Invocation
O merciful God, help us to live always in the
realization of the account we must one day give. May we pray right, listen keenly, and live as
faithful stewards of Your good gifts.
With the assistance of Your Spirit.
Amen.
Prayers
for the church of Christ, for others, for yourself.
Scripture: 1st
Corinthians 10:1-22
“1 For I do not want you
to be unaware, brothers, that
our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed
through the sea, 2 and
all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all
ate the same spiritual
food, 4 and all
drank the same spiritual drink. For they
drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless,
with most of them God was not pleased, for they
were overthrown in
the wilderness.
“6 Now
these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they
did. 7 Do
not be idolaters as
some of them were; as it is written, ‘The
people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.’ 8 We
must not indulge in sexual immorality as
some of them did, and twenty-three
thousand fell in a single day. 9 We
must not put Christ to
the test, as
some of them did and were
destroyed by serpents, 10 nor
grumble, as some of them did
and were destroyed by the
Destroyer. 11 Now
these things happened to them as an example, but they
were written down for our instruction, on
whom the end of the ages has come. 12 Therefore let
anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. 13 No
temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God
is faithful, and He
will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He
will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
“14 Therefore,
my beloved, flee
from idolatry. 15 I
speak as to sensible
people; judge for yourselves what I say. 16 The
cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of
Christ? The bread that we
break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because
there is one bread, we who are many are one
body, for we all partake of the one bread. 18 Consider the
people of Israel: are
not those who eat the sacrifices participants in the altar? 19 What
do I imply then? That food offered to
idols is anything, or that an
idol is anything? 20 No,
I imply that what pagans sacrifice they
offer to demons and not to God. I do not
want you to be participants with demons.21 You cannot
drink the cup of the Lord and the
cup of demons. You cannot partake of the
table of the Lord and the
table of demons. 22 Shall
we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we
stronger than He?”
Sermon: Overcoming Temptation
By
Pastor Ed Evan
Let
me begin here by pointing that while we don’t have religious idols on every
street corner, tempting us to bow down to them, we make idols of things and
events in our life when they become more important than obedience to Almighty
God. When we ignore what God has said
about something, when we allow something to dictate our actions, when we set
aside God’s love for the things WE want to do – we have created an idol.
There
is a story told by Charles Swindoll about a boy caught swimming in a canal,
where his father told him not to swim.
The boy admitted to giving in to temptation. However, the only reason the boy could go
swimming there was because he brought his swim suit … just in case he was
tempted.
Do
we ever find ourselves doing this? We
don’t intend to give into temptation, but it seems like we are prepared for
it. We put ourselves into situations
where we know we are going to be tempted.
Why do we do that to ourselves?
To God?
The
comedian from the 1970’s, Flip Wilson, had a comedy sketch about that. Anyone remember Flip Wilson? He also had a sketch about being the Pastor
of The Church of What’s Happening Now, in Las Vegas where they had a lot of
fallen women that he needed to “pick up.”
But we’re not going there.
The
sketch I had in mind was about a fellow whose wife had this phobia about new
dresses. She loved them! In fact, he was going broke because she kept
buying new dresses. And when he told her
she had to stop, she told him, “The devil made me do it!”
And
he told her that next time she was to tell devil, “Get thee behind me,
devil!” So she very contritely agreed
she would do that.
That
night he comes home, and there’s a brand new dress! He’s really angry and says to her, “I thought
you said you were going to say, ‘Get thee behind me, devil!”
She
said, “Oh honey, I love you, and that’s exactly what I did. But the devil said, ‘It surrrre looks good
from back here!’”
If
we find ourselves constantly giving in to temptations, it’s may be because we
are not keeping our eyes on the prize.
The prize is worship. Whether we
do it here or in glory, the prize is the worship of God. Worship is not just our praise and obedience
to God, but His response to us, as well.
It’s joining into a lifestyle that lasts for an eternity and beyond.
So,
if we acknowledge that one reason to avoid giving in to temptation is so we
don’t cut ourselves off from God’s love, what might be another big reason to
avoid giving in to temptation?
Let’s
think the unthinkable for a moment.
Suppose Jesus had given in to the temptations of Satan? Satan tempted Jesus to prove who He was by
turning stones into bread, by throwing himself off the pinnacle of the temple,
and to fall down and worship Satan in exchange for all the kingdoms of the
world and their glory.
If He had thrown Himself off that temple to
the ground below, would He have been hurt?
No. If He had given in to Satan,
the whole world might have recognized Him as the Son of God and worshipped Him.
But what else would have been
impacted? Could He have bought your
salvation and mine on the cross with a sinless life? No.
So
who would have been hurt? Others. You and I.
Others. And that’s where I would
like us to focus this morning on the subject of temptation. But on the way to focusing on how our giving
in to temptation would affect others, let’s take a side trip into baseball
history.
Who
can tell me about “Tinker to Evers to Chance”?
We’re
talking about Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance.
Are
you one who likes to root for the underdog?
So you’re a Chicago Cubs fan, right?
These three guys played for the Chicago Cubs between 1902 and 1913, when
the Cubbies could still win the pennant.
First,
let me define some terms. For those who
don’t follow baseball, a double play refers to
getting two outs on a single play. And
the way that happens most commonly is by a ground ball hit to the shortstop
(Tinker) thrown to the second baseman (Evers) to force the runner out who had
been on first base and then thrown to first base (Chance) to complete the play.
This trio first appeared on the field Sept. 13, 1902, and two
days later turned their first double play against their nemesis, the New York
Giants. From 1906 through 1910, the
"Tinker, to Evers, to Chance" double play happened 54 times. Wap-wap-wap, you can almost hear that
baseball hitting the mitt until it comes to rest in the glove of first baseman
Frank Chance, and the guy racing to first is out~! Wap!
Wap! Wap!
They
were inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and immortalized by a
poem, written by New York sportswriter
Franklin Pierce Adams, who was a Giants fan.
You can read that poem below, but you need to know one unfamiliar word
in there, and that word is “gonfalon”. A
gonfalon is a pennant or flag,
referring in this context to the National League title. The poem is titled:
Baseball's
Sad Lexicon
These
are the saddest of possible words:
"Tinker
to Evers to Chance."
Trio
of bear cubs, and fleeter than birds,
Tinker
and Evers and Chance.
Ruthlessly
pricking our gonfalon bubble,
Making
a Giant hit into a double –
Words
that are heavy with nothing but trouble:
"Tinker
to Evers to Chance."
Okay,
enough nostalgia, guys and gals. Stop
mentally throwing that baseball into your mitt, and set that glove aside so we
can get back to talking about temptation.
Oh,
and for those who might question our side trip into baseball, I would point out
that baseball is already in the Bible, from the very beginning. For in the first verse of the very first
chapter of Genesis, it starts out: “In the big-inning, God created the Heavens
and the Earth….” Isn’t that how you read
it?
Why
do I tell you all this? I share it with
you because I want you to think about the salvation and eternal life God has,
how He threw it to Jesus on the cross, and Jesus threw it to you to complete
the play. Perhaps we can see the Holy
Spirit as both shortstop, backing you up, and as coach, helping you with
insights and understanding of what’s really going on.
God
to Jesus to you. And if you get
sidetracked by temptation – by that cute redhead in the front row, or the sweet
smell of what the hot dog man is selling -- you’ve dropped the ball.
If
you recall, we started out talking about others, about what it might have meant
to others if Jesus had given in to temptation.
The Bible tells us, in Isaiah 43:7, that the meaning and purpose of life is to
glorify God and enjoy Him forever. But
focusing on ourselves will never bring the manifestation of the purpose of our
life. In fact, 1st Cor. 12,
verse 1 starts out, “For just as the body is one and has many members,
and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.” And it ends in verses 24-27 with, “But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part
that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may
have the same care for one another. If
one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and
individually members of it.”
It’s not just about you, it’s
about others. We are individual members
of Christ’s body, and yet we are all in this together.
In verses 6 – 13 of today’s
scripture lesson, Paul is attempting to get the Corinthians’ attention in this
matter. The ancient Christian writer
Chrysostom wrote, “The Israelites were not in the land of promise when God did
those things to them. Thus it was that
He visited them with a double vengeance, because He did not allow them to see
the land which had been promised to them, and He punished them severely as
well.”
Of verse 11, Chrysostom wrote,
“Paul mentions the end of the ages in order to startle the Corinthians. For the penalties which come then will not
have a time limit, but will be eternal.
Although the punishments in this world end with our present life, those
in the next world remain forever.”
So
we have one more very good reason to stay away from those temptations. But I asked you to approach this lesson in
terms of others, so let’s continue with that.
But I’m not talking about going out and pointing the finger at people to
tell them what they are doing wrong. I’m
talking about our need to keep ourselves from giving in to temptation so we can
be an example of Christ’s love for them.
The
fact is, people love their sin. They
will go to any lengths to rationalize and defend it.
The
popular MTV channel was poking fun at sin and they collected some sound bites
from celebrities. Here are some
examples:
Rap
singer Queen Latifah said, “Pride is a sin?
I wasn’t aware of that.”
Actress
Kirstie Alley agreed, saying, “I don’t think pride is a sin, and I think some
idiot made that up. Who made all these
up?”
A
rocker from the group Aerosmith stated, “Lust is what I live for. It’s what I got into the band for – little
girls in the front row.”
Rapper
Ice-T said of anger, “It’s necessary.
You have to release this tension because life brings tension. We release our anger when we do records. When we did “Cop Killer,’ we were angry – and
the cops got angry back.”
Then
you have the Michael Douglas character from the movie “Wall Street” saying,
“Greed is good.”
Now,
these people are not representative of the whole world, but a lot of young
people look up to them as role models and want to emulate them.
But
if these others you are being asked to sacrifice for don’t look at sin the way
you do, then what good is it? Consider
that before you knew Jesus Christ, you didn’t look at sin the way He did,
either.
I
want to head toward wrapping this up by talking about verse 13 of our scripture, which says, “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.”
What does that mean, “a way of escape”?
Augustine writes of this verse, “Why is this
written if we are now so endowed that by the strength of our free will we are
able to overcome all temptations merely by bearing them?”
Chrysostom comments, “Paul implies that there
must be temptations which we cannot bear.
What are these? Well, all of them
in effect. For the ability to bear them
comes from God’s grace, which we obtain by asking for it.
God give us patience and brings speedy deliverance. In this way the temptation becomes bearable.”
Now, before I go further, let me say that those
who know me also know I have walls and walls of books. My wife claims that before I can bring
another book in the house, I need to take one out. So I went looking through all my sources for
a better way to comment on this verse than the words I might use.
What is the way of escape? How do we bear it without going under? Guess what.
Nobody wanted to touch this verse.
I finally quit looking and was working on something else when I
accidentally knocked a whole box of book onto the floor. The top of the box popped off and there were
books all over the floor. One of them
caught my eye: John MacArthur’s “The Vanishing Conscience.” I picked it up, looked in the back to see by
the scripture index if he addressed this verse.
He did!
Apparently God knew I was too lazy and stupid to
look through all my books, so He had me throw it on the floor where I would
find it. Thank You, Father.
I want to share with you now how John MacArthur
describes this. He points out the last
portion of that verse, where Paul writes that the way of escape is that God
“with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able
to endure it.” In other words, the way
out is through. The best way out of our
temptation I to endure it as a trial and never let it become a solicitation to
evil.
Now, this rang a bell with me because of my time
in the U.S. Marine Corps. For the Marine
Corps has a battle stratagem for dealing with an ambush – for a temptation is
an unexpected ambush – and that is to move through it. Lay down a base of fire and keep moving
through it. Don’t set down and engage
the enemy. Move through it.
Let’s say you have been falsely accused. Maybe you’ve been mistreated or
maligned. Scriptural advice is to accept
it and endure it with joy. James 1:2
tells us “Count it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you meet trials of
various kinds…” That is the way of
escape. Don’t bother looking for that
quick and easy escape route, go with God’s plan for us. He wants us to count it all joy, as verse 4
says, “and let endurance have its perfect result, that we may be perfect and
complete, lacking in nothing.” God is
using our trials to bring us to maturity.
And as He does so, others are watching us to see how Christians handle
such situations.
We live in a culture that is filled with
temptation. Our society glorifies sin
and despises God. This is not an easy
age in which to live. However, neither
was the first century, and remember that we have not yet resisted to the point
of shedding blood.
Events may yet reach the point when God may test
us in a way requiring us to endure physical harm and death – that is happening
to Christians in other parts of the world – in our standing against sin. If that day comes to us, we are assured He
will sustain us through it.
So don’t make idols, move through temptations,
and trust God to mature you in faith.
Praise God, and amen.
Hymn: “I Would Be True”, by Howard A. Walter (1906);
Copyright: Public Domain.
I would be true, for there are those
who trust me;
I would be pure, for there are those who care;
I would be strong, for there is much to suffer;
I would be brave, for there is much to dare.
I would be pure, for there are those who care;
I would be strong, for there is much to suffer;
I would be brave, for there is much to dare.
I would be friend of all—the foe,
the friendless;
I would be giving, and forget the gift;
I would be humble, for I know my weakness;
I would look up, and laugh, and love, and lift.
I would be giving, and forget the gift;
I would be humble, for I know my weakness;
I would look up, and laugh, and love, and lift.
I would be faithful through each
passing moment;
I would be constantly in touch with God;
I would be strong to follow where He leads me;
I would have faith to keep the path Christ trod.
I would be constantly in touch with God;
I would be strong to follow where He leads me;
I would have faith to keep the path Christ trod.
Communion
On the night Jesus was betrayed, He took
bread and He broke it, saying this is My body, given for you. After supper He took the cup, saying this cup
is the new covenant in My blood. This
do, as often as you do it, in remembrance of Me.
Benediction
We have heard Your word for our life
today. We bind it to our heart, pledging
our full obedience. Help us, our Lord,
to keep this pledge. Amen.
As we close the worship services today,
always remember that while some have called you servants, He has called you
friends.
Closing
Hymn
God Be With You ‘Til We Meet Again
By Jeremiah E. Rankin
Public Domain
God be with you till we meet again,
By His counsels guide, uphold you,
With His sheep securely fold you,
God be with you till we meet again.
By His counsels guide, uphold you,
With His sheep securely fold you,
God be with you till we meet again.
Refrain:
Till we meet, till we meet,
Till we meet at Jesus’ feet;
Till we meet, till we meet,
God be with you till we meet again.
Till we meet, till we meet,
Till we meet at Jesus’ feet;
Till we meet, till we meet,
God be with you till we meet again.
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Daily Scripture Readings for July 21 – July 26, 2014
Monday – Mark 9:1-8
Tuesday – James 1:19-27
Wednesday – James 4:1-10
Thursday – Romans 6:15-23
Friday – Philippians 2:12-18
Saturday – John 14:15-24
Sunday – Exodus 3:1-12; Romans 8:18-25; Psalm 103:1-13; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
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