Mark: The Person and Work of Jesus Christ #8

The Author has the Authority
Mark 1:21-28

21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law. 23 Just then a man in their synagogue who was possessed by an evil spirit cried out, 24 "What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!"

25 "Be quiet!" said Jesus sternly. "Come out of him!" 26 The evil spirit shook the man violently and came out of him with a shriek.

27 The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, "What is this? A new teaching—and with authority! He even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him." 28 News about him spread quickly over the whole region of Galilee.

This is the Word of God. Let's pray...

Alright, I am only going to hit the first two verses of this passage tonight, and we are going to continue it into next week.

I wanted to read through all of this down to verse 28 tonight because it flows together in a very clear way that I don't want us to lose sight of.

So for at least this week and the next, maybe for three weeks we are going to see how this trip to the synagogue keeps unfolding more and more important information and then how it comes back to repeat a VERY important truth.

So tonight we will start unpacking four points from this text, and we'll only get to the first point this week. We're going to unpack the passage using the questions "What? and "So What?"

We are going to start by asking “What is happening?”

Then, based on what we find we are going to ask “So what? So What's that thing that we see happening got to do with the character and nature of God?

And, so what's that got to do with you and me as we interact with the Living God of the universe and with each other?”

And by the way, I'm always telling you to read your Bible and this is a great way to do it.

Prayerfully reading the Scriptures and asking those two questions “What & So What?” is a great way to read the Word and really start digging into it so that it can dig into you, into your heart.

I am not the preacher who calls you to read the Bible in a year or any set period of time, as though God is most concerned with you getting it done in record time.

But I absolutely will call you to chew on the Word and leave nothing left on the bone. I want that kind of interaction between us as a gathered body and the Word and for you individually with the Word.

So WHEN you read the Bible for yourself – that's not a suggestion. I didn't say IF you read the Bible. No, WHEN you read the Bible — I believe you will get more out of it if you slow down and after praying, go through a small section of the text and ask, “What does this clearly say?”

Then move into the “so what” questions — Questions like:
“So God's word says to love my enemies; what does that look like in my marriage? What's that look like in my job? So What's that look like with the other people in Church (big “C” and little “c”)?”

Or, “So God's word says not to worry about what we will eat or drink or what we will wear, but instead to seek FIRST the Kingdom of God and that everything else will be added onto us; so what does that look like when money is tight? So What's that look like when our little kids are not so little anymore and they are growing faster than we can keep up with them – faster than we can buy more clothes? So What does that mean when the factory doesn't come back from their seasonal layoffs? So What's God's word mean to my life and yours in a recession?”

Do we think that God's Word was valid to a particular point in history, but that He really didn't see our newest round of world and personal crises?

Of course not, He is THE eternal and all powerful God. That means He was in control before the world and every nation and all of our lives were created. He will be in control once all of this present age, all the nations, all the historic landmarks and all of our crises are over and gone. And He will still be in control when we are before His throne.

He's in control then, now and always – from eternity past to eternity future, there is no limit on Him. He's bigger than any problem you and I are dealing with. So again, “So What!?” How does His word affect us in the here and now?

Now use that method to read God's word, it's a great starting point in your walk with Him. And, we like to always remind you to do this like the Bereans. Remember in Acts 17:10-11, they took all of what Paul told them in his teaching and preaching and they looked through the Scriptures to make sure he was on the level.

When I or Andy or any guest comes up to the pulpit to speak or even to lead us in singing. Be studiers of the Bible so that you will know when or if we are off track.

Now let's get back to tonight's passage and the “What/So What's?”

So here are the four “What's?” or the four points we're exploring in the next couple of weeks.
Point one, from the text is this: Jesus goes to Capernaum and teaches with Authority.

Point two: Jesus is recognized as who He TRULY is – not by the people yet - but by a demon. And, the demon is controlled by Jesus without a real fight.

Point three: The crowd is amazed by Jesus' teaching AND His power to cast out demons.

Point four: Jesus gets quick fame.

Now lets ask “So what?” starting tonight with the first point.

Tonight's Point, from the text is very clear-cut. It’s this: Jesus goes to Capernaum and teaches with Authority.

21 They went to Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, Jesus went into the synagogue and began to teach. 22 The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.

So Jesus taught with authority, so what?

Teaching by a visiting rabbi was not an uncommon practice in the synagogue. But there was something different going on here - wasn't there?

These Jews came in and were expecting the same old thing, some very well educated guy who would come up and read from the scroll, then unpack the passage. But what was common was a dissection of what other teachers had already said about the passage and a affirmation or a rebuttal about those other views on the passage.

But all of those references to other men's views didn't have the power behind it the LIFE in it - that it did when Jesus came to Capernaum that day and spoke.

The others taught as someone who had read and studied the Word.
But, when Jesus got up to read and then taught, He did so with an undeniable and unique authority.

As one pastor said, Jesus didn't teach like someone who had read the book, He taught like the one who wrote it – As The AUTHOR!

And listen, if you don't get another point, if you leave after this and never come back I want you to grasp and hold tight to THIS. The Author has the Authority.

The Author has the Authority.

We, in the church sadly as much as the world, all look to a million different places for our information today except to the Word of God.

We look to the news channels, which we honestly choose from on the dial based on what slant we want to hear from, we look to self-help gurus who tell us that we are basically good people who just need this one thing to fix us or we just need to follow this list of whatever.

Or, we look to our own understanding because we think we have it all figured out. We don't need anyone to tell us anything because we see the big picture and the only problem with the world – in our eyes – is all the other people who don't see things our way, right.

This is the culture we live in and – in one degree or another it has always been this way. Even way back in the day, the people wouldn't listen to God's revelation.

They knew what they WANTED to be true, so they sought out people who would fill in the pre-arranged blanks for them. They wanted them to read from the World’s script, not God’s.

When the people of God were in exile as a result of their rebellion against God, they wanted the exile to end sooner than later and they wanted to hear that God was going to give them victory right away. That’s what they wanted to hear.

But He wasn't going to. They were going to remain strangers in a strange land for 70 years before being released.

But they didn't want to hear that, so instead of listening to God's true prophet, Jeremiah, they found some false prophets to tell them what they wanted to hear.

In the book of Jeremiah 23:16-18, the Lord used His prophet to speak against these guys – the false prophets – who came in and told people what they wanted to hear.

And, God sent Jeremiah to speak out against the people who LISTENED to the impostors instead of listening to and following the true Word of God.

Jeremiah 23:16-18
16 This is what the LORD Almighty says: 
"Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; 
they fill you with false hopes. 
They speak visions from their own minds, 
not from the mouth of the LORD.
17 They keep saying to those who despise me, 
'The LORD says: You will have peace.' 
And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts 
they say, 'No harm will come to you.'
18 But which of them has stood in the council of the LORD 
to see or to hear his word? 
Who has listened and heard his word?

Listen, if you read through this set of 66 books, and specifically to the Authoritative words of JESUS you will see that God has called us to a counter-cultural life. That means we do not respond to the world in the same way that the world responds:

- We are not to hold onto grudges and outright unforgiveness like the world does.
- We are to hold our tongues when other's gossip.
- We are to raise our children up by God's design, not in the world's way of idolizing the children or making them our buddies.
- We are to love our wives, men. And you are to respect your husbands, women.
- We are to live and die for the kingdom mission and not for our own comfort or glory.
- We are to connect with a church based on what needs we can help that local church meet - NOT just by what the church can provide for our niche needs.
- We are to call one another out when we see sin and we are to receive correction when it is our turn, because we all need that correction.

In another Gospel, when we read through the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus kept saying, “You have heard it said... But I tell you...”

And what He did again and again was He took the flawed teaching of men and our traditions and said, this is where you are off the rails and this is where you need to repent.

And, again at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, we see the same reaction from the crowd:

And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. (Matt 7:28-29 ESV)

But listen, listen, let's bring it back here, back to the present, back to our lives again.

Just like in Jeremiah's time when the Israelites were in captivity, and just like we will see from the crowds later in Jesus' ministry in the Gospel of Mark,

WE honestly just want the word of God to give us promises of riches and conquest and we don't want to hear the Word of God when it works like a scalpel to cut away the chunks of selfishness, self-centeredness and pride off of our hearts.

Part of that in this local church may be my fault. I preach a lot about the role of Jesus as our Savior. But we also need to recognize Him as our Lord. We have to see Him as the Author with the Authority.

But, when you do that I don’t want you to overcorrect and put yourself into another ditch.

Listen, if you always look at the Word of God and only see a list of rules or impossible standards that you can't meet and if you think that keeping those rules are the way you are supposed to earn God’s love and His acceptance then you will never follow Him with the right heart. You may never even try.

Instead, if that’s how you see God and His Word you will run back to the easy answers. We'll run back to the people and organizations and publications that help us to believe that WE are all right and it is the rest of the world that is jacked up.

It’s easier for some of us to live in denial than as failures.

What we need to understand is that The Word of God is the Word of Our Loving God. That changes everything. It changes everything IF we believe it.

If the Word of God is the Word of Our Loving God, then even the parts that sting are for our good.

Before you run away from Him and His PERFECT will for your life. Ask yourself, what are you running to?

The old adage is still true when it tells us to “Consider the source.”

For our discussion tonight: Consider the source of the information you are ingesting.

God is desperately in Love with you. With YOU on a personal level. He loved YOU so much that He did what? He loved you and I and the world so much that He...sent His son, Jesus Christ to die for us on the cross, so that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but will have eternal life.

That's the source of these hard teachings, these commands toward holiness, these calls to godliness. These calls that we kick back against AND I HONESTLY MEAN WE. The things we kick back against are from the greatest lover of our souls. And what do we run to instead?

Listen, whether you run to the best ideas that you can form in YOUR OWN mind; whether you run to Headline News and CNN or Fox News; whether you run to the patriots or the traitors, whether you run to a shrink, or to Oprah, or to the many friends and family who don't love you enough to tell you the truth; or whether you run to the flawed “masterminds” of modern or postmodern thought, or even to other self-focused, moralistic world religions - No matter what, consider the source.

No matter how pure their motives might be on their BEST days, not one of those people or groups will ever be more purely and lovingly FOR YOU than Jesus Christ.

And not one of them, no matter how smart or savvy or worldly, has as complete a view of history and the future than Christ our Lord.

So. You can and you will feed from the trough of the perfect love and truth of Christ, which will mean dying to self and living for Him. Or you can and will feed from the data (not the truth) of what is AT BEST, the imperfect love and the incomplete information of this world OR your own mind.

Consider the source.

Listen, you know when you read this Bible for yourself that Jesus speaks to you – to YOUR LIFE with authority. When you get to those things that you want to take a marker and cross out – when you get to those things that you want to explain away in the Bible (or just ignore) – those things shine a spotlight on your heart so that your heart can’t hide anymore.

We are not in a position to change God's mind any more than a character in a book is in a position to change the next chapter that its creator has written.

Like I said at the beginning the Author has the Authority.

But we've all tried to rewrite His plan for our life OUR way haven't we?

So, do we go along in our sin of rebellion against the author? Do we keep reading and listening to the teachers of this age? Do we keep following our own way of thinking to the detriment of our souls and to the continued defiance of our loving Father in Heaven?

Listen some of us have denied the will of God as He's revealed it and we have found misery on top of misery. Others haven't yet.

No matter where you stand, tonight can be the night that you put down the teaching of the world’s best and worst minds and pick up the clear and authoritative Word of God.

Pick it up and read it for yourself. Ask the questions of “What & So What?”

And in the Word, find the uncompromising – for your good – for His glory – LOVE of God for you.

It will be hard going, especially as the Word cuts through the most calloused areas of your heart. But Oh! How His love heals the tender wounds of that surgery. And Oh! How free we become once we stop following the world and we submit to His authority.

I pray that we might all put down our old ways tonight and take Christ.

If you are here and you have been fighting for too long against His authority and if the fight's got you wrung out and deflated, please don't leave here tonight without confessing that and receiving prayer. God is not waiting until you jump through hoops. He's ready to pour His love into your life right NOW.

Be open to it.

Let's pray...

Ignorance is No Excuse - Stand alone Sermon

The Exclusivity of Christ and It’s Implications In Our Lives
Acts 17:22-31

How’s everyone doing? Let’s pray…

Okay, we are jumping off of the Series through the Gospel of Mark tonight because I honestly couldn’t give that sermon as it was forming and so I have to go back this week and re-work it.

Instead, we are going to look at a passage that I kept going back to over and over again this week. It’s in Acts 17, starting in verse 22 this week. Go ahead and turn there.

We’re going to read it unpack some key points.

Just to get you up to speed if you’ve never read this passage, Paul was this church planter who traveled a great deal of the Roman empire preaching the Gospel. And as he preached the Gospel, he would watch as the Holy Spirit use the Gospel to save people out of their sins and into the mission of the Kingdom, and saved into the family of a local church.

Then as a church got it’s legs under it, Paul would appoint leaders, tell them to stay close to the Gospel and to beat down any wolves that tried to mess with the clear and simple Gospel message. And then he’d move on and start all over again.

God was just using Paul in amazing ways.

And every city was different. There was usually some opposition from either the old school Jewish community who didn’t believe in the Resurrection of Christ or the deity of Christ. They didn’t think that Jesus was the Messiah, so they would start trouble with Paul when He said Jesus was the Messiah, Jesus was the Christ and that they needed to repent and believe.

Another opposition group came from some of the Jewish people who did believe that Jesus was who Jesus said He was – the Son of God, the savior of the world.

In that respect they were like Paul, EXCEPT they caused a stink because they wouldn’t let go of their old rituals, and ceremonies that Jesus came to fulfill through His life, death, burial and resurrection.

So these guys would fight back against Paul because he taught what Jesus taught, that the only requirement for salvation was Faith in Christ alone. They said, yes. You do need to put your faith in Christ AND you need to do all of this other stuff like get circumcised, keep the old dietary laws and on and on.

Another group that Paul got grief from was the non-Jews who had a good racket going in their cities selling trinkets of idols or pimping out demon-possessed fortune tellers before Paul got there.

When the Gospel was spoken and Jesus’ name was dropped and the Spirit started changing lives, these guys started to loose money and loose control. So, they opposed Paul. For them, it was a business decision.

So those were three of the common groups who pushed back against Paul. And when I say pushed back I mean sometimes they put him in prison (Acts 16:23), some times they hurled rocks at him until they though he was dead (Acts 14:19).

Now, in Athens there is going to be a different kind of conflict. These people just hadn’t heard anything like this before.

See in most of the other places Paul had a springboard of the Law and the Prophets, the Hebrew Scriptures – what we call the Old Testament. Here there wasn’t that base level of understanding. So Paul had to see what they believed in and show them how there was more to be known and understood about the Spiritual realm.

They had a deity on every corner, a statue for every god they could think up and every statue was worshiped for a different reason, one for fertility, one for business, one for good crops and so it goes… It’s similar to the idolatry of the Old Testament that God pulled Abram out of, and that the Israelites went right back to later on.

It’s what we read about in Romans chapter one, where we are told that instead of worshiping the creator God, we turn our backs on Him and worship the things that we have created.

Why did they do that? Because if they created their own god to worship – a god of their own understanding – then they could call the shots with that God. They could make their God powerful in their minds without all commands on their lives.

But, IF God was above and greater than them, then He would control them and the commands on their life would not be as easily ignored.

So that’s what Paul’s walked into in Athens, now we’re going to pick up in verse 22, when Paul gets to talk to the big thinkers of the city.

Acts 17:22-34
22 Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: "Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. 23 For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

{Unpack} In other words, you don’t have to wonder about the unknown God anymore.
Listen, this is the basic message of our faith. Remember, when we are saved FROM the punishment due to us for our sins, we are saved INTO a family.

While God is colossal, even though He is transcendent – outside of time and space, and not dependent on us at all; He is also immanent, which means that He comes down to our level He is always with us. And He has chosen to reveal Himself to us as our Heavenly Father.

Jesus used this picture for us over and over and if you are a parent you get this. Even though you are who you are with all of your indwelling sin and all of your struggles, you want what is best for your child. You don’t want them to be lost or confused. You aren’t going to hold back information that will help them know how to function in this world and you are going to let them in on who YOU are so that they can know about their family, their heritage and of what and whom they belong to.

So, connect the dots with Jesus’ word picture here. Your Father in Heaven also wants you to know all that you need to know, for your survival in this world of course, but more so that you can understand where you belong – in the Kingdom family.

That’s one of the reasons Jesus came, to stop us from chasing this false god and that false god - gods that could never save us or satisfy us or give us an eternal home or a family.

Paul says to the Athenians, you don’t have t wonder anymore. Your Father in Heaven, the God of the universe, the one true and eternal God has made Himself know through Jesus Christ – God in the flesh.
Before he talks about Jesus though, Paul has to smash some idols and really, to show how silly these false gods are:

24 "The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26 From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27 God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28 'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'

29 "Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man's design and skill.

{UNPACK} This is a lot like what Isaiah was told by God to speak against. In Isaiah 44, the foolishness of idol worship is spelled out by the man who toils to cut down tree so that he can use some for a fire, then carves an idol out of the other half of the same tree that he just cut down. And he worships that block of wood. God says that is foolishness onto sin.

Moving on to verse 30 this is the key verse so pay close attention here:

30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

{Unpack} Paul says, listen that was sin to do what you have done back in the day – to worship those idols to bow down to those fake gods. You didn’t know any better. You knew there was a God – a creator and a sustainer, but you were way off the mark.

But now God has made Himself known to us all through Christ. And Jesus Himself said that He was the only way to God. The only way to escape God’s judgment.

Now, Paul says, it is time to turn away from that old “you” and turn to Christ. That’s what repentance is. It is a changing of the mind a changing of the heart. It is to do an about-face. In the military it is the action of pivoting to stand or move in the opposite direction from the original.

Before the Gospel was delivered by Paul, the Athenians where marching in the wrong direction and they didn’t have a clue.

The same was true in YOUR life and in MY life before we came to Christ. We were marching along.

We were following the orders passed down from our commanders, whether that was our old sin nature, the fallen designs of this fallen world or Satan himself. Most of us followed all three.

Before Jesus though, NONE OF US followed God.

But the Gospel was spoken and we turned.

We saw the damage caused buy our sin and the sin of the people around us and we saw our inability to fight that sin on our own and the Holy Spirit gave us the gift of faith – Faith to believe that Jesus was indeed the Son of God and that by his sinless life, death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, He rescued us from death and Hell and saved us INTO the family. Praise GOD!
If you are here and you’re a visitor and if you are not a believer. If you wonder what is church all about – what’s this church all about – that’s it. It is all about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

And we are begging you with hearts of love to receive Christ tonight if you haven’t yet.

Maybe you never worshiped a statue like the Athenians. But we all worship something. If it is not God, the Lord Jesus Christ, then it is something.

I used to worship the bottle. Whiskey gave me orders as to what to think, how to treat people, where to spend my money, when to work and sleep and all the rest.

Other Christians here used to worship success. Their careers called all the shots in their lives before Jesus came into the picture and said repent. Come to Me (Jesus) and be saved.

Others worshiped their family, or one special person in their family. But they found out like all of us that people – even really great people – are horrible gods. They cannot give us what only Jesus can give us.

If you are not a Christian yet, what are you worshiping instead of Christ? Again, we call you to do an about-face and receive the gift of God’s grace in Jesus Christ tonight.

Because no matter what else has happened in your life up to this point, you now have the information you need. Like Paul said

30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

And listen, the time is coming when there will not be any time left to turn away and turn to Jesus. Verse 31 reminds us that:

31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man (Jesus) he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him (Jesus) from the dead."

That day is coming. That day has been set since the foundation of the world. He doesn’t tell us when but He tells us how it will all go down.
The Scriptures tell us that we will all be judged as guilty UNLESS we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ The innocence of Jesus, which He gave us when He took our sin in that Great Exchange.

Let’s pray…
Communion…

Mark: The Person and Work of Jesus Christ #7

Jesus Sees, Jesus Calls. We Leave Our _____ and follow Him
Mark 1:16-20

16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.
19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

This is the Word of God. Let's pray...

We are not going long with the message tonight because we are also holding a celebration on the hilltop right after this when Gwen gets baptized.

Here's the big idea that I want you to pick up tonight and carry with you tonight. And it ties in closely with the last sermon that I gave from the Gospel of Mark.

The big idea from this text is that:
Jesus sees. Jesus calls. We leave our ______ and follow Him.
Let me go through the text with you again and if you have your own Bible with you tonight, I would encourage you to underline or highlight a few of the words in this passage.

16 As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. 17 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." 18 At once they left their nets and followed him.
19 When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. 20 Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

Do you see the pattern? Pay close attention when you see repetition like this in Scripture.

If you jump ahead to Chapter 2 you will see the same pattern again in the calling of Levi, the tax collector. In 2:13-14 it says this:

Once again Jesus went out beside the lake. A large crowd came to him, and he began to teach them. As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector's booth. "Follow me," Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him. (Mark 2:13-14)

This kind of turning away from the comforts of a family business and a steady, safe, life did not start with Simon, Andrew, James and John. It didn't start with Levi.

It is a call that we see throughout the Bible. Way back in ancient times, God called out a man named Abram and told him to leave the land of his family and to follow a new, God given path.

Later on, when God's people went off in their rebellion, God called a farmer named Amos to leave his fields go to the people and call them out on their sin.

And like we pointed out a few weeks ago, Jesus incarnate – in the flesh – had to leave the human comforts of his home, and life and family in Nazareth of Galilee to follow the will of His Father in Heaven.

Now that is a big point that we need to see and understand and keep close to our hearts. That is the point that we are going to end on tonight, we are going to circle back to it in a few moments.
Before we wrap it up there though, I need to address another point.

The point is that Jesus called us out for a specific reason. What did Jesus call us out for? To be fishers of men. He used that phrase with the fisherman, because that is what they understood. He contextualized the mission statement so they could better understand their role in the Kingdom movement.

He made it more pointedly in a way for all of us to understand in what we call the Great Commission. When He saw you and called you, He called you to leave your old pursuits for your own glory, and your own gain, and your own comfort – and He called you to follow Him in one very clear and distinct mission on this side of eternity:

Starting with the people closest to you and then branching out into wider and wider circles, He called you and He called me to go to all the nations, that is to all of the people groups of the world and make disciples, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all that He has commanded.

If you are His, if you are a Christian – meaning a Christ follower – then that is your call.

It will not always be easy. Most of the time it will be down right dangerous to your reputation, to your standard of living, to your former life goals, etc.

The Gospel mission may be dangerous to your health, to your life and even to the lives of those closest to you depending on the time and place you are born and where He calls to you go.

Today, so many of us are quick to grab hold of the gift of God’s grace without ever looking into the clear implications. I think that is true – at least partially – because we pastors are negligent in our duties to spell this all out for you on a regular basis. This kind of message does not generally help to build a big church.
But, in other parts of the world this mission is clear.
It other parts of the world it is undeniable that this is an eternal gift that comes with a very clear instruction and a very high, though temporary, cost.

Now let's wrap this up where we left off. I said earlier that this kind of turning away from the comforts of a family business and a steady, safe, life did not start with Simon, Andrew, James and John. It didn't start with Levi.

We also need to understand that it didn't end with them either. Read the rest of the New Testament you will see the pattern over and over again. Look through the history of the early church. Look through the Reformation. Over and over and over again, the pattern plays out.

Even in our own country this has been true. Especially back when we lived with more reckless abandon in our faith.

While listening to a biography one day I had to pull aside and just pause when I heard the following letter being read.

John Piper was discussing the life of Adoniram Judson, a Christian missionary who reached into India and later into Rangoon, Burma (also known as Myanmar).
On the same day that Judson pledged to leave his life of comfort in the states for an uncertain life in the mission field — on that same day — he met the woman who would be his wife, Ann Hasseltine.

The letter that Piper read, the letter that caused me to stop and take notice - the letter that very well may stir in your heart a desire to give more of yourself to the cause of Christ - was this letter that Judson wrote to Anne’s father.

It was a letter to ask for Anne’s hand in marriage and a letter to recognize what a heavy price such an agreement would entail. Here’s the letter, which Piper got from the biography, To the Golden Shore The Life of Adoniram By: Courtney Anderson.
Please listen to this though the heart of a parent receiving this letter in the mail:

I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this, for the sake of him who left is heavenly home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with the crown of righteous, brightened with the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Savior from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair?

How would you have responded to that letter? How will you respond when God makes it clear that the Gospel will cost you something in this life?

Will you turn away from your God and cling to the fleeting comfort of what is around you now, or will you hold everything here in open hands with a steadfast faith in what is to come?

Listen, He may be showing some of us real soon what the Cause of Christ will cost us. When the rubber meets the road, when he calls you will you leave ______ and follow Him or will you ignore the call?

Anne's father read that letter and, more in love with God, more concerned with the lost souls on the other side of the world than with his saved daughter in the states, he agreed to allow her to marry Judson.

Oh! I pray that our convictions would be so strong. What would you do if you got that letter? What if your child came to you tonight and said, “I’m being called to serve Jesus in North Korea” (or Pakistan or even in Rangoon, Burma, which is still very hostile to Christians).
Listen the story isn't just about Judson or Anne's father, but also Anne, herself. Anne wasn’t some unwilling tag-along.

She knew what she was getting into. Jesus saw her, Jesus called her, she prepared to leave and to follow Him ANYWHERE.

Before she went, she wrote this letter to her friend, Lydia. This letter came from the same book that Piper cited in his biography.

I feel willing, and expect, if nothing in Providence prevents, to spend my days in this world in heathen lands. Yes, Lydia, I have about, come to the determination to give up all my comforts and enjoyments here, sacrifice my affection to relatives and friends, and go where God, in his Providence, shall see fit to place me.

And what Anne understood and her father understood and her husband Adoniram Judson understood was this: They were not doing anything that Jesus had not done already. We talk about it all the time here. Jesus didn’t leave a comfortable life in 1800’s America like the Judson’s. And He didn’t just leave the stability of a family fishing business and the fellowship with His dad in that business like James and John.

He gave up the grandeur of Heaven and all of the praise that He rightfully got from the angels who sang of His holiness. He left that and followed the will of the Father into the muck of this broken world and he took on the danger and the scorn and the rejection that He knew would come with this missionary journey and - on the cross - he clothed Himself with the sin of the world, EVERY SIN.

So that we could be saved from the punishment that was due to us for those sins and so that God might receive all the glory.

Now, we are going to pack up and caravan up to the North Madison Christian Church, where Gwen will truly begin her walk in obedience to the will of God by being baptized as a believer in Christ.

It is a time of celebration and we want all of you to be there. Before the foundation of the world, God had a plan for Gwen’s life.

Jesus saw Gwen, Jesus Called Gwen. Now Gwen is leaving her old life and following Him. That’s the picture of Baptism.

When she goes under the water it is a symbol of dying to herself and when she is brought out of the water it symbolizes being made alive in Christ.

As we talked about two weeks ago, baptism is just one of many steps of obedience that we are called by Jesus to take.

Gwen is stepping out into the public eye and saying, “I stand with Christ!”

What is Jesus telling you to leave tonight so that you might better follow Him? Is it a job? Is it a level of comfort or standard of living? Is it a spirit of unforgiveness? Is it a life of paralysis caused by the fear of the unknown? Is it a life of fighting for your rights at the cost of pushing the gospel forward?

I will never make the promise that the Christian life is easy or safe. But I will call you to step away from what holds you back from living in the Gospel because I know that it is better than any tiny treasure of this present age and it is worth any period of struggle or suffering on this side of eternity.

Jesus has seen you and Jesus has called you. It’s time to leave your _______ and follow Him.

Let’s pray…

Perfect in Christ - Stand Alone Sermon

Eph 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Confession time – I struggle when I read the Bible. Growing up, I always did well in school and most academic subjects came very naturally to me. This meant that I could read through something once and pretty much have it down; I just didn’t have to put much effort into my studies. The Bible is a whole different story. This was a source of frustration for me during my early church years, and still is today. I can read a passage over and over again and still not see something that was obvious to everybody else.

It’s not that the Bible contains hidden messages, or is written in a secret code. But what I have found is that as I mature spiritually I begin to see the truths that have always been there. As I continue to read and study the Word, God begins to reveal to me that which I wasn’t ready to hear before.

Tonight’s passage is one of my favorites, and is one of those that contains a “mature” message just beneath the surface. When I first read through this scripture, it seems pretty obvious what Paul is talking about – and it’s a powerful message for both Christians and non-Christians; something that we can use to get the word out without being labeled crazy or offensive. But as I mature spiritually, I begin to see a much deeper truth at work.

10a For we are God’s workmanship

When I was growing up, this passage was used in Sunday School and in Vacation Bible School – the basic message goes like this - because I am created by God, I am perfect just the way I am (God doesn’t make junk was a common tagline). And while it is a little corny, we see this play out in the creation story in the first chapter of Genesis – God creates something and declares it “good”. He doesn’t declare it “okay” or “close enough”, but good. So if we believe that we are created by God, then we are good; we are made exactly the way he wanted us.

In this section, the Greek word translated here as “workmanship” is also translated as “masterpiece” or “work of art”. Those words imply that there is something special about us, that there is a purpose for why we exist. But if we truly are masterful works of art, then why is there such pressure to change who we are, what we do and what we look like?

Every day we are bombarded by messages from the world about how we aren’t good enough, not perfect enough – but, if we would just buy this beauty product; or wear this brand of clothes; or drive this car; or eat this or drink that. If we do these things, then we will be awesome; then the girls/boys will love us; then we will be successful and rich and powerful. This is the world’s message to us – that we aren’t good enough as we are.

And this is the devil’s message as well. It is the doubt which creeps in and tells me that I am not good enough to deserve God’s love. That I have done too much evil in my life to ever be acceptable to Him – that there is nothing I can to do make it right. The devil twists our doubts and worries and works to drive a wedge between us and our creator.

The hard part is that there is truth in the devil’s whispers, because when sin entered the world, it broke everything. It broke the relationship between man and woman; it brought death into the world as the consequence of sin; and it created a break in the relationship between man and God. Because of my sin, I am not good enough and I cannot do enough good in my lifetime to make amends. But that’s not the good news…the good news is that God loves us in spite of who we are. We are saved not because we have done great things, or because we are holy, but because God loves us and has offered to every one of us a free gift of mercy. A gift made possible by the death of Jesus Christ. It’s that simple – but it’s a message that can be very difficult to accept. If we are caught up in our past and what we have done (or haven’t done) – if we don’t feel worthy of God’s love, then it’s hard for us to accept such a simple declaration. We feel the void in our lives and try to fill it with the things that the world says we need; we try to change ourselves to be who the world says we should be. We buy into what the world says and treat those false messages as wise words for how to lead our lives.

In his first letter to the church at Corinth, Paul gives us this message about wisdom vs. foolishness.

1 Cor 3:18 Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a “fool” so that he may become wise.

Paul reminds us that there is conflict between what God considers wisdom and what mankind considers wisdom. We see this throughout the Bible – God’s commands and the way He desires His children to live is 180° from what the world says is okay. This difference is designed to set us, as God’s children, apart so that we can draw others to the light. In the context of our scripture passage, it can help us reject the lies told to us by the world. We are God’s creation and we are good. Now, let’s take another look at our scripture.

10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God has prepared in advance for us to do.

Now comes the deeper, more complex part of the passage. Tonight’s scripture isn’t just about the physical – not just about what we look like; more importantly, this passage reflects on who believers in Christ have become and what we can expect. When we receive the gift of mercy, we are transformed from enemies of God into children of God. Each of us was once spiritually dead – slaves of sin and headed towards eternal separation from God. And then God’s grace steps in, and we are saved. Here’s how Paul puts it in his second letter to the church in Corinth:

2 Cor 5:17-20

¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come. ¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

There are two big themes that I pull out of these passages. The first is the reminder that none of us has contributed to our own salvation. If you have been here before, you have heard it said that you cannot be saved by works – salvation is by faith alone. I cannot do enough good deeds to earn my way into heaven – I am a sinner, and the only wages for sin is death. It is only through God’s grace that I am saved.

Everything else is from God – the only thing I have done is believe. And this point is important because it helps keep me humble; I am reminded that I am saved in spite of what I did and who I was. This keeps pride out of the equation (hopefully) and puts our focus on the source of our salvation – God through Christ.

The second big idea speaks to what happens after salvation. Look at the second half Eph 2:10 again and tell me what you see.

Created to do good works….

That God has prepared in advance for us to do…

These words imply action; something more than sitting back on the couch and basking in the glory of our salvation. Instead, God has work for us to do – we are to be Christ’s ambassadors here on earth. I am made to be a representative of Christ and his message; to be obedient to the will of the Father and to bring glory to God. This is to be part of what I do every day that I am still in this world, spreading the message of reconciliation to everyone. And for each of us, this means something different. Paul speaks to this in his first letter to the church at Corinth:

1 Corinthians 12:12-27

Every child of God has received gifts and talents from God; talents designed to further God’s kingdom here on earth and bring glory to God. These talents vary widely – some are exciting and are widely valued; things like prophecy, speaking in tongues, healing, and preaching. These are the rock star gifts – the gifts that sit right up front and draw all the attention and praise. But not everyone receives these talents. In fact, most of us will receive much more subtle gifts – gifts that work behind the scenes in support of the kingdom mission. And given that most humans are highly susceptible to pride; this can be difficult to accept.

But as children of God, we are called to accept God’s sovereignty in our lives and embrace the particular gift(s) that He has given us. And this comes, for me at least, with a dose of humility. There are many spiritual gifts that God can bestow on us humans.

As with grace, the gifts we receive are not based on anything we have done. They are simply given to us by God as he sees fit, according to his plans. All of our gifts are meant for a single purpose – to be used in service to the Lord; to do his will and to bring glory to him and help the family of believers.

And whether our gifts are noble or common, they are meant to work together. This is one of the reasons that belonging to a church family is so important; in order that everyone can combine their gifts to help fulfill the kingdom mission. When used together, no one gift is any more, or any less, important than the others when we look at the big picture. And even though this is a long passage, Paul’s first message to the church at Corinth sums it up nicely.

If you are saved, you are in a very special place. You have been transformed by the Living God; from a creature of sin and death into a child of light. And in that transformation God will present you with a spiritual gift to enable you to work together with the rest of the family to further his kingdom here on earth. We are called, in humility and obedience, to accept our gift and to move into the mission field he has prepared for us.

And as Paul points out, no one gift is any more important than the others; the body of Christ needs hands and feet as much as it needs mouths and eyes. A church does its best work when every member is doing different tasks, each to the best of their abilities – things like keeping the books, setting up the equipment, running the sound system, mentoring youth, greeting people as they arrive. Maybe most important of all is the work of the whole body, as each person goes out into the world providing their witness to the power of God in their lives; telling our family, friends and neighbors about the power we have experienced from our relationship with God and inviting them to share in this experience.

If you are in a church family and serving God with your particular gift to the best of your ability, then AMEN! If you are not part of a church family, or haven’t discovered God’s spiritual gift to you, then I would say be in prayer. Take time to be quiet and listen to what he is trying to tell you. There is much work to be done, in this neighborhood, in this town, this county, this state, this country and across the world – plenty of work for every one of us.

It’s time to get to work – let’s pray…

Mark: The Person and Work of Jesus Christ #6

Jesus, Our Perfect Substitute Shows Us The Way to Fight (Part 2 of 2)
Mark 1:9-13 (Luke 4:1-13)

How’s everyone doing tonight? Prayer Requests? Praise Reports?
Let’s Pray…

Okay last week we took a look at Mark 1:9-13 and I promised that we would take another look at it again this week. So go ahead and turn your Bibles there. And be ready to turn in a minute to Luke 4.

Last week we looked at this passage and some related passages from a purely spiritual standpoint. And we looked at some of the deeper theological truth in the text there. And this week we are going to use the same text and one new one and we are going to use the spiritual foundation from last week to build a practical “how to” formula from the text this week.

And listen we are doing it this way – from the Spiritual > to the how to practicals - for a very specific reason. It is a part of the DNA of this church to constantly guide you – to guide us all - back into the truth of our new identity in Christ – IF you are in Christ.

If we don’t remind ourselves all the time about who we were, who Christ is and what He’s done for us and what life is like now as a result of Jesus, then we end up making church nothing more than a place for self-help programs that are all about you and me and our story and less about God and His story.

So again, it is a part of our DNA to always build first on the Spiritual truths of Scripture.

But THEN it is good and necessary to move into the boots on the ground teaching to show what our faith looks like outside of discussion time – outside of church gatherings.

It is NECESSARY to show what the truth of our faith looks like as we BE the church everywhere we go.

It is NECESSARY to show and teach and learn and help one another to remember what our faith looks like when we are in the crowds and when we are all alone in our homes, in our rooms.

It is NECESSARY to demonstrate how the Christian life isn’t some “head in the clouds” belief system that might be quaint and nice to listen to, but lacking teeth to help us get through our days with our problems and our families and our bosses and our life in the “real world”.

So today we are going to ask the question? In light of the GREAT EXCHANGE, What do we DO?

First, let’s read Mark 1:9-13 together:

9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

12 At once the Spirit sent him out into the desert, 13 and he was in the desert forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.

Okay if you weren’t here last week you can go back and read the sermon notes on the Web site. A quick review for the people who weren’t here, we answered the questions of: Why did Jesus need to be baptized? And, Why would the Spirit send Jesus out into the wilderness to be tempted?

Remember the baptism from John was a baptism of repentance for sinners. It was a baptism in which people came and confessed their sins and were cleansed in preparation for the coming of the Great King.

But, Jesus was sinless so He had no sins to confess or repent of AND He is the GREAT KING!? So we asked the obvious question, why did He have to be baptized?

And we asked, why would the Spirit of God, send the Son of God into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan?

The answer to both questions is that these things HAD to happen. You see, for us to identify with Jesus, Jesus had to first identify with us. Remember last week we read about the Great exchange from Paul who wrote:

21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

And we ended last week with the writer of Hebrews who tells us that Jesus understands our temptations because He was tempted in the same ways.

And, because He conquered the temptation and because He did not sin, then we can live as conquerors too. Why? Because by faith in Christ, we have been saved and if saved then adopted and now through our faith we have not only been spared the torment of Hell, but we have also been given power in the Holy Spirit to live lives in power and in truth.

The writer of Hebrews says it like this:
Hebrews 4:15-16

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. 16 Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

So that’s where we start. We start in the Spiritual realm, We start with our new identity in Christ and our privileges as Christians to go to the throne of grace.

But, then what? Does He blot out all of the problems, situations, temptations and trials? Not yet, that’s what happens on the day he returns, Praise God!

But, until then, we’re not alone – Until then, we’re not powerless – Until then, the verse tells us that He will absolutely HELP US in our time of need.

But that doesn’t mean that we don’t, AS GOD’S CHILDREN, have a part to play.

“Helping us” implies that we are working this out with the aid and direction and power of God. We are not sitting on our hands or hiding our head in the sand. We are taking His help and moving forward.

So, here we go. If you are in a battle against temptations, or if you heading into one right now - Let’s see some application from Jesus’ example.

We’ll look at the Baptism, then the temptations and find some practical steps that we can take.

9 At that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee

First Step, Jesus left Nazareth in Galilee. He left His home. He left what He knew and what was comfortable with in order to live a life on mission.

He was raised in a good home and had a marketable trade, no one thought He was crazy; no one wanted to kill Him. It was a fairly normal life from what we know.

But He left what He was comfortable in and followed after the will of God, though He knew what would happen at the end of this journey.

This may be the deal breaker for many of us.
To truly follow God and to truly take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of us, to truly take hold of His plan and purpose for our lives, we need to turn away from some things and let go of some things.

Some of you have to walk out of the comfort of your own sinful lifestyles and the relationships that foster that sin.
Others will have to walk away from the chains of “what will _____ think?” type questions.
At a certain point, we have to let that go.
Those people who suck you back into the gossip trade,
Those people who lead you to the club every weekend,
Those people who keep your eyes on the chase after the next new trinket instead of the race toward Holiness…
Eventually you’ve got to turn away from them, regardless of the cost.

Now, we are NOT saying you have to leave your family. But you do have to break away from the influence they have over you if they are keeping you from a living and vital relationship with Jesus Christ and fellowship with other believers.

For others, leaving your Nazareth in Galilee is something more subtle. I believe that even in a crowd even this size, some of you are going to get a call out of the field that you are in right now to pursue another calling. Maybe you are already feeling a call, but you are holding back because it will mean a loss of comfort or predictability in life.

Believe me I understand that. Everyone who knows my story knows that I understand that. Let me tell you from my own experience. If He’s calling you, you might as well get moving. Don’t be Jonah and run away and don’t turn a deaf ear to God. No, leave you Nazareth in Galilee and begin your journey. Moving on…

and (Jesus) was baptized by John in the Jordan.

If you are a believer here and you have not been baptized then we need to remedy that tonight or this week at the latest.

God doesn’t honor disobedience and the first command He gives us after “Believe” is to be baptized. We went through this a few weeks ago and let me just say it again from the first conversions onward in the book of Acts we see it again and again, they believed and were baptized.

I didn’t understand this when I was a new believer. And let me tell you that YEARS after my conversion - after all that time trying to walk in the power of God and repeatedly falling FAR short, I realized that I hadn’t done the basic beginning step as a believer.

So I did it, I got baptized and my connection to God the Father was immediately evident to me. It was indescribable. If you are a believer – Get baptized.

And, if you weren’t a Christian before you came here, but the Spirit worked in your heart tonight and you accept Christ as your savior and Lord tonight then let us know and we’ll lead you through the next steps, Amen?

Now, I also want to look at Jesus' baptism in light of the 3rd camp of people in church tonight where most of us are. If you are a believer and you have been baptized continue in a willingness to obey God in the next decision and the next.

Before you can overcome temptations and obey God, you first have to be willing to obey His will. Some of us have strayed — even in our faith.

The second step for you if you have obeyed in Baptism is to continue in obedience, and willingness to obey. And, where there is not a willingness, pray to God for a willingness to be willing.

That may sound silly, but that was one of the most powerful prayers in my life as a new believer and there are times that I still have to go back to it.

“Lord, give me the willingness to be willing to obey.”

Next step.

10 As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. 11 And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

Okay, so leave your Nazareth in Galilee. Be baptized and continue in a willingness to obey God the Father. The next step is to keep listening as God reminds you of your identity as His child.

I won’t spend a lot of time there because we already did. It’s what we’re all about. It’s our DNA remember? You are going to hear it every time we talk here and every time you read this Bible, I want you to read it as a child listening to his Father.

Remember, that is who you are because of the bloody cross and the empty tomb.

Now we’re going to look quickly at the temptations for some more practical steps. But since the Mark version is so quick, we are going to read about the temptations in Luke.
Luke 4:1-13

1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.

The next step is to trust God and go where the Spirit leads you.

Remember that if you are in Christ, then God has good plans for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. So follow Him. The Spirit led Jesus into a dangerous place and He went. So many times I think we buy into a lie that Christianity is supposed to be safe. We have a dangerous faith if you are thinking simply about your own skin.

Our faith has been dangerous by worldly standards throughout history. But remember, even if the world were to KILL you, it doesn’t mean squat. I pray dangerous prayers for all of you all the time and I hope you are praying for me as well. I am praying that we might all take on a way of life like the Apostle Paul, who under the reality – not the threat – the REALITY of fierce persecution said: So What?! "For me to live is Christ, but to die is gain!” (Philippians 1:21)

Brothers. Sisters. We CANNOT live the lives we’ve been called to if we are going to cling to fallen notions of safety and refuse to follow the Spirit WHEREVER He leads us, even into the wilderness, even into the lion’s den, even away from job security, even into the troubled neighborhoods – ANYWHERE and EVERYWHERE that the Spirit of God leads us, we must follow.

And parent, we must release our children to follow the Spirit as well.

Don’t hinder the gospel from shining through their lives lived for Christ either.

He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

I like to tie the Sermon on the Mount back to a lot of my messages. It was the first chunk of Scriptures that I ever preached a series on and it is close to my heart, but also, it is so rich, that nearly every other part of the Bible can easily tie into the Sermon on the Mount.

We see that here. Remember when He was attacking the Pharisees, Jesus blasted them for HOW they fasted, but He didn’t say not to fast.

In fact, we see here at the very outset of His earthly ministry the importance of fasting in the defeat of temptation. And in the spiritual walk in general.

When we fast, from food is serves as a reminder that the thing we need the most is God. We are reminded that He is our provider and our sustainer. We are reminded that He is the Bread of Life that will fill us eternally.

But when we don’t fast, when we refuse this basic spiritual discipline, we lose a piece of the fullness of God that is available NOW.

Yes there are things that we cannot experience on this side of Heaven, but there is a level of God-consciousness that we can have in the here and now that we forfeit by refusing to fast.

Now, this is a message about the practical steps of avoiding temptations, what’s fasting got to do with that?

It’s simple. When we fast we realize that we don’t need to settle for the easy pleasure, which is temporary and usually completely unfulfilling.

If we pursue those finite distractions we miss out on infinite Glory made manifest in moments of God connectedness.

It’s like when my friends invite us over for the next cookout and they cook steaks and they cook it just right medium-rare and seasoned to perfection with a side of corn on the cob and followed with some hot peach pie and ice cream. I’d be a fool to give up that satisfaction because I filled up on Cheetos on the way to their house.

When we develop the discipline of fasting it also works to discipline us out of trivial satisfactions because we know there is deeper and richer blessings beyond what is within our worldly reach.

Everyone gets that junk. But we get more. We get Christ, we get a closeness to God that is just for us.

Finally, last step, let’s read again starting in Luke 4:3.

3 The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread."

4 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone.'"

5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 So if you worship me, it will all be yours."

8 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'"

9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. "If you are the Son of God," he said, "throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written:
"'He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
11 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.'"

12 Jesus answered, "It says: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

This text teaches us enough for it’s own sermon, but there’s no time, we will revisit it some other time. Here’s what I want you to get from the text tonight. Jesus was tempted in every way.

He was tempted to satisfy the immediate at the cost of the eternal by making the stones into bread.

We are tempted the same way when we are tempted to use our money foolishly with credit cards and get the immediate satisfaction of the purchase despite what that will do to our debt.

We are tempted to do the same when we are tempted to violate God’s design for sex and instead sin in adultery or other avenues of sexual immorality for an immediate thrill despite what that will do to our marriages or future relationships.

Next, Jesus was tempted to grab hold of Power and control at the price of turning his worship away from the Father.

We are tempted in the same way when we turn away from God’s design for the relationship between husbands and wives, parents and children, employers and employees, government leaders and the people they lead in order to usurp God ordained authority in whatever realm that we DON'T have it.

We are tempted to violate this when we turn away from God and His commands over us and shake our fists at Him in rebellion and declare that we know better than His commands.

It is the way that Eve was tempted in the Garden. The snake, Satan said, If you eat the fruit you will be like God. You will have that kind of power. And she fell, and Adam fell and through Adam, we fell and we’ve been doing it in one way or another, to one degree or another ever since.

And the last temptation that we read about was in the form of pride. Satan tempted Jesus and tried to get Him to sin in order to gain recognition — in order to be seen as the big-shot.

If you’re God, show it off. If you're God perform this miraculous feat where everyone can see it and they will all flock to you.

We are tempted in the same way when we do things, even good things – even church things – even things that everyone else but we ourselves might see as humble, loving service — We are tempted to bask in our own recognition instead of diverting the gaze of the people back to God.

This is the way the Pharisees were tempted and the avenue in which the chased their sin.

But in every temptation Jesus relied on the Word of God to discern the truth and honor the Father.

Over and over I call you to be Bible people. I call you to spend more time in the Word than on Facebook. More time in the Word than in front of the television. More time in the Word than at ball games. More time in the Word than in history books or books of fiction. More time in the Word than ANYWHERE else.

And let me just admit to you here, I need to be called to this again and again too. I’m not asking you to read it like you are in a race, but pick up the Bible and dig deep into the word. Chew on it piece by piece until it becomes a part of you because as long as Jesus waits to return, we will be tempted again.

Today’s victory doesn’t keep us safe. Usually it just makes us cocky and vulnerable. Verse 13 says,

13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

He’s not done tempting us. So lean into Christ and remember that...

…We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:15-16)

Let’s pray…