WEBVTT
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Please be seated.
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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our
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Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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Amen.
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And lead us not into temptation.
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This word temptation seems to have become sort of a throwaway word
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I feel like in our world. I don't know how long this has been the case,
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but I feel like the majority of the time that I hear the word
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temptation or I hear tempted, it has to do with something fairly
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insignificant.
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Like that pie looks really tempting, even though we've just finished
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this big Thanksgiving meal. Or the invitation out to dinner with
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friends on Friday night is tempting.
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It's really been a busy week.
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I think I'd rather just stay home and rest.
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Or for a preacher, it's really tempting to get up here and just read
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to you the three pages out of the large catechism that Luther talks
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about.
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Lead us not into temptation and then sit back down again.
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There are lots of things that we say we're tempted to do or that are
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tempting before us, but the way this word gets used doesn't seem to be
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the way that Jesus uses it when he teaches us this prayer.
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Now, you might sit there and go, well, duh, that's not the way Jesus
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uses it.
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And you know that because we're sitting here in a church and you're
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listening to a sermon on lead us not into temptation.
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And Jesus is talking about serious temptation.
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He's not just talking about the flippant ways that we might throw this
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world or this word around.
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And I would say, of course, you're right, this is true.
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But I point out the flippant use of the word temptation because I
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think the way that we hear words used around us can influence the way
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we think about them and the way that we understand them sometimes
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without us even realizing it.
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As I was reflecting on this petition for this morning, I was thinking
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that this petition in the Lord's Prayer might be the most unexpected
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of all of the petitions.
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Certainly we want to pray for God's name to be kept holy.
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He's God, after all, right?
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As Christians, we want his kingdom to come.
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Some days we like it to come sooner rather than later.
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At least part of us, our redeemed side at least, wants God's will to
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be done.
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We love all the things that God gives us for our body and life, and
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there's still a part of us that knows that we need to be forgiven,
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even if we're not always so good at forgiving other people.
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And almost anybody can get behind deliver us from evil. And but nestled
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into this prayer, right towards the end, are these six words and lead
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us not into temptation.
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Our first response as Christians might be the same as Luther's, where
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he says God indeed tempts no one.
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And considering the flippant ways that temptation is used around us,
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we might start thinking, well, why does this even need to be in here?
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Why do we need to avoid temptation if it's just just eating that piece
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of pie?
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Or staying home to rest on a Friday night?
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Why does God even care about any of that stuff?
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But you know as well as I do that that's not the reason that this
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petition is included here.
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It's not for the flippant ways that we use the word temptation.
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It's because it's a very serious issue in the life of a Christian, one
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that we would say is a matter of life and death.
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Specifically spiritual life and death.
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Now, earlier, I mentioned to you my desire to just stand up here and
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read you the few pages out of the large catechism and sit back down.
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And I won't do that to you.
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But I will commend that section to you to read.
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And really the whole large catechism.
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It's one of those gems that sometimes is forgotten about.
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And students, when you leave here, teach it to your people.
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One of the first year or so that I was serving at my parish in Iowa.
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We picked the large catechism as our Sunday morning Bible study topic.
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And I had, from week to week, around 90 people in Bible study on
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Sunday morning learning about the large catechism.
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Because it's everything that the people in the pews are looking for in
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terms of guidance for the Christian life.
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And this desire to know more about what they learned in Catechesis was
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by far the best attended of all the studies we ever did.
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That's the end of my commercial for reading and teaching the large
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catechism.
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But I do want to walk through some of the highlights of this part.
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Luther starts by talking about all that we've learned in the Lord's
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Prayer up until this point what it takes for us to persevere in the
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Christian faith.
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And he says, although we have received forgiveness and a good
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conscience and are entirely acquitted, yet our life is of such a
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nature that we stand today and tomorrow we fall.
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Isn't that the truth?
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You think about your life since your baptism that day when God covered
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you in water and his word and gave you his name forgave all of your
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sins and made you his child.
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You were made right with him.
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Now, if temptation theoretically wasn't that big of a deal, you would
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assume that from that day forward, life would have been simple.
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It would have been easy.
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All the temptation would have been removed and we could just live
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in God's presence, waiting for him to return.
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But that's not how this works.
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Luther continues therefore, even though we're Godly now and stand
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before God with a good conscience, we must pray again that he would
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not allow us to fall and yield to trials and temptations.
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You see, rather than our baptism day being that day when we're set
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free completely from temptation, it's actually the day that temptation
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starts to intensify for us.
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Target is painted on our back.
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And these temptations come regularly to try to pull us away from that
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new relationship that God has given to us.
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Luther goes on to point out and describe the three sources of these
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temptations that we live with on a regular basis.
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The first being our own sinful flesh, that old Adam that every day
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tries to pop back to the surface, fighting against the baptismal
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waters that drowned him before and trying to pull us back down under
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the water.
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You know, these temptations the temptations to think more highly of
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ourselves than we ought.
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Temptation to think that I'm right and everybody else is just an
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idiot.
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Maybe it's the temptation to lie to protect yourself or to make you
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look better to other people than you actually are.
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There's a temptation to do just the bare minimum, to be lazy, to
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neglect the vocations that God has given to you.
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Just do enough to pass or just enough to make sure that nobody gets
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too angry with you.
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There are temptations of a sexual nature.
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The lustful look towards someone else or the activities that God has
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reserved for the marriage
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bed. Second source of that temptation is the world around us.
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And this one might be the easiest one for us to look and to blame.
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Oh, that terrible world always out to get us.
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Listen to the way Luther describes his own world.
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He says, next comes the world which offends us in word
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and deed, it drives us towards anger and impatience.
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In short, there's nothing but hatred and envy, hostility, violence and
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wrong.
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Unfaithfulness vengeance, cursing, railing, slander, pride and
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haughtiness. With useless finery
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honor, fame and power.
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No one is willing to be the least.
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Everyone desires to sit at the head of the group and be seen before
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all.
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Oh, the good old days.
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If only we could just go back to when the church was strong and the
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world was great.
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Not so much right.
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Sounds like it's something that could have been written this week.
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Luther s description is spot on with the way that we experience the
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world today.
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And in addition to those that he recognizes, I would add two more
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temptations that seem to weigh down heavily upon us the use of our
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time.
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The world tempts our time and our sense of urgency.
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There are hundreds of activities and events and responsibilities and
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things that you can fill your time with each and every week.
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There's also a sense of urgency that each one of those things is the
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most important thing that needs to be done in your time in that given
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week.
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And since some of these things are good and God pleasing, this can be
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especially burdensome.
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Having a near infinite way or infinite amount of ways to spend your
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time combined with a finite amount of time can make us have to make
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choices.
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When you combine that with urgency, we're constantly thinking about
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the choices that we're making.
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This school activity is most important or this work commitment is most
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important.
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This activity for my children, this club or family event, all of them
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are the most important way to spend our time.
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We don't want to miss out, we don't want our kids to miss out.
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So we start making choices.
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And when we start making choices, it's really easy to start violating
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the first and the third commandment.
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We start making idols and Gods for ourselves.
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We start running out of time to hear God's Word and to receive it.
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Third source of temptation that Luther gives to us might even be the
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most obvious, even for nonchristians, and that's the Devil.
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Now, the Devil is certainly working in these other sources of
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temptation that I've mentioned.
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He's got a very specific focus here.
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I think it's safe to say that when the Devil is focused on tempting
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you and other Christians, it's not simply just to break one of God's
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commandments, because the Devil knows as well as we do that there's
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forgiveness and hope and restoration in the blood of Jesus.
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God is slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love.
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His position is to forgive and to restore.
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And so it'd be far too small of a goal for the Devil to simply want to
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get you to break the commandments.
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The Devil's goal in his temptation is to destroy your relationship
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with God and to pull you away.
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Now, make no mistake about it, the Devil has been defeated.
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Jesus has won.
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His death and his resurrection are proof of this.
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We see that here in our windows and we wait for that day when Jesus
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returns.
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So the devil can't win.
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He certainly can cause a lot of collateral damage as he loses.
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The devil's temptation in our own lives go to the core of our
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relationship with God.
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He tempts us to think of ourselves as the ultimate authority in all
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things in our lives.
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I know better than my parents it.
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I know better than my pastor.
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I know better than my professor.
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I know better.
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I know better, I know better.
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Slowly and without us even realizing it, sometimes we elevate
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ourselves into that position of ultimate authority.
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Slowly is the way that the devil works in the lives of Christians.
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Even the most nominal Christian is unlikely to be tempted away from
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God quickly.
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If the devil is to, say, abandon God and walk away.
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Most people, Christians at least, have the sense to say, I don't know
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about that.
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But the question of what has God actually done in your life?
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Might be a good starting place.
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If God really loved you, why doesn't anything good seem to ever happen
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to you?
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Or if God really cared about you, why does it seem like everybody else
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has a great life and yours isn't?
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As we experience the trials and hardships of life, the death of a
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child or a parent, the tragedies around us, the loss of a job, maybe
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the loss of the dreams that we had before us, that soft whisper in our
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ear might be, does God really even know you exist?
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He did
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certainly these bad things wouldn't happen to you.
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Or and this could be a big or maybe nothing really bad has happened in
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your life.
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It hasn't been terrible.
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It hasn't been awesome.
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It just has been.
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God has been faithful.
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He's provided you've lived without significant tragedy and you've
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never really had to question whether God was there or not.
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He just has been there.
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In these cases, Satan might slither in and start throwing sins back in
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your face, those sins that have been long forgiven, or those sins that
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you continue to struggle with today, saying, if you were a real
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Christian, you wouldn't keep doing that stuff.
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You're a pastor, a deaconess.
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You're going to be a pastor or a deaconess, and you've done those
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things.
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How is that possible?
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Self doubt
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and our doubt about our standing before God quickly destroys any last
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shred of confidence or hope we might have had ever so slow.
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Slowly, the devil continues to chip away and chip away. Leading us to
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despair and unbelief, pulling us away from our loving Father.
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And the reality that through your baptism, you are a beloved child of
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God.
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Lead us not into temptation.
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God certainly tempts no one.
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And that's good news, because these three temptation sources our
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flesh, the world, and the devil around us are certainly more than we
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can bear.
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Now, it would be nice if there was a clear and happy pivot point for
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me right here in this sermon, one where I could turn from sort of the
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despair that we've been talking to, to this great news that if you're
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a Christian, all of this is going to go away.
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If you pray hard enough, if you read your Bible enough, if you become
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a church worker, life is going to be great, temptation will melt away
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to the side, and everything will be awesome.
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That would be a perfect pivot right in this moment.
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Fortunately, though, that's not the case.
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If you do all of those things, temptation is actually going to get
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worse.
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Kind of counterintuitive, right?
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The devil doesn't need to work on those who are already slaves to sin.
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Luther goes on in the large catechism to say, great and grievous
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indeed are these dangers and temptations which every Christian must
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bear.
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So every hour that we are in this vile life, we are attacked on all
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sides, chased and hunted down.
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We are moved to cry out and pray that God would not allow us to become
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weary and faint, to fall again into sin, shame and unbelief, for
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otherwise it is impossible to overcome even the least temptation.
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The good news for us today is not that all of our temptations are
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going to melt away and disappear.
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The good news is Jesus knows what it is like to be tempted.
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Jesus experienced that in the wilderness.
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He's walked where you walk.
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He knows what it's like.
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He can empathize with your experience of temptation.
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The good news also is that he has promised to be with us, to give us
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power and strength, and to be right there, to endure the trials even
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if we're engulfed in them, but to pray this prayer lead us not into
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temptation so that we're not drowned and fall away.
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We get to receive the whole armor of God
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by virtue of being members of the royal family. God continues to come
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to us
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regularly in his word and in his body and blood to forgive our sins,
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to strengthen our faith for battle and to be present with us
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throughout all of the trials and temptations of the world.
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So we must be on guard, ready for the temptations when they come at
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us.
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When one ends, another one is certainly hiding around the corner.
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Let me leave you with these words from Luther.
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He says if you try to help yourself by your own thoughts and counsels,
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you will only make the matter worse and give the devil more space.
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So there is no help or comfort except to run here.
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Take hold of the Lord's Prayer.
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Speak to God from the heart like this dear Father, you have asked me
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to pray.
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Don't let me fall because of temptation.
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And God has promised to hear that prayer for the sake of Jesus.
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You can count on it.
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Amen.