Fully Rely on God

Luke 4:1–4 ESV

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’ ”

Introduction: https://skitguys.com/videos/the-marshmallow-test

1. In Luke 3:22, Jesus is baptized and hears the words of God spoken over him, “You are my beloved Son…”

-Drivin to the desert - a place of testing in the Bible.

Satan wants to destabalize that identity.

Old Farmers Alminac - Don't Worry about Temptation, as you get older it starts avoiding you.

But this first temptation is one we will deal with our entire life.

We are Tempted to Rely On Ourselves.

Jesus is hungry, and The Enemy wants him to rely on His Power to Ease his suffering.

Sets the stage for Jesus never doing a miracle for himself, and when he does it is also for others and for God’s glory - Resurrection.

Fasting is a spiritual practice that can be used for spiritual formation. When you fast, you are denying the physical in order to grow in the spiritual. It’s an intentional act of saying to yourself and to God, “I am going to deny myself what I need and want because I want you (God) more and know that you will provide whatever I need.”

- Resilience is not created in a moment of testing; rather it is revealed in times of testing. - Mike Gafa from Luminex

- Persevering in Missional Community

Satan tempts Jesus to act in a way that supports his Sonship. Of course, his goal behind these temptations is the exact opposite: luring Jesus to act independently of the Father and thus creating a rebellious Sonship.

Darrell L. Bock,

Furthermore, the kingdom was going to belong to him anyway, so what did it matter how it came into his hands? But Jesus avoids this kind of end-justifies-the-means thinking as he responds to these undermining proposals of Satan. We must be careful that the shortcuts that often become possible in life do not in fact reflect rationalization to avoid God’s will.

Darrell L. Bock,

So this is the reality, like Jesus we will be tempted to Rely on ourselves, but Jesus does something different.

Jesus Fully Relied on God.

- Jesus uses the book of Deuteronomy (8:3). Jesus says to him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’”

The Truth is without God and his creation, we have nothing - we must rely on Him for our very existence.

Perspectives on this Passage - In Matthew he is emphasizing that Jesus is the True Israel - Each quote from scripture is in Deuteronomy and deals with the temptations that Israel dealt with while wandering in the desert for 40 years.

The New International Version Chapter 8

Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the LORD promised on oath to your ancestors. 2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.

Just as God led Israel into the desert so was Jesus.

Just as Israel was tested with hunger, so was Jesus.

Just as Israel was given commands, so was Jesus.

Just as God provided for Israel, so he will with Jesus.

Israel kind of failed, Jesus prevailed

Matthew Highlights how Jesus identifies and ultimately (because of his sinlessness) will save Israel from temptation.

Luke highlights how He saves all humans from temptation. - Contrast between Son of Adam and Son of God

Luke 3:38 LEB

the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.

Matthew writing to a Jewish Audience. Luke writing to a Greek man named Theophilus.

Jesus is the one who leads us through the desert and helps us overcome Temptation.

Another way we can sense a problem here is by blaming God whenever suffering occurs, at least indirectly. We may feel that he has abandoned us, when, in fact, he may be getting our attention, revealing a better way to us, or asking us to meet him in the midst of the adversity. I am reminded of how Elisabeth Elliot must have felt when she lost her husband, Jim, to murder and martyrdom by Latin American Indians in the mid-1950s. Yet she turned her disappointing experience into an opportunity to listen to God in the midst of uncertainty, only to find a fresh ministry of depth in her testimony about how God cared for her in the midst of such disappointment. She did not abandon God or test him, but accepted the uncharted journey he called her to take. Of course, that journey was uncharted only for her, not for the God who walked with her down that road. As Jesus turned down Satan and consciously chose to follow God down the hard road of his ministry, so too we must be prepared to walk into events under his leading, even where the outcome is not clear.

Darrell L. Bock,

How Can We Fully Rely on God?

As Jesus turned down Satan and consciously chose to follow God down the hard road of his ministry, so too we must be prepared to walk into events under his leading, even where the outcome is not clear.

Darrell L. Bock, Luke,

- Meuller Relying on food being supplied to feed the orphans

- H5 Center as an example.

COVID - Is it possible that the children who went through the pendemic may become one of the most resilient generations.

- Like the generation that experienced the Great Depression & WWII.

The Importance of...

Relying on the Word of God. -We must read it.

Trusting God’s provision.

Always in Communion with God to listen to him and Rely on his instruction.

Conclusion: