Temptations of Jesus: The Physical

But Heavenly Father, we want to say thank you for this day, for the opportunity to come

and to worship one who is worthy.

And God, as we come together and we talk about Jesus being tempted today, and we talk about

our own temptations, Lord, it really is a matter of asking the question of, is He worthy?

And Lord, it determines so much in our daily lives, where we go, what we do, what we say,

whether or not we show loveless and kindness and forgiveness or anger and animosity.

Or whether we deny ourselves things of this world and we choose spiritual things,

or whether we just feed our flesh.

It's all about the question of, is He worthy?

Are you worthy enough for us to do what's hard?

Are you worthy enough for us to go against the grain and do the opposite of what the rest

of the world is doing?

Until we come to the conclusion of that answer, we're going to struggle.

So God, this morning I pray that you would pour out your spirit in a way that is evident,

that is powerful, that just cannot be doubted or brushed off because you are worthy and you

are more than able.

And the answer to that question will determine a lot of our lives and how we respond to things

like today, but it's only if we can answer the question truthfully.

So God, help us this morning to seek truth, to seek Your word.

Even though our flesh and our body fights against it, Lord, I pray that we would be obedient

to the leading of Your spirit.

Father, this morning we lift up our fellow church people who aren't able to be here.

God, we just pray for Ms. Connie Fine as she continues to recover.

Lord, just be with her and touch her body.

Lord, we pray for Ms. Sandra Smith who fell and she's okay, but God, she's sore.

God just touched her today.

We pray for Kathy Overcash as she lost her sister yesterday, and so God, we just pray that you

would touch her and her family this morning.

And Lord, we just lift up our camps to You.

Lord, You know how special they are to us and how many, many times You have worked and

moved in powerful ways there.

And God, we just pray that You would continue to done what You've always done, that You

would touch hearts and lives, that You would save people, that You would call people to

Your ministry, and Lord, just help us to be faithful in the midst.

God, this is Your time, this is Your place, and these are Your people.

And I pray, God, that You would do with us as You please.

We love You, we thank You, and we ask all this in Jesus' precious and holy name, all

God's people said.

Last week, we talked about the temptations of Christ.

We're in Matthew chapter four, and that's where we'll be for the next several weeks.

You can turn there if you'd like.

We talked about the spiritual last week.

We talked about the need and the importance of Christ allowing the Holy Spirit to lead

Him in His life, and how the Spirit guided Him into the wilderness to be tempted, how

that was really important.

We also talked about the importance of fasting, of denying ourselves the things of the world,

things of the flesh, in order to focus on and prepare ourselves for spiritual things,

because we are very much spiritual beings.

We've said this in the past, and I say it again, we confuse ourselves a lot.

We think that we're physical beings in a physical body living in a physical world.

But the truth is, is that we're spiritual beings temporarily in a physical body, temporarily

in a physical world, and then one day we're going to go back to our spiritual state and

be in an eternal world, okay?

And so this idea of understanding that we focus on the spiritual so that we're prepared

to deal with the physical, because if we're not careful, the physical will control us.

It will control our lives.

That's where addiction comes from.

It's where possession comes from.

It's where all these things that we're dealing with is done through the physical.

And so Jesus was led by the Spirit.

He fasted.

He prepared for this.

And today we're talking about the physical, because the very first thing that He

presents to Jesus to tempt Him with is a physical thing.

And our enemy will use normal things, physical things, to tempt us.

Now, we know that there are things that Christ and God has labeled as sinful.

And for the most part, as Christians, we will try to stay away from those things.

If we're trying to walk with the Lord, we'll stay away from those things.

But a lot of times, Satan will come and just use normal things in the world

that aren't inherently sinful to tempt us and lead us away from the Father.

And so we got to be aware of that, and this is what we see today.

So let's read it, verses 1-11 of Matthew 4.

Let's read this together again.

It says, Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there

by the devil. For forty days and forty nights He fasted and became very hungry.

During that time the devil came and said to Him, If you are the Son of God,

tell these stones to become loaves of bread.

But Jesus told him, No, the Scriptures say people do not live by bread alone,

but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Then the devil took him up to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the temple,

and said, If you are the Son of God, jump off.

For the Scriptures say, He will order His angels to protect you,

and they will hold you up with their hands so you won't even hurt your foot on a stone.

Jesus responded, The Scriptures also say, You must not test the Lord your God.

And next the devil took him up to the peak of a very high mountain

and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

I will give it all to you, He said, If you will kneel down and worship Me.

Get out of here, Satan, Jesus told him. For the Scriptures say,

You must worship the Lord your God and serve only Him.

And then the devil went away, and the angels came and took care of Jesus.

So in this moment, we see this really unique circumstance where Jesus is out.

You know, we talked last week. He had been fasting.

Okay, his body is broken. He's been in the wilderness 40 days, 40 nights.

I mean, he's not at the point of hungry. He's at the point of starvation.

His body is breaking down. He needs food. He physically needs it.

And also, he's lonely. And he's desperate.

And he's in this moment where he's focusing on the spiritual.

And God is preparing him for the ministry that he's about to have on earth.

This is not just about the moment. This is about what's to come.

And all spiritual things are preparing us for what's coming.

Physical things are about here and now.

Spiritual things are about preparation and future.

And so last week, we talked about the spiritual.

Jesus, what he did, led by the Spirit, fasted and prayed,

preparing for what is to come. The physical is about here and now.

And in this moment, we see how Jesus comes at Satan

and tempts him in a couple different ways.

So the first one is, point one is Satan loves to attack our identity.

If you look at the very first question he asked, he says,

if you are the Son of God, then do this.

And I don't know about you guys, but growing up as a young man,

I've been in a lot of situations, been victim of a lot of situations

where young men or young boys have stood around and said,

if you're a man, then you'll do this.

And the first thing that you want to do is prove your manhood

or prove that you're able or capable or that you're willing

to at least try it, if not accomplish the task at hand,

to prove that you are who you are.

And so the first thing that Satan does is come to Jesus says,

if you are the Son of God, then do this.

We'll talk about the this later.

But if you are the Son of God, his identity,

I don't know if you've ever thought about it before,

but I think a lot of times we just read scripture

and we look at Jesus and we just think, he's Jesus.

He's the Son of God.

He's perfect.

He performed miracles.

He floated through.

You know, he like disappeared in the crowds.

He healed the sick, raised the dead.

He did all these things.

Life was probably just so easy for them, for him.

But in reality, if he is fully human,

which we believe he's God and yet he's fully human,

which is hard for us to understand,

and he's born in a physical body,

to know that in this moment, he is experiencing starvation.

None of us in this room have probably ever experienced starvation.

We've probably experienced hunger,

but we've never experienced starvation.

He experienced that.

Growing up in a home with a mother and a father

and being told from the time that he was born,

you are the Son of God.

You're not normal.

Can you imagine the weight that that would put on a kid?

That you can't do what other people are doing

because God has something different for you,

better for you than what they have.

And the cry of every child is,

I just want to be normal, right?

I just want to do what everybody else is doing.

I want to be normal.

That's the cry of every kid.

I want the same clothes as everybody else.

I want to drive the same car as everybody else.

I want the same phone as everybody else.

I don't want to be different.

I want to be like everybody else, right?

And here's Jesus growing up in this home

being told, you are the Son of God.

You're different.

His siblings, who are biologically from Joseph and Mary,

and being told they're brothers the whole time.

Can you imagine the animosity growing up in that house?

It's already hard enough with brothers and sisters.

You know, Jesus's own brothers didn't even believe in him

until after he rose from the grave and was resurrected.

It was only then that they believed

that he was actually the Son of God.

They actually did not believe in him until after that point.

He lived a very normal life.

And in this moment when Jesus is being tempted

and Satan comes at him and says,

if you are the Son of God, just like any man

who literally just desires to prove ourselves,

to prove our worth, to prove our ability,

to prove the fact that we have value and that we belong,

he's probably in this moment very tempted

to be like, I am the Son of God.

And he wants to see this.

He wants to know this.

And there's probably something in him

where he wants to know that he is able to do these things

because he's about to embark on this journey

and he knows what's coming.

And he needs to know whether or not he's gonna be ready.

And Satan comes and attacks his identity.

You go back to Genesis 3

and you look at how he tempted Adam and Eve.

And you can look at scripture like it's like children's stories

and it's just all fun and games.

Or you can actually look at it

and take it for the reality that God meant it to be.

But when you go back and you look at Genesis

and what did he say to Eve in the garden?

Did God really say?

If you are the Son of God, then Satan always brings up his questions.

Satan always brings in doubt.

Satan always brings up this conversation to make us question

and have to begin to rationalize and think about things

and then try to understand things

from a worldly physical point of view.

But when you look at God,

and most people do not like this,

most people like to think,

most people like to ask questions,

most people like to just theorize

and think about what could be

and what's possible and what's allowed

and what's permissible and all these different things.

But when you look at God

and you look at the way God is depicted in scripture,

he is perfect truth.

And God never asks questions

but he always makes statements.

He always gives commands.

He gives clear and concise expectations

for his people, for his followers,

for those who are going to be followers of Christ.

There are clear and concise expectations

for what is to be of someone

who is going to be one of his children.

There's never questions.

There's never doubt brought into the situation.

There's always statements.

And so Satan comes in this moment

and he's asking questions

and he's bringing in doubt

and he's doing this through the identity of Christ.

And as I was looking at this

and I was thinking, I was like,

you know, identity is so important.

Like our identity as people is super important.

Whether you realize it or not,

everything that we do as people

is all about presenting our identity

to people so that they can kind of identify us

even before we ever have a conversation.

The clothes that we wear,

you ever notice how some people

wear like three-piece suits?

And dresses, and some people walk around

in jogging pants and flip-flops.

I got a football coach from middle school,

never seen him in a pair of shoes.

He wore flip-flops his whole life.

I think he was born with him.

Totally fine with me.

Great guy.

People cover themselves in tattoos.

Now, whether or not you think that's sinful or not,

we're not getting into that today.

I'm just saying like people have tattoos.

It's a projection of their identity.

Most of people's tattoos have a story.

There's a reason why it's put on their body.

They're wanting to present to you

part of who they are in that.

Facial hair, clean shaven.

The car you drive, the house you live in,

the job you work, it's all about identity.

It's all about how you present yourself.

One of the biggest temptations

Jesus will come at you with is,

who are you really?

And as I got to thinking,

there's a lot of things in my life

I've had to let some of my personal identities die

as I've come to know Christ

and live for him and grow older

so that I can live in my identity in Christ

rather than living in my own identity.

Because your identity could be a temptation, right?

So growing up, like I played ball.

Growing up, that was a big part of my life.

It wasn't that I was great

or I was ever going to play professionally,

but it was probably the most consistent thing

that I had done in my life.

From a young child to college, ball was my life.

And that was part of the identity

that I had of who I was that needed to die

so that God could do in me what he wanted to do.

So even your identity can be a temptation.

And there's many other things, many other ways.

Hobbies, like the hobbies we have

can be part of our identity.

And perhaps some of you here this morning

know the Lord's been speaking to you

about your identity and who you are.

And there's just something inside of you

that's saying, hey, it's not necessarily

that this part of you that exists

is bad or sinful,

but then God has something better for you.

God has something so much better for you

than this thing that you've just always been

or always done.

Some identity for you that's better

than what you have and who you are.

And some of you this morning may be asking the question,

am I really a child of God?

I don't know about you, but I'm a pastor.

And every once in a while, I'll just sit around.

I'll be like, man, like, am I really saved?

Like, if I died right now, would I really go to heaven?

Like, and so, like, you sit there in that moment

and you're just like, okay, like, Lord,

how do I rationalize this?

Like, in this moment right now,

like, just the thought that I'm not saved.

There's a thought that I may not go to heaven

or a thought that heaven might not be real.

And then you sit down and you have those

internal conversations you begin to pray.

And it's like, well, is there sin in my life?

Is there this? Is there that?

And then finally, you just come to the point

it's like, Lord, I don't know.

I can't prove it.

I can't say for 100% sure that this is it,

but I believe it.

I'm going to believe it.

And whatever it is, it's going to be

because I've done everything that I know to do

and can do, and you've got to do the rest.

When you look at Satan and he comes to Jesus

and says, if you are a son of God,

and maybe some of you this morning,

Satan's been coming at you and saying,

well, are you really a son of God?

Are you really a daughter of God?

Do you really belong to him?

And some of us need to answer that question

because only we really know in our heart,

whether we are or we aren't.

In Ephesians chapter one, verses four through five.

And perhaps this is encouragement

for some of you this morning.

Paul wrote and said,

even before he made the world,

God loved us and chose us in Christ

to be holy and without fault in his eyes.

Before God ever created the world

that we could live in,

so long before we ever were thought about,

he chose to make us holy and faultless in his eyes.

And that doesn't mean that you're perfect

and you're without sin,

but what it means is that he made a way

to cleanse you and redeem you

to make you holy and without fault in his eyes.

So verse five, God decided in advance

to adopt us into his own family

by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.

This is what he wanted to do

and it gave him great pleasure.

God wanted to adopt you and I into his family.

And it gave him great pleasure to do that.

Let me give you a really cool insight

into this culture when Paul's writing this,

because Paul being Jewish

was also a Roman citizen.

And so he's ministering

to all these Roman people.

Ephesus is a province inside of Rome.

And so he's ministering

to the people of Ephesus.

They're Roman.

They don't live in the city of Rome,

but they're Roman citizens,

a lot of them are.

And did you know that in Roman law,

that if you were born

as a legitimate child

to a Roman citizen,

that your parents could disown you

and remove you from their life

and remove you from their will

and you received nothing,

no inheritance

and could take your name away from you

and dissolve you from the family completely.

If you were a legitimate child,

you know that?

But as a Roman citizen,

if you chose to adopt a child,

the adoption was permanent.

You could not dissolve that relationship.

You could not dissolve that parental consent

and remove them from the will

because it was something

that you chose to do.

So their thought was

you can't control

what kind of kid you have,

whether or not they're a disappointment.

You can have a kid.

They might turn out to be a disappointment

and you can get rid of them.

But you chose this kid.

And because you chose them,

you got to live with that choice

and they are permanently yours.

So when Paul's talking about this,

he's saying, look,

when God adopted you into his family,

it's not something

that he can take back or dissolve

because their understanding

of what adoption meant was

this was a permanent thing.

You were chosen out of people.

You were picked.

God has a purpose.

He has a plan for you

and it gave him great pleasure to do this.

This morning,

you are a child of God.

Even if you have not accepted Jesus Christ

as your Lord and Savior yet,

he has already chosen you

and he's worked everything out

so that you can be his child

when you humble yourself

and come to him

and choose to do so.

And they gave him great pleasure

to do that.

So even if you're sitting here

this morning, you say,

I'm not a Christian.

It's okay.

God's already made a way

for you to be that

whenever you choose to surrender

and become one of his children.

And you get to sharing that.

It's this morning.

I think it's really important

for us to remember

we are sons of God.

We are daughters of God.

And never question your identity

in Christ

because Christ paid the ultimate price

for you to have that identity.

And even Jesus

walking through the wilderness

being tempted by Satan,

even he questioned his identity.

Was he really God's son?

I think that's really important

for us to see today.

Point number two.

Satan will use bait just for you.

Satan will use bait

just custom for you.

Now, I don't know about you guys,

but I've never been tempted

to turn rocks into bread.

It's never even come across my mind.

Never even thought about it.

I don't have the ability

to perform miracles.

It's not tempting to me.

Wouldn't be tempted to anybody else.

I'm sure none of you

have had the same temptations either.

But when you look at this moment,

I mean, this is a temptation.

Are you the son of God?

He questioned his unique identity

and he said,

if you are,

then turn these stones into bread.

Satan knew that Jesus had

the ability to perform miracles.

When you look at Jesus's ministry

as he moved

throughout the people of Israel

and then some of the other people

around the region

as he's doing this,

he performs lots of miracles.

I mean, he multiplies food.

He raises the dead.

He heals the sick,

makes the blind see the lame walk.

He does all these amazing things.

It wasn't necessarily that

turning a stone into bread was sinful.

It was more of like the timing

and the moment in this

was what was sinful about it.

It was not God's timing.

There was something more important

at hand than Jesus feeding his flesh.

He was preparing

for the spiritual journey.

And Satan will use bait

that's customized just for you.

So I like knives, okay?

And in Bullen Springs,

there used to be this little knife shop

over on Highway 9

called River Blade Knife and Fly.

I think that was the name of it.

Cool little knife shop.

Really small.

Had some really nice stuff in there.

Duke could order you

whatever you wanted

and get it cheaper than most places.

But he also did fly fishing stuff.

So he had fly fishing on one side,

knives on the other.

Small little shop.

And I'd go in there

and do would be over

at his little table.

Custom making fly fishing lures.

And it really just kind of

give me this weird imagery

of like Satan

just kind of like looking over at me.

I'll use myself as an example

looking over at me and be like,

he's making this bait,

this lure just for me.

He's like, oh yeah,

I bet he'll like that.

He's just wrapping string around

put a little feather on it

doing all this little stuff.

I don't know if you know this,

but like sometimes you'll buy bait

and I'm crossing over.

I'm not.

I actually stink at fishing.

I don't catch stuff

like it's really sad.

But like a lot of bait is scented.

You know it's like

you buy bait for different fish

like some of it's scented.

It's like I bet.

Oh, I bet he'll really like

the way that smells.

I bet he likes the way that looks.

You know some lures are designed

that when you pull them

through the water,

they'll like dance

and do different movements

which just drive fish crazy.

And Satan's like looking at us

and he's like,

I bet they'll really like

the way that moves around.

He knows.

He knows exactly what you like.

What's stimulating

to you visually.

What's stimulating to your senses.

And we can talk about all this stuff

because it's literally the physical.

He knows in this world

what is going to draw you in.

For some of you it's money.

For some of you it's success.

For some of you it's beauty

and the way that you look.

For others it's whatever.

Crazy stuff.

You know I had a kid one time

in my youth group.

He's a klepto.

He just likes stealing stuff.

Kid would go into Walmart

and just steal stuff from Walmart.

Didn't want it

and come out

and throw it in the back

of people's truck.

He liked the experience

of just stealing it.

It could be anything

like sin expands

in crazy ways in our lives.

He will use a bait custom

just for you

and there's some of us

in here this morning.

We're not committing adultery.

We're not stealing.

We're not lying.

We're not dishonoring

our mother and father.

We're not dishonoring

Sabbath.

We're not using God's name in vain.

But it could be something

as simple as taking

your God-given abilities

and just using those abilities

that God has given you

to gratify yourself

rather than serve God

in his kingdom.

Because God gave you

your abilities

and your gifts

to build his kingdom

not to gratify ourselves.

And you look at this moment

where he's tempting Jesus

and he says

if you really are the son of God

then turn these stones

in the bread.

He was wanting to take the gifts

that God had given Satan.

I'm sorry that he gave Jesus

and Satan was wanting to use

those gifts to gratify Jesus

rather than gratifying God.

So we have to be careful

even in the midst of how we live

and the gifts that God's given us.

We can be sinful

in those things.

In 1 John chapter 2

1 John 2:15–17

verses 15 through 17

it says do not love this world

nor the things

that it offers you.

For when you love the world

you do not have love

for the Father in you.

For the world offers only

a craving for physical pleasure

a craving for everything you see

and pride in our achievements

and possessions.

These are not from the Father

but are from the world.

And this world is fading away

along with everything

that people crave

but anyone who does

what pleases God

will live forever.

And this is what we have to see

in these moments

as we're facing temptations.

Most of the time

when we're facing temptations

it's just dealing with the decision

to choose the physical

over the spiritual.

And the physical is temporary.

The stones being turned into bread

is something that's temporary for Christ.

It would bring temporary satisfaction to him.

And can I be honest with you?

So a few months back

somebody came to me

and they asked me

if I would fast with them, right?

And honestly

I really wasn't crazy about it

because I like food, right?

I mean I just honestly

I just I like to eat.

It's not like one of those things.

I don't feel like I over eat

like I could lose some weight

but I'm not you know

I'm okay with where I am.

And I just was not super crazy about it.

But I knew it was the right thing

because I read scripture

and I know what's right

and I know what's wrong

so I'm like okay I'll do this

like let's do this.

And this has actually happened

multiple times since this time.

So for several months

like we've been fasting

at certain times

and we'll do 24 hours without eating

and then we'll break the fast.

Can I be honest with you guys?

About hour 21 or 22

I'm hungry

and I'm ready to eat.

And every single time we've done this

I've been tempted to cheat.

Like literally like at about 21, 22, 23

right before I'm just like dude

nobody will know.

They won't know.

Just it's not that big of a deal

they won't know.

And that's only because I'm hungry.

You know it like I'm hungry.

Jesus was 40 days and 40 nights

removed from eating

like he was starving.

There's a big difference between the two.

And when we talk about this

and we talk about the physical

and we talk about things

Satan will come

and he will present things to you

like nobody will know.

It's not that big of a deal.

You're not hurting anyone else.

This is just you.

He is so convincing.

He is so smooth and manipulating

and in the moment

and that's why in the moment

when we're facing temptation

it is extremely difficult

to say no.

Right?

It is.

And that's why afterwards

we all feel like garbage.

Because once we gratify our flesh

and we satisfy that moment

we feel like garbage afterwards

because we knew

and we know in the moment

it's wrong.

And the guilt and the shame comes in.

And that's what

this is what he wants to do in our lives.

And point number three

Satan will use ordinary things

as temptations.

I think this is super important

because like we said earlier

if you're a Christian

for the most part

you're going to try to stay away

from sins

that are clearly identified in scripture.

If you really love God

you're trying to stay away

from those things.

But he'll take ordinary things

like bread.

There's nothing sinful about bread.

I love bread.

Before you stone me

about being tempted

about eating bread

if I was Jesus

I'd say stone me

because I would turn them

into bread

and I'd eat them.

Wouldn't bother me a bit.

But there's nothing sinful

about bread.

But the context in which

we use them

and we take physical things

and we apply them

to our lives

can be very simple.

It can be against God's will.

One of the biggest examples of that

and the clearest examples of that

is sex in our world.

It is one of the things

that God's created

to be so wonderful

and he created it to be

between a husband and a wife.

But we can take that

and we can pervert it

and turn it into

a million different things.

And we do all the time

as people.

But he uses ordinary things

and he comes at Jesus

with this unique temptation

and these unique circumstances.

Jesus is starving.

He takes bread

any other time.

Bread wouldn't be tempted.

There's a lot of people

in this room

who probably don't eat

a whole lot of bread

because it's one of the worst

things you can eat.

I eat a lot of bread.

But you probably don't.

But for Jesus

who's starving in this moment

this is super tempting for him.

This is hard to say no to.

Everything within him

is crying out

and it's not just a want.

It's not like

I'm 22 hours removed from food.

This is like your body

is literally eating itself

at this point

and his body is like

I need this.

And there could be moments

and times in your life

where you say

I need this.

I need this food.

I need this thing.

I need this relationship.

I need this.

Like I feel like I'm going to

just collapse

if I don't have this.

But we have to be very careful

because even good things

received absence of God's timing

and blessing

can put us in a really bad spot.

Don't think this morning

that Satan is only going to

tempt you

with sexual things

or stealing or lying or murder

or blasphemy

or all these big sins

that we talk about all the time.

Satan will very much come in

and he'll say

nobody's going to know.

It's really not that big of a deal.

A little conversation,

a little message.

It's only a few cents,

whatever it may be.

Rationalization is Satan's

number one tool

to help us rationalize anything.

Jesus very much needed that food.

His physical body needed that food

but it wasn't God's timing yet

because the whole thing was

as he was fasting

and focusing on the spiritual

rather than feeding the physical.

And that's what Satan was trying to do.

Pull him from the spiritual

and put him back in the physical.

And this brings us to the end

where Jesus responds

people do not live by bread alone

but by every word that comes

from the mouth of God.

We're going to talk about this

some more in the coming weeks

but one of the things that

is super frustrating about scripture.

I don't know if y'all read the Bible

sometimes you get frustrated.

I have many times over the years

still do.

One of the most frustrating things

than me as I read passages

like this is that

when you read this

it looks so easy.

It's like we have this mindset

of it's Jesus.

He's the Son of God.

He's perfect.

Everything's so easy

and it's like he's just

strolling through the wilderness

and it's like a cartoon episode

and he's just floating along

and he's just like

everything's great.

Satan says hey turn this on the bread

like man does not live by bread alone

and he just quotes

these passages of scripture

is so easy for him.

It's like hey jump off the temple

you shall not test the Lord thy God

and it's like

it just sounds so easy

and it's not like that

and it confuses us.

It's misleading

because you can sit down

and you can read

because I'm a slow reader

and I timed it.

You can read verses 1 through 4

which is what we focus on today

in 22.43 seconds.

In 22.43 seconds

a summarized account

of the temptation

that Jesus endured

and overcame

which by the way preserved

you're in my ability

to receive salvation

and get into heaven.

Like this is an enormous thing

and that one thing

turning stones in the bread

could have changed it all for us

and been a totally different outcome

and it was summarized

in 22.43 seconds of reading

and it makes it sound so easy

and you can read

the entire passage

verses 1 through 11

that we read in about a minute

in 1.3 seconds

and it doesn't do it justice

because remember

this is 40 days and 40 nights

that Jesus was doing this

and he was starving

and he was hungry

and he was weak

and he was alone

and I don't know about you guys

but in my moments of fasting

in the final few hours

if my kids even move

I'm ready to choke them.

I have a headache

because I haven't drank coffee.

I haven't had any caffeine.

No sugar.

My blood sugar is dropping.

I'm not even diabetic

but I can feel it.

And it's literally

from a physical perspective

it's not enjoyable.

It's just a miserable experience.

And so we don't get the true

justified version

of exactly what's going on here.

Do not mistake yourself to think

oh it was so easy for Christ

because as much as you have been

in a moment

where you've been faced

with a temptation

and your spirit

and your flesh

are literally battling

with one another

and you're just like

man I know this is wrong

because you know

if Christ is in your heart

you know you can't do it

without feeling

like garbage about it

because you're battling

with yourself

and so I know

that I shouldn't do this

but then like

but I want to do this so bad

and like you're just having

this internal conversation

with yourself

and all of a sudden

you're bipolar

and you have multiple personalities

because your flesh

is battling your spirit

and you're just dealing

with it in the moment

and don't think that Christ

did not have that same battle.

There's nothing that you

and I endure

that he has not endured.

There's nothing that he's

called us to do

that he hasn't already

done himself.

Before the world was ever created

it pleased

God to choose Christ

as our sacrifice

to suffer

and die for our sins

so that you and I

could be adopted

into his family permanently.

I don't know about you guys

but that's

that's a really comforting thought.

I know there's many times

as a kid

where I probably

challenged my parents reasoning

to do this on me

and send me on

about my way

and get rid of me

but in the family of God

it is a permanent adoption.

You are a son of God.

You are a daughter of God.

You have a purpose.

You have a plan

and as the last song

you sang this morning said

you are a kingdom of priests.

You're not just some spooled

little brat

who got brought into the family

and you're given everything

that you want.

You have a purpose.

You have a plan.

You have an inheritance

and there's some chores

but you have a great inheritance

that you can't get on your own.

You'll never be able to earn it

or deserve it

but Jesus already paid for it.

Let's pray.

Father God thank you for this day

and for the opportunity

to be here

and to be your servants

to be your children.

What a wonderful privilege

it is to belong to you

and God I pray

that as we go throughout our days

and we face temptations

in different circumstances

and we have to make decisions

and Satan brings questions

into our mind that God

we would remind ourselves

of who you are

and what your word says

and all the statements

and all the laws

and the expectations

that you have for your people

because you're not a God

of confusion.

You're not a God

who brings doubt

or fear

or questions.

That's all from the enemy.

So Lord I pray

that you remind us this morning

to not be led astray

by our enemy.

To not be caught off guard

but Lord to be prepared

and to be ready.

Jesus we love you today

and we thank you

for this opportunity to be here.

We ask that you would go with us

in Jesus name.