Tests and Temptations

INTRO

Good morning Church who is excited to be in the house of the lord this morning?! AMEN AMEN AMEN

Welcome To New Anthem

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Im Jed Church

And I am grateful to be in the house of the lord and be bringing the word to you this morning.

Our hearts and prayers are with Pastor John and Ceci as well as their whole family.

We know God is with them and will comfort them through this.

I am Grateful that we have a church that is so caring and understanding.

PRAY

Before we continue please, join me in prayer

Pastor John and Family

Service

Words be Gods

Cast out distractions

PREFACE

Today we are going to be taking a break from our series

And we will in Luke chapter 4

Jesus being tempted in the desert

There are so major examples that Christ sets for us in this passage that I want us to learn from this morning.

READ SCRIPTURE

English Standard Version Chapter 4

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’ ” 5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written,

“ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God,

and him only shall you serve.’ ”

9 And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10 for it is written,

“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,

to guard you,’

11 and

“ ‘On their hands they will bear you up,

lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”

12 And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ” 13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

HYPOSTATIC UNION

While Jesus was living with us on earth He was fully God and Fully human.

This is the theology known to as the "hypostatic union."

Which is vital to our understanding of Jesus and all of scripture

This means that Jesus, the Son of God, took on human nature while retaining His divine nature.

Here is why that is important.

Jesus can relate and understand us

He has been through what we are going through.

He knows what its like to be hurt, scared, to be tempted

So when we see him set a perfect example for us we can know we should strive to do it the same way

FULLY MAN

We see he is man being born,

growing up,

having emotions like sorrow and anger

FULLY GOD

We see his omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence.

We see him forgive peoples sins — something only a God can do

Along with all the miracles he did.

HUNGER STORY

There are many other ways and times we see both of these sides of Jesus.

Including this verse

We see the human side of him in verse 2 “He was hungry”

I don’t know about you be I would definitely be a little hangry and ready for any way out

It had been 40 days since he had eaten, its been 2 hours for me and i could go for something to eat.

I am a very fast eater

And I also will loose track of time while working and just not eat for a super long time.

So I have this re-occurring issue of getting super hungry and eating and insane amount of food super fast.

And unfortunately it ends with horrible stomach pains

But when I get hungry there is nothing that can stop me for loading up, especially on some breakfast food!

So If I was Jesus I can imagine how hungry I would be

And So satan wasn’t trying to tempt the God part of Jesus becuase he knew that wouldn’t work.

satan was trying to temp the human side of jesus who has been starving in the hot dry desert for 40 days

THE WAYS SATAN TEMPTS

satan trying tempting Jesus in three ways

And it is important for us to recognize and understand these

Becuase satan will use these same techniques against us.

satan keeps trying and tries multiple ways to try and get jesus to give in.

1. The first was a physical temptation

2. The second a emotional temptation

3. The third a control temptation

So lets break these down one by one

1. The first was a physical temptation

in verse 3

“command this stone to become bread.”

Trying to play off his hunger

His physical exhaustion and desire for food

2. The second a emotional temptation

verse 6

“To you I will give all this authority and their glory”

how is this even a good deal for Jesus if he is God and God already has all the glory and authority

Because He would skip all the pain and suffering of the crucifixion.

bypass all those awful emotions and skip straight to gratifying and rewarding emotions

3. The third a control temptation

come on that hits home

Verse 10

“He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you”

prove you are who you say you are

command the angels and take control of the situation.

And so these are the three methods that satan is using to try to tempt Jesus

What does Jesus do every time to combat this?

He quotes scripture.

This is one of the many reason all of us need to bee reading our bibles and memorizing scripture.

So we are ready and able to combat the lies and temptations that WILL come out way.

It is so interesting to see what Jesus does.

We don’t see Jesus leaving satan and ignore him.

N we see Jesus turning to scripture

POINT ONE — Pursue the solution over fleeing the problem

Jesus does not fall into those temptations and refutes them all quoting the Old Testament scriptures

Now if your choosing to be in an environment that consistently causes you to be tempted or sin you should probably get out

Im guessing that is not healthy or beneficial for you.

But when we fix our eyes on God, and focus solely on him

He guides us out of those places, or he shows you how you are going to be a light and change that environment

But either way that guidance and knowledge comes from focusing on God who is the solution.

POINT TWO — An Untested faith can never be Trusted

I think so often when we fear testing we think of it in a bad way

Testing is something that is good for us

We need to be tested, and tested regularly

If i (someone with no experience in the field) designed and built a submarine in my garage

and i told you i haven’t tested it but i know it will work

would you get in to go for a ride with me?

would you go out to the bottom of lake Saint Clair with me?

NO? for the sake of the point im making — right none of you would.

But come on, its only 27ft deep at its DEEPEST point, and with what i could make we would be fine.

Im just saying — we need some more faith in this room.

Let me ask you this

Do we test anything crucial once?

Would nasa send a rocket without testing over and over

Or car companies, medicines, or anything that is important and would be disastrous if it didn’t work.

No we routinely test anything important to make sure it works properly

I like to hammock and 1 time and 1 time only i jumped in to my hammock without testing it and fell straight to the ground.

and now every time I set it up there is a long and through testing period.

So why would we not treat our faith the same way?

If we want a strong faith

If we want a faith that can perceiver through the storms

We NEED to test it

It all echos back to last week when we talked about Abraham and Issac.

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This test also seem to have a way of coming at the “perfect” moment

The Timing of this event is so important to pay attention to

This happens right after Jesus gets baptized

We need to remember this when we look at our own lives

There might be heavy attack right after you commit your life to Christ

Right after your baptism or when you obeyed and followed Christ in a big way.

When you gave up that sin, or left that toxic relationship

That is NOT a sign that God isn’t with you, or your doing it wrong.

This timing is a pattern we see throughout the Bible and church history

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POINT THREE — The Temptations don’t cease to exist

And then we have verses 10-12

Luke 4:10–12 ESV

for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ” And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”

Once Jesus said get lost looser I don’t need your empty promises

The angles came to help Jesus

And we know that the help from the lord is always better then the fake help Satan offers.

AMEN?

English Standard Version Chapter 4

13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

Satan leaves but he didn’t give up yet, he left wait for “an opportune time”

satan doesn’t just give up after one failed attempt.

we retreats like the coward he is and waits for the next time we are vulnerable.

or when we have an important moment or event life event happening

the part I never filled connected though was the very next part The title for the next session is “JESUS STARTS HIS MINISTRY”

CLOSING

So what is satan trying to stop you from doing by tempting you?

What is the ministry that you are being called to step into that satan is trying to distract you from

__________

Alter call

Command and own the prayer at end

Prayer team will be available

Benediction closing  

------------NOTES----------------------

He can relate and understand us

In Mathew 4 Jesus is in the desert fasting

Satan comes and tempt him 3 times

significance of three times?

satan tries to get us to slip up from every angle

its not a 1 try and then give up