You know, I want to say I'm so glad things are back to normal.

Y' all just pray. I do not want any more snow. But, you know, I really don't want things back to normal. You know, I don't know what you came today looking for, but I want to challenge you right now in your heart to pray that God would do something abnormal, supernatural, and different. Because if you came in here today and the world has weighed on you, life has kicked you around, and you came in here with no hope, I pray you can leave today with something different, that your life would have a different meaning because you've met and you know Jesus Christ.

What if today somebody in this room gives their life to Jesus Christ and is saved? That should be normal. Like, what if someone's family is restored today? What if someone who has been struggling and has been stuck in sin has now been released? What if somebody leaves here today healed?

Like, let's expect something different. And sometimes God allows Sundays, like the last two, to break normal so that we'll expect something abnormal. So did you come today expecting it? If not, for a moment, would you just whisper a prayer and go say, God, do something different? That when I leave here today, that I might be different?

You know, I'm so. I am. I'm really excited sitting there. I sing and I pray and I look around the room. I'm not just studying people, but I look around.

I'm just so thankful to see you. Like, six years ago. Can you believe it? Six years ago, when the pandemic broke out. That's weird to think about because that's all we've talked about for six years.

I hated those Sundays that we missed back then, and I hated missing last Sunday. I'm so thankful to see you today, and I hope that you are as thankful to see each other and looking in this room. Like, I know in about an hour. Not an hour. Let me just preface that.

About 35 minutes. About 35 minutes. We're gonna be leaving. Don't rush to leave. Take some time to look around at the people, and if you don't know them, say, hey, how you doing?

My name is. And I'm gonna be honest with you. I get a little bit of liberties doing this. Joe Boyd, I'm so glad to see you this morning. I wanted to cry.

This is a man who has fought hard, and I'm so thankful, guys. I really am. And happy birthday, Elizabeth. You want me to sing to you?

She was very quick to say no. That's either. She don't Want to be embarrassed or she doesn't want to hear me sing? I don't know which one it is. You know what?

I want to invite you to be here Tomorrow morning at 6am as we kick off our first day of prayer, an extension of our week of prayer a few weeks ago. I mean, I know it's early, but we promise you at 7am you'll be going out that back door. Or if you can come from 6 to 6:30, like, you know, don't, don't feel like somebody's going to judge you if you leave early. Like come and glean. Tomorrow we will be focusing on praying for our special friends that will be coming Friday night to attend Night to Shine.

And I'm so excited. Thank you for signing up to serve. Thank you if you're a buddy, thank you if you've hung balloons or lights or thank you if you're, whatever your role has been. Guys, if you didn't hear Fred clear enough, over 300 people it takes to pull this off, but we have over 100 special friends plus their families coming. Let's love on them well.

And so join us tomorrow. We're going to pray for those friends. We're going to pray. We're just going to pray. And if you came to week of prayer, we hope that it's an encouraging extension of what we experience.

And today is it's our last day in this series. And so we're going to be in Matthew chapter six. We're going to read again the Lord's Prayer starting at verse number nine. But I do want to back up because if you didn't, I don't like doing commercials for messages. But I do want to encourage you.

If you didn't listen to last week's message, go back and listen to it. Because if we're going to pray and say, God forgive me my debt of my sin, then why would I want to keep in my sin? Why do I want to keep in that same way? Like, why would I say, God, you died, your son died for my sin. Why would I want to keep sinning?

So that last part of the prayer goes hand in hand with God forgiving my debts and don't lead me into temptation like it goes hand in hand. So last week we talked about how we pray. We pray reflecting about ourselves, Lord, forgive me my debt, evaluating ourselves, looking at ourselves and understanding that all of us are sinners. And the only difference between a saved person and an unsaved person is my sins have been forgiven, my debt has been paid. How Because I reflect on the sacrifice of Jesus.

He died the death I deserve. Forgive my debt because I can't pay it. Take it from me. And then in that, I encourage you to confess your sin. The things you know you've done, the things maybe you should have done that you didn't do.

But then even asking God, show me what I don't even know I've done. Like we stay in a constant state of dependence. No one in this room is perfect. And if you think you are, you got a problem. You are not out from under the influence of sin until you leave this world.

And so we pray daily as First John 1:9 says that we confess our sins because he's faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us. And so it aligns our heart with God. Well, if it's in alignment and I'm in proper alignment with the Lord, then it's a challenge that I'll be in proper alignment with other people. This was the hard part of the message last week, was it not? As we also have forgiven our debtors, that I can't say I'm in proper alignment with the Lord if there's not something within me that wants to be in proper alignment with others.

He's challenged us to forgive and release those who are now indebted to us. So when we pray, we consider others. I think. I think when you spend time praying in your closet, you take the moment to say, you know, Lord, this person did this or they did that. Well, name it and then grieve it.

Lament it like you've been hurt and you've been abused and you've been robbed, and God knows those things. But if I don't lament it, then I can't apply truth when my emotions are still out of whack. Lamenting allows me to put to bed the emotions I'm feeling for what's been taken from me. That's what hangs people up a lot of times in forgiveness. Like getting to the place where I can choose to forgive is I've got to allow the process of grief in my loss.

Because some of you, somebody come up and slapping you on the cheeks a whole lot different than being molested.

But God's calling us and giving us the strength to be able to forgive both. Now, are you with me? Because if I can't stay in this kind of alignment, it affects this alignment. That's why Jesus, the only thing he commented on after he finished the Lord's Prayer was if I forgive, he will forgive. If I don't Forgive.

He won't forgive. Like there is a correlation. So I pray, I lament, I release, and I choose. That's the hardest place to get. But when you choose, it's done.

Here, this right here may be kicking and screaming, saying, what in the world am I thinking? But I choose. On February 8, 2026, I choose to forgive. So and so. Now my heart needs to get in line with my head, and it may take some time.

That's grief. That's the lamenting. Then you come to this place where you go, lord, help me to be restored. Whatever depends on me to be at peace with all men. And I know you're looking at me like going, man, I just can't do that.

You know what? You can't. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to do it through you. But if I appreciate what God has done for me by releasing my debt, what greater act of worship can I be than to be a forgiver, to be lavish my forgiveness? Because here that transitions us to the reality that the Bible wouldn't teach us to confess our sins on an ongoing basis.

If even as believers, I don't sin. When John wrote first John 1:9, when he said, if we confess our sins, brothers and sisters, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from unrighteousness. Thereby we can maintain the confidence of our relational connection with the Lord. But all of us have had. If you're a lost person, you have a major problem with sin because it's sending you to hell.

As a believer, you have a problem with sin if you don't deal with it because it disconnects you from the life flow of the Lord. We all have that same problem. And because of that, we need to ask the self the question, what's causing the problem? Many of you in business world, you've heard the term root cause analysis. A lot of us have been to the doctor lately, right?

As soon as you go in there, what do they do? They want to shove a Q tip up your nose.

Have any of you given yourself a COVID test? You got to stick that thing. You didn't realize. I mean, you know, you used to tell kids, stop picking your nose. You're going to get your fingers stuck up in there.

It's. It goes really far up there. I mean, I had sinus surgery in 2007, and they put these shunts in my nose to hold my septum in place. When they pulled them out, I went, oh my gosh, that was in my nose. Like it's really far up there.

And sometimes those doctors think it's at the back of your brain. But you know why they're doing that? Because they want. They're not just trying to treat your symptoms. They want to know what's causing the problem.

It. Is it Covid? Is it flu? Is it strep? Is it the stomach bug?

And you know as well as I do, if it's a virus, you can't kill it. It's gotta play out. So what do they usually do? They treat your symptoms. They treat your runny nose and your cough and your fever.

And that's the way we a lot of times deal with our sin, don't we? We don't go far enough to ask ourselves the question, what is the root of the problem of why I sin? And the root is your temptation.

Maybe that's why Jesus said we need to deal with the temptation. Do not lead me into temptation, but deliver me from evil or the evil one. Why? Because it's the temptation. That's the bridge.

It's the doorway. It's the thing that's leading me to sin. I mean, listen to what Paul wrote in Romans 7, for sin taking opportunity through the commandment which reveals the sin in my life deceived me, and through it, it killed me. He goes on in verse number 17 says, no longer am I the one doing it. The acts of sin.

It is sin that dwells in me. It's housed within my flesh.

And the difference, my friends, the difference is when you're saved, you got a power source inside of you.

Sometimes we don't tap into. How many of you ran a generator last weekend or two weekends ago when we got that ice? I had a friend of mine come and wire this new little gadget onto my board where I could plug the generator into my house. Man, it's fantastic.

It's a waste of time if I didn't plug the generator in. And a lot of us, we think that we can kill our sin on our own. It cost Jesus his life. And if it cost him his life, do you think you're going to be able to fight the battle of sin on your own? Jesus taught us to pray proactively.

Don't let me go into the place of temptation. That temptation then elicits my lust. And through that lust gives birth to sin. Sin. If I'm going to solve the problem, I've got to address the cause, not the symptom.

You see, to me, temptation, it's like an ember from a campfire on a Cold winter night, the fire is blazing.

Everything is still and quiet. And a little ember floats up from the fire and you look at it and you're mesmerized for just a moment because it's really cool to watch it as it floats. And you watch it sometimes that ember, if it lives long enough, will go and settle in a patch of dry grass or leaves. And if the conditions are right and the ground is not wet, it can start fire. That's what temptation does you in your flesh.

You're not just dry grass. You're not just a pile of leaves. It's been doused with kerosene. Or as my father in law, I'll talk about him again in a minute. Like, you have sprayed mineral spirits all over it.

And it doesn't take but just one little ember. So the truth is, is that temptation has a lifespan that it's very short, and it's going to die one of two ways. It's either going to die because you snuff it out, or it's going to die when it sacrifices itself to your sin. It's giving birth to the sin that we commit in our lives. So you've got a choice.

What strategy are you going to adopt to help you fight against the temptation to that's in your life? That's why I think Jesus added this last line. I'm going to ask the Lord to forgive my debt, but then why am I going to go back into the same sin that he just forgave me of? It's reflective of that. So I want to ask you to stand, stretch your legs for a moment.

I did say the next hour, right? I mean, it has been two weeks, three weeks since I've been in this pulpit. Y' all give me a whole hour, right? I mean, just kidding. Pick up with me in verse nine.

Because Jesus said, pray then in this way. Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For yours is the kingdom, yours is the power, yours is the glory forever. Amen. Go ahead and have a seat. Here's the problem. Why in the world would Jesus tell us to ask the Lord not to lead us into temptation?

Because to the reader, it would imply that the Lord is leading us to sin.

I want you to think about that for a moment. A lot of you have Grown up quoting this prayer and maybe never paused long enough to go, wait a minute, that sounds really weird for me to say to the Lord. Don't lead me into sin temptation. Well, do you think that's what it means? Can the Lord lead you and I into sin, temptation?

The emphatic answer is, absolutely not. Thank God for James chapter one, where he says that God cannot be tempted with evil and therefore does not tempt anyone with evil. So then what does he mean when he says, do not lead us into temptation? Well, it begins because with the word for temptation, it can also be translated as test and trial. And when you read James chapter one and it opens up, he talks about how we stand under trials that the Lord puts us through so that it will build our endurance.

Those of you that exercise, especially if you run or you swim or you bike, you know, if you got out there today, you haven't exercised in 10 years and you go out here to run, you're not going to get very far. The next day you go out and you do a little bit more. You build up your endurance and you go back and you work and you work and you work to build up your endurance. So God tests us, puts us through trials to build our endurance. What it also does is it reveals within us how double minded we are.

He says that a double minded man is unstable in all of his ways. Why? Because on the spiritual side, I yearn and long to obey the Lord and do his will, but my flesh wants to lead me down a different path. And so he goes on down through there and begins to talk about temptation. And he gives to us what happens when temptation comes.

And it elicits the lust, the deep desires of our life, and therefore it gets pregnant and it births sin in our life. God tests us and the enemy tempts us. Where did I get that from? I want you to turn backwards a few pages to Matthew chapter four. You're familiar with the temptation of Christ, but listen to what he said.

He said in verse number one. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit. You got to stop right there. Whose will was it for him to go into the wilderness knowing what would happen? It was God's to be tempted by the devil.

Same word, to be tempted by the devil, he says. And he fasted 40 days and 40 nights. And then he became hungry. What's hunger? It's a desire.

Yeah, I'd be hungry after 40 days and 40 nights, too. But listen what he says. And then. What's your Bible say? The tempter came to him and said, if you're the son of God, command that these stones become bread.

Then Satan commences to tempt him in his base. Is it wrong to be hungry? Is it wrong to eat?

But had Jesus done what Satan had said, it would have been sin, because he wouldn't have been trusting when Satan throws in front of him. But, well, go put yourself at the top of the pinnacle of the temple and jump off. He tempted him to test the word of God when he said, now you fall down before me and worship me, and I'll give you all the nations. He was tempting him to subvert the authority of God almighty. Did Jesus fail the test?

No, because it did not tempt him. Today we sit here in great need for a savior to come grab us by the nap of the neck and rescue us from our temptation. Some of us have been fighting it way too long. Are you tired? Are you tired?

Because you can't fight it on your own. You need the Lord and you need the people of God around you to help you with your temptations. See, that's what gets me is you'll counsel with somebody and they'll be like, well, I just keep falling back into the same sin. I'm like, well, when's the last time you came to church? Well, I just don't have time.

My kids are in this ball team and all this other stuff. You're going, so you've been out of church for two months, and you're wondering why temptation is overcoming you because you haven't been sitting under the word of God and with the people of God. That's what Covid did. And then I look around this room and I see people hungry to be for that. They're hungering to be with one another and hungering for the word of God.

It's a blessing, folks, to be able to sit and encourage one another. Now, wait a minute. I'm gonna break that down because there's some churches that have been abusive. I mean, there's a way to confront somebody about their sin, and then there's a way to shame and guilt somebody. And that's what we don't want.

We want freedom. There's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. Right? There's a way to hold people accountable in a way that is edifying. So let me break this down.

Look at verse number 13 for just a moment, and do not lead us. The construction here means we're saying that before I get into the place where this exists, stop it. In fact, this is not constructed as a command. It's constructed in a way that says that it does not exist in a general sense. Before I step into temptation, hold me back into temptation.

The preposition into does not mean I'm already in it. It means I'm directed toward it. If it meant for it, mean that I was already there. There'd been a different preposition, but this preposition means that I'm directed toward it. So I'm praying, lord, don't carry me into the temptation, which he can't.

God's not going to deliver us into sin to commit sin. That goes against God's character. Right, so what are we saying there? Like, I like what one author said. He said this prayer can't be asking God to do what he's already said he wouldn't do, which is tempt us with evil.

The best presentation means that it probably means, don't let me succumb to temptation, but give me strength to resist. And the next phrase where we do get the petition where he says, rescue me, deliver me from evil or from the evil one. Commentators talk about how in the text it says from evil, but I think we can apply it to the evil one because we go back to chapter four. Who was it that tempted Jesus? Satan.

Deliver me from the pressure. Deliver me from that. Grab me up like a puppy. I saw this video and I'm like, man, you're crazy. This lady was walking across a four lane interstate to rescue a kitten in the median.

But what's the truth? That kitten would have never made it, but she risked her life to go across those lanes to pick that, picked it up by the nap of its neck and carried it back across those lanes. Some of us are in that same situation because of our sin disposition. We're sitting in the median of the road and we're just oblivious. We're watching the embers fly up out of our, out of our fire and we're just grabbing every one of them.

We're mesmerized. As the man said in the video, what we need is a rescue. Do you want the Lord to rescue you or you just want to sit there in the heap and keep making mud pies?

We just sit and we want, like, we want that instant gratification. We love that instant moment. But we need a rescue. And so I want to give you, I'd say, what I call like three realities of temptation. And I want to counter that with three means to resist it.

You see, temptation in and of itself is not the sin. It's the catalyst that leads us to the birth of Sin. And God is calling us. And sometimes he tells us instructions to get out of it. But.

But if I don't listen to the rescue, if I don't yield to the leading of the Lord, it's not God's fault. It's my fault. It's my fault. If he provides the door of escape, then I have to step into the door. So let me give you three realities of temptation.

Number one, the emergence of temptation. Temptation is rooted in the flesh. Temptation is. Is rooted in the flesh. Temptation or test means the reality that something might happen.

That's what the original word means, something might happen. And so in your mind, when the ember begins to float, you begin to go, oh, wow. Like, for some of you, you're tempted right now to take a nap this afternoon. Is taking a nap wrong? No, some of it's floating up and going.

You know, I really would love to go to that bar this afternoon because I can't deal with the pressure in my life. So I'm just going to go drink it away.

You see, they're same. They're similar, but they're different.

Temptation is rooted in our flesh. Listen to what Matthew 15, 19, 20 says. For out of the heart, say heart, come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, theft, death, false witness, slanders. These are the things that defile the man. So where is the source?

It's not the devil made me do it. It's not. Well, I just couldn't. Couldn't bear the pressure of my friends, the peer pressure. It comes from your flesh.

I'm going to give you a very quick description of your flesh. Are you ready? I mean, it's just one word you can write down. Flesh equals. And I'm going to give you a word.

And every time you see the word flesh in scripture, because we're talking about our spiritual flesh, that's what we're succumbing to. But let me give you this definition. You'll never forget this word. Today, week, not seven days. Make sure you spell it.

W, E, A K. If I were to take a knife out right now and run it across my hand, what would happen? I would bleed because my flesh is weak. If I decided just to stand right here on the edge of this stage and just fall face first into the floor, I probably will crack my nose. Why? Because my flesh is weak.

If I decided to go and climb up the side of the gym over there to the very top of the. Of the. Of the roof and jump off of it, I probably will break my legs. Because My flesh is weak. I'll go out here and stand in the road and dodge traffic, and if I get hit by a car, if I survive, my.

My body will be a mangled mess because my flesh is. And you and I, under the weight of temptation, we're weak. We can't stand.

Sin is birthed out of my flesh. And here's the thing, like, if that's the case, then here's the question I want to ask you. Do you know what triggers your flesh? Do you know the places that you go that will trigger your flesh? Do you know the people that you're around that will trigger your flesh?

Do you know the things that you're watching that. That will trigger your flesh? Do you know the people, places and things, the nouns in your life that will trigger your flesh? And what are you doing to avoid those places and those things and those people? Well, you know, I love my old friend, but they still go to the bar.

I just go to the bar to sit with them. Get out of the bar, get them on your turf, get them into your place. Because if you're susceptible to it, it's only a matter of time before it's going to happen again. Some of you that struggle with pornography, your biggest problem is you're sitting alone. Stop being alone.

You've got to determine the trigger, because the trigger is in your flesh. It's already there. It's rooted in your heart. Jeremiah said that the heart is desperately sick, evil, wicked. Who can trust it?

Well, I just felt led to do. Stop that. Your heart is deceptive. That's why when we talked about forgiveness, you've got to move out of the emotional because emotions do not determine truth. That's what our culture is so embedding in our mind.

Well, if it feels right, do it. You got to get away from that junk. Scripture reveals the character of God and determines what is true. And I'm set free by the truth. We need to determine what are my triggers, and I need to identify them and get away from them.

Second one that you need to do is understand that the enticement of temptation is stirring, stoked by Satan. No, he can't twist your arm. No, he can't grab you by the hair and say, you need to do this. He doesn't have that power, especially if you're indwelt by the Holy Spirit. But like Laura's dad.

Laura's dad is the best at building fires. He's got this wood stove in his shop, and he'll start a fire, he'll throw Stain rags in there. And all of a sudden the whole thing's just growing red. And you don't want to stand in the room because you're sweating. It's like.

It's not like being in a sauna, but it's hot. So one Halloween, we were doing this event at my house and we needed a bonfire. It was cold, it was windy, it was kind of wet. He gets out there with this 4x4 piece of cardboard and he's fanning the flame. And all of a sudden this thing gets a boils up in a huge flame.

That's exactly what Satan does to you. You're sitting there thinking, you know what? I can resist this temptation. I'm strong enough.

And you're standing there, you think you can resist it? What the Bible said was resist the devil because you can't carry the weight of the temptation. He's just fanning it in the flame. And here's the thing that breaks my heart. And he's laughing.

He's laughing at you. He's going, come on, come on. It's almost like the way that Screwtape told Wormwood. He said, just remind him that he's hungry. Just remind him that he's hungry.

Fanning it and fanning it and fanning it. And then once you step into sin, he's the first one to say, well, what kind of Christian are you? What kind of person are you? Like, I thought you were born again, I thought you were saved. And.

And here you go stepping right back into it again. And then we sit in that. We sit there just like on Monty Python, making little mud pies. God's calling us to stop playing in the mud and to get right back to where Christ has forgiven us. It's prideful to resist the forgiveness of God.

It's prideful to stay in that state where you just go, well, I'm just not good enough to be forgiven.

Come on, you know I'm speaking truth, Father, forgive my debts. A lot of times you'll pray that and you won't even believe it yourself. Well, I know I'm forgiven, but I'm just a worthless person. For some reason. When we wallow in self pity, it doesn't seem to motivate God more.

Y' all ever notice that he's just standing there waiting, saying, you know, right here is a good footing. Why are you staying in the mud? Just come stand here. Well, the water's overwhelming God, I can barely breathe. Well, there's a rock right here.

Get out of it. Get out of the deep end and come stand here.

Sometimes it's harder to forgive ourself than it is to forgive others. And Satan's just going, gotcha. Resist the devil and he will flee. After Jesus was tempted. In verse 11 of Matthew 4, it says he left him because he realized he couldn't have his way.

What about you? Are you tired of Satan beating you up? Listen to what 1st Thessalonians 3.5 says. For this reason, when I could endure it no longer talking about Paul and. And his concern for the Thessalonians, I sent to find out about your faith for fear that the tempter might have tempted you.

Do we have that same kind of fear for ourself? That I'm letting temptation have its good work in me? Because this is what happens, the evolution of temptation. Temptation evolves into sin through our lust. So again I say, do you know your triggers, your people, your places, and your things that cause you to step into sin?

Listen to what James wrote. Let no one say when he's tempted, I'm being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he's carried away, enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin.

And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Again, the lifespan of temptation is very short. Its purpose is to give birth. And when it does, it's dead. So I can either let it die and produce death in me, or I can snuff it out.

That ember begins to float, and I can clap my hands and put it out, or I can watch where it's going and you and go stomp it under my feet. But until I identify my triggers and understand Satan is fanning it, then I will not address this idea that it's evolving out of my flesh. When my lust is enticed and there are things that happen, you know what? When you're exhausted, you're more likely to sin. When you're depressed, you're more likely to sin.

When you're stressed, you're more likely to sin. When you're steeped in your pride, you. You're more likely to sin. When you are sitting there craving attention, you're more likely to sin. You must set a boundary.

You identify your triggers, and then you set a boundary. I will not go to this 911, wherever that place is, I will not go. If it's a person in your past, and I will not go to their house. Solomon is, in Proverbs 5, told his son. Do not go to the door of the adulteress house, because once you step in the door, it's over.

Listen, does God hate sin? Does God love the sinner? If God hates sin, do you?

Do you hate sin enough that you're willing to say, I have got to put boundaries in my life so that I can stop the growth of the problem.

Y' all realize that during COVID you can't stop a virus, right? Like, I don't care what. Which way you went and leaned. Mask or no mask or vaccination or no vaccine, you know, you can't stop a virus. You can't see it.

You don't know where it is. I mean, truth is, I remember when we were young, one of our kids get strips who brought their kid with strep to the nursery today. You know, like, you're getting all mad because some kid coming. You could have got it off a box Corn flakes in Walmart.

So what's one of the things they do say that will help you to not get sick? Wash your hands.

But does that stop the virus? Good chance of it, though. It's called a boundary. Hey, young boys, I know y' all don't wash your hands.

Remember when I talked about your nose earlier? I think y' all found the back of your brain.

I wouldn't touch a teenage boy's cell phone to save my life. You ever seen the crust that begins to grow?

We're saying, ooh, but that's the way sometimes we live. We take our spiritual life, and it's all crushed, crusted over with our sin and our muck. And we don't really have a conviction that we want to get rid of it.

It's rooted in our flesh. It's stoked by Satan. It evolves from our lust. Have you identified your triggers? Because here's the three things I think that we can do to help resist.

I'm going to go through these kind of quick. You've got verses there to go back and read. That's what I love about that. But number one, this is it. The execution of temptation begins in obeying Jesus Christ.

I want victory. Jesus must be the Lord of my life. I must move him out of the category of Savior to Lord. Yes, he saved me. I'm so glad he saved me.

Thank you, Lord. Be my Lord. You be the one in charge. You be the one who determines what is sin and what is not sin. You.

Cause here's the thing. You can argue with somebody about what is a sin and what's Not a sin. But I'll give you one guarantee. If you choose to sin, you will suffer. And you know what?

There will be other people suffering your life for your sin too. Do you love them enough that you want to get the sin out of your life? Now? Are you going to be sinless? Let's be real.

What does a Christian do who sins? He is faithful and he's just. When I confess to forgive me of my sin. And not just that. He cleanses me from unrighteousness.

And that cleansing allows me to enter the presence of the Lord. That way my relationship stays maintained. See, it starts in our thoughts. We take every thought captive. We take every thought captive.

2nd Corinthians 10:5. Then we listen for what God is doing to rescue us. 2 Peter 2:9. Then the Lord knows how to rescue the ungodly from temptation. If he would rescue Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah, when Moses said, if you could find five who are righteous, will you spare the city?

He said, no, he didn't. He didn't spare the city. He spared Lot. If he would spare Lot, how much more will he spare the godly? And how are you godly?

If you're born again and you know Jesus Christ as your savior, this Holy Spirit lives inside of you. You're a godly one, you're a saint. And we lean in on that and follow his example. Hebrews 10:2 18. For since he himself was tempted, Jesus, in all that he suffered, he is able to come to our rescue, lead us not to temptation, but deliver us, rescue us, pluck us out of the evil.

Do you hate sin enough that you want to be saved from it? Or you just want a policy? Insurance policy says, well, when you leave this world, you won't go to hell, you go to heaven. What kind of life is that? That's living life as low as you can.

But Jesus came that we may have life. And have it what, more abundantly. What robs my life? The enemy. And how does the enemy rob my life?

Through sin. Second thing here is the escape of temptation. Victory is seizing the escape. You've heard the story of the man who was facing a flood, right? And he prays, God, rescue me.

Car comes by. He says, no, God's going to help me. A boat comes by as the water rises. Nope, God's going to help me. Later, he's on his roof and a helicopter comes by.

And he's like, I'm good. God's going to help me. And he dies and drowns to death. He gets to heaven. And he says, God, I thought you were going to rescue me.

He said, well, I sent a car, a boat, and a helicopter. You see, a lot of us, we have this expectation about how God's going to operate. And there's this escape hatch, there's this door that God provides. According to First Corinthians 2:13, no temptation has overtaken you. That's not common to man.

But God is faithful, say faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation, provide a way escape, so that you will be able to endure it. The word endure means to bear the weight underneath. Now, I don't know about you, but I hold my hands up here pretty long. My arms go numb. They get weak.

I start to shake. I can't bear temptation on my own. I'm holding it up, and I'm enduring it. But over there is my escape door. I start to move, and then I go to the door and the temptation is gone.

But if I don't, if I sit there for one moment in my pride, thinking I'm going to be able to endure this, No, I can sit in the parked car of my girlfriend and not touch her.

That's what he said in scripture, didn't he? You know what? Some of you. I mean, thank you, because it's later on in my notes. Some of us need to learn how to flee.

Y' all remember in Forrest Gump when he said, run, Forrest, run. He said, I started running that day. I never stopped. Some of you need to learn how to run. Boys, y' all need to learn how to run.

Can I meddle? Parents, I love you. Your boys need to turn their phones in every night before they go to bed.

They really don't need TVs in the room, either. You need to put accountable to you on their devices. Is it going to stop them from looking at stuff? No. I hope.

I hope that when our children are old enough, they'll say, thank you that you kept that out of my sight.

We just throwing them out there for the wolves now. That's just one example of many. Can I meddle some more, y'? All, Let me do it. If you've got a liquor cabinet in your.

In your house and you're expecting your kid not to drink, I'm telling you, I'm just meddling. But don't be shocked when your kid gets into college and they're partying every weekend and getting drunk. I'm serious. I'm not saying that to be demeaning and bash I'm saying I. Our kids need help setting these boundaries because they don't even know what their triggers are yet.

If we love them enough, let's set boundaries for them. Well, my kid won't like me that much. They're my best friend. No, they're not your best friend. You're their parent.

They're not your friend. Sorry. I digress.

I don't know that I can. I'm going a little long. I apologize. But I can guarantee if you set counselors down who have family counseling, you will see a common root problem. And it goes back that I'm not setting boundaries to the things that lead to sin.

If I love my children and I love myself enough, not only will I set the boundaries for them, I'll set them for me. Let me give you this last point. Wrap this up so I can give you these. These points. The examination of temptation.

Here's the thing. Victory is watching out for yourself, and it's watching out for others. Galatians 6. 1. Brothers, if anyone is caught in trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness.

I hope that was gentle, what I just said to you. I. I came out passionate, but it's. It's. It's. It comes out of grief.

Any of you got a brother or sister that struggles with drugs and alcohol?

Do you know the tears and the prayers that have been prayed and shed and the destruction done?

I want to fight against it. We need to go hunting and know what our temptations are so that we can help other people. But then it says that. But be careful so that you, too, will not be tempted. So it may be good.

You say, well, I'm gonna go back to that bar and sit with my best friend because I don't want them driving home drunk. I appreciate that, but if you're going to that bar and it's tempting you to drink again. Stop.

Stop. Gosh, can I just keep meddling? Like, if every time your child gets arrested and you go bail them out of jail within 12 hours, they're not going to learn their lesson. God, that sounds cold, don't it? They're going to get hurt in that jail.

Well, they shouldn't have done something to be in jail. You can't rescue them from that. They've got to come to the place to accept their responsibility, to fix their problem. You can tell your loved one, you need to stop smoking all day long, but until they choose to do it, they won't. I've meddled enough.

I say this in love. Because if you hate sin like God hates sin, you will set boundaries in your life because you know what triggers it and sets it off in your life. We obey Christ. We seize the escape, and we're constantly watching out for one another. Why?

Because that would lead us. I love what this one author said. He said, why should we ask that we be kept from evil? For the great and the wonderful reason that our fellowship with God would never be broken. And what that'll do is it'll cause me to pray victoriously by obeying God fully.

I'm not perfect, but I want my full intention to be God. I'm going to follow you with everything I have, and I'm going to sin. Temptation's going to come my way. I'm going to get caught unaware. I have an advocate with the Father where I can receive forgiveness for my indebtedness.

And, God, I want you to help me every day not to go where that temptation is. I want you to help hold me back from what the evil is trying to press me to do. That's what it means to pray the Lord's Prayer, submitting ourselves, therefore to God, resisting the devil. And he will flee from us. And when he flees from us, I need to have the commitment that each and every time I'm in the situation to flee from the sin that so easily besets me.

So let me give you. Let me give you just a few applications. Number one, today. Make it a part of your praying every day. Lord, keep me from temptation.

It has to be proactive. Jesus told them in the garden, watch and pray that you will not fall into temptation. And what was their temptation? To sleep. But they disobeyed the Lord because they didn't watch, watch and pray.

Secondly, identify those triggers, then set guardrails. Part of setting those guardrails means I need to invite some people into my life not to shame me. You don't need moral police. And they're going, like, what kind of human being are you that you give into that again? More than likely, they're probably stepping into the same junk, too.

But do you hate sin enough? I mean, if Jesus taught us to pray this way, he knew what we needed before we asked. And he hears us and he sees us and we've got those great promises. So we pray that way. Father, hallowed be your name.

You're great. You're wonderful. You're awesome. Your kingdom come, your will be done. Lord, help me that I would do your will and see your will on earth as it is in heaven.

A peace of eternity. Lord, today I have a lot of need, needs I don't even realize I have. So give it to me, Lord, please, I beg you. Because you're the only one who can give me what I really need. And Father, I stand with my sin before me always.

God, take my debt away, take my sin away. And don't lead me. Keep me back from temptation. But Lord, I need to be rescued, delivered from the evil, the evil one to constantly is praying. But then you know what happens.

If that really is what flows, then I can cry out. For yours is the kingdom and yours is the power, and yours is the glory. And therefore I then can have that victory. Do you want victory in your life? I think if we can take and follow through that and begin to identify those things, we're going to experience a life we never had before.

Randy's going to come join me in a second. But I want to say one last thing. Tomorrow morning for our day of prayer, we've got some extra cards down here. You say, I've got a prayer request I never got to submit. Or maybe something's come up in the last month.

Would you come and take one of these cards, fill it out and give it to one of our pastors? We're going to be available after this service. I didn't give an invitation today for you to come and say, hey, I'm struggling with temptation because you probably wouldn't come. No offense. This is between you and the Lord.

I hope that you will want to snuff out sin before it starts a fire in your heart. So.