"The Crack in the Dam"--Sermon on the Mount Series

            Dams are impressive structures. They withstand incredible forces that press against them constantly. But from time to time, dams do fail, and with earthen dams in particular, the problem can often be traced back to one crack that compromised the strength of the whole structure and eventually led to its collapse.

            The reality behind a dam break is also a great metaphor for the way we think. A person’s way of thinking tends to be very resistant to change—its like that dam that withstands incredible pressure for years. But sometimes people do undergo a radical change in their thinking, and when they do, that change can often be traced back to one crack—one question or one thought that slowly erodes that person’s way of thinking until it all comes crashing down.

            As we study the Sermon on the Mount again today, we’re going to read about Jesus seeking to hammer that one crack into the religious mindset of his audience. The people of Israel needed a change of mind about sin and forgiveness—that’s why Jesus’ earliest message, according to Matthew 4:17, was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” But the change of mind that comes in repentance does not often come easily, so at this stage of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus makes a shocking statement that would become that one crack for anyone who would believe his word.

            Let’s read today from Matthew 5:17-20, and then we’ll look at that section piece by piece [READ 5:17-20]. That final statement would have been absolutely shocking to Jesus’ audience. For the most part, I can picture the people agreeing with Jesus’ sermon up to this point. I envision it kind of like this:

“Hmm…blessed are the poor in spirit; yeah, amen to that! Blessed are the meek; yeah, amen, amen! Blessed are those who are persecuted; uh, I’m not so sure how I feel about that. Oh, you say there’s great reward? Yeah, amen! Oh, we’re the salt of the earth and the light of the world? Yeah, preach it brother! You say you’ve come to fulfill the Law and the Prophets? Hey—I’m a fan of the Law and the Prophets, too! I have to be more righteous than the Pharisees to enter heaven. Wait—what? What on earth is this guy talking about!?”

Let’s take a closer look at this passage to see exactly what Jesus was up to.

Setting the Stage

            In this passage, Jesus is setting the stage for the rest of the sermon. He is about to conduct a thorough expose of the Pharisees, who were the religious leaders of the Jewish people. Perhaps the best modern-day comparison to the Pharisees in terms of their role is the pope and the cardinals of the Catholic Church. The Pharisees were the keepers and interpreters of the Old Testament for the people of Israel.

            Because of the Pharisees’ role, Jesus begins this section by clarifying what He is about to do. When Jesus starts criticizing the Pharisees, it would have been easy for the people to think He was criticizing the Old Testament, because most of their knowledge about the Old Testament came from the Pharisees. What we will see in the rest of the sermon is that Jesus is criticizing the Pharisees interpretation of the Old Testament, not the Old Testament itself.

            Jesus wants the people to understand that He is not throwing the baby out with the bathwater, so He says, beginning in v. 17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” This was quite a statement by itself. Jesus hadn’t come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but He wasn’t going to merely uphold them, either. He had come to fulfill them—to bring the purpose of the Law to its completion and fulfill the prophecies that the Prophets made about the Messiah.

            Notice the certainty that Jesus gives the people in v. 18 about His intentions [READ v. 18]. Now there’s no need to read into the fact that Jesus mentions the Law again in v. 18 but does not mention the Prophets, as He had in v. 17. Both of those statements were just a short-hand way of referring to the entire Old Testament, and Jesus affirms that everything in the Old Testament would be fulfilled down to the tiniest detail.

            The “iota” is probably a reference to the Hebrew letter yod which is the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet; its looks similar to our apostrophe in English. The “dot” is what the King James Version referred as the “tittle.” The ESV translators probably chose the word “dot” because the dot over the letter “i” is basically the smallest stroke in our language. For the Hebrew language, the word probably refers to the tiny pen strokes that distinguish two letters which otherwise look very similar.

            On a side note, notice the confidence that this statement gives us about the Old Testament. If even the tiniest details were important, that must mean that God was involved in the writing of the Old Testament down to the tiniest details. The Lord guided the human authors of Scripture in every word that they chose, with each of that word’s letters and pen strokes. That reality should give us tremendous confidence in the Bible.

Lowering the Boom

            In v. 19, Jesus begins to lower the boom on the Pharisees and the religious mindset that they were propagating. He does so with a very subtle clues in v. 19, then He really drops the hammer in v. 20. Let’s read again v. 19 [READ v. 19]. You might remember that as we studied the Beatitudes, I said that they were in one sense a commentary on v. 19. In other words, they describe the character and the actions of the person who will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Now we read about a clear dividing line between those who will be called least in the kingdom and those who will be called great. That line consists of how we keep and how we teach the commands of God.

            Because of the incredible importance of God’s commands, as Jesus expressed in vv. 17-18, it is a very serious thing to relax God’s commands and to teach others to do the same. As we will see in the rest of the sermon, that’s exactly what the Pharisees were doing by reducing the commands of God merely to measurements of external behavior.

            Here we find the subtle clue that would begin to undermine the people’s religious mindset—those who teach about God’s commands may not be teaching them correctly. They may in fact be distorting the commandments of God and teaching others to do the same. Jesus makes the same point toward the end of this sermon with much greater force and clarity. In Matthew 7:15 he says, “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”

            The seed of that warning is planted right here in 5:19, and again, it is the beginning of that one small crack that could bring the people’s whole religious mindset crashing down. Jesus wants them to consider whether their religious leaders are actually leading them down the right path. This was a very important question for the people because they had to rely on their leaders for religious guidance even more so than we do today. Each family did not have their own copy of the Old Testament to read, so they had to rely on their religious leaders to point them down the right path. As we’re going to see at the end of this sermon, Jesus is going to challenge the people to accept His words as laying out the right path for them.

            We must ask ourselves as well if we’re following the right leaders today, and we have very little excuse for following false teachers because we have the ability to read the Bible for ourselves. It is no coincidence that the Protestant Reformation grew as the Bible was able to be read far and wide. We benefit from that heritage today with our personal copies of the Bible, but that also gives us no excuse if we become duped by the Jim Joneses of the world, or the Benny Hinns or the Joseph Smiths or the Muhammads.

            Jesus wanted His audience to question the path that had been laid out for them by the Pharisees, so He really drops the hammer on them in v. 20. In v. 19, He had mentioned people who would be called great in the kingdom of heaven, and if I can paraphrase v. 20, He says, “Let’s forget about being called great for a moment, because unless you live up to God’s standards better than the Pharisees, you won’t even get in to the kingdom of heaven.”

            This is the statement that would have just fried the people’s mental circuits. It would be like telling a modern-day farmer, “Unless you can maintain all your sections with nothing but a hoe, you’ll never make it as a farmer.” Or it would be like telling an athlete, “Unless you can jump from here to the moon, you’ll never make it as an athlete.” The people would have heard this statement and thought, “That’s impossible!” because the Pharisees appeared to be the most righteous people that they could possibly imagine.

            But “That’s impossible!” is exactly what Jesus wanted the people to think! He wasn’t actually encouraging them to try and out do the Pharisees at their own game; He wanted them to see the futility of the Pharisee’s game and thus abandon it for another path. The Pharisees thought they had lived up to God’s standards as laid out by the Old Testament Law, but in reality, they had relaxed the standards of the Law and created a system that they could successfully live out.

            But sadly, their system left them blind to their own sinful shortcomings, and that was the most tragic consequence of all. They could not receive forgiveness from God because they didn’t think they needed it, and they were offended by Jesus’ declaration that they did. The Pharisees had not lived up to God’s standards through their own effort, and the whole point of v. 20 is that no one can. That will become clear as Jesus explains God’s true standards in the next part of this sermon.

            My friends, if you think you have lived up to God’s standards, if you think you have perfectly kept His commands, I must tell you that the Bible declares you are wrong. No one, except Jesus, has ever lived up to God’s standards. Romans 3:23 says simply, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Each and every one of us has sinned; we have broken God’s law, and because of that we stand guilty as lawbreakers in God’s court of law. We deserve to receive the penalty of breaking His law, which is death—which primarily means separation from God; estrangement from Him both now and forever in Hell unless we somehow receive mercy from Him.

            But thankfully, mercy is exactly what God offers us through our Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 2:14 says that He has canceled the record that stood against us with its legal demands by nailing it to the cross. His death on the cross paid the penalty of our sins, and His resurrection from death declares that his promises are true.

            So today, if you will acknowledge to God that you stand guilty before Him and deserve His punishment, and if you will rely upon the death and resurrection of God’s Son as your only hope of forgiveness, you will receive mercy. And much more than that—God will not only restore your relationship with Him, He will adopt you into His own family and give you His own Spirit so that you can live out His standards today, and live with Him forever in this life and the next.

            I urge you to understand that you have not lived up to God’s standards, and I urge you all the more to accept God’s gift of mercy through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Turning on the High Beams--Sermon on the Mount Series

            A few years ago, I had a couple of questions come to mind that I thought would be helpful for me to re-visit from time-to-time throughout my ministry as a pastor. I believe I was driving around the suburbs of Kansas City where the church that I served in was located, and I thought to myself, “If our church closed its doors and folded, I wonder if anyone in the area would notice? And even if they did notice, would they care that our church no longer existed?” Those questions are just another way of asking, “What kind of impact are we making on the community?” but they really stuck with me. Would anyone notice, and would anyone care?

            So, what would the answers to those questions be for our church? If Morningside folded and closed its doors, would anyone notice, and would anyone care? That first question is pretty easy to answer—in a small town like ours, of course people would notice! People notice when we get new gravel on the parking lot! But what about that second question—would anyone care? Would some people be happy to see us go because our testimony for Christ had been a weight on their conscience? Would some people be sad because they thought that Montezuma was a better place with our church around? Would anyone notice? Would anyone care?

            I want you to keep those questions in mind as we take a look at the next section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. A few weeks ago, we concluded our study of the opening section known as the “Beatitudes,” and now we come to a very familiar set of verses that provide a powerful purpose statement for all followers of Christ. Let’s read these verses, then we’ll make sure to set them back within their context [READ Matt. 5:13-16].

            I want to remind you about two points of the context of this passage. First, Jesus had just told his audience that they could more or less expect to face persecution when they imitate him in their own lives. Whenever the subject of persecution comes up, I think it brings with it the temptation to think, “Well, maybe if we lay low and keep our heads down, we can avoid persecution. We certainly won’t give up our beliefs about God, but if we’re just a little more private about them, then maybe we can serve God without facing persecution.”

            But notice that in our passage today, laying low is precisely what Jesus says we must not do. We are the light of the world, and light is supposed to shine! I think that’s why Jesus spoke these words at this point in His sermon—to combat our temptation to lay low in light of the possibility of persecution. And notice that v. 16 gives us the hope that some people will respond positively to our witness for God. Not everyone will respond by insulting us and rejecting us—some people will accept our testimony about God and join us in honoring Him.

            Its also important for us to remember who Jesus was speaking to when he spoke these words. He wasn’t at a convention for “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous!” He was speaking to a big collection of misfits—and I don’t mean that as an insult. These were simply people who literally did not fit in to the powerful and influential groups in their society.

            First of all, we had Jesus’ disciples—men who were just “Average Joe’s” who probably didn’t understand exactly what they had gotten themselves into just yet. Then, we had the larger group who had come to seek out Jesus. The end of chapter four tells us that this group was made up of sick people and those who brought the sick people to Jesus, and they came from all over the place, meaning that there may have been some Gentiles in the crowd, people whom the Jews really looked down upon.

            So Jesus was not standing before the Roman Emperor and his servants, nor was He standing before all the philosophers in Athens or even before the Jewish leaders in the Sanhedrin at Jerusalem. He was standing on a Galilean hillside surrounded by common folk, and He looked at them and said, “You are the salt of the earth; you are the light of the world.” And of course, its not that there was anything special about the common folk—its what God could accomplish through them that was special. God could give them a new identity that would bring glory to Him when they put it on display.

            And just what is that identity? Its described in these two metaphors—the salt of the earth, and the light of the world. Notice the assumption that lies behind these two metaphors. Both of them assume that our world, as it is today, is lacking something; it is needy. Our world is a dark place that needs light; it is a distasteful place that needs salt, and according to Jesus, God’s purpose for His children is to be that salt and light.

            These two metaphors really work together to teach us about carrying out God’s purpose for us in this world. The metaphor about salt teaches us about the importance of carrying out God’s purpose, and the metaphor about light teaches us about how to carry out that purpose.

Let’s take a closer look at each of these metaphors.

The Salt of the Earth

            Salt was a very valuable commodity at that time. In some cases, people were paid with salt, which gave rise to the phrase “he’s not worth his salt.” Just like today, salt had a variety of uses, the most common of which were preserving food and flavoring food. But notice how Jesus’ focus is on the uselessness of salt if it should somehow lose its potency. If salt can no longer perform its function, what use is it? Imagine if you picked up your salt shaker at lunch today and the salt inside had somehow lost its flavor. What would you do with it? How would you restore its flavor—would you pour salt on it?

            I think Jesus was being humorous here to remind us that its ridiculous to think about turning from our primary purpose of motivating others to give glory to our Father. Remember how these words are coming right on the heels of talk about persecution. Its not pleasant to think about facing persecution for obeying God, but the alternative is uselessness. The path of obedience most likely will bring some discomfort now, but it leads to great reward, as Jesus said in v. 12. On the other hand, the path of failing to let your light shine produces nothing of any value. In your life today it will produce a lack of purpose, a lack of passion, and a feeling of being distant from God, and on the Day of Judgment when you stand before Christ, you’ll watch whatever it was you chose to value instead go up in smoke!

            God forbid that I ever portray obedience as pain-free, but may God also forbid that I would fail to tell you its worth it! Just as salt was highly valued, you have a valuable role to play in this world. You can help make life more palatable for the people around you. You can help stem the tide of ungodliness that is rising all around us. The Lord gives us more of an idea of how we can do this through the next metaphor.

The Light of the World

            When Jesus looks at his followers and says, “You are the light of the world,” it is truly an incredible statement. Later in His ministry, Jesus said to the Pharisees, “I am the light of the world (John 8:12).” This idea of giving light to the world was part of Jesus’ identity, and because we are united with Him by faith, it is part of our identity as well. This connection is also a good reminder for us that the light we shine through our good works doesn’t come from us—it comes from the Lord. As Philippians 2:13 reminds us, “it is God who works in [us], both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

            So we provide light to the world in the same way that the moon provides light at night—we reflect the light that comes from somewhere else. Our role, as Christ puts it here, is to light that shine. Don’t hide it! Don’t conceal it! That would be like the salt that loses its potency—it would be useless. Rather, we are to put our light on display, and how do we do that? By doing good works, according to v. 16. That’s how we shine our light—by putting the character of Jesus on display through the way that we live.

            Now, if you’re familiar with the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, you may have a question coming to mind at this point. This verse seems to contradict what Jesus says later in 6:1—“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them.” What’s going on here? In chapter 5, Jesus clearly tells us to let others see our good works, but then He warns us about doing things to be seen by others. How do we make sense of this?

            First, we need to understand that Jesus is talking about different motivations. In our passage for today, our motivation is supposed to be that God would receive honor and praise through our good works, but in chapter 6, Jesus is warning us about doing things with the motive that we would receive honor and praise. So there’s a difference in motivation between the commands in these two verses.

            Second, I think Jesus has different activities in mind in these passages. In chapter 6 when He says, “beware of practicing your righteousness,” He goes on to talk about giving money to the poor, praying, and fasting—actions that were all standard religious activities for the Jews. Our equivalent today might be praying, singing hymns, and putting money in the offering plate.

            But in chapter 5, Jesus mentions doing good works, and I think He has different activities in mind. 1 Timothy 5:10 provides a helpful list that describes what kind of activities fall into this category of good works. The Apostle Paul is writing about widows, and he mentions some good works which they may have performed: “having a reputation for good works: if she has brought up children, has shown hospitality, has washed the feet of the saints, has cared for the afflicted, and has devoted herself to every good work.”

            Let me illustrate what I mean. To let your light shine, the best choice would not be to hold a prayer meeting in front of Eva’s so that everyone could see you as they walk in. The better choice would be to call up someone who needs a friend and invite them for a meal at Eva’s (or invite them to your house or serve them in some personal way). Or, instead of simply putting a fish symbol on your car, let someone who needs it borrow your car, or give them a ride somewhere yourself.

            Of course, in order to praise God for these things, people must realize you’re doing these things to honor God. That’s where we find the value of talking about your faith—or putting the fish symbol on your car or wearing your Christian t-shirt or praying when other people are around. This is where a truly powerful witness is found, in the combination of the testimony about your faith AND the display of your faith through good works.

            Let us remember what Jesus said: He is the true light of the world, but while He is now away in Heaven, we carry on that mission by reflecting the light of His character in the way that we live.

            Let’s return briefly to the two questions that I mentioned at the beginning of the sermon today. If our church were to close its doors, would anyone notice and would anyone care? Are people seeing the light of Christ through us, or are we hiding His light through disobedience or fear? Are we letting our light shine in such a way that there would be a noticeable difference in our community if we were not here?

            It is true that as we shine the light of Christ, some people will find it to be an annoying glare from which they want to turn away. As Jesus said, they may insult us and slander us, hoping that we will turn off the light. But some people will find the light of Christ warm and inviting. They will be glad that they have seen the light and they will praise God for sending His light into the world. And we will know that we have played our part—we have let our light shine, we have helped another person taste and see that the Lord is good, and we will look forward to Christ’s approval.

God's Pervasive Presence--Attributes of God Series

            1 Kings 20 records the details of a war between the people of Israel and their northern neighbors, the Syrians. The children of Israel were victorious in the first battle, much to the dismay of the Syrians, and later on, as the Syrian leaders gathered for coffee at the local café, they tried to figure out why they had lost. One of the leaders said, “Aha! Why didn’t we think of this before? They beat us because they had home-field advantage! Their god must be a god of the hills, so next time let’s fight them down in the plains, and our gods will give us the victory.”

            After that conversation, the Lord sent a prophet to the king of Israel, who said, “Because the Syrians think I’m only the god of the hills and not the god of the plains, I’m going to give them all into your hand.” In that moment, God wanted to make a crystal-clear distinction between himself and the so-called “gods” of the other nations—the God of Israel, the God of the Bible, cannot be assigned to one location as if His power were only operative there. Rather, the testimony of Scripture is that our God—the true God—is in all places. He is king in all places and every place at the same time.

            In other words, God’s presence is pervasive—He is in all places at once. This characteristic of God is often called His “omnipresence,” and today, I want to look at this idea so that we can understand our God in better detail, and think about some implications of God’s pervasive presence in His creation.

Where is this idea found in Scripture?

            The clearest expression of this idea is also the most moving and memorable. It is found in Psalm 139:7-12. In this psalm, David had just stated how thoroughly God knows him, and now we read that part of the reason for that knowledge is that God is everywhere. I know in years past, I have read these verses as if David was trying to run away and hide from God—probably because of the word “flee” in v. 7—but upon a closer look, these verses don’t have to be understood that way. In fact, it seems that just the opposite is the case—David sees God’s presence as comforting and reassuring [READ Ps. 139:7-12]. Notice how David considers various factors like distance, speed, and even a condition like darkness and concludes that none of these things can separate us from God. He is with us!

            But how can God be with you in your house and also with me in my house at the same time? It’s important for us to remember that God does not have the limitation of a physical body like we do. John 4:24 states that God is spirit, which means that He doesn’t have flesh and bones like we do. My body can only be in one place at one time, but since God doesn’t have the limitation of a physical body, that is one reason that he can be omnipresent.

“You’ve got some ‘splainin to do!”

            We should clarify at this point just what we are claiming when we say that God is “omnipresent.” As much as it pains me to say this, since I love these movies, the Star Wars movies have popularized some ideas that some people have wrongly associated with God. People have been tempted to draw parallels between God and “The Force” in the Star Wars movies, but we really don’t want to make that connection.

            In Star Wars, The Force is a kind of power that flows through humans and rocks and trees and spaceships and everything that exists. That idea is actually based on a religious belief called “pantheism,” which comes from religions like Buddhism and Hinduism. But when we say that God is omnipresent, we should not be thinking that God is somehow inside the wood that makes up my pulpit, or that He is somehow inside the pew that you’re sitting on.

            What we are actually claiming is that God is aware of all that is happening in every corner of creation and that He is active in every corner of creation—all at the same time. When we say that God is omnipresent, that should be the idea that we have in mind, rather than some notion that God is inside the carpet or the drywall or the lightbulbs.

Unique Reminders of God’s Presence

            Now, God does, at times, give unique reminders of His presence to specific people in specific places. One familiar example of this kind of act of God is the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night that accompanied the people of Israel during the Exodus, when they fled from their slavery in Egypt. That pillar wasn’t visible from every place on the planet! It was in a specific location, and from time to time it would move to a new location to show the people where to go.

            In such moments, when God offers a unique reminder of His presence, He does so to teach people important lessons. Think about what the children of Israel should have learned from that pillar of cloud and fire. God wanted to teach them lessons like:

·         “I am here to guide you”

·         “I am here to protect you” (like when Pharaoh chased after them)

·         “I am here to provide for you” (giving them light and warmth by night).

            Of course, the greatest example of God making His presence known in order to teach us was the Incarnation, when Jesus added a human nature to His person. John 1:18 says, “No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known (NET Bible).”

Some Implications of God’s Omnipresence

1. His knowledge about me is first-hand knowledge

            I am repeating this thought from my sermon on God’s omniscience, but I think it bears repeating here. Since God is personally aware of everything that is going on in creation, then He personally knows everything that is going on with me. I think this observation is comforting, because so many of our problems with each other are either created or exaggerated by misinformation—for example, someone hears a piece of gossip about you and they start to act differently around you. Perhaps they’re less friendly or less open with you—all because they heard something about you that didn’t reflect the truth.

            But we don’t have to worry about any such issues with God! He doesn’t have to seek information about us from some other source—He sees us, so He has direct knowledge about us. This thought is also the second implication.

2. God always sees what is happening to us and what we are up to

            Many situations in life can move us to think, “God, where are you?” Though it may not feel like God is always with us, that is only an appearance; it is not the reality. God sees all that is happening to us. He sees when people sin against us; He sees when people are kind to us. He sees it all!

            He also sees what we are up to, and this thought should be a powerful reminder for us as we make choices in life. The temptations we face always look more appealing when we think that no one will see what we’re doing and no one will find out about what we’ve done. We can hide things from each other, can’t we? And when we’re only thinking on that level, our temptations look far more appealing. But when we remember that God is always with us and He sees us at all times, we are reminded that we can’t hide anything from Him.

            You may remember a children’s song that tried to teach us this lesson when we were young. It goes like this: “Oh be careful little eyes what you see, oh be careful little eyes what you see, for the Father up above is looking down in love, so be careful little eyes what you see.” That little song reminds us that God is watching us, and it contains such an important reminder when it says that God is “looking down in love.” God is watching, yes, but He’s watching in love! He is not like some grumpy piano teacher who’s waiting to slap you on the hand any time you play a wrong note. Remembering that God watches us in love will help us think accurate thoughts about God, and it still leaves us with the awesome realization that we will one day answer to God for everything that He has seen us do.

3. I am never alone—God is always with me!

            When God asked His people to carry out some task in Scripture, He always reminded them that they would not be alone—He would be with them. When Moses was preparing to lead the people of Israel toward their first attempt to conquer the Promised Land, God said to him, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest (Exodus 33:14).”

            When the people rebelled before their first attempt, and God prepared Joshua to lead the second attempt, the Lord told him to remember what he had been promised, to remember God’s commands, and he wrapped it all up by saying this: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go (Joshua 1:9).”

            When the Lord Jesus was on the earth, and He told His disciples on the night before He died that He would be going away, He said, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you (John 14:18).” And when He gave those men the Great Commission to make disciples of all the nations, He said, “behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).”

            We are not alone as we seek to carry out the tasks that God has for us. When you’re going around town and you see that person that you know you should forgive, you are not alone. When you walk into the office to co-workers who do not share your faith, you are not alone. When you are facing down the temptation that has tripped you up a hundred times, you are not alone. The Lord your God is with you wherever you go!