1 Corinthians Chapter 10 Verse 13

• This is a huge verse! Why?  Because the golden calf reigns supreme here!  The image of God that man has made!  What do I mean?  Have you ever heard someone say or post or perhaps you’ve even said this, “God will never give you more than you can handle?”  Me too (seen it, not said it).  Now, I like the heart behind that because typically that statement is used to try and strengthen someone to make it through a trial…so I appreciate that…but that statement is entirely false and that thought and statement is not found in the Bible!
• First, explicitly this is the verse that is misquoted…and this verse says nothing of trial or trials…what it is speaking about is temptation. What is the difference? A temptation is a trial twisted by the enemy.  God allows all kinds of trials in our lives…God even brings them Himself at times to overwhelm us, why?  Because if we think we can handle everything then we will never realize our need for Him.  The strongest characteristic a person can have, the strongest life muscles possible…is faith.  Trusting God, taking Him at His Word and in that, building your house on the Rock…
• BUT, if we can handle every trial then where is any need or room for faith? But with the trial…Satan comes in, the flesh comes in…and temptation enters.  It’s been this way since the beginning. 
• Now there are three super important things you need to actually learn from this verse. The world will tell you to twist this verse and trust in yourself…but here is what this verse actually  First, you’re not the first one to have this problem.  (…except such as is common to man).  Where you’re at, you can get the victory…others have been there, and others have.  Sandy Adams recently said, “The battles we fight today have been fought before…and Jesus is the reason for every past victory…”
• I like to say, if a man or woman built it, then a man or woman can fix it…and I get to work. I’ll give you the tools as point number three.
• And, and, and…know this…every temptation in the flesh we incur, God sees it and He is allowing it…if Satan could he would rip us apart right now, all of us…but he is not permitted…and so God sees the struggle in the flesh you have…and He knows He has given the way of escape…which leads me to my second super important point…(pruth…it’s like a point that is also absolute truth! HA)…
• Second, God is faithful…and as I live in this body, in this flesh and am tempted by my senses, emotions, rationale, bodily drives…all that…He will provide a means of escape. But, (here’s the point I want to make), it is important that I take that way of escape.  Sounds stupid and silly and simple but man that is so often where we fall down…the answer is right there but I just don’t take it…and so what is the answer…?  This is absolutely brilliant and the third point…
• The word here for escape in the Greek is ekbases and it literally means, “the end.” I like that…the death blow on what is destroying your character, your story, you….and it’s only found in one other place in the Bible.  Hebrews 13:7 says, “Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome (ekbases) of their conduct.”  The Word of God IS the escape in the trial!  Those who counsel you in the Word of God when you are struggling in the flesh…if you want to end it…the suffering, the loss, the stealing of your life, man…YOU MUST heed the Word of God when it is given to you….
• You’re getting that right now, you know. You don’t need counseling all of the time…you’re getting it right here, right now…for example…what is your problem today in your marriage?  In your career?  The anxiety in your heart that plagues you and is destroying you secretly?  If today you will heed the Word of God, turn to God…close your eyes, close the world out, take His hand, breathe in, open your eyes and WALK…the definition of true faith…then you choose the escape…you achieve the “end” of the temptation, you have the victory in Christ…so where is the need for counseling?  No, the need now is fellowship and followship…The Word of God…IS…THE…ESCAPE.
• Now look, the words are a bit of a mystery here…it’s not an escape out of That’s not what the text says.  It’s an escape such that you will be able to bear it!  Tertullian said, “The Christian, even when he/she is condemned, gives praise.”  The escape is not necessarily the withdrawal, it’s the victory!  You want the win then you have to give Jesus the in…the preeminence in the situation.  Again, the words of Sandy Adams, “Many people/churches give Jesus the honor, the accolade and even the glory, but few give Him the preeminence!”  How do you know?  Is the final decision, (the route you take, the behavior you pursue) handed down from your desk (your call) or is it received on your knees?
• The trial will draw you closer to God while the temptation, when taken or when you’re trapped in it…will lead you to Satan’s will for the situation. Where are you at in it all…right now!?  You say you’re honoring God but (let me quote David Rosales here), “meekness is the willingness to suffer insult without retaliation or retribution…”  Don McClure said, “Life is the process of learning to find God in the loss and failure of the fall.”  Who you are is hidden in Christ and until you obtain you there, you don’t have the highest clue of who you actually are…the escape is faith, man…and faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God!

1 Corinthians Chapter 10 Verse 14

• There’s the answer when it comes to the flesh…fight or flight? Flight!  Get out ASAP!  The word in the Greek is phuego!  HA!  I can’t make this stuff up!  The flesh is lava!!!  HA!!  FIRE!!  Run!

1 Corinthians Chapter 10 Verses 15 – 20

• There is a difference between eating meat sold in the marketplace that had been sacrificed to idols, and taking part in the sacrifice, at the temple, and then eating the meat there. Paul will say in just a moment, eat all the meat you want from the marketplace…but here he is saying to them that their communion (which implies fellowship, in fact it’s the Greek word “koinonos”) should only be with Christ. 
• And then he makes a startling statement….all of these false gods, all of these idols over the centuries…all of these fantastical and fake deities such as Zeus, Hermes, Apollos, Diana, Moroni, Ashteroth, Baal, Molech, Allah…Paul reveals here that they are not gods at all, not even perhaps the imaginations of men…but rather they are demons masquerading as gods to men. Even Satan himself is no god…but rather just the chief demon…and speaking of startling statements…look at the next verse…

1 Corinthians Chapter 10 Verses 21 – 22

• The cup and the table speak of unity…walking together, fellowship…and Paul makes a statement here that is clear throughout the scriptures…if you are married to Jesus then you cannot date the devil! Can you imagine!?  April and I…things are getting pretty serious between us.   HA!  We’ve been married for going on 15 years…can you imagine if I started to date?  I WOULD BE DEAD!  HA!  Not to mention the loss of the relationship and connection and the absolute ruining of the love between us…absolutely unacceptable!
• But somehow Christians who are the espoused and expressed Bride of Christ…somehow so many think it just fine to blast off into sin and the flesh against their husbands, wives…kids against their parents…what the Bible calls openly sin…Christians live sometimes entirely against… Paul says here, you cannot do that.  You break fellowship with God and you break the relationship.  What would your marriage to God look like, be like, feel like, love like…if you actually honored Him with your life?  I sincerely hope you know that answer to that question.

1 Corinthians Chapter 10 Verses 23 – 24

• There is the end of the argument. The conclusion of the circumstance.  The finish to the fight and the closure of the combat.  Jesus said in Matthew 16:24, “If anyone desires to come after Me then let him take up his cross and follow me.”  The argument is over, right here.  And here is where I get so confused in coming alongside of people where their issues just continue and continue and continue, all the while I genuinely believe that they want to honor God…Paul says here, fight for them…not for you…that ends the argument and concludes the confrontation…but that takes something that is not naturally in the heart of man…it takes something supernatural…it takes love.
• Consider this…Jesus held together the thorns that they pressed into His forehead. He sustained the spit as it traveled to His face.  He maintained the molecule of the fist that struck Him…He carried the sound waves of His own condemnation…why?  To say upon the cross, “It is finished…”
• This puts on display that the will of God is exactly opposite of and diametrically opposed to moral relativism. (What’s good for me is good for me and what’s good for you is good for you.)  Rather this is what’s good for you?  Tell me, teach me, show me Lord so that I might seek the well-being of the other person.  This is to take up your cross and follow Jesus.  Relativism morally…it’s the EXACT opposite!

1 Corinthians Chapter 10 Verses 25 – 33

• How do you and I walk that out? To do all to the glory of God?  Simple, Paul gives the answer in the next verse…give no offense.  To the saved, to the unsaved, to the church.  Offense isn’t the slap of the flesh in this sense.  That’s not what Paul is talking about…if it was then in our day and age of ultra-wimps, complaining that sewer covers are called “manholes” and upset over the fascist puppies of Paw Patrol, we’d just have to crawl into a bunker to live this out…that’s not what Paul is talking about here…
• True offense, the offense that harms and even offends the Holy Spirit is when we cause another person to enter into sin. Give someone an occasion or reason to stumble…as a Christian, we should be on high alert against this (not should as in we should do it but if we truly are Christians…this IS present).  How do we do that?  Tell them where they are in sin…confess their sins to them?  No…Jesus took up His cross and finished the fight.  That’s how we are to do it too…profit, salvation, pleasing God, gaining God’s will and blessing upon my everything…it’s all simply wrapped up in laying down my life, my rights, my hurts, my demands…and following Jesus.  Getting closer and closer to Him.
• Joe Focht commended at the recent Pastors Conference, “are you keenly aware of what so desperately needs to change about you? When the Lord is close to you, you are so incredibly aware of the things in you that are wrong. And then God’s grace and love just starts to suffocate you in such a good way and you just become so overwhelmed with His goodness.” So many say they care and yet are not careful at all when it comes to honoring God and serving others…and that rut, that trap, that temptation robs so many of who God perfectly, fearfully and wonderfully designed you to be…