Where is your Passion

One of the most attractive qualities a person can have is passion.  Great leaders in every area of life, both good guys and bad guys, are people with passion.  That passion draws like a magnet.  Hitler is said to have mesmerized people with his speeches because of the passion with which he spoke.  DL Moody had the same affect on people.  One affected the world for evil, and the other for good, but they both had the quality of passion that made people pay attention.  What is passion?  John Maxwell says, “It is the energy of the soul”.  One of Webster’s definitions is, “A strong liking for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept.”  The Old Testament idea of passion was often applied to God as the One who was jealous for His people’s heart.  It is likened to a consuming fire. Song of Songs says “Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame.”  It was this zeal of God for His people that destroyed their enemies.  But it was the same zeal that sent them into captivity when they were unfaithful.  It was this passion that restored Israel after captivity as we see in Isaiah. It’s the same passion that God has for His house to be clean and holy.  It’s the same passion that would send a Savior who would be clothed in zeal. Isaiah says “He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.”  Using Webster’s definition of a strong liking for or devotion to – Jesus would have to be the most passionate man to ever live.  He did not do or say one thing without the approval of His Father. We will never see a more passionate life than that of Jesus.  We can also be passionate about the wrong things. Romans says “For I can testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based on knowledge.  The Jewish leaders, at the time of the early church, were zealous for the letter of the Law.  They wanted to be perfect at keeping their definition of the rules, while God was looking for changed hearts. Paul said he was so zealous for the Law that he persecuted the church. The good kind of zeal is relational, like God’s zeal is for us.  That overflows into being zealous to do good works.  Titus says “Eager to do what is good”.  Just like a when a husband is passionate about his wife; he wants to do things that please her. Men, if you are truly passionate about your wife, you will not have any trouble saying no to the temptations that will come your way.  In the same way, if we are passionate about God and our personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the world will have little sway on us.  Why?  Because you have a love that far surpasses all others! 

Have you met someone that you would say had a passion for a hobby?  Some men have a passion for football.  Super Bowl Sunday is their Great High and Holy Day.  They’ve followed both divisions all through the year.  They can quote stats like you’d love to quote the Bible.  They are serious about it.  They know every quarterback, his back up, his number, and details about his family.  They always have their favorite team that they are extra passionate about.  And if that team gets in the Super bowl, out. He’s got the team jacket and pennant flag, the mug and T-shirt and if he can, he’ll mortgage his house to get seat in that stadium.  It is a little annoying being around him, but at the same time, it is exciting.  Why?  He’s alive!  He’s got something to live for even if it is a bunch of grown men banging into each other over a ball full of air. Tony Compolo wrote that, “We are caught up in a particular stage in our national ethos, in which we are not only materialistic, but worse than that, we’re becoming emotionally dead as a people.  We don’t sing, we don’t dance, and we don’t even commit sin with very much enthusiasm.”  We’re becoming a nation of self-satisfied couch potatoes.  We have what we need.  We don’t want to be bothered.  Just let us go to sleep in our stupor of sufficiency.  Boring!  One of the greatest struggles in teaching youth today is to get them beyond apathy.  We hear over and over, “What difference does it make.”  “It doesn’t matter”, “It doesn’t affect me”, “I don’t care”, and my personal favorite, “Whatever”.  How sad is that in today’s society? Kirkegard (the Christian philosopher and theologian) wrote, “Age will die not from sin but from a lack of passion.”  If the enemy of our soul can just lull us to sleep in our satisfied, unconcerned, do nothing deadness, we are of no threat to the realm of darkness.  Max Lucado put it this way, “The poison of the ordinary steals the magic of the moment.”  What has happened to us? It reminds me of the church of Laodicea.  God just wanted them to be passionate one way or the other, anything but lukewarm.  Jesus’ personal warning for those without passion, who were self-satisfied, not realizing they were desperately in need, went like this, Rev.says “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.”   Be earnest!  In Greek that means to boil!  In a negative sense, boil with anger, or with jealousy.  In a positive sense, it means a zealous pursuit of good, or to exert yourself for something, in this case repentance.  Are you boiling? The command from the lips of Jesus is, “Be boiling! Change the way you think!” You can’t keep doing things the way you always have been.  That lukewarm spirit is a spirit of apathy.  That is an interesting word in the Greek.  Are you ready for the Greek lesson once again?  ‘A’ as a prefix in Greek means ‘without’.  The last half of the word is pathos. It means feeling or emotion.  Apathy then means to not have feelings or emotions.  You just really don’t care.  God says that is the one thing He can’t stand.  Be cold or boiling, but don’t be in between.  Or if you sit in the middle of the road long enough – you will get run over.

The Apostle Paul admonishes us to “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.” (Romans 12:11 NIV) Zeal is from the Greek word spoude (spoo day).  It means to be diligent, earnest, to hurry, with effort. We are never supposed to be anything less than diligent and in earnest.  Fervor comes from the same root word we looked at in Revelation (zeo), to boil with heat.  Don’t simmer!  Don’t be lukewarm, but keep passionately boiling!  Keep your spiritual fervor.  So an expanded translation would be, “Never be anything less than diligent, earnest, making an effort, but keep on boiling as you serve the Lord!”  Would you say you were walking in the fullness of the Apostle’s instruction?  I can tell you I’m not, but I intend to by the grace of God.  Forgive me for not being more passionate. One Gallup pole said the number one factor in people choosing a church is the passion of the Pastor.  It ought to be the leading of the Holy Spirit. This deciding factor of a passionate pastor is intricately connected with our culture’s search for relevance and meaning.  We see passionate people as having found a reason to live, something to strive for.  What do your neighbors and acquaintances see in you?  Has your passion for the good caused them to wonder what you’ve found?  Do other people see you and want what you have?  Why do we lack passion?  I think one reason we lack passion is our dullness to the wonder of all that God is doing for us.  We allow our hearts to get calloused toward His display of love.  “I don’t want to think about God’s greatness, I just want to enjoy today”, and I dull myself to ‘the magic of the moment’.  I let busyness fill my mind and numb my heart.  The wonder of His interaction in my life, I come to expect as routine, instead of letting my heart be gripped by it.  My eyes of faith close as I fix them on the world and troubles around me.  And as my eyes of faith close, the realization of God’s great love for me begins to fade.  Passion makes us stand out and be noticed, and we feel more comfortable just fitting in.  Let’s face it, no one likes the person that makes waves and challenges the status quo, but that is what passionate people are always doing.  Their passion challenges every lukewarm person they contact, and just like in Jesus’ world, they will love or hate you for it.  It’s so much easier just to blend in. One reason Peter, James, John, and Andrew are mentioned first is their passion.  Passion pushed them to the front and opened their mouths.  James and John were so passionate they were called the Sons of Thunder.  Peter needs no explanation. His passion is his testimony!  Andrew was the one that went around recruiting disciples saying, “We’ve found the Messiah!  We’ve found the Messiah!”  Another reason for the lack of passion is we haven’t seen the purpose God has for our lives.  We haven’t grabbed hold of His vision for us.  Self is our little tiny goal, and that is not very exciting.  Then there is the problem of these physically aging bodies.  How can we be boiling when our body is declining? Apathy tends to increase with age.  John Maxwell says, “Wise young believers are as rare as zealous old believers.”  The older we become, the more set in our ways and desirous of the status quo we usually are.  It doesn’t have to be that way, but that is the tendency of man. Oh but what a difference when we reject the natural tendencies of man and walk in the Spirit!  Your willingness and desire for the fire and passion of God are going to be proportionate with how God uses you.  Think of it like this: The person with little passion has little vision and little hope of God accomplishing great things.  According to your faith, it will be done unto you.  Passion is an ingredient for a life that makes a difference.  Passion will increase your will power, your self-discipline, raise the level of your goals, and give you a vision beyond that of ordinary man.  Apathetic people put as little on their schedule as they possibly can.  Passionate people have schedules that are packed and carefully planned in wisdom to accomplish the most they can possibly do.  In other words they are on fire for God!

Passion touches lives but it also changes you!  Someone once said that unless you had something to die for, you haven’t begun to live.  When I do a word study, I always want to find out how God uses the word in Scripture.  When I took a look at the way God used the word ‘love’, we found that it was almost always defined by a willingness to die.  That is passion.  That is love that goes beyond reason, beyond intellectual thought.  Have you found something you are willing to die for?   The very first definition in Webster’s for passion may surprise you.  It is the scene that ultimately defines passion.  It is the suffering of Christ.  That is why we have Passion plays, and Passion Week, and the movie, Passion of the Christ.  We describe passion by Christ’s display of His passion to free us from our sin by dying in our place.  The more man abused Him, the more passion He displayed for us.  He could have just gone over the hill where the Garden of Gethsemane was and kept on going.  Why stay and sweat drops of blood thinking about our sins being placed upon Him?  I’ll tell you why. He passionately loves you.  He could have revealed His glory in that Sanhedrin trial, and they would have all been crying out for mercy.  Why didn’t He?  It was His passion to see you right with God.  He could have answered every accusation with such wise clarity that Pilate would have been ashamed not to let Him go, but His passion held His tongue. At any time during His scourging and crucifixion, He could have called 10,000 angels to destroy His enemies.  Why didn’t He?  You know the answer.  Passion!  In every revelation of God through Jesus we are called to be like Him.  Being Christ-Like in everything you do is God’s passionate vision for us.  If God is so passionate about us, how should we be toward Him?  Have you ever seen a one sided relationship where the wife is so in love with her mate, but the husband is “whatever”?  Don’t you just want to go upside his head and say, “Hey, the girl is head over heals for you!  Don’t you get it?  Don’t you appreciate it?”  I think we could all look at the cross – the Passion – and slap ourselves.  Get over the numbness, the callous attitude, and get some passion! What are we about?  What are St. Peter’s and Bethany here for? 

Are we just being comfortable and happy until Jesus comes for us?  That reminds me of a saying I heard on Friday.  We are to comfort the afflicted, but sometimes we have to afflict the comfortable!  Let’s not be apathetic.  So what would a passion that reflects the passion Jesus has for us look like?  How would it express itself in your life?  There is not one answer for all of us.  We can generalize, but there is a specific answer for you.  Only a passionate heart, willing to behold the cross, will lead you to that answer! I can wind you up, but I can’t give you passion.  No one can!  Jesus isn’t going to hand it to you on a silver platter.  He handed it to you already on a bloody cross.  You’ve got to take it and let it heat you up until you boil.  What is burning on the inside will show itself on the outside in your daily life.  It will manifest itself in an intense love for God that will keep you from sin.  I’m not saying you’ll never make a mistake, but when the question is clear, you won’t have to sit down and figure it out.  Your passion will have already made the decision. Passion results in a radical commitment – the kind that is willing to not only stand out, but die for the passion you’ve found.  It will affect your work, you leisure, your worship, your home, and every area of your life. It will include the ‘all’ of the Great Commandment, all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength. It will cause a hatred for sin and love for the things of God.  Passion is contagious.  (2 Corinthians 9:2) tells us that “your enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action”.  Those who don’t run from you will end up being more like you as you become more like Jesus.  Why is passion so powerful?  God is passionate, and the angels are passionately praising God!  The departed saints are passionately worshipping God. All heaven is passionate.  Maybe people are getting a glimpse of eternity when they see godly passionate people. The world doesn’t see enough of them.  It saw a dozen passionate men in the first century, and the world was never the same.  Christians have every reason to be the most passionate people on the planet.  Our passion will change lives, ours and others.  But our lack of passion will let us and everything around us fall into despair. How do we find passion?  How can we let our hearts boil?  Where do we catch the fire of God? You’ll have to wait till next week for part two, but you don’t have to wait to start passionately responding to His love for you.  Be praying for a willingness to become a more zealous person because of His passion for you.

Where is your Passion – part 2

Last week we identified one of the great needs of mankind, passion.  We could see that the Enemy of our soul would want us to be apathetic, because this is the one thing God can’t stand, as we learned last week.  A life that is passionately worldly will find the emptiness and meaninglessness of that kind of existence and be challenged to find real meaning.  It is the apathetic life that does nothing and goes nowhere that is most disastrous for any culture.  It silently draws multitudes who march towards oblivion without God.  How do we find passion that will motivate our life to rise above this mediocrity to make a difference for the Kingdom of God?  How do we find a vision of what God really intends for our life? First you have to have the desire to rise above mediocrity. It’s like an athlete that has great natural ability, but does not have the passion for the game and thereby falls into being just so-so.  It takes a continuous effort and intense desire on your part rise out of apathy.  We see passion in the life of Jesus.  He resolutely set out to go to the cross because of His passionate love for you. Jesus’ whole ministry was focused on the time in which He would pay the price for our sins. Though He did not have a sin nature, He was tempted in every way that you and I are.  We would readily point to the fact that He is God and therefore excuse the indifference in our lives.  But the fact is, He was all man, even though He is all God.  He woke up tired and sore just like you and I do.  He had to find passion to live only for His Father just like you and I do.  So where did He get it?  The Scripture doesn’t tell us specifically, but it draws some strong inferences.  Allow me to speculate just a bit on where the LORD found His intense passion to live only in obedience to the Father.  He knew the Word. As a boy he must have studied with all the other children at the local synagogue. He memorized passages from the Scriptures in Hebrew.  Most of the children would memorize the first five books of the Bible, the books of Moses, and many of the psalms.  We can assume that Jesus did also because He often quotes from them. Though Jesus memorized those verses, that alone did not make the difference.  The difference was Jesus’ application of what He memorized to His life.  It wasn’t just letters and rules in a book.  To Jesus, the Law was a light for His path.  It showed Him what to say, how to act, and how to interpret His circumstances.  He allowed it to be such a guide to His life that when Satan came to tempt Him, He immediately turns to Scripture to answer.  It wasn’t a rulebook but a guide for Spirit filled living, revealing the heart of God. 

Is that how you see Scripture?  We must be honest about our attitudes toward the Word or they will never change for the better.  Is the Word really the final say, the authority that reveals the will of a loving God?  If the answer is yes, then we should turn to it every moment of our life.  If we aren’t doing so, we need to consider what our real attitude is.  Sadly, many of us see it as the back-up manual for when things go wrong, or worse yet, a resource to back their opinion.  It should be the source of your opinion.  If you will give it the place of authority it should have, it will speak to your daily circumstances.  The Word was alive to Jesus.  He interacted with it continually.  That interaction will help kindle the flame.   As we read the Gospels we find that this was not the only thing that stoked Jesus’ fire.  He would rise every morning before dawn and spend time with His Father.  (Mark 1:35) says “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”  Prayer was the place where Jesus communed with God, hearing His instructions for the day or the decisions that lay before Him.  Before He chose the disciples he spent all night in prayer. (Luke 6:12) says “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.”   When faced with His betrayal and the cross, He spent His last free hours in prayer with His Father. To Jesus, prayer was the source of direction and comfort.  It was where He connected with all wisdom and strength.  His Father kindled a fire of purpose and vision there in that secret place. No threat in this life could extinguish it. He did what the Apostle Paul instructs us to do in (Colossians 4:2).  Devote yourselves to prayer…   There is at least one more thing that stoked His fire.  As He walked in obedience to the Father, He exercised the gifts the Father had given Him.  The Apostle Paul told Timothy in (2 Timothy 1:6-7)   “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.”  That takes some work.  The picture in these words is to use (what is that thing called) bellows.  God will put the spark in us through prayer and His word.  Then we have to do something about it.  We have to make the effort to stoke it, force air over it, until it ignites into a flame.  If it should die down, we need to throw on more fuel of the Word, either written or spoken to us in prayer.  Then we stoke it some more.  Passionate people make the effort to fan into a flame the gift that God has given them.  Is this what is happening to you?

When Jesus had taught His disciples how to evangelize and they returned with testimonies of victory, it sure sounds like His fire was stoked.  “I saw Satan falling like lightening from heaven.” Says (Luke 10:18).  When the sick were healed and the dead raised, when a man’s sins were forgiven and people saw the light, you know the fire burned in Jesus.  In Jesus’ life we see the Word in His mind and heart, prayer that kept Him in communion with God, and the exercise of His gifts kept His fire burning.  It will do the same for you!  Jesus’ glorified appearance is like fire.  Consider this vision Ezekiel had of the Lord. (Ezek 1:27) says “I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him”.  The burning bush that Moses saw was a picture of Christ, the physical on fire but not consumed.  Get close to Him and you’ll catch on fire too! Let Him change you into His image – full of passion!  I think there is a spiritual picture of doing God’s work man’s way.  We can get a natural kind of emotion and excitement that is very similar to this strange fire.  You see men that rant and yell, parade around the pulpit or stage and yet you a sense very little of the anointing of God.  They have fire, just not the fire of God. Two days later you’ve forgotten what all the hype was about. Passion is not about volume or gestures or expressions.  It’s about a passionate heart for God.  Jonathan Edward’s (whom you know I am related to) was one of the pastors of the Great Awakening.  History tells us He was nearsighted and had to keep his face about ten inches away from his sermon to read it (that’s why I use big print) .  But He had a holy fire.  People clung white-knuckled to the pews for fear of falling into hell. It is not about an outward expression but it often manifests itself outwardly.  The issue is really what is happening in the heart. God’s fire is a work of God, not of man, though man must cooperate and work with Him.  Let me tell you a few stories of some men that made the effort to fan the fire of passion into a flame.  John Welsh (the Scottish 17^th century preacher) kept a coat by his bedside at night.  When the Lord would awaken him he’d drop to his knees, throwing his coat around him, and begin praying.  His wife would often say to him, “Honey, you better get your rest.  You’ve got work a full day of work to do tomorrow.”  He’d answer, “Dear, I have many souls in my charge and I do not know how it is with them.”  While on his knees before God the fire burned within him.  John Wesley was a passionate man.  Several times he told his secret.  “I just set myself on fire and people come to watch me burn.”  What fueled the flames in John Wesley?  He spent 2 hours every morning with His God.  Benjamin Franklin confessed that he often went to hear his close friend, George Whitefield (founder of Methodism) preach just to watch him burn before his very eyes.  Listen to one of his written prayers and feel the fire. “Oh, that I might be a flaming fire in the service of the Lord.  Here I am, Lord, send me; send me to the ends of the earth… send me from all that is called earthly comfort; send me even to death itself if it be but in Thy service and to promote Thy kingdom.”  These are men who were enthusiastic.  The very word means in (en) God (theos).  When God gets the fire of His Holy Spirit in us we have a supernatural enthusiasm. The passion and power of heaven come with the Holy Spirit.  Was it passion that drove them to prayer or was it prayer that fired their passion?  They got close to Jesus and He caught them on fire! One thing you can say for sure, they refused to leave their first love. When Paul wrote to the Ephesians he mentioned their love several times.  Just a short 30 years later Jesus wrote the same church a letter through John the Beloved.  He warned them that they had abandoned their first love.  It seemed like they had everything else right, but without that first love, everything else meant little.  Jesus warned them that they had fallen from a great height. 

Everyone that I mentioned had an intimacy with God that kept their first love a flame of fire.  You need a flame from God first and foremost. John the Baptist said that Jesus had come to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The flame must be allowed to burn up all that supersedes Him, and only then it can set your very soul ablaze. Then you need to fan the flame and care for it with communion with God as Jesus and these men demonstrated with their lives.  The results are quite visible.  The founder of the Salvation Army, General Booth, warned his ranks, “The tendency of the fire is to go out; watch the fire on the altar of your heart.”  One of the jobs of the Old Testament Levites was to be sure that the altar fire never went out. We must always guard our old nature from going the way of the Ephesians.  We are in constant need of recommitment and renewed consecration.  We all need revival again and again.  We are warned in (1Thessalonians 5:19) to not put out the Spirit’s fire. But please don’t misunderstand. As Wesley Duewel, the great revivalist and prayer warrior said,  “No one is more zealous than a deceived fanatic.  There is a vast difference between the zeal of the sinful nature and the passion born of the Holy Spirit.  Self-born zeal is self-conscious. Passion for Christ and for souls is a consuming fire that so possesses the Spirit-filled Christian that they are almost unaware of it.”  Strange fire brings death to you and to other with whom you share it.  The fire of God brings death to self but life to those it comes in contact with.  I find my passion in looking afresh at the passion Christ had for me to go to the cross.  There has never been a greater display of passion. While I was still a rebel against Him, He displayed the ultimate expression of love; He laid down His life for me.  Taking on the sins of the world and the onslaught of hell was so horrific; we will never understand the utter darkness of it.  He knew how horrible it would be and asked if there was some other way to make you and me right with God.  Simply there was no other way that could satisfy the justice and righteousness of God.  When He saw that was the only way, as horrible as it was, He looked at an eternity with us redeemed and forever seated at the right hand of God in Him, and He said, “Yes!  I will do it.  To please the Father and to save them from destruction, I will pay the price, endure the horror.” 

Love begets love. When we see His love that was displayed on the cross, when you are willing to not turn your head but to stare there and drink in all you can perceive, how can your heart not overflow with love in return?  The love of God has been made visible to us, right there.  Love that doesn’t cost anything isn’t worth much.  Love that costs everything is priceless.  That’s where I find my worth, my meaning, my purpose, my life, my passion, and my all.  What does our little squabbling about the trivial things mean in the light of the cross?  It makes me want to throw everything else aside and just live in the shadow of it. That is passion!  But go on a little further.  He redeemed you, to live through you.  You have a divine purpose in life.  Once you get the vision that your life has purpose that affects all eternity, you marvel that God would be willing to use the little insignificant rebel, you. Who but God could turn a traitor into a hero?  But He does that so that He gets all the glory, and yet, He will share that glory with you, if you are willing to suffer with Him.  What an honor and blessing and wonder that the God of all creation would want to include us in what He does, but that is what co-laboring is all about.  He delights in working with us.  That just makes my head spin.  It just shows how mighty He is.  And it fans my flame of passion!  As you see Jesus’ passion for you in the Word, in prayer and in the use of your gifts, your passion should increase.  Do you really desire passion?  If not, you need the fire of God.  Ask Him for it! If you do, you probably have that ember of fire from the Holy Spirit.  Now you just need to fan and fuel it!  If you really want passion, you will take the time to fuel it by drawing near to Jesus in His Word and in prayer.  You will exercise your gifts at the leading of the Holy Spirit.  You’ll pump the bellows by taking time to have intimate communion with God.  You are going to leave here this morning in continued apathy, or with a decision to fan into the flame the gift of God in you.  It will probably take a reprioritizing of your time.  How strongly do you want to be a passionate person?  You will leave here this morning quenching the fire or determined to fan it into a flame.  It is your decision, and it will affect the outcome of your life. 

The Truth of the Word

Is the Bible the Word of God?  Critics have tried to discredit, debunk and slander the Bible, especially in the last century.  Though many of their attacks have been answered through the sciences of archeology and logic, the attacks continue.  Anything that would put some form of constraint or boundaries on what is acceptable will always be met with opposition from those wishing to live outside those confines.  Yet, the Bible claims that the truth within its pages is liberating.  Since the Bible has withstood direct attacks on its credibility, the new attacks are more subtle and cultural in nature.  If culture can convince us that something contrary to Scripture is acceptable, (like we see happening everyday) then we will begin to disregard the claims of Sacred Scripture.  We say we believe, but without the conviction that says we must conform, we compromise with any other idea we like in the hour of temptation. Is there no standard?  Is there no objective truth to be found in life?  You could say that in the world of people who claim to be Christians there are really only two main groups.  There is one group that believes the Bible is the Word of God, without error, God breathed (that’s the category I fall into).  Then there are those who believe that the Bible is an inspired book but full of the flaws of its authors, and influenced by the culture of their time.  A survey two years ago among pastors of six denominations showed that the conviction of those pastors aged 55 and up compared to those aged 35 and under that the Bible was the inerrant, infallible word of God had dropped by 50%.  My hope is that this church is in the first group of believers.  We should believe the Bible is the inspired word of God.  God miraculously moved the writers to pen what God wanted to communicate to man.  Is the Bible supernatural revelation or just a very unique work of men with some inspiration from God thrown in here and there?  Where you stand on this issue has everything to do with the extent to which you value the Bible and allow it to influence your life.  Let’s look at the claims within the Bible. (2 Peter 1:20-21) says “Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet's own interpretation. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit”.

Peter claimed that the prophets (this would include the bulk of the authors of Scripture) spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.  It wasn’t just enlightened thinking but direction like a piece of paper blown by the wind.  They weren’t going where they intended or willed but where the Spirit moved them. 

(Prov. 30:5) says "Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.”  Solomon declared that every word from God was entirely trustworthy, without a single error. His Father David wrote in (Psalms 12:6) “And the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times”. (Psalms 19:7-8) says  “The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.  The precepts of the LORD are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the LORD are radiant, giving light to the eyes.”   The writers of the Bible believed it was the Word of God that brought everything into being.  They believed that God’s Word was revealed to man through the prophets and seers.  Today, in our culture unaided reason has replaced revelation. In the New Testament the Apostles wrote of what they heard and saw of Jesus and the work of the Spirit of God in the early church.  They believed those writings were also God breathed. (2 Peter 3:15-16) tells us “Bear in mind that our Lord's patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him.  He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction”.  Peter compared the writings of the Apostle Paul to the other Scriptures.  They recognized the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  So we see the Bible is making a claim to be purely conveying the Word of God to man.  Over and over again throughout the Old Testament we have the expression, “the word of God came to…” expressing that the source of the message was not within man.  Quite a claim!  But can it withstand scrutiny of honest testing?  The answer is that it has!  Over the last 150 years man has attacked the Bible from every angle imaginable.  So called, ‘modern thinkers’ have tried to make the Bible look like a collection of fables.  Story after story has been attacked as fabrication.  Abraham was written off as a fictional hero until the name of his father was found in the very city the Bible says he was from.  David – the great king of Israel surely had to be a fantasy developed for the nation to have a hero.  An ancient oblisque was discovered in the land of Israel’s enemy that wrote of the House of David.  Pilate – the Roman Governor who condemned Christ to crucifixion was thought to be a make-believe character.  Surely the skeptics had found the proof of the Bible’s fictional basis as Rome kept such accurate records. Recently, a stone dedicating a coliseum to Pontius Pilate was discovered in Caesarea.  One by one the attacks, that have no basis in fact but instead in the minds of those who do not wish to believe, are disproved by hard evidence.  The more questions that are raised the more verification is discovered to show that the Bible is an accurate historical record. 

Our culture has a fascination with ancient wisdom, that is, unless that ancient wisdom comes from the most verifiable and reliable source of all – the Bible.  Why is that?  If it comes from some questionable source of which we have no proof as to its authenticity, it becomes a bestseller and starts a new cult.  I’ll tell you what I believe from the very words of philosophers who have shaped modern thinking.  Man would like to be free from the restraints placed upon him by the word of God.  Since man is inherently evil, as the Bible declares, he seeks justification for doing what his lustful heart desires.  If there is an absolute source of truth and boundaries are set by our Maker, then man must conform or live with a guilty conscience and in fear of the righteous judgments of God.  That is why the Bible has been under such an intense attack.  You can’t name any other piece of ancient literature with even a shred of evidence as to its authenticity that has undergone one one-hundredth of the scrutiny that the Bible has endured.  There is no other book with even half the accuracy rate of prophecy.  There is no other book compiled by men of every standing in society over such a vast period of history that speaks with one voice to the condition of man and the nature of God.  There is no other book or teaching so tested in the lives of millions over millennia.  What other words have inspired so many to die for love – not the suicidal fanaticism of cults but pure love for God and for those who don’t know Him?  This book has been tested! 

I’ve tested it.  When I thought God had failed me I found that my understanding was too limited, and I had not searched out His heart or given the situation time to see what God would do.  Yes, it takes faith, but we base that faith on mountains upon mountains of solid evidence, promises kept, fulfilled prophecy, archeology, lives changed, joyful martyrs, and the transformation of our own desires.  We also have the testimonies of the Apostles’ witness of Jesus’ life. Now I want you to think about something.  I believe if you are honest, you will come to the same conclusion that I have.  What is the most translated and widely distributed book in the world?  The Bible!  Does it not make perfect sense to you that if God loves the world, like the Bible says He does, that He would see that His word got to as many as possible in their own language?  As a matter of fact, it is translated in almost 3000 different languages.  The alternative is, God does not love man.  Oh well then, forget about a relationship with Him.  But if He loves man, then He will see that they get that message in their own language.  Because the love of God declared in the Bible wants every living soul to know how much He loves them.  I’m not willing to accept the alternative, a god who doesn’t really care or want a relationship with me.  The God of Scripture knows the end from the beginning and He cares enough about man to die in man’s place so that we can have a relationship with Him.  This heart of God is declared through His word again and again. (Deut 12:28) declares “Be careful to obey all these regulations I am giving you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God.” You see, God has given us instruction and boundaries for our good.  If we do what society says today, individually deciding what is good for us, and then there is no standard, everything is supposedly good.  That makes no logical sense.  The pedophile can say that is what is good for him.  The drug dealer can say that is what is good for him.  This illogical diatribe of being non-judgmental or tolerant is lunacy.  Everyone draws a line somewhere.  Were the 9/11 terrorist just doing what they believed is right and so we should tolerate them?  That is ridiculous!  Now I’d like to digress and talk a little about the absolute truth of the Bible. This is where people start going off the tracks: consider the following statistics…According to a survey done by Barna Research (who is the Gallup of the religious world) back in 2001, 75% of Americans believe that all truth is relative to the situation and the individuals involved. Similarly, at least 80% of our teens embrace the same position regarding moral truths. Not only did more than 4 out of 5 teenagers say there is no absolute moral truth, 4 out of 5 also claim that nobody can know for certain whether or not they actually know what truth is. Only 6% of teens, and 9% of born-again teens believe in moral absolutes.  This alarming trend may help to explain why a majority of teenagers in that survey (57 %) said that lying was sometimes necessary - not merely convenient, understandable or acceptable, but necessary.  Anyway, John Leo in U.S. News in 1997 quoted a professor, Robert Simon of Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y. as reporting that "10 to 20% of his students... acknowledged the Holocaust but couldn’t bring themselves to say that killing millions of people was wrong.... one student told Simon, ’Of course I dislike the Nazis, but who is to say they are morally wrong?’" Leo went on to note "2 disturbing articles in the Chronicle of Higher Education say that some students are unwilling to oppose large moral horrors, including human sacrifice, ethnic cleansing, terrorist attacks in the name of religion, and slavery, because they think no one has the right to criticize the moral views of another group or culture." Very scary…Now back to the sermon:

The question is why do you draw the lines where you do?  If you say the Bible is full of errors, then you place it under your discretion to pick and choose what you will accept, becoming the god of your own life.  If you believe it is the Word of God without error, you are obliged to take time to read the Word of God and give Him your attention.  You are obligated to let Him transform your life in the guidelines of the right and wrongs declared by Him.  You have an absolute truth to live by that is a righteous standard by which your actions will be judged. You place yourself under its instruction and direction. It does not change according to your feelings, situations, or temptations.  It is based on the unchanging character of a perfect God who loves you.  If you draw the line way over here on the liberal side to justify your sin and then claim the Bible is not a valid source of truth because you want to be free from its constraints, will a just God just wink at your sin?  There is a major push today in our cultural to redefine our boundaries ignoring the word of God and saying it is antiquated.  And we who believe the Bible is God’s Holy Word are labeled as hateful bigoted fanatics. The same thing happened in the days of Rome.  Christians were called cannibals because of symbolism in communion. Our enemy is not the people that label us falsely but the spirit that drives them. This is the same spirit that presents the lie that there is liberty and fulfillment outside of God.  The question that I fear the answer to is this, “Does this generation really want the truth?”  The truth is genuine liberty is not being self-centered but God-centered.  Are we willing to hear that?  God has provided one means of forgiveness and it is His only begotten Son.  Justification in your mind will not nullify the debt of sin. I call it debt because we owe God the right to rule and direct our lives.  Our insistence on setting our own standards does not change the fact that we owe all to Him. Genuine liberty is found in entering into God’s purpose for our lives. The truth will set you free.  Whom the Son sets free is free indeed!  The Bible often refers to rebellion against God as slavery – whereas the world calls it freedom.  Name any vice.  That vice is an escape from surrendering to God.  It is destructive and it is a lie.  It enslaves instead of liberates.  Liberty is walking in the destiny that your Creator intends for you!  Jesus is the Word made flesh, (and we see that in John 1:14) and we meet Him in the pages of the Bible. Are you looking at your Bible with a critical eye thinking something else can bring you greater satisfaction?  Then you will not see the wonder that He is. It takes a change of attitude toward the Word to be willing to look at where the problem really lies.

You see, one reason we refuse to value God’s Word is that we don't want to look at ourselves.  The Word is a mirror that illuminates the darkest corners of our inner self.  We don’t want to have to face and deal with that.  But once we turn our focus on the beauty of the Word and God’s love for us, the Word only gets more wonderful, more meaningful.  It always was, we just had our mind and heart set on looking somewhere else.  Will you see the great declaration of God’s love for you in His Word and turn your focus upon its beauty?  Folks complain about a boring lineage found in Numbers – you know, reading the ‘begatitudes’, but that is such a small portion of the Word and it’s there for a purpose.  Some complain about not understanding.  Get a version that is easier to read.  There is no excuse for not being in the Word of God. 

If you have come to the same conclusion, that this Book is the heart of God to man, then what are you going to do about it?  Will you commit this morning to living in the Word of God daily?  Will you do as it instructs and meditate upon it so that you can be prosperous and have real success in life?   If you believe the Eternal God, your Savior, declares His desires for you in this book, then you will be reading it to seek His direction.  I’m talking about making a commitment, I’m talking about having your Bible with you, I’m talking about a change in focus that calls you to action. Decide today to begin a life daily in the Word of God.

Blessed is this Nation

 Even to your old age I will be the same, And even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; And I will bear you and I will deliver you.”

All week we have been bombarded with the tragedy of the Attacking of America 10 years ago. The news networks are filled with so much information on this horrible terrorist act, I can’t even bear to watch it anymore. The secular world has been telling you how and what to think about this tragedy and many of the news outlets don’t even call it an act of terrorism any more, they come from a worldly, it’s America’s fault, point of view. But some events in human history impact us so greatly that we will forever have engraved in our minds where we were and what we were doing when we heard the news of this attack. You no doubt remember exactly where you were and what you were doing when you first heard the news. I’ll never forget where I was on 9-11.  I was in Washington DC, near the old executive office behind the White House – right where flight 93 is suspected to have targeted, about ready to testify before a committee on international trade.  Those experiences and images are forever embedded in my memory.  Back then President Bush had called for National Days of Prayer and Remembrance.  But, why haven’t we had them since?  Why is Mayor Bloomberg keeping prayer and clergy away from the memorial services today, does nobody care about God anymore? All we hear from our elected officials is about embracing those who want to do harm to us in the name of the “Religion of Peace”.  Unity and service projects are how we are supposed to remember those who have fallen, not by getting down on our knees and praying.  The National Cathedral in Washington DC is having a prayer vigil called “a call to compassion” today.  Muslims, Hindu’s, Buddhists, Jews, and Catholics have been invited to speak and pray.  Did you notice that I didn’t say Protestants?  That is right, not a single denomination of the protestant faith has been invited to speak.  Not even the Episcopalian priest whose charge the National Cathedral belongs to is allowed to speak.  Why is the largest faith group in American, not allowed to speak? What is going on here?  It really saddens me.  I guess it’s up to us to keep up prayer and remembrance, but what should we remember?

We need To Remember - the Cost in Human Lives. On September 11th, 2001 nearly 3,000 people lost their lives at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania. It was the most devastating attack ever to happen on American soil; costing more lives than the attack on Pearl Harbor (2,500 Americans died then), and almost as many Union soldiers died at Gettysburg (3100). Nineteen cowardly individuals, who killed in the name of the “religion of peace”, as it is called by our leaders, carried out this insidious attack.  We need to be careful not to forget the lives that were lost on that dreadful day and those that have died since from other related causes, as well as not forgetting the lives of those who have been changed forever. We cannot forget the widows who are raising children alone, those who lost spouses, friends and those parents who will never hold or talk to their children again. While we remember those 3000 people, we need to know that God is here to comfort. Listen to the Apostle Paul in (II Corinthians 1:3-4), “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” His ear is open to hear your cries and His arms are open to hold you tight. It is in times like this where we need to “comfort” those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. We also need to point others to the throne of Grace that they might receive mercy and grace in their time of need.  

We Need To Remember - the Extraordinary Acts of Heroism and Compassion.  We can’t forget the heroism shown by ordinary people who rose to the occasion in extraordinary ways. (By the way, Mayor Bloomberg won’t have any first responders at the 911 remembrance ceremony either). Reactions to that crisis, has brought forth both the best in people and has also called forth any number heroic acts, some recorded and many that were not. In remembering that tragic day: let us gain a renewed respect for those who have proven themselves to be true heroes! The 343 firefighters, the police, and rescue workers who risked their lives and even gave their lives to save others are true heroes.  One thing September 11 has shown us is that we never know…none of us ever know how much time we have—or how much time those around us have…therefore it is imperative that we spread the news of the saving Gospel of Christ with everyone we can!  There is a story that was told about the actions of a fellow named Al Braca. Al worked on the 105th floor of Tower One. When he realized that they were trapped in the building and would be unable to escape, Al shared the gospel with 50 of his co-workers and led them in prayer. Some of those same individuals had in the past mocked him for his faith.  If September 11 can teach us anything…. anything good at all…certainly it shows us that by following the model of Christ….ordinary Christians like you and me can be heroes!!!  And who hasn’t heard of the heroic act of the passengers aboard United Airlines Flight 93? One of those passengers was named Todd Beamer, in a conversation with a telephone operator, he told that plane had been high-jacked and that the passengers were discussing ways to overpower the highjackers. He ended his conversation by asking the operator to pray with him. That prayer was Psalm 23. The last words the operator heard him say were “Are you guys ready, Let’s Roll.” The heroic sacrificial action by those passengers to bring down the plane no doubt saved many lives as the highjackers were denied their ultimate target. Some have suggested its target was the White House and the President of the United States.

What We Need To Remember - Islam Is Not Just Another Denomination. The Media has made much of reporting on the religion of Islam. Perhaps in an attempt to get people not to react negatively to Muslims in this country, an effort has been made to normalize the adherents to Islam. But let’s not be confused. Islam is not just another denomination. Islam is not like the UCC down the street or a new Assembly of God starting up. Just because they worship one God does not mean that it is same God. Suffice it to say today, that although everyone has the freedom to worship as they see fit in this country, we do not to nor should we accept that Allah is just another name for Jehovah.  We Need To Remember - What This Has Revealed To Us About State Of The Church.  Perhaps most distressing of all is what this crisis has revealed about our country’s relationship with God. One-third of Americans said the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks were a "life-altering experience" that caused them to change their priorities, according to Gallup. Nearly half of conservative Christians -- 46 percent -- say the attacks caused them to change their lives, according to the poll of 1,019 adults. Non-whites and women under the age of 50 were the most likely to report a change after the attacks. While 66 percent of Americans say the attacks have not changed their lives, more than half of those who have shifted priorities say they are spending more time with their families and friends.  Immediately after the attacks, church attendance spiked for several weeks, rising in some places to as much as half the regular adult attendance. That attendance surge was short-lived though, for levels were back to normal by November. And despite a surge in worship attendance immediately after the attacks, another Gallup poll shows no longstanding change in the religious observance of most Americans. I have even heard some suggest that they were lower than prior to Sept 11. George Barna, the pollster of religion, professed his amazement saying, “I was among those who fully expected to see an intense spiritual reaction to the terrorist attacks. The fact that we saw no lasting impact from the most significant act of war against our country on our own soil says something about the spiritual complacency of the American public.”  He went on to say that he felt that the influx was due to irregulars (those who attend once every month or two) suddenly returning on a consistent basis for a month or so, before they fell back into their “regular pattern of irregular attendance.”  George Gallup Jr. said the terrorist attacks have had a "powerful but short-lived impact on the spirituality of the U.S. populace." Still, Gallup found only a slight rise in the personal importance of religion for most Americans. A May 2001 poll found that 57 percent said personal religion was "very important," and that number rose to 64 percent a week after the attacks and by Dec. that poll saw that number fall back to 60 percent.  Americans, however, seem to have an increased sense that religion is playing a more important role in the larger society and last February, 39 percent of Americans said religion was increasing its influence in society. I really hope that is true.

 We Need To Be Reminded Of Where To Look For Our Strength.  (Psalm 46) says, “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.  There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Come and see what the LORD has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields with fire. He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.”  In this psalm, David encourages believers in times of trouble. Psalm 46 is famous as the inspiration of Martin Luther’s great Hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” When David said, “God is our refuge” what he meant was that our sense of security is not derived from our nations defenses but that it rests in our faith in God. God and God alone is our refuge in times such as these. As believer’s we need to remember that our feeling of security goes beyond the measures of home land defense, beyond metal detectors, security checks, military power, political alliances or the strength of our economy. Our faith must rest solidly on a relationship with a living God. Security is not the absence of trouble, but the presence of confidence and courage in the midst of trouble. When tragedy occurs there are tears. Tears of those directly affected and tears of sympathy.  David reminds us that God is not only or refuge but our “strength.” Strength is the ability to rise above tragedy even with tears in our eyes and go forward. God is not just some far off source from whom we can seek advice but this psalm tells us that he is “a very present help.” David ends this great psalm by reminding us in verse ten that it is when we are overwhelmed that we need to allow God to move. “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!  The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our refuge.”

The Twin Towers have been destroyed and with them symbols of America’s security and prosperity. But beyond all the tragedy and the tears, the terror and the fears, one symbol still stands strong it is the cross. At times such as this, more than anything else, I believe that we need to be reminded that God cares! The Bible reveals to us that God does indeed care. The Philips translation of I Peter 5:7 says, “You can throw the whole weight of your anxieties on him, for you are his personal concern.” The Living Bible para-phrases that verse with these words “Let him have all your worries and cares, for he is always thinking about you and watching everything that concerns you.” It is comforting to know that God is aware of your feelings today and desires to comfort you. We need to be reminded that no matter what happens (floods, earthquakes, and terrorist attacks) God is Working for Good. (Romans 8:28) says, “And we know that in all things God works or the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Though these things happen and we don’t understand why these things happen and will continue to happen, we must remember that God did not and will not ever abandon us.  The Apostle Paul declares in (Romans 8:35-39), “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”   May God Bless our men and women in uniform; may God Bless each and every one of us; and may God Bless America.

Temptations in Life

I think that we all understand what temptation is. As a matter of fact my Jack Russell, Emma was tempted the other day; she was hanging around the breakfast table as she usually does in the morning.  As I set my plate of eggs on the table, I left the room for a brief moment.  When I returned, Emma was circling the table and especially my chair, to see if she could risk jumping up on it to scarf up my eggs before I got back.  Now she was tempted, but there was something holding her back from doing it. Now some of you know that I am gluten intolerant. At my office the other day there was a box of donuts left over from a meeting.  Now I haven’t had a donut in who knows how long and I was greatly tempted by it (just like I was at the pie yesterday at Bethany).  So, I ate most of it knowing that I would be sick in short order, so was it worth eating it and knowing I’d be in some acute distress??? That’s the trouble with temptation.  We know it’s not good for us and we do it anyway.  Choose to sin, choose to suffer – choose to eat wheat, choose to suffer. There are two lies Satan wants us to believe:  1. Just once won’t hurt. 2. Now that you have ruined your life, you are beyond God’s use, and might as well enjoy sinning.  Loved ones don’t believe it. So how many of us have shrugged and said, “The Devil made me do it!” (You can probably remember the comedian Flip Wilson had a whole routine on that) and we used that as an excuse when we were caught doing something we weren’t supposed to? It’s a convenient defense. But there’s one problem: the Devil can’t make us do anything. He may be clever, but he’s not all powerful. It may feel that way, when we’re dangling on temptation’s hook, because Satan has a tried-and-true strategy for luring us into his net.  First, he lays out the bait. Satan knows a person like a skilled angler knows fish. Now while I don’t profess to be a fisherman (because I want to catch something now) I know how it works.  He notes our habits. He observes our hangouts. Then he prepares a tailor-made lure and drops it right in front of our noses.  Secondly, comes the appeal. He can’t make us bite, but he does know what happens inside us when we catch a glimpse of that tantalizing bait. Our fleshly nature draws us to it. We linger over it. We toy with it. We roll it over in our minds until it consumes our imagination.  Thirdly, the struggle begins. Immediately, our conscience jabs us in the ribs, warning us of the danger. We know it’s wrong to take a bite. We may even see the barbed consequences poking through the bait. But Satan’s invitation looks so delicious. What do we do?  Fourthly, the temptation ends with the response. Either we resist or yield; swim away or swallow it whole. Anyone who has resisted knows the feeling of freedom that decision brings. On the other hand, anyone who has yielded knows the feeling of emptiness that follows and the pain of the hook in your cheek.” This morning we are going to see Jesus meet and master temptation. In this story we will see three general kinds of temptation that our adversary is still using against us. By way of introduction I want you to see with me when the testing of Jesus came about (vv. 1-2). “Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil. And in those days He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry.”  First, Matthew 4 records that this temptation of Jesus came directly after He was baptized. It was here that God the Father spoke and said, “This is my son in whom I am well pleased!” What a spiritual high. You will discover that testing will often come on the heels of a spiritual high point in your life. Secondly, it came at time of physical weakness; Jesus had not eaten in 40 days. Temptations often come when we are a weakened state physically or emotionally, when we are exhausted and emotionally spent. “In a survey on temptation among readers of the “Discipleship Journal”, 81% of the respondents noted temptations were more potent when they had neglected their time with God and 57% said they were tempted when they were physically tired. 84% of respondents said resisting temptation was accomplished by prayer, 76% said avoiding compromising situations (remember me talking about Billy Graham avoiding one on ones with women?), 66% said that Bible study helps resist temptation, and 52% said that being accountable to someone helped as well. Thirdly, this temptation came to Jesus when he was alone. We are the most vulnerable to temptation when we are alone.  As we begin our study today it is necessary that we understand that these temptations were very much real.   C. S. Lewis made these insightful observations about temptation: “No man knows how bad he is until he has tried very hard to be good. A silly idea is current, that good people do not know what temptation means. That is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is....Christ, because He was the only Man who never yielded to temptation, is also the only Man who knows to the full what temptation means.”  The temptations of Jesus had to be real for the consoling truth of (Hebrew 4:15) to be true: “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” To sympathize with us, Christ had to have fully experienced the Devil’s temptations! 1. THE TEMPTATION TO DO IT YOURSELF (vv. 3-4) The Devil Speaks (v.3) “And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”  Don’t be mislead by a false understanding of the Devil’s statement when he says, “If you are the Son of God” - this is not a supposition but an affirmation. It literally means “since you are” or “in view of the fact that you are the Son of God.” The first temptation would be no temptation at all if Jesus were not indeed the Son of God. The devil is well aware that God exists and I don’t think that he expends a great deal of effort trying to dissuade us from a belief in God. His basic strategy is to make us believe that God can’t be trusted. Satan entered into the Biblical picture at creation in the form of a serpent. He said to Adam and Eve, “Do you really believe that God is good? He has told you not to eat from that one tree because he knows that the moment you do so you will be as wise as He is? He is not your friend. He is holding out on you” (Gen. 3:4).  The temptation sounds innocent enough, right? You could almost sense the innocence in the devil’s presentation of this temptation – “just make these stones into bread” – what’s the big deal? You the Son of God – just do it! There is no law against turning stones into bread. It won’t hurt anything. Jesus had been without food for six weeks! Because he was the Son of God he could invoke his supernatural powers, the temptation was very real. Jesus could have done it in an instant and his hunger was screaming, “Do it.” Satan is suggesting to Jesus that there must be something wrong with the Father’s love since “His beloved son” was hungry. Satan was tempting Jesus to disobey the Father’s will by using his divine power for his own purposes.  John Piper says that sin …"gets its power by persuading me to believe that I will be more happy if I follow it. The power of all temptation is the prospect that it will make me happier." Jesus Answers (v. 4) “But Jesus answered him, saying, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’”  We often brag that we are “people of the Word.” But are we really? The question is not how much Bible do you know but how much of the Bible that you know are you applying in your life. Jesus lived by the word. The key phrase in each of his answers is, “it is written.” He did not allow the situation or the circumstances or even the enemy to dictate the truth. The answers to all three temptations came right out of Deuteronomy, the story of God’s pilgrim people coming out of bondage. Jesus in his answer was saying, “I will not complain. Neither will I take matters into my own hands. I will trust my Father and his word.”  Our temptation is not to turn stones into bread because the impossible does not tempt us. But the compliant behind the temptation is still very strong. The devil’s ploy in this world is to make us believe that if we want something done we need to do it ourselves – not trust in God. We regularly are tempted to go outside the friendly confines of God’s will to satisfy our personal needs or desires. We often promote ourselves because we are sure that God will not do it. We scheme and we plan for our well-being, because we assume that God does not care or maybe does not know about our needs.  2. THE TEMPTATION TO TAKE THE EASY WAY (vv. 5-8) The Devil Speaks (vv.5-7) “Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.  Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours.”  The devil was not lying when he promised Jesus, for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish” (v.6). The devil was offering Jesus a kingdom without the cross. Why go to all the trouble and pain to win the world when it can be handed to you on a silver platter. No suffering, No Struggling, No Sacrifice. But a crown without the cross would mean that there would be no forgiveness for our sins. Jesus Answers (v. 8) “And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.’” We do not have to look for to see the application for today. Our world teaches us to avoid pain, to take the easy way, the path of least resistance. Avoid sacrifice. Why give all that money to the church when you can spend it on a new fishing boat. Why spend the rest of your life with the same mate? Go out and find yourself someone new – after all you only live once. You deserve to be happy. What is the result? We are living in a country with children whose lives are being destroyed because of their parent’s selfishness. 3. THE TEMPTATION TO NOT BELIEVE IT UNTIL YOU SEE IT (vv. 9-13)The Devil Speaks (vv.9-11 ) The devil took Jesus to the point of the temple roof that overlooked the Kidron Valley, about a 450 ft. drop. Whether he took him there physically or in a vision we do not know. But once there he made Jesus a very tempting offer.  Having seen Jesus defeat him two times by quoting Scripture, Satan now quotes it himself, for his own purposes (vv. 9-11). “Then he brought Him to Jerusalem, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’” Satan misquotes the promise of God, it was right as far as it went, but he did not quote it all. For Jesus to have supernaturally survived a fall from the pinnacle of the temple in the full view of the people would have immediately identified Him as the Messiah. But it would have that would have singled out his love for Jesus. This would be the equivalent of saying to God –“I won’t believe in you until I see you SHOW it to me by MY terms.” Jesus Answers (vv. 12-13) “And Jesus answered and said to him, “It has been said, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’”  But Jesus understood to start His ministry by dramatically jumping from the pinnacle of the Temple would be completely contrary to the will of God. To do so would be to test God. Jesus refused to take this shortcut. There are many subtle ways that we can put God to the test. We may not jump from the top of the church – but we do it in other ways. We do it when we not put the worship of God and attendance at church as a priority – and yet we expect God to keep our children on the right path – that is putting God to the test. We do it when we dive into a path of our own choosing and then cry out to God to bail us out. We do it when we test the boundaries of known sin. God says, “Here is the line,” and we see how close we can get to that line. Then we are surprised when we fall. Then we blame God. But it happened because we have tested God. The one thing common to all three temptations is that they attempted to distract Jesus from his mission or destroy his relationship with His heavenly Father. Don’t miss the truth given in verse thirteen, “Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.” This verse says that “when the devil had ended every temptation” – the temptation was “ended” when he carried to completion and every avenue of attack was employed. When it says that the Devil “departed from Him” the Greek is much blunter, it says he “stood off.” This battle was over but he had not given up. Margaret Thatcher, the first woman prime minister of England stated, “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” This verse reveals that the Devil will always be lurking in the shadows, watching, waiting for the next vulnerable moment.  When you are weak – expect a major assault.  When you resist – be ready for a different approach.  When he leaves – count on another attack.  When Martin Luther was asked how he overcame the devil, he replied, “Well, when he comes knocking at the door of my heart, and asks ‘Who lives here?’ the dear Lord Jesus goes to the door and says, “Martin Luther used to live here, but he has moved out. Now I live here.” When Christ fills our lives Satan has no entrance. Loved ones, has Christ filled your life so that Satan has no entrance, no way to get in?  I pray that he has.  God will always, as I have said before provide you with an exit ramp just before you sin, please take it.