SURVIVING THE ATTEMPT | THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

Matthew 2:13-23 NLT Premise Contrary to what you may think or believe there is an enemy who is determined to hinder, halt, or even assassinate every God given purpose, call, and assignment on your life. It is not by coincidence or happenstance that you have faced tedious battles, dark days, and heavy seasons. It was the enemy at work trying to deviate you from the plan and will of God. The good news is that the attempt failed. Scriptural Insight 1. Always be ready to hear what The Lord has to say especially in hostile seasons. He warns, reveals, and communicates pertaining to His will often. Our focus must be on faith and not fear! “After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”” Matthew 2:13-15 NLT “For God may speak in one way, or in another, Yet man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, When deep sleep falls upon men, While slumbering on their beds, Then He opens the ears of men, And seals their instruction.”Job 33:14-16 NKJV 2. Sometimes the weapon of choice to set up, manipulate, and/or carry out the attempt on your life is the information that has been revealed! The good news is that NO WEAPON will prosper! “Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance. Herod’s brutal action fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:” Matthew 2:16-17 NLT “No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, And their righteousness is from Me,” Says the Lord.” Isaiah 54:17 NKJV 3. Wait on the Lord before entering into what used to be. Something has to die before you are guaranteed to live! “When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. “Get up!” the angel said. “Take the child and his mother back to the land of Israel, because those who were trying to kill the child are dead.” So Joseph got up and returned to the land of Israel with Jesus and his mother.” Matthew 2:19-21 NLT “It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple.” Isaiah 6:1 NLT 4. Sometimes an unlikely pivot can shift you into fulfilled prophecy. When God tells you to move…..MOVE! “But when he learned that the new ruler of Judea was Herod’s son Archelaus, he was afraid to go there. Then, after being warned in a dream, he left for the region of Galilee. So the family went and lived in a town called Nazareth. This fulfilled what the prophets had said: “He will be called a Nazarene.”” Matthew 2:22-23 NLT