CAMPUS: "Enemies Part 3"

Hi, this is John O'Zanting, lead pastor of Evolved Church, and this is the Evolved Church Podcast.

Thanks so much for tuning in.

We hope that you find today's message encouraging and full of hope for wherever you're at.

Grab your notebook and grab your Bible if you brought that.

And um we're gonna continue this series on enemies.

As promised last week, this is kind of part two connected to last week, but I want to recap for a few minutes.

I think we've read it a few times, this quote from John Mark Comer.

Jesus sees our primary war against the devil as a fight to believe truth over lies.

Will you take a stand in your lifetime to say, I want to fight the good fight of faith?

And that means I want to take a stand and believe what is true.

And we've defined truth as Jesus, that you can be confident, you can look to Scripture as our way and our truth and our life.

And when the world challenges and pushes backs and says, No, you can you can come up with your own truth, you can find your own way, you're gonna be like, actually, no, I tried that.

It was futile, it didn't work, and so I'm gonna build my life on Jesus, the only truth.

How do we recognize the lies and respond with faith?

We looked at a negative example out of Genesis chapter 3, and two things we addressed last week.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Number one, that reasoning and understanding are never gonna produce what only trust in the Father can build.

You've got to learn to trust God.

And we have to learn to trust God when it's easy.

I'm not sure that it ever is, but let's pretend that there's moments where it feels easy.

And we have to learn to trust God when the rug's been pulled out from under us, and we can't hear his voice, and we can't sense his presence, but we know that his faithfulness and his goodness haven't changed.

And number two, we talked about that when we believe the lies of the enemy, the fruit is consistent.

You can always know that there's a lie that you've attached to your heart because it produces shame and it produces fear and it produces isolation.

We looked to the Genesis account, how Adam and Eve in the garden believed the lie of the devil.

They believed his word that God wasn't as good as the Father said he was, and instantly they felt shame.

They tried to cover up that shame, they hid from the Lord, they were afraid.

And Isaiah 26 says, People with their minds set on you, Father, you keep them completely whole, steady on their feet, because they keep at it and they don't quit.

Depend on God, keep at it, because in the Lord, God, you've got a sure thing.

And so, how do we continue to build the sense of trust?

And so I want to pray, and then we're gonna get into tonight's message.

Father, in Jesus' name, we thank you.

Thank you for the gift of the sacrament of communion.

Jesus, you laid down your life for us, your body broken, your blood poured out.

Not just so that we could know about God, but so that we could know him.

And that's what we're asking for tonight, for an encounter, an experience of the Father's love.

Even now, Father, I invite you, by your grace and mercy, your sovereign power, to flood this room with a profound sense of your love, the Father's love that is capable of driving out all fear, the perfect peace of the Holy Spirit that quiet our hearts, stills our minds, flushes out anxiety and worry.

Jesus, we need you.

Come, Holy Spirit.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Eugene Peterson.

I'm an incredible pastor, Bible teacher, theologian.

He taught for many years at Regent College, a seminary at UBC in Vancouver.

And when I was um in high school, I had an opportunity to share a meal with Eugene Peterson.

He was in the middle of writing his uh Bible paraphrase, The Message.

How many of you have a copy of the message paraphrase?

Anybody?

It's a very modern-day vernacular of the Bible.

It's not a translation, it is a paraphrase.

And um and Eugene Peterson was writing it to help his friends know how to study the Bible.

And I got to have a meal with him.

But I love this quote from Eugene: the Jesus way, wedded, married to, the Jesus truth brings about the Jesus life.

It's not just the ways of Jesus, that's important.

We're building our lives on his template, on his example, but the truth plus the way of Christ is what leads us to spiritual freedom.

And we desperately want the life of Christ, but are we willing to adopt his lifestyle as well?

Are we willing to actually look at how he lived and then copy and pattern our lives on his example?

On this Thanksgiving weekend, I'm so grateful that we don't have to struggle with the lives of the enemy.

We can be set free, we can walk in freedom.

And that's good news.

It's good news for lots of us.

We get to look to our King, Jesus, and learn from his life and then pattern.

And this is something that you and I, if we're gonna press profession, this is something you're gonna have to choose every day.

You're gonna have to choose it first thing in the morning when you get up, you're gonna have to choose it when you get into it at school or at work, wherever you do life.

You're gonna have to choose in every moment of every day, will I follow Christ?

God can't force us into surrender.

What kind of relationship would that be?

C.

S.

Lewis wrote an incredible fictional book called The Screw Tape Letters.

And Screw Tape Letters is about a seasoned demon, and he's writing back and forth to his nephew, a young demon, and he's coaching him on how to torment his human.

If you haven't read Screwtape Letters by C.S.

Lewis, if you want to just kind of expand your learning around this idea of spiritual warfare and the enemy, that is an incredible read.

Uh, because it is, it is, it was a prophetic telling of how the enemy messes with us.

But God can't tempt us towards virtue in the same way that the enemy can tempt us towards a vice.

God wants us to learn to walk.

And and therefore sometimes he takes away his hand.

And if only the will to walk with God is really there, God's pleased, even when we stumble, do you have a willingness to walk with God?

God can't force you to live a life of virtue.

He won't coerce you to walk in his ways.

He wants you to want to walk in the pattern of Jesus, to desire it.

So today we're gonna look at a positive example from the life of Christ of how to combat the lies of the enemy.

And then we're gonna go to Luke chapter 4, and we're gonna live here tonight, Luke 4, verses 1 through 13.

Luke 4 · chapter mention Luke 4:1–13

If you brought a Bible, you can turn there.

If not, it'll be on the screen.

You can follow along there.

Starting in verse 1, Luke 4.

Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River.

He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil for forty days.

Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry.

Then the devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.

And Jesus said, No, the scripture says people don't live by bread alone.

Then the devil took Jesus up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.

He said, I'm going to give you the glory of these kingdoms, authority over them, the devil said, because they're mine to give to anyone I please.

I'll give it all to you if you will worship me.

And Jesus replied, The scriptures say you must worship the Lord your God and serve him only.

It's important to note, um, it's good theology that when the devil said he had authority over all the kingdoms of the earth, Jesus didn't push back on that.

God is sovereign, but Satan is the small g God of this world.

He has the ability to wreak havoc on planet Earth.

And I love that in this account, he's like, hey, make it easy I'm gonna make it easy on you.

You don't have to go to the cross.

I'll just give you all of this.

I'll give you authority if if you'll bow down and worship me.

But Jesus replied, the scriptures say you must worship the Lord your God and serve him only.

Then the devil took Jesus to Jerusalem, to the highest point of the temple, and said, Hey, if you're the Son of God, jump off.

For the scriptures say, He will order his angels to protect and guard you, and they'll hold you up with their hands so you won't even hurt your foot on a stone.

Now the devil, he gets below the belt.

He's punching low right now because he's quoting scripture.

I want to challenge you as a follower of Christ, know the Bible better than the devil does.

You need to.

Loblow, he begins to quote scripture at Jesus, and then Jesus' response the scriptures also say you must not test the Lord your God.

And when the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came.

First idea from our text tonight is this fullness matters.

Fullness is our intended default.

Did you know you have a default as a child of God?

Like a starting place, an intended default, and it's to be full.

Fight to stay full.

Scripture says that Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River.

Now, this is right on the other side of Jesus' water baptism.

And that matters, because Jesus surrendered his life to the baptism waters.

And two things happened.

When he went into that water, scripture reports as he was pulled up out of the water by John the Baptist, two things.

Number one, there was a voice from heaven that said, This is my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased.

And the second thing that everybody saw was what seemed like a dove, the Holy Spirit falling on and filling Jesus.

And I believe this matters because it's easy to read that Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, goes into the desert, and we can instantly excuse ourselves from living full of the Holy Spirit.

Why?

Because we're not Jesus.

Last time I checked, you and I are not the Savior of the world.

And so we can quickly rationalize and go, well, the Son of God was full of the Holy Spirit.

Of course, he was able to combat the lies of the enemy.

What matters is we look to Jesus because he invites us to stay full of the Holy Spirit.

When he ascended into heaven after his death and resurrection, he promised us a same version of himself, but in spirit form.

When you make a decision to surrender your life to Christ, it is a gift to receive the presence of Holy Spirit who takes up residence in us.

We have to stand fast against the lies of the enemy, and we do this by remembering that we are full of and have to stay full of the Holy Spirit.

When we examine the life of Christ, we quickly and clearly see not just the things that Jesus taught, but the nitty-gritty of how he lived every day.

Here in Luke 4, we see Jesus practicing what he regularly did, withdrawing into the wilderness.

It wasn't strange for Jesus to like say to his people, his disciples, his followers, like, love ya, but peace out.

I'm gonna go take off into the wilderness.

This was normal for Jesus Christ.

Even in Luke 5, 16, it says Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.

So it wasn't odd that Jesus would withdraw into the wilderness.

If we desperately want the life that Jesus offers, we have to equally and as desperately want the lifestyle of Jesus.

When's the last time you retreated into silence and solitude to be alone with the Father, to no one recognize his voice?

In the chaos and frenetic pace of this life, do you have a regular practice of shutting off the noise?

First thing in the morning, scripture before phone?

What's the first voice that you let speak to you every morning?

Is it your Instagram DMs?

Is it your text messages?

Is it your school chat to make sure you're not falling behind on it?

What's the first voice that you choose to let speak to you every new day?

The Jesus way, wedded to the Jesus truth, brings about the Jesus life.

And for over eight years at Evolve, and coming up on two years now here on campus, we've been teaching on the lifestyle of Jesus.

We've done a ton of sermon series on this in the last eight years, opening up our hearts and lives to the language of spiritual practices and spiritual disciplines.

This matters.

Fasting, prayer, scripture, silence and solitude, Sabbath rest, financial generosity, real community, hospitality, simplicity, building a trellis that our lives grow on, or building a rule of life, not rules for life, but a governing rule that we build our lives on, modeling ourselves after the person of Jesus.

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, was led by the Spirit in the wilderness.

We see our Jesus here, full of the Holy Spirit, being led by the Spirit into 40 days of silence and solitude and fasting, not to get full, but to stay full.

Do you use your quiet time to get full or to stay full?

This matters.

Staying full of the Holy Spirit is meant to be your default intended posture as a son or daughter of the Most High God.

Six weeks, 40 days, six weeks without friends, family, food, Wi-Fi, his smartphone, his news apps, his social media apps, without his perfectly extracted cup of craft coffee.

40 days.

Six weeks.

Can I even go six days?

Can I even go six hours?

Can I even go six minutes?

Don't say six or seven.

Who was that?

I heard somebody say six or seven.

Don't even get me started.

Again, from screw tape letters.

We have trained these humans to think of the future as a promised land which a favored hero attains, not as something which everyone reaches at the rate of 60 minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.

The life in Christ is attained by paying attention to every 60 minutes, whoever you are, whatever you do.

Galatians 5 puts it this way: since this is the kind of life we've chosen, the life of the Spirit, let's make sure that we don't just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.

You are meant to work out the implications of following Christ with every moment of every day, every detail of your life.

So this week, I want to challenge you to be led by the Spirit into a 60-minute staying full challenge.

Who wants to accept the challenge?

Come on.

60-minute staying full challenge.

Here's what it could look like.

You commit to an hour of silence and solitude.

Now an hour is a lot.

You're gonna get four minutes in and be like, I'm done.

But I want to, this is a challenge.

It's meant to be hard.

No distractions, no phone, no technology, no other people.

Just you alone with the Father.

Alone with God.

Alone with your own thoughts.

Some of you will avoid this challenge because of what I just said.

Me alone with my own thoughts for an hour, I'm out.

No food, no water, no coffee, that'd be my sacrifice.

Just you and your king.

Just you and him.

Bring your Bible, bring a notebook in a journal.

But bring your Bible.

That's still the best way to know and understand the voice of the Father.

To read his love letter that he wrote for you.

So I want to challenge you to take a 60-minute stateful challenge.

Why?

Because this is the life we've chosen.

This is the life we've chosen, the life of the Spirit.

So we got to make sure that this isn't just like a nice idea in our brains or a sentiment in our hearts, but that we work it out, the implications of this.

You could also turn up for prayer on Wednesday morning at St.

Joe's, or jump into Alpha on Tuesday night, or prioritize one of our groups at Hub on Thursday evenings.

There's some guys here tonight that are leading a new Bible study at Lister.

I love that.

I love that they're organizing a Bible study and they're sending me an email with those details so we can like talk about it.

But make Sunday evenings in this space a priority, a gathering with other Christians.

Begin to learn more about the lifestyle of Jesus and to practice his lifestyle with a few other people.

It'll make more sense in community.

Trust me.

The life we have in Christ isn't a solo sport, it's a team event.

You need other people around you.

And this is how we bring his kingdom into this earth in a greater measure.

So Jesus, John Piper says, begins full of the Holy Spirit.

That's his default posture.

And there's a great mystery here of how the persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, interrelate.

But the least we can say is that the divine nature of Jesus didn't cancel out his human nature.

And therefore, Jesus, as a human being, in the trenches with us, availed himself of the same power offered to us in the Holy Spirit.

Isn't that wild to think that Jesus didn't have a special power?

In human nature, human form, he availed himself of the same Holy Spirit that you and I have access to.

He was filled with the love of his Father, with the marvel of his mission, and with the hope of his destiny.

Fullness is our intended default.

Fight to stay full.

Number two, just because it sounds like the Bible doesn't mean it's biblical.

You need to know this.

And we look, we we we learned this from Jesus.

I want to show you an image.

I hope it comes through on the screen.

Yeah, it comes through pretty darn good.

So I have this piece of software that helps me study the Bible.

It's called Logos, which is uh Greek for word.

It helps me study the word, and there's tons of commentaries, lots of great things.

One of the features that I love is that you can look up uh a specific text, in this case, our text from Luke 4, and it shows you all of the interesting words from that text, but in order of priority by size.

So from our text today, what what are the two largest words that stand out?

Devil, scriptures, tempted.

But the two largest in terms of font size would be probably devil and scriptures.

So it mat that so theologically it matters that when we read this account of being tempted in the wilderness, the two most important words are devil and scriptures.

This is Logos's interesting words from Luke 4.

And Luke gives us three examples of the temptations that Satan threw at Jesus.

First, in verse 3, he tempts Jesus' provisions.

If you're the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.

So he tempts Jesus with his provisions.

Then in verse 5, he tempts Jesus' property and Jesus' priorities.

I'm gonna give you glory over these kingdoms, authority over them, they're mine to give, but you gotta worship me.

So the devil tempts.

Jesus' priorities and his property.

And then finally, in verse 9 through 11, he tempts Jesus' protection.

Takes him up to the highest point of the temple.

If you're the Son of God, jump off.

And then he quotes the Bible because angels will protect you.

Just because it sounds like the Bible doesn't mean it's biblical.

The enemy's always going to gun for your provisions, for your priorities, for your property, and for your protection.

That's how he'll want to mess with you.

And these temptations are amazingly relevant for Western Christianity.

Satan skips right over adultery, fornication, stealing, lying, murder.

Those are way too obvious.

Those are the games that subdevils play with a weak saint.

Jesus is no fall guy.

When Satan means business with a strong saint, he sticks with religion and he makes the Bible his textbook.

This is from John Piper.

Do you really know, not just in theory, but in practice, do you know the Word of God?

I hope you know it better than the devil.

Do we know what the scriptures teach us about inviting the King of the universe to be Lord over our provisions, over our property, over our protection, over our priorities?

Jesus wants to be Lord over those things.

As your pastor with a heavy heart, I have borne witness time and time again to amazing sons and daughters laying down their faith in Jesus and walking away from an eternally good and eternally faithful God because of something material, something worldly.

The enemy messed with their provisions or their property or their protection.

Something happened to their bread or their kingdom.

They were tempted to worship themselves or a false God or they experienced hurt and the enemy got in.

Father, teach us to pray as you lead us to the test.

Don't let the test become a temptation, but deliver us from the wiles of the evil one who's always trying to get us to think that you're not as good as Jesus says you are.

One of the ways we copy the template, the lifestyle of Christ, is to remember that the Father is good even when we can't see it.

If we desperately want the life of Jesus, we have to be willing to adopt his lifestyle.

And the the way of Jesus, wedded to the truth of Jesus, is the only thing that brings about the life.

So the only way to win the fight over the lies of the enemy, it is to hide his word in our hearts so that we might not sin against him.

Psalm 119, I've stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Some of you here might be in a dating relationship, or maybe you were in a dating relationship at one point.

Some of you here are perhaps engaged or preparing to get married.

Some of you here are even married, myself included.

Have you ever been in like a colossal fight with someone that you love and they gave you the silent treatment?

Come on.

Maybe let me ask it this way.

Have you ever been in a colossal fight with someone that you love and you gave them the silent treatment?

How'd that go?

I wish you could see what I see.

I just saw some like wonderful expressions in response to that.

One guy, I won't point him out, but when I said how'd that go, he literally went, you know, not good, right?

The silent treatment is never a great strategy to come in close with somebody that you care about.

The silent treatment is never a great strategy to solve a problem or to solve conflict.

Why do we have to store the word of God in our hearts so that we might not sin against him?

It's so that we can practice speaking the word of God when we need it the most.

We store it in our hearts to declare it.

And that's where we look again to Jesus.

How did Jesus combat the temptation, the lies of the enemy, against his provision and his priorities and his practices and his property?

How did Jesus fight?

He quoted the word of God.

He spoke scripture.

He didn't think scripture, he didn't meditate on scripture, he said it out loud.

That's the only way.

Jesus said, No, the scriptures say, no, the scriptures say people don't live by bread alone.

No, the scriptures say you must worship the Lord your God and serve him only.

No, the scriptures say you mustn't test the Lord your God.

James 4 says, Let God work his will in you, yell a loud no to the devil, and watch him make himself scarce.

When's the last time you yelled a loud no at the devil?

I love that in Luke 4, Jesus literally, verbally out loud, yells at the devil.

No, I know what my dad says.

No, I know what the Father says.

No, I know what the scriptures say.

Say a quiet yes to God, and He'll be there in no time.

Quit dabbling in sin.

Purify your inner life.

Quit playing the field, hip bottom, cry your eyes out, the fun and games are get serious about your life in Christ.

Really serious.

Get down on your knees before the master.

It's the only way that you'll get back up on your feet.

Not just in theory, but in practice, do you know the word of God?

Do you have a relationship with God through the life-giving scriptures that He's gifted to us?

And do we know what the scriptures teach us about inviting the King of the universe to be Lord over our provisions, over our property, over our protection, over our priorities?

I have this PDF.

Um what I actually have is a hourglass of shame.

Yeah, there it is.

I had a PDF.

Nicole.

Okay.

When you get it, give me three give me three thumbs up.

Three thumbs up.

There it is.

Um pull out your smartphone for me.

If you can.

Just scan that QR code.

If I'm in if I'm physically in your way, I'm so sorry.

Like scan the QR code.

Move the tall guy.

Scan that QR code.

Uh we've put together what I'm just calling a truth and lies scripture challenge.

So, in addition to your 60 minutes of silence and solitude, maybe this will help you in that quiet time.

Because in this, I've identified uh some common lies that we believe, and then we've attached some scriptures to that that will combat that lie.

And so I got some homework for you.

I want you to learn to recognize what in your heart, what in your life is seeking to steal and kill and destroy your freedom in Christ.

What lie of the enemy have you believed?

And we're teaching you really practically to wield scripture as the sword of the Spirit to combat the lies of the enemy.

And I want to give you a couple of moments right now of quiet and reflection to just kind of scan through that PDF.

I want to give you just a few minutes of space.

You get to win over the lies of the enemy by knowing something more powerful.

Life-giving truth from Scripture that sits directly opposed to those lies.

And then you have to go, well, this is how Jesus did it.

Doesn't it make sense that this is how I'm going to learn how to do it, also?

The only way to win the battle over the lie of the enemy is to know the truth from the Word of God.

Thank you so much for listening to today's message.

If you're ever in the Edmonton area, pop by for a visit.

And if you need any more information, visit EvolveChurch.com.