Tested

ANNOUNCEMENTS: • Introduce RMT TESTED Luke 4:1-13 Prayer: Lord God, quiet my soul and open my mind and heart to receive your word. Amen. Reflect: Who was leading Jesus, in the wilderness, during his forty days of not eating? Why did Jesus have to go into the wilderness? The three temptations offered by the devil each address a different area: hunger, power, and a dare. What did Jesus do to respond to each of these? What can we do when we are tempted INTRODUCTION: How many of you remember taking the ASVAB just to get into the Marine Corps or Navy? Yeah, how many of you loved taking that test? How many of you hated every minute of it? Okay. So something we all know is that in life we get tested. All of us have been tested a time or two. We experienced this in school systems, and by getting health check ups, we get credit checks by banking/finance companies to see if our financial situation is healthy enough to give a loan, and we get tested on game today to see if our competitive level is capable of winning a game. And in the Marine Corps we go through a MCCRE before a deployment, so that we are up to speed and certified. Life is ONE BIG TEST. And in this game of life we often win some and we lose some, that’s the reality. And we shouldn’t think that spiritual testing is out of the picture either. In fact it’s expected that we’re gonna get tested. We get tested by many things, but it usually ends up in patterns. In the gospels we see Jesus himself getting TESTED. He was supernaturally tested by natural things. His testing by the devil, by temptation to sin, gives us the moral courage to stand up and win during our times of testing. Let’s look to our text, Luke 4. BODY: TESTED WITH SIMPLE THINGS (vv. 1-4) 1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” So Jesus just had an incredible experience with God. He was filled with God’s Spirit at the Jordan river, and he was baptized by his cousin-John the Baptist. Life couldn’t have gotten any better. I mean if we look at the experience, it’s phenomenal. God’s Spirit descended upon Jesus, and a voice out of heaven spoke and said “this is my Son in whom I am well pleased.” Bam, there you go. Nothing better than to hear God say, “that’s my boy, I’m proud of him.” So yeah, life was great, but then came the time of testing. Jesus had to go through the fires of temptation. It says “he went out into the wilderness for forty days.” Now, I don’t know about you but that is one miserable endurance test. No food. No bread. No meat. No fruit. No vegetables. Nothing. Only water. Not even flavored water or vitamin water, just plain ol’ water for forty days. It was a time of testing, prayer, and struggle. Jesus was hungry, he was tired. He was even tempted by the devil. You know, it’s always in times of weakness that people negotiate in their minds to compromise and surrender to the enemy. It wasn’t extravagant things the devil came up with. No, it was the simple things he tested Jesus with. His first test was to endure hunger and the devil’s first temptation towards Jesus was with food. Simple, right? He started small at first, and then eventually brought the temptations to a greater level. But first things first, are you hungry Jesus? Yes, then make bread. Quit all of this foolishness and use that power of yours to do something about it. Right? This was his test. And so Jesus got his first test from the devil, who tempted him by saying “command this stone to become bread.” ILLUSTRATION: In the Australian bush country grows a little plant called the "sundew." It has a slender stem and tiny, round leaves fringed with hairs that glisten with bright drops of liquid as delicate as fine dew. Woe to the insect, however, that dares to dance on it. Although its attractive clusters of red, white, and pink blossoms are harmless, the leaves are deadly. The shiny moisture on each leaf is sticky and will imprison any bug that touches it. As an insect struggles to free itself, the vibration causes the leaves to close tightly around it. This innocent-looking plant then feeds on its victim. APPLICATION: Tested with simple things. When we are in a state of weakness, we are often ambushed with temptations. We are hit in the most vulnerable areas as well, and we are tempted. Tempted to collapse and tempted to compromise. At this point we must do as Jesus and find our strength from God himself. Jesus said back to the devil, “Man shall not live by bread alone.” We don’t live by the ways of the world, the ways of the devil. We live by God’s word. Even in weakness, even in depletion of strength. We live by God’s word. TESTED WITH COMPROMISE (vv. 5-8) 5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’” The taste of power is intoxicating. It’s one of the many experiences that can cause anyone to become corrupt. And so Jesus went through this testing as well. He was taken by the devil to a high point, was shown the world, was promised the world, if only he would bow down, surrender, and acknowledge the devil as God. There’s a debate amongst scholars as whether this scenario of going up a mountain is real or an allusion of hunger. Because in that part of the world, in Israel, there’s no mountain tall enough to show all the kingdoms. Some say it was a real temptation, but the allusion was in his mind. I believe that because it’s written, it’s the word of God. Yes, the temptation was real. Yes, the presentation of the devil was real. Jesus was taken to a high point, we don’t know where, and there the devil reminded him of all the kingdoms of the world. To the east, to the west, to the north, to the south, there’s someone there. There’s a peoples. There’s a nation. There’s a kingdom, and it covers the whole earth. Jesus needed to accomplish God’s mission. He was the Messiah. He was to overcome the world. And the devil said. See, I am the god of this world (little god). I know these kingdoms. I know these kings. I control this kingdom, the earth. I’ll help you accomplish what you came for. I can get you in, just stick with me and we’ll go places. All you need to do is bow the knee, acknowledge me as a Lord, as a King, respect my power, kiss the ring, and you’ll get what you need and want. You see, switching of allegiances is another temptation. To surrender to the enemy we’re engaged against. To give in to their propaganda and tactics is ULTIMATE DEFEAT. But Jesus didn’t do that. Instead in his moment of weakness, he didn’t surrender to the enemy’s lure to power. ILLUSTRATION: While my wife and I were shopping at a mall, a shapely young woman in a short, form-fitting dress strolled by. My eyes followed her. Without looking up from the shoes she was examining, my wife asked, "Todd, was that look worth the trouble you're in right now?" -Drew Anderson (Tucson, AZ), Reader's Digest. “It is easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it.” -Benjamin Franklin APPLICATION: Tested with compromise. As I said before, the taste of power is intoxicating. Some of us have and are in positions of power/authority. We’re parents of young children, Officers in charge, chiefs of sections, etc. It’s often tempting to let power-pride-wrong doing become our way. The enemy of our soul would want our life filled with selfishness and compromise all for the sake of power. Power disguised in evil. But as Jesus showed us, that doesn’t have to happen. In our weakness, we too can say it is written, “you shall worship the Lord God and only him shall you serve.” TESTED WITH OUR OWN WEAPON (vv. 9-13) 9 And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ 11 and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” 12 And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. The devil once again leads Jesus to another destination, this time to the temple. The central and magnificent place of worship. The devil takes Jesus to a place on the temple that overlooks the Kidron valley. There he says to jump off and prove that you’re God will deliver you. “The temptation here was to win the world by the miraculous and spectacular.” And with sufficient knowledge of God’s word, the devil uses the very tool Jesus’ uses to fight with. He twists its meaning and purpose and challenges Jesus. If your God is real, if his word you trust, and if you are certain, then JUMP. Let’s see if this faith of yours is real. Let’s test your God. Notice that every quote that Jesus uses comes from the book of Deuteronomy. These temptations in the wilderness reflect the time that Israel in the wilderness, for forty years. The temptation Jesus faced here was to force God’s hand to move. Israel faced this too, and they tested God in the wilderness. But Jesus doesn’t do that. He doesn’t blame God, he doesn’t blame anyone. He doesn’t complain. He doesn’t grumble. Instead, he correctly uses God’s word and doesn’t put God to the test. ILLUSTRATION: As the saying goes, “sometimes we are our own worst enemy.” APPLICATION: Tested with our own weapon. Nothing is devastating then having a test of our own medicine. The enemy of our soul would want to use the good God gives in order to lure us into something sinful. He gave Jesus a challenge to test God, an opportunity to prove that this faith thing actually works. You know it’s a struggle to believe in something or something we can’t see. It’s easy for us to say, “well God, if your real then do something.” Or to believe that he owes us something, sort of a back pay for all the years we’ve serve him. And to test him. But once again we are given a way of escape if we find ourselves here. For Jesus showed that his whole trust IS IN GOD’S WORD, as he said, “you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” You see, we need to believe in ALL of God’s word, not half, not a quarter, but ALL. CONCLUSION: What is testing you in life? Are we winning or passing those tests? Are we losing to sin, to temptation, or to the devil’s schemes? Have we fully embraced the winning strategy Jesus left for us to follow? This morning is our opportunity to readjust our way of living. Don’t let this opportunity pass to change our ways. Let’s get into consideration the ways of Jesus. He passed every test with God’s word, nothing else. Even when it was used against him, he used it rightly and fully understood God’s ways. If you’ve been lead through some difficult times of testing, this is your time to plead for help. Your time to pull on God’s grace. You’re time to gain strength for the battle. The altars are open for prayer. The hour is here for refreshing. PIANO. Let’s pray. Respond: My Lord, I am tired of chasing after the world. Help me to follow hard after you. Amen.