SPEAKER_01 0:03

Good morning and welcome to Fresh Mercy Podcast, where God's mercy is fresh for you each and every morning. Praise the Lord and good morning. Jesus is alive. Amen. And he is awesome. He's good. Thank you, Jesus. Today we have a very special guest. Hallelujah. For those who don't know him, which I don't think anyone don't know him. Everyone knows him. Everybody knows him. This is Deacon Frankie Usodatsu Teddy Kaku Babi's from New York City. That's right. And he's one of the men that serve in the church. Did I say Deacon? Yeah, he's a deacon. Whatever. And we thank God for uh our brother Frank. And uh Frankie, welcome to Fresh Mercy Podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Uh it is an honor to be with you, men. Thank God for you guys, and I'm very excited.

SPEAKER_01 0:50

Frankie's a little nervous. We're trying to break up. Uh okay, so John Zarrow started uh John Zaro started a tradition on this podcast. The guests read the uh the scripture that we read every Wednesday.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Yeah, because it's what it's the Wednesday episode. Um you guys know the the verse that we read, yeah, and it's inspired to name it a podcast. And uh whoever comes on has the privilege and the honor of reading the verse. Amen. So Deacon Frank, are you ready?

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Yes, I am ready. His Lamentations uh chapter three, verses uh twenty-two to twenty-three. Amen. The faithful love of the Lord never ends. Thank you, Lord. His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness, his mercies begin afresh each morning. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

God's mercy is fresh for us. Amen. And we thank God for his mercy, and thank you, Lord. Deacon Frank, take it away. May the Lord use you. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

So uh I want to talk about something that each person goes through every day. Well uh we we can go through it in a lot of different ways. We can go through it with a uh a diet with wanting to make a purchase of something. How many times that did you ever uh Vinny go somewhere and uh you see a watch you want to buy and you're tempted to buy it? Or you're on a diet, and automatically once once you're on the diet, you get tempted, you want to go eat every day. Charlie's like we're gonna eat after this.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

I love Charlie's.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Uh well that's regular temptation. Right. But the Christian can be tempted with sin. And this is something that a believer could go through every day. Sure. You will face temptation every day. Of course.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

And temptation every day, most likely you're gonna fail every single day. You're gonna fail every single day.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

So we're gonna look at a biblical account of uh when Jesus was tempted. Are you guys ready? Yes. So let's look into it. Before I get into it, I want to read a uh uh commentary that I got about it on uh godquestions.org. Okay. Temptation by itself, in its very nature, feels wrong. When a sinful temptation is introduced, our consciousness immediately senses danger. However, the temptation itself is not the sin. Very good. Very good. A misconception we have, Frankie. A misconception we have about temptation is that let's say if the Dusmana will bring a temptation in front of us, we automatically think that we already failed. Yeah. We automatically, I got tempted, I failed. No. The temptation is not the sin, is when we mishandle the temptation. Very good. When we act on the temptation, when the sin comes. If that was the case, Donnie, Jesus would have failed, which he did not fail, because he was tempted.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

What about uh uh Frankie, before you go any further, uh you gotta leave. You gotta go. The reason why people think that is because when Jesus was talking to the Pharisees and he said that if you're if you thought of a sin, then you've already done it in your heart.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

See, the the whole point is now people believe that all if I think of this sin, then I've done it already. Yeah. And that's where that that really comes from. But really and truly, Jesus was making a point to the Pharisees because it was in their hearts. That was the problem. That was the problem with it. See, temptation can come and you can say, or I got tempted and walk away from it, and praise the Lord. You overcame the temptation, that wasn't a sin. But when you constantly meditate on a sin and continuously thinking about it and desire it and desire it and desire it, eventually you will fall for it. That's why Jesus was saying that you already done it already, because your heart's done it for you already. Very good. That was the point. So what Frankie's saying here is biblically correct. Temptation itself is not the sin. But acting on it or lusting after it is the sin. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 4:26

Very good.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

So not only did our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ face temptation, he never did anything in Tino. He gives us the blueprint of how to get out of the temptation. You guys ready? Let's read. Matthew chapter 4. Uh then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. This is right after he got baptized. So it was right after he got baptized, he's going into the uh into the wilderness. For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry. So he's in his in a in a mode of distress. He's very hungry. During this time, the devil came and said to him, If you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Automatically, the devil is questioning who he is. Who are you? That's what he's telling him. If you are the son of God. So he's all and then he's uh tempting him with the the biggest temptation he has is hunger. He's starving at that point. Let's read on. Let's see Jesus' comeback. But Jesus told him, No, the scriptures say, people do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Hallelujah. So Jesus is already giving us a blueprint of how to overcome temptation when kind of elder's mono. Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the temple. Now I looked up when I was reading the Jimmy Swagger Bible today. The highest point of the temple is about 700 feet. So I just wanted to see for myself how high to give you guys uh an understanding of how high they were. Uh the the Rockefeller Center building in Rockefeller Center behind the Christmas tree is 850 feet tall.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

So you understand.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Do you understand how tight he how high you took him? Wow. Wow. And now he said to him, If you are the son of God, jump off. For the scriptures say, he will order his angels to protect you, and they will hold you up on their hands, so you won't even hurt your foot on a stone. But there's a little problem with this, Vinny. We see the characteristic of Satan. The same characteristic that he used in the garden, he used here. He misquoted the scripture. Why? Because the scripture he's referencing here is Psalms 91. Let's read it. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in always. He left out the part that says always. Did he must? Old's Mano will constantly use uh his tactics, Donnie, to misuse, to misrepresent, to misrepresent, to distort the word of God. To distort the word of God, to get you, oh well, that's the way it was. I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna fail.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Satan is the inventor of pretext. Of course. He is the inventor of it. He did it in the garden. Yeah, at the starting.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

At the beginning. Very good friend. Let's read a commentary on this part. Come on. The text is falsely quoted because the devil left out the words to keep you in all ways. To test God in this way was not of Jesus' way. It was not the way of the Savior or the Messiah. God had never promised nor even given any protection of angels in a sinful or forbidden way. You understand what's going on here? God never said, Oh, I'm gonna protect you if you sin or you for you do it a forbidden way. Jesus knew that, and Jesus was uh in one accord with the Father. Jesus understood that he was obedience to his father. He knew if I do, if I test the Father in this way, I will be disobeying him. Very good. Let's read on. Jesus responded, the scriptures also say you must not test the Lord your God. Next, the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and said, I will give them all to you. He said, If you will kneel down and worship me. So we see three temptations. He tempted him with hunger, he tempted him by telling him to fall to jump off of the temple, and now he's tempting him and telling him, I will give you the world. Wealth and riches. He's giving him all that. And then all then another thing we see, we see what Satan really wants. He wants to be worshipped. He wanted Jesus to kneel down and to worship him. He's kind of sorta, Donnie, revealing what he was what's the purpose of the world. Why I'm here. This is what I wanted. So now I'm gonna get to the point of what uh I want to say. There's the the blueprint of what I said in the beginning is here. But I want to show you guys Jesus' response before I get there.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

Come on.

SPEAKER_00 9:17

Get out of here, Satan, Jesus told him. For the scriptures say you must worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Amen. I read a commentary before. We all know Jesus. He's 100% man and 100% God. Why couldn't he just say at the beginning of the conversation, get out of here and use his godly power and get rid of him? Of course. Who's I'm gonna ask you two guys? Who's stronger here? The devil or Jesus? Jesus, of course. He could have used his godly power and get rid of Satan and not even entertain him. That's it. Never even have a conversation with him, just end it. This was the final straw when he seen that. Oh, he wants me to worship him. Jesus had enough, he was done. Then the devil went away and took care of him. Then no, then the devil went away and angels came and took care of Jesus. The devil was the devil's in here. He turned good. So to get to what I'm trying to say is here Jesus used the man, the man nature of him. Yes, to show us how to overcome. Hallelujah.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

Very good.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

The way to overcome temptation, the way to overcome the world is by the scriptures. Amen. Jesus used that part of himself for us to understand. My believers, my people, my Christians, they're gonna go through temptation, they're gonna go through problems, they're gonna go through situations, and the way to overcome it is the word of God. Hallelujah. So today, whatever you're facing, whatever you're battling, whatever you're you're going through, the way to overcome temptation is through the word of God. Through everything that Satan came at him, Jesus came back what the scriptures say, the scriptures say the Lord your God. It's always the Bible and context that will get you through temptation.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Uh, D. Frank, I want to say this, and you're gonna pray us out. Earlier we learned about laziness. Uh, the yesterday's episode. And laziness is a person always trying to find the easier way out. Well, there's no easy way out here to temptation. There's only one way. That is knowing the scriptures, obeying the scriptures, loving the scriptures. And you will overcome temptation.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Uh how important it is to use the word of God. The word of God used the word of God. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

He showed the ultimate.

SPEAKER_02 11:44

Jesus is the word of God. And the word of God became flesh and walked among us. We learned that in John 1.14. Yes. Well, here you go. Jesus used the word of God. Hallelujah. How much more we should use the word of God? Very good. Pray a salad.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

Good job. Hallelujah. We thank you for this day, Lord. Devla, you showed us through scripture that we can overcome temptation with your word. So, Lord, I pray for the viewer that whatever they're facing, whatever temptation they might face, God, that you would get them through it with your word, God. Be with us for the remainder of this week, we pray. Amen. And amen.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Praise the Lord. Deacon Frank, we love you. We thank God for you. It was an honor. It was a pleasure you're being here. It was our honor, and we thank God for you. And maybe we'll see you soon.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

And Satan didn't protect him.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's make that.

SPEAKER_00 12:28

Jesus defeated Satan.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Hallelujah. We love you. Have a great day. God bless.