Rewired by Christ

How even in the midst of our biggest trials, you are there to sustain us, you are there to support us or do you're there to lead us with your wisdom. and Lord, I pray that as we think of those we have listed here Lord that you will help us to keep them lifted up in prayer before you Trusting that you are in control of everything and Lord that your will will be done in their lives. And Lord, I pray that You will just help us to. Continually turn to your word. Lord, as we look for answers, Lord, as we look for wisdom. So we look for help Lourdes at the first place that we turn would be. And we pray this all in your most, holy name. Amen.

so you know, Mark asked about the significance of the wires while the, you know, title of my sermon is rewired by Christ and I'm sure that's the words. Mark loves to hear. If he can rewire something there. you know, I thought of Jacob's house says, we've been working on it and the amount of things we've had to rewire, cuz I'm trying to figure out if it was either a Polish electrician or Someone who doesn't use electricity that wired their house but it was obviously not done correctly. So it's had to have been redone, as we are getting the house, ready?

And this morning, we're going to look at, you know, how we can be rewired by Christ. So to get our thinking right to get our thinking straight. and today, we're going to look at a passage of scripture that's called the testing of Jesus, usually, in a little titles, you see in Scripture because after Jesus had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, the devil came to tempt him to try to entice him to listen to him, to bow, down to him. And the way that Jesus responds tells us a lot about who he is, and who he was. And as I read it, I want you. To remember that, you know, Jesus is being ask these questions after he has fasted for 40 days. So probably a little bit on the weak side, a little bit on the cranky side a little bit. Easier for the devil to try to crack him. Matthew Chapter 4, verses 1 through 11?

Then Jesus was led by the spirit Into the Wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, if you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Jesus answered it is written man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. He said, 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. Jesus answered him. It is also written. Do not put the Lord, your God to the test. Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their Splendor. All this, I will give you he said if you Bow Down and Worship me, Jesus said to him away from me, Satan for it is written Worship, the Lord, your God, and serve him only, then the devil left him, and the angels came and attended him. And I want to start looking at this by making just a few observations. Now, the first one is and I don't have a slide for this, but the first one is that after he had fasted for this long. Of time, it was the spirit that led him to the desert. It's important to note that it was God's spirit that led him to the place. He was going to be tested.

I think it's important for us to remember that that sometimes God allows us to go through things for a bigger reason than what we might understand. The one observation I want to make is, did you notice how the devil kind of barked at Jesus? You know, I told him to say this, do this, do that? I mean the double was just flat-out, demanding, bossy, manipulative, and impatient. What he wanted Jesus to do what he wanted him to do, and he wanted him to do it now.

Well, if you've read much of scripture, you know, that Jesus is never like that.

So if you ever feel that God is speaking to you like that in a demanding boss of the manipulative, hurried way, you can rest assured that, that is not God. Who's speaking to you, right? Then that is not your father. It's your Accuser.

You know, and to me it's always kind of comical cuz I feel like the devil was speaking to Jesus, like he was the one in charge.

But notice from what we read that, even though the devil might have barked his three commands at Jesus telling him what to do and how to do it, it had no effect on Jesus. Absolutely none. Yet. Jesus spoke one command to the devil and he immediately had to obey We need to remember that. Jesus has all authority over demonic Powers, including the devil. They have no impact on him, they don't scan to stand a chance and anything. And guess what? We as Christians have all of Jesus.

Colossians chapter 2, verses 9, and 10 says for in Christ. All the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form and in Christ, you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority.

You know, Satan has no real authority over you, the only Authority he has is the authority that you give him. That's something very important for us to remember.

Another thing I want us to think about its, we look at that scripture, is I want you to think about what the devil used to tempt. Jesus.

Right. Number one, he tempted him with food.

A pretty smart play after someone's fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, right? And you know, he's hungry. So you tempting with food The second thing, you tempting West was Safety and Security. Hey, throw yourself down. Scripture says you won't get hurt. I mean noticed that the devil used scripture himself, To try to get Jesus to bow down to him. And then he tempted him with power, you know all this. I will give to you showing him all the kingdoms, all their Splendor of the Earth. as if those were actually his to give away, but he tempts him with that power. And if you think about it, Comfort security, wealth and power are the exact same Temptations. The devil uses to derail us

Mini. I might have a different name, a different form, but if you boil, most the things we are ever tempted with they would fall into one of those categories.

It's easy for those sort of things to become Idols in our life.

But it's not because our desire for those things are too strong.

It said our resistance to them is too weak.

Your God has much greater things in store for us, then just mere Comfort, security, wealth, and power. That is measured by this world. Those things are, what the world says are important. But all of those things will fade away at some point in time.

You know, we as the people of God are designed to want more.

More of Jesus where we find more love, where we find True Justice, peace, and purpose, and especially Joy unexplainable. All those things are better things, they are things worth much more. They are things that will last into eternity unlike the things the devil tries to tempt us with C.s. Lewis said it this way. He said it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures fulling around with Comfort security, wealth, and power when infinite Joy is offered to us. Like an ignorant child who wants to go on. Making mud pies in the slums because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a vacation on the beach. We are too easily pleased.

You know, that is the truth that we are too quick to settle for these other things that were told will bring us joy that will bring us happiness.

When what they bring is only temporary. only what God offers us, what Jesus offers us will last

You know the truth is you know the devil tempted, Jesus three times with the most powerful ammo he could think of at the time.

He used his best, but each time. Jesus held true to what he believed, he held true to scripture and he overcame the challenge.

So how did he do it? Well, the first thing we see, is that Jesus responded with scripture. Each time that he was tempted, each of those three times Jesus responded with a different scripture. Now back then, you know, Jesus didn't have a smartphone or a pocket New Testament carry around with him that he could quickly reference these things. The scripture that he shared had to come from within it, had to be something that was apart of him. Something he had memorized something he had learned.

And you know that's why he was able to respond in the way he did because those things were in his heart and his mind. So when the Temptation came

He could respond with scripture. He could respond with the wisdom of God, instead of the wisdom of, man. And that's why he answered in the way that he did and, you know, really each of his answers. If you dig a little deeper into them, come from the Old Testament, out of the book of Deuteronomy.

He responded with God's word. That's why it's so important for us to routinely read and reflect on scripture. You know, that way it can become a part of who we are. It becomes a part of how we think. so that it doesn't just help us and guide us when we're tempted, but It helps us through every situation in life. It becomes a part and pattern of how we think. So when we do find ourselves in a tempting situation, where we aren't sure how we need to handle it, what we need to do.

The Holy Spirit, then can bring that scripture to the front of our minds to know how to respond in a way that pleases God. He can also bring that scripture there to strengthen us to you. No kind of encourage us and help us to know that. This is how you should respond regardless of what the worldly consequences might be. This is what honors God. You know, it's kind of like scripture gives that voice to the holy spirit in our heart and our mind to speak to us when we Face Temptations.

We also know that Jesus responded out of a relational, trust with the father.

Yeah, this kind of takes having scripture, be a part of your heart and your mind to another deeper level. But I think this only comes as we've lived that life of reading scripture thinking about scripture studying it and it's become a part of who we are. As we've done that, as God has, let us through different life situations. We get to a point where we trust him.

And that was part of Jesus's response, you know those versus weren't just versus that he had memorized for some Bible, quizzing thing, they were part of who he was. They were a part of his core. They were a part of the trust that he hadn't got. That's why he was able to share those things. Because Jesus didn't just have a relationship with the Bible. He had a relationship with the god of the Bible. That's what we have to realize the Bible and scripture exist to point us towards a living. God to help us to know who he is, how to seek him. How to know our loving father, in a deeper way. Cuz relational trust is faith in the person of God and Trust in his character. Knowing that God can never contradict himself. He can never change who he is, that he will always respond in the same way that we see that truth in Scripture.

But you know we can't have that awareness of his abiding presence in our life if we don't know his word, if we don't know him, if we don't have that relationship with him. when we do, when we live, some of our life in that pattern, you know, we then realize that he is a constant presence in our lives, that no matter what we might face that we never face it alone, That God is always there, walking with us through those things. You know, relational trust is Walking with God through the ups and downs of life. It's receiving love and life from him. In all circumstances, the good and the bad.

Relational, trust knows that. God, always protect God is always loving. God is always helping. Even in the midst of the most terrible situation, we might ever face. The most horrible circumstances, you can think of God still loves you. God is still present, God is still helping. Even when we don't feel like we can see it. So, we can realize that, it doesn't matter what happens to me, it matters, who is abiding in me. Who am I walking through this life with, that's what matters. another thing we see from, Jesus's response. Is that Jesus responded with self-control.

now, my guess would be that most of us feel that we know, we lack, The proper amount of self-control or at least, you know, we lack a large amount of self-control we might have a little bit but not a lot.

But you no self-control is something that we can grow in. Its can become a core. A part of our core are part of how we respond to everything cuz truth is you. No self-control is one of those fruit of the spirit but it's one of those fruit of the spirit that comes, as we live life, it comes as we walk with Christ through each and every situation that arises in life. As we build that relational trust that helps to build our level of self-control.

So over time, we grow more and more and more self-control. You know, it's all too easy for us to listen to the lies of the enemy and Sable, you know, I'm not like other people. I just, I wasn't born with a whole lot of self-control. I'm just a very impulsive person, that's just who I am. Well, the truth is no one was born with a lot of self-control, right? Because it develops over time. If you don't believe me, who is ever seen a toddler with a lot of self-control?

Yeah, I saw a sign the other day that I loved. It said the fastest mammal on earth is a toddler with something in his mouth. That you don't want him to have fun. I think that's true. We're not born with it. It's something we have to develop. We're told it's a fruit of the spirit, that's the way. So many of the fruit of the spirit are, you know, they're all available to us, but they're things that develop over time as we live that life out with Christ, So, you have direct access to every about every amount of self-control that you need? It's all available to you. And God is so good and loving that he wants us all to grow in this area of self-control so that when we are confronted with situations, we can respond to them in a proper way that honors him.

But we also have to realize that self-control is something that we all need to grow in that we can all work on and as a family we get to work that out together, right? And sometimes families messy, sometimes family means that we have to have patience for those who have less self-control, right? At least it helps us to feel that way that were the one with more self-control when maybe we are. But here's the good news when you're facing Temptation or going through hardships, you can respond with scripture. if you have relationship with Jesus Christ, and if you spend time studying his word, You can not just respond with scripture. You can also have that relational trust where you know that God is for you. That God is with you, that God is helping you no matter what.

Can you can even have self-control while doing it?

Yeah, there's all sorts of methods out there if you look of how to help build self-control, you know, there was one method that I read about that talked about what was called the 10-10-10 method, which meant, you know, when you're in a tempting situation or trying to make decision, you don't know what to do. Think about how will you feel about this decision? 10 minutes after you make it? 10 days after you make it 10 months after you make, you know what to think of it in that way. And that's both for positive and negative things. You know, how is this decision going to make you feel or probably one of the More interesting. Once I read about was called the urge surfing method. So their method was when you're tempted by something. Don't ignore it. Don't try to put it away, but just ride. That aren't out.

and, you know, Try to still resist it but just write it out. And as you learn to do that each time that comes at you, again, it will have less effect because you know, you can ride it out. But just like surfing, I feel like that is probably the more dangerous of the approaches of facing those Temptations. But there's tons of ways to handle it. But, you know, I kind of laughed. As some of those methods are good. Some of them like I said, not so good. But as I thought about it, you know, we have in this passage of scripture, the model for how we're supposed to do it. You know, once again, Jesus was our example of how to handle the situation. He responded with scripture three times and when the enemy would not leave him alone, he finally took that final step and said Jesus or Satan. Just get out of here. You're not welcome here. We too have that Authority. We too can do that same thing. So as we work through this series heading up to Easter and it's actually going to extend a little Beyond Easter with some changes. We've had in the schedule, the last couple weeks. But as we look at it, you know, the whole idea started thinking about Lent Yeah, the whole idea of length is giving up something in order to focus more on God and your relationship with Christ, and we're going to look at a lot of different. Thanks. and this week was talking about facing Temptation and we'll look at different things each week and how we can know that God is with us and walking with us through any situation. So as we continue to look at those things, just keep that in mind because he know that ideas especially like what we were talking about this week. You know, as we grow in our relationship with Christ, as we learn to respond in the way that honors him. We have to realize that in a sinful Fallen World Is Watching. We can actually give hope to others That when they face those situations, they can handle it. In a good way that they don't have to give in to the Temptation, that there is a possibility of beating that Temptation, whatever it might be. So ultimately The hope that is within us can give hope to others. Please bow with me in prayer.

Lord, thank you that you lead us out of 10.