Episode 121: Pinpointing Temptation

In the name of the glorious Trinity, Father and Son and Holy

Spirit, forever Amen. Glory be to the.

Everlasting mercies which? Sent you to us, O Christ, the

light of the world and the life of all.

Give us wisdom by your law and enlighten our impulses by Your

knowledge. Sanctify our souls by Your

truth, and grant that we may be obedient to Your words and may

fulfil Your commandments at every hour.

O You who enlightens the rational with the knowledge of

Your greatness. Do enlight, O my Lord, our

thoughts, that we may meditate upon Your holy and divine

Scriptures at all times, O Lord of all, Father and Son and Holy

Spirit. Forever.

Amen. Haven't spoken about temptation

by now. We know their purpose and why

God allows them. We have discussed Saint John

Chrysostom's commentary on temptation or the homilies on

temptation. Why God does not prevent

temptation from coming? First, to teach us that we are

much stronger than the temptations and the tempter in

Christ, in Jesus Christ. Secondly, not to be puffed up by

the greatness of our power through Christ.

So not to brag and be puffed up about the power we have in

Christ and take on Satan and put ourselves into some predicaments

where we will definitely be tempted.

And to teach us also that temptation has the power to

repress us. If we take our mind and our eyes

of Christ, and we allow ourselves to be tempted, well,

we could be repressed also to assure that tempting demons that

we have utterly forsaken them, fallen from them, when we too

demand that they go away to depart from us.

So allow God allows us to be tempted to also teach the demons

a lesson because when we forsake them and we are totally drawn

away from them and we overcome their temptation and we are

victorious just as Jesus Christ, through Jesus Christ, not I, the

I factor has to slowly and surely diminish from our lives

in Christendom, In Christianity, it's Christ, it's through

Christ. That's why when the priest is

baptizing, the priest says you are baptized, this person is

baptized, I baptize, you know, it's the Holy Spirit that

baptizes, it's God who baptizes. So everything we do, we do

through Christ, and through Christ God allows us to be

tempted so that we can show demon that we can utterly

forsake him and overcome him. And again, as Christ did, we too

being Christians demand, command, rebuke Satan to be away

from us. Also, we are allowed to be

tempted that we may be aware and and acknowledge the treasures

that God has entrusted to us. We are his children.

We are heirs and Co heirs with Christ.

We are the heirs of the Kingdom of heaven.

So when we are tempted to know that, listen, you're being

tempted because you are a child of the Kingdom, you are a child

of God. And where does Satan shoot his

flaming arrows directs them to the children of God.

So while you're being tempted, praise the Lord and, and

acknowledge and, and take heart and be encouraged.

You know, be on fire that you are a child of God.

That is why you're going through these temptations and that is

God, why God is allowing you go to these temptations.

That's why the demons are attacking.

Now that is all well and good, but the question remains and

many have posed this question, many of my beloved youth from

all over the world actually, the question that remains is and is

being asked, how do we identify, how do we pinpoint the rabi, the

time of temptation? Because you know, there is a

time that Satan, there is a point in your struggle that

Satan enters. We can't blame Satan from the

get go. And we're going to talk about

that. And we do that.

Oh, the devil made me do it. No, no, no, Sit down and think

about it. And that's what we're going to

do and take it step by step. How do we pinpoint temptation?

How do we pinpoint the moment where Satan has drawn near to

begin to play what football with us?

All right, the moment we are tempted, in what way we are

tempted, and what point are we tempted?

First and foremost, temptation definition.

The desire, the urge, the enticement, the luring to do

something, especially something wrong or unwise.

And in our Christian lives as children of God and as small

Christ's is the temptation, the lowering, the enticement, the

desire, the urge to do something which is in contrary to God's

commandment, disobeying God. Now one thing we need to

understand and unfortunately this has to be reiterated

because at times we see churches which we hear preachers that

have got it so wrong when it comes to sin, man of the cloth

or the women just doesn't sit right, does it?

The women of the clock. In any case, we need to know and

we need to understand with God there is no compromising of sin.

There is no justification of sin.

God justifies the Sinner when the Sinner has confessed,

admitted and repented and returns to Christ and asks for

forgiveness. Yes, God justifies, forgives the

Sinner. God will not say I will forgive

you and you know what your sin, I understand, you know, no, God

hates sin. God despises sin.

I think sometimes we forget this.

That's why we take sin so lightly.

Proverbs chapter 6, verses 16 and 17, the six, six and the

Proverbs 6:16

seven, seven things that God hates and they all pertain to

sin. God's not going to say, well,

you know, we can view it this way.

No, no, no, maybe it's not that way.

No, no, I don't feel. No, no, no, it's not about what

we feel. It's God's commandment.

God will never come back and, and, and return on his

commandments and say, well, I don't feel right now.

No, no, the word that has come out of God's mouth, beloved, the

holiness, the righteousness, the commandments, the warnings, the

blessings, the callings have not changed because the word that

has proceeded from the mouth of God will not return empty, but

it will do what it's been sent out to do.

So when God has said that I hate sin, you know in our own words,

I hate sin in the history of the world, in the history of the

church, the tradition of the church, which is the life of the

Holy Spirit within the church. We have not read that one day.

God has then said, but I understand well, you know what?

Now as far as sin is concerned, no sin is despised.

One verse is is quite evident of this Luke chapter 13 verse 3.

Luke 13:3

You know they're asking about the Galileans whose blood pilot

had mingled with their sacrifice.

They were offering sacrifices. Pilot came and and shed their

blood or the 18 Jews upon whom the the tower of Shiloka Shiloh

fell and killed them. They asked Jesus.

His reply wasn't no, you know what he said no.

But I say to you, unless you repent, all you shall be

destroyed. All of you Now repent from what?

From praying, from fasting, from reading the Holy Scriptures,

from doing good, from producing fruits of repentance, from your

arms, giving, from holiness, no repenting, from everything that

is evil, which is sin. Unless you repent, you all shall

be destroyed. There's no compromising,

beloved. One thing we need to understand

with God is that he doesn't compromise and that we need to

understand and always remind ourselves.

Beloved James chapter 2 verse 11 for as the sorry James chapter 2

James 2:11 James 2:11

verse 11 for he who listen to this very carefully.

Oh, I do this, but I don't do that.

Oh, I don't go that far. No, no, that you won't find that

in me. But this is my weakness.

So just because I don't do what he does and his is, you know, a

greater deal, while mine is justified.

No, sin is not justified. For he who said you shall not

commit adultery said also you shall not kill.

Now if you don't commit adultery, but you kill, you have

become a transgressor of transgressor of the law.

For he who has commanded that we do not hate, that we must love,

that we must pray for my, for our enemies, has also commanded

that we must feed them when they're hungry.

Oh, no, I'm not going to do that.

But you know, I pray for them. No, no, no.

The minute you say no to what God has commanded, you have

broken God's commandment. So knowing this and more are

God's reaction to sin, and knowing that we are constantly

tempted to fall to sin, we too must be alert and able to

pinpoint the temptation, the time of temptation where we are

about to fall or we have fallen. We need to know that point,

point that time of Satan's interference to tempt us, to

drop us so that we can rebuke Him in the name of our Lord and

Savior Jesus Christ. Now, when a thought is brewing

in the mind, the thought comes to mind pertaining to what you

are struggling with, to repent from, especially during this

time of fasting. And again, beloved, last

Wednesday was halfway. If you still haven't fasted, you

still have some time. You have now 22 days, I think

you know, 23, whatever, you still have time to fast and to

repent, not only during fasting. We spoke about that you still

have time when a thought comes to mind pertaining to what you

are struggling with to repent from.

Especially during this time of fasting.

The thoughts begin to brew in your mind.

Why? Because of your desires and

lust. James chapter one verse 13.

Your body is longing for it. Your body needs that

satisfaction, that physical, social, immoral satisfaction.

The mind is brewing in the the thought is in your mind.

You're trying to quit alcohol. And then there is a thought in

your mind, not just one glass. You're trying to quit ecstasy.

You're trying to quit drugs. You're trying to quit sexual

immorality, right? You're trying to quit anything

and to repent from what is immoral in the eye of God.

And the thought starts brewing. You have not sinned.

Don't throw in the towel. Don't huff and puff and start

murmuring. That is not sin at this point

and that is not temptation. Yet Satan has got nothing to do

with that right now. Your thought the the the thought

brewing in your mind is because of what you're longing for.

You know, it's what I call it Stephen, when, when you know,

those are on drugs and they're trying to withdrawal symptoms.

I think I got it myself. Withdrawal symptoms.

Your body is starting to. I haven't gossiped for a long

time. I want to pick up the phone and

I want to talk. You know, it's that desire that

is not sin at this point. What you need to do is cry out

to the Lord Jesus Christ. Cry out to the Father and to the

Son and to the Holy Spirit. Do the sign of the cross and cry

out to Jesus for strength. Strengthen me.

Take these thoughts away from me.

Help me to eliminate these thoughts in my mind.

If we neglect and entertain the thought, if you start pondering

on it and giving it the time of the day, then something else

kicks in, which is the Spirit of God, your conscience.

The conscience kicks in. The conscience will say, no,

don't do this. This is exactly what brought you

down. This is why you are fasting.

This is your repenting point. You've done well thus far.

You will grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed

for the day of salvation. You will disrespect God.

You will disappoint those around you.

Don't do it now. That too is not seen yet.

That is not seen. That is a a thought in the mind

and the and you're starting to slowly entertain and the the

conscience is kicking in at this point.

We need to cry out in the name of Jesus Christ.

Cry out to the Holy Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy

Spirit doing the sign of the cross, that the Lord will help

you to obey your conscience, because that is the voice of

God, that is the Holy Spirit that is dwelling within you

where you have received in the waters of baptism.

Cry out now, if we neglect and compromise our conscience, start

speaking to our conscience and to start compromising it, that

is when the enemy interferes and begins to deceive, to entice and

to destroy, to tempt. This is the it's our fault.

We allowed it because we neglected the signs.

We neglected the signs when I before I catch the cold or I get

the flu, my signs are, and I'm sure everyone else.

I don't know, Steven, if they are the same, you get a scratch

in the throat, right? Your throat starts itching, and

then you're all constant. And then at night, and then you

know, you're neglected. It's OK.

You start. You continue to drink your cold

liquids, right? And then at night there's knives

going through your throat. And then you wake up in the

morning and then you're clogged. And then what do you do?

Oh, no. I'm going to start drinking.

Room temperature, please. Easy on the ice, Right.

But you neglected that the first time.

If we neglect and compromise our conscience, then the enemy

interferes, beloved, And he begins to deceive, entice and

destroy. This is the spark.

This is the trigger. This is the pinpoint of

temptation. Satan starts whispering and

moves you to justify it. It's OK.

You've done well thus far. You've built yourself control.

You're an Arya now. You're a man now.

You can go and take on Satan, you can walk away from it again.

It's a weakness and there's plenty of time for repentance.

God is rich in mercies. You just need to return to him

and one more time he will forgive you.

You know, Romans chapter 3 verse 8, your evil establishes the

Romans 3:8

justice of God. That's OK, because you're going

to do this evil. It establishes the justice of

God. Calvinism.

No, no, no, they forgot to add that.

However, will God judge the universe?

You know, Saint Paul goes on to say, if this is so well, then

how is God going to judge the universe?

Well, why is he going to judge the universe of sin?

The sins have justified, you know, gods have established

God's justice. No, that's not how what it

means. Let's not talk about that now.

We'll get to that. And the list goes on and on and

on. This is the point of temptation,

But this is still not sin, because Christ was tempted, but

he didn't sin. But we need to be careful now

just because this is still not sin.

This is the most critical point. At this point we need to cry

out. Supplicate purple Supplupta in

the Assyrian language. Supplupta.

Supplification, perseverance. Sorry, I'm sorry.

Persuasion, persuade, besiege. In the name of Jesus Christ,

beseech the Holy Trinity for deliverance.

If we neglect this, if we neglect the temptation and take

them lightly, it's OK, you know. Yeah, you know, I'm going to.

I'm going to do it this time. And you give in to those

temptations. You have sinned when you you're

trying to repent and quit gambling.

But the thought has come to mind and it's only $100.

It's OK, I've done really well. You know what, I'm just going to

go and play 100. You go there, you play your

hundred, you workout with $2000 losing money.

You know, it's just one glass. The alcoholic, just one shot of

whatever, you know, Black label, one shot.

You have one shot. And then you're laying on the

ground and you're vomiting and you're and you're and you're

just ridiculous. Just despicable, right?

Or just one more pill. It's OK.

Just one more pill. You know what?

It's OK. I love you.

Let's just have an intimate. Let's have a sexual relationship

now. It's OK.

You know, it's immoral. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's

adultery, it's fornication. It's OK.

God is mercy. I love you.

You know I love you. It's love.

These are all the justifications of sin that Satan puts in your

mind. Quit it.

And not only during fasting, beloved.

Not only during fasting. My beloved sisters, listen to

me. If your boyfriend who loves you

so much and respects you and asks you to send him pictures in

nude, nude pictures, spit in his face and rebuke him in the name

of Jesus Christ. Not only during fasting, no, if

your boyfriend or your fiance loves you so much and wants to,

wants to take advantage of that beautiful gift that God has

given you, which is your virginity, spit in his face and

rebuke him in the name of Jesus Christ.

Vice versa, by the way, vice versa, my beloved brothers, if

your girlfriend or your fiance is enticing you to enter the

bed, spit in her face and rebuke her in the name of Jesus Christ,

That's what you need to do. Neglect it and you've seen you

have fallen and don't blame Satan.

No, blame yourself because you forgot when the when the when

the thoughts started brewing in your mind, you neglected it when

your conscience, the spirit was saying no, no, don't do that.

You just neglected it, and then the enemy was alert.

Oh yes, this is time now. It's my show now.

The curtains have gone up. It's my time now.

If we neglect the temptation and take them lightly, beloved, and

act upon them, you have sinned. At this point we need to cry

out, supplicate, beseech the name of our Lord Jesus Christ

for forgiveness of sin, joining the prodigal son in confessing

my father. I have sinned toward heaven and

before you, Luke 1521, and that means I have abandoned the

heavenly things, preferring shameful, meaningless earthly

things to heavenly things. I was in a beautiful spiritual

realm, and then my thoughts went to my earthly evil and I gave

into them. At this point, beloved, we need

to come back with a contrite spirit, confession, admission,

and asking God to forgive. And this all because we

neglected and compromised our weaknesses, our wickedness, our

evil. This is why during Lent we

refrain from all social, all humour, all celebratory events,

regardless of what they are. Why?

Because the church wants her children to just have one thing

in mind, to occupy their minds with one thing that is above,

setting their minds on the things that are above and

nothing else. On repentance and righteousness

and holiness. And not only during land.

We've spoke about that. There is another there's I think

it was 2 episodes ago, not only during during Lent, but during

the whole life on earth that we have beloved and Satan doesn't

only come and tempt us during land by the way, Satan will

tempt us until the Lord returns to deliver us finally from these

trickeries I want to share with you morning prayers of the 4th

Sunday of Lent. Maria, the third Catholic was

patriarch, I think 4th century. Correct me if I'm wrong.

My beloved priests or those who are aware with the father's

writing. Look at what he says.

Look at what we prayed and he's holding us prayed this because

he was at our the Mother Day parish for the 4th Sunday of

Lent. All of the goodness and

provisions of God we have taken for granted.

All of the glory that have been given from you to us.

We took lightly and substituted them.

All of the precepts. Substituted them.

All of the precepts and commandments which were for our

correction in disobedience. As swines we looked at them.

The gospel promises upon which our lives hang, we took that we

were disobedient to them. As swines we looked at them.

We perceived as irrelevant. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.

All of the gospel promises upon which our lives hang we

perceived as irrelevant. Irrelevant.

Thy shall not murder, thy shall not kill.

Love your enemies, live a holy life.

Irrelevant As lunatics in complete error, we perceived

irrelevant. We lived inhumanely.

We have distant righteousness from ourselves, as we have not

pleased to live in righteousness, but rather we are

likened to beasts and have become like them.

We were committed to animals and we took on their habits.

We did not withhold our mouths, and we're not satisfied by each

other's flesh. Halted the slit udala and did

not seize our tongues from quarrelling and grumbling

against one another. Did not cease.

Murder, fornication, adultery, immorality and theft are acted

in our deeds. Envy, deceit, pride and boasting

are completely perfected within us.

Dems are confessing words, beloved, when the priest is.

When His Holiness was praying, he was praying on behalf of the

Church, confessing on behalf of the church.

Vans are confessing words, admission, admission words,

alarming words. The beginning of temptation is

the beginning of our compromising and justifying of

our weakness and wickedness. But we have salvation, we have

hope, we have deliverance through Jesus Christ our Lord,

our King, our God, our life Giver and the forgiver of our

sins. Praise and glory be to His Holy

name now and at all times and forever.

Amen. We hope you enjoyed this week's

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Until next time, God bless you all.