10:1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,1 that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown2 in the wilderness.
6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ3 to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 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.
Footnotes
[1]10:1Or brothers and sisters [2]10:5Or were laid low [3]10:9Some manuscripts the Lord
12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
10:1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,1 that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown2 in the wilderness.
6 Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. 9 We must not put Christ3 to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, 10 nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. 11 Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. 12 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 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.
Footnotes
[1]10:1Or brothers and sisters [2]10:5Or were laid low [3]10:9Some manuscripts the Lord
12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. 14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Joel Brooks:
I invite you to open your Bibles, if you have them, to 1st Corinthians chapter 10, as we begin our study in 1st Corinthians. The text is also there in your worship guide. We'll be looking at temptation this morning. So on, Mother's Day and child dedication, we will be looking at temptation. Last year during Mother's Day, we, looked at Judas's betrayal of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
I'm not sure why it always lands, like this, but it does. First Corinthians chapter 10. We'll begin reading in verse 1. I want you to know brothers that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink.
Joel Brooks:
For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, when most of them, God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
Joel Brooks:
We must not indulge in sexual immorality, as some of them did. And 23,000 fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
Joel Brooks:
No temptation has overcome 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. This is the word of the Lord. And to the right.
Joel Brooks:
If you would, pray with me. Our father, we thank you that you wrote these things down for our instruction, and that we can read words that really speak to your very heart, and who you are, and who you want us to be. And so I pray that we would hear from you during this time. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away, and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain, and may they change us.
Joel Brooks:
We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. Well, we just prayed what is known as the Lord's Prayer. And whether you're a Christian or not, you have probably heard that prayer. You might even have that prayer memorized.
Joel Brooks:
It's a remarkable prayer. It's a short prayer, but but very dense. Every single word in that prayer counts, which is why that that phrase that we have, lead us not into temptation. Lead us not into temptation. It's it's why that phrase is so curious.
Joel Brooks:
Jesus teaches us to pray to the father that we would not be tempted. Yet, what was the very first act of Jesus' ministry? The very first act of Jesus' ministry was to be led into the wilderness by God in order to be tempted. Now, we read this in Matthew chapter 4. Then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Joel Brooks:
Now I have to admit that this is at least curious. The lead us not into temptation, and yet you read Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted. So Jesus teaches us to pray against the very thing that happened to him. If you wanna if you wanna press into this even further, you could begin to to look at the nature of the temptations themselves that Jesus had to endure. After not eating for 40 days, Jesus was on the verge of starvation.
Joel Brooks:
He was very hungry, and he was tempted to turn stones into bread. Once again, you go to the Lord's prayer, and he teaches his disciples to pray. Father, give us this day bread. And Jesus prays for the very thing that was denied him as he endured temptation. I mean, don't you find that curious as as you go through the Lord's prayer?
Joel Brooks:
And you can keep pressing into the Lord's prayer if you want to. Satan goes on to offer Jesus the kingdoms of the world, and he can have them now. Jesus, he prays, thy kingdom come. Will that future realization finally come now? And the more and more you begin to study the temptations of Jesus and and the prayer that he taught us, you begin to realize that temptation has many layers to it.
Joel Brooks:
The nature of temptation is actually incredibly complex. And so what I want us to do is is to dive into a number of passages. We'll begin at 1st Corinthians chapter 10, and we'll look in other places in order for us to understand what exactly temptation is. What is God's purpose in it, And how can we be delivered from it or overcome it? So Paul, he begins this section here by reminding Israel of who they are, by walking through Israel's history, and he goes back to the story of the Exodus.
Joel Brooks:
He says, if you remember, he goes, God, he he saved you. He parted the Red Sea, and he took you out and delivered you. And he provided for you in the desert, and his spirit, his presence was with you. We we remember that as we looked through the Israelite story, but but despite having God's deliverance, despite having God's presence and his provision, the people sinned against him. They didn't trust him.
Joel Brooks:
They didn't obey him. They gave into idolatry. They gave into sexual immorality. They grumbled against God and with one another. And Paul, he brings all of this up because he wants to remind the Corinthians Corinthians.
Joel Brooks:
He says, this was written down for our instruction. It it they provide an example for us. Don't let history repeat itself. Okay. God has saved us.
Joel Brooks:
This is what he's telling the Corinthians. God has saved us. God's Spirit is with us. Let's not fall into the same traps of idolatry, of sexual immorality. Let's not fall into the same traps of grumbling with one another, saying, I follow Paul.
Joel Brooks:
I follow Apollos. I follow Peter. Let's put all of that aside. Instead, we need to trust, and we need to obey. And then he gets to this famous verse here that probably many of you have committed to memory.
Joel Brooks:
Verse 13. When he says, no temptation has overcome 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. That word escape there is nearly identical to the word exodus.
Joel Brooks:
With every temptation, God continues to provide for his people in Exodus. He always provides that deliverance in the midst of those trials. So what what exactly though is he providing an escape from? What what exactly is temptation? You would think that temptation is somewhat of an easy word to define, but it's actually not.
Joel Brooks:
In English, we have just the one word, temptation. And it's an easy concept. Somebody is tempted, when they desire something that they know they shouldn't have. So if you just, you know, maybe some morning, you you eat at Bogues downtown. You have this enormous breakfast, and, then you go to the office and you're completely full.
Joel Brooks:
Yet somebody brings in a box of a dozen donuts, delicious donuts, and puts it there. You know you shouldn't. Like, you see it, it, and you know you shouldn't, but you're tempted. You're tempted. You you wanna you wanna have some of those.
Joel Brooks:
And so that's what we think of when we think of temptation. Now no lie. This week, when I was, working on the sermon, I went to O. Henry's Coffee, in the morning, right after I had just worked out. So I worked out in the gym, went straight to O.
Joel Brooks:
Henry's. I had not had breakfast yet. And I went and I bought one of their blueberry scones, and I I literally, I set it down in front of me, and I said, I'm not gonna eat this. I mean, I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna dive into temptation here. It's kinda like method acted, acting method preaching.
Joel Brooks:
And I put it there, and I said, I'm not going to eat this. And, and then I started working on my sermon, And, and and I was tempted. I mean, I'm looking at this, and I'm just thinking, alright, that's stupid. I should eat this. And it it kept looking better and better the longer that I kept working on my sermon.
Joel Brooks:
And then all these thoughts kept flooding my head. Like, is this really worth it? Is this even gonna connect to people? Am I gonna share this illustration? Why in the world am I doing this?
Joel Brooks:
This is stupid. And so after, like, 3 or 4 minutes, I ate it. Alright? It it it didn't take long before I gave in, and this is what we think of when we think of temptation. We desire something, and we we know we shouldn't have it, but we really want it.
Joel Brooks:
But that is only a part of what the Bible, the biblical word for temptation is. It's only part of it. That's its negative meaning, but it also can have a more neutral meaning. It can mean trials. It can mean tests.
Joel Brooks:
Temptation has different nuances to it. So it can be talked about like some kind of outward circumstance, a test or a trial, or it can be talked about concerning some internal desire that you have. And you can perhaps best see this in James. And I have that text there in your worship guide, James chapter 1. James 1.
Joel Brooks:
We'll begin reading in verse 12. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I'm being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
Joel Brooks:
But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Now here, James seems to be talking about 2 different things here, trials and temptations. But what's missed on us is, actually, in Greek, it's the exact same word. The same word is used for both temptation and for trial here.
Joel Brooks:
And because the word, the word is so nuanced, in English, we have to translate it a couple of different ways. So we can translate it temptation or trial or sometimes test, but every trial is a temptation. Every test is a temptation. And so with with all of this in mind, I want to attempt to define temptation for us. And actually, I did not come up with this definition.
Joel Brooks:
A pastor named Jim Ohm did. I was tempted to steal it, but I am putting it out here for you. Jim Ohm, he defines it this way. He says, a temptation or a test or a trial is anything that comes into our life that can lead us to doubt or disobey God. A temptation is anything that comes into our life that can lead us to doubt or to disobey God, or it could be the opposite.
Joel Brooks:
It can be anything that comes into our life that leads us to further trust and obey God. So the end result of a temptation is we either move closer to the Lord or we move farther away from the Lord, but we never remain as we are. Every circumstance, it will give us a chance to either trust him more, obey him more, or to distrust him and to disobey. But you will not leave unchanged. So let me give you a few examples.
Joel Brooks:
A change of income can be a a temptation. If you perhaps got a large raise, or you received an inheritance, that is a change in your circumstance that either is gonna lead you to trust God more or lead you farther away from him. So it it can either lead you to trust him more and to obey him? Perhaps you will become incredibly humbled by their by receiving this money. Humbled, and and you celebrate God's incredible generosity to you, you realize you didn't deserve this.
Joel Brooks:
Yes. You worked hard, but many people have worked harder without the same blessings. Yes. You were wise in how you went about your work, but other people are more wise than you, and they didn't receive these blessings. And so you're just humbled by God's incredible generosity to you.
Joel Brooks:
And more so when you look at other people in the church, people who don't have those resources, maybe people who are poor, and you say, well, when they tithe, when they give 10%, it it impacts them. It hurts them. But I could give 10%, and I could still live a life of luxury. And you're humbled by that. And because of that, it it prompts in you a spirit and a heart to be remarkably generous with what you have.
Joel Brooks:
So it can lead you into generosity. It can lead you into obeying the Lord and knowing him more, or it can lead you into the opposite. You could think, well, gosh. I I got this money as a result of my hard work. I made the right choices, and, therefore, it is mine.
Joel Brooks:
And so you become less generous. You begin to see luxuries as necessities. And this is usually what happens. Every single study on this has shown that the poor people are, the more generous they are. The wealthier they are, the less generous they are.
Joel Brooks:
Study after study has shown that this is true. Another example of a temptation. Perhaps, there's a death in the family, or perhaps you have a a parent or a child who is sick. And so that is a trial. It's a temptation.
Joel Brooks:
Will this cause you to trust in the Lord more? Or will it cause you to doubt him? Will you find a deeper joy? Or will you become bitter? This same temptation here is gonna have drastically different results with different people, And we've all seen this.
Joel Brooks:
We've seen people who have gotten cancer. And some people who get cancer, they walk away saying, gosh. This has led me into such a deep relationship with the Lord, and I have never known such joy during this period. And and although I I don't want cancer, I actually wouldn't trade it away for the joy that I have. And then you have other people who have cancer, and it makes them incredibly bitter and angry towards God.
Joel Brooks:
Same trial, same temptation, but 2 completely different results. When we fail out of temptation, we have to be careful that we don't blame God, and we don't blame the test itself. That's like being in school and failing an exam and blaming the school or the teacher for failing. That's not what happens. You can't say, well, I would have never failed this class if you hadn't given me an exam.
Joel Brooks:
The exam didn't cause you to fail. The the exam revealed your failure. It revealed your lack of knowledge. It didn't make you lack knowledge. And the test that God sends our way doesn't cause us to sin, but they reveal our sinfulness.
Joel Brooks:
God might be responsible for that outward trial, that outward test, but he is not responsible for your inner temptations. That's on you. Your desire, your desire, that evil desire comes from you, not God. So James says that God does not tempt, but he does test. But it's the same word.
Joel Brooks:
We see this in our passage in 1st Corinthians. Once again, hear these words. No temptation has overcome you that is not common to man. God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.
Joel Brooks:
But with the temptation, he will provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Perhaps you noticed as we read this the first time, there is another seeming contradiction about the nature of temptation in this text. Paul says that God's gonna provide you with a way of escape so that you can endure it. You're like, well, which is it? Do we escape the temptation, or do we have to endure the temptation?
Joel Brooks:
That seems to be 2 completely different things that Paul's describing here. Which which is it? Do we escape it or do we endure it? And Paul says, yes. The answer is yes.
Joel Brooks:
You escape the inner temptation, but you endure the outward trial, that outward test. So you're still gonna be taken through that test, taken through that trial, but in the midst of it, you do not have to sin. You're given the opportunity once again to trust and obey God during this. Temptation is any change of your circumstance that leads you to either trust God more or to distrust him. To know him more or to know him less.
Joel Brooks:
Back to James. James says that we when we do succumb to this inner temptation, it's because we are lured and enticed by our own desires. Lured and enticed by our own desires. He uses a sexual imagery there. He uses the language of pregnancy and of childbirth as he describes temptation.
Joel Brooks:
Basically, he says that when we entertain these desires, if we entertain them, they're gonna become little embryos in our hearts. And these little embryos are gonna grow and grow, And, eventually, they're gonna give birth to sin. And, eventually, that child's gonna grow and destroy us. Murder doesn't start off as murder. Murder starts off as a little embryo, a little embryo of anger, little embryo of jealousy, and it's nurtured, and it grows, and it grows.
Joel Brooks:
And eventually, we give birth to murder. Greed doesn't start off as full blown greed. It begins with maybe just a little small desire to hold on to some money, Then it grows and it grows. It becomes an embryo, and it becomes a child that will destroy us. Adultery first starts off not as adultery, but as just a little, maybe playful, lustful thought.
Joel Brooks:
And we nurture it and we grow it. And eventually, it gives birth, and it destroys us. Every terrible thing we've ever done started off as a little desire that we nurtured. And we let it grow and grow. And so, we gave birth to it.
Joel Brooks:
And James says here that each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. I hate that I have to keep defining words here. I really do. But desire, this word for desire is something you have to come to grips with if you're going to understand the New Testament, If you're gonna understand the nature of desire. This this word is used all over the New Testament.
Joel Brooks:
Paul uses it in in Ephesians and in Colossians and Galatians. Peter uses it. James uses it. Jude uses it. This word desire, often it's translated evil desire, translated sinful desire, but what it really means is over desire.
Joel Brooks:
Over desire. It's a it's a combination of 2 Greek words. You you have the Greek word for desire, thumia, and then you have the word epi, which means over or on top or center. And so you have this desire that becomes central, this desire that becomes over the top. It's this over desire for something.
Joel Brooks:
If you wanna understand the nature of temptation, you have to understand this word because it doesn't necessarily mean desiring sinful things. It could be desiring good things, but you're desiring them too much. It becomes an over desire. I've heard Tim Keller, when talking about this word, say it's not that we desire bad things. It's that we desire them badly.
Joel Brooks:
We want them too much. And so we we let good things become ultimate things for us. And so, they become this epideesire, this over desire. And so, if you are single, you might want to be married. That's a good desire.
Joel Brooks:
There's nothing wrong with that desire. But if you keep entertaining that thought, keep fixating on that desire, you can nurture it, and it can grow into an epi desire. Soon, your life begins to have no meaning until you find yourself a spouse. A spouse is gonna give you meaning. You become intensely angry or jealous at all your married friends, and every day that that continues to go on without you being married, your self image crumbles and crumbles.
Joel Brooks:
And eventually, this results in your destruction. If you are married, it might be that having children becomes your epidesire. That once again, having children, that's a good desire. There is nothing wrong with that desire, but what if it becomes the desire? And you can't have a child, but that's all you could think about is I have to have a child.
Joel Brooks:
If I don't have a child, I am nobody. Well, that desire will destroy you. Sports can become an epi desire. Once again, being physically active or desiring your children to be physically active is a good thing. There's nothing wrong with that desire, but it can quickly turn into an epee desire.
Joel Brooks:
Soon, all of your children's sports begin to rule your entire life, and that over desire destroys you. And what it is, it's just modern day idolatry. That's what's being described here. Over desire is just modern day idolatry. And hear me.
Joel Brooks:
Every idol demands a sacrifice. The moment you take a good thing and you make it an ultimate thing, you you say, I have to have this. I can't imagine my life without this. My happiness is gonna rise or fall with this. The moment you take a good thing and you make it an ultimate thing, you have determined that that will be the thing that destroys you.
Joel Brooks:
Every idol demands a sacrifice. And so if you're a parent and your child, your children are your epidesire, And and your entire life is all about your children, and you tell them that they're the world's most special snowflake. That that there is there is there is no one like them. You take zillions of pictures. I mean, you're like the paparazzi that just follow your children around, documenting everything.
Joel Brooks:
Tell them they could do no wrong. You spend all of your time trying to cover up for any bad behavior or to make things as easy as possible for them, and then you send them off to college. You send them off to college, and then they realize that there is actually thousands of other snowflakes just like them. Alright? And then they have a roommate or a professor who treats them like they are not the center of the universe.
Joel Brooks:
And the world begins to crumble, and they begin getting very bitter and frustrated, and it's gonna come back on you. That bitterness and that frustration and that anger will be unleashed on you. Every idol demands a sacrifice. You make sports or your job the center of your universe. It's gonna consume you.
Joel Brooks:
It's gonna take all of your time. It's gonna take all of your energy. You're not gonna have left any time or energy for relationships or for the church, and you are gonna live and you're gonna die by your performance. How are you performing? If you make money the center of your universe, it will consume you.
Joel Brooks:
You'll become obsessed with how much more money you can make, and you're never gonna enjoy what you have. You are gonna see people who have half as much as you do enjoying life twice as much as you do. And you're gonna see that people with half of what you do spend more time with their spouse, more time with their children, more time at their home, enjoying life, more time in relationships, and it's gonna make you angry, but you're gonna think the solution is to actually try to make more money. And you begin feeding that, growing that embryo, and it will give birth, and it will destroy you. I don't know if you've noticed this when you've read through the temptations of Jesus.
Joel Brooks:
Satan goes out of his way in all these temptations to say, Jesus, I just don't want you to suffer. It goes out of his way to tell Jesus, like, this is the road of comfort. I mean, you're hungry? Get food. If if you jump off the mountain, you're you're not gonna bruise a heel.
Joel Brooks:
Yeah. You can have all the kingdoms, and you don't have to suffer and die. He goes out of his way in his temptations to say that you won't have to suffer it, and I'm just trying to give you comfort. Now if comfort there's nothing wrong with comfort. But if it's an epi desire, if it becomes that your life is dictated by trying not to suffer or trying to provide the most comfort as possible, it will destroy you.
Joel Brooks:
Epi desire, wanting something too much. It's idolatry. Idolatry is spiritual adultery. Spiritual adultery is gonna lead to conception, which will give birth to sin, and which will result in your destruction. So how do we overcome this?
Joel Brooks:
Let me just go through a few things really fast. How how do we fight temptation and overcome it? Well, let me just say by being here, that's a good start. Being here is a good start. Now I mean that.
Joel Brooks:
Jesus, he taught his disciples to pray, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. He did not teach them to pray, lead me from temptation. Deliver me from evil. He didn't do that. He said, lead us not into temptation.
Joel Brooks:
Deliver us from evil. He is saying that you are not meant to fight temptation alone. He's given you a tremendous tool, a tremendous gift called the church, Your brothers and sisters in Christ to come alongside you and to pray with you and to help you fight temptation. Temptation grows when it is fought in isolation. And so the moment you keep things secret and you try to fight things on your own, that temptation grows in its power, but you bring in your brothers and your sisters, and you say, can we pray over these temptations together?
Joel Brooks:
And it loses its power. Are you praying with your brothers and sisters over your temptations? 2nd, realize that every temptation, every temptation is asking for faith, for leap of faith. In every temptation, you're asked to either believe the the thing that you're longing for, that that's gonna satisfy you, or believe that God alone will satisfy you. You're asked to believe in one of those two things, and each one is a step of faith.
Joel Brooks:
You are either gonna leap into sin, and you're gonna hope that that sin delivers on his promises and that it it satisfies you, or you're gonna leap into the arms of Christ in hopes that he satisfies and he sustains you. Let me ask you, who has the better track record? Has sin ever delivered on his promises? A picture of sin like, you know, a trust fall. And you're like, you're gonna catch me.
Joel Brooks:
Right? And you fall and you just land. You just hurt yourself. And then you get up and you're like, but this time is gonna be different. You're gonna catch me.
Joel Brooks:
Right? And you fall. Sin will not support you, but it's asking you to leap towards it in faith anyway. But Christ has never failed you. 3rd, memorize the word.
Joel Brooks:
Jesus fought with the devil by quoting Scripture every time, which, by the way, the only reason we know this is because Jesus told his disciples this. Jesus was in the wilderness fighting the devil alone. Yet, after he did this, he came back, and he told the disciples about this because he said, what just happened is of such importance. You need to know this, and you need to know how I fought with the devil. And he says, every time I quoted scripture, It's written down for our instruction, but don't there's a temptation for us to think of this like it's, like it's a type of Harry Potter duel, you know?
Joel Brooks:
And, and Satan's like, he he he throws a lust charm your way, and you're like, oh, yeah. Well, first Timothy, you know, 222, flee from youthful lust. And like, you know, you're just kinda like, you're just zapping these things back and forth, And, and that's not it. It's not talking about an incantation, you know, that you could just say the right words and all of a sudden you're delivered. Try that.
Joel Brooks:
You know, it it doesn't work that way. If you just say flee from youthful lust, you'll find lust is still there. Alright? What what Jesus is showing when he is quoting scripture each thing is that scripture is in his heart. Scriptures defining who he is.
Joel Brooks:
Scripture is warming his affections towards his father. That's what scripture does. The best way, if you find, if you find a pig to be beautiful, which is what looking at sin is, and to be tempting, You can try to just try to fight that and fight that, or you can find an object of greater beauty. And finding an object of greater beauty is the best way to turn away from this. Scripture does that.
Joel Brooks:
The more and more you put scripture in your heart, the more and more you discover who God is and you find him beautiful, And sin loses its desire. Finally, see temptation as an opportunity. Once again, when that trial, that test, that temptation comes your way, you're gonna go one of 2 ways. It doesn't have to end poorly. You can come to know Jesus with a greater sweetness than ever before.
Joel Brooks:
What an opportunity to get to know him more deeply. I find that we like to we like to talk to people who've gone through similar experiences as us. You naturally gravitate. You know, if somebody, you know, somebody played basketball in high school. You'll talk about basketball.
Joel Brooks:
You know, somebody has this hobby over here. You love to talk to them about this hobby. You gravitate towards people who have the shame same experience as you. Well, Jesus has the same experience as us in temptation. And he's saying, talk to me.
Joel Brooks:
Use your temptation to where we could talk about it together. Hebrews 4, it says, for we do not have a high priest who's unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. What the author of Hebrews is there saying is you have a person who so because he understands the temptations you've gone through. Use it as a chance of receiving more grace and more mercy in your life.
Joel Brooks:
Don't let that temptation go to waste. If you would, pray with me. Our father, we ask that you would deliver us from evil. Although that we might be led into tests, we might be led into trials, you don't lead us to temptation. We bring that with us.
Joel Brooks:
And, Lord, I pray you would deliver us. You would provide that exodus for us. We thank you that you have provided the ultimate exodus for us through the blood of Jesus, and that he covers all of our sin when we fail, and we most certainly fail. We thank you, Jesus, that you sympathize with us. You know our weaknesses.
Joel Brooks:
You know where we're vulnerable. And I pray that we would talk to you about that, and we would use that as a chance to find even more grace and more mercy, and ultimately, to know you even more. We pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.