I'd like you to take your Bibles and join me in the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter 39. There's a couple of things I want to talk about before we get into the message. First of all, yesterday we had a men's Bible study and Dave Basiglio, Dave would you raise your hand? Dave is right over there. He did an excellent job. He really did. It's his first time teaching so I was very thankful. Is this microphone on? The lapel mic? Yep, okay. I was very thankful that he put in the time and effort. He came with notes and it was a great blessing. We talked quite a bit about friends. That was the study. Friends, enemies, close friends, all those different things. And then we went out into the field out here, the little grassy area, and we got to work on the sprinkler system. The sprinkler system has been in disrepair for a while because when they put in the new line about a year ago, they cut the sprinkler line and capped it. I'm sure somebody told me that, but you know, in one ear, out the other, when all those things are happening, it was right around the missions conference. We were not even sure if we were going to have a missions conference. So we had to dig up a large portion of that grassy area yesterday. We found the problem. Gary is our sprinkler guy. We found the problem, got it hooked up. We went over to Gary's truck and chatted for a little bit. while all of the glue hardened and then it was the moment to see if, have you done something good or have you created more problems? Or in your doing of good, have more problems risen? And he turned the water on, didn't even give us a countdown. I mean, that's just the way to do it. You get hyped up for it and everything came on beautifully. So now we've got that grassy area able to be watered. We're gonna have it re-sodded, because if you remember, it's such a beautiful part of the church here, but it's just been in disrepair since this sprinkler issue. So we're gonna have that re-sodded very nice and put together. But I was thinking about my message all through that work, which as you can see here is how to handle temptation. Because when you start digging around trees, It's very soft ground, very easy, there's no roots. I just lied to you about every condition of that ground. You put a shovel in there, and I'm a lot of weight, so you get up on that shovel, you stick it in the ground, you try to push it down in there, and when that thing pushes back at you, or the shovel is stuck in a root, you know you have a problem. So there was lots of temptation yesterday to be angry and just frustrated. One of the things I learned as a kid when I was doing work was how to swing an axe properly. If you do it improperly you're going to use all your upper body strength and you're just going to get really tired and you can actually hurt yourself with that thing. So a big guy like myself, you get that axe over your head and then you bring yourself down and the axe will just come down with it. And so you get a lot more chopping endurance. So I'm out there hitting this root, right? And it just snaps in half, no problem. Starting to get a false sense of confidence. When we got to this giant knot, I mean, if there was a model for what a garlic knot should look like, that's what this root looked like. And I'm looking at it, and I'm seeing all these little roots here and there, but there's this giant stem that's coming off, and I'm like, that's what we need to do. So I go through one, and I hit it, and I'm, you know, I'm doing the whole, ah, right after, you know, just like big man, James is there, Ernie's there, it's like, I gotta show these guys, I don't just sit in an office all day. I got some strength here. Get the second one, ah, the third one, the root is not broken, by the way, I put that axe in there so hard and the root said, no, no, you're not getting that back and it gripped the axe. And as I think, you know, I had just had three successful swings and it came out each time. Then when I put it down, all of a sudden it was like, and I fell down to my knee and I was like, We can't do this anymore. And I gave in to that temptation to just be frustrated. But we got everything taken care of. But I've been thinking about that since that happened, because I think it's important for us to recognize the title is specific. It's how to handle temptation, not necessarily avoid it. I work with people on many different counseling issues, and when people come to me for counseling, there's usually a problem that they have tried to solve, and they're not experiencing victory in it, so they're looking for help. And it's not my job to identify the problem. We all know what the problem is. We're all here in this situation. Avoiding temptation is something that you will not have victory in. It's very foolish and naive to think that we can avoid any kind of temptation, and that's a part of my study today. There are actually two very important definitions of temptation that I think we should understand, along with a lot of applications of the word, but specifically, When we look at avoiding temptation, it's not necessarily trying to avoid it, it's how do we handle it, not if, but when it comes, amen? You will go through temptation, and you'll look at some of these definitions, and we'll see there's many applications to that. But when I'm working with counseling, especially with people who are in some type of addiction-based need, I will tell them that they need to start going back to the basics. Here's what happens over a long period of time in an addiction. You stop identifying your triggers. Now, triggers, we see that word today, and it's used in a very liberal sense, but that's not what I mean. But for many people, being idle, not having anything to do, brings about an opportunity to get into that addiction. For example, addiction with pornography is mainly driven by shame. There's a shame that the desire has come, and then there's an opportunity to act out on that desire through the use of pornography. And then after the usage, there's shame again. So it's like a vortex of water. It just sucks the individual down further and further and further, and it's shame-driven. So what you have to do with the person who's not had victory over temptation, they have not handled it properly, is you have to take them from the bottom of that depth and bring them back to the top and say, let's see how this starts. I usually, specifically when dealing with individuals with pornography addictions, I'll have them journal for a week. And I'll just have them write down, when there's a temptation to use this, what is happening? Where are you? Is there a specific, is there a show playing? Is there downtime? Are you talking with somebody? Is there a discussion? Is it music? What brings these things to light? And it helps them recognize, number one, I can identify these problems. And this sometimes people will say, and people that say this don't want the help. They really just want someone to tell them they can't do it because they've already told themselves that. But sometimes people go, that's so basic, that's so easy, to which I'll say lovingly, you know, then why are you in this situation? If it's so basic and easy to identify the problem, Why are we here? Because you've established a routine where you're not paying attention to these things that trigger, these things that identify and bring you into this habit. And it's not just with a pornography addiction, this can happen in marriages, this can happen with substance abuse, this can happen with depression and anxiety. All these things, we don't identify the temptation and we just focus on the outcome. And then we sit there and think, this outcome has victory over me. How can I ever get out of it? You've got to come back to the surface and look at things as they really are. Look at things as they really are. So I want to read to you here this first example of temptation. It's an experiment, attempt, trial, or proving. Now we're going to look at all the different things about those four statements. But number one, a trial or proving, the trial made of you by somebody's bodily condition, since conditions serve to test the love of the Galatians towards Paul. And you may go, What? What does that mean? That's a specific type of temptation where it's not necessarily a temptation to do evil by those individuals, but because of Paul's condition, which he was not a... We know from the scripture he's a very hard man. He also had an eyesight problem, which many commentators have come to the conclusion that he was not a very handsome man to look at. He may have been ghastly in appearance. And this was a test from God, not a temptation in an evil way, but it was a test from God to see what is the love of the Galatians. Is it surface level or do they love the man for his soul, for his spirit? And that's one example, but here's the one where we focus the most. An enticement to sin. Temptation whether arising from desires from the outward circumstances or an internal temptation. And you're here with me in Genesis chapter 39 in verses 7 through 10. We're going to look here about an enticement to sin arising from the desires or from outward circumstances. This happens all the time. You turn on your TV, there is temptation baked in for you. I did a message a couple of weeks ago on, is all entertainment bad? We can come to the conclusion that much of the entertainment today is no longer morally neutral. Okay, even in game shows, there's filthy stuff that's baked into it. And you've come to the conclusion, this is tempting me to sin, so you need to, and we'll get into how we handle it later, We have to understand that there are outward pressures on us and let's take a look at an example of that. We're going to be looking at Joseph and how he dealt with Potiphar, Pharaoh's wife. And this is very important here to note, verse 7 of Genesis 39. And it came to pass after these things that his master's wife cast eyes upon Joseph and she said, lie with me. Now that doesn't mean Let's go tell a lie together. This means, come to bed with me, be sexually intimate with me in this way. So, here's Joseph, and we know from Joseph's character and testimony, the man was upright. He did things correctly. This is the definition of, he was just doing his job, and somebody had sin in their heart, and that manifested to action, where they spoke the words to entice him to sin. Is that Joseph's fault? No, that's not his fault. This is the work of outward circumstances coming into his sphere, and it's an opportunity for him to glorify God and do what is right, or it's an opportunity for him to glorify himself and act out on that desire. Look at verse eight. But he refused. And said unto his master's wife, Behold, my master wanteth not what is with me in the house, and he hath committed all that he hath to my hand. What's he saying here? I'm trusted. I have trust which is now verified by my control over the things of this house. Verse nine, there is none greater in this house than I, neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee. Why did he not give him his wife? Because it's a sin. That's not a part of fellowship and maintaining the house. However, she had something in her mind, she wanted it, so she said, I'm going to go get it. And he was the victim of this temptation. But I want you to note, the first thing that he did is he refused. He didn't ponder, he didn't go, hmm, what an opportunity, which many people would do today. And I've told this in counseling sessions and I'll tell it to you now. You have to make the decision that you will do right before you are put in front of the temptation. It's like a person who struggles with alcohol. This would be an unwise thing for this person, that they have friends who are also struggling with alcohol but are not willing to address it as this person is willing to address it. And they say, we're all going down to the bar that we hang out at every week. And the person may say, I know I have an alcohol addiction, but I will not put myself in any kind of situation where that would be a bad thing. But he still goes and hangs out with his friends. And of course, they go and they order drinks, and all of a sudden, there's a drink put in front of him, just his friend out of kindness has ordered it for him, and now he's processing through this temptation for the first time. That's not gonna yield a success. The decision has to be made before you even get an invite from people who would entice you to sin. And you say, I'm gonna glorify God, and I'm not gonna fall back into this temptation. Because the temptation will come about. And we can see from Joseph here that although the scripture doesn't say it, it's clearly implied by his actions. He refused. He didn't dwell on it. He didn't linger on it. He just did not do it. And he gave a reason to her. And of course, she totally accepted that. No, she didn't. Let's look at the middle of verse nine. Because thou art his wife, how then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? This is the next focus I want you to see here. Joseph properly recognized that what he was about to do was primarily an offense to God. Yes, she would be involved in it, and we can't say that she's innocent in any way. She's the initiator of this. But it's not just a sin against, uh... the wife or potter for and we have to recognize not to sit against his responsibilities in the house he had a responsibility between him and got to do right and this would have been a clear offense to it and i think i see many people today that are trying to fight against temptation for some type of humanitarian or or moral reason well it's not good for the sake of my community it's not good for the sake of my family and those things are good i'm not saying they're bad but there's something better God has expectations for you. If you're here today and you've already put your trust in Jesus Christ, you know that you're going to heaven. The Bible says that you are born into the family of God. And so God is no longer just your creator. He's no longer the judge over your sin. He is now your heavenly Father. And 1 John describes it in this way. We have an advocate with the Father. But right before that verse, we have clear instruction that we should sin not. So for believers, there's an expectation from God, your Heavenly Father, to not sin. And so many people like to stretch this as far as they can. People keep their little cubbyhole of sin. It's not that bad. It was much worse years ago. You should see what it used to be, but now here it is. You're only deceiving yourself and you're offending God in the process. And that is exactly the point that is made here in verse nine, and sin against God. Verse 10, and it came to pass as she spake to Joseph day by day, so now time goes by, that he hearkened not unto her to lie by her or to be with her. But you can see there in verse 12, things progressed to the point where she was so set on this thing she wanted. She wanted Joseph in an intimate way. She was going to have that whether he wanted it or not. Verse 12, caught him by his garment saying, lie with me. And he left his garment in her hand and fled and got him out. And I want you to, if you have a Bible that you mark in, I want you to circle the word fled. Circle the word fled. This is a very important thing that we'll get back to later. Now I want you to go to First Kings chapter 11. First Kings chapter 11. Verses one through eight. This is some sad scripture here. We have the description of Solomon who we know from early on in the Old Testament that he was once a young man who was in a vision, asked by God what he would like. He's about to be the king. He's about to rule over God's people. And we see the wisdom of Solomon is he does not ask for long life, nor does he ask for financial security or for the life of his enemies, but he asks for one thing. He compares himself to a child in that he does not understand how to properly judge. And he says, I need discernment so that I can rightly judge your people, because they're your people. I don't want to mess this up. God is so pleased by Solomon's response that he says, I'm going to give you that discernment and I'm going to give you respect and I'm going to give you wealth. And Solomon brought Israel through a very prosperous time, established a lot of good relationships, was able to build a beautiful temple. But he had a problem. In all of his wisdom, he wanted to experience everything. And that's what the book of Ecclesiastes is coming to the conclusion of. that everything that we can enjoy, food, drink, whatever it is, sexual pleasure, materialism, fame, all that kind of stuff, you get all through that, what's the end of it? It's all vanity. It's like grasping at smoke. You can't get a handle on it. It may look like it has volume and mass, but all these things end up falling apart. And we see the ultimate downward turn of Solomon here in 1 Kings 11. Look in verse 1. Now, strange here does not mean like, she's interesting. But what that means is they're foreign. And I want to look up here for a moment because I think this conversation is worth having. A lot of people like to point to the Bible and say it's racist, it's sexist, and all sorts of stuff like that. There's a very clear instruction from God not to bring in other cultures for a specific reason. It's not because that God hates those people, but it's because what those people have decided a long time ago is we're going to worship a false god. And I'm not talking about they go to a different church with a different name. They sacrifice children to these gods. Okay, it's so much more than, oh, well, my friend is Catholic, and I'm Baptist, and my friend's a Mormon, and all these different things. Today, in our very civilized culture, those things don't have things like child sacrifice and all that. It's still an offense to God, because it mars the gospel, and it degrades the value of his son's blood. But in this day, you bring in a spouse from a different culture, they're not converting over to Judaism. KATHRYN They're not recognizing that God is the one true God. This is why Israel was put into captivity over and over, and why they had nations come against them over and over, because they allowed these things through marriages to come into their communities, and before you know it, you're gonna read about the king of Israel here taking down the altars that are for the one true God and raising up these groves, which if you have the stomach for it, you can go and Wikipedia these things, what these groves entailed. A lot of death, a lot of perverted sexual acts, and a lot of child sacrifice. And it was, you look and you say, how did Solomon get to the point? He had all this wisdom given by God. How did he get to the point of this? He allowed the temptation through his multiple Wives to get to him. So there's another example of outward circumstances, but he was also putting himself in a bad spot Look what it says in the in the middle of verse 1 there together with the daughter of Pharaoh women of the Moabites Ammonites Edomites Zidonians and Hittites of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel. You shall not go into them That's means do not procreate with them. I Neither shall they come unto you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods. Solomon claimed unto these in love." So very clearly we see what was Solomon's problem. He disobeyed God. Remember Joseph we just read? He said, I'm not gonna do this sin against God. Solomon even in all his wisdom said, I wanna experience it. What's it like? This is another thing too. Sometimes in our, in our culture, you have that person that gives you advice. And that person can almost become shunned, because they're always giving advice. Well, you know, be careful, be careful, is what they'll commonly say. Like, you don't want to put yourself in a bad situation. More often than not, that person is proven right by the individual who didn't listen to them. We can think about when we were kids, and our parents told us, be careful, be careful, be careful. I'll tell you one right now. Here's a great memory that just, God brought it to my mind, you'll love this. We had a swing in our backyard, okay? And... I don't even know if my uncle knows this story, I just recognize he's in here. But we had a swing in our backyard, and we would try to get on that thing as high as we could, and it'd be a lot of fun to jump and then land on the ground, and obviously land correctly. Well, I'm the older brother, got a middle brother, and then we have our test subject, my youngest brother. We want to see how much can the human body endure through him. And so we kept telling Cody, my younger brother, like, You know, just keep swinging as high as you can, just keep swinging as high as you can, and he'd swing as high as he could, jump off, and he lands fine. Swing high as he can, jump off, and he lands fine. Then I remember one time I just got this bright idea, and it was very bright. If the goal is to be mean, it was a bright idea. And I told my brother, you should do that Fred Flintstone thing, the yabba-dabba-doo, you know, and just say it as loud as you can and flail your arms around. The flailing of the arms around is where trouble entered, because as he jumped at the highest point that he had swung that day, and he flailed his arms around, now he's no longer in a position where his feet will land first, but he lands right on his chest. And he goes, you know, you got the wind knocked out of you. By the way, he's fine. He's still alive. You know, the end of the story is not he died. He's fine. He's probably even stronger now as a result of this. So he should be thanking me anyway. And he, finally he got his breath, and all of a sudden, what do you think he did? He cried. He was snitching, man. Dad! And guess what? Dad, he's already frustrated, he don't want to deal with this. Comes out, who does he see? Me and Casey. Guess who gets the spanking? Me. And Casey was totally helping. But as a result of that, my dad reminded us, don't jump off the swing. We had done it to where we were safe, right? Everything was good. We got to the very limit where we knew we'd be okay, but... Kept pushing the envelope, kept pushing the envelope, and all of a sudden, you ran into a problem where somebody gets hurt. See, a lot of comparisons here with Solomon. You remember how many wives he had? More than one, more than two. It's like when LeBron James went down to Miami, told him how many championships they're gonna win. Not one, not two, not three. Well, for Solomon, it was not 600, not 601, not 602. He had well over 700 women that he was intimate with. and all different cultures as we can see from these different things. And God told him twice, this is the second time God is reminding us through the writer here what he had already said back in, I think it's chapter nine. But he says, don't affiliate with these things, be careful of these things. And it's not because God's saying it might happen, he's saying because it will happen and look at the result. Verse three, and 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines, or prostitutes, and his wives turned away his heart. We have very clearly what happened. Outward circumstances of temptation. You have a weak man here in Solomon, and you had a strong man in Joseph, and you see the difference. For it came to pass, verse four, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not perfect, it was not right with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Zidonians, and Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites, and Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as David his father. Then did Solomon build a high place for Chemosh and the abomination of Moab in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and Molech, the abomination of the children of Amon. The equivalent here is the most holy site in the entire country now has a wicked prostitute temple for child sacrifice right in front of the main city. How does it get to that? You don't handle temptation well, you disobey God. And that's the focus here, verse eight. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods. And finally, on this point, go to the book of Psalms in chapter 119. Psalms 119 in verse 101. I have refrained my feet from every evil way that I might keep thy word. What's the lesson here? He refrained the evil paths that were before him. He did not go and set the evil paths and then say, I'm going to avoid them. They were already set. Look at verse 110. The wicked have laid a snare for me. And this is where I, you know, Gary made the comment about Christian music today in the way that it's just kind of all fluff and no doctrinal teaching. I think there's a version of Christianity out there today that thinks there's no temptation for them. That thinks, you know, they're just above it all, you know? That's a lie. There is temptation set for you. And there is an attempt to get you to sin. And the most dangerous thing that can happen for a Christian is that they, They ignore temptation and call it the will of God. You're not gonna grow that way. And actually, as a result, it's not that you won't grow, you'll actually become an offense to God and you'll cause others to be led astray. It's the same thing when you have a false gospel message. You have a false gospel message, you yourself might understand the truth, but the person that you're sharing the gospel with, they won't understand it, and they're gonna stay lost. You get confused, they stay lost. So reading that verse 110 again, the wicked have laid a snare for me, yet I erred not from my precepts. You can see the heart of Joseph here. Yes, he had this temptation that was set before him, not of his own doing, it came upon him. And he said, I'm not gonna err from it. He made that decision. Solomon, same thing, but he explored it. He went further into it. He acted on that temptation to where it brought him to the point of sin and led the nation into a terrible condition. As right after Solomon, the nation was split. That's a result of that sin. So now we've talked about the outward circumstances, what about the internal temptation to sin? We'll look in 2 Samuel chapter 11. 2 Samuel chapter 11. And just to take a pause here so you can understand the point of going through this, we can't just put temptation into one basket. We can't just say, oh, you know, it's all outward circumstances, because it's not. There are situations where it is, but the more you understand how the enemy works and how your sinful nature works, the more victory you'll be able to have over that. The more you can pray with intent, intentionality, And it's important that we get to the point where we understand, all right, what I'm going through right now, is this something that is happening to me, or is this something that is arising from me? And we're gonna look at that, something that arise internal. 2 Samuel chapter 11, In verse two, and it came to pass in an evening tide that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself, and the woman was very beautiful to look upon. Now stop for a sec. There would be some who would say Bathsheba's at fault here. But look at verse one. And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. Woo, hang on. What was he supposed to do? Be in battle. That was his first mistake. He wasn't where he should have been. And this is a great thing if you're struggling with sin in your life, especially habitual sin, like addiction. Start asking yourself, am I where I'm supposed to be? Am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing? And if you're an honest person, and sadly many people are not, they've become expert liars to themselves, which is the greatest offense, if you're honest with yourself, you can come to the conclusion, no, I'm not where I should be. No, I'm not setting myself up for success. That's like a person who has a gambling problem who thinks I'm gonna go to the racetrack and witness to people. That might be a good thing to go witness to people, but what do you do, where? Let's try something different. Or people do this a lot, especially with COVID, this has happened. People substitute in-person fellowship for online attendance. Is it an option? Yes. But are you using it to sin when you should be somewhere else? Sadly, church attendance is the first thing to go. I got X, Y, and Z this day, so we go. You have to be careful of those things. But we see here with David, he was not where he was supposed to be, and he saw something, pay attention, he wouldn't have seen if he was doing what he was supposed to do. Is it Bathsheba's fault that she was doing what she was doing? I don't think so. But she became at fault later. And here's why, because David initiated, something internally came up, this desire came up. And look at what it says here. And it came to pass in the evening time, we already read verse two, look at verse three. And David sent. So we have to get the picture in our mind here. He's on that roof, he's seeing what he's seeing. He thinks that's something that I want. So now all these things go into play. He moves his body off of where he is and goes and finds his servants. He, as you can see here in verse three, inquired after the woman. And some would think, maybe his servants even thought, it's just an innocent question, who's that? But you know why it was a sinful thing? Because he had in his heart to have something that was not his. sent and inquired after the woman, and one said, is not this Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent messengers and took her. She came in unto him and he lay with her. They were intimate together, for she was purified for her uncleanness, and she returned unto her house. I don't see any implication here of forceful intimacy. There's no rape that is described here. They're both involved. You know what the tragedy is here? David, with his power and authority, led a woman into sin. And then he goes on trying to cover it up, and we don't have time to go into it, but he brings Uriah back, tries to get him to lay with Bathsheba, his wife, and blame the pregnancy on that. That doesn't work, because Uriah's a good man. He says, my men are dying. I'm not going to enjoy the pleasures of my home while I should be serving my country. What a man. David thinks, well, I'll get him drunk so he'll sleep with his wife. He still remains celibate. So then David sends a note with him that he says not to read. And when it is opened by Uriah's commander, he's sent to the front lines, and he's killed. It all happens because he was not doing what he was supposed to do. You wanna know how marriages get destroyed? How lives get ruined? I read an email yesterday, I want you to pray for this man. I read an email yesterday that's just traumatic. My wife was sitting next to me, we were in the office and I read this long email, it had to be several thousand words worth of a testimony. And just destruction after destruction after destruction. You know how it all started with him? 12 years old. His friends found his dad's pornographic magazines in the back of the truck. He looked at them. He broke into the basement cabinet where his dad had more hardcore pornography, and that started his whole journey. One innocent thing, you would think. He wasn't even involved. It's not that bad. Well, we keep it away from the kids. It's sin. It's a problem. It brings about temptation. This is back when this happened to him. It was in the 70s. His whole life is ruined now as a result of that. I'm not saying it was like a series of unfortunate events that just happened to him. It led to more things. David here, ultimately, the life of this child was going to be required as a part of this sin. And if we're playing games and everything is a joke, and we're not being real with the problems in our lives, we're not going to handle temptation correctly. The real threat is it's going to get passed on to our kids. There are us today who have inherited things from the way we grew up that are not good practices, but they were never addressed as a problem. That internal desire to do something that is not correct, we see that it costs David a lot. Cost him a lot. He's not mentioned positively after that as far as in his biography there. The third subset of this word temptation is the condition of things or a mental state by which we are enticed to sin or to elapse from the faith and holiness. Go to the book of James in the New Testament. read this section here in James chapter 1. I want to read you this commentary note. that I actually came across as studying a long time ago on this same topic, but it's a very good description of temptation about what we just talked about. Do you have the example in your mind with David? Okay, I'm sure you can apply that to yourself. Listen to this commentator as he describes temptation. In our members, there is a slumbering inclination toward desire, which is both sudden and fierce. With irresistible power, desire seizes mastery of the weak flesh. All at once, a secret, smoldering fire is kindled. The flesh burns and is in flames. It makes no difference whether it is a sexual desire, or ambition, or vanity, or desire for revenge, our love for fame and power, or the greed for money. Joy in God is extinguished from us as we seek all out joy in the creature. At this moment, God is quite unreal to us. He loses all reality, and only desire for the creature is real. If you're an honest person today, you can understand how there are times in our lives where we fit that description. It is as if God does not exist. We are so overcome by the temptation to sin. It is as if we are a different person to where after we have sinned, we say, who was that? That is not an educated believer, someone who's walking with the Lord. We have a sinful nature, folks, and it is just that, sinful. It's not an old buddy that used to bully you and they're friends now. It is against all the things that God wants you to do. Continuing on here. Satan does not here fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God. The lust thus aroused envelops the mind and the will of a man in deepest darkness. The powers of clear discrimination and of decision are taken from us. It is here that everything within the individual rises up against the word of God. Therefore, the Bible teaches us in times of temptation in the flesh, there is one command, and I'll pause that, And we'll get back to it in a moment. But James chapter one in verse two through four, it says, my brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience, but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. What's the goal through temptations that arise to cause us to stumble? You run to the Lord, you find strength in Him, and you find yourself in need of nothing. I deal with this many times when you have people that are coming out of an addiction. You get to the point where you set up guardrails, right? You know, when you're going down the highway and you got those bumps on the side of the road that are supposed to warn you if you drift off, that you're coming out of that lane and you're going to have an accident. Well, if somebody's not woken up by those rumble strips there, what's the next thing that they see? The guardrail, which is a lot less welcoming than a rumble strip. You don't want to hit a guardrail going 75, 80 miles an hour. It will stop you from harming other people, but you may come into great harm as a result of that. The idea of going through temptations and trials and difficulty is to make you aware of those warnings and you don't have need for somebody holding you up. Now we're encouraged in the Bible to love, provoke one another to love, to fellowship with one another, but folks, at the end of the day, the people that we surround ourselves with are not permanent. And I think many people build up this group around them of family and friends and they think, this is why I'm strong. I've got this person, I've got that person, I've got this person. I'm strong because I have this church. God forbid something happens and all that goes away. Does your faith die too? Does your faith become null and void because you don't have that person, this person, you don't have the church anymore? The wanting nothing here that is mentioned in James chapter one and verse four is that we want nothing but Jesus and you've already got him. Look in verses 14 through 15, same chapter, James 1. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Notice here, the reason why temptation has strength is because we have wicked desires within us. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Now people will say, see, that means if you've got lust and you've got sin, then you're gonna die in hell. Is that what this death is referring to? No, it's talking about the guarantee that if you live in sin, physical death is imminent. It's a guarantee. We have seen story after story of people who abuse their bodies with all types of substances and die an early death. Maybe even get on the road while under the influence and end up taking the life of another. Sin brings bondage and that leads to death. So we shouldn't play with it. We shouldn't have a secret sin cabinet where, oh, look at all my victories, but it's still there. Get it out, get away from it. As the scripture says, flee from these things. And we'll get to that in a moment here. But then there's another kind of temptation that we're gonna read about right in this passage here. Adversity, affliction, trouble sent by God and serving to test or prove one's character, faith, and holiness. Wait a second, so God tempts us to do evil things? He puts sin in front of us to do evil things? No, that's not what that means. Let's go to the scripture. Look in verse 13 of James 1. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man. So we know from the context here, the clarification, the definition, the category of temptation here is God does not tempt you with evil things, but he does try your faith. He does that through the natural persecution in the world. Take your Bibles and go to the book of John in chapter 15. Gospel of John, chapter 15. And look at verse 18. Jesus has just gotten done telling these disciples, I command you that you love one another. This is how the world is going to know that you are my disciples, that you love one another. Verse 18, he says, if the world hates you, you know it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own. But because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord, if they have persecuted me. And did they persecute him? Yes, this is right before he goes to the cross. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. Now God, in his infinite wisdom and almighty sovereignty, uses this persecution that comes from the world to sharpen you and me. That's why when persecution comes, we should embrace it as an opportunity to grow. And I'm not talking about the humble brag where you look for it and then you can't wait to talk about how much you're suffering. That's not the point of this. The point of this is to find commonality, to find common ground with Jesus as we suffer and become stronger. As James said, you'll be perfect. Having need of nothing doesn't mean you'll be sinless, but you will sin less. You will be stronger. You'll be able to identify these things without having to go through mistake after mistake after mistake. Verse 21, but all these things they will do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. God uses the world and the way of the world to sharpen his children. We should count it a wonderful thing when we go through persecution. And yes, it's a deep moment, it's a sad moment, we lose family, we lose friends, but we have everything in Jesus Christ. We'll never lose him. There's never a time where he'll say, you failed, you're no longer welcome in. Isn't that a wonderful guarantee and promise? It's the only way that we can serve with the right mind and attitude. See, if you're trying to earn your salvation, if you think you have to do enough to be saved, there's no love in that. There's a God that's putting the standard of perfection on you and you can't meet it. You're constantly deceiving yourself that you're doing enough, but you know you're not. I've heard many Calvinist testimonies of people that came out of Calvinism, and they would lay in bed at night, looking at that ceiling, say, I know that I do not meet the requirements, and they question their salvation. Because Calvinism doesn't teach two natures. Calvinism says when you get saved, that everything is gone, and you've got one new nature. And that new nature is holy, and it doesn't sin. Therefore, if you are not holy, and therefore if you sin, then you weren't really saved. What a horrible, miserable existence. An existence that is solely based on performance, and Jesus is put on the shelf. Folks, I stand in front of you today knowing that I'm a sinner, but I'm saved fully and to the uttermost by the blood of Jesus Christ, by the grace that God has bestowed upon me, and is available to every person that simply believes. That is life. That is freedom. And the world mocks that because they say, I want that, but they can't get it. How many people that have all the wealth and all the fame and all the things that you and I would say, just give me a little bit of that, right? Elon, come on down, just drop a million or two right here in our door. You won't even know that it's gone. These people struggle with depression. They struggle with sexual bondages. They end up taking their lives. How? They have everything. Those things don't bring you joy and peace and happiness. You need Jesus Christ. You need forgiveness of the wicked sinner that you are. And folks, you can have that today. And I got to wait until I give the gospel right where you are. If you understand that what Jesus Christ did on the cross was sufficient to pay for your sins, you believe on him. God gives you the free gift of everlasting life right now. You don't have to wait until you're good enough. You'll never be good enough. That's why Jesus died. He did what we could never do. Look at 1 Peter 1. Poor Robert, I realize I didn't put these notes in there for you. Sorry, it's these few here. 1st Peter chapter 1. I just did a video on this. Someone sent me a video of MacArthur trying to explain this is how you know that you're saved, but no, this is how you know that you're growing. He says here in 1 Peter 1, verse 7, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perishes. Why is the testing of our faith more precious than the most precious currency on the earth today? Because God will reward you, believer, as you suffer here. I remember in college thinking it was a weird thing to serve God because He'll reward us, but I have changed my mind completely on that. Because I've seen from the scripture, it's what He wants to do, and why would I be against something that God wants? What's the position there? Am I really going to look at God and say, oh, no, no, no. Appreciate it. But that's okay, come on. That's humility, that's pride disguised as humility, and there's no place for it in heaven, folks. How about we let God say what he's gonna do, and we say amen? That sounds good to me. Look at the advice he gave to Solomon. Careful, what'd Solomon do? I'm gonna go. And what happened? You saw what happened? Destruction of the kingdom, division, his children just unwise. Look what it says, at the trial of your faith, verse seven, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto the praise and honor and glory at the appearing of who? Jesus Christ, this is who we run to. So now I'll answer the question, how do we handle temptation? Well, you gotta define what are we talking about? So we've defined it, so I'm gonna give you very quickly these points for how we handle temptation. The first thing is, may I be very clear when I say this, run! Flee! Get out! Don't mess around and think you're strong enough. You're not. I gave this illustration when I think I was talking to either James or Warren or somebody. It's like you're going to the mall. And the mall is under hostile takeover. But there's that one place that you really like, the socks that they sell. And it's in the middle of the mall but You're only going for the socks. There's danger everywhere, but you just, you're gonna get in, you're gonna get out. That's how people treat temptation. Yeah, I know it's bad, but I just gotta get this one thing. It's like a house that's on fire and you wanna go grab that one thing in the room where it's on fire. I'll be in and out real quick. As soon as you step in the room, the floor is compromised, you fall through and you're in a perilous situation. Run from it. Don't embrace it. Don't think that you're gonna beat Satan at his own game. Do you know what the devil's batting average is? You're not even gonna understand what this is when I say it. It's a 1.000. When someone has a 1.000 batting average, that means every pitch that's coming, they're hitting it for a base hit. You're gonna go up against that. You're gonna say, yeah, oh, he hasn't seen my curve ball. Think sick nasty. No, he's gonna, he knows you. He can't even read your mind, and He knows us as humans, and He hates you. Well, hate's a strong word, brother, we shouldn't say it. Yeah, it's a strong word, because it accurately describes how the devil looks at you and me. Hate. Viciousness. You look at the Antichrist and his power, and how many people are gonna die as a result of that? He hates you. So you flee, you run from it. Look with me in 1 Corinthians 10. 1 Corinthians 10. Verses 13 and 14. Many people know 13, but 14 is where we get the instruction. Verses 1 through 13 tell us all about how Israel failed while they were in the wilderness. They failed instruction, and so we're supposed to see these as an example. Verse 13, 1 Corinthians 10 says, there hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But what? God. Who's faithful, folks? You or God? God is faithful. Who will not suffer you. He will not allow you to be tempted above that you're able. But will, with the temptation, also make a way to what? Endure? Stick around and suffer through it? No, it says a way of escape. that ye may be able to what? Bear it. Now, hang on a sec. What's the way of escape? Well, it's twofold, in my opinion. This is Jesseology. The first one is right in the middle of the verse. We escape because we know God is faithful. You got a problem, you say, Dad, I need help. He's gonna be there. He's like, I'm on the phone with the power company. I'll be there in a minute. That's not gonna be a response from God. He's there. But the second thing is for you to move your feet and get away. Look what it says in 14. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry. Don't even have it. Don't even say, well, it's a family thing. Well, it's just something that we do. No. Get away from it. I have a friend, I don't wanna say too much about this, but I've had friends with situations where there'll be family get-togethers for years and years and years. Then children are born into a godly home. Parents get saved, they want to honor God, and now these family trips that they go on, where there's all this alcohol and gambling and stuff, whatever it may be, now it becomes, my kids see this. They don't see it at home, but we're gonna go with cousin so-and-so, aunt so-and-so, uncle so-and-so, and they're drinking, and they're cussing, and they're gambling. You want your kids to see that? and they have to make decisions. Many people are facing that. When you get counsel like that, when you're put in a situation, you know what God has already said, run from it, flee from it. You don't have to be judgy, you don't have to persecute them, but you say, from my house, we're not gonna do that. And if they have a problem with that, then they have a problem with that. The way you say things is very important, but don't compromise on your values to help someone else live in sin. Hello. This is important to understand. Look in Colossians 3. Colossians 3. Verses 5-9. Still talking about fleeing here? Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. You covet after something that's not yours, it's idolatry, and we've already been told by God in 1 Corinthians 10, 14, flee from that. You know how you will have victory over coveting things? You realize you got everything in Jesus. What other need do you have? For which things sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience, in which ye have also walked some time when you lived in them, but now ye also put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his deeds. This is to say the old, look up here for a moment, this is to say the old man is still with us, but you need to take him out. And how do we do that? By the choices that we make. The Bible teaches very clearly that the believer has two natures. You need to avoid one and walk in the other, and that's all with your decisions, and that all starts up here. This is why the more Bible you memorize, the more things you're willing to apply in your life, the easier it's gonna be to spot these temptations, whether it's outward circumstances or inward issues, and you'll be able to say, the Bible says, God says, and then you have a choice to do it. You're priming yourself for success. But people don't do this, because this takes discipline. This is more than who's going to win the game in a couple of hours. This is more than what's my portfolio doing. All that stuff is going to go, guys. It's going to go. None of that matters. Can I get real with you for a second? None of that matters. We are people that are living with eternal life. We are people that are living with something that when this world is gone, we will remain. This is so, this is a trap. It's a trap. I'm not saying it's not real, it's very real. But wake up, you only have this life. And I'm sidetracked by dwelling on that thought. Everything that is before me, at one point or another, it'll all be gone. The only thing that lasts is Jesus Christ, and I have possession of him. So then now, all the things that I look forward to, how can I bring praise, honor, and glory to him through those things? You wanna know what happened this week? It was like Bob was playing games with me. Every time he called me, it was another AC unit down in the back. And then I get a call from Erica, who's doing a lot of work, and Marjorie's here, by the way, today. Marjorie, good to see you. Hopefully you get that range of motion back in your shoulder. But then Erica comes up to me and she's like, There's no toilets flushing in the back. And I'm going, well, la-ti-da. I'm expecting to drive up back here and see that the entire back building is under the ground. And there's a little tombstone that says, here lies this building, LOL. So then you know you're trying to flush toilets. They're not flushing. And you notice they're all not flushing. So then you go to the pump, and the pump is this high with water. And you're like, not sticking my hand in there. But that's not working. You call the plumber. They come out, more bad news. And if you're not careful, and I speak for myself here, you're not careful, that gets to you. You start getting frustrated, you start thinking, is this worth it? You know what helps me address those thoughts and say yes? Because that building tonight, whether it's gonna have bathrooms or not, we still got bathrooms here, praise God, Whether it has bathrooms or not, there may be kids who come and hear the gospel. Worth it! Worth it all! Because Jesus, not because I have McNatt's plumbing or Alliance air conditioning. That's not going to solve all of our problems. You know what solves the problem? I have eternal life. This is worth it. So yeah, I get on my hands and knees down there and I start looking around. I did not put my hand in that. I promise you that. But I sat there, crisscross applesauce, trying to see if after we jerry-rigged the pump to work, okay, it's going down slowly, get a couple flushes in, all that becomes worth it. We're digging out here. I'm not a sprinkler guy. I love James and Ernie that we're out there, they aren't either. But we're digging. Gary is, let's help him. Oh, I'm above that, I'm the pastor. And? You know what kind of message that sends to people? I'm above you. All that you solve, all that mindset thing, the problems still are there, but all of it becomes much easier when you are focused on things above. I know one day, I was joking with Gary, I said, can you imagine if you get to heaven and the Lord's like, Gary, I got a sprinkler system I need you to look at. You know what he said? And this is to brag on Gary a little bit. You know what he said? I do it with all joy. You wanna know why? Because he's in heaven. And he knows every cut he makes up there's gonna be perfect, right? But the perspective is, we're going somewhere better. It's not just here. And we get to pass that on to our children if we're wise. You get to share that joy with your kids. Dave was talking about just the other day, leading his, was it your mom, Dave? He said if he would have died right in there in that moment after she trusted Christ, everything else would have been fine. That's somebody who's not just satisfied with this here, but on things that are beyond this world. The second thing that we can do to handle temptation is we can pray. Look in James 1.6. James 1.6. Starting verse five there. What a promise that is. You need just ask. That's it. But let him ask in faith. Nothing wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man, the one who asks and does not believe that God can provide, for let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. You won't get anything if you ask without believing that God is able. I'll let you sit on that. And the last thing we need to do, my instruction here to you, is to walk uprightly. Go back to Colossians chapter three, look at verses 10 through 17. We'll just read them, I won't have any commentary here. Page 1264. By the way, the rest of that note that I didn't read says, therefore the Bible teaches us in times of temptation in the flesh there is one command, flee. Flee fornication, flee idolatry, flee youthful lusts, flee the lusts of the world. There is no resistance to Satan in lust other than flight. Every struggle against lust is one's own strength. Excuse me, every struggle against lust in one's own strength is doomed to failure. And we're not just running around like a chicken with our head cut off. We're running to the Lord. We run to Him. That's what Hebrews tells us. We have a high priest that knows what we're going through. And we can find help in that time of need. Colossians 3.10, and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Amen? It's all Jesus. Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, boughs of mercy, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another. If any men have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond, the glue of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to do which also ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another, in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts. to the lord and whatsoever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the lord jesus giving thanks to god and the father by him that's your roadmap close your bibles but you can't do that if you're not saved everything that was just described there our power are powered by our new nature Now, for a long time, I'm gonna share with you how you can know for sure that you have eternal life. For a long time, I used this wallet, right? You see it in front of me? Okay, I say let this hand represent you and me, my wallet represents sin. Well, Gil, right over here, is a very crafty guy, and he built, this is literally homemade sin. You see this? This is literally homemade sin. Smells sinful. I wanted to practice that I did not say, this is literally homemade nice, because that'd be bad. It's not nice, it's a bad thing. All jokes aside, this is going to represent our sin, okay? And I put this on top of my hand because the Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. God, He loves us very much. He demonstrated that by offering Jesus Christ on the cross to pay for this. But this sin, it separates us from Him. In order to get to heaven, you have to be perfect, just like God, without any sin, but we all fall short. Everything that I just described to you in Colossians 3, verses 10 through 17, the person who's not saved cannot do those things and please God. He only has sin. And you say, well, I know good people. Well, they're good people according to man's standard, but in the eyes of God, they're wicked. One lie is deserving of death. The world will say, well, we can pay this off by good deeds, by money, by obeying, by turning from sin, whatever it may be, but those things don't pay for sin. Somebody has to die. Jesus Christ, I'll let this hand represent Jesus, He, fully God and fully man, He went to the cross and He took that sin and paid the full price of it for us. We should have been there. And even if we were there, we still, would be condemned. So what's special about Jesus then? He doesn't have any of this. See, He wasn't born with this and then He got mastery over it and never did it again. He was born sinless, without any sin. He is God. And He died on that cross, paid for our sins. He was buried and He rose again three days later. And in John 3.16 we say, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. You can know you're going to heaven, you can now obey God once you put your trust in Jesus Christ that he paid for this. The moment that you do, this is removed as far as the east is from the west, the penalty of it is paid and you have the free gift of everlasting life. There is no victory over sin without the death of Jesus Christ. And if you're here today and you think I'm strong enough, I'm gonna get to heaven on my own merit, Ephesians 2.9 says, not of works lest any man should boast. You cannot do it on your own. So I encourage you to change your mind and put your trust in Jesus Christ. We're going to have communion now. This is a very special thing that we do once a month. The reason why we do it once a month is so that we don't bring it into any kind of ritual or habit. But I want you to take your Bibles and go to 1 Corinthians in chapter 11. We're going to take some time here and we're going to talk to the Lord. This is only for people who have put their trust in Jesus Christ. So if you're here today and you've maybe heard the gospel and you say, well, I'm not sure about that. I think I still have to be good. This next thing we're going to do here is not for you. This is for people who have put their trust in Jesus Christ. There are three elements to communion here. The first part is confessional. And it's not like the Catholic Church teaches confession, but what we're going to do is take a moment to talk to God. And any sin that we have brings a problem into the fellowship. So you confess it to Him. Not because you need it to be paid. It's already paid. But the power of it is stopping you from full service to the Lord. So you talk to the Lord. And you talk to him honestly. Don't worry about the person next to you. Don't worry about what's going on in here. You get right with God. You have a vengeful heart, confess it to the Lord. You know what the word confess means? You come to an agreement that what God says is sin, you agree with. And you've been calling that sin service. You come to an agreement with God, and he's faithful and just to forgive you, to cleanse you from that unrighteousness that comes with that sin. After you've confessed to the Lord, the second part of communion is to thank him. For what? For being God? You thank him for the death of his son. It's the only reason why we can stand here today and have any hope for anything. And the third part is we remember the great price that it costs our Savior. So I'm going to ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes, please. Nobody looking around. If you put your trust in Jesus Christ today for the first time, would you simply raise your hand and let me know? I'd like to pray for you. Is there anyone at all today that trusted Christ for the first time? I'd like to pray for you. Heads are bowed and eyes are still closed. We dim the lights so that you can have some time to talk with the Lord. I'll give you two minutes to discuss with him. Dana will softly play some reflective music and then we'll partake in communion. so so So, you Go ahead and turn the lights back on. So now in our last part, we're going to partake of these elements. There is no special power in these elements. They are merely examples of the body of Jesus that was offered for us, and that's what the bread represents. And then for his blood that was shed. What this is supposed to do is remind you the price that Jesus paid. And when we walk out of here today, we're supposed to stay fresh and sensitive to this truth. to draw closer to him, to be more aware of the sin in our lives and the temptation that comes as a part of it. This is not merely something we're doing because it's the first Sunday of the month. This is vital to your Christian success. It keeps you fresh. We're gonna look in verse 24. First Corinthians chapter 11 in verse 24. We'll start by having prayer for the body of Jesus Christ, then we'll read these two verses, and then we'll partake. Would you join me in prayer, please? Father, I think about the body of Jesus and the great pain that was inflicted upon him. Lord, not only that, but for the reason in which he suffered in such a way. It was for our sin, but not for those only who have believed, but also for the sins of the whole world, those who have yet to believe or maybe never will believe. And we see, Lord, your great love is demonstrated there, but it was a high cost. I pray that we, as the body of believers today, would not take that for granted, and we thank you for that suffering. In Jesus' name we pray these things, amen. For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he break it and said, take, eat. This is my body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me. We'll open the second portion of the communion cup here. Make sure you open that away from you. Just to be careful and courteous of those around you. This cup here represents the blood of Jesus Christ. This is very important. We spent a long time last week on the Day of Atonement recognizing the importance of blood. We do not believe that this becomes the blood of Jesus Christ. There's nothing special about this right here, but what it represents is what bought us. He was the Lamb of God that took away the sins of the world. When we sin, when we willfully say no to God, and yes to our desires, we take this for granted. This is a reminder. And if this convicts you, then that's the work of God convicting you. But at the end of that conviction, it should lead to thankfulness. Regardless of this sin that we have committed, number one, we can be restored, and that sin is paid, amen? Let's go to the Lord and thank him for Jesus and his blood. Father, now we turn our attentions to the shed blood of your son, Jesus Christ. Great drops of blood, the crown of thorns, the scourging, the mocking, the ridicule that Jesus endured. for all the world, and we know that you have accepted that sacrifice. And so we praise you for that shed blood and what it means. We pray for those, Lord, as we are believers here today, we pray for those who are in our circle of influence who have yet to believe. We pray, Lord, that we'd be sensitive to our sin, realize it puts you on the cross. Help us, Lord, and come back quickly. In Jesus' name we pray these things, amen. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood, this do ye as oft as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till he come. It has been done as the Lord has commanded. What a great day.