All right, well, let's go ahead and let's pray, and then we'll spend some time in the book of Proverbs this morning. So let's go ahead and let's pray. Dear gracious heavenly Father, we thank you so very much for your son, Jesus Christ, who's come and died on the cross for our sins. We thank you so very much that you have sent him and that it is because of your spirit and because of your work and because of his work that we can become more and more like you, more and more like your son. And so we just ask that as we look at this text this morning that our minds would be focused on the things that are found here and that we would avoid these temptations that we so easily slide into and help us to be on guard, help us to walk by the power of the spirit and by the things that are found in your words so that we may lead a life that's pleasing and worthy of the calling with which you call this. We thank you in your son's name, amen. Have you ever thought why traps work? You know, traps, any type of trap, whether it's for an animal or in a game or anything, normally traps work because they take advantage of someone's nature, of a weakness, They normally allure what's already desired, right? That's why a trap works. So you set a trap and the thing wants the thing that's the bait for the trap. It also works because it's not necessarily seen, right? If you knew that somebody was trying to hurt you and that if you just took something and you would get hurt, you would go, well, I'm not gonna take that thing. I don't wanna get hurt. So a trap has to be disguised. It has to give a sense of security, right? It has to give a sense of you can get this thing that's offered without any consequence. It has to. As believers, it's really unfortunate that many believers are on guard against imaginary traps, traps that aren't really traps, things that aren't really things that we should be aware or that we should be concerned about, and we leave ourselves open to actual traps, actual temptations. And we as believers have many things, many things that wants us to fail. So for example, we want ourselves to fail. We have the flesh and the flesh, don't underestimate it. It's evil. It's tricksy. You want to lie to yourself. You want to entrap yourself. That's what the flesh does. That's what it wants. So you gotta be careful of yourself. You can't trust yourself. There's also the world around us, right, the world around us. All that stuff that goes against God's word and God's character, that's all swirling around and that doesn't want you, that wants to entrap you, that wants to keep you out of following God's will. And then we have Satan and his minions who, everything they do and everything that is, everything that's done is to take away glory from God. And so this morning, we're going to look at a couple traps. We're going to look at traps that we easily fall into and traps that we don't necessarily guard against because we think they're either one, juvenile problems, right? Problems that high schoolers deal with and we don't have to deal with these things. That's unfortunate. or we feel like there's bigger problems and we don't realize that these traps cause huge damage, huge damage not only to us, our reputation, but do huge damage to the name of Christ and really take us away from honoring and glorifying Jesus Christ, takes us away from seeing the gospel as the solution and talking to people about the gospel. These are serious traps that we have to be aware of. And so there's gonna be three this morning in Proverbs chapter 26. We're gonna look at verses 13 through 28. I know that's a larger section than what we're used to, but a lot of this is already, we've already talked about some of these things already. In fact, some of these statements are almost exact quotes from what we've seen earlier. But there's three. So in verses 13 through 16, We need to be on guard against lazy bones, the sluggard, being sluggard, being slothful, being lazy. That's something we need to be on guard against. The second thing in verses 17 through 22 is against being a busybody, spreading gossip, trying to figure out what's going on in other people's lives, getting involved in other people's fights that you have no business getting involved in, going around whispering, right? Busybody. The third, in verses 23 through 28, is being a two-faced person, being a hypocrite. So let's first look at Lazy Bones. Proverbs 26, notice in verse 13 what it says. It says, the sluggard says there's a lion in the road, and there's a lion in the streets. Now, we've already seen this. And we've already, it's almost word for word exactly what we've seen earlier. Remember when we talked about this a couple months ago. The sluggard isn't somebody who takes the initiative to go around looking for dangers. This is most likely an excuse. Because he doesn't want to go to work. And so what does he do? He creates an imaginary problem and then says that this imaginary problem has serious consequences. And if you make me go out and work, how dare you? Don't you know that there could be a lion outside? How dare you ask me to go out and do the garden? There might be a cougar out there. There might be a bear. There might be poison in the air. You're evil for asking me to work. How dare you? You're putting me in a life-death situation. That's what a slugger does, right? This imaginary excuse that's not real. What is interesting, by the way, if you just think about lions, lions are dangerous. I think we all could agree. If you meet a lion, you should be afraid. But the likelihood that a lion in the middle of the day will be walking around outside is very slim. especially the lion that he says in the second part of the verse. So the first part of the verse, the lion is a lioness who's out in the hunt and just in the middle of the road, unlikely. And then when it says that there's a lion in the street, this could be for a lion cub. So the guy's like, even a lion cub could get me. It's crazy, it's insane. This is the fantasy life of a slugger because he doesn't wanna go out and work. Now remember, as we've talked about sluggards, a sluggard is not just somebody who lacks initiative or is just simply just procrastinating about anything. A sluggard is one who doesn't want to do the right thing and is willing to do something else. I've met plenty of sluggards in my life. They had a lot of initiative, just the wrong thing. And when it came time for them to do the things that they were supposed to, Then they jog their feet and I don't want to do this. That's what a slugger does. So it's not that they lack initiative or imagination or a work ethic. It's that they don't want to do the right thing at the right time. And that's the problem. That's the problem. So thinking about the book of Proverbs, this is not just some sort of like let's work hard because Solomon says so. We have to remember that the undertow of every single proverb is the fear of the Lord, and that fools hate wisdom. And as believers, we've already talked, as a believer, we should not be against work. Work is not the enemy. As a believer, we are to work hard. As a believer, God provides for us through jobs. As a believer, we should work hard on our spiritual life. Really, we could look at this and say that there are people who are spiritually lazy and who make up excuses which are just as ridiculous. I've heard plenty of them. I remember one time I was talking to a family and they said that they weren't coming to church because they didn't want to reward their kids with church. Yeah, right, gotcha. That makes a lot of sense. There's a lion in the street, too. Be careful. There's also little things flying around your head. It's crazy. That's insane. You just look at that and go, that's just an excuse, because you don't want to go, but you want to make it sound legitimate, because if you really say the real reason, we all know who you are. Be careful. You, too, can become a sluggard when it comes to anything. This is something that is easy for us. It's easy for us to become even a sluggard in our spiritual life, right? Making up really good excuses, fantastical excuses. We need to be careful. This is something that we can easily slide into. Now, notice the next one. I love this one here. I think Solomon is poking a little fun at a sluggard. And what's a sluggard gonna do, get out of bed and fight him? I don't think so. Notice what he says, verse 14. As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed. So just think of this image, right? As you think about a door, what does a door do? It only does this, back and forth, back and forth. So what does a sluggard do when he's on his bed? back and forth, meaning he's in his bed and he's just trying to find a more comfortable position, right? He doesn't like this side, so he's gonna swing to the other side. I don't like this one, so he's gonna swing to this other. So he's more concerned about comfort here, right? He wants to find the most comfortable position to take a nap because it takes a lot of work to imagine an imaginary lion out in the middle of the street. That takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of sleep to make him tired. Once again, The sluggard's supposed to be out doing work. Sleep is not bad. Sleep is good. Rest is good. But when you're sleeping when you're supposed to be working, that's bad. When you're resting and not doing what you're supposed to be doing, that's bad. God doesn't want that. Spiritually, we can do this. Spiritually, we can rest on our laurels and go. Maybe not today. Maybe I'll do something a little bit more fun. I don't have to spend a little bit more time with the Lord today. I'll do something that's a little bit more relaxing. And be careful. Don't use work as an excuse to be spiritually lazy. I've met plenty of people that were spiritually lazy using work as the excuse. That's bad. That's sinful. Shouldn't do that, not as a believer. We're supposed to do the right thing at the right time, with the right attitude, with the right motivations, right? That's Christlikeness, right? To be like Christ, right? But be careful, it's really easy to become lazy, really easy to become a lazy bones. Then notice verse 15. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish It wears him out to bring it back to his mouth. Just think of this. This is funny. Once again, it's kind of humorous that here's this guy eating something, I don't know, and he puts his hand in the bowl and goes, oh, that's too much work to go like this. Oh, it's so mentally exhausting to bring food to my mouth. Once again, this is a crazy excuse. It demonstrates, once again, that the sluggard is so lazy that he's not even willing to provide for himself. He's not. He doesn't want to provide for himself. He wants somebody to provide for him. He's privileged. A lazy person gets this idea of privilege. Then notice the next one. This is where the real danger is, by the way. The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who answer sensibly. So here's another little thing that we learn about a sluggard from the book of Proverbs. They are narcissistic. They think they're smarter. They think that they're the most efficient workers. And it's true. Have you ever met a sluggard? They are. They are arrogant people. Even if there's seven people, why Solomon chooses seven, some people say, well, this is the number of completion. I don't know, maybe it has something to do with what goes on later on, verse 25, we're talking about seven abominations. To me, he could have picked any number. It could have been three, it could have been seven, it could have been, it's just this, it's this idea of there is so many people that are saying the same thing, and in light of this large group that's saying the same thing, he goes, nope, I know the answer, I'm smarter. So you may say, well, how's this, how's anybody gonna fall for a temptation of, Being lazy, well be careful because once you go down the path of laziness, what is to suggest that all of a sudden you're going to become proactive, right? Doesn't laziness beget laziness? And then when you then add in this last part where arrogance comes in, so here's an arrogant person who's slothful, we're just to assume that you're just going to kick yourself out of that. Friends, the only way that we can fight any type of sin is by walking by the power of the Spirit, right? Walk by the power of the Spirit, walk by the Spirit, and you will not indulge the desires of the flesh. Laziness is part of the flesh. And so the answer has to be that God has to be the one that motivates our hearts, right? That has to be the answer. The answer has to be going back to God's word, and it has to be asking God for help. But be careful, because once you go down, laziness, man, that is a sticky trap. That's something that's really difficult to get out of. And if you're already there, that's a tough battle. That's a tough battle. It's an everyday battle, every moment by moment battle. There's another trap, though. Notice the next one in verse 17 through 22 about being a busybody. Because we don't do this, right? We're not busy buddies. We don't meddle in other people's business, right? Of course we do. Man, I love gossip. Don't you? We do. We love to gossip. We love to hear it. We love to do it. But we like to act like we don't. We like to act like we don't like drama in our lives, but we do. And you wanna know how I know that? Because that's exactly what Solomon says. We love this stuff. This is something that we really want. So here's the trap. It's something that we want, and we go, yeah, I could do that. Everybody else is doing it. So easy to gossip, so easy to slander, so easy to be a whisperer. But this is dangerous stuff. Man, this is some gnarly stuff. Notice verse 17. Whoever meddles, this word for meddles is kind of an interesting word, it's not really that's probably the right way to say it in the English. It's not necessarily what the Hebrew says. So the Hebrew says whoever becomes infuriated or whoever is angered by. And so it's the idea that here's somebody who sees a fight and is angered by the fight and the fight's not their fight. So they become passionately invested, emotionally invested in a fight that's going on that has nothing to do with them. So this is talking about a contentious person. It's not just somebody who just goes around going, hey, what's the juicy gossip? It's somebody who hears a fight and goes, I'll fight with you. You have no business in this fight, doesn't matter. I like a good fight, right? So notice, so this person becomes enangered and he becomes angry in a quarrel, in a fight, in a legal fight, in something that's not his, right? That doesn't belong to him. And so what's this person like? It's like one who takes a passing dog by the ears. Well, that sounds like fun, doesn't it? All of you who own dogs, you already know the answer. What happens if you go grab a dog by the ears? Does it like it? No. Is it going to bite you? Of course. Yeah. Now imagine going to the zoo and going to a jackal or a coyote or a wolf or one of those other bigger dogs. Then go grab them by the ears. See what happens then. Do you think they're going to be like, oh, that's great. I'm going to roll over and let you start biting me in the stomach. No. The idea is you do this and it's dangerous. You're going to get bit. You're going to get bit. This isn't your fight. Don't get involved. Don't become emotionally impassioned with this, because you're going to get bit. This is wisdom. This is the fear of the Lord. What business do I have in the fight of my neighbor? None. But man, don't you love to be in those fights? Don't you love to be important in those fights? We do. We do. This is not wise. It's not a wise thing to do. I couldn't see the Lord Jesus Christ getting involved in these fights. I mean, think about this. Remember when the disciples said, whose sin caused this thing? Or whose sin caused that thing? Would have been easy for Jesus just to jump right in, become impassionate about, well, it's this person's sin or that person's sin. What did he say? Neither, and you shouldn't care about it. It's all about God's glory, right? Remember the one about the tower falling down or Herod killing those? What did he say? Neither of their sins. And you shouldn't be involved in that. You have enough to be concerned about in your own life. Now notice what else happens with this person who's contentious, who's a busybody. Notice what it says. It says, like a madman, We understand this, this is simple, it means crazy, like a crazy person. Like a crazy person who throws firebrands and arrows and death. It is likely that it's deadly firebrands and arrows. Doesn't really matter. It kind of all makes the same sense, right? Throwing stuff at people is never good. In fact, that's, I feel like most of the things I say to my children, stop throwing that at your brother and sister. Or Sophia, stop beating up your brothers. It's embarrassing that you can beat them up. But think about this, okay, so here's a crazy person, and this crazy person has a firebrand, which is a piece of wood that's on fire that's meant to burn down someone's house. So he's walking around throwing fire and shooting arrows. Now, when you go up to a crazy person, can you talk to a crazy person and kind of give them logical reasons and sane reasons why you shouldn't go around with sticks of fire burning other people's houses down and shooting them with arrows? No. The sense is, the idea is, is that They're doing what they're doing and there's no logic to it. That they're completely, totally given to this. They're not thinking of the consequences. And so then notice, notice the next verse. Is the man who deceives his neighbor. So in the Hebrew, the idea here is that he's intentionally trying to hurt his neighbor. So this is somebody who's meddling, this is somebody who's contentious, and they're contentious in a particular fight because, now we know why, they might get something out of this. So they're not just joining a fight because they like a good fight, though they might like a good fight. They're joining the fight because they might get something out of the fight, and they also enjoyed a fight. And so here they're intentionally deceiving. They're going around saying stuff that's not true. But then this, notice, and says, it's just a joke. It's just a joke. I was kidding. I intentionally deceived you as a joke. Funny. We all laugh together. Big joke. Why he says I'm just joking, there's huge debate. To me, I think it's obvious. I think he's doing what he's doing and trying to minimize what he's doing by saying it's a joke, when he's really trying to really hurt them, because he's a crazy person, right? This is what happens when you get involved in fights that are not your own, when you become impassioned and enraged. I was thinking this past week of Philippians, right, where it says, whatever's true, whatever's honorable, whatever's of good repute, think of these things. Right? And what? The peace that's given to us by God will guard our hearts. The idea is that I shouldn't be thinking about these fights that I'm not a part of. I need to be thinking about things that are true and godly and that which is for edification, for the edification of my brothers and sisters around me. And how can I evangelize people? It's possible for me to be a crazy person, be involved in a fight that doesn't involve me, going around hurting people that I'm not intending, and then when I go and say, well, now you need to believe the gospel, they go, why? So that I can go around and do the same thing that everybody else does? Why would you join a crazy person in a crusade? Some people say that verse 19 is against practical jokes. Maybe, maybe there's some practical jokes that are really mean and cruel-spirited. I don't think this is necessarily against somebody who pulls a harmless joke that everybody laughs at at the end. I don't think that's what he's, I think this is an intentional trying to hurt, because that's the idea of carrying around firebrands and arrows, right? The point is to hurt, the point is to cause problems. Now there's more, right? Notice what else a contentious person does. Love this image, verse 20. For lack of wood, the fire goes out. Yep, true. Does anybody disagree? Can you have fire without wood? Great, we all agree. And then notice what he says. And where there is no whisperer, quarrels cease. Go figure. If you don't have wood on the fire, there's no fire. And if you don't go around gossiping, slandering, psh, psh, psh, psh, psh, psh, psh, guess what? Fights stop. Amazing. It's amazing, right? When we care for one another by the power of the Spirit and we act like Christ and wanna edify one another, guess what? I'm not interested in fighting you. I want you to be like Christ. But if I go around psh, psh, psh, psh, and then you go around, guess what? That starts fires, right? We understand it. Now notice Solomon then says the opposite. It's kind of interesting. He says, as charcoals to heat are to hot embers and to fire to wood, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife. Yeah, so if there's already a fight and there's somebody who really wants to fight, really wants to be contentious, They're like gasoline to a fire, right? That's probably what we would say, that's how we would put it in the natural world, or in our modern world. It's like adding gasoline to a fire. It's like a powder keg, right? You're familiar with that phrase, a powder keg. So is this person. He's coming to fight. Believers don't do this, right? We don't have fights inside of churches, right? We don't. This has never happened in the history of the church, has it? You understand my point, right? Of course this happens. This happens all the time. This happens all the time all around the world. It's probably happening right now in some church. There is something happening right now that's causing division amongst brothers and sisters And it's really none of their business. But guess what? They want a good fight. They want to cause division. They want to be pugnacious. Remember when we went through Galatians and it talked about the deeds of the flesh? And it talked about the deeds of the flesh being those who like divisions, those who like controversies? That's this person. Now, I think we all would if we were to take a poll saying, do you like to go around and gossip? I think we would all go. No, I'm above that. God in his wisdom and Solomon would say something different. Notice the next verse. And this is where it becomes dangerous. Verse 22, the words of a whisperer are like delicious morsels. Words of a whisperer are delicious morsels. Yeah, we love that stuff. That stuff tastes good, right? This is like fried chicken and waffles. If you never had it, I don't know what you're doing with your life. That stuff is delicious, right? This is like your favorite food. Imagine your favorite food. That's what it is. And so Solomon says, look, you love this. This is something you want. This is the bait. This is why it's so easy to do. Because we like doing this. Our flesh loves this. Our flesh gets giddy over thinking about being part of fights that aren't ours and causing divisions. And notice, it says, and they go down. Oh, they go down into the inner parts of your body. Man, they go in, and they seep in, and they get stuck there, and they just stay there. This is the temptation, right? We see something that we like, there's this enticement, and we go, there's a whole bunch of other people who are fighting this fight that isn't theirs, so I'll join the fight that isn't mine. And you take a bite of it, you listen to it, Instead of forgiving and seeking how we can encourage one another to live for Jesus, we go, I'll join that fight. You eat it and you become bittered, become a warrior, an emotional warrior, and you're going around like a crazy person, shooting people you don't know. It doesn't matter. You're part of the fight. You're fighting the good fight. Congratulations. Way to go, superhero gossiper. I say that because I know how much I love gossip, right? I know how much I like it. I know how much I listen to it. Man, Facebook is like crack cocaine for stuff like that, right? You're just on Facebook like, oh wow, oh wow, oh wow, oh wow, oh wow, wow, wow. Have you ever read a comment section? What are they doing? They're fighting about stuff that nobody cares about. As a believer, As a believer, we cannot be engaged in this type of stuff. What does Paul say in the book of Ephesians, that we should look for those things that are building up and be like Christ, and show love towards one another, right? Be imitators of Christ. Christ wasn't involved in this stuff. Neither should we. Gossip should not even be named amongst us as believers. But be careful. Careful, because it's delicious, and it's fun, and it's exciting. But man, you want to destroy the work of God? Start gossiping. Start believing rumors. There's another trap. As if these traps aren't serious enough, notice the next one. Verse 23 says, like the glaze covering an earthen vessel, Some of you probably have a translation that says silver dross. That's literally what it is. And so the idea you have here in this verse is somebody makes a pot and they want to say, actually it's a silver bowl. And so what they'll do is they'll take this cheap dross that's somewhat shiny, they'll pour it on top of the, give a veneer for a clay pot, and then they'll shine it up, and then they'll go to the marketplace and say, here is a whole bunch of silverware. And people go, wow, great stuff. So the idea is being two-faced. The idea is presenting yourself as something that you're not. It's being two-faced, right? That's what hypocrisy is. Hypocrisy is presenting yourself to be something you're not. You're pretending to be something. So just like that, just like putting shiny stuff on clay pots, is like this. Notice verse 23, it says, are fervent lips The idea here, normally fervent lips are used for burning lips and speaks of lying, but here it's kind of used in a positive sense of like warm speech, of attractive speech. So attractive speech does what? It covers evil intentions. So it's saying one thing, but really has evil intentions behind it. And then notice, because this is exactly what he means, because notice the next verse, verse 24, whoever hates, whoever hates, dislikes, whoever hates, has hate in their heart, disguises himself with his lips. You see, it's possible for there to be hypocrisy of saying one thing, but really meaning something else. saying something that looks nice. Oh, but they're putting on a mask. They're pretending to be something else. So notice what it says. It says, he disguises himself with his lips and harbors deceit in his heart. What an incredible image that it's so deep-seated that there's like a special place for this, this hypocrisy. And then in verse 25, notice it says, and when he speaks graciously, this one who's a hypocrite, and he'll say things in such a gracious way, don't believe him. Don't believe the hype. There are people who are hypocrites all around us. Don't believe. Be careful, be careful. There's people that are pretending. There's people that are hypocritical. There's heretics who do this. They pretend to be righteous, and they'll say all these things, and then when you just scratch beyond the surface, you go, oh, oh, that's bad. That's not what I thought this person was. But remember, there are people who are willfully hypocritical. This was something Jesus dealt with quite often in his ministry during his life. There were people that were hypocrites, and the reason they were hypocrites was because they were pretending to be something they were not, and they knew they were not that. They knew that they were not righteous, but they hypocritically said, I am righteous. They pretended to be something that they knew they weren't. And they condemned people. Just for the outside face of it all. Be careful. Why? Because it's possible for somebody to say something that's really nice and gracious. And notice what it says, it says, for there are seven abominations in his heart. What are those seven abominations? There's a huge debate on what those seven abominations are. I'll let greater minds talk about that later. What I think this means is completely given to abomination. I think the word here, seven, is symbolic and means complete, right? Completely, completely full of abomination. So notice what happens if you are a hypocrite and notice what happens to hypocrites. It says, though his hatred be covered with deception, So there is a possibility for us to be deceived by it. It says his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly. So the idea is, it's possible for somebody to be a hypocrite for a little bit and for us to go, oh no, they're legitimate. But sometime, that stuff will come out in public. Why? Because notice in verse 27, it says, whoever digs a pit will fall into it. and a stone will come back on him who starts it rolling. The reason that it will be exposed publicly is because a hypocrite will set a trap for someone and it will be set by themselves. They'll fall into their own trap. Think about how many times the Pharisees tried to deceive Jesus and trick Jesus. How many times did Jesus trick them in their own trick? All of them. It's like watching, it's like Jesus and the Pharisees are like Roadrunner and the Coyote in the cartoons. Coyote sets all these traps and he just walks right through it. That's what hypocrisy brings, it brings that. It brings this idea, I wanna trap you, and you constantly fall into your own trap. You dig a pit for somebody to fall into it, you fall into it. You have a rock that's gonna roll on somebody, Maybe this is this block up a road. So as you push it, it goes, whoa, comes back on you. This is the danger, this is the danger of hypocrisy. So it says in verse 28, a lying tongue hates its victim, and a flattering mouth works ruins. It's never good to be around a hypocrite because he doesn't like you. He hates you. He doesn't want you to succeed. He wants you to fail. You might go, I can be a hypocrite for a little bit. I can pretend to be something that I'm not for a little bit, and people might believe it. But know this, it's going to come back and get you. Stuff you set for other people will come back to bite you. This never describes anything of the believer's love for one another. You can look throughout the whole New Testament, look at the life of Christ. When did Christ ever do stuff like this? When does the Apostle Paul go, yeah, it's okay to be a hypocrite for a little bit. It's okay to be self-righteous for a little bit. Be careful, be careful, because this is a dangerous pit. It's a dangerous pit because, I'll tell you why it's so dangerous, because you can do it for a little bit and people will believe you and applaud you. So these are three traps and I think these traps are serious, right? These are serious traps. We need to be aware of these traps and we need to fortify ourselves against these traps. It's kind of interesting in the ancient world, they had a particular trap where they would put glue and tree sap and a whole bunch of other sticky stuff on a branch. And then they would put a whole bunch of food for the bird. The bird would be attracted by the food and would then get on the branch and then its feet would stick. But because it couldn't help itself, it would start to eat the food. And as it would start to eat the food, its wing would get stuck. And as its wing got stuck, its initial response was to cry out. whether the other birds would help or not, I'm not 100% sure. But out of pain, out of panic, it would cry. And that cry would then spur on the other birds to go, hey, what's he doing over there? And then when he sees the bird flapping, sees the food on the branch, goes, oh, there's food on that branch, and there's a bird there, and he's gonna eat all that food, and I want some of that food. And so then it would go down, get stuck on the branch, and then it would start to squawk. So now you have two birds squawking. And then more birds would come. I think about these temptations we talked about. And I think that's exactly, exactly these traps. Once you start, man, you're stuck. And you can bring other people along with you. So the question is, what do we do? One, it's always important for us to remember that we can fall very easily. Do not be arrogant and assume that you will never fall into these temptations and traps. But, know this, you are now a new creature in Christ. You're a new creature. The old is gone, the new has come. You have the indwelling Holy Spirit. You have the word. And guess what that means? That means we can say no. by the power of the Spirit, we could say no. We don't have to fall for these traps. He has rescued us from that dominion of darkness. He's rescued us from that old nature that just would automatically flock to this. This is why it's so important for us to remember the gospel throughout all of our life. He's rescued us. I'm no longer this. I'm now a new creature in Christ. And so, We need to walk by the power of the Spirit. We need to trust God. We need to spend time in His Word. We know what those temptations are, and the Bibles can speak at great length to those temptations. And when you're feeling that sense to give in to that temptation, I find it helpful to say, that's a bad feeling. take a scripture that I've memorized that deals with that temptation, and then say, God, help me do this instead of that, and then think about what the scripture says for me to do, and say, help me do this, help me do this, and then step out in obedience, and walk by the power of the Spirit. That's how we avoid these traps. It's really simple on paper, not simple to do. We are going to continue to celebrate the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus this morning. We're gonna have an opportunity to spend some time.