WEBVTT 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:06.230 I'm going to invite you guys to turn to 1 Corinthians 10, and we're going to talk about one of those subjects that just makes smiles on your face. 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:09.460 we're on the topic of temptation today, right? 00:00:09.740 --> 00:00:11.280 Like, yes, temptation. 00:00:11.300 --> 00:00:15.760 I've been waiting so long to talk about things that make me feel bad about the things that I do. 00:00:15.760 --> 00:00:19.200 Thank you so much for the topic of temptation. 00:00:19.260 --> 00:00:19.440 Right? 00:00:19.780 --> 00:00:26.820 You're going to spend today guilting me, telling me I'm bad, why I fail, and I want you to know this morning that is not the 00:00:26.880 --> 00:00:27.800 goal in temptation. 00:00:28.100 --> 00:00:28.240 Okay. 00:00:29.160 --> 00:00:33.040 the reality is, being human means you will face temptation, right? 00:00:33.320 --> 00:00:34.460 We could probably all agree to that. 00:00:34.680 --> 00:00:34.960 Yes. 00:00:35.060 --> 00:00:35.720 Did this morning. 00:00:35.720 --> 00:00:38.480 My kids on the way here, I wanted to, uh. 00:00:38.480 --> 00:00:39.080 Whatever. 00:00:39.880 --> 00:00:42.440 So temptation is a reality that we will all face. 00:00:42.880 --> 00:00:47.940 But here's the joy of temptation is, temptation isn't about just avoiding being really bad. 00:00:48.180 --> 00:00:48.320 Okay? 00:00:48.340 --> 00:00:55.600 The point we talk about with temptation as it relates to the life of the believer is that when you are able to endure temptation and walk with Jesus, it 00:00:55.600 --> 00:00:57.760 is a beautiful thing that comes on the other end. 00:00:58.380 --> 00:01:01.820 And it magnifies the glory of who Christ is. 00:01:02.260 --> 00:01:09.300 And the reality is, when we talk about temptation, this is what I can't tell you this morning is I'm going to give you the big secret that unlocks how to get rid 00:01:09.300 --> 00:01:10.620 of every temptation in your life. 00:01:10.740 --> 00:01:14.160 I'm not going to do that because you're human and you will face it all of your life. 00:01:14.300 --> 00:01:14.980 But here's what we can do. 00:01:15.380 --> 00:01:20.820 We can talk about it in the way that brings honor to Jesus, and joy allows you to enjoy your relationship with him. 00:01:21.400 --> 00:01:26.240 And it teaches us how to strengthen ourselves so that when we face temptation, we are able to endure it. 00:01:26.640 --> 00:01:31.750 And not only are we able to endure it, but we're able to walk with Jesus in a significant way in it that brings glory to his name. 00:01:32.680 --> 00:01:39.760 I relate to my relationship to my children, like my kids, when they, disobey the rules within our 00:01:39.760 --> 00:01:40.280 house. 00:01:40.760 --> 00:01:48.000 One of the things I want to teach them is not that they're just disobedient, but the repercussions of disobedience is that puts it puts strain on relationship. 00:01:48.080 --> 00:01:49.760 As a father, I want to always love my kids. 00:01:50.620 --> 00:01:54.800 But when there is disobedience within the home, there is adversity in my opportunity to love them. 00:01:55.420 --> 00:01:58.260 And this is one of the things you need to know about temptation when it comes to temptation. 00:01:58.380 --> 00:02:05.420 The fact that God has given you the opportunity to fight in it with him says that God loves you and he cares about you, and God wants 00:02:05.520 --> 00:02:12.700 to walk with you in that no matter how ugly you may feel when you go through that temptation, even if you fall in it, God is never going 00:02:12.700 --> 00:02:14.380 to stop loving you, right? 00:02:14.380 --> 00:02:17.240 First Corinthians chapter ten and verse 13. 00:02:17.240 --> 00:02:20.920 In fact, it tells us that God is faithful even when you're not faithful. 00:02:21.020 --> 00:02:21.810 God is faithful. 00:02:22.120 --> 00:02:26.520 And here's an important part is that he makes a way for you to endure it right. 00:02:27.640 --> 00:02:29.160 God makes a way for you to endure it. 00:02:29.180 --> 00:02:30.560 It says that in first Corinthians 1013. 00:02:30.620 --> 00:02:31.580 We'll look at it in just a minute. 00:02:32.160 --> 00:02:39.220 But what it's saying to us in that passage is that when it comes to temptation, that what I've already told you is that God's not going to just remove it from our life, but what God 00:02:39.220 --> 00:02:41.740 teaches us is to walk with him through it. 00:02:42.520 --> 00:02:49.680 And so when you read like the book of acts, chapter four, chapter five, you see, Peter and John just going out proclaiming the name of Jesus. 00:02:50.500 --> 00:02:51.720 And in chapter four, they're arrested. 00:02:52.040 --> 00:02:55.700 They're told by the Sanhedrin, stop sharing about Christ. 00:02:55.780 --> 00:02:58.140 And they said, are we going to obey men rather than God? 00:02:58.160 --> 00:03:01.410 And in chapter five, they go back out again and they do it again, and they're arrested. 00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:02.220 They're thrown in jail. 00:03:02.380 --> 00:03:04.560 Miraculously, they are freed from jail. 00:03:04.620 --> 00:03:05.140 They go back out. 00:03:05.280 --> 00:03:06.380 They they're sharing again. 00:03:06.380 --> 00:03:07.940 They're brought before the Sanhedrin again. 00:03:08.280 --> 00:03:13.280 And this time they're punished for the preaching that they are doing about Jesus. 00:03:13.560 --> 00:03:16.660 And it tells us that they're beaten in acts chapter five and verse 40. 00:03:16.720 --> 00:03:23.720 But one of the weird things I think that happens in Scripture is in chapter five and verse 41, it tells us when Peter and John leave, they're 00:03:23.720 --> 00:03:26.940 celebrating, rejoicing over the fact that they were beaten for Christ. 00:03:27.200 --> 00:03:28.000 Now that is weird. 00:03:28.360 --> 00:03:35.560 But when you think about the significance of what's happening in this passage, they're communicating something about Jesus that goes far deeper than the experiences 00:03:35.640 --> 00:03:36.420 that we have in this life. 00:03:37.800 --> 00:03:42.500 So I think in life, there's a few things in the world of temptation that can really pull us from Jesus. 00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:47.040 One one is, one is pain and suffering, and the other is pleasure. 00:03:47.660 --> 00:03:53.540 And you think about it sometimes in your life, you enjoy such good seasons of life that you don't see the significance of God, and you can leave them. 00:03:54.160 --> 00:04:00.640 Or maybe you're like Peter where when he was faced with Jesus and his persecution, Peter ran and hid, right? 00:04:00.700 --> 00:04:06.980 But now, in acts chapter five, we see that he's learned through this temptation of abandoning Jesus that he doesn't want to abandon Jesus. 00:04:07.840 --> 00:04:10.840 And now when he has the opportunity, he stands for Christ. 00:04:11.580 --> 00:04:18.940 I mean, I don't know how the story went, but I'm imagining if they lived today when Peter and John are leaving and Peter took his stand, and John's recognizing, and they both stood for Christ, they're like, they're 00:04:19.040 --> 00:04:21.779 probably chest bumping, high fiving, giving DAPs along the way. 00:04:21.860 --> 00:04:21.980 Right? 00:04:22.780 --> 00:04:25.360 But they're saying something significant about their faith in Christ. 00:04:26.780 --> 00:04:33.840 And that is your faith in Jesus is deeper than anything, or at least it should be anything that you experience in life, which is why it's worth the fight 00:04:34.840 --> 00:04:35.870 when it comes to temptation. 00:04:36.120 --> 00:04:36.860 This is what we're saying. 00:04:36.900 --> 00:04:39.840 We're not saying as people were, we're not ever going to be tempted. 00:04:39.840 --> 00:04:41.860 We will be tempted to be human is to be tempted. 00:04:41.860 --> 00:04:43.030 But this is what we are saying. 00:04:43.100 --> 00:04:50.000 We are saying that because we follow Jesus, we're going to enter into the battle against temptation, right? 00:04:50.360 --> 00:04:55.560 You know, when it comes to the to the Christian life, when you read the stories within the Bible, you'll see people going through difficult circumstances. 00:04:56.520 --> 00:05:00.400 In fact, when you look at the story within the book of acts, I'm going to cruise past this. 00:05:00.500 --> 00:05:03.740 But and excuse me, first Corinthians chapter ten, where we are today. 00:05:04.140 --> 00:05:11.240 When you look at the story that Paul gives Paul's writing this story to a body of believers who are facing tremendous temptations, this is 00:05:11.580 --> 00:05:12.160 the church of Corinth. 00:05:13.100 --> 00:05:16.220 Now, if you ask any theologian, tell me something about the Church of Corinth. 00:05:16.320 --> 00:05:23.270 The first thing they're going to say is it's probably the most sinful church in the 21st or the first century that we can look at in the 21st century. 00:05:24.080 --> 00:05:26.040 In fact, Paul's talking about temptation here. 00:05:26.080 --> 00:05:32.040 But earlier he said to the believers, there are sins that are among you that aren't even among the Gentile world. 00:05:32.800 --> 00:05:39.180 Like there's things that the Corinthian church is doing that's considered so sinful that the rest of the world even looks at it and says it's sinful. 00:05:40.900 --> 00:05:48.240 And so Paul is writing to them about temptation, and he begins by listing stories about temptation and giving in to temptation. 00:05:48.300 --> 00:05:50.800 I can't read all of it to you this morning because we're going to run out of time. 00:05:51.300 --> 00:05:52.560 But this is what he says in verse six. 00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:57.540 Now these things happen as examples for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they are craved. 00:05:57.980 --> 00:05:59.960 Paul shares a few more stories and then he says this. 00:06:00.280 --> 00:06:02.190 Now these things happen to them as an example. 00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:05.280 And they were written for our instruction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 00:06:05.820 --> 00:06:09.140 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. 00:06:10.640 --> 00:06:17.720 What Paul is listing is illustrations where the children of Israel, as they're leaving the land of Egypt into the promised Land that God had given them, and 00:06:17.740 --> 00:06:20.190 along the way they keep giving into temptation. 00:06:20.400 --> 00:06:20.720 They keep stumbling. 00:06:21.180 --> 00:06:21.800 They keep falling. 00:06:22.080 --> 00:06:22.910 They keep sinning. 00:06:23.100 --> 00:06:24.060 God's faithful to them. 00:06:24.060 --> 00:06:26.880 He stays with them, and he eventually sees them into the Promised Land. 00:06:28.540 --> 00:06:30.240 And Paul gives us as an example. 00:06:30.320 --> 00:06:37.640 Now I want you to recognize within this passage what God could have done and the land of Egypt, he could have said 00:06:37.640 --> 00:06:40.570 to the children of Israel, I'm going to take you to the promised land. 00:06:40.980 --> 00:06:43.320 Everybody, everybody click your heels together three times. 00:06:43.320 --> 00:06:45.440 Say, there's no place like home, and you'll be there, right? 00:06:46.460 --> 00:06:46.740 But he didn't. 00:06:48.200 --> 00:06:50.630 He allowed them to go through adverse circumstances. 00:06:52.440 --> 00:06:54.550 Now I will tell you, God, God does not. 00:06:55.240 --> 00:06:58.240 Or God's desire is to remove all pain from this world. 00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:05.620 It says in revelation chapter 21 his desire when he returns, there's no more tears, no more pain, no more suffering, right? 00:07:05.660 --> 00:07:07.670 God is interested in that. 00:07:08.220 --> 00:07:09.820 And God's interested in your joy. 00:07:09.820 --> 00:07:15.480 He tells us to find joy in him, and ultimately, when we see him face to face, we'll experience joy forevermore into eternity. 00:07:15.480 --> 00:07:16.960 God is interested in that. 00:07:17.560 --> 00:07:19.240 But I got to tell you, far deeper than pain and pleasure. 00:07:19.460 --> 00:07:22.220 There's something more important that God is interested in. 00:07:22.740 --> 00:07:25.240 And that is where your heart is as you go through all of it. 00:07:26.200 --> 00:07:28.660 Where are you in your relationship with God? 00:07:29.220 --> 00:07:32.910 I mean, is there something that could happen to you in your circumstances of life that you would abandon God? 00:07:34.120 --> 00:07:36.580 And James chapter one says that to us. 00:07:36.600 --> 00:07:42.340 He says, consider it all joy, my brother, when you endure various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance, it goes on. 00:07:42.660 --> 00:07:44.400 Let endurance have its perfect work. 00:07:45.160 --> 00:07:50.640 What James is saying to the believers is, listen, you don't have to be thankful for the bad things that happen to you. 00:07:51.980 --> 00:07:55.200 But in them there's a way to find a place to be thankful. 00:07:56.560 --> 00:08:03.720 And what James is saying to the believers in this circumstance is that there is a place in your life to find thankfulness in the trials you're facing. 00:08:03.940 --> 00:08:09.360 Because if you follow Jesus in the trial, you're saying your faith in Christ is stronger than the adversity you face. 00:08:10.580 --> 00:08:12.900 That's why Peter celebrated after he was beaten. 00:08:14.420 --> 00:08:21.740 My faith from Jesus is so real that when I'm facing a circumstance where I could deny him, I choose to stand with him because Jesus is that important. 00:08:23.000 --> 00:08:24.480 That's what temptation does to us. 00:08:25.220 --> 00:08:30.080 It comes into your life and it says to you, what are you going to say is most important to you? 00:08:31.120 --> 00:08:33.480 And temptation isn't about making you hate God. 00:08:35.020 --> 00:08:40.380 The goal of temptation is to lull you to sleep over the significance of who God is in your life. 00:08:42.020 --> 00:08:42.659 I mean, we do it right. 00:08:44.340 --> 00:08:45.660 Temptation comes first. 00:08:46.420 --> 00:08:47.120 It's a thought in the mind. 00:08:48.640 --> 00:08:50.020 And you begin to justify the action. 00:08:50.280 --> 00:08:53.740 Well, I deserve this because they haven't or this hasn't. 00:08:55.060 --> 00:08:58.820 And eventually your heart begins to justify it to the point that it becomes an action. 00:09:02.050 --> 00:09:05.140 Temptation on the back end of it both has pain and pleasure to. 00:09:07.340 --> 00:09:10.020 You think about temptations that relates to pain and pleasure. 00:09:10.060 --> 00:09:14.160 When you indulge into the temptation, you allow your mind to begin to go there. 00:09:14.540 --> 00:09:19.080 You start to fill yourself with all the joy it may bring, right? 00:09:19.140 --> 00:09:20.840 If I do this, I'll feel this way. 00:09:22.400 --> 00:09:24.830 But just moments after it passes, what happens? 00:09:25.820 --> 00:09:26.340 Now the pain. 00:09:28.300 --> 00:09:33.160 The pain from the pleasure that you thought would sell you on what you needed in life. 00:09:33.180 --> 00:09:36.960 And all of a sudden now you're experiencing the heartache and you're thinking, why did I do that? 00:09:39.400 --> 00:09:43.380 And sometimes we get in a vicious cycle with this idea of temptation. 00:09:43.400 --> 00:09:50.500 It becomes habitual addiction habits where we think to ourselves, I don't I don't want to do this, but all of a sudden you begin to feel guilty and you remember that at least you 00:09:50.500 --> 00:09:51.240 felt pleasure in it. 00:09:51.260 --> 00:09:53.650 So you dive back into it and then you feel guilty again. 00:09:53.680 --> 00:09:55.220 You think to yourself, well, at least I felt pleasure. 00:09:55.580 --> 00:09:57.500 And then that vicious cycle just starts over and over. 00:09:57.540 --> 00:10:00.510 And you buy into the thought of what temptation would bring. 00:10:00.880 --> 00:10:04.660 But ultimately, what you thought was pleasure ends in pain. 00:10:04.660 --> 00:10:05.700 But when it comes to Christ. 00:10:08.300 --> 00:10:09.940 He's called us to so much more. 00:10:10.660 --> 00:10:11.920 Here's a definition of temptation. 00:10:13.460 --> 00:10:19.290 Temptation is anything that promises satisfaction at the cost of obeying God and fellowship with him. 00:10:20.480 --> 00:10:22.390 God desires for you to enjoy him. 00:10:23.540 --> 00:10:25.870 In temptations desires to pull you away from him. 00:10:26.720 --> 00:10:29.460 But we don't have to look at temptation and say, ooh, ugly, bad things. 00:10:29.460 --> 00:10:30.330 Let's not talk about that. 00:10:30.340 --> 00:10:35.660 Rather, what we get to do is discuss temptation and say, oh, look at the opportunity I now have to stand for Christ in this. 00:10:35.700 --> 00:10:42.410 And I'm not telling you, go stick your hand in the mouth of a lion and say, look how well this lion is biting me, because I'm praying to Jesus. 00:10:42.720 --> 00:10:44.480 Because the lion will bite you, right? 00:10:44.480 --> 00:10:45.920 That's not it's not what we're saying. 00:10:46.020 --> 00:10:51.060 Go run into temptation so you can show how beautiful Jesus is, but rather when you face it. 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:57.460 It's an opportunity to show the glory of who God is, right? 00:10:57.560 --> 00:11:03.420 When we talk about temptations, some of us may be saying this morning, temptation is not relevant for me. 00:11:03.500 --> 00:11:04.920 I really I'm pretty good. 00:11:05.040 --> 00:11:11.940 So I don't need to discuss temptation, but I just want to say, when it comes to temptation, the goal of the Christian life isn't to say I'm pretty good. 00:11:12.420 --> 00:11:12.560 Okay? 00:11:13.220 --> 00:11:16.540 The goal of the Christian life isn't even really, you're not bad, but you're good. 00:11:17.380 --> 00:11:21.040 The goal of the Christian life is to walk with Jesus, to enjoy Jesus. 00:11:21.940 --> 00:11:23.220 It's not this good versus bad. 00:11:23.630 --> 00:11:27.580 It's forsaking the old life and coming to Christ and enjoying your relationship with Christ for eternity. 00:11:29.380 --> 00:11:32.320 In first Corinthians in chapter ten, this is what it tells us. 00:11:32.380 --> 00:11:32.990 Again, we read it. 00:11:33.160 --> 00:11:40.220 Now these things happen as an example for us, so that we would not crave evil things as they also crave now these things happen to them as an example, and 00:11:40.220 --> 00:11:43.240 they were written for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come. 00:11:43.480 --> 00:11:46.730 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. 00:11:47.460 --> 00:11:52.860 The person that feels within their mind a message on temptation is not relevant to their lives. 00:11:54.620 --> 00:11:55.060 Should apply. 00:11:55.140 --> 00:11:56.700 First Corinthians chapter ten, verse 12. 00:11:57.640 --> 00:12:00.830 We all face it. 00:12:01.600 --> 00:12:04.230 And maybe you don't feel like you're in a battle now, but you will be. 00:12:05.800 --> 00:12:09.490 And maybe even in our own lives, we could be in that place where we've been lulled to sleep. 00:12:09.660 --> 00:12:10.880 And we just think, I'm pretty good. 00:12:12.580 --> 00:12:16.440 But the reality is that God has called you to so much more in him than I'm just pretty good. 00:12:18.680 --> 00:12:21.760 Some of us, though today, may be beating ourselves up over with temptation. 00:12:21.760 --> 00:12:23.160 You're thinking, man, I can't even escape this. 00:12:23.240 --> 00:12:25.700 This seems like a monster in my life I can't get rid of. 00:12:25.740 --> 00:12:28.880 And this is what it says in first Corinthians chapter ten and verse 13. 00:12:29.040 --> 00:12:35.280 No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man, and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able. 00:12:35.340 --> 00:12:41.760 But with that temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. 00:12:43.660 --> 00:12:48.020 And sometimes in our lives we feel feel like temptation, maybe too big. 00:12:48.080 --> 00:12:50.080 Sometimes we feel like giving up. 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:55.240 But the reality is, and what First Corinthians is saying is there is no temptation that is too big for God. 00:12:56.780 --> 00:13:00.380 In fact, when that monster looks huge, this is the way that God refers to it. 00:13:00.520 --> 00:13:01.590 For us, it's common. 00:13:03.020 --> 00:13:04.860 Don't feel like you're on an island on your own. 00:13:05.640 --> 00:13:12.680 You know, sometimes I know you like to get on social media, and you look at all the other perfect families who managed to get those perfect shots, and you're thinking, what's wrong with me? 00:13:12.980 --> 00:13:15.360 But the perfect family took 60 photos to get that. 00:13:15.360 --> 00:13:19.160 I promise you, they were screaming three seconds before they took it, right? 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:20.620 It is common. 00:13:21.300 --> 00:13:22.720 Everyone will face it. 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:22.900 It is. 00:13:23.200 --> 00:13:23.770 It is temptation. 00:13:24.180 --> 00:13:27.560 Someone may sell you this glamorous life that they're living. 00:13:27.560 --> 00:13:31.940 But I promise, behind closed doors, everyone is facing adversity in some way. 00:13:33.100 --> 00:13:33.660 It is common. 00:13:34.000 --> 00:13:34.100 Don't. 00:13:34.380 --> 00:13:38.930 Don't feel like you're on your own and don't feel like you're some sort of freak of nature. 00:13:39.040 --> 00:13:41.160 In the temptation, everyone faces it. 00:13:41.260 --> 00:13:44.620 To be human means you will endure temptation. 00:13:44.620 --> 00:13:48.540 It's what you do with the temptation that demonstrates the beauty of who Christ is. 00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:54.640 In fact, the Bible even goes so far as to recognize force that temptation itself isn't a sin. 00:13:55.700 --> 00:14:01.300 If it was, we're going to be very misfortunate in the future, because it tells us in Hebrews that Jesus was tempted as we are. 00:14:02.820 --> 00:14:03.440 Yet without sin. 00:14:04.640 --> 00:14:06.300 Right. 00:14:06.360 --> 00:14:07.000 Temptation. 00:14:08.840 --> 00:14:11.440 Is the enticement or the lure to sin. 00:14:12.420 --> 00:14:14.160 But temptation itself is a sin. 00:14:15.140 --> 00:14:15.770 Let me give you an example. 00:14:16.200 --> 00:14:19.320 When it comes to, um. 00:14:19.500 --> 00:14:22.020 When it comes to walking down a grocery store aisle today. 00:14:23.820 --> 00:14:29.140 There are lots of visual temptations that are there, especially in the area of lust. 00:14:30.580 --> 00:14:33.910 It's like today, if someone has a new product they want to sell, they're like, how are we going to get this product? 00:14:34.220 --> 00:14:38.600 I don't know, let's put someone with half their clothes on and that should start us, right? 00:14:40.200 --> 00:14:40.900 Lost sales. 00:14:42.840 --> 00:14:45.040 When it comes to the temptation of lust. 00:14:45.280 --> 00:14:50.460 Here's the truth of it is that God has created us in such a way that we recognize the beauty of people. 00:14:51.820 --> 00:14:54.720 It's not wrong to recognize the beauty of people, but. 00:14:54.880 --> 00:15:01.300 But it is wrong to take the second look, to try to imagine in your mind what you might do beyond that point, right? 00:15:01.320 --> 00:15:07.520 Temptation isn't the sin, but what you choose to do with the temptation determines whether or not you sin. 00:15:07.580 --> 00:15:13.280 Temptation, as I said, is anything that promises satisfaction at the cost of obedience to God and fellowship with him. 00:15:13.860 --> 00:15:18.060 But we, knowing that we will face temptation as people were not saying that we are. 00:15:18.360 --> 00:15:20.140 We are free from it, that we're absent from it. 00:15:20.140 --> 00:15:21.300 We will be one day. 00:15:21.580 --> 00:15:27.410 But as believers in Christ, we will declare war against what temptation brings to us. 00:15:28.840 --> 00:15:35.000 In James chapter four and verse seven, it says it this way the battle of temptation starts within the condition of your heart. 00:15:36.320 --> 00:15:41.120 In James chapter four and verse seven it says, submit therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 00:15:42.480 --> 00:15:43.540 So here's the reality for me. 00:15:43.540 --> 00:15:50.560 When I wake up in the morning, I know that today I will face temptation and the battle starts when I get up from 00:15:50.560 --> 00:15:54.700 my bed and I say to myself, Jesus, this is the day that you made. 00:15:55.060 --> 00:15:56.420 I am the life that you created. 00:15:56.780 --> 00:15:58.940 I surrender my heart to you. 00:15:59.020 --> 00:16:00.780 I'm setting my mind on things above. 00:16:02.520 --> 00:16:04.740 I am not Lord, you are Lord Jesus. 00:16:05.760 --> 00:16:06.840 I want to walk with you. 00:16:06.840 --> 00:16:07.890 I want to enjoy you. 00:16:07.960 --> 00:16:09.220 When adversity comes. 00:16:09.220 --> 00:16:12.900 I want to demonstrate the beauty of our relationship and choose you above and beyond it. 00:16:13.140 --> 00:16:14.240 And it's not going to be easy. 00:16:16.520 --> 00:16:17.100 God, I want you. 00:16:19.540 --> 00:16:21.300 You start the battle before the temptation begins. 00:16:23.780 --> 00:16:24.580 Surrendering your heart. 00:16:24.680 --> 00:16:27.250 Because here's the reality temptation is tough. 00:16:30.240 --> 00:16:34.740 A temptation will start to wear on you as human beings. 00:16:36.540 --> 00:16:41.910 Surrendering, your heart begins to align yourself with where God has called you to be. 00:16:44.060 --> 00:16:48.720 You think within our lives as people when it comes to submission? 00:16:49.240 --> 00:16:53.280 Sometimes we like to balk at the responsibility of what temptation may bring. 00:16:53.300 --> 00:16:57.860 It tells us in this passage write, submit therefore to God, and resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 00:16:58.980 --> 00:17:00.320 I had a I had a cousin when I was little. 00:17:00.740 --> 00:17:08.079 She was three years old, and my mom would watch her at home and I would go to school and she was a cute little girl. 00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:09.800 When we come home, sometimes she'd do things wrong. 00:17:09.800 --> 00:17:12.200 We'd ask her about it, and she'd always tell us the devil made her do it right. 00:17:12.800 --> 00:17:14.720 And it was hilarious at that point. 00:17:15.060 --> 00:17:19.980 But when I was a little kid, there was also this TV show that came on just right when I got off the school bus. 00:17:20.040 --> 00:17:21.760 If I ran home, I could catch it just in time. 00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:25.760 And I got obsessed with it and I started to record it and it only played for ten minutes. 00:17:25.920 --> 00:17:27.349 So I had a ten minute window to get it. 00:17:27.660 --> 00:17:30.060 And it was, it was the vintage Little Rascals. 00:17:30.320 --> 00:17:36.580 I'm talking like black and white, the animations like choppy because you can't even tell, I don't know, I got obsessed with it. 00:17:36.620 --> 00:17:39.520 I don't know why I did, but maybe you are too. 00:17:39.600 --> 00:17:40.020 So that's all right. 00:17:40.020 --> 00:17:41.450 You got mutual friendship here. 00:17:41.940 --> 00:17:48.940 But I would go home and I would record this, and I would watch all the episodes to where I recorded that day, and then I'd stop it at the end, I'd record it again. 00:17:49.000 --> 00:17:56.360 And I had accumulated so many episodes now, Little Rascals, I loved it, and I came home one day and my cousin had been right by the VCR player, and she VCR 00:17:56.360 --> 00:17:56.980 is old. 00:17:56.980 --> 00:18:00.660 And she pulled out the tape and she started just pulling out the stuff inside. 00:18:00.680 --> 00:18:02.680 I'm like, why are you doing that? 00:18:02.680 --> 00:18:04.890 I mean, it was funny until this point, but why are you destroying? 00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:06.620 She says, the devil made me do it. 00:18:07.100 --> 00:18:08.420 Like, whatever, man. 00:18:08.420 --> 00:18:09.280 That's horrible. 00:18:09.620 --> 00:18:10.280 That is horrible. 00:18:11.600 --> 00:18:15.820 Now let's everything that we do wrong in life, I realize there is temptation and there is. 00:18:16.040 --> 00:18:19.600 There is a spiritual battle that takes place, right? 00:18:19.680 --> 00:18:20.200 You got to be honest. 00:18:20.560 --> 00:18:23.790 The responsibility, it rests on us. 00:18:25.260 --> 00:18:28.670 It's me and my heart that gives in to the temptation that plays out in my life. 00:18:30.280 --> 00:18:31.480 And when I'm honest with that. 00:18:33.240 --> 00:18:36.020 And that's really the first step in fighting the temptation. 00:18:37.860 --> 00:18:40.300 Submitting myself to God. 00:18:40.520 --> 00:18:42.740 Acknowledging within my heart. 00:18:44.480 --> 00:18:45.820 That it's me that needs the help. 00:18:48.560 --> 00:18:49.780 Submitting to God. 00:18:50.920 --> 00:18:52.480 Not lulled by temptation. 00:18:54.120 --> 00:18:56.080 But giving my heart over to him. 00:18:59.060 --> 00:19:03.580 First Corinthians 1013. 00:19:03.580 --> 00:19:04.880 No temptation has overtaken you. 00:19:05.020 --> 00:19:07.820 But such as is common to man, and God is faithful. 00:19:08.920 --> 00:19:15.920 He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able, but with the temptation, he will provide a way of escape so that you will be able to endure 00:19:15.920 --> 00:19:16.040 it. 00:19:16.120 --> 00:19:22.200 He doesn't just magically make it disappear, but through him you get the strength to demonstrate the beauty of who he is. 00:19:23.400 --> 00:19:30.420 One of my favorite quotes from Winston Churchill always says, these aren't these aren't, these are dark 00:19:30.420 --> 00:19:31.000 days. 00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:34.410 And the greater the darkness is, the greater your light can shine for Christ. 00:19:34.840 --> 00:19:36.180 Right? 00:19:36.280 --> 00:19:40.600 It's really it's in the adversity that you face that you demonstrate the beauty of who Christ is. 00:19:41.540 --> 00:19:45.300 It's not until adversity is on you that the significance of who Christ is really shines. 00:19:46.940 --> 00:19:53.960 The opportunity is to walk away, to not stand out, to not stand up for Jesus and showing your relationship with him, but rather you cower and you give 00:19:53.960 --> 00:19:54.060 in. 00:19:55.360 --> 00:20:00.050 But here's the good part in all of that is that God still loves you, even in the giving in. 00:20:00.220 --> 00:20:02.820 And it says this to us God is faithful. 00:20:04.400 --> 00:20:04.700 Like. 00:20:04.700 --> 00:20:05.360 Even when you're faithless. 00:20:07.140 --> 00:20:08.660 God's faithful. 00:20:09.040 --> 00:20:09.860 Even when you're weak. 00:20:11.380 --> 00:20:12.680 God's faithful. 00:20:12.880 --> 00:20:14.940 Even when you may think of every excuse in the world. 00:20:15.080 --> 00:20:19.320 Why God shouldn't care about you, why God shouldn't show up, why you feel like you disappointed God. 00:20:21.300 --> 00:20:21.770 God's faithful. 00:20:23.920 --> 00:20:28.600 God cares about your struggle in that I love in between Peter's life. 00:20:28.600 --> 00:20:31.560 I didn't share this, but you know Peter denies Jesus. 00:20:31.680 --> 00:20:33.280 Peter celebrates his stand for Jesus. 00:20:33.340 --> 00:20:34.960 But in between that story, there's the story. 00:20:34.960 --> 00:20:39.740 It takes place in the gospel where Jesus shows up on the shores after Peter had rejected Jesus. 00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:45.160 And Peter sees him and it tells us he jumps out of the boat. 00:20:45.260 --> 00:20:47.810 He goes on the shore, he has breakfast with Jesus and the other disciples. 00:20:48.780 --> 00:20:53.770 And Jesus, asks Peter three times, Peter, do you love me? 00:20:55.520 --> 00:20:59.660 And finally, the third time Jesus asked, Peter just says to him, Jesus, you know where my heart is. 00:21:01.360 --> 00:21:04.320 Like we can even fool ourselves into thinking that we're stronger than we are. 00:21:05.800 --> 00:21:08.540 And Peter says to Jesus, Jesus, you really know where my heart is. 00:21:09.600 --> 00:21:11.380 I mean, this morning you may be thinking about temptation. 00:21:11.640 --> 00:21:12.280 I'm good. 00:21:12.280 --> 00:21:14.120 I don't really nothing happening in my life. 00:21:14.680 --> 00:21:14.880 But. 00:21:15.400 --> 00:21:16.980 But Jesus really knows where your heart is. 00:21:18.920 --> 00:21:26.820 And he is faithful to be there with you in all of it, that you may enjoy him even 00:21:26.820 --> 00:21:27.790 when you're faithless. 00:21:28.100 --> 00:21:35.140 God is faithful, and the vulnerability of where you are really helps you to recognize the faithfulness of God, because he has 00:21:35.140 --> 00:21:39.480 continued to show up throughout Scripture to the point, even in our sin, he has given his life. 00:21:41.820 --> 00:21:45.020 Way to endure it. 00:21:45.930 --> 00:21:48.600 So how do we get through this temptation? 00:21:51.000 --> 00:21:53.400 Temptation for us, really, it's about enlarging our weaknesses. 00:21:55.840 --> 00:22:01.940 And the tendency is as people in a religious thinking, when we face temptations, we want to fix ourselves, right? 00:22:02.860 --> 00:22:05.090 I'm like, oh man, I don't want God to know I'm in this temptation. 00:22:05.380 --> 00:22:08.160 So let me so let me go fix myself and come back to God. 00:22:08.220 --> 00:22:14.000 But what the Scripture tells us in James chapter one in this passage, it's not saying go fix yourself. 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:16.460 It's saying surrender yourself. 00:22:16.460 --> 00:22:18.100 It's saying run to Jesus. 00:22:18.100 --> 00:22:19.660 It's saying, Come to Christ. 00:22:19.840 --> 00:22:25.060 It's saying, don't hide in your pride, but confess where you are in the Lord. 00:22:25.940 --> 00:22:31.600 In fact, James four and six and ten says this, but he gives a greater but he gives a greater grace. 00:22:31.620 --> 00:22:34.860 Therefore it says, God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. 00:22:35.360 --> 00:22:39.300 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and he will exalt you. 00:22:44.040 --> 00:22:45.300 Don't run from him. 00:22:46.860 --> 00:22:48.000 Run to him as Lord. 00:22:50.380 --> 00:22:52.740 God provides a platform for you in Jesus. 00:22:54.560 --> 00:22:58.130 Not in guilt and shame to hide from him, but in conviction to run to him. 00:23:03.460 --> 00:23:04.100 John chapter one. 00:23:04.280 --> 00:23:04.280 John. 00:23:04.600 --> 00:23:05.140 Chapter one. 00:23:08.340 --> 00:23:15.660 I heard somebody say once that they're sending before a crowd and they said, it's teaching from the Bible. 00:23:15.960 --> 00:23:16.820 They thought they were anyway. 00:23:17.620 --> 00:23:24.220 And they said, I've gotten so good in my life that, I no longer face temptation. 00:23:25.780 --> 00:23:30.060 To which everyone should have just stood up and said, bull, garbage, right? 00:23:30.420 --> 00:23:37.260 Because first John one eight tells us, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 00:23:38.360 --> 00:23:38.460 Right. 00:23:39.060 --> 00:23:41.840 So if I ever say that everyone feel free to stand up and yell garbage! 00:23:43.120 --> 00:23:47.740 But here's the good part in first John one nine if we confess our sins. 00:23:48.540 --> 00:23:51.860 His faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 00:23:55.140 --> 00:24:00.600 So what this verse provides for us is a place to take solace in God. 00:24:01.220 --> 00:24:06.400 Sometimes when it comes to temptation, when we indulge in it as people, we feel this tremendous amount of guilt for doing it. 00:24:08.100 --> 00:24:08.700 But can I tell you this morning? 00:24:11.440 --> 00:24:12.920 There is no future in your past. 00:24:15.220 --> 00:24:22.520 Satan is called the accuser of brethren in revelation chapter 12, which means he loves to take who 00:24:22.520 --> 00:24:27.580 you were apart from Jesus and throw that in your face, right? 00:24:27.680 --> 00:24:28.660 Our God doesn't love you. 00:24:28.680 --> 00:24:28.980 Why would he? 00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:33.180 And look what you did before or look who you were. 00:24:33.320 --> 00:24:34.750 Why would he even want to care about you? 00:24:35.060 --> 00:24:35.940 Right? 00:24:36.380 --> 00:24:38.240 And we even get to this place in our lives. 00:24:38.380 --> 00:24:38.950 It's not healthy. 00:24:39.100 --> 00:24:46.200 It's not good where we think to ourselves, if I just start making myself feel guilty about this long enough, and I and I force myself to pay this penance for this 00:24:46.200 --> 00:24:51.200 over and over, maybe then, maybe then it will be enough for me to not give in to this temptation. 00:24:51.400 --> 00:24:55.540 So you just start beating yourself up, and you start thinking about how you're going to avoid it. 00:24:55.600 --> 00:25:01.220 And can I tell you, one of the worst things that you can do to avoid sin is to obsess about not doing that sin. 00:25:02.720 --> 00:25:05.440 for example, this is just a lighthearted way to think about it. 00:25:05.460 --> 00:25:11.020 But if I said to you this morning, do not picture the Eiffel Tower, right? 00:25:11.500 --> 00:25:19.560 And then everyone pictures the Eiffel Tower, that's our tendency as people, we obsess about not doing something that is the best way to make sure you do it, but 00:25:19.560 --> 00:25:21.080 what Jesus is calling you to. 00:25:22.380 --> 00:25:27.380 Is not about not doing what you shouldn't do what Jesus calls you to. 00:25:28.880 --> 00:25:29.880 So you are in him. 00:25:30.980 --> 00:25:31.800 Yeah. 00:25:31.840 --> 00:25:33.150 You take off the old self. 00:25:34.340 --> 00:25:36.000 But the way you take off the old self. 00:25:37.600 --> 00:25:38.600 It's putting on the new self. 00:25:40.880 --> 00:25:46.080 Beating yourself up will not stop you from giving in to temptation because you're human. 00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:49.440 You're going to be tempted. 00:25:52.380 --> 00:25:53.640 But coming to Jesus. 00:25:55.140 --> 00:25:56.780 Reshaping your identity in him. 00:25:58.280 --> 00:26:00.060 Living out your relationship with him. 00:26:01.380 --> 00:26:05.000 So ultimately that's really the difference between religion and relationship in Christ. 00:26:06.980 --> 00:26:09.140 Religion is this list of rules of what you don't do. 00:26:09.240 --> 00:26:11.520 So you prove yourself to God and Jesus is about. 00:26:12.100 --> 00:26:16.300 I've already given my life to you so that you can enjoy your life in me, and I can shape you in my identity. 00:26:18.460 --> 00:26:19.640 That's about walking in him. 00:26:21.940 --> 00:26:26.460 And so he says to us, your biggest struggles are not too big for God. 00:26:28.320 --> 00:26:34.200 The idea of guilt is you being shamed and distanced and pushed away and feeling worthless. 00:26:36.200 --> 00:26:36.910 But the idea of conviction. 00:26:38.680 --> 00:26:40.840 It's beautiful. 00:26:40.840 --> 00:26:47.920 See conviction is about you drawing near to the heart of God, because you understand that the place where you are able to shape your new identity 00:26:47.920 --> 00:26:52.000 and find yourself in protection is in Christ. 00:26:52.760 --> 00:26:55.860 So it was never your strength that overcame the devil. 00:26:55.880 --> 00:26:58.080 At the passage it said, submit yourself to God. 00:26:59.300 --> 00:27:00.740 Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 00:27:00.800 --> 00:27:02.440 The strength comes in Christ. 00:27:04.800 --> 00:27:04.900 Whoa. 00:27:06.760 --> 00:27:09.460 Give me first Corinthians or first Corinthians 1013. 00:27:09.480 --> 00:27:09.780 We read it. 00:27:09.780 --> 00:27:10.310 I have it right here. 00:27:10.820 --> 00:27:11.200 Listen to this. 00:27:11.200 --> 00:27:12.860 The strength comes from Christ. 00:27:13.080 --> 00:27:14.920 No temptation has overtaken you. 00:27:14.920 --> 00:27:18.580 But such as is common to man, and God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted. 00:27:18.960 --> 00:27:23.060 It is God who is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able to bear. 00:27:23.300 --> 00:27:27.400 But with the temptation, God will provide the way of escape so that you will be able to bear it. 00:27:27.700 --> 00:27:35.860 It's not you running away, finding the strength, it's you shaping yourself in Jesus, or finding yourself shaped in Christ so that you are able, in 00:27:35.860 --> 00:27:37.250 Christ to find the strength. 00:27:39.660 --> 00:27:41.390 So here's the last point I want to just make. 00:27:43.780 --> 00:27:45.120 When it comes to fighting temptation. 00:27:47.800 --> 00:27:49.880 Skip ahead. 00:27:51.600 --> 00:27:53.860 I think what God does in his community is a beautiful thing. 00:27:55.680 --> 00:27:58.980 I mean, we can look at each other this morning and say, I'm not we're not perfect. 00:27:59.000 --> 00:28:00.500 We aren't we aren't perfect because we face temptation. 00:28:01.000 --> 00:28:01.800 We don't have that perfection. 00:28:02.120 --> 00:28:04.210 The fact that you have a temptation, I want to give it a sin. 00:28:04.400 --> 00:28:04.860 You're not perfected. 00:28:08.000 --> 00:28:11.460 But there's something beautiful about what Jesus does within his community together. 00:28:13.180 --> 00:28:15.150 So if you're looking for God to move in this world. 00:28:16.820 --> 00:28:17.230 In the New Testament. 00:28:17.440 --> 00:28:20.100 When Christ came, he told us that he would bring us comfort. 00:28:20.200 --> 00:28:22.400 In fact, he was going away, that his comforter would come. 00:28:22.720 --> 00:28:24.560 And the comforter is the Holy Spirit. 00:28:26.480 --> 00:28:28.020 The Bible calls us the temple of God. 00:28:29.360 --> 00:28:33.510 God's presence dwells within his people to conduct his will in this world. 00:28:34.440 --> 00:28:35.600 And from that, this is what I say. 00:28:35.640 --> 00:28:40.900 If you ever want to see God at work, the place, the primary place you see God at work is in the hearts of his people. 00:28:42.300 --> 00:28:43.850 He works in his people. 00:28:45.180 --> 00:28:46.040 God convicts us. 00:28:46.140 --> 00:28:46.870 God strengthened us. 00:28:47.040 --> 00:28:48.460 God calls us in this world. 00:28:49.180 --> 00:28:56.520 The way God moves is through his people that we could demonstrate the glory of who he is, the way that we face adversity, then I would say, 00:28:57.240 --> 00:28:57.930 is through his people. 00:28:59.700 --> 00:29:07.060 When Paul is writing this about temptation in First Corinthians, when James and Paul again and Timothy writes what he's about, what I'm about to read, he's 00:29:07.060 --> 00:29:11.100 writing it not to an individual, but a community that's fighting this thought of temptation together. 00:29:11.280 --> 00:29:16.300 He says this in James therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. 00:29:16.320 --> 00:29:23.380 And second Timothy chapter two and verse 22 now flee from youthful lust and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord out from a pure heart. 00:29:25.460 --> 00:29:32.540 There's something about when God's Word gets in God's people and God's Spirit's moving in God's people to accomplish God's will, that we recognize that we're not perfect, 00:29:32.580 --> 00:29:34.380 but we want to be what Jesus has called us to be. 00:29:34.460 --> 00:29:38.460 So we depend upon one another to get where God has called us to be. 00:29:38.540 --> 00:29:39.900 We are a strength towards one another. 00:29:40.380 --> 00:29:42.470 So when someone has a struggle, we're not shocked. 00:29:44.780 --> 00:29:47.870 We understand Jesus paid for that. 00:29:48.820 --> 00:29:50.980 That demonstrates that Jesus loves us in our struggles. 00:29:52.260 --> 00:29:59.130 And Jesus wants to walk with us in those struggles, and the way that he does is through His church as he moves within our hearts to encourage one another. 00:30:00.860 --> 00:30:03.540 I was listening to a famous Christian speaker or Christian speaker. 00:30:03.540 --> 00:30:04.400 Christian musician. 00:30:04.780 --> 00:30:11.860 He passed away in the 90s, but I always I YouTube him every once in a while and just listen to old, old soundbites of him because he was 00:30:11.860 --> 00:30:13.520 so candid about his walk with Christ. 00:30:13.580 --> 00:30:20.640 And he had a lot of struggles in his life, and he at one point he would travel on the road by himself, and he 00:30:20.640 --> 00:30:25.720 called the spiritual mentor that he had, this pastor, I think it was or it was a it was a Christian writer. 00:30:26.240 --> 00:30:27.250 He called him and said, you know what? 00:30:27.400 --> 00:30:34.260 I'm on the road by myself, but I'm facing all this temptation and I can't even I don't know that I'm going to have the strength to overcome it. 00:30:34.420 --> 00:30:36.340 And he and the guy said, of course you are. 00:30:36.340 --> 00:30:36.840 You're by yourself. 00:30:37.240 --> 00:30:39.000 Like, this is the point of the community of Christ. 00:30:39.220 --> 00:30:41.160 I'm glad you called me so I can encourage you in that. 00:30:49.100 --> 00:31:39.880 But let 00:31:39.880 --> 00:31:41.400 me encourage you a little bit further next time you go on the road. 00:31:41.420 --> 00:31:41.420 If you feel like this is a serious temptation for you, take someone with you. 00:31:41.420 --> 00:31:41.420 Right? 00:31:41.420 --> 00:31:41.420 And then he started to share the story. 00:31:41.420 --> 00:31:41.420 Then he traveled with a friend and he called. 00:31:41.420 --> 00:31:41.420 He called the theme of the story. 00:31:41.420 --> 00:31:42.400 Jim doesn't snore. 00:32:49.540 --> 00:32:58.120 I don't know if his name was Jim, but it was something 00:32:58.140 --> 00:32:58.490 like that, he says. 00:33:01.120 --> 00:33:01.440 He said, I got to tell you the story now about Jim doesn't snore. 00:33:01.440 --> 00:33:01.440 He goes, I was traveling again. 00:33:01.440 --> 00:33:06.100 Now I had a friend that held me accountable. 00:33:06.320 --> 00:33:06.840 And we were going around and we were in Amsterdam. 00:33:06.840 --> 00:33:14.100 And 00:33:20.240 --> 00:33:49.640 he said, I, I decided that night, in my heart, I was wrestling with 00:33:49.640 --> 00:33:57.040 temptation that when Jim went to bed, I 00:33:57.120 --> 00:34:05.480 was going to go out into the streets, and I just wanted to see what the people were 00:34:05.480 --> 00:34:05.760 doing. 00:34:06.020 --> 00:34:06.020 And he said, I don't know that I would have sinned. 00:34:06.020 --> 00:34:06.020 But he said, I definitely wasn't going out to tell people about Jesus. 00:34:06.040 --> 00:34:12.440 So I knew my heart wasn't in the right place. 00:34:13.080 --> 00:34:17.820 I just wanted the temptation in front of me. 00:34:19.219 --> 00:34:19.340 I wanted to see what it was like. 00:34:19.340 --> 00:34:26.659 My heart was longing towards it, and he said, 00:34:53.100 --> 00:34:57.120 so we. 00:34:57.400 --> 00:34:59.500 So we were in the hotel and we started to fall asleep. 00:34:59.500 --> 00:35:00.800 And I said to myself, the minute Jim snores, that's my cue to get up. 00:35:00.800 --> 00:35:00.800 And so he says the next day and I'll be doggone it, Jim doesn't snore. 00:35:00.800 --> 00:35:08.180 The significance of the Body of Christ is important for us in our temptation as 00:36:10.200 --> 00:36:18.000 a body of 00:36:18.000 --> 00:36:19.620 believers. 00:36:54.140 --> 00:36:54.960 Let me give you an example. 00:36:57.500 --> 00:40:01.300 two years ago, 00:41:03.060 --> 00:41:20.240 we were in an old building before moving into this building. 00:41:20.240 --> 00:41:59.220 We bought this place and this thing was a disaster, and it took 00:41:59.260 --> 00:42:00.140 us a year to fix it. 00:42:00.140 --> 00:42:04.380 And as we got towards the end of fixing this place up, I was under a lot of stress. 00:42:04.380 --> 00:42:05.200 And I've we've been under a heavy amount of stress since I've lived in Utah. 00:42:05.980 --> 00:42:06.700 My wife and I, just because we moved here and we didn't, we didn't have a thing. 00:42:07.680 --> 00:42:15.680 And seeing a church start was just it was a work in progress, battle after 00:42:15.680 --> 00:42:15.680 battle. 00:42:15.680 --> 00:42:15.680 And we bought this place. 00:42:15.680 --> 00:42:15.680 We started working on it six months before we were completed this place. 00:42:15.680 --> 00:42:15.680 I lost my mind and I want to say I hit my breaking point and then we went six months past that. 00:42:15.680 --> 00:42:15.680 So if I seem crazy today back then. 00:42:15.680 --> 00:42:15.680 Okay, I used to say that about my middle school teachers. 00:42:15.680 --> 00:42:15.760 They're crazy. 00:42:15.760 --> 00:42:15.811 Oh, Oh, no. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 It's only because they have to deal with us, right? 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 They get just. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 They justified middle school teachers. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 I love you, I'm just teasing. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 But. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 So we built this place, and, and at the time, financially, it was difficult for a family to live here because we didn't have a whole lot. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 my wife just had a baby. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 let a friend borrow my car, and it got totaled. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Or running out on a lease on our old building. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 We have to hurry up and get in this new building. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 But we don't have a whole lot of money to get in this building. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 I feel like I'm here as soon as I wake up. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And by the time I go to bed, I'm just. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 I lived here. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 I thought about maybe moving in. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 It was stressful. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And I got to a place where that stress, I just wanted to beat it and finish it and crush it. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 It produced anger in me. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And I didn't. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 I don't like it and I didn't want it. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And I'm looking at where God's called us to church and all the things we could have when we move here. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 But this anger came up within me and I didn't like it. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And it wasn't anger towards anyone specific. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 It was just this frustration of all the stress in the moment. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And it starts to come out and I, it happens and you feel bad. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 You're like, man, I got angry and I don't know why I'm angry. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And sometimes people don't even know when you're angry and you struggle in your own heart, like, just let's just get this finished. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 One more thing breaks. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 I'm going to kill. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Like, how am I going to get through this? 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And, so we started this new thing outside where apparently people don't like to park in dirt. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 So. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 So, so we have this new project happening now, and we had a men's group right before it happened. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And I'm just reflecting on, on my attitude towards the end of us being here. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And I'm grateful for I'm thankful for it, but it was stressful. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And so I just looked at the guys in the room of this men's breakfast we're having and I just said, guys, I know where I got the last time we had this place. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 I got frustrated, I got angry, and maybe people didn't see it, but I knew in my heart it was just a battle. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And I just want you to know, I don't want to do that again. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And so if you see me getting tense over what we're going to go through again with another building project, um. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Just. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Just feel free to call me out. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 You know, before I said that to the to the guys knowing that I didn't want to be, I didn't want to reflect anger towards any of that. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 I want to be grateful for God as he's provided. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 do you know, the temptation within my mind is, are they're not going to care. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 You know, all this time, it's not going to be a big deal. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 You know, all the things are in my head. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 You don't need to say that. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 But you know, when I, when I just mentioned it to everyone, I have to make a big deal about it, but just mention it to everyone. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 You know, I walked away, my attitude and my heart was a lot more thankful. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And not. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Not because I had to confess this to people. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 But. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Because now I know. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 That the struggle that I could face, which I don't even think I have this time because I haven't had to lift up even a hammer. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 But the struggle that I've faced, I knew people were going to be watching. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And so even you ever get that place in your life where even if you feel like you're battling in your hearts, like people can see you, what are you doing? 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Because I'm looking at my soul. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Like I felt like I felt like even in them knowing it, if that battle came up in my heart that I could wrestle with it a lot better than before, just because I was just open about it. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 You may. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 You may have friends in your life that recognize, you know this. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 He's going through a battle, but I don't feel right saying it. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 If they would just say it, I feel like I could just I could just talk to them about it and love them through it and encourage them and tell them maybe they're afraid of the way you would respond or the way to affect your friendship, but that openness gives you a place to do that. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And I think that's the way the body of Christ works, because together, in our minds, we know what we're pursuing as individuals and what Jesus has called us to. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And, if I just told you this morning that I faced temptation, too, and you think that's a big deal, get over it, right? 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Like I'm human, too. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And my dependency is on the body of Christ and walking with Jesus together. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And this passage of Scripture is encouraging us this way. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Listen, guys, when I talk about anger, it's just from a guy's perspective. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 I know if I've been angry about something, the tendency of guys is, we can go that way sometimes, can't we? 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 I know, ladies, you can too. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 But I got to relate as a guy for just a minute. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Okay? 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 You can do it too. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 But here's what I think makes a big man. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 It's not your ability to say, I got this and I handle my own. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 It's your ability to recognize your relationship to Jesus is far more important. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And the way you demonstrate Jesus to the people around you and your family and your friends and your loved ones is more important. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And so it's your willingness to humble yourself in that moment and say, this is a struggle, and I don't know what the world's going on with me. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Man, I want to love my family in this. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Man, I want to reflect Jesus in this. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Do you know if you take that adversity a different way? 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And you're able to stand against it. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Because of Christ. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 The demonstrate the beauty of who Jesus is. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 People around you learn how to walk with Christ in adversity because they've seen you walk with Christ in adversity. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Takes a proud person not to say something. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 But a humble person. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 A humble person is open and honest. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 I claim to be perfect in my walk with Jesus. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 But I want to walk with Jesus. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 I want to know Jesus. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 The temptation in my life. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 It's not about me being good or bad. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 It's about Jesus. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Ultimately, if I walk with Jesus, I'll forsake the things of this world. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And the beauty of Christ is seen. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 An importance of the Body of Christ is demonstrated in that. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Why does God care about your temptation? 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Let me close with this story. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 There was a young girl named Christina. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 I grew up in a city and she was poor. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 She was living with a single mom, and she just. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 This young girl just dreamed about the high rise life and having luxury and money. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And she started to dream so much that about this, that one day she decided when she went, her mom went to bed. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 She was going to leave. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And so she did. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 She snuck out of the house. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 The next morning, her mom wakes up and she's just heartbroken that her daughter is gone. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 So the mom immediately leaves the house, runs to a photo booth, takes pictures out of her, of her until she's run out of money. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And from then she, with her last bet, buys a ticket on a bus. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And she begins to ride the bus around the city. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And she knows as a mother, my daughter left with no money. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 The type of places that a young girl in desperation might have to go to make money may not be good. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 When you get hungry, there are some things that you will do just to get food in your belly. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And so she started to look. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And so some of the most horrific places for her daughter. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And she went down the prostitute alley, she went down to those sleazy hotels, she went to bars at night. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 She went wherever she could think of that. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Her daughter may try to go to make a buck in order to get on her feet. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And she started to post pictures of herself, and she wrote a note on the back of it. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And finally, at the end of her search, when she realized she wasn't going to find her daughter, she got back on the bus and she just went home, heartbroken and weeping. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Story goes weeks later. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Christina ran into a picture of her mother as she was coming down from a hotel room in the morning. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Her face was tired. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Her brown eyes were lifeless, her laughter was broken and her dreams became nightmares. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 All she wanted to do was just go home. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And she flipped over the back of this picture, and on the back her mother had written a note that said this whatever you have done, whatever you have become, it does not matter. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Please come home. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 This is why Jesus doesn't give up on you and your temptation and sin. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 He knows what the weight of the world is, and he knows how much he loves you. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And he knows he's not giving up on you. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 And some of us this morning we think about temptation. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 We just feel worn out because we've given in. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 It has beat us up. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 We want to give up on that battle. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 My encouragement to you this morning. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Whatever you've done, whatever you have become, it doesn't matter. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Please come home. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 What Jesus wants to do in you and through you. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 That's far greater than anything you face in this world through your own strength. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 God loves you. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 God cares about you. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 God doesn't want you to give up the battle. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 I'm not saying this morning when we fight temptation, but there is a way to completely eradicate it. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 Apart from Jesus coming and snatching you from this world. 00:42:15.811 --> 00:42:15.811 What I am saying is when we don't give up on the battle, when we walk with Jesus through it gives us the strength to endure.