So are you a fast walker? You're a fast walker, are you? You're more of a slow person. I tend to be a fast walker for those of y'all that see me on sunday morning, I'm fast walker, I'm cruising by you. I'm always I gotta get to the next thing, There's there's always 100 things happen in my life and I gotta get to the next one. So I'm moving, I'm moving and moving and moving and when I'm shopping it's it's interesting generally speaking, when I shop and I don't shop a lot, but when I do shop, I tend to be a laid back browser, you know, just kind of hang out. I just browse, you know, see what's going on except for one place and that's walmart. I do not browse at walmart. I am a fast walker to walmart, I'm a fast walker inside of walmart. I'm a fast walker out of walmart. I don't know what it is. No, no disrespect anybody that works at walmart, it's just that place in and out. I'm just trying to get it out as fast as I can. So a few months ago I was about an hour away down at my parents and I was at their walmart and I was going to pick up something for them and I'm I'm moving fast from the car fast to the door, I get through that first set of doors and then I get to the second set of doors and and when I get to the doors, I'm moving and the doors didn't open and and I'm moving way too fast to be able to respond to the doors not opening. So um so the doors didn't open and and I slammed into the doors. Now, you know, of course what I did next was I stopped and looked around, did anybody see me do that? You know, hopefully no one saw me and thankfully no one, at least as far as I know, no one saw me. I also learned something about myself that day and that is I am not a face first guy. I'm a gut first guy because my my face did not hit the doors, but my gut did. So I don't know if that's just because it's big and just, you know, automatically was first or or what, but but I was thankful I didn't hit my face. So of course I stepped back and I kind of do my foot again, you know, somewhere in front of the door, okay, maybe it just called and then I waved my hands like this is some magic trick, you know, wave your hands in front of the automatic doors and they'll open. But but nothing happened. So I waited for somebody to come out. I walked over to the left, I went through the exit doors and then I walked and I found the little walmart greeter and I just said, hey, I think the doors are not working and she looked at me with this really nice smile and she said, okay, she said, I'll have somebody check on that? But I couldn't help but think that behind that smile, there was a little smirk and that her and her friends were standing off in the corner and they saw me hit the door, you know, I mean they saw it, you know, it's you know, it's like okay yeah, I'll let him. I think they saw maybe that's just me. Maybe you've never walked into a door. I don't know. I'm thinking most of us have at least one time in life, but we all walk through doors, don't we? I mean you had to walk through at least two doors to get in this room. There's lots of doors in life. There's lots of of doors that we have to walk through in life. Some of those doors are really easy to walk through right like the doors at the ice cream shop. Those are kind of easy doors to walk through. Some of them are harder. Like the doors at the emergency room. Not, it's not as easy to walk through those doors sometimes in life. We don't know which door to walk through, right? We're, we're just, we're not sure. And then other times we can't sleep at night because we're wondering did I did I go through the right door today, Then I take the right door. So looking back over your life this past week, what what kind of doors have you been through? What kind of doors have you walked through this past week? And and are you wondering? Maybe even still today? Hey, did I go through the right door? You know? Did I did I make the right choice on that door Or maybe How many doors do you have coming up this week? How many doors are waiting for you starting this afternoon or or monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or whatever day this week. And and those doors right now, are they creating any anxiety in your life and any stress? Any uncertainty. You're trying to figure out? You know which doors you need to go through. There's lots of doors in life. And today we begin a new series called doors. We're going to be taking some time to to look at some of the most defining doors that we have in life. The most defining doors that we deal with day after day after day and my hope is that as we look through this series that you might be able to find some hope and some confidence for all the doors that you will have to go through in life and especially the ones that we mentioned in the weeks to come. And so today we begin with what we are calling. Tiny doors. Our message today is tiny doors. And we'll be looking at James's letter in the bible James chapter one beginning with verse 13 And this is what James says, no one is to say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself does not tempt anyone. So what kind of sin have you been tempted with this week? I read a story years ago about a young priest that was going into the confessional for the first time with an older priest listening to the confessions. And at the end of the day, the older priest said to the younger priest. Look when people get through with their confession, you have to quit saying, wow! You know, sin shouldn't be surprising, right. I mean, we we all see the the impact and the effects of sin every single day. So sin and temptation shouldn't be something that surprises us. In fact, from the very first days on earth, the enemy has constantly been baiting us with the promises of sin and no one is exempt. All of us are baited with the promises of sin. All of us are tempted. But here's the problem with the promises of sin. They're all lies. None of them are true. Sin never delivers what it promises. Never sure. In the moment, it might, it might be a little a temporary need or a temporary desire that's met. But ultimately sin is the greatest scam in the world. Because what's a scam. A scam always gives you the upsides right? The scam never gives you the downside since. No different. It convinces you to think that you need this or don't need that? Or somebody should be doing this for you? Or somebody should be doing that for you? Send baits the hook. It's a scam. The enemy, the devil he baits the hook, hoping that you will do something to grab that bait. Because you are convinced there's something else you need. There's something else you should have. You know, we have these two things in our culture today. YOLO and fomo. You know, you only live once and the fear of missing out. Those are two of the biggest baits that the enemy has in life right now. It creates this fear. I have to do this. I have to go there. I have to experience this. And if I don't for some reason I am going to miss out. It is a lie. It's a lie. And it's the best bait he seems to have out there these days. You see, no matter what debate is, the goal of the enemy never changes. Jesus said it like this in John Chapter 10, he said, the goal of the thief. The goal of the enemy is to steal and kill and destroy. Don't miss that math. Okay, be be clear about the enemy and his secret of agents. Their goal is not to scare, kick and discourage it is to steal. Kill and destroy that. That's that's debate. And debates always out looking to see it will take a bite. So what do we do? What do we do with sin and temptation? What do we do when the bait comes our way? Well, one of the biggest things we have to do is we have to learn to own one universal truth. It's true for every single person, past, present and future. And that universal truth is this Your sin is your sin. Ultimately. Your sin is not God's fault. It's not your parents fault. It's not your spouse's fault. It's not your teacher's fault or your coach's fault, or your pastor's fault or your baristas fault. It's no one else's fault. You cannot take your sin and peg it on someone else. You especially can't peg your sin on God. God by his very nature is holy, Holy holy meaning he has other other other. He is perfect, Perfect. Perfect. And so sin cannot even come near to God. You could say there is a restraining order, eternal everlasting constant when it comes to sin. And God sin cannot get close to God. Therefore, we cannot blame our sin on God. He has nothing to do with Paul was writing to the church at room and he was trying to talk to them about how all of us end up in this web of sin and temptation. And and this is how he described it romans 125. For they exchanged the truth of God for falsehood when we sin in that moment, What we are doing is this? We are exchanging the truth of God for falsehood for lies. In that moment, we are believing the lies of sin instead of the promises of God. There is an exchanging that's going on the enemy baits the hook. And he's hoping that we will take that hook and will believe in those lies and ignore the promises of God. But God does not bait any hooks. It's not his character, it's not his nature. We cannot say, well, God did this. Now someone may say, okay, fine. So God doesn't tempt me to sin, but this is how he made me. This is just who I am. There's there's nothing I can do about it. That math doesn't work. If you profess to be a christian. See the very nature of what it means to be a christian is that the Gospel has initially changed you. And it is by design changing you. The work of the Gospel is a work of change. Paul used to be called Saul john Newton used to be a wretch. Lost and sin. I used to be a good churchgoing kid on the way to hell. See, the Gospel changes the story. It changes the narrative. The Gospel is always at work, changing the exchanging the Gospel is at work, trying to make sure that we don't constantly keep changing the promises of God for the lies of sin. Rather, the Gospel is working to try to do an opposite exchange. Trying to get rid of the lies. and keep pouring in truth exchanging is always happening. But is it truth or lies or lies for truth. Years ago my son and I got a C. D. It was a Cd with a bunch of hip hop and rap songs and some testimonies and some teaching and the name of the cd was before you die and I went looking for it. I can't find anywhere I guess it's not available anymore but but it was this pretty in your face confrontational but gracious presentation of the gospel and this before you die. Mantra got real clear as you begin to listen to the message of the songs and listen to the message of the testimonies and listen to the message of the truth of the bible. I had a friend that that got one of those C. D. S. And he gave it to a friend of his who had been witnessing to a young man in his neighborhood. The young man was not a christian and and he was prone to listen to the kind of hip hop and rap music that usually has the warning labels on the front. And so he gives him this christian Cd with with these songs that he's familiar with the style and and he said I'd love for you to listen to this the next day that guy opened his tour and there was the young man at the door and in a moment he looked at him and realized that something was different. That young man had gone and listened to that message before you die. He had heard the truth of sin and temptation and death. It got very real to him, but he also heard the message of the Gospel. The message of the Gospel got very real to him and in one night and exchange happened and one night his heart was captured with the reality of sin and temptation and evil and death. And his heart was also captured with the beauty and the glory of the Gospel. The Gospel is always changing the exchanging but be clear. The Gospel is a message of change. The gospel is an instrument of change to be a christian. A dominant part of being a christian is that you are always changing. Let me repeat that. If you profess to be a christian, a dominant part of your life is that you should always be changing. Here's the thing though, you're a sinner and so am I. And you know what's true about us, sinners. None of us like to change none of us. We don't like it. In fact, if we aren't careful, we will choose a spouse and we'll choose a job and we'll choose a neighborhood and we'll choose a church and we'll choose friends and we'll choose our our leisure organizations and our service organizations and our our charity groups. We will choose all the things in life that allow us to keep living in our sin. We will choose things that keep us to not have to change that. That let us kind of stay who we are and and not make any changes in life, even though it is sin that is rotting away our souls. And ultimately that sin is actually keeping us from being fully satisfied. Because full satisfaction only comes through the Gospel and through jesus. So we don't want to be like that. We don't want to be sinners who refuse to change. We want to hate what is evil and and cling to what is good and we want to be the kind of sinners that we thirst and hunger for change. Let me repeat that. We want to be the kind of christians and sinners that thirst and hunger for change, so that we will keep becoming more and more and more like jesus. Why? Because it's good for us. If you want to be selfish, change change. Change. If you want to be selfish, change, change. Change. Let the gospel keep changing who you are. Let the gospel change your attitude. Let the Gospel change your habits. Let the gospel change your actions. Let the gospel keep changing every part of your life, because that's the only way that you will ever learn to be happy because you will not find joy if you refuse to change because the gospel is a message and a work of change for the glory of God and for the good of your soul, why? Because it keeps reminding us, oh yeah, the love of God, it will not let me go. So I can change, I can adjust, I can move because the love will hold me tight. My sin is my sin. Your sin is your sin. There's there's no different way to do the math. Yes. The enemy will bait us and tempt us and and try to get us to buy into the promises of sin. The lives of sin. But we cannot say, oh the devil made me do it. James tells us why look at verse 14 but each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. So which happens first are we carried away our we enticed first James seems to be saying we're we're carried away first. He he seems to be saying that when it comes to sin, technically we are there before we get there. We're already there before we get there because we've been carried away in our minds. What's happening on the outside, started on the inside One day, Jesus was teaching this is what he said in Matthew 15 out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, acts of adultery, other immoral sexual acts, thefts, false testimonies and slander statements in other words, the the picture is that our heart is another way of saying our minds how we're thinking with our heart is how we're thinking with our mind. And it's the heart that that's where everything happens. And so once it gets in our heart, once it gets into our thoughts that rebellion only needs a location, it just needs a location for it to do something, someone may say, well, you know, I am really tempted to get drunk. Well you you might want to stay away from the local pubs, somebody else may say man, I'm I am tempted to eat as much fried chicken, fried fish, fried fries, anything that's fried, I want it all. Well you might want to stay away from the buffet. Somebody said, you know what, I am tempted to argue with my wife. Well you might wanna stay, wait a minute actually. That that was not going to work. Hang on. But but it's a good example, right? Because sometimes we can't get away from the location. Sometimes we shouldn't get away from the location. So what do we do then? How do we deal with sin when we can't get away from the location where the sin is at? Remember what jesus said, he said that it's in the heart, that's where everything begins, that's that's where we're thinking. So it's not just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Don't miss this long before we get to the location of sin. It's about being in the wrong place in the wrong mind, see it begins in our heart, it begins in our thoughts. It begins in our attitude. So sin and temptation, as with every other issue in your life and my life, it begins in the heart. So what do we do with our hearts? Well, this is what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 22, he said, Love the Lord, your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. If you're looking for the absolute biggest help when it comes to sin and temptation, it is a love for God. A radical joyful love for God. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said this satan does not fill us with a hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God. That that's how he works, he didn't he didn't move us to hate God just moves us to forget God. And what James is pleading with us to do is to not forget to watch our hearts to not let our heart forget the glory and majesty and beauty of God to not let our heart forget the power of the cross as we sang earlier. A power that that makes love run red. Don't forget don't let your heart forget, watch your heart. Because if your heart forgets there is danger ahead. And what is that danger? Listen now James describes at verse 15, then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin and sin, when it has run its course brings forth death. Oprah Winfrey said this. I believe luck is preparation. Meeting opportunity. If you hadn't been prepared when the opportunity came along, you wouldn't have been lucky. Well, I took her thought and and rewarded according to the words of verse 15 and came out creatively with this just for our minds. Death is where preparation meets opportunity. If you hadn't prepared with sinful desire, when the opportunity to sin came along, you wouldn't have been tempted Again. The picture is watch your heart, watch your heart, watch your heart. Why? Maybe one of the strongest and scariest words in verse 15 is the word birth. James says, yeah, this is not even temptation anymore. You're you're no longer pregnant. This thing has given birth. That temptation has now given birth and the description that he gives to it. It's given birth to death. Well, that doesn't sound like good news, but there is good news and here's why there's another kind of birth. Jesus described it this way. You can be born again, your heart can be saved and redeemed and rescued. Things can be made right between you and God. You can believe in the truth about jesus. Death does not have to be your final destination, as we've shared from from Brandon Clements the last few weeks, that we can breathe easy because death is no longer our fate. That's what it means to be in christ we can believe in jesus. We can confess that his story is not a fairy tale, but it's the hope of our life, it's the hope of our eternity. The key to dealing with temptation is the same key to every other thing in your life. Everything and that key is, Jesus might sound like religious hocus pocus, but but it's true, the key to everything in life is jesus, where you are with jesus, how you're thinking about jesus, how you're following, jesus. I read something this week where and older pastor was being asked how he could still say stay relevant, working with young people and he said, I'm not relevant. It's like I'm in my 60s, he said, but my message hadn't changed. I just keep talking about jesus. He said, if you talk about jesus, you're going to be relevant because there's never a moment in history that Jesus has not been relevant. So what's the best way to follow, jesus to connect yourself with, jesus? When it comes to temptation, James tells us for 16. Do not be deceived my beloved brothers and sisters. The best way to deal with temptation is to not be deceived. In other words. Don't believe the lies of sin. Sin will make us lots of promises, but they are all lies and don't forget that. Send desires to do one thing, kill you spiritually emotionally. And yes, sometimes Sin longs to kill you physically sins. Desire just to kill you. So don't pretend to love jesus, don't pretend to love jesus because if you only pretend to love jesus. Sin will win. Now do do the opposite. Don't pretend to love Jesus believe in Jesus, Trust in jesus, rely on jesus cling to jesus and keep doing it over and over again and you can and will win. Why? Because of what? Emily and Stacey played, oh love that will not let me go. You see believing in jesus and keeping on believing in jesus when you don't want to, when you don't feel like it, when you think that a pandemic or a war or cancer or a divorce or a rebellious child or any other thing in life, when we think this is a big deal, this is a gigantic deal for this. I don't have jesus. No, that's bad math for those things. You have jesus, that's part of what it means to be a christian. So when we don't feel like it, when we might even feel like it's the wrong thing to do, to believe in jesus. And to keep believing in, Jesus keeps reminding us of this one amazing thing and that is this God will not let you go and that's good news. That's great news, Apostle Paul was writing the church at Corinth and and he described it this way First Corinthians 10 13, No temptation has overtaken you except something common to mankind and God is faithful. So he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape, that the way of escape. And isn't that what we want over and over again, don't we want to escape. Don't we want to be rescued? A number of us in the church have have been going through a video series by Louie giglio carla. Don't give the enemy a seat at your table. And and it's part of that series and what I'm sharing is kind of directly from from the book that goes with it louis gives this real life practical picture of of that escape. That way of escape that God gives us. He says this if you want a way out, God is faithful and he describes how God is faithful. He says, the Holy Spirit will give you a way out and then we'll give you another way out and then he'll give you another way out and on and on, he'll keep giving you a way out. But here's the thing. The doorways will get smaller, the longer you ignore God, the more you walk into that sin, the more you stay in that sin. The doors are going to get smaller and the consequences are going to get worse as well. But even then there's still a way out, God is still working, he's still providing. And then he describes it this way, the first doorway is a regular sized door, he says, your first way out is like a regular sized door that you'd see almost anywhere. And it's there. The Holy Spirit gives you the door here you go, here's your way out. But you may ignore that door. The second door might be like a pet door, you know, a little smaller, you know, a little a little harder to get through. He said the 3rd door, it might be like a a door on, you know, barbie's Malibu dream house, you know, just a little little tiny door, you can barely get your phone through it, but it's still there, still there. This is what he says. You don't have to give the enemy a seat at your table. You can still get out how through the tiny door the tiny door is always there. Yes, let's go through the regular door, okay? It just makes everything in life easier. But but sometimes we're not okay, we're either going to get lazy or stubborn, or prideful, or arrogant or foolish or afraid or apathetic or whatever. And and we'll miss the regular door and we'll miss the pet door. But there's always a tiny door there's there's always a tiny door, God's grace and his kindness, it's always working. His love will never let us go. But the longer we walk in sin, the worst the consequences get. And the smaller the door gets. But the tiny door is always there. Don't forget the door of sin leads to death and everlasting condemnation. But the tiny door leads to life and ever lasting invitation. See the tiny doors they keep inviting us to come and believe to come and receive to come and be loved with a love that will not ever let us go and to come and be satisfied. Why? Because on the other side of every tiny door it's jesus, and jesus is the greatest satisfaction in the universe to know. Jesus is the greatest satisfaction you can ever have. So, this afternoon before you leave the parking lot, when temptation comes, look for the regular door, look for the pet door. But don't forget, there is a tiny door. Look for the tiny door. In other words, look for jesus.