The Spider And The Web

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.