Speaker 1: Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation
Speaker 1: Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope
Speaker 1: it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to
Speaker 1: see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message.
Speaker 1: Are you ready for the word? Shout Amen? One scripture
Speaker 1: I want to start with, and there's a journey that
Speaker 1: I want us to go on today from one Corinthians
Speaker 1: ten thirteen. And I ministered this to the young people,
Speaker 1: and then I've been I've been dealing with it in
Speaker 1: my own life too, So I want you to listen
Speaker 1: to this. It says no temptation has overtaken you. That
Speaker 1: is not common to man. God is faithful. Shout about
Speaker 1: the part of this verse you believe God is faithful.
Speaker 1: This part gets a little bit harder to shout about
Speaker 1: because it says that He will not let you be
Speaker 1: tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation, He will
Speaker 1: also provide the way of escape that you may be
Speaker 1: able to endure it. I want to speak for a
Speaker 1: few moments. The Holy Spirit helping me on the subject
Speaker 1: of the way of escape. Father, your word is truth.
Speaker 1: Illuminate it so that we might receive it. After we
Speaker 1: have received it, may we water it, and may a
Speaker 1: harvest come from these moments that we have together in
Speaker 1: your presence. Bless your people. Now give him a leaned
Speaker 1: imposture and open heart. Do the surgery that you want
Speaker 1: to do, and stitch us up. And when we finish
Speaker 1: with our time together, we want to go back into
Speaker 1: the world better than we came into this place today.
Speaker 1: We believe you to do it, and we thank you
Speaker 1: in advance in Jesus' name. Amen, Amen, you may be seated.
Speaker 1: So when I said the word temptation in that verse,
Speaker 1: probably a thousand different things came to mind, depending on
Speaker 1: who you are, what stage of life you're in. It's
Speaker 1: a lot of temptations that teenagers probably face today that
Speaker 1: I didn't have to face when I was their age.
Speaker 1: And I'm always like, are you sure you want me
Speaker 1: to come and speak to the teenagers because I'm afraid
Speaker 1: of being irrelevant. I used to speak to youth groups
Speaker 1: all the time. That was all I did was just
Speaker 1: travel all around yelling at kids, keep your pants on.
Speaker 1: You know, the basic messages abstinence, messages. I would even
Speaker 1: go into public high schools and I couldn't even use
Speaker 1: the Bible, but I would just have to teach them
Speaker 1: and try to hold their attention. That's probably why I
Speaker 1: yell so much today and move around so much, because
Speaker 1: I got trained in having to keep people's attention. But
Speaker 1: things have changed a lot, you know. So I'm always
Speaker 1: afraid that I'm going to say stuff that the kids
Speaker 1: are like rolling their eyes at, Like my kids roll
Speaker 1: their eyes at me, And now I have teenagers, and
Speaker 1: and so I have a little bit of a frame
Speaker 1: of reference. But I also just don't want to be
Speaker 1: I don't want to be talking on a level that
Speaker 1: just makes me sound like a dinosaur or like a
Speaker 1: Trannosaurus rex up here trying to preach the word of God.
Speaker 1: I'm not a pterodactyl up here trying to preach the
Speaker 1: word of God, Brannosaurus trying to preach the word just
Speaker 1: naming all the dinosaurs, you know. And yet something in
Speaker 1: the scripture that was really interesting is that Paul said,
Speaker 1: there's really no new temptations. There's nothing that you're fighting
Speaker 1: against right now that somebody didn't already fight against. Now
Speaker 1: that ought to take away a lot of the shame
Speaker 1: for those of you who don't feel like you deserve
Speaker 1: to be in church, because if what the man said
Speaker 1: was true, that no temptation has overtaken you except what
Speaker 1: is common to man. That means that even if you
Speaker 1: struggle a little bit differently than the person three seats
Speaker 1: down your row, they need the same grace that you
Speaker 1: need to be saved, and you don't have to be
Speaker 1: ashamed about your need for grace. And yet there is
Speaker 1: this particular way in which when we are tempted, we
Speaker 1: think we're the only ones that I am the only
Speaker 1: one who is experiencing loneliness in this unique way. I
Speaker 1: am the only one who deals with these thoughts. I
Speaker 1: am the only one who cannot get over this and
Speaker 1: just move past it and deal with it. Paul says, No,
Speaker 1: it is common. You're not really that special. Satan didn't
Speaker 1: just make up a whole new temptation for you. You're
Speaker 1: really not that special. It's the same temptations, and it's
Speaker 1: the same grace that was available to me as a
Speaker 1: teenager when my biggest temptation was aol instant messenger. It's
Speaker 1: the same grace for Snapchat. It's grace. It's the same temptations.
Speaker 1: The Reformers had a term called common grace that they
Speaker 1: used to talk about how all people experience the grace
Speaker 1: of God in some measure just by virtue of being
Speaker 1: humans that were made in His image and according to
Speaker 1: His likeness, and then there is that special saving grace.
Speaker 1: But here Paul wants us to know that just like
Speaker 1: there is a common grace, there is a common temptation.
Speaker 1: And so you're really not alone, and you're really not
Speaker 1: that weird, and you're really not that broken, and there
Speaker 1: really were no parts or pieces missing in your box.
Speaker 1: That you really do have everything everybody else does that
Speaker 1: is needed to accomplish what God has purposed for your life.
Speaker 1: Just like we think that the world has never been
Speaker 1: worse than it is right now, Paul says, this is
Speaker 1: nothing new. This is the same old crap. Can I
Speaker 1: say crap in my own pulpit after being a pastor
Speaker 1: for thirteen and a half years, a grown man with
Speaker 1: gray hair in my beard, I'm sure I can say
Speaker 1: crap and you wouldn't be offended by that. Right. It's
Speaker 1: the same crap, same old stuff that they were dealing
Speaker 1: with in Corinth. This church was wild, the church at Corinth.
Speaker 1: They would come in for communion and get drunk on
Speaker 1: the communion wine. That's why we don't even put alcohol
Speaker 1: in the cups when we do communion. I don't trust y'all.
Speaker 1: It's grape juice, it's prefermented. It's welchous. Some of y'all
Speaker 1: be wiling in church talking anyway. It's the same temptations.
Speaker 1: It's not like the church people say, oh, well, we
Speaker 1: need to get back to the Church of the New Testament.
Speaker 1: You mean the ones where Paul had to write them
Speaker 1: a letter and say you shouldn't sleep with your stepmother
Speaker 1: because that was the church. It's the same old stuff.
Speaker 1: It's the same to me, like there was some pristine,
Speaker 1: pure holy time when people didn't struggle. It's a different manifestation,
Speaker 1: but it's the same temptation. It's the same stock. It's
Speaker 1: the same stuff. Have to be really careful because we'll
Speaker 1: start judging people if their temptation has a different flavor
Speaker 1: than ours. Well, I just don't see how they could. Well,
Speaker 1: maybe they don't see how you could. Paul wants us
Speaker 1: to know that this is nothing new. It is the
Speaker 1: same temptation in many ways, I've learned that the temptations
Speaker 1: I'm facing now as I approach the age of forty
Speaker 1: are the same temptations I was dealing with at age fourteen.
Speaker 1: The reason that I was so honored to preach to
Speaker 1: our youth is that I was hoping to help them
Speaker 1: to see that the way that they will deal with
Speaker 1: temptation today will have so much to do with what
Speaker 1: they have to face in the future at a later time.
Speaker 1: It was important for me to get that point across,
Speaker 1: because it's really nothing new. What you struggled with then,
Speaker 1: you struggle with now. It's many of the same temptations
Speaker 1: that cycle through our lives, and it's the same need
Speaker 1: for approval, the same need for validation, the same reach
Speaker 1: for something to fill our soul. It changes clothes, but
Speaker 1: it does not change nature. It's the same temptation at
Speaker 1: the root of it. In our hearts. It is our
Speaker 1: quest to depend on anything but God, to reach for
Speaker 1: something physical and visible, to make for ourselves golden calves
Speaker 1: and graven images that we can trust in and say,
Speaker 1: these are your gods that brought you out of Egypt.
Speaker 1: As we grow weary waiting for the real God to
Speaker 1: deliver us in our situation. As patience becomes harder and
Speaker 1: harder for us, as we await the fullness of the
Speaker 1: presence and the promise of God in our own situations,
Speaker 1: we devise for ourself escape routes, a way out. It's
Speaker 1: hard to be human, it's hard to deal with the
Speaker 1: fragmented heart that is common to each of us, and
Speaker 1: so early in life we begin to manage the pressure
Speaker 1: to escape the pain, and we all find different ways.
Speaker 1: Some ways are innocent enough, some ways are destructive, and
Speaker 1: most of the ways are somewhere in between. There's always
Speaker 1: a way of escape. Everybody in here, young and old, Baptist, Pentecostal, atheist, agnostic,
Speaker 1: we all have a way of escape. And I wonder
Speaker 1: what is it that you're trying to escape? And I
Speaker 1: wonder what is it that makes you feel trapped like
Speaker 1: you can't get out? See, it's one thing to be
Speaker 1: trapped in a situation. Have you ever been trapped in
Speaker 1: a situation? I hope this is not one of those
Speaker 1: right now? For you? What was that ballet that you
Speaker 1: tricked me into going to? Oh, she took me to
Speaker 1: sleep in beauty, but she didn't tell me that there
Speaker 1: wouldn't be any speaking parts. I was ten minutes into
Speaker 1: that ballet with Holly and Abbey, and I was praying. First,
Speaker 1: I was praying for the rapture, and then I was
Speaker 1: looking at the fire alarm, thinking maybe I could pull that,
Speaker 1: And then I was praying, God, if you have to
Speaker 1: kill me, if you have to give me a brain
Speaker 1: hemorrhage to get me out of this, Just come on.
Speaker 1: Have you ever been trapped? It's one thing to be
Speaker 1: trapped in a situation. It's another thing to feel trapped
Speaker 1: inside yourself, to feel like there's habits in my heart,
Speaker 1: ways that I lean and I prop up on things
Speaker 1: that can't support the weight of my worry. But I
Speaker 1: find myself doing it over and over again. And so
Speaker 1: you devise a way of escape. You find a way
Speaker 1: to not have to feel what you feel. You find
Speaker 1: a way out. The context of First Corinthians to give
Speaker 1: some real insight to the meaning of verse thirteen, because
Speaker 1: in order for Paul to show the Corinthian Church, hey,
Speaker 1: this is nothing new what you're facing. And God is
Speaker 1: greater than your situation, and he's greater than your sin,
Speaker 1: and he's greater than your shame, and he's greater than
Speaker 1: the thing that has a hold of you, that won't
Speaker 1: let you go. God is greater than that. He takes
Speaker 1: them all the way back to Egypt. The Exodus story
Speaker 1: was critical to the heritage and the history of the
Speaker 1: people of God. It was in Egypt that they escaped
Speaker 1: from the famine. When the famine hit Canaan, God had
Speaker 1: Joseph positioned in Egypt. How many know, God always has
Speaker 1: someone in a position to meet the needs of his people.
Speaker 1: I need y'all to shout. With an election year coming up,
Speaker 1: God's going to take care of us. God is going
Speaker 1: to take care of us. And that's true in every
Speaker 1: area and season of your life. So when they started
Speaker 1: starving in Canaan, Joseph said, yet, Dad, and bring him
Speaker 1: to Egypt. God has given me favor in the midst
Speaker 1: of this famine. So they escaped Canaan, where there was
Speaker 1: a famine, and Jacob, with his one hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: year old self, had to relocate not to South Florida,
Speaker 1: but to Egypt, a foreign place where he did not
Speaker 1: know the pharaoh. But the pharaoh knew Joseph. And since
Speaker 1: the pharaoh knew Joseph, Jacob and all of the patriarchs
Speaker 1: and all of their wives and all of their children.
Speaker 1: Not only did they get to move into Egypt, but
Speaker 1: they got to go to Goshen. Goshen was the place
Speaker 1: with the Kentucky fried quail. Goshen was the place where
Speaker 1: you can eat off the fat of the land. Goshen
Speaker 1: was the place of provision. For a little while, and
Speaker 1: for years and years, while others were starving, the House
Speaker 1: of Jacob was eating good in Egypt, until one day.
Speaker 1: The Bible says that a pharaoh or a ruler arose
Speaker 1: in Egypt that knew not Joseph. When Joseph died and
Speaker 1: pharaoh's change, all of a sudden, the place where they
Speaker 1: had escaped to became the place where they were enslaved in.
Speaker 1: Sometimes the place you go to to escape will become
Speaker 1: the place where you are enslaved. Can I break this down?
Speaker 1: It may be that you are escaping for survival. You
Speaker 1: escape to a relationship that is really not good for you,
Speaker 1: and you know that the relationship is not good for you,
Speaker 1: but you are so lonely. Rather than live by yourself
Speaker 1: because you feel like you're dying inside, you would rather
Speaker 1: join up with someone who is bringing you down, And
Speaker 1: even though you know that they're bringing you down, or
Speaker 1: they are abusive, or they are not walking in the
Speaker 1: same direction as you, you would rather walk in the
Speaker 1: wrong direction then walk alone in the right direction. And
Speaker 1: credit to you for being a survivor, because some of
Speaker 1: the things that you did in your life. You went
Speaker 1: to Egypt to survive. You went to Egypt not because
Speaker 1: it was a sin. It was just a matter of survival.
Speaker 1: Some of the things that we learned to medicate with,
Speaker 1: some of the habits that later in life become masters
Speaker 1: over us. They did not start as masters. They started
Speaker 1: as medication. And so we took a pill at first
Speaker 1: just to deal with it, so we could deal with
Speaker 1: everyday life. But then it was two, and then it
Speaker 1: was three, and then it was a bunch, And now
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, I find myself enslaved by something
Speaker 1: that I escaped too. This is not just true of pills.
Speaker 1: This can be true of sex. You can look for
Speaker 1: a connection in sex and substitute it for love. It's
Speaker 1: not that you wanted to be dirty, it's not that
Speaker 1: you wanted to be promiscuous. It's not that you don't
Speaker 1: respect yourself. It's just that you wanted to feel something,
Speaker 1: and the feeling of loneliness can be so great that
Speaker 1: you would rather feel a dirty connection than a clean
Speaker 1: sense of confinement that comes from being quarantined in your
Speaker 1: own mind. But the danger of escape is that Egypt
Speaker 1: can feed you quail one day and whip you with
Speaker 1: chains the next day, and the place that you escape
Speaker 1: too becomes the place that you are enslaved in. Thank
Speaker 1: you for helping me, Lord, I told the Lord I
Speaker 1: wanted to preach this message with energy like it was
Speaker 1: my first time preaching it. And I feel his health today,
Speaker 1: a chain breaking kind of anointing that can get deep
Speaker 1: down in your heart and help you to see how
Speaker 1: sometimes the place that we run too can become the
Speaker 1: place that we're trapped in because I just want to escape.
Speaker 1: I just don't want to feel like this anymore. So
Speaker 1: now that's why I'm now, That's why I'm going outside
Speaker 1: of God to meet a God given me. That's why
Speaker 1: I'm doing things that make me feel bad in the morning.
Speaker 1: I'm doing things that leave a wake of consequences that's
Speaker 1: going to affect me in a way that has no alignment.
Speaker 1: But the real intention of what God has spoken over
Speaker 1: my life, But I just got to get out of this.
Speaker 1: I hope one day that I'll have the courage to
Speaker 1: do this series called I already have the name of it.
Speaker 1: I just don't have the guts to preach it yet
Speaker 1: because I know how church people are and I can
Speaker 1: already see the YouTube comments. But y'all pray for me.
Speaker 1: One day I'm gonna preach a whole series called Sins
Speaker 1: with Benefits. Y'all sound a little too excited about that,
Speaker 1: kind of sketchy how much y'll clapped about that, because
Speaker 1: we will hear a lot of times about the consequence
Speaker 1: of sin, but if there were no benefits to it,
Speaker 1: it wouldn't be so popular. There is a need that
Speaker 1: Egypt meets. There is a need that has met, you know,
Speaker 1: there is There is a there is a longing that
Speaker 1: is fulfilled when I when I go outside of God
Speaker 1: to mee to God given need. It works. See that's
Speaker 1: the problem. It works. It gets you out for a
Speaker 1: little while. It works until it doesn't. It works until
Speaker 1: it gets old. It works until it fries the neural pathways.
Speaker 1: And now it does work anymore. And now I'm doing it,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't even work anymore. And now I'm chasing
Speaker 1: something that doesn't deliver, and I want a way out.
Speaker 1: So Paul says, now you got it back all the
Speaker 1: way up to Egypt. And look at verse one. This
Speaker 1: is in the Bible, y'all. He said, I want you
Speaker 1: to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud.
Speaker 1: It's the same stuff. It's the same stuff. They were
Speaker 1: all under the cloud and all passed through the sea.
Speaker 1: Remember the Red sea that God brought his people through.
Speaker 1: Come on, has God ever brought you out of anything?
Speaker 1: I don't mean you had a headache and it went away.
Speaker 1: That was hyperprofen but I mean something that was deep.
Speaker 1: It was a pit, It was a depression, it was
Speaker 1: a darkness. It was a mistake. It was a mess
Speaker 1: you made. But God brought you out. Shop for fifteen seconds.
Speaker 1: Matter of fact, shout If he didn't just bring you out,
Speaker 1: shout if he brought you through, Oh God, that's good
Speaker 1: to me. He didn't just bring me out of it.
Speaker 1: He brought me through it. And since I went through it,
Speaker 1: I got something from it. I'm stronger, wiser, better talk.
Speaker 1: I had to go through the Valley of the Shadow
Speaker 1: of Death so I could know it's just a shadow.
Speaker 1: The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not want Now.
Speaker 1: I got a table in the presence of my enemies.
Speaker 1: But the only way to the table was through the valley.
Speaker 1: I had to go through the pain. And that's what God. Now,
Speaker 1: watch this a history, lesson Tell somebody, it's nothing new.
Speaker 1: It's nothing new what you're going through. God's people have
Speaker 1: been standing in front of stuff that they didn't think
Speaker 1: they could make it through for a long time. They
Speaker 1: came to that red sea, Pharaoh behind them, the chariots clacking.
Speaker 1: These were not these were not These were not basic chariots.
Speaker 1: These were Lamborghini chariots, faster than them, stronger than them.
Speaker 1: But somehow, some way, they passed through the sea. God
Speaker 1: brought them through it. God said, I'm not just gonna
Speaker 1: lift you out of it. I'm gonna give you the
Speaker 1: strength to walk through it. No temptation. He brought them
Speaker 1: through it. He brought you through it. He takes you
Speaker 1: through it, not around it, but through it. Keep trying
Speaker 1: to work around it. We put all these workarounds in
Speaker 1: our life, all these ways that we don't really have
Speaker 1: to deal with real issues, all these ways of escape
Speaker 1: that we try to make for ourselves. You know, since
Speaker 1: I really can't be happy, let me just take pictures
Speaker 1: like I am. They said we had overflow at Valentine.
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to make some seats for next week.
Speaker 1: I appreciate this till we got some empty seats. But
Speaker 1: really it's the mercy of God, because he said it
Speaker 1: was the same cloud, same sea, same grace, and the
Speaker 1: same grace that is available if you are facing a
Speaker 1: red sea of trouble is available if you are facing
Speaker 1: a temptation in your life that has overtaken you. Interesting language,
Speaker 1: because to say it has overtaken you acknowledges that it's
Speaker 1: stronger than you. So being told that there is something
Speaker 1: that is stronger than me working against me, and you
Speaker 1: know exactly what that is in your life, you know
Speaker 1: exactly what it is that you escape too, that you
Speaker 1: have become enslaved by. And if it's not sex, and
Speaker 1: if it's not peels, Look, some people do it with pharmaceuticals,
Speaker 1: some people do it with food. You can do it
Speaker 1: with drugs, you can do it with donuts. That's why
Speaker 1: I said temptation is a funny word. If we start
Speaker 1: making a list, we'll make a list of all the
Speaker 1: ones we don't struggle with, and then we'll shout about
Speaker 1: how God is faithful with that. But blame can be
Speaker 1: a way of escape. You hear me preaching to you today,
Speaker 1: because blame will get you out of having to take responsibility.
Speaker 1: The only problem is it gives the keys to your
Speaker 1: freedom to whoever you blame for the situation. And now
Speaker 1: you're enslave too the very thing that you were trying
Speaker 1: to escape from. Now you're enslaved to bitterness because you
Speaker 1: escape through blame. I could do this all day long.
Speaker 1: I could talk about how when you feel trapped in something,
Speaker 1: it's important what you trust in because whatever you trust
Speaker 1: becomes your master. What are you escaping to? What are
Speaker 1: you escaping from? And have you escape to something that
Speaker 1: has now started to enslave you. Cynicism is an escape
Speaker 1: because it hurts to have hope. It opens the door
Speaker 1: to disappointment. So you just beat life to the punch.
Speaker 1: You just expect the worst. That way, you're not surprised
Speaker 1: and you put your faith in reverse and call it realism.
Speaker 1: So what's really sad about coming through the Red Sea
Speaker 1: is that after all the miracles that God does for
Speaker 1: you and after the way that he saves you, and
Speaker 1: after the way that He becomes personal in your life.
Speaker 1: The Bible says that even after they went through the
Speaker 1: Red Sea passed under the cloud through Moses. After he
Speaker 1: references this Exodus motif that is so prevalent in the
Speaker 1: Jewish scriptures, he says in verse five, nevertheless, God was
Speaker 1: not pleased with most of them, for they were overthrown
Speaker 1: in the wilderness. And that's where the battle is. In
Speaker 1: the wilderness. Even Jesus went through the wilderness, and what
Speaker 1: you do in the wilderness determines whether you stay enslaved
Speaker 1: or move forward into freedom. We don't just pass through
Speaker 1: the wilderness once in our lives. The wilderness is not
Speaker 1: something you did eighteen years ago. The wilderness isn't just
Speaker 1: when you lost your first job. The wilderness can happen
Speaker 1: several times any given week. I asked my friend before
Speaker 1: I came out, how was your week? And I said,
Speaker 1: I take it back. I hate that question because you
Speaker 1: could ask me that hour by hour and get a
Speaker 1: different answer. There are some weeks I have where Monday
Speaker 1: is milk and honey and Tuesday is Canaanites, Hittites, Jebuzdes parizites, termites, cellulites,
Speaker 1: and when they went to the wilderness, they were overthrown.
Speaker 1: They grumble, they wanted out, you know where they wanted
Speaker 1: to go Egypt. At least we could eat in Egypt.
Speaker 1: Never Mind, you forgot about the fact that they gave
Speaker 1: you mud without straw, trying to get you to make
Speaker 1: bricks without giving you materials. Never mind that the devil
Speaker 1: has constantly been trying to keep you all your life
Speaker 1: in a state of feeling like you're not enough. You
Speaker 1: just want to go back to the world because at
Speaker 1: least it works for a little while. We want to
Speaker 1: build a tunnel back to Egypt, and then the tunnel
Speaker 1: becomes a trap. And they died in the wilderness. They
Speaker 1: died in the place where there was no water. They
Speaker 1: died in the place where there was no worship. They
Speaker 1: died in the place where there was no perspective. It's interesting, then,
Speaker 1: that the Bible says that Jesus is a great high
Speaker 1: priest and that he is able to be touched with
Speaker 1: the feelings of our infirmities. In fact, that says that
Speaker 1: he was tempted in every way like we are now.
Speaker 1: I read that and started to argue with the Bible.
Speaker 1: Jesus didn't have kids, He wasn't tempted in every way
Speaker 1: as I am. He didn't ever want to choke the
Speaker 1: very life that he produced. Jesus didn't have Amazon Prime.
Speaker 1: But yet it says that he faced every temptation, because
Speaker 1: there's really only three. I know we make it complicated,
Speaker 1: but the Bible condenses it and says that any temptation
Speaker 1: you're facing today, not just the external ones, the internal ones.
Speaker 1: The same Bible that gives commands about sexuality gives commands
Speaker 1: about worry. So don't think the temptation is only for
Speaker 1: one person. It said, in every temptation, Jesus faced it.
Speaker 1: Yet he was without sin. He was perfect in the
Speaker 1: ways that we will never be. And guess where he
Speaker 1: went to prove his perfection. Let me show you this.
Speaker 1: In Matthew chapter four, give me the verse, it says
Speaker 1: that Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the
Speaker 1: wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Why would God
Speaker 1: remember the Lord's prayer, my father word in Heaven help
Speaker 1: you the name, can it come? We will be down
Speaker 1: and lead us not into And the Spirit led Jesus
Speaker 1: to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. So
Speaker 1: Jesus is driven. Is the more accurate word than lead
Speaker 1: sounds nice. Driven is more accurate. He had to go
Speaker 1: to the wilderness. Why why did Jesus have to come
Speaker 1: incarnate the word made flesh. Why did Jesus have to
Speaker 1: take on the form of human weakness and go to
Speaker 1: the wilderness. It says that they were overthrown in the
Speaker 1: wilderness when Jesus came on the scene, the true Israel,
Speaker 1: the true expression of God, the second atom. When Jesus
Speaker 1: came the man who is fully man and fully God, Jesus,
Speaker 1: who is the express image of the radiance of God,
Speaker 1: Jesus by whom whom through whom all things were created
Speaker 1: that were created. Jesus came to the wilderness. Watch this
Speaker 1: for a rematch. See in your flesh, in your power,
Speaker 1: in your strength, in your mind, in your human ingenuity,
Speaker 1: you are no match for the devil in the wilderness.
Speaker 1: But Jesus showed up in the wilderness because of unfinished
Speaker 1: business on behalf of anyone who would believe on his
Speaker 1: name and call on him in the day of trouble.
Speaker 1: So Jesus, after fasting for forty days and forty nights
Speaker 1: had to pay a visit to the devil in the wilderness.
Speaker 1: Jesus came from heaven, which was Christine, to the earth
Speaker 1: to visit your enemy, and pay a visit to what
Speaker 1: is tormenting you. To let the enemy know that he
Speaker 1: might be bigger than you, but you've got a big
Speaker 1: brother and a high priest who knows your weakness. And
Speaker 1: he went to the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Speaker 1: So now this is gonna be interesting, because how do
Speaker 1: you tempt the son of God. Maybe if you can
Speaker 1: get him to question his identity, and the devil hits
Speaker 1: him with three temptations. Remember there's only three. They're all
Speaker 1: three listed in one John two point fifteen. Spoiler alert.
Speaker 1: The devil is not creative. There's only three things he
Speaker 1: can tempt you with to try to get you to
Speaker 1: be something that you're not. There's only three things he
Speaker 1: can tempt you with. It's the lust of the flesh.
Speaker 1: That's what I feel like doing the email. I feel
Speaker 1: like sending. The lust of the eyes. It's what my
Speaker 1: senses tell me, living by senses, living by surface appearances.
Speaker 1: And then there's the pride of life. That's what I think.
Speaker 1: I know. That's what I tell myself that I know
Speaker 1: when I start being like Adam and Eve in the garden.
Speaker 1: Their sin wasn't eating an apple. Their sin was that
Speaker 1: they thought they were like God, knowing the difference between
Speaker 1: good and evil. That's what the sin was in the garden,
Speaker 1: and that's what it is today. It's the lust of
Speaker 1: the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life.
Speaker 1: If you're sixteen, if you're sixty one, it's the lust
Speaker 1: of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride
Speaker 1: of life. I told God, I can't preach this to
Speaker 1: the whole church. This is a youth sermon, he said,
Speaker 1: tell them just like they told them, some of them.
Speaker 1: If they would have heard this sermon whin we're sixteen,
Speaker 1: they wouldn't be struggling with what they're struggling with at
Speaker 1: sixty one. But you're hearing it now. You're hearing it now.
Speaker 1: So the lust of the flesh he catches Jesus hungry.
Speaker 1: He's been fast in forty days and forty nights, and
Speaker 1: he's hungry. He's hungry. The devil always knows when you're hungry.
Speaker 1: And if you only come to church every five weeks
Speaker 1: when it's convenient. You are going to be too hungry
Speaker 1: to be strong against the temptation of the enemy. I
Speaker 1: got six claps, and one is my mom. But it's
Speaker 1: true all the same. You're too hungry. You eat junk
Speaker 1: when you're hungry. You're susceptible. When you're hungry, you try
Speaker 1: to turn stones into bread. When you're hungry, you try
Speaker 1: to eat stuff that won't satisfy. You try to live
Speaker 1: off of people compliments when only God's validation is able
Speaker 1: to sustain you. That's the lust of the flesh. It's
Speaker 1: the pride of life. He said, Okay, if you won't
Speaker 1: turn the stones into bread, then throw yourself off this cliff.
Speaker 1: Watch this. Prove it. Prove you're the child of God.
Speaker 1: Prove you're a real man. Prove your intelligence, prove your worth.
Speaker 1: Just keep earning and earning and chasing and chasing, and
Speaker 1: never stop to ask why, and never stop to be generous.
Speaker 1: Just keep proving it. Just keep going out there confident,
Speaker 1: and never really admit your need to anyone so that
Speaker 1: they can see the real you, and give the water
Speaker 1: to your soul that you need to make it. Just
Speaker 1: prove it. It's the pride of life. And then there's
Speaker 1: the lust of the eyes. You know. He took him
Speaker 1: up on a high mountain, showing him all the kingdoms
Speaker 1: of the world. By the way, Jesus didn't leave the
Speaker 1: wilderness and go to another place, because the temptation is
Speaker 1: always on the movie screen in your mind. And he
Speaker 1: showed him something that looked like an opportunity. But Jesus
Speaker 1: knew that he came for the cross. The devil said,
Speaker 1: if you bow down and worship me, I'll give you
Speaker 1: all this, and you don't even have to go to
Speaker 1: the cross. Just like God will offer a way of escape,
Speaker 1: so will the enemy. But when the way of escape
Speaker 1: becomes just another set of chains, Jesus set away from me, Satan,
Speaker 1: for it is written, you shall worship the Lord God only,
Speaker 1: and him only will you serve Jesus in the wilderness.
Speaker 1: Forty days, forty nights. Why forty that's the exact number
Speaker 1: of years that the nation of Israel has been in
Speaker 1: the wilderness. Jesus said, I'm going to do in forty
Speaker 1: days what you couldn't do in forty years. And no temptation.
Speaker 1: Come on, Bible lovers, No temptation has overtaken you the
Speaker 1: same grace that enabled Jesus, the same spirit that enabled
Speaker 1: Jesus to endure the cross and despise the same and
Speaker 1: sit down at the right hand of God. This spirit
Speaker 1: lives in you. And the only way Jesus made it
Speaker 1: through the wilderness in Matthew chapter four is because of
Speaker 1: what happened in Matthew chapter three, where it says that
Speaker 1: Jesus went down to the Jordan River and let me
Speaker 1: give you this for your own heart. Today when he
Speaker 1: went to be baptized by John the Baptist, it wasn't
Speaker 1: just for an external show of obedience. It was for
Speaker 1: the voice of affirmation that he would need from his
Speaker 1: father to survive in the wilderness of temptation. Is so
Speaker 1: beautiful that I can't do it justice in the time.
Speaker 1: We have a lotted But it says that when Jesus
Speaker 1: came up out of the water, that a dove descended
Speaker 1: on him, and a voice from heaven said, this is
Speaker 1: my beloved son, this is my beloved daughter. So when
Speaker 1: the devil questioned who Jesus was in the wilderness in
Speaker 1: Matthew chapter four, the dove had already told Jesus who
Speaker 1: he knew he was. In Matthew chapter three, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to say, when you've been through the water, and when
Speaker 1: you've heard the voice of your Father, and you'll know
Speaker 1: you came from God, and you're going back to God
Speaker 1: and your life is in God's hands. You can make
Speaker 1: it through the wilderness when you've been through the water.
Speaker 1: But you've got to get to the water. You got
Speaker 1: to get to the water. You've got to know where
Speaker 1: to go in these times. You've got to know who
Speaker 1: to trust in these times, or else you'll escape to
Speaker 1: things that will enslave you. In the end, I'll tell
Speaker 1: you something on the authority of God's word, maybe not
Speaker 1: even knowing your name today, God has already made the
Speaker 1: way of escape for you, and it will not always
Speaker 1: be obvious. Let me promise you. The Red Sea did
Speaker 1: not look like a four lane highway. It looked like
Speaker 1: a death trap. But it is sometimes straight through the
Speaker 1: thing that you fear that leads to the freedom that
Speaker 1: you desire. He will not allow you to be tempted
Speaker 1: beyond what you are able. Oh yeah, well, on your own,
Speaker 1: you'll be overthrown in the wilderness too. And if you've
Speaker 1: been in a wilderness season by yourself. That's the problem.
Speaker 1: You need to go down to the waters. You need
Speaker 1: to go down to the waters where you can worship
Speaker 1: God and be filled with His presence. This is a
Speaker 1: ministry moment for somebody who needs water for your soul.
Speaker 1: The Bible says that the spiritual rock in the desert
Speaker 1: is the same rock that we stand on today. It
Speaker 1: is Christ on Christ, the solid rock I stand. All
Speaker 1: of the ground is sinking sand. Every other thing will
Speaker 1: pass away. But he who does the will of God
Speaker 1: lives forever. And so listen to me as by grace
Speaker 1: that you are saved. It is not through effort. It
Speaker 1: is not through behavior modification. If that would have worked,
Speaker 1: it would have worked by now. If it could work,
Speaker 1: it would have worked by now. If you could be
Speaker 1: free in your flesh, should be free from now. You
Speaker 1: need the water, You need the spirit. You need the
Speaker 1: voice that is above you. You need the voice that
Speaker 1: is within you. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks
Speaker 1: to those of you who give generously to this ministry.
Speaker 1: Is because of you that this ministry is possible. You
Speaker 1: can click the link in the description to give now,
Speaker 1: or visit Elevation Church dot org slash podcast for more
Speaker 1: information and if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe.
Speaker 1: You can share it with your friends. You can click
Speaker 1: the share button, take a screenshot and share it on
Speaker 1: your social stories and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks
Speaker 1: again for listening. God bless you.