St. Luke 4:1-14

Introduction

Fasting and prayer puts you in a special place with God. And it strengthens you through God to pull down the strongholds in your life. And if there were ever a time when you could get the attention of God, that time is now. But just as sure as God has given you a breakthrough the enemy wants to destroy all that has been done in you. He does not simply want to take away what has been done for you, but he knows that the greatest benefit is what God has done in you. And this is the greatest benefit of seeking God the way we have, that God begins to change us from the inside out. But the devil wants to snatch it away. You have to hold on to it, even though now is the real time of testing.

The Spirit Led Him Into The Wilderness

The truth is that the Spirit will lead you into the wilderness. That's is where you find out what is in you, because the enemy is going to try you, and things in you that you didn't know was in you are going to come out and fight.

The wilderness is where you learn the power of God that is in you.
It is where you sometimes feel alone and left to face the enemy by yourself.
It is the place where right after your greatest moments, you are immediately thrust into one of the greatest battles.
It is the place where great accomplishment is followed by great trial.

The Tempter Has Come

The enemy is just that, a tempter. To appeal to or to entice to do wrong by promise of pleasure or gain.

The enemy wants to entice you to let go of what God has given you.
The Word of God says that the devil wants to devour you.
But he has to get your attention by promising you something that seems so irresistible.
For every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.

and the devil can't pull you out of the will of God, but he seeks to draw you out.
this is temptation.....
and temptation is not temptation unless it's something that you want to do.
and Jesus had to fight the devil who was attacking his flesh and his desires.

The lust of the flesh
The lust of the eyes
And the pride of life

Turn These Stones To Bread.....

The frist temptation.....

The tempter said to Jesus, “If you want people to follow you, use your wonderful powers to give them material things.” He was suggesting that Jesus should bribe people into following him. Back came Jesus’ answer in a quotation of Deuteronomy 8:3. “A man,” he said, “will never find life in material things.”

Bow Down And Worship Me.....

The second temptation.....

*The The tempter said, “Worship me, and all will be yours.” This is the temptation to compromise. The devil said, “I have got people in my grip.

Don’t set your standards so high. Strike a bargain with me. Just compromise a little with evil and men will follow you.” Back came Jesus’ answer, “God is God, right is right and wrong is wrong.
There can be no compromise in the war on evil.” Once again Jesus quotes scripture (Deuteronomy 6:13; 10; 20).

Throw Yourself Down.....

The third temptation.....

In the third temptation Jesus in imagination saw himself on the pinnacle of the Temple where Solomon’s Porch and the Royal Porch met.
There was a sheer drop of 450 feet down into the Kedron Valley below. This was the temptation to give the people sensations. “No,” said Jesus, “you must not make senseless experiments with the power of God” (Deuteronomy 6:16).
Jesus saw quite clearly that if he produced sensations he could be a nine days’ wonder; but he also saw that sensationalism would never last.