I don't think it's an overstatement at all to say that may be one of the most significant gifts you give this Christmas. So grab a box, at least one, on your way out. We've got a little table out there with some of these Operation Shoebox boxes. And I hope you'll take a few home.
There was a family out there. He took seven boxes. And they're like, you know you gotta fill all these up, right? He's like, I got this, man. We've done this many times. So take a few, fill these up. It makes a difference. In a place where poverty is just every day for some of these kids, to get this gift. I mean, you're all the way over here in Chandler, Arizona, and to send that gift into places all around the world, it's gonna make a difference. So I hope you'll participate.
We look forward to this Christmas season. This is one of the ways that we bless people in the name of Jesus.
Well, if you're a guest, I want to welcome you this morning. Thanks for saying yes to your friend. You trusted them. You're like, come to church. I don't know about that. Like, well, you know, there's live music, hot dogs, flannel fest. Okay, maybe I'll try it. Glad you came.
We've been praying that you would show up today. In fact, we walked through this worship center this morning and prayed over every chair. We just prayed that God would meet you where you are and that you would hear a word from him today. So we pray that that is true.
It is kind of hot, though, for flannel fest, huh? I mean, like, we're setting records. It's kind of crazy. Next week, like Sam said, 73 for the high on Tuesday. So that's gonna be good. You could actually wear a flannel then, right? And if you didn't wear one today, you're like, oh, man, I feel out of place. Something's wrong. That's okay. This is the beginning of the season. Wear one next week. It'll probably be a little bit better. It'll probably be better for you anyway.
And I wore this one today just to remind you what it looks like in the Holy Land right now. In the hills of East Tennessee. If you were to drive through East Tennessee, Western North Carolina, where we've been praying for so many people, right? This is what you would see in the mountains. All these colors. All the leaves are changing.
And so I like to wear this one for flannel fest just to remind you that, you know, there is a place called the Holy Land. Now, we don't go live there, though, because this is the mission field. Right? And we live on the mission field, but we have dreams of the Holy Land. And I hope this, you know, kind of brings those dreams to your mind like it does me.
But we're in this series called Into the Wild, How to Survive in the Desert. So grab your Bibles, turn to Matthew chapter 4. We're going to be in Matthew chapter 4 in just a moment. But before we do that, I want to invite you back, especially if you're a Compass Christian. In two weeks, we're starting a brand new series.
And there are three reasons. Three reasons you'll want to show up, okay? Besides the fact that it's church, man. We come here to worship Jesus, right? Three reasons, and here they are. You ready? You with me still? Okay. Three reasons to come back.
Number one, we're going to talk about our Christmas causes. Every year, we do something with our year-end giving that makes a difference. Last year, we helped build an actual church building in the Philippines, almost finished. They're having their grand opening in March for John and Gina Alcott, our homegrown missionaries that are serving there, have been serving there for over 20 years, over a decade.
And now in this new area called Luna in the Philippines, they have a brand new church building for people to meet in. We did that with our dollars here in Chandler, Arizona, made a difference in the Philippines. And so in a couple of weeks, come back. Yeah. Because I'm going to start to tell you what we're going to do this year.
That's number one. Number two, I'm going to tell you about the new series that we're going to start in December. That's going to take us through the entire year, 2025. We're doing a whole series that's going to take us through the entire, we're all going to be on the same page. Our students, our children, all our adults. And I'm not going to tell you today.
So come back in two weeks, come back next week too, but come back in two weeks when we start the new series. I want to tell you about that. So that's the second reason we're all going to be on the same page. It's going to be amazing.
And then the third reason, see if I can think of the third one. I'm just kidding. You're like, does he really not know the third one? You know, he does. All right. Come back because as we get into 2025, it's our hundredth birthday. We're a hundred years old as a church in 2025.
And because we're a hundred years old, we're old. We need to make sure we're passing this on to the next generation, we're passing the baton well. So next year, I'll give you a little teaser. One of the things we decided to do instead of giving gifts to ourselves because it's our birthday, we're going to do a reverse birthday and we're going to give gifts away all year that make a difference all around the world, in our community and all around the world.
So I can't wait to tell you about that. So I'm not going to today though. You'll have to come back when we start the new series. I'll tell you all about it. 2025 is going to be epic. Historic is a word we're using because it's a story only God can write. And I can't wait to tell you about it. So come back just in a couple of weeks.
But today we're going to finish. We're not. Man, I'm really struggling so far. Pray for me. This is the third week of the new series. We're going to be doing a new series. We're going to be doing a new series of a four-part series called Into the Wild, How to Survive the Desert.
And it's not just because we live in the desert. We're talking about the desert periods of life that are inevitable for all of us. And as we go through those, we're looking at four stories in the Bible that are set in the wilderness or the desert. And we're learning lessons based on what we see in the scripture of how we can survive our own desert periods in life.
So in Matthew chapter four today, let me set up the story. This is going to be an amazing story. Because we're talking about Jesus and Jesus was baptized. So I want you to picture this. Jesus is getting ready to start his ministry on earth. He's got a three-year run ahead of him. He's going to do the work that his father called him to do, this great mission to bring salvation to the world.
And it kind of starts with his baptism. So Jesus is baptized. It's this amazing day. He goes into the waters of the Jordan. John the Baptist baptizes Jesus. He comes up out of the water. And by the way, not baptized because he had any sin. Jesus is fully God and fully human, right? But he had no sin. And so he was baptized, he said, to fulfill all righteousness, okay, as an example for others.
John baptizes him. He comes up out of the water, this amazing scene. And then Matthew in chapter four tells us that he was led by the spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.
So today we're going to look at how this encounter with the evil one kind of set the course for everything else in Jesus' life. In fact, I would go so far as to say this. Jesus' response to temptation shows what kind of Messiah he would be. And we're going to see how Jesus survived the wilderness, survived the desert when he faced off with the evil one in this time of temptation.
And I believe it's going to show us how to survive the deserts as we face temptation of our own and help us find power over that temptation in our own lives. So let's dig into the story. Amazing story. It's going to offer into the nature and character of Jesus.
For one thing, it's one of the few stories in the gospels without an eyewitness. Say, oh, well, that's interesting, isn't it? Because you go through the gospels that Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, these are eyewitness accounts of Jesus' life, death, burial, and resurrection.
But today, this story is one of the few stories in all the gospels that has no eyewitness. So how did Matthew or any of the disciples know about the temptation that Jesus faced in the desert? There's only one way. He told them about it.
At some point during his time on earth doing ministry, he told his disciples about the time he spent in the desert battling temptation in a showdown with the devil. The temptation story has been called the most sacred of stories. And the reason why is because in it, Jesus is laying bare his inmost heart and soul.
He's telling his disciples, his followers, about the real struggles he faced. Because even though he was fully God, he allowed himself to be a human being and to be fully human and experience temptation.
Another interesting point is that this story reminds us about that, that Jesus was truly God. He was fully God, but he was also truly human. Verse 2 starts by saying, after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. Right? Matthew's words give evidence that this story wasn't just some legend created by the early church. Because it doesn't emphasize the divinity, but the humanity of Jesus.
There's always been a tendency among some followers of Christ to strip away the humanity of Jesus and make him completely unreal. Right? Songs are written about this, containing lines such as, the little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes. It's like, really? Jesus as a baby? Didn't cry? I mean, this is... This is the image some people have of him. He was so divine. He never cried as a child. He never skinned his knee. When he was learning how to do the work of a carpenter, working with his dad, Joseph, he never drove a crooked nail. Right? Because he was divine.
He just went through life floating around on a little cloud, six feet off the ground. No, friends, that wasn't Jesus. He wasn't like that. He became one of us. Fully human.
You know those old movies? Like, King of Kings. Really do a terrible job, honestly, depicting Jesus in such an unrealistic way. This scene was probably the worst one in the entire film. After being in the desert 40 days, 40 nights, tempted without food, his hair wasn't even messed up. As he faced temptation, he never showed any sign of struggle at all. In fact, he showed no emotion at all.
He spoke in a voice that can only be described as Shakespearean monotone. The director entirely missed the point that this story makes. Friends, these were not easy tests. Jesus was really being tempted to the point of suffering.
So this story reminds us that Jesus was fully human. Jesus was tempted. And guess what? He had power over temptation. And that should be encouraging for you today because we're human. And we're tempted. And this means that we too can have power over the temptation in our lives.
So let's talk about that a little bit today. We're going to look at three temptations that Jesus faced. You're like, well, there are only three listed. Right. But it says that he was tempted for 40 days and 40 nights by the devil in the desert. So there were many more than just three temptations. But yes, we're going to look at the three that are listed in the text today.
And here's temptation number one. Temptation number one was Satan's attempt to cause Jesus to suffer, to serve himself. I want you to realize about our enemy, the devil. He often attacks you where you're most vulnerable. Right. After Jesus was alone for 40 days in the desert without food, the tempter came to him and said in verse three, if you are the son of God, that's how the tempter talks.
So if you hear that voice, you know that's the tempter. If you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Now, why did Satan say this? It's obvious, right? Because he knew that Jesus was hungry. He knew that the idea of eating food was the most tempting thought that he could put in Jesus's mind at this moment in his life.
He wanted Jesus to abuse his power for his own needs. So he attacked him where he was at that moment, most vulnerable. He tried to get him to eat. And friends, this would define what type of Messiah Jesus would be. Would he really serve himself with his power? Or was his mission to serve others?
Well, we discover, don't we, that Jesus was no self-serving Messiah. In fact, in Matthew 20, verse 28, Jesus himself said this. He said, the son of man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
And so Jesus responds to this temptation from Satan with a quote from the scripture. He says, it is written, man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Temptation number one, he overcame.
Temptation number two, though, was Satan's attempt to cause Jesus to seek popularity and earthly recognition. Temptation is by its nature deceptive, right? It often presents itself in a kind of twisted type of logic. If you want to know how it's going to come into your life, let me explain it to you like this.
If this is true north, Satan doesn't give you south, right? He doesn't tell you that the total opposite of what you know is right. He doesn't say, well, do this, you go, okay, I don't think so. What he does is he takes true north and he just moves the line just a little bit, right? Just a little bit. And if you move that line just a little bit from true north and you start drawing those lines out, the further out you get, the further apart it is from the truth.
And that's how the devil works. Matthew tells us he took Jesus to the holy city, Jerusalem. He had him stand on the highest point of the temple and then he said in verse six, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down.
Then notice what Satan did next. Satan quoted scripture to Jesus. You think the enemy doesn't know the Bible? The enemy knows the Bible more than most Christians know the Bible. So he quotes the scripture, Jesus. He says, it is written, he will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
You see what Satan was doing there? He quoted scripture knowing that Jesus knew the word of God was absolutely true, but he was trying to get him to apply it in a twisted, self-serving type of way, which none of us would ever do, right? He was saying, come on, Jesus, God's gonna take care of you. Just jump.
And there was this unspoken implication, right? Or do you really believe that he's gonna take care of you? Or maybe he won't because maybe you're not really the Messiah. Maybe you're not really his beloved son. This was Satan's attempt to cause Jesus to show his miraculous power in the wrong way, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons.
And humans are enticed by these things, right? We're enticed by earthly popularity and fame and recognition. Satan tempted Jesus to jump from the temple in order to prove to the world that he was God's anointed Messiah. He tried to get him to do something wrong in order to accomplish something good.
And Jesus understood temptation well enough to see through Satan's twisted logic. Come on, Jesus, just show people who you really are and they'll follow you now. You don't have to go through all that stuff. Just show them now. But Jesus had a different mission and a different agenda.
So he says, quoting scripture again, it is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test. Temptation number two, overcome. And aren't you glad? I mean, would a Messiah who sought earthly fame and recognition to feed his ego, one who tested his father, would he be a Messiah worth following?
In fact, listen to what the apostle Paul says of Jesus in Philippians 4. Here's how he describes our savior, the Messiah. He says, your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, he was fully God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped or held on to, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.
That's our savior, right? Choosing to be a humble servant, choosing to be nothing. Temptation number two, he overcame.
Here's temptation number three, though. Temptation number three was Satan's attempt to cause Jesus to worship him and rule the earth. Now, so Matthew tells us Satan took Jesus to a very high mountain. He showed him all the nations of the world and he said to him in verse nine, all this will give to you if you bow down and worship me.
This was the evil one's attempt to get Jesus to take a shortcut. I mean, why go to the cross, Jesus? Why suffer? Why take the hard road to kingship? Let me, the prince of this world, give it all to you now.
And friends, this was a defining moment for Jesus. We would not be here if Jesus had given into this temptation. We would not have a savior, a Messiah, if Jesus had bowed the knee to the evil one.
Now, I want you to notice something, though. This is where we apply some of this. Notice about temptation, it often promises what God has already provided, right? I mean, there's something ridiculous about Satan's words because he's offering to give to Jesus what God had already given to him.
God had already declared that Jesus was the king of kings and the Lord of lords. He had declared that all of creation would worship him. In fact, the apostle Paul in that scripture I just read you, after he said he made himself nothing, took the very nature of a servant, became a human being, went to a cross, he finishes that text by saying this.
Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
That has been God's promise to Jesus throughout all eternity. This is his world. In fact, the book of Colossians and also the gospel of John say that it was Jesus who created the world, right? In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God, all things were made by him. And without him, not anything was made that was made.
That's Jesus, right? It's already his. This is his world, and yet Satan offers it to him. And that's the way temptation works, friends. It often offers something to you that it can't really give you. Something only God can give.
Temptation will say to you, do this and you'll be happy. Do this and you'll have peace of mind. Do this and you'll feel good about yourself. But friends, the devil can't give you happiness because it's not the devil's to give. It's not the devil's to give. He can promise you the world, but he can't give you the world because it isn't his to give.
Only God can give you true joy. Only God can give you peace of mind. Only God can give you lasting blessings. Temptation always, always, always promises more than it can deliver.
So Jesus says in verse 10, away from me, Satan. It is written, worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Temptation number three, he overcame.
Then I love verse 11, then the devil left him and angels came and attended him. So that's the story. And if you're new to Compass, here's kind of how we do things when we do the teaching part of the service. We study the scripture, we dig down deep like we just did, but we don't want to just be hearers of the word. What do we want to be, Compass? We want to be doers of the word.
So we want to apply what we've learned today. So we've got some lessons that I think we can learn today from this scripture that are gonna help us in our own desert times of temptation.
Here's lesson number one, write this down. Desert seasons of intense temptation are not indications of God's displeasure. That's an important thing to think about.
You should expect temptation. Temptation is gonna come. Temptation is inevitable. Even good people are tempted. Even people, listen, who walk with the spirit of God are tempted. Matthew said, verse one, then Jesus was led by the spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. Did you get that? He was led by the spirit. He was doing exactly what God wanted him to do, and yet he still faced temptation.
I think we have a tendency to think when we face temptation, God must have abandoned me, right? Or there must be something wrong with us or maybe if we were doing something different then we wouldn't experience this temptation in our lives. Even good people experience temptation. Even people whose lives are led by the spirit experience temptation. That's an important distinction.
But here's another important distinction I wanna make. The spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted, but it wasn't God who tempted Jesus. He allowed the temptation, but God didn't tempt him. God doesn't tempt you to sin. He doesn't try to entice you with evil opportunities. God doesn't do that.
You know, in our judicial system, there's a law against entrapment, right? So an undercover police officer that's trying to bust somebody for buying drugs can't just walk up to him and say, hey, wanna buy some drugs, right? Hey, come on, try it. You'll like it. You'll feel great. All your problems will go away. Don't be scared. They can't do that, right? Because it would be considered entrapment.
Some people think that's how God tempts us with sin, that he puts the cookie on the table and says, come on, I dare you to eat it. God doesn't do that. Temptation is inevitable, but it doesn't come from God. In fact, the Bible says this in James chapter one. It says, when tempted, no one should say God is tempting me, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.
So God's purpose is not to tempt us. God's purpose is to allow us to go through those seasons so that we can actually have power over temptation. So expect temptation, but don't take it as a sign that God's mad at you or he's displeased with your life.
Lesson number two, write this down. Temptation from the enemy usually comes after a spiritual victory or a mountaintop experience. Oh man, right? It's another thing we learned from this story. Temptation usually follows a peak experience in our lives.
We just talked about it right before Jesus went to be tempted in the wilderness. He's baptized by John the Baptist. It's a moving scene, right? John sees Jesus coming from afar off and he points in front of the whole crowd and he says, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
And then Jesus walks down into the waters of the Jordan. He's doing this as an example to fulfill all righteousness. And it says when Jesus goes down into the water and then he comes back up out of the water, that the spirit of the Lord is going to come down into the waters of the Jordan.
And the spirit of God, the Holy Spirit descends upon him in the form of a dove. And there's a voice from heaven comes from God, the father himself. It says, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
One commentator called the baptism story the coronation of the king. It's the inauguration of Jesus's ministry on earth, an exciting time in his life. He's about to do the work that he's been sent to do. And God even speaks from the heavens to endorse him, so to speak.
And yet immediately after this powerful event, Jesus faces off with the devil one-on-one. You know, in the Old Testament, there's a story like this too. Remember the prophet Elijah? Elijah's up on Mount Carmel and he's facing off with 450 prophets of Baal, these evil men, right?
And it's during this time of extended drought, but man, they're challenging the one true God and Israel's being led astray. And so Elijah says, okay, here's what we're going to do. You guys call on your God. We're going to put this sacrifice on the altar and you call on your supposed God.
And the God that answers by fire and consumes the sacrifice is the one true God. And so they say, all right, we'll take you up on this, Elijah. And it says they are yelling, chanting, screaming, praying, cutting themselves, doing everything they can do all day to try to get their God's attention.
And Elijah even does some spiritual trash talk, right? He's like, hey, what's wrong? Why can't your God answer? Maybe he's in the bathroom. This is really in the text. Maybe he's asleep. Maybe he can't hear you.
And so eventually their tactics don't work. And Elijah waits for a moment, builds this altar up to the living God and boldly prays for God to send fire and consume the sacrifice on the altar. And in the time of an extended drought, he even for dramatic effect has them take what? The water they have. Pour it over the sacrifice.
They poured so much water on that altar that there was a trench around it that filled up. And he prays and God sends fire from heaven and all the water is taken up and the sacrifice is consumed. And everybody knows that Elijah's God is the Lord.
And then Elijah says, okay, I'm even going to go beyond this. I'm going to pray for rain. So he prays that God would send rain and end the drought after a few years, right? And God answers his prayer and it rains. The drought is over.
This is like the high point in Elijah's life. Like he takes these prophets down. He calls God to send the fire and God does. He asks him to send the rain. He ends the drought. Immediately afterward, Elijah heard that Jezebel, the queen, was angry and wanted to kill him.
And Elijah panicked and ran for his life. So he takes down 450 evil prophets and runs scared to death from one woman who's trying to kill him. This is a true story. And so he hides out in the desert and he tells God, this is his prayer. I can't take this anymore. Please kill me now, God.
First Kings 18, he's courageous. He's bold. It's a high point in his life. Very next chapter of the Bible, he's running like a coward at the threats from Jezebel. Doesn't make sense, does it? But that's what often happens in our lives.
After a peak experience, we find ourselves often alone in the desert. It's significant to note that after Jesus was declared to be the Messiah, the next event in his life was temptation in the desert. The next event in his life was not the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. He's declared King and Messiah. So let's go right now.
It wasn't the feeding of the 5,000. It wasn't the raising of Lazarus from the dead, right? It was 40 lonely days and nights in the desert being tempted by the evil one. A peak experience in life is often followed by a time of temptation, a time of struggle.
In fact, don't say it every time, but many times I have a conversation with a person who's been baptized, and I'll say, hey, this is awesome. Like, we're gonna celebrate with you today. We're so proud of you, and man, we're gonna put a light bulb in the light bulb wall, and we're gonna put your face up on the big screen next week, and we're all gonna clap and celebrate what God's done, and we're gonna send you out a baptismal certificate with your picture to kind of mark this event in your life.
It's amazing, but guess what? You know who hates this, right? The devil. He hates that you've made this decision, so just expect that over the next few weeks, you're gonna get attacked.
You're gonna get messed with. I mean, if you're walking down the road and in the same direction the devil's going, he's gonna leave you alone because you're going exactly where he wants you to go. But you turn and walk in the direction of God, you're gonna bump into him. It's gonna come.
Yet, when things are going good for us, we have a tendency to think, I've arrived, this is it, I'm on top now. It doesn't work that way in anybody's life. When you succeed in a big way, just expect a time of testing to follow soon afterward.
And here's another fact of life. Temptation doesn't hit you where you're strong, right? It hits you where you're weak. I mean, friends, I mean, be smart about this. If your business is thriving, but your marriage is on the rocks, where do you think Satan is gonna attack?
He's gonna attack in your marriage. Or if your marriage is strong, but man, things are bad at work, where do you think Satan's gonna attack? He's gonna attack you at work. He's gonna attack you where you're weak.
He'll find where you're vulnerable and he'll go after it. Like in a football game, if a key position, a key player, such as a cornerback gets injured, right? Your best guy that's covering the receivers, he gets injured and he goes out of the game. What do you do if you're the other team?
You start throwing deep balls to your great receiver because this rookie that they just put in the game is not gonna be able to cover him, right? You hit them where they're weak. That's exactly how the evil one works in our lives. He hits us where we're weak, hits us where we're vulnerable.
Now, does that mean that we just go, I guess I have to throw in the towel and give up and give in to temptation? No. It means we have to rise to the occasion and fight. Face that temptation. Listen, not in your own strength, but in God's strength.
Think about it. Jesus, fully God, but he was also fully human. He laid aside the privileges of being God. He made himself nothing like the passage says. He's at the point of starvation and he doesn't give in.
What do you mean he's at the point of starvation? You can go 40 days without eating and they say that that's as far as you can go as a human being without eating and then your body starts eating itself. Go look that up. That's as far as you can go, 40 days.
He's at the point of starvation. He doesn't give in. He has power over temptation. So friends, to experience power over temptation, you need to learn to expect it. It happens to everyone, even good people.
And remember that it frequently kind of shows up in your life after a major victory in your life and it hits where you're the weakest. But here's lesson number three. Scripture is our most powerful tool in the fight against temptation.
So how? How did Jesus respond to temptation? He responded with the word of God. Jesus responded to each temptation by using the offensive weapon of Scripture, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Every time the devil tempted Jesus, he responded by saying, it is written, it is written, it is written. And you know what? A little interesting fact here. All of those quotations that Jesus quoted from the Bible, they were from the book of Deuteronomy.
I mean, hey, you know that book? Oh, you stopped reading there, didn't you? You started on your Bible plan. You're like, Genesis, this is awesome. Exodus, wow. Like Leviticus, I don't know about this. Numbers, Deuter, I'm done. Is that what you did?
Yeah, Deuteronomy. And yet all three of these that Jesus used were from the book of Deuteronomy. Something about the words of Scripture that give us strength in overcoming temptation.
King David understood this principle. He said, Psalm 119, 11. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. When it comes to battling temptation, the word of God should be your first line of defense.
The more you know the word, the Scripture, and you use it, the more power you will experience over temptation. When you're tempted to lie, you just remind yourself that accurate weights delight the Lord.
When you're tempted to take a verbal shot at one of your kids, you remind yourself that the apostle Paul said, fathers, do not exasperate your children. Ephesians 6, 4. The words of scripture give us strength in the face of temptation.
So we need to make an effort to know the word, right? And people get all intimidated by this one. Pastor, I can't remember scripture. I mean, this is too hard what you're asking. Friends, friends, we have the capacity to remember.
The question is, what's so important that we actually want to remember it? In fact, let me prove this. I know the smartphones kind of made us dumb these days, but think of all the numbers that you still actually know.
Here are just a few of the ones I remember. Social security number, PIN number on my debit card, more than 30 phone numbers, security alarm number for the church office, cell phone password, voicemail prompts and passwords, bank account passwords, and all those numbers. Internet page passwords, birthdates and years of all my family members, stats of my favorite ball players.
Got you there, didn't I? You can remember more than you think you can. We memorize the meaningless and the trivial, and we need to be memorizing the meaningful and the crucial.
In fact, let me prove it to you. Listen to these words and say them after me. You ready? In maybe 40 years, and yet you can sing every word the rest of the song for Gilligan's Island.
Now, I'm not saying memorize the whole Bible, although you could, but what I have learned is, listen, when I read the Bible, and if I'm doing that on a daily basis, God speaks about what I'm going through at that time in my life.
He knows what I need to hear. I can't tell you how many times I've faced something during a day, and it was the very thing that was directly related to what I had read the day before or that morning, right?
You attack temptation by reading, memorizing, and speaking the Word of God. And friends, that's more critical to your life and your legacy than how many points Booker or Durant had in the Lakers game, that they lost, by the way, right? More critical than that.
When you're facing temptation, remind yourself that if you use the Word of God and resist the devil, then he's going to do what? What does it say? He will flee from you.
Now, I want you to understand this about temptation. It doesn't last forever, okay? When Jesus resisted the devil, the devil finally went away. And too often, we give in to temptation because we think, I can't fight this forever, and I'm not going to be able to do it. I'm not going to be able to do it. I'm not going to be able to fight this forever. It's too hard.
You don't have to. Temptation doesn't last forever. And resisting temptation doesn't make you weaker. It makes you stronger.
But I also want you to understand that temptation doesn't leave forever either, right? Lesson number four, Satan is tenacious. Don't expect him to give up after a few tries.
In fact, in Luke's gospel, in his account of the temptation story, after Jesus overcomes Satan's temptation, Luke says, when the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
See, when Jesus overcame temptation, it didn't mean he was through with temptation for the rest of his life. He had to deal with it again and again and again throughout his ministry, most notably in the garden of Gethsemane, when Satan's trying to tempt him to take another way other than the cross.
Lord, Father, if this cup can pass from me. We do it any other way. We do it any other way. And yet, not my will, but yours be done. Temptation doesn't last forever, but it doesn't leave forever either. You'll never get to a point where you no longer have to deal with temptation.
And Satan knows what buttons to push too, right? He won't easily give up. He will use whatever twisted logic he can. He will say things to you like, well, you know that God wants you to be happy, right? And you know that you'll never be happy as long as you're married to this person.
So God must want you to get a divorce unless, of course, you believe that God wants you to be miserable for the rest of your life. See how he works? Or he'll say, God doesn't want your family to do without the necessities of life.
I mean, you need your money much more than the government needs it. So cut corners on your taxes much more than the church needs it for ministry. So don't tithe. I mean, spend that money on your kids unless, of course, you think God doesn't want you to have enough to live on.
Very few people, friends, can be tempted with the idea of doing something bad simply to do something bad, but all of us can be tempted with the idea of doing something bad in order to gain something good, right?
One of the most chilling verses in the scripture is found in 1 Peter 5, 8. It says, be self-controlled and alert because your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. He's looking for you. He's on the hunt, right?
Life is a spiritual battlefield, friends, and there is a force at work in this world that does not want you to do the good. There is a force at work in this world that does not want you to live for Jesus, that does not want you to minister and serve others in his name, that does not want you to reflect God's love and his mercy and his forgiveness.
And that force will do whatever it takes to make sure you don't do it. Satan is real, and the moment you underestimate his power to do you harm, you're in trouble.
Do you really believe in all that Satan stuff, pastor? Yes, I do. And the main reason I do is because Jesus believed in it. He's the one that talked about the enemy that we have.
Satan is a literal supernatural being who's been roaming this earth since the garden of Eden. He enticed Eve into eating the forbidden fruit. He enticed David, King David, into taking a mistress, committing adultery, and messing up his whole kingship. He plagued Job with affliction. He tempted Jesus in the wilderness. He tormented the apostle Paul with a thorn in his flesh.
And if you could ask any of those people if they felt like Satan was real and alive, they would say, certainly. And his intent is to destroy us.
One commentator said it like this. He said, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. If we hope to overcome the powers of darkness, we shall need to bear in mind they have no moral principles, no code of behavior, no higher feelings. They are utterly unscrupulous and ruthless in pursuit of their malicious designs.
Our adversary, Satan, the evil one, he's real, he's powerful, and he's deceptive. We can't end there, can we? Here's lesson number five. I'm glad we got one more. Ready? Yet, we have a savior, Jesus Christ, who understands our struggles. Aren't you glad?
Hebrews 4 says this. It says, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin.
The story is told of Napoleon looking at a map of the world, and his eyes could not help but be drawn to one red dot that represented Waterloo. And the story goes that he said, if it were not for that one red dot, I could have conquered the world.
I wonder if somewhere down in the pits of hell, Satan looks at a map of the world, and his eyes can't help but be drawn to the one bloodstained dot that represents the place where Jesus died on the cross. And he says, if it were not for that one red dot, I could have conquered the world.
But friends, it's there. It's there. Aren't you glad? Jesus did die on a cross, and yet he rose from the dead, and the tomb is empty, serving as an eternal reminder that Satan is deadly, and Satan is dangerous, but thank God he's been defeated, right?
We have a Messiah, a savior, Jesus Christ, who understands our sufferings, understands our troubles and our pain. He sympathizes with our weaknesses. He was tempted. He was tested in an amazing encounter with evil, but he emerged victorious.
And friends, you want to know why he did? You want to know why Jesus emerged victorious? Because of you. Because of you. Jesus loved you too much to give in to the devil's schemes. You were on his mind and heart in those moments of temptation.
And because he overcame temptation and loved you so well, I hope you'll choose to love him well, and that you can receive power to overcome evil and temptation in your life, in your desert period, just like he did. It's available. All you have to do is ask.
And if you've made a decision to follow Christ, you've been baptized into Jesus Christ, friends, you have the Holy Spirit living in you. You have the power to overcome.
But the Holy Spirit, he works like this. Will you cooperate with him? He's not gonna force you to do what you don't wanna do. But if you're willing to cooperate with him, you have the power. Living in you, walking beside you every single day, no matter what temptation you face.
So we're gonna go out of here in a moment. We're gonna celebrate Flannel Fest, okay? Have some food. But before we do that, I wanna pray for you.
And we're gonna have prayer partners come up here. We're not gonna sing a song. We're gonna have prayer partners up here at the end of the service, though. And if you wanna take a step toward Jesus today, then come find one of us up here. We'd love to have that conversation with you about what it looks like to take your next steps, to get connected to the one who overcame so that you too can overcome in your life.
Let's pray.
Father, thank you. Thank you for this story. Thank you for this reminder that, Lord, you love us. And you've not left us alone in this world of evil and suffering to kind of try to figure things out on our own. You sent your only son.
And Jesus, we just love to read that passage about how you're God. And yet you didn't consider that something to be held onto. You made yourself nothing. You became like a human being, fully human, just like one of us.
So that when we go through temptation, we can never say, well, God, you can't understand this. Jesus, you understand it. Because you were tempted in every way, just as we are. And yet, without sin.
And because of that, you were able to be a sinless sacrifice to go to a cross and pay the price for our sins. Lord, help us to be grateful that we have a father who loves us, a savior who walks with us, a spirit who guides us and gives us power to overcome.
Lord, help us in these moments that we face, especially after a spiritual mountaintop, a spiritual victory. Lord, help us to be aware. Help us to use our powerful weapon, our offensive weapon of your word, to hide it in our hearts so that we won't sin against you.
Give us strength, even this week, to take a step towards you, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Well, friends, let's go ahead and stand up and we're gonna head out. But before we head out, after we stand, let's do it. Come on, do it with me.
If you need to talk to a prayer partner, they're gonna be right here. But as we go out to Flannel Fest, we do three things. Let's say them loud. Love God, love people, share Jesus. God bless you.
Yeah! We'll see you next time. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. You You You You You You You You You You You You You.
on Oct 27, 2024
