The Spirit, The Serpent And The Son

Praise the Lord.

The Lord is good and his mercy endures forever.

Amen.

We are grateful to be here for another year of life.

I pray that you all had a wonderful weekend of this 4th of July, just enjoying yourself.

If you need a Bible, you know what to do.

You see the ushers.

You just tell them you need a Bible.

You know, just I'm just kidding.

If you need a Bible, the ushers are going up and down the aisle.

They'll take your request and give you a Bible.

Those of you that have yours, you can take your Bible out.

We're going to do our declaration and then we're going to go into the word of the Lord.

Alright.

Let's begin together.

One, two, three.

This is my Bible.

It is my primary source of spiritual nourishment.

I will read it every day and become all God wants me to be.

My mind will be renewed.

My life will be transformed.

I will become fully surrendered to Christ.

Therefore, I will hide his word in my heart so I can be all God has destined me to be.

Let everyone say.

Amen.

Would you go with me in your Bibles to Mark the first chapter?

Mark chapter number one, beginning at verse number nine.

I have a word from the Lord that is very sobering.

I admit to you.

And so actually that you pray with me as I give this.

But I believe if you receive what the Lord has given to me, it will make an impact in your heart and in your mind.

Amen.

And the Lord has given me this word, and I'm excited to share it with you, continuing with the series that we've been in.

We have Mark one in verse nine.

Would you say amen?

Says this.

Then a voice came from heaven.

Immediately the spirit drove him into the wilderness.

And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and was with the wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him.

This morning, my subject that I'm going to be preaching from is the following The Spirit, the serpent, and the Son.

That's what I want to talk about.

The Spirit, the Serpent, and the Son.

You may take your seats in the presence of God.

The Spirit, the Serpent, and the Son.

I want to begin this message.

I was trying to think of a witty story or something to give a good context or a good introduction, but I just want to begin just straight out by just talking about the Holy Ghost.

Is that okay?

Amen.

I want to begin by talking about the central figure in this text, and this central figure, he is the Holy Spirit.

Now I want you to notice that I did not say it is, I said he is.

And the first thing that you must understand about the Holy Ghost is that he is not an it.

It denotes something that is impersonal.

It is an inanimate object.

It is that movie with the clown that comes on sci-fi sometimes.

That's it, right?

But the Holy Spirit is a personal being.

He is a he.

He has a will, he communicates, he has a mind, and that makes him personal.

The second thing I want to tell you in this beginning is that there's no difference between the Holy Spirit and the Holy Ghost.

Now you'll be surprised how many times I get that question.

I've had people ask me, somebody said to me they thought that when you first get saved, you get the Holy Spirit, but then uh when you get, you know, go further in the things of God, then you get the Holy Ghost.

Then I had one person ask me and tell me that the Holy Spirit was for white people and they thought the Holy Ghost was for black people.

I don't know what that is.

That ain't true either.

Amen.

I know some white folks fill out the Holy Ghost.

Amen.

Glory to God.

So that's not it.

Right?

But it's the same term.

It is the same term, it just depends on the age of your Bible.

If you have an older Bible, it will say Holy Ghost.

If you have a younger Bible or a newer Bible, it's going to say Holy Spirit.

They're the same term, it is the same person, and so there's no difference there.

In the old covenant, the Holy Spirit endowed people to come, uh, he would come upon them, he would come on them for service, and specifically he came upon priests and prophets and kings to minister and to serve.

And so we often see examples where the Bible says that the Spirit came mightily upon them.

The Spirit came mightily upon this person and they did this.

We also see instances where the scripture also says the spirit departed from this person.

So you'll see it talk about the spirit being mightily upon a person, but you'll also see it say the spirit departed from a person.

And so that's why I don't agree, and I don't like when people say that they went to church and they caught the Holy Ghost.

That's not an accurate uh rendering.

You don't catch the Holy Ghost, he's not the common cold, right?

He's not a he's not a bug, he's not a germ.

And here's the other issue if you caught him, that means you can also lose him.

And if you caught him, you can also throw him back, right?

So so you are filled with the Holy Ghost, but you don't catch the Holy Ghost, all right?

And so in the Old Testament, the Spirit was on them, but however, in the new covenant, because Jesus came and lived in human flesh and in the body, the spirit is not able to live in us.

And so, therefore, this is something I want you to remember about the Trinity.

The Father is God above us, the Son is God with us, the Spirit is God in us.

Let me say that one more time.

The Father is God above us, the Son is God with us, the Spirit is God.

There you go, you got it.

Alright, y'all used to be now.

Amen.

Amen.

The first thing I want to talk about, the Father being God above us.

We understand that when the word of God talks about the Father, the Bible says that even the heaven of heavens cannot contain him.

So how can we possibly try to contain the father in a human body?

We can't.

It would destroy us.

The Bible says he told Moses, Nobody has seen my face and lived.

So the Father cannot be inhabited in a human body because he is a full spirit, he is in full power and in unlimited force, and so it would destroy you if you tried to have the father in you.

The son, though, however, is God manifest in the flesh, he is Jesus Christ, and the Bible calls him Emmanuel, which means God with us.

The only way in which we could see and talk to and interact with God is that God had to come in human flesh to the womb of a woman in the person of Jesus Christ.

And Jesus came and he walked the streets of Galilee and he talked with them and he ministered to them, and that was a powerful thing.

But Jesus says something to them.

He says, As long as I'm here, he says, I'm with you, but I'm not in you, because it's not physically possible for a human being to go and live inside of another human being.

That's not how anatomy works.

Praise God.

So he says, I cannot be in you.

But he says, I must go away.

And if I go away, then I will be in you.

When he talks about going away, he says, I will send another comforter, and the Holy Spirit is God within us.

That is talking about the presence of God.

Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 14 says, The Spirit is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance unto the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

He is a deposit.

You know what a deposit is and a down payment is.

If you've ever gotten a good car or even a bad car, you go to get a car, the first thing that you must do, you must put down a down payment.

Now you can go and look at it all day long and tell that man, I like this car, I like this car.

But until you put a down payment or a deposit on it, they don't take you seriously.

But when you put the down payment on something, that means I'm serious about this thing and I'm coming back to get it.

Are you are you with me?

Alright.

So the Holy Spirit is God's down payment in us.

He is what he put onto us.

Praise God.

The Holy Spirit is the down payment for your eternal life with God.

He is like the engagement ring for the body of Christ or for the bride of Christ.

And so that means when you have the Holy Spirit in you, you have a guarantee, not a thought, not an idea, not a wish, but God has given you a guarantee that He will keep you, He will preserve you, and He will deliver on every promise in His word.

If you've got His Spirit, He's not going to forsake you.

If you've got His Spirit, He's not going to leave you by yourself.

If you've got His Spirit, you won't be overwhelmed or drowned out.

God, when He put His Spirit in you, He did not pay for you with silver and gold and material things.

He gave you the best He had.

He gave you His only begotten Son, then turn around and put His own Spirit on the inside of you.

God has made an investment in you when He put the Spirit of God in you.

Now in the Old Testament, location was essential to your spirituality.

If you want a relationship with the God of Israel, but you were not in Israel, guess what?

You weren't getting it, right?

But if you wanted to have a relationship with God, you had to go to where God was.

He dwelled in the Holy of Holies over the Ark of the Covenant.

He dwelled in the temple and the tabernacle.

He dwelled there.

The Shekinah glory was there.

So if you wanted to experience and encounter the presence of God, you had to go find them and follow after them, or go find a man or woman of God.

But now, because of the Holy Spirit, his manifest presence is unlimited.

Praise God.

I've never been to Jerusalem or Israel, but I feel the same Holy Spirit, the same God that was in the upper room.

Hallelujah.

I feel him every time I lift my hands and worship it and talk to him.

Praise God.

No matter where I find myself, the Spirit of God is with me.

That's why Isaiah 43 and 2 says this.

It says, When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.

And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.

When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall the flame scorch you.

The reason why the waters around you can't drown you because you've got living water in you already.

Glory to God.

The fire that's around you can't burn you because you've got Holy Ghost fire in you already.

When you've got the Holy Spirit in you, you've been insulated with the presence of God, and nothing can stop you, and nothing can burn you, and nothing can drown you out.

Therefore, that brings me to this point, and this is essential to understanding this message.

Because of his spirit, where you are is not who you are.

Okay?

Because of the Holy Spirit living in us, where I am is not who I am.

Say that with me.

Say where I am is not who I am.

And you've got to keep that in mind because it'll throw you off.

And so this brings me to my text.

Jesus is about to launch into ministry.

But the scripture first says he must fulfill all righteousness.

And so Jesus goes and he goes to a man by the name of John the Baptist.

John is the leading kingdom voice at the time.

The Bible calls him the greatest of the prophets of that time.

He goes into John the Baptist, he goes and finds him, and John is preaching repentance.

Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand, and he is baptizing in the Jordan River.

And so Jesus does not go and just launch out and start his own ministry or do his own thing.

Jesus goes and finds John and submits himself to John the Baptist.

Jesus submits to leadership.

Jesus, the Son of God, submits himself to leadership.

It's gonna get tight this morning.

That's all right.

I bought eight men's in my pocket.

Glory to God.

If Jesus can follow a leader, why can't you?

I I know, I know.

See, and we don't understand.

We think that it's holiness, we think that it's it's just us being confident.

We say, I don't need a pastor, I don't need nobody to teach me, I don't need nobody to, I can read the word by myself, I don't need help, I don't need this one and that one, I don't need to go to church.

Praise God, but that is an arrogance and a pride that is reeking out of us.

Jesus Christ Himself was the word of God, he was God in the flesh, and he still found somebody to submit himself to.

What is your excuse?

And the enemy knows that there is power when you submit your gift.

Things begin to happen.

The Bible says if you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, he will exalt you in due time.

The moment Jesus submits himself to John and goes down in the water, heaven opens up.

Glory to God.

Some of you are wondering why heaven seemed like it's locked up.

I want to ask you, have you submitted yourself?

If you submit yourself and humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, I guarantee you heaven will start to open up on your behalf, things will start to change on your behalf.

Heaven opened up when he went down.

Jesus never has to announce himself.

Jesus never has to say, Hey, I'm Jesus, and you better come follow me.

Jesus doesn't have to make a card, a graphic, a chat GPT flyer, none of that.

The Holy Ghost Himself comes and rests upon him in front of everybody.

And the Father speaks out of heaven and says, This is my beloved son, and whom I'm well pleased.

I want to tell you, when you follow God and you're obedient, you're submitted to God and follow his order and his pathway, God will introduce you, God will speak for you, God will hallelujah, he'll show you favor in front of everybody, he will put you where you need to be at the right place, at the right time.

God will speak up for you if you humble yourself.

Now, the timing of this statement is the best part because up until now, the Father says, This is my beloved son, whom I'm well pleased.

Now, here's interesting, he says, I'm well pleased with him, but at this point, up until this point, Jesus hasn't done anything ministry-wise.

He has not preached, he has not healed Lazarus, he hasn't raised any dead people, he hasn't gone anywhere here, he hasn't given his life on the cross.

He was a carpenter for those 30 years, he was somewhere making tables and chairs and stuff like that.

He hasn't done anything, but the Father still looks at him and says, I'm well pleased with you.

And this is a demonstration of how God's love and his goodness works toward us.

It is not that you do good things and do ministry and all those things, and then God decides to love you.

You can't earn God's love or God's mercy.

It is given to you as a gift.

God loves you before you do anything good or not.

His love has no beginning or ending.

God's love is eternal.

This is where we differ differ from the Roman Catholic uh Roman Catholic thought because they believe in teaching many ways that somehow your good works lead you into salvation or kind of work together with salvation.

You you know, you say your confirmation and do this and take the first communion and then that leads you into salvation.

But here's the thing: if good works and confirmation of those things can save us by itself, Jesus didn't need to come.

People have been doing good works for years, amen.

That's not what saves you.

Uh coming to the table and taking the bread and the wine is not what saved you because Judas took communion and still went out and betrayed Jesus.

Y'all don't hear me.

That's all right.

Praise God.

It's not the bread and the wine, because if you got bread and wine, but you don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're just filling your stomach up with grape juice and wafers.

It's not the works that save you, it is the goodness of God and faith in him.

And so we're saved not because we're good to him, but because he is good to us.

And that's hard because we like to earn what we have.

We like to say, I did it and I did that.

But the Bible says, salvation comes to us not of works lest any man should boast.

We're not saved because of where you went and who you heard preach and how you act.

We're saved because he loves us.

The Bible says we love him because he first loved us.

Grace comes first, righteousness comes first, affirmation comes first, and then the good works follow.

This is called the doctrine of sonship or adoption.

That's what it means to be adopted or have sonship with God.

And I began to understand this understanding even greater once we had our child.

Our first child, we have a daughter named Milani.

Now, I'm not waiting for Milani to bring home straight A's on a report card or do chores for me for me to love her.

That's not what I'm saying.

I'm not looking at her and say, okay, as soon as you bring me that report card, as soon as you do everything I tell you to do, then I'm gonna love you.

I loved her from the moment I found out my wife was pregnant with her.

I love her right now when she's throwing up on my brand new shirts and stuff I just cleaned.

I love her right now when we gotta change that diaper after we just changed her ten minutes ago.

Glory to God.

I love her right now because I know she's not gonna always stay like that.

And eventually she's gonna grow, hallelujah, and become mature and stand on her old two feet.

So I'ma love her until she gets to that stage.

I love her not because of what she does or does not do, but because she's my child.

Glory to God.

I wonder if you get that relation, that revelation.

I need you to know if you are born again as a child of God, you don't have to earn God's love away for him to love you.

He is not willing for you to clean everything up and got on your eyes and be perfect before he credits you.

The Bible says he credits you with grace, he loves you right now where you stand, as messed up and jacked up as you are, as high or drunk as you may be.

He loves you right where you are, and you gotta stop chasing that love and let his love get behind you and push you into deliverance and push you into breakthrough and push you into holiness.

Let his love push you.

This concept is called in Romans 4 and 5 is called being credited with righteousness.

It talks about him being credited with righteousness or accounted for righteousness.

When you are obedient to God and submitted to him, he credits you or gifts you with righteousness in your account.

You know what crediting is it's the green side of your account, it's the money in your cash app, right?

It's the thing that comes in that is a crediting, and so God credits us with righteousness.

Now it is your job to show him that his word and his investment and his credit in you was worth it.

It is your job to work out the salvation that he has put in you, not work for salvation, but work out your salvation that he has credited to you.

And so this brings us to the next portion of the text.

A very controversial verse.

Mark 1 and 12 says, Immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness.

Mark Matthew 4 and 1 says like this.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

The same spirit that rests on him, that declared, This is my beloved son, drives him now into the wilderness to be tempted.

And here is the balance of grace and sonship.

Righteousness is not earned, but righteousness is proven.

I'm gonna say that again.

You cannot earn righteousness, but you do prove righteousness and prove that you are saved.

In other words, you cannot tell me that you are saved by his power divine and you're born again, but you're still living the exact same that you were, and you still haven't grown, and it's been three and four and five years.

It's quiet, I don't care.

Glory to God.

You you you don't earn it, but you gotta prove it and work it out.

Anything that's been given to you and credited to you, and everybody knows you know you got a credit card bill, you gotta pay that thing back.

So when God credits you with righteousness, it is now your job to pay it back with the good works that you work out in holiness.

So here's the thing though God does not allow anybody to represent him in his name that has not been proven.

You got to be proven because talk is cheap.

It's easy to say, I love God, hallelujah, when the music is going and they hitting the right chords and you know the click track is moving and they singing, and you just hallelujah, God, I love you more than anything.

Yes, Lord, whatever you tell me to do, I'll do it.

In a moment of worship, it's easy to love God and to worship in that moment.

But what happens when the music is off and you're by yourself?

Do you still love Him?

Do you do you do you live those lyrics when it's over?

Talk about for your glory, I will do anything.

I'll cross the hottest desert, hallelujah, all that kind of stuff, and you stay home from church because it's raining and you didn't feel like it.

Talk about you'll do anything.

Stay home because it's July 4th.

I ain't coming to church, I'm good, I don't need that.

You talk about you'll do anything for his glory.

Will you do really do anything for his glory?

Do you really love him more than anything?

Anything that you say toward God has to be proven.

Not even Jesus was exempted from the testing.

So why should we be?

Now, this text is difficult because James 1 and 14 says, Let no man say that he is tempted of God when he is tempted, because God cannot tempt with evil.

And so if I read this text on a surface level, I will think that it is saying that God is tempting Jesus, but that's not what it's saying.

The devil tempts, but God tests.

I'm gonna explain it in a second.

The devil tempts, but God tests.

You see, temptation comes from uncertainty.

The ideal temptation is to see if you will take the bait, if you will do it, if you will fall for it.

The tempter is not sure, that's why it's called tempting.

I want to see if I can get you to fall.

But testing comes not out of uncertainty, but testing comes to prove what I know you know how to do.

See, temptation makes you fall for what you want, but testing comes to prove what you got.

Glory to God.

Can I say it again?

Temptation comes to make you fall for what you might want, but testing comes to prove what you got, and sometimes in the moment of hardship, it can feel like the same thing.

But I want to let you know if God is allowing you to be tested, it's because he already knows you have the right answers to pass the test.

Hallelujah.

You're not gonna fail because if you fail his test, it will be a tempting and not a testing.

If God is allowing you to be tested, it's because he knows you're gonna stand fast, you're not gonna backslide, you're not gonna become your old self, you're not gonna mess up because he has already declared from the beginning, you are my beloved son, you are my beloved daughter, I'm well pleased with you, and I'm already pleased with you.

I've credited with you with righteousness.

I know you've got it, and so therefore I declare that over you before the devil even showed up.

I want to encourage somebody that's being tempted.

I want you to know you got this.

Just tell somebody next to your time, you got this, you got this.

Y'all didn't say it.

Tell somebody you got this.

Jesus is led into the wilderness, and it's interesting how with his poles, it's it's it's but biblically, it's like typology.

He goes through the water of baptism, terrible at baptism, he does that, and then he goes out of the water into the wilderness.

And so, in this way, the gospel is almost showing Jesus as a new Moses.

As Moses passed through the Red Sea and then went into the wilderness to be tempted, it is the same thing here.

But the difference between Jesus and Moses and the children of Israel is the children of Israel failed their wilderness.

Their wilderness was not 40 days, it was 40 years.

But Jesus, because he is filled with the Holy Spirit in him, is able to change the pattern for a new generation of believers.

And I want to declare over you here this morning, maybe you're going through something.

I don't care what your forefathers and ancestors and relatives did and did not do, you're going to go further than your fathers.

Glory to God.

You're going further than them.

God is going to anoint you to break patterns and habits and all kinds of curses that you thought were on you that your parents and relatives could not break.

Don't compare yourself anymore.

I don't care who died with what, I don't care who did what, who's still in the wilderness, who's still lost, who's still crazy.

That is not your destiny.

The wilderness is not your home.

You're gonna pass through that thing, you're gonna pass that test and make your way to your destiny.

You shall not die where you are, but you're going to the next level and you're getting out of that test.

Somebody shall glory.

The wilderness is a place of testing, isolation.

It is believed in ancient times, they believed that demonic spirits roamed uh in there because of the dry places.

And the Son of God is in the wilderness.

And Mark says, he says he is in the presence of wild beasts.

That is their habitat.

The lions and giants and bears on mine.

This is their habitat.

Wild beasts represent carnality, unrestrained passion, lack of control and behavior.

It is filled with beasts of carnality and flesh.

And they live and thrive in the wilderness.

I need you to understand, brother and sister.

If you can't get your flesh under control, you're going to find yourself stuck in the wilderness like those beasts wandering around.

If you don't master yourself, you're gonna get stuck in the dry place like the wild beasts.

Glory to God, they are stuck there because that is their environment.

And when you cannot control yourself, you show that you cannot handle anything but a wild place.

So you got to get out of the wilderness.

Now, the devil does not bother him at the Jordan River where all that water is.

He doesn't bother him in front of the crowd.

He waits until Jesus is in the wilderness.

And here's my next point where you are tempted is just as important as what you are tempted with.

Okay?

Where and when you are tempted is just as important as what you are tempted with.

It is easier to resist the enemy when you're in an elevated place.

As I said, when we're in church, we're having a good service, you're having a good time, you're jumping, you're skipping around, even at home when you're in a good mood and everything is going right, the bills are paid, you got a little money on the side, you know what I'm saying?

You everybody's happy and enjoying themselves and just eating and laughing, having a good time.

But what happens when you feel like you're facing a drought?

What do you act like when you're not in such a good mood and everybody's getting on your last nerve and you're so irritable and you feel alone and by yourself when everybody seems to be irking you and you feel like nobody understands you and you're by yourself, and that is where the enemy comes and tries to see how real is this thing for you?

But hear me, you have to hold your ground because temptation is temporary.

I need you to hear that.

Temptation is temporary, even if you consume it and take it, eventually you're just gonna want something else.

That's why Jesus told the thirsty woman at the well, he says, if you drink this water, you're going to thirst again.

If temptation could satisfy you and get the job done, it would be out of business, it would only work one time.

But temptation has to keep coming and trying something else to keep you thirsty and distracted and chasing a high.

The temptation is temporary, and the wilderness is also temporary.

Let's look at Jesus' temptation in Luke 4 and 2.

He goes into specifics and it talks about this.

It says he's tempted, uh, being tempted for 40 days by the devil, and in those days he ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, he was hungry.

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

But Jesus answered him saying, It is written, man should not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

Now he says to him, again, Jesus is hungry.

Now, this temptation is interesting because technically Jesus' fast is over.

So it's okay for him to eat, it's okay for him to have the bread.

And in fact, if it was my choice, it was my temptation of bread, it probably was a Texas roadhouse roll with the cinnamon, with the butter, you know, and you know what I'm saying, cut in the middle with a little butter on it.

You know what I'm talking about?

Glory to God.

You know, they bring them things to the table, hallelujah, and they sit on that rack.

Just that that would have been the bread to try to make me say, Oh, hold on, G, G, G, G, G.

Help me, Lord.

Technically, his fast is over.

It's after 40 days.

Jesus can eat if he wants to, but he does not do it, not because of the fact that he wants to eat or he's not hungry, but because who is telling him to eat?

God have mercy.

You've got to be careful of every voice, don't listen to every voice that's in your ear that's telling you to do something.

Because the devil opens doors too.

Don't take every opportunity that you take, every thought that comes in your mind.

You got to entertain it.

The devil is alive.

You gotta be mindful of what voice is telling you to do what.

Jesus does not do it because he says, My devotion is to the Lord.

And if I follow the devil, if I listen to him, I'll have provision, but I won't have the provider.

And it's better, hallelujah, to have the baker than just to have the bread.

Because if I have the baker, I could get all the roles I want.

But if I have the bread, I'm stuck by myself.

Glory to God.

I want to tell somebody this morning don't use the provision over the provider, don't chase the gift instead of the giver.

Hold on to God, follow the Lord, and He will give you everything that you need to have.

Then the devil, taking him up, verse 5 on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

The devil said to him, All this authority I will give you, Jesus, and their glory.

For it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.

Therefore, if you will worship before me, all of this will be yours.

Now, this is the Lulu, and let me tell you why it's the Lulu.

Because, devil, how are you selling something you stole from me?

The audacity.

You ever seen coming to America when they steal their luggage and take all their stuff and then try to sell it to them on the street, like the initials are not on it?

The devil is trying to sell Jesus his own house.

Crazy is out of his mind.

He tells him, I'll give you all the kingdoms of this world.

Adam messed it up, he gave me the keys, so I've got it, so therefore you can get it from me.

All you gotta do is bow down and worship me.

And a whole lot of people would have fell right at this moment.

You mean Jesus, I get to have unlimited influence.

You mean I get to have all the followers that I want, all the money that I want, I get to be an influencer, and all I gotta do is bow to the devil.

That's all it takes, just a little bit of compromise.

But Jesus says, No, I will not worship you, nor will I serve you because you don't understand something.

But when you make a deal with the devil, it is a long-term deal.

When you bow one time, you gotta keep on bowing to keep it.

When you step outside of the will of God to get something, you gotta stay outside of the will of God to keep it.

Y'all don't hear me.

Glory to God.

And sometimes we get tempted to want to compromise a little bit just so I can get the product and figure that the end justifies the means, but it does not.

Because when you cheat to get it, you gotta cheat to keep it.

And Jesus understood something.

Glory to God.

I feel the anointing in this place.

Hallelujah.

Jesus understood something.

If I serve the devil one time, I gotta keep on serving him.

So he says, I'm just gonna worship God.

And when I worship God, whatever power I'm supposed to have, whatever influence I'm supposed to have, God will make sure that I have it.

I'll take my chances following Jesus, then bow into an idol.

The last one brings him to Jerusalem, the temple.

Pentagon the temple, and he said to him, If you are the Son of God, now throw yourself down.

For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over you to keep you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.

Now this one is messy because the devil is quoting the scripture.

Don't believe everybody that know the Bible.

Y'all don't hear these podcasts.

I know I'm getting troubled.

These people you listening to, just because they could quote a scripture out of context, and now you done jumped out the window listening to what they told you to do, all kind of crazy.

Be careful because the devil knows the word too, but he can't live it.

Glory to God, he don't know how to apply it.

I would have said, devil, if you big and bad, you jump.

Glory to God, you jump off this thing.

But he's not gonna do it himself, but he's gonna try to get you to do it.

And what he's trying to get Jesus to do here, he's trying to get Jesus to use his anointing for entertainment.

Use your gift for sensationalism, for attraction.

Glory to God.

And many times, those of us in the ministry, especially, we have to be so careful of this.

It's a temptation that all of us face that sometimes when people are skeptical, well, you got healing, you have to get the healing, will heal this person.

Well, you anointed, you believe in that.

Well, how come you don't do this?

How come that?

How come this and how come that?

You got to understand the power of God is never to prove a point.

We're not anointed to prove a point.

We do all things for the glory of God.

If God said go, I'll go.

If God said prayer, I'll pray.

We do everything to the glory and the honor of God.

So now, all these things that go on, let me tell you these things about temptation.

Notice that when Satan comes to Jesus each time, he keeps saying, If you be the son of God.

If, if you be the son of God.

And we look at that and think that Jesus is trying to that Satan is trying to make Jesus doubt himself.

But really, the enemy is asking if because he's trying to find out for himself, because he's not sure what's going on here.

He doesn't understand the full plan.

Because we got to understand the devil is not omniscient.

I don't care how all-knowing he acts, he's a liar.

You can't be a liar and know everything.

Come on, he's a liar.

The devil does not know everything about you, and the devil does not know your future.

Only God knows the future.

That's why he said, I know the plan that I have for you.

Don't let him get in your ear and tell you where you're gonna be in 20 years and 10 years.

He don't know where you're gonna be in 10 and 20 years, he don't know where he's gonna be in 10 and 20 years.

The devil doesn't know your future.

So, what he does is he uses temptation to figure out what do you like?

Where are you going?

He can't see through the blood, so he tries to use your flesh.

And the enemy is asking this because he's trying to figure out if you are the Son of God, what are you doing here?

Why are you in the wilderness?

Why are you going through this?

And he does this to all of us.

If you so saved, if you love God, how come you're going through this?

If you say you got God and you got the Holy Spirit, how come this is going on in your life?

What's going on with this one and that one?

Why aren't you in the temple?

Why aren't you sitting on the throne?

Why aren't you here and why aren't you there?

But Jesus understands something that we've got to remember.

Where I am is not who I am.

I'm here to talk to somebody this morning.

And Jesus is in the wilderness because he has some unfinished business there.

Moses fell there, Israel fell there, so Jesus came to whoop the devil on his own turf and let him know that whatever you go through, you get the power over.

Can I say that again?

Whatever you go through, you get power over.

And some of you here, God, as you're going through things right now, because once you go through it and come out of it, you get the power over it.

You may be going through depression, but God is leading you out of that thing to give you power over it.

Maybe going through addiction, but you're about to get power over it.

Going through frustration, but you're about to get power over it.

Whatever you dare to face and go through, you get the authority over that thing.

God is making a ministry out of everything you've gone through.

Each temptation that the enemy throws at Jesus is self-serving.

Feed yourself, throw yourself down, uh bow down.

Do this, do that.

I'll give you this.

It is self-serving because here's this key.

I need you to get this.

If the enemy can't tempt you to worship him, he will tempt you to worship yourself.

I know it's early.

I know y'all done come for that.

Y'all just had barbecue yesterday, but just just if he can't, he knows you're not gonna bow down and worship him.

He knows you're not that foolish.

He knows you're not gonna bow down and do exactly what he says.

But if he can get you to worship yourself and he gets in your ear and tells you, oh, come on, you deserve this and that.

Come on, you know, you work hard, you should have this and that.

Oh, come on, don't let them treat you like that, don't let them talk to you like that.

Don't you know who you are and where you come from?

They can't do that.

They said you should do this, put yourself first, later for them.

Then and that's why you've got to resist because you have to understand that Jesus went through temptation, not because of himself, but for our own sake.

Ah, glory to God.

He went through what he went through for us.

And I want you to know that what you're going through right now may not be just for you, it's for somebody else.

Somebody needs your breakthrough, somebody's waiting for you to come through on the other side.

Your children are depending on you to overcome, your friends are depending on you overcoming.

It's not for you, it's for somebody else.

Somebody's waiting for your testimony, somebody's waiting for you to overcome, somebody is leading on your victory.

Praise him, you can make your way up.

And because Jesus resisted the urge to serve himself, he got the power.

Because he did not turn those stones into bread to feed himself.

Not too long after that, in John chapter 6, in the same wilderness, he stood there and took not what he took the bread and the loaves and took the fish and was able to feed one, two, three, four, five thousand people with just a little bit because he didn't cave in the temptation.

John 6 · chapter mention

How many souls do you think you can reach if you just say no one time?

How many yeses, glory to God?

How many people you think you're gonna snatch out of hell with just one no, with just one denial and saying no one time?

Because he did not fall down and worship the devil for the kingdoms of this world.

God gave him all power and authority in heaven and in earth.

Glory to God.

Because he did not throw himself down from the temple to see if he would die, God gave him the power over death and the resurrection and raised him back up again.

Glory to God.

Hallelujah.

Not only did he not, God didn't just keep him from dying, but he did die and then came back with the power over death.

I want you to know if you go through, I don't care how bad it seems, I don't care how worship it seems, when you go through, thanks be to God who always calls you to triumph.

Even if you feel like you're gonna lose it, God is a God of resurrection and He'll bring you back and give you power to set somebody else free.

I need you to understand the same power to stand and to resist is in you.

Jesus does all these things.

Technically, he could have, if he wanted to just come and claim kingdoms, he could have just came down from heaven and just said, you know what, I want all the kingdoms, and that would have been that.

But Jesus endured all that suffering so that way he could empathize and understand what we're going through.

That's why the Bible says we don't have a high priest that can't be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

He went through what he went through for our sakes, and only that, so he endured and overcame temptation to give us power.

And now, because Christ is in us through the Holy Spirit, that power to stand and to resist is in you.

You don't have to be a victim to temptation, you don't have to be a victim to what's going on around you.

God has given you Holy Ghost power.

Jesus has already overcome the world, and all you've got to do is let what's in you come out of you.

The Bible says, if you believe on me, as the scripture says, out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water.

I don't care how dry the desert or the wilderness is, if you just tap into that river, if you just begin to worship God in the wilderness and begin to praise Him and lift Him up and reach down on the inside, God will bring water in the driest places of your life.

God will bring water into the wildernesses around you and deliver you.

And I need you to understand the spirit within you is greater than the temptation around you.