By Andrew Hiwale
At the time of writing this the Youth Group has just finished our series on temptation. We have been expositing Luke 4:1-13 which is the temptation of our Lord Jesus Christ. We come to Jesus at a standoff between himself and the Devil. The Devil attacks Christ with temptations of good things in Jesus’s life, but Jesus knows these things are not as good as God and so he stands his ground defeating Satan in this battle. We take a deeper look into temptation itself and what Christ’s battle means for our own lives as we begin to deepen our faith.
Temptation is always an interesting struggle as it’s something that everyone has struggled with and struggled with it a lot. However, I think for teens it’s even more of a prevalent issue as that’s when we are in our maximum growing stage. The teenage years is a time where you are first starting to figure things out, your morals aren’t totally figured out yet and you don’t entirely understand what life is and the challenges that come with it. That’s what Satan loves. As teenagers we are usually a blank slate and you can choose whether you build your foundation of life on God’s love and grace or be tempted into the comforts and desires of the world. I would love to say most choose God but the truth is most fall away and would rather be in the comforts of the world.
Even I, who in the church was known as the pastor’s kid and grew up in a God-loving family with 2 other siblings who went through the kids ministry and the Youth Group of the church. When I entered the Youth Group, I was almost seen as this prodigy child who had everything figured out and would have scripture memorized like it was nothing. But in reality that was not the case. That was during my first few years of middle school where I struggled with temptation first and where my faith started to falter. Throughout those years I saw temptation as something to battle against, something to push back and gain the upper hand against. When I kept fighting that temptation I thought in my ol’ foolish self that I could keep trying harder and on my own accord I could stop failing to temptation. I learned very quickly that this was not the case. Now that I’m in High School and have grown my relationship with God in an exponential amount, I can now see I was fighting temptation all wrong.
I figured this out truly when I started writing my sermon on this topic. I was honored to be able to preach God’s word and on our last day on the series of temptation. As I was writing it and studying the passage, I knew that Jesus was a replacement for us, that he took our place and that’s where I was gonna pull my message to, but it never really clicked what that actually meant. At this point, I knew the root of the problem was not necessarily temptation itself but instead our desires towards the wrong things. Even though I knew this though, it did not sit with me. I looked at it, acknowledged it, and then moved on. I never really applied that message to my own life. As I started to speak the words though, it finally hit me. Temptation really isn’t about you overcoming it, but rather Christ having already defeated temptation for you. You don’t have to go through the struggle of temptation alone or by yourself but rather with Christ who has already won against temptation. Temptation is a battle, but it’s a battle that has already been won, and because Christ won that battle, you are also a winner.
If you are a teenager or the parent of a teen reading this and want to have you or your teen to grow their faith in God and learn more how to apply the wisdom of Christ to their own lives, check us out at 500 Main Street East Rochester, NY 14445 on Wednesdays at 7 PM! We would love to see you there and have you worshipping with us. If you have more questions you can contact our Youth Pastor, Dylan Ocorr at or call the church at (585) 385-0450.