Misunderstood • Week 10

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Hey, good morning. If you have your Bibles, and I hope you do, I want to invite you to join us in

1 Corinthians 10 is where we're going to be this morning. If you do not have a Bible, we have one

that we'd like to give you. So then the service, you can stop by this black table back here. I'll

be back there. My wife will be back there. Would love to give you one as our gift from our church

to you so that you can have a copy of God's Word. If you're a first-time guest, we want you to scan

the QR code. We want you to do all those things, but also we would love to meet you. We would love

to be able to say thank you for being here personally, and thank you for worshiping with

us. And so my wife and I will be back at that black table at the end of the service. And if

you wouldn't mind stopping by, we would just love to greet you, learn your name. Thank you for being

here. And then if you do happen to have any questions about us as a church, we would love

to be able to answer those for you. So it has been a crazy, crazy month. And this month of July,

really like leading back into June and coming in through where we're currently at with July

with kids camp, two mission trips. The student ministry just got back yesterday from our second

trip in three weeks. We're doing the math. I think we spent like 13 out of the last 20 days

in Black Mountain. So we are practically residents of Black Mountain now, North Carolina. And so

we've been there, 64 students and student ministry workers. Phenomenal, phenomenal week of ministry.

I want to tell you, church, if you're not aware of this, I hope that you are. You have a wonderful,

wonderful set of students who partner with you in the gospel ministry that God is doing here at

Willow Ridge Church and that God is doing outside of Willow Ridge Church. You know, we've said this

from the very beginning that we don't view our children's ministry and our student ministry as the

next church, the church of tomorrow. They are the church now. They are missionaries being

mobilized where they live, work, and play to share the gospel with their friends, loved one, and often for

so many of them, their own family members that they live with. And so it's exciting to be able to

partner alongside them. They worked so, so hard last week. They did so with a smile on their face.

They did so with gratitude in their heart, in their words, and so did the adults who went. And so if you're

curious of who are the adults who went, look for the adults with really big bags under their eyes, shuffling

their feet as they're coming in. I'll have to say this. Jennifer McPherson was one of them who went. She just stomped

her foot at me. I know where this is going. And she walks into nine o'clock discipleship hour in here with her

sunglasses still on, just kind of shuffling like this. And I thought it was that, it was that level of week. But we're glad that

you're here. So if you see them, man, thank them, encourage them for going. And then just kudos to Joel

and his team and how he leads in our student ministry. But we had students who made furthering

commitments with Christ. We had students who make decisions to follow Christ and salvation for the very

first time. And it's just exciting. Yeah, yeah, clap for that. And so a wonderful, wonderful time. Do want

to encourage you. I'll be praying. I don't have, we don't have the time to get into all of the details,

but the state of North Carolina will be making some decisions as far as the land goes in the Black

Mountain Children's area and around there. And so I don't even fully understand all the legalities

of all that is going on. But I am praying for what they, what the Black Mountain Children's home

leadership desires in that land so that they can continue to be a light for Christ and reach that

community around them alongside the partnering churches there in that community. So be praying for

that this coming over the next couple weeks. And I do want to say next Sunday, August the 3rd,

we will have a time of prayer in our service. As I believe, every year I say this, I believe back to

school is the mobilization of the largest group of missionaries that the church has. As we send our

students into every aspect of their life to go and to serve. And that can be as students, that can be as

teachers, that can be as educators, as, as district workers. But, but that is also as, as these adults are

influencing in the life of these kids. So at the end of this, at the end or sometime during the service,

we'll call all of our students up front through college, we'll call our educators, we'll call our

We'll call our homeschool parents, we'll call our district workers, we'll call our custodians, we'll call

anyone who works in a school system, whether they are paid or not to come forward, and we'll have a special

time of prayer for them. And so if you know someone, if you know someone that works in the school system, I just

know, man, they need that prayer. They need that prayer. And so invite them to be here with us next week. And so we

would, we would, we would definitely love to pray for them. I want to get into, we got a couple more weeks of our current

series before we get into our study of Daniel. That will be a fun study to dive into God's word. I spent, I think

roughly about 14 weeks in Daniel. So we'll get in to that in a couple weeks. But let's go look at our verse this

morning. First Corinthians 10, 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. Would you pray with me? God, I thank you for this past week.

God, I thank you for the time of fellowship and ministry that we had up in Black Mountain.

God, I pray for the work that you're doing there. God, in that system of foster care and the kids who've

been forgotten, cast to the side, taken away, or whatever the situation is. It can be such a dark

and hopeless situation. But God, you're, you're shining your light. And you're doing so through

the individuals and the, the, the partners there at Black Mountain Children's Home. So God, we pray for

them. We pray for the, the governmental decisions that will happen and take place over the next several

weeks for the state of North Carolina. God, we do not know what your will is, but we pray that,

that your will would be done and that God, you would get all the praise and honor and glory.

God, as we dive into your word this morning, may we do so with open hearts and minds to receive

what you have to say. God, may I be faithful to teach, Lord, what you have taught, or not what I

desire, not what I'll long for. And may it bring glory and honor to your name. It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen. Amen. I do want to echo what, what Berger said also before we get into this. Um, be careful

this week. It is getting hot. Uh, yesterday when I, when I was getting ready to leave about 1130,

leave Black Mountain to drive back, cranked up the truck, read 82 degrees.

Sounds pretty good, doesn't it? I got to the south side of Spartanburg and evidently somebody cut

off the AC and it was 102, less than 60 miles and 20 degrees. So Lord, we'll praise you. We just don't

really understand what you're up to right now with this, right? Uh, so be, be safe, be careful this

week. So, uh, looking at God's word, looking at first Corinthians, continue on this series. God's word

is full of promises. If, if you Google, if you do some research, if you try to count the, the, the

experts kind of debate on the different number of promises that you find in the Bible. But, but a

consistent number that I found, uh, a conservative estimate was that there are around 8,100 promises

in God's word. And that brings us encouragement. That brings us excitement to know that God has

promises for us and he always fulfills what he says he's going to do. God doesn't promise something

and then not live up to expectation. God is faithful. He's faithful to you to bless you. He's faithful to

you to forgive you. He's faithful for you to keep you and praise the Lord. He is faithful to save you.

And his promises continue over and over and over again. And if you're like me, one of the ways that

I like to encourage people who need encouragement is to speak the promises of God into their life,

to remind them of the promises. These aren't my promises. They're his promises. And so to know that

you're loved, to know that you're valued, to know that you're treasured, to know that you're forgiven,

to know that you're saved. Oh, praise God for that. But oftentimes people are prone to speak a promise to

one another from God, but there's a problem with this promise. God never made this promise.

These words, this promise that we attribute to God isn't from him. And here's the promise.

We say oftentimes to people, you know, God promises that he would never give us more than we can handle

or more than we can bear. Now, this may seem like something great to say to someone who's

facing a specific season of hardship or suffering, but this promise isn't found in the Bible.

And in fact, to say to someone that God promises that he would never give us more than we can handle

actually speaks against what the Bible teaches. I mean, start in Genesis and follow all the way

through in Revelation. Follow the people of God, those who are in themselves or pursuing the Lord and loving

him and striving to be faithful to him and surrender to him. And we see them finding themselves in

situations where they continue to face hardships, beatings, imprisonment, hunger, sorrow, and even death.

The apostle Paul writes 1 Corinthians, he writes much of the New Testament, and he was not removed from this

layer of suffering in his own life. And in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, here's how he describes to the church at

2 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

Corinth what he's gone through. He says, for we do not want you to be unaware brothers of the affliction

that we're going through. He says, for we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.

Indeed, we felt that we'd received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves,

but on God who raises the dead. Look at the language that Paul uses here. Look at these strong descriptive words that he uses.

Paul's not adding to the story. Paul's not making things up. Paul's writing under the guidance and submission to the Holy Spirit.

This is God's Word. It's perfect. He describes the affliction we experienced.

He says that he was burdened. They were burdened beyond our own strength.

He says that they despaired of life itself and that that life felt like a sentence of death.

And all of this happens while Paul is faithfully serving the Lord.

I don't know about you, but to me, it sounds like God gave Paul a little more than Paul could handle.

A little bit more than Paul could bear.

Burden beyond our strength.

Here's the danger when we fall into these Christian-type sayings that sound good on paper but aren't biblical.

What happens is we begin to build false foundations.

False foundations of belief.

False foundations of life.

That may sound great, but it's not the truth of God's Word.

Here's the danger of God promises that he will never give us more than we can handle, more than we can bear.

Is that when God does give us, and let's put a slash there depending on which side you want to argue on of give or allow.

When God does give or allow us more than we can bear, and he will, and we've built a false foundation of faith, that foundation will crumble.

So we look to Christ in the fullness of his Word as the foundation that we can build our lives on and know that it's true.

The truth of God's Word, what we can hold to, what we can cling to.

When every lie of this world falls apart, when every lie that we've believed, when every trick and treachery of Satan falls short,

you and I can trust every single word of this.

The highlight of my summer.

It was the highlight of my summer last year.

It was the highlight of my summer this year.

Joel and I sat down last year and had a crazy idea for the high school or for the middle school mission trip.

What if we took four of our high school students and challenged them and tasked them to work alongside with me and to become teachers

and to teach these large group lessons and teach God's Word.

And so that's what I've had the joy of doing.

This summer I've had the joy of text messages and phone calls and one-on-ones and lunches

and sitting down with this group of guys and girls and talking through them and helping them build a lesson based off of the parables

so that in turn they could take that and go and teach that to their peers at night on the mission trip

and then break out into small groups afterwards.

And it's been a blast.

It's been so much fun.

And I'm just going to tell you, we were this close to like,

listen guys, I just need to tap y'all in for Sunday morning because I'm a little tired, right?

But we didn't, we didn't, we didn't.

Here's, here's the counsel though that I've given them and that I'll continue to give

and that I often have to remind myself.

Do not come to God's Word seeking what you want it to say.

Come to God's Word seeking to find what it says.

Like you and I, we bring our biases, we bring our experience, we bring what we want

and then when we come to God's Word, we can take it out of context,

we can manipulate it to get it to say what I want it to say.

But the problem is, but that's not what it says.

And so be faithful, be faithful to God's Word.

Now, in the context of what we're talking about,

do I selfishly want God's Word to say that God will never give

or allow me more than I can handle?

Selfishly?

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Who doesn't want easy?

Who doesn't want simple?

Who doesn't want 82 instead of 102?

It's what we're prone to.

It's what we want.

I don't want suffering.

I don't want hardships.

I don't want difficulties, struggles, persecution, worse.

None of these sound good to my flesh.

None of those sound good to the old that wants to come up in my life.

None of that says, let's fun and get a, let's get another slice of suffering this morning.

But do I need them?

Do I need them?

Well, the truth is, that's, that's not up for me to decide.

But the truth for every single one of us, even as a follower of Jesus Christ,

not only does God not remove those from us, but His Word promises us that we'll face Him.

We'll face Him.

So why?

Why?

Why does a good and holy and all-powerful God

allow these things to happen in your life and in mine?

Let's look back to 2 Corinthians 1, 8, 9.

For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia.

For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.

Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death.

But here's what I have underlined in my Bible, and I would encourage you to underline it in yours.

But that was to make us rely, not on ourselves, but on God.

Who, by the way, let's remember, Paul gives us this, who raises the dead.

Who raises the dead.

Now, Paul is a pretty impressive person when you look at his life in the course of history.

You can read the book of Acts, and early on, and you see the salvation from Saul to Paul.

You see his salvation story.

You see what happens and took place.

You see where he came from as a terrorist, as a persecutor, as a murderer of Christians.

And God saved him.

And he radically saved him, and called him, and changed every part of him, and put him on mission.

We see Paul as a master of the Old Testament.

He knew the Old Testament law through and through, and not just as concepts, but as a memorizing it,

and a mastery of the Old Testament.

We see his writing ability, and the submission of the Holy Spirit found in the New Testament.

He's the greatest church planner that the world has ever known.

He's the greatest fundraiser that the world has ever known.

His church is people who you couldn't just wire transfer money over in church after church after church,

in spite of having things taken from them, and losing their jobs, and losing their homes,

or raising money to fund the work of God all over the Mediterranean.

All over the known world.

We see Paul performed miracles.

Small sampling.

He cast out demons.

He healed the sick.

He raised the dead.

All through the power of God.

Not through the power of Paul.

All through the power of God.

I would say that when we look at this resume of what's here,

that it is very evident that it is a man who depended and who leaned on the power of God in his life.

But yet God decides in himself that Paul needs more and more and more

so that he would rely not on himself, but on God who raises the dead.

So if Paul needed that, how much more do you and I need that in our lives?

You and I can have a tendency to believe that we're a little bit more capable than we really are.

We can leave our hope of eternity with Christ.

Leave that with him.

But allow for our hope of today.

Our ability of today to rest on ourselves.

And so God's word promises us

that God will give us more than we can handle

so that we too can rely not on ourselves,

but on God who raises the dead.

Expressions that we use.

That when these begin to come in your mind,

as you face the difficulty of today and tomorrow,

as you walk through the suffering that came yesterday

and still feeling the scars of today,

when you begin to feel these sayings in your mind,

would you use it as an opportunity

to confirm your dependence on the Lord

for every single moment?

Have you ever thought to yourself

that you're beyond what you can handle?

Depend on God.

Do you ever feel like you're at the end of your rope?

Depend on God.

Do you ever feel the weight of the world

crashing down on you?

Depend on God.

Do you ever feel like when you get out of bed

in the morning and you just can't today?

Depend on God.

Do you ever feel like you just can't

simply take one more thing?

Depend on God.

Stop looking at these as punishments of today

and start looking at these things

of the reminder of the hope that we have.

It is so good that I can't,

but He can.

Confession time.

Y'all ready for this?

A few weeks, months ago,

the youth were here on a work day on a Thursday.

And they were working, doing the pads

and doing the fencing and doing all those sorts of things.

And there was a railroad tie

that was laid out.

And it needed to be moved.

And I was over there with them.

I was working with them that day.

I had a great time working with them.

Micah Hood was over there.

And Micah said,

hey, somebody come over here

and y'all, plural, get this.

Micah was leading.

Micah was doing a great job,

working hard, leading.

And I said,

I got this.

I don't know why y'all laughing.

Mike Smith, I hear you laughing.

Thank you, buddy.

So, because here's what I know.

About 10 years ago,

we had some other railroad ties.

And I went out there

and spent probably two to three hours

moving railroad ties.

Well, 10 years ago, I wasn't 46 years old.

And so I got that railroad tie up

and I thought,

well, that's not too bad.

And then I forget who it was.

It was one of the middle school boys.

You know, they say what they think.

He said,

are you going to pick that up?

Like with,

you can't pick that up.

And I thought,

oh, little boy, watch this.

I'm picking this up.

So, really quickly,

math.

All right, so, gravity.

Here's where we go.

Here's where I need to position.

And I positioned

and the weight of it came down.

And right here was good.

But then it was having to come from here

to here.

That was the problem.

But I said,

Bo, you got this.

And I stood up

and I was going to take it up the hill.

But I thought,

nah, they don't know that.

In the woods works.

So I took three steps

and chunked it.

And then Micah said,

I didn't know you had that in you.

And I said,

well, now you know different.

Here's the confession.

That's the last one that I had in me.

That was it.

No more whatsoever.

Right?

And I think that's how we take our life, though.

I can, I can, I can, I can, I can.

And we just need to let God say,

hey, Bo, I got this.

Because you see,

when God does it,

when God does it,

then what we do is we stand up

and tell a story about what God did.

And we tell a story about how God's faithful.

And we tell a story about how God's powerful.

And we tell a story about how God is good.

And then God's the hero of the story.

And God's the point of the story.

And God's the hope of the story.

So I know you just can't today,

but God can.

I know you're at the end of your rope,

but God's not.

I know you feel like the weight of the world

is crashing down on you,

but God's holding it up.

And God's with you.

And God's faithful.

So where do we get this idea from?

Where do we get this concept from

that God will never give us

more than we can handle?

Well, most think that it's from a misunderstanding

of the first verse that we read,

1 Corinthians 10, 13.

I'm going to reread that to you.

No temptation has overtaken you

that is not common to man.

God is faithful,

and he will not let you be tempted

beyond your ability.

But with the temptation,

he will also provide the way of escape

that you may be able to endure it.

So what we see is the context of this thought,

this idea that we come from

is not found in hardships,

it's not found in suffering,

but it's found in temptation.

And here's the context,

as we've now jumped from 2 Corinthians

back to 1 Corinthians.

Before coming to faith in Christ,

most, if not all,

of the people of Corinth,

the Corinthian believers,

participated in idol worship.

And the worship of idols then

was much like the worship of idols today.

It had infiltrated every part of their life.

It was a part of their daily routine.

They had festivals.

They had feasts

that all circled around the worship,

the pagan practices

of worshiping these idol gods.

And these festivals were known

to have deep, dark, sinful practices

that were associated with them.

And now, as Christians,

they want to no longer worship the idols,

but they still want to participate

in the social life

associated with the festivals.

We're not worshiping it,

but we still like to be around it.

And so let's eat,

and let's drink,

and let's participate,

but it's okay.

We're not going to get too close.

So at the beginning of this chapter,

what Paul does is

he gives them examples

of Old Testament Israel

and how they constantly fell into temptation.

And even though they knew

who God was

and they knew

what God was capable of,

right,

they still began to partner up

with temptation

after temptation

after temptation

until they themselves

fell into their own pattern

of sinful wandering from God.

And so what Paul does here

with this verse

and the verses surrounding it

is he gives the church at Corinth,

he gives them a warning,

a promise,

and an action.

Those are going to be our next three points.

A warning,

a promise,

and an action.

So let's look at first,

let's look at the warning.

Paul's warning,

verse 12.

Therefore,

let anyone who thinks

that he stands

take heed

lest he fall.

Here's the warning.

Don't become smug,

don't become casual,

don't be complacent

in your ability

to fight sin.

Me with the timber.

I got it,

I got it,

I got it,

until I don't.

One of my favorite movies

growing up,

still one of my favorite movies today,

is the movie Goonies.

I love the movie Goonies.

I love the movie Goonies,

I love the characters

that are there,

and my favorite character

is probably Chunk.

I like Chunk.

And there's a clip

in it

where there's a water bottle,

and he's going to pick it up

and move it.

And he picks it up

and Chunk's the clumsy one,

he breaks everything,

and he says,

he's holding,

he goes,

I got it,

I got it,

I got it,

I don't got it.

And then they say,

you klutz,

and he breaks it.

And I think that's

what you and I do.

When temptation,

when it's the temptation

that we face,

when it's the temptation

that we see,

it's the warning,

don't get so close.

I know you think you're good.

I know you think

you can handle it.

I know you think

that you're powerful enough

to do this,

but here's the truth,

that you're not.

And so here's this warning.

Therefore,

let anyone who thinks

that he stands,

that he's good,

that he's got this,

be careful.

Be careful,

lest he falls.

It's the warning.

It's the warning

of the goodness of God

that he gives us.

It's a warning

that as Paul instructs

the people

that he shares,

guys,

do you have the freedom

to be around this?

Do you have the freedom

to go,

but you're not

going to engage with it?

Sure.

But here's the warning, man.

The warning.

Take heed.

It's dangerous.

It's dangerous.

Then here's the promise.

Here's the promise.

Verse 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.

Temptations are not sinful.

We all face them.

Some of us may have

similar temptations.

Some of us may

have different temptations.

It's not wrong

to face temptation,

but it is wrong

to give in to the temptation.

And we,

the promise of God's word,

the promise,

I know you feel weak,

I feel weak.

The promise

of God's word says

we do not have

to give in

to the temptation.

That you have a choice.

That God is faithful.

That God is faithful.

You don't have

to sin.

You ever heard

the expression,

the devil made me do it?

No, he didn't.

You chose to do it.

He didn't make you

do anything.

You're a child of God.

You chose it.

I chose it.

But we don't have to.

Because God is faithful.

And there's an out.

There's always an out.

Here's the question, though.

When you're tempted,

when I'm tempted,

are we looking for our out,

or are we looking for

a justification

for our way in?

Ah, just this one time.

Just a little bit.

Just tonight.

Just now.

Just in the moment.

I know when I fail,

and I fail often,

I'm not looking for the out.

I'm not clinging

to the promises of God.

I'm not remembering

that God is faithful.

I'm not looking to Him.

I'm looking to me.

I'm looking to me.

But the promise

that God is faithful.

So when you face

the temptation to sin,

there's always a way out.

And when you choose it,

praise God.

And then lastly.

Lastly, there's the action.

There's the action.

Therefore,

my beloved,

flee from idolatry.

Flee from idolatry.

1 Corinthians 10, 14.

We see a scriptural pattern.

If God tells you

something one time,

that's one time enough

to listen to it

and take it to heart.

If God tells you

the same thing

multiple times

over and over and over again,

He may be saying,

I know He's saying it to me,

hey Bo,

slow down and process this some more.

We see a pattern in Scripture.

This is just a sampling of them.

In 1 Corinthians 6, 18,

flee from sexual immorality.

In 1 Timothy 6, 11,

But as for you,

O man of God,

flee these things.

Pursue righteousness,

godliness,

faith,

love,

steadfastness,

gentleness.

2 Timothy 2, 2.

So flee

youthful passions

and pursue righteousness,

faith,

love,

and peace

along with those

who call on the Lord

from the pure heart.

What's the pattern?

The patterns flee.

The patterns flee.

Did a little word study on that.

I've always just kind of

gotten the picture of running.

Running.

Some of us are faster.

Some of us are a little slower.

I always kind of took it as the point

is just get away.

Get away.

Did a word study on this word,

on flee this week,

and it kind of carries with it

kind of two thoughts.

I want to share these with you

when it comes to the temptations

or the sins that we face.

Whatever degree,

temptation,

sin,

we see both of them listed.

Both of them commanded to flee.

Flee the temptation.

Flee the sin.

The first thing is escape.

Escape.

That's the first.

See, that's more than run.

That's escape.

When I think of escape,

why are we escaping?

Because something's after us.

Something's trying to get us.

Something's trying to entrap us.

Something's trying to kill us.

Makes us think of sin

a little bit differently, doesn't it?

Makes us think of temptation

a little differently, doesn't it?

Escape.

Get away.

Move.

With urgency

and a little bit of panic.

Not too cool for the moment.

Not thinking through

what others are going to say.

Not the things that we criticize

as adults for teenagers doing

of falling into the peer pressure

around them.

Teenagers, guess what?

We follow

the exact same pattern sometimes.

Escape it.

Escape it.

The second

connotation of this word

is avoid completely.

Avoid completely.

Ooh.

Hmm.

What about that temptation?

I'm good, man.

I'm strong in the Lord.

I'm here.

I used to battle with that.

Don't battle with it anymore.

God's word says flee from it.

Avoid it completely.

Here's the question.

Is not,

is it okay?

Is not,

can I endure this?

The kind of,

is it going to bring glory

to God in this?

Is it going to produce fruit

in me in this?

So God's word says

that in temptation,

that in sin,

that I escape it,

and now that I know the escape,

here's number two,

avoid it completely.

Now that I know

that this is this piece

that is here,

that I do have a choice,

and that I have a decision to make,

and I don't have to walk down a path

that's going to get complicated,

that's going to get difficult,

that I can do certain things,

that I can build my life,

that I can set my mind

on the mission of God,

of what God has for me,

to avoid these things altogether.

Not so that I'm holier than thou,

but it's so that I can be obedient

to the holy God,

of what he's called me to.

And so here's the action.

Flee.

Flee.

Escape it.

Avoid it.

Not so at the end of the day

that we can look at ourselves

and think about how great we are.

That when I take the meaning

of 1 Corinthians 10, 13,

and I press it together

with the meaning of 2 Corinthians 1,

8 through 9,

here's what we come to.

That it is you and I

press into God

as we walk with Christ,

as we're dependent

upon the Holy Spirit,

as we rely on Him.

Praise God.

The promises of Scripture

are true

that He is faithful,

that He is capable,

that He is good,

and church,

He is worth it.

He's greater.

He's greater than anything

this world promises.

Press into Him.

Would you pray with me?

God,

God,

I thank You for the promises

and for the truth of Your Word.

Lord,

there's been so many times

every person in here,

Lord,

has misquoted,

misused

Your Word.

God,

and I thank You

for Your faithfulness,

Lord,

that You forgive us

when we've done so.

God,

as we go from here today,

oh,

Lord,

how,

to our flesh,

how wonderful it would be

to not have to face

the hardships

and the suffering.

But God,

we just know

that we will.

And when we face it,

God,

may we know

we are not alone.

May we know

that it's our strength

that comes from You.

May we know

that it's the power

that comes from You.

May we know

that it's our hope

that comes from You.

And may we cling to You.

And that, God,

when we face temptation,

we do not face it alone.

And we have ability

to walk away.

We have an ability

to escape.

We have an ability

to avoid.

And it is found

not in who we are,

not in our own

internal goodness

of ourselves,

but it is found

in You and You alone.

And it is evidence

of the power

of Your Holy Spirit

who dwells in us,

who is working in us

and moving in us.

And so, Lord,

thank You.

Thank You providing a way, Lord.

And You are the way.

You're the way.

We can walk.

God, I pray for us here.

I pray for the testimony,

our faith,

our willingness

of obedience,

our willingness of obedience.

God, that we would seek

to glorify

and honor You

in all that we do

and all that we are.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray.

That's it for this week's message.

Be sure to check back next week

for a new episode.

And in the meantime,

you can visit us online

at willowridgechurch.org

or by searching for

Willow Ridge Church

on Facebook,

Instagram,

and YouTube.

Thanks again for listening.