Gainz Part 2
Notes
Transcript
Gainz Part 2
Surrender
Matthew 4:5-7
Story 1
We're in session two of our series that we're calling GAINZ. You use the term "gains" when someone has acquired muscle mass through lifting weights
Research has shown that in order to increase muscle mass, stress must be placed on the body. You have to apply a load to your muscles that they are not adapted to. For example, you probably aren't going to build much muscle by pushing air. But if you put 200 lbs. on a barbell and pushed, you’d be putting stress on your muscles that, in turn, would trigger growth. Stress and testing trigger growth.
That principle doesn’t only apply to your pecs, abs, and biceps, but it also applies to building spiritual muscle. When we go through periods of testing and hard times, they can trigger spiritual muscle growth.
Application 1
The problem is this: everyone wants to grow, but no one wants to be tested. No one wants to undergo suffering or stress. Instead, most of us prefer to go through life comfortably. We want the path of least resistance, even if we know that resistance is the key to growth.
Think about how easy so many aspects of our life are:
If we need the answer to something, we ask Siri.
If you want the world to know what you’re up to, you can broadcast to the world live on Instagram.
If you want something to eat, you microwave a pizza or drive through your favorite fast food place.
In a lot of ways, our lives do not have much resistance, so when we face any resistance at all, it seems terrible! Imagine this:
Instead of asking Siri for the answer to something, you had to go to an actual library (torture!).
Instead of opening on Instagram to tell your friends what you’re doing at any given moment, you sat down wrote a letter and then mailed it (crazy talk).
Instead of throwing something in the microwave, you had to slaughter your own cow and grow your own corn (which would actually be the worst).
We are not used to resistance, and we've convinced ourselves that we have to avoid it at all costs. So when we do come face to face with it, and we all do, we don't know what to do.
But the key to growing muscle (both physical and spiritual muscle) is resistance. The area of resistance that we’re looking at throughout this series is temptation. Temptation is something that everyone goes through. It doesn’t matter who you are; if you’re breathing, you go through temptation. Regardless of your gender, religion, or nationality, there is something in all of us that wants to cave in and do something that we know we ought not to do.
If we go to a picture of the bench press and the 200 lb. barbell, temptation is like that 200 lb. barbell. It’s really heavy, and unless you have the spiritual muscle to lift that barbell, it’ll just crush you. And a lot of us feel crushed by temptation. We can’t lift it because we don’t have the spiritual strength to do so. So we get used to losing. We get used to being crushed by our desires that we know are not God-pleasing, and we think that’s just the way it has to be.
[EXAMPLES]
You're used to giving into the temptation to lie to your parents in order to avoid getting in trouble. You know you shouldn't, but it seems as if you don't have another choice.
You’re used to giving into the temptation to do that thing with that guy or with that girl that you know is not God’s best for you, but the desire is so strong that you cave every time.
You're used to giving into the temptation to talk about others behind their backs, even though we would be so hurt if they did that to us. But that barbell is too heavy, and you're not strong enough to lift it, and so you just let it crush you.
How can we get stronger? How can we lift that that barbell of temptation so that we don’t get crushed anymore? How can we make some serious spiritual gains?
Scripture
In the last session, we started to look into a story in the Bible called "The Temptation of Jesus." It's a story that shows us that even Jesus Himself went through temptation. The cool thing is that Jesus wasn't crushed by temptation. He didn't give in. Instead, He flexed His spiritual muscle, fought temptation, and won. Our goal is to understand what Jesus did to win and then do those things ourselves.
Last session we went through the first four verses of the story and learned the first thing Jesus did to successfully beat temptation: He committed the Word of God to His heart and memory.
The Bible, we believe, is the very truth of God, which is our weapon against the lies of the devil, and temptation always lies to you. It always promises something that it can’t deliver. For example, temptation says: Look at that image; it'll make you feel better. And it makes you feel better for a second, but then shame floods in and you feel even worse about yourself.
It's a lot harder to be lied to when you know the truth. If someone tried to convince you that the earth is flat, you'd think they were absolutely nuts because you know the truth. If someone told you that Instagram Stories are better than Snapchat, you'd think they lost their minds; you know the truth!
Generation Z (ages 7-19 years old), which is you, is considered the most Biblically illiterate generation in recent memory. That means that teenagers don't understand/know what's in their Bibles or how to interpret it, which means they don't have a weapon to fight with against Satan. They have no weapon and find themselves in an all-out war with the enemy. My heart is to see that changed within this group.
So, the first way that Jesus taught us to build spiritual muscle is to commit the Word of God to our hearts – not to just read the Bible but to commit it to memory because we never know when the devil is going to attack us. And the devil won’t give you time to Google a verse in the moment. You don’t always know when you will be tempted, but you can always be ready for it by committing the Word of God to heart.
In this session, we’re going to continue reading the story of The Temptation of Jesus, looking at verses 5-7. We’re going to find another muscle that Jesus used to fight and beat temptation.
5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Matthew 4:5-7, NIV)
Application 2
Have you ever had someone use your own words against you? Or have you ever had someone takes what you said and twist it to mean something you never intended? That’s so frustrating! And that’s what’s happening here in this story.
Satan tempted the Son of God with the Word of God. The very same thing that Jesus used to defeat Satan in the first temptation, Satan used it to try to tempt Jesus in this situation.
You need to know that Satan will use a wide range of tactics in his effort to crush you with temptation. We found out in the last session that he used Jesus' weakness (His hunger) as leverage to get Jesus to sin. That plan didn't work, as Jesus fought back and won. Now Satan modified his approach, and he tempted Jesus with where He is strong – His trust in God.
Yes, Satan will tempt you where you’re weak, but a greater danger for many of us is when Satan tempts us in areas where we are strong. Here’s why: we are aware of and protect our weaknesses. But often we are unaware and do not protect our strengths.
If you're prone to looking at pornography and that's a weakness of yours, you know it, so you can do things to protect yourself from failing in that area. You can tell a friend or a leader what you're going through who can help keep you accountable. You can put software on your phone that will not allow you to go to certain sites. Heck, you could flush your phone down your toilet if you really wanted to. You are aware of that weakness, and you protect yourself from it.
But when it comes to areas of strength, we often don’t protect ourselves, leaving ourselves open to the attacks of the enemy.
Maybe you’re a great athlete, artist, or student. You might be tempted to think more highly of yourself than you ought to. You’re tempted with pride.
Maybe you have a big following on Instagram or YouTube. You might be tempted to find your worth and value in how many likes or followers you have.
Maybe you’re great at video games. You might be tempted to spend so much time perfecting your craft that you neglect your relationship with God and others.
Supporting Scripture
“If you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind.” (1 Corinthians 10:12-13 NIV)
So, Satan attacked Jesus where Jesus was strong – in His trust for God. Satan said, “Go ahead, throw yourself down, because if you really are who you say you are, God will protect you ... put God to the test.”
Now my guess is that you’re not tempted to throw yourself off the nearest megachurch to test and see if God catches you. If that is a temptation of yours, we need to talk after this session. But Christians do some really foolish things to test God, claiming they are acting in faith.
For example,
We date that person who doesn’t know Jesus and doesn’t share our own values then pray that God would make him or her a Christian.
We spend all night on our phones instead of studying then pray that God would help us on our exam.
We hoard all of our own money to ourselves, not tithing or giving to those in greater need, then ask God to "bless us."
We play out in our minds a hundred times what we would do if we were home alone with that guy or girl, then wonder why we mess up when the opportunity comes.
We choose a school or career path and then ask God come alongside our choice and make it all work in our favor.
And here’s what you need to know: testing God is not trusting God.
When we test God, we try to force Him to do our will and want we want. When we trust God, we’re surrendering to His will and what He wants. When you test God, you act as if He is your own personal genie as opposed to the God of the universe. And we think that we can manipulate Him to do what we want. God is not your genie.
And that’s exactly what the Devil is tempting Jesus with in this story. He’s saying, “Jesus, jump! God will catch you. I mean, He has to, right? You’re His Son. Force His hand on this.” But Jesus understood the difference between trusting and testing, and replied to Satan with yet another Scripture (that He didn’t Google but committed to memory): “‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (Matthew 4:7, NIV)
In this story, Jesus showed us what it looks like to make even more spiritual gains. And this time the exercise that is going to produce that spiritual muscle is surrender.
To surrender means to put yourself in the hands of someone else. It means that you trust the other person with your life. The unhappiest Christians are the ones who never surrender. They spend their lives trying to force God’s hand and trying to manipulate Him to do what they want.
But here, Jesus – our ultimate example – shows us what it looks like to fight the temptation and lift that 200 lb. barbell. And He does it by refusing to test God but instead to trust Him through total surrender.
What does this look like for you?
[EXAMPLES]
When that person at school says something nasty about you and all you want to do is get back at him or her, you can say "God, I don't know why that person said that, and I'm really angry, but I surrender my anger to you."
When your girl or guy doesn't return your message and you just know it's over, you can say, "God, my heart is broken, but I trust you." You don't stalk them; you don't post nasty things about them online. You surrender it to God.
When you don't get the grade you thought you deserved on that exam and you begin to hate that teacher, you can say, "God, I'm really frustrated, and I don't understand, but will you take this frustration from me? I'd rather surrender it to you than do something I'll regret."
If you’re addicted to something, whether that’s social media, a substance, or pornography, and it’s just so much easier to continue to give in to the desire, you can go to your pastor or leader and say, “I need help. I want to trust God for fulfillment and not these other things that I’m addicted to.”
Conclusion
I want you to imagine your life in full surrender to God, especially in the area of your temptations. You know what I’m talking about, right? The areas of your life that you just keep coming back to that you know aren’t good for you or God-pleasing, but you just can’t seem to do anything else but let that barbell slowly come down and crush you.
In order to lift that weight, you need a spotter. You need to be able to say, “God, I can’t do this on my own. The weight is too heavy; will You help me lift it?” You don’t have to be crushed. You may be used to losing against temptation, but Jesus has shown us that by surrendering our lives to God, we actually build spiritual muscles. And those muscles can give us victory and freedom over temptation and sin.
What area in your life do you need to surrender to God?
Pray