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2026-03-01: Temptation Sunday

Background

Good morning, dear beloved

We are celebrating the 2nd Sunday of the Holy and Great Fast, today. This is called the Temptation Sunday.

  • 1st Sunday - Treasures Sunday
  • 2nd - Temptation Sunday
  • 3rd - Prodigal Son
  • 4th - Samaritan Woman
  • 5th - Paralytic Man
  • 6th - Man Born Blind
  • 7th - Palm Sunday

The Church arranges these readings for us to give us a complete picture of the Spiritual Life during the Holy and Great Fast.

We start the Fast excited, ready to succeed, ready to lay for ourselves Treasures in Heaven. We deactivate our social media, remove the apps from our phone that are taking us away, we change out everything in our fridge, we make big commitments... But within two weeks or so, we start to get hit with Temptations. I'm starting to get hungry. I'm starting to get bored. I'm starting to miss my social media. And of course, boredom leads to sin... we're in Temptation season, but there is very good news!

1 - There is great blessing in enduring temptation. "Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him." (James 1:12)

2 - The Lord Jesus Christ overcame the temptation. He gave us a model for overcoming, that we can follow and He overcame.

3 - The Devil is Predictable! He uses the oldest tricks in the book

Blessing of Enduring Temptation

"Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him." (James 1:12)

The Lord Jesus Overcame Temptation
  • Adam was tempted when he was healthy, strong and happy in the Garden of Eden. He had food to eat, animals to play with, trees everywhere. He was comfortable. He had his wife, Eve. They had no worries.
  • Our Lord Jesus Christ was in the wilderness, He was hungry, He was physically weak because of fasting for forty days.
  • Both of them were tempted by Satan. But only one of them overcame. Our Lord Jesus Christ. And our Lord Jesus Christ represented the whole humanity. And this story is in the gospels so we can learn from it. He achieved victory on that mountain, but that victory was for all of us, humans.
  • “For because He Himself has suffered and been tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted.” (Hebrews 2:18)
  • “For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)
The Oldest Trick in the Book

The devil tempted the Lord Jesus with the three categories of Temptation. And these are known to us from the Scripture.

  1. Lust of the Flesh
    1. "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."
  2. Lust of the Eyes
    1. "All these things I will give to You if You will fall down and worship me."
  3. Pride of Life
    1. "If You are the Son of God, throw Youself down. For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you' and 'In their hands they shall bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone.'"

“For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – is not of the Father but is of the world.” (1 John 2:16) 

Eve was tempted by the same three categories:

  • "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate." (Genesis 3:6)

The Lusts of the Flesh

Examples:

  • Any desires for physical things
  • Sexual Immorality & Impurity
  • Gluttony
  • Laziness and Oversleeping
  • "Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like" (Galatians 5:19-21)
  • The devil wants to convince us that life is all about food, material and the world.

Overcome:

  • Reading the Scripture - "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." (Deuteronomy 8:3)
  • Spiritual Disciplines

The Lust of the Eyes

Examples:

  • sLove of money

  • Overcome:Possessions

    • sEnvy & Jealousy
    • Material attachments
    • Greediness
    • Cheating

    The Pride of Life

    Examples:

    • sPride, Arrogance
    • Boasting
    • Disobedience to parents, teachers, elders
    • Not considering the opinions of others
    • Lying

    Overcome:

    The Lord Jesus Overcame Temptation
    • Adam was tempted when he was healthy, strong and happy in the Garden of Eden. He had food to eat, animals to play with, trees everywhere. He was comfortable. He had his wife, Eve. They had no worries.
    • Our Lord Jesus Christ was in the wilderness, He was hungry, He was physically weak because of fasting for forty days.
    • Both of them were tempted by Satan. But only one of them overcame. Our Lord Jesus Christ. And our Lord Jesus Christ represented the whole humanity. And this story is in the gospels so we can learn from it. He achieved victory on that mountain, but that victory was for all of us, humans.
    • “For because He Himself has suffered and been tempted, He is able to help those who are tempted.” (Hebrews 2:18)
    • “For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)
    How do we Overcome
    • Sacramental Life
      • Confess Often
      • Receive Eucharist weekly
    • Spiritual Disciplines
      • Fasting, Prayer, Reading Scripture, Prostrations
    • Consuming Spiritual Content
      • Spiritual Books, Sermons, Hymns and Spiritual Songs
    • Remove Temptation
      • If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell. (Matthew 5:29-30)
      • We always pray to God to "lead us not into temptation" but we put ourselves in temptation
      • PARENTS - remove temptation from your children. Many parents are giving their children tablets and phones and leaving them unmonitored. Some parents are giving their child an iPad and putting a time limit on it - 30min per day. That's a good start, but I need to know what my kids are doing on it.
        • MANY of our children in elementary are telling us that they watch YouTube Shorts. This is so dangerous for them
        • When you watch a YouTube video, you search for it or you search a certain topic, you see the thumbnail, the title, the channel name, you decide to watch it and you watch it. When you're watching YouTube shorts, whatever comes, comes. Whatever is the next video is the next one.
        • And our children say "if I hear a bad word, I swipe to the next one" - "If I see a bad image, I swipe to the next one." - okay... but you already heard the bad word. You already saw the image. It entered your mind and your thoughts. 
        • We are putting our children in Temptation - besides also the fact that YouTube shorts is physically unhealthy: destroying attention span, impairing memory, ability to focus, etc. and socially unhealthy.
        • Let me remove temptation from my life, and as a parent, I HAVE TO remove temptation from my child's life.
    • Flee From Evil
      • "Flee also youthful lusts"
    • Obedience
    • Seek Spiritual Guidance
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