30th June 2024 - Celebration Service

The Lord has for you, So let me pray for you. Heavenly Father,

we thank you so much for my sister y ask me in Lord for

what you have placed in her heart and that she had been diligently preparing for

us this morning. Help us to just be very attent to what she's saying,

because it is coming directly from you, Father, that our lives will

be touched, en courdaged, and changed in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Let's see, yes, good morning. Well, we've been looking at

baptism all this month, so I'll just briefly set the context for today's message

baptism for a purpose. I'm actually going to read it from a children's Bible

story book, and it's placed on Matthew three verses one to seventeen. John

the Baptist, Elizabeth's son and Jesus relative. He had been given a very

special job by God to be the messenger who got already for God himself to

arrive. When John grew up, he lived in the desert. He ate

locusts and honey yuh, and he wore clothes made from camel's hair. Lots

of people came to listen to John. You should be sorry that you have

not loved and obeyed God. He told them start living with God as your

king again. If anyone was sorry, John washed them with water to show

them that they were making a new start, a clean start. This was

called baptism. Someone greater than me is coming. John said, I pour

this water over you. He will pour God's spirits into you. One day,

Jesus came to the river where John was baptizing people. This is the

person I've been telling you about, John announced. Jesus asked John to baptize

him. When Jesus came up out of the water, God's spirit came to

him, looking like a dove. Then a voice spoke from heaven. This

is my son, said God. I love him, and I'm very pleased

with him. In Luke three, verse sixteen, reading in the NIV,

John the Baptist said to the crowds, I baptize you with water. But

one who is more powerful than I will come. He will baptize you with

the Holy Spirit and with fire. That's an awesome truth of God in us,

the authority and the purifying power of the Holy Spirit and fire. This

is the privilege that belongs to those of us who've been baptized with the Holy

Spirit. And it isn't for an exclusive club. It's an invitation to all

who but will believe that Jesus is the son of God who died on the

cross to take the punishment for our sin upon himself. As it says in

Philippians two six to eight, he emptied himself. He gave up his divine

privileges without giving up his identity as God, and was born a human being.

Then Jesus humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on

the cross by faith that our heavenly Father would do what he did and raise

him up. As it says in Ephesians one twenty, Jesus humbled himself at

so many levels, including being baptized by his cousin John the Baptist. Jesus

said in Matthew three point fifteen, this is the way it has to be.

Now, this is the proper way to do everything that God requires of

us. Moving on to Matthew three sixteen to seventeen reading in the NIV,

that's Matthew three sixteen to seventeen. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he

went up out of the water. At that moment, heaven was opened,

and he John saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on

Jesus, and a voice from heaven said, this is my son, whom

I love. With him, I am well pleased. Our heavenly Father loved

and took pleasure in his precious son Jesus. I personally believe that he loved

and took pleasure in him anyway, as well as because of his obedience in

being baptized. I don't know how many of us have a great revelation of

the real and deep pleasure that our heavenly Father has in us. I know

some people will immediately think that's not possible because of all the wrong things I

said and done and thoughts even already today. But remember God sees us in

Christ, as it says, for example in Colossians three, verse three,

your life is hidden with Christ. In God, it's hidden, it can't

be seen. Psalm one hundred and three, verse twelve says He has removed

our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. When

we repent, we're forgiven. It's that simple. We need to know the

pleasure that our heavenly Dad takes in us Matthew three, verse seventeen. This

is my son whom I love with him. I am well pleased. We

are in Christ. Therefore we can know that God is saying that to us

too. However, I'm well aware that there are people who struggle to receive

this for different reasons. They may know it in their heads but not have

had that personal revelation for themselves. And of course there's always fresh revelation to

be had of a truth that we already know. I believe that this is

a truth that the Lord wants each one of us to receive or receive afresh.

You are my son whom I love with you. I am well pleased.

You are my daughter whom I love with you. I am well pleased.

Heiers miijo almado me ehia almada, contigo estomi contento yeh bent minzoun mendota

menhuelife met yoda tomire bete mirrri beati ho jesse piare catan meson. Hopefully that

was recognizable a Spanish, Dutch, and Hindi respectively. I did actually try

for party, but Google I couldn't read it and Google wouldn't tell me how

it was pronounced, Oh, thank you, thank you. You are my

son, my daughter, whom I love with you. I am well pleased.

I believe that the Lord wants us all to receive that in our heart

language, so it'll speak to our hearts as it says and Proverbs for twenty

three of twenty three. Above all else, guard your heart, for everything

you do flows from it. So it's really important that we receive the truth

about what God says about us in our hearts, so we will think about

ourselves the way that He does, which is fundamental to how we live and

behave. You are my son, my daughter, whom I love with you,

I am well pleased. It may seem like a basic truth, but

it's fundamental to us receiving the whole truth all that God says about us.

If we don't receive that, then, for example, any discipline feels like

rejection rather than the hand of a loving father. He disciplines those he loves,

as it says in Hebrews twelve six, like any loving parent. In

Christ, we have our Father's approval. So Jesus has just been baptized and

the Holy Spirit is upon him, and we'll read what happened next at the

start of our main passage for today. That's Luke four, verses one and

two. Luke four verses one and two, and I'm reading from the NIV.

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led

by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by

the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of

them he was hungry. Baptism for a purpose. Jesus was led by the

Holy Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. He was not

tested like this before his baptism. Jesus humbled himself in making himself as dependent

on the Holy Spirit. We are starting with the forty days in the wilderness.

Remember where Adam and Eve were when they were tempted by the devil as

described in Genesis. We won't be turning there today. But it was in

Eden, God's garden that was full of abundant life. Jesus, in redeeming

Us, was led into the wilderness in essence an illustration, a demonstration of

the effects of the fall of sin on the earth, the opposite of the

lush garden of Eden. And it was here that by the power of the

Holy Spirit. Jesus overcame the temptations that Adam and Eve succumbed to. There's

both power and purpose in baptism. The only way to sustain a fast for

forty days, in my opinion, is absolute dependence on God. Jesus self

isolated for forty days. He was cut off from all other potential natural sources

of support, for example, friends and family. We probably all experienced self

isolation to one degree or another during COVID, depending on the makeup of our

households, and in this country there were so called bubbles where we could connect

with dependents who didn't live with us, and a lot of people understandably struggled

with that degree of isolation. Jesus was completely on his own for nearly six

weeks and without food for a purpose. Emmanuel, one of Jesus' names,

meaning God with us, understands what it means to feel isolated, and he

can help us to endure. To Luke four Versus three to thirteen, again

from the NIV Luke four Versus three to thirteen, the devil said to him,

if you are the son of God, tell this stone to become bred.

Jesus answered it is written, man shall not live on bread alone.

The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant

all the kingdoms of the world, and he said to him, I will

give you all their authority and splendor. It has been given to me,

and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me,

it will be yours. Jesus answered, it is written, worship the

Lord your God and serve him only. The devil led him to Jerusalem and

had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you are the

son of God, he said, throw yourself down from here, for it

is written. He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully.

They will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike

your foot against a stone. Jesus answered, it is said, do not

put the Lord your God to the test. When the devil had finished all

this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. So back to Luke

four Verses three and four. The devil said to him, if you are

the son of God, tell this stone to become bread. Jesus answered,

it is written, man shall not live on bread alone. In Genesis three,

we read how Adam and Eve were tempted buy food, tempted by the

devil to eat fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,

which God had clearly stated should not be eaten or they would die. Jesus,

hungry as he was after four days of fasting, did not yield to

the temptation to eat. In order to honor God. In that situation,

he did not need to prove himself to the devil. Notice that another aspect

to the temptation was to prove himself if you are the son of God.

When we're really sure of who we are in Christ, it helps us to

handle situations where we might feel the need to prove ourselves in a way which

we know is wrong, be that at school, at work, within our

families, etc. We can all face situations where we're mocked or worse for

being different, be it as believers or simply for not fitting in with the

crowd. Jesus knows what that's like and can tell us what scriptures to stand

on are. Like he did, we can keep repeating them to ourselves and

believe in our hearts. If it's not appropriate to say them out loud,

Jesus knows how to handle it, and is more than ready and willing to

help us to do so too. Notice the devils said to Jesus, if

you are the son of God, and Jesus replied, man shall not live

by bread alone. He was the son of God, but in his life

on earth he completely entered into our humanity, into that human expense, as

the son of man, and responded to the temptation as a man. And

overcame Luke four verses five to eight. The devil led him to our high

place and shown him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And

he said to him, I will give you all that their authority and splendor.

It has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone

I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.

Jesus written, worship the Lord, your God, and serve him only.

The temptation of power for Adam and Eve, as I mentioned a moment ago,

it was the power that knowledge brings. But it was the knowledge of

good and evil, and they wired to handle it. God never intended us

to know about evil, so he hadn't wired them to manage it. Well.

It reminds me of something I read in Curry ten Boom's autobiography The Hiding

Place. She was a Dutch Christian lady who survived imprisonment in a Nazi concentration

camp in World War II. She and her family were arrested for helping Jews.

As a child, Curry had heard something at school about an adult subject,

and she asked her dad about it when they were alone together. They

were traveling at the time on a train, and he took down his suitcase

from the luggage rack and asked her to pick it up. She tried but

couldn't because it was too heavy. He said, yes, and it would

be a pretty poor feather who would ask his little girl to carry such a

load. It's the same way, Corey, with knowledge. Some knowledge is

too heavy for children. When you're older and stronger, you can bear it.

For now, you must trust me to carry it for you carry says

And I was satisfied, more than satisfied. I was wonderfully at peace.

There were answers to this and all my hard questions. For now I was

content to leave them in my father's keeping. That's such a lovely image,

isn't it such wisdom? In her dad's response, and Curry's absolute trust in

her Dad for such wisdom in that for us too. The knowledge of evil

is certainly too heavy for us. We only need to look at what's going

on in the world around us to see that we were never designed to carry

the burden of that knowledge. But it's here, and God, like a

loving Dad, harried the weight of it for us by sending Jesus to die

for us on the cross, although we still have to deal with the consequences

of it. But thankfully, with God's help there are answers to all our

hard questions too. God's wisdom is perfect. James three seventeen puts it this

way in the Complete Jewish Bible James three seventeen. The wisdom from above is

first of all pure then peaceful kind, open to reason, full of mercy

and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And thank God, He's

promise to give us wisdom when we ask for it, as it says in

James one five to seven in the NIV James one five to seven, if

any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to

all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when

you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts

is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind. That

person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. When we have to

wait for answers, and also when God, in his love and wisdom,

doesn't give us the answers that we want or think we need. It can

be hard, but we would do well to learn from young Curry and be

content to leave them in our heavenly father's keeping. There are always unanswered questions.

With trust, it doesn't mean don't ask, but it's that trusting father

when we don't hear, which we may hear later. But regardless of whether

we hear or not, it's learning to trust. Luke. It is a

question of timing sometimes, and we need to understand from the Lord whether we're

waiting or whether we trust the unanswered question to him. In Luke four eight,

Jesus said, it is written, worship the Lord your God as of

him only. That's wisdom right there. As it says in Proverbs nine,

verse ten, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The

Hebrew word translated fear means reverence, respect, not terror. So when Jesus

said, worship the Lord your God and serve him only, this is actually

the corner stone, the starting point for true wisdom, and Jesus wasn't going

to be moved from it Luke fourth nine to thirteen. The devil led him

to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If

you are the son of God, he said, throw yourself down from here,

for it is written he will command his angels concerning you to guard you

carefully. They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not

strike your foot against a stone. Jesus answered, it is said, do

not put the Lord your God to the test. When the devil had finished

all his tempting, he left him until an opportune time. Everything Jesus did

was to redeem mankind from the effects of the Fall, from the effects of

Adam and Eve making that fatal mistake of allowing themselves to be tempted by the

devil. So since entered the world and corrupted it at every level. Thank

God for Jesus, and his baptism marked the start of his ministry. Jesus

fully God and fully man, son of God, and son of Man,

living as a man, was led by the Holy Spirit after his baptism into

the desert to be tempted to be tested by the devil. As humanity's representative.

Christ's experience of human life undid the consequences of man's rebellion. So in

closing, we can take comfort and strength from Hebrews four verses fifteen sixteen.

That's Hebrews four, fifteen sixteen. We do not have a high priest who

is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been

tempted in every way just as we are, yet he did not sin.

Then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy

and find grace to help us in our time of need. Let's pray,

Father, God, thank you so much for Jesus, our Lord and Savior,

who came to earth as a baby and lived as a man, so

that our relationship with you could be restored, so that we can know you

as our heavenly Dad with all your love and wisdom and kindness. Thank you,

Jesus that you were baptized in order to fulfill God's purposes. Please help

us to live in obedience to our heavenly Dad, just like you did,

so that we could fulfill God's purposes in our lives too, because we ask

it in Jesus' name, knowing that you've heard us, and we say thank

you, Amen,