Following God Into The Wilderness

Intro: Ever different parks where they have trails for you to walk, run or ride your bike? They have maps up and sings to let you know the trails they have designed for you to go and they are for your safety. Some parks advise you to stay on provided trail to help prevent you wondering into danger. If you do not know which way to go it is better to follow the beaten path. There are times that people feel adventurous and they go off the trail and make new trails.

You paths like this often time on a college campus. There are side walks all around and yet parallel to a side walk starts a dirt path that leads to a college building. One student decided this was the best path to get to this destination and soon other followed. This path is not paved and soon will be hazardous because the the elements and the sidewalk will be the best path. We travel the path we think is best.

We need to learn to follow God’s guidance in the path of our life. We must stay on the path he has provided and trust no matter the time, the distance the hazards that God will get us to our destination.

Intro to Sermon studty: This lesson today is for us to see the humanity and divinity of Jesus the son of God. We are to know that we can be like the Son for he came in the form of man to redeem us back to the father.

Jesus leading us in how to follow God we are to know that we too can overcome the wilderness experiences in our life and find the promise land.

Lead into text:

We pick up our passage after the theophany of God and Holy Spirit in the baptism of Jesus in the wilderness. Then Luke gives us a genealogy of God to show us how Adam the son of God to Jesus the only begotten Son of God who is full man and full God and as we now know is without sin.

To survive the wilderness we must follow God’s lead and he will lead us by his Holy Spirit. It was the Holy spirit that lead Jesus into the wilderness.

Know who you are following.

Everyone leading you is not looking out for you.

Know the Lord guides his children.

Follow the Leading of the Holy Spirit

Luke 4:1

Luke 4:1 NLT

1 Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness,

Wilderness to Israel is a desert place filled with wild animals and not a place of permanent settlement. Elijah was sent to the wilderness by God when the rain stoped. God provided Elijah food in the wilderness. John the Baptist preached in the wilderness the coming of the Lord. Moses lead the children of Israel in the wilderness for 40 years. The Exodus wilderness experience is where we get the time of testing. this is why the following verse expresses to us in this text:

Luke 4:2 NLT

2 where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry.

Jesus was tested for 40 days as an individual can be seen as an example of the Israelites in the wandering in the wilderness for 40 years.

The devil is tempting Jesus before Jesus begins his public ministry.

Temptation will come

Testing comes from God to see how faithful we will be to God. The other form of testing is man testing God because of lack of faith and doubt of God’s power and goodness. Isreal tested God like that in the wilderness.

Exodus 17:2 NLT

2 So once more the people complained against Moses. “Give us water to drink!” they demanded. “Quiet!” Moses replied. “Why are you complaining against me? And why are you testing the Lord?”

Exodus 17:2

This testing of God as recorded in is important to remember. Make a note of this text as we look at Jesus example how to follow God. There are lessons to be learned in our journey as there is joy in reaching the destination.

Deuteronomy 8:2 NLT

2 Remember how the Lord your God led you through the wilderness for these forty years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character, and to find out whether or not you would obey his commands.

Deuteronomy 8:5 NLT

5 Think about it: Just as a parent disciplines a child, the Lord your God disciplines you for your own good.

This testing of God as recorded in is important to remember. Make a note of this text as we look at Jesus example how to follow God. There are lessons to be learned in our journey as there is joy in reaching the destination.

Know that the enemy is looking to stop you from reaching your destination in God’s will.

Know that God with you is greater than anyone against you.

The enemy tempt us when we are weak

First Test (Luke 4:3)

Luke 4:3 NLT

3 Then the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.”

Luke 4:

Jesus was hungry and the enemy came to tempt him with:

Food

Self-gratification

exploitation

The enemy seeks to take advantage of you in your weak state:

You have hard day at work and it leads to an argument at home.

You feel depressed and it leads you to be open to experiment things to escape the pain.

The lies of the enemy do not stand against the truth of the Lord.

Luke 4:4 NLT

4 But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone.’”

Remember we heard the echo of in the testing of Jesus for 40 days as Israel in wilderness for 40 years. God permitted this:

Deuteronomy 8:3 NLT

3 Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone; rather, we live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

Exodus 8:3 NLT

3 The Nile River will swarm with frogs. They will come up out of the river and into your palace, even into your bedroom and onto your bed! They will enter the houses of your officials and your people. They will even jump into your ovens and your kneading bowls.

God has a purpose for what he leads us into so just trust in the Lord.

God’s word gives life.

God’s word gives us instruction how to live.

We are to depend on God’s word.

Depend on the Lord everyday

Jesus taught us in prayer to ask our Father:

Give us this day our daily bread

The Lord is our Sheperd and we shall not want.

God will take care of his people and we must trust the Lord and not ourself or:

Doubt his provision

Become selfish and seek self-gratification

And abuse God’s grace

The devil will not give up in attacking us and looking for weakness and we must not give up trusting in God.

Enemy will tempt you with power

Second Test (Luke 4:5-7)

Luke 4:5–7 NLT

5 Then the devil took him up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6 “I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them,” the devil said, “because they are mine to give to anyone I please. 7 I will give it all to you if you will worship me.”

Luke 4:5-

The enemy wants what belongs to God

He wants us to worship him.

Jesus saw Satan fall...

Luke 10:18 NLT

18 “Yes,” he told them, “I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning!

The enemy rebelled against God and wants others to join him in rebelling against God.

Isaiah 14:12–13 NLT

12 “How you are fallen from heaven, O shining star, son of the morning! You have been thrown down to the earth, you who destroyed the nations of the world. 13 For you said to yourself, ‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north.

Do not be mislead for you are to worship the Lord alone.

Isaiah 14:12-13

God is God alone and we should have nothing and no one before him.

Luke 4:8 NLT

8 Jesus replied, “The Scriptures say, ‘You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.’”

The enemy seeks us to abuse God’s grace and test the Lord.

Third Test (Luke 4:9-11)

Luke 4:9–11 NLT

9 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! 10 For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect and guard you. 11 And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.’ ”

Luke 4:

Luke 4:9–10 NLT

9 Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! 10 For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect and guard you.

Luke 4:9-

This time the enemy uses scripture out of context to tempt Jesus in this test. Jesus, the living Word, knows the word best.

Luke 4:12 NLT

12 Jesus responded, “The Scriptures also say, ‘You must not test the Lord your God.’”

Luke 4:11

To know the Lord is to know he is Love.

Love seeks what is best.

God wants us to know him in a better way.

Jesus shows us how we can know God by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We can resist the enemy in the power of God.

Hebrews 2:18 NLT

18 Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.

Hebrews 4:15 NLT

15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.

We can resist the enemy

1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT

13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

We can resist the enemy

James 4:7 NLT

7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Hebrews 2:18 NLT

18 Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.

Hebrew

Jesus shows us the power of submission to the will of God.

Hebrews 4:15 NLT

15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.

Luke 4:13 NLT

13 When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came.

Know we can withstand the attacks of the enemy.

God’s love covers us and protects us.

When we surrender to God’s love we know his power.

The enemy next opportunity time was when he entered Judas. See Luke 22:3

Luke 22:3 NLT

3 Then Satan entered into Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve disciples,

Yet even here the enemy could not stop the love of God because Jesus defeated death -

“DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory.“O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?”The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”( NAS95)

( NAS95)

1 Corinthians 15:54–57 NLT

54 Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. 57 But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

https://accordance.bible/link/read/NAS95S#1Cor._15:54

Still the enemy could not stop Jesus

Love lead the Lord to the cross.

Love came down and rescued us that we might now the power of salvation and redemption.

Thank God that in our weakness we become strong in God’s power and might.

We can in the power of God overcome temptation.

1 Corinthians 10:13 NLT

13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

Jesus knows what we experienced

Jesus can identify with us

Hebrews 2:18 NLT

18 Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.

Hebrews 4:15 NLT

15 This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.

We can identify with Jesus resurrection because of how great is his love toward us.