Crossroads

Have any of you ever been on a long trip where you don’t have a GPS or phone that directing you but you just use a map?

I have so much respect for all of you because I can barely use my phone to get places because I miss so many turns

But I remember going on different long trips with people growing up and all we had was a map and you would get to the intersection, the turn, the exit, or the crossroad and you would have to decide which way is the right way and which was wrong.

And this is such an important point in a trip because when you come to a crossroad one way will take you to the right place and one will not and it might even take you the opposite direction.

and if you go the wrong way thats when fights start to break out in the car you are in.

But the truth is that in our lives we have a ton of different crossroads that are often outside of just driving.

because every morning we get up and we have different decisions that we can make.

and these decisions impact the direction we are heading in our lives even when its something small.

But you know we wake up and decide do I want cheerios or frosted flakes for breakfast

We get to the last couple of years of high school and ask ourselves which college do I want to go to or do I want to go to college.

Something happens to our car and we have to decide do we want to fix it or get a new one.

And we are lucky because God has given us free will to make these descions and seek which of them glorifies Him most.

But then there are other decisions we make that are a little different because everyday we also encounter temptations in our lives

and whenever we are tempted in life it places us at a crossroads in our life where we have to decide am I going to resist this temptation in my life and continue down the paths that God wants for me in my life or am I going to stray away and head the opposite direction.

You know am I going to tell the truth in a situation or am I going to lie to get out of it

Am I going to allow anger to rule my life or am I going to let God rule it.

am I going to keep succumbing to this lustful desire or am I going to succumb to God’s will in my life?

because the truth is that when we hit these crossroads in our lives how we handle these crossroads often times tells a lot about who we are and it tells a lot about our relationship with Christ.

So today we are going to be in and this passage is actually the first passage of our “Following” series where we will be following Jesus all the way until easter which is also following Him to the cross and resurrection.

but we are starting in this passage because it is really the start of Jesus’s ministry.

this happens right after He gets baptized and in this passage it say’s He is full of the Holy Spirit but in the midst of that Jesus faces different crossroads and we are going to see how these crossroads Jesus faces can apply to our crossroads that we face where we have to decide between God’s way and sin.

So turn with me to which says:

Luke 4:1–13 NIV

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

So this is a passage that I think most of us are familiar with where Jesus is fasting for 40 days and 40 nights in the desert and during this time Satan comes to Him and begins to tempt Him with three different things.

And this passage tends to get us a little uncomfortable because we don’t like to think that Jesus was tempted because he was fully God. But he was also fully man and struggled with the temptation to sin but He never succumbed to sin so in this passage you can almost picture this wrestling going on in his head

because when these temptations came He didn’t just go “nope I am God” but they were real temptations.

and what I want you to notice

and really before we even dive into these three there is really a fourth temptation that I think is almost hidden.

because as I was preparing this sermon a lot of scholars mentioned that this period where Christ was in the desert actually mimicked the period of 40 years where the Israelites were in the desert wondering in Exodus (like we talked about last week)

and the issue is when the Israelites were lost in the desert they were tempted at times (not directly by Satan, but they were tempted).

they would hit crossroads where they could either be faithful to God or not trust Him and build a golden calf as their god (you know the stories)

and what would happen is they would usually fail and fall into temptation.

and what is happening now is Jesus is in the Desert fasting for 40 days and 40 nights.

and you can almost picture Jesus reflecting on this and satan is just echoing the past

and Jesus could have easily thought “wow all of my people failed and gave into temptation so how do I know I wont?” (Remember these are real temptations)

and I think Satan knows that throughout all of these temptations if he can get Jesus to reflect on all of the failures and short comings in His peoples past then he can get him to fall short as well when He hits these temptations or Crossroads during this period where He is being tempted.

and doesn’t satan do the same thing in our lives to get us to fall into temptation?

And this is really the first point I want you to get

Because that is what satan is wanting us to do.

because often times when we look at our past it impacts the decisions we make today

Where we go my father was this way so how am I going to be any different?

Your parents are alcoholics so you are going to be going down that path

You personally have messed up at some point and because of that your going “well I am just going to keep making these decisions”

and what satan is wanting us to do is equate our past to our identity so when we hit these crossroads we are destine to fail.

and what we need to remember is that our past does not define us or our future but when we place our trust in Jesus it is the blood of Jesus that defines us!

now our past does impact us though.

Going back to the idea of GPS (Like I said I can’t follow directions at all so often times I keep making the wrong turns.)

but when you keep making wrong turns its going to take a little longer to get to your destination because what we do has an impact on us.

but when we keep making the right turns and allowing our phone to direct us we get where we are heading and God redeems the situation.

You may have not gone the best way and your life may look different from it, but God will redeem it.

But if we allow ourselves to give into the idea we are defined by our failures we are going fail when we hit the crossroad.

So are you ready for the second point? because the second point is the Crossroads are hard.

because like we talked about Jesus was met with three different temptations

And in each of these temptations Satan is using the situation Jesus was in to help tempt Him.

You know he is saying oh your hungry why don’t you turn that stone to bread?

You’ve been living in the desert why don’t I give you all the kingdoms of this world and you can have a kingdom instead of being homeless?

And we see satan knowing the situation Jesus is in and he is going this is a great place to tempt him. to present a crossroad where Jesus can either decide to stay faithful or sin.

You

because satan ceases our moments of weakness.

Have any of you seen the movie “Coco?”

and we see that satan knows the situation

Well its a kids movie and the bad guy in this movie (Hector de la cruz) he has a motto where he says to cease your moment. and if you have watched the movie he causes a lot of issues ceasing his moments where he ruins a families life and causes destruction.

and thats what satan does in our life. because often times he knows our situation

and he ceases the moment to make us mess up and to ruin not just our lives but to really destroy families and friendships.

and to isolate us from God.

But are you ready for the good news?

because while satan knows our situation we are in and will use it

God knows you better then satan. Because He created you in his Holy and perfect image.

and while we have messed up God is there at the crossroad saying come to me. Don’t give in to the temptation, don’t take the wrong road when you are at the intersection but come to me.

Alright the last point I want you to get is in verse 9 because this is the last temptation that is brought up and what happens is the devil leads Jesus up to the highest point of the the temple in Jerusalem and He tells Him to throw Himself down because God will protect Him.

and in my mind this is the most sinister temptation that is mentioned

because Satan is testing Jesus here immediately, but notice where this temptation takes place because it takes place in Jerusalem

And I think Satan does it here intentionally.

because like we talked about last week what happens in Jerusalem is Jesus is tortured and dies on the cross for our sins and He knows that this is going to happen.

So you can almost imagine them overlooking Jerusalem and they may be able to even see where Jesus’s cross would be

and during this satan is saying if you are the son of God you can have God protect you if you fall

also you have the ability to have God protect you from all of the pain you are going to endure

and you can just picture those words sticking. because it is almost like he is also saying if you are the son of God you don’t have to go thru the torture, or pain thats coming up.

You can make it stop.

and I imagine that staying with Jesus throughout His life as he is being tortured by the people he came down to save. (because remember these were real temptations because Jesus is fully man and fully God)

and while Jesus doesn’t succumb to these temptations (and was blameless in every-way) they are real temptations.

and you know we have different temptations in our life that may just plague us our entire life or for a long period.

We have that temptation in our life where it seems like it just keeps returning and everyday we find ourselves at this crossroad where we have a descion to make.

to follow Christ or sin.

But I want to encourage you today because it is easy to get discouraged and feel defeated when this happens

where you fight a temptation just to have it return.

But by you knowing its something that you have a hard time with you have already won half the battle. because you know your struggle.

You know if you ever go to an Alcohol anonymous class that is why they have you introduce yourself saying “Hi My name is Brendan and I am an alcoholic.”

because the first part of the problem is acknowledging it.

and the issue is when we don’t acknowledge our temptation in our life because even Jesus was tempted so if we have to temptations in our life there is a good chance we may have already succumbed to them.

But when we come to God humbly saying God I am at another crossroad in my life. and need your help He will.

I want everyone just to think for a second.

what is that temptation you are facing right now in your life? what cross road are you facing this morning?

Maybe its been around for awhile. Maybe its been around since this morning.

But what is the crossroad you are at?

Because you don’t have to choose the wrong path even if you have chosen the wrong path for awhile.

because your identity is in Christ.

remember your identity is in the blood of Christ that washed your sin away.

Remember that you are created in God’s image and He knows you better then satan.

this morning I want us to give these crossroads to Christ because we may be tempted But God will guide us.

So will you pray with me this morning?