Followers | Luke 4:1-13

Hey everyone, thanks for joining us for the Downtown Community Church podcast.

This Sunday, Pastor Ben Kempfer launched our new series called Followers with a message from Luke 4.

This passage follows Jesus into the wilderness where he is tempted by the enemy, and with every attempt to deceive him, Jesus stands firm by answering with the truth of Scripture.

Throughout the message, Pastor Ben emphasized a powerful reality that God's truth confronts the enemy's lies and reveals them for what they are.

We can easily overlook the seriousness of sin or assume we are prepared to resist temptation through our own strength.

But when we fail to take temptation seriously, we leave ourselves vulnerable to the enemy's deception.

Jesus offers a different example, one of knowing God's word, trusting his character, and relying on his strength.

This message connects with the mission of DCC to love God, make disciples, and be great neighbors.

And it extends beyond what happens during a Sunday service.

It shapes the way we use everything God has entrusted to us.

And generosity does include our tithes and financial offerings, but it also involves us using our time, abilities, and energy to care for others and strengthen the body of Christ.

If you are ready to grow in your faith, find meaningful community, or use your gifts to serve, we encourage you to visit our website, downtowncommunitychurch.com, to learn how you can take your next step.

Follow DCC Tally on Instagram and Downtown Community Church on Facebook to keep up with everything happening here at DCC.

We are so grateful that you're listening today, and we pray that this message meets you exactly where you're at.

Please stand for the reading of God's word.

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.

When they were ended, he was hungry.

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, Men 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 give it to whom I will.

If you will, 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.

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.

Well, welcome, church.

My name is Ben.

If you haven't had the uh honor of uh opportunity to meet, uh I have the honor of serving here as the uh as a lead pastor at Downtown Community Church, and we are starting a brand new uh it's somewhat of a series, it's really kind of a movement uh that we started a couple of weeks ago and we're kind of continuing towards uh and for the rest of the fall and then even into the spring.

And specifically, uh what we're gonna be doing is we're gonna be going through the book of Luke.

Uh, and the reason I want to I want to let me tell you about this sermon really quick.

So I'm gonna introduce you to Luke, and then I'm gonna introduce you to the actual text for today.

Um and the reason is, and we talked about this the last couple of weeks, but our church we're moving from a place where uh it's defined by spectators, right?

You show up and you and you cheer, and you show up and you're engaged for the moment, and you're emotionally involved for the moment, and you kind of just go home and go back to normal life, where people who are actually involved, right, it's the day-to-day, it's the practice, it's the work, it's the grind, it's the all those things, the daily improvement.

And Jesus, you should know, um, before he gave anybody the question, who do you believe, what do you believe, who do you say that I am?

He gave almost all of his disciples the opportunity to be followers first, to follow them even before they believed.

And there was in the early church, and you can imagine this, when Jesus was around, there were people who were who were so conflicted by him.

Because what they saw, they loved and they flocked by the by the hundreds, sometimes the thousands, sometimes the entire city went to hear what he had to say or see, or hear him, you know, watch him perform miracles.

And at other times he would say stuff and everybody would be like, That's just so incredibly offensive.

Who could follow this man?

But when Jesus died, the whole thing was squashed.

Everybody thought, how could God die?

No one had this real theological category for God dying until he rose again.

And over the next 40 days as he appeared, and then as the Spirit comes down, Pentecost, and then the church starts, right?

Now all of a sudden, there's all of these believers, all these believers who, frankly, are in the exact same position that we are, which is I want to be a follower of Jesus.

But Jesus is dead and resurrected, and what does it look like now to be a follower of Jesus that Jesus is no longer physically here?

Right?

It was easy for the disciples.

You just, he said, follow me.

And you said, Where are you going?

He said, I'm going to Quincy.

He said, All right, guess we'll go to Quincy.

Where are you going?

I'm going to Perry.

Well, I don't think that anything happens in Perry except the mud bog, right?

I mean, where are you going to Gainesville?

Well, Jesus, I can't follow you there, you know?

So sorry.

Well, what's interesting is there was a gospel writer who had a friend named Theophilus.

And we don't know if Theophilus, we know he was important.

We don't know if Theophilus was rich and Theophilus paid this person, Luke, or if Theophilus was just a friend in power and Luke thought Theophilus could preserve this.

But I want you to see, Luke starts his entire gospel writing to people like us.

And I want you to see exactly what he says.

And if you've never read this before, I'm telling you, this is why I'm so excited to go through the book of Luke together, to see what does it look like for a church as a year to just walk in the follower footsteps of Jesus, the disciples of Jesus, just following him.

Luke chapter 1, verse 1, and as much as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, specifically through Jesus.

Luke 1:1

He'd say, okay, I'm not the only one.

In fact, I'm not the first one.

Many people, many people have taken because everybody is shocked, everybody's surprised, everybody thought he died, and then he rose again, and he he rose again and he rose again, and all of a sudden the spirit comes down, and and and now people, people are starting to come and place their faith, their hope, their trust in him, but but reasonably so, there would be so many stories that were circling around.

And you see, for us when we read this, we read it through the lens of did it really happen?

They saw the same thing, but from the opposite perspective.

There were so many stories about Jesus that Luke says, okay, lots of people, lots of narrative.

Just as those who were from the beginning, they were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, have delivered them to us.

And here's what Luke would say.

Here's what we would know.

Luke was actually a doctor.

And Luke was actually a historian.

And Luke, like you and I, to the best of what we know, was not a follower of Jesus when Jesus physically walked around.

But Luke would talk to all of the first century disciples.

In fact, Luke, who would go on to write the book of Acts also to Theophilus, we knew that he was close to Paul.

We believe that because of some of the writings and some of the content, he was close with Mark.

But Luke says, hey, hey, I have, I've talked to everybody, as many people as possible, because I have a purpose for writing this letter.

So it seemed good to me, after interviewing, talking, getting the facts, having followed all things closely for some time past.

In other words, this wasn't something I just sat down on a Thursday and thought, you know what?

Dude, I had a good night's sleep and a wonderful cup of coffee.

Pretty hydrated, been on my exercise grind.

I think I'm gonna write some Bible today.

No, he he's tracked for a long time.

Studied, which are true, which are right.

So it seemed good to me, having followed these things for some time past, to write an orderly account for you.

Most excellent Theophilus.

In other words, I want this to be orderly.

Why?

That you, Theophilus, may have certainty concerning the things you've been taught.

Well, hold on, I thought, I thought, I thought, I thought with religion, nobody had certainty.

This was hope and hope.

This was faith and faith.

This was belief and belief, right?

He'd say, no, absolutely not.

He said, I've I've talked, I've documented, God is doing something, and I've had so many conversations in Theophilus.

There are so many different accounts.

Jesus did this, Jesus did that, Jesus did this, Jesus did that.

And so I have studied all of them, talked to everybody, and I'm telling you, these are the ones, these are the thoughts, these are the ideas, Theophilus, that you can have orderly and certainty.

You can have order and certain that these things happen.

In other words, Theophilus.

I know that you weren't there when Jesus was around.

But I'm writing this so you can have clarity and certainty of what it was like to be a follower of Jesus.

In other words, if you've ever thought, man, I wish I could follow Jesus.

I wish just for a day I could see what it was like.

Luke would say, that's why I'm writing this.

So that you can know and have certainty of which of this stuff was true and which of this stuff is real, because again, I'm not the only one to write about it.

Now, let me tell you why we're picking up in chapter four.

Chapters one and two of the birth narrative.

We're gonna come and do that at Christmas.

Luke, in some ways, kind of chunks his the first two chapters are the birth narrative.

Chapter three is about baptism.

So one and two, we're gonna come back in December.

And actually, chapter three, when Jesus gets baptized, we're gonna talk about that at the end of November when we have Baptism Sunday.

So we're starting in chapter four.

And chapter four is interesting because this is actually before Jesus had any followers.

This is before he calls his first disciple.

And what's fascinating about that to me is this is that three of the four gospel accounts have the story of the temptation of Jesus.

It's almost as if Jesus said, okay, followers, and he would talk and he would tell stories and he would teach his disciples and he would teach them over and over and over again.

It's almost as if at some point in time Jesus would repeatedly get his disciples together and say, okay, let me tell you again the story of my temptation.

And followers, you know, disciples, I know none of you were there for it, but you need to know, with me being your chief shepherd, with me being your head discipler, with me being the person, the pattern, I want you to see how I dealt with temptation.

And Matthew, Mark, and Luke all account for the story.

It's almost as if Jesus is saying, how this starts is incredibly important, and you don't want to miss it.

And let me tell you three things that we're gonna talk about today as it relates to sin and temptation.

Because he starts to talk about his temptation.

We're gonna talk about number one, the complexity of evil.

Number one, the complexity of evil.

Number two, we're gonna talk about the strategy of evil.

And then we're gonna talk about number three, how we have victory over evil.

So, first let's talk about the complexity of evil.

Chapter one, verse one, or chapter four, verse one, I'm sorry.

Now, a little bit of context.

Again, just baptized.

When Jesus is baptized, John the Baptist sees Jesus, the Lamb of God, he'll take away the sins of the world.

Comes as baptized.

Father, this is my son with whom I'll please.

You know, Spirit descends, Trinity present at one time in the pages of Scripture.

And what's interesting is he's filled with the Spirit.

He's been baptized at this point.

And full of the Holy Spirit, he returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, and for 40 days was being tempted by the devil.

It's interesting.

Jesus faced temptation not as a result of his sinful tendencies, trajectory, and desire, but simply by following God, he experienced temptation.

Here's why that's important.

For some of us, when we experience temptation, we think it's because we've done something wrong.

That's why I'm being tempted.

Jesus was led out into the wilderness by the Spirit.

Now, within that, God gives this wilderness time.

It's this time of trial, it's this time of testing.

This is similar to the nation of Israel in the desert, right?

He says, But for 40 days being tempted by the devil, he ate nothing during those days.

And when they were ended, he was hungry.

And we're gonna read the first part of this, verse 3.

And then the devil said to him, and I'm just be honest, when I was reading through this text, there's a part of me that reads that, and I'm just like, all of a sudden it goes from Jesus is talking to John the Baptist, Jesus is talking to, you know, Peter or John or Jesus is talking to somebody, right?

And all of a sudden it's Jesus talking to Satan, and it feels make-believe.

What I think is interesting is if you're here, right, and you maybe you're skeptical about Jesus, church, God, faith, and you see this and you think, okay, Ben, just me, come on.

We're we're adults.

Do you actually expect me to believe in a devil?

Like in an actual devil, like in this personal, oppositional, evil presence.

Do you actually expect me to believe in a devil in 2026?

And I would say, yes.

I hope you do.

In fact, I would go so far as, and I heard Tim Keller say this, to say it's dangerous to not.

You see, Christianity uniquely offers a more complex view, not a more simplistic view of evil.

Some of you you were raised that the only version of evil is this devil that has this red face, long chin, white, you know, horns, and a pitchfork.

You know what's interesting is there's this naturalistic tendency to kind of explain away all the evil that we see around us.

Right?

In fact, if you study history, then you know this was this was this was true at one of one of the low points in our nation's history.

It was in the middle of World War II and FDR was president.

FDR, who, when he was younger, had basically, had basically created a perspective that was true of that day, that is sometimes true today, and it's true in the belief that there is no devil, there is no enemy.

And that belief basically is a naturalistic belief.

It's that the reason that evil exists, the reason that evil exists, are because of biological, social, and psychological reasons.

Biological reasons we can give medicine, we can treat, we can help fix social policies, social, you know, how are the structures, how are the laws, how are the governance, right?

There's this, there's this biological, there's a social and then the psychological, right?

We can just kind of fix this thing, fix this person.

In other words, we can, we can, and here's kind of the the belief at it, that evil has natural causes, perhaps evil has natural solutions, right?

If evil has natural problems or natural causes, perhaps evil has natural solutions.

And this was exactly what was so perplexing when FDR first heard the news of Adolf Hitler.

This is what was so convinced, this is why we were in part so slow to react.

And there's a really fascinating book on the religion of FDR, and it talks about this.

In fact, I want to show you a quote where they're talking about some of in the midst of it, the realizations.

On February 1994, the young assistant pastor of St.

John's Church across from Lafayette Square was invited to dinner at the White House.

FDR's gonna have a dinner, and so he invites this young pastor over.

This pastor, interestingly, had studied under a Princeton theologian who, as we're gonna see, you know, and he wound up giving the president and first lady a seminar on soaring Kierkegaard.

Now I know everybody's like, okay, I'm very fluent with Kierkegaard and I know exactly what that means.

Here's what that was.

Out of enlightenment, we came to the realization, oh my gosh, all of these natural phenomena are governed by natural laws.

And so maybe the evil we see are governed by natural laws as well.

And Kierkegaard was the one that says, hold on, hold on, hold on.

If that's true, then that means it's a problem that has a fix to it.

And why is it that no fix in all of humanity can ever actually fix the problem?

In other words, we are forgetting that perhaps the system is broken, perhaps there is a compounding sense of evil that happens in the world.

In other words, we're forgetting about the fact that we live in a sinful and a fallen and a broken world, and they aren't just simply biological, social, and psychological problems.

So Roosevelt, for his part, was trying to fathom, fathom the depths of evil that could make someone like Adolf Hitler possible, and this was the crazy part to him, not just possible, but popular.

Because the thought was if those are the keys, if those are the keys, then enlightenment, if those are the problems, social, psychological, and biological, then we need education, we need policy, we need university, we need reform, we need we need to meet, we need to talk.

And what was crazy was all of this came from Europe.

And he's looking at Germany, saying the place where this stuff emanates from almost is the place of so much evil, and he's having a difficult time.

How could it be possible and popular?

And so Johnson remindedly the theologically sheltered, you can kind of you know be hating on him at this point, Roosevelt, of the Christian doctrines of original sin and collective depravity.

In other words, in other words, it's not just this or that, it's that.

It's we're not born neutral and through those things become broken.

It's that we live in a fallen and a broken world.

No one had to teach my kids to be selfish.

They just are.

Christianity actually offers a more complex view of evil.

I know I'm pausing on this for a little bit of time, but I want you to hear this clearly.

When the Bible talks about this, it talks about three things the world, the flesh, and the devil.

The world, the flesh, and the devil, right?

There are there are things around us, sins that are done to us, systems around us that are difficult, that are frameworks, right?

And there's also things inside of us that desire those things.

And so what does Satan do?

Satan acts somewhat like a multiplier in those.

In fact, in a little bit, Luke is going to talk about, right before Jesus is crucified.

He documents how Judas enters, or Satan enters Judas.

Now, he was already being tempted the whole time, but there was this special way, this special sense.

And you know what's interesting?

It happens about a day before he betrays Jesus.

Now, John in his gospel records a ton of detail about this.

And what's fascinating is you know what happens, you know what doesn't happen in John?

John nowhere says that when Satan entered Judas, we notice something off about him.

At night, all of a sudden his eyes turned green, you know?

And his head took a whole spin around like the exorcist type of thing, right?

It was this demon.

No, no, no.

How did, if you actually read the narrative, how did how did Satan work through Judas?

He amplified the internal motives, he amplified that sense of grief.

Reading this.

He amplified that sense of resentment.

He amplified that sense of self-interest.

And those were the common things that led to the betrayal of the Savior.

Wasn't anything crazy?

In fact, read this, read this.

Well, go back to chapter 4 with me.

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

And Jesus answered him, and it's written, Man shall not live by bread alone.

In other words, after 40 days, you know, he's he's hungry, he's starving.

And he says to him, Okay, make this make this thing into some bread, Jesus.

It was an interesting temptation.

He tempted his flesh, he was hungry, I'm sure.

But there's also an interesting kind of thought on the the actual temptation here.

This and in the third temptation.

Where in some ways, you've got to think, Jesus in his humanity had limitations.

In his divinity, he had none.

And part of what Satan is saying is, Jesus, use your divinity inappropriately.

Shed your, sorry, use your humanity and shed it and use your divinity inappropriately.

I want you to use your divinity to make some bread.

Now, at one point Jesus turned water into wine, which is interesting.

Well, here's the point.

Jesus, through practice and discernment, knew the difference between good and evil.

Jesus being the ultimate fulfillment, Jesus being God in the flesh, knew and understood that this was Satan's scheme to try to say, rid yourself of the pain of the humanity and just be divinity.

Eat this bread.

And the reason he says no, because that's not what his fathers told him to do.

Is there anything sinful about Jesus eating bread?

You ever notice that?

Would Jesus be breaking the Ten Commandments by eating bread?

No.

The devil took him up, showed him verse 5, all the kingdoms of the world in the moment of time, and said to him, To you I'll 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.

Otherwise, Jesus, I'm gonna give you all of this.

I know you came to rule and to reign.

I know that you're the king, and so here's the thing.

I'm gonna give you that.

You worship me and you can avoid the cross.

Worship me and you can avoid the pain of the cross.

I'll give you all this, I'll give you the glory and you can avoid the pain.

It's this this external and this internal.

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

And in him only shall you serve.

And he took him, being Jesus, to Jerusalem.

This is the epicenter of religious worship.

On the pinnacle of the temple, all the religious folk are around.

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.

Now he's quoting from Psalm, and here's essentially what he's saying.

I did some looking into this, because this is interesting.

Like, what's what's so tempting to Jesus about this?

Well, the temptation again is Jesus, throw off your humanity and allow everybody to see your divinity.

Jump down, and two things are gonna happen.

Number one, if you are the Son of God, well, Jesus knew that just a second ago, he was baptized, and everybody heard the voice of God say, This is my son with whom I'm well pleased.

But what he's saying is in this moment, I wanted to take you up to the top of the religious center and jump off.

And you know what, Jesus?

When you jump and everybody at the temple sees you not fall, they're gonna seem Psalm 91, and they're going to remember it's you.

You can throw off your humanity, prove your divinity, and everyone will believe in you.

It's a more expeditious ministry strategy.

Just jump.

Everybody will know, everybody will see.

Here's what you have to see.

This is the thing.

The main strategy of the enemy, the main strategy of the enemy, nowhere in any of these temptations is his strategy to just say, Jesus, do something horrible.

In fact, we've got this.

The main strategy of the enemy is to take something good and make it ultimate.

Make good things more important than God.

He said, Hey, take this bread and and just kind of forget about what God said.

Just eat this bread.

Hey, I know, I know, Jesus, that you care a lot about people knowing you and seeing you.

So just jump off this thing and you'll be fine.

Did you know that more of how actually the strategy of Satan is not to just confront you with the worst possible things, but to take good things and make them ultimate things, to make them family and take your family and worship and prioritize your family, prioritize your school, prioritize your career, prioritize your friends, prioritize your relationships, prioritize youth sports, prioritize retirement, prioritize whatever it is right in the state.

Hey, this is a good thing.

Now, are any of those things bad?

Of course not.

But his point is that they're not God.

They're not God.

And in fact, so if the main strategy is to make good things, then he has kind of a left and a right punch.

And this is how you know that.

So the main strategy, these are the tools, these are the two tools.

So the complexity is the complexity is yes, there is the world, the flesh, the devil.

That the that the that the common kind of modern perspective is just that the world and there's something inside of our flesh, perhaps.

But that there's a multiplier, that Christianity actually offers a more complex, robust view of why does it seem like such awful and evil things.

In fact, let me just say this.

You ever think about the fact that the way evil works helps us to pass responsibility without actually accepting it?

Think about this.

Just go home and think about it.

Who is responsible for Jesus' death?

Left and right punch.

Temptation.

Temptation.

First thing he does is he tempts.

He says, Jesus, have this bread.

Have this bread.

Temptation has to do with overconfidence, right?

Temptation is this idea.

So if one way he tempts is to say, hey, it's not that big of a deal, honestly, it's not going to be that bad.

You're a little bit better.

You're good enough.

Not that serious.

And plus, this is a good thing, anyways, right?

So temptation is the overconfidence that says, this isn't really that serious.

Jesus, if you would just bow down and worship me, it's not that serious.

But I can give you all the look at look at all I'm going to give you.

Minimize, minimize, minimize, minimize, minimize consequence.

Temptation is the overconfidence that says this isn't really that serious.

And then he does this other thing that if you were to look at actually the two ways that Satan is described in the Bible, it's the tempter and the accuser.

The tempter and the accuser, the accusation.

Accusation works through despair.

And here's how this works: it says, look what you've done.

God can't possibly love you.

Now here's how these two things work in Tana.

And you and I have all experienced this if you're a Jesus follower.

That something tempted you.

It was a good thing.

It didn't start off as a horrible thing.

You are just doing everything right, and all of a sudden somebody comes along and no one's had a separate or a sideways thought, and all of a sudden family's ruined because of an affair.

It doesn't just happen.

It's this temptation.

Not that big of a deal.

Temptation.

Not that big of a deal.

What happens over time?

The temptation grows, and you're tempted and you sin in some ways.

Mess up in some ways.

Miss the mark in some ways.

And then the accusation, the despair that once said, the temptation that once said it's not that big of a deal, the accusation says, How could you?

Isn't that interesting?

We will talk ourselves into it on the front end as not that big of a deal.

And on the back end, somehow we are completely unlovable by God.

Some of you, the reason that you have a difficult time coming to church this morning is because you woke up and you felt the accusation of the enemy warring against your soul.

If you are, if you are, I don't know, I don't know that you actually are the son of God.

Think about your life in this moment.

Because when we think about temptation, there is just the classic version of Christianity.

And by classic version I mean don't drink, don't smoke, don't cuss.

But this is so much deeper than that.

Inclusive, sure.

But so much deeper than that.

Think about what are the things that are good in your life?

That you have a tendency to make ultimate in your life.

And there's this temptation to do it.

And then there becomes an accusation alongside of it.

Now at this point, it's like, man, this is a pretty depressing term.

I want to show you the most beautiful thing.

And when I say it, I'm I'm I I I wish I could say it a different way.

So I'm gonna I'm gonna do my best to explain.

But what's so striking is that there is so much complexity to the enemy.

There's so much to me, it's fascinating.

He uses good things, he entices them, and then he tempts us and then accuses us.

Usually keeps us from God.

But the striking thing about this verse is every single time he's tempted, Jesus says something to Satan.

Jesus, in verse 4.

I'm sorry, verse 8.

Take it back.

Verse 4.

It is written, man shall not live by bread alone.

Verse 8, you shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only.

Verse 12, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

Now, what's so striking about this, what's so striking about this, is every time Jesus is faced with temptation, every time Jesus has this cycle, he quotes Scripture back to him.

And there's the way to take that in an overly simplistic way.

And here's the overly simplistic way.

Memorize a verse, feeling temptation, say something out loud.

Memorize a verse, spirits temptation, say something out loud.

And honestly, that might be helpful for a little while.

But I want you to see this.

Jesus didn't just have the mean, he didn't just understand and say, here's a scripture.

He actually understood the meaning of scripture.

He actually understood not just the means, he didn't just have that verse, he understood the meaning of that verse.

And let me explain the difference.

And let me kind of illustrate the difference.

Jesus understood the heart of what God was communicating through his word.

And so what actually happens is the lie of the enemy is met with the truth of God, and when the truth of God is more illuminated in our hearts, it exposes the lie of the enemy.

Let me give one real practical application that I think is gonna help to tie some of this up.

I was really praying because I'm like, man, I really want our church to grow in holiness.

Not that I'm like, oh, I've seen a ton of unholiness, y'all are awful.

I just know like we're broken people.

And I was thinking, there's an illustration that I give often.

And it's about how one of the Satan's greatest tools is he will use how long it's been since we've been in the word and in prayer to be the reason that shame attacks us to not go into the word in prayer.

In other words, the longer you've gone without praying, the harder it is to pray.

The longer you've gone without reading, the harder it is to read.

The longer you've gone without going to church, there's something inside you want to go back, you want to be around the people of God, you want to worship in the presence of the saints together.

And there's something inside of you that pushes back.

And you feel a temptation.

It's not that big of a deal if I don't go today.

It's not that big of a deal if I don't read today.

It's not that big of a deal if I don't pray today.

And you feel an accusation, and plus, it's been a long time since, and you call yourself a Christian.

And so you wait and you delay.

Knowing Scripture in the heart of Scripture is to know that Paul said in Ephesians, it's by grace that you've been saved.

In fact, it's to know that that Paul in Romans 3 said, For all have sinned and all have fallen short of the glory of God.

In other words, we've all sinned.

That is communally and individually true of each and every one of us.

And then what he then says in Ephesians is it's by grace that you have been saved.

Not not by the things that you've done, not by how well you've performed, not by your morality.

It's because God so loved the world that he gave his only son.

And what you actually begin to see is that the wild thing about grace, as Hebrews talks about, is that we are able to enter into the throne in the presence of God boldly, not because we're good, but because Jesus died for us.

And what you actually realize in that moment is that the greatest sin in your heart is not the fact that you have been unholy, and that's what's kept you.

Because what you begin to realize is I'm a sinner in need of a savior.

Perhaps my greatest act of hubris is to think that my good deeds are actually righteous acts.

Because the biggest problem is not that my bad stuff keeps me away, it's that I thought my good stuff draw me near, drew me near.

Let me conjugate that appropriately.

The good stuff drew me near to God, and that's why, no, no, no.

Is there a blessing in an infamous times of obedience?

Of course.

But it's the person who actually understands the weight of the gospel, the weight of scripture, and at the core of scripture is the gospel.

You see, the difference between just saying a verse is when you're in that moment and you're tempted to say, God, I don't know.

God, I maybe later.

Here's the question because accusation, again, accusation, it clearly says, clearly says it's not that big of a deal.

Sin isn't that serious.

Temptation says sin isn't that serious, but the cross says sin's so serious that Jesus had to die.

The accusation says you're too sinful to be loved.

But the cross says that Christ loved you enough to die.

And what you realize is those verses have weight to them.

And what you begin to believe deep in your heart, deep in your heart, is that I am more sinful than I ever imagined.

And I am more loved and chosen and accepted than I ever dared.

Let me give you one thing I want you to do with all this.

If you don't hear anything else, when Jesus was squeezed, when Jesus was in the wilderness, what came out of him was the word.

Granted, he was the incarnate and is the incarnate word of God.

As John 1 talks about.

And so when he squeezed, that's what comes out of it.

If Jesus needed the word, then so do we.

And it's my fundamental belief that the greatest spiritual battle in our lives is the enemy wants to take away our daily time in the presence of God.

If you try to fight spiritual battles without the word and Christ the Word, and His Spirit in you, living through you, you're trying to live out the calling of God without the presence of God.

How do we fight temptation?

You spend time with Jesus, you spend time in his word.

You face that time where you've messed up and you feel shame and you go back to him anyways and you say, God, I know it's not because of what I've done.

I know it's because of who you are.

And so, Jesus, I give everything for you.

You were the God, you were the Son, you suffered for me, and so I give you everything, I give you glory, I give you praise, God.

I just want to spend time in your presence.

And God, I want to live for you, God.

God, I want to hide your word in my heart.

Psalm 119, verse 9.

Psalms 119:9

How does a young man keep his way pure?

What verse 11?

He answers and he says, I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you, because Jesus, I know that this life, this world, the flesh, the devil is going to squeeze me.

And when I'm squeezed, I want to know what's inside of me.

And I have to spend time with you and your word in your presence.

If Jesus needed the word to combat Satan, so do you.

And as Ephesians talks about, it's the only offensive weapon we have against the enemy.

It's the sword.

I don't know what temptation you're facing right now, but my guess is it's a good thing.

That Satan's trying to use temptation and accusation to make it an ultimate thing.

And when the truth of God and his word illuminates your heart more than the lies of the enemy and scripture defeat Satan and our lives become a glorious testimony to him as followers, not spectators of Jesus.

Let's pray.

The wisdom to see the temptations in our lives, the wisdom to see the accusations, the wisdom to see the strategy of Satan, how he takes those things and he compounds them.

Multiplies them.

Multiplies the evil.

But we know that you have not left us alone.

You have given us yourself, you have given us your word.

You came, died, so that we could be made right with you, not because we're good enough, but because you died for us.

You give us your spirit, you give us your word.

And so, Jesus, I pray for every single person who calls themselves a follower of you.

That the battle in their life, the center place of spiritual battle, is allocating time, mental space to spend in your presence, Jesus.

Spend time in your word, spend time in prayer.

Let it not just be things that we hear, things that we read, but let it illuminate our hearts in such a way that it drives out the accusations of the enemy.

So, Father, would you help us to look and to be more like you?

Jesus, at the end of the day, we love you.

And we just want to be fathers of you, our chief shepherds, our heavenly father, our savior, and our kingdom.

Amen.