The Enemy's Strategy · Pastor Sammy Martinez

If the first session woke men up, this one showed them what they were looking at. Pastor Sammy Martinez walked through the temptations of Christ and drew out the pattern underneath them: the enemy questions God's provision, then His protection, then His plan. Same three moves, every time, for two thousand years.

What made the session land was not the framework. It was that Sammy told the truth about his own anxiety from the platform — and men wrote back about their own.

"Remember that temptation is not a call to sin."

Pastor Sammy Martinez

He closes by telling the room about a season of wrestling with anxiety as a pastor — losing the peace that surpasses understanding, and finally asking his Bible college students to pray for him. One of them, a young man who was in the room that day at TVMC, laid hands on him and proclaimed Psalm 94:19: "In the multitude of my anxieties, your comforts delight my soul." More than one man wrote back about that moment specifically.

What men said afterward

• "Best line: 'Temptation isn't an opportunity to sin, it's an opportunity to battle.'"
• "Psalms 94:19. That hit me where it needed to. Thank you. And God bless you."
• "Thank you for being diligent in your teaching today and being honest with your own anxiety."

Pastor Sammy Martinez serves at Calvary Chapel Star and hosted all three TVMC fireside chats.

Next in the series: Pastor John Randall on taking your place on the line →