Every time I come, I come down, I'm forced in. Something comes out of the ground. How much grace is having the Father, we just thank you again for this day. And we thank you for the opportunity to call on your name, to make dead things come alive, to heal sickness, to heal the broken, to bring hope to the hopeless, to the Lord.
We just thank you for the opportunity to have that today. We thank you for being a good good Father. The Lord you're always there for us every day of the year. Anytime we need you, we have to do His call on your name, your Lord.
Thank you for all the Father's in this congregation. Thank you for this church. Thank you for this community. And we'll just be able to pass through to bring your word today and your name we pray.
Amen. A Father's legacy isn't built in a single moment. It's not found in trophies, achievements, or the things the world often celebrates. It's built over thousands of small moments.
A prayer before bed. A late night conversation when life feels overwhelming. A hand on your shoulder when words just aren't enough. Little by little, day by day.
A foundation is laid. It's the wisdom shared during ordinary days. The sacrifices that go unnoticed. The early mornings, the long hours, and the burdens carried quietly for the people who matter most.
Every act of love. Every moment of patience. And every act of faithfulness leads a lasting mark. And through a Father's strength, guidance, and sacrifice, we catch a glimpse of something greater.
A reflection of our heavenly Father. So today we honor the Fathers, the grandfathers, the stepfathers, the mentors, and every man striving to lead well. Not perfectly, but faithfully. For the countless ways you've shown up, thank you.
May you continue to lead with courage, serve with humility, and walk faithfully with Christ. Happy Father's Day. Well, good morning. Yeah, happy Father's Day to all you fathers and the ladies.
Take care of them today. And I guess you reap what you sow. If they took care of your mother's day, you can return that. Now, if you really want to be a good Christian lady, you'll go ahead and do regardless of what they did, right?
So happy Father's Day to everyone here today. I always do this. I don't preach Father's Day or Mother's Day sermons for a reason and a purpose. A lot of people will avoid church when that happens, because they don't want to live through hearing about the mother, the father, or that particular.
They've lost a mother or father. So I like to pray for those who have lost a father on this day, and the table will be empty. All the attention will be brought there. So let me pray for your Father in the name of Jesus.
We come to you today, and we thank you so much for the fathers that you put in our life. I pray God today that these fathers here in this church and other churches and even throughout the world would be honored today. I pray it to be a special day for them, but Lord, we know that there are people here today who have lost a father, some recently, some time has passed, but the loss is real. So Lord, I pray today that the memories of their Father would become a source today that brings them great joy and laughter.
I pray God that the feelings and emotions wouldn't override the great memories, and as those memories come to their minds, I pray God that they would enjoy that for a moment. Make that a blessing in their life today. Be with them and encourage them as they go through this day, and again, bless all the fathers. Thank you for such a gift, and we thank you most of all for the heavenly Father.
We thank you God for what all you do for us, the way you love us, and the way you provide for us, and everything in life that comes from you. We give you praise, honor, and glory. In Christ's name we pray everybody said amen and amen again. Happy Father said to you, help me work with those who are watching online and listening on the video.
Let them know you love them, welcome them. Then you like church, yeah. Y'all feel a little bit reserved today. Y'all a little reserved today?
That's okay, because I'm always gonna speak to you anyway. We're in a current series called Battle Tested. Now we're taking battles that were waged in the Bible, throughout the Bible, and we're bringing biblical principles so you and I can understand some things about battles and when we go through battles. So last week we talked about building under fire, and all that was about is when God calls you to do something, opens the door, promotes your whatever, and you start down that road, you're gonna face opposition.
Many of you heard that sermon last week, and I got many texts, many phone calls, and even in the four y'all there, people said, man, I needed that. I understand battles and all that, and I'm going out today, and I'm gonna keep building, and God is gonna use me and do all that stuff. And so it all worked that way, but then here's what happened. Sometime here in the week, or maybe towards the end of the week, middle of the week, I had a number of you get back to me and say, man, I don't know if I can do this.
I don't know if I can handle the opposition coming towards me. I don't know if I can handle the feelings, the emotions. I don't know if I heard what you said, preaching it sounded good, it sounded right, and I know it was right, but I'm having trouble. I can't hardly get through this thing, I can't hardly do it, so I wanna deal with that today, and I wanna talk about something that looks like this.
I wanna talk about tested, how to win when hell comes after you. Because I want you to understand that hell is coming after you. And here's the way I like to describe it. If you're doing something for the Lord, or if you're doing something that benefits the people around you, what we would call a righteous cause, if you're doing something for the Lord, and everything we do is believers, or to be done for the Lord.
If you're doing that, then you can understand the devil is not happy with that. And he doesn't want you to get started, so here's the way it works. You can take a locomotive a train, and you can put a little wedge under the front tire, the front, whatever you call those things on those, locomotives, you put a wedge there on the track, and it can't go anywhere. However, once it gets started, it's not a whole lot that can stop it.
So the enemy understands that principle. If he can get you to stop, short of what God is calling you to do, stop short of what God has in mind, and has in store for you, that he's already got you. So there's a battle, we talked about that battle being waged in our feelings and emotions, our thoughts, our likes, our dislike, the self side of us. So when I say that, I wanna make this statement right here, so you can see this.
We live in a world that says, follow your heart. Amen? We live in a world that says, follow your heart when the Bible says the heart is deceitful above all things. Who can really know it?
But we live in a world that tells us, follow our heart, do what feels good, but we know that in scripture, you can't follow the Lord on your feelings and emotions. They'll take you everywhere. You can't ever trust those feelings and emotions. You deserve it, that's what the enemy will tell us.
You only live one time. Anybody ever heard any of these things right here? And you only live one time then do it like you wanna do it. Then we wonder why marriages are failing or falling apart, why people are drowning in death, why addiction is everywhere, why so many people are depressed and anxious.
I'll tell you why it is because we believed a lie, I believe sometimes we take the bait of Satan. You remember in the Garden of Eden where everything was good and everything was right, Adam Eve were there, there were no problems though. I mean, they had it made if you would say. They were right in the presence of God.
He would come down in the cooler, they'd even walk with him every day and Eve believed the lie, she accepted the lie from Satan. And I think that that same lie that Eve believed in the Garden of Eden is kind of somewhat the same lie that we believe here on this earth today. If you look at Jesus and his temptation in the wilderness, he was offered a lie and you and I are offered the same lie that he was offered day in and day out. So that's what I wanna talk about today.
I wanna talk about Matthew chapter four and your reading assignment this week is to read Matthew chapter four and let the Holy Spirit speak to you after I kind of go through it a little bit today, you'll have a little understanding of it. We're gonna talk about Jesus in Matthew chapter four and his temptation in the wilderness and that's where I wanna go today. So I'll give you the context of the story so you can see it right here. Jesus has just been baptized in water.
Now watch this, the heavens open up, the Holy Spirit descends in the form of a dove, not a dove but in the form of a dove. I need to stop right there. Let me say this though, God speaks audibly. This is my son into I'm well pleased.
Now if you stop right there, how many of you would agree that was a significant spiritual moment. That was a moment where God done something that he'd never done before. The heavens opened up, he speaks audibly. The Holy Spirit comes down, another thing we can learn from that is before Jesus Christ who was God, 100% God, 100% man.
Before he did what God called him to do, he needed the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Before you and I can do what God has called us to do, we need the empowerment of the Holy Spirit on our life. It's called the baptism of the Holy Spirit. When you got saved, you got all of the Holy Spirit on the inside but there is a power that the Bible talks about in Acts chapter two that you and I need to do the work that God has called us to do.
Jesus needed that, we need to mark that down and remember that the point is, this was a big day spiritually in the lives of the people around because they witnessed something they never witnessed before. What I want you to understand is this, when God moves mindily in your life and God opens doors and you have spiritual encounters and God begins to set you on a course and things happen in your life, whether you were saved, whether you were baptized or whether you took on a ministry or maybe a door open and you took on a position or God has you placed in the community to do something great, I want you to understand the moment that happens, opposition is gonna come. After a spiritual battle is fought, a spiritual battle is won, opposition comes, God speaks audibly, this is my son. Then the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness.
So you thought we'd have a big revival, right? You would have thought that when this happened, a big revival was about to break out but the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness where he fasted for 40 days, no food, no water. Then the devil shows up and he comes to tempt Jesus. This is a major, major, major battle.
How many of you have ever fasted and you fasted for a prolonged period of time? How many of you are hungry, you're tired, you're irritable, you don't have unified in you? Well, that's where Jesus was. I know you think, well, he was God, he didn't work that way, no, he was a 100% man and he chose not to use his deity to do anything, he let the Holy Spirit do everything.
So here's what I want you to see about that. The moment you say yes to God, hell comes after you. It doesn't matter if you're saved and you say yes to God for the first time today or you've been saved for a while and you've rededicated your life to the Lord or it doesn't matter what God's doing in your life, the promotion or however you wanna say it, once you say yes and you begin to go down the road that God has laid out before you, then you can believe one thing hell is coming after you. So we understand that story, I have three takeaways and here's where it's gonna work.
The first two takeaways I'm gonna talk about are how the enemy works. But on the last point I'm gonna tell you how to win in these battles, is that good enough? So the first thing I want you to see is just right here, the devil lies about who you are. The first thing he would do is he'll begin to question you and get you to question whether you are who God says you are or you're not, that's what was happening right here.
So we see in Matthew chapter four it goes this way right here. During that time the devil came and said to him, if you are the son of God, he was questioning his identity, if you are who God says you are, if you are what the word says you are, if you believe everything God says about you, that's what he brings our mind and he wants us to question that. Here's the interesting part, if you go back, if you go back and look at the word three verses before that, God himself spoke out of heaven and said, this is my son in whom I am well pleased. Remember in the garden of Eden, he gave the lie to Eve and he said, hey look here did God really say, he's doing the same thing right here to the Lord.
And I want you to understand if he did it to them, he'll do it to you if you can understand that. Here's the deal, Satan's first move. After a spiritual high or a new commitment in some area, he waits until you are vulnerable and tired to get you. Let me tell you something, there is a principle right here and I can't preach all of it, like I wanna preach because we'd be here all day.
But I want you to understand, he waits till you get vulnerable, he waits till you're tired, he attacks your identity in Christ, he tries to get you to question God, are you sure you can, you're saved, anybody ever had that problem, you're saved and you're going to heaven and I've heard, I've said this before, and I had these real religious people say, I've never questioned my salvation. Well, I don't literally question God's word or the salvation, but I've had feelings and I've had moments where I came to the place where I said, hey do I really have what God said I have? Can I just, can I tell you, and you religious folks that hear me, I don't care? Sometimes I get to the place and I say, is it really what God said it was?
You can be so overwhelmed in a line, you begin to ask questions like that, that's the fear of devil coming after you, trying to attack you to get you to question who you are and what God said about you. So when you think about that, just God really loved you after what you've done. Anybody ever been there? You look at your life, you're saved God's forgive you, you read everything into word of God and you know you're good because God said you're good, the blood of Jesus applied to your life, but you can't forgive yourself for what you've done in the past.
And the devil comes in and he does that, maybe you're not cut out for this, you start down the road and the devil gets you to begin to entertain, I'm not cut out for this, I can't do this, I'm not qualified, I'm insignificant, I just, I can't do this. And then he says this, you always be broken and you always be addicted, you always be a failure. And he says that to us constantly, all the time talking this stuff to us and talking these lives just, can I tell you all that's a lie? He is a liar and the father of all lies and it's time for you and I to be able, when he lies to us to go to God's word and tell him, you are a liar and the truth is not in you, that's where we are today and that's what we gotta do.
Our identity is not based on how we feel, it's based on what God has already said in his word. That's our identity right there. So what does he say in his word about you and I? Would you like to see that today?
First thing he says is this right here, but to all who believe in him and accept him, he gave the right to become children of God. When I'm telling you today, we serve a God that just didn't settle with saving us. He wanted to become our heavenly father. He is the greatest father you'll ever notice.
What I wanna say today is simply this, if you had a bad father and you had a bad example coming up and it didn't work out too good, the heavenly father is the greatest father, don't you base? Your experience on God because God is a good gracious and loving God, you can't do that. So you gotta go to the word and here's what I like about that. I know by what God said that I'm his son and that means whatever he has, I have, that means whatever he says I can do, I can do.
And I can accomplish whatever he lays out before me because he never leaves me or forsakes me. He's always there for me encouraging me and loving me. Amen, somebody say that. Ephesians says it this way, he's so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his son and forgave our sins.
So the next time the devil tells you you're unqualified and you can't do it because something you've done in your past, you go back and take this scripture right here, Ephesians one and seven and you read it yourself. He purchased my freedom with the blood of his son and forgave me of every sin known and unknown. That's what God says about me. It doesn't matter what the devil says.
You gotta know what God said. I love this scripture, your second Corinthians 5 17. This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person, not the old person. Now people won't let you forget about that old man but they remind me around town all the time.
They'll say things to me like this. You know, I remember you from back in the day, I can't believe that God would call you to preach. And I'll look at him and say, I can't believe he did it. But he did.
Hey, and he anointed me and he gifted me and he's working with me and he's doing it working my life because he never leaves me for a sake. The old person is gone. I'm not the person that you use. I run into people sometimes and I'll be just a little bit old del in there.
And I'll say I'll be just a whole lot of old del in there. But Blake prays God, God is gonna help me overcome that old man, right? Are you women today? Philippians 4, 13 says, well, I can do everything through Christ who gives me strength.
So I'll just come to tell somebody today that if the enemy is putting those lies in your mind and he's talking to you day and night, it doesn't matter what the circumstances around you may be. It doesn't matter what you've been through. We serve a God that is greater than circumstances and past history and can do great things in our life. Would you agree with that church?
What God declares, here's what I love about this. What God declares Satan can't undo. What God has declared in his word about you, Satan cannot undo. He can roam around like a roaring lion seeking somebody.
He may devour, he can make a lot of noise. He can talk a lot of lies. But this is the truth from Almighty God. It's the truth of the word.
It is the way, the truth and the life. And if you trust the word of the Lord and not the lies, you can win the battle in your life. You're not who you're feeling say you are. Because our feelings, by the way, are very untrustworthy.
Our emotions, you can't trust them either way, right? You are not who the enemy says you are. You are who God says you are in this word right here. Second thing I want you to see is that you got to guard your identity in Christ.
Tiptation promises easy but delivers empty. Now we're tempted a lot to do things in the devil. When he came to Jesus, you'll see this in a moment. He offered him some shortcuts in life.
I'll talk about that in just a moment. But I'll tell you, you better know you're identity and you better understand the word of the Lord. And then do things like God's word says do them. And you'll be fine.
So the first shortcut that he did when he was tempted in Jesus Christ was this. He said, look, I want you to meet your own needs. I don't want you to wait on God. I want you to meet your own needs.
I want you to meet your own power. So it looked like this right here. He's in the wilderness. He's fasting.
He's trying to get God's direction. He knows what the mission is ahead of him. And he's fasting and he's seeking God. And he's trying to do any showing us how we're to live for God as well.
During that time, the devil came and said to him, if you are the son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread. You know what the devil was trying to do there? He was trying to usurp God's authority. And he was trying to get Jesus to operate his own power and his own strength and use that power and strength to accomplish what God said him and the Holy Spirit would accomplish.
What God desires for us is that we would humble ourselves and seek God and follow God and trust the leading of the Holy Spirit to get the job done. The devil was really saying that Jesus don't wait on God. We can buy past God right here. We can go around God.
You don't have to do it the way God says do it. You don't have to follow the word of the Lord. We can take a shortcut here and it'll happen much faster. And that's how he comes to us.
The modern version of that is this right here. He'll tell some of you along that resume to get the job. Make yourself look a little bit better than you really are. Live because if you do that, you'll be ahead of everybody else and you'll get the job.
God's okay with that little bit of life right there. He's the, everyone does it they say. It says compromise your integrity. Oh, it's just business.
It doesn't matter if you compromise your integrity. Nobody will ever know. You can do that. God will be okay with that.
Everybody's just a common thing. Preaching you know we don't have to be so upright. Well listen, the one that you're trying to please this Almighty God and it doesn't matter what man says and it doesn't matter what the world says what matters is pleasing God and glorifying his name. That's what matters right there.
And then we'll hear this and I might sleep with him or her. You've been dating long enough. Sleep with him or her. You've been dating long enough.
You don't have to keep yourself till you get married. Now listen, I could preach right here a moment, but I want to say this, and some of you have done that. God will forgive you if you ask him to forgive you and you repent and you have a sincere heart. Don't leave here.
Beat up about that, right? But I want to tell you right now, if you really want to do it like God says do it, then don't go down that road right there. It doesn't matter how long you've been dating. The Bible says that we are not to be involved in fornication or a door tree.
That's God's way. Now let me help you with that right there. I'm not trying to close line preaches this morning, but what I am trying to help you with is this right here. I'm not going to be involved in your relationships.
Come on, how many of you want to be involved in your relationship? You want to do it like he said, do it. How many of you want the blessings of God on every relationship you have? Well, the only way you can have the blessings of God on any relationship is do it.
Like God said, do it. He's a loving God. He created you and he knows what works best for you. And all about doing or not doing here, it's about a loving God who says, look, if you want the greatest relationship in the world, if you want me to bless you like I can bless you and you want it to be what I designed it to be, then you've got to do it like I said, do it.
Now you can do it other ways. And it works out, okay, sometimes, sometimes not so good. But God said, if you really want the best, do it like I've called you to do it. Don't get married, just move in.
We call that shacking up. And I'm amazed about this one right here, because I've heard Christian people say, look, that's the way we do it these days. Everybody's doing it. It don't really matter.
Let me give you a statistic and tell me if it matters or not. If you go study this out, people who move in together before they're married, who shack up, their divorce rate is 50% higher than a normal divorce rate. What is God saying is here, do it like I said, do it. If you just follow my instructions right here, I will bless you.
I will give you the marriage you never thought you could have. I'll give you the peace, the happiness, the contentment. I'll bless it abundantly. I'll be there.
But if you take a shortcut and you do it the way I said, don't do it, you're asking for trouble. Somebody help me right there. Now shortcut number two, watch this right here. Test God's promises.
He wanted Jesus to test his promises. So here's what he said. Then the devil took him to the Holy City Jerusalem, to the highest point of the temple and said, if you are the Son of God, there is again, jump off. For the scripture says, he will order his angels to protect you and they will hold you up with their hands so you won't even hurt your foot on a stone.
Now that's in the word of the Lord. So here's what I want you to see. The devil will use God's word. He'll come give you half-truths.
And he'll give you half-truth, but you gotta know what God's word says. It says, don't you tempt the Lord your God. Don't you do that. Don't you understand that I have a way that I work and there are principles that I want you to run your life by.
I want you to be guided by. Don't you listen to the devil. So here's what he was saying really to Jesus and make God prove himself. What I want you to do is make God prove himself.
You know, he did that to Adam and Eve and he's doing it to Jesus here. And he does it that's every day. Well, we don't have to prove anything to God. We don't have to test the promises.
It is word. We just have to believe the promises in his word. And we have to believe that God can give us a better way of life than we can give ourselves. I'll give you the modern version of that.
So you can see it. God, if you're real, do this for me. I'll trust you when I see evidence. Let me tell you something right now.
You don't ever trust God when you don't see that. When you see the evidence because a lot of times we are walking by faith and not by sight. And a lot of times in my life when I get to this place and everything's kind of messed up around me and all the feelings and emotions are coming in. And I don't understand this and the devil's whispering in this here.
And then we have some good old godly people who give us the wrong kind of godly counsel. And we get all that. We're trying to make a decision. Here's what God said.
I want you to walk by faith and not by sight. I want you to trust me. I want you to trust the word of Almighty God. I want you to understand that my word has been around from the very beginning.
You can take it and understand it as a lap to your feet. It's a light to your feet. It's a light to your path. God said if you'll trust the word and do what the word says, things will work out OK.
But he was trying to get the devil or the devil was trying to get Jesus to get God to give him evidence. And here's what I want you to see about. That's not faith at all. When you say God, if you'll do this, I'll do that.
That's manipulation. I said that's manipulation. That's of the devil. That's why these TV preachers that tell you to send the thousand dollars or the two thousand or the ten thousand.
And I'll pray for you. And when I pray for you all, your debt's going off. That's manipulating God. No, I'll tell you how I like to do it.
I like to look at what I got and say God, you said if I give, I, that it's right. I don't, I'm not looking for a blessing here. I'm doing it because it's right. I'm doing it because it's in your word.
So I'm just going to do it. And a lot of times when I do it, a lot of times I may not have the resources to do it, but I'm trusting God that he'll provide whatever I have needed. I'm not trying to manipulate God. We need to give in.
You shouldn't either. So you got to be careful about saying God, I'll do this if you'll do that. That's witchcraft. That's manipulation.
Short cut number three. He gets you to worship the wrong thing. That's what he's trying to get you to. You better hear me right here.
We would never worship a structure or an idol. And somebody come in and say, well, we'd say no to that. But boy, we're very quick to worship a lot of things in this world. I wish somebody would say amen about that.
And this is a trick of the devil. Next to the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain. Showed him all the kings of the world and their glory. The devil said, I will give it all to you.
He said, if you will kneel down and worship me. The devil said, you can have it all, Jesus. It's mine. You notice there was no argument about who it was at that time.
He said, it's mine. And if you'll do it like I want you to do it, I'll give it all to you. What he was saying to the Lord says, I want you to skip the cross. I want you to skip that.
I want you to compromise. I don't want you to follow God's plan. I don't want you to do that. I'll give you the modern version of that so you can see it right here.
Sometimes we think this way, build ministry through manipulation. We think we have to manipulate people. And a lot of pastors get in this trap right here. They think they got to be friend everybody and be the golden boy and be their friend.
Make them feel good and be everywhere they are all the time and do it that way. Manipulating them to stay and be in the church and be involved in church. That's manipulation. Well, I learned a long time ago if I have to work to get you here and keep you here, I'll have to work to keep you satisfied while you're here.
But if God brings you here, if you understand it's a righteous cause and God brings you here and he opens that door and you say yes to him, then I don't have to take care of you. You'll be a good soldier in the army of the Lord. Somebody say amen about that. Don't manipulate them.
They don't try to take shortcuts like that. When you think about that temptation, every time you see temptation, it promises something really easy, but it leaves us real empty. Every single time, do it this way, not God's way, and this will happen through this. We're always empty when it comes to that.
Here's a good one for the affair that promises excitement, but deliver a broken marriage. I promise you this right here. You can talk to anybody if they're a Christian or a living right now and if they were involved in an affair and they left one and went to the other, God forgives all that, God can work things out and you don't need to be condemned about that. But here's what I find out.
I'll have long conversations and don't know if you come up here and ask me who said that because I'm not going to tell you. But here's what they tell me. If I had to do it over again, I would never do that because I was promised one thing, but I found out when I got over there there was a septic tank under there. And then when I found out, is this right here, and history proves this out, that if they'll do it to you, if they'll do it to them, they'll do it to you.
So now you've got to live with that for me in your mind, or your life, can you trust them? Are they doing the same thing they did with me? See shortcuts never work. You've got to follow God's work right there.
So when you think about that, look at this right here, God's way may take longer. I may even know that we have to be patient with God. It may take longer, but it always delivers what it promises. You can trust one thing.
If you do it like God says, do it, it will deliver exactly what God promises. If you do it, if you take a shortcut, do it like the world says, do it, do it like the Bennett by you got, then I will tell you it'll under deliver. You'll never have the peace, the contempt, the joy, it's a work, it's a battle, and it's a torment in your life of that day on if you take that shortcut. So when you think about that, I want you to see this right here.
Matthew 4 and 4 says it is written. This is how you win the battle. Matthew 4 and 7 again, it is written. Matthew 4 and 10 says away from me, Satan, for it is written.
That's how Jesus Christ won the battle. That's how you and I are going to win the battle in our life. It's called following the Word of the Lord. It doesn't matter what Arab your life is seeing, it doesn't matter how much you failed, it doesn't matter how hard it is.
If you do it like God says, do it, and you answer the devil the same way Jesus answered the devil and some of you are here today. You're playing around with this, you're playing around with that, you're mucking around over here, you're not following God's work. And God just sent me to tell you today, you need to begin to look at the devil and tell him, it is written again, it is written. Away from me, Satan, for it is written.
Are you hearing me today? Jesus, he doesn't argue at all with the devil and he doesn't negotiate with the devil. He speaks God's Word. And that's how he overcomes it.
You see, if you go back and read that this week, when you read it, here's what you're going to find out. All this took place in order that I've just given you, but here's what I love about the devil, I had no response for God, or Jesus. When Jesus said it is written, the devil could just stand and clean you, it was written. He knew what the truth was.
So when you think about that, go right here, God's Word is the sword of the Spirit. Jesus quoted from memory, he had the word hidden in his heart, you can't use a weapon you don't have. Now this is so important right here, and this got me when I was writing this, because I don't have enough of scriptures memorizing. You say, wait a minute, are you telling me the truth, you preach every week, I don't memorize everything, I don't memorize.
Technology has made us dumb, right? We can go find it real fast. But I want you to see how Jesus beat the devil right here in the temptation. He had this word memorized, and the Bible says it's a sword of the Spirit, that's a capital way, it's a Holy Spirit.
In other words, when you have this in your heart, you have something the Holy Spirit can work with. You better not miss that one right there. When you have it in your heart, when you begin to quote it against whatever's coming against you, the Holy Spirit, he moves on the Word of God. If Jesus will say it this way, put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.
It's just proof right there, so here's your question I have for you today. What scripture do you have memorized for your biggest temptation? Think about the biggest temptation in your life right now, I think about mine. I want you to think about it, I'm asking the question of what scripture do you have memorized so you can fight the devil.
Now let me tell you something about that, I'll explain this in a moment, just memorize the scripture according to the backs, not enough. But it is a tool, the Word is a weapon right there, what anxiety attacks, or when anxiety attacks, what verse do you use? When lust tempts you, what truth do you use? When doubt creeps in, what promise do you use?
I just had a story, I don't know if I could tell that story, because some of you couldn't analyze that story, but it's real. No, I'm not going to tell that little thing. What I'm trying to tell you is the devil will tempt you, and when he tempts you, you better have scripture, and you better have real scripture. I've had things happen to me, and I've had temptations for sin, let me go this way in my life, and preachers have it too.
And one time I was tempted in one area, and the scripture came to me, your sins will find you out. You can be sure your sins will find you out, scared me to death, because I hadn't done anything, there was an opportunity. And the scripture come to me so fast, you can be sure your sins will find you out. Honey, I ran.
Did you hear what I said? I remember that scripture, I think about that scripture, and thank God, he gave me the scripture, thank God it was in my heart, and the point that I'm trying to make to you today. And you got to hide the word of God in your heart, because your heart is deceptive above all things. And when temptation comes, no matter what level it's on, you quote the scripture back of that thing, and if your faith is where it's supposed to be, the Holy Spirit will take that scripture and win every time.
Every single time you got to do it that way. See, different battles when you think about this. Different battles require different scriptures. They do that, and here's what I want you to see.
You don't need just a bullet, you need an arsenal. You understand that? Don't come out there with one bullet in your gun, say, well, I got this one scripture. Well, that one scripture made out of plywood everything in your life.
You got to have an arsenal. So that's how you do that. So I'm going to give you an assignment today so you can do this and it'll work for you every time. Number one, most important one, trust Jesus and what he did on the cross of Calvary.
Everybody got that, that's proper faith. Not my Bible reading, not my prayer life, not even my scripture memorization. I'm trusting the Lord, and I'm trusting the blood of Jesus Christ. I'm trusting what he did.
I'm applying that to my life, and I understand he came for me. And if there were nobody else on earth, he would have still died for me, and I'm taking what he did on the cross of Calvary. I'm standing on that, I'm believing that. I'm not trusting anything else.
Have you got that? That's the starting place. Because here's the deal, the Holy Spirit can't work in your life if your faith is in the wrong place. If you believe that you can read this scripture, remember how this scripture, and then God can work in your life, then Jesus could have stayed in heaven and not went to the cross.
But if you believe that, then when you pull the Word of God out, trust the Holy Spirit to do what needs to be done in your life. That's how you fight the battle right there. Give the Holy Spirit the weapon of the Word of God to work in your life. So here's the way it goes when temptation comes and the Word comes about you, a powerful word, and it says you can be sure your sins will find you out.
I have a healthy fear of the Lord in my life. And when God speaks that to you, if you keep going, you are an idiot. This is it, it's called everybody. I said, if you keep going, you're an idiot.
Because I trust in God. And when he sends that word to me and it comes into my mind and it comes into my heart, it's got power behind it. Let me tell you something. There's a difference in saying you can be sure your sins will find you out.
That's good. But when it comes like a trumpet blast in your life, you can be sure your sins will find you out. That is God speaking through the Holy Spirit in your life, and it backs you up a step or two. And it just turns out to take a moment.
Right? Because here's the deal, you're going to be tested. Here's what I want you to see. Identify your biggest temptation.
Find three scriptures that directly address it and memorize them. Find your three scriptures, memorize them. Find you one that's sweet to start there. When temptation comes speak them out loud and watch the Holy Spirit work.
Well, here's the deal without the Holy Spirit, you can quote that word all you want. The Holy Spirit is what makes it alive. And what gives it impact and what gives it weight. The Holy Spirit has it.
This is a spiritual thing. So get your faith where it's supposed to be, trust the Holy Spirit. Remember, I have some scriptures and watch God working your life because the truth is you're going to be tested. Every one of them is going to be tested.
Hey, I was going to come for you. He's going to try to destroy your life. And when you think about it that way, Satan is going to lie to you. He's going to lie about you.
He's going to do all that. Temptation is going to come for you and how to take shortcuts in life. Don't do the marriage like God said. Don't do the dating like God said.
Do the dating. Look, that's old, fogious stuff. It's old stuff. Everybody's doing it this way.
Now, no, everybody's not doing it that way. God wants you to follow His lead. Use the weapon that God has given you. Just like Jesus used that weapon.
So the scripture says it this way. Then the devil went away and angels came and took care of Jesus. The devil went away and angels came and took care of Jesus. The temptation in your life are not different from what others experience.
And God is faithful. He would not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can end her. That's what scripture says right there.
Proper faith. Trusting the Holy Spirit to do the work. Having the Word of God there when you put those through the galleys, a mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty thing. So the question I have for you today is what are you battling today?
What are you fighting right now? What temptation? What shortcut are you fighting right now? As I believe, because everybody's fighting them.
I can tell you that. I fight them every day. You'll fight them. Every head bowed, every eye closed.
What temptation are you battling right now? What shortcut is the devil offering you today? Which one is it? When you think about that, it could be in a relationship.
It could be in a relationship where you're dishonoring God. That's a shortcut. It brings temporary satisfaction. The world is doing it.
Everybody says it's okay. But you're dishonoring God in that relationship. Where is it? Maybe it's a issue right here.
Maybe for some of you men today, being its father's day and women too, because they tell me women are doing this as much as men are today, pornography. Are you playing with the pornography that can destroy your marriage? And it'll start out innocent and small, but then it can escalate the devil's destroys its the trap. Maybe it's that pornography you're playing around with.
It's a shortcut. And maybe you're looking for temporary satisfaction. The devil roams around like a roaring lion seeking someone he can devour. Maybe it's the bitterness that you've never, ever, ever given up.
You're nursing that thing. You're walking around angry. You're going to be looking for forgiveness in your heart. And you're trying to take the shortcut to avoid everything else, but you don't want to go through the process.
God says you ought to go through. Maybe it's the addiction that you're wrestling with. You've hid that from everybody else. And you're presenting yourself in a way that's just a facade.
But you have this addiction and you're using that. The devil's conventions are shortcut for temporary happiness. How about the anxiety that's crushing you right now? Just weighing down on you.
It could be depression. And that depression may have whispered to you, you'll never be free. You're going to have to live this well. If it's going to be that well, all those are lies at the devil.
What I've come to ask you today is I want you to stop fighting on your own. Don't fight it, no more. You can't beat that. I have people telling me all the time, tell me that I can't live that way, and I say, you absolutely right, you can't.
I can't. But God can live that way through me. And with the help of the Holy Spirit I can live that way. So I may have named or I may not have named what your temptation is, what you're going through right now.
This week some of you been tempted, you know you've been tempted. The devil's offered you a different way and another way. He's offered that too. You get it, it comes.
You'll run right through your mind. You might be a toy with it a little bit. Maybe you're on the path that maybe God sent you here today to stop that in your life right now. How do you do it, preacher?
I'll tell you how you do it. You confess it right now to God. You confess it. And then you repent of that thing.
Repent is an interesting word throughout the Bible. It's a very big word throughout the Bible. And it's a significant word in a Christian's life. You have to repent and that's God to forgive you.
And you have to turn away from it. And look, you get in that place of repentance when you talk to God about it and you say, God, I can't do this, but you can help me with this. And then you watch God work in your life. You surrender your life to the Lord.
You give it to Him. You realize you've done all that you can do. And you made a mess out of it or about to make a mess out of it. You surrender it to the Lord.
You trust the Holy Spirit and you trust the Word of God. So here's your old call today. I may have mentioned your particular temptation. I may not have.
I don't know. You have an assignment before you start that assignment. You got to get things right with you and the Lord. So this is for two people this morning.
Maybe you don't know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. You never said yes to Him for the first time. Well, the problem is you can't have His help. You do realize if I preach the Lord is open your eyes with the temptation of the devil, how to fight it, how to deal with it.
But you never said yes to the Lord. You never made things right. And you want to do that today. You want to leave here a different person.
You want to leave here with the Lord, the Holy Spirit working on your behalf, helping you to have this life that only God can give you. If that's you, if you raise that hand, I'm going to pray for it. I'm not going to call you for it, call you out. I'm just going to pray for you.
This is a great day. God bless you. I see that hand. This is a great day.
God loves you so much. He brought you here today. It was Father's Day. Maybe you thought you were just coming to be with your Father.
Maybe you're watching online. You can do the same thing right there. But you need to get things right with the Lord today. Would you just raise that hand?
I'm just going to pray for you. Would you do that? Is there another that would say yes to the Lord today? Yes.
Is there another? Then the second group that I'm talking to today, you're a believer. You've been mourning in. You know the Lord, but there are temptations in your life.
You need God's help with it. If that's you, God bless you. I see that hand that's you. Yes, God bless you.
God bless you. God bless you. God bless you. God bless you.
Are there others? God bless you. They're in the back. God bless you, honey.
They're temptations. They're real. You preach your hazzies. We all have them.
Jesus had them. The question is, are we going to find them? God bless you. Are we going to find them with the word?
Are we going to take shortcuts or are we going to follow the spirit of the Lord and the word of the Lord? So my prayer today is God help us follow your word because on our own Lord, we cannot follow that word. It's a good word. It's a right word.
It's a powerful word. But the truth is God, I have a sin nature. I'm a human being. I live in a sinful world.
And no matter how much I love you and want to do right, as Paul said, the things I don't want to do, I find myself doing all the time. The things I know are wrong. I find myself doing God. God, I need your help.
If that's you today, get that hand up. I'm going to pray for you today and God is going to do a work in your life. I want you to understand. Yes, God bless you.
God bless you. I want you to understand that raising your hand, there's no power in that at all. But the Bible says when we confess with our mouth and we believe in our heart and we repent, then we'll be saved. That means rescue restored and delivered.
See, you got to believe what you say and you got to mean what you say. So I want to ask it again. You have temptation and you need God's help today. Get that hand up right now and I'm going to ask God.
I'm going to ask God to pour his spirit out upon you. But here's the deal. Get your faith right on the big trust Jesus Christ. What he did, nothing else.
Then allow the Holy Spirit to come in and do the work. Are you ready for the power of the Holy Spirit to come in and do the work today church? Are you ready for that? Let's pray together.
Repeat after me. Heavenly Father, we come to you today. We thank you for your word that works. We thank you God that Jesus died on the cross of Calvary for me and forgive me for every sin known and unknown.
Thank you for the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Thank you for giving me his righteousness. But today I come to your father. I have temptations.
I'm tempted to take shortcuts. I'm doing life differently than you said do it. In particular areas of my life, I struggle, but I've heard your word today and I understand this. I can't do it on my own.
I can trust Jesus. I can trust what he did from him on the cross of Calvary and I can trust the Holy Spirit to come to my rescue. I can't find the temptation with your word and the Holy Spirit then takes that word and gives it power. Power to deliver, power to transform, power to shut the devil's mouth, power to overcome temptation, power to live this life.
God, we give you all praise. We give you all the honor. We give you all the glory and we give you all the victory and we live here today under the power under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. We will win these battles according to your word.
The devil will be defeated and the devil can't even respond to what just happened. Thank you, Jesus for the victory. Now here's where we are church. There was something to say yes to the Lord for the first time and maybe the Holy Spirit is dealing with you now before I pray that prayer.
Would you get that hand up and say, Hey, I want to know the Lord today. I want that power in my life. I want a different life. I'm tired of the life I'm living.
If that's you get that hand up, I'm just going to pray. We're going to pray just like we did. This is your day. If that's you know, one of your two of you raised your hand up a little earlier.
So we're going to pray together right now. Repeat after me, Heavenly Father. We come to you today. We thank you for forgiveness.
The blood of Jesus Christ. The finished work of Christ. We put our faith that confidence in that today. We repent of every sin known and unknown.
We ask you to forgive us for the way we've acted, the things we've said, the thoughts we've had, the way we've treated people, the way we've talked about people. Forgive us today. Wash us in your blood and help us to turn away from those sins. According to your word, when we pray that prayer and believe in our heart, we are saved, rescued, restored and delivered.
On our way to heaven. And our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. We give you praise. We give you honor and we give you glory in Christ's name.
We pray. Everybody said, Amen. I don't know, but I think we need a great song to leave here because the Bible says this that when people say yes to the Lord that there is a celebration going on in heaven, a party angels are celebrating. I think we can celebrate a little bit.
Don't you think so? Stand to your feet, praise. Give us something to celebrate what God's done here today. Stop.