The Spider and the Web
Call to Worship
Psalm 85:8
8 I will listen to what God the LORD will say;
he promises peace to his people, his saints—
but let them not return to folly.
Key Verse:
1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
Scriptural references:
Matthew 26:41
Romans 8:14
1 Peter 2:11
Job 7:1-4
1 Peter 5:8
1 John 4
Ephesians 6:13
In temptations and trials the progress of a man is measured; in them opportunity for merit and virtue is made more manifest. Thomas A. Kempis 1380 - 1471
Author of Imitation of Christ
Hymns:
We are Called to Be God’s People #415
Near to the Heart of God #617
Til the Storm Passes By #543
I want to call on the ushers at this time to come forward and pass out these boxes of candy. Please feel free to take as many as you like.
Forgive me for using this object lesson but I wanted you to notice what I have.
Our sight as well as other senses can lead us into temptations of many kinds.
Matthew 26:41
41 Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.
This past week has been most rewarding and challenging for me in regards to my spiritual life. God has used the smallest of creatures to teach me the greatest truths in so far as they relate to my fallen nature as a man.
I am always awed and humbled by our Heavenly Fathers gentle, loving touch and His divine wisdom which reaches to the very depths of my soul. How easily I forget the reach He possesses. To go so very deep into the heart of a man is a realization that causes me to tremble in reverence.
In my secular life I work a very ordinary kind of job. I am a security officer and spend much time being prepared for the worst and at the ready while patiently waiting for something to happen. It is so very easy to drop your guard and your readiness and give in to the complacency that boredom sometimes offers. But my duty compels me to be ever vigilant. In reality I can not be ever ready since my body is subject to fatigue and my mind subject to wondering.
This is the lesson Jesus was teaching me this past week and which I share with you today. For three long nights I was at my post trying my best to stay awake and alert.
During this time God provided me a distraction by way of a spider. I could watch this spider for hours at a time and through my observations the Holy Spirit spoke to me about my fallen condition.
The first thing I noticed was that the spider worked the same hours that I did. It was most active at night under the cover of darkness as it began its labors spinning its web.
I watched intently as it worked against the clock to get its web in place and set the trap for its prey. I realized that the spider was doing what it did by instinct yet it made me aware that there was purpose that we Christians could draw from nature herself.
This was the kind of study that spoke to the heart and mind of Thomas Aquinas who had developed his Natural Theology. Many of you here are probably students of this school of theology without even realizing it. They are the lesson we learn simply by observing the natural order of things all around us.
Since I was not raised on a farm these are lessons which I have not been schooled in. I found my intellect and spirit awoken by this little spider that God had provided as my teacher.
In temptations and trials the progress of a man is measured; in them opportunity for merit and virtue is made more manifest. Thomas A. Kempis 1380 - 1471
Author of Imitation of Christ
I noticed that the spider caught many small insects in its web but that it did not consume them all. It left several alive and struggling in the web as bait to entice larger insects to the web.
I thought how similar we are with the temptations we encounter; often we take no real account of giving in to a little temptation here or there. Yet we need to realize that giving into the small temptations may lead us to fall to the greater temptations. Satan will let a few of us get caught up into temptation and let us live there seemingly unharmed in the hope that he might draw others into greater peril.
Romans 8:14
14 For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. NIV
We need to be mindful of who we are who we belong to. We are Gods own dear children and as such we are enemies to the devil who wishes to ensnare us.
1 Peter 2:11
11Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.
I do not think of myself as an alien in this world, when you say that to me I think of little green men. Yet that is what we are. We are not to be of this fallen world but we are to be ambassadors of Gods Kingdom.
We are to be so different from the rest of humanity that we look like little green men and women from another world. But do we look that different?
Human life for the Christian is a life of struggle and self improvement brought on by the influence of the Holy Spirit making us into what we ought to be.
Job 7:1-4 1 Do not mortals have hard service on earth?
Are not their days like those of hired laborers? 2 Like a slave longing for the evening shadows,
or a hired laborer waiting to be paid, 3 so I have been allotted months of futility, and nights of misery have been assigned to me. 4 When I lie down I think, ’How long before I get up? The night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn.
We all share this same struggle to live out our lives for God and to struggle against the dark elements of the night. We seek to see life through to the end in the hope of seeing the dawn of our eternal rest. That rest is our compensation for faithfulness.
1 Peter 5:8
8Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
How easy it is to let down our guard or to become weary or tired of the battle that we must fight. Just as the spider does not always occupy the web so too Satan lies in hiding seemingly out of sight.
But we are not unarmed in this battle.
1 John 4
4You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
God has seen fit to equip us with His Holy Spirit so that we might stand against the enemy.
Ephesians 6:13
13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
My friends temptation is not a sin in and of it self. It is only when we give into the temptation that we fall to sin.
Jesus was tempted in every way yet was without sin.
Hebrews 4:15
15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.
Key Verse:
1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV
No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
Let us seek the way out of temptation and learn from that which tempts us so as to refine our Christian character as we seek to be like Jesus.
