Welcome to our Together on Mission podcast, where we seek to be with and like Jesus, as we begin a conversation with Jesus in the morning, through scripture, prayer, and meditation, and then continue that conversation within throughout your day. Your host is Travis Twyman, the pastor at the Inland Vineyard Church in Corona, California. Good morning, my friends. This is Travis Twyman, and it's great to be with all of you.
And we are friends that are friends of Jesus, and one of the things that friends that are friends of Jesus have really always done since Jesus modeled this is to spend a little bit of time connecting with who Jesus called Father. And that that connection in the morning would not be the talk, like, okay, I had the talk, but it would be a conversation that would continue throughout the day. So that's what we're doing, friends that are friends of Jesus, connecting with our Heavenly Father, and enjoying conversation with Him, and then launching into a conversation that lasts throughout the rest of the day. And we're going to be in Matthew chapter 4 this morning, and we are just going to camp out in one verse.
And so I'm going to read it. Jesus answered, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Very profound. And I think I mentioned this in our last podcast, but sometimes we'll just read scripture too fast.
We'll skim over some of this stuff and maybe miss the benefit of thinking about what that means and what idea Jesus had in mind. That life and satisfaction and rest and freedom and all the things that we want do not come from anything or anybody other than God Himself. In the Old Testament, one of the great prophets, Jeremiah, has this image, this prophetic word about Israel trying to fill these pots up with water, but these pots have holes in them. So the more the Israelites fill these pots up, the more water just drains out the bottom.
It's like it won't fill. It won't work. No matter how much you pour in, no matter how fast you pour in, it will not actually work. There's holes in the pots.
And sometimes life feels that way. We're looking to things like bread or accomplishment or relationship or food or drink or celebration, and these are all good things. But we're looking to these things to hold water. But the more we do, the more we pour in, it just isn't working.
There's a book in the Old Testament called Ecclesiastes where basically King Solomon goes through all the things that we think might give us life. Building things, beautiful gardens, sexual pleasure, storing up of riches, incredible wisdom. He goes through everything under the sun, and he basically says, if we're looking to these things alone, we're going to find that it's meaningless. And in the last podcast, we looked at the first temptation.
And in the next podcast, we're going to look at the next temptation. But I thought we should just pause here for a moment. We cannot live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. There's only one way to be satisfied.
And when we end up trying to use things or use people, we end up actually abusing things or abusing people. When we look to food or friendship to ultimately satisfy, we end up abusing food or abusing people. And this pattern is as old as Genesis. I mean, Adam looked to Eve to satisfy him, not God.
You know, Abraham was looking to his son Isaac to satisfy him. Jacob was using work and accomplishment. Noah was using wine. Samson was trying to use women.
Saul was trying to use the affirmation of others. And on and on and on and on the story goes. This is Jeremiah and his pots. The water is just going to leak out the bottom.
This is Solomon and Ecclesiastes. There's nothing new under the sun. It's not going to work. So the question that we get to ask would be something like this.
What might you be using in order to get satisfied? And it's probably a really good thing, but it won't work. It won't hold water because there's nothing that satisfies under the sun ultimately. And when we try to be satisfied through things or people alone, we turn those things or those people into idols and we begin to use them.
And whatever we use, we can't truly love or manage. You see, we're called to love people and steward things. But when we look to people or things to satisfy us, ultimately, we can't love them and we can't steward them. Rather, we need them to satisfy us so we end up exploiting them.
And this is what happened in the first temptation. Turn these stones into bread. And Jesus says, man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes out of the mouth of God. And this is so profound.
Again, we read past this. But we can't experience life by or on bread alone. Bread's a good thing. And so is friendship and accomplishment and money and all of that.
It's created by God. It's declared good. But we can't experience life through those things alone. We can't have life by simply using things or people to meet our needs.
We've tried that. And maybe we're trying that. And to be completely honest, we are trying that. But there is an answer.
And it's going to sound cliche. But the answer is God, the word of God, the living word of God, God alone. And, of course, God in his humility has given us a whole bunch of really good things to, and here's the key word, enhance life. But when we use any of those things or people that God has given us to enhance life, we find that the cisterns have holes in them.
There's nothing new under the sun. They can't deliver life. Only God can. And when we seek to find fulfillment, satisfaction, rest in God alone, as Jesus is saying here, then we find ourselves able to enjoy things and able to enjoy people.
The way Solomon puts it at the end of the book of Ecclesiastes is that there's nothing new under the sun. Nothing under the sun can ultimately satisfy. But there is one who made the sun, and that person can satisfy. So the question presses upon us as friends that are friends of Jesus this morning.
What or who are we using in order to have or to find satisfaction? And if it's anything other than God, we'll always be frustrated. And maybe some of us can relate to frustration, irritation, anxiety, worry, pushing, pulling as a result of trying to find satisfaction in some thing or in some person. We'll always end up frustrated, and we'll end up using and abusing that thing and that person.
And unfortunately, that thing or that person will be something that has not even been able to enhance life because we're not treating that thing or that person appropriately. See, all of this wisdom is found in this one statement, this one verse. Humankind cannot live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. And understanding this is paramount.
It's paramount in temptation. It's paramount in life. There's so much wisdom in this story of how Jesus is facing the enemy, outsmarting the enemy, revealing the enemy for what the enemy is, and revealing sin for what sin is. Jesus understands the first form that sin takes, and he's communicating that to the enemy by using this verse from Deuteronomy that we can not have life on bread alone, but only can that be found in God and in God alone.
And then, again, I've got to land this plane. I only talked about one verse this morning, and here I am almost at 10 minutes. And then we're actually set free to experience the joy and the enhancement of so many things and so many people in our lives because we're not using them or using it. God is meeting our needs, and we're set free to enjoy because the reality is idolatry leads to worry and anxiety and a need for more, but allowing God to meet our needs leads to peace and leads to joy and pleasure, actually.
And so let's just spend a few minutes as friends of friends of Jesus praying, maybe even saying this profound statement that Jesus said in this moment of trial just over and over again. We cannot live on bread alone. We cannot live on people alone. We cannot live on, go ahead and fill in the blanks, but rather on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
Life is found in God and in God alone the inexhaustible resource of life. And let's live this reality today and enjoy the presence of Jesus as we allow this truth to soak into the soil of our soul. And we'll talk soon. Thanks for listening to the Together on Mission podcast.
We truly hope that you were blessed and encouraged by you today. If you had any questions about the Inland Vineyard Church, our ministries, or our Sunday services, feel free to connect with us on our brand new app, which you can find in the Google Play and the App Store. And check out our social media pages like Facebook and Instagram, or even check out our website at inlandvineyard.org.