The truth about God, Man, and Temptation from 1 Cor 10:11-14

We've come around all mysteries, gadgets, fears, melodies.

Beautiful unless we are the honest prize of a breaking heart.

Better than a house, better than a church bell ringing.

Better than a choir singing out, singing out.

We've come around all mysteries, gadgets, fears, melodies.

Beautiful unless we are the honest prize of a breaking heart.

Better than a hallelujah.

Okay, so obviously you can see that our lesson today is on a set of verses today.

And so this set of verses really, when I was a young Christian, it really spoke to me, really touched my heart.

In fact, we took a little trip, a field trip with our Sunday school class.

I don't know if you remember this or not from my test 20, but I began teaching Sunday school very early as a Christian, which was against my grain.

It was not anything that I felt comfortable doing.

And we took our Sunday school class on a little trip down to see the old and tangy caverns down in, by Columbus.

And on the way back, we got a storm. We were driving on the back country road with a big van.

And it was kind of scary. And our devotional that day was from 1st Corinthians, Chapter 10.

And as I was driving on that back country road with a half dozen of other people's greatest treasures in my van, which is their children,

and Sherry and I were going, like, should we just stop and get off the road and wait?

I mean, the weather was really bad. We were praying and they were praying. Everybody's praying.

And then the weather cleared up and we got one more problem. We didn't even have to stop.

But there was just a few minutes in there where we didn't know what was going to happen.

And while we were praying, some of the boys in the youth group at that time were in my class, actually.

It's a seventh and eighth grade class.

And some of them were in there quoted from the verses that we had studied at the caverns that day.

And so it really spoke to me. And we're going to look at them. I'm going to read the verses first.

And then if you can believe it, everything that's on this page, every blank pretty much comes directly,

at least all the statements come directly out of the text. OK, some of them you couldn't possibly guess.

And I'll just give them to you. You can write them in at the time. And some of them, they just make a lot of sense.

So it's first Corinthians, chapter 10, and I'm going to be reading verses 11 to 14. And it goes something like this.

1 Corinthians 10 · chapter mention

Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come.

Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall.

No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man.

And God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able.

But with temptation will provide the way of escape also that you may be able to endure it.

Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.

Now we can go on and we kind of need to look a little bit at what we were talking about before.

You'll notice back in verse 11, it says now these things.

So the question is, what are the things that we're talking about?

If you look back in 9, let us not try the Lord as some of them did and were destroyed by the serpents.

Now you know who he's talking about, right?

Remember that story? The Israelites coming out of Egypt and they're now wandering in the desert.

And serpents attacked and were destroyed and would bite them.

And they were poisoned. They were dying. Even the strongest of them were dying.

And they were given the bronze serpent to look unto.

And when they would look at the serpent, they would be saved.

But if they refused to look at the serpent, even the strongest amongst them would die.

Well, that whole story is encapsulated in where he says,

Nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer.

In other words, they complained, they weren't happy, and then God allowed,

God removed their protections and allowed them to be attacked.

And then if they wouldn't look to the bronze serpent, which we now later know represents Jesus,

then they wouldn't be spared.

So that's who he's talking about. People that grumbled along the way.

God's people protected by God, led by God, all they grumbled along the way.

And God allowed the destroyer to come in and destroy them. And they didn't make it.

And then he says, that happened to them as an example.

That happened to them. They were destroyed that way.

And it was written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the age have come.

And that is us, right? That is the church. That is God's people.

So we're going to start, we're starting in the upper left-hand corner.

You'll notice there's some little boxes there.

And in the little box there, you can write God.

Apple G-O-V. God.

And so we're going to talk about God.

So all of these things are going to be about God in some sense.

And the first one is found where it says, it's right in the middle of verse 13,

it says, No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common demand.

God is faithful. Right?

Now, interestingly enough, in the Greek language, that's two words.

And you can memorize these words and they'll be a huge plus.

A lot of times you can't memorize the Greek because you don't know it well or whatever.

But it's theos pistos. Theos pistos.

Very simple. And it means God is faithful.

Pistos is faithful. And so God is faithful.

It is his supply. It's inside the faithful.

And so God is faithful. So what does it mean to say God is faithful?

Throwing it out there. Not a rhetorical question.

Fashon, what would you say it means to say God is faithful?

It's trustworthy.

You can expect that God will keep his promises. He tells the truth.

He stays the course to the end.

What he says he's going to do, he doesn't.

God is faithful. Theos pistos.

Okay. And not written in the text, but what the text is about, God is also what?

Starts of the day. He's faithful and he's probably his number one trait.

Almighty. Amazing.

You're making it more complicated, but that's true. He is amazing also.

He's able. God is able.

So there's a, you know the old joke, right?

Would God ever make a rock so big that God can't move it?

Or rather I should say, could God ever make a rock so big that God can't move it?

What's the answer to that question? Because you're going to get it at some point in time.

That's how people try to disprove God.

If God's all powerful, he could make a rock that he can't move it.

Therefore that's a contradiction. So God can't be real, right?

So what's the answer to that question?

Can you try to tackle it?

Say it again. He can, but he wouldn't.

He can, but he wouldn't. That's right.

The answer is such that he can do, but he would restrain himself from doing so.

And why would he restrain himself from doing so?

Because if he ever made a rock so big that he could not move it,

he would then have to make himself big enough to move it.

And then he could have to make a rock bigger so that he couldn't move it.

And it's infinite, right?

It creates an infinite loop. It breaks the rules of reality.

Could a person leap off a cliff and not die? Sure they could.

But the rule of gravity says they probably won't.

And that's the way it is with God. God is able.

He's able to make a rock so big that he cannot move it.

And he's able to make himself then move it.

And then he's able to make himself another rock that he can't move.

And so on. He's able.

There's no limit to God's ability. God is omnipotent.

Now based on this verse dealing with temptation,

it says there is no temptation that has overtaken you, but such is his common demand.

God is faithful who will not allow you to tend beyond what you are able.

But with the temptation will provide the way of escape.

And so there it is.

H P. What's the P?

Provides. Provides.

And escape. Escape.

Or an exit. Or whatever you want to put there.

Right? God always provides.

So this is what people say, well I wouldn't have done it, but I was tempted.

And I was overcome by temptation.

But there actually is never an excuse to be overcome by temptation.

Because God never allows you to be tempted without also providing an escape.

A way out of doing the thing that you are tempted to do.

And I didn't say that. God said that.

And I'm quoting God because he says he will provide an exit or an escape.

Okay? And then the next one's a little bit tricky.

Key. And the next word starts with an E and I'll give it to you.

Expects. And then I didn't give you any of the rest of the letters.

What do you think God expects from us?

He provides an exit or an escape and what does he expect?

He expects us to take it. Exactly.

He expects us to take it.

So God teaches you what's right and wrong.

Jesus said the Holy Spirit will come and teach you all things that I have commanded you.

Right? God convicts men of their sin.

So the Holy Spirit would bring conviction to all men.

Saved and unsaved alike.

Then God provides an exit when temptation comes.

There is no temptation except that which is common to man.

He provides an exit and he expects you to take the exit.

If you're driving down the expressway and you're about to go off a cliff,

but there's an exit right before you get to the cliff, are you going to take the exit?

I'm sure you are. I believe you're really dumb to drive off a cliff.

Right? You're going to be destroyed. Your car will be destroyed.

Even if you manage to survive, it will be horrible.

So of course you're going to take the exit.

So common sense, which is not at all common, I understand.

But any person can figure out if there is an exit that keeps me away from doing that,

what I don't want to do, I'm going to take the exit.

And God expects us to do that.

Okay? And so the C there is command.

The C is command.

So in these verses, what was the command of God?

It was not to take the exit.

We observe that from where it said he provides an exit.

But what is the command that we read?

It was in verse 13. It says this.

It says, no temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man,

God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able.

But with temptation we will divide our way out.

I'm sorry. It's not in verse 13.

It's in verse 12. There we go. It says this.

Therefore, let him who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall.

Okay? So the command is those who, and it goes down on the next line,

those who think they stand, stand is the first word on the next line,

take heed lest they fall.

So what does it mean to take heed?

Say it again?

Pay attention.

Yeah, pay attention.

Pay attention to what's going on around you.

So if you're in a crowd of people, people are brushing up against you,

you might put your hand on your wallet or you might put your wallet

in a less available pocket or stuff it down your pants or something.

You collect your purse close because somebody could steal it.

Somebody could go after it, right?

And so that's taking heed.

You're taking the very simplest steps,

which is to start with to pay attention to the circumstances of what's going on.

I learned a long time ago that most criminal behavior takes place

when people are looking right at the person but not seeing the person.

If you look somebody in the eye and talk to them,

they are much more likely to know that you are paying attention.

You're taking heed.

You're aware.

You're alert.

And they're not as likely to do something stupid at that point in time,

sneak something past you, whatever.

Most of the time, somebody picks a pocket.

They do it by distraction.

So they'll bump you briefly or somebody else bumps you,

and then they pick your pocket or they're going to put something in the way

that you're focused on, paying attention to that, that kind of thing.

And so you need to pay attention.

Take heed lest you fall.

And who is it supposed to take heed?

Those who think they are standing.

You think you're okay.

You think you're doing what God wants you to do.

It's pretty easy to do that.

I feel that way sometimes when people around you are not doing what they're supposed to do.

You're busy looking at what others are not doing and you think you're standing.

You might even be comparing yourself to that.

Yeah, they're screwing up.

Yeah, they're getting into trouble.

Yeah, they're acting out against the rules, whatever.

And then he says if you think you're standing,

that is when you need to pay attention.

Okay?

Alternatively, what does the person who is failing to stand need to do?

It doesn't say that they should pay attention.

What should they do?

Biblically speaking, if a person is failing to stand for God,

they're going to live for God, they're in sin, what should they do?

Revenge. Revenge. Turn to God.

So what do you do?

You take your eyes off your circumstances and put them back on God.

Right? Remember Peter?

He came out of the boat.

He literally was standing.

Right? He literally was standing.

Took his eyes off Jesus, looked at the storm, and started to sink.

Jesus came over, pulled him up out of the water,

and you better believe he was glad that Jesus was there.

So while he was on the water, he focused on Jesus, he was standing fine.

When he took his eyes off Jesus and looked at the storm, he began to fall.

So what did he need to do?

He needed to repent and turn back to God, put his eyes back on God.

The more you are focused on God, the more likely you are to stand in God.

That is the bottom line.

Now does that mean you have works you have to do to stand?

No. We're not talking about losing your salvation.

You can sink in the water, you can die in the water and still go to heaven.

But if we're talking about your ability to stand for God

and do the right thing under those circumstances, which is what they did not do.

And this is what he's talking about.

They had an example, they did not complain,

moaned against God instead of standing like they're supposed to.

And theirs is an example for us.

And this is one of the things that we should do.

Take heed lest we fall if we think we are standing.

If you already know you're falling, just repent.

And then the last command, there's another command in there.

So it's also, the A is also, and then there's a colon.

What was the other command?

Anybody remember it?

It's the very last thing we read.

We read the whole thing straight through.

Leave from idolatry.

Leave from idolatry.

I couldn't get what Carl was saying, but that is the correct answer.

So, leave from idolatry.

Okay.

And what is idolatry?

Lots of men in the room, lots of adult women in the room know this answer.

What is it?

What is idolatry?

I'm late on my student route.

No, that's adultery.

Oh.

I'm not false god.

Yes.

There you go.

False god, we're putting something about God, right?

And so actually, let's be really super clear about this.

You can trace it very simply to the Ten Commandments, and it says,

Thou shalt have what?

Finish it.

No other god before me.

No other gods before me.

So does that mean you can't have any other god that is above God?

Is that what it means?

No.

No.

What does it actually mean?

You can't have another god.

Right.

Because it's the Old English before me, as in, right now I am before R.J.

We're not going anywhere.

I'm not in front of him.

I'm not over him.

I'm not bigger than him.

I'm not bigger than him, that's certainly not true, right?

So, but I'm before him.

And so when you put a god before god, it means you're bringing another god into your god's face.

There's a great story about the Temple of Dagon, and they put the Ark of the Covenant in there,

and Dagon fell down.

And they were like, oh no, so they stood Dagon back up.

And the next day they went and he fell down and he broke all the pieces.

And so in their infinite wisdom, and their wanting to practice idolatry,

they noticed that he fell across the threshold.

So they created a tradition to never step on the threshold anymore.

That's how they solved that problem.

But the reason Dagon, the statue, kept falling down was because he was in the presence of the living god.

And false gods fall down in the presence of the living god.

And if you put a false god in the presence of the living god,

and you put it there, and you keep putting it there, it's going to keep falling down.

You're going to spend your whole life putting that false god or that thing,

whatever it is that you're finding important, up.

You're going to keep putting it up, keep putting it up, keep putting it up.

Or keep worshiping it, telling everybody how awesome it is,

and you thinking how awesome it is all the time, when it's always wrong.

It's always wrong.

Never should there be anything else in the god's face.

So that means, for example, if you're supposed to be in worship,

nothing interferes with worship.

Now I say that, but I can worship at home.

Well that's true, and nothing should interfere with that.

That's part of your god's face.

But when you have a local church, and you're supposed to be in your local church worshiping,

that's where you are.

And you say, but some people have to have a job, and they have to have a job,

and a job interferes. I understand that.

And then you should do everything in your power to ensure that it does not.

That's how you make sure it's not in the god's face.

Otherwise, if you're not, and you say, well, I've got to do it, it's up for me,

you know, just the way it is, then that thing has entered the god's face.

And then it becomes idolatry, when that thing becomes that much important.

And how far does this go?

It goes to matters of health.

If your health is messed up because you messed it up,

and you allow your health to keep you out of church,

you are practicing idolatry.

Or out of worship, or out of sharing the gospel, or out of reading your bible, or whatever.

Because you're the one who allowed your health to be what it is.

You caused it, you ate the wrong thing, took the drugs, stayed up too late,

stayed up all night watching the book, whatever it is.

And so when you do that, you're practicing idolatry,

which is to put something else in your god's face.

And it might be something good, family.

Family is a great thing, but it doesn't belong in your god's face.

Money is good. We need to pay our bills, we can tithe, we can give, we can help other people.

It's good, not inherently good.

The pursuit of money is the root of all evil.

It can be useful, it can be a good thing, but you can't put it in the god's face.

Only one thing belongs in the god's face, and that's God.

Okay, so now we're going to go over to the right side.

And I'll give you, I'm going to give you the first word, and then see if you can guess what goes in the box.

Okay, the first phrase is, we are tempting.

We are tempting.

Now what do you think goes in the box?

The word in the left box was God.

What do you think the right box is?

No.

The pronoun is we.

Self.

Okay, self would work, or man, or humans, or me, or us.

Right, so we're going to talk about us from these verses now and see what they say about us.

First of all, we are tempted.

Is there a human being ever to live who does not, is not subject to temptation, including Jesus Christ?

No.

We did last week in Tuesday night, we did, who wants to be a millionaire?

We had a lot of kids, and we didn't have a lot of adults.

We didn't want to be a millionaire.

And one of the questions that came up while we were doing Wants to be a Millionaire was, was Jesus Christ ever tempted?

That was the question.

And it was something, there was something on the end of it, like was he ever tempted to disobey God or something like that?

And the answer to that question is yes, he was tempted.

Right?

Humans are tempted without question.

Everybody, there's nobody that's not tempted.

Nobody.

Adam and Eve were innocent, had never sinned, and they were tempted.

Right?

So you can be perfect until the moment you're tempted, and then you'll be tempted to sin.

Everybody is tempted, without exception.

In fact, it's common to man, says these verses.

Alright?

And so then the next part, again, it would be hard for you to come up with, but I'll start it.

We are not, we are not, what do you think the O is?

Take a guess?

Overcome.

We are not overcome by, and then the next two go with it.

We are not overcome by what?

The T is probably, you can guess that.

Jason?

Temptation.

That's right.

Okay?

Temptation, we are not overcome by temptation, but what is the U?

That was awesome.

Yeah, that was really good.

Okay.

We are not overcome by, it starts with the U.

The word is not in there, in the text, but its opposite is.

It starts with the U.

I don't know what the E stands for.

I don't know what the E stands for.

No, not, it's not.

Okay, is means to be, but that's not what I mean.

I mean, the opposite of this word is in the text.

That's what I meant.

So, in the text, what is temptation called?

Plus all the temptations.

Let me get it, I'll find it.

No temptation is overtaking you, but such as is, what's the next word is?

Common.

Common.

So the U is uncommon.

Very good.

Okay, so the U is uncommon.

Look at that, we're two for two.

Woo, we did good.

Nice and melted.

Yeah, it's 95 degrees in here.

It's 95 degrees in here.

Put it in the refrigerator later.

Okay, so we are not overcome by uncommon temptation.

This is the state.

So the first part is the state, it's true, we are tempted, but also our state of being is we are not overcome by uncommon temptation.

So this is what everybody says.

Well, I was resisting the temptation pretty well until he said, she said, they did this happen, it went that way, I fell down, I got hurt one too many times.

I was resisting the temptation pretty well, but the temptation became uncommon and it overcame me.

That's a lie.

The Bible says the opposite, you are not overcome by uncommon temptation.

If you are overcome, you are overcome by common temptation, the same kind of temptation, the same generic nature of temptation that everybody else has.

Say, but nobody has faced what I went through.

Yes, because you are a unique individual.

That would be true if your life story was the same as somebody else's.

You could have the same exact life story, same date, same hour, two o'clock to seven, four o'clock to seven, six o'clock to seven on all the same dates.

And yet it would still be unique because you're you and they're them.

Right?

That the fact that you're not uncommon, that you are uncommon does not make the temptation that you face uncommon.

And that's what people want to say.

I'm different.

I'm unique.

You don't know what I'm going through.

You don't know what I'm facing.

According to the Bible, no one is facing any temptation except that which is common to men.

Did you know statistically that there are nine people on on base of the planet right now that look just about like you do?

Like they could they could use your driver's license.

That's how close they look.

Statistically, that's true.

And people have done research on it and tried to find those people like that.

And it hands out.

It actually works.

You can find people that look but your odds of ever meeting anyone who looks just like you.

It's very slim unless they happen to be like your son.

Right.

Other than that, it's very, very slim.

And so we are all uncommon and all of our temptation is common.

And if you can so that you could go out there and you could find people whose temptation is very, very, very similar to yours.

They are facing some of the same problems, not the exact same problem, but some of the same problems you are.

And you could search for our enough far and wide and you'd find somebody who has your same set of variable.

Well, but even if you didn't, you just tend to do the same kinds of things, same sins, the same idolatry.

And so we're all led in that direction by common temptation.

So when you the next time you sin, don't go, oh, I almost made it.

But it was uncommon.

What I went through was uncommon.

That's why I said that's just not true.

You almost made it and you did make it because you didn't make the exit.

You didn't find the way out that God had provided, whatever that was.

I would say it's the same as the Bible verse where it says nothing is new under the sun.

That's right.

Plasiesties, nothing new under the sun.

That's true also.

So yeah, he's twisting.

The enemy is twisting.

The evil spirit is twisting.

The world system is twisting thing.

But really, they're not even new.

OK.

And so that goes next.

We're working our way down there.

W.C.U.

And it's we.

And the C is can.

And what do you think the U is?

Undue.

Say it again.

Undue.

Nope.

Last time you gave me a great big word, this time you gave me a real word.

It's we can understand.

We can understand.

Remember that it says they were given as an example for us.

And it says these things were written for us so that we would arrive at this conclusion.

So if somebody writes something for you or shows you something, expecting you to arrive at a conclusion, then that means they assume you can understand.

Right.

You can draw the same inferences logically that that presents.

And so we can understand.

We can understand that we are faced with a common temptation.

We can understand what the exit is and we can take the exit.

And that's the next one.

We can take the exit.

You got it.

We can take the exit.

And more than that, the next one, we can escape and escape.

You can say escape.

Yes, I put endure.

You can make it through.

You can finish the race.

I would even go so far as to say God expects us to do that.

And then we've got three dues.

The first due is the first command that we read in the other section.

God gave this command.

So we should take he perfect.

That is exactly right.

Take.

Okay.

And the second one is we should.

We have to agree.

We have.

And I changed out my paper, say, please temptation.

And I think taking the exit would be included.

Yes, sir.

Take heed.

Which we said is the pay attention.

Watch what's going on to be cautious.

Be aware.

Okay.

And then the next two is the three temptation.

And then the next do is I'll give you this one because it's a little tricky.

So we should recognize the difference between.

Common temptation.

Okay.

Which is what temptation is common temptation.

All temptations, common temptation.

So we should recognize there's been that.

Which is externally.

Externally originated all temptation is common temptation and is externally originated.

So why do I say why?

What I say we don't internally originate our own temptation, but that's where we feel temptation.

Right.

Is inside.

I'm going to do it in a second.

Yeah.

Okay.

Read the verse again or read that again.

The blanks.

Yeah.

I'll do it one second.

Okay.

So why do I still say temptation?

Common temptation is externally created even though the battle is internal.

What is in us that relates to the temptation?

Let's say.

Say again, yeah.

Fleshly lusts.

We have our desires.

The desires.

That's that's what we put in.

We bring the desire.

The world offers a potential solution, a potential something to meet your desire.

That's the temptation.

You start thinking, well, I desire to feel better about myself.

I need to be some chocolate or I need to be some alcohol.

All right.

I need to feel.

I had to tell me that she feels free when she drinks.

So that's why she loves to drink.

Well, that's all it is.

You have a desire and the world offers you something that looks like it will meet the desire.

That's the common temptation.

Right.

Trina's nodding her head.

Yes, that's exactly right.

Okay.

And so but that is externally originated.

The temptation is externally originated.

So your food is not in you.

Your drugs are not in you.

Your time consumption is not in you.

None of that is external.

It's probably you can even reasonably say it's not even your own idea.

Right.

It comes externally originated.

The temptation is.

But we have to know our difference between externally originated common temptation.

So we'll go back to the top and help Jason out here for a second.

Okay.

We're going to recognize the difference.

Are you with me, Jason?

Yeah.

Between common temptation, which is externally originated.

And now we're going into what we have to know the difference.

Self-induced temptation, which is.

What is that?

Oh.

Originated.

Oh, originated and self-induced temptation, which is.

And this is a word you would not normally use.

A kin.

Which means it's very similar.

It's in the same family as.

To entrapment.

So what does that mean?

What did I just say?

Somebody interpret my gibberish.

I'm going to take a stab at it.

Common temptation.

Externally originated.

Got to know the difference between that.

And internally or self-induced temptation, something I do myself.

Which is akin to entrapment.

What do I mean?

Inducing it on the same little piece of stuff.

I'm going to take a stab at it.

Okay.

I got everything, but the middle piece, inducing your own.

Sin or temptation.

Yes.

So she's saying.

If you induce it yourself.

You wind up stuck.

That make sense?

So I go like, okay, I'm sitting here.

Temptation comes common temptation.

It's external.

I can solve your problem for you.

I'll take care of you.

I'll meet that need or that desire that you have.

No, no.

I got to do it.

You then go.

I see within myself a need.

I devise a plan and the plan is ungodly.

Then you eliminated the single most important thing, which was what?

You took God out of the equation.

You said I've got a solution that I can enact, but I'm taking God.

So that's idolatry.

You did not take heed.

You were standing previously.

You did not take heed.

You didn't pay attention.

Instead, you say, well, I got a plan.

I'm going to take God out and practice idolatry.

And you're going to fall automatically because you brought something else into your God's face.

I submit to you, let's say you said, well, I'm just going to buy a car.

That's going to solve my problem.

And you can say the car you brought in your God's face.

Nope.

Okay.

You say the money.

The money is what I used.

I brought that into my God's face.

I should have known better than that because I can't have God in my family.

That's what I brought in, but that's not it.

So what did you bring into your God's face at that moment?

Say it again.

So kind of.

The need.

Kind of.

What?

The wants.

Your self, your needs, your wants.

But it's really what, because those were always there.

What?

Kind of.

What did you do with the desire?

What did you do with the wants, the need, the self?

What?

Didn't God control it, didn't God control this desire in you?

What?

No.

Jesus said, well, there's nothing more to my desire that I can do,

but he wants me to do.

I don't go to God on ideas.

I just do also the words, and as long as I am still doing my do's and don'ts or

even call.

The sink is what I'm used to in the other world and mlbg.

The other world, yes, what will get me?

What will put me in that situation?

And he wants me to do the hard thing.

What is theơl?

What I go a little closer to, right?

And he's going to do some of the hard work and I can do some exercises,

He said if they eat it, in the day they eat it, they'll surely die.

But she said, when God said, God said if we touch it, we'll surely die.

See what's happening there?

She's reasoning.

And what does the very next verse say?

It says that she looked at the fruit and she saw that it was good to eat.

Were all the fruits in the garden good to eat?

Yes.

And she also figured that it was good for the knowledge, or it was good for wisdom.

She saw that it was good for wisdom.

She reasoned.

And so what man does, it really makes him stuck, it really makes him dead, basically.

He brings reason into the God space.

And once you reason your way to your meeting your desires, your lust, your selfishness,

whatever, when you reason and you start following that road, God is not there.

God gave you reason.

What?

Somebody think about Acts 17 for a moment.

God orchestrates our life, the boundaries of our life, what is where we are and everything,

so that we might.

Why did God give us reason?

To know what to do.

Yep, to know not what to do, but what?

To know what.

So that we would.

Look to Him.

Look to Him, right?

So that we could figure out, like if you look at the all of creation, all of creation testifies,

if you went into a courtroom and the opposition brought 1000 witnesses that said the guy was

innocent, nobody on the jury concludes he's not innocent at that point.

Why?

Because reason dictates, the evidence is there, right?

And creation is like that, it's testifying for God all the time.

You have to be unreasonable to decide that creation is not talking about God, that God

didn't create it, that kind of thing.

It has to be unreasonable.

And atheists do that.

They're unreasonable and they have big untenable arguments for a lack of His existence.

God gave us reason so that we could conclude, that we could come to the moment of realizing

He's there.

He wants us and He yearns for us.

And also it says, notice that He would never far away in the first place, right?

Because why?

Because our reason was flawed.

It got messed up by our sin and our loss of our desires, etc.

But if you continue to reason your way to what you want outside God, you are trapped.

You will never be saved.

If a person would say, I'm going to be saved by my own strength, by my own intellect, by

what I know, by what I learned, by what I learned of the Bible, that's what's going

to save me.

All of that will take them straight to hell.

But if they will submit their reason to God so that He will cleanse it, purify it of all

unrighteousness, now every time common temptation comes, they can use that reason to find that

escape and take it.

It may not be easy, right?

And the deeper in you are with some things, the more uncommon the temptation feels.

But it's really just common temptation that everybody might face.

It may be unique for you, for your specific circumstances, but it's just common temptation.

Is reason necessary for you to go through?

I would say yes, right?

Because reason is where we make our decision.

So I agree with that.

That's kind of part of why you get to reason.

Yep.

To do all of this.

But you couldn't be like God if you didn't have reason.

So He made us in His own image.

We have to have reason, right?

You couldn't love.

You can't choose to love because sometimes you would choose not to and then you'd be stuck

forever choosing not to because you can't choose back.

So yeah, reason is an absolute necessity for a lot of reasons.

Okay.

Anyway, all right.

So we're just going to go through, we're going to go down to the left-hand side.

And you'll notice there's a pair of binoculars there.

And on my paper it says looks like, and it should say that on yours as well, looks like.

This is what this looks like.

Okay.

And so number one starts with a C.

So if we're doing this thing that God has called us to, we ought to be, starts with a C.

If you think you're standing, you should be.

Praise?

Praise?

Praise like maybe, but no, no, that's not the word I was going for.

Say it again.

Oh, I like that.

Consistent.

Yeah.

But that wasn't the word I was going for either.

Cautious.

I was going to say take heed, right?

It says take heed.

If you think you're standing, take heed.

So we should be cautious.

All right.

We're going to go a little faster, going to run a little bit low on time.

All right.

So the next one is eyes open or aware.

Okay.

So this is what it looks like to be doing what it is that we're being called to in these verses.

We're cautious, realizing that temptation is common, realizing there is a way out.

We're keeping our eyes open and aware of our surroundings, aware of our way out.

And then three, undistracted.

Let me see.

Cautious.

We have cautious and then we have eyes open or aware, and then we have undistracted.

Why is the undistracted important?

To be focused.

Yeah, so you're going to be focused on God, right?

So we're not distracted by the other things in this life.

That's kind of temptation, right?

But in the moment that the exit comes, if you're not paying attention, you won't take it.

If you don't take it, then there's no other way.

God made a way.

He may make another way, but he may not make another way.

You're promised one, not seven.

So get out when the getting is good.

Cautious, eyes open, aware, undistracted.

And then four is prepare to run or escape.

There is a moment in time where common temptation will so surround you that it will take a pretty extreme effort for you to avoid falling to that common temptation.

Can anybody think of a Bible example real quick?

Yeah, that would be good.

But he didn't run, did he?

What was his escape?

What was his exit?

What exit did Jesus use?

The scripture.

The word. That's right.

He used the word. And that is a great tool under these circumstances.

But even then, you know, there is a more blatant example.

Does anybody remember the story of Joseph?

Mm hmm.

What happened that he fled from temptation?

It was the...

Potiphar's wife, right? The Roman governor, Kai, rich dude who owned Joseph.

And what did Potiphar's wife do?

She tried to seduce him against his will, even though he was trying.

What did he do? He was like, no, the God would not want me to do this. Right.

And he had to flee. And when he fled, he fled without his garment.

She grabbed onto it and he couldn't... Now, he could have smacked her.

He could have grabbed her and wrestled her through to the ground, whatever.

All of which would have been horrible for him. Right.

That would have been terrible because that was way outside of his social ability to do so.

He would have gone up in jail and he would probably get... He did any of that.

Instead, he fled and left his garment there.

There was a time where that... it may get that extreme that you have to flee and the escape is not comfortable.

It's very inconvenient.

Or you're with friends and you're at a bar

and you already told them you're not going to drink or whatever

and somebody buys you a drink and hands it to you.

And that's extreme temptation. Like, I just take this one drink.

Whatever. It's no big deal. I know I told them I wouldn't let them do it.

Whatever. Just one drink. It's no big deal.

And you may have to literally leave.

I'm leaving. Why do you say, no, don't leave. No, don't leave.

I won't offer you another drink. No, I'm leaving. That's it.

I'm beyond my limit at this point. Right. I'm going.

I already told you I wasn't drinking. You offered me after. I already told you I wasn't drinking.

And they can say you're unreasonable or whatever,

but that was your moment of escape.

And because they can say, OK, they take that drink away.

And 15 minutes later, another friend or some guy at the bar offers you a drink

and you're back in the same boat.

Right. Because you realize at that point, I've got to say, I'm out of here.

I take the exit. I'm taking the exit.

That could be your example.

You may not have that. It may not be your temptation.

It might be something else. Right. But whatever it is,

it's a moment where you think of it and that leads us to number five.

It starts with a D. In that moment, you have to be.

Want to take a stab at it?

In a moment, you have to be decisive.

That's right. You have to be decisive.

He's trying to kill you. Killing.

I'm not talking about people. Right.

I'm talking about temptation.

He's trying to kill you.

He's trying to lead you to sin. Sin leads to death. Right.

And so you have to be decisive.

That's when you might have to walk out and say, I can't do that.

Sorry, I told you before I wasn't going to be able to do this.

Now I can't do that. Right.

And it might mean hurt.

You might be risking a friendship or whatever,

but standing up for Jesus is always the right thing.

And again, if you don't take the exit, you could be in a real hurt,

in a real bad spot and stuck.

And even at that point, it becomes you can say, I'm not going to take that drink

and I'm going to do this to make sure I'm going to stand up at the bar.

I'm going to yell, nobody here buy me a drink. I do not drink.

How many people will buy you a drink if you stand up at a bar and yell,

I can't drink, I'm an alcoholic, I'll never drink again?

Probably quite a few over the space of the night,

because they want to see you crash like they're crashing or whatever.

Or people just ask, I'm sure, what's wrong?

Why are you being like that?

And they're just trying to be nice to you.

And I'm just using an elegant drink, but it could be sweets,

it could be a vest that you're on, it could be money, it could be anything.

I quit smoking, that was the most annoying thing.

Offering cigarettes?

Yeah, for the first year, I was just sharing,

I was joking about this just like last night, right before.

For the first year, year and a half, we would go down to Piglia's Pizza

and Bowling Green after I gave up soda.

And they have red cream soda in the can, which is like, that's not soda,

that is like awesome.

Red cream soda is awesome, I still remember the taste of it now.

And one time she bought me one and said it in front of me,

she ordered one from the waitress and said it in front of me.

And I had had soda for, I don't know, 10 months, a year, year and a half, whatever.

And then she was like, oh no, no, I'm sorry.

She took it away, but the point is I could have just drank it.

So you got to be decisive.

And then six, CTWS is compare temptation with slavery.

Remember that these people that we're talking about were rescued from slavery,

life slavery, now they're falling into temptation

and God is not able to work amongst them the way he really wants to.

And it gets kind of ugly.

A bunch of them fell and died because of it.

Okay, now you'll notice there's one more box over there.

This is the crux.

I'm just going to walk you through it.

It's all filled out for you already.

Okay.

But this is where, go ahead.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah.

So it's they died.

The top two are they died.

I can't remember what the other one's are.

I don't have it.

We're going to take a stop.

Does that have a HHWW in the box?

I'm talking about next first.

I think it's in the text.

Yeah.

Just just over the border.

This is like the hour.

Okay.

Well, anyway, I'll figure out what those things are.

We're going to finish it.

We're running out of time.

So we're in the bottom box on the right hand side.

Salvation.

Right.

Wrestling.

So anybody, anybody familiar with wrestling at all?

You've seen watch wrestling.

So at the beginning of wrestling, how does wrestling start?

High school or college wrestling?

How does it start?

Are you not close?

No.

Not close.

So one guy's down on the ground.

Another guy's on top of him.

Why is that?

And then the next time they go, what happens?

The other guy's on the bottom.

They switch.

Why does it start with somebody on the bottom?

Well, it's trying to pin them.

Yeah.

The goal is to try to pin.

That's the main way to win is to try to pin somebody.

Right?

So what does that person on the bottom have to do?

Escape.

You've got to escape.

They call it a reverse.

You can get up and get control or you can escape.

I mean, it's a half point for escape or a point for reverse or something like that.

I don't know if wrestling will, but the bottom line is that's how it starts.

So in wrestling, you have holds.

OK.

It's kind of like temptation.

Will you have temptation?

You will have temptation.

Right?

So in wrestling, one of the things they have to learn is how to handle holds because they're coming.

Holds are coming.

And what do they use to handle a hold?

Say it again.

Yeah.

But an actual hold in wrestling, you use an escape.

Right?

So, for example, if somebody has their hand clutched around your neck and their fingers are clutched together,

really the only way to break that is to pull their fingers apart, for example.

Right?

Or they have their hand behind their back.

The only way to break that is for you to flip and slip back around so you can put your hand down.

So they have moves that they use.

I don't know wrestling well, but they have moves that they use because they know they will be in holds.

And the goal is to reverse and become on top so that you're in charge.

This is what God wants to do.

OK.

So for us, we face salvation.

We have temptation.

Those are going to happen.

That's like the wrestling.

And then we have holds and we have to take the exit.

But we need to reverse.

We take the exit and get out.

OK.

And for God's purposes, He wants to lead us to victory.

Right?

So I want you to think for a moment.

We're going to finish on.

I'm going to try to see if I can bring this home here.

OK.

So we talked about how common temptation externally generated.

Remember?

Common temptation is common to everybody and externally generated.

But it meshes with our desires and our wants, our self.

Right?

So like let's say you want to feel I want to feel stronger today to see a commercial to buy a vitamin supplement or to buy a take a drug or whatever, because you feel tired.

So you take that, you feel better.

So that's a temptation.

Meets a need in you.

Temptation says it will meet a need in you.

But our goal is not to let temptation get a grip on us to get a hold of us.

Right.

So then we would say, well, no, I'm resistant.

I'm resistant.

I'm continuing to wrestle, but I'm still on the bottom.

Right.

So temptation keeps coming against me.

Keep putting holds on me.

I keep finding an escape.

I'm still on the bottom.

So is that a good life to live that we face common temptation all the time to find the exit?

That's really not a very fun life.

That's not the abundant life that Jesus gave us.

The goal then after taking a certain number of escapes, so for a really good escaping wrestler, nobody can hold him.

They get a hold on him and he's gone in a minute.

Right.

Next thing you know, he's on top of them.

Now they might look at Iran and they might be on top of him again.

But if they get a hold on him, he's got the escape.

And what it is is you get so aware, you're so ready, skilled, disciplined to take those escapes that the various holes that the enemy could get on you to become people.

They can't really do it.

Right.

And when we see God provide victory in an area that provides us with the knowledge that we can win in that area.

So, for example, you have a temptation like I had lying.

I was a liar, very proficient liar.

I could have probably been a con man, but I was very self-inhibited.

I was very worried about what people would think of me.

So I couldn't do it as well and really profit from it because even though I could lie and fool people all the time, I couldn't bring myself to do that because of what people would think of me if they did find out.

Right.

So 25 years of my life, I got to be a pretty good liar.

Then after two and a half years after I got saved, that there was a moment in time where God said that's just not going to happen anymore.

So now I'm very careful.

Have I ever lied since then?

Yeah, probably.

In fact, I'm sure.

Right.

So the point is, but I'm very careful about it, but I can't live my life being very careful and always looking for the outs.

Right.

Looking for the escapes.

I have to embrace something about me that makes it know that I'm in victory.

So what is it about a person that makes it so they don't have to wonder whether they're going to lie anymore?

It's the truth.

It's integrity.

It's being comfortable with who you are.

You don't have to make things up.

You don't have to embellish things.

There's no story to it or whatever.

So what to get it down to the simple.

Jesus wants to be fully present in us.

And he wants he's brought us out of slavery.

He wants to keep us free.

He wants us to live abundantly.

I don't mean rich, right.

But abundantly in spiritual gifts, abundantly in peace, abundantly in hope, abundantly in love and faithfulness, all the fruits of the spirit, et cetera.

He wants us to be there.

So it's not this constant, I'm on top.

I'm on the bottom.

I'm on top.

I'm on the bottom.

I need an escape.

I've got an escape.

Now I've got to go back on the bottom again.

That's not the life that he bought for you.

The life that he bought for you is temptation is going to come.

I'm aware of that.

When I think I'm standing, I'm going to pay attention.

I'm keep my eyes on Jesus and do what I'm supposed to do.

And I won't get to the point where I have to just take that last escape or that last out.

But if I do, I already know it's there and I already know how to take it.

That's the life that he's leading us to.

But it takes time.

So maybe you have some temptation that you think is a pretty big deal and it comes on you when you're unaware.

You put yourself in position and whatever.

And you're failing sometimes to take the exit.

Over time, you will learn what the exits are and you will take them.

And the sooner you do, the sooner you will embrace the free, abundant life that Jesus has provided for you.

He said, I did not come.

I don't come as the thief to kill, steal or destroy.

So the thief comes like that.

But I've come to command life and have it more abundantly.

And he said to those Jews who believed in him, come follow me.

And then you shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.

He's not about making you a wrestler.

He's about making you a victor.

Right. And these verses remind us they were already victors.

I mean, seriously, if you saw what they saw, would you complain against God after he wiped out every firstborn, the boils on everything, all the water was turned to blood.

That's darkness.

Every living being that could be eaten for food destroyed in the entire nation except amongst the Israelites.

After you saw that, would you complain?

I submit to you that if you've experienced Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, there's a moment in time the Holy Spirit came in, you regenerated, you truly became, you realized I'm saved.

Then you have had an even bigger miracle than seeing what God has done, had done to the Egyptians.

So I submit to you that we probably would.

We probably would.

Unless we were practicing this.

Unless we were cautious.

Unless we were eyes open and aware.

Unless we were undistracted.

Unless we were prepared to run or escape from temptation if necessary.

Unless we were decisive.

Unless we realized giving in to temptation was tantamount to slavery.

Again.

So now we know how to do it.

And we just got to practice it, practice it, practice it, so we get really good at it.

And that's what that was all about.

And that's what Paul was writing for the Corinthians.

That's what that's all about.

Will you ever be without sin in this lifetime?

Probably not.

But do you have to heal the common temptation?

No.

God never provides a temptation that's anything but common demand and with it he always provides a way out.

Alright.

So that concludes the lesson.

That concludes the text.

Somehow or other I will figure out, Cameron, what the HHWW was in the middle.

We'll figure that out.

We're going to close in prayer.

I'm going to give the teenagers some candy.

But we do have lots of snack cakes in the cafeteria.

That doesn't mean everybody go eat two or three snack cakes or whatever.

But at least one could be good if you're able.

I'm not going to eat one today.

So any questions?

Testimony?

Concerns?

Well, praise the Lord that we are able to endure this arrangement that God has made on our behalf.

Father in heaven, we do thank you that as Christians, and I pray that everybody here truly has believed in you and your son Jesus as a received a Lord and a Savior in Jesus.

And I pray, Lord, that at the same time we have put no one else in our God's face.

No false Jesus.

Money.

Not things of this life that entice.

But just you.

You be God.

And we would recognize you're God and we would follow you with with all that we have.

And then as you keep pouring into us, that means more and more and more and more ability and more capability and more decisiveness and more ability to be cautious.

And the list just grows.

Father, I praise you that you set it up that even people who have sinned against you, who have fallen into sin, the patient and death, that even folks like that.

And that was me.

Can accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior before and again.

And now the word says that we have a mediator for us and so I don't want us to think that being cautious is about being afraid, being afraid that we would sin.

We have to accept that we probably will sin again today maybe even in this hour.

But, Lord sins of ignorance and sins of intentionality are two totally different things.

Sins that we do because we haven't figured it out yet versus sins that we do because we figured out a way to get our get what we want without you in the mix.

A totally, totally different things.

And so Father, I just pray that as we face common temptation that we will take heed that we may stand.

That we will look for when necessary the escape and that we will decisively take it.

Lord, make us able to discern, give us wisdom and give us the peace to know that you've got us no matter what.

If there would be somebody in this room who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, or they know they're walking in sin, they know they're giving an temptation.

Then Lord I pray that you will allow them in your great grace to repent right now and to be healed.

You are our God and you are more than capable of this.

Oh, Dagon fell down and they picked him up. Oh, Dagon fell down and he broke up and then they wouldn't step on the threshold anymore out of respect for Oh, Dagon who was nothing at all.

Or at the best was a demon or an evil spirit who doesn't begin to compare with the God of the universe in whom we serve and who has served me today.

And we pray that Jesus name. Amen.