That music's pretty dramatic.

I was working the NBA game in Memphis last night, and they were going to have an afterwards ceremony to retire one of the most popular players in Grizzlies history, his jersey. And the third one they've done. And I went to the first one, I got stuck at the second one. And they keep drawing these things out. And I was like, I've got a jet for the door.

Because Sunday morning is the super bowl for me. And I wanted to get home, get some rest, because I could not wait to get here today because I knew it was prayer ministry Sunday. I knew it was going to be a great elders meeting after the service today and. And then there's gonna be that time in the afternoon where all the duties are done and I get to go home and rest in the grace of God and think about all that I've heard that he's done in your life today. So as I was leaving, the normal tunnel that we go out of was filled with all of this equipment they were about to bring out on the floor.

And they said, sorry, you can't go this way. You have to go to the other tunnel. So we went down there and it too was filled with all of this equipment. I'm like, oh, my gosh, Satan is trying to trap me at the FedEx forum, keep me from getting home. I'm just telling you that to say I made my way out.

I got home and I cleaned up, and it took me 35, 40 minutes to drive home. This is more than an hour later. I turn on the TV and they're still doing that ceremony live on tv. I was like, look at all the time I would have missed. Because I want to give God my best and I want to be ready on his day.

Yes. Does that make sense? I think that more than just your preacher should have that expectation of man. The church is going to gather. We get to meet with God.

So good. Find Genesis chapter three in your Bible. It's way to the left in your Bible. Just the first few pages and you've gone too far. This is part two of Temptation in the Fall.

Part one was last week. All you note takers, I want you to write something down right now. All the notetakers, write down Pastor Trevor DavisMail.com all note takers. Pastor Trevor DavisMail.com that's the only note I want you to take today. Here's why I've got to go in rapid fire.

I've got to preach this sermon expeditiously, just for time's sake. And so I'm not going to be able to slow down and let you digest everything and write everything down. But if you'll email me at Pastor Trevor davismail.com I'll send you all my notes from the day for free. It's on a word document and I won't remember, so you'll have to prompt me by emailing me. And that's easy.

That way you don't have to try to get all the notes down because you're not going to have time to get them all today. So. Okay, usa we good? Sounds good. Today I'm going to answer the question from Genesis, chapter three, verses four through seven.

How can I overcome temptation? Because we're in Genesis three. So we learn that temptation has been a struggle from the beginning. And Eve was, as we saw last week, deceived by subtle misrepresentations of God's truth, and that led her to rebel. And that's a story that repeats itself in our own lives, and it often appears harmless.

But how do we overcome it? Today, in these verses, we're going to explore the victory that God provides for us. And our text is going to answer the question, how can I overcome temptation With. With three answers. Three answers today.

You ready? Are you ready? All right. Number one, Trust God's word over Satan's lies. Verses four and five, Trust God's word over Satan's lies is the first way we overcome temptation.

The verses read this way. Then the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat it, eat of it, your eyes will be opened. You will be like God, knowing good and evil. Oh, there's so much truth. Unpack.

In these two verses, the serpent saw immediately that Eve didn't have a firm grasp of God's command like so many. Perhaps in this room, you just don't have a firm, solid foundation on what the scriptures teach. So he directly contradicted what God had said. And now Eve has a choice. Believe God's truth or Satan's deception.

And friends, you need to know that the very first lie that Satan told was that there would be no consequences for sin. Alan Ross, in his excellent commentary on Genesis, wrote, here is the lie that has allured the human race from the beginning. There is no, no punishment for disobeying God. And in verses 4 and 5, there are two common lies that Satan told. Eve and Adam.

And he's still telling us today. Common lie number one. Sin won't hurt you, he says. You will not surely die.

You See, instead of a guardrail to keep us from falling into disaster, the tempter implied that God's command was really a barrier to keep us from rising to a greater good. It won't cost you anything.

It won't hurt you.

You won't die.

That's what the enemy hoped Eve would hear when he said, you will not surely die. But the Bible reminds us that sin always has consequences. Do you know numbers 32, 23? Take note you've sinned against the Lord, and be sure your sin will find you out.

Sin won't hurt you. Let's put that lie to the test. Let's see if it stands up. You know God's big ten, the top ten list ten commandments. Let's take three of them.

Let's work them through this grid and see if sin won't hurt you. Let's take the second commandment about idolatry. What is idolatry and how does it hurt? Well, According to Colossians 1, 13, 14, there are only two kingdoms in this world. There's the kingdom of darkness, and there's the kingdom of God's beloved son.

The kingdom of darkness. The kingdom of God's beloved son. Idolatry is living for the wrong kingdom. Every material thing you have, every emotional commitment you've made, that you love and that you're hoping will satisfy you is from the kingdom of darkness. Well, Pastor, does it mean that it's wrong to desire something.

No, it's wrong to desire something more than God.

That's a first. A stink bug on my. That's from the devil. On my Bible.

Let me tell you something about idolatry. Idols always demand more and give less. The things that you love and are committed to, that take you away from God, they're going to cost you more than you want to pay. They're going to give you more than you. They're going to give you less than you ever thought you'd receive.

Let me give you an example of this. You take a workaholic. He sacrifices family for career. He chases wealth and he chases status. And what happens?

Years later? He finds himself alone. He has kids he barely knows. And he has a heart filled with regret because he chose the wrong priorities. He was an idolater.

But sin won't hurt you, will it? Let's do another command. What does it mean to break the Sabbath? I prayed with a man about that today. His life's falling apart because of this one.

What does it mean to break the Sabbath? Did you know that refusing to rest and refusing to trust God, to supply your needs at least one day in seven, and to set it aside to worship. The Lord is actually rebelling against the commandment that God put the most words to in the Ten Commandments Decalogue. He had more to say about the Sabbath than any of the others. And when you refuse, and when you say, I'll make my own schedule and I'll do whatever, I don't need to rest, it says to the Lord, I'll take it from here.

I know my body, I know my soul better than you know.

But my brothers and my sisters, God designed rest from the very beginning for our benefit. He even calls heaven rest. But people often ignore this. You know what it leads to? Just piling up of anxiety in your life?

Depression. And of course, exhaustion. And I want to ask you the same thing my biblical counselor asks me all the time. Can you break a biblical principle and expect a godly result? Let me give you an example.

Take a business owner, works seven days a week, never takes a break. Her body wears down. Her relationships, all of them suffer. And one day she collapses from a stroke and never realizes that God's command to rest wasn't to hold her back, it was to protect her. But sin won't hurt you.

You won't die. Do another one. What about adultery? What is adultery and how will it hurt? Well, for starters, broken trusts, broken homes, broken hearts.

We all know that one. Adulterous affairs destroy marriages. They harm children, they end friendships, they ruin reputations, they steal Christian communities. Somebody always has to leave the church, and they leave deep emotional wounds and fissures.

But Jesus expanded adultery from the bed to the heart. In the Sermon on the Mount, he says that even looking at someone with lust whom you're not married to is adultery in your heart. And if that's the case, what does that make? Pornography. I'll tell you what it makes pornography.

It gives men a digital harem, a catalog of mistresses they can call up anytime as a substitute for marital love. And not only does it give them a digital harem, guys, it makes you a serial adulterer. Not only that, pornography conditions your heart so that you'll do the act.

Do you know about the warning men in Proverbs chapter 5, verses 9 through 12, about adultery? Listen very carefully. It warns that when you commit adultery, another man will sleep with your wife and he will raise your children and you will pay him every month to do it. That's in your Bible, not just in your culture.

Common lie number one, sin won't hurt you. I think we've just given examples that it will, won't it? Here's common lie number two from verses four and five. God's keeping you from something good. He's keeping you from something good.

The tempter says to Eve, God knows that when you eat it, your eyes will be opened and you'll be like God and you'll know good and evil. You know what that is? That's Satan questioning God's integrity. It's as if he's saying to Eve, God must be so insecure and so jealous for him to withhold from you the chief means of your development. Eve, he's keeping you from your true destiny.

That's what God knows. When you eat it, your eyes will be opened. Means it's God's keeping you from something good. According to the serpent, if humans ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would catch up to God and they would become little gods themselves. And can I tell you, the idea of becoming like God is almost irresistible to people.

Not only that, what if you could do it by outwitting him? What if you could outplay the game? That opportunity proved to be far too intoxicating for Eve to overcome. She told herself, if I eat this forbidden fruit, I will receive what God's been withholding from me, and that'll show God and it'll benefit me.

Isn't it true that the human heart always insists that on being recognized for every personal achievement? I mean, we all want our names on the plaque at the bowling alley if we bowl a perfect 300 game, right?

But how would we view God after outmaneuvering him? Would we view him as. Oh, I don't know, would we? Would we view him as a safe friend to cling to? Or would we consider him a dangerous enemy to avoid?

What if we out strategized him? You see, Satan's strategy hasn't changed. He still tries to convince us that God's commands are holding us back instead of protecting us. God's keeping you from something good. So look, the first way you overcome temptation is really simple.

You trust God's word over Satan's lies. Here's the second way. You focus on what God provides, not what he forbids. This is verse six. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate.

And she also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Let an old preacher from a bygone day Explain this to you, Alexander MacLaren. Weaken the awe inspiring sense of God's command and of the ruin that follows the breach of it, and the heart of man becomes like a city without walls into which any enemy can march unhindered. And Satan marched right into Eve's heart and she didn't even put up a fight. You see, what had been presented to Eve as a leap of faith turned out to be a plunge into her suicide.

Eve killed herself that day. And let me say something to you. Once Satan can get our eyes on what we cannot do, we are almost always sure to do it.

The difference is it just depends on how armored in the Lord we are. I mean, think about this. Shouldn't the focus of the Christian life be on all the good stuff that God offers and not on the few restrictions that spare us from sorrow and keep us safe?

You focus on what God provides because it's far more than what he forbids. You know, in verse six, we learn three ways that temptation pulls us in. I want you to have this list. Number one. It pulls us in by physical desire.

The. The verse says that when Eve saw the forbidden fruit, that it was good for food. Everybody's got to eat. Everybody's got physical needs. So Eve said, you know what?

I need this. And then visual attraction. It was pleasant to the eyes. It was pretty to her. It dazzled and fascinated her.

She saw it and her eyes loved it. And she says to herself, this will make me happy. And that's everything in your Amazon wish list, save for later, save for later, save for later. Visual attraction. And number three, self advancement.

It was desirable to make one wise. Eve told herself that that's what I'm missing. That's the seminar I needed. And the apostle John was absolutely thinking about Genesis 3. 6 when he wrote in his first letter, First John 2:16.

For all that is in the world. And look at this list of three. The lust of the flesh, that's. I called it physical desire. The lust of the eyes, that's visual attraction.

The pride of life. That's self advancement. He got that from Genesis. He says, all of that is not of the Father, but is of the world. He says, if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

And the narrative goes on to tell us that the woman ate and then gave some of it to her husband, and he ate also. And that's too big to miss. Nobody says it in fewer words better than Derek Kidner in his commentary. And here's what he said about that. So Simple.

The act so hard, it's undoing. The man and the woman ate a piece of forbidden fruit. And the way that for it to be undone was Jesus had to die a sinner's death on a Roman cross. That's how hard it was to undo this.

It required the gospel. And the comment that the man ate is also very important because in Romans 5:12, the Bible says that sin is passed down to all of us from Adam and not Eve. Why is that? It demonstrates that Adam needed no temptation with clever words. He didn't need to be deceived.

He wasn't deceived by the tempter. He simply went along with the crime. Adam's way that led to sin was willful conformity. And that's how we all got it. Do you realize that what happened in Genesis 3 is that Adam gave him the peer pressure.

He wanted to be like everybody else, only everybody else was one other person.

You see, instead of focusing on all that God had given them, Eve fixated on the one thing he prohibited. And that's how temptation works. It shifts our focus from what God has abundantly provided for us to what we think we're missing. So I remind you, focus on what God provides, not what he forbids. Number three, Recognize the cost of giving in.

What if I fall for it, Pastor? What if I do? Just like Eve and Adam? What's going to happen to me? Verse 7 answers that question.

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together, made themselves coverings.

I want you to understand that the consequences of sin will always be more than we expect them to be. And verse seven answers the question, what will giving into temptation do to me? And it answers it in two ways. Number one, if I give into temptation, this is what's going to happen. Sin exposes our guilt.

When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, lo and behold, they did not gain the wisdom they expected. It was a lie from the enemy. Instead, they just became painfully aware of their guilt. The Bible says their eyes were open. That's another way of saying their understanding increased.

But that promise of divine enlightenment never materialized. What a letdown. Instead of having eyes to see holy mysteries, now their eyes only saw shameful nakedness.

They knew more, but that additional knowledge was all evil. They saw more, but what they saw spoiled everything. You see, what once felt so natural and good now felt embarrassing and wrong, because sin exposes our guilt. And number two, what will sin do to me? What will giving and temptation do to Me.

Sin makes us try to fix ourselves. And here's where we are.

Instead of running to God for forgiveness, Adam and Eve tried to fix their own problem by sewing fig leaves together. And leaves on a fig tree are very small. It takes lots of them. And I said in the first service, what if Adam and Eve weren't skinny people? We don't know.

It's a lot of fig leaves. That's a lot of work. That's a lot of effort. But their attempt to cover their guilt didn't work. It was temporary, it was insufficient, and it was pathetic.

And I began to think this week, what are some modern fig leaves that we hide behind to cover our guilt and our shame and to cover the nakedness of our own unbelief? You are not going to like this list. You okay with that? I'll tell you some fig leaves. Your social media identity is a fig leaf.

You've airbrushed and curated a version of you that doesn't really exist. And you don't have 3,500 friends.

You've made an online Persona that masks your real struggles.

Social media is not real life. Here's another fig. Staying busy. Filling life with constant activity to avoid facing our personal failures and our hurts. If I just stay distracted and if I don't get quiet, I won't know that he's God, and I won't feel this staying busy.

I'll tell you another fig leaf. Some of you may be doing it right now. It's religious routine. It's relying on good deeds and church rituals to mask an unchanged heart. You go through these emotions, but you know the real you.

Still you. And he or she hasn't been made different and new by Jesus, but the ritual keeps going. And then lastly, how about addictions and numbing agents, using alcohol and drugs and food and entertainment. Anything to escape reality. All those are fig leaves.

None of them truly work. They pacify, they don't sanctify. They distract us, but they don't improve us. They pass the time, but they don't pass the holiness test. And that's the bad news.

That's what sin does to us. We try to fix ourselves. We fail. We live under guilt and anxiety and depression. Pastor, is there any good news left?

Oh, yeah. See, God's last words. Never judgment. It's always salvation. God provides a real solution to sin and temptation through Jesus Christ.

Do you believe this? Colossians 1:2122 says this about him and you who were once alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death. That's the crucifixion. To present you wholly blameless and above reproach in his sight. If you want to be wholly blameless and above reproach in God's sight, it has to be the work Jesus does, not the work you do.

Not only that there's a remedy for sin, but there's also a definitive word from the Lord about how we can overcome being tempted to sin. It's 1st Corinthians 10:13. I know it in the NIV. No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful.

He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. You don't have to fall for this.

Alright? In conclusion, how can we overcome temptation? You know, the truth is, you say, pastor, temptation is relentless in my life and I have these besetting sins and I keep failing. I need help. It won't stop.

Temptation may be relentless to us, but it doesn't have to defeat us. We've seen that the key to overcoming it is trusting God's word over Satan's lies and focusing on what God has already given us and remembering that sin always comes with a cost. But you know what the greatest truth of all is in regarding this issue? We don't fight alone. The same God who covered Adam and Eve's shame and took off their fig leaves and really covered them offers us redemption in Jesus Christ.

God will buy you back. And through the Lord Jesus, we have the power to resist. And we have the assurance that God always provides a way of escape. We can look for it. Let me say finally today that just as the fall of man in Genesis 3 began as a choice, so does your victory.

It also begins as a choice. You choose to trust God. You choose to follow his truth. You don't rely on your own effort anymore. And you ask the church to pray for you and watch your breakthrough happen.

You won't have to be crippled by sin and temptation anymore. Jesus has already paid for it. You think about that as we pray. Lord, there's been some seed planted in hearts today. I pray you won't let the enemy steal it.

Help us, oh Lord, in Jesus name.