QRC Disappointments

That time of the year is coming again, you know when we can sit around our television sets and watch people’s hopes, dreams and aspirations crushed and ground into the dust.  It was advertising guru Roy Williams who wrote “Every dream of the future is a seed. But until your dream falls into the ground and dies, it cannot burst from the ground and deliver the harvest you seek.”

If that is the case then there will be a lot of seeds falling into the ground when American Idol airs again in January.  And some of those dreams will recover and others will remain shattered and dormant.  Many of you know that I am a huge Harry Chapin fan and one of my favorite songs is the story of Mr. Tanner.  And the song opens with these lines

Mister Tanner was a cleaner from a town in the Midwest.

And of all the cleaning shops around he'd made his the best.

But he also was a baritone who sang while hanging clothes.

He practiced scales while pressing tails and sang at local shows.

His friends and neighbors praised the voice that poured out from his throat.

They said that he should use his gift instead of cleaning coats.

And so one day Mr. Tanner took the plunge, this was long before the days of American Idol so he found an agent in New York booked a hall and poured all of his resources into his opening performance. 

We’ll let Harry Pick up the story.  Video Clip from Harry Chapin singing Mr. Tanner. 

(He did not know how well he sang, he only heard the flaws.

But the critics were concise, it only took four lines.

But no one could accuse them of being over kind.

(spoken) Mr. Martin Tanner, Baritone, of Dayton, Ohio made his

Town Hall debut last night. He came well prepared, but unfortunately

his presentation was not up to contemporary professional standards.

His voice lacks the range of tonal color necessary to make it

consistently interesting.

(sung) Full time consideration of another endeavor might be in order.)

He came home to Dayton and was questioned by his friends.

Then he smiled and just said nothing and he never sang again,

excepting very late at night when the shop was dark and closed.

He sang softly to himself as he sorted through the clothes.

Wow, that’s gotta hurt. 

Have you ever been disappointed?  Have you ever had your dreams snatched away?  Maybe a love scorned? A child who has chosen a path that is diametrically opposed to the way you brought them up?  A career that you love, that ends in a crash or a whimper?

This is week five of our series “QR-Codes for your Life”  QR-Codes or QRCs are those ever present bar codes that seem to pop up everywhere.  And their purpose is to make the retrieval of information easier for those who are interested.  So if you go to a Tim Horton’s and you want to comment on their service you simply scan this QR-Code with your smart phone and it takes you to this site where you can make comments on their service.

The QR-C on the back of your bulletin will take you to our Web-site where you can find all kinds of information about Cornerstone Wesleyan Church.

And when I introduced this topic back in October I commented about how great it would be to have QR-codes that would give us information from God’s word when we were facing certain issues and situations in our lives. 

So three weeks ago we looked at what to do when we are tempted to do wrong, where we should look for that answer and our QRC directed us to 1 Corinthians 10:13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

The week after that we talked about failure, when we feel like we just can’t go on, that our feet have been kicked out from under us and we feel that we just can’t give anymore and we want to quit.  And as a response to that we looked at Galatians 6:9 So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.

And last week I spoke about the need for forgiveness in our lives, what happens after you’ve been betrayed or hurt.  When someone you love turns against you, or someone you hardly knows says or does something that hurts you?  And our QR-code last week took us to Colossians 3:13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

But what happens when you are disappointed with life? When it doesn’t give you what you expected or gives you what you didn’t expect? 

Not the failures that I spoke about two weeks ago, but setbacks, discouragements, disappointments.   If I was to offer you up a QR-Code today it would take you to

2 Corinthians 4:7-9 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.

We are never told that as Christians that we won’t have disappointments or discouragements.  What we are told is that we have a power that is not from ourselves, what we are told is that we will not be crushed what we are told is that we will not abandoned by God and we will not be destroyed. 

When Angela and I were first married, late in the last century, we owned a couple of kittens.  And one day the male, Mick, discovered a balloon on the floor of our living room and he started playing with it.  He would bat it and then chase it across the carpet, he was having a ball.  Now I knew what was going to happen, but having a slight nasty streak decided to let things progress on their own.  Well eventually Mick cornered the illusive beast and pounced with every one of those needle sharp kitten claws extended.  And with a bang his prey disappeared.  The bang set him back a bit but the look of disappointment on his face when his plaything disappeared was so sad. 

If you have ever tried at one time or another you’ve had your balloon pop.  At some time or another in your life you have had dreams come crashing down.   You’ve been there you know what I’m talking about.  Perhaps it was a job or promotion that didn’t materialize like you thought it would, or a dream that you’ve never seen fulfilled.  Maybe it was just a delay or maybe it was a complete stop.

I am convinced the more vivid the vision the greater the disappointment should the vision fail to materialize.  Author Eric Hoffer said “Disappointment is a sort of bankruptcy -- the bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation.”  Bankruptcy of a soul that expends too much in hope and expectation, if you’ve felt it you know how apt that description is. 

If the disappointment isn’t crushing then maybe there wasn’t enough passion in the dream.

We’ve all had disappointments, in our education, our careers, our marriages and our spiritual lives.  But how we deal with our disappointments will determine whether they destroy us or make us stronger. 

1)  Disappointments Sometimes are Just  Delays.  Who says that every setback has to be final?  This wasn’t the first piece of property that we put an offer on to build this church.  And this wasn’t the church we first intended to build, and when things didn’t work out on property 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 I was disappointed.  But in retrospect this was better than all of the other ones and if we had of gotten 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 we wouldn’t have had this property.

Even though you may not be able to enjoy the taste of victory today doesn’t mean you won’t taste it tomorrow.  You may have to reshuffle your plans, you may have to rearrange your priorities, but disappointments don’t have to be final.  The anticipation can be as much fun as the arrival.  That delay may give you the extra time you need for more planning. 

2) Disappointments Should be Educational Many times we can actually learn from our setbacks.  I never make a mistake that I don’t try and learn something from it. And I am convinced that we never learn nearly as much from our successes as we do from our failures.  Now I know that it’s a lot more fun to learn from our success, but we don’t learn as much.

As many mistakes as each one of us makes, as many disappointments as we experience in our lives it would be one of the greatest wastes of resources in the world if we failed to learn from those mistakes and disappointments that come our way.  Sometimes the delays that we experience provide time for reflection and self-examination and in that it provides us with a learning opportunity. 

In 1990 we uprooted our family and moved from the booming metropolis of Truro to Brisbane Australia with a population of 1.75 million people who all drove on the wrong side of the road.  Now not being one to shun a challenge we immediately made plans to drive into the centre of the city, actually the plans had already been made for us but we were game to try.  So armed with our trust refer-dex, which was simply a fancy name for a book of street maps we ventured into the valley, as downtown Brisbane was called.  And it was there that I discovered the benefits of stop signs and red lights. Although they did slow me down they allowed me to sneak a look in the book and find out where we were.  Because with traffic going in all directions I needed the opportunity to stop and get my bearings.  Sometimes the disappointments in our lives are stop signs that allow us to get our bearings.  And sometime they prevent us from continuing in the wrong direction.

It is only when you can’t learn or are unwilling to learn from life’s disappointments that they become failures.   And when we stop we need to look at what we have experienced and ask the big question; Why?  What caused this to happen?  Can I correct it?  If it can be corrected then do it.  Maybe the reason you didn’t get that job you wanted was that you showed up in ratty clothes needing a haircut and mouthwash, you can learn from that experience and change things for a more favourable outcome.  Or perhaps you wanted to play basketball in the NBA but you’re only 5’2’’ then you might want to look for a different calling, because some things you can’t change.

3) Disappointments Can be Times of Adjustment  Too many times life becomes boring and routine.  We are in a rut and we all know what a rut is right?  Right, a rut is simply a grave with both ends kicked out.

Day after day we do the same thing.  Day in and day out we are content to simply continue doing the familiar.  And it’s only when disappointments come that we look at these experiences and re-evaluate the way we’ve been doing things.  Some of our greatest moments happen because we are forced out of our pattern of repetition by a disappointment. 

11 years ago we had a series of events that resulted in down turn in our attendance and revenue at Cornerstone, it was a disappointment for me.  In order for us to continue we decided that the best option was for me to look for an outside source of income.  That was a disappointment for me; I didn’t really relish the thoughts of having two jobs. 

As a result of that setback I ended up writing for six different magazines, something I would never have done without that disappointment, and I was also offered a position as adjunct faculty at our Bible College in New Brunswick and now I still teach there part time which has led to me teaching in Ghana.  And I discovered that not only do I enjoy teaching, but I’m not bad at it either.  I’ve been looking for a place to quote Red Green and this looks like the spot.  Red Green says “You are not good at something just because you enjoy it. Karaoke has proved that. To my way of thinking, you are not good at something because you enjoy it; rather you enjoy something because you are good at it.”

The disappointment that lead to those offers wasn’t fun I did not enjoy it one little bit, but the adjustments that we made as a result have been a real bonus for Denn. 

At the time of a disappointment it’s always wise to examine the events surrounding the disappointment and see if you need to make adjustments. Many churches and pastors have chosen to accept disappointment as the norm, rather than changing traditional behaviour. Anytime we begin to fail in evangelism, in seeing people won to Jesus Christ, in attracting people to our church we need to stop and ask: Why?  Tradition is good as long as tradition is effective.  And it doesn’t have to be old to be tradition.  Cornerstone has only been around for eighteen years but we already have our own traditions.

It is an unfortunate that many people through the years have gone to hell because ineffective church programs have become sacred cows.  And there are times we need to discover that sacred cows make the best hamburgers.

Every program, every custom, every tradition and every facility must be examined from time to time to make sure they are still doing the primary function and objective and that has been, and should remain to be glorifying God and bringing a lost and dying world to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. 

And sometimes it takes a disappointment in a program before we make a change.  And sometimes it takes a disappointment in your job for you to evaluate your position and your performance.  And sometimes it takes a disappointment with your children to adjust your child rearing techniques.

We have to be able to recognize those disappointments and instead of whining, adjust.

4) Disappointments Can be Pace Setters.  Often after a professional athlete has injured their self they return to their sport too soon only to discover that the injury still hurts.  Although the pain is a disappointment it is essential to set the proper pace for the athlete’s development and complete healing.

At first they are disappointed because their fastball isn’t as fast as it used to be, their slap shot isn’t a hard as it used to be and their jump shot isn’t as high as it used to be. But it will through time and care eventually heal to pre-injury capabilities.

But sometimes there is a physical healing but not a mental healing. When I was a teenager I owned a horse, a fact of which my daughter reminded me of constantly, usually with words like “How come I can’t have a horse you used to?”  To which I remind her that my horse was a free horse, at least that was the initial cost, as my father is fond of reminding me.  The reason Extra Time was a free horse was because he was a standard bred race horse who had been hurt.  In 1972 his best time was 2 08 for a mile but during a race he stumbled and fell and pulled his chest muscles.  The vets claimed that he was completely healed but he never got his speed back.

Sometimes we get hurt emotionally or spiritually and we never get over the disappointment and we don’t ever grow any further unless we take the time to recover.

In the growth cycle of a church, they usually grow, plateau, grow, and plateau and so on.  Plateaus will always be disappointing and sometimes if not corrected will become a downward trend. But the reason that churches plateau is that it’s pace setting.  If a church grows too fast for too long they get out of balance and become top heavy with new Christians.  But after a church takes the time to disciple and assimilate those people they are ready to grow again.  What was a disappointment actually helps in their growth. 

5) Disappointments Sometimes are Necessary I love good weather, I love the sun and I love the warmth.  I’m not totally a Grinch when it comes to weather, I love a white Christmas, in my world it would start to snow midnight Christmas Eve and then warm up to 27 degrees Celsius on December 27^th.   

The year we moved to Australia we had 93 days without seeing a cloud.  I thought I was in Paradise.  The result of that beautiful weather?  The grass got brown, the flowers died, the water supply got low, the farmers of Queensland weren’t nearly as impressed with the weather as I was.  Nature cannot survive as we know it without rain.

In the 1970’s there was a song out the lyrics were “I beg your pardon, I never promised you a rose garden, along with the sunshine there has to be a little rain sometimes.”  And such is life.  For total complete full development we need to have different types of experiences come our way.  There is no way we can exhibit the fruit of maturity in our life without the rain of disappointment.  A land without rain is called a desert.

Some of life’s greatest virtues: faith, hope, patience and perseverance only come our way through disappointment. Only then will you discover that every problem has a solution.  Only when you have met with disappointment and overcome it will you develop the ingredients in your character to seek a solution instead of being perplexed by the problem.

6) Disappointments are Normal Don’t take disappointments personally.  Our normal reaction is “Why?” or “How could this happen to me?” 

Way back when Canadian Idol first began my Cousins’ daughter auditioned and didn’t make the cut and I’m sure that when Jackie didn’t move on to the next level of competition she wondered how it could have happened to her.  Well it also happened to over 800 other people, Jackie Guptill wasn’t the only person to go away disappointed that day.

When things go wrong it doesn’t mean that God’s out to get you.  That’s life, disappointments happened.  But disappointments do not have a negative or a positive impact in themselves.  Instead it is our reaction to those disappointments that make them either negative or positive.

2 people can have exactly the same disappointment and end up with two completely different outcomes.  It is how we handle our disappointments that will determine our success.  Some people are motivated by disappointments; others are destroyed by their disappointments. 

How you act and react to life and it’s many disappointments usually indicates who you are and what you can become.  Henry Ward Beecher stated “Ones best success comes after their greatest disappointments.” You don’t have to guess how he dealt with disappointments.

I wonder if Mario Andretti the race car driver ever had to face disappointments?  I wonder if he ever lost a race?  Listen to what he said “Circumstances may cause interruptions and delays, but never lose sight of your goal. Prepare yourself in every way you can by increasing your knowledge and adding to your experience, so that you can make the most of opportunity when it occurs.” 

How do you view disappointments?  As stepping stones or as stumbling blocks? Do they strengthen your faith or weaken your faith?  Do they draw you nearer to God or push you farther away from God?  The choice is yours and yours alone.

I don’t know what disappointments you are facing today but I’d like to pray for you.  Because here is God’s promise for you today Psalm 30:5 Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.

Did you catch it?  Weeping may remain for a night.  Maybe, but for sure, rejoicing will come in the morning. 

QRC Forgiveness

He just kept right on smiling. It didn’t matter what they did or what they said he just kept right on smiling. They were American army officers and he was their Korean house boy, and for whatever reason they gave him a hard time about everything, he wasn’t fast enough, he wasn’t polite enough, he wasn’t good enough, but he just kept right on smiling. They had rented a house in Seoul and he was the servant, he cleaned, he cooked and he served and no matter how hard he tried he seemed to fail in their eyes. They ridiculed him and they humiliated him in front of their guests and he just kept on smiling. The more he smiled the more they seemed to be determined to break him and their humiliation of him got even worse if that was possible, but he just kept right on smiling.

One day a visitor came to the house, it was another American officer but he was cut from a different piece of cloth and he was horrified by the way his fellow officers were treating their house boy but he was also fascinated by the boys response, no anger, no tension, apparently no ill feelings and so after a while he got the boy aside to find out what his secret was. “Why is it that no matter what the men say you just smile back?” he asked. “What is you secret?” The boy didn’t hesitate at all before responding “My secret is that every day, just before I serve them their dinner, I spit in their soup.”

Not bad, but not forgiveness. There are people here today who just keep right on smiling. They have been hurt by someone, and yet they don’t appear to let it bother them. A true Christian, it would appear that they have the Lord’s Prayer down pat where it says Matthew 6:12 Forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us.

At least that’s how they appear on the outside. But on the inside they are spitting in that person’s soup, every day. And my friends that is not forgiveness. It may make us feel better but it doesn’t bring healing.

This is week four of our QR Codes for your Life series.  QRC’s are those little square bar codes that are popping up everywhere.  You see them in newspapers, magazines, billboards, stores and restaurants.  And if you have the right app on your smartphone, blackberry or iPhone you can scan the QRC and it will take you to a website that will give you more information about that product or service.  We have a QRC on the back of our bulletin which takes you to the Cornerstone Website.  And while you are there you can find out information about the church, what we believe, a little bit of our history, what services we offer, what’s coming up and a video archive of our past services.  Pretty cool. 

When we introduced our series we talked about how great it would be if as Christians we had QR Codes for those hard situations that pop up in our lives .  Places that we can go in the bible that will give us the answers we need.

So two weeks ago we looked at what to do when we are tempted to do wrong, where we should look for that answer and our QRC directed us to 1 Corinthians 10:13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

Last week we talked about failure, when we feel like we just can’t go on, that our feet have been kicked out from under us and we feel that we just can’t give anymore and we want to quit.  And as a response to that we looked at Galatians 6:9 So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.

But what happens when you’ve been betrayed or hurt.  When someone you love turns against you, or someone you hardly knows says or does something that hurts you?  As Christ followers what are we supposed to do when we have been abused or someone hurts our family?  What do we do when we get cut off in traffic or the barista messes up our coffee order?   Our QRC code this week takes us to the middle of the scripture that was read earlier.  Colossians 3:13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

And in theory that sound easy, but in life things aren’t always that easy.  Colossians 3:13 Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

And Peter seemed to be trying to get a handle on the entire forgiveness thing when he comes to Jesus in Matthew 18:21 Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”

I don’t think that Peter was talking about something abstract, I think that as Jesus was teaching that Peter had been stewing.  Thinking about something someone had said about him or did to him, perhaps more than once.  Maybe five time or six times and he was getting tired of turning the other cheek.  And to be truthful if this was more than a hypothetical situation and Peter had already forgiven the person multiple times he was a better person than most of us.

Under Jewish teaching Peter would have learned that it was good to forgive someone three times.   One Rabbi had written "He who begs forgiveness from his neighbour must not do so more than three times."  While another taught "If a man commits an offence once, they forgive him; if he commits an offence a second time, they forgive him; if he commits an offence a third time, they forgive him; the fourth time they do not forgive."

Would you be willing to forgive three times?  The correct answer shouldn’t be “It depends”. 

And so Peter probably thought he was being gracious, he takes the teachings of the Rabbis, multiplies it by two, adds one for good measure, and offers it up as enough.

 But he wasn’t ready for Jesus’ answer Matthew 18:22 “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!  Seventy times seven!  That’s crazy talk, why that is, naught, naught, carry the four, three is seven, seven is four and wow, that’s almost 500 times.   How can you forgive someone 490 times for doing you wrong? You couldn’t live that long. Maybe that is the answer.

Jesus must have seen the look of unbelief on Peter’s face because he says: Matthew 18:23 “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. 

And then he tells this story to illustrate the forgiveness that is so essential to belonging to God’s Kingdom. He tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a King who was doing up his accounts and discovered that one fellow owed him millions of dollars.  Actually the original text says ten thousand talents. Not a figure drawn out of the air, instead it represented the largest amount of money in Greek thinking. The talent was the largest denomination of currency, much like our one hundred dollar bill, and ten thousand was the largest number in Greek figuring, anything above that figure was merely abstract.

And so this one man owed the largest amount possible that Christ’s audience could conceive. When the man couldn’t pay his debt, the King decreed that the debtor and his family should be sold into slavery to at least get back a partial return on his debt. The debtor began to beg his master to relent and the master did.  He granted the man a pardon, cancelled his debt and set him free.

As you can well imagine the man was over the moon. And it would be a great story if that is where the story ended,  but it didn’t.  As the man was walking home he ran across a man who owed him a few thousand dollars, again the original says one hundred denarii, which means nothing to us but was trifling sum in comparison to what he had been forgiven.

He seemed to have forgotten the forgiveness shown him and immediately demands payment and when the man can’t pay he has him thrown into prison. When the king heard about this he was not visible impressed, called the man back and said Matthew 18:32-33 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’

And then the rich man had the servant thrown into prison where he was tortured until he could pay, which was obviously never. Jesus sums up the story by saying, Matthew 18:35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”

It is impossible to translate the amount of money that was owed by the two men and Jesus never meant for it to be a precise amount it was the difference that was important, one was too large to be imagined the other was too small to be bothered with. The smaller debt was approximately 1/600,000th the size of the larger debt.   That would be the Canadian Government being forgiven its entire national debt and then coming after a man because he owed a hundred bucks on his income tax. 

The lesson being that no matter what it is that you have to forgive it doesn’t compare with what God forgave you for. There is a line in the Lord’s Prayer which tells us the urgency with which we need to forgive.  Matthew 6:12 Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.  You understand what you are praying when you say that, right? 

So instead of looking at what forgiveness is this morning I want to take a few minutes looking at what forgiveness isn’t, because when I talk to people about forgiveness, and you’d be surprised how often that subject comes up in my office, these are usually the objections I hear.  They are not adverse to forgiveness but they often have reasons why they can’t or actually won’t forgive.

Forgiveness Isn't Simply a Matter of Overlooking A Wrong. How many times have we said or heard words like, "Oh that's all right" or "Forget it I didn't pay any attention to it." often we try to overlook small wrongs like when someone says something that hurts us, or when we are slighted about something. Somebody steps in front of us, or doesn't say "thank you", little things that maybe shouldn't hurt but do, and if they hurt they need to be forgiven not overlooked. 

As Christians we think that we are super spiritual when we overlook those little wrongs. But when we make a blanket statement like "Don't worry about it", or "It wasn't anything" we aren't forgiving we are covering. When we overlook wrongs we aren't resolving them we are hiding them and in doing so we are actively preventing our healing, and the healing of relationships. Maybe you've been overlooking somebodies treatment of you, the things your spouse says or doesn't say, the way your children treat you, the fact that the Pastor hasn't recognised you for the things you've done. You've told them and yourself that it doesn't matter, but it does because overlooking isn't forgiving.

Forgiveness Isn't a Matter of Being Asked. Often people will say “But they haven’t asked for my forgiveness.”  Somehow we have come to the mistaken conclusion that forgiveness is something we bestow upon someone like the Queen bestows a Knighthood.  That we wait until they come grovelling asking for forgiveness. But nowhere in the bible does it say that people have to ask us to forgive them before we do.  Not there.

Forgiveness is not a reward to be earned it is a gift to be given.

Understand by forgiving someone you aren’t doing it for their benefit you are doing it for your own benefit.  What happens when we don’t forgive someone?  We are consumed with anger and bitterness.  We spend time plotting to get back at that person, replaying the incident over and over again in our minds and they are going blissfully along with life.

Author Isabelle Holland reminds us  “As long as you don't forgive, who and whatever it is will occupy a rent-free space in your mind.”

You understand don’t you that 90 % of those who you need to forgive either don’t know they need to be forgiven or don’t care? And that goes back to the fact that 73% of statistics are made up.  You cannot allow your emotions to be held hostage by others.  Just let it go.

Forgiveness Isn't a Matter of Feeling  Sometimes when I talk to people they imply that they have not yet come to a place emotionally where they are ready to forgive.  “I’m just not ready yet.”  You need to understand that forgiveness is an action not an emotion.  It is something we do not something we feel and like every other action or activity we will choose to do it or not.

Her name was 66730, or at least that was the name she went by. Her father had died in a German Concentration camp as did her sister. Her freedom, her dignity, her humanity had been stripped away by those who imprisoned her and yet she survived. And not only did she survive she went on to minister to some of the very people who had been responsible for what had happened to her.  You probably know her as Corrie Ten Boom and she said  “Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.”  And I would suspect that Corrie Ten Boom had a lot more to forgive than any one of us.

Forgiveness is a choice and you will either choose to do it or you won’t.

Forgiveness Isn't a Matter of Trust  Often I will hear people say “How can I forgive them when I can’t trust them?”  Two different issues.  Forgiveness is about the past, trust is about the future. Sometimes we hear people say “you haven’t forgiven if you haven’t forgotten.”  That isn’t true. 

What happens when you cut yourself?  You often scar.  Even after the cut is healed over and no longer hurts there is still a reminder.  I was rooming with a couple of other pastors years ago and they started comparing scars.  One had been in a horrific car accident while the other had numerous surgeries for cancer when he was  a pre-teen.  Let me tell you the scars were impressive.  Then they looked at me.  So I held up my hand and said “Once when I was changing the oil on my VW convertible the wrench slipped and I got a really nasty cut on my hand.”

When we have been hurt by someone, emotionally, physically, spiritually it hurts and will often leave a scar.  With forgiveness the hurt will go away but often times the scar will remain.  If someone takes advantage of me in a business deal, I can forgive them but I would be silly if I allowed them to do it again.  Goes back to “Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.”

And if they broke the law they need to be accountable to the law even if you forgive them, you can forgive them for what they did to you but it is not in your power to absolve them of criminal behaviour.

And often it is the person who did the hurting who equates forgiveness with forgetfulness.  The person who breaks their wedding vows is hurt because their spouse doesn’t trust them.  Duh.  The abusive parent can’t understand why their relationship with their kid can’t be the same as other parents and kids have, even after they’ve been forgiven.  Because the scars are still there. 

Now understand that the scars fade and we are reminded of the hurt less and less.  Time may not heal all wounds but it heals a lot of them.  But understand this, you can’t earn forgiveness, it is a gift, but you have to earn trust.  Forgiveness is about you, trust is about them.

It was Friedrich Nietzsche  who said “What upsets me is not that you lied to me, but that from now on I can longer believe you.”

Forgiveness isn't Blaming Ourselves Too many times I have heard someone trying to excuse the behaviour of others by taking guilt on themselves. 

It’s almost if we can figure out what we did wrong then we won't have to forgive because it will be our fault not the other persons, and then we can ask for forgiveness. This creeps up so often in cases like sexual abuse in children, where they are convinced that they must have done something to initiate the encounter. Or in the case of physical abuse where the child convinces himself that he must have been really bad for mommy or daddy to hurt him that way. How many children who are involved in divorce blame themselves for the emotional hurts that their parents inflicted upon them?  by accepting the blame that is not rightfully ours we deny ourselves the opportunity, the necessity to forgive and to be healed. 

There are people out there who suffered hurts years ago who continue to blame themself for things that aren't' their fault. Wives who mistakenly think that the command for wives to submit in Ephesians five means to live in grovelling servitude beneath a tyrant. And because of that these women constantly take the blame, grovel and ask for forgiveness even when they are not in the wrong. This isn't being a good "Christian wife" and it certainly isn't following God's plan for marriage. Instead it is unhealthy neurotic behaviour, and it is definitely not the same as forgiveness. Blaming ourselves provides us with an easy out where we don't have to forgive those who have hurt us.

Forgiveness Isn't an Option.  If you are a Christ Follower you cannot simply choose to not forgive someone.  Not an option, not at all.  Two scriptures to close this message and they do not need explaining or commentary. 

The first one comes at the end of the Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6:14-15 “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

And the second was part of the story we read earlier Matthew 18:34-35 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”

QRC. Failure

The year was 1863 and the US Civil War was in its second year.   Historians tell us that at that point if you were keeping score the Confederate Army was ahead.

The War had shifted its focus from the Southern States and General Robert E Lee was embarking on his second Invasion of the North marching into Pennsylvania.  The hope being, that if the South could penetrate as far as Harrisburg or even Philadelphia that the North would call an end to the war that had divided a nation.    The Battle began at Gettysburg Pennsylvania on July 1 and the Confederate forces quickly took the advantage.  By the second day the Rebel forces are preparing for the push that would assure them the victory.

One of the vital positions being held was a hill called “Little Round Top” and it was held by the “20^th Maine”, a volunteer unit in the Union army.   The unit’s commander was Colonel Joshua Chamberlain a 34 year old professor of rhetoric from Bangor Maine.

Just a year before we are told there had been over a 1000 men under Chamberlain’s command when they left Bangor.  However by 1863 the numbers had been reduced to a few hundred who had been commanded to hold the line at Little Round Top against the advancing 15th & 47^th Alabama regiments. 

After the third advance of the confederate forces the men of the 20^th Maine were out of ammunition and the command was given to gather the ammunition from the dead and the wounded.  The men were able to gather enough ammunition to hold off another attack from the Alabamians one more time.  But only one more time.  The Southerners gathered at the bottom of the hill, preparing to attack again, knowing that the small group of union soldiers couldn’t hold on forever.  And they were right.

Chamberlain was left with fewer than 100 men facing a force many time their size.  Without ammunition and no chance of reinforcements it was apparent that their brave efforts had failed and the line would be breached.  

They had tried their best, no one could fault the men of the 20^th Maine or their commander, but it was apparent to all with the sense that God gave them that they were finished  I’m sure this wasn’t how Joshua Chamberlain pictured his military career ending when he took a leave of absence from Bowdoin College. 

Have you ever been in that position?  At your own “Little Round Top”?   You’ve tried, you’ve really tried you’ve given it everything you have but it just hasn’t seemed to work.  Perhaps it was in your work, maybe a passion in your life or a relationship or maybe as part of your commitment to follow Christ.  But now your resources are spent, you are tired and you can’t imagine going on.  In the eyes of the world, in the eyes of your friends and in the eyes of yourself you are a failure. 

This is week three of our “QR Codes for your life series”.  QRCs or Quick Retrieval Codes are those square bar codes you see everywhere you go these days.  They are in magazine, newspapers, on billboards and signs in restaurants.  

And with the proper app you can scan them with your iPhone; BlackBerry or Smart Phone and they will take you to a website with more information on the topic at hand.

If you scan the QRC on the back of our bulletin it will take you to Cornerstone’s Website where you will find out all there is to know about our church. 

What if there were QRC’s for our Christian life, when we came to a difficult situation we could just scan the code and it would take us to where we need to go in God’s word to find an answer? 

That of course it our premise for the month of November.  Last week we looked at Temptation and our QRC took us to 1 Corinthians 10:13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

This week we are looking at Failure.  What does God’s word have to say when we feel that we can’t go on?   But first back to our story.

July 2^nd 1863, Joshua Chamberlain and the 20^th Maine have held back the men of the 15th Alabama Infantry regiment four times, but now they were out of ammunition and almost out of men.  Chamberlain orders his men to again collect ammunition from the dead and dying only to be told there was no ammunition left.

Some of his junior officers recommended surrendering, but Chamberlain had been told how vital their position was to the Union defence and he knew that they would be unable to defend Little Round Top one more time.  And so he commanded his men to fix their bayonets and he led the charge against the enemy position.  And the remaining 80 members of the 20^th Maine, armed only with bayonets captured over 400 heavily armed confederate soldiers. 

One commentator wrote:  “Had the 20th Maine retreated from the hill, the entire Union line would have been flanked, and would have most likely lost the battle of Gettysburg, although there is much debate on the subject. Union morale and support for the war was wavering, due to many defeats. If the Union had lost the battle of Gettysburg the Confederate army could possibly been able to march on to Washington D.C. and end the war. The 20th Maine’s action in holding the hill has been credited with helping to turn the tide of the war.”

Chamberlain’s actions were key in the Union army’s victory at Gettysburg and Gettysburg was the turning point in the War Between the States, all because Joshua Chamberlain refused to give in and quit.

Chamberlain may have been considered a failure after the fourth charge of the 15 Alabamians, but he wasn’t a quitter, and that made all the difference in how the story ends.  By the way, Chamberlain went on to become a general in the Union forces, was the General who accepted the surrender of the Confederate forces in 1865, was elected as the Governor of Maine for four terms from 1866 until 1869 and then served as president of the Bowdin College in Bangor until 1883. Not sure if he would have achieved those goals if he had of quit on July 2, 1863 and become a prisoner of war.

But what does the bible tell us about failure?  Our QR code today takes us to Galatians 6:9 So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.

Think about it we will reap a harvest of blessing, if we don’t give up.

 

There are two thoughts here, the first is the reward, and the second is giving up.  And you can either obtain the reward, or you can give up.   However, you cannot, cannot, cannot give up and obtain the reward.  There are lots of reasons to quit, and a lot of people quitting, but I’ve got good news for you; you don’t have to quit.

Regardless of how tough it gets, and regardless of what people say, and regardless of how discouraged you feel; you don’t have to quit. 

Quitting is a choice that you will make and nobody can make for you.  “Will I quit or will I keep going?”  “Will I stop or will I press on?”, “Will I give up or will I succeed?”    Those are questions that can be answered by you and you alone. And so this morning we are going to look at ten ways to quit the quitting habit.  

1) Realise that failure isn’t final.

Here’s the encouraging word for the day if you live, if you walk if you talk, if you endeavour, if you try, if you attempt anything you will at one time or another be a failure.  Noah got drunk he was a failure.  Moses murdered an Egyptian and fled to the desert, he was a failure. David committed adultery he was a failure. Peter denied knowing Christ, he was a failure. 

You don’t really think that the Wright brothers flew on their first attempt do you?   Or that Edison got the light bulb right the first time?  Or that Bell perfected the phone on his first try. 

Personally I like the words of J.M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan who said “We are all failures—at least, all the best of us are.”   The only people who never fail are the people who never try, as a matter of fact it would be well within the mark to say the world is divided into two categories: failures and unknowns.

This may not be the most encouraging statement in the world but listen up folks; you are going to make mistakes, because my friends that is a fact of life.  And you can let those mistakes knock you down, and walk all over you and keep you flat on your back or you can say, “God, what can I learn from this mistake?”  You didn’t learn to walk with your first step.  You didn’t learn to swim with your first stroke.  You didn’t learn to play an instrument on your first attempt.

The very same mistake can be a stumbling block or a stepping stone and only you will decide. 

Failure is not final it is just life.  I have said before that every hill has a top, every mountain has a summit, every tunnel has an end and every night has a dawn.  The Bible may say that “trouble came to pass” but it never says that “trouble came to stay.”  Failure isn’t final.  Every day that Denn Guptill lives, Denn Guptill makes mistakes, and all God’s people said. . . Don’t let your failures be final.   Listen to the words of Samuel Beckett “Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better”.

2) Believe in yourself 

As a child of almighty God, creator of the universe, when you say “I can’t do that” you are really saying, “God can’t do that.”  And when you say “I haven’t got what it takes” you are really saying, “My God isn’t big enough.”  But you know you are probably right, you probably can’t do it, you probably haven’t got what it takes, you probably are a miserable, pathetic destitute failure, but that doesn’t matter because you are a child of the king. 

Prince Charles has problems but he is still Crown Prince Heir Apparent to the British Empire and he can’t lose that.  And you can’t lose the fact that you are a child of almighty God with all of the power and privileges that go with that.

And even though you will discover that there are times that you can’t lean on yourself, you can lean on the book and the book says, in Philippians 4:13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

Not some things, not a few things, not most things, not easy things.  But I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength. 

Moses couldn’t part the Red Sea but he did.  Joshua couldn’t bring down the walls of Jericho but he did.  Samson couldn’t pull down the walls of the temple but he did.  Daniel couldn’t survive in the lion’s den but he did.  Peter couldn’t walk on water but he did, and Jesus Christ the carpenter from Nazareth couldn’t come back from the dead but he did. 

Christians if you learn nothing else from this message, if you never commit another scripture to memory please memorise Philippians 4:13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.

3) Understand that other people have problems too  

You aren’t alone; there are other people out there who have problems just like you.  And no matter how bad things seem there is someone who is a little worse off.  Your foot hurts?   There is someone out there missing their leg.   You missing a leg?   There is someone out there who is confined to a wheelchair and can’t use their arms. You stuck in a wheel chair and can’t use your arms? Read the obits in the paper, there are all kinds of people who are dead.  You ok?  And you thought you had it bad. 

4) Do something worthwhile 

Realize that you aren’t the only person in the world. Quitters are usually selfish people, they quit because they aren’t being fulfilled, or they aren’t making progress, or they are depressed.  But it’s always them.  Get involved, get involved in the church, be a volunteer at the hospital, hospital are always looking for people to come in and read to their patients.   Visit shut-ins, work at a youth drop in, and help out at school.

Do something for others make your life worthwhile, you have been saved to touch a lost and dying world so get to it, do something.

5)  Set Realistic Goals

Some people quit because they get discouraged because their goals are too high.  That is not to say that we shouldn’t have high goals, but realize that they may not happen tomorrow.  The longest journey begins with a single step, and that first step is as much a goal as is the end of the trip.  If you are learning to fly you goal shouldn’t be to be a qualified pilot after the first lesson.  Need to lose weight concentrate on the first pound not the first hundred pounds.  Want to finish a degree, take it one course at a time.  One reason I never learned how to play guitar was because I wanted to play like Leona Boyd the first week.

Dream big, but have some realistic steps along the way. 

6) Remember That With God You Are On The Winning Side. 

We have to realize the same thing that David realised as he stood looking up at Goliath, and that is this when we are on God’s side it doesn’t matter how big the giants are, we are on the winning side. And that’s all she wrote.  Always remember that if you are on God’s side then God is on your side, and that is the winning side.  And there isn’t anything that needs to be done in this world that God can’t do through me or through you if we will let him.  

7)  Ask Others for Help 

Don’t be so proud that you fail simply for lack of asking for help.  I’m a terrible one for that, but sometimes we have to admit that we need the help of others.  There’s a great illustration about this in the bible, in Exodus 17:8-12 While the people of Israel were still at Rephidim, the warriors of Amalek attacked them. Moses commanded Joshua, “Choose some men to go out and fight the army of Amalek for us. Tomorrow, I will stand at the top of the hill, holding the staff of God in my hand.” So Joshua did what Moses had commanded and fought the army of Amalek. Meanwhile, Moses, Aaron, and Hur climbed to the top of a nearby hill. As long as Moses held up the staff in his hand, the Israelites had the advantage. But whenever he dropped his hand, the Amalekites gained the advantage. Moses’ arms soon became so tired he could no longer hold them up. So Aaron and Hur found a stone for him to sit on. Then they stood on each side of Moses, holding up his hands. So his hands held steady until sunset.

When Jesus went to the garden he asked Peter James and John to be with him.  In Galatians 6:2 we are told to bear one another’s burdens.  Don’t try to carry the weight of the world on your shoulders  listen to what king Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.

God can help and he might help by providing a somebody, so don’t be afraid to ask for help. 

8) Commit Yourself Publicly 

For whatever reason it’s a lot easier to stick with, and accomplish a goal when others know about it.  Let others in on your dreams, your visions, your aspirations, let others know what you want to accomplish in this life. Make yourself accountable to others.  It is a lot easier to fulfil a pledge made to someone else then a pledge made to yourself.  Share with your friends a little bit of what you seek to achieve in this life.  It also gives you a degree of accountability when someone follows up on your goals and can offer suggestions, help and encouragement.

Let’s go back to David and 1 Samuel 17:41-47 Goliath walked out toward David with his shield bearer ahead of him, sneering in contempt at this ruddy-faced boy. “Am I a dog,” he roared at David, “that you come at me with a stick?” And he cursed David by the names of his gods. “Come over here, and I’ll give your flesh to the birds and wild animals!” Goliath yelled. David replied to the Philistine, “You come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies—the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today the LORD will conquer you, and I will kill you and cut off your head. And then I will give the dead bodies of your men to the birds and wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel! And everyone assembled here will know that the LORD rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the LORD’s battle, and he will give you to us!”

Now that’s putting it on the line.

9) Visualise Your Successes. 

Now I know that this type of thing has had a lot of bad press but I think that it is one of the keys to succeeding is the fact that you really have to have a firm grip on where you are going.  Cause if you don’t know where you’re going how will you know when you get there?  It was Yogi Berra who said, “If you don’t know where you are going you might end up somewhere else.” 

Stop seeing yourself as a loser, stop seeing yourself as a quitter, stop seeing yourself as a failure and start seeing yourself the way that God sees you.  You might not be able to see Cornerstone the way it is going to be in two years, five years and ten years down the road, but I can.  Visualise your dreams because if you can’t see them in your mind you will probably never see them in reality.   Rememeber If you never build castles in the air you will never build anything on the ground.

10) Bring All Your Problems to God

This is the most important point in this entire message; if you don’t get anything else get this.  Christ cares and he wants to help.  Got a bad marriage, broken dreams, financial problems, spiritual difficulties, Jesus wants to know, and he doesn’t just want to know he wants to help.   

One hymn writer wrote, “What a friend we have in Jesus all our sins and grief’s to bear!  What a privileged to carry everything to God in prayer.  Oh, what peace we often forfeit, oh, what needless grief we bear all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer!”

You don’t have to carry your load alone in Matthew 11:28-29 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

And here is our promise to end with today:  Hebrews 13:5 . . . God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.”   Because you may fail God, but God will never fail you.

QRC Temptation

QRC: Temptation

We’ve all been there, at one time or another.  Standing on the very cusp of doing what we know is wrong.  And we have to decide; will we do what we know we shouldn’t do or do we make the right decision.  And each of us is tempted by something different in our lives, which makes it really difficult to understand how someone can give into to their particular temptation.  “How could they do that?  I don’t understand what the appeal could possibly be.” 

I have never had a struggle with alcohol.  Ever.  That’s not to say I never drank, I just never had a problem with it, and when the time came for me to quit, I quit.  For those who don’t know the story, on Thursday August 30^th 1979 I was a commercial fisherman on the largest herring seiner on the East Coast, our quotas were cut where we were fishing and so we came home for a few days and I became a Christ follower in a Sunday Evening service at 1^st Wesleyan Church in Saint John New Brunswick.  On Wednesday I moved into my dorm room at Bethany Bible College which is now Kingswood University.  And one of the rules was “thou shalt not drink.”  And I have not had a drink since that day, not a bottle of beer not a glass of wine, nada.  And in those 33 years I don’t think I ever thought “wow, a cold beer would be nice right now”  or “I could really use a drink.” 

And so there have been times that I have had very little patience with people who struggle with alcohol.  And I think “Well just stop it.” 

On the other hand, I had major issues quitting smoking, serious problems.  And to be truthful to this day there are times I think, “I could really use a smoke.”  Does that make me a bad person?  And people who have never smoked don’t understand, they call it a dirty filthy habit and can’t understand the appeal of sucking on burning organic matter that is filled with poison and will kill you.  And I knew that and still know it.  But that didn’t help much.

We are all tempted, but we tend to be tempted in different ways.  I am not a worrier, sure there are times I worry but for the most part I don’t.  But there are those out there who struggle with worry, even though they know that the Bible says “Don’t worry” they are tempted to worry about things they have no control over. 

There are those who struggle with gluttony, and don’t confuse that with simply being overweight, and they are tempted to eat more than they should.  There are those who struggle with lust and sexual sin, there are those who struggle with anger issues and issues of unforgiveness.    There are those who struggle with drunkenness and greed, and hatred and every day there will be those who give in to those struggles and those who stand firm and don’t. 

The issue isn’t whether or not we will be tempted, because we will be tempted.  You have no control over that.   The issue is whether or not you will give into the temptation.  And you are the only one who will have control over that.  Nobody else can resist temptation for you, nobody else can win that battle except you.

Most of you are aware that our theme for the next four weeks is “QR Codes for life” QRCs or Quick Retrieval Codes are those funky little square bar codes that you see everywhere these days, and if you scan them with your smart phone or iPhone they take you to a website where you can quickly find the information that you need about . . . whatever.    Last week in our  introduction we talked about how great it would be if there were QR codes for our lives as Christ Followers, when we face difficult situations we could just scan them and find the answer that we needed.  Often times, as Christians, we are reminded that the Bible has all the answers we need.  But it’s a big book, and we don’t always have time to search through it looking for the answer that we need, right now.

So where do we go to face our temptations?   Our QR Code for this week is  1 Corinthians 10:13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

This verse sums up all we need to know about temptation.  And gives us the tools we need to deal with temptation. 

So let’s start at the beginning because the beginning is usually a great place to start.

1 Corinthians 10:13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

We all think that what we are dealing with is something strange and wonderful, that nobody has ever had to deal with the temptations that you are dealing with. 

I can’t count the number of times people have uttered the words to me “You don’t know what it was like, you can’t understand.”  Everyone thinks their situation is unique, that if I could only put myself in their place that I would have done what they did.  

And yet the reality goes back to the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 1:9 History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new.

The temptations that we face today are the same as our parents faced and that their parents faced.  There is nothing new under the sun.  We Have Been Forewarned

Oh the clothes temptation dresses up in might be modern garb, but at the root the temptation to do what is wrong still comes from the same place.  If we go back to the start of the story we discover the first man and woman happily frolicking in the Garden of Eden.  They can do whatever they want and there is only one rule in their existence.  One rule, how tough can that be?  How easy would it be to memorize “The One Commandment”?

Genesis 2:15-17 The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the LORD God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”

 How easy should that be?  “You can do whatever you want, except to eat the fruit from that one tree.”  What  would be the smart thing to do?  Not go near the tree.  But no, when Satan shows up and tempts Eve to eat from the tree she knew exactly what tree he meant and exactly where it was.  And what was the route the temptation took?  The fruit looked delicious, so the temptation begins by Appealing To Her Desire to Have Something She Didn’t Have.    Most temptations begin with an appeal to our appetites. 

Now we aren’t talking about appetite here in the sense of a Big Mac a large order of Fries and a shake.  No this is the temptation to satisfy our physical desires, even when we know that it is wrong.  Every one of us will be tempted at some time or another through our appetites.  It may not be hunger it may be your sexual appetite, it might be an addictive substance, or it might simply be the appetite to have more, whatever the cost. 

Of course the power of temptation is multiplied because our society has reverted back to the philosophy of ancient Rome that said “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.”  Or perhaps it’s the philosophy of the not so ancient 60’s that said “If it feels good; do it.”

But the question is: Why do we do things when we know they are wrong?  Why do we watch movies that we know Christ wouldn’t approve of, why do we listen to music that flies in the face of everything the Bible teaches, why do we cultivate relationships that we know are dangerous?  If you were to answer honestly it would be because we enjoy those things and those people.  We are seeking to fulfill the appetite of pleasure.   Even when we know that to do so is to be disobedient to what God wants in our lives.

But really, Eve could have eaten from any other tree in the garden and been just as full.    

But it wasn’t enough that the fruit looked delicious, Satan ups the ante, he tells Eve in Genesis 3:5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”   Satan is saying, “Is it really fair that God has something that you don’t have?  He just doesn’t want you to know what he knows.  But you should have the same knowledge that he has, God shouldn’t mind if you know the difference between good and evil, that is if he really loves you.”

So Satan promises that Eve will get something that she didn’t have, something that she didn’t even know she didn’t have and something she couldn’t get anywhere else.  “Your eyes will be opened and you will know both good and evil.”  So now Satan is Appealing to Her Desire to Be Something She Wasn’t. 

This is also the temptation of pride, Madonna made this statement “I won’t be happy till I’m as famous as God.”  She’ll never be as famous as God, but I would suspect that she has done some things in the quest for that fame that has dishonoured God and Madonna.  But even when you think you are that famous, you aren’t.  Remember John Lennon saying “We're more popular than Jesus Christ now. I don't know which will go first; rock and roll or Christianity.” 

And you’re thinking, Denn that isn’t a problem for me, I know that I’ll never be famous so it’s not a temptation.  Sure, but have you ever considered fames little brother, popularity. 

When I was in school I was both unpopular and popular, and trust me popular is better, but it’s not worth selling your soul for.  Don’t give into the temptation of doing things just to fit in with the crowd.  Because when the time comes to pay the price for the compromises that you make the crowd will be nowhere around.

Listen again to what Satan offers:  Genesis 3:5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”   

Finally Satan is Appealing To Her Desire to Have Power.  To be just like God, people are still trying to be like God.  What Eve was after wasn’t knowledge it was power. 

People are too willing to pay whatever price they need to in order to achieve the power they crave.  They will sacrifice their morals, their ethics, and their integrity.  James Byrnes former  Secretary of State wrote “Power intoxicates men. When a man is intoxicated by alcohol, he can recover, but when intoxicated by power, he seldom recovers.” 

Most of the problems in today’s world are caused by a quest for power.  Read the papers.  What is it that the Israelis and Palestinians are fighting over?  Land? No they have land, they are fighting over power, who will be in charge.  Radical Islam is fighting for control, they want the power that comes with being in control.  The Taliban wants to be back in control in Afghanistan so they will have power over the people and will be able to demand they do it their way.

Marriages are destroyed because someone wants power, crimes are committed because someone wants power, friendships are sacrificed and Churches have been split all because of someone’s desire for power, to be in charge, to have control.

If we fast forward thousands of years through human history we discover Jesus in the desert before he begins his ministry and there is Satan, with the same bag of tricks.  “Turn the stones into breads Jesus, satisfy your appetites.”  “Jump off the temple wall Jesus, and everyone will worship you, satisfy your desire for fame.”  “Bow down and worship me Jesus and I will give you all the kingdoms of the world, I will give you power.” 

Fast forward another two thousand years and in a Pastoral management class that I took in University a professor tells the class that the three things that pastors will be tempted with will be: The Gold, the Glory and the Girls.   1 Corinthians 10:13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.   But there is more to this QRC then simply the knowledge that others have been tempted before us. 

1 Corinthians 10:13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

Here is our secret weapon, first we are forewarned now We are Forearmed.  This is the knowledge that you don’t have to give in.  You have what it takes to win this battle.  The Bible promises you that you don’t have to give in to temptation; God will not allow the temptation to get that strong.  But we don’t want to believe that, we want to think that we didn’t have a choice. 

This is not a self-help book that we are reading, this is the word of God, God’s word for God’s people and it tells us that He will not allow the temptation to be more than we can stand.  You don’t have to give in. 

A couple of things to remember, the first one is: this promise is for Christ followers, it’s not for everyone.  Sometimes people get into the thinking that every promise in the Bible is for everyone, doesn’t work that way, the promises in God’s word are for God’s people.   

And the second thing this is for Christ followers who want to resist temptation.    That’s the secret; you gotta want to.  We talk the good talk but the reason we give into temptation is because we want to.  Jesus’ brother James hit the nail right on the head when he wrote in James 1:14 Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away.

Scottish writer Margaret Oliphant  Said the same thing, “Temptations come, as a general rule, when they are sought.”

Don’t go looking for temptation and don’t under estimate them.  You’ve heard me say it over and over again; “Sin will always take you further than you want to go it will always keep you longer than you want to stay and will always cost you more than you want to pay.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson observed “We gain the strength of the temptation we resist.” Every time we win over temptation the next win is easier, but the converse is true as well, after we give in it gets tougher to not give in the next time, which is why Mark Twain said:  “It is easier to stay out than get out.”  

Listen carefully, you can win, you don’t have to lose, you don’t have to give in.  The promise is here in the book, and we don’t debate the book.  “I couldn’t help myself”, or “the temptation was too strong”, or “the devil made me do it” are cop-outs.  The Bible, the word of God promises us that we can win over temptation.   And more than that, look at the promise again 1 Corinthians 10:13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

God has promised to show you a way out, so your part is to look for that way out.  Sometimes the easiest way out is just to leave, turn around and walk away.  Sometime though you need to stay where you are. 

When Satan was tempting Jesus, time and time again Jesus returns to the scripture.    But that only works if you know what the Bible says.   It’s no good to wave it around and say, “Somewhere in here it says something that’s helpful” 

In Psalm 119 David asked Psalm 119:9 How can a young person stay pure? And then he answers his own question By obeying your word.   Two verses later he adds to it by saying Psalm 119:11 I have hidden your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.

You need to read the book and you need it hide it in your heart.  You say, “But Denn I’m no good at memorizing scripture.” Just read it, and read it and read it.  Make it a part of your day.  If you don’t have a bible reading plan you can find one for your computer, you iPhone, your BlackBerry or you can do it the old fashion way. 

Devotional books are wonderful but they are no substitute for reading God’s word.  David didn’t say “I have hidden “The Daily Bread” in my heart, or I have hid “The Upper Room” in my heart, or I have hid the latest Christian best seller in my heart.  Read the book.

But remember if you are going to master temptation then first you are going to have to let God master you.

Let’s read it the promise together but this time let’s personalize it   1 Corinthians 10:13 The temptations in my life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than I can stand. When I am tempted, he will show me a way out so that I can endure.