Sunday Messages
Messages from the Sunday morning service at Family Church in West Palm Beach, FL.
Sunday Messages
Teach Us To Pray Week 6 | Lead Us Not Into Temptation But Deliver Us From Evil
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Let's pray together, family church. Heavenly Father, we bow before you, our King, our Creator, our Lord, and our friend. We come to you in the name of Jesus, crucified on the cross for our sins and raised from the dead. We've gathered together to meet with you. We need you to meet with us. God, there are some in the room who are facing tremendous temptations. Some in the room are in a season of wrestling mightily with huge temptations. I pray that today that they would have a sense of your encouragement, your love for them, your power for them, your provision for them, and that you would help all of us to push back against temptation by the power of Christ. And God, we want to receive everything we have, everything you have to teach us today from your word. We want to receive it by faith, and we receive all of it in Jesus' name. And all God's people say, Amen. You can't be seated. Welcome again to Family Church. My name is Jimmy Scroggins. I'm one of the pastors here at Family Church. Every Sunday at Family Church, we have a Bible study. We're going to have our Bible study right now. So I would encourage you to go ahead and get a Bible out if you brought one with you. If you did not bring one with you, you can grab a Bible from the pew in front of you. Maybe you prefer to turn your Bible on on your device, but I would encourage you to get your eyes on a Bible, a copy of the Word of God, so we can have this Bible study together. We are in week six of a seven-week teaching series through the Lord's Prayer. And we're going to open our Bibles to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter six. That's where the Lord's Prayer is found. If you've missed our previous messages from this series, you can watch it on our YouTube channel. Today we're going to talk about temptation. Today we're going to talk about temptation. Temptation is something that every single person in the room has to wrestle with. I don't care if you've been a Christian your entire life. I don't care if you are a brand new Christian. I don't care if you're somewhere in between. Or maybe you say, I'm not even a Christian yet. All of us wrestle with temptation. So our big idea today is that you should pray like you are in a spiritual war. You should be praying like you are in a spiritual war. I don't know if you realize it or not, but you are engaged in a spiritual war if you live in this world. It is a real war. You think that your problems are caused by your ex. You think that your problems are caused by your mom and dad. You think that your problems are caused by the Democrats. You think your problems are caused by the Republicans. You think it's the white people, you think it's the black people, you think it's the Jewish people, you think it's the Muslim people. It's none of that. We're engaged in a spiritual war, a war with the devil, and there are forces, and there is a spiritual realm that you cannot perceive, that you cannot see with your five senses, but it's right there, and you are in this war. And so we need to be praying like we're in a spiritual war. We're talking about temptation. Temptation is a big deal. One thing that tempts me is chocolate chip cookies. I love chocolate chip cookies. I can barely pass them up. If you make them homemade, it's all I can do. I love chocolate chip cookies, and every once in a while, my wife or one of my daughters will say, Dad, would you? It's just like that at my house. Dad, would you like to eat one of these cookies that I made for you? You think I'm gonna look at my daughter and say, get behind me, Satan? They put that cookie out there, man. I want it. You know what else I like? There's this little ice cream store down here on Lake Worth Beach by the pier. It's called Killwind's. If you go to Killwins, they have this one item: it's toasted coconut ice cream. If you put toasted coconut ice cream on a waffle cone, that is a party in your mouth, man. That is the best thing you could have. And you're like, I don't like coconut. You'll like this coconut. You should try it. It's unbelievable. I like that stuff. When I walk down the aisles of Publix, and I walk down where the bluebell ice cream is. That bluebell vanilla bean ice cream starts calling my name. When I walk by it, it even turns a light on in there for me. I walk by, boom. And it's like that bluebell vanilla bean ice cream is saying, Pastor Jimmy. Pastor Jimmy, come get us. All of those things look good. They all taste good going down. But if you have too much of it, they'll kill you. It'll make you fat. It'll kill you. All temptation is like that. Because you know, all sin looks good when you first look at it. And it even tastes good when it goes down. But it'll kill you. And that's why you've got to deal and be serious about temptation. And think about how all of us started being tempted when we were little kids, didn't we? I mean, I'm sure you can remember when you were just a little boy or just a little girl, something tempted you. You had a temptation to do something that you weren't supposed to do. And you wanted to do it real bad. And some of you were good boys and girls, and you didn't do it. Most of us, we did it. I tell you the story from time to time about my little grandson, little James. I love little James, you know. Little James, just about 14, 15 months old. He's there at our house, and he was eating some mashed potatoes, and he put his hand in the mashed potatoes, and he held the mashed potatoes up, and I could see the temptation in his eyes. And his mom said, No, James, no. And he said, No, no, mommy. And he gave in to temptation and he spiked the mashed potatoes on the floor. That's really not a big deal because we have a tile floor and it did no damage at all, and we just swiped them up in two seconds, and there was nothing wrong with that. But you know what'll happen if James doesn't learn how to handle temptation in his life when he's an older elementary school kid or when he's a middle school kid or when he's a high school kid, he'll be doing age-appropriate versions of throwing his mashed potatoes on the floor. And then when he's in college or when he's a young adult, or when he's in his 30s or his 40s or his 50s, if he doesn't learn how to wrestle with temptation, he'll be doing age-appropriate versions of throwing his mashed potatoes on the floor. Only now, it won't be a two-second cleanup by his grandparents. He will devastate his own life and wreck his own family and mess up everything in the world for a lot of people. And that's why we've got to learn how to wrestle with every temptation from the time we're little kids to wherever we are in life right now. Temptation shows up in all kinds of ways. For different ones of us, it's different. For you, it might be too much alcohol. Drinking too much might be a big temptation for you. I got somebody's picture there. So you it might be screen time. Maybe you spend too much time looking at screens. Maybe you spend too much time posting incessantly about yourself. Maybe for you it's hooking up with somebody you should not be hooking up with. Maybe for you it's playing too many video games. Maybe for you it's obsessing about your appearance. What they call looks maxing. Maybe that's your thing. Temptation can be so powerful. The crazy thing about temptation and sin is temptation and sin is always addictive, it's always progressive, and it's always destructive. It's always addictive, it's always progressive, and it's always destructive. That's why Jesus said you need to learn how to pray. And when you pray, this is one of the things that you must be praying about. And that's what he does when he comes to the Lord's Prayer. He has a specific set of a prescription, a way, a map for us to be praying about this. And we'll put the Lord's Prayer on the screens. I'd like all of us to read the Lord's Prayer out loud together as a church family. Are you ready? Here we go. Jesus said, pray then like this, our Father 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 lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Let's take that last verse up there. That's our focal verse today, verse 13. Let's all read it out loud together again. You ready? And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Look at that verse. Lead us not into temptation. Deliver us from evil. Kind of two sides of the same coin. Lead us not into temptation. That's proactive. Keep something from happening that hasn't happened yet. Lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil. That's cosmic, that's in the spiritual realm, that's where God has power and influence, and we do not deliver us from evil. You could even read that earlier. I really think it's better to perceive that. Deliver us from the evil one, from the devil. Lead us not into temptation. We have a part to play in that, but deliver us from the evil one, the devil. And Jesus said, Pray like that. Lead us not into temptation. Where does temptation even come from in the first place? Well, I can tell you one place it does not come. It does not come from God. It does not come from God. James chapter 1 says it this way, and I have it on the screen. James says, Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then, desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. See, the Bible will teach you that God may test you, or God may allow you to be tested, but God will never tempt you. And you can see how dangerous temptation is when you look at this text. Let's put verse 15 back up on the screen if we could from James chapter 1. It said, desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin. And then when it's fully grown, gives birth to death. You see the architecture of sin and temptation right there laid out very simply, very plainly. You've got temptation, and then you've got desire, and then you've got sin, and then you've got death. Because what James is trying to say, temptation is knocking on the door, and then desire cracks open the door, and then sin busts through the door, and then death kills everything in your house. Temptation is knocking on the door, desire is cracking the door, sin busts through the door, and death kills everything in your house. That's why when it comes to temptation, when it comes to sin, you better pay attention to it. You better not play around with it. Jesus wouldn't tell you to pray about it if you weren't supposed to be taking it seriously. Well, if temptation doesn't come from God, then where does it come from? Theologians have come up with this formula right here. Sin comes from these places: the world, the flesh, and the devil. The world, the flesh, and the devil. What does that mean? The world, when the Bible talks about the world, it's talking about what is around us. The flesh, what comes from inside of us, the devil, the one who's coming against us. What is around us, the world, what is inside of us, the flesh, who is coming against us? The devil. Now, God is a good God, but the devil is a bad devil. God is a good God, but the devil is a bad devil. And the Bible talks a lot about how bad the devil is. Let me just give you a few places where the Bible talks about the devil. The Bible calls the devil the God of this world. The God of this world because he has so much power in this world right now, in this present age. The Bible says that Satan is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. The Bible says that we are at war with the devil's schemes. And that's why Jesus says, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Well, how do we actually do it? How do we work towards what we are praying for? How do we wrestle with temptation? How do we actually do it? Hey, if you're taking notes, and I hope that you do, I would encourage you to get out your program. It's got a place for you to take notes. It's got to fill in the blanks. It would be good for you to be in the habit of writing things down. We have a Bible study, especially today, because this is one Sunday. I know what I'm talking about applies to every single person. Even you, 176 special forces Christians, have to deal with temptation. So what does Jesus want us to learn? Number one, we've got to fight against temptation. We must fight against temptation. Now, all of us are going to deal with temptation. It is a lifelong problem you will never grow out of. You will never become so advanced in your Christian life that temptation is no longer an issue for you. Some of you came into the room, and the truth is, if you were honest, you are wrestling with a gigantic area or a gigantic season of temptation right now in your life. And you're trying to sit there and act like this isn't applying to you, but your stomach is turning turning somersaults right now because you know that right now, this minute, as we sit, this season in your life, you are wrestling with a gigantic area of temptation right now. Maybe it's a new temptation. Sometimes temptation shows up, and you've never been tempted by that before. And for whatever reason, right now, in this moment, in this season, something that never's been a problem for you before. All of a sudden, it's tempting. Maybe it's an old temptation. Some of you guys had some old temptations that you wrestled with a long time ago, and you thought you had put those temptations away, but now for whatever reason they've come roaring back, and these same temptations that you thought you were done with are back. And maybe you're having an affair. Or maybe it's not an affair yet, but you know that the communication between you and this other person has gotten too frequent and gotten too familiar, and you know in your guts that if this keeps going, it's not taking you to a good place. Maybe it's something that you're looking at on your devices and you can't stop. Maybe it's drinking too much or doing some other kind of a drug. Maybe it's paying too much attention to yourself and obsessing over your own appearance. And then every one of us, including me, deals with what I call besetting sins. A besetting sin, you know what a besetting sin is? A besetting sin is like this it's a sin or a temptation that you have wrestled with almost your entire life. And almost all of us have at least one area where this is true. It's like we wrestle with it, we're aware of it, we ask God to help us with it, we're fighting against it, but this certain area of temptation, we can never quite put this one thing all the way down. I shared with you before what one of my besetting sins is. One of my personal besetting sins is anger. And I can get fired up really quick. And then when I get fired up, I use bad words. Some of you are like, ah, Pastor Jimmy, bad words aren't that bad. I know we have a lot of proud cussing Christians that are in there for attendance this morning, and I I understand. But I have to tell you, when I read the Bible, the Bible tells me that God actually cares a lot about my words. And God wants me to manage my emotions and keep them under control. And God wants every word that comes out of my mouth to honor Him. So God doesn't think it's all that funny. And that's why it's called a besetting sin. And that's why I, as your pastor, have to pray, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil. One of the things I love about being a Christian is when you become a Christian, and becoming a Christian means you've turned from your sins, you've repented of your sins, you've turned to Christ, you've received Jesus by faith for yourself. You believe that Christ was crucified for you and raised from the dead. If you become a Christian, one of the things I love about being a Christian is that Jesus understands what I'm dealing with. I'm not worshiping some God who's some uh in some remote location somewhere, who's some other kind of a being that cannot possibly connect with what I'm dealing with as a human. Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. He is a human being. He walked on this same earth that I'm walking on. He actually knows what it feels like to be tempted. You know, in the Bible, there's a story where Jesus actually gets tempted one-on-one directly by the devil himself. Not demonic forces, not satanic schemes. The devil goes one-on-one with Jesus. Some of you are like, Yeah, I know how that feels. I doubt it. I doubt the devil's ever really tempted you personally. Well, how do you know? Because the devil's not like God. He can only be in one place at one time, he can only be bothering one person at one time. How important do you think you are? Jesus was important though. And he dealt directly with the devil. And even though the devil himself was throwing everything he had at Jesus, Jesus never sinned. He never sinned, he did not bow, he did not fall, he did not falter. Jesus was able to fight off temptation. There's an old song, and if you grew up in a certain kind of church, you may have heard it before. We don't really sing it around here that often. It goes like this Jesus knows all about our struggles, He will guide till the day is done. There's not a friend like the Loly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. I love that line. Jesus knows all about our struggles. I'm glad that I worship a God who knows what I'm walking through. I'm glad that I worship a God who can understand what I'm praying to him about. So when Jesus says, pray like this, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, I'm talking to a God who has stood down temptation and who has stood in the face of the evil one himself. That's why the writer of Hebrews describes Jesus like this in Hebrews chapter four. I'll put it on the screens. Hebrews says, For we do not have a high priest, that's Jesus, who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted just as we are, yet without sin. So when Jesus tells us to pray like that, he's speaking from personal experience. He knows what we're dealing with. And what we are dealing with, ladies and gentlemen, is extremely dangerous. What we are dealing with with temptation will ruin your life. It'll steal your soul. It'll blow up your family. You'll lose the respect of your children. You'll lose the you'll break the heart of your wife or of your husband. What we're dealing with, ladies and gentlemen, is very, very dangerous. It can get you in all kinds of trouble. That's why you better not mess around with little temptations. You better not say, oh, I can handle this. You better not say it's not going to be a big deal. You better not say no one's going to find out. You better not say, compared to someone else that I know, this is small potatoes. What you better do is take temptation seriously and fight it. That's why the Old Testament says it like this in the book of Proverbs. You cannot hold fire to your chest and expect not to be burned. You fly close to the flame, you're probably gonna get lit up. In the New Testament, it says like this don't give the devil an opportunity in your life. Don't give the devil an opportunity. And the book of Genesis is a story about a guy named Joseph. Not Joseph Jesus' dad, different Joseph lived before him. This guy, Joseph, lived in Egypt. Joseph's boss's wife was hitting on him hard. She wanted him bad. Probably would have been fun. Probably easy to tell yourself you deserve it. Probably easy to tell yourself, nobody will find out. But Joseph did not negotiate, and Joseph did not rationalize. When Joseph was confronted with temptation by her, Joseph ran out of the building. He physically removed himself from the presence of temptation. Some of you might ought to learn a lesson from Joseph. All right. So, what do you do if there's an area of temptation that is very difficult for you? What do you do with a besetting sin? Or maybe something that is addictive? And this is the best advice I can give you. It's very practical advice. It doesn't matter if you've been a Christian a long time or like everyone could heed this advice. If you're struggling with serious temptation, the best thing You can do is get as close to zero access to that thing as you can. As close to zero access as you can. What do you mean by zero access? Let me just give you some examples. If alcohol is your problem, maybe you should not hang out where a lot of alcohol is served. You see what I'm saying? If devices mess you up, maybe you should take your smartphone and trade it in for a dumb phone. It's a thing. Look it up. If a blast from the past is sliding into your DMs and it's not good for you, maybe you should just cut off all contact. If you have to work closely with a person and that relationship is a problem for you, it would be better for you to switch jobs than to sit there and deal with that every single day. You got to take temptation seriously. You got to fight temptation. You can't take sin lightly. You know why you can't take it lightly? Let me tell you another reason why you can't take it lightly. You can't take it lightly because you're not that strong, but also the people around you should matter to you too much. Because when you sin, sin splatters. It will not be contained to you. Your sin will splatter on others. It will splatter on your spouse, it will splatter on your kids, it will splatter on your coworkers, it'll splatter on the other people who go to church with you. If you sin, your sin will inevitably splatter in places you don't even anticipate. Some of you have had it happen to you. Why would you do that to someone else? You can't take sin lightly. And our society, our society has trained us to create these uh permission structures for all kinds of things that God's word says people should not be doing. But we have created these massive permission structures and people do stuff all the time. Like what? Gambling. I mean, I know some of you like, eh, not that big of a deal. I can afford it, and it's just a little bit and it's just fun. Get off my case. For some of you, that's true. For some of you, it did start out that way. But it's not that way now. And the world has created all these permission structures so that everywhere you go, you can gamble on whatever you want. How about pornography? The world has created all kinds of permission structures so you can just look at pornography and rationalize why it's really okay. How about hooking up or shacking up with somebody that you're not married to and you call yourself a Christian, but you're gonna keep doing that? Hey, be careful with that. I know our society has created permission structures where you're told that's okay, but God's word says it's gonna destroy you. How about how about uh gay marriage? How about transgender ideology? How about no fault divorce? All of these permission structures that our society has created that allow people to do the things that God's word clearly says, do not do these things. And I'm telling you, we should wrestle with these, we should push back against these. Temptation is serious, sin is serious. Remember, temptation knocks on the door, desire cracks the door, sin comes through the door, and death kills everything in your house. Instead of recognizing how how dangerous temptation is for us and for the people around us, our society glamorizes it and markets it and celebrates it. Why would Christians participate in that? We can't glamorize sin, we can't market sin, we can't celebrate sin. We've got to abandon these godless permission structures and hold on to the word of God. And that's why Jesus says, You've got to pray. Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil. So don't allow yourself to indulge in these little temptations. Just remember, all temptation is progressive and addictive and destructive. And the bottom line is this when it comes to temptation, you gotta fight. You gotta fight, you gotta fight, you gotta fight, you gotta fight, you gotta, if you get knocked down, you gotta get back up and fight some more. You've got to fight temptation with everything you've got and pray to the Lord in heaven. Lead us not in temptation, but deliver us from evil. Second thing on your notes. You gotta focus on God's design. You must focus on God's design. Okay, guys, I just said a lot about resisting temptation, but now let's just flip on the other side of the coin. Part of it is fighting temptation, but part of it is focusing on God's design. You're not gonna win against temptation long term by just like white knuckling it and telling yourself, don't do this thing, don't do this thing, don't do this thing, don't do this thing. That's not going to work. It's not going to work. When Jesus was tempted by the devil, if you read it for yourself, he constantly responds with scripture because his mind is so saturated with the word of God, he's filled up his mind with something good. You can't just focus on not doing the don'ts. You actually have to jump out here and do some of the do's. You can't just not do the stuff God says not to do. You got to fill your life up with the things God says that you're supposed to do. And the reason, and here's a principle. This is true for your own life, for your family, for your business. Principle. You will always move towards what you focus on. You will always move towards what you focus on. Think about sports. There's a lot of good athletes in here. Professional athletes in here, college athletes in here, high school athletes in here. Wish we were athletes in here. There's a lot of all of us are in here, okay? Every serious athletic endeavor focuses on where your eyes go. Where are you looking? What are you looking at? Your eyes are so important in any athletic endeavor. Why? Because you're going to move towards what you focus on. Moms and dads of teenagers or older, how many of you, raise your hand and be honest? How many of you have ever had to teach a teenager to drive? Would you please raise your hands? In every marriage, there's one parent that's good at it. And then there's the other parent. I'm good at it. You know what the scariest thing about teaching a teenager to drive is? They always move towards what they focus on. You're driving down the road. And they go, look at that Ferrari! You're driving down the road, they see their friends. Hey! And what do you have to tell them? Look at the road! But you say it gently, nicely, with an encouraging tone. You could end up on YouTube if you don't. If you sit there and focus, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, don't do this, you're focusing on the thing that you're gonna end up moving towards. You can't just not do the thing. You've got to fill up your life. You've got to fill in the gap with some good things that God tells you you're supposed to do. And God's given us some tools. If you're a Christian, you have some very powerful tools to push back on temptation. Here's what they are: you have the power of the Holy Spirit. If you receive Jesus by faith for yourself, the Holy Spirit lives in you, the Holy Spirit will teach you how to fight temptation. You have the power of prayer. Jesus said, Pray like this. He wouldn't be telling you to do it if it wasn't important. You have the instruction of the Word of God. All of us have access to the Bible, God's Word. All 66 books are written in a language in a way that you can understand it. The Bible gives you all kinds of instruction about how to stay away from temptation. And you have the help of your church family. You are not alone in wrestling with sin and temptation. If there's an error of temptation or sin that has been beating the heck out of you, you have a church family right here that's not going to embarrass you, it's not going to put you down or put you out, that's going to come around you and help you win against temptation because that's what Jesus. Jesus didn't die on the cross for you to get your tail kicked the rest of your life by temptation. Jesus died on the cross because he won, so you can win. And your church family is here. You say, Well, Pastor Jimmy, how is my church family going to help me with this thing I'm struggling with? We can help you like this. Sin thrives and grows in secret. And it's that secret thing that you've been trying to wrestle with yourself because you're too embarrassed to tell another Christian that that's an issue for you. And then now the devil's combining the sin with your pride and keeping it even more secret and making it even deeper and more destructive. You know, there are certain things, it's amazing. If you just talk to another brother or sister and say, Let me tell you what I'm dealing with, just speaking it out loud robs it of a huge portion of its power. When someone else knows, it's like, okay, that's that even sounded stupid coming out of my mouth. Like I don't even know why. And you're free. And you might say, well, how do I know which things I'm supposed to handle on my own and which things am I supposed to get help from from my church family? Well, it probably goes like this. If you can handle it on your own, you kind of work your way through it and you stop dealing with it. If you're still dealing with it, it means you might need some help. Because if you were gonna handle it on your own, you would have already done that. You guys follow me on that? If you were gonna handle it on your own, you would have already done that. And so that's how you can know. One more practical word. We got a lot of moms and dads in here. We got a lot of people who are gonna become moms and dads in the next few years. Guys, one of the most important things moms and dads can do is teach your kids God's design. And if you will teach them God's design from the time they're young, then when they're faced with all kinds of dilemmas and all kinds of worldview questions and all kinds of temptations, if they understand God's design, they'll have a home base, they'll have a place to stand that other people just don't have. Say, okay, but how does that look? It looks like this you have a little girl, you have a little boy, you teach that little girl. You were a girl because God made you a girl. You're different from boys because God made you a girl, and it's wonderful because God made you so that one day you're probably going to grow up and you're going to be somebody's wife. You're going to get married to a man and be his wife. And then together, you're going to have children and you're going to be a mommy. So you're a girl so that you can grow up one day and be a wife, and you can one day grow up and be a mommy. Because that's important because that's how God made it. And God wants children to have a mommy, and God wants children to have a daddy. You can teach that to three-year-olds. They can understand it. Say, whoa, whoa, whoa. What if they end up getting divorced? Or what if she ends up being a single mom? Or what if, hey ma'am, just because we have challenges keeping God's design doesn't mean we don't hold up God's design in front of our kids. Okay, I'm a realist. I understand life happens, but just because it's hard to keep God's design doesn't mean we stop talking about God's design. You hold up the design. You say, Well, prodigally, how does that even help us? I'll tell you how it helps you. Because when that little kid, um, when her aunt comes over, Aunt Stacy comes over with her friend, what am I supposed to tell my little kid? Here's what you tell them. Hey, Aunt Stacy's coming over tonight with her friend. And Aunt Stacy loves you, and we love her so much. But you know what God's design is. Men are supposed to be married to women, and women are supposed to be married to men. And Aunt Stacy's not following God's design right now. And we don't want to hurt her feelings. She already knows what we believe about that because we love her, but we're gonna pray for her, and I just want you to know we want you to grow up and follow God's design. You see how that works? You you don't have to you don't have to answer every little anomaly that comes up in your life. If you teach God's design and you understand God's design from the beginning, you have a place to stand. So make sure you're holding on to God's design. Last thing. Number three, you gotta receive deliverance from Jesus. Don't put your stuff up. You gotta receive deliverance from Jesus, don't put your stuff up. I want to share with you what is, in my valve, in my view, the most important Bible verse in the whole Bible about temptation. As far as I'm concerned, this is the most helpful, the most important Bible verse in the whole Bible about temptation. It's written by St. Paul. It's found in the book of 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, and verse 13. It says, No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape so that you may be able to endure it. You know what that means? If you're a Christian, you can't ever say, Whoa, that temptation was too much. There's nothing I can do. I got blown away by the temptation. Not true. Because the word of God says God will not let you be tempted beyond what you are able. And you can't say, Yeah, but Pastor Jimmy, you don't understand. I get tempted in ways nobody else in the world gets tempted. That's not true. No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. You got to deal with temptation, I gotta deal with temptation. It doesn't look exactly alike, but temptation is temptation. And God's not letting you be tempted beyond what you're able to. And God's word says God will always provide for you a way of escape. A way of escape. What's the way of escape? Well, the way of escape is Jesus. Why? Because Jesus lived the perfect life, he never gave in to temptation, and he never sinned, and then Jesus was the perfect sacrifice. He was crucified on the cross for our sins. God raised him from the dead. And now, if anyone will turn from their sins and turn to Christ and receive Jesus by faith for themselves, they can have their sins forgiven. The Holy Spirit will come inside. And now you can say with confidence, Jesus has delivered me from the evil one. When Jesus died on the cross, if you're a Christian, he delivered you from the evil one. You can also say, Jesus is delivering me right now from the evil one. Some of you came in the room today and you were wrestling with some pretty big temptations. And even in this little talk that we've done in here, you've already started to make some decisions in your own mind and your own heart about what you're going to do to make it different. You know why? Because Jesus has delivered you from the power of sin, but Jesus is able to deliver you right now. You can change right now. You can confess your sins, you can repent of your sins, you can change. And Jesus will deliver you. He has delivered you. He is delivering you. He will deliver you. So when you pray, deliver us from the evil one, you're praying a prayer that has a 100% answer rate. He already has delivered you, he is delivering you right now, and he will deliver you. You know why? Because one day Jesus is going to come back, we're all going to be in heaven. And when that happens, Pastor Jimmy is never going to lose his temper unrighteously again. And Pastor Jimmy will never say a cuss word in heaven. You know why? Because I have been delivered. I'm being delivered. I will be delivered. And it's all because of the death of Christ. Have you received Jesus as your Savior? Have you come to that point where you turn from your sins? You receive Christ by faith. If you haven't, you should do that today. And some of you became a Christian a long time ago, but you've been beaten up by sin so much, you just need to almost like you don't need to get saved again, but you need to remind yourself of the gospel and get shed of all of these sins and all these temptations and remind yourself of Christ and come back to Christ. And the Lord's Supper helps us do that every single week. And we're going to take the Lord's Supper right now. The Lord's Supper reminds us that Christ has delivered us, He is delivering us, He will deliver us. His broken body and his shed blood reminds us of all of these things. Now the Lord's Supper is only for Christians. If you're here today and you're not a Christian, you should not take the Lord's Supper. And a family church we believe in, we teach it's best for you to take the Lord's Supper after you've been baptized by immersion and after you become a part of a neighborhood church. Some of you are like, well, Pastor Jimmy, this isn't my church. I'm a Christian, I've been baptized. Okay, if you're a Christian, you've been baptized, and you would take the Lord's Supper at your church, take it with us this morning as part of the extended family of Jesus that goes around the world. But right now, I'd just like to invite you. While Nathan and Jillian sing, I'd like to invite you to just bow your heads and draw close to the Lord. Maybe you need to confess some sins to the Lord before we take the Lord's Supper. Maybe you need to just sort of talk to the Lord, say, Lord, here's what I'm wrestling with. You know it. Lead me not into the temptation, deliver me from evil. Maybe there's a step that you need to take. I don't know. But before we eat and drink the body and blood of the Lord together, let's have these conversations with God. Let's remind ourselves of Jesus, and then in a minute we'll all eat and drink together.