Tempted by Evil?

[0:00] I mean, we cover up our cynicism with jokes, and we cover up our despair with smiles and maybe singing a praise song. But, you know, there's many, many, many people who say to themselves as they think about texts like this, because it's a text that many Christians have memorized, and they'll say things like, you know, George, I struggle time and time and time again with pornography, and I cry out to God, I ask him to help me, I ask him to deliver me from looking at it, and I know it's wrong, and I can't seem to get any victory over it whatsoever.

[0:41] Just absolutely none. Or maybe you say, you know, George, I know that in my office I keep getting into trouble because I have a really sharp tongue.

[0:52] I can't seem to help making sarcastic, put-down comments that just insults people. And I know it's wrong, and I, you know, I try to, you know, ask for God's help, and I pray about it, and then I, but I get into the office, I know I shouldn't do it, and before I know it, there you go.

[1:11] I just can't, it seems like I can't help myself. The zingers just keep coming, and I keep hurting people all around. Or maybe some of you say, you know, George, I'm in a relationship, and I know that I shouldn't harbor resentment, and I, you know, I know I shouldn't harbor resentment, and I know I shouldn't be bitter, and it seems to be going fine, and all of a sudden I can start to feel it building up, and I, there's so many times, George, I prayed about this that I wouldn't experience this resentment and bitterness, and it just doesn't go away.

[1:40] Like, it just does not go away. I just succumb to it, and get deeply enmeshed in this resentment and bitterness, and I just don't seem to have any victory over it, you know, whatsoever.

[1:55] Or you say, you know, George, I know I shouldn't be as angry as I am. I, you know, I get talking to my, you know, at work with my wife, and I don't know, it gets onto a topic of politics or something, like, it's always stupid, George, but I just, I know I shouldn't have these angry outbursts and all, but I get into it, and before you know it, I'm just, I'm just angry, and I'm just venting, and I've prayed about it for years.

[2:23] I've taken this text, I've talked about, to God about this text, and it just seems to never have any help whatsoever. However, I just, you know, and so for many of us, when we see a text like this, it just, it profoundly discourages us because of the lack of change over certain besetting sins in our lives.

[2:45] And not only does it discourage many of us, many of us just don't get discouraged. We get a little bit cynical just about it, that it's, I don't know, that it's just religious talk, it's just all blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada, it doesn't really mean anything.

[3:02] It's just something to put us down. And, or others of us just even wonder if we're real Christians. Like, why is it that other people seem to have the victory? Why is it I listen to radio shows or look at books, and they talk about these things, and they seem to have some type of victory over it, and it just, it doesn't happen to me whatsoever.

[3:20] So, I don't know, George, like, maybe I'm not even a real Christian. Or I'm just a real terrible one. So, on one hand, a text of the Bible, which should be giving us a lot of comfort and a lot of help and a lot of direction, for many of us, it just becomes a big boulder that we're carrying around, or a big cloud of darkness and rain over our heads.

[3:47] And so, many of us will often just try to deal with it by forgetting about the text. In fact, I don't know, maybe some of you, your heart sank when you saw this was the text I was going to sit, talk about, because you're thinking to yourself, okay, this has never worked for me.

[4:00] Now, after the service, I'm going to have to go out and smile over coffee as if everything's fine. But it's not fine. I had those problems this morning, even before I came to church.

[4:13] So, we're going to look at that and talk about it. So, let's just read the text. Could you put the text up again? You want to read it with me again, because it's just really important that we have the text in our scripture and we sort of see what's not there and what is there and what it says and what it doesn't say and why it says what it says and how it actually, in fact, is both a profound analysis of the human heart and rather than being cynical or despairing or a burden, it is a profound promise of help that's worth us to memorize and to launch into a journey to try to have a conversation with God and to live it.

[4:52] So, if you could read it with me again, that would be great. It's verses 12 and 13 of 1 Corinthians. Read it out loud. So, here's the first thing.

[5:22] In light of all those different things which I just, you know, said. So, here's the first thing. Just ask yourself a bit of a question. What are you going to be like when God's finished with you? I mean, what are you going to be like when God's finished with you?

[5:37] You know, the way the Christian faith works is we live in the already not yet. Like, we come to trust that God is the one who's provided everything that needs to be done to make us right with him, that God has done it all through the person of his son.

[5:52] That it's, that Jesus is the one who deals with all the wrong things that we've ever done and any type of penalty or judgment that that deserves, any type of doom that comes from all the bad things that we've done and all the bad things that we will do, we believe that Jesus has dealt with that.

[6:08] That's what he dies on the cross for. And we also believe that, you know, our inability to live a perfect life and to sort of have a right standing with God, that that actually comes to us as well. That comes to us as a gift of faith through Jesus.

[6:21] And that when we come to faith in Jesus, when we call out to God to save us and we put our trust in Jesus, that he really does save us. And the Holy Spirit comes and indwells us.

[6:34] And we're born again. We're given a new life. We become God's adopted children by grace. We become citizens of a new kingdom, of the kingdom of heaven, with God as our king and God as our father and Jesus as our elder brother and our savior and our Lord and the Holy Spirit as that powerful person working within us.

[6:55] And that's what actually happens. But, you know, God isn't finished with us yet. We have all of those faithful promises, but, you know, we still sin.

[7:05] We do different things, but there will come an end. Like, what is it going to look like when it's all finished? Well, I know that often, you know, they talk about it as if we're all going to be like little plump, plump little angels with tiny little wings, plucking harps, boring or just weird.

[7:25] Like if that's sort of what your desire is for the end of days, to look like that with a little harp fluttering around, like that's just weird. I used to know a Roman Catholic priest.

[7:36] He's now gone to be with the Lord. He was in a place called Wilno, which is this top of a mountain. It's very, very Polish. Ottawa's, Canada's first Polish community.

[7:46] And he used to say, his name was Archie Afelski. And he could get away with it. He was a big, jovial man. And he used to say to the women in his church, who were always, you know, pestering him about his weight and about this.

[7:58] He was a big, big, jovial guy. And he used to say to the women, she'd say, you women are all like angels. Harpen around a man all day long. Just harpen at him all day long.

[8:09] And anyway, he could get away with it somehow or another. I couldn't, I'm sure. But anyway, so what's the end of all things? You know, if you go back to Genesis chapter 2 and the first part of Genesis 3, it gives you a very, very simple picture of what it would be like when Jesus has come back.

[8:26] There's a new heaven and there's a new earth and we have resurrection bodies. And in Genesis 2 and Genesis 3, we see what it would be like, what it's going to be like when God is finished with us. And when God is finished with us, we will be able to stand before God in the company of other redeemed human beings and we will be naked and unashamed.

[8:44] And we will walk with God in the cool of the garden, in the cool of the evening, with the cool of the breeze. And we will be naked and we will be unashamed. And we will be naked and unashamed before each other and we will be naked and unashamed before God.

[8:59] and we will know his pleasure. And we will have spent the day not just walking all day, but we will have spent the day making music, dancing dances, tending the garden, building buildings, tending and caring and creating on the earth and the creation that God has made for us.

[9:17] And we will do that all together and by ourselves in wonderful harmony, naked and unashamed, and always end the day walking with God in the cool of the evening in the cool of the breeze, naked and unashamed, knowing his favor.

[9:33] That's what it will be like when God is finished with those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus. So if we know what it's like, if we just remember for a little bit that God is faithful and that's what we will end up as.

[9:50] And he is faithful. That's what we will end up as. Then it helps us to understand part of our big problem with this verse. Because you see, part of our big problem with this verse is we sort of read the verse and we say, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[10:07] But what we don't want is what the verse talks about. What we want is, let's use the example of the fact that we go to work and we know that we shouldn't be making snarky, put-down insults, zingers, zingers, constantly.

[10:23] That's our superpower. You know, insulting zingers that get beneath the skin and the armor of people to really get them. And you know what we want?

[10:34] Is we want that we pray as we're going to work and what we're hoping is that God will screw in little islets in different parts of our body, especially in our jaw, and we become like a puppet, a marionette.

[10:50] And as soon as we walk into the work, we just sort of float around and God's doing all of the controls and he's controlling our mouth. And we just, all of a sudden, he takes complete and utter control because he's done that and all of a sudden we just say perfect things, we don't say bad things.

[11:07] And then because we're at the end of the day we're human beings who don't want that, as soon as we leave work, we want God to snip all the wires so we can go, okay, back to normal life. And we want to alternate back and forth between being like a puppet where God takes complete and utter control of us and going back to where we have complete and utter control.

[11:28] But remember, what is it that God is going to do with us when he finishes with us? He's not, we're not going to be marionettes or puppets. One of the things I have a hard time, if I'm actually able to have a conversation with a non-Christian friend about the gospel and the Christian faith that gets deep enough, one of the things I have a hard time explaining to them, and this is, by the way, one of the reasons, those of you who are guests, one of my lines lately is I don't believe in the God that Canadians believe in.

[11:54] I believe in the God that's revealed by Jesus. Because you see, the thing about Canadians is we tend to worry that the God that exists that we don't like and we don't want to have anything to do with will just take control of us.

[12:07] But what I try to tell to my friends is that the God they're afraid of is what the Bible calls the devil because that's what the devil does. He takes control of us and overwhelms us.

[12:21] And the God that's revealed in the Bible by Jesus is the God who's preparing us and fitting us and has done everything required to fit us to walk with God in the cool of the day, having spent the day with our creativity, making music, dancing dances, building buildings, playing with kids, playing with others, making things grow, and then standing naked and unashamed and feeling his pleasure.

[12:50] And because that's what God's doing, he's never going to make you into a puppet, never will. You're praying for it and secretly hoping that that's what will fix you? Forget about it. He's not going to do it.

[13:02] It goes against what he's trying to make you and me into, not trying to, will make, because God is faithful. Let's read the text together again. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.

[13:19] No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

[13:34] Now, here's the other problem with it, is that when we read this text, we add different things because we expect, because of our flesh, because of our culture, we expect God to answer this prayer in particular ways.

[13:47] If you think about it, this is what we expect. We expect that all of a sudden he will give us enough willpower to not sin. It's as if, you know, if we do the right prayer and all of a sudden in our prayer, God sends down a hypodermic needle and zaps us with extra superhuman willpower so that we will no longer succumb to temptation to do evil.

[14:10] Or the other thing that we sort of expect that when we pray something like that is that God will give us this extra knowledge that all of a sudden we will learn the right things that we need to know so that when we know all the things that we need to know because we know it, then we're not going to succumb to temptation.

[14:29] Or the other thing that we're sort of hoping to do is sort of like what megachurch pastors are sort of famous for, not all of them, but some of them, where we'll find the four simple steps to follow so that we have victory over temptation.

[14:40] Or the five simple steps or the three simple steps, hopefully steps where the first letter will spell a word. Maybe it'll be three, whatever, six steps spelled winner.

[14:52] You know, you just got to be a winner. Come to our church and learn to be a winner. You know, W-I-N-N-E-R or whatever. And that's what we're sort of hoping that God will just reveal to us the five or six steps or he'll give us the willpower or the knowledge or some combination of it.

[15:07] And that as a result of that, we'll be able to win over temptation. Now, why is it that God doesn't do that? Why is it that we human beings keep reading, we Christians keep reading the Bible and trying to hope that when we read the Bible, we'll be able to get those things out?

[15:21] Look at the text again. It doesn't say, look at verse 13, no temptations overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful. And then what does it say? We hope it says, what goes on in our mind is we hear yada, yada, yada, yada, yada, but we're hoping, he says, God is faithful.

[15:35] He will give you the willpower. He will give you the knowledge. He will give you the recipe and techniques so that you will be able to enjoy it. No, he doesn't say any of those things, does it? But we want it to say that.

[15:46] That's what we want. That's what we want. We have a lust for it. Just be honest, folks. Now, here's the problem. how could God give us that willpower or that knowledge or those recipe and the end result not being that we would be proud, self-righteous, self-justifying individuals?

[16:10] How could God actually give us that willpower or give us those five steps and not turn us and not have us become proud and self-righteous, self-justifying, and you can add the other nouns or adjectives after that to your pleasure.

[16:33] because don't we hate that when we meet people? But here's what would happen. Who will I pick? Dick. Is it all right if I use you? You know, it's even bad here. I'm going to move down.

[16:45] No, I'm going to stay up here because I'm the mega church pastor and I have learned the five recipes, the five steps, and I have the willpower and I have the knowledge.

[16:56] Poor Dick. He's a schmuck. He doesn't have the willpower. He is so hopeless. He can't follow the recipe like me.

[17:08] This is where my teeth would be nicely bleached, a little bit of a gleam. As I become very, very proud, self-righteous, self-justifying, my willpower has beat the temptation.

[17:22] My following the steps has beat the temptation. My knowledge has beat the thing. So how can God help us without turning us into proud, self-righteous, self-justifying people that basically nobody likes?

[17:36] And it's just wrong. There's a wonderful Roman Catholic author by the name of Peter Kreeft. He has a wonderful analogy. Some of you have heard me say it before. I got it from Peter Kreeft.

[17:48] Like, you know, if you think about it, what's going to be like at the end of the days when we're with God? Like when we're with God at the end of the day and we're naked and unashamed, we will look up to God, right? But here's what Peter Kreeft says.

[18:00] It's impossible to look up to God when you're looking down your nose at others. Isn't that true? If you're looking down your nose at others, poor dick, what a schmuck.

[18:12] How can you look up to God who's wonderful? So the Bible text doesn't give us what we want. It gives us what we need.

[18:27] And what it does is if we just, in the last few minutes it's remaining to us, look again. Let's read the text again out loud and then we'll sort of just pause and camp with it a little bit.

[18:38] If you'd read it with me. And part of the reason I want us to read it over and over again is because I hope at the end of the sermon, before the sermon's even over, you're going to want to memorize the scripture and meditate upon it and learn how to pray it.

[18:53] So read it together with me. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.

[19:06] God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

[19:17] So here's like, here's one of the things which is so wonderful about this text. One of the things which is so wonderful about this text is it begins by humbliness. You see, what we want is we want the high ground.

[19:32] You know, like wouldn't it be wonderful if I had the magic technique that would mean that not a single man or woman here would ever watch pornography again and I could write it in my webpage and not just write it in my webpage but find some other way to turn it into money.

[19:50] And like, and then it would just be as if, but even, you know, what really happens is that people write web pages like that often as if they have this complete and utter freedom from it.

[20:00] They have freedom from anger. They have freedom from bitterness. They have, just take your pick, whatever. But often what it really probably just is is claiming a type of high ground.

[20:14] And you look at this text, it's a profoundly humbling text that means that when we deal with each other, we deal with each other as one fallen human being to another.

[20:25] Because the text begins by saying, therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. If you think you're in a moral high ground, if I think I'm the moral high ground, whoa, George, pay attention.

[20:42] And then it says, no temptation is overtaking you that is not common to human beings. That's what it says. George, your human, your temptations, they're the same type of temptations that are befalling all of the people around you, around this room.

[21:00] Maybe not the exact one, but there's not a single human being here that does not have temptations overtake them. Not one. Not one. If you think that you don't actually face temptations on a regular basis, what that actually means, I don't mean to insult you.

[21:23] I say this, I say this because I need to say it. The Bible is saying to you, if you think that actually you've reached a point where you no longer get tempted, it means you're morally blind.

[21:37] It means you no longer recognize any temptation whatsoever because you just surrender to them. Like it's actually a very deadly spiritual state.

[21:49] So this text is a profound equalizer. It just says, you know what, this is not, if you come to Church of the Messiah and make it your church home, this is not the place of the exalted ones and the anointed ones.

[22:03] This is a field hospital for sinners. And it's a field hospital because we're on the front lines. We're right in the midst of life.

[22:15] And it's a very, very powerful thing. And one of the things which is so powerful about this text as well, and I can tell you this, when I've had sins in my life, that one of the things that the devil does to you when you're struggling with sin, is he'll try to get you to think you're the only one who struggles with it or the only one who surrenders to it because he wants to isolate you.

[22:41] He doesn't want you to bring it to the light by telling a brother or sister about it. But for whatever things you're struggling with right now, it's a common human temptation.

[22:53] And every single one of us is struggling with them. And the key part here of this whole text is look at what the key part is.

[23:05] Look at verse 13 again. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful. The text points you to God.

[23:18] And it says that God is faithful. He is the faithful one. Why is God faithful? Well, he's faithful for several reasons. One of the reasons he's faithful is because the entire way we become a Christian is because God makes a promise to us.

[23:34] He announces something to us. And what he announces, he is sincere about it and he's going to do it. And he always will do it. And he makes this offer to every human being.

[23:47] He makes this offer to the richest people on the planet and the poorest people on the planet. He makes it, this comment, to people who are same-sex attracted and those who aren't same-sex attracted.

[23:58] He makes it to the well-educated and the people who aren't very well-educated. He makes it to the most spectacular athletes and the most spectacularly disabled. And the promise is that he says, you human beings, you cannot make yourself right with me.

[24:12] You cannot do it by your own effort. And I don't say that to depress you. I say that because I have this wonderful news for you that I recognize that you cannot do what you need to do to be right with me.

[24:25] And I have done everything that needs to be done to make you right with me. And I've done it by sending my son. And my son has done everything that has to be done to make a human being right with myself.

[24:40] Every wrong thing that you have ever done or will do, my son has paid the price for that when he died upon the cross. That the doom that you deserve fell on him and the destiny that he deserves is offered to you.

[24:56] And your inability to actually have accomplished anything right, Jesus is the one who's done everything right. He never broke fellowship with me.

[25:06] He never sinned. He was tempted in every way like you and me, but he never gave in to temptations because to be tempted isn't a sin. The sin is doing what you're tempted to do.

[25:18] And Jesus has been tempted in every way and he never surrendered to that temptation ever. And I offer you his perfect record as yours.

[25:30] I was sharing with the 8 o'clock congregation, if you come to the 8 o'clock service, I wear traditional robes and sort of a modern version of a traditional robe.

[25:42] And I, for a variety of reasons, I always wear black and if you come, you'll see, and if I was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt, if you come, you'll see that there's this white robe that covers me.

[25:53] But if I was wearing a long-sleeved black shirt, you would see that at the end, you would see that I'm wearing black on my arms and if you look down, you'd see that I'm wearing black on my feet. And it's actually to be a walking object lesson that as a human being, I am fallen, but I am clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

[26:13] And the reason it, normally these robes wouldn't cover everything, traditionally in Anglican theology, it wouldn't cover everything, you'd always be able to see the black, isn't because Christ isn't able, his righteousness isn't able to cover all of who I am, but it's just to help protect us from pride or to make me, make the congregation think that somehow the minister is more special than others.

[26:37] And so the black always has to show, so you always are reminded that the minister is a sinner, but he's clothed with the righteousness of Christ.

[26:48] And God is faithful, he makes this offer, I have done everything, rock star, football star, hockey star, disabled person, street person, billionaire, person with a low IQ, I have done everything to make you right with me, and I offer this to you, all you need to do is turn from your attempts to justify yourself and make yourself righteous, acknowledge that will never work, and turn to me and ask in humility that I would do what only I could do and you can never do.

[27:23] And the Christian life really begins when we ask God to do that, turn to Jesus in faith. And God is faithful. If you ask, he does it.

[27:37] And the other thing which is why the heart of this text is that God is faithful is that that means that Jesus will never leave you or abandon you.

[27:50] That in my walk with him, I fall again. I sort of, I tempted, and I succumbed to the temptation so quickly, I don't even struggle with it. It's only afterwards that I realize I've done wrong.

[28:03] I didn't even struggle with the temptation. It came to before me and I surrendered like that or other times where I struggle and I fall. And here's the wonderful, wonderful, wonderful thing.

[28:13] The heart of what this text is asking to do is to remember that Jesus is faithful. Doesn't mean he says, I mean, in a sense, you know, part of, I remember, you know, it might be that part of looking at Jesus and remembering his faithfulness is that you see the scars that he bears because of those sins.

[28:37] But he's faithful, nothing that you just did, I mean, that was paid for too. He will not leave you, he will not abandon you, he will not shame you, he will not despise you.

[28:49] He is always faithful. He is faithful. Until you see him face to face in glory and then beyond, he's always, always faithful.

[29:04] And one of the things it says in the New Testament is that Jesus has been tempted as every way as we have, only without sin. And that's why we have such a faithful high priest, such a wonderful one that we can go to.

[29:15] And we can say to Jesus, Jesus, thank you so much that you are faithful. I have fallen again. I know that you know what it's like to be tempted. I know that you are faithful. Jesus, I'm struggling with this.

[29:26] I can't seem to win against it. I don't even know if I'm making small changes. I know that you are faithful. Lord, show me your way to escape that I may endure.

[29:39] Because you see, that's what goes on next in the text. First of all, it says that the thing that we're struggling with, that whether we feel it or not, is that God actually has, in a sense, shortened the temptation to a manageable distance within your ability.

[29:55] Oregon, who wrote in the second century, has a wonderful analogy. He uses an analogy of, in a wrestling contest, you don't put really, really big, strong people against small, skinny people.

[30:06] In a wrestling contest, the skinny people fight the skinny people, and the big people fight the big people because it's matched by weight. And that's what God does with us in our temptation. He isn't actually absent. He's actually present.

[30:16] And he's present in a way that the temptation is actually something, I mean, we still succumb to it. We still lose to it. But it's not something that requires superhuman things. God is actually already present, limiting the temptation.

[30:32] And he's faithful. He's faithful. And so what it says is, God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape.

[30:46] You see, and that's where we want him to say he'll provide the willpower, he'll provide the technique, he'll provide the recipe. But it doesn't say that. He says he will provide the way of escape.

[30:56] But he provides the way of escape that we may endure it. Why does it say endure? Two reasons. Probably more than two, but two that I'll share. The first one is, is that if it's just always escaping, well, it actually sort of always, it's taking us away from being human.

[31:19] You see, here's the thing. If part of the thing that I, not part of, every marriage, there's always going to be things I'm tempted to do against Louise that are wrong. And there's always going to be things Louise will be tempted to do against me that are wrong.

[31:31] That's just marriage. You know, we're in friendship. But if, if I pray and the way of escape is to take me out of marriage, then that's not any good, is it?

[31:45] And so because my prayer should be and Louise's prayer should be that if the Lord tarries and the Lord will grant us 30 more years of life and maybe if things go really, really wonderful well that we'll both have tea together or coffee together on some morning and then quietly pass away a few minutes from each other in our 90s.

[32:11] And if that, if we tarry that, whatever type of temptations that we have to do the other wrong, we have to endure them because God has called us to marriage. You know, God has called some of you to work on parliament.

[32:27] There's going to be all sorts of temptations and you have to learn how to endure the temptations because God has called you to work in parliament or he's called you to work in civil service or in business or in the arts or as an entrepreneur and you have to endure them.

[32:40] You can't just keep escaping. And the other reason it says endure is because every temptation has a shelf life. That's the thing which makes Jesus so spectacular and only Jesus knows the depth of what it means to be human.

[32:56] Nobody else comes close to him. You see, if I am tempted, I have somebody that I don't like because they've hurt me or they've wronged me and I hear something that they've done which is naughty and I suspect that the person who told me that this naughtiness that they did, that they've exaggerated it and I quickly calculate in my mind how I can exaggerate it even more and I calculate the three or four people I can tell and I will get great pleasure from telling an exaggerated, doubly exaggerated type of naughtiness about this other person.

[33:27] It will put them in a bad light. People will laugh. We'll have this bonding but what I've done is I've slandered them, I've gossiped, I've exaggerated, I've attacked their thing and it's all wrong and because I'm struggling to try to follow Jesus, I hear about this and I start to be tempted by it and maybe I give in after five seconds and say, did you hear about Bob?

[33:50] Whoa. Of course, let me put on a pious face. Oh, did you hear about Bob? Inwardly, you're going like, outwardly, you're going like this. Inwardly, you have this big grin. I'm going to get Bob.

[34:01] So maybe you resist for five seconds, maybe you resist for a minute, maybe you resist for ten minutes, maybe you resist for an hour but at some point in time you give in. But you have no idea what it would be like to resist that temptation until it was no longer a temptation unless you don't give in to it.

[34:17] And it might be that you have to fight that temptation for fifteen minutes, maybe an hour, maybe three hours, maybe a week, maybe a month, maybe a year. But at some point in time that temptation will lose its power and go away and another temptation will come.

[34:33] Only Jesus knew the depth of human experience to experience every temptation that we do only without sin. Only he knows the full length and the power of that temptation.

[34:47] And he is the faithful one that we go to. He is the one who died for us. Who better than Jesus? Who knows human experience better than Jesus?

[35:00] Who could possibly be a better one to take our place and offer his perfect life for ours? So at the heart of this text, sorry I'm not leaving you with the five steps to perfect life or the knowledge for a perfect life.

[35:18] What does this text say? It says, as you struggle with temptation, turn to the Lord and say, you are faithful. Lord, you are faithful.

[35:29] You are faithful. Lord, show me your way of escape that I may endure this temptation and live for your glory. And maybe the Lord will put in your mind that you should call somebody.

[35:42] I don't know what's going to do. It's very open-ended. But I encourage you to memorize this text and I encourage you to pray it. I encourage you to have it start to form how you live as a disciple of Jesus for God's great glory.

[35:59] Please stand. Could you, let's say this text, if you could read the text again, could you say this text with me one more time?

[36:13] And then we'll pray. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.

[36:27] God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

[36:39] Father, we confess before you that we want some, many times we want you just to be like a, like make us into puppets and just overwhelm who we are and you don't do it.

[36:52] And Father, there's lots of times we want you just to give us this unbelievable extra willpower so we can conquer and you don't do it. Father, we thank you that, Father, we thank you that you are faithful, that you, you're faithful in providing a way for us to be made right with you, that you are faithful in walking with us, that you will never despise us, that you are never discouraged with us, that you will never hate us or abandon us or shame us, that you are faithful.

[37:22] And we give you thanks and praise, Father, that through Jesus you know our temptations and you know our limits, that you limit our temptations and that you, Father, we thank you for your word.

[37:34] We thank you that you have invited us to call out to you to remember that you are the faithful God, that Jesus is the faithful Savior, the faithful high priest. Lord, help us to turn to you to remember that you are faithful, to call out to you that you might show us your way of escape, that we might endure this temptation only without succumbing to it so that we are made more free and live in such a way that all the glory goes to you and none of it goes to us.

[38:09] And we ask this and we thank this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.