Avoiding Temptation

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Welcome to Have You Not Read, a podcast seeking to answer questions from the text of Scripture for the honor of Christ and the edification of the

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Saints. Before we dig into our topic, we humbly ask you to rate, review, and share the podcast.

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Thank you. I'm Dylan Hamilton and with me are Michael Durham and Andrew Hudson.

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Today we're handling a question that came in to us from one of our listeners. The question reads, what are the best ways to avoid the temptations of man?

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Michael, you want to start us off? Sure, this is a great question. I think that any follower of Christ who has spent any time at all thinking about how best to follow

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Jesus and how to be in right relationship with the

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Lord, to enjoy the fellowship and communion with their

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Savior, they want to avoid temptation. They want to strike out against the recurring sinful patterns in their life.

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And I find it interesting, the question itself, Dylan, did

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I hear correctly that the question is how to avoid, the best way to avoid the temptation of man?

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Is that what they said? Yeah, what are the best ways to avoid the temptations of man? That pertain to a man? Is that where we're taking it as?

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That pertain to men? Maybe. Well, let's take it in the broadest sense.

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We'll take it in terms of mankind. Yeah, everyone who was born in Adam. And as those who are born again by the spirit of the second

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Adam, we do have promised help to fight against and to endure through temptation.

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And I think that the question itself is actually looking for possibly a step before, right?

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We have some passages that talk to us about how to fight in the midst of temptation, what to do when we realize that we are tempted, that we are being tempted.

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How about avoiding it altogether? Now, we can't necessarily avoid all temptation, okay?

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Why do we say that? Because we're led along by our own deceitful desires. Our own deceitful desires. That is absolutely correct.

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Now, there are temptations that come from the enemy. There's temptation that comes from the world and the system of rebellion against God that, of course, is pushed along and invigorated by the enemy.

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But whereas we can avoid temptations that come in those senses, there are temptations that arise from within us that impact us before we have an opportunity to avoid them.

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Why do I say that? Let's go ahead and clear that up in James chapter 1. In James chapter 1, we have a blessing in verse 12.

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James 1 verse 12. Blessed is the man who endures temptation, for when he has been approved he will receive the crown of life which the

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Lord has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God.

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For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.

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Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full -grown, brings forth death.

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Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. So when we hear that description, we see that it is, first of all, wrong for us to say that the temptation that we now endure and are undergoing is

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God tempting us. I don't know of anyone who's ever actually perhaps said that, but here's how it works into the believer's approach, and a wrong approach.

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Considering the reality of the sovereignty of God, and every believer, every

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Christian believes in the sovereignty of God, whether they would admit it or not, because it's either, you know,

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God is fully governing and shepherding this event in my life, or it's

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God has every capacity to fully govern and shepherd this event in my life, but he's intentionally, carefully not doing so, in which case he's still controlling everything.

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Right. Okay. Passively permitting. But either way, either way, the believer is at some point having to acknowledge the sovereignty of God over the situation.

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Here's the temptation within the temptation, okay, which is to say that, well, this is hopeless, you know.

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If God is bringing this about, or if God's not helping me here, either way, however you want to put it, then, you know, throw up the hands and who knows.

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What can I do? What can I do? So let no one say that. Don't allow that very often unspoken, unarticulated self -deception to remain.

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No, resist that. Recognize that this temptation, this temptation occurred because your own desires are enticing you, meaning that there is a corrupted desire that emerges and works upon your will.

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It's like a leaking dyke.

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It does not hold back the water. It seeps through and then comes before your attention, and now what do you do?

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Okay, you didn't ask for this, you didn't necessarily go searching for this, but all of a sudden it is here.

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Now I think upon reflection that most believers would recognize this, and there's a lot of questions that get generated by this.

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Is it demons afflicting me? Is it I didn't live my last seven days in perfect holiness?

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My holiness regimen wasn't up to par, thus this has somehow...

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It's like a discipline? Right, yeah. This has somehow got through. I didn't do, you know,

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I didn't take all my spiritual vitamins and so on. People struggle with this, okay? Why is this in my head?

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Where does this come from? And James says, well, you know, it's this, the old, old, old word is concupiscence.

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It's a lustful desire that works upon your will before your will is ever engaged, and it is something to be resisted.

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It is sin which only by the grace of God may be mortified, and we must war against it to be sure, but it's not, it's not possible in this life as believers to avoid all temptation, because even if we can avoid the temptations of the world, and even if we can avoid temptations that come direct from the enemy, just like we see the devil tempting

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Christ in the wilderness, okay? Even if we could avoid all of that, we still have desires that work within us upon our will.

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Now, given the other types of temptations, what's the best way to avoid those?

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And I think that's a good question. It's not necessarily about, you know, what do you do in the temptation, which of course is a valid concern, a valid question, but if we limit ourselves to that consideration, then we're missing some potential of fighting against sin.

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It's also a bailing water moment sometimes as well, right? You're already in the boat, it's already sinking. Right.

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Let's bail water. Yes. So here is some counsel from a father to a son about avoiding the temptations of man.

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What's the best way to avoid the temptations of man? If we read

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Proverbs 7, we have an extended picture about a fool, a simple youth, a man devoid of understanding.

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And we read in Proverbs 7 verse 8 that this young man with no understanding passed along the street near her house.

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This her is already identified in verse 5, the immoral woman, the seductress that flatters with her mouth. And verse 9 says, in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night.

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Now let's just be honest. It's night and this is the corner next to the harlot's house.

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So not only is this young man devoid of understanding, but he's also stupid. Biblically speaking.

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Yeah, just biblically, biblically speaking. Biblically stupid. Now what does the father say to the son?

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And of course he lays all the whole disaster out for his son, how it all ends up.

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Now he says in verse 25, do not let your heart turn aside to her ways. You've got to be in control of your heart.

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You've got to say to your heart, okay, you follow me as I apply principles of wisdom.

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This is the anti -Disney message. You don't follow your heart, you tell your heart what to do. Do not stray into her paths.

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This is so antithetical to the vision of what humanity is today.

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Slaves to our passions. And if anybody is telling us that we shouldn't do what we are passionate about, if anybody were to tell us that we shouldn't just do whatever comes into our hearts and heads, then they are tyrannical.

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Or probably a bigot of some sort. Exactly. Now he just says, do not let your heart turn aside to her ways.

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Do not stray into her paths. So what was the best way to avoid? Well, recognize where the temptations are most prevalent and avoid them.

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That is not an unchrist -like thing to do. That's not unchristian. That's not unbiblical. We're not supposed to go to places where we know there's gonna be all kinds of temptations to lead us astray in the name of Christ.

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We're gonna go, you know, we're gonna go to, we're gonna go to this strip bar, you know, for Jesus. Well, Jesus certainly didn't call you there.

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Right. Yeah, that's... what did Joseph do? He fled. Joseph's a pretty wise guy, wasn't he?

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Pretty wise man. You could say that. Yeah. And when it came down to it, he ran. Right?

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He got out of there. And this is one of the best ways to avoid the temptations of man, is to recognize where those temptations are and when they manifest, flee.

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Right? This is very, this is very biblical. And that's not the only, not the only way. What else could we say biblically about avoiding the temptations that are common to man?

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We talked about fleeing, and I think that's a common thing, but it's, I think Paul lays it out for Timothy in 1st

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Timothy 6, to flee towards something. It's not just a fleeing away of one thing. It's fleeing towards something as well.

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Excellent. Not just running from danger, but fleeing to safety. Yes, and that would be, or actually fleeing to the fight, because we think sometimes in these things we're fleeing, or we're there to feel safe about our sin.

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We should flee to fight against it. In 1st Timothy 6, 9, But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare, and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction.

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For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil. And some, by longing for it, have wandered away from the faith, and pierced themselves with many griefs.

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But flee from these things, you man of God. And then directly after that, it says what? And pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.

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We are fleeing, and it also says, you know, it's fight the good fight of faith after that, so it's fleeing towards a fight, and it should be a faithful fight towards these things, rather than a flee just from one thing to another, one bad thing to another bad thing.

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Another passage that helps us here is Jesus with his disciples after the

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Last Supper on the night of his arrest. In Matthew 26, he has called his disciples to come with him to the

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Garden of Gethsemane for a time of prayer, and he has asked the disciples to pray as he went off to pray.

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But he comes back to them, and he finds them sleeping. And this is in Matthew 26 verse 40, and he says to Peter, what, could you not watch with me one hour?

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Verse 41, this is important for our question. Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.

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The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. So there needs to be a recognition about the fact that God has made us in his image, that he has made us as his special creature.

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We are spirit and flesh. You know, God designed us to be together as a whole, spirit and flesh together.

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And Jesus says the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Now that second half of the verse has become very much an aphorism, it's a bumper sticker kind of thing.

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Almost lost meaning. It's almost lost its context and its meaning, that's right. But it is something of an observation about human nature.

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What does the Proverbs say about the fool? He gives vent to all his feelings. But folks have a tendency to vent everything that they zealously believe in by their spirit, right?

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Their spirit is very willing, and they'll lay out, you know, their five -year plan of grandeur, and then go proceed to achieve, you know, step

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A and B of their 26 -letter alphabet plan, okay? And if you were to connect with them five years later, you know, they've been through ten of their cycles of five -year plans.

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Yes. Right? But we are all like that. We have the temptation, we have the tendency to talk big and then not follow through.

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Well, Jesus here is making it very clear, very specific application here. Watch and pray lest you enter temptation.

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Now Peter's talked pretty big, right? You know, I will never betray you. Yeah, let's ignore the fact that I'm not gonna stay awake for you, but I will never betray you.

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I may sleep on the job, but I'll... Okay, Peter, watch and pray lest you enter into temptation.

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So Jesus is counseling his disciples not to even enter into temptation. Don't even get in there.

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What's a good way to avoid temptation? Watch and pray. And in this particular context, keeping our eyes open, being alert to the situation, the prudent man foresees the evil and hides himself, but the foolish pass on and are punished.

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Hey, you know, it's as simple as when you're teaching your son to dribble a basketball or to dribble a soccer ball or however to make progress down down the field or the court, keep your head up.

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You know, watch, be aware, be alert and pray. Recognize your weakness.

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The flesh is weak. That is true. The flesh is weak. Pray, be independence upon the

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Lord and this would be our continual state of alertness and dependence.

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Even in earlier in Matthew's gospel in chapter 6 when what we talk about as the

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Lord's Prayer, verse 13, and do not let us enter into temptation. What a good prayer.

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So prayer is a very large part of this. Yes. The avoidance of temptation, the supplication of us to our

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Father that he would deliver us and not let us enter into it. One final verse about not even entering into temptation would be

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Galatians chapter 6 verse 1. It says, brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one and a spirit of gentleness considering yourself, lest you also be tempted.

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Right. So a spirit of gentleness, a spirit of gentleness and a willingness to consider oneself.

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Brothers, that's humility. That is humility and if there's one way to, one thing that will really help us to not even enter into situations of temptation, it is to cultivate the humility that we see in the mind of Christ.

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Let this mind be in you as it also was in Christ Jesus, which was the mind of humility. And if we're humble and in recognizing our own weaknesses, our own weaknesses in the flesh, our own lowliness before the

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Lord, there's a lot of temptations we're gonna be able to avoid. Right. So what you're talking about is knowing the self as best as one can and practicing or getting wisdom and practicing discernment.

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Yeah. And especially, isn't it true that so often we put ourselves into very bad situations and put ourselves into temptations that we could have avoided because of pride.

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And so often this pride is bolstered by our looking at others who have fallen, others who are trapped in sin, others who have not done well and we begin to irrigate to ourselves some sort of spiritual maturity that we really don't have.

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Like that won't be me. Yeah, exactly. But that's what Galatians 6 .1 is about. When you work and labor in love to restore one who has fallen in transgression, you must be very careful that you do yourself don't fall into the temptation.

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So one of the recommendations we can have from this is read the Proverbs a lot and also look at the other wise men in the

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Bible and what when they came across temptation, what did they do? And I know we have the direct like don't even enter into temptation, but we see what that looks like too.

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We run out of the house. We have the humility to run out of the house naked because we are trying to avoid that type of temptation.

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That's right. Alright, well I think that wraps up our discussion on temptation today. Michael, what are we thankful for?

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Well, I am thankful for the,

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I've said this before, but just answers to prayer. There are just so many times in my life where we recognize that everything is in the hands of the

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Lord and without turning to Him in prayer, I mean, what are we going to do?

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There are too many worries and too many anxieties and too many fears that would utterly collapse me.

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I have to turn to the Lord and I have to continually come to Him and ask for Him to do what only

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He can. It is so apparent the limitations in my own abilities, in my own capacities, my own understanding, my own wisdom.

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It is so apparent the fragility of our peace. Our peace can be shattered so quickly with difficulties.

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It's interesting that we've had so much discussion in these last few years about the fragility of the infrastructure, you know, of the country in which we live and so on.

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You know, it's quite possible it's always been pretty much fragile.

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And isn't it true that even the most robust, well -to -do, strong empire is just on the edge of the

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Lord's mercy? And if you lean on it, it's a broken reed. Right, and don't lean on Egypt, Israel.

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It's a broken reed. It'll stab you through the hand. And this is so important to remember. Leaning on the justice system of our country, or leaning upon the medical infrastructure of our city or state, or leaning upon the financial institutions.

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This is, we must lean upon the Lord. We must wait upon the Lord and I am so thankful that he hears our prayers and answers them.

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Amen to that. To call the deacon back to, in God we trust. Yes. I'm very thankful to have been granted the favor with my supervisors in a very important process, which has to do with my retention in the current role that I am fulfilling until possibly the end of this year.

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Very grateful that God has given me favor with them and at very least I have peace with them.

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Amen to that. Amen. To piggyback off of what Michael said, I'm thankful for a congregation that prays not just together but for one another throughout the week.

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I have not been a part of many churches in my life, but the willingness to send out prayer requests, to ask direct specific questions about those prayer requests because they care specifically about what needs praying for because we know that our

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God, he deals in specifics. I'm very thankful for that. I have not witnessed that before, before coming to Sunnyside and we have seen an abundance of that and it has really drove us to do the same.

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So I'm very thankful for that here at Sunnyside and we hope to be a part of it for many, many years to come because we enjoy it so much.

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And that wraps it up for today. We are very thankful for our listeners and hope you will join us again as we meet to answer common questions and objections with Have You Not Read.