Text: 1 Corinthians 10:13

Topic: How God provides a way of escape in the midst of temptation.

Illustration: A new dad took his wife's first Mother's Day celebration to her workplace. As he left, he put everything in the car — balloons, flowers — but left his son in the car seat on the roof. The boy fell off the car, but was unhurt.

 

• We want victory over sin, but it doesn't seem to come.
• Knowing it's common to all gives some measure of victory, rescue from despair.

• We can't look at anyone else and say, "I'm so glad I don't wrestle with that."

Illustration: Oskar Schindler (Schindler's List), who saved 1200 Polish Jews during WWII, abandoned his wife after the war, became a womanizer and drunkard, and lived in destitution.

• Garrison Keillor: "Scandal is really nothing more than the revelation of the humanity of our heroes."

• The people of Israel saw God's shekinah glory, and temptation still seized them.
• Throughout history, people with great spiritual privilege fall to temptation.

Illustration: Chapell tells of pastor friends who had affairs, prompting him to wonder why such men of God could fall.

• As the Israelites discovered, temptation has terrifying effects.

Illustration: Chapell met a man in Mexico who grew up with an abusive father, and was concerned about his own parenting skills because of the lasting scars. His father's sin had repercussions, even to later generations.

 

• God will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear.
• Fighting temptation often means fleeing it: If it's a problem for you, stay away!

• When I know God has forgiven me, he releases me from guilt, giving me power.

Illustration: Chapell's sons once squeezed through an opening in the fence at a lions' habitat at the zoo. When their mom discovered it, she calmly called them, "Boys, come get a hug," and they scrambled away from danger.