Well, every week, the centerpiece of our Lord's Day is opening God's Word and learning from it. So please open your Bibles to James chapter 1 with me this morning. And I really, really encourage you to pull the handout from the bulletin out. Whether you were here last week or not, this is an important text that we're going to consider and a very important study we're going to go through. And it's part of a three-part series within our James series. James chapter 1, came across an interesting statement. Maybe you'll agree with it, maybe not. Someone once said this, a gossip, you know what a gossip is, right? Do I need to define that? I didn't think so. A gossip is one who talks to you about others. A bore is one who talks to you about himself. And a brilliant conversationalist is one who talks to you about you. I like that. Sometimes we might even act like that's true. That word gossip, though, that's not a fun word to consider. If you don't mind, I'm going to poke a little fun at gossips for a minute. I came across a few other statements. Someone said, a gossip usually makes a mountain out of a molehill simply by adding some more dirt. Someone else put it this way. Dirt is matter in the wrong place. Another person wrote these words. Gossip, it's like mud thrown against a clean wall. It may not stick, but it'll leave a mark. And then one more about gossip. I know nothing swifter in life than the voice of a rumor. You say, who said that? That was Plautus who lived from 254 to 184 BC. They were having a problem with gossip back then as well. He said, why are we talking about gossip? Because I want to have a little fun here in the introduction this morning. Let's have some fun and talk about someone else's problems. You want to do that? I know it's a Baptist church and this never happens, right? He said, what do you mean talk about other people's problems? Well, let's talk about people who struggle with things like bad habits, sinful habits. Let's talk about them. Or let's talk about people who struggle with anger, and everyone in the world knows that they struggle with anger except them. Or let's have some more fun. Let's talk about those Christians who struggle with pride, or with anxiety, or with lying. Let's talk about those other believers who really just can't get past an addiction, whether to a substance or to a computer monitor or a cell phone. Let's talk about them. Let's talk about, let's gossip about those who are perfectionists. Let's talk about those people this morning. You say, well, that would be gossip. Wouldn't that be fun? But the problem is, The person that we just described is not someone else. And it's not fun. You see, we just talked about ourselves. We struggle with temptation. We struggle with habits and anger and anxiety and pride and lust and addictions and perfectionism. We do it all very well. And sometimes we get discouraged because it's like, good night, how many more years do I have to even try to get in front of this sin, these besetting sins, the writer of Hebrews says. And you know, we read our Bibles through, and every year when we get to Romans chapter 7, we're like, yes, Paul, that's exactly what I feel. Because Paul writes in Romans 7 verses 18 and 19, I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells. For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good, I do not find. For the good that I will to do, I do not do. But the evil I will not to do, that's what I practice." It's like, that's it, Paul. That's where I live. It's very frustrating, isn't it? The struggle with temptation? It's very frustrating. And that frustration, though, can turn into a mercy from God. Because our frustration over our temptation makes us not walk, but run to our passage this morning in James 1, verses 13-18. I mean, we're running like a deer in the desert who finds a stream. And when we get there, it's no mirage. This passage gives you exactly what you need for your temptation. Look at verse 13, James chapter 1. Let no one say when he is tempted, I'm being tempted by God, or literally from God. He's not just the means, he's the source of my solicitation to evil. He says, let no man say when he's tempted, I'm being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself doesn't tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. And then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. So do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above. coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow." In the exercise of His will, He brought us forth by the Word of Truth so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures. A very important passage of Scripture. I'm calling it the battle plan for temptation. This is everything that James readers needed. Remember who they are? They're Jews who've been scattered because of persecution. They've landed in worse persecution. And not only are they reacting against God, but now they're turning their guns on each other. And what was a test in their life has turned the corner because of their failure in that test to bring out all sorts of yuck from their hearts. And James says, I'm going to explain that to you. I'm going to explain what's going on. It's exactly what they need, and it's exactly what we need on eCourse in 2018. It's such an important passage of Scripture that we're making three passes over this paragraph for three weeks, three separate messages, with a three-pronged plan of attack. We saw last week in our study, Roman numeral 1, we saw how important it was to locate the blame for your temptation. If you weren't here, it's online, and I really encourage you to listen to it before next week. Locate the blame for your temptation. We said, well, you can't look around. You can't say, why do I fall into sin? You can't look around and say, well, the problem is my environment. Well, the problem is merely my trial. I mean, I just got to go through it in a fatalistic way. I'm just going to wait it out instead of grow through it. And you can't just look around and say, well, I'm the exception. What I struggle with is an exception to everyone else and even this passage. You can't look around. And we also saw you can't look up and say, it's God's fault. He's either sovereign in a capricious way that he made me and put me in these situations that I'm in and I have no hope to ever come out of these temptations. And he struggles with sin. You can't say the problem is my powerless God. He's not good. He's got his own issues. Because He struggles with evil. We can't say the problem is my unsafe God. And we can't say the problem is my Creator God. Hey, He made me this way. There's no hope. What we decided last week from this text is that we must, if we can't look around and we can't look up, there's only one more place to look, and it's within. We must look within our own heart. Something big's going on in here. And if we don't understand it, we will never change. Or look at it this way. If I believe that the sole problem is with my circumstances, then I believe that the answer to my temptation and sin struggles is merely to manipulate my circumstances, right? Change the place I'm in, change the relationships I'm in, change the church I'm in, change the institution I'm in, change the job I'm in. If the problem is my circumstances, then I need to manipulate my circumstances. Or, if I believe that the sole problem is my sovereign God, then I believe that the answer to my temptation and sin struggles is to merely manipulate myself. If I believe and blame God for my problems, then I will do my best to mask my problems. I will do my best to hide. I will do my best to escape. I will numb them. It's up to me. If we look anywhere else but within, we take away our responsibility for our sin. We take away our straight path towards God for help, and we look for other synthetic messiahs who offer insufficient help. And by the way, if I look anywhere else but God for my sin, If I look anywhere else but within my heart for my sin, then I will render myself useless in the hand of God as a biblical counselor to help others down the road. This is heavy. And so we're left asking the question, okay, if the only place I can look is within, then I have a question, what's going on within? And that brings us to the second part of the study this morning. I say this, recognize the process of your temptation. This is the second part of our battle plan. Recognize the process of your temptation. Now I want you to, I didn't leave you a lot of writing room on that page, but I think it's blank on the back, so you can use that. I want you to know, before we even jump in word for word and phrase for phrase, I want you to notice that James here employs two illustrations, count them, two illustrations to identify one process. Two illustrations to identify one process. The first illustration is in verse 14, but each one is tempted when he is, and here it is, carried away and enticed by his own lust. You say, what's the first illustration he uses? It's the illustration of fishing and hunting. It's the illustration of trying to draw out something that is safe, like a fish or an animal, and once they're exposed, trapping them with the use of bait. Draw them out and trap them. That is all, not just in our day, but in his day, that's hunting and fishing talk. It was commonly used then. We'll get into that. You say, well, what's the second illustration? He uses two illustrations to make one point. The second illustration is in verse 15, and it's the illustration of, listen to this, a life cycle. A life cycle. Look at verse 15. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. illustration of a life cycle. You have conception and then you have going through the labor and the birth and then you have the living of a life and followed by death from start to finish. This is an illustration he's reaching for. So what do I do with these two illustrations? Listen. These two illustrations of one towards the outdoorsman and another one towards the family. These two illustrations make sense of the battle with your temptations. I mean, there's a lot of stories and illustrations we might not be able to recall from Scripture, but this is one from now on, the rest of our pilgrimage, we need to remember is here. Because these two illustrations make sense of what's going on within your heart. I don't know if you're into a new sin that you can't shake. I don't know if you're trying to see the Lord bring you finally past specific besetting sins that you've struggled with for years. And I don't know what new sins are going to be invented tomorrow that you're going to get into. But I do know this, when you and I get stuck in sin, these illustrations are going to explain why. And so I have in your notes an arrow illustration. An arrow illustration. And the large arrow on your note page goes from top down. And this is the cycle that every single one of us moves through when we sin. Letter A we're going to call dissatisfaction. Dissatisfaction. Again, we see that down in verse 14. Each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. And by the way, that word lust, let me say something about that. That's a word you've heard before. I'm sure Pastor Graham and Pastor O and others have preached this before. It's epithumia. You say, that's a That's an ugly sounding Greek word. Sometimes when we see this verse, or this word, not just in the Bible language, but the language contemporary at that time, it always means a strong desire. Now most often in the New Testament, but not every case, it's going to refer to a strong desire to evil, but it's also used to describe God and not towards evil. God strongly desires, the New Testament will say, and it gives something that's not evil. So the context has to always tell us how to understand this verse, or this word. And this context is talking about the bad sense. A strong desire towards sin. Now with that understanding, verse 14 says, each one of us is tempted when we are carried away and enticed by a strong desire. Now I've mentioned this is a fishing illustration. And let me tell you about an opportunity I had to go fishing with Alan Davis. Alan, I've been fishing with him a couple of times. I have my little fishing hole near my house where I go and catch easy bass. But yeah, he doesn't do that. That's way down here for Alan's fishing. And we've left his driveway, a couple of us men on different occasions, with his boat and his truck. And I don't know where he's taken me. I think once it was to Chelsea, and I don't know where the others were. But we found ourselves beating the sunrise. We're out on a lake. And Alan knows every bit of that lake. He knows all the shoreline. He knows, based on what time of the year we're in, where the seaweed will be thickest. He knows where the depths are. He knows where the lily pads are. And here's what I've learned after fishing with Alan Davis a few times. Just do what he says. And he took us out on this one lake I remember. And as the sun was just barely thinking about coming up, he says, get ready. Get your floating lures out. I'm going to take you over by the shallow area by the lily pads. And when I say, you need to start fishing those lily pads off the surface. And you know what? I just did what he said. I did exactly what he said. Even though I didn't see any movement in the water before we got there in that area, I did what he said. Boom! I had bass hitting my lure. You say, what was going on? Well, it's just Alan. He's like magical, right? No, Alan knew this, that all night long there were largemouth bass who have found a very safe place in the shallows under the cover of lily pads and thick weeds. Alan also knows that they're hungry. And he knows they're looking for something to eat as the sun comes up. He says, if you put the lure there, they'll take it. Now think about this. Think about this. That bass, who I want to end up in my kitchen, that bass has absolutely everything it needs in those weeds, doesn't it? That bass has all the nutrients, all the food, all the bait fish and other things that it will feed on, it has more than it could consume in a lifetime where it spent the night. It's right there. He has everything he needs. On top of that, that bass has all the protection he needs. Why? Because I can't see him. Where he is, where he's lodged in the shallows, under the cover, I can't see him. And neither can prey. So watch this. He's as safe as he could possibly be. And he has, here I am giving it a he, it has absolutely everything it will ever need to sustain and grow. And Alan's telling me my job is to convince the bass otherwise. I need to create, follow me here, a dissatisfaction for that bass where it is. That's where temptation starts every time. There's dissatisfaction. Can I tell you something about your position in Christ? If you've accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, let me give you some news. And here's the news. Where you are in Christ, you have absolutely anything you will ever need for any spiritual need in your life for the rest of your life. You have it all. You need forgiveness? You got it. You need the indwelling Holy Spirit? You got it. Do you need the timeless, eternal Word of God? You have it. Do you need the very life and grace of Christ animating you and coursing through your life every day? You got it. You want access to the Father, to where you can call Him Abba? You got it. You want a great high priest who prays for you every moment, even when you're sleeping? You have it. Not only do you have everything you need, but you couldn't be safer than where you are. What the enemy does, and what our flesh does, is it sets out to convince us otherwise. It sets out to create a dissatisfaction, to drag us and to draw us, literally, from our safety, from a place of safety to a place of danger. That's what I mean by dissatisfaction, and according to James, it always starts there. Again, I don't quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer much because, well, there's a good portion of his theology that stinks, okay? But I do like and appreciate it when he writes this sentence. Satan, he says, quote, Satan does not fill us with hatred of God when we give in to sin. No, he fills us with forgetfulness of God. He's right. And you know, one of my favorite authors is R. Kent Hughes, who pastored all those decades at College Church in Wheaton. He wrote the book Disciplines of a Godly Man, including also a wonderful commentary set. As Kent Hughes, teaches on David's fall with Bathsheba, he makes this statement. It's a short statement. Kent Hughes says, God disappears to lust-glazed eyes. God disappears to lust-glazed eyes. My brothers and sisters, anytime I fall, Anytime you fall, whether it's a sin that we've struggled with for years, or a relatively new one, or one we don't even know is coming yet, hasn't even been invented yet. Every single time you and I fall, it always starts here with dissatisfaction with God Himself. What does that lead to? Well, let's go down that arrow. In letter B, this leads to substitution. Substitution. My science teachers out here in the audience will tell you that a vacuum always seeks to be filled. Go back to the fish with Al. Early morning, as I plot my repella floating lure on the surface as close as I can to the lily pads and start bubbling it out across the surface, giving it the movement of a fish or a frog, And that bass is saying, you know what? As good as I have it here, it's not as good as what I see out there. And it comes out from its place of safety. And now it's vulnerable, and it needs food now. It left what it had back there. And my lure serves as a substitution. And he's hooked. He's hooked. I choose this word substitution to describe, again, verse 14. Each one is tempted when he's carried away and enticed by his own lust. And this enticing, as I remind you, is dealing with the idea of bait. It's a farce. It's artificial. It's actually false worship. Jeremiah put it this way in Jeremiah 2, verses 11-13. God's voice through Jeremiah's pen. Listen. Has a nation changed its gods, which are not gods? But my people have changed their glory for what does not profit. Be very desolate. Be horribly afraid, O heavens. Be astonished, says the Lord, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain or the source of living waters that bubble up from within, they've cut for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can't even hold water let alone produce living water. My commentary inserted there. You know I read in Romans chapter 1 verses 23 and 25 twice. I mean Paul's saying it in one breath. that one of the chief downfalls of sinful man is that they turn from God, the glorious God of Scripture, and worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator. A man wrote a book a few years ago called, Not Even a Hint. His name is Josh Harris. And he says this, Lust is always based upon the same lie, and here it is, that satisfaction will be found apart from God." So when I'm angry, when I'm addicted to a substance or a screen, when I'm struggling with sinful anxiety, spiritual depression, I'm not going to grow the list anymore because I'll miss yours and I'll hide mine. Know this, when I give in, I am worshiping, but no longer God. I'm running towards that opportunity to indulge under the facade of believing it will satisfy me. So you have dissatisfaction, then substitution, But what's the third part of this arrow as we go down? Letter C, gratification. Gratification. And it's here that we're going to crest into verse 15 and into that second illustration. We've done the outdoors illustrations. Now we're going to go to the life cycle illustration. It says, then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. I call this third phase, if you will, gratification. There's a Greek word here that you probably have heard before. It's a root word, teleos. Now, this is a different word, but it comes from telios. It means to bring to the end, to bring to completion, to hit what you were aiming at, to finish what you started, to run the complete course. It says when lust is conceived, it gives birth to sin and sin. And here it is when it is accomplished, to bring it to its course. to its destination. It's a very important word there in 15. Why? Because, and that's why I used the word gratification to describe it. The whole idea here is when lust gives birth to sin, it says sin's going to run its course until it is, and what's the word? Accomplished. What does that mean? Until it comes to maturity. See, why are you highlighting this point? Because listen, implied In this word, coming to maturity, is the passing of time. Also implied in this is repetition of the sin. And also included in this is a growing proficiency. I do it over and over and over. I give in over and over and over. And as I do, time passes. Days turn into weeks and months and years. And as I indulge more and more and more, I develop a proficiency. It's the passing of time in this phase, letter C. It's the training of your heart. We looked at Proverbs 4.23 last week. Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it flow the issues of life, 1 Timothy 4.7 even gives us an illustration of disciplining ourselves for godliness. Disciplining ourselves. It's the idea of repetition. It's a different word, gumnadzo, but it means to just work out until you're godly. Well, it works the other way too. You can work out towards ungodliness. Or maybe, just maybe, Paul again will help us voice our frustration at this point. Paul writes in Romans 6.19, you presented your members of your body as slaves of uncleanness and of lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, he says. So there's gratification. It's the passing of time and the building of proficiency. repetition where does this lead it leads finally letter D to devastation devastation now again look at verse 15 and sin when it is accomplished look at this phrase brings forth what what does it bring forth death death You say, well, what kind of death do we mean here? Well, certainly it could be physical death. As a believer in Christ, you might get called to the front office, so to speak, if you don't turn from your sin as a child of God. We read of this in 1 Corinthians 11.30. We also read of this in 1 John 5.16. The possibility that sin, unrepentant sin, could lead to an untimely death. But don't leave the application there with that possibility of physical death. Because then we'll start lying to ourselves. We'll start lying to our own hearts like this. Well, you know, I'm still alive, so I guess I haven't gotten bad enough. Right? We're like, I must be okay. There must be people on down E-course worse than me. Sure, it can mean physical death, but I want to push it a little further where Paul pushes it. In 1 Timothy 5, verse 6, that text where Paul is talking to Timothy about pastoring widows in the church. And he describes the type of widow that gives into a very sensual lifestyle. And listen how Paul describes her. 1 Timothy 5, verse 6, she who lives in pleasure, listen to this, is dead while she lives. Yeah, this devastation, listen, might be finally helping you understand why your life is so hard right now. It's a living death. Devastation. The old Plymouth Brethren, William McDonald says in his commentary on this point, to be out of fellowship with God as a Christian is for a Christian a form of the living death. There it is. There's the downward trend of temptation. You got it. You got it. Now, out to the right, I want to make a few observations. So track with me quickly here. A few observations. You ready? Number one, as you continue to look over at that arrow, number one, this process is timeless, yet predictable. This process and the arrow that James is identifying here is timeless and predictable. I mean, just think about it. Go back to the Garden of Eden. Can you see this being played out in chapter 3 with the fall? Go into the wilderness with the Israelites. Can you see the same process being followed even by the whole community? Go to That teenager that struggles with neglecting their body, either through deprivation of food or safety or any other ways, can you see the process? Go to the man who struggles with his gaze and his mouse click on his computer. Can you see this process? Can you see this process with an over-controlling mother or wife? It's right here. It's this process every single time. This is the process that produces a liar. This is the process that produces a clandestine meeting between two people who ought not to be meeting. This is it. It's timeless and predictable. This process explains anxiety, spiritual depression. It has it all. Number two. Notice this. It moves from the unseen to the seen, doesn't it? It moves from the heart level to not only what's going on in my life now, but also the consequences it brings on. It moves from the unseen to the seen, just like James and Jesus taught. Heart to habit is what we call it. Heart to habit. Number three, this process is deadly. It's deadly. You say, well, how sure is the deadliness of this process? It's as sure as the arrival of a baby. When there's been this conception in this verse 15. Jim Berg writes in his book, Change Into His Image, these words, quote, the toxicity or the poisonous of the heart of man is so potent that when God wants to judge a man, all he has to do is turn that man over to his own heart, end quote. It's deadly. Number four, very important to understand this, the point of decision only lasts the first three steps. So what do you mean by that? I can be rescued from devastation at the point of being dissatisfied. I can still be rescued at the point of substitution. I can still be rescued at the point of gratification. But there comes a point if there's no rescue, no intervention, I will experience this devastation. Now, there can be rescue from there as well, but we're talking about the process. Romans 8, 13. Again, Paul is so helpful. He says, for if you live according to the flesh, you will die. Observation number five. I know we'll be able to relate with this one. Each lap gets easier. Every time we go through this, we go through more easily. We call it muscle memory. And number six, the process is unique for each individual. You understand that there's going to be some people in this room, in your pew, in your minivan, that go through this process with such temptation that you can't even relate to. You might try, and you're pretty hard on them because you can't relate to them. Why? The battle is so intense. You even get angry at them. What's your problem? You're saying, that's not my sin, is what you're saying. By the way, you have yours, too, that other people can't relate to. You might be married to someone who's angry, and you're not an angry person. You're like, I don't know what their deal is. And they look at you, someone who struggles with a different sin, and say, I wish they'd get it together. No, no, no. Look at verse 14. Each one, circle that if you mark in your Bible, each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Circle that. Each one, own lust. Each is communicating each one of us. It's isolating every believer and saying, this is every believer's story and every story is different. Every struggle is different. But this next word in front of lust, the word own in the English is hideous. We get our word idiosyncrasies from that. It's very unique. This verse will help you throttle it down when you try to rescue and help other Christians. But this verse will also warn you that as hard as you are endeavoring to help these other Christians fight against their sin process, you better be fighting just as hard in the sin you can relate to. It's going to require no less effort on your part for your sin as theirs requires. Well, number seven, here's the good news. The solution is in the problem. Just write it down. The solution is in the problem. I don't know who it was. I think it was my brother-in-law, Ed, introduced me to something that I don't know if I'm thankful for. He introduced me years back to a Sudoku puzzle. How many of you know what a Sudoku puzzle is? Raise your hand. I mean, you've got a bunch of empty boxes, and then you have some boxes with some numbers in them. You have nine quadrants, and each quadrant has nine more boxes. you have the numbers 1 through 9 in every box. Now if you don't know what a Sudoku puzzle is, I already lost you with the pronunciation of the word. But for those of you who do Sudoku puzzles, follow me. When you start a puzzle, your problem is that all the boxes are empty except a few. But as you study the problem, you see the solution. You can use the numbers you do have to figure the rest out. And those of you who are non-Sudoku people, think of a crossword puzzle that you came across on the airplane that someone started but couldn't finish. There's a lot of empty boxes, but some are filled in with letters. And you can see the problem are the empty boxes. But the problem, the solution is in the problem. The letters you do have, the numbers you do have, you can use to solve the problem. And that's why for number seven, I want to give you, real quickly, the second arrow illustration. And as you notice, I'm working from the bottom up on this one. Letter C, put the word satisfaction. Satisfaction. Letter B, attention. And letter A, life. Let me explain it, and then we're finished. by satisfaction. Watch this. If the whole deal starts with dissatisfaction, what must you and I nourish every single day? Our view of God. His presence. His power. His rescue. His resources. And there's only one way to do that, isn't there? No word. No seeing. You see, if you and I know this is where it's going to start, then every day we cannot coast in our satisfaction with God. We must continue to build it. See His glory more and more in Scriptures. Hear His promises more and more through His Word. Again, Josh Harris writes in that book, the only way to overcome the power of lust in our lives is by finding better promises. The key to holiness is satisfaction in God. Faith that He is more to be desired than anything this world has to offer. We're not just turning away from lust, we're turning toward true satisfaction and joy in God." Satisfaction. You've got to nourish it every single day because the battle is going to start there. Satisfaction. requires attention though and by the way for satisfaction just jot a little verse down in your notes Psalm 73 25 it says this listen whom have I in heaven but you and besides you I desire nothing on earth isn't it great Psalm 73, 25. Well then there's attention. What do you mean attention? This is again going to that outdoor edge of that illustration. Assume that at any moment you can be assailed. There will be an effort by Satan, the world, or your flesh to make you dissatisfied with what you have in God. It's gonna come. And this causes attention on your part, vigilance if you will. Dr. Keith Davey, the pastor emeritus where I was in Virginia Beach, used to say this, he says, I'm embarrassed to say, and he's in his 80s, he says, I'm embarrassed to say that in my most pious moments, my most glorious moments of worship, in prayer, it's then sometimes I have the vilest thought. Romans 13-14, do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. That's Romans 6-13. Romans 13-14 says this, I love this, and put on the Lord Jesus and make no provision for the flesh with regards to its lusts. And then there's life. When there's satisfaction being nourished every day, and when there's a tension that it's not if, but where and when and how often will the process and the deceit begin to make a move against me. You live a life like that, it'll be exhausting, but it'll be a rich life. Maybe, just maybe, this is what Jesus was describing in John 10.10 when he said, I didn't come to give you anything else but life and that more abundantly. I'm so thankful for Doug Moo, one of the best commentators on James. He says, Christian maturity is not indicated by the infrequency of temptation. You get that? Christian maturity is not indicated by the infrequency of temptation, but by the infrequency of succumbing to the temptation. Or if I can quote an old, old evangelist, Bob Jones Sr., Mark. He used to say this, he would say, you can't stop a bird from flying over your head, but you can keep it from building a nest in your hair. In all seriousness, Jesus was tempted, but Hebrews says without sin. Temptations are going to come. That's why you need to draw up a battle plan. You say this upward journey is hard and it's constant and it's hopeless and helpless? No, it's not hopeless and helpless. It's just teeing it up for us to come together next Lord's Day, if it's His will, and get the third part of our battle plan, which we will call, Find the Lord in Your Temptation. He's there. He's there. This topic is not funny or fun, but it is a topic of hope. Those of you who are believers in Jesus Christ, what do you do with this? You need to go home today and this week and prayerfully look at this process and start making sense of why you've kept falling these years. And draw up a battle plan, that upward arrow. What's it going to look like? Nourishing that satisfaction, having attention you didn't have before, and enjoying that life. If you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, I'm so glad you're here. I'm so glad you like to look into truth and weigh it. But you've heard family talk today. And maybe just maybe your struggles, too, have gotten the best of you. And that whole living death thing, yeah, that landed. I say to you, come to Jesus. Come to Christ. Place your faith in Him as a son of God and His sacrifice for your sin and his victory over the grave, accept that by faith. Repent of your sin and walk behind your new Lord. If God works all that faith and repentance in your heart, you are embarking on an answer that will just blow you away. The truth will set you free, Jesus said. This is the battle plan. This is what is going on in here every time.