Is Scripture a Reality to You in a Time of Temptation? - Ask Pastor Tim

"I was reading through John 4,

and during Jesus' discourse

with the Samaritan woman

where He says, "he
who drinks of this water

will thirst again, but whoever drinks

of the water I will give
him will never thirst."

I can read that and believe it

and so clearly affirm it.

I can have a conversation

with another believer about
it and its implications

and be stirred up full of desire

to live in such a way where we aren't

drinking from the broken
cisterns of the world

and are satisfied in Christ

and the living waters
that come only from Him.

But then, I can go home and in a moment

I find myself struggling with temptation

and sin and feeling overwhelmed

even in things that can be so trivial.

My question is about how can a Christian

draw out this transforming power

and strength from the Scriptures?"

He says, "It's one thing
to read your Bible,

but it's another thing
entirely to lay hold

of a text like that in John 4

and wield it powerfully
and draw out strength

in the time of trial
and apply it to your life

in such a transforming way."

Tim: What do you say?

I mean, here's the thing,

you get in a conversation with somebody.

You get all excited.

You're talking.

These doctrines - they excite you.

Why do they excite you?

That might be worth asking -

why you get excited.

Is it an intellectual exercise?

Is it that you've learned some new thing?

Then you go home

and you fall into all
sorts of temptations.

Now, I might read between the lines,

but I suspect they're sexual temptations

and probably computer-related temptations.

There's failure and there's falls,

and it's like how can this be?

Now you know, I heard a guy one time say -

preacher, old preacher -

what was his name?

He's that guy that preached
in Corpus Christi for years.

He was on the radio.

Arminian.

But I heard him say one time -

he'd be on the radio at lunch

when I worked as an engineer.

I heard him say one time,

if a man goes out and he prays

and he comes in and he barks at his wife,

what does it say about his praying?

I guess the same kind of thing.

What do you say if you have a conversation

and you're talking about John 4

and the water - the living water -

and you get all stirred
up and you go home

and you watch Internet pornography?

It's kind of the same thing.

(from the room)

It seems like it's selfish.

(unintelligible)

Tim: Like the previous guy said,

there's a disconnect somewhere.

So, what's the magic formula?

Is there one?

(from the room)

Is he praying for power,

for strength from the Lord?

Is he praying for deliverance

and protection from temptation?

Tim: I don't know.

But here's the thing,

let's not complicate this too much.

Were you going to say something?

(from the room)

I was going to say the first thing

that popped in my mind -

the most exciting aspect of his walk

should not be happening outside the doors

with somebody else in a conversation.

But it should be happening in his home

personally with Christ Himself.

And that's what struck me.

Because for me, it's
going out of the house.

That's where I encounter the world.

And in the home is where the strength

and the life and the truth

and the foundation should be.

Tim: (incomplete thought)

What is it that gets us stirred up

when we talk to somebody else?

Maybe you're talking to somebody exciting?

Somebody's very exciting to talk to.

They can make it exciting.

But I would just say this,

I don't think we want to
make this overly complicated.

You say, what do you mean?

Well, think with me about Scripture.

The psalmist says,

"Thy Word have I hid in my heart,

that I might not sin against You."

What is that assuming?

It's assuming that I have read God's Word

and I have sufficiently
meditated on that Word

or memorized that Word

so that I can recall it when its needed.

You know what that's saying?

That's saying that when I'm tempted

to sin against Him,

I have His Word in my heart.

I access it.

And there's something in
the truth of that Word

that I have hid in my heart

that when I think on it,

there's such thought processes happening

that I make a conscious
decision not to sin

based on that reality from God's Word.

And you see, there's a disconnect here.

Because if I go and talk and get excited

about John 4,

but here I've got the mouse in my hand

or whatever it is,

and now I'm tempted -

do you see where the breakdown is?

If I'm not able to produce the very Word

right at that moment, what's it saying?

What's happening? Where's the disconnect?

Well, I don't sufficiently have that Word

at my disposal.

Or, I don't sufficiently believe that Word

that I have at my disposal.

You see, the truths of God's Word -

they're falling at that point.

You know, I often think -

we're going to get to this - Ephesians 4.

Have you ever thought about
just how simplistic it is

for Paul to say,

any of you thieves?

Quit it.

Don't steal anymore.

And he encourages the opposite.

Work with your hands.

Be productive.

Not just so that you can be greedy,

but so that you have something to give

to those who are in need.

But isn't that amazing?

Just stop.

Not: Oh, there's this deep,

mystical formula.

Listen, if you are
regularly falling into sin,

the reality is this,

you're not applying God's Word.

You either don't know it,

you know it and don't believe it,

or you know it and you believe it,

but you willfully are
choosing sin over that.

I mean, that's what's happening.

It's not a super-complicated formula.

Think about this.

I did a series on self-cleansing

several years back.

It primarily came from this text

out of 2 Corinthians 7:1.

It's interesting at the end
of 1 Corinthians 6,

Paul is giving these promises.

Just promises about God being our Father;

we belong to Him.

And he says this,

"Since we have these promises,

let us cleanse ourselves

from every defilement of body and spirit,

bringing holiness to completion
in the fear of God."

Now think with me there.

What's Paul saying?

You ought to be able to think

on the promises of Scripture,

and not fall into defiling activities.

What does Scripture say?

We are to be renewing our minds.

And what are we doing as
we're renewing our minds?

We're figuring out what God's will is.

You know, you come to Scripture.

You find out what God's will is

and you do it.

And the thing is, as a Christian,

we hunger and thirst after righteousness.

There is a hunger.

There is a hunger to do His will.

There's a hunger to please Him.

There's a hunger after
what's good and righteous.

And so, there's a huge disconnect

if we find that in the
moment of temptation,

God's Word just isn't there.

My mind doesn't go to it.

You know, if you get there
in front of the computer,

and it's just like:

Nope, I don't even want to think about it.
I don't want to think about this.

I don't want to think about what God says.

See, that's not how I live my life.

I'm studying the Word

not just so I can get lathered up

and all excited when I'm
talking to you about it.

I'm reading it and I'm
trying to hide it away

in my mind, in my conscience,

so that as I'm going through life

and there's something,

I'm trying to evaluate everything

through the filter of God's Word.

And it's like: God doesn't like this.

And this will not go well.

And this will grieve the Spirit.

And I will suffer for it.

This is not good.

You know, you convince yourself of that,

that this is not good.

I was just talking to a brother

right before our study tonight,

and he was telling me,

you know I've been in some hard places.

And he said there was a point in his life

when he fell and he said

there was just such darkness.

And he said it was a battle.

He talked about scratching and clawing

to get his way out of that darkness.

And he said he's in the light now.

And he said he feels closer to God

than he's ever felt,

and the last thing he would want to do

is go down that road into sin

that would in any way harm that

or take it away.

And see, if these realities of Scripture:

don't grieve the Spirit.

You've been sealed by Him.

Don't grieve Him.

If you recognize,

my sin is going to grieve the Lord.

My sin is going to take me
out of fellowship with the Lord.

My sin is going to impact my prayer life.

My sin - it's going to hold me back.

It's going to weigh me down.

It's going to make me less productive.

I'm not going to be the vessel

fit for the Master's use.

It's going to pollute me.

It's a defilement.

Sin never does good.

It never helps you.
It never makes you better.

It doesn't.

It doesn't make you stronger.

It doesn't make you run better.

It doesn't make you more Christlike.

It isn't. It's bad all the time.

And if you've got enough Scripture

packed away in your heart

that you know that's true

and you're confronted by that

when you're making decisions -

I recognize sometimes
we're grabbed immediately

by temptations,

and we get swept away.

I recognize those kind of things happen.

Scripture says in Psalm 37,

"The law of his God is in his heart.

His steps do not slip."

Why? Because the law's in his heart.

It gives firmness to your step.

I guess before I move on to the last one

if I even get there,
I would just say this.

One of the thoughts that just came

when I was thinking:

what do you say to somebody like this?

I got to thinking about the devil.

We know that the devil snatches the seed.

And look, the devil is a seed-snatcher.

And he will seek to snatch it
from the true Christian

just as well as from the lost person.

And I would say this,

don't lose the Word of God.

Don't go sit and read

three chapters out of your Bible

and then listen to garbage music,

garbage TV,

garbage Internet use,

and social media -

don't do that.

It's like taking a bunch of seed

and you've just thrown it there,

and you want to see fruit come from it,

and you purposely walk out

to where all the ravens are.

Just like daring them to take it all away.

Don't do that.

I mean, you hear the Word of God preached,

I know - our church breaks out

into immediate fellowship,

but there can be a place to get out,

get away.

I mean, I felt that at the conference

when Geoffrey Thomas preached.

I just wanted to run away

and just go be alone.

Why? You just want it to soak in.

I mean, don't throw
away the Word of God.

We're trying to cleanse.

It's kind of like taking soap and water,

and you're trying to clean something,

and then throw a bunch of mud on it.

It's counterproductive.

Don't do that.

If you're going to hide Scripture,

do it effectually.

Do it in such a way that
it's readily retained

and readily accessible.

(Incomplete thought)

Don't compartmentalize your life.

What do I mean by that?

Well, I've got to read my Bible.

But now, okay, I'm done with that.

It's kind of like the person

that just splits up their week.

Sunday mornings - religious.

The rest of the week, I'm a pagan.

But see, we can divide our
days up like that too.

We've got our little
segment of prayer there,

and we've got our Bible reading.

We've got that done.

Now I can go gossip with
the people at work.

Don't do that.

Listen, we're Christians.

Live Christian lives 24/7.

Let Scripture permeate 24/7.

Don't shut down.

If you're using your Christian liberty

and it's like yeah, I feel like

I can take rest and I can camp out

with my family, and I can watch

Little House on the Prairie -

I only say that because my daughters

had that on last night.

I mean, look, assess it.

After you watch three shows

of Little House on the Prairie,

are you messed up?

Does it pollute you?

Then don't do it.

I mean think, think, think.

We're to be renewing our minds.

What is God's will?

Run everything through that filter.

Through God's will;
through God's will; through God's will.

What's pulling me away?

What grabs my heart?

So that my mind goes off it?

What are the idols?

What are the things in life?

You know, somebody could watch

a football game, and it's like,

they're thinking about
the Lord through it.

Now they might focus
on the game a little bit,

but they're feeling like

I need to go outside and pray.

There's some people:

how could you ever go outside and pray

during a football game?

What? Are you crazy?

You're so excited.
You're so into it.

And then all you can think about

is football stats and everything
for the next week.

You need to stop.

Listen, Paul said, we've got liberty,

but you don't let anything bring you

under its power.

You need to live your life that way.

If you're living your life where it's like

all you can think about is -

whatever it is, put it in there,

but if it's distracting,

we need to live -

and it doesn't mean

that every song you listen to

has to be specifically
be the Christian song.

But, it certainly doesn't hurt

if you're singing Christian songs

all through the day,

and you're reciting biblical truths.

Look, the more you
can permeate your mind -

I recognize, we don't
read and we don't pray

every hour of our waking day.

I recognize we have lives to live

where we have to work

and we go to school

and we shop and we get gas.

I recognize that.

But listen, if you're storing up

and treasuring that Word in your heart,

it's there when you're at the gas station.

It's there at HEB,

and it's there in the classroom.

It's there in the workplace,

and it's there at home when
you're taking care of the kids.

And it's there and it's permeating,

and it's regulating, and it's guiding.

The Word is a lamp unto my feet.

You imagine walking around,

pitch black outside.

A lamp to your feet -

it means I can see.

I can see where I should put my next step.

Notice it's a lamp to your feet,

not just a lamp to your eyes;

not just a lamp to your body.

It's a lamp for your feet.
What does that mean?

It's showing you the ground -

where to step, where to avoid.

Fill your heads with it.

Fill your minds with it.

Don't just put it on the walls

because that's the thing to do.

Memorize it.

Hide it.

(From the room)

Brother, can I read this verse in Job?

In Job 23:11-12, Job says,

"My foot has held fast to His steps.

I have kept His way and
have not turned aside.

I have not departed

from the commandments of His lips.

I have treasured the words of His mouth

more than my portion of food."

Tim: Yep, and you have
the New Testament version,

"Man shall not live by bread alone..."

Well, actually that comes
from the Old as well,

but it's recited by our Lord

in His temptation.

Man doesn't live by bread alone,

but by every word that proceeds
from the mouth of God.

Remember that.

The thing is Scripture is putting

the Word of God in a
more important category

than food.

We don't do well without food.

We're constantly thinking about it.

We need it.

The thing that you don't want to do -

what is it that kills physical appetite?

Have you ever had times in your life

when you're not hungry?

Never?

I mean you get sick?

You know if you have a child

and they're not hungry, that's bad.

Like just recently this family,

their little Abigail -

she was in bad shape.

They had her in ICU and transfusions.

She wouldn't eat.

But you know, that's not healthy.

And when you get
Christians and they don't eat,

that's bad.

That's your sustenance.
That's your life.

The Word.

The Word.

We had a sister here beforehand,

she was talking about
coming to our church,

or coming to the conference,

and she was making comments

about how Scripture seems to be the focus.

It's got to be.

It's our only source of truth.

There's no other source
of truth in this world.

This is it.

God has given us one place.

This is the only place we
know for certain that's true.

Even the stacks of books and stuff -

yeah, they're written about the Bible,

but you don't know if they're always right

and the way men are
interpreting it is always right.

But here, we have a sure foundation.

I mean, look, this is a treasure.

People have died over it.

Tyndale - his blood ran

for trying to put this in our language.

Many people have given their life

for this book.

There's no more precious book

because of the truths held in it.

These are the truths of life.

There's places in the world

where they have one Bible

or a part of one Bible for a whole church.

Most of you probably have
multiple Bibles in your home.

Don't take this for granted.

Well, I think we'll call
it a night right there.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank You that
You've given us the Word.

Lord, help us. Help us.

We never want to take it for granted.

Lord, open it up.

May it become more alive,

more real, more gripping.

Lord, give us eyes to see.

Give us hearts to dig.

I pray for these brothers
and sisters in this room

that they would hide

and continue to hide the Word of God

in their hearts;

that they would not be hearers only,

but doers.

Hearers and doers.

Lest they deceive themselves.

Lord, we thank You for this treasure

that You've committed to us.

We thank You in the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.