SPECIAL DAYS: Third Sunday in Lent

LESSONS: 1 Corinthians 10,1-13, Luke 13,1-9

SERMON TITLE: Tested and Tried

INTRODUCTION:

1. Our lives are one constant state of testing.
1. Our resolve to do right will be tested.
2. Our relationships with others, friends, foe or spouse will be tested.
3. Our moral values will be tried.
1. Have you ever laughed at an off-color story?
2. Welcome to the test of spiritual values.
4. Our faith will be tested.
1. Have you ever questioned the "will of God?"
2. Welcome to the test of religious and faith based beliefs.
2. Our faith and virtue will be tested. What does one need to be strong and firm in the "faith?"

   Farther Along ⁽¹⁾ is a marvelous old song that captures the theme of this sermon 

   Verse 1.
   Tempted and tried we're oft made to wonder
   Why it should be thus all the day long,
   While there are others living about us,
   Never molested though in the wrong.

   REFRAIN

   Farther along we'll know all about it,
   Farther a long we'll understand why;
   Cheer up, my brother live in the sunshine,
   We'll understand it all by and by.

   1. Tempted, tested and tried.
      

      I remember a story told by the Rev. Mark Hatfield, a former colleague of mine

      Two Aardvarks, Art and Albert met at a very small anthill.

      Art takes a look at the anthill and says,

      "If we are both going to this hill neither of us is going to have a decent meal because there is only enough for one of us.

      So why don't we fight it out and the winner gets them all."

      Albert agrees and in one tenth of a second Art grabs Albert by the snout and slams him into the ground, swings him around and flips him fifty feet into the air.

      On the sidelines other Aardvarks are watching and one says to the other.

      "What kind of an Aardvark is Art?

      The other one says,

      "Well before he got that nose job, he was an alligator."

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   2. This is a test of strength or a test of wills.
   1. Before we enter into the competition we ought to take into consideration our own strengths, weaknesses, and background.
   2. Before we enter into the competition we ought to take into consideration the strengths, weaknesses, and background of the opponent.
   3. We do not have to wait to understand it all by and by.
   4. We can understand it, perhaps not all of it, right now.

MAIN BODY:

1. We have before us a passage of scripture written to a church that was being tested and tried.
1. Their faith and their virtue were under attack.
2. Their moral values were being challenged.
3. Paul in writing to the Corinthian church was responding to their questions and concerns.
2. We can read 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, (NRSVA), and begin to develop some knowledge and understanding that helps us to recognize the source and type of tests that we, to one degree or another, all face.
1. First of all Paul points our the special blessings and privileges that God had provided Israel
2. ¹I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea,
1. I do not want you to be unaware, to be ignorant.
1. Ignorance comes in many forms.
1. One kind is
1. We just don't know.
2. We have attempted to study and learn
3. We do not know it all.
4. We can learn more.

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2. One kind is inadvertent.
1. Not duly attentive.
2. Marked by unintentional lack of care.
3. this kind of ignorance can be overcome by developing the capacity to care.
3. The last kind is deliberate ignorance
1. For some reason we don't want to know.
2. the reasons may be many, but this leaves us totally vulnerable to our own ignorance.
2. To help us overcome our ignorance and develop the capacity to care Paul uses several illustrations.
2. the pillar of cloud that followd them by day and a pillar of fire by night.
3. They crossed the Red Sea (Sea of Reeds)
3. ²and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea,
1. Baptized into the Mosaic Covenant given by God at Sinai.
2. Moses sprinkled them with the blood of the covenant

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4. ³and all ate the same spiritual food,
1. Manna
2. Food from a divine resource.
3. God provision for those who were unable to provide for themselves.
5. ⁴and all drank the same spiritual drink.
1. They had water from the rock
2. Exodus 17.6-7


⁶I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it, so that the people may drink." Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. ⁷He called the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelites quarreled and tested the LORD, saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?"
 

3. In Numbers 20, the people are camped at Kadish and there was no water there.
1. They murmured and complained.
2. Again Moses was told to speak to the rock and it would bring forth water.
3. Again this place was called Meribah
4. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.
1. Christ is the Rock
2. Parable of two builders
1. One on sand
2. One on rock.
3. Upon this Rock I will build my church

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6. ⁵Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, and they were struck down in the wilderness.
1. We need to be careful here.
2. It is not God that is doing the striking down.
3. The people are only receiving what they asked for.
1. See Numbers 14
1. The people cried out, "would God that we had died in this wilderness.
2. God says, Okay
2. See also James 1:13-17, (NRSVA)


¹³No one, when tempted, should say, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. ¹⁴But one is tempted by one's own desire, being lured and enticed by it; ¹⁵then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death. ¹⁶Do not be deceived, my beloved.¹⁷Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

7. ⁶Now these things occurred as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did.
1. We have all these examples so that we might have knowledge and understanding.

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8. ⁷Do not become idolaters as some of them did; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play."
1. They worshiped the Golden Calf
9. ⁸We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.
1. Numbers 25.9: A plague came upon Israel because they were worshiping Baal, god of the Moabites.
10. ⁹We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents.
1. They came to a region that was infested with poisonous serpents and were bitten.
2. Moses created a serpent of bronze and everyone who looked, lived.
11. ¹⁰And do not complain as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
1. The destroyer is not God.
1. The night of the Exodus, the people sprinkled the blood of the sacrifices on the tops and sides of their doors.
2. They did this to be protected from the destroying angel.
3. Representative of the "evil one."
2. The revolt of Korah, Numbers 16, led to the death of a great number of people.

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12. ¹¹These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down to instruct us, on whom the ends of the ages have come.
1. An example.
2. Who needs an example?
3. We will not heed examples.
4. We will learn the hard way.
13. ¹²So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.
14. ¹³No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone.
1. Source of testing.
1. Remember the story of the temptations of Jesus
2. Who did the tempting?
3. Who did the testing?
4. Remember James 1:13-17, (NRSVA)


¹³No one, when tempted, should say, "I am being tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil and he himself tempts no one. ¹⁴But one is tempted by one's own desire, being lured and enticed by it; ¹⁵then, when that desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and that sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death. ¹⁶Do not be deceived, my beloved.¹⁷Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

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5. Note what Paul says in his letter to the Galatians, Galatians 6:7-9, (NRSVA)


⁷Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. ⁸If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. ⁹So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.

2. Jesus speaks about two groups of people who were tested and in thelest lost their lives.
3. He is attempting to clearly attach responsibility, Luke 13:1-9, (NRSVA)
   

11At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. ²He asked them, '"Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? ³'No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. ⁴'Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them--do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? ⁵'No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did."

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4. Kind of testing

   God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it.

5. We may have to experience whatever is common to humanity.
6. The way out may be through medicine.
7. The way out may be through revival.
8. The way out may be by death.
9. It makes no difference, we are called upon to endure.