The Truth About Temptation

[Slide 1] The Truth About Temptation
Text: James 1:12-18

When I was completing my doctoral work, there were times when I wasn’t serving as interim pastor, holding Bible Conferences or revivals, or supply preaching. On those Sundays, I attended a church near the seminary and participated in a Sunday School class that was led by the pastor’s wife. The choir director was even gracious enough to let me sing with the choir on those Sundays when I wasn’t off preaching.

So, imagine my horror when I had been off preaching the week before and came to choir practice on Wednesday night to discover that the church was adrift in scandal. Our pastor had engaged in an affair with another woman. I never asked for the sordid details of the affair. I was terribly hurt because of the toll on both the church’s reputation and the emotional and spiritual well-being of his wife. Yes, he resigned in disgrace. We didn’t even really feel better when he died of a brain tumor less than six months after he resigned. I suppose some people excused his sinful behavior on that basis, but no one knows whether the illness was a cause or effect. It was still sin and it was still harmful.

A lot of people asked me, “How could this happen?” And I hadn’t really thought of it before, but a couple of realities hit me. First of all, if I was Satan and wanted to neutralize the impact of a church, whom would I attack—a member who wasn’t attending regularly and not showing much commitment or a leader at the forefront of a congregation? I’m pretty sure that I would go after the prominent one, often the pastor. Even if I didn’t succeed in getting him to do something as dramatic as the pastor I just mentioned, any compromise has potential. So, as pastors, we have to stay on guard. Second, I realized that the very things which give us strength can become our weakness if we don’t constantly submit them to God. Empathy is great unless it gets us emotionally involved so that we compromise. Confidence is great unless it makes us arrogant and proud. Intellect is marvelous unless we get knowledge confused with wisdom.

And to keep our strengths from becoming weakness, God allows us to be “tested.”

[Slide 2] I don’t think anyone likes being tested, whether it involves a [Click] written examination or a [Click] medical lab test. There is always a certain amount of anxiety and uncertainty when we are challenged. You may wonder why I’m spending time talking about temptation and testing. There are two reasons: [Click] 1) the root sometimes translated “tempt” and sometimes translated “test” or “trial” is used six (6) times in our passage, even though once it is negative and 2) I think most believers have the wrong idea about the relationship between tests and temptations.

[Slide 3] The point is that we will be tested. And, as pastors and leaders, we are going to be tested far more than we would like to be. We will be criticized, second-guessed, gossiped about, accused falsely, misunderstood, and misrepresented. We will be starved out financially (not always, but sometimes), frozen out emotionally (again, not always), and locked out of the decision-making process (not always, but too often).

 12) Blessed is the one [lit. “man”] who stays firm with regard to temptation, because they have been evaluated and shall receive the prize-winning reward [lit. “wreath,” sometimes “crown”] of life which He promised to the ones He loves [sacrificially].

In Greek, the verb and noun that are used here are “pee-RAH-zoh” as a verb and “PEE-reh” as a noun.
As a verb, it can mean: [Click] to attempt, to seduce, to test, to try, and to tempt. As a noun, it can mean: [Click] an attempt, an enterprise, a proof, a seduction, a trial, or a temptation. So, as you can see, sometimes it’s positive and sometimes, it’s negative.

In verse 12, it seems negative because one has to stay firm to get the prize. But even being negative, there is a potential win. Like the testing I discussed in those earlier slides, there can be a positive result. In fact, God wants us to succeed. God wants that positive result.

As a former professor, I can tell you that there is a positive purpose to the quizzes and tests I gave. I wanted the students to see what they didn’t know so that they could improve. Medical tests are to show us where we might be in danger of health problems so that we can fix them with medication or lifestyle changes. As a professor, I never designed a test to try to make my students fail. In fact, the only time I ever threw out a test grade was when the whole class did so poorly that I realized I personally had failed. Similarly, God doesn’t test us to try to make us fail. God does, however, sometimes allow the opposition to try to make us fail.

[Slide 4] Where do I get that? Straight from the Book of Job. [Click] God allows the Satan to throw problems into Job’s life. God allows this, but God sets boundaries. First, the Satan can’t touch Job’s physical person, and then, the Satan can’t kill him. Why can’t Satan kill him? He can’t do that because the purpose of the test, Job’s new awareness of God after repentance could not have happened. God wants us to come out of every dark period of our lives with a fresh awareness of God’s awesome providence in a similar way.

God does test directly sometimes. Genesis tells us that God [Click] “tested” Abraham in Genesis 22. But it wasn’t because God expected Abraham to fail; it was because God wanted to demonstrate to Abraham that his faith was real. Abraham lived in a world where pagan believers wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice their sons. They would sacrifice them to make buildings special or to guarantee the strength of a wall. Abraham must have wondered if his faith was as strong as that of those pagans. So, God devised a test to show him. So, when God says that He now knows that Abraham is faithful, God is really assuring Abraham that he has passed the test. He is as faithful to his God as those pagan neighbors were to their false gods.

[Slide 5] The verse uses an interesting word for staying firm or enduring in the Greek. It comes from a combination of a prefix and a verb. The verbal root is the familiar one that is often translated “abide” in the King James Version and “remain” in a lot of modern translations. The prefix is “hypo” from which we usually get the meaning of “under.” So, [Click] “hypodermic” refers to “UNDER THE SKIN” or “dermis.” In a similar way, the Greek word for actor, [Click] “hypocrite,” really means “UNDER THE PRETENSE.” So, the verb in the first verse of our text represents staying or remaining UNDER something.

What could that possibly mean? In this case it means not rising to the desire, the sense of inadequacy, the sense of uneasiness, all factors that cause us to want to give in to temptation. We stay under control and under God’s authority.  Sometimes, not being alone with someone to whom you feel an attraction. Sometimes, it means not touching the church’s finances. Sometimes, it means not responding to a certain comment, even when you have a delight insult with which to counter.

Remember how, when you were first learning to drive, you had to learn not to overcompensate with the steering wheel—especially when you were on an icy road? To stay under control, you had to learn to respect the power of the car and trust its responsiveness to gentle careful moves. If you’re constantly overreacting, you’re bound to have a wreck.

That’s even more true when flying an airplane. When I first flew flight simulators, I would make radical moves and, inevitably end up stalling out the plane. By the time I actually got to fly in some twin cockpit prop-driven planes with experienced pilots, I knew not to do anything radical—even when I was dogfighting in Marchetti’s at Air Combat USA or flying in a Marchetti with a stunt pilot over Half Moon Bay. Sometimes, we don’t let the temptation under our skin by taking some time, taking some time to pray, taking some time to meditate, and waiting for God to give us a direction. When we hurry, we are apt to make the wrong choice. When we hurry, we don’t even take the time to consult the Bible and that’s asking for trouble.

[Slide 6] Staying under or remaining under regarding tests or temptation is like that. We learn to relax in and depend upon God—like Jesus did. Look at what Hebrews 4:15 says in the New English Bible. 15) For ours is not a high priest unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who, because of his likeness to us, has been tested every way, only without sin.

I’ve always had trouble with that verse. How could Jesus, wholly God and wholly human actually be tempted like someone who is just human? The easy answer is that He was under authority and under control. He was staying under authority of the scripture, refusing to turn stones into bread by referring to the need to feed on the word of God. He refused to throw Himself from a dangerous height by responding to Satan’s twisting of scripture with His own knowledge of scripture. He wasn’t tempted to worship the devil because He knew what the Father and Spirit wanted.

You see, there is a [Click] difference between being URGED from the outside and being ENTICED from the inside. The ENTICEMENT comes with our human desires are corrupted by the will to sin. In this case SIN is essentially seeking our satisfaction from that which doesn’t come from God’s good and perfect gifts we read about earlier in the service. But Jesus’ unity with Father and Spirit kept Him from being ENTICED.

Cambridge University professor Ian A. McFarland used the following illustration. He says that there are many sins which he doesn’t DESIRE to commit that he would never commit. He doesn’t want to murder anyone or sexually abuse children. Even if someone urged him to murder someone or sexually abuse a child, he wouldn’t do it. BUT, he was “tempted” because he was URGED to do so. In the wilderness, Satan URGED Jesus to do something He didn’t DESIRE to do. [Click] In that sense, He was technically “tempted,” but His relationship as a member of the Trinity meant that He didn’t DESIRE. And in so doing (or more accurately not doing), He shows us what our relationship can be in getting so close to God that we want what God wants. That’s staying under.

[Slide 7] But, since we aren’t wholly God, but merely human, we find ourselves constantly willing OUR desires in place of what God wants. Temptation to a human being is a lot like one of those [Click] artificial flies that fishermen use to entice pike and trout to [Click]  lunge toward the surface, take in their mouths, and be caught. [Click] These flies have the illusion of life, but they can mean death to the fish. Let’s look at it from the fish’s point of view. They look alive. They look like nourishment. They look like they would satisfy. They look like they offer nutrition. Instead, they offer no nutrition, no beauty, and no satisfaction.

We think we need to tell that lie to make ourselves bigger, but it’s deadly. We think we need that extra dish of ice cream, that drink over the line, that extra plate of food, that sexual encounter, that grade from purchasing a paper or cheating on a test, that job we get with a misleading resume, that violent revenge, or that satisfaction from sabotage, but any and all of those are deadly. As James K. A. Smith wrote in his very impressive You Are What You Love, sin means: “…tuning your heart toward the songs of Babylon not the songs of Zion (Ps. 137). …automating a kind of orientation to the world that seeps into your unconscious way of being.” (p. 37)

We can’t tune our hearts as Smith suggests if we don’t take time to pray and meditate. We can’t orient ourselves to God’s plan if we’re constantly focused on the world’s agenda, the world’s needs, the world’s concerns instead of having dedicated time to study the Word of God. As pastors, we are tempted to get so caught up in church administration, hospital visitation, counseling, and various activities so that the temptation is to pull a sermon out of the file or off the hard drive and present stale bread instead of fresh nutrition. If we’re not studying afresh, how can we expect to be fresh. Part of this sermon comes from an old outline, but it is fresh for you.

[Slide 8] In contrast to those fake flies on the last side, the dissatisfying result of trying to satisfy what we think we want, God offers the reward, the prize, the celebration of life. God wants us to succeed. The Greek noun used here is the one used with laurel wreaths placed on the heads of [Click] triumphant athletes and sometimes, [Click] conquerors. It is a recognition of accomplishment—whether on  the field of games or battle. The crown of life is a recognition of accomplishment for believers, too. It recognizes that we’re on a field of battle with temptation, but it is also a recognition that God wants us to succeed and God wants us to be able to celebrate our triumphs over temptation.

This word could also refer to the [Click] golden crown of royalty as in Psalm 21:3. After all, if we are becoming related to the King of Kings through God’s salvation, we have a promise of being royalty, too. The same word can also refer to a garland worn in wedding ceremonies and festivals. It is a symbol of honor and rejoicing. [Click] I know that pretty well because when I was teaching and preaching in India, it seemed like every time I turned around, they were putting a garland on me. It was exhilarating. I felt very significant. And that’s how God wants us to feel when we overcome temptation.

How can I be sure of that? We’ll see in the next phrase and the next verse. God wants to give this crown of life, this celebration of life, this triumph of accomplishment, this garland of honor and celebration to those who have experienced and are willing to experience God’s love. It is available for everyone, but it doesn’t happen for everyone. As with almost everything else I share from this pulpit, it’s about relationship. So, let’s move on:

[Slide 9] 13) Don’t let anyone being tempted say, “Because I’m being tempted by God,” because God is not tempted by evil nor does God tempt anyone.”

There are two important concepts here and I’ll start with the second. There are a lot of people who have problem with the statement here that God doesn’t tempt. Skeptics want to cry, “Foul!” here because some translations say that [Click] God “tempted” Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. As you may have guessed from my earlier statement, that is unfortunate wording. The verb used in here can be either the word for tempting in such a way that someone is being set up to fail OR it can mean providing a test or opportunity. And although the Septuagint, the Greek translation from the Hebrew uses the same very we have here, the Hebrew verb in Genesis 22 actually means “testing.” The purpose of “testing” is to enable someone to see what they don’t know and get better or to see what they do know so that they can build on it.

God didn’t set Abraham up to fail because God interrupted the test when Abraham was succeeding in showing that his devotion was as real as those around him. The verse here in James is not saying that God won’t test us; it’s saying that God doesn’t set us up to fail. God’s tests aren’t spiritual entrapment. They are designed to make us stronger, better, more complete. But that doesn’t mean that God doesn’t ALLOW temptation as well.

Also, what does it mean that God isn’t tempted? It means that God doesn’t perceive anything as lacking. Our temptations are usually built on what is often called FOMO, Fear Of Missing Out. Sexual sinners fear that they are missing out on love and confuse love with lust. Thieves, including dishonest business people, fear that they are missing out on profit. The sad thing is that they often become so paranoid about losing profit that even if they are successful, they’re afraid of losing it and afraid that everyone else has it in for them.

God isn’t tempted because God doesn’t have any fear of missing out. It means that God isn’t fooled into thinking that it’s possible to take a short cut to improve one’s position. God is already satisfied, but wills to give Himself to us in order to pull us to God’s own dimensionality of heaven. God isn’t a “consumer,” if you will. Nothing looks better to God than it actually is. Again, that’s why Jesus didn’t sin. He had unhindered communication with Father and Spirit. We don’t have that advantage. Being humans, we are constantly tempted to find ways to improve our positions. We often feel like we’re lacking something. We’re constantly consuming in order to fill something that we think we’re missing—ironically, we often try to fill that emptiness at the very time God is attempting to give it to us.

[Slide 10] Yet, that desire to fill up our lives as we THINK we want to do so is it’s very human. Listen to the next verse, verse 14. 14) Everyone is tempted by their own desires, being dragged along or enticed. It seems significant that it suggests that all of us are distracted from being all that God wants us to be by temptation, but that we don’t always experience it the same way. [Click] This cartoon from an old Chicago Tribune illustrates our greatest weakness. Trying to satisfy ourselves in this way has disastrous consequences. Yet, even pastors are tempted to hear the voice of their desires instead of God’s. How do we check ourselves? We must constantly calibrate our thoughts with not just our favorite scripture passages, but with the whole Word of God. It’s complicated and sometimes, confusing, but when we take it as a whole, we can’t go wrong.

[Slide 11] The root of the first way the verse describes how we experience temptation is to be dragged into it. It would be the verb for pulling a wagon or chariot in the ancient world. It suggests the idea of being pulled into temptation and into sin by being dragged by an external force.

[Click] This reminds me of NASCAR racing. Ever notice how those drivers sometimes get as close as they can to one another? It’s because the car in front takes all the hit from the wind, so the car behind not only saves fuel and wear and tear on the engine, but there is also some suction that pulls the rear car along. Then, when the time is right, the rear car tries to slingshot past the lead car. But it’s that suction I was trying to share about. How are we “dragged” into sin? It’s by running with the wrong people and running in the wrong circumstances—the wrong crowd and the wrong place. What is that wrong crowd? It’s the crowd that isn’t focused on God. What is that wrong place? It is anyplace that distracts us from God’s presence and goodness.

And what of that enticement? I used to believe the myth that [Click] cobras hypnotize their prey—puffing out their hoods, raising up to a higher vertical level, swaying slightly with that hypnotic motion. It appears that just do that to appear as a bigger threat and to gauge the distance to their prey before they spit venom at them. I kind of wish the myth were true because it would be a great illustration of enticing sin. It looks bigger than it is and it looks exotic and dangerous, but like the prey that sometimes just stands there before the cobra spits, we just stay in its power—even though it’s deadly.

Enticement really has to do with seeing what we want to see—the possible satisfaction of sin without counting the cost, the consequences of sin. No gambler thinks he or she is going to lose. No couple engaging in premarital or extramarital sex thinks pregnancy is going to happen to them. No drug addict thinks she or he is going to get addicted. No glutton thinks he or she is going to get fat or have health problems. Every smoker and every alcoholic thinks they can quit when they want to do so. No embezzler thinks she or he is going to get caught. No one lies thinking they’re going to be exposed. Like a cobra, the enticement looks majestic and exotic, but it’s deadly. In fact, that’s exactly what verse 15 says: 15) Once desires conceive, they birth sin. Then, sin reaching its full maturity [or “full potential”] brings about death.

Now, here’s where we get into a little bit of trouble. That idea of sin bringing death can be as problematic for you and me as it was for Eve (and eventually Adam) in the garden. The serpent, let’s think of Satan as a King Cobra for a moment, goes into his hypnotic routine and says, “Surely you won’t die.” He means you won’t die immediately or completely. He knows it means death, but he figures to get all the mileage out of the temptation that he can.

The death we get from sin is not JUST that all at once experience we each expect to have someday. It’s because sin cuts us off from God’s blessing and the life and light flowing into us from God that we start to experience death instead of the life God intended for us. We experience that helplessness, that defeat, that comes from feeling like life doesn’t mean anything, that we aren’t accomplishing anything. And why aren’t we accomplishing anything? We don’t know what God wants, much less what we want.

Focusing on our desires, giving in to what’s convenient, available, and satisfying in the short term—whether it’s compromising on a principle so that we don’t make waves in the congregation, whether it’s procrastinating on sermon preparation so we can get take some extra time off, whether it’s skipping exercise because we just don’t feel good, whether it’s procrastinating worship or prayer to get that extra couple of hours of sleep, or whether it is indulging our ego by trying to win an argument that, thinking back, wasn’t really that important to begin with, these are cute little puppy sins that transform into angry, homicidal pit bull sins. But, James isn’t telling us this just to keep us away from sin; James wants us to learn how to FOCUS on what’s important.

[Slide 12] 16) Don’t be misled, my loving brothers [and sisters], 17) every good gift and every complete gift is from above, the ones coming down from the Father of light, concerning whom there is no variation or shadowy illusions [both are astronomical terms for decaying orbits and false shadows, respectively]. 18) He chose to bring us about by means of [His] true word in order that each of us can be the prize harvest [lit. “first fruits”] of His creation.

God doesn’t just give us a categorical “No” to keep us from doing things that would hurt us; God wants us to find out what’s really valuable in life. That laurel wreath, that crown of life, is intended to be worn and celebrated now and forever. It’s not like my Indian garlands that faded away so fast I couldn’t bring them home and show Wailam. The now part is “provisional.” It isn’t complete because God hasn’t given us complete triumph over the negatives and distractions of our lives. We need to put on that incorruptibility Paul writes about in 1 Corinthians 15 to do that. But God does give us really nice “tastes” of triumph when we have those great productive days, when we get that belated recognition, when we feel good about ourselves and where we’re going, and when we learn to be thankful in every situation. In faith, we need to grab hold of the fact that God wants what is best for us—not just in the sweet by and by (sometimes spelled “Sweet Bye and Bye”), but also in those blessed times of walking in His presence.

God’s good gifts don’t have that downside. God wants us to enjoy spiritual gifts and blessings from the outset. But we have to realize that everything worthwhile, everything that doesn’t have a downside to it, comes from above. It doesn’t come from us. It comes from God. But there’s MORE! This “from above” is the same word that Jesus used in John 3 when He told Nicodemus that he must be born “from above,” “anew,” and “again.” The word implies not only something from beyond oneself, but it also suggests that what we have isn’t good enough. We need the refreshing newness and we need a fresh start—anew and again.

[Slide 13] This assertion is followed by two important astronomical metaphors. When I translated in verse 17 that there is no variation, I recognized that this is a word often associated with degrading orbits or faulty astronomical sightings in the ancient world. Today, we know that even the earth’s orbit is precessional and doesn’t stay exactly the same all the time. This isn’t the place for a lecture on Johannes Kepler’s observations, but I just want to use this orbital animation to suggest that God isn’t so intractable that God is impassive. God is “on the move” in our behalf, but God has a “stable” as opposed to unstable pattern of movement. Some people take this verse as a proof text that God cannot be affected by what we do and then, logically follow through that prayer and service make no difference. To the contrary, God gives us God’s good/mature/fulfilling gifts in order that we can become the prize fruits of God’s harvest. He lets us share in God’s “blue ribbon” prizes, to use our county fairs as an illustration.

So, God is dependable. God’s movement is so consistent that we can locate God whenever we’ve lost focus. That’s why this phrase about God’s orbit not decaying is important. God’s consistency is significant because of our chaotic inconsistency. And God doesn’t present any “false shadows.” Sometimes, there is darkness that occludes clear sightings and measurements in space. This isn’t as common now with our radio telescopes and the like as it was in the ancient world, but there are still false shadows or, as in the case of the image on the screen—false colors. This is an image of Jupiter with false colors and the black spots are shadows of Jupiter’s moons (Ganymede, Io, and Callisto).

Just as when we are truly seeking God, God doesn’t give false colors or false shadows. God won’t steer you wrong. When you see God, you see yourself more clearly and that allows you to adjust your behavior to bring glory to God.

A lot of times, even those of us who know Christ find ourselves distracted by other concerns and options. We lose sight of being God’s prize harvest because we think we might miss out on something. We get distracted by the sleight of hand or hip shifting of a clever temptation. We lose focus on the center of gravity—our God. If we can keep our focus on God, the distractions and the perceived sacrifices will be revealed as the weak, lightweight, inconsequential stuff they are. That’s the prize!

But we can’t get it without relationship! We can’t get it without aligning our aim where God’s aim is. We can’t do that without spending time in prayer. We can’t do that without spending time in God’s Word. We can’t do that without spending time in worship. And we can’t do that without investing time in God’s service. The only way not to yield to temptation is to yield to God’s will. It isn’t always easy, but that’s the way to find the best that God has for us.

[Slide 14] As pastors and teachers, we are sometimes tempted to take short-cuts with our own spiritual growth. That leaves us wide open to temptation. When I was attending a Christian college, I had already surrendered to ministry and wanted to take Bible classes. But these Bible classes weren’t about struggling with the scripture. They weren’t about understanding what God was saying to the people to whom He gave the message originally. They didn’t give a coherent view of how the material in the Bible fit together. It was what I called a [Click] grocery list study of the Bible. We spent our time on Bible trivia.

Frankly, we should [Click] beware the likelihood of getting caught up in trivia instead of truth. It doesn’t matter who Melchizedek is if we don’t plan to teach and practice tithing. It doesn’t matter who Eutychus is if we don’t believe God still accomplishes miracles. It doesn’t matter how many cities of refuge there were in the Old Testament if we don’t offer justice in our society. It doesn’t matter how many loaves and fish were in the boy’s lunch (I know you all know) if you don’t believe that God can multiply your resources, whether it’s buildings, budgets, baptisms, time, or talents.

And I know that there are wonderful concordances and online resources. But we open ourselves up to problems if we do what I call [Click] “sword drill” preaching. When I was young, we learned the books of the Bible by standing in a line at attention, drawing up Bibles up as though demonstrating swords, and being given a scripture reference like John 3:16. The leader would say “Charge” and the first person to find the verse would get a point. It served a purpose. We learned the books of the Bible and we learned a few verses. But we didn’t get a thorough knowledge of how those verses fit together in the Bible. Most dangerously, we didn’t learn how the New Testament completed certain things in the Old Testament and set us free from certain obligations.

Some pastors throw so many different Bible verses at their congregations in an attempt to be thorough, or to show how smart they are, or to prove a point that may not actually be there that the congregation leaves without any clear-cut idea of what the passage they were preaching on actually meant. You are not helping your people grow if that’s your usual preaching style. That’s part of why I like to preach through entire books or sections of books as part of my preaching program. And I try to preach the whole word of God, even books like Ezra and Habakkuk which don’t get much time in the pulpit.

And if you heard yesterday’s message, you heard my father’s warning that if God hasn’t spoken to you in the text, it’s highly unlikely God will speak to the congregation. That’s very true of internet sermons. I know of a church in Oklahoma, a Baptist church, where the pastor lived off sermons he downloaded off the internet. It turned out that during the time he was saving time by downloading off the internet, he was in a sexual relationship with another woman, a sexual relationship that ended up being exposed on Oklahoma City television. I have to believe that part of his problem was that he wasn’t experiencing enough of God’s love to stave off temptation. It wasn’t downloading his sermons exactly that caused his problem, but not loving God’s Word sufficiently was a way of straying away from God Himself. Try not to get in the habit of [Click] preaching second-hand sermons.

In a similar vein, beware of [Click] “expired,” or at least, “tired” resources. I’m not saying that you should only use the newest commentaries or only read the newest theological works. I do read and use new books, but I also read from the church fathers, the reformers, great expositors and exegetes of the past, and books recommended by my professors—almost all of whom have passed on. By “expired” or “tired” resources, I mean those that you depend on all the time. Martyn Lloyd-Jones is a great resource on Romans, but he isn’t right all the time and he won’t always connect with you and your church.

Personally, I even read from sources which are not of my denomination, not where I am on the liberal-fundamentalist spectrum, and not always in English. I try to be open to new possibilities God might give me and wrong possibilities God might be making me aware of. But I couldn’t do that if I had a limited library and stuck to the same books all the time. I hope you don’t find this conclusion to be arrogant, offensive and off-point, but I think it appropriate because it reflects several ways that pastors are tempted to quit growing and experience God’s word afresh. May God give us such a love for His Word that we never find ourselves tempted to become complacent.