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Lord’s Day 52, Q&A 127
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For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were allunder the cloud and that they all passed through the sea.
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They were all baptized into Moses inthe cloud and in the sea.
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They all ate the same spiritual food
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and drank the same spiritualdrink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
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Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in thewilderness.
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Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things asthey did.
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Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: "The people sat down to eatand drink and got up to indulge in revelry."
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We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.
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We should not test Christ, assome of them did—and were killed by snakes.
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And do not grumble, as some of them did—andwere killed by the destroying angel.
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These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, onwhom the culmination of the ages has come.
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So, if you think you are standing firm, be carefulthat you don't fall!
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No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to us all. And Godis 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 Corinthians 10:1-13
Lead us not into temptation…
127 Q. What does the sixth request mean?A. "And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evilone" means, By ourselves we are too weak to hold our own evenfor a moment. And our sworn enemies—the devil, the world, andour own flesh—never stop attacking us. And so, Lord, uphold usand make us strong with the strength of your Holy Spirit, so thatwe may not go down to defeat in this spiritual struggle, but mayfirmly resist our enemies until we finally win the complete victory.GaladrielA hopeful prayer amid hopelessness.
I. Lead us not into temptation.
We pray these words all the time. Hundreds if not thousands of times in our lives and I think of all the things we ask God this may be the one request that we request the most.
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Let’s begin by talking about this question:
What is temptation?
One of the small paperback dictionaries on my shelf definestemptation in this way: "The act of tempting." Very helpful.Maybe we can help my dictionary out here. What is temptation?- wanting to do something you know you shouldn't- being enticed into doing something that is bad for you or for others- strongly inviting someone to do what they do not want to do- risking the danger of something because you want it.You want to know my definition of temptation:
Cheesecake.
With the exception of mine we’ve heard some very gooddefinitions here. I’m going to use mine as an illustration to makethe point. There are really three components to defining temptationin a meaningful way that’s going to be useful for our discussion.I think the first component has to do with desire. In everydefinition of temptation there has to be something that you want –  badly. Take cheesecake for example. If there is one in myrefrigerator I know about it. I don’t concern myself with the milk,the eggs, or anything else in there. I mean, that’s just food. But if there’s a cheesecake in there I think about it. I know it’s there. If itsurvives past the time I sleep I’ll dream about the stuff. You canhave your chocolate – I like cheesecake. Want. Desire. That’s a part of temptation.The second component to temptation has to do with negativeconsequence. There has to be a side to temptation which says thatthis is bad. There is some sense of harm whether it’s physical,mental or spiritual involved in the temptation process. I should not
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eat cheesecake because a. I will finish the whole thing and b. Itherefore won’t stay below 190 pounds.Which brings us to the third component to temptation which isincredibly important. It’s the possibility of giving in to it.Look if somebody offers me chocolate it’s not temptation. I mightwant it. The desire is there. I mean, I remember how deliciouschocolate is. The negative consequence of a trip to the hospital iscertainly there. But the offer isn’t temptation because I’m never going to eat any.But 99 times out of 100 a cheesecake sitting in my fridge is notgoing to escape plus or minus 1 percent for statistical error.Cheesecake is temptation.One part desire. One part risk. Served with a heaping scoop of  potential catastrophe.The Catechism describes this reality of temptation in our lives. Itsays this is who we are: “By ourselves we are too weak to hold our own even for a moment.”Temptation is real. Not just dietary temptation – but soul and lifeimpacting temptation. The temptation to sin. The temptation toreject God. The temptation to hurt the ones we love all for the sakeof gaining some measure of temporal satisfaction.When we’re alone the catechism tells us that we…don’t…stand…a…chance…And we know that…don’t we brothers and sisters. Each one of us battles temptations both big and small every single day. And weknow that we don’t always win – we give in to anger, to hate, to
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