242 Notes
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 6 viewsNotes
Transcript
Chapter 3
Question #1
God longs to exercise His authority over the throne of our hearts. Why is there a need for us to self examine and repent? What makes it so difficult to surrender our hearts?
because our hearts are deceptive and prone to wander.
“The heart is deceitful above all things,
And desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
With my whole heart I have sought You;
Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!
All we like sheep have gone astray;
We have turned, every one, to his own way;
And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
Pride is usually the thing that keeps us from surrendering to God’s will.
we know what we are doing, we think our plan is better, we want to fix it, we think it should have gone a different way, all these things stem from pride. From putting ourselves first. To surrender means that we put ourselves to death.
The wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God;
God is in none of his thoughts.
Question #2
Read Gal.5:16-26
- Discuss how walking in step with our Savior produces certain characteristics in us. Compare the church and the culture. Does the church resemble the culture or Christ?
I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
“walk” in the bible is often a metaphor for practical daily living.
i read this- to walk in the spirit means that we are yielded to His control, we follow his lead, and we allow Him to exert His influence over us.
in other words as we surrender ourselves to God, as we walk in step with Him, seeking Him in His word, obeying His word, the Holy Spirit will begin to produce the fruits of the spirit talked about in Galatians 5 in us. We will walk in love, we will walk in self control, we will treat people with kindness etc…
Question #3
Jesus surrendered Himself to the will of the Father regardless of the required cost of His life. How difficult is it for me to surrender to God’s will for my life today? What is the cost that makes it difficult to pay?
though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.
in hebrews this speaks of Jesus surrendering Himself to the will of the father and learning obedience. This obedience was learned by suffering. In other words, it was through the difficulties of the things He endured and He submitting Himself to God, that He learned obedience.
this is the difficulty in our lives. What can often keep us from submitting to the will of God and continuing to grow is our fear of paying the price required, the suffering. There will be sacrifice required. There will be pain associated with it, i may have to let go of whatever i am holding on to...... this can often be the very thing that keeps us from surrendering to the will of God.
Chapter 4
Jesus’ Temptation
a. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted: After identifying with sinners in His baptism, Jesus then identified with them again in severe temptation. This was a necessary part of His ministry, so He truly was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness.
iii. The Holy Spirit cannot tempt us (James 1:13), but the Holy Spirit may lead us to a place where we will be tempted. This is not to prove something to God (who knows all things), but to prove something to us and to the spiritual beings watching us.
Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
. Jesus did not need to be tempted to help Him grow. Instead, He endured temptation both so that He could identify with us (Hebrews 2:18 and 4:15), and to demonstrate His own holy, sinless character.
For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.
For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Jesus’ Temptations
First temptation played into the lust of the flesh (v. 3-4)
c. Command that these stones become bread: This was a temptation to use God’s gifts for selfish purposes. Satan suggested that Jesus use His miraculous powers to provide food for Himself.
2. Second temptation played into the pride of life (v. 5-7)
ii. “The devil’s suggestions was of an artificially created crisis, not of trusting God in the situations which result from obedient service.” (France)
3. Third temptation played into the lust of the Eyes (v8-10)
. All these things I will give You: Essentially, this vision invited Jesus to take a shortcut around the cross. Jesus came to win all the kingdoms of the world and their glory back from Satan’s domain, and Satan offers them to Jesus, if He will only fall down and worship him.
Interesting that these are the same things that will usually tempt us at one point.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.
How Does Jesus Resist Temptation?
He used the word of God.
Jesus brought the light of God’s words into the situation to reveal the darkness of Satan’s deceit. It is God’s word that will help us to overcome temptation.
Jesus’ brings light to the darkness (v. 12-16)
That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet: As is his custom, Matthew sees Jesus’ ministry in Galilee as a fulfillment of prophecy. Light has come to this region, largely populated by Gentiles, and Isaiah 9:1-2 predicted this of the ministry of the Messiah.
Nevertheless the gloom will not be upon her who is distressed,
As when at first He lightly esteemed
The land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali,
And afterward more heavily oppressed her,
By the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan,
In Galilee of the Gentiles.
The people who walked in darkness
Have seen a great light;
Those who dwelt in the land of the shadow of death,
Upon them a light has shined.
when we bring Jesus into our lives, we are bringing the light into our lives. The light removes the darkness.
