Who are we Series
"Who are we" Series • Sermon • Submitted
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· 3 viewsTemptations will come, but the Lord has a way for us.
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Temptations will come
Temptations will come
We have begun our year out with talking about Jesus being our Rabbi, (Disciples give up their entire life) and the Kingdom Currency in operation ($50). This is all part of the “Who are we” series, but I would be naive if I didn’t address the temptations that we have and will experience in our lives. Today, we will start with the temptations Christ went through at the beginning of His ministry, and we will end with how we can be victorious in our battles.
Then, before we finish today, I have to speak to one group of people in particular.
Are you ready?
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”
4 But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple
6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ”
11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
walk through this together
Spirit led
Picture this. (Boxers walking to the ring for the main event with their managers.)
(also smack talk b4 MMA fights) was there any?
In prior verses, God calls Jesus His Son.
? Do you think Satan was on location when Jesus got baptised and God spoke?
What about the build up for 30 years of Jesus life?
Tempter tempted, knowing the body needs food. How long was the fast??? 40 days! Why 40?
? What is tempting? It has to be something we want and could have or get or do. a temptation is something possible for us to have and we desire it.
Jesus had the power and ability to change the stone into bread, and He was hungry.
?Do you fast? why? to put God above food?
Fasting causes hunger, right?
Lets go deeper than the temptation of hunger though,
What is Satan tempting Jesus with?
Root cause of temptation beyond hunger would be using His own will to satisfy himself vs obedience to His Father. If we go back to the 1st temptation of Eve, it is the same, yet they failed.
Jesus is doing right where others didn’t. (this is a bit of a theme we will see)
Also, Lets look at the term Satan uses. “IF”
What is this? Tempting Jesus to prove Himself as the Son of God. If You are, prove it. If we have to prove ourselves to someone else, is that some of our own ego involved? Can be.
We see Jesus using the Word of God to fight the temptation from Satan.
? Is Gods word irrelevant today? Some ppl say it is. Here we find just how relevant it truly is!
Jesus said, man doesn’t live on bread alone, but every word from the mouth of God.
Where did this verse that He used come from? Deut.
what was happening in Deut.?
Israelites, wilderness, 40 yrs, keep the commands, humility,
2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.
Does God know our hearts?
When tested, our hearts are revealed. we are exposed. Our lives are seen.
Did we walk by faith or not, did we follow or not. Did we obey, or not?
Were our hearts right with God or not?
Did Jesus pass the first temptation?
What did it reveal about His heart?
He didn’t have to prove Himself the Son of God by doing what Satan was tempting Him with.
He had things in their rightful place. they were in the right order in His heart. God’s word and obedience to it was above food, above His hunger, above His own will.
He passed the test.
What about us, and order in the heart? where is food in our hearts?
{My conviction explained)
Food in its rightful place in my heart is the battle, not food itself.
Do we need to wrestle out the order in our hearts?
The people that say the word of God is irrelevant in this day..... we see here, dealing with temptations, the word of God brings victory through the temptation! that is timeless!
now, the 2nd temptation
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple
6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”
7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
What do we see?
Satan again with the “if” statement tempting Jesus to prove Himself.
then he uses the word of God to try and lure Jesus. Again, Eve got lured by Satan twisting the Word of God. Jesus didn’t.
Obviously Satan has been around for a long time. He knows the word of God. Yet he twists it out of context, by not using all scripture together.
But scripture always needs to interpret scripture and that keeps it in its right context. If we cherry pick a verse, we are in danger of what Satan does, misusing scripture.
Jesus balances the verses that Satan tries to use with another text of scripture.
Again, Jesus uses Deut.
Just prior to the verse He uses, Moses is pointing out to the Israelites that God must be first in their hearts, and have no other god above Him.
Yet the Israelites did test God, but Jesus is not.
Do we test God? Do we presume on Him? Do we do things and say to ourselves, God will forgive me for this? Do we put any other gods higher, or value anything more than God? This would be testing God. The bible says God is a jealous God, all because His rightful place in our hearts is to be first.
Are we getting to know Satan a little better?
Satan is trying to create disorder in your heart.
How about us getting to know Jesus even better? He is showing order in the heart.
last temptation (for now)
8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”
10 Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’ ”
Notice, Satan is done with the “IF” tactic. When a tactic doesn’t work anymore, the enemy will try something else. Will he ever stop? No, what else does he have to do?
Again, this is a temptation that is possible, or it wouldn’t be tempting.
all the Kingdoms! Jesus could have authority and rulership over all the Kingdoms.
Here we see the deal offered. Jesus would have to worship Satan.
This is what so many people have chased after throughout history, and even today with amazon, google, microsoft, Elon Musk? All trying to corner the market and rule.
Let’s think about this. You and I know Jesus is God, the Son..... Yet Satan at this time does not. He thinks Jesus is just human. So, what human wouldn’t like to rule everything?
Does Jesus want all the kingdoms?
God so loved the world, He does want everyone, yet not in this way.... but He wants them to know Him, receive Him and become sons and daughters of God to live with Him forever.
In this temptation, Jesus seems done with Satan. Jesus has proven Himself, not by using His human ego but by using the word of God and staying humble.
Is there something we learn about Jesus in these verses? Of course. He is perfectly humble, and perfectly powerful!
He is over and above Satan so He would never need to fall down and worship him. Satan doesn’t know that he is actually talking to the Creator of the world!
Jesus has everything in its rightful place in His heart. His order of what He values is correctly set.
And Jesus shows how to use the word of God to battle temptation.
James tells us a little about the root of temptation.
12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him.
13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.
14 But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.
15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Jesus stood the test, He is blessed!
What about us? how is the challenge of the temptations going for us?
James points to it not being the thing outside of us, but our desire on the inside.
What are we desiring that is luring us away?
What may be out of order in your heart?
Is God first in your heart?
If not, what is competing for first place? this will tell us about our own hearts, revealing them and helping us to see why we struggle with the temptations that we do.
13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
In temptation, there is a way out of it, there is a door we can take to endure through any temptation. that sounds like victory Church....
Do we have the way of Victory?
This message has really been towards believers so far. Ones who know Jesus and hopefully are giving Him first place in their hearts.
Before we finish today,
Let me share with you if you are not a believer.
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Jesus was talking about food and clothing yes, but actually,
He was talking about value, importance, what is most important. Jesus was creating order, the right order of things.
His Kingdom first
the other stuff comes after.
He also speaks righteousness..... specifically,
His righteousness.
Are things out of order in your heart today? Do you know what you are seeking? Desiring?
Are you seeking God?
IF you want to know the gospel, I am speaking directly to you right now.
let me share it with you now.
Playing off this verse, seeking the Kingdom, HIs righteousness, this opens us up to the way of salvation. what do I mean?
You and I need righteousness. We need it because we are not perfectly righteous.... since we are not, that makes our relationship with our Creator, damaged, that there is something in the way. the relationship is not right. It is actually dead, there is no relationship with God as an unbeliever.
what will make it alive? what will make it right?
if we had just lived perfectly from the start, that would do it. Anyone done that? facebook land?
The other option, which is our only one… is for someone else to live perfectly and for them to give us their righteousness.
Who would do such a thing???
21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Jesus, the King of Heaven, came to earth, lived completely perfect.
Can a perfect person die? NO! Unless....unless they were to take other peoples sin on themselves, and then they could die. Because sin brings death.
Jesus being perfect, had to take someones sin on to die. Did He take yours???
we already confessed we were not perfect, so that implies we have sin.... did He take yours?
This exchange in this one verse, lets you and I know there is a way. there is a Way church!!!
The perfect sacrifice! to save humans, it needed to be a human, not an animal sacrifice.... the animal sacrifice just pointed the way to the need.
Now, Jesus has done it. He has traded His Righteousness for your sin.... and your sin if on Jesus, is perfectly dealt with because He died so it is in its place.
The bible says Jesus was a substitute for those who believe. Do you believe???
DO you believe Church??
We have a substitute that took our sin.
and more than that, His perfect life is given to us, we receive a perfect life. this life is our covering, our protection, our healing, our provision..... our salvation because it is our righteousness now.
It is his life that is given to us as our Righteousness.
Remember what I said about the relationship of us and the Father?
what happens to that relationship when our sin is out of the way? Freedom.
Next,
What happens when we stand righteous, with the perfect righteousness of Jesus life???
A relationship with God that nothing, absolutely nothing is in the way and nothing can stop!
We are free to be in His Kingdom, to receive His love, to be restored back. Relationship with Him!
To walk with Him! For all eternity!
eternal life is to know Him!
Is there anything better?
nothing on earth can equate. we could gain the whole world and it would not even come close.
remember the order of things in our hearts?
When God is in His rightful place in our hearts, all the rest comes, in His timing, in His ways, and we can say what the Psalmist writes in the 23rd
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Nothing we need more than Him. He gives us all we need.
Allow this all to sink in.
Receiving the gospel by believing it, having faith, changes everything. changes our lives forever.
We will live differently, as ones loving God and desiring to please Him. letting go of our old desires that filled our flesh because living for Him is so much more pleasing and satisfying, without selfishness, without pride or ego.
the temptations that come at us, fall short of tempting us into sin due to a far better way. Satan is then rendered powerless in our lives. And God is glorified.
This is the beauty of receiving and living in the Kingdom with our Jesus.
(Prayer)