Nicky Gumbel’s notes on today’s Bible readings in the ‘Bible In One Year’ reading plan speak of 5Ts essential to life.

These are, he says:

1. Trust (the Christian life is not meant to be one of ‘self-dependent toil, but of dependent trust,’ reminding us that ‘if you want your work to have lasting value, you need to make sure you are partnering with the Lord and not going it alone.’)
2. Trials (a challenge of life that test our faith and develop perseverance, according to James 1:3-4. Lance Watson said, ‘Every storm is a school. Every trial is a test. Every experience is an education. Every difficulty is for development.’)
3. Temptation (it seems that whilst opportunity may only knock once, temptations lean on the doorbell and face us constantly, but as we considered on Sunday, temptation is not sin, but rather a call to battle.)
4. Tongue (we are called to watch our words, to listen more than we speak and to speak words of edification to others. See James 1:19-21 and James 3:10-12)
5. Turn (God calls us to turn from our wicked ways towards Him (Is 55:6-7) and reminds us that our role is to ‘warn the wicked to turn from their ways’ (Ezek 33:9))

To this, I would add a 6th T – ‘Thankfulness‘, for when we give thanks in all circumstances, we can be sure we’re in God’s will. (1 Thess 5:18)

Languishing in the cistern:

Bruised, bewildered and betrayed,

Joseph waiting in confused darkness.

What had he done to deserve this?

His own flesh and blood turned on him,

Smiling faces turned hooded,

Malevolence and spite overpowering in their force.

Injustice mingled with indignity,

Confusion reigning in the chaos,

The ordinary day forever ripped apart,

Confidence crushed, arrogance abrogated.

Rotting in the belly of a great fish,

Smelling the decaying digestion,

Strangled by slimy seaweed,

Stinking seawater threatening to fill his lungs,

Jonah cried out to the Lord in his distress.

His own disobedience and folly gripping his heart more strongly than the whirling weeds,

A cry for help and deliverance his only hope.

Stuck in the mud,

Sinking fast in its glutinous mess,

Jeremiah bore the pain of rejection.

Spurned by officials for speaking the truth,

Banished to the depths,

A prophet’s fate no easy lot.

This is all the thanks I get for speaking the word of the Lord?!

Cisterns.

Fish.

Wells.

Holes.

Unlikely places for encounters with the Holy.

Dank, dark, miserable places.

Fighting-for-your-life places.

Vomit-inducing, stomach-heaving, malodorous cesspits of

Betrayal.

Greed.

Indignity.

Injustice.

Yet these were revelatory rendez-vous,

Transforming turning points,

Significant signposts on the journey of faith.

No place too lowly for God’s downward reach.

No place too lowly for a cry to ring out.

Out of the depths we cry to You.

(Scripture references: Genesis 37, Jonah 2, Jeremiah 38, Psalm 130)

We had two birthdays to celebrate tonight:

And even the visitor who came to celebrate this first birthday ended up on the birthday box!

Dave continued his series on revival tonight, looking at possibly the most famous verse associated with this subject: 2 Chronicles 7:14. In context (for ‘a text taken out of context leaves a con…’), this call to humility, prayer, repentance and seeking God did not come during a period of tragedy and mourning, but during the dedication of the temple in King Solomon’s reignm a time of celebration and joy. Whether we are in mourning or in celebration, however, this verse shows us how to respond to God.

Who must do what God says?

God’s people are the ones called to obey God. We are called by God; having His name on us is one way of expressing His ownership (see Is 43:7, Is 65:1). Obviously, in context, this referred to the nation of Israel, but Christians are also known as God’s people (1 Pet 2:9), people who bear the name of Christ. The call to obedience is to Christians.

How must we respond to God at such a time as this?

God looks for us to:

1. humble ourselves (admitting our need for and our dependence upon God, acknowledging that what matters is not how we measure up to other people but how we measure up to God’s holy standards. We are called to submit ourselves to God, resist the devil, grieve, mourn and wail and change our attitudes to humility – see James 4:7-10).
2. pray (acknowledging we are sinners in need of God, crying out to God for mercy. Ps 145:18-19 reminds us that God is near to all who call on Him in truth, fulfilling the desires of those who fear Him, hearing their cry and saving them.)
3. seek God’s face (seeking His favour, realising that sin is the thing that separates us from God’s favour and that we must confess our sins – 1 Jn 1:9 – secure in the atonement Jesus has purchased for us.)
4. turn from our wicked ways (we must repent, turning away from our sins. Christians should not be so influenced by the values and priorities of the world that we become indistinguishable in our behaviour from lost people; there needs to be a radical difference in our lifestyles which can only come about through repentance. Is 55:6-7 reminds us of the need to seek the Lord, forsaking our wicked ways. 1 Pet 4:17 reminds us that ‘it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God.’ We need to take seriously the warnings against sin and complacency and turn from our wicked ways.)

What will happen if we do what God says?

1. God will hear from heaven. God is sovereign and in sovereign power and glory, He will hear us.
2. God will forgive our sin. Sin is the key problem in the world and God has dealt with sin decisively by sending His only Son to die for our sins.
3. God will heal our land. The people in our land need God; for God to heal our land, people need healing, salvation and restoration.

This verse is conditional. It is an ‘if… then’ statement. God looks to us, His believing people, to do what we must do so that He will be free to do what He wants to do for our nation. We can listen to sermon after sermon and be unchanged… or we can take to heart the key word ‘if’ and become the cause of blessing for our nation as we respond in humility, prayer, supplication and repentance.

I believe at the heart of every battle we face in life lies a stark choice. Will we trust what God says, even if we don’t understand it, or will we believe the lies of the enemy that God has motives that are selfish and venal and that He doesn’t have our best interests at heart? Will we believe God or will we believe our own thoughts and desires? Which voice will we listen to?

When I was 40, I was diagnosed as diabetic, and I faced a stark choice. Would I carry on with the same eating habits which had led me to this place or would I be brave enough to change how I lived life? That choice has to be made on a daily basis; there is never a day which goes by when I do not have serious choices to make regarding what I eat and how I live.

In the same way, every day we are called to live by faith and not by sight. (2 Cor 5:7) I don’t think that trusting God is as easy as we might like to pretend. God is continually stretching our faith, taking us out of our comfort zones, urging us on to new challenges. This is so that we don’t rely on ourselves, but continually learn to rely on God (2 Cor 1:9), but it usually involves a battle within. We often don’t talk about these battles, for fear of seeming unspiritual or weak, but we need to be honest with ourselves and with other people and also be accountable. You know your weaknesses, the things that trip you up, those sins that entangle you and cause you to stumble, but are you willing to admit to those things and ask others to pray for you and hold you accountable? I have a friend I will text when I am struggling to think the right things so that she can pray for me and can remind me of truth I might not otherwise be able to access at that time. We all need help to overcome temptation, and the good news is that ‘no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.’ (1 Cor 10:13)

The Borg in Star Trek told all their adversaries that ‘resistance is futile.’ This is not the Biblical view. We are not in this battle alone. The enemy says that we are: as Casting Crowns sing,

‘Sin tries to make you hide,
Whispers that same old lie:
“Keep all your pain inside
‘Cause no one will understand.”’ (‘Loving My Jesus’, Casting Crowns)

The truth is, however, that we have a high priest who is able to help us in every way because He knows all about temptation and internal battles and He gives us brothers and sisters in Christ to encourage us, come alongside us, pray for us and carry our burdens (Gal 6:2). Don’t give up; don’t give in. Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. (1 Jn 4:4) God’s Spirit within us is able to help us to make the right choices when we’re faced with the stark choices.

When we look at that first battle (Gen 3:1-19), we see the different guises of temptation which Satan tends to use. He uses loaded questions to introduce doubt and uncertainty into our minds. He impugns God’s character, making us believe that God is not always good, faithful, honourable and holy. He offers us something which initially looks good, appealing to both the senses and to our reason: ‘When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.’ (Gen 3:6)

The fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil looked good and pleasing to the eye (and wasn’t necessarily an apple, despite the pictures!) Temptation often comes to us dressed in pleasing clothes, and we are people who are easily moved by our senses: what looks good, feels good, tastes nice, smells nice, sounds good must be good, we reason. You’ve only to look at the packaging and advertising of food to see where this has led us. The truth is that ‘temptation and evil almost always appear disguised as good and beautiful.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘Tell It Slant’, P 191) That’s why it’s so appealing; it doesn’t look dangerous or evil. We have to remember that temptation doesn’t always come in the form of a serpent; the devil also masquerades as an angel of light. (2 Cor 11:14) Not all of our enemies look like enemies. If they did, we probably would find it easier to defeat them. The snake may seem like a classic pantomime baddy as we re-read this story, but so often, we do not recognise the sources of the lies which lead us astray as easily in real life.

The appeal to reason (what could possibly be bad about wisdom, after all?!) also shows us how easy is for us to rationalise our capitulation to temptation. Beware rationalisation and explanations which water down God’s Word and lead us down blind alleys!

Temptation comes to us at different levels, appealing to the senses and to the mind, but in every case, we have a choice between doing something that will lead to life or something that will lead us away from life, between something which is beneficial and something which is harmful, between something good and something better, even.

Temptation isn’t sin and we will all be tempted at some point in our lives. Martin Luther said, ‘Temptations, of course, cannot be avoided, but because we cannot prevent the birds from flying over our heads, there is no need that we should let them nest in our hair.’ The point he was making is that we have no choice necessarily in what temptations come our way, but we do have a choice about how we respond to them. This is where TETIC comes in! – ‘we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.’ (2 Cor 10:5)

However temptation is dressed, we need to put on the full armour of God so that we can stand against the devil’s schemes. James offers us great advice for tackling this battle within: ‘Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you.’ (James 4:7-8) As we do this, God lifts us up and helps us. Martin Luther ended a letter to a student battling depression and temptation with these thoughts (paraphrased):

1. Rejoice because temptation testifies of God’s mercy to you.
2. Do not dwell on the deadly thoughts of the Devil.
3. Laugh your adversary to scorn.
4. Be around other believers.
5. Proclaim the good news of Jesus for you and your salvation.[1]

[1] Luther: Letters of Spiritual Counsel, trans. and ed., Theodore G. Tappert, 1960, (Vancouver, BC: Regent College Publishing, 2003), 85ff.