We are starting a new series, Mendem. I'm excited about it. Tim prayed for me this morning because I came into the office. I said, guys, I said, you ever write?
Maybe I'll ask you. Have you ever written a sermon? And when you're done with the sermon, you go, this should have been a series and not a sermon? No.
And then all of my friends on the worship team, I thought this was really amazing and impactful. And all I got back was, does this mean this is going to go long? And so I don't think it'll mean it'll go long. So what we want to do over these coming weeks leading up to our baptism celebration is walk through the book of Luke together.
You've got a little card when you came in. That is to sign up to get daily devotion. To get, remember we did through the Bible in 30 days about two months ago? Now we're going to be doing something called Walking with Jesus through the Book of Luke over 30 days.
We're going to send you a daily devotional five times a week, Monday to Friday, 15 minutes a day. I'm going to preach out of that devotional. So every week, if you're studying that stuff, if you're spending time with God, if you're reading the words of scripture, you will come to church on Sunday. We're going to talk about something that you read, to try to just really push the Word of God deep into our hearts.
And so I don't have a ton of time to go through the introduction to this. But let me just say this about Luke. Luke was a physician. He was a doctor.
And Luke's Gospel, there's four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Luke's Gospel is described as a synoptic gospel, essentially meaning that it covers the life and the events of Jesus. Luke covers the life and events of Jesus in more detail than any of the other synoptic writers. A lot of people say it's because he was a physician.
He was used to detail and science. There's others that would say it's because he knew what he was trying to do. If you read Luke, he opens it by writing to a guy named Theophilus. He says, Theophilus, I'm writing you these things because you've heard them, but I want to make sure you understand them.
I want to give you back up and detail on them. So in a sense, what we're going to do is we're going to pretend we're Theophilus. We're to whom Luke is writing to give us incremental support for the stories he had heard about Jesus. And we're going to take a second look, a second opinion, at both those stories, and maybe what's going on in our own lives.
So I'm going to ask you to sign up for this today, and I'm going to ask you to sign up for it again next week. And next Monday, those devotions will start. If you have that card and you want those devotions to come to your mailbox, drop it off at the Welcome Center on your way out. Everybody with me.
That was a half-hearted yes, but here. Now I'm going to make it go long if you keep that up. I read a story this week of Flyfisherman. He would be Flyfisherman.
He was going out for the first time. I saw my friend Ed is over there. The guide instructor said to him, listen, to catch a fish, you have to think like a fish. They said that to a fish, life is about, imagine this.
Imagine this. They said to a fish, life is about maximum gratification of appetite at the minimum expenditure of energy. Could you imagine being so dumb? To a fish, life is see a fly, want to fly, eat a fly.
A rainbow trout never really reflects on where his life is going. A girl carp rarely says to a boy carp, you know what I don't feel like you're as committed to this relationship as I am? I'm not sure that you love me for anything more than just my body. Because fish are a collection of appetites.
A fish is a stomach, a mouth, and a pair of eyes. So this writer went on, he said while I was on the water, I was struck by how dumb the fish are. Hey, swallow this. It's not the real thing, it's just a lure.
You'll think it'll feed you, but it won't. I'll trap you. If you were to look closely, fish, you'd see the hook. You'd know once your hook, that it's just a matter of time, but for the enemy, it'll be in.
You'd think the fish would wise up and notice the hook or see the line. You'd think the fish would look around at all of their fish friends who go for a lure and fly off into space and never return. But they don't. It's ironic.
We say fish went together in school, but they never learn anything. Aren't we glad we are so much smarter? Jesus, in the book of Luke, is introduced to us over the first three chapters in well-known stories that we go through at Christmas time, over and over again. So I'm not going to start there.
I'm going to start in Luke chapter four at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, according to Luke at about the age of 30. Many of you know the story, Jesus comes to the river Jordan, where his cousin John is baptizing people. And Jesus, being obedient to the will of the Father, overrides John's decision not to baptize him. John baptizes him, Jesus comes out of the water, and a voice comes down from heaven.
And the voice says, you are my son in whom I love, with whom I am well pleased. Now look, if you're in ministry, this is about as good as it gets. Right? Imagine that.
A voice coming down from heaven, kind of anointing you. This is the spiritual, mountain-top experience. But then Luke goes into something weird. You would think right after that, Luke would go and say, and then Jesus went and healed, or Jesus went and taught, or Jesus went to the temple, and rebuked.
But that's not what happens. Right after that story, Luke just immediately goes into a genealogy of Jesus. Why would he do that? And I like the other genealogies in the gospels.
Luke takes his all the way back to Adam, relating Jesus through the generations, all the way back to the first man. And he does it on purpose. Because Paul, some of you know of him as Saint Paul, if you come from different faith backgrounds. Saint Paul would write that Jesus represents the second Adam, that there was the Adam who fell, and now there was this second Adam.
Paul would put it one time like this, for just as the through disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of the one man, the many will be made righteous. And so that's where we start with today's life lesson. It has to do with this disobedience that the first Adam fell to, this temptation, the first Adam fell to, and this temptation to be disobedient, that the second one did. I have two dogs at my house.
If you are friends with anybody in my family, we post a lot of pictures of these dogs, because they make us laugh. We have a little dog that's probably about 10 or 15 pounds named Molly, and Molly is 10 or 12 years old, and Molly thinks she's bigger than she is, and she's kind of a tough old broad. And then we have Moose, and Moose is like a 75 pounds, something like that, black lab with something else mixed in. We're not sure what, but we got him as a rescue.
And Moose is three years old, and he's a perpetual puppy, and Moose is scared to death of Molly, because when Moose came, Molly was big, and in his mind he never converted the thought process old. And so he thinks Molly rules the house, and we have this ritual at night when it's time to feed them early morning. We put their food in the bowl, and Moose inhales his in about two seconds, and then he just sits, and he waits. He waits for Molly to get down with her food.
And it'll just sit there, because Molly takes her time. It's almost like she looks at him, and just takes her time eating and eating it. And then slowly, if you just watch, you'll see something start to happen with Moose's lip will start to quiver, and then this little ball of saliva will start to accumulate. And you'll just see him sitting there watching Molly, and the literally be drool hanging down off of his mouth, because he's so tempted to go and get that food.
He's right there, and I couldn't take it on bigger, but there's something that just keeps him in line. Temptation, right? Here's why I laugh at the story, because so often I'm just like Moose. I find myself so tempted by things, like just staring at them, you know?
And I could feel like you ever drive through certain neighborhoods and you could feel your lips start to quiver a little bit? You know, Joan and I went to, look at Mattress's yesterday. I don't really have time for all these stories, but you know, a couple years ago, I can be cheap, and a couple years ago we needed a new mattress, and we were in Costco, and they had a mattress in a box. Everybody ever got one of these mattresses in a box?
I said, Joan, this is the best possible deal. Like, what could go wrong with Costco? And so we got a mattress in a box, and it just has not been all that great, and my wife wakes up with all kinds of pains, it's horrible, somebody's had. And so it hasn't been all that good.
And so yesterday we went to the mattress store, and has anybody been to a mattress store lately? Do you realize what they are charging for some of these mattresses? I owned my old life when I was an investor. I owned a mattress company, springing our mattress company, I was one of the owners, and I remember going to the factory one time, and they have all these marketing things, and I was telling them, why do you do this, why do you put that in there, why do you have this kind of spring versus that kind of spring?
And the guy that owned the plane goes, sir, let me just explain to you, we're selling wood boxes with springs in them. He said, we gotta do something to make you think that this is where it's spending the money on. Now I know this, and I go to that mattress store yesterday, and what mattress do you think my eyes just can't get their eye? I mean, these mattresses are $5,000, right?
There's the same box with springs that are over here in the back corner of the store under the value sign. I can't be seen over there, what, I'm a man like me? I need to be looking, it's just, it's there. I could feel my lip quivering towards that $4,500 mattress.
I just kind of wanted it. So this story that we're gonna look at with Jesus is spiritually, deeply significant for your life. Right after Luke goes through this story about who the old Adam is and who the new Adam is, let me show you, tell you why. He does this because he wants to make sure you and I would understand something about temptation and how to respond to it.
Oscar Wilde once quipped, I can resist anything, except temptation. See, some of you in the room right now are struggling with temptation. Some of you are struggling with the temptation for chocolate, some of you are struggling with temptation to say, go to sleep, but some of you are struggling with deeper temptations. One that are putting a lot of things in your life and your family and your job at some significant amount of risk.
I don't know if it's money or booze or women or stuff on the internet. What's your, what is it that gets you? You know, we all have those things we know, right? There's hundreds of folks that are gonna show up here today over the couple of services.
And some of them are struggling with things that are about to shipwreck their lives. Now being tempted is not a sin. Jesus was tempted and he was sinless. Here's the issue, the issue is twofold.
The first is I want you when you leave this one to get a better understanding of why it is that you're tempted because it's not because chocolate tastes good or she was pretty. That's actually not why you're tempted. And the other thing I want you to understand is what's at risk when you're tempted. So let's get out.
Here's the first thing I want you to understand about temptation. Every temptation that you and I have all the times we're tempted to do something that we know is just clearly outside of the bounds of what God would have for us, maybe it's against the promises we made to someone or against the integrity that we'd like to believe we have. Every temptation we face is really driven by only one of three things. You know what I mean?
I've learned so much about this this weekend. I was my wife and I went on a little date yesterday and I'm telling her, do you know what about the three issues? I drive temptation. And Joan's going, I just wanna have an appetizer.
Anyway, here's the important point because if you get this, I think it could take the teeth out of temptation. And temptation you face is not really about women or drugs or pornography or position. Those are the real issue. Those are the tricks the enemy uses to get an underlying issue that's a heart matter for us.
Here's how John, who walked with Jesus, spoke of temptation, 1 John 2 16, he said, for everything in the world, this broken world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life comes not from the Father, but from the world. John says, look, it's not about chocolate or girls. It's not about test scores or cars. There's something bigger at work and why you're being tempted.
There's a force at work in this world that is not coming from God, but here's what it does. It tempts you to do all of various things because of three things. Maggie, you can put that slide up. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.
Now, if you'll get this, you'll be able to identify this when you're tempted in those moments. And you will see it have the power to unmask these things for you. The lust of the flesh is that temptation to feel physical pleasure from something clearly outside of the bounds of what God would want. To do something that makes your flesh feel good.
You wanna know, I'll give you, you ever get like some really juicy information about someone? What's the first thing you wanna do when you get it? Tell someone. Did you just something about it?
Oh my gosh, if I could just tell you when I know about him, what he did? Have you heard about her? This is the lust of the flesh. Sexual sin, physical violence, addiction issues.
They're all drawn from this one issue, the lust of the flesh. The second one, the lust of the eyes. This is why in the scriptures it says, don't covet your neighbor's wife. The promise, we don't just cover our neighbor's wife.
We cover his house, his car, his TV. I mean, we can cover his lawn, his mailbox. You name it. I love to covet my neighbor's stuff.
I love to set my eyes upon something that I desire. Here's the third one. The third is the pride of life. This one is maybe my biggest issue.
I don't know where you guys are on this. The pride of life is that simple temptation to pursue greatness or power, significance, respect, honor, praise. We all wanna feel valued and loved, we're to have power and position. Now these three issues are responsible, if you think about this, for almost every problem that man has run into.
Since the beginning of time, and if you'll get this, you can detooth some of these things. Let me show you, how did the first atom respond? Why Luke wanted to lay out that lineage of Jesus, this second atom back to the first atom. Here's how the first atom responded, coming out of Genesis, the first book in the Bible.
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food, what do you have there? Lost to the flesh, I'm hungry. And also, and pleasing to the eye, set her eyes upon it, look good. And also, desirable for gaining wisdom, because now I can be wise like God.
She took some and ate it, and she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. That's pretty cool. Three temptations, and at their heart, at the heart of all three is a deep, seated issue. One singular issue.
Do I trust God to come through for me? Do I trust his promises? Do I believe that his will, his desire for me and my life is what best, or do I believe that, no, no, no, I can't trust him, I gotta step out of my own, I have to do this for myself. He's not gonna come through for me.
And since he won't, I shall, I have to. At the heart of our sin and all our temptation problems are those three issues. And so here comes the second atom. And right after the spiritual mountain top experience, does he go to the temple?
No. Does he go to the city streets? No. Here's what the scripture says, Luke chapter four verse one through two, right after the genealogy chapter.
Let me show you what happened with the old atom. This should sound familiar because here comes the second atom. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan was led by the spirit into the wilderness where for 40 days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them, he was hungry, not surprising, right?
Detail you would think they might not need to add. And so the devil says, when the couple of interesting things about temptation, first of all, temptation, usually especially for those of us trying to follow Christ, usually comes immediately on the heels of spiritual breakthroughs. You wanna taste temptation, go, make some headway, don't forget, and temptation will quickly come. Second thing is about temptation, it tends to come when you're weak, Satan knows when to attack.
So here's what the devil said to him, how do you think the devil's gonna attack him? Same way. If you're the son of God, tell this stone to become bread. Satan tense them with a legitimate need.
Look, you know, you're hungry, your flesh is crying out. The lust of the flesh, Jesus, you're hungry, you've been praying, you've been fasting, you're coming off this spiritual high, you're a little bit weak now, I'm sure your father would want you to eat here. There's nothing sinful about this, Jesus just turned his stone into some bread. What's the big deal?
You ever read this and go, why is that so bad? What would be so bad about turning it, I mean, Jesus is legitimate, he's legitimately hungry. God, we want you to eat it, Jesus. Jesus is a lot of promises in the scripture about God taking care of his people.
Just eat, see, here's the deal though, this atom, unlike the first atom and unlike me so often, Jesus sees what's going on. Jesus sees that the issue is not his hunger or the bread. Jesus sees that the issue is not his self-control. The issue is this, even when I'm hungry, even when I'm in need, even when things aren't going the way I think they should, Jesus comes across a legitimate physical need and the question for him after 40 days of hunger is even now can I continue to trust my heavenly father, or should I just do this on my own?
Should I just take a legitimate need and meet in an illegitimate way? And in fighting off this temptation, Jesus because he knows what's going on, he reaches back to an Old Testament story. Now, you guys know this story, God brings Israel out of Egypt, hundreds of years, 400 years of the brutal boot of the Egyptians on their throat as Pharaoh slaves, Moses takes them out across the Red Sea, there's lots of them, probably 2 million or so of them, they track over the desert to a promised land, the land of milk and honey, and on their way, in order to feed these 2 million people in a desert, God does this daily miracle. Every day, for 40 years, every single day, other than the Sabbath, he feeds them for 40 years, every day, day after day after day after day, for 40 years the Israelites would wake up and on the ground there's this cake-like substance called manna, and they would eat every day for 40 years, God provided it, not for one or two days, he could have just put a big mountain of it there, they could have put it in their backpacks and carried it with them, in fact, if you know the story, God says don't try to store it, if you try to store it up, it's just gonna rot, the only day you could store it is the day before the Sabbath, because I don't want you to work, but other than that, if you try to store this up, it's not gonna be any good.
And so God gives them their daily bread. Now God does this for two reasons, the first is to me a very legitimate need, his people needed food, his people needed food, he called the people out, he was providing for them on the way, but the second reason was this to teach them over and over and over again, that God can be trusted, God can be counted on, God is going to come through for you, it was a daily 40 year reminder, every morning, get up, get food, be reminded, God will provide it, God will provide it, you can't save it, but it's okay, God can be trusted, God can be trusted, God can be trusted. Now remember I told you, there's at the heart of all these temptations, that one issue, can God be trusted? And for 40 years, God's trying to tell those people, look, I want you to know every day, I could give you what I want you to wake up every day and go, I have to teach you, because I know what's gonna happen, I have to teach you that I can be trusted.
So after 40 years they arrive in the land of promise and it's time to build houses and cities and walls and armies and as they get ready to do all those things, Moses calls them together and goes, look at these guys, come here, I gotta tell you something, it's very important, as they begin these new lives, as people with their own lands and farms, Moses pulls them together and here's what he says to them, he said, when the Lord your God brings you into the land, he swore to your fathers to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to give you a land with large flourishing cities that you did not build, houses filled with all kinds of good things that you did not provide, wells you did not dig vineyards and olive groves, you did not plant, then when you eat in our satisfied, be careful that you don't forget the Lord, who brought you out of Egypt and out of the land of slavery and he would go on to say this, he humbled you, causing you to hunger and feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known to teach you that man does not live unbread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Moses says, guys, before we go in there and we start taking care of ourselves and we start hoping in ourselves and believing in ourselves, I want you to remember that God did this and he did it for a reason, he wanted you to know that having your needs met, having your physical needs met was not the primary issue, there was something else that needed to be taught to you, God was showing us that he could be trusted, but being in relationship with him is important, that he's faithful, in other words, having what you need physically isn't enough for you. Jesus would do this when he fed the 5,000 later in his ministry, the next day they came back wanting war, they were hungry again, their flesh was roaring and Jesus says, if you really want to eat today, I want you to eat of my flesh and drink of my blood, he was trying to speak to them about a relationship with God that was different than simply meeting their physical needs. God is saying, look, I'm the source of all of those needs, every time you get tempted to get what you think you need, every time you're tempted to do it on your own, it's the equivalent of saying, I don't trust you, God, I don't think you're gonna come through.
Nothing's gonna happen, I don't trust you, every time you're tempted, you're confident in God at one level or another, this is why it's so risky. Your confidence is God is at stake, and when you quit trusting in God, when you think you have to make it happen yourself, no matter what the cause, oh no, no, no, no, no one will see what I did, it's just one night, it's just one glance, it's just a little drink. When you quit obeying, you will quit trusting, and when you quit trusting, eventually you will quit believing because you will start to believe that you're the one that needs to come through and you don't need to follow God. So say it in the same, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, you need to eat, there's nothing wrong with turning a stone into bread, you're hungry, if God loved you, you would have given your food by now.
If God loved you, he would have provided a husband for you by now, if God loved you, he would have figured out a way for you to get a better job by now, if God loved you, he would have cured your disease by now. You don't, you shouldn't trust in God, just assume you have to make it happen. So Jesus looks at him, and he says, look, I know the history of my people, I know this is what you try to do, I know this isn't about food, this isn't about hunger, this isn't about me being in self-control, this is a moral ethical will of God issue, and I am not gonna abandon my fellowship with God to meet this need. And he says, it is written, harkening right back to what Moses had taught his people, man shall not live by bread alone.
Well Satan tries again, he didn't get him with the flesh, he says, let me try the loss of the eyes, and he says, Jesus, come, set your eyes on this, come take a look at this, the devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant, all of the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, I'm gonna give you all the authority and splendor, it's been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want, if you worship me, it'll be all yours. Jesus, just take a look at this, take a look at what's mine, and if you would just worship me for a second, I'll make it yours, I'm gonna give you this, I'm gonna give you this, I'm gonna give you what you deserve. I mean you deserve more than this, Jesus look, you deserve the authority, this is everything that you've come for, I'm gonna give it to you, you can have it.
Heck Jesus, no one will know, which is the two of us up here, no one will know, it's just between me and you, and listen, it'll accomplish good things, you'll have authority. And of course, both Satan and Jesus, they know this is the very reason Jesus had come, that things had been placed under the authority of man in the garden, God had given man authority over the creation, and man in his fall had seated that authority to Satan. And Jesus says when he leaves the earth, that all authority has now been given back unto him. And so the temptation here for Jesus was to do the right thing, but to do it in the wrong way, to do the right thing, but then just to choose to do it in a wrong way, and just pleasing way to God.
Satan says, if you wanna see it, Jesus, look at it, Jesus, feel it, why don't you take it out for a test drive? It's just one drink, why don't you just go out tonight with her, no, nothing has to happen, Jesus for you, it's God's will, this is God's will, if you want you to be happy, want you to have authority, just submit to me for a moment. And so this is a real temptation, Jesus was tempted by this, because it mattered to Jesus, he knew if he had the authority that it was going to impact generations of people, this is gonna happen to you, it happens to me, the very thing that you feel like God put you here for, you will get locked in on, and you want it so badly, even good things, and if you'll be tempted, just take your eyes off the truth or your values, just compromise a little bit, and you can gain it, the license is just for a minute, no one would have to know, if I just compromise for a second, then I get what I want, and once I get to the other side, I don't know, and everything will be fine. One writer said this, he told the story of a man who had been praying to get a bicycle, and he started to understand it coming out every day for a bicycle, for a bicycle, for a bicycle, he started realizing, I don't think this is the way God works, so his new plan was that he would just steal one and then ask for forgiveness.
See when that moment comes for you, when you start to think, if I don't make it happen, if I don't force it to happen, it's not gonna happen. You tend to think that the issue is the girl, or the grade, or the job, or the money, that's not the issue, the issue is your peace, the issue is your integrity. If I just looked over at her test, no, I don't know, I might get into college, I might get into a good college, I could do great things for the Lord. If I just took the one with the wrong price tag, instead of the real price tag, somebody once said to me, when it comes to things like this, and it sticks in my head all the time, especially when things like that happen, when it cashier rings up the wrong price, or something like that, they said, what price would you put on your integrity?
But you're willing to sell out your integrity for the five bucks, is that how cheap your integrity is to you? In that moment, when you take the shortcut, when you compromise what's important for what's immediate, you lose confidence in God, you're saying I don't trust you, God. I don't trust you to get me the deal, or the girl, or the grade, there's this sense of even when you get to the other side, those of you that have done this, even when you get to the other side of you go, I don't feel right about this. Temptation is always this test of your trust in God.
It's not a test about your self-control. Please hear that, temptation is not a test of your self-control. Temptation is a test of your trust in God. If I let this go, can I trust that God will take me where he wants me to be, and that that would be better.
In order to do the will of God, do I need to compromise the truth of God? Do you trust him? Can he be trusted or do you have to take things in your own hand? So with this temptation to sacrifice, what's important for what's immediate?
Jesus again reaches back to Moses, who warned his people about forgetting about the God when it came into promise land. And he remembers Moses told the people this, right after he said, I'm afraid you're going to forget, he told them this, fear the Lord your God, and serve him only. Take your oaths in his name, don't follow other gods. The gods of the people around you.
I love what one writer said, he said, do you know what Jesus wanted more than the kingdoms of the earth, Satan offered him the kingdoms of the earth? What he wanted more than the kingdoms of the earth was unbroken fellowship with the Father. And at the end, Jesus got both. What do we want so often?
We often want so much the kingdoms of the earth, and we wind up with neither. What is it that you want so bad that you would trade what's important to get? So Jesus quotes the story again, he says, look, it is written, worship the Lord your God and serve him only. And then finally, Satan, having failed on the first two, he gives it a third shot with the pride of life, he catches on, so he tries to quote some scripture, back to Jesus, he pulls an old testament prophetic verse out of the Psalms.
The devil let him up to Jerusalem, the hatamstand on the highest point of the temple. If you're the son of God, he said, throw yourself down from here. I'll tell you, Jesus, as you said, it's written he'll command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully, they will lift you up in their hands so that you won't strike your foot against the stone. Satan saying, look, Jesus, this is gonna be hard.
Look, we're up on top of the temple, do you see all those Pharisees, do you see the Sadducees, do you see all the religious people? They're never gonna believe that you are the son of God. I know you're the son of God, you're not the son of God, you're not gonna believe it, they have no respect for you. But Jesus, if you would jump off of here, see, the scripture says that God would catch you, and then they would know who you are.
You should do that, Jesus. And you know what this is? This is the temptation, and we do it especially Christians, the temptation to presume on God, the sin of testing God. See, in the first temptation, a peril really existed, hunger, it was real.
Here, Jesus is asked to create the peril and then presume on God to deliver him from it. The percent of presumption on God, that I can do whatever it is I want, I can make my plans, I can grab a Bible verse to cover it, and then I can hold God accountable to blessing them. You said God, you're right here in whatever. And that's what Satan's tempting Jesus with.
Where does that come from? Jesus reaches right back because he knows the story, he knows his story, and he reaches back to the Old Testament again. He shows, in his mind, he knows the story of the people of Israel wandering through the desert when they became, they were fed every day, but then they became thirsty. In Exodus 17, they begin quarreling with Moses and saying, give us water to drink.
And Moses goes, why are you quarreling with me? Why do you put the Lord to your test? Look, he's taking care of you, why are you doing this? Cut it out.
But the people were thirsty and they grumbled, and they said, why do you bring us out of Egypt to make us and our children in livestock die of thirst? God, you don't know what you're doing, God. Moses, you don't know what you're doing. I'd like to see you provide us with some water because I don't see any water here.
If you know the story, God comes through and he provides miraculously this water. And then Moses, a couple of verses later, calls this place where it happened in Exodus 17, he calls it Massah and Marabeth because the Israelites quarreled, and because they tested the Lord there. Saying is the Lord amongst us, we're not. Guys, believers, don't use God's power to test God.
There is no sense in seeing how far you can go with God. There is no sense in putting yourself deliberately into threatening situations, doing it recklessly and needlessly and expecting God to rescue from it. God expects his own people to take some risks, to trust him, but he doesn't expect them to take risks in order to enhance our own prestige. Oh, I know he's not a Christian guy, but I'm pretty sure if I marry him, God will come through.
God, you said you wouldn't want us on equal yoke. I'm sure if I marry him that if I pray about this, God will change him. I mean, God loves me, right? I know I didn't study for the test, but I know God wants me to prosper.
And if I get an F, that's really going to blow my testimony at school. So I think I'll just, I'm going to presume, I'm going to know that God is going to come through for me. I know I shouldn't have had that sixth drink last night, but I'm sure if I get pulled over, God doesn't want me to blow my witness. So I'm sure that I'll find favor with the police officer.
Have you done this? I'm going to do things my way, and I'm going to presume that God will cover it for me, because he loves me. And see, Jesus again sees what he's up to. And Jesus goes, look, I will test him and manipulate God.
I'll try to force his hand. I cooperate with God. I don't manipulate God. And he says this, it is said, don't put the Lord your God to the test.
Let me close with this, Church. Ban, you can come up. When the devil had finished all of this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. So he's coming back.
This is our life. In fact, this is what Paul said to the Corinthians. The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience, because they all come from these three issues. And God's faithful.
He's not going to allow the temptation to be more than you can stand, but when you're tempted, he'll show you a way out so that you can endure. Can I give you a couple of things to think about? How did Jesus get out of these temptations? Anybody notice what he did every time?
He quoted scripture. So here's the two things I want you to understand about that. The first is there's power in the Word of God. It is not just scribbles on a paper.
There's spiritual power in it. And Jesus was able to use it. In fact, Paul, when he talks about standing firm and faith in Ephesians, the only offensive weapon is the scripture. So in knowing the scripture, you'll be able to fight through some of this.
This is why I'm making sure I hope you'll sign up for this. I'm trying to teach you these weapons. Here's the second thing to know, though. Jesus didn't just treat it as scripture.
Jesus treated it as the story of his people. He was able to look back on his life. I don't look at my life of his people and go, no, no, no, hold on a second. See, I don't have to turn this bread into stone, because I remember in my story where God has come through for his people and provided food.
Do you know in your story where God has come through for you and provided for you? He says, no, no, no. I don't need to have all of the kingdoms of the world right now, because I have enough in God. He's already given me more than one.
It's not going to be satisfied by the only bigger house, nicer car, pretty wife. I don't need that stuff. Are you going to look back on your life and say God's been enough for me? I don't need to get these other things.
It's pride of life issue, right? Jesus looks back and says, no, no, no, I don't. I don't need somebody to call me the man right now. I don't need to impress everybody by jumping off this building and being caught by God.
I don't presume on God. That's not how I walk. I walk in faith and trust. So I would encourage it to sign up to do these scripture lessons with us.
I would encourage you to know your story, journal it. It's not just the scripture he fights Satan off with. It's also the concept of knowing that God has come through for him in the past. Lastly, there's a little bit of like an Oz-like thing here.
It's not the woman. It's not the booze. It's not the position. It's not the guy.
It's not the hotel. It's not the chocolate cake. When you see these temptations in your life, take the power away. I just start speaking to it.
I know what you're doing here. You're trying to trick me with the lust of the flesh or the lust of the eye or the pride of life. And I'm not going to fall for it because I know my story. And I know the scripture.
And I trust in God.