The Compelling Delusion // Discovering the Hidden Things of God, Part 4

You know something – worldly success and recognition are a seductive thing.  Even as we go about God's business.  It turns out though that there's a fine line between serving God and chasing after recognition. Things are not always what they seem, have you noticed that? With people and, you know, so often with God. I don't know if you do this but sometimes I think I have God in a box that's way too small for Him, He just doesn't fit. My thinking is narrower than His and so often I'm focused on the small picture when He's working on a much bigger picture. I'm focused on how I feel and what my needs are and He, He's focused on developing my character and on drawing me closer, on pruning me back so that I can flower and blossom. Is it just me or do you kind of relate to what I'm saying? Sometimes I plan on achieving this or achieving that for God and His plan, His plan is for me to wait humbly at His feet. God can be so frustrating at times don't you think? This week on the program we're digging a bit deeper to discover the hidden things of God. I mean, we're people and each of us is different and we all have needs and hopes and ambitions and dreams and even when those things involve God, it's so easy just too kind of wander off and leave Him behind, to start pursuing our own plan instead of waiting on His. You know something; wait is a word that appears an awful lot in the Bible and no more beautifully than in Psalm 5, verse 3 where it says: In the morning O Lord you hear my voice, in the morning I will lay my requests before you and wait in expectation. And you know, invariably when God's word talks about us waiting on God it means exactly what the psalmist just wrote. Waiting with expectation – not waiting impatiently, not waiting miserably, not waiting saying, "You know something; this is never going to happen," – waiting in expectation or in other words, in faith. I wonder sometimes whether we're not more focused on becoming achievers, on being self reliant than on humbling ourselves before God and waiting on Him and becoming God achievers, God reliant. Over this week we're looking at the great temptation when Jesus was led into the wilderness. He was baptised in the Jordan by John and when He came up out of the water, at that moment heaven was opened up and He saw the spirit of God descending on Him like a dove and a voice from heaven said: This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. What a stunning baptism and straight after that God picks Him up and throws Him out into the desert. Luke chapter 4: Jesus full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the spirit into the desert where for forty days He was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days and at the end of them He was hungry. I bet He was. Here's one of the hidden things of God and it's the things that we discover about God in the desert, in the wilderness, are so much deeper than when we're just racing around being successful and happy. It's really important when we start walking around in a wilderness to know what God's up to. Douglas Webster, in "Under the Radar" writes this, he says: Contrary to the popular notion that links fullness of the Spirit to worldly success, Luke relates the fullness of the Spirit to Jesus' wilderness experience and stresses Jesus' extreme vulnerability in the Spirit before the devil. Jesus, full of the Spirit, is led by the Spirit into the wilderness, a place of testing and utter weakness. There is a close correlation between the Spirit's presence and power and Jesus' vulnerability and weakness. Yesterday we looked at the first temptation, the temptation for Jesus to turn the stones into food; I mean to end the suffering in His own strength, apart from God. It was the logical thing to do; it was the devils logical delusion. Wasn't really a temptation, I mean after all, Jesus was famished, Jesus was the Son of God and Jesus answer was: Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. In fact it was a firm "no" to the devil, "I will wait on God for my provision, I will trust in Him even if I have to starve to death." It puts pay to any notion of self reliance. Today we're going to look at the second temptation and you can read it if you want to in the Bible in Luke chapter 4, verse 5: The devil led Him up to a high place and showed Him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world and he said to Jesus, "I will give you all their authority and splendour for it has been given to me and I can give it to anyone that I want. So if you worship me it will all be yours." And Jesus answered, "It is written worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone. You see the devil led Jesus up to a high place and showed Him the most seductive prize of all, all the kingdoms of the world and the devil said, "Worship me and I'll give all this to you." Now there's a huge jump here from the basic need for bread which was the first temptation, to the greatest thing that he could show Jesus, all the kingdoms of the world. And note Jesus doesn't debate the devils authority to say this, Jesus speaks to the devil not with sarcasm or scorn but with respect and here's the temptation for us. The temptation is that we go after worldly recognition and worldly success, that we achieve what Gods called us to do, in affect, idolatrously. That we end up worshipping the works of our own hands instead of God Himself. Much of what's being said today about the vision of the Church seems to fit with this second temptation. Take a serious long look at what's projected as a compelling vision with hype and excitement and delusion and success. Every Church seems to have its own personalised, customised vision, where do you find that thinking in the Bible? And this fits right into the second temptation. There's a lot of second temptation Christianity going on, Christianity without Christ, what a sharp contrast between that and those beautiful words of Psalm 5: In the morning I will lay my request before you and wait in expectation. Jesus had it right, Jesus went to the devil and said, "No! It is written, 'worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone'." You see the devil offered Jesus all and with the word 'only' Jesus defeated the devil. Jesus said, "I'm not chasing after worldly recognition, I don't want to be in charge of all these kingdoms, I don't want people to think well of me. That's not what this is about; my life is about worshipping God and serving Him alone." It's so easy to worship what we do for God and then leave Him behind. It's so easy to chase after the recognition and the praise of other people and forget that what we're doing is meant to be for God's glory and not our own and I don't care what it is we do or who we are, we all suffer this temptation. Can I tell you, the temptation is the greatest when we're in the wilderness like Jesus was? How tempting must it have looked to be given all those kingdoms, all He had to do was worship the devil once. I've decided there's something so much more important than what I do for God and that's my relationship with Him. That's what this wilderness is about, learning those things, the hidden things of God in a way that we somehow just, just can't forget.