WHAT DID JESUS REALLY SAY: About Temptation

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Here's today's message.

Hey, welcome to Church at Home here at Celebration Church Orlando.

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We are in currently in the middle of our series, What Did Jesus Really Say?

And today we're talking about temptation.

My name is Nate.

This is Pastor Mike, Pastor Keith and Pastor Megan Pittman, who are our lead pastors, and then Pastor Josh and Pastor Callie.

So Pastor, Pastor, Pastor.

So, yes, like I said, we are in the middle of our series, What Did Jesus Really Say?

And it's been great to kind of build our foundation on certain topics that Jesus spoke about and experienced.

And so today, Pastor Keith, why don't you set the scene for what we're talking about?

Yes.

I think we're going to say that.

No, we got a minute really.

One pastor leveled up this past week and got engaged.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, I did say yes.

It was great diamonds on my thing, and I love it.

They want to wear it now just in case somebody wants to still wait.

Which is why this is such a great topic because the mic is getting wiped up so we can talk about temptation.

It's gonna be the big time.

We gotta get back.

We gotta get back.

Okay.

So, as my distinguished colleague has said to me earlier, um we're we're in the middle of this series.

What did Jesus really say?

We're examining these conversations that Jesus had that are powerful, that are relevant, and hopefully transformative in the way that we understand these topics.

And so um they've been building on each other a little bit, and so this week is is temptation.

And and I think it's gonna be an interesting take twist on it because I think all of us probably have our own um ideas of when we think of temptation, we pretty much already kind of begin to paint a picture of what we're looking for.

But I think this passage that we're gonna look at is gonna give us um a broader understanding of what that term really means, but then also hopefully we're gonna develop some skills that will help us to be able to recognize it, but also to overcome it.

So the passage we're gonna look at is gonna be in Luke chapter four.

And to give it some context, Jesus has just gotten baptized, he's about 30 years old, and so he's about to go into ministry.

So this is supposed to be like his coming out thing.

Like, okay, I'm baptized, I got I got everything I need, I'm ordained now, let's get into ministry, let's get after it.

And then right after he gets baptized, we're led into what this passage says right here.

So, Nate, if you don't mind, man, if you can leave read uh Luke chapter 4, verses 1 through 13, I think it's gonna help us to really get a visual of what this whole temptation um dynamic looks like.

Luke 4:1–13

Yeah, let's do it.

Please stand for the reading of the word.

All right.

Hear ye, hear ye.

Luke chapter four.

And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days being tempted by the devil, and he ate nothing during those days.

And when they were ended, he was hungry.

I would be too.

The devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.

And Jesus answered him, It is written, man shall not live by bread alone.

And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I will give it to whom I will.

If you then will worship me, it will all be yours.

And Jesus answered him, It is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.

Verse number nine, and he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you to guard you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

And Jesus answered him, It is said, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

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

Man.

So just before we jump into this conversation, I want to I want to set the tone on this because I feel like this is gonna help get some context here.

As we said, like Jesus is he's just starting out a ministry.

Like he's excited.

It's like his first day on the job.

And the Bible says that he is full of the spirit, and then he is led into the wilderness.

So so think about that for a moment.

Full of the spirit, but then led into the wilderness.

And so there's a couple things I want to highlight before we jump into this.

One, Jesus was full of the spirit, so he was led by the spirit.

Meaning it is very difficult to truly be spirit-led if we are not spirit-filled.

If whatever you're full of is what you're gonna be led by.

So if you're full of the flesh, you're gonna be led by your flesh.

If you're full of ego, you're gonna be led by your ego.

If you're full of pride, you're gonna be led by your pride.

But if you're full of the spirit, you're gonna be led by the spirit.

And what we see with Jesus is that even though he was led by the spirit, had this incredible assignment on his life, he is led into the wilderness.

Now, I'm not sure about you guys, but I know for me, the wilderness is not the place that I will typically think that God would lead me to this place.

Like I'm again, our theology has been one where we have a tendency to believe that the blessings are from God and any opposition is clearly the enemy.

I think you make a decision to follow Christ in your life, it's like up and to the right after that.

Everything is good.

Yeah, everything is good.

But but what we see here is that that Jesus is being led by the Spirit into the wilderness, this barren place, this place that doesn't seem like there's any hope, but nonetheless, this is the place that he's led to.

So I think that's something that's worth discussing because I think we all have wilderness seasons, and if we don't have a proper understanding of this, we will think that our wilderness seasons mean that either we're God forsaken or we need to evacuate a place that God is leading us to, and we leave prematurely.

It's also interesting what you pointed out, uh harping on the spirit being within Jesus, because a lot of times, or it can be counterintuitive to human nature to say, okay, I'm gonna go through this and then I'll have bestowed upon me whatever I'm searching for when in reality God says, No, I'm gonna equip you first in order to go through what you need to go through.

I think too in the wilderness, um, there's silence, and a lot of times when we are in different environments, uh, we can't hear God clearly.

You know, so the wilderness is a place where we can focus, where we can recalibrate, where we can clearly hear the voice of God instead of all the voices around us.

And that comes for any decision that we make in life.

Like um, there's a lot of voices around there, but what is the voice of God for your life?

Yeah, you know, and what is the decision that He's trying to have to do.

Which you know what that goes with the idea of like when it says that when Jesus would go off and pray, he would remove himself to kind of silence the voices.

So that is a that's a great that's a great silver lining for people who are in the wilderness season of how they can say, you know what, it can quiet the voices, and I can engage God a little bit more.

But here's what's crazy about it is that we're in that you're in that wilderness season and it quiet all the voices around you, then you're getting this position like Jesus where you have these two voices competing for your attention.

Yeah.

I mean, but but here's the thing that I've realized when I just said that, I was like, I'm about to correct myself, is that so many times like like God doesn't have to compete with it like for attention with with the enemy when he's trying to talk to you.

Yes.

And I feel like sometimes when you're in those seasons, the thing that is the loudest, it's usually it's usually not the thing that you need to follow.

Right.

That's true.

It's oftentimes like, I mean, I don't know, like people like, is God a still small voice?

Is it like a booming voice?

Like, you know, like how do I hear God?

Like we could do a whole entire series on that.

We should probably in the future, but um I just think like so many times when you're in those wilderness moments because everything else is quiet, then things start to get amplified.

Yeah, and and that's when that's when like Jesus, he's in this, like you're saying, like spirit flesh battle of which one's gonna win out, which one am I gonna feed, which one am I gonna give into, which one am I gonna listen to?

Yes.

And and it's crazy that even in the midst of that, what the enemy was saying to him, it wasn't even like these inherently bad things, right?

It was literally what the word of God said.

He was like quoting the word of God to Jesus.

And it's like that's always amazed me about this story, is like how he came in and he tried to like one up like the one who's like the word of God in the flesh.

I'm like, that ain't gonna happen.

But it happens so many times in the wilderness, even though we can hear like God clear, we can also hear this other thing in our head or whatever telling us, you know, all these lies or whatever it may not be, we can hear that a lot clearer as well.

So here's here's two takeaways from that.

One, the wilderness, just because it's just because it's uncomfortable doesn't mean that it's not God.

And then two, kind of to your point, um a lot of times the loudest voice is often the most silent when it comes to speaking truth.

And so sometimes that thing that is being amplified, that that very well may not be God.

That could be the enemy trying to lead you off of the things that God has called you to do.

Yeah, yeah.

And I even think too that it's it's a big part of it is also knowing um really who you are in that in those moments in that wilderness.

Because you, you know, he getting baptized, you've made that decision.

Like that is that isn't the first step.

Like there was a step prior to that.

So you've done these action steps to get where you are, and then being in the wilderness, oftentimes what people fail to do is to rely on what they already know.

That's what you have to do.

And to and you have to lean into it.

That's what that's um because that's the same thing that happened with the children of Israel.

You know, when they're when they're wondering out, you know, they're making a golden calf, but that's only because they didn't rely on what they already know.

You've already been through something, you already know God to be true for yourself.

So then why don't you lean into it?

But what happens is we choose not to lean into it because we choose to look at, you know, or to to hear what the loudest voice in the room is instead of relying on what we truly know.

I mean, sorry, go ahead.

Oh, no, no, no.

Both at the same time, yeah.

I think sometimes you forget.

Oh my gosh.

That's how the girls decide who's gonna go first.

Like paper, rock, scissors, shoot.

That wasn't my training.

I love the way you just look at them.

I'm gonna leave my train of thought.

Um like you were saying, every time, like, we don't just go through one hard time.

We don't just go through one test or one trial or overcome one temptation, like, and it's not like they get easier.

Like, and I think that was something that I always struggled with was well, I I thought I did the right thing.

I thought I grew through that.

I thought that like, you know, I overcame it or or whatever it may be.

What is happening now?

Like now it's even harder.

And so, but like I heard someone say one time, you know, like it's like the same thing as like you complete first grade, you go to second grade, what happens you go to second grade, it gets harder.

Like, and that is something to like remember and something I had really had to learn because it was like, but you have to pull on the things from from the season before when sometimes we're gonna be like, okay, that's done, close that, put that there.

And on and so, but you need every everything that you've pulled from that season, everything you've learned every time that God has like really shown up in those times.

Like, that's what you're supposed to continue to build on and grow on.

Because, like, he said, like, that was such a weird concept to me that like just because I was in a hard time, I think I kind of had learned that like that meant there was something wrong.

So, like, I was doing something wrong, or I was in the wrong place, or I had to figure out how to get out instead of what needed to happen within.

Or you didn't have faith enough, or you didn't pray enough to get out of it.

And I think that's yeah, that's one of those things that's so hard for me.

It's hard and it's also dangerous.

And that's something that, like, I mean, I'm getting on a rabbit show here.

Sunday, you can get me back on in a second.

But when we talk about these things, like it's important for us to realize that even Jesus was tempted, even Jesus was tested, even Jesus was tried, even Jesus went to the wilderness.

Hebrews 4.15 says that he can literally like like he understands everything that we go through.

He went through those things.

But sometimes we can look down on people when they're going through something like have you prayed enough?

Have you done this enough?

Have you whatever?

When, like, literally, like, I mean, I'm gonna about to skip to the end of this story, but when all this happened, the angels came and they like helped him in this moment, they like strengthened him.

Yeah, so like what do we need to do as the church in these moments when people are going through wilderness seasons?

Uh-huh, we don't need to look down on them.

We don't need to say, Man, have you prayed enough?

Have you read your Bible enough?

Have you had enough faith?

Yes, all those things are great, but how can I come and how can I strengthen you?

Exactly.

How can I help you?

Like, do you want me to read the Bible over you?

Do you want me to pray for you?

Do you want me to just sit here with you?

Like, yeah, and I think that's one of those things that like it it's it's it's so easy to look at somebody else's wilderness season and compare, like, well, I went through that and I didn't go through that and I did this and I got out.

But what God wants somebody else to get out of their wilderness season may be completely different than what he wanted you to get out of.

Well, and even with like temptation, right?

Like the difference between testing and temptation, like everyone's tests don't look the same.

Everyone's temptations don't look the same.

So they all don't need to be handled the same way.

Yeah, so that's so good because even when you just you saying that, I'm like, dang, yeah, that's good because the testing that I'm getting is going to be different because what I'm being tested on is based upon where I'm going.

Right.

But where God is sending you is not necessarily where he's sending me.

So our testing is going to look different, our temptations will look different, but that doesn't mean that we won't go through them.

So we have no right in comparing the temptation.

Like that, like, think about how stupid that is.

Yeah, it's like it's like, you know, like, yes, Jesus did know who he was, and so his temptation was gonna look completely different.

Because there's some people who are like, I don't, I'm not ever, I don't care about food, that's not even a thing.

So he's not gonna tempt you.

This is why the scripture says, What is he attempt, what is common to man, but I also think that there's tempting that is also what is common to you particularly.

It's like if drinking's not a thing for me, he's not gonna tempt me with that, yeah, you know, but so it's gonna be like, what is like if video games is a temptation for me, he's gonna tempt me with video games, which is not a temptation.

But you notice how he said video games isn't an issue, but he didn't say anything about drinking.

So what were you saying about?

So when you're saying that I thought about how when I was in 10th grade, North Carolina, they de standardized the SAT.

Yeah.

So we're used to the SAT was like you could do SAT prep classes, you could look at someone's, like, you could literally they could walk you through the SAT from the year before.

You could go in, you could fly through it.

In 10th grade, they desstandardize it.

And so now the person who's sitting beside me, they have a completely like different set of questions and a completely different set of things.

So like I can't even look over and even try to learn from their test because my test is completely different.

And so I think so many times, like that, like we've got to realize that somebody else may be going through a test or they may be going through a season, but what they're supposed to get out of it is completely different than what we're supposed to get out of it.

And so all we can do is help them along and we can guide them, but we can't do it for them.

Yeah, I think of I think of Job when I think of all this because Job had like basically essentially a perfect life.

I mean, he had everything, he had the cattle, he had the wife, he loved God with all of his heart, he was blameless.

And God was like, test my test my servant, you know, test him.

And um, and through all that, even he started to question like why I haven't done these things, I haven't done anything that was crazy.

But what God wanted out of him is to show that his faithfulness through it all, you know, and so like you said, the test is gonna be different for everybody based on who it is and what God wants to get out of the effect.

So true, so true.

And why we need our own relationship with the Holy Spirit.

Yes, because like we have to be filled with the Spirit and we have to be able to hear for ourselves in order to follow.

Yeah, yeah.

Because if I'm trying to rely on Josh's Holy Spirit, that's not gonna get anywhere.

Absolutely.

Yeah, that's like if y'all two have two separate cars, you can't rely on his tank being full to get you where you need to go with your car.

That'll make no sense, you know.

And I'm like, I was washing dishes on the scooter, I was doing laundry.

She's like, I'm not you.

I can't do all of those things.

I can't walk in your armor.

I'm like, you're gonna throw that at me.

You know what I mean?

She said armor.

When you're like, oh, you're right.

I am so much more wise than us.

You're right.

So true.

So true.

And we're back.

So here's what I want to do.

I want to I want to highlight something that Callie had alluded to.

Well, we're talking about a distinction between like tempting and testing.

Because depending on the translation of the Bible that you read, it may render a little bit differently.

So we all look at it and we say, okay, the temptation of Jesus.

And there's even translations that say that Jesus was led in the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, which then actually starts to make no sense.

Like, why would God lead him to be tempted?

So what you have to do is you have to look at the rendering of the word, and this is what gives me the space to kind of like deek out on this a little bit.

But but the word temptation, tempting, and testing, it's the same word.

So depending on how the sentence is structured, that helps us to understand how it's rendered when it's translated to us in English.

So 38 times that word appears in the New Testament, and then you have to look at the context to understand what it is.

But I think the reason why that's so powerful is for us to understand that God is not tempting us to do anything evil.

He's not tempting us to do anything wrong.

The temptation comes from the adversary, he simply wants to corrupt what God has already blessed.

But what God does use, he uses tests because tests will always reveal capacity and it will also allow us to know where we're vulnerable.

What the enemy likes to do is whenever something is vulnerable and it's not dealt with, it turns into a weakness, and he likes to exploit that.

So it's kind of similar to like I love, I love sports.

But what I love about sports is I love how a team will study the film of the team that they're playing against.

And as they're studying the film, they're like, okay, this guy right here, he he's not that really good on a long route.

So if we can start doing these things strategically, we can exploit an area of weakness.

Meanwhile, for that team that is preparing for that game that's coming up, if they're aware that the team is gameplaying for them, they're trying to get better at an area that could be a weakness.

What God is doing, he's testing us to show us the areas that we're vulnerable so we can strengthen them up.

Yeah, but the enemy's trying to exploit our weaknesses, which is why you see that word rendered differently.

When it's referring to the enemy, the enemy is bringing temptation.

When it's referring to God, God is testing us to expose how strong we are, but also areas that we need to get better in.

Let's inception that for a second, like you like to do.

Yeah.

But they I mean, for real, like the enemy's watching tape on us.

Yes.

But he's had the same game plan forever.

Exactly.

I mean, from the beginning of time, when you go back to Genesis, the game plan has been the same.

It is like there's something that God is withholding from you, there's something that you can get.

It's a we talked about it's shortcuts.

Every single one of these things that he's offering Jesus, Jesus is gonna get when he gets to heaven on the other side of all this stuff.

Yeah, but the enemy's offering him shortcuts for all this stuff.

It's the it's the same game plan.

Like if you do this, then you can get here.

If you do this, then you're gonna feel good about yourself.

You might be depressed, you might be anxious, do this, you're gonna feel better.

The thing is, peace, joy, all those things come from God.

That's where they come from, that's where they originate from.

But then all these things that we may be tempted with, all it is is a shortcut.

It's a way to try to get there quicker instead of taking like the path of the wilderness path.

Yeah, or taking whatever it may be.

Man, I think we give the enemy too much credit at times.

And I think we we make him out.

I mean, you can't you can't even fathom the difference in power of our God over.

Oh, yeah.

So I I think what Jesus was trying to trying to show us is that hey man, uh I got this covered and so can you.

Yeah, I think that's why this was written too, because it's not like it was the first time that he was tempted.

I mean he was 30 years old, you know?

Oh, yeah.

And it's not gonna be the last time either.

So what I think we need to recognize for the enemy is that the only power that he has is the power of suggestion.

Yep.

And that and that's not to minimize how sometimes the power of suggestion can certainly influence our decision making.

But if you can just recognize the enemy's greatest power is the power to suggest, is the power to whisper in your ear.

Think about what Adam and Eve, like he was suggesting.

Did God really say, like he's suggesting things, but at the end of the day, he wasn't forcing them to make a decision.

He was just trying to cloud the decision that God had already had spoken that they should take.

So I think that's the whole thing.

And so what I think is key for us when we just want to be aware and alert is honestly just just knowing, like knowing when we're vulnerable.

Yeah, like just if we just know what some of our triggers are, some of our weak spots, some of our blind spots, it just helps us to be able to game plan and to know how to put certain things into place so that way we won't hopefully allow something that we're vulnerable to to turn into a weakness that then the enemy can.

Yeah, I don't know.

We talked about um, you know, those those places um where we're vulnerable.

It's like um when we're lonely, when we're hungry, you know, when we don't have more time.

We're more tired and stuff like that.

Um, so to that, let me say this, and I want you to finish.

So when I'm tired, but I'm not sleep, I just have this weird like sleepwalking food thing.

Yeah.

That's like I'm I'm I try my best to be disciplined when I'm at home, but my kids literally will like say, Dad, okay, dad was doing a sleepwalking thing because I'm tired and I'm just making bad decisions, going and grabbing chips and just leaving the trail all the way.

Crumbs in the bed.

I don't even know how to get back.

You'll find crumbs in the bed.

You'll find them on the way to the refrigerator in the closet.

Okay.

But go ahead.

When you're tired and you're disorientated, you just I wake up and I got like, how did I get here?

Like I You make bad choices.

God, don't put me on blast like that.

But it's but it's but it's true.

But I think if we know those are moments when we're vulnerable, it just it just helps us to it just helps us to tighten up.

Yeah.

It helps us.

So what did I tell you?

I said, you know what?

From now on, here's my options when I'm tired.

Fruit.

Fruit has got to be in the front of the refrigerator.

Like I'm trying to counteract because I know when I'm tired and I'm a little bit groggy.

But this is where I tempted him yesterday.

Yes.

He said, give me fruit when I'm tired.

Like if it's at nighttime, just offer me fruit.

I'll take it.

But I came in there.

Deneira, you know, had a meeting yesterday, and she had came home with a box of Chick-fil-A, and I brought the sandwich in the room, and I was like, do you want to beast?

Hey, and of course you say yes.

Are you never drinking a Chick-fil-A?

You're like, why would I say no?

Oh no, because it's from the Lord.

Here we are.

Hey.

But I think what's what's important, uh, what's important here is that you were able to, so Paul says in 2 Corinthians, um, I think it's 12, 9.

I think you actually have it written down.

Oh, look at that.

I do.

You can talk about your buttons.

Would you like my card?

But he talks about how he how he boasts in his weakness.

Yeah, how he boasts in his vulnerability, how he boasts in what he's going through, so that the grace of God can be sufficient.

That's right, right.

You're able to share with your family.

This is a vulnerability that I have.

This is something that I have.

Help me in this season to not go through that, even though she brought you Chick-fil-A still.

But indeed, indeed.

Also, so like that is where you need people, right?

So, like people who can even notice when you're vulnerable when you don't know.

That's the key.

Like, because you have to have people who know you well enough.

Like, I have a friend, and like I remember when we first came home from Nigeria, and like we were trying to learn how to like be a family all over again in the States versus living in Nigeria.

Like, um, Nicole, she called me one day and she goes, So this is what I'm gonna do.

I'm gonna, I'm on my way over and I'm gonna help you get the girls ready for bed, and I'm gonna help you get dinner ready, and I'm gonna help you put them into bed, and then I'm gonna go.

And I was like, Okay.

Like, and I just I was drowning, I didn't know how to be a mom, like all the way, like, and I she knew I was drowning before I could actually say, I'm drowning, I need help.

You know, and so like that's a really simple analogy, but like you have to have people who can see where you are and be like, hey, so you're either struggling right here, you're vulnerable right here, you're tired, like you're making bad choices, and like, let me help you, let me be there for you, let me help to walk with you.

So true.

Also, that's a shameless plug for community group training, I mean leader training today, right?

So, you know, check it out in Zoom.

But I think I mean it's it's crazy because when's the last time you heard anybody boast about their weakness?

Yeah, when's the last time you heard anybody boast about their like areas they're vulnerable in?

You don't hear that any much anymore.

And so I think that's one of the things that community allows you to do.

Yeah, it allows you to come in and like take off that Instagram filter or whatever it may be, like, and and be like, no, this is actually what's happening.

This is actually where I'm at.

And you're able to in that moment kind of pour out your weakness and pour out your vulnerability.

And then that group that's around you is able to come around you and and help you and offer you, you know, any kind of sustenance, life, anything that they have.

And so I think it's it's important that you know, like that's something we should get back to, you know, as followers of Christ is not being afraid because we know his grace is sufficient for us, but like boasting about the and when it when it and like boast, I'm not like don't put all of your weaknesses and 140 characters or less on social media.

Like, please don't do that because you know, anyway, but I think that's what that's why community is so important.

Let people know, talk about it, because that is where I believe his grace is sufficient for us, but then people around us, what's amazing is they can start to have grace for us in those areas, and then that becomes sufficient to even help us in those.

So here's this let me let me say this because I think that triggered something for me, and I know you I think you want to probably jump in on this.

Because I think what community can help you to do, it can help you to discern that while you're in the middle of a test, while we know, like with a test, temptation is always present.

So watch this.

Yeah, so while I'm in the season of being testing, there could be a temptation for me to quit.

So so a lot of times we're looking at it as either or, but both are present.

So if my marriage is in a testing season, the temptation actually is for me to walk away from it.

If my if my job is terrible right now, the temptation is for me to leave it.

Yeah, so sometimes I think it's good for us to have community around us that will allow us to recognize, man, like this is a test.

Don't give in to the temptation to give up.

Because I think sometimes we can give up too quickly.

Yeah.

And then, oh, I'm sorry.

I was just gonna pose the question, like, um, so what do you do when you have to boast about your your the areas that you're weak in, but you don't want to give a place of altar to it.

Yeah, that's true.

You know, because you need to be, I mean, I think there's a fine balance between the two because then you can start making it an altar and then you never grow.

Yeah, and you stay at that particular place.

Yeah, you stay in that place because you think then you start thinking, well, I'm able to do this because it's now it's like my strength.

Like, but but you don't realize that you just came out of the great paradox of when I'm weak, you strong.

Yeah.

So then you start realizing like his strength is your strength because he's working through me.

Yeah, but it's like, no, no, no, no, no, it's not your strength.

Like, still stay in that place of knowing that I'm not doing this on my own.

And I mean, to your point of kind of saying, like, don't give up, don't, you know, too quick, you know, it's no different than people in the gym.

Like, you have a spotter community for a reason to tell you push, yeah, push, you know, like when you need it.

Like, like, just like, you know, exactly, like a little help when you need it, like not that you can't do it, but if in the event that that weight is coming back down on you, then you know, I'll help you a little bit, I'll help lighten the load a little bit.

Because even Moses needed that, you know what I mean?

It's like, it's like, you know, when his father-in-law was like, Man, you gotta set people up in place, you need to put leaders in the church, which is what we did by having deacons plug.

So it's like, you know, we we need that because in order to do what God is calling us to do, it is going to take community, it's gonna take others to come alongside us to be able to push the ball forward, right?

That's not an excuse, however, to play devil's advocate, just a little bit to forsake personal responsibility.

Yeah, for sure.

Because we we have to take responsibility for engaging God's word.

You know, and Jesus knew God's word, he knew his father's word.

So when someone attacked, you know, when the enemy attacked him and tried to tried to throw Bible darts and beat him at his own gate, yeah, he said, Well, yeah, that's true, you know, that is a statement in the word, but that's not that's contrary to the nature of God, and here's why.

Yeah, so I I think it's very important for us to yes, embrace community, but also embrace the fact that God has blessed us with his word and it's our job to learn it.

Yeah, and the Bible talks about encourage yourself in the Lord, you know, that's not everybody else, it's it's you encourage yourself in the Lord, and that's by learning God's word.

Yeah, and I mean and then there's a moment where community can become a crutch.

Yeah, yeah.

And if we can look at anything with this season of quarantine, yeah, it's taught us that community is great and we want it and we're gonna have it.

But if you don't have a personal walk with God, if you don't have a personal conviction with God, then you're then I can't imagine how you could have even remotely come close to surviving this season.

Because like if community was your crutch, then then then what is the thing when that community is taken away?

So again, I think that what this season did in its own way is it's revealed how vulnerable all of us are.

Yeah, it's revealed to us how much we depend on friends, how much we even depend on church and being in buildings.

We depend on it so much that we do sight of the fact that no, like you need to have this right with you in a home.

So if all this falls apart, you still are capable of having a vibrant, fruitful walk with me and still in the face of all of that.

And something that I thought was so unique to this is that out of each thing that the enemy had told Jesus, it it wasn't like the first thing that Jesus said, like, no, this is what the word says, that he just left.

Because you know, it's people like, oh no, just resist, he'll go away.

But he was like, No, here go another.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Not only that, but here goes another.

Until he started to realize and understand, oh dang, they really know who they are.

And once he knew who Jesus, once he was like, Oh no, Jesus really, really knows who he is, and he's not giving up, even if I say you can have the entire world, yeah, I mean you can have power.

I mean, because how many people when the allure of that, the allure of it all is just like, wow, yeah, and especially when what happens to a lot of us in ministry when people are like, Man, I can put you up on a platform in and of itself could be good because Jesus, like, man, the whole world that's a platform that I can use to give God honor.

But he's like, No, no, no, no, no.

You like you are now tempting of what it is, yeah.

And so I think that is so important for us to all realize, especially those who are coming up in ministry, yeah, to kind of go, no, no, no, no, no, no.

Like that ain't that's that may not be, I know it looks good, but that is that God.

Yeah, and what did God say about it?

What were his instructions to me?

And I think that is that is it's it's critical, but to know that the enemy he'll keep coming, he will, he will flash some real pretty things in front of you, but that it may not be it.

Yeah, and Michael, I think you did.

I think you I think you introduced a whole line of conversation.

Yeah, yeah.

We'll probably have to continue after the message.

You'll have to because um, because I have a whole bunch of thoughts that I want to share, yeah, but I know that we we we we already out here.

So so so we'll we'll continue that on on after the message.

But I do want to highlight something that you said because I do think that that's kind of the key to all of this stuff.

What you'll notice is is the frequency at which the enemy has says if you are.

So when you said you have to, if you have to know who you are, I think that's ultimately it.

I don't think that there is a one size fits all, but what I will tell you is that when the enemy comes, you have to, your response is no, and not like in oh, but it's like you have to know some things.

And so here's what I believe.

I believe that when temptation comes, and this is the best way for us to overcome it, you have to know who you are.

Yeah.

Because when you know who you are, then you know whose you are.

And it allows you to not feel as if I have to step outside of the character that God has given me in order to obtain something.

So you gotta know who you are.

I think the other thing we have to do is we have to know what we have.

Yeah, for like all the things that the enemy was tempting Jesus with, yeah, he already has.

So when I know what I have, I don't have to like pursue something that I already got.

It actually doesn't make any sense.

And then here's a the third and final one is um you gotta know the word.

Yeah, you gotta you gotta know the word because the word obviously reinforces all that stuff.

But the the importance of the word of God is it allows us to be able to recognize that even when someone takes Jesus out of context, here's this is a whole nother thing.

The Bible says that the enemy took Jesus, taking Jesus out of context.

Wow, and he was spitting scriptures, taking Jesus out of context.

But when you know the word, even when people try to take things out of context, she's like, no, this is what the word of God says about it.

So I think it's important that whenever we face opposition, the response is no.

Know who you are, yeah, know what you have, and know what the and know the word of God.

You always wordsmith this.

Right?

Right?

It's like when someone writes a song with like a catchy title, and then you're like, whoa, I did not see that coming.

It's good.

So the powerful part about this is obviously the gospel, the good news.

You know, man couldn't do it in his own strength, and and you know, Adam and Eve, they were the first to fall, and then the children of Israel actually going into the wilderness and being tempted with the same things Jesus was, and they failed.

And and Jesus goes and he does it for us.

You know, and and it's a picture of it's a picture of the cross, it's a picture of us having to be in that place, but Jesus saying, like, I'm actually gonna fulfill this for you.

So I think we'd be remiss if we didn't give an opportunity for someone to respond to this and know that that Jesus has already gone through all those temptations and that we can go through them as well with his strength.

I think you I think you hit on a good mate, where it's it's Jesus fulfilled with Adam, the Israelites, and we never could.

The wilderness was was a place that sin existed.

And again, we won't get into like kind of the the the stuff that goes along with that, but the wilderness was a very scary place.

But Jesus goes into the enemy's territory and defeats him at his own game, which then means that when we are in the wilderness, no longer are we worried about the voice of the adversary, but the presence of God has already been there with us.

That's what it means when it says that he has fulfilled so many things.

He fulfilled even the failures of man in the wilderness, Jesus has even fulfilled that.

And so I think for any of us in our community that are wondering what their next steps are and wondering, like, how do I begin to move forward?

It starts with just accepting the finished work of Christ.

That's the gospel message, is recognizing that that Jesus died in a way that we never could die.

He lived in a way that we never could live just so that we can be invited into his family.

And so what I want to do is I want to give an opportunity to anyone that's watching right now that feels that this is your next step, that you know that you're away from God.

We have a bunch of different ways that we word it, but right now, if you were to take inventory of your soul, you would just know that you're away from God right now.

We want to create space for you to simply say yes to Jesus.

You may be in a wilderness season right now and feel God forsaken.

But what I want to let you know is that Jesus went into the wilderness, he defeated the enemy, and he's right there with you.

But our next step is to simply accept it.

So if that's you, and you know your next step is to accept Jesus.

We believe here that the Bible says in Romans chapter 10 that if we confess with our mouths and believe with our heart that Jesus died and that he was risen from the dead, that then we are saved.

Romans 10 · chapter mention

It begins us on that journey of learning more about God, being filled with his spirit, and really beginning to get connected in community and growing as a result of it.

So if that's you, um I want to I want to pray and then we'll and then we'll go on from there.

But if that's you, I want you to pray alongside with me.

Um just say this with me.

Um Lord Jesus, I repent of my sins.

I believe that you died on a cross and that you rose from the dead, and it's because of that belief that I am saved.

Fill me with your spirit and order my steps in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

If you did make that decision, we just want to ask you to take a next step and text the word decide to 25101.

And what we're gonna do is we're gonna actually gonna come alongside you and help equip you for the journey in your life following Jesus.

Well, church, stay tuned uh for uh communion.

We're gonna take communion as a family, so don't go anywhere.

At this time, we're gonna take uh communion together uh as a family, and and we're talking about temptation today, and and I think uh it's easy for us to be tempted to forget what Jesus actually did for us.

And so this is a reminder of what Jesus did for us.

And his body was broken and his blood was shed, and he fulfilled what we couldn't fulfill.

So uh let's go ahead and take the bread.

On the night Jesus was betrayed, he broke it and he said, This is my body which is broken for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Let's take the bread, church.

In the same way, he took the cup and he said, This is the cup, the new covenant, my blood, it's shed for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Father, thank you for your body that was broken and the blood that was shed.

Thank you that you have done what we could never do.

God, I ask that you would continually remind us of that good news.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

Well, hey church, we want to thank you again for joining us um today for church at home.

Hey, don't forget if you have a uh kid or you uh elementary uh age kid, we have sea kids.

We also have youth for middle school and high school students right after this.

It'll also be live all week.

But then right now, we have groups launching on September the 13th.

We're having a group leader training right now.

I I know maybe you're asking, like, what's gonna happen in this training?

I don't know, but you have to attend it to find out.

But here's the thing: if you attend it, it doesn't mean that we're locking you down to doing it.

We just want you to find out more about what it looks like to lead a group and to lead community here at Celebration Church.

But the Zoom link's gonna be in the chat or in the description below this video.

But thank you guys so much for joining us today, and we'll see you uh at Group Leader Training, or we'll see you next week.

Thanks again for listening.

We hope you enjoyed today's message.

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