Coming Together Live 2023: Jesus and Wholistic Sexuality

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Coming Out Ministries

James Ash

The Greatest Temptation of All

I just want to say a big thank you to Taisha for her courageous testimony.

I want to also thank the pianist for playing so vigorously, number 294, Power in the Blood.

My wife and I spent nearly 12 years in Guyana, South America.

Most people think Guyana is in Africa, that's incorrect.

Ghana is in Africa, Guyana is in South America.

But the church that we frequently went to was predominantly East Indian, and if you know anything about the East Indian culture, you know that they're almost entirely Hindu.

But my friend Mohan Samlal came out of Hinduism.

He was on track to become 1 of these spiritual leaders in the Hindu religion.

And 1 of the things that he discovered is that when people want to come out of Hinduism, there's frequent demonic possession.

And I'll never forget, he says, you know, we pray for them and we sing hymns.

He says of all the hymns in the hymn book, there is 1 that they especially don't like.

Would you be free from your burden of sin?

He says when we begin to sing that song they go crazy because they know it's true.

I want to say it to Taisha, I just really appreciate that, because there was a demonic spirit, but the Spirit of Christ broke that spirit.

Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Father in heaven, I just want to say thank you for such a powerful testimony.

For the Bible says he is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, for he ever lives to make intercession.

Father, we are just praising you for this testimony tonight.

Father, I don't, boy, I don't know how to quite follow that up, but I just, I'm praying right now that the Spirit of the living God would come with power right now, and that we would understand about your character, about your character of love and what you want to do.

So I thank you for answering this prayer in Jesus name, amen.

This evening I want to talk a little bit about temptation.

Up until this last week, I had some misconceptions about temptation.

When we think about temptation, I want to take you to a parable that Jesus told, a parable at the end of the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus said that there were 2 builders, 1 that was a wise builder, another that was a fool.

The wise builder, by the way, the Bible doesn't say how their construction style was.

The Bible doesn't describe particularly the type of house that they built.

The Bible focuses, Jesus focuses in on the story on where they chose to build on.

Now what I find fascinating about this parable is that in both situations, both the wise and the fool, the wise person and the fool, they both are building, ostensibly they're building their own house.

But they're building on a very different foundation.

The Bible says everyone who hears these words of mine whether they're wise or not They are going to encounter a storm and somebody here knows exactly what I'm talking about because you have encountered perhaps even right now you're encountering those storms of temptation.

And when you think about this, I want you to think about storm, and I want you to think about temptation because the word trial and the word temptation in the original language are almost interchangeable.

Let me ask a key question, and I want you to think about this.

When the storm comes, as it does, And it comes against the house, Jesus is very clear, it comes against the house.

Does it, many people think that the test is coming against the house.

It ultimately tests the foundation Are you following me?

So when we talk about temptation, I don't want to build houses of understanding.

I want to look at the foundation What is the foundation of temptation?

Because that's really what, whether it undergirds everything is either going to allow us to be overcomers or ultimately we will falter and fail.

Now when we talk about temptation, there is a what I call a morning star text and that's found in 1st Corinthians chapter 10.

The reason why I say morning star text is because every morning when I go off to my 666 prayer group, and I should probably explain now what 666 prayer group means.

It's at 06:00 in the morning, 6 days a week for 60 minutes.

Okay, I don't want to get anyone get a faulty idea of what we're doing in our prayer group But when I go out when I go to my prayer group my my parents live about 15 feet away from our House And so I get into my car, I back the car around into their driveway, and as I'm waiting, as I'm waiting for them to come in and to join me to go off to prayer group, I look off to my left, and just as the sun is starting to come up there's 1 star that just is brilliant.

It's actually not a star, it's the planet Venus, but it looks like a star.

And in 1st Corinthians 10 verse 13 there is what I call a morning star text when it comes to temptation 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13 the Bible says no temptation has overtaken you except such as common to man.

God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make a what?

A way of escape that you may be able to bear it." So the reality is that this text is telling us that there's a commonality to temptation.

Sometimes we're tempted to say, oh, I'm the only 1 that feels this way.

The Bible says, no temptation has overtaken you except that which is common to man.

Solomon says there's nothing new under the sun.

If you felt it, somebody else has felt it too.

Temptations have a striking similarity and when we really dig into this passage as we're going to do, we're going to find that there's a similar foundation.

And I think it's going to tie in to what Taisha was talking about.

God's faithfulness is demonstrated by not allowing you to be tempted at a higher level.

Could you imagine if you were in first grade and someone gave you a calculus test?

Good teachers understand that grade school students can't be tested at graduate school levels.

We understand that the test has to be up to the level and not beyond.

He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but will provide a what?

Temptations come with an escape hatch so that you can bear it.

Now, up until about a week ago, I never really had spent much time unpacking the context.

So I want to take you to the beginning of 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13, because we're going to see something very striking.

Come with me to the very beginning of 1st Corinthians chapter 10.

The Apostle Paul says, Moreover brethren I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink.

For they all drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ." So Paul says, I don't want you to be unaware.

I'm going to share something that's going to help you to understand.

So Paul gives 5 examples, 5 different examples here in rapid succession, and he uses an interesting Jewish literary way.

What he does is, in a short little snippet, he's making allusions to Old Testament stories that the Jews, and probably many in this room, understood.

Now, we do this, if I were to say just a phrase part of a phrase we hold these truths to be self-evident could you continue it that all men are created equal yes that's exactly Where does it come from?

4 score and 7 years our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation Now if I were to go to India and I were to say that they wouldn't have a clue what that means But because you are Americans and you understand all of a sudden you realize, hey, that's a Gettysburg address.

So for a Jew, when Paul comes and he says, all our fathers were under the cloud, they know exactly what cloud that is.

It's not any cloud, that's the pillar of cloud, the presence of God that was leading them out of Egypt towards the promised land All passed through the sea all were baptized into Moses all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the spiritual drink So I want to unpack this a little bit because we're going to find a similar foundation to temptation.

Now you know the background to this story probably, so we'll move very quickly through.

As they came out of Egypt, the pillar of cloud led, instead of directly towards the promised land it led towards in a roundabout way led towards the Red Sea and all of a sudden it led them up to the Red Sea and here They are in this vulnerable position on the 1 side is the Red Sea there's mountains and then all of a sudden they look back and they see the armies of Pharaoh coming after them and They panic They panic Let me read you what they said.

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The Greatest Temptation of All

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