We Wrestle Wk. 4

We Wrestle Thoughts

WWT Wrestling

Welcome to the building CHURCH!

Here at FFM we believe in equipping God’s people in the spirit of love by any means necessary.

Do you have your Bibles with you?

Faith Confession.

We believe that God’s words are the most powerful and creative force that have ever existed.

We believe the Bible is a collection of writings to us inspired by God.

In the Bible it says that we were created in the image and likeness of God.

In order to know who we are and what we should be like,

we have to know the Bible.

This Week’s Wisdom Vaccination

Psalm 51:10 NIV

Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

This was of course King David who had wrestled with doing the right thing and doing what the flesh wanted to do. We know that he lost this match.

And now Nathan, the Prophet has reached King David with the story, he told him about a man who had everything and took from a man who had very little.

David was angry about it when he thought it was someone else.

David is now asking God to fix him in the only way he would be able to really obey God. Fix his heart.

(Don’t you know that you will only do what’s in your heart to do.)

Intro:

We have talked so far about how Eve wrestled and lost along with Adam.

King David wrestled and lost.

Apostle Paul wrestled. For a while he seemed to have lost but he figured out how to win by walking in the Spirit vs. walking in the flesh.

Today we will talk about someone who wrestled and won. As a matter of fact, he went undefeated.

“Let’s Get Ready To Wrestle”

Jesus Wrestled

Luke 4:1 NIV

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 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.

If ever there was a time to wrestle with someone it was when they are hungry and tired.

It’s interesting the parallel between how Jesus was led into the wilderness and how Israel was led into the wilderness.

Amos 2:10 NIV

I brought you up out of Egypt and led you forty years in the wilderness to give you the land of the Amorites.

The things in which mankind struggled with, Jesus conquered.

The Israelite’s also for a period of time had nothing to eat.

Exodus 16:2-3 NIV

In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death.”

The difference was when Israel had nothing to eat, they murmured and complained.

The Israelite’s wrestled and lost.

The consequences for their various losses totaled up to 40 years.

Deuteronomy 1:1-3 tell us that the journey should have only taken 11 days.

Jesus when hungry and tempted relied on what was written in the word of God.

What was the difference between Israel and Jesus facing the same temptations?

Don’t say because Jesus was God because he operated as a man while on earth.

We’ll see the difference if we goo back to Luke 4:1

Luke 4:1 NIV

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 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.

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Let’s look at another place in the scriptures where Jesus wrestled.

Matthew 26:36-38 NIV

Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

Jesus was wrestling with what he knew e had to do and he knew the time was drawing near.

Matthew 26:39 NIV

Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”

Jesus wasn’t just talking to be talking. He was really wrestling with this cup being taken away from him.

A cup, in the Old Testament, often refers to wrath.

Isaiah 51:17 NIV

Awake, awake! Rise up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath, you who have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes people stagger.

So, it is thought that Jesus was thinking about the wrath of God that he would take for mankind as he wrestled.

Matthew 26:41 NIV

“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Principle Alert!

Jesus was talking to the disciples, but he shared something that is a principle that we can extract from scripture.

Matthew 26:42 NIV

He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

I don’t think were supposed to look at this as some concession in the sense of “Oh well if I gotta.”

I believe Jesus was putting to action the principle he just dropped on the disciples. (Watch and pray least you fall into temptation.)

Just as the first part of this lesson showed a parallel in scripture where mankind failed and Jesus won, we see also a parallel here.

Jesus being tempted in the garden of Gethsemane absolutely parallels Eve being tempted in the garden of Eden.

These two stories of Jesus having victory where mankind had previously failed is not to point out that man will always fail and only Jesus can win.

On the contrary, it is to point out that man absent of Christ will fail.

Man absent from prayer will fall to temptation.

Jesus was tempted in every way

Notes:

Jesus was tempted in every aspect that we can be tempted in.

And he showed us the way to victory.

Of all the ways you think you could be tempted, they could all be categorized into three types.

1 John 2:16 NIV

For, everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.

Hebrews 4:15 ESV

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Proverbs 1:10 ESV My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent.

We don’t consent to the enticement or temptation to sin.

James 4:7 ESV

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

1 What is Holy Spirit saying to you right now?

Say goodbye to the viewing audience.

Turn the service over briefly to the M.C.

Move into Family Talk