2 Timothy 4:5-8

These are Paul’s words to his young compatriot Timothy – words of challenge and focus for the future and words also of victory, true victory of the soul in Jesus Christ.

We’ve talked a lot over the past 7 weeks about struggles in life – both temptations and trials that we must endure.  We’ve worked within the imagery of life as a race and eternity as a prize to be won.  But I’m here to share the greatest of hope today and it is this – we have already won.  We are victorious today in Jesus Christ.  Our eternity to come – the kingdom of God promised to us is already ours, and the beauty is that it is not some far distant reward but also a real and present reality of our life in Jesus Christ today.  When we take that step from selfishness to selflessness, from sinfulness to sinless-ness, from our own form of self-made righteousness bound to our actions, as though life were weighed on some cosmic scale that measures our good intentions against our not so good actions – when we turn away from this selfish ambition to be our own god and realize that our only hope is in the grace of Jesus Christ, a grace granted to us the moment we put our faith in, and act on that faith, – put our faith in the death of Jesus as the sacrifice for the sinful, selfish nature of our lives and the life received in His overcoming death on Easter morning – when we begin to live our lives not for ourselves but for God, we – have – victory.

This may be review for some of us, but it is a hope worth repeating – we have victory in life through the power and grace of Jesus Christ – through his sacrifice on the cross and his resurrection to life everlasting.  And our victory, though it is ultimately an eternal reward of God’s kingdom – a complete renewal of our souls to the purity of life before the fall of sin – our heavenly reward of life in the presence of God – we also celebrate that our victory is today.  We have victory today, in this present reality, through the power of Jesus Christ.  It is like Penny said to Secretariat – though the race has yet to be won and the final finish line yet to be crossed, we have already won.  Our victory, eternal in its scope, begins when we put our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  Our victory is not just some far off, waiting at the final finish line of life, but is ours today in Jesus Christ.

Friends, we are victorious today in Jesus who gives us salvation from sin.  Because of Jesus Christ we no longer need to be bound by our sinful nature, but Jesus has set us free from the slavery in which sin entraps us.  Listen to Paul’s words to the Romans:

Since we have been united with him in his death, we will also be raised as he was. Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.  7 For when we died with Christ we were set free from the power of sin. And since we died with Christ, we know we will also share his new life. We are sure of this because Christ rose from the dead, and he will never die again. Death no longer has any power over him. He died once to defeat sin, and now he lives for the glory of God. So you should consider yourselves dead to sin and able to live for the glory of God through Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:5-11

If we look into our souls, deep into the places where we are afraid to look because we know what we will find, all of us discover that we have darkness within us.  That darkness is our sinful nature – that very selfish core of us that wants to have our own way and to be our own God.  In fact, that’s a good definition of sin – the acrostic Selfish In Nature.  It is our desire to be our own boss and do things our own way that leads us to actions that do not honor God or show love to others.  That darkness, left to ourselves, is undefeatable.  We may think that we can handle it, that we can make good decisions and escape on our own, but we will always fail.  But the good news of Jesus Christ is that He has defeated the darkness of sin, not just in the world, but also in our lives.  When we trust in Him he breaks the bonds of slavery to sin and death and sin no longer has power over us to destroy our lives.  Our victory over sin is not just some far off hope, but a present reality – God, though the power of Jesus and the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit, gives us victory over sin today.  Our salvation is a saving from sin today – we no longer need to fear the darkness of our souls because we now have the light of Christ.

Our victory, though, does not end with salvation.  As great a gift as freedom from sin is, it is just the beginning of a life with Christ.  Trusting in Jesus begins a lifetime of transformation into new people with new natures that long for the things of God instead of the things of earth.  Turning our life over to Jesus, accepting that gift of salvation, is just the beginning of the work of God transforming our lives.  Often we make the mistake in the church of portraying the Christian faith as being about a point of decision.  We even ask the question, “Are you saved?” Which implies a yes or no – either you are or you are not.  It also implies that the Christian faith is just about this question – which side of the ledger do you reside on.  But to speak of faith in these terms is to limit the beauty of salvation to a singular glimpse of the greatness that God has for us.  This isn’t what the church, or the Christian faith, is really about.  When Jesus gave us our marching orders he didn’t say, “Go and make converts” but He said, “Go and make disciples.”  A disciple is a student or apprentice, constantly learning and growing into someone who is more like their master.  Our salvation is not the end of our journey of faith, but the beginning of a lifetime of transformation.

Back at the beginning of the Methodist church, John Wesley arranged his churches into small groups.  It really is funny, because a lot of what we hear about churches today and the need for smaller groups of community within the larger church to build relationships and hold each other accountable to growing as disciples – all of that can really be traced to the roots of Methodism.  Within these groups, Wesley had a series of questions that he would ask, particularly of the leaders, and one of those was this, “Are you going on to perfection?”  This is the question of transformation.  Are you not merely settling with salvation, but are you allowing God to continue to transform you in the perfect creation He will remake you to be at the end of time?

Friends, God loves us enough to not only save us, but He loves us enough that he doesn’t leave us as we were.  Our victory is that God is at work today, building and molding our lives into the image of Christ.  Paul reminds the church at Corinth of this:

So we have stopped evaluating others by what the world thinks about them. Once I mistakenly thought of Christ that way, as though he were merely a human being. How differently I think about him now! What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun! All this newness of life is from God, who brought us back to himself through what Christ did. And God has given us the task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. This is the wonderful message he has given us to tell others. We are Christ’s ambassadors, and God is using us to speak to you. We urge you, as though Christ himself were here pleading with you, “Be reconciled to God!” For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

We have victory today in Jesus to not only save us, but to transform us.  God is at work mending and molding the broken parts of our lives that we are willing to turn over to Him.  Our victory today is a victory that means our life does not need to be the same – being free from sin we are now restored and transformed into the men and women God originally created us to be.  This is not just some distant hope, but a present truth – in Christ we are now a new creation – our old life of sin has gone and we are free to become someone new through the power of Jesus Christ!

Our victory is not only a present salvation from a lifetime bondage to sin and an ongoing transformation into a new person in Christ, a movement towards perfection, but our victory is also a reconciliation with the great King of Heaven.  Humanity, from creation, was made to be in relationship with God.  Genesis tells of God shaping man and woman in His own image, placing them in the perfection that was the garden of Eden, and then we hear that God walked with them in the cool of the night.  We were created to commune with God, to share our life with Him as we journey together.  But with sin came separation.  Our nature that chooses our own wills over God’s will creates a rift between us and God, a chasm that no good works will ever build a bridge enough to cross.  Our relationship with God is ripped apart by sin.  God, who is completely perfect, cannot bear the imperfection of our sin in His presence.  And on our part, exposing our sinful selves to God reveals the filthy nature of our souls.  This is what Isaiah experienced when he saw a vision of God in the temple. He reports in Isaiah 6:

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple… And I said: “Woe is me!  For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

Isaiah 6:1, 5

This is the nature of sin in the presence of God – woe and fear of destruction.  But through the cleansing of faith in Christ Jesus, we are able to stand once again in the presence of God without fear.  The great chasm that separates us from the author of life is bridged by the cross.  We have access once again to life in the presence of God and God’s presence now rests with us in the Holy Spirit – God with us guiding, strengthening, and communing with us each day.  What great hope we have!  Our victory in Jesus means not only that one day we will worship God, casting our crowns before Him for eternity, but that today, even this day, we can stand in the presence of God.  Romans chapter 8 gives us this promise:

What can we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since God did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t God, who gave us Christ, also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? Will God? No! He is the one who has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? Will Christ Jesus? No, for he is the one who died for us and was raised to life for us and is sitting at the place of highest honor next to God, pleading for us. Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or are hungry or cold or in danger or threatened with death? (Even the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels can’t, and the demons can’t. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, and even the powers of hell can’t keep God’s love away. Whether we are high above the sky or in the deepest ocean, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:31 – 39

 Friends, today we are victorious because God is with us!  Nothing in life, no temptations or trials, no hardships or troubles, can keep us from God.  Our victory in Jesus assures that God is with us, that the barrier of sin no longer keeps us from God.  We have victory today that not even the powers of hell can keep God’s love away.  This is our victory.  This is our daily promise – that through Jesus we are saved, we are made new, and we are restored into that gentle stroll with the Lord of all creation.  Through Jesus we have victory today – victory that saves us, victory that transforms us, victory that restores us to true life with God through Jesus Christ.

The race is not over for us, though some of us are closer to the finish than others.  We will continue to struggle through life.  The obstacles of sin are constant.  We cannot avoid completely temptation or trial and we will struggle, and even at times fail, to progress towards our desired goal.  But one truth remains above all others – we have victory.  One day we will stand before the throne of God and because of our faith in Jesus Christ we will claim the victors crown.  That eternal victory is assured.  But take hope and courage today that our victory is not some distant hope but also a constant daily reality.  Through faith in Jesus we have victory over our bondage to sin – no longer do we need to live in the darkness of our selfish souls that lead us to hurt ourselves and other.  We have victory over our old life of sin and are being made new, transformed by the hand of God into a new creation, ones becoming perfect in Christ.  We have victory that restores us to Eden, that we can have a relationship with the creator and sustainer of all life again.  Though battles are still before us, today we have victory in Jesus.  May that victory save us, may it transform us, may it restore us to life again through Jesus Christ.

I’ve mentioned before that my father passed away of cancer when I was 15. It was colon cancer and it was a lengthy fight that brought my dad, who was once a linebacker for a semi-pro football team, to a mere shell of a man – nothing more than skin and bones. In addition to the obvious physical deteriation, the cancer and the drugs to treat it took a strong mental toll, making him often very angry and sometimes violent. It was an anguishing time and one that was tough physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I had times of anger and doubt with God and often, though I went to church, I didn’t really feel a passion for worship. I did continue to go to church and to participate as I could in the student ministry. One side note to parents out there – encourage your kids to be involved in our children’s and student ministries, even if it seems at times you need to force them to go. I am the man of God I am today because of them and, if it were completely up to me, I may not have been as active when I needed Christ the most. Anyway, I remember one morning, I don’t really remember the full of the lesson, but I do remember us reading this scripture:

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:28-31

It spoke right to my heart! I was weary. I was weak. I needed the strength of God. I reread it again to see what I needed to do to get it – wait. Just wait.

Last week I said to endure trials we need to have faith, act on that faith, and to wait. This week, I want to dive a bit deeper into the ‘wait’ part of that equation. We’ve already said that wait means more than just some passive holding pattern – like waiting in line to get your license renewed or waiting for the light to change. Waiting like that is merely a passive coasting through life that blindly wishes for good things but has no active role in bringing them about. Waiting, we said, can also be translated as ‘to expect, hope for, to look eagerly toward.’ This kind of waiting is more than just waiting for a chance to float by in life, but an active expectation – like being on guard, looking for the right moment to come. Waiting doesn’t need to be a last ditch chance of life swinging your way, but can be an active pursuit of the expected action of God – a continual longing and looking – an expectation – for the work of God active in your life.

So how do we actively wait for God?

It begins, first of all, with an understanding of the sufficiency of God’s grace. Whatever is before us in life, God is big enough to handle. Paul, the great apostle of the church, more than certainly understood this. In 2 Corinthians he reminds the readers that he’s not had a sheltered and cushioned life. He’s endured ship wrecks, beatings, lashings, the dangers of first century travel, hunger, physical distress – it’s almost as if he says, “You name it, it’s happened to me.” But then he goes on to talk about the strength of God even in the midst of trouble.

So to keep me from being too elated by the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

Paul understood that, despite the trouble of the world, God was with him and that in his weakness, the strength of God is revealed. Friends, I’m not going to lay on you some trite expression like, “God won’t give you more than you can handle.” Life at times for all of us is way more than we can handle. But it is never too much for God to handle.

Lucien and Penny, in the clip from Secretariat we just watched, are discussing which is the best way to prepare Big Red for the Belmont, the last and longest race of the triple crown. They are concerned that he may not have the stamina and wonder how to best prepare him for the hard race. Contrary to the expected training method of the time, Lucien wants to run him harder instead of resting him, but this comes with a risk. They could wear him out and he would have nothing left in the tank, so to speak, to run the race. “If we take a chance, if we push instead of rest him, it could be dangerous. No one knows how much he can take.” Lucien says. “He does. He knows.” Penny responds.

Waiting on the Lord means we must trust that God does know how much we can take and that nothing is too big for God. The troubles and trials of life may be too much for us, but they are not too much for God. In our weakness, God’s strength is revealed. Actively waiting on God means trusting that God is strong enough to handle the trials and troubles of life.

Waiting, actively expecting, on Jesus also means we must shift our focus. One of the dichotomies of the Christian life is that we, though we are spiritual in nature, live in a physical, temporal world. Everything around us is solid and seems to have lasting strength, but the reality is that nothing in this world matters in the grand scope of eternity. All of the physical blessings and hardships of this life are not directly translated into the eternal kingdom of God. This is why Jesus warns us to store up our treasures, those things that matter most, not in this physical world of money and goods, but in the eternal, spiritual, relational things.

Like it or not, even the most abstract thinkers among us revels in the concrete. We may be able to conceptualize God at work, but we do it in concrete ways. We visualize a future filled with earthly blessings which are merely temporary and fail to really see that God is more concerned with granting us greater eternal blessings. Now this isn’t to say that God isn’t looking out for us in this world or that God doesn’t care to provide for us. In fact, Jesus told us not to worry about the things of this world because God will provide all we need. Our greater focus should be on our greater blessings – seeing our lives through the lens of eternity.

The temporary things of this world will never fulfill the eternal longing of our souls. The abundant life that we are promised when we surrender our wills to Jesus – stop trying to live by our own rules for our own rewards and accept the gracious gift of salvation offered to us through faith. It is by surrendering our souls to Jesus, to our salvation and reconciliation bought by the blood of the cross, it is in that surrender that we can begin to receive the abundant life that God promises us.

Friends, all that glitters is not gold. The things that we think matter in this life are only temporary, as our the pains. But the Word of God, that is Jesus Christ, endures forever. Actively waiting, hopefully expecting on God to act in our lives relies on us shifting our focus from the temporal trinkets of this world to the great and everlasting treasure of God.

Waiting also means expecting God to speak and listening. The best example of listening to God comes from Elijah. Following his great success in defeating the prophets of Baal, Elijah goes into what can best be described as a deep depression. He finds himself all alone and is being pursued by Jezebel, who wants him dead. He finds his way to a cave where God calls him to go out and stand before him. This is what scripture reports after that:

And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper. And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

1 Kings 19:11-13

Sometimes, when life seems too much for us and we must wait on God’s strength to carry us through, at those times we must also listen for the voice of God. And often, as Elijah discovered, that voice does not come as we might expect. One would expect the voice of God, mighty and strong, to be in the great storm or the earthquake or the fire, but it takes peace of heart and focused listening to hear the soft whisper of God in our lives.

Listening is something that we can all do better, especially when it comes to God. We often think of prayer as delivering a long list of requests to God and then going on with our day. The truth is that prayer is a two way communication – God speaks to us just as we speak to Him. Waiting means developing in prayer an ear that is tuned to listen to God. What helps with this is praying with others. We have a number of prayer groups here at the church and every person in one would be the first to say they are not experts. They are merely opening themselves up to God, expressing their hearts, and listening. You don’t have to be an expert to communicate with God in prayer or to be in a group that prays together. In fact you don’t even have to pray out loud. Each of us can pray and can listen to God, but the blessing of a group is that others are listening with you. This is why James calls us to pray together:

Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

James 5:14

Friends, there is great power in praying together. Just think – that’s more ears to hear God’s voice! Waiting, even waiting on the Lord, is much better when it’s done with a friend.

Finally, expectant waiting means acting on God’s call. When we know what God calls us to do then we must act, trusting that God is faithful in His work as we are faithful in ours. Paul writes to the Galatians:

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Galatians 6:9-10

Waiting does not mean that we have a free pass from doing the things that we already know God is calling to do. While we wait for God’s strength we must also actively serve God’s will in what we know. It is that faithfulness to God that strengthens us to endure. It is that faithfulness to God that God honors by bolstering our weakness with His almighty hand. To wait isn’t to sit back, but it is to act on what we know and trust that the unseen God of the universe is actively bringing about His perfect will in our lives. He is bringing the blessings of eternity to us, even if we may have difficulty seeing them through the clouded lenses of this finite world. God is whispering to us and, if we are peaceful enough to listen and if we surround ourselves with others who can listen with us, He will tell us how to act. But regardless we must press on to win the prize that is eternal life.

It is said, courage is not the absence of fear but the judgment that something else is more important than fear. The courage to win the grand race of life requires that we wait on the strength of God. It requires understanding that God is greater than the fears of this world and that His eternal blessings are much greater than the temporary things of this world. When we actively wait – trusting that God is enough, that God’s eternal blessings are greater than this world, that God speaks and we can listen, and we can confidently act on what God has said – then God will strengthen the weak, bolster the faint. Christ is big enough to carry us through any burden in life if we will wait and rely on His strength. Let us wait together, and expect that God will strengthen us for the troubles and trials of life.

“This isn’t about the past.” Penny says near the end of the clip. “This is about life being ahead of you and you run for it. You never know how far you can go unless you run.” What a great, inspiring line! The uncertainty of the future, that thing that so often freezes us from action and turns us inward in life, that same uncertainty can be a wealth of blessing and excitement if we are just willing to run.

Isaiah had these inspiring words for those of us, all of us, facing the struggles of life:

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:28-31

What great hope for us! What a great promise that God is with us, even in the midst of the trials of life. Because the truth is we will have trials. Jesus promises that:

I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.

John 16:33

Life, it does seem, comes with trouble. Some of this trouble we just finished talking about – temptation. Whether we are aware of it or not, there is evil out there tempting us to stray from the will of God. That’s just a truth of life in this fallen and sinful world. We are selfish at our core and want our own way and very often that leads us into opportunities to sin and, sadly, we take those opportunities. Temptation happens. But there is another source of trouble in our lives, and that is the testing of our faith by God. Just as we are tempted by Satan to draw away from God, so too we are tested by God to draw closer to Him. And this is the key distinction that we need to make – temptations draw us away while trials draw us closer. While temptation is an opportunity to sin, trial is an opportunity to grow stronger in faith. James puts it this way:

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

James 1:2-4

The testing, the trial, of our faith is what produces in us endurance for the race. It is trial that helps us become more confident in ourselves, in our faith, and in God.

Growing up I would help my dad out with projects around the house a lot and most of the time I would be his assistant – handing him tools and fetching supplies, but sometimes he would ask me to do something while he watched. Talk about pressure! My dad expected that I would not only do it, but do it right. It was tough work having him watch me. But when I would finish the task right, my excitement could hardly be contained! My dad would tell me, “Good job” which, though it wasn’t much, meant a lot coming from him. Trials in life are a lot like that. God steps back and allows us to work while he watches, giving us confidence in who we are and our faith in Him. By letting us step forward on our own, God gives us a chance to grow confidence to endure through the long race of life.

Friends, I touched on this last week, but let me say it again – the world has a different race in mind for you and the ultimate end of any race beside the race of faith is an incompleteness that will never fulfill your soul. The world wants you to give up your race and settle for less. It wants you to exchange your pursuit for the eternal rewards of faith for the dim reflections of greatness that can come in this life alone. “Why risk it?” the world says. “Why try to be great? Why think you can make a difference? Why think that the creator and sustainer of the universe cares about you and wants to transform you into the person deep down inside you know you were created to be?” There are thousands of reasons the world gives for not pursuing the goal of Christ. But we will never be complete if we settle for less than the abundant life that God has for us. That’s exactly the word that James uses in the passage I read just a few minutes ago, “that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” It’s actually the same word for mature or fully ripe. It is in enduring trials that we are move closer to our goal of being like Jesus, being holy as He is holy.

So how do we endure trials and come to a deeper faith in Jesus Christ? It begins when we first trust in Jesus.

We talk a lot in church circles about having faith in Jesus. We often speak of it in relational terms – accepting and entering into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. It is good language because that is exactly what will save us – that personal acceptance of the gift of Christ. I hope that is something that is true and active in your life. But faith is really about a trust that God is real and at work in our lives. Here is how the writer of Hebrews defines faith:

What is faith? It is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see.

Hebrews 11:1

A great way to build faith is to remember where God has walked with you. This was exactly David’s practice when he went to face the giant Goliath:

The LORD who saved me from the claws of the lion and the bear will save me from this Philistine!”

1 Samuel 17:37

When we can see and remember how God has walked with us in the past, then we can have confidence that God will continue to be with us in the future. Faith is that confidence, that evidence, that even though we may not be able to see clearly how things are going to work out, we can trust that God will be with us.

But trust as a belief isn’t enough. We must also willingly act on that trust. A friend of mine used to use this illustration to distinguish between belief and faith. One can believe, he would say, that a chair exists. One can even believe that it has four legs and a back and that it is properly designed to handle the weight of a person sitting. But belief becomes faith when one is willing to not only believe in the chair but is willing to sit down in it.

We can, particularly in this well educated society we live in, fall into a faith in Jesus that is merely just an intellectual exercise. We can believe that God exists. We can believe that Jesus is the Son of God. We can believe in the cross and the resurrection. We can even believe that God has the power to save us and that by trusting in Jesus we can have eternal life. But until we are willing to step out and act on that belief, until we are willing to rest our lives in the hands of God and rely on Him for our very life, we only have belief.

But if we are willing to trust that God is at work and step forward in faith, even into the scary uncertainty of an unknown future, then we can truly grow in endurance and more towards a spiritual maturity that reflects more of Christ in our lives.

One of my favorite passages of scripture is one I read earlier, Isaiah 40:28-31. In fact, it’s so good I want to read it again:

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:28-31

Do you ever feel weary? Do you ever feel faint? Do you ever feel like you’ve given your all, completely exhausted all your strength, worn yourself down until there is nothing left to give? Friends, here is the greatest news for the trials of life – we may grow tired and weary and worn out, but God does not. We may think that life is too much, but nothing is too much for God. No matter what trials we may face, we can have confidence, have faith, that God is bigger and stronger than our trials. And just as God gives us opportunities to endure trial and grow in Him there is also the promise that God’s strength is there available to us to endure. If we are willing to just wait – to hope, to expect, to look eagerly for – then God will give us strength.

“You will never know how far you can go unless you run.” Trials to choose to follow God are a certainty of life just as temptations are to stray. But God’s promise to us is that if we put our trust, our true faith that is more than just an intellectual exercise but a lasting trust and hope, if we put that trust in God and hope and expect in Him to be at work in our lives even in the uncertain future, then He will give us strength.

Are you faint? Are you tired? Are you weary on the race of life? Then trust in, wait on, expect hopefully the promise of the Lord working in your life. Wait on the Lord and gain renewed strength for your trials. Mount up on His wings of glory and let Him soar. In the power of Christ run and not grow weary, walk and not grow faint.

1 Timothy 6:6-10

These were the words of Paul to his young protégé Timothy – a warning of the dangers that pursuit of gold and riches can destroy lives. It’s an important warning, not only for Timothy but for ourselves. Is money itself evil? No. Is the use of money evil? No. But allowing that desire for money to bring an opportunity to sin – that is the temptation that Paul warns about. And the end result of following that temptation is a life of ruin and destruction.

This morning, as we look one last time at the Voyage of the Dawn Treader and temptation, it is important for us to realize this – Satan is looking to tempt us. He is looking for the places that we are the weakest, or most vulnerable, and trying to draw us off course from the path God has for us into a short-cut to what we may see as good but will never be the great life that God has planned. This is Satan’s modus operandi, his M.O. or means of operating – he scutters around seeking our weakness and using that to tempt us. This is exactly how he tempted Jesus.

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”

Luke 4:1-3

When Jesus was at His weakest, his hungriest, that is when Satan chose to attack. And he went for what he perceived to be the most vulnerable point – physical hunger. “It’s just a few rocks turned into bread. Who would know? God would want you to eat, you know.”

For us it may come through a physical hunger. Or maybe a desire to fulfill an emotional need. Or maybe a longing to be happy. Thomas a Kempis said this,

We usually know what we can do, but temptation shows us who we are.

Thomas A Kempis

No matter what the reason, we will be tempted. No matter how much we resist, temptation will come. All of tempted, but how do we escape it? How do we deal with it?

I believe the best way to escape temptation is to work together. Individually we may be weak, but together we have strength. God has given us each other so we may escape temptation. It is through working together, as Christian brothers and sisters, that we can escape the lure of temptation and walk together on a path that leads to righteousness.

So how do we work together to escape temptation?

First, we must be honest with ourselves about our temptation.

You know, when you turn on the TV, we all face similar temptations. We see the latest gadget or the hottest styles and we are all swayed to go and use our money in ways that we think will bring us happiness. Many of us are tempted by greed or lust or jealousy and are drawn into seeking shortcuts to our own happiness. You may think that the deep dark temptations that you struggle with are unique or new to you or not something that people struggle with in church. You may think that good people can’t have the thoughts that you have and that you are all alone in your battle against certain temptations. You may think that, but you are wrong.

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.

1 Corinthians 10:13

All those temptations that you have? Guess what, someone else here is tempted that way too. You don’t believe me? Ok, just take a minute and share your darkest temptation with the complete stranger next to you.

Awfully quiet out there. No, I didn’t really expect that you would share what tempts you most, but I do want you to understand that whatever it is, there are others that struggle against that same temptation. And ultimately the community of faith is a place where we should go to seek help in our struggles. There is great power if we are willing to open up to others and share our struggles together. But during a Sunday morning worship service that’s just not going to happen. We share or struggle with those we can trust and building that trust takes time and space. That is why we offer groups for people to gather in and support each other, call them growth groups or small groups or Sunday schools, – these are places where you can develop the relationships with other Christians that can support you through temptation.

This fall, in addition to our existing groups and classes, we will be starting some new groups that will meet on Sunday morning as well as other groups that will meet during the week at homes. I know sometimes it can be hard finding a place and maybe a new group may be just the starting place for you. If you may be interested in being a part of a new group, please let me know. You can email me or call me – the contact information is in the insert.

No struggle you have is one you need to have alone. We are here together to support each other in our fight against temptation.

The second way we can escape temptation together is to be brave enough to intercede. It is one of the hardest roles of any friend to reach out and tell another that what they are doing is hurting them or can hurt them. It is hard to express love in a that way when you know that doing so puts you in danger. They may not understand you or may get angry with you or maybe even hurt you emotionally, physically or spiritually. But if we are brave enough to intervene, then we can really make a difference in people’s lives. Here’s what James says about it:

My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

James 5:19-20

You see the reward there? If we are brave enough to intervene, we not only help to improve someone’s life, but we can actually save them from eternal separation from God! This is what we are called to as the body of Christ, to step in and guard each other.

Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?”

Genesis 4:9

When God asks Cain, “Where is your brother?”, his response is “Am I my brother’s keeper?” You know what the answer to that question is? “YES” Yes we are our brother’s and sister’s keeper. It is up to us as a family of God to intervene when we know someone is tempted to go against God.

Lastly, we can escape temptation when we submit to God. What is the best way to escape temptation? Run to God.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.

James 4:7-8

Our struggle with temptation is not one we must face alone. God is with us. And if we learn to trust in God and seek God even in temptation then we have the strength of God to fight temptation.

This morning, as we close and we come to the table of Christ for Communion, we are reminded that there is grace available to us. In this sacred moment of grace, a glimpse of the eternal majesty of God, God is with us, and we are here together. In just a few minutes we will be reminded that God loves us enough that His son made the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. We need not hide them, God can forgive us and cleanse us from unrighteousness. We will be reminded that just as there is one loaf, we together are one body of Jesus Christ and are called to live together in a way that leads to righteousness and holiness and honoring God. This morning, in the sacred grace of the cup and the bread, God is with us as we reaffirm our promise – He will never fail to be our God, let us promise to be His people. May the grace of God fill you today, that as you draw near to Him, you may be cleansed from sin, bound together as brothers and sisters in the family of God, and may you draw strength through the Holy Spirit to resist temptation and live so to honor God.

Last week we began our series on temptation looking at just what temptation is. Our definition that we settled on was this, “The enticing of Satan to draw us off course from the path that God has for us.” And, again because I like the quote from Oswalt Chambers, “[Temptation is a] suggested shortcut… [towards] not what I understand as evil, but towards what I understand as good.” We mentioned that our desires are not temptations, but how we handle those desires may lead us astray. I had a young lady send me a note on facebook and she summarized it well – Temptation is the opportunity to sin. To resist temptation we do not need to suppress our feelings or cravings, because they are not sin, rather we need to say no to opportunities to satisfy them in ways that do not honor God. Well said.

So this week I want to focus on one of the biggest struggles we have with temptation and that is that temptation is a lie. No, I don’t mean that all this ‘resist temptation’ talk is a lie, but rather that temptation is built on a foundation of lies. We are deceived and enticed into sin because Satan lies to us. And that’s his nature – Satan is a liar.

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. John 8:44

Wow, those are harsh words from Jesus! What did the people say or do that prompted that response? Well, besides calling into question the legitimacy of his mother’s pregnancy, what started it all was a discussion on being free or being a slave to sin. The Jews to who Jesus was speaking in essence rejected the idea that they were slaves to sin and instead they were free.

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” John 8:31-33

See the lie there? “I’m no slave to sin. I can do what I want, when I want. No sin is controlling me.” As they go on sinning and sinning. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? I know I’ve uttered them a time or two. “I can handle it. I’m strong enough to resist. I can quit any time I want.” Funny how close addiction and sin are to each other. It’s almost as if we were addicted to sin.

Friends, hear this – Our struggle against temptation will never be successful if we don’t understand this basic truth – Satan is a liar. He lies. He tells us we are free when we are not. He tells us that we can have anything we want but doesn’t tell us the consequences. He tells us if we do what he says we will be happy or fulfilled and then we realize that it is all a ruse. Temptation is trap set to snare and enslave us into a life away from the will of God.

This morning, allow me to shine the light of truth on 3 common lies that Satan uses to entice us into sin.

The first lie – You are not ___________ enough. What goes in the blank? You tell me. What is it that Satan tells you that you are lacking? Does he say, “you are not successful enough” and draws you into a life driven by success at any cost? Does he say, “you are not happy enough” and draws you into a life of wandering from one thing to another seeking a happiness that we can never find? Whatever lie it is, trust me, it’s a lie.

Matthew Henry lays it out this way:

Many a dangerous temptation comes to us in fine happy colors that are but skin-deep. Matthew Henry

Lucy Pevensie was lied to. Satan whispered to her “You’re just not beautiful enough.” It’s a lie that a lot of young girls are told. Just turn on the TV or open up a magazine and you can see it. Girls are told that to be accepted in life they must look a certain way and act a certain way. And the level of perfection that is presented is neither attainable nor real. But it is enough to have everyone convinced, and so they try all they can to overcome what they perceive as a short coming to be ‘enough’.

The problem with enough is that enough is never enough! If we find our value in ‘enough’ they we will see that enough is always changing. If our value is based in what others think of us we will constantly work at changing who we are to meet the latest value. If we buy into the lie of ‘enough’ we will constantly try and change who we are into someone we are not. Here’s Paul’s advice via his letter to the Romans:

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2

Satan’s lie is that if we can just contort ourselves enough, then the world will accept us. But the truth is that God values us for who we are, not what we do. God loves you, not your physical beauty or your success or your happiness or your anything, just…you. And God isn’t looking to distort us, but to transform us into something new through His strength.

Aslan, the great lion of Narnia that is an allegory for God Himself, tells Lucy this –

“You doubt your value, don’t run from who you are”

Our value is not in what we can do or what we possess, but in who we are and in whose we are. We are God’s children and He holds us as children of the greatest value. The lie is that we are not enough, but the truth is God values us at the very core of our souls.

The second common lie – Your actions have no consequences. Or maybe they have little consequences. It’s virtue by comparison – what I do may be bad, but it’s certainly not as bad as someone else. We like comparing ourselves. It makes us feel good. The problem is that, when it comes to sin, we don’t compare the right way. Jesus tells the story of a man who liked to compare himself -

Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. Luke 18:10-11

Did you catch who he compares himself to? He’s not comparing himself to great saints. He doesn’t say he’s not like the fathers of faith. No, he compares himself down – he’s better than people he perceives as worse than he is. His sins are little, by comparison.

But God has another standard –

For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. Leviticus 11:44

The truth is our actions have consequences. Sometimes, many times in fact, these consequences go unseen by us – blinded by our own desire. We can see only the good that can come from our choices and very often we choose to be blind to or ignore any negative consequences our actions may have. Lucy didn’t see that choosing to be Susan would mean that she erases herself from existence. When Aslan asks, “What have you done, child?” Her response is, “I didn’t mean to choose all of that.” How true in my life, as I suspect in yours. We don’t mean to choose all the consequences our sins have on life. The truth is that our sins are not small, not when held against the standard of perfection that is God Himself. All of us are equally sinful. Paul reminds us in Romans, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (3:23)

Satan’s lie is that not all sin is the same. That God grades on a scale. That if we are just a little better than someone else we are ok. But what if, when we get up to stand before God the person beside us isn’t Charles Manson but instead it’s Mother Teresa? Not winning that comparison, are we?

Before I go any further, let me just stop right here and try and make something clear. None of us are perfect. None of us has no sin and none of us can stand up to the standard of perfection – holiness- that God has for us. John reminds us:

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 1 John 1:8-10

We may all be sinners, but all of us can be made right with God through Jesus Christ. That’s what we mean when we say, “saved by faith” – it’s not because of anything we do, but because of Jesus that we can be saved from the ultimate punishment of sin – eternal separation from God. It is because Jesus is perfect that one day we can stand in the presence of God and say, “God, I know that I have sinned and my sins are just as bad as anyone else, but I put my trust in Jesus and I know you will not punish me for my sins but will count me as righteous because Jesus is righteous.” Our sins are enough to destroy us, but Christ is enough to restore us.

The last common lie – If you can do it, it must be good for you.

Since there is rarely anything worth watching on TV for our family in the evening, we often will play a game together as a family. A lot of times my youngest son, who is 5, will be on my ‘team’ or my wife’s, but occasionally he will want to be on his own. This is fine because we help him out along the way, reading cards and moving pieces, but he is always very insistent on playing his own way and not how we may help him. He’ll ask if he can play a certain card, for example, and we’ll tell him yes, he can play it and then explain to him why that may not be a good idea, but all he hears is ‘yes, it’s ok to play’ and he plays it and, usually, his sister wins and he gets upset.

I tell you this story not because I want suggestions on games that my son can play cards at random and still have a good shot of winning but because it highlights one of the big lies that Satan has been using to deceive us since the beginning of time – if we can do it, it’s ok to do it.

Here’s how Paul puts the struggle:

“All things are lawful,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. 1 Corinthians 10:23

What we may be free to do, even things that may not overtly be sins, may be things that draw us off track from God. Sometimes we even struggle because an action seems right or we know that, even though it may not be exactly how God would have us act, the end result is something that honors God. That’s the trap of this deception – rationalizing our lives as good when we know that what we are doing is not what God would have for us. That great poet T.S. Eliot wrote:

“The last temptation is the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason.” T.S. Eliot

Friends, God has given us great freedom to live. We have the ability to reason and choose and to guide our own way in life. And one of the greatest temptations, the greatest lies that Satan tells us, is that we can do whatever we want as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else. That’s the basic law of morality for the world, and, in general, it’s not a bad way to live. But it’s also not the best way to live.

We can go through life choosing our own way and doing our own things and get along just fine. But if we want to have the abundant life – a life filled with purpose and meaning, a life that makes a lasting impact on who we are and those we love – that life only comes when we are willing to choose God’s will instead of our own will. What we may be free to do may not be the best choice for us in life.

One more illustration to help us understand this – Say a young couple are dating, not engaged but maybe moving that direction, and one of them decides to go on a date with another person. Are they free to do this? Yes. There’s no rules or laws against going on a date with someone else. But is this going to have an impact on the couple’s relationship? For certain!

Friends, God gives us freedom, but that freedom must be held within the relationship that we have with God. The question we must ask beyond “can I do this?” is “Does doing this honor God?” The temptation to choose our own way in life is a great one and often keeps us from the great life that God has for us. If we are willing to exercise our freedom within an understanding that we are to live in a way that honors God, then we are well on our way to resisting the temptation to choose the good of the world instead of the greatness of life with God.

Today, you are being lied to. No, not by me, but by the great deceiver, who is doing all in his power to draw you off course from the life God has for you. Stand firm today, and resist the devil. He’s lying to you. He’s telling you that you are not enough when God says He loves you for you. Satan says your sins have no consequences when they really do hurt you and others. He lies to you and says you can do whatever you want, slowly enticing you into the trap of sin that chooses our own will instead of what God would have for us. Stand firm and turn from the lies of the devil to the truth of Jesus.

“And you will know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.” John 8:32