Warfare in the Wilderness

Well, good morning to all of you.

My name's Tommy.

I'm the rector here at Church of the Advent.

And so if I haven't had a chance to welcome you,

hopefully we'll get a chance to at least meet

and shake hands after the service.

I want to make sure you know we do have a newcomer's brunch

right after the service downstairs.

So if you're new, even if this is your first Sunday with us,

we'd love to have you.

So please hang around and come downstairs

and hopefully we'll get a chance to chat.

Many of you are probably familiar

with the story of the Titanic.

A movie came out about it.

If you haven't seen the movie, I'm going to spoil it,

but you had your chance.

But the Titanic, obviously this incredible,

as it was said, feat of engineering

that was celebrated as a marvel of accomplishment,

human technology, and it was said it was virtually unsinkable.

So when they set out on their maiden voyage,

ship full of people, it wasn't even equipped

with enough life rafts for half of the people,

total number of passengers on board,

and that's because they didn't think they would need the lifeboats

because this boat was unsinkable.

Despite warnings about icebergs in the water,

large icebergs that could tear ships apart,

they ignored the warnings.

The lookout didn't even have binoculars to look out for the icebergs.

The captain did not slow down,

but had the ship going full speed through the water

because, again, this ship was celebrated

as being virtually unsinkable,

nothing to worry about.

Unfortunately, that was not the case.

And as many of us know,

a large iceberg tore a gash into the hull of the ship.

Water came in.

The ship eventually sank.

And over 1,500 people lost their lives.

And this story,

and it's just one story.

There are many other examples throughout history

that stories like this illustrate the same thing.

The danger of overconfidence.

The danger of overconfidence.

How when we are overconfident in a situation like that,

it will invariably lead to disaster.

And in the passage we're gonna be looking at this morning,

1 Corinthians chapter 10,

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

the first 13 verses of chapter 10,

the apostle Paul is making much the same warning.

He's warning us about the dangers of overconfidence

when it comes to temptation.

The message is essentially this,

is that if we are overconfident

when it comes to our ability to face and deal with temptation,

that that road will invariably lead to disaster.

It will lead to catastrophe.

So we're gonna look at this,

and in this passage,

Paul gives us several ways

to be prepared for temptation

when it inevitably comes,

so that we'll know when it comes,

so that we'll know how to face it,

so we'll know how to overcome it together.

So we're gonna look at that.

First, I'm gonna give us a little context

so we know where we are,

and then we're gonna look at what the apostle Paul

has to say to us about overconfidence and temptation.

Let's pray,

and then we'll open God's word.

Lord, we thank you for your word,

and we thank you for this season of Lent.

Lord, this is a time where,

as Jeff said earlier,

we reflect on Jesus' time in the wilderness,

and we go there with him, Lord.

We follow in his footsteps

in this journey to the cross,

to the tomb,

to the resurrection,

to the new life.

Lord, we pray that you would bless us

as we seek to walk with him,

to journey with him.

We pray that you would open these words,

and through these words,

we would come face to face with him

and be united with him.

Lord, that's our prayer,

and we ask this in his holy name,

in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

So first of all,

let me give you a little context.

We're dropping right into the middle

of a letter here,

chapter 10.

This is a letter that Paul wrote

to the Christians in the city of Corinth.

Corinth was a major urban center.

It was the capital of the province,

a lot like D.C.

It was very cosmopolitan,

and so the early Christians in Corinth

had to ask a lot of the same questions

that those of us who are Christians

ask as we live here in D.C. in 2025.

They were asking,

how do we live lives of faithfulness

in a major city center

with such an incredibly diverse population?

How do we participate in public life

when we are surrounded by people

who have so many different beliefs,

so many different values,

so many different lifestyles?

How do we live lives of faithfulness

in the public square?

And the specific question

that Paul is addressing concerns food.

Should Christians eat meat

that comes from animals

that had previously been sacrificed

as a part of pagan idol worship?

That meat was widely available

in the markets.

When you got invited over

to your friend's house to eat,

a lot of times you would be eating meat

that had previously been sacrificed

as a part of pagan ritual,

and so the Christians were asking,

should we eat that meat or not?

Is it okay or not?

And so this starts a few chapters earlier

in chapter eight.

Paul is trying to address this question.

Some of the Christians were overly cautious.

They were teetotalers.

They said, absolutely not.

We need to stay far away from that.

It's gonna corrupt us.

It's spiritually corrupting.

Others were more in the opposite end

of the spectrum.

They were almost brazenly overconfident.

They would say, you know,

Jesus has forgiven all of our sin.

He's done away with all the dietary restrictions.

We don't need to worry about that.

We've been set free.

We should enjoy our freedom.

We should be able to eat whatever we want.

Paul's answer is very interesting.

He essentially says, not so fast.

God has set us free.

Technically, we can eat whatever we want.

However, the freedom that you have

can be easily lost if you're not careful.

It has to be guarded.

It has to be protected.

And at the beginning of chapter 10,

which is our passage this morning,

Paul is wanting to make sure

that these Christians have the right perspective

on their situation.

You need to start with the right perspective.

So that's the first thing he gives us

when it comes to temptation is,

here's the perspective that helps us make sense

of our lives and the place that we find ourselves in

as a part of God's story.

Paul refers them back to the time of the Exodus.

Now, if you know about the book of the Exodus,

it starts with God's people living as slaves in Egypt.

And then God raises up Moses.

And through Moses, God demonstrates his absolute power

over Pharaoh and all the pagan gods of Egypt.

And ultimately, he sets his people free.

And God promises that one day he's going to bring them

to a promised land, a home that he has prepared just for them.

But here's where we need to pause

if we're reading and paying attention closely

and stop and sort of ask,

why is Paul bringing this up here to these people?

The church in Corinth was full of Gentiles.

For the most part, these are not Jews.

The Exodus was not their story.

These are Greek and Roman people.

But Paul is referring to the Israelites in the wilderness

as their forefathers.

He says, remember our forefathers.

I don't want you to be ignorant of our fathers.

So you understand what he's saying to these Gentiles.

That was Israel, and that was their story.

But now that you're Christians,

you are part of the church.

And the church is the new Israel.

So that was Israel, but now you are Israel.

You are God's people in the world.

And so what he's doing is he's connecting that story to their story.

He's saying their story is now your story

by virtue of the fact that you're in Christ.

You're the new Israel.

And this is the perspective that Paul seeks to impart to us as his listeners.

Even though we live in a different time,

even though we live in a different place,

spiritually speaking,

we are part of the story of Israel,

which means we are still very much in the wilderness.

He's saying they were in the wilderness, remember.

Now as you continue in the wilderness,

remember what happened to them.

Now this is extremely important

as it relates to the topic that we are exploring this morning.

What does it mean to be in the wilderness?

Well, spiritually speaking,

the wilderness is the space between.

It is a space between freedom and fulfillment.

There's a space between,

and we occupy that space.

That's what the Bible refers to as the wilderness.

Jesus has set us free.

We, those of us who are here who are Christians,

Jesus has set us free from sin and death.

We've been set free from slavery to sin and death.

And he has promised that one day he's going to come again,

and he's going to make all things new.

He's going to restore the world.

He's going to bring the heavens and the earth together.

But he has not fulfilled that promise yet.

That is still something that we're waiting for.

And so we occupy this space between having been set free,

freedom,

and the fulfillment that one day God will make all things new.

So until that day comes,

we are in the spiritual wilderness,

which means the world is still broken.

I mean, most people,

you don't have to try hard to convince them

that the world is broken.

I was just having lunch with somebody this week,

and we were talking about,

we're both very concerned about the state of things.

Right now in the world,

the state of our country right now,

we're very,

lots of concerns,

lots of anxiety.

We know the world is still broken.

We still have desires and longings that go unmet.

We still have to contend with uncertainty,

and grief,

and loss,

and conflict,

and decay,

and breakdown.

In other words,

being in the wilderness means this world as it is,

is not our home.

And that's extremely important to remember.

It's crucial for us to keep that perspective

if we want to make sense of our lives.

What this means is that,

you know,

let's just consider some examples here.

When it comes to our work,

we should all try to find stable careers,

stable work,

and hopefully that work,

those of us who feel called to work outside the home,

seeking paid work,

hopefully,

God willing,

that work is meaningful,

and we enjoy it,

and it aligns with our gifts,

and aptitudes,

and abilities.

But no career is ever going to satisfy

our desire for meaning and purpose completely.

Because this is the wilderness.

It's not our home.

We shouldn't expect that.

If you're called to marriage,

you should look for someone who shares your faith

and your values,

someone with whom I think maybe this is one of the most important things,

someone with whom you can develop a deep,

lasting friendship.

Very important.

But even the best marriage is not going to fulfill you.

There's going to be stretches in your marriage,

even if it's the best marriage,

where you still feel lonely.

There's going to be maybe seasons where you wish that you weren't married.

There might be moments here and there

where you wish you were married to somebody else.

There might be moments where you feel like,

I have no idea who this person is that I married.

I thought I knew them, right?

That is to be expected.

It's one of the things we do in premarital counseling.

As we help people understand,

it's very important to have realistic expectations about marriage.

This is the wilderness.

This is not our home.

So there's no person out there

who's going to perfectly fulfill and complete you.

The wilderness is not the place

where God promises to fulfill

all of our longings and desires.

That's going to happen when we're home.

And the wilderness is the place

where God prepares his people for their home.

The wilderness is not a place of fulfillment

and happiness and contentment.

The wilderness is a place of profound transformation.

It's a place where God works

in the hearts and lives of his people.

Now, sometimes Christians forget this.

There are famous, popular Christian leaders out there

who make it sound as though when you come to Jesus,

everything's going to get better.

All of your longings and needs

are going to be satisfied in him.

Christianity is about living your best life now.

It's a very popular message,

but if you believe that and buy into it,

you're setting yourself up

for a lot of disillusionment and disappointment.

One day that's going to be true.

We're going to be satisfied in Christ,

but not yet.

We're still in the wilderness.

Now, here's why this is so important.

This perspective is crucial

because we need it to make sense of our lives.

This world is not our home.

With this reality comes a warning.

This is the second piece that Paul gives us.

You have the right perspective.

We're in the wilderness.

With that comes a warning.

The spiritual wilderness is a dangerous place.

It is a dangerous place

because the fact that we have unmet needs and longings,

the fact that this is a place of struggle and hardship

makes us extremely vulnerable to temptation.

When you're living your life

with lots of unmet needs and longings,

it makes you extremely vulnerable

to all manner of temptation to sin.

And Paul essentially makes this point.

He says, listen, I don't want you to be ignorant.

By the way, when Paul says,

I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers,

he typically, it's a nicer way of saying,

I think you're pretty ignorant of this.

And so he says, I don't want you to be ignorant

about what happened to Israel.

Think about their story.

And he's pointing back and he's saying,

listen, they had every advantage you have.

They had every advantage you have.

And it didn't make any difference.

Look what happened to them.

So he's saying, just like you,

God set them free from slavery.

He, in a very provocative way, says,

just like you, they had their own versions

of baptism in the Lord's Supper.

They passed through the Red Sea.

They were in covenant relationship

with God through Moses,

the covenant that God had established through Moses.

Just like you, God sustained them

with spiritual food and spiritual drink.

Obviously not the bread and wine that we have here,

but not the bread and wine that we have here.

In some way, Paul is connecting this meal

back to God's provision for them in the wilderness.

God provided for you.

He gave you manna.

He gave you quail.

He made water spring out of the rocks for you.

And just like you, in a manner of speaking,

Christ was with them, not in body, but in spirit.

Christ was with them.

The presence of God was with them,

sustaining them, blessing them, providing for them.

Nevertheless, he says, most of them

were overthrown in the wilderness.

Now, that word that he uses, overthrown,

actually translates more laid low.

The image that Paul is giving us is,

imagine a desert landscape littered with bodies.

There's bodies everywhere you look.

Most of them were laid low in the dust.

Now, why did this happen?

Well, Paul cites multiple examples of times

when the people of Israel were lured and tempted

away from God into sin and idolatry.

Through the Old Testament, in places like Exodus

and the Psalms, you see these references

to being lured and enticed.

And one of the words that you see showing up again and again

around the sin of the people of Israel

is the word ensnared.

They became ensnared by various things.

Now, what has ensnared me?

When I was a kid, my uncle told me

that if I wanted to catch a bird,

what I had to do was to sneak up behind the bird,

maybe you've heard this,

and to pour a little salt on its tail.

Anybody heard this?

Maybe it's just my family.

Sneak up behind the bird, pour salt on its tail,

and then my uncle said,

well, salt will mean that the bird can't fly,

and then you can catch the bird.

So I put on camouflage,

and I went out in the woods behind our house,

and I spent hours, if I'm honest, days,

belly crawling around the woods

with a salt shaker in my hand,

trying to sneak up on birds.

Now, maybe I'm not the brightest bulb in the box,

but I eventually realized

that's not how you catch a bird.

My uncle was a bit of a joke.

It turns out, if you want to catch a bird,

there's a better way to do it.

You need a snare.

There's a reference in the Bible

to the fowler's snare.

A snare is essentially a loop of wire or string.

Typically, it has a slipknot

so that it'll tighten up,

and it's attached to a bent branch

or a bent tree or some other spring mechanism.

Maybe the boys will learn how to do this in trail life.

Maybe you've already learned how to do this in trail life,

but you lay the loop down,

and you kind of maybe put some leaves over it

so that you don't really notice it,

and then you cover it with seed.

You cover it with whatever the food is

that the animal that you're trying to catch,

and so the animal will come along,

the bird will come along,

and it becomes so focused on the food

laying there in a nice pile on the ground

that it doesn't notice the snare

until it starts to eat,

and it springs the trap,

and it gets caught,

and then it can't fly away,

and it just has to hang there

waiting to be killed and eaten.

That's the fowler's snare.

And this, my friends,

is how the Bible talks about temptation.

And the Apostle James actually tells us how it works.

He says,

each person is tempted

when he is lured and enticed.

Again, those Greek words

are actually hunting and fishing terms.

He says,

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.

So he's painting a picture

of what it looks like

to be lured and enticed

until we become ensnared.

You start off with a need or a desire.

It could be hunger or sexual longing

or loneliness

or the desire for safety or comfort.

And these desires

are not inherently evil on their own.

They're just desires.

It's a part of what it means

to be a human being

living in the wilderness.

We have desires.

And so we have this desire,

and then we come across,

either in person

or in our own imagination,

that pile of food.

You know,

some way of satisfying that desire.

And we come across

a way of satisfying that desire

that runs contrary to God's will.

Right?

And you know in your mind

that this God

does not want me to do this,

but it looks so good.

It looks so satisfying.

It's just right there.

It would be so easy to take.

Right?

That's like the bird seed

being spread over the ground.

And at this point,

by the way,

there's still no sin.

You've noticed it.

It's there.

You feel the desire.

That would be a possibility for you.

But at this point,

there's still no sin.

But then at some point,

James says,

we allow ourselves

to be lured

and enticed.

We sort of give ourselves

to that longing.

We begin to imagine

what it would be like

to have that thing.

We begin to fantasize,

to indulge the desire,

to nurse it,

to kindle the craving.

So this is like the hungry bird.

We're lured closer and closer,

and then the trap is sprung,

and before we know it,

at some point along the way,

we went from just beginning

to give ourselves

to that desire

to before we know it,

we're ensnared,

we're dangling,

waiting to be killed

and eaten by,

as he references at one point,

the destroyer,

the evil one

who is behind all of this.

So, you know,

an example of this,

think of a classic example

of David out on the roof

seeing Bathsheba,

who's married to

one of his best friends, Uriah.

David is out there,

a lot of commentators say,

why is he out on the roof?

What's he doing out on the roof?

Was he hoping

he might see something?

And he's out there,

and he's looking around,

sees Bathsheba.

At this point,

there's no sin,

but instead of turning away,

instead of immediately

turning away

and going back in,

saying,

that's,

I shouldn't be doing that,

he continues to look.

He begins to fantasize

about being with her,

and then he summons her,

and then he sleeps with her,

and he's ensnared.

And then that just leads

to more and more and more sin.

Ultimately,

this leads to David

arranging to have

his best friend Uriah killed

in order to cover up the affair,

the affair that,

by the way,

everybody at this point

already knows about.

So here's what Paul is saying.

He says,

when we're still

in the wilderness,

which means we have

all of these unmet desires

and longings,

the wilderness,

we have to recognize,

is a very dangerous place.

And it makes us

extremely vulnerable

to temptation.

You're going along,

and there are all kinds

of promises

of things that will fulfill

these various desires.

And he says,

these are snares,

and you have to recognize them

for what they are.

It may not be obvious to you,

but they're there.

Right?

Just to give one more example,

maybe we,

you know,

what are some of the things

we long for?

A success,

beauty,

talent,

influence,

normal human desires.

But then you start

comparing yourself.

Right?

You have this kind of temptation

to comparison.

And maybe it's online,

maybe it's just your friends,

the people you know,

your coworkers,

people who seem to be advancing

more quickly than you,

or you have all this instability

in your job,

and they have this rock-solid career,

or you don't have a family,

and they have the family

that you want,

or they're off having

these fun adventures

while you're raising

these young kids,

or whatever it may be,

you start comparing yourself

to their life.

And they seem to have

more of the things

that you want.

And then you allow yourself

to be lured and enticed

into jealousy and envy.

And before you know it,

your mind is looping

on these things,

and before you know it,

you're ensnared

by jealousy and envy.

And what you begin to notice

is at that point,

the joy and the gratitude

are slowly strangled

out of your life.

The slipknot of envy

strangles all of the gratitude

out of your life.

You no longer focus

on what you have,

on the ways that you've been blessed

or provided for.

You're only focusing

on what you lack,

on what you don't have.

And then over time,

joy and gratitude

are replaced slowly

by bitterness and resentment.

And sometimes you may even

get to the point

where you're mentally

tearing down

or invalidating

the good things

in somebody else's life

to make them seem smaller,

to make yourself feel bigger.

See, there are countless examples

that we could give

when it comes to lust

or anger

or bitterness

or envy

or all of the things

that we struggle with.

But here's the warning.

He pulls it together

in verse 12.

Let anyone who thinks

that he stands

take heed

lest he fall.

In other words,

do not underestimate

the danger of temptation

in the wilderness

and do not overestimate

your ability to resist it.

Do not underestimate

the danger of it

and do not overestimate

your ability to resist it.

The good news is

Paul is not about

to leave us high and dry.

That's not the end

of the passage.

There is tremendous comfort

to be found

in this passage as well.

So we have perspective.

We have a warning.

Now the Apostle Paul

leaves us

with some tremendous comfort.

We have three great resources

to help us live lives

of faithfulness

in the wilderness

so that we don't end up

like Israel.

The first

is we have the Scriptures.

The Apostle Paul says

in verse 11,

now these things happen to them

as an example

but they were written down

for our instruction.

He says,

thank God we have

all of this written down

and we can go back to it

and learn from it.

The point is this,

the more that we read

and understand

and apply Scripture

to our lives,

one of the things

that happens is

the more we do that,

the more you begin

to understand

your own nature.

You begin to understand

your own vulnerabilities.

You begin to understand

and see more clearly

your own weaknesses.

As we are reading Scripture,

we should always be

asking the question,

is God saying this to me?

Is God talking about me?

Is God wanting me

to hear this

for any particular reason?

There should always

be a question,

how is God speaking to me?

What is God trying

to tell me through this?

The more we do that,

the more we understand ourselves,

the more prepared

we're going to be

for life in the wilderness.

You know,

the great Harvard psychiatrist,

Robert Coles,

he spent his entire career

studying human behavior.

Entire career

at one of the greatest

universities in the world

and here's what he says.

Nothing I have discovered

about the makeup

of human beings

contradicts in any way

what I've learned

from Scripture.

Anything that I can say

as a result of my research

into human behavior

is a mere footnote

to those lives

in the Old and New Testament.

I mean,

that's amazing,

right?

We have in the Scripture

the best diagnosis,

the best understanding

of the human condition

available.

And the more we internalize it,

the more prepared

we're going to be.

So we have the Scriptures.

Number two,

we have community.

We have community.

Verse 13

is tremendously comforting.

No temptation

has overtaken you

that is not common to man.

That's an amazing

thing to say.

You're not going to face

anything

that the people around you

have not faced.

God's not going to single you out

and say,

I'm going to pour some temptation

on this person.

I'm going to make it

extra hard for them.

He says,

everything that you experience,

everything that you go through,

it's all common

to the people around you.

There are people

who know what it's like.

Now,

on the surface,

our lives may look different,

but underneath,

we all struggle

with the same temptations.

And these are the same struggles

that human beings

have faced throughout history,

which means,

and here's the good news,

we can help.

We should help one another.

It means this,

whatever you're going through

right now,

whatever you're wrestling with,

whatever's bubbling in your mind

as you're sitting here right now

listening to this,

chances are

there are people in this room

who either have gone through that,

are going through it right now

at the same time you are,

or will go through it.

We have no hope

of overcoming temptation

if we try to go it alone.

So you need at least

a few people in your life

who know you well enough

to be able to step in

when you need help,

who know you well enough

to know when they might need

to step in

even when you're not asking for help.

People you're close enough with

that they know

they have permission

to speak into your life.

They don't have to dance around

and say,

hey,

I gotta bring something up,

it's gonna be hard,

are you gonna be okay,

is it gonna jeopardize

our friendship,

and I don't wanna offend you,

that you don't have to do

any of that dancing around.

You can say,

we need to talk,

I got something

I wanna bring up.

Take it or leave it,

pray about it,

but I'm concerned.

And you say,

okay,

that's what friends do.

You know,

there's that great story

from Homer's Odyssey

where Odysseus is warned

about the power

of the siren song.

He's warned

that if he gets too close

and he hears the song,

he's gonna go mad

with desire

and he's gonna

run his ship

into the rocks

and like so many

other unfortunate sailors,

they will all die at sea.

So he tells his men,

before we get too close

to the sirens,

I want you to plug your ears

with beeswax,

but I wanna hear

the siren song,

but in order to keep us safe,

I want you to lash me

to the mast

so that when I hear

the song of the sirens,

no matter what I say,

no matter how much

I threaten you,

do not let me go

until we're clear

of their song.

And the men are good men

and they do exactly

what he says

and sure enough,

he's lashed to the mast

and they get close

and he begins to hear the song

and he immediately

loses his mind

and he starts begging them

to release them

and he's begging them

and pleading with them

to go to the sirens,

to go to the rocks,

but his men are good men

and they don't listen to him

and instead,

they tie him even tighter

to the mast

until they're free of the song

and then he regains his mind.

And of course,

the reason he tells them

to do that

is because he knows

that there's probably

gonna come a point

where he loses his mind,

he's not in his right mind

and at that point,

he needs them to step in.

The point is,

we need people like that

in our lives

who can tie us to the mast

when necessary.

You know,

when you're not

when you've just had

a massive

just guts out

on the floor fight

and you're like,

I am done,

I am out of here,

I'm through this marriage,

I'm never going back,

I can't do it another day,

I'm out of here.

You need somebody

to tie you to the mast.

Or when you're

in an incredibly abusive,

harmful relationship

and you're like,

I can change this person,

I can save this relationship,

I can hang in there

for one more day,

I can endure it,

it's not that bad.

Maybe you need

to get out of the relationship

and you need somebody

to tie you to the mast

and say,

no,

it's time for you to leave.

When you're ready

to throw your life away

for some stupid obsession

that doesn't seem stupid

at the time

because you've lost your mind,

you need somebody

to tie you to the mast,

right?

There are times

when you need somebody

to step in your life

and say,

no,

I'm gonna tie this down tighter

until you come back

to your senses.

We need people like that

in our lives.

So the next time

you're going on a work trip

and you know

that you tend to struggle

with lust

and there's a chance

that you might wanna

go out and meet somebody

because you're in a place

where nobody knows you

and there's no accountability,

line up a couple of people

to talk to on the phone

while you're on that trip.

You know,

if you tend

towards self-pity

and adopting

a victim posture,

deputize a couple

of people

to help you notice

when you're going

down that road

of self-pity

so they can say,

hey,

is there anything

that you should

take responsibility

for here

or is everything

somebody else's fault?

Maybe,

and we all have

different tendencies.

You need people

who know those tendencies

so they can step in

when they need to step in

and we do this precisely

because we know

that sometimes

we're not gonna be

in our right mind.

So these are the resources

we have.

We have scripture,

we have community.

Lastly,

we have God's amazing promise

in this passage.

Verse 13,

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 means we can never say,

you know,

I would have resisted

but God just poured it

on too heavy.

That in fact,

God says,

you're never gonna be

in a place

where there is not

some way out

if you choose it.

I'm never gonna put you

in a situation

where there is not

some way out

if you're willing

to choose it.

He always gives us

a way out.

So God always gives us

a way to persevere

in that situation

without having to resort

to sin.

He never puts us

in a position

where we have to sin,

where there's no other way.

In other words,

victory over temptation

is possible

in this life.

And I think this is

an extremely important

note to end on

because up until now,

I think it's been a lot

of hard stuff to hear.

But it ends with this promise

that actually victory

over temptation

is possible.

We should expect

to have victory

in this life.

And this is something

that we always need to hear.

But the reason

that victory is possible

is ultimately

because God is faithful.

It's because God is faithful.

God is not a spectator

waiting to see

if we're gonna screw up again.

God is our greatest ally

in the fight.

God is for us.

He's not sitting there

just saying,

ah, there's no way

they're gonna make it.

He's with us.

He's for us.

He wants us to succeed.

And it means

we can always count

on his help.

All we need to do

is ask.

That's why when people

are recovering from addiction,

one of the first things

they learn is

they're powerless.

The first steps

are about admitting

that you're completely powerless.

You can't do it

on your own

and you need God

in order to be able

to do anything.

Right?

The first thing

you need to do

is to learn

how to cry out to God

for help.

You just have to ask.

And the reason

that we know

that God is faithful

is because we see this

embodied in Jesus Christ.

Right?

we need only look to Jesus

who was tempted

in every way

as we are.

We see Jesus

going into the wilderness

enduring and facing

all manner of temptation.

And you know

the temptation

didn't end

after 40 days.

It continued

all the way through

the Garden of Gethsemane

and the desire

to not drink that cup

all the way

through the cross.

At any moment

he could have gotten down

but he chose to remain.

The author of Hebrews says

Jesus was tempted

in every way

as we are

and yet was without sin.

And through his death

on the cross

Jesus defeated sin and death

as we said earlier

so that one day

we will be free

from temptation and sin.

We won't have to contend

with this anymore.

This is just

a light momentary affliction

compared to that life.

But because of the cross

even when we do fail

even when we do find ourselves

ensnared by sin

we know that God

will always forgive us.

That God will always

restore us.

In the words of Psalm 103

and for wilderness people

who are going to fail

as often as we succeed

we need words like this

again and again and again.

God is the one

who forgives

all your iniquity.

Who heals

all your diseases.

Who redeems

your life from the pit.

Who crowns you

with steadfast love

and mercy.

Who satisfies you

with good

so that your youth

is renewed

like the eagles.

Let's pray.

Lord what a great comfort

it is to know

that you are a God

who desires our freedom.

Who has given us

that freedom.

Who protects us

and seeks to help

safeguard that freedom.

And who will one day

fulfill your promise

to fulfill

and restore us

and make all things new.

and we pray Lord

that in the strength

of your Holy Spirit

Lord

and through the finished work

of your son Jesus Christ

that you would give us

the strength

to live faithfully

here and now.

Lord between

between the cross

and the new creation.

We pray that you would

give us the strength

especially Lord

that we now lift up

those who are

particularly struggling

right now.

Lord either because of

stress and anxiety

or grief

related to their

to their work

to their job

to their finances.

Lord people who are

overwhelmed by despair

or hopelessness.

People who are caught

in the trap

of addiction.

Lord

people who are

on the edge

of hopelessness.

People who are

struggling in their

vocation of singleness.

Struggling in their

vocation of marriage.

Struggling in their

vocation of parenting.

Struggling in their

desire to be parents.

Lord struggling

in whatever way

we are struggling now

Lord we lift

we lift these struggles

up to you.

We cry out

just as we said

and we ask that you

would you would

give us the comfort

of your presence.

Remind us of your

faithfulness.

Lord empower us

and strengthen us

with your Holy Spirit

to stand.

Lord if there are

people here who need

others in their life

who need that kind

of community that

we are talking about

Lord I pray that you

would bring those

people to mind now.

I pray that you

would open people's

hearts to one another.

That we would be

willing to share

our struggles and

burdens and bear

them together.

Lord we lift all

of this up to you

and ask this

in Jesus' name.

Amen.