Joel Osteen - Resisting Temptation
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No matter how strong our faith, temptation will always come, but freedom begins with honestly identifying our persistent weaknesses and confronting them. Through prayer for God’s strength ahead of time, avoiding tempting situations, and drawing on examples like Joseph and Peter, we can resist and live in the total freedom God intends.
Recognizing and Confronting Persistent Temptations
I want to talk to you today about resisting temptation. No matter how good of a person you are, how much you want to do what is right, temptation will come. It is important to recognize the areas in which you are tempted. It is different for each of us. You need to take inventory of your life, be honest with yourself, and say, «Okay, this is an area that I struggle in. This is an area that I need to stay on guard.»
What keeps many people from being free is they live in denial. I read that seventy percent of alcoholics do not think they have a problem with alcohol. If you are not honest with yourself, it will be very difficult to be free. You need to know yourself. If you are tempted to watch things that you should not, get it out on the table. Say, «God, here is an area that I need to improve in.» If you have a problem with being impatient, a problem with spending money you do not have, a problem with drugs or alcohol, the first step to being free is to identify what is holding you back.
You cannot conquer what you will not confront. As long as you are downplaying it, trying to hide it, acting like it is not there, it is not going to go away. Ignoring the enemy does not make him leave you alone. He already knows the area of your greatest weakness. You should know it as well—not to go around feeling bad about yourself, but so you can stay alert.
The Scripture says in Hebrews, «Let us lay aside the weights and the sin that does so easily beset us.» Notice it says «the sin.» There is one thing many have to specifically deal with. I call it a persistent temptation. Whenever you try to move forward, the same temper, the same self-pity, the same addiction, the same compromise is there to try to hold you back.
Some people, every time they are about to be promoted, the same problem with their mouth gets them in trouble—speaking their mind, saying things they should not. If they would just get honest with themselves and say, «God, this problem with my mouth so easily besets me; I am going to get serious and deal with it, ” then when you get honest, God will help you to come up higher. Do not go the next twenty years letting the same bad attitude, the same temptation, the same compromise hold you back.
Breaking Free from Past Hurts
I know this lady who was hurt in a relationship more than twenty years ago. This man did her wrong. Now, every time she is about to get serious in another relationship with a good man, a loving man, a kind man, that same fear of being hurt again rises up. The same thoughts come: „He is going to leave you. You cannot trust men. They are all the same.“ Until she gets honest and deals with that fear, she is not going to have happy relationships.
What is that one thing that can easily beset you? What is that persistent temptation that you struggle with? Identify what it is. Here is the good news: the enemy does not have any new tricks. Once you recognize what that one thing is and learn how to defeat it, you can overcome.
Second Peter 2:19 says, „You are a slave to whatever controls you.“ You can be a slave to a bad attitude, a slave to worry, a slave to lust. In the scope of your destiny, it is a small thing to let a bad temper control you. It is a small thing to let fear or worry control you. Your destiny is too great. Your assignment is too important. Your future is too bright to let something small hold you back.
You have got to make up your mind: this is a new day. You are not going to keep giving in to the same old temptations. You know what they are. The enemy does not have any new tricks. It is going to be the same thing year after year. But if you will dig your heels in, put your foot down, the temptation may not go away, but God will give you the strength to overcome it.
You do not have to be a slave to self-pity, a slave to a bad attitude, a slave to an addiction. God created us to be free—not partially free, but totally free. I am asking us to get rid of that one thing.
A Small Thing Can Limit a Great Destiny
I know a pastor friend. When he was twelve years old, he started smoking, hiding it in his house, not letting his parents know. By the time he was fourteen, he was totally hooked. This young man had an incredible gift to minister. From an early age, he was extremely anointed and powerful. He would fill in at the local church.
The whole time, he had to hide the fact that he smoked. His mentor, an elderly gentleman who was the pastor there, knew that he smoked, but he did not condemn him. He did not chew him out. He simply said, „Son, I believe that God wants to take you a long, long way, and that cigarette sure is a small thing to keep you from where God wants you to go.“
That one statement broke a stronghold in his mind. He had a new perspective. His attitude was, „My destiny is too great to let something small hold me back.“ He changed his mind. When you change your mind, you can change your life. Today, he has a ministry that touches the world. Think about what he could have missed out on if he had let a small thing hold him back.
Whatever that one thing is—maybe pride, jealousy, bad attitude, addiction—it is a small thing to keep you from the amazing future God has in store.
Praying to Resist Temptation
Jesus said in Matthew 26:41, „Pray that you do not enter into temptation.“ Notice He did not say, „Pray that you will never be tempted.“ „God, please do not ever let me have a wrong desire.“ That is not realistic. He said, „Pray that you do not enter into the temptation.“
We cannot overcome temptation on our own. You cannot resist that desire to compromise all by yourself. We cannot break addictions in our own strength. We need God’s help. When you humble yourself and say, „God, help me to have a good attitude, ” „God, my mouth keeps getting me into trouble; help me to bite my tongue and not say things that I should not, ” „God, I do not want to watch the wrong things; I do not want to pollute my mind; God, help me to resist this temptation, ” if you ask God to help you, He will give you the strength to overcome.
The Scripture says, „The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.“ We have good intentions. We want to do the right thing. If you struggle with an addiction, if you could, you would give it up. You would give up being impatient, give up compromising. The spirit is willing, but it is not enough to just have the desire. You have to pray so that your spirit man will get stronger in that area. If your inner man gets stronger than your outer man, you will resist the temptation every single time.
Here is the key: do not wait until you are in the middle of the temptation to ask God for His help. Pray ahead of time. If you have got a problem with your temper, when you get up in the morning, before you leave the house, „God, I am asking You to help me to control my temper today. God, help me to stay calm and not give in to the temptation to get upset.“ Do not wait until you are in the heat of the battle and your emotions are high and your passions are out of control. Pray ahead of time. Get your inner man stronger.
Building Strength Before the Battle
Maybe you are trying to lose weight and be more disciplined in your eating. You cannot wait until you are at the mall and you smell the cinnamon rolls in the air and your friends are going to get a fudge bar. By that time, it is too late. Pray ahead of time. When you get up in the morning, „Father, help me to be disciplined in my eating today. God, help me to stay focused.“ You have got to develop this reservoir of strength so when that temptation comes, you are so prayed up, so strong, so disciplined, so focused, you will be able to resist it.
When you know something is going to be more difficult, make sure you get prayed up. If you come home every Monday stressed out, irritable to your family, then start praying on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, „God, help me resist the pressure to get stressed out on Monday.“ If you struggle with depression, do not wait until you have been depressed for three days to ask God for His help. On your good days, when you are encouraged, when you are happy, pray ahead of time: „God, help me to control my thought life and stay happy, hopeful, and positive.“
It is like this man I heard about. He said, „God, so far I have done well today. I have not lied, cheated, or gossiped. I have not lost my temper, been rude, grumpy, angry, selfish, or nasty. But God, I am going to need Your help today because I am about to get out of bed this morning.“ Pray ahead of time, and God will help you.
Jesus and the Power of Prayer
Jesus was about to be crucified. He knew there were difficult times ahead where He would be tempted to get discouraged and give up. What did He do? He prayed, „Take this cup from Me, but not My will; let Your will be done.“ Here He was, the Son of God, yet He was saying, „Father, I cannot do this on my own. I am tempted to not go through with it. I need Your strength.“ The Scripture says after He prayed, the angels came and strengthened Him.
If you will pray and ask God to help you resist, He will send His angels to strengthen you as well. This is what David did. Twice in the Psalms, he asked God to help him control his mouth. He was focused, disciplined, a great leader, yet maybe this was the one thing that could easily beset him. He said, „God, put a watch over my mouth.“ He asked God, and God helped him to overcome in that area.
Jesus told Peter, „You are going to be tempted to deny Me. Peter, you need to pray so you do not give in to this temptation.“ It was late in the day. Peter was tired. He did not feel like praying. Plus, Peter was proud. He thought he could do it in his own strength. He said, in effect, „Jesus, I do not need to pray. I am Your friend. I am not going to deny You. I will be with You through thick and thin.“
You know the story. A few hours later, when the soldiers questioned him, he denied that he knew Jesus. I wonder what would have happened if he had taken time to pray. If he had just done like David and said, „God, I need Your help today, ” I believe it would have been a different story.
If Jesus thought it was necessary to pray and ask God for strength, if He told us to pray so we do not enter into temptation, that tells me this should be a priority. Some of you, the only reason you keep giving in to the same thing again and again is you are not asking God for His help. When you do like Peter and think you can do it on your own, God will just step back. But when you humble yourself and say, „God, I need Your help today, ” „God, help me to not compromise, ” „God, help me to not let my eyes wander, ” „God, help me to be disciplined in my eating, ” when you ask God for His help, God will send the angels to strengthen you.
Changing Environment and Associations
I know this young lady who has been addicted, but the last ninety-two days she has been clean. That is the longest she has ever stopped. I asked her how she was doing it. She told how she got some new friends, got rid of the people dragging her down, got people that will pull her up. She quit thinking that she could not do it and started saying, „I can do all things through Christ.“ Then she said, „Joel, I get up every morning and say, ‘God, I need You today. I need Your discipline. I need Your grace. God, help me to resist this temptation.’“
When you acknowledge God as the source of your strength, you will have a power to resist that you have never felt before. I wonder how much more victory we would walk in if we would just get up every morning and say, „Father, help me to not lose my temper. God, help me to not compromise. Help me to stand strong.“ Pray ahead of time. Get your inner man built up.
Then, number two, very important: do not put yourself in situations where you know you are going to be tempted. You cannot pray and ask God to help you overcome an addiction and then go hang out with people that enable you. The Scripture says, „Run from temptation.“ If you are trying to break a spirit of alcohol, do not go party with your buddies after work. „Well, Joel, I am just there for the company. I am just there to visit. I am not going to drink.“ No, if you play with fire, you are going to get burned. If you hang around the beehive, you are going to get stung. If you stay at the barber shop long enough, eventually you will get a haircut.
Get out of that environment. Run from temptation. If your friends are not going anywhere, find some new friends. If they are pulling you down, you can pray all day long for God to help you, but until you separate yourself, it is not going to do any good.
Choosing Destiny Over Compromise
I read about this young lady who really liked this young man, but all he wanted to do was party and compromise. He was not going anywhere. He did not have any goals. She tried to get him to come to church again and again, but he would not come. Finally, she looked at him and said, „Listen, if you are not going to go to Heaven with me, then I am not going to go to Hell with you.“
If you are going to get free and break loose of that one thing that can hold you back, you may have to take what seem like drastic measures. You may have to change friends. If all your friends run around on their spouse, spirits are transferable. You hang out with them long enough, and you too are going to be tempted to compromise. You hang out with a jealous person long enough, and you will end up jealous, critical, and sour. Put yourself in a different environment.
I know people; the only thing that is keeping them from rising higher, the only thing that is keeping them from resisting that temptation, is the people they are choosing to associate with. I learned a long time ago: some people, the less time you spend with them, the better off you are going to be. You have to ask yourself, „These people that are dragging me down, causing me to compromise—are they worth me missing my divine destiny over?“
Joseph’s Example of Fleeing Temptation
In the Scripture, Joseph worked for a man by the name of Potiphar. He was in charge of his house. He was being his best, minding his own business, but Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph. Day after day, she kept making advances toward him and letting him know that she was interested. But Joseph was a young man of great character. He had great integrity. His attitude was, „This woman is not worth me missing my divine destiny over.“
I can imagine he got up every morning and prayed, „God, help me to stand strong. Help me to resist this temptation.“ But he not only prayed; the Scripture says she kept pursuing him, but Joseph did his best to avoid her. There is another key to resisting temptation: avoid the wrong people, avoid the wrong places, avoid the wrong channels.
Joseph went out of his way to stay out of her path. If she came inside, he went outside. If she came outside, he would go run errands. He did not think, „I am so strong; I am invincible.“ He knew he was fallible. One day, it just so happened everybody was gone. Potiphar was not there. She came into the room where Joseph was working, grabbed him by the arm, and tried to pull him to her. But the Scripture says Joseph tore himself away.
Notice the determination, notice the persistence. He tore himself away. When he did, she ripped his coat right off of him. He did not care. He took off. Sometimes, in order to resist temptation, you are going to have to leave your coat. In other words, you may have to give up something to keep from compromising.
You may have to give up playing ball with the guys if you cannot resist partying with them after the game. You may have to give up working late if there is somebody there that is going to lure you off course. You may have to give up premium cable if you cannot stay off the wrong channels. You have got to be willing to leave your coat.
You cannot ask God to help you and go sit in the middle of the temptation. You have got to do like Joseph and run from it. Young people, quit worrying about how popular you are or who is going to accept you, and do what you have got to do. That person at the office that is flirting with you—run from them. Do not play with fire. If they take the elevator, you take the stairs. If they leave at five, you leave at five-thirty. Do like Joseph and avoid temptation.
The Deceptive Nature of Temptation
If you are trying to lose weight, stay out of the kitchen. Do not think, „I am just going to go in here and look at these freshly baked cookies.“ After you eat half of them, you will go around condemned. Run from it.
Like this lady I heard about who was on a diet, doing so well. She even changed the route that she used to drive to work so she would not have to go by the bakery that she used to always stop at and buy desserts. One day, the roads were closed and she had to go the old way. She said, „Okay, God, You are going to have to help me today. I am not going to stop unless there is a parking spot right in front of that bakery.“ She came home with a big dessert and told her husband, „I could not help it. The eighth time around the block, there the parking spot was.“
Avoid the temptation. Take a different route. Do what you have to do. You say, „Joel, I am strong; I am mature.“ No, the Scripture says, „Take heed when you think you stand lest you fall.“ The apostle Paul was saying no matter how strong you think you are, every one of us is capable of giving in to temptation. That is why we need to pray ahead of time and do what we can to avoid it.
Partying with the people after work is not worth you missing your destiny over. Hanging out with the office flirt is not worth you ruining your marriage. Watching things that are questionable is not worth being sidetracked from where God wants to take you. These temptations look so alluring at first, but they always end in heartache and pain.
The Long-Term Cost of Compromise
I read how an Eskimo used to kill a wolf. He would take his knife blade and coat it with animal blood and let it freeze. Once it froze, he would put another layer, and another, and another, until it was about an inch thick of frozen animal blood—sort of like a Popsicle. He would go into the woods, put it in the ground handle first with the blade sticking up.
In the night, the wolf, with its sensitive nose, would come by and start licking the frozen animal blood. The more he licked it, the more he liked it—and faster, so feverishly that he could not even feel the sting of the knife slicing his own tongue. He would go so passionate in the pleasure of the moment, he would not realize the point at which his own blood was now satisfying his insatiable thirst. By morning time, the wolf would be lying dead in the snow.
Many times, these temptations that come to us look so appealing, so inviting. We think, „Oh man, I only live once. It is not hurting anything. Everybody else is doing it.“ No, do not be deceived. Behind that pleasure, there is pain you may not feel in the beginning.
Going out and getting high with some friends at first may feel good, but twenty years later, if you are addicted and lonely and depressed, it does not feel good. Playing around while you are married may feel good at first, but later on, when the spouse and the kids are gone, the home is broken up, it does not feel good. Being dishonest, not having integrity may feel good at first, but later on, when the truth comes out—and it always does—it will put you much further behind.
There is a temporary pleasure in giving in to temptation, but the pain in the long run will always far outweigh the pleasure. I have heard it said, „The pain of discipline is temporary, but the pain of compromise is permanent.“
You say, „Joel, it is hard. It is hard to resist.“ Yes, it may be hard, but do you know what is harder? Living in bondage. Going around feeling bad about yourself because you know you are so far below your potential. There is nothing worse than going through life with things holding you back that you know you can defeat.
Some of you are struggling with addictions, with wrong mindsets, with negative emotions. You are allowing something so small to control you. You are better than that. You are a child of the Most High God. You have royal blood flowing through your veins. Do not settle where you are. You can overcome anything in your life, large or small.
It does not matter if it is a negative attitude or you are addicted to cocaine—the power in you is greater than the power that is coming against you. You have got to start declaring, „I am better than this. I am not going to settle for mediocrity. I am going to dig my heels in, focus, be disciplined, and with God’s help, I am going to resist every temptation. I am going to break every bondage.“
Friends, you are well able. Do not let something small keep you from the big things God has in store. What is that one thing that could easily beset you? Identify what it is, then start asking God to help you. Remember, the enemy does not have any new tricks. If you will learn to defeat it today, you can defeat it your whole lifetime. Then, avoid tempting situations. Do not put yourself in a situation where you know you are going to be tempted to compromise.
My declaration today is that we are going out of here free. We are not going to be controlled by a temper, by a drug, by an addiction, by lust, by fear, by worry, by a person. No, every stronghold is coming down. Every bondage is being broken. Every chain is being loosed. You are going to resist temptation and step into a freedom like you have never seen before. I believe it and I declare it over each one of you, in Jesus’ name.