Slide 1
Do not enter the path of the wicked, and do not walk in the way of the evil. Avoid it; do not go on it; turn away from it and pass on. Proverbs 4:14-15

Slide 2
The book of Proverbs uses imagery of two paths, represented by two women: Lady Wisdom and Madam Folly

Slide 3
Stop and ask: What are the most common temptations I face?

Slide 4
Pride, Anger, Unforgiveness, Controlling, Laziness, People-Pleasing, Escapism, Greed, Materialism, Envy, Lust, Worry and Fear, Dishonesty, Gossip, Self-Pity, Busyness, Discontentment

Slide 5
Proverbs 7
My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye; bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart. Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call insight your intimate friend, to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words. For at the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice, and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense, passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness. And behold, the woman meets him, dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart. She is loud and wayward; her feet do not stay at home; now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner she lies in wait. She seizes him and kisses him, and with bold face she says to him, “I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows; so now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you. I have spread my couch with coverings, colored linens from Egyptian linen; I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. Come, let us take our fill of love till morning; let us delight ourselves with love. For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey; he took a bag of money with him; at full moon he will come home.” With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him. All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast till an arrow pierces its liver; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life. And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth. Let not your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths, for many a victim has she laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.

Slide 6
Temptation always whispers two lies:
“This will make me happy” (pleasure)
“No one will ever know” (secrecy)

Slide 7
“Temptation gets its power by persuading me to believe that I will be more happy if I follow it. The power of all temptation is the prospect that it will make me happier” – John Piper


Slide 8
Temptation is lying in wait.

Slide 9
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8

Slide 10
For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” Mark 7:21-23

Slide 11
Verse 7: calls the young man “simple” which can also be translated “undecided”

Slide 12
“The Willpower Instinct” by Kelly McGonigal, Ph.D.
“Willpower isn’t just a skill. It’s a muscle, like the muscles in your arms or legs, and it gets tired as it works harder, so there’s less power left over to control your impulses.”
“People who use their willpower seem to run out of it. In study after study: … Resisting tempting sweets didn’t just trigger cravings … as if every act of willpower was drawing from the same source of strength, leaving people weaker with each successful act of self‑control.”

Slide 13
In 2014, Ahmed Gabr set the world record for deepest scuba dive at 1,090 feet.

Slide 14
The descent took less than 15 minutes.

Slide 15
The ascent back to the surface took 13 hours and 50 minutes.

When my family and I moved here four years ago, we tried very intentionally, especially early on to endear our kids to Colorado. So my wife and I, we did all these Colorado type things. We went up to Georgetown and went on the train, and we went hiking and we did skiing and snowboarding and all the different things. And one of those things that I started to get into then was mountain biking. Now, I’m, I’m not good at mountain biking. And when we first moved here, I had a bike from Texas and there’s no hills in Texas, so very different type of bike. So it, it took until about a year ago before I actually got a decent mountain bike. And I am not great, very bad at the technical stuff, but I think it’s a good workout. And so I enjoy going to do it.

But, but there’s, there’s one challenge that I have found, at least for me personally, when I go mountain biking. And that is the first time I went to, to a certain area without checking the map, I realized that that’s a mistake. So, so just south of here in, in kind of the back country area, you’ve got all these mountain biking trails. Here’s a map of what they look like. And if you start going down one of those trails without a map or a phone or a plan, you take a left and then a right and then a left, and then the right, and then all of a sudden you turn around and say, I have no clue where I am. And so I, I have to make sure that before I go, I look at my phone and I look at the trail and I say, okay, this is the route that I’m going to take.

And the more you do it, the better you get your sense of direction. But it’s still times where I will make a turn and see something that I’ve never seen before. And a couple of days ago, my, my son and I, we were going mountain biking and we hit this turn where there’s this gravel road and it goes left and right, and then the bike trail goes on the other side. And at that gravel road there is a warning sign. The warning sign, it’s kind of faded now it’s harder to see, but this is what it looks like. And on that sign it says, danger, no trespassing, law enforcement training facility and shooting range beyond this point. This is not a trail. And it was just this reminder of, hey, if you’re going down a trail, you have to know the path that you’re going down because you don’t want to take that wrong turn and accidentally end up biking in an area that you shouldn’t be biking.

In the book of Proverbs, one of the illustrations that Solomon and the authors of, of Proverbs try and bring to the surface over and over and over again, is this idea that you and I are life is walking down a certain path. And there’s this warning that if we’re not cautious, if we’re not intentional on the path that we are walking down, we can easily go down the wrong path. Look at what it says in Proverbs chapter four, cer in verse 14. It says, do not enter the path of the wicked and do not walk in the way of evil. Avoid it. Do not go on and turn away from it and pass on. So Proverbs uses these two different types of imagery that to represent for us these two different paths, that the first imagery that it uses is these paths. The second imagery is it personifies these paths in these two women, lady wisdom and Madam Folly.

And so Lady wisdom is this idea that, that you should befriend her and seek lady wisdom that, that she will lead you down a path that helps you end up in the destination that you want to go. That if you want a path that is a long life that is pursuing God and is the fullest life possible for you and for me, then we need to seek lady wisdom. But there’s this danger, the author of Proverbs says, but there’s also Mme. Foley. And Mme. Foley is trying to entice or seduce us to go down a path that leads towards destruction. That every day you and I face different temptations. Now. Now sometimes when we think of temptation, we tend to think of really big temptations, but probably you’re not struggling on a day in, day out basis with the temptation to steal or to kill. Tho those big ones that we tend to think of with the 10 commandments, those really aren’t the temptations that most of us face.

But there are subtle small temptations that we face every single day. And if we’re not aware of those temptations and we’re not cautious, oftentimes the path that leads us down the wrong direction is a slow, tiny step by tiny step, by tiny step. So I would just encourage you stop, take a moment and pause and ask yourself this question, what are the most common temptations that I face? Like if you just stopped? And, and if nothing comes to mind, that doesn’t mean that you and I don’t face temptation. If nothing comes to mind, it means that we’re probably just not as aware of the temptations that we face in our life as we should be. So take a moment and really try and examine your heart, not just the big temptations, but the small subtle ones, temptations like pride or anger or unforgiveness, or being controlling or laziness or people pleasing or escapism or greed or materialism, envy, lust, worry, fear, dishonesty, gossip, self-pity, busyness, discontent.

There are so many temptations creeping on the edge of our vision that oftentimes we ignore. If you’ve got a Bible term with me to Proverbs chapter seven, we’re gonna look at the entire chapter all 27 verses. Solomon uses this idea of a temptress uses this concept of adultery as temptation. But the truth of this passage could apply to any temptation that you and I face in our life. It functions and works the same way. Proverbs chapter seven, starting in verse one, my son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments within you. Keep my commandments and live, keep my teaching as the apple of your eye. Bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart. If you’re someone who underlines or circles underline that word heart. There’s this symmetry that happens in this chapter where in verse three, he introduces this concept of our heart.

And then the third to last verse in the chapter, he reintroduces or reminds us of the importance of our heart. Write them on the tablet of your heart. He says, say to wisdom, you are my sister. And call insight your intimate friend, to keep you from the forbidden woman from the adulterous with her smooth words. For at the window of my house. I’ve looked out through my lattice and I’ve seen among the simple, that word simple in the Hebrew could be translated as naive. It could also be translated as undecided. And I have seen among the undecided I’ve perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense, passing along the street, near her corner, taking the road to her house, and the twilight in the evening at the time of night and darkness, my dad used to say, it’s really hard to make good decisions after midnight at the time of night.

And darkness and behold, the woman meets him dressed as a prostitute. Wiley of heart. Wiley of heart is this idea of being deceptive or cunning. She’s loud and wayward. Her feet do not stay at home. Now in the street, now in the market. And at every corner she lies in wait. She seizes him and kisses him. And with bold face, she says to him, I had to offer sacrifices. And today I’ve paid my vows. So now I’ve come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly and found you. I’ve spread my couch with coverings, colored linens from Egyptian linen. I’ve perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come let us take our fill of love till morning, let us delight ourselves with love. For my husband is not at home. He’s gone on a long journey. He took a bag of money with him at Full Moon, he will come home with much seductive speech.

She persuades him in her smooth talk. She compels him all at once. Verse 22 says, how often is that how temptation works? That all at once we give in and he follows her as an ox, goes to the slaughter, or Aag is caught fast till an arrow pierces its liver. As a bird rushes into a snare, he does not know that it will cost him his life. And now of sons, listen to me and be attentive to the words of my mouth. Let not your heart underline. Circle that word heart. Let not your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not stray into her paths. For many a victim has she laid low and all her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is the way to shield going down to the chambers of death. He faces this temptation and she offers him Really these two lies.

One is come with me and I’m offering something wonderful and amazing. It’s gonna be good for you, it’s gonna be beneficial for you, it’s gonna make you happy. And then her second lie is, and nobody’s ever gonna know about it. And my husband, he’s gone. He’s away. Nobody else is here. It’s just us. Not only do you get to enjoy the moment, but you also get to keep it completely secret to everyone else around us. Temptation always whispers those two lies. The first is this alive pleasure, that this act, this temptation, this sin will make me happy. And then the second lie is that no one will ever know the life secrecy. How often do the temptations in our life, the sins in our life, how often are those things that we say, oh, well, okay. It’s just this small subtle thing. It’s not affecting anybody else around me.

Nobody else even knows about it. It’s just me by myself. Or, or maybe you’re, you’re with a group that, that y’all tend to do that thing, but hey, it’s just us. Nobody else knows about it. It’s just us. It’s self-contained. It’s not harming anyone. It’s not really harming me, and it doesn’t affect the relationships around me. John Piper wrote this. He said, temptation gets its power by persuading me to believe that I will be more happy if I follow it. The power of all temptation is the prospect that it will make me happier. That’s always the lie. I, I mean, we wouldn’t sin if there wasn’t some type of a desire that made me think that this act, this thing will make me feel really good in the moment. But, but there’s this interesting thing that happens that in the moment of sin, it actually does make me happy.

That’s why the lie is so deceptive, because it’s really just a half life that the moment that I choose to do the thing that I know that I’m not supposed to do, the moment that I give into the temptation in that moment, it does make me happy. But it comes at a cost. It’s a sacrifice of the long term that I’m choosing the present moment, and I’m foregoing what’s going to happen to me in my future, that there is a consequence that comes as a result of that action. Now, on the opposite, every righteous decision that I make or you make, it has an immediate negative consequence that, that when I choose not to do the thing that I’m tempted to do in that moment, there’s a little bit of disappointment that I wanted to do it and I chose not to do it. But my overall happiness in the long term is significantly greater because I’ve chosen to do what is right.

I’ll give you a tangible example. I, I’m not much of a chips guy now, I love dip, but those are different things from each other. So I feel like the point of chips most of the time is simply to be a vehicle to get the dip into your mouth. And so whether it’s queso, whether it’s guacamole, like both of those things, amazing chips, okay? But the dip. But there’s one type of chip that I do like, and that is Cheetos. And, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t know why I like Cheetos. I’m not sure really what Cheetos are. It says on here that it’s made with real cheese. I’m not sure a scientist would agree that that powdery material is in fact real cheese. It’s like at the store, if you go buy velv Vita, it’s not in the cheese section and it’s not refrigerated.

And yet we call it cheese. And I would put this in that same type of category. It’s like cheese adjacent more than it is actually cheese. And, and everything about a Cheeto seems like, I mean, I don’t think anybody out there is saying, Hey, these are really healthy chips. They’re good for you, and so you should eat ’em. And yet there’s something about a Cheeto that just tastes really, really good. But there, there is one problem with a Cheeto, and that is if you eat multiple Cheetos, if you eat a whole handful of Cheetos, what does it eventually do to your fingertips? Yeah, it it makes them completely filled with cheese. Completely covered with cheese. And there’s only two ways to get the cheese off of your fingers. One is you, you go wash your hands. The second is, of course, you, you lick your fingers, which as a side note, here’s just, here’s just a life tip.

Never share a bag of Cheetos with children, because like, you’ll be, you’ll be sharing a bag with them, and then you’ll look up and you got cheese all over your fingers, and they have no cheese on their fingers whatsoever. And they’re still reaching in for that next Cheeto. And there’s a reason for that, you know? But, but here’s, here’s the lie. Sometimes that I, I like, I hate having cheese all over my fingers, but occasionally I’ll see the bag and I’ll be like, I, I bet, I bet I can just eat one and not get much cheese on my fingers. And, and it seems like that should be true. ’cause If, if you, if you like, are very careful with how you hold it, and then you say, I’ll just, I’ll just pop that in real quick.

We tell our kids you’re not supposed to talk with food in your mouth. But if I, if I just kinda do this, like from your perspective, it doesn’t look like I have any cheese in my fingers whatsoever. And yet, if you’ve eaten Cheetos, you know, do I have some cheese on my fingers right now? Yes. Like no matter how much of this I do, it does not come off again, back to, I’m not sure it’s real cheese, guys. Like, there’s something about it that just makes it a little bit sticky. But, but here’s sometimes I can convince myself what, Hey, nobody can notice. It’s hardly there at all. You can’t even see it. And so then you go back for another one and you feel like, well, maybe I can just get that off of my fingers too. And temptation works the same way. Temptation is this lie that, well, hey, this is gonna make me feel good.

It’s gonna be really great. It’s gonna be wonderful. And nobody’s gonna know I can just do this. And it all goes away. It’s just me and the Cheetos, and that is it. My life is not affecting anyone else around me. But that’s not true. That when I fall into temptation that in the moment it feels great. But that’s the lie, because there’s a long-term consequence. Like take for example, this bag of Cheetos. If I just sat down and said, I mean, the whole bag would in the moment that make me happy, you better believe it would make me happy. And if you don’t think that would make you happy, you don’t know Cheetos. Because I would be very happy if I ate the entire bag. Now, long term, would there be a consequence of me eating an entire bag of Cheetos? Yes. Like, like a an hour later I’d be like, that was a, that was a poor life choice.

I should not have done that. But in the short run, if I choose not to do that, there’s an immediate negative. And that’s how temptation works. There’s this side of sin and temptation that sometimes we ignore, but it is in the moment. It is really hard to say no. But I’m choosing my future over my present now. I’m choosing what’s best for me long term and sacrificing momentary fleeting happiness. You see, if we spiritually look at scripture from beginning to end, there is this idea of temptation in sin that is a spiritual war that is going on for your soul and my soul. That in this chapter in Proverbs, it describes this woman is lying in weight. And if we really have this, this clear theological understanding of temptation and sin, that that’s what it is. That it is lying in. Wait, temptation is lying in weight, trying to destroy my life, trying to destroy your life.

And most of the time we’re completely ignorant of, we’re not paying attention to it. Look what Peter says to describe Satan in first Peter chapter five, verse eight. He says, be sober minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour that, that sometimes we just, we just kinda go through life and we’re ignorant or ignoring the fact that there are spiritual forces trying to tempt you, trying to tempt me in order that it might take us down the wrong path and destroy our lives. That, that if we saw temptation and sin as this prowling lie, and I think that we’d hold it in higher regard, we’d be more careful. Like if you go home tonight and you’re about to go on a walk in your neighborhood, and then you pull up the nextdoor app, and the nextdoor app mainly tells you how dangerous your neighborhood is, occasionally it tells you when someone lost a puppy.

But mainly it’s like, Hey, this terrible thing happened right here, and here’s some video footage of it. But if you go on that app and someone says, Hey, there’s a lion, a lion prowling around in our neighborhood, like, probably you look at that and you’re like, I don’t need to walk that bad. I’ll just, I’ll sit it out tonight. You’re probably not looking at that and saying, I could take a lion. It’s all right. I feel confident in my own abilities. Like, like Peter chooses a lion because he’s trying to demonstrate to you and to me that physically we lose if we fight a lion. But it’s not a physical lion that we’re battling. That’s why Solomon talks about the heart at the very beginning of the chapter, the very end of the chapter. He’s trying to tie it back to this understanding that the way that we combat temptation in our life is by understanding our heart.

Look what Jesus says in Mark chapter seven in verse 21. Jesus says, for from within out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual morality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness, all of these evil things come from within and they defile a person. Jesus is saying it’s not a physical battle. So, so here’s the cool part is, is first, it’s understanding spiritually that Satan is trying to steal, to kill and destroy. That there are these spiritual forces at work around my life trying to get me to follow Mme. Foley down the wrong path that’s gonna lead towards my destruction. But that’s not the spiritual, the only spiritual figure the Bible talks about. The, the whole point of scripture is it’s God’s redemptive work in human history. The scripture is trying to point me towards Jesus that just as there is someone trying to steal and to kill and destroy, scripture says, but God looks down and recognizes that we needed a savior.

So, so Jesus says that he has come to give us life and life abundantly. And Jesus is trying to, to, to walk us through this concept. It’s the gospel that, that Jesus recognizes that we’re separated away from God because of our sin, that, that we have to recognize that I’m incapable of getting to God by myself. But Jesus takes my sin. Your sin dies for us on the cross. He conquers death. And when I put my faith, my trust make him the Lord of my life. That there’s this spiritual renewal that happens where inside my heart, Jesus saying, we don’t have to try and fight it alone. We get to fight it with God through the power of the Holy Spirit helping me every single day. And the way that we do that on a day in, day out basis is by recognizing that my choices, your choices are the things that guide and direct our heart.

It’s interesting. In verse seven, we pointed out that word, that word that they used for simple. But the Hebrew can also translate it as undecided. See, so often when we are undecided, when we’re just going through the motions of life, it’s very easy to fall into temptation, fall prey to temptation. But if we pre decide, if we make an intentional effort to say, I want to guide my heart in the right direction, if I predecide, it means that I can be prepared when that temptation comes, that I’ve already predecided the direction that I want to go. And the scripture talks about it as spiritual disciplines that when we talk in church about reading the Bible, spending time in prayer, spending time in worship, spending time in community, why do those things ma matter? Why do those things add value? Those things add value because they’re helping orchestrate and orient my heart to go the direction that I want it to.

That if I can say the driving force in my heart, the driving force of my life needs to be that I love Jesus, then I need to create habits to help orient me to go that direction. And there’s a fascinating book called the Willpower Instinct. It’s written by a woman named Kelly McGonigal. She’s a PhD. She teaches a a upper level course at Stanford University about willpower, and she studies the psychology of willpower. And here’s what she writes in her book. Willpower isn’t just a skill, it’s a muscle like the muscles in your arms or legs, and it gets tired as it works harder. So there’s less power left over to control your impulses. People who use their willpower seem to run out of it and study after study, resisting tempting sweets didn’t just trigger cravings, as if every act of willpower was drawing from the same source of strength, leaving people weaker with each successful act of control.

Now, here’s the idea that the research says that your willpower, my willpower functions like a muscle. So imagine if you go to the gym and, and you decide you’re gonna do some curls. If you pick up really heavy weights and just do a handful of curls, you’re gonna fatigue your muscles to the point of failure where all of a sudden you can’t pick those weights up anymore. But the opposite is true too. If you pick up really light weights and start doing a whole lot of reps, it will require more reps. But eventually, no matter how light the weight, you can get your muscles to the point of fatigue where you are at failure. And you can no longer pick up what seemed like a really small amount of weight, will power the study, say work just like a muscle that you can tire it out to the point of failure.

And so to put it practically, it’s like this. If I decided that I’m going to go on a diet and I’m gonna try and eat healthy, but I also decide to carry around a bag of Cheetos with me all day, every day, it says that maybe in the early morning if I wake up and say, Hey, I’m on the diet, I’m gonna go the right direction. I I’m gonna really eat healthy. Maybe early in the morning I can look at the Cheetos and say, nuh Cheetos, I have made the decision only to eat healthy. If I carry this bag around all day, it means that my willpower constantly is having to make the decision not to eat the Cheetos. So the longer my willpower is having to make that decision, the weaker my willpower becomes. But here’s what the research says. It’s not just that my willpower becomes weaker for the food and the Cheetos.

It means that my willpower becomes weaker for every other temptation that exists in my life. One of the things that, that she says in the book is she talks about two key things. The so what, okay, what do I do with this? She says, first we have to clarify our deepest values. She calls it our want power. So if you really want to have strong willpower, it starts in your heart. Just like scripture says the same thing, it starts in our heart of saying, this is the direction I want to go. If I decide in my heart I love Jesus, I wanna make choices in my life to demonstrate that I first have to decide that in my heart, and then I have to put my place myself in places to be successful. So if I have a temptation that I know exists in my life, I shouldn’t place myself in positions where that temptation is gonna be harder to resist.

Someone who’s a recovering alcoholic shouldn’t spend time hanging out at a bar. But in the same way, think of the temptations that you struggle with the most in your life. If I’m someone who struggles with materialism, I, I shouldn’t just spend hours on my phone scrolling through Instagram and social media, looking at all the wonderful things that other people own that I do not ’cause it’s gonna stir inside my heart that materialism, that temptation that I’ve decided is a concern for me and my heart. So, so first I have to decide on my heart what is that thing I care about the most? Pursue that direction. And then I need to intentionally make choices to place myself in a position where I’m surrounding myself with people that are trying to go the same direction and not putting myself in positions where I’m going to be tempted to go down the wrong path.

As you saw on your way in, you heard in that video announcements, but today’s a serve weekend. Next Sunday, it’ll be serve weekend as well, that our whole atrium is trying to give you opportunities. Here are all the different opportunities that have inside of our church for us to serve. Why is serving such a big deal? Well, well, there’s a functional side that, that we need people to serve. Like our, our kids’ ministry falls apart if we have no volunteers whatsoever. Like church doesn’t work without volunteers. But there’s a spiritual component to it as well, because when I’m serving, I’m choosing to put other people above myself. It is an act saying instead of just focus on whatever makes me happy in the moment, doing whatever I want, spending my time on me, I’m intentionally choosing to use my time for other people. And the data, the research would say that the most fulfilling life that I can have is in serving other people.

Now, in the moment, it’s not always fun to serve other people, is it? I mean, in the moment when you are serving other people, it means you are being selfless in putting them first and yet long term, over and over and over. The data would say secular data, although scripture would back this up, that the best type of life, the most fulfilling type of life that you and I could live is one that’s not focused on us, but instead it’s focused on others instead that you see, the danger of sin is that sin can destroy so quickly that, that you can be building something. Think about a relationship. You can build a relationship for weeks and months and years and decades, and then you can destroy that relationship in an instant. I came across this, this article this week about a guy named Ahmed Gabber and Ahmed in 2014.

He set a world record. This picture has him holding up the Guinness Book of World Record, where he has the world record for the deepest scuba dive. He went down 1090 feet, he was off the coast of Egypt, went down to a really deep place in the ocean. That’s, that sounds terrifying to me personally, by the way, but what was fascinating reading about it is how quickly he goes from the top to the bottom, that in less than 15 minutes, that’s how long it took him. Less than 15 minutes, that’s how long it took him to get from the boat, all the way down to the very bottom of the ocean, the depth that he was trying to go. But, but here’s what was more fascinating. Guess how long it took him to get back up to the top? 13 hours, 50 minutes, 15 minutes to get to the bottom.

13 hours, 50 minutes to get back to the top. Why? Well, well, because your lungs, the pressure in your lungs can’t just go back to the top. They, they pop you die. So you have to pressurize yourself slowly. That’s why in the picture, he goes down with so many takes of oxygen because he had to be very intentional in slowly coming back, little bit at a time, little bit at a time, a little bit at a time, a little bit at a time. Do you know that that picture is the same way that sin works in your life and in my life? That to fall into the depths of sin takes just a moment. It is easy. Less than 15 minutes to go to the very, very bottom. 13 hours, 50 minutes to climb back up. There’s an old phrase that says, sin will take you further than you want to go.

It will keep you longer than you want to stay. It will cost you more than you want to pay. And here’s my encouragement is maybe, maybe you’re in this room right now and you have had some type of a temptation in your life that, that you’ve just been toying around with or flirting with, and you’ve bought into that lie, well, hey, this thing is gonna make me happy and nobody’s gonna ever know it’s not gonna affect anybody else. And at first, it’s like grabbing a Cheeto. At first, it seems like, ah, it’s not that big of a deal. But the longer you go down that road, the more destructive it becomes. And in a room this size, there are people in this room this week that you are toying and playing with some things that they could crush your future less through the power of the Holy Spirit.

You repent and say, okay, God, help me turn away from that thing and seek your face. Sin is so destructive in just a moment, it can destroy something you’ve been building an entire lifetime. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, God, I just pray that the truth, the wisdom of Proverbs would be real in our life, God, that, that we are surrounded by temptation every single day. And in order to best fight that temptation, we have to start by looking at our heart. Make sure that our heart is aimed and oriented after you wholeheartedly create those practices in our life to help push our heart and guide our heart the direction that we want it to go, to fall more and more deeply in love with you. And then choose the locations that we, we place our feet. Help us surround ourselves with community and place ourself in positions to be successful and not place ourselves in positions where we’re gonna be tempted.

And that there are these paths in front of us and one leads towards destruction. And why does that path, but there’s this other path of life that is narrow. God help us to pursue that wholeheartedly as a community. Got anyone in this room right now that God, they are, they’re flirting with disaster. I just pray through the power of your Holy Spirit. You would convict of that temptation or maybe the full blown sin of to repent and turn back and find healing that only comes with you. It’s the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.