Peace in Temptation

Matthew Vitt

Peace • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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Introduction:

Who are you and what determines that?

How much of you is your actual personality?

How much is influenced by those around you?

Your laugh?

Your sense of humor?

Your gestures?

The way you think?

Your morals?

The truth is that we are unaware of how much we are influenced by others.

Who knows what the word influence means?

It means to be be persuaded or become like something else.

Influence can be both a good or bad thing.

We can be persuaded to do things bad, or good.

We can become like someone good or bad.

We all have influence on others and are influenced by others.

What kind of an influence are you on others and what influence do you allow to have an effect on you.

How does Jesus handle influence?

Matthew 4:1–2 NKJV

1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.

The wilderness is not some forest, but a desert.

He is hanging out in the desert by Himself.

Things are hot and barren.

Water is scarce.

No shade, and it gets very cold at night.

Jesus fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.

I don’t know about you, but I can barely make it past lunch.

You can probably tell, I do not fast too much.

Imagine fasting for that long.

That seems like a long time but did you know that the human body can live 30-40 days without food, as long as it is properly hydrated.

Jesus is on the limits of His body’s strength.

Can you imagine going this long without food willingly?

Why would he do this?

It says to be tempted by the devil.

Why would Jesus need to tempted by the devil?

Why would He find it necessary?

Because Jesus is meant to be the ultimate bridge between God and man.

What better way to build the bridge, than becoming one of the thing you want to communicate with.

Jesus came as a man to show us how God would be as one of us.

To show us how we can and should live.

To be the ultimate example.

Humans are tempted and most of the time fall into it.

God wants be relatable.

Who knows what that means?

It means to be someone or something that you can understand and feel like.

I am an adult, and you are middle schoolers.

My problems may not be relatable to you.

Adults have problems that are different than you have.

You have problems different than adults and your parents.

Boys have different struggles than girls and the other way around.

God/Jesus needs to be tempted, because we are creatures that deal with temptation and the struggles of negative influence.

God is holy and perfect and does not deal with that.

Jesus is God taking on a body and going through the same struggles that humans do, so that when He tells us what to do and how to live, he can say He knows the struggles that we face.

It is easy to relate to someone who is more like you.

We are about to see Jesus be tempted.

I want you to think about something...

What we are about to see is God being tempted and that is insane to me.

You are telling me that the God/creator/king/most powerful/most perfect being in the universe and all of existence is about to make Himself go through temptation?

This is wild to me.

This would be like you becoming an rat or an ant...or whatever gets the picture across…to become relatable and understand the struggles and build trust among them.

Let’s see how this plays out...

Matthew 4:3 NKJV

3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

Remember Jesus is hungry!

The better word is starving.

I grew up poor and had times I went not eating as often as I would have wanted to.

Never more than a day, and it was pretty crazy.

It is possible some of you may have experienced this.

If you have, you are strong and awesome.

Jesus has done this for 40 days.

What is the temptation that Satan presents to Jesus?

He says if you are God, then command this stone to become bread.

Do you want to know how powerful God is?

He speaks and it exists.

He has the power to alter reality with His words.

Satan knows that Jesus can do this and tempts Him to.

I think that we need to consider that Jesus is starving.

He is starving.

I think we need to consider that Jesus did think about changing the stone into food.

The thought would have crossed my mind.

I would have struggled.

I think we need to remember that Jesus was in a human body.

He had the same thoughts that would come with a human body.

Here is an important question: Is being tempted a sin?

What do you think?

Raise your hand if you do...

Raise your hand if you don’t...

The answer is that it is not a sin.

It is a sin to give into temptation.

Jesus was tempted, but did not give in and sin.

Check out this awesome verse in the book of Hebrews:

Hebrews 4:15 NKJV

15 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.

Isn’t this awesome.

I just wanted to bring this out of this passage, because it means so much and most people miss this point.

Jesus’ response:

What is Jesus response?

Man does not live on bread alone.

What does this mean?

Satan was trying to just take advantage of Jesus’ human nature.

Jesus shows that there is more to life than eating and drinking.

You exist to do more than to eat, drink, sleep, and poop...

Most people just live and act on what their animal desires tell them.

There is more to life that this.

You are more than your basic urges, yet many are tempted into bad decisions with bad consequences for what makes them feel good in the moment.

I have had many times this has gotten me into trouble.

I once stole a candy bar when I was 14, because I had a bad influence as a friend.

I was hungry and really wanted it, and he said I should just do it.

I was really dumb, because I wanted to be like him, and I already told you was poor.

The problem is that my poverty does not mean I am in the right to steal and take someone’s merchandise.

I did and got caught on my way out.

They scolded me and banned me from the store.

I could have had much worse happen to me.

They said if I ever came back, they would call the cops on me.

I had never done anything like that in my life.

I had grace and God was watching out for me.

Jesus did not abuse His power as God.

He follows the right channels and procedures.

Just because we can do something, does not mean we should.

It is like the quote from Jurassic Park in regards to the main characters find out that dinosaurs were cloned:

“We always asked if we could, but we never stopped to ask if we should.”

What does Jesus say we also live on?

He says the word of God.

What is this?

This is the Bible.

Does Jesus mean to actually eat our bibles?

No and please do not try and eat your Bibles.

There is a very important lesson here.

God’s word, the bible, everything that He wants us to know in this life, is also what we are meant to live on.

Jesus uses the Bible to combat Satan’s temptation:

This quote is from the book of Deuteronomy 8:3.

Jesus used the Bible and that means He knew it well.

The question is, do you know it well enough to stave off the devil?

I cannot stress this enough, the word of God is your tool, resource, and weapon in the temptations of life.

Jesus’ second temptation:

Matthew 4:5–7 NKJV

5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ” 7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”

Satan took Jesus to Jerusalem, to the top of the temple.

This is one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

It is like bringing you to the top of a skyscraper.

It was an immense and glorious morning, on top of a mountain.

How did they get there?

Remember, they were in the wilderness of the desert.

I imagine, that Satan teleported them there.

I believe that Jesus was not just seeing a vision, but was there physically.

What is the temptation?

Satan tells Jesus to jump off the building and Jesus would be saved miraculously by His Father.

Satan quotes the Bible.

He quotes Psalm 91:11.

We need to understand that Satan is our enemy and he knows the Bible and how to use it against us.

I just find this fascinating, because we take him for granted and think that he is not someone to.

It says that God will protect us and send His angels to watch over us.

Satan is trying to get Jesus to jump and even shows Him where in the Bible it says it is okay.

Think about this, Jesus combats Satan’s twisting of the Bible, with the Bible.

He quotes Deuteronomy 6:16.

He says that it is written that we should not tempt, or test the Lord.

This is because He is in control and we are not, although we think we are.

You see, we often want to live our lives with no consequences and hope that God will show Himself to us.

it is okay to ask God for evidence here and there, but we should not be reckless.

There is a temptation to try and get away with as much as possible and believe that you are special enough for the physics and consequences to have no effect on you.

If someone tells you to do something stupid like smoke cigarettes, do drugs, drink, do crazy stunts, etc. and tries to make you think that these things will not affect you in some way, they are wrong, and you are foolish for believing them.

How do I know, I used to be a teenager.

I hate alcohol, and as I mentioned, my father was an abusive alcoholic.

I told myself I never would, and I did not ever intend to.

I was a new believer at the age of 15.

I still had my friends that were in the world.

They used to always invite me to go partying.

I knew what happened at parties and the dangers.

I thought I would go, not be drunk, and watch over my friends.

Make sure that nothing bad ever happened to them.

I thought that I could go and be a believer and have nothing bad that comes with parties happen to me.

I thought, surely God will protect me.

I was influenced by my friends. In a negative way.

I went there, and only drank soda.

Someone spiked my drink(put alcohol in it.)

I got drunk, the very thing I vowed I would never do.

I acted like a bafoon.

People recorded me.

I will not get into all I did, because it is not relevant.

I tested the Lord.

I put myself in a situation I knew He told me not to get into.

God didn’t force me, but their were consequences.

I had shame, and embarrassment.

God gave me wisdom to not go, and I ignored.

I share that you will not make the same mistakes or worse.

There is a saying that an average or foolish person hopefully learns from their mistakes.

But a wise person learns from other people’s mistakes and observes them to better themselves.

Jesus’ Third Temptation:

Matthew 4:8–10 NKJV

8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.” 10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”

I believe that this is probably the worst of temptations.

Who does not want to be in charge?

It is in us.

We think we know better.

I was young, and thought I could do so many things better.

What kingdoms did He show Jesus?

I personally think all of them from the beginning of time, until the end.

I think it was more than just the kingdoms 2000 years ago.

Some do not, but either way, the word is plural, as in kingdoms.

We need to understand something, Satan is the ruler of this world.

God is the ruler of the of the universe.

God have us the rule over the earth, but we gave it up in the first temptation in the garden.

See here is the thing, I believe that Satan understands that Jesus is really feeling temptation.

He knows that there is a possibility of maybe God in a human body giving in and bowing.

Jesus is God the Son, who is submitting to the will of His Father.

The plan to redeem mankind from sin was for Him to come to earth, not as the King He is, but a servant.

Jesus gave up His royalty and splendor to be a peasant, where no one showed Him respect or attention.

Can you imagine this?

I cannot imagine what He gave up, nor do I think any human can.

I think Satan has an idea of what He did, and is using this against Him.

The Bible says that the Messiah will inherit all things, but in the future.

Jesus took the role and status of the firstborn son.

This was a position that in that culture meant that they would one day rule over everything their family had.

Jesus is on a throne, but has not yet, in God’s plan been given the cue to come and execute and exercise the full authority.

I think we need to pay attention here.

I think Jesus, in His humanity, could possibly have had the thought cross His mind to take the power rightly due to Him.

This is a real temptation and we cannot just think that it was easy to say”no” just because He is God.

The struggle was real.

Jesus has seen all of the problems with the world and as a holy God, wants to bring justice and balance.

He is tired of all of the corruption and evil.

But the time is not now.

There is a bigger plan.

Jesus responds again saying “It is written...”

He quotes Deuteronomy 6:13, 10:20, and Joshua 24:4.

These verses are clear that we are meant to follow the Lord God and serve Him.

We are constantly going through temptations and they bring a lot of anxiety and no peace.

There is such a tug at the world and Satan, and even your sinful nature trying to bring you into temptation.

This causes so much strain and anxiety on you.

I know you are young, but I am certain that you have gone through more temptation than people would think.

I was there and am still there.

I know how it makes your emotions so ughhh.

The temptations of Jesus hit every aspect of where you are now and where you will be.

What do I mean, well a lot, but let me narrow it down.

I know that at your age especially, you are prone to want to be accepted.

There are more studies than I can count on middle and high schoolers will give into many things to be liked and accepted.

You avoid at all costs being rejected.

This affects adults a lot as well, but it is more prominent in your age group.

The desire to be changed and influenced into being what the crowd wants you to be.

The world is an evil place and people are very shallow.

Please do not listen to the world that says your worth is in xyz.

They will try and get you to give in and be like putty in their hands.

Do not be someone who gives into the image that the world has for you.

Jesus knows His worth and who He is.

He did not let that change who He was, when He had the opportunity to cut corners.

I say this because there is a big desire to just be on the in crowd, and do whatever it takes to just not be the outcast.

Or try this, do whatever it takes for her, or him to like me.

I know you have noticed the opposite gender.

I know the power and pull this has on you.

Boys, do not give into the temptations get her to notice you.

I once sold all of my video game consoles and games at 10% of the cost to try and get a girl’s attention.

Guess what, she never wore the bracelet I got her.

Those video games were the result of many extra hours my mom had to work to give me.

I could not be at peace and accept that she rejected me.

I was not at peace with who the Lord made me to be.

And I did stupid things.

Girls, do not try and change your looks get that guy to notice you.

You

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