Two Paths - Turning vs. Winning

Thanks, girls, for doing that. It's always great when we have the variety that we have here at the East. Each of us at different times have read over the biblical account of Moses leading the Israelites for Egypt. We actually, many of us, have probably seen a movie depicting it and talking about it. It's a fun one to watch if you can stay up until the very end.

That was always my problem as a kid. We'd start off watching that movie, and I still, to this day, I'm not sure how it ends movie-wise. I've read the account. It ends well.

As a nation, the people of Israel have been analyzed, scrutinized, even pulverized at times by biblical scholars, maybe even you or I have done the same at different times.

When the Israelites left Egypt and were being led to the Promised Land, they failed to truly understand the depth and the meaning behind what God was doing in their lives. At times, I think you and I can probably say the same thing about God and what He's doing in our lives. Going through life, we find out that it's easy to fall back into old habits, old ways of life, when at other times we've made progress. We sometimes miss how great of a work God is doing in our lives, the miracles that are being performed, and the changing of our heart from a heart of stone, one that is calloused, one that is hardened to His way, motivated by our own desires, to more of a soft heart, a heart that is sensitive to sin and willing to make a change.

At the crux of the issue stands this question that we must each ask ourselves, how am I doing at focusing on Christ and putting more of Him in my life? It's a question that we pondered a few weeks ago, several weeks ago, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread. It's a question that we should still ponder today as we are on the eve of the Feast of Pentecost, a holy day that symbolizes the receiving of the Holy Spirit, the power to change, the power to transform our lives, and the strength that we have in God and in Christ.

So we ask, how am I doing at focusing on Christ and putting more of Him into our life? As you know, I'm a visual person. I like illustrations. I like stories. And so if you'll give me a little bit of freedom this morning, I'd like to walk you through a scenario. Imagine for a moment it's an evening, maybe an afternoon.

You're at home. Maybe you've got the kids playing in the backyard. Or if you're a grandparent, maybe you just handed the kids back off to mom and dad, and the house is a little quiet. Or maybe you're just finishing up a few things around the house, and you're checking out the fridge and starting to make plans for dinner. And you realize there's not a whole lot in the fridge. You need a little something else. You've got to make a grocery trip.

So you pull out your notepad, you jot down the bread, milk, maybe some veggies to complement the dinners. You've got a plan for the upcoming days. And maybe even a special treat. Maybe those Georgia peaches that are starting to make their way up to our shelves now, our stores here.

The sweet, fall-off-the-stone types of peaches. Maybe a treat. And so you pull out your list, and you write it down, and you make your way out to the grocery. And you're driving along. It's a nice day, and you're thinking about the blessings maybe that God has blessed you with over the past week. You might be thinking about the short list of items that you want to do coming up around the house or things. And you're topping a hill, and off to the right, you notice that gas station that they've been building for a while.

And it looks like it's actually finished now. It's open. The sign out front is big and bright. It's lit up. And as you're getting closer, you notice there's some cars in the parking lot, some people going in and out of the store. It's neat. It's different. It catches your eye.

And you're driving along, and like I said, you see it, and you notice it. And you find yourself not being able to really take your mind off of the gas station. You're thinking about it and wondering what it looks like inside, wondering what they have. And it looks like a hippin' and hap'n'n place to be. There's a lot of cars out front. It looks like they're doing okay. And so you find yourself not being able to let this thought out of your mind.

And you end up having that desire to pull in and to check it out. And so you do. You pull in, you park your car, you step inside the gas station. And in doing so, it's not really on the forefront of your mind anymore what your original goal of your trip was. It's kind of skipped away for a minute, hasn't it? How easy it is to switch our minds and our thoughts away from our initial needs of going to the grocery store and onto something that we really had no plans of doing.

It wasn't on our mind. It seems like a strange illustration. It's a little bit of an odd illustration. It's just a gas station, right? But if you allow me, as I asked, some creative license, the gas station in this scenario represents sin. And the grocery store and the products that are in it represent righteous things. Good decisions of God. So you see, so many times in life, we go out with the right intentions. We go out with the right thoughts, the right goals in life. We have a thought that is pure, a motivation that is well-meaning. But then out of nowhere, something catches our eye.

Something distracts us, and we end up someplace we didn't plan to be. I think this is what happened to the Israelites, and I think it can also happen to us if we're not careful as we travel through life.

So today, let's consider two separate and distinct paths we can travel. First, the path of temptation and turning, which leads to hurting. And the second, the straight path of righteousness, living daily with Christ in us, which leads to victory and eternal life in the kingdom of God. It's one of my longer SPSs, so I'll repeat it. First, it's the path of temptation and turning, which results in hurting. And the second is the straight path of righteousness, living daily with Christ in us, which leads to victory and eternal life in the kingdom of God.

Back to our scenario for just a minute. We were just driving along, minding our business, and out of nowhere, temptation entered. Something along with our drive, something as we're just coming along, not thinking about it, pops into our mind. We see it. We're distracted. It drew our attention away from our original intent of going to the grocery. And it's not a sin to be tempted.

It's what we do after that initial temptation that either leads to righteousness or it leads to sin. Let's look at that in James 1.

James 1, and we'll read verses 13-15. James 1, verse 13 reads, It's not a sin to see that flashy gas station.

We can't help but to see physical things in our life. God has given us senses to experience this world in, part of its eyesight. It's not a sin for us to notice that gas station. It's what we do next, though, that counts. When we turn towards a sin and allow the thoughts associated with it to enter our mind, our actions can easily follow shortly behind the thoughts.

The Hebrew and Greek word for sin, we're going to look at, is transgression, and can be translated as transgression or in missing the mark. To transgress something means to step across or go beyond a set boundary or limit.

So to go beyond a set boundary or limit. So imagine a soccer field for a moment. You're playing soccer, and the white lines that frame out the soccer field, you step out of bounds. You are no longer able to be a participant in the game to continue to kick the ball. So you've transgressed the limits of that playing field. The other aspect, or the other way it can be translated, is missing the mark, which is strain off course, turning wrong or aside, and not continuing in the intended direction with the results, that we don't make it to the goal.

So with our same soccer analogy, this is on the field. You're within the limits of the field, but as you kick the ball towards the goal, it sails left or right or high. It doesn't go within the goals. You missed the mark. We missed what we were aiming for. Temptation occurs daily in our life, even on a good day. Our selfishness, our own motivation, our pride, sits right below the surface and somehow seems to wiggle its way into most of our days. Most of our aspects of our days. And again, it's not a sin for us to be tempted.

It's what happens next that will lead to sin if we allow it to. Let's go back to our grocery trip analogy again. Here we were, driving along on our way, doing what we were supposed to do, and we come over the hill and we take sight of that new gas station.

And before we knew it, we found ourselves going ahead and turning in to check it out. We have veered off our intended path, off the road that was leading to our intended direction. But why did we turn? I have to ask ourselves that question. Why did we turn? There isn't anything really that we need from that gas station, is there? In fact, if we really ask ourselves, we didn't really want to turn. But as we sometimes find, at times in our life, we find ourselves turning anyways.

Maybe it was that huge sign out front, that big flashy sign, colorful, drew our attention and we couldn't get the thought out of our mind. Or maybe we looked down and said, well, the tank could be topped off.

I could use a little bit of gas right now. Or I can always use that candy bar. I mean, I haven't had lunch today and everybody knows how I get if I haven't had my candy bar. Or was it that sign that was flashing, that neon sign that said, ice cold drinks? Maybe that's what caught our eye. The new Revised Standard Version of Romans 7, verse 21 says, Evil lies close at hand. Evil lies close at hand.

This is what happens when we allow temptation to grow in our minds to a point where desire then takes hold. Desire then blossoms into sin, transgression of God's law, which then leads to death if it's not repented of.

This is serious business, and at this point we must repent from our heart before God and make a course correction back onto our original right path. Sadly, this is a process that we are all familiar with, because at one time or another, each of us has fallen short and we have sinned but against God. Let's think for a moment personally.

How does this apply to our lives? What are the things in your life that grab your attention? What are your personal gas stations? Is it Facebook? Is it the entertainment industry of music, movies, music? I say music twice. Movies, TV, music? Could it be the lust of the eyes?

The lust of the eyes? Lust of the flesh? Lust of the eyes or the pride of life? Could it be spending time with some friends that don't have the same beliefs that we do and we're tempted to go hang out with them and to do things that they enjoy doing right now? Could it be sports or dances or school events that conflict with God's way of life? This twist could be ever-growing, and this twist should be customized to you, because it's really anything that results in breaking one or more of God's commandments. You have to fill in the blank, just as much as I have to fill in the blank.

Reality is, we will encounter our own personal gas stations every single day. It's part of living in this world while trying not to be part of the world. Sometimes a gas station and the grocery store are as close together as being right across the street from each other. Isn't this how it is in real life? You go down and there's a grocery store in one corner and a gas station on the other.

Righteousness and sin can be very close to each other, side by side or even just across the street. Genesis 4 verse 7 says, If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. That's the key aspect of the Scripture. Sin lies at the door, and its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.

Isn't it funny how sometimes sin lies right at the door? It's almost like that Amazon package right at the front steps. It's that close. Sin can be that close to us and to our heart. We have to be careful at all times because before we know it, we can find ourselves being tempted to turn towards sin. Want to see how quickly we can go off the rails? Let's look at an example in Exodus 32. It's a powerful example of the Israelites quickly turning to sin. This is in Exodus 32.

And we'll read in verse 1. In the background, we know that Israel has now come to Mount Sinai. Moses is gone, and this is the result.

We're in your ears, your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me how quickly they went off the rails. Maybe there's more to the story. It's not accounted here for us to know. But if we read it as it's written, which we should, it seemed like it was a not well thought out process. It was something that happened quickly. That temptation entered in, and they quickly turned. Verse 3.

Really? Really?

I don't make light of the story when I added to my own commentary, because how quickly have I gone off the rails? We each have gone off the rails in a super fast fashion. One that if you look back on your life, you could just shake your head at. That's all you can do, because you just realize just how quickly, in your own life, we've gotten ourselves off the rails. And it's easy for us to read through this passage and say, yeah, that was them. It's not me.

Really? It's tough to read this and not think personally about maybe the time set as it said here. They have turned aside quickly, out of the way which I commanded them. The gas station is right along the road to our destination. Right along. We didn't have to go a different route. We didn't have to purposely get in our car with the mind that we're going to take this route that's going to lead us by the gas station. The gas station is right along our route. And this is just the way that life is when there's a world that's ruled by Satan today. So many times, the opportunity to sin is right along our path while we're doing something right and doing something good. But we still have a choice. Turn aside towards the temptation or stay on the straight path towards righteousness. Let's look at Proverbs because it talks about this straight path. Proverbs 4. This is Proverbs 4, and we'll start reading in verse 11. Verse 11 starts, And this is talking about people who are going after immoral things or wrong things, sinful things. For they do not sleep unless they have done evil, and their sleep is taken away unless they make someone fall. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. But notice this, But the path of the just is like the shining sun that shines ever brighter unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is like darkness. They do not know what makes them stumble. My sun, give attention to my words, incline your ear to my sayings. Do not let them depart from your eyes. Keep them in the midst of your heart. For they are life to those who find them and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence. For out of it springs the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and perverse lips far from you. And notice the last few verses here. Let your eyes look straight ahead, not to the right, not to the left. Let your eyes look straight ahead, and your eyelids look right before you. Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Do not turn to the right or to the left. Remove your foot from evil. It's a powerful passage that we have here in Proverbs. Because when we don't follow what it's said here to do, and we don't follow that straight and narrow path, it leads us to another destination. And it leads us to the end result, which is hurt. Hurt. Sin hurts. Sometimes sin feels good in the moment, but it doesn't happen without damage being done. There is never a time that sin occurs without damage. Never. Sin causes damage to ourselves and to others. And back to our analogy, what was our original intent for going to the store? It was to buy groceries, wholesome food, things our family needed. It might have been bread for the kids' lunches that never got bought. So the side effect of us turning led us to where we have now neglected some of our responsibilities, some of our duties. We never made it to the store. We wasted time. We wasted money. We wasted energy. We have been harmed ourselves. And as sin often does, though, it's not just us who we hurt, but those who are closest to us. Those we lay down our lives for. Those we do anything for. Peter understood the damage of sin, and he wrote a passage contrasting a life in Christ versus the way that most in the world lives their lives. This is in 1 Peter 4.

Because unlike the world, we have God's Holy Spirit to lead us, to strengthen us, and to guide us. This is a gift from God. It's one that we asked for, and we accepted. We made a sacrifice that said we would lead our lives, put our lives in God's hands, and leave them there. And so God gave us the Holy Spirit. And we have that, and it's something that powers us and strengthens us. Here in 1 Peter 4, starting in verse 1, we see what Peter says. Paul's here for a minute.

And that's what Peter says in verse 3.

Verse 5, That's what we're told to do, to live according to God in the Spirit. As I mentioned, we have spent enough time hurting ourselves, and we've spent more than adequate time hurting those around us, because of the choices and the temptations that we've turned to at times in our life. This progression of being tempted and then turning and then hurting has damaged generation after generation of mankind. And it's a rut that many around us find themselves consistently in. You don't have to go far from our walls here to find people who live lives consistently in sin.

But it doesn't have to be a way of life for them or for us. It doesn't have to be something that we allow ourselves to fall into as we go through the days of our life. Now, in the time we have remaining, let's look at the good path. Let's talk about the straight path that we can choose to travel, the path of righteousness, living and walking daily with Christ in us, which results in winning. This results in winning, victory and eternal life in the kingdom of God. The progression of being tempted and then turning aside and then hurting can stop right at the beginning when temptation first enters in, when we put on Christ and He lives actively in us. When we do that, we win. We win. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13.

1 Corinthians 10, verse 13.

Here we read, No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. This is that power that the Holy Spirit gives us to make a choice to choose to go a different way. Temptation is going to come in. Every aspect of it that's ever been part of humanity is out there. Temptation is all around us. We can't escape it. We can't run from it. But we can choose a different path. As it says, God will make a way of escape if we allow the Spirit to work inside of us. Remember our initial goal at the beginning of our trip, again, to buy bread for ourselves and our family. Why is it that we needed bread in the first place? Why do we need to go to the store and to buy bread? It's a staple of life. It's a staple of our homes. It's good. It's wholesome. It provides for our needs. Yes, it provides for our physical life, but it also gives us eternal life if we partake in the right kind, the bread of life. Let's look at John 6, verse 33. This is one that we looked at around the Passover season. It's one that we should go to often and consider. Because the physical bread that we get at the store, we know where that leads to. Yeah, we might be alive physically, but we're going to run out of that. It serves its purpose and it does well, but it doesn't provide the life that we each desire. John 6, verse 33.

For the bread of God is He who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. The bread of life is Jesus Christ. And isn't this the life that we desire? But this life isn't forced on us. It's an option that is presented before us, and it's the end result of choosing eternal life that will affect us forever, not just for one day like that loaf of bread would provide.

We're told to choose life in Deuteronomy 30, verse 19. You can put that in your notes. Deuteronomy 30, verse 19. I call heaven and earth as witness today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life that both you and your descendants may live. And in this physical sense, we do choose life daily, don't we? We do choose to eat dinner, we choose to eat breakfast, or at least a few meals. We may skip some, but we choose to eat because we desire to live a physical life. We know that if we stopped for an extended period of time, life would cease. We can't live without food and without water. We know this. It's not rocket science. It's very natural for us to desire to continue to live, and it's easy for us to find ways to sustain our life. But I have to ask myself the question, how am I doing spiritually at desiring eternal life? Is it as easy for me to desire and for me to feed my mind and my body with spiritual food that leads to such a greater end result than just one meal, one loaf of bread? Let's look at Colossians 1 and verse 9.

Because in Colossians, we're instructed to be filled. To be filled.

Colossians 1, verse 9.

For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power for all patience and long suffering with joy, giving thanks to the Father who have qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and He has conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin. We're instructed to be filled in the knowledge of His will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. As we take in food daily, we normally put more thought into it than we probably realize. We don't just eat once a week. We don't just eat whenever it happens. We put thought into it. It's not just during the commercial that I run and grab a bag of pretzels and run back to the couch. That's not the only time I eat all day. No, we are more systematic. We make sure that we're getting what we want to eat. We're making sure we're getting something that's quality, something that we desire.

Many times, we're making sure that what it is is good. It's healthy. It's going to sustain us. It's not just junk food. Could we put all this care into what we are eating, but really miss the mark on choosing the bread of life?

Because if you flip back to John again, I should have asked you to hold your finger there. John 6.

We put so much effort into something like food. We may not think we do because we've got food there, we know how to make it, maybe a quick meal. But we actually do, most of the time, put quite a bit of thought into what we eat. But we could be missing out on the real bread of life. This is in John 6, verse 48.

Here Christ is saying, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and are dead. They ate the bread that was at the store. They ate the physical food, but they're not here to still be alive, is what he's getting at.

Verse 50.

Another aspect is we don't just take in Christ. We do that, but we also must abide in Christ.

If we looked at the Greek usage of the word abide, the Greek word is meno, M-E-N-O. And it means to stay in a given place or state or relationship, to continue to dwell, think about it for a moment, abide, to endure, to be present, to remain, to stand.

All these words can be used for the word abide here. And if you flip forward a little bit to John 15, we'll read about abiding in Christ. This is John 15, verse 1. Here Christ again says, I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. He's not just saying just abide one directional, just abide in me. He is saying that, but he's saying that he wants to abide also with us. God himself wants to stay with us. He wants to continue with us. He wants to dwell with us. He wants to endure and to be present with us. He wants to remain with us. He wants to stand with us. That's what he's saying right here in John 15, verse 4.

Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit. For without me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and throw them into a fire, and they are burned. Let's look at another section in 1 John, chapter 2.

1 John, chapter 2, verses 1-6. 1 John, chapter 2, verse 1. My little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. Now, by this we know that we know him if we keep his commandments. He who says, I know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps his word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in him. He who says he abides in him ought himself to also walk just as he walked. So, abiding in Christ also means walking just as he walks, not just living a life that is similar, but just walking just as he walks. We must dwell with Christ. We must have him living in us through the power of his Spirit. And this can be seen in our actions. We know that. So, how do we walk in the Spirit? How do we walk in righteousness? Walking with God requires an action plan. It's not just enough to say, I know what sin is, and I know what God's standard is, and I know the Scripture, and I know what I'd like to get out of my life. It's not just enough knowing God's Word. It's not enough just to understand the process of being tempted and then turning and then hurting. It's not just enough to know what the process is. This is the beginning. We know we need that knowledge to understand it, but it's what we do next that counts. We need to implement our action plan. We get to choose life. We get to choose life. This is an awesome opportunity that is placed before us. And this means that we also get to choose how we're going to respond to temptation when it first enters our thoughts. What is our plan to avoid temptation?

What is our plan to respond to temptation?

In Ephesians 5, we have a call to action that we are to heed.

Ephesians 5. This is a passage I've shared, I think, with the congregation before, but it's a powerful passage. It's a powerful analogy of light and darkness. It's one that we see daily, every single day, when we go through life. We see that contrast between light, right decisions, godly decisions, and darkness, which only comes from Satan. And so we repeat this because it is such a powerful analogy. Here in Ephesians 5, verse 8, let's note the action words of this section as we work through the Scripture. Ephesians 5, verse 8.

For you were once darkness, literally, you were once darkness, but now you are right of the Lord. Walk, action word, walk as children of light. Verse 10. Finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them, another action word.

But all these things in verse 13, but all these things are exposed, are made manifest. Made manifest is also to render a parent, to appear, to declare. All these things are exposed, made manifest by the light. For whatever is made manifest is light. Therefore, he says, awake, another action word, you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.

Christ will give you light.

We've walked through the analogy of living in a home, and you wake up, and it's dark in the morning, and you flip on the switch, and what happens? The lights come on. And where does the darkness go? It's out. It goes away. You can't see it anymore. It's eradicated. That is the power that we have that tomorrow we'll be talking more about. It's the Holy Spirit. It's that power that gives us the ability to eradicate sin from our lives. Darkness can be forced out if we flip the switch, if we avoid the temptation and choose otherwise.

Let's look at Romans 13 as we continue this thought just briefly.

Romans 13, verse 11.

Verse 11. And do this knowing the time that now is high time to awake out of sleep. Today is the day. Let's do it.

Today is the high time to wake out of sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent. The day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light.

Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not in strife and envy. But, verse 14. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. Sin and evil cannot masquerade as anything but evil when exposed to the light of God.

That's a powerful statement. Sin and evil cannot masquerade. We can't play around, and we can't pretend that it's okay. That, while other people are doing it, it's okay. They don't... people see me do this, and they don't call me out on it. It's okay. We can't do that. We can't make those choices. We can't masquerade, sin. Because when exposed to the light of God, it is what it is.

It is what it is. We can try to hide things, and we can try to refuse to use the Holy Spirit. But if you choose to use the light, we will illuminate sin in our lives. I say this to myself. If I choose to look at myself and truly examine myself, I'll find the areas because it will be illuminated.

This is what we, as Christians, should be doing in every aspect of our lives. So how do we start our action plan? How do we initiate our action plan? Well, as we already covered, the first thing we have to do is draw on the power of the Holy Spirit to initiate our plan.

This is step one of the plan and the most vital. We can't just skip step one and jump to the rest of our plan because it will fail. If we are not drawing on the power of the Holy Spirit to show us, to illuminate, to work with our lives, any other steps we put after it, they'll just fail. They just won't work. It is as simple as it sounds. It's the starting point.

So the plan has to be initiated even before temptation ever enters in. We have to be working and allowing God to work in our life. We have to draw on the power of the Holy Spirit by reading His Word and talking to Him in prayer, making sure that we understand what His Word says on how we should live life, and then allowing that Word to speak to us as we go through life.

This gives us the mindset of God, and it's fresh on our mind. It's at the forethought of our hearts and our actions. And with this, the rest of the plan falls perfectly into place. It can fall perfectly into place. But the next step of the plan...are you ready for this? Because this is what I'm always waiting for in a sermon. I'm waiting for the next action steps that I can just do, and it works out perfectly. The next steps of the plan are really only between you and God. Only Him and you really know what your gas stations are in life. It takes thinking through these areas. It takes meditating on your life.

It takes on you to develop that action plan that says, What are those things that trip me up? What are those things that, as I'm driving down the road with the right intentions, are the direction I want to go that suddenly catches my eye, changes my thoughts, and I even miss out on making it to the grocery store completely.

Never even made it there. What are those things? Hopefully we have already formulated a plan over the years. Hopefully maybe we renewed that plan a few weeks ago before Passover and Unleavened Bread. But if you haven't, it's high time to do it now. Maybe review that action plan you put together. Maybe dust it off and blow the dust off and re-examine it. And to see, well, how am I doing?

How's this been going? What other steps should I now sub in to this plan? And take it to prayer and ask God to show you where, because it's never too late.

It's never too late. Through prayer with God, invite Him in to help you develop your action plan to fight those temptations when they come in. Through the study of His Word, find those scriptures that speak to your heart, that speak to your mind, that really draw your attention back to God, where it should be, so that we keep from turning aside. Find the scriptures that keep you on the straight path of righteousness towards eternal life and towards the kingdom of God.

As we close out, let's look at one last passage in Ephesians 2.

This is in Ephesians 2, and we'll read verses 1-10. This is Paul speaking, and he says here in verse 1, But here's the encouraging part.

We're going to leave here today. And at sunset, another Sabbath will come to an end. We are going to continue to live a physical life of work, of school, of family, of friends, of retirement. I look forward to that day of retirement someday. Whatever your day may consist of, we're all going to continue to live a physical life. And as we travel through our day-to-day activities, we are each going to pass our individual gas stations along the way. Gas stations that will sit there as a temptation. Let's draw on the power of the Holy Spirit and allow it to work powerfully in our lives. Let's continue today to fight against whatever it is that tempts us and keep walking forward on the good path, on the right path, the path that needs to eternal life.