
when you get out of the realm ofthe fear of God.
I'm going to repeat that becauseit's so good, you can only get
into the realm of deliberate sinwhen you get out of the realm
of the fear of God.
Jesus said watch lest you enterinto temptation.
(03:21):
He said that to his disciplesand then he said this.
He said watch lest you enterinto temptation.
The spirit, indeed, is willing,but the flesh is weak, and
that's the key to understandyour flesh.
It's weak.
So you need the iron dome, youneed to cultivate the fear of
the Lord, and I liken it to whenyou're reading, innocently
(03:42):
reading, some article, andthere's a pop that comes in and
you've got a little X in thecorner that's the size of a
microchip and you've got totouch it with your finger.
And if you don't, you're intothis site, an area you don't
want to go to.
It just takes you straight toit, and that's what the wiles of
the devil is like.
You just innocently go, phew,in your mind Some filthy thought
and you've got a tiny X thatyou've got to touch.
(04:02):
There's no temptation taken you, but it's common to man.
God's faithful and has made away of escape.
That's the little X you've gotto touch so you can get out of
it, and so what you've got to dois watch and pray lest you
enter into that temptation.
And the way to be always readyto touch that X is to have the
fear of God in your heart always.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
And that's what we see with Jesus.
I have a question for you.
He mentions the fear of theLord, but in addition to that,
every time Jesus is tempted, hequotes scripture.
Yeah, how important isscripture memorization for us in
fighting temptation.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Huge right, Psalm 119 .
Flavorful.
Your word have I hidden in myheart that I may not sin against
you?
How can a young man keep hisway pure by keeping it according
to your word?
I'm telling you, guys, there'sno discipline that has been more
(05:00):
helpful to me in times oftemptation than having memorized
Scripture.
And again, what you're doing isyou're loading yourself up to
give the Holy Spirit anopportunity to activate God's
Word at a given moment, in agiven instance.
That's what I love about it,because that's what God does.
It's His Word and he brings itback to heart and mind.
(05:22):
I'm not waiting for anesoterical word from the Lord.
I'm not waiting for an audiblevoice.
It's His Word, hidden in myheart, that the Spirit activates
and that he uses to guard me inthose moments.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
So that makes the enemy tremble, but also reminds
us of the promise that's in theWord yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
So it's got a dual purpose, but also reminds us of
the promise that's in the wordyeah, so it's got a dual purpose
.
How do we stand strong in themidst of that battle between the
flesh and the spirit?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
I think that you run with the right people.
You run alongside people thatare like-minded.
You link arms with people thatare heading in the same
direction.
It's not enough to fleeyouthful lust, but we pursue all
these other things with otherswho call on the Lord out of a
pure heart.
(06:08):
Right Blessed is the man whowalks, not in the counsel of the
wicked right.
You become like-minded to thosewho you hang out with.
So if you are going to hang outwith people that are just
entrepreneurs and that's allthey're thinking about, you will
somehow kind of catch that itwill not so much be taught as
much as it is caught.
(06:29):
So we want to hang out withpeople that have good morals,
because bad company corruptsgood morals.
We want to run our race and runit well.
Surround yourself with peoplethat you think are running the
race and running well.
So run with the right peopleand run from wrong places.
So you find yourself inside ofa place where you typically
(06:51):
wouldn't be.
If you're going out to lunchwith your pastor, Well then you
don't need to really be hangingout at that place as it is.
You have a problem with alcohol.
Don't go hang out and have yourDevo in the corner of the bar,
right?
You don't need to be winningpeople for Christ in the bar if
you have a problem with drinking, right?
So, yeah, I think that that'sreally what it is right.
(07:14):
The idea is just you link armswith people that are like-minded
, or people that are running therace, maybe a little bit better
than you.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I think it's interesting to note that Jesus
was led by the spirit of thewilderness and yet he said in
the Lord's Prayer, for one ofour prayer, the Lord's Prayer,
lead us not into temptation.
And then following that isdeliver us from evil.
The two go hand in hand Lead usnot into temptation, but
deliver us from evil.
I think it's very noteworthy.
(07:40):
You realize the word devil isfour-fifths evil.
It's just got a D on front.
I see what you did there.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
You realize the word devil is four-fifths evil, it's
just got a D in front, so the Druins it all.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
No, give place to the devil and you give place to
evil.
So you don't want to give placeto the devil, because evil
comes with it.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Ultimately, what we're doing is we're talking
about spiritual disciplines thathelp us with temptation.
We've already talked aboutScripture memorization.
We've talked about prayer.
Another important one isfasting.
We see Jesus do this himself,and fasting was formerly a very
common regular rhythm practicefor the early Christians that I
(08:20):
sense we've lost an element ofit in our day today.
So many people don't fast, andthose who do might do it on very
rare occasions.
And why fast?
Certainly it draws you closerto the Lord, independent at that
moment.
But something that TimothyKeller points out is that
fasting also prepares you fortemptation.
(08:40):
He says.
Fasting trains believers toresist natural and lawful urges
so that when they face illicitpromptings they can say no.
In other words, when wewillingly participate in
neglecting ourselves of thingsthat bring us joy, that isn't
sin.
What we're doing is we'rebuilding up a spiritual muscle
(09:02):
to say no to when the devil istempting us with sin.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I have a serious problem, Okay are you praying
intensively about it, not just.
You know, lord, bless myburrito and help me with this
sin, praying intensively daily,continually.
Are you fasting over the issue?
Are you reading books on thesubject?
Are you getting counsel on it?
Are you memorizing scriptureand studying the word on it?
If you haven't done all those,don't complain that you have
(09:29):
this sin you're struggling withand don't say I just can't
overcome this.
It's just, it makes no sense.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Are there any books that you could?
Disciplines of a Godly man yeah, but listen, if you can get
down what you just said, right?
This is the litmus test to seewhere you're at, if you really
care about what you arestruggling with.
Go back to listen to what EZjust said.
Go back 30 seconds and he justlaid down your pathway out of
(09:58):
that destructive path in whichyou've been found yourself
marinating in.
Right, it's that simple.
Don't overthink it, don'tovercomplicate it.
One by one, go through those,and if you're saying to yourself
, no, I'm not, then remember,return and repent.
This is the idea, and you'llcome out fine on the other side.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Thank you for tuning in to this week's highlights
from the Living Waters podcast.
Friends, we value your time, sowe've created a bite-sized
version of our podcast forlisteners who want to get
equipped, without the jokes andfellowship.
Ah, be sure to check out thefull episode every Thursday
where we dive deeper into thetopic.
Until then, you can watch thefull podcast episode available
(10:40):
now on livingwaterstv.
Today how to guard against the temptations of the
world.
I wish you could somehowcondense temptation into an
object, dissect it andunderstand it, because, man,
it's such a reality.
I mean, when you think aboutthe element of temptation.
(00:22):
To me, elephant of temptation,good way to put it right, it's a
big element of temptation,elephant of temptation, good way
to put it right, it's a big boy, a big, fat elephant of
temptation Wants to sit on you.
To me it's as real as the law ofgravity.
It's just such a reality and asChristians, it is the constant
(00:45):
element that we are battlingagainst and fighting against.
But we're all in this togetherand my hope from today's episode
is really to dispenseencouragement, to remind
believers that you're not aloneand that we battle this together
.
So temptations, oscar, I don'tknow, say something.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
I love the way you put it.
I think I was just talking tosomebody at the conference that
I was at and he came to me andhe, with tears in his eyes,
confessed sin that he's beenstruggling with.
And he was like I'm so afraidto tell anybody about this and I
don't know what to do.
And I, he was like what can Ido to stop overcome this sin
that I've been struggling withsince I was 13, 14 years old.
(01:24):
And I told him, man, I saidSatan wants you alone in this.
He does not want you to sharethis with your friends.
He doesn't want your pastor toknow.
The Lord tells you that if youconfess your sins, you will be
forgiven.
That's not that he's holdingback grace, but he's holding
back a healing bomb, or I shouldsay you are holding back a
(01:47):
healing bomb from yourself toinvite others in.
And so you make a great point,which is to just simply
recognize to be a Christian isto be tempted by sin.
Those two things go hand inhand.
Jesus himself was tempted and,of course, did not sin.
I love John Owen saying whichis temptation?
Is anything that lures us fromobedience.
(02:11):
The devil wants you to notparticipate in obedience.
You are not alone in that.
And to your point, man, wefight temptation together.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
Yeah, Amen, yeah.
Ray Oscar mentioned Christ inthe wilderness and the
temptations he faced from Satan.
What was the key to himovercoming Satan's temptations?
Ray in the wilderness, the.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Iron Dome.
Yes, israel's got an Iron Domeand I'm fascinated by this very
sophisticated radar system thatdetects and neutralizes incoming
missiles.
And for the Christian, the dome, the Iron Dome is the fear of
the Lord.
When Potiphar's wife startedSending missiles towards Joseph,
(02:59):
it was the fear of the Lordthat caused him to run.
And that's what we need.
An Martin said you can only getin the realm of deliberate sin
when you get out of the realm ofthe fear of God.
I'm going to repeat that becauseit's so good, you can only get
into the realm of deliberate sinwhen you get out of the realm
of the fear of God.
Jesus said watch lest you enterinto temptation.
(03:21):
He said that to his disciplesand then he said this.
He said watch lest you enterinto temptation.
The spirit, indeed, is willing,but the flesh is weak, and
that's the key to understandyour flesh.
It's weak.
So you need the iron dome, youneed to cultivate the fear of
the Lord, and I liken it to whenyou're reading, innocently
(03:42):
reading, some article, andthere's a pop that comes in and
you've got a little X in thecorner that's the size of a
microchip and you've got totouch it with your finger.
And if you don't, you're intothis site, an area you don't
want to go to.
It just takes you straight toit, and that's what the wiles of
the devil is like.
You just innocently go, phew,in your mind Some filthy thought
and you've got a tiny X thatyou've got to touch.
(04:02):
There's no temptation taken you, but it's common to man.
God's faithful and has made away of escape.
That's the little X you've gotto touch so you can get out of
it, and so what you've got to dois watch and pray lest you
enter into that temptation.
And the way to be always readyto touch that X is to have the
fear of God in your heart always.
Speaker 4 (04:23):
And that's what we see with Jesus.
I have a question for you.
He mentions the fear of theLord, but in addition to that,
every time Jesus is tempted, hequotes scripture.
Yeah, how important isscripture memorization for us in
fighting temptation.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
Huge right, Psalm 119 .
Flavorful.
Your word have I hidden in myheart that I may not sin against
you?
How can a young man keep hisway pure by keeping it according
to your word?
I'm telling you, guys, there'sno discipline that has been more
(05:00):
helpful to me in times oftemptation than having memorized
Scripture.
And again, what you're doing isyou're loading yourself up to
give the Holy Spirit anopportunity to activate God's
Word at a given moment, in agiven instance.
That's what I love about it,because that's what God does.
It's His Word and he brings itback to heart and mind.
(05:22):
I'm not waiting for anesoterical word from the Lord.
I'm not waiting for an audiblevoice.
It's His Word, hidden in myheart, that the Spirit activates
and that he uses to guard me inthose moments.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
So that makes the enemy tremble, but also reminds
us of the promise that's in theWord yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
So it's got a dual purpose, but also reminds us of
the promise that's in the wordyeah, so it's got a dual purpose
.
How do we stand strong in themidst of that battle between the
flesh and the spirit?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
I think that you run with the right people.
You run alongside people thatare like-minded.
You link arms with people thatare heading in the same
direction.
It's not enough to fleeyouthful lust, but we pursue all
these other things with otherswho call on the Lord out of a
pure heart.
(06:08):
Right Blessed is the man whowalks, not in the counsel of the
wicked right.
You become like-minded to thosewho you hang out with.
So if you are going to hang outwith people that are just
entrepreneurs and that's allthey're thinking about, you will
somehow kind of catch that itwill not so much be taught as
much as it is caught.
(06:29):
So we want to hang out withpeople that have good morals,
because bad company corruptsgood morals.
We want to run our race and runit well.
Surround yourself with peoplethat you think are running the
race and running well.
So run with the right peopleand run from wrong places.
So you find yourself inside ofa place where you typically
(06:51):
wouldn't be.
If you're going out to lunchwith your pastor, Well then you
don't need to really be hangingout at that place as it is.
You have a problem with alcohol.
Don't go hang out and have yourDevo in the corner of the bar,
right?
You don't need to be winningpeople for Christ in the bar if
you have a problem with drinking, right?
So, yeah, I think that that'sreally what it is right.
(07:14):
The idea is just you link armswith people that are like-minded
, or people that are running therace, maybe a little bit better
than you.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
I think it's interesting to note that Jesus
was led by the spirit of thewilderness and yet he said in
the Lord's Prayer, for one ofour prayer, the Lord's Prayer,
lead us not into temptation.
And then following that isdeliver us from evil.
The two go hand in hand Lead usnot into temptation, but
deliver us from evil.
I think it's very noteworthy.
(07:40):
You realize the word devil isfour-fifths evil.
It's just got a D on front.
I see what you did there.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
You realize the word devil is four-fifths evil, it's
just got a D in front, so the Druins it all.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
No, give place to the devil and you give place to
evil.
So you don't want to give placeto the devil, because evil
comes with it.
Speaker 4 (08:00):
Ultimately, what we're doing is we're talking
about spiritual disciplines thathelp us with temptation.
We've already talked aboutScripture memorization.
We've talked about prayer.
Another important one isfasting.
We see Jesus do this himself,and fasting was formerly a very
common regular rhythm practicefor the early Christians that I
(08:20):
sense we've lost an element ofit in our day today.
So many people don't fast, andthose who do might do it on very
rare occasions.
And why fast?
Certainly it draws you closerto the Lord, independent at that
moment.
But something that TimothyKeller points out is that
fasting also prepares you fortemptation.
(08:40):
He says.
Fasting trains believers toresist natural and lawful urges
so that when they face illicitpromptings they can say no.
In other words, when wewillingly participate in
neglecting ourselves of thingsthat bring us joy, that isn't
sin.
What we're doing is we'rebuilding up a spiritual muscle
(09:02):
to say no to when the devil istempting us with sin.
Speaker 1 (09:06):
I have a serious problem, Okay are you praying
intensively about it, not just.
You know, lord, bless myburrito and help me with this
sin, praying intensively daily,continually.
Are you fasting over the issue?
Are you reading books on thesubject?
Are you getting counsel on it?
Are you memorizing scriptureand studying the word on it?
If you haven't done all those,don't complain that you have
(09:29):
this sin you're struggling withand don't say I just can't
overcome this.
It's just, it makes no sense.
Speaker 3 (09:35):
Are there any books that you could?
Disciplines of a Godly man yeah, but listen, if you can get
down what you just said, right?
This is the litmus test to seewhere you're at, if you really
care about what you arestruggling with.
Go back to listen to what EZjust said.
Go back 30 seconds and he justlaid down your pathway out of
(09:58):
that destructive path in whichyou've been found yourself
marinating in.
Right, it's that simple.
Don't overthink it, don'tovercomplicate it.
One by one, go through those,and if you're saying to yourself
, no, I'm not, then remember,return and repent.
This is the idea, and you'llcome out fine on the other side.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
Thank you for tuning in to this week's highlights
from the Living Waters podcast.
Friends, we value your time, sowe've created a bite-sized
version of our podcast forlisteners who want to get
equipped, without the jokes andfellowship.
Ah, be sure to check out thefull episode every Thursday
where we dive deeper into thetopic.
Until then, you can watch thefull podcast episode available
(10:40):
now on livingwaterstv.
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