St. John Lutheran - 17th Sunday After Pentecost

How to Deal with Temptation and Sin

Key Verse:

¹⁹My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, ²⁰you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

Sin can leave us feeling like we are "caught in a trap" and "can't let go". When we are knee deep in our own misdeeds, when we have fallen into sin - what leads us back? Jesus' words today are harsh, radical, and down right scary. We hear today in the Gospel promise and warning to those who bear his name. Whether we cause one to sin or put ourselves in the way of sin this becomes a stumbling block to participating in the life of the kingdom. Jesus wants our total and complete commitment.

The sins of others can bring ill effect on us as well. Families left in crisis over the sins of another. Sin is all around us even in the church. How do we deal with those even in our own body of have sin and fallen away? What words of grace can we speak to them - how shall we live as the body of Christ in a world consumed by sin?

What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer!
O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear,
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer.
Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share?
Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer.

This hymn brings guidance and comfort to the weary soul. We realize the importance of prayer, of listening to the Word of God, and trusting in the grace of God which will forgive sin and grant new life.

A Sunday School teacher had just concluded her lesson and wanted to make sure she had made her point. She said, 'Can anyone tell me what you must do before you can obtain forgiveness of sin?"

There was a short pause and then, from the back of the room, a small boy spoke up. 'Sin," he said.

Through the Gospel we have a plan. God grants to us complete forgiveness because of the saving death of his only Son Jesus. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that all who believe in him may not die but have eternal life." We hear the plan to salvation from sin throughout the story of the Gospel - from Jesus declaring sins forgiven and life granted to people choosing because of this new life to walk away from lives once ruined by sin.

So how to we deal with sin day to day? What are we to do with others around us who are trapped in sin and cannot free themselves? How now shall we live as Christians called to this new life?

Applying the Scripture

1. God gives to us power through His name to accomplish mighty things!

1. ¹³Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. ¹⁴Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. ¹⁵The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. ¹⁶Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.
2. Bear with one another the burdens of the every day and those burdens which seem unbearable. Some sins however bring shame upon the one caught up in sin and those around. Speaking the truth in love let us confront each other, comfort each other, and bring the gifts of the Gospel to each other.
3. ⁴¹For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.
4. You and I are we are conduits for the grace of God. God uses you and I to communicate the grace and freedom given through Christ. The reality of "go and sin no more."
2. In dealing with sin may we remove all stumbling blocks.
1. Radical amputation!
   
2. ⁴²“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. ⁴³If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. ⁴⁵And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. ⁴⁷And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, ⁴⁸where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.
3. Are we daring enough to help others remove stumbling blocks - to see sin as it is and help one who has stumbled come back to the body?
   
4. ⁷The king rose from the feast in wrath and went into the palace garden, but Haman stayed to beg his life from Queen Esther, for he saw that the king had determined to destroy him. ⁸When the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman had thrown himself on the couch where Esther was reclining; and the king said, “Will he even assault the queen in my presence, in my own house?” As the words left the mouth of the king, they covered Haman’s face
5. Do we see others in their begging for life and freedom from sin? Have we turned a deaf ear and eye to those who honestly wish to seek life?
   
6. May this be a place where stumbling blocks are removed and road maps given.
3. Sins forgiven and new life granted we must continue in confidence the call to commitment.

1. ⁴⁹“For everyone will be salted with fire. ⁵⁰Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
   

2. Purification - to live a new life apart from sin.
   
3. Confession embraces two parts: the one is, that we confess our sins; the other, that we receive absolution, or forgiveness, from the confessor, as from God Himself, and in no wise doubt, but firmly believe, that our sins are thereby forgiven before God in heaven.