Resetting Our Trust

Opening Prayer

Let’s open with prayer. If you have a prayer concern, just offer it up out loud in this space. It can be a situation, a need, a family member or friend. When I sense we are finished I will close out our prayer.

Ukraine

Abbie Rudder

There are two things I’ve felt been inspired to do during Lent. One is to provide votive candles that you can light as a symbol of a prayer you are offering. I saw this several years ago and thought it was a powerful way to attach tangible action to our prayer life. Your candle may represent a personal need, a prayer for a loved one, or a hard situation you are going through. So take advantage of this during Lent.

The other thing I’ve felt the Spirit calling me to during this season is to open our time with a corporate prayer of confession. These will come from both Scripture and other ancient prayers of the Church. This morning would you stand and pray with me:

Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your Name. Amen.

Introduction

Happy first Sunday of Lent! During this season we focus in on Jesus’ journey toward Jerusalem and the Cross, and we contemplate what it looks like for us to take up our cross to follow him. Traditionally, Lent calls for us to greater times of repentance, prayer, and fasting. These are certainly good things to devote ourselves to, but they can lend this season an overly somber mood. Perhaps a better way to see Lent is as a time to hit the reset button in life. To make some changes in our actions and thought patterns that bring us into greater conformity with Christ and to help us thrive in all the ways God desires for us.

Everyone likes a do-over, right? Have you ever played golf and leaned on this wonderful thing called a “mulligan”? Like if you shank your drive, you can call “mulligan” and tee up again. It’s nice when we get second chances, and that’s really what Lent reminds us of. So we begin a new series today called Hitting the Reset Button. As we journey with Jesus toward the Cross, we will look at various aspects of our faith that can get out of order, and how the Gospel brings us back into alignment.

This morning the message is called Resetting Our Trust. We read about Jesus in the wilderness. Lent begins each year with the temptation narrative. Why? Perhaps because temptation and the struggle with sin is a universal experience. We all experience times of testing and trial, and in these moments we wonder where God is and if he has abandoned us. Do you ever find yourself in the wilderness? The wilderness is those times in our lives when we feel like God is far away, and it seems like the devil is near. In those moments, where do you turn? Do you tend to lean on your own self-reliance and try to figure it out for yourself? Do you question God and his goodness? These are common reactions to being suddenly thrust into a time of wilderness. The good news this morning is that the wilderness is not a place of abandonment; it is the place where God draws you to greater trust in his Son.

Problem then

This passage is often cited as a way to deal with temptation. When temptation comes, like Jesus, we can fight it off by leaning on God’s word. Often we break it down by the different ways the enemy tempts us, and the different ways we can counter his strategy. There is nothing wrong with this approach to the passage, but there is something deeper at work that I think has more bearing on our life right now.

What the Spirit seemed to keep drawing my attention for this morning is verse 1. “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness.” Read that closely. WHO led Jesus into the wilderness? What?! Does this not seem contradictory to us? The Spirit wouldn’t do that, would he? He wouldn’t intentionally lead Jesus into a spiritually dry place where he could come under the assault of the enemy, right?

But that’s exactly what he did. And I have to wonder if in the wilderness Jesus questioned why this was happening. Why was he here? Why would his Father do this? After 40 days of isolation from friends, lack of food, surrounded by barrenness, the human Jesus must have questioned if God knew what he was doing. In some way, he is repeating the story of Adam and Eve. Would he listen to the tempter and reach out and take the forbidden fruit offered, or would he abstain?

The wilderness becomes a crisis point for Jesus. Here he must decide who he will trust.

Problem now

And this connects to our own life. Aren’t we like this when we find ourselves in the wilderness? Aren’t we tempted to question God’s presence, or worse, to question his goodness? What possible reason could he have for leading us to a place that is dry, barren, and isolated?

Interestingly, one of the Hebrew words for wilderness literally means “wordless places”. And isn’t that a good description of the wilderness, the place where God is silent and seems far way? For you, the wilderness may be a failing relationship. It might be a health concern. Maybe its a kid or grand kid that’s going off the reservation.

I do want to make one thing very clear. I don’t believe the wilderness is things like cancer or the death of a loved one. I don’t believe God does those things to us just so he can teach us something. But in the midst of these moments of suffering, the Spirit may lead us out into the wilderness where we are formed in ways to meet the challenge.

The wilderness was necessary for Jesus, and sometimes the wilderness is necessary for us. And in these moments of crisis, who will we ultimately listen to? The wilderness is our crisis of trust.

Gospel then

As we consider this story, we have to keep in mind that everything Jesus does is redemptive. In this case, Jesus is redeeming the story of Israel. Israel is led into the wilderness for 40 years, but at every turn they cave in to temptation. They grumble at their suffering. Jesus is now seen as the new Israel who succeeds in all the ways that Israel failed.

But there is more here too. Jesus finds himself being tempted at his weakest point. The issue here is not that Jesus resisted the devil by quoting some verses. That’s a little too simplistic. The devil isn’t afraid of him quoting a verse. The devil quoted a verse too. The real crisis moment is, who will Jesus trust? Will he listen to the deceiver or the Father?

Satan’s temptation was really about testing Jesus’ allegiance. Who would Jesus be ultimately allegiant to? Satan wanted him to abandon his allegiance to the Father and give it to him instead. Here is the point where Jesus’ future ministry is really settled. The whole gospel hinges on this moment. And Jesus passes the test, where Israel had not. He would trust the Father and be completely obedient to his will, even to the very end. Jesus’ obedience to the Father’s will, even going to the Cross, was not settled in Gethsemane, it was settled here in the wilderness. Jesus could pray the way he prayed at Gethsemane because of the wilderness. Jesus, unlike Israel, would be the perfectly obedient Son.

Gospel now

And this is the lesson for us from the temptation narrative. More than a method for resisting bad moral choices, the wilderness is where we settle who we will be allegiant to.

This is what the apostle Paul is speaking of in the passage we read at the beginning. “because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved.” This is not a two-step plan for becoming a Christian, it is a statement of allegiance. In Paul’s day, Caesar is lord. To proclaim Christ as Lord is a supreme act of treason. Paul calls us to shift our allegiance from anything that is not centered on Jesus Christ.

This is why, at times, the Spirit leads us into the wilderness. Not to punish. Not to harm. To strengthen. To purify. To prepare for a greater assignment. But this is so important to hear: the wilderness isn’t about you having a showdown with the devil. The wilderness isn’t so you can come out with a victory but with a testimony. It’s about settling who you will ultimately trust in the moment of crisis. It’s deciding in your heart that you will give your allegiance solely to Christ, wherever it may end. Like Jesus, the wilderness is where we are formed into the trusting child who will respond like Jesus when faced with our own moment of Gethsemane. And Paul reminds us, for those who will pledge their allegiance to king Jesus, “The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.””

The lesson for us is not so much about how to resist sin, though we should resist it. The wilderness brings us to the moment of crisis where we settle who we will ultimately put our trust in.

Ourselves?

A political party, leader, or agenda?

A bank account?

Nothing, abandoning all trust and hope?

Or, will we put our trust in the One who has done for us what we could never do for ourselves. His obedience becomes your obedience, his victory your victory, his faithfulness your faithfulness. The good news this morning is that the wilderness is not a place of abandonment; it is the place where God draws you to greater trust in his Son.

Ministry time...

Communion

At the table we celebrate the victory Christ has won for us over sin, death, and the devil. We view this meal as a symbolic feast of the victory meal we will one day eat in his presence.

The Lord’s Prayer

Words of Institution

Invitation

This is the table, not of the church, but of the Lord,

It is made ready for those who love God and for those who want to love Him more.

So come, you who have much faith and you who have little;

You who have been here often and you who have not been here long;

You who have tried to follow and you who have failed.  

Come, because it is the Lord who invites you.

It is His will that those who want Him should meet Him here.