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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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,
constantly.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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,
but we're hoping,
he says,
God is faithful.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
Poor Dick.
He's a schmuck.
He doesn't have the willpower.
He is so hopeless.
He can't follow the recipe
like me.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Maybe not the exact one,
but there's not
a single human being here
that does not have
temptations overtake them.
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.
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.
It means you no longer
recognize any temptation
whatsoever
because you just
surrender to them.
Like it's actually
a very deadly
spiritual state.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
And your inability
to actually have
accomplished anything right,
Jesus is the one
who's done everything right.
He never broke fellowship
with me.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
He is always faithful.
He is faithful.
Until you see him
face to face in glory
and then beyond,
he's always,
always faithful.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
And we ask this
and we thank this
in the name of Jesus,
your Son and our Savior.
Amen.