Idolatry In The Wilderness

Speaker 1: 0:06

We're going to be in 1 Corinthians, chapter 10 this week, and as we jump to 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, paul breaks out his Old Testament felt board for us. If you don't know what that is, back in the day as a kid, in Sunday school, a lot of times churches would have these felt boards where they would stick characters up there and they'd use it to tell a story. And like we sang, the kids sang the David and Goliath song earlier, and David and Goliath was one of the best ones to do on a felt board, because you had the big Goliath and little David. You could really see the size difference. And then maybe you have a little felt rock that goes and hits Goliath in the head and it's just so much fun, especially for a little boy.

Speaker 1: 0:49

Well, I'm getting distracted, so let's talk about the text. The point I'm trying to make is that Paul is going to take us back to the Old Testament to show us something about following Jesus, to show us something about the Christian life. Let's get into what he has to say. We'll read verses 1 through 6. For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses, in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them, god was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did. So the first thing we're going to see is that the Old Testament is relevant for us, both as an example to follow and as a sign that points us to Jesus.

Speaker 1: 1:49

So some people in the Christian world have said and believed that the Old Testament is just not relevant. You know, it's not that important to us. In fact, the New Testament is far more important. The New Testament is binding on us as Christians. The Old Testament is not Other people and in fact there's a recent pastor who and I quote, said we need to unhitch our wagons from the Old Testament. His point was that the Old Testament is offensive and it is weird and we just shouldn't talk about it anymore and we just shouldn't read it anymore. And I'm sorry, but that is just plain wrong, because the Old Testament is God's Word and God's Word stands forever and it is, even though yes, it is weird. I fully admit that it is strange. We read some of these things and we're like I have no idea what's happening right now and you know what. That's not a reason to not read it, that's not a reason to not study it. It's not a reason to not study it. That's a reason to study it more because it's profitable to us.

Speaker 1: 2:55

The Old Testament is just as much God's Word as the New Testament is. It is for our benefit, it is essential to us, to our souls, as we long and seek to follow Jesus. So Paul is trying to show us. Here is an example of something that happened in the Old Testament that we can use for our benefit. And think about this, what we're about to talk about with the Israelites. They didn't have these examples when they were trying to follow God around in the desert, and we do so. Why should we not learn from their failures? So Paul is showing that this is an essential example for us to follow, that we can all learn from Israel's struggles as they wandered around in the desert for 40 years.

Speaker 1: 3:37

Now, maybe you have no idea what I'm talking about. You're like what is this Israel desert? I don't understand. That's great, I'm glad you're here. Let me give you a quick rundown.

Speaker 1: 3:46

If you go back all the way to the beginning in Genesis, genesis ends up with this very tiny nation of Israel, which is about 70 people, moving to Egypt. They followed their brother, joseph, who had been sold into slavery by them. Great family right Sold their own brother into slavery, told their daddy was dead. I mean, you thought your family had issues, this one, wow. But they go down to Egypt because there's a famine and Egypt's the only place that has food, and Joseph is the one who has helped them gather up the food and store it, and so it's amazing how God put him in that position. So they're in Egypt and the king of Egypt is favorable to them, and then he dies and the new king is like wow, there's a lot of these Hebrews, they're kind of a threat, let's enslave them. And they do so. They enslaved them for 400 years. 400 years, many people lived their whole lives only knowing slavery, and at the end of that 400 years is where we get in the beginning of the book of Exodus, and that's when Moses is born.

Speaker 1: 4:55

You probably have heard of Moses. He's the one that God raises up and tells him go, talk to the king of Egypt and tell him to let my people go. He does that. Pharaoh is like no way. God does 10 plagues, 10 miraculous plagues that are meant to show Pharaoh who's boss and to convince Pharaoh to let his people go. Pharaoh won't do it, he's stubborn. The last plague is the death of the firstborn, and that finally makes Pharaoh relent and he says fine, get out of here. They go.

Speaker 1: 5:25

They're at the edge of the Red Sea. Pharaoh's changed his mind again and he's like send my army after them. Israel's like what are we going to do? We've got a sea on one side, an army on the other side, and God parts the Red Sea. He makes the Red Sea part into two walls so that they can walk through to the other side, and then, when the Egyptian army tries to enter in the Red Sea, collapses around them and they're destroyed. So now Israel is free, god has redeemed his people and they're in the desert.

Speaker 1: 5:56

Now what Well, they're supposed to go to the promised land which is Canaan, which is not that far away, and yet somehow it takes them 40 years to get there. A lot of bathroom breaks, apparently. But the reason why it takes them so long is because of sin and idolatry. Sin and idolatry. They get to the desert and it's like they immediately forget that God has done these amazing miracles. They're like, yeah, I know, I saw God do these plagues and I saw God part the Red Sea, but I don't think God can feed us. I don't think God can give us drink. I mean, he can't provide for our needs. We pick on them. I'd probably be the same way if it was me. It's hot, it's dry, it's tiring I'd probably be complaining just as much as them. But that's where they are. So they're out there wandering around the desert for 40 years.

Speaker 1: 6:49

And what are some things that we can see from this? I mean, I want you to understand this is not just a good moral teaching. This is not just like look the Israelites, they were bad. You guys, you should be good. Don't be like them. It's not that. It's actually something that is relevant and true for us today, and one of the true and relevant lessons we learn from this is that, just as God delivered his people Israel out of Egypt, out of slavery and into freedom, so has God delivered us out of slavery to our sin and into new life and freedom in Christ. God is our Redeemer. And another thing we learn here is what CJ preached about last week. He talked about how God is our provider, that we can freely give our tithes and our offerings to God, trusting that He'll provide every need for us. And God shows us this very same thing in these stories about Israelites wandering in the desert. Because God rained bread down from heaven, he gave them quail to eat and when they needed water he said Moses, strike that rock and water just comes gushing out out of nowhere, out of just dry, rocky areas. Water all of a sudden comes out. So we get these lessons, we see these truths that apply to us.

Speaker 1: 8:08

But it's also more than that. Actually, the most important function of the Old Testament is to serve as a sign that points us to Jesus Christ. It's a type of Christ. Let me give you an example here. Paul says in verse 4 that the rock was Christ. On Easter I said that Bruce Willis was Jesus, and now Paul is saying the rock was Christ. It's like these really interesting movie stars that apparently are pointing us to Jesus Christ, but he's not talking about Dwayne Johnson here. He's literally saying this rock, remember the rock that Moses struck and water came gushing out.

Speaker 1: 8:47

This rock is supposed to make us think about Jesus somehow. How does it do that? Well, if you were an Old Testament person, if you're an Israelite, in that time you were meant to see oh, god is providing for my physical needs, but this is also showing me that God will provide for my spiritual needs, and that's actually more important. I don't know how he's going to do it, but he's going to provide, and they're meant to understand that sometimes, somewhere, somehow, god's going to provide a Redeemer, a Messiah who's going to come and redeem us and satisfy our spiritual thirsts. And we who now live after the time of Christ, when he was born and died and raised again, we actually get to see how these things are fulfilled in the New Testament. So, like we can see that, okay, the Old Testament, the rock was Christ, and now we see in the New Testament that this rock, this Jesus, has actually come and he is that Redeemer, he is that Messiah and he does satisfy our spiritual longings, our thirsts. He provides us living water.

Speaker 1: 10:01

Jesus shows that he is this fulfillment in places like in John 4, 14 and 15. He is you know this story of him sitting at the well with the Samaritan woman talking about these deep spiritual things and he says whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life. This is what he's trying to say, and also we need to understand that, as great as our need is for water, we can't live without it. We can't go more than two or three days without water. When you're out working in the hot sun or you're running a race or whatever you're doing, you get so thirsty sometimes that you just you have to stop and you need water. You have to stop and you need water.

Speaker 1: 11:06

But as great as that need is, our spiritual need for Christ to satisfy our longings is a billion times greater, and we are so often allowing our souls to grow dry and parched and essentially dead because we're not satisfying our longings with Christ. In fact, what we're doing is we have spiritual longings, we have expectations, we have desires that are meant to be satisfied by Jesus Desire for relationship with God, desire to be made right with God, a desire for purpose and meaning and identity that can only be dictated and found in God. And yet we're looking to satisfy all those desires in everything and everywhere but Jesus. And that's making us spiritually dry. And it's exactly what Israel was doing. They were seeking to satisfy all of their longings with idols, with evil desires is what Paul says. But we see their example and we begin to understand how important it is that we go to Jesus for all of our longings to be satisfied.

Speaker 1: 12:17

I read recently there was an essay by a guy named Gary Saul Morson about Alexei Navalny. He was a Russian political opponent of Vladimir Putin. He tried to stand up against Putin and it cost him his life. He escaped Russia but decided to go back and ended up in a prison somewhere north of the Arctic Circle and died probably not of natural causes, and he was also a Christian and it sort of explains why he was willing to go back to Russia because he knew that it was not just about him and his life and his safety. And in this essay Morson says that Navalny discovered that it is the God of the universe who gives us the living water to nourish our souls, and it is our soul, not our life, that matters most.

Speaker 1: 13:06

We are often living by sight and not by faith. We're doing everything we can to satisfy our physical needs and we're doing nothing to satisfy our spiritual needs. We're completely missing Christ and we are dry and we are parched spiritually because of it. A soul whose longings are satisfied by Jesus is a soul that knows that his love is better than life and so therefore it's a soul that can actually do what he calls us to do, can actually obey and actually can even lay down our lives for the sake of Jesus Christ, if that's what he calls us to. For a soul that does not have its longing satisfied by Jesus, that makes absolutely no sense. We would never do that, because it's all about the here and now, it's all about the physical. So again, that's what Israel was doing in the desert. They are not seeking to be spiritually nourished by Christ or by God, they're seeking to be. They're just thinking about their physical needs. And when their physical needs aren't met the way they think they should be, they end up in sin and idolatry, and this is why God says was not pleased with them and they were overthrown. So let's talk more about that.

Speaker 1: 14:10

Verses six and seven say now these things took place as examples for us that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. That word play there is not play like your preschool kids might play. It's more of a not-so-innocent type of playing around, if you take my meaning. So the point here is that, even as Christians, we will still battle sinful desires and idolatry until the Lord calls us home or until he returns for the rest of our lives. But what do those evil desires and idols look like?

Speaker 1: 14:48

Well, let's go back again to the Old Testament and look and see what Israel did while they were in the desert. Exodus 32 is a chapter that tells us about when they were in the wilderness near Mount Sinai, and in Mount Sinai is where Moses goes up to the top of the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments from God. And so he's up there for 40 days. Israel's all down at the base of the mountain and, mind you, god is present. And so there's all this thunder and lightning and just crazy stuff happening up there. And just crazy stuff happening up there Pretty powerful evidence of God's existence.

Speaker 1: 15:29

But the people saw that Moses delayed to come up from the mountain. The people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. So Aaron said to them take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters and bring them to me. So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said these are your gods, o Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

Speaker 1: 16:01

So, israel, if you haven't caught on to what they're doing here, they have grown impatient. They've melted down gold and they've made a statue and they're worshiping this statue. This was very common in that day and age. Everybody worshiped some kind of a statue that they called an idol and they thought this represented a god. The problem is that Israel again has just seen God, not that long ago. Do these 10 plagues deliver them out of Egypt. Part the Red Sea. Now he's rained manna down from heaven, he's given them quail, he's provided water through a rock and Moses goes up on the mountain and he's taking a little bit longer than they thought he might and they're like, oh gosh, I guess God's not real. I guess we should make our own God In the absolute just lunacy of you use materials that you find in the ground and you make a statue out of it and then you say that's a God.

Speaker 1: 16:58

The Old Testament, the prophets especially, go through and they talk about just how crazy that sounds. But we do it every day and people have done it for centuries. Now we don't worship statues. I would gather that probably most of you don't have a statue in your house that you bow down and worship to, because in the Western world we don't really do that. But for us it's not so much statues or idols that we worship, it's that our desires are our idols. Our desires are our idols. In fact, if you look at some of the messages that society preaches at us now, it's basically like you are your desires and you have to do what your desires tell you to do, which they're preaching it like that's freedom. But really, when I hear that, what I hear, is not freedom, but it's slavery and idolatry. You are bound to do what your desires tell you to do. That's not freedom, and this is not just for adults. Our kids are hearing this. Our kids are falling prey to this. We are worshiping our desires. We worship comfort and security and freedom and control and all kinds of other desires, which are not necessarily bad in themselves. Right. It's not wrong to want comfort or freedom or security, not necessarily bad in themselves, right. It's not wrong to want comfort or freedom or security. It's when we want them in a way that causes us to compromise God's word as we pursue them. That's what makes them an idol.

Speaker 1: 18:36

So I was listening to this podcast called the Dad Tired Podcast. For guys like me who are tired dads If you are a tired dad, then I highly recommend you check that out. In this one episode he was talking to a guest who had had conversations with young men and women who said my parents were wonderful, they loved me, they were always there and I had such a great mom and dad. But here's my one regret they never let me fail. They never let me do anything hard. They always did everything for me, and you know what's happened now.

Speaker 1: 19:10

I don't know how to do anything hard. I don't know how to deal with trials. I don't know how to deal with disappointment. I'm struggling and I love them. They're great, but I wish they'd let me fail. And why do we do that? Why, I'm not saying I'm exempt from that. I do that, especially with my younger two. All the time I just, rather than go through the battle of trying to make them do something like pick up your dang shorts and put them in the basket, I just do it for them. Why? Well, partly it's because I'm lazy, I don't want to fight the battle, but also partly it's because there's a part of me that just doesn't want to see them hurt. It doesn't want to see them sad, it doesn't want to see them disappointed.

Speaker 1: 19:54

And I'm telling you that's idolatry. That's idolatry, that's worship. In a weird roundabout way. That's me worshiping my kid. I'm going to tell you right now kids are not meant to be worshiped. They're not meant to be idols. If they are, we'll crush them. We crush our kids under the weight of idolatry. People are not meant to be idols. I'm not saying that we should not try to have authority over our kids or seek some measure of healthy control in their lives. We absolutely should. If not, we're neglectful parents. But we have to let them fail too. We have to see childhood as an opportunity for them to fail safely so that they can learn to be resilient adults. Otherwise it's idolatry.

Speaker 1: 20:47

And there are numerous other examples of ways we do this. I mean, we can pick on anything else we want, but I want to give you what I think the Bible gives us, which is a sort of a rubric for understanding this and how to discern when our evil desires or when our desires become idolatry. So in verses 8 through 10, paul mentions three different types of evil desires. He says there's sexual immorality, which, if we go out big picture, we can categorize that as a desire to provide for ourselves rather than depending on God. So we don't have to do that just with sex. We can do that with all sorts of things food, drink, jobs, whatever.

Speaker 1: 21:29

There's putting God to the test, which is a sort of a lack of trust in God or a desire to manipulate our circumstances and control God in some way, shape or form. And then there is grumbling, which I would say goes back to pride. It is a result of thinking that our way is better than God's way. So let me talk about some of these things by asking some questions, and these are questions that we should ask ourselves, right so? Am I hoarding my money instead of being generous with it instead of being generous with it? Am I sexually active before or outside of marriage? Do I struggle with gluttony, alcoholism, drug abuse or some other addiction? If I am struggling with any of those types of things, that's an example of how I'm seeking to provide for myself apart from God, without wanting to be dependent on God Again for sexual immorality. It's essentially saying I'm not willing to wait for what God says I should wait for. I'm going to take matters into my own hands. So that's an example of that.

Speaker 1: 22:34

What about the second one? Are you or am I looking for God to give me certain assurances before I will obey him? Like, yes, god, I will do that, but first I need you to. You know, it's kind of like when Jesus says come, follow me, and the guy's like well, first let me go bury my dead father, and he says let the dead bury their dead. He's saying don't put conditions on your obedience. Are we saying I need obedience to make sense to me before I will do it. If it doesn't make sense to me, then I can't obey.

Speaker 1: 23:07

That's a way that we put God to the test or sort of a separate way. A different way is like if we use churchy things like prayer, church attendance, youth group attendance, bible study, if we think if I do these things, that means God has to give me this, this and this, like this. If you know anything about the prosperity gospel, this is what the prosperity gospel does. It says if I pray, go to church, give money, read the Bible, evangelize, then God will bless me with health, wealth and prosperity. And that is a way to force God's hand and try to control what God gives us. And that's essentially every religion in the world apart from Christianity is what it does. It's a way that we control our religious, spiritual circumstances, or at least we think we do. But this is saying that's putting God to the test, that's you trying to flip things and be in the place of God and control the things that we are not able to control.

Speaker 1: 24:03

Christians are called to trust In the Chronicles of Narnia one of the books that is not as well known is the Silver Chair and these two kids, eustace and Jill, go back to Narnia and Jill meets Aslan the lion, and he says you've got a mission, you're going to have to go rescue this prince. And he says I'm going to give you four signs, and these four signs you must follow, no matter what. It doesn't matter if they make sense, it doesn't matter if in the circumstances it seems foolish, it doesn't matter if it seems hard. Follow the signs, just trust me. And that's the Christian life. It's a matter of trust, it's a matter of faith, it's a matter of. It's a life that's filled with people saying God, I don't understand, but I will obey because I trust you. If you're saying that a lot, you're a Christian, welcome to Christianity.

Speaker 1: 25:02

And then, finally, there's grumbling, which I said is due to pride and the way I would explain that is. When my children grumble, it's usually because they're being required to do something they don't want to do. It's usually because they're being required to do something they don't want to do, or they want something that they can't have, or someone else in their family has something that they want and they're coveting. So it's one of those types of circumstances and we're the exact same way with God. So what we're doing is we're saying I have an idea or I have a desire of what I should have or how my life should be, and it isn't that way.

Speaker 1: 25:37

And therefore I am complaining, I'm grumbling and what we're saying there is I know better than God. I know better than God because if I was in charge, the circumstances would be this and this and this and this. But God's in charge and it's this, this and this and this. I don't like it, he's wrong. God's in charge and it's this, this and this and this. I don't like it, he's wrong. That's pride. That's pride and we don't realize that's what we're doing in the moment. That's exactly what that is. It's pride to grumble against God. It's not pride to pray to God and say God, I am frustrated, I'm sad, I'm angry. I don't understand. That's not wrong. Grumbling is when we're saying I'm not going to talk to God about it and I'm just going to complain behind his back, as if he can't hear us.

Speaker 1: 26:21

So what do we do when we're in these situations, when we are struggling with the temptation towards evil desires and towards idolatry? Let's spend the last few minutes talking about that. We'll read verses 11 through 13. He says now, these things happened to them as an example. But they were written down for our instruction on whom. The end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you. That is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. So when we are tempted by evil desires and idols, we must run to Christ, our great escape.

Speaker 1: 27:09

Paul starts off by saying that when we are tempted, when we are facing evil desires and idolatry, we must approach it with humility. He says you know, if you think you stand, take heed lest you fall. In other words, if you think that you can do this on your own, if you think you can be a self-sufficient, independent Christian, please think again. Please do not think that that is sufficient or that you are sufficient to stand against temptation, because you will fail. You need to depend on Christ. And he's saying Christ is the one who will give you the power to be able to escape temptation. Now wait a minute. You say. Paul says that God will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. That makes it sound like I can stand up. It makes it sound like I do, I can fight this, I can battle this, I can handle it on my own. And yes, he says that.

Speaker 1: 28:05

But what I want to point out here is I think he's saying that our ability in this, our talent in this, so to speak, is the talent of escaping. Like, are you really good at escaping something? That's the talent you need when you're facing temptation, and that's the only ability we have. There's no strategy. There's really nothing other we can do than seek to escape. And it's not just to escape, it's to escape to Jesus, it's find Jesus. Where is Jesus when I'm tempted? Where is Jesus? I need Jesus. That's your strategy. It's not really even a strategy, it's a person Go find Jesus when you're tempted, when I'm tempted. Because here's the deal Desire is what leads to temptation, our evil desires is what leads to temptation, and the only way to fight a desire is with a greater desire.

Speaker 1: 29:08

We have to replace one desire with another, and so, really, what this means is that the battle against temptation starts before temptation ever even comes our way. It starts when we are waking up in the morning. Are we going to the word? Are we in the word. Are we praying, are we seeking to worship Jesus, then? Because in order to battle temptation, in order to find the way of escape, and to find that way of escape to be Jesus, we have to believe that Jesus is actually better than whatever it is our desires are telling us we should have. We have to believe that Jesus is more valuable and more beautiful and more wonderful and more excellent and worth it, if we're ever going to battle against these desires, because if we don't, all those other things will just overtake it. We have to desire Jesus more than anything else. So, have you experienced Jesus? Have you experienced his goodness, his gentleness, his grace, his power, his love? Are you walking with him, getting to know him? If you are, then you begin to understand that he has been there, he knows what it's like to be tempted and he has power to deliver us out of it Real quick. We're almost done, I promise.

Speaker 1: 30:30

Let's look at Matthew 4, 1 through 11. It says then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, and, after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. One of the things that Jesus came to do was to succeed in every way that Israel failed, and this is one of the ways that he is doing that. Just as Israel was in the desert for 40 years, so Jesus was in the desert for 40 days. And as Israel was hungry, so Jesus is hungry. But here's the difference Israel failed. They worshiped idols and they sinned. Jesus does not. He does not fail. He succeeds in every way that Israel fails. So here's how he responds.

Speaker 1: 31:09

And the tempter came and said to him if you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. But he answered. It is written man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. You see, there's the temptation to provision, to provide for myself apart from God. And Jesus says no, you don't understand Satan, my food, there is a far greater food that I have than this bread. Yes, I could turn the stones into bread. I'm not going to do that because I don't need it. I have the word of God. I live by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Speaker 1: 31:52

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him if you are the son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written he will command his angels concerning you and on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone. Jesus said to him again it is written you shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test. There's the evil desire of putting God to the test. Satan says you can do anything. You could jump off this temple right now and God will send his angels. Why don't you do it and see if he'll do it, see if he'll make good on his word? And Jesus is like no, we don't put God at the test, we trust God as a man.

Speaker 1: 32:34

Jesus may not have fully understood exactly everything that the Father was calling him to do, but he trusted him completely and he wasn't going to force his hand. Then, finally, again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him all these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him be gone, satan, for it is written you shall worship the Lord, god, and him only shall you serve. Then the devil left him and, behold, angels came and were ministering to him. So it's Satan here, tempts him with pride. He says you know what the father is calling you to do? He says you have to go to the cross and you have to die, and then he's going to give you the kingdom. But look, I can give you the kingdom without that. You don't need to go die, you don't need to suffer, I'll just give you all the kingdoms. Right now, all you got to do is bow down and worship me.

Speaker 1: 33:20

Man, come on, what's so hard about that? I mean, don't we hear this every day? You don't need to obey God, you don't need to have faith. You don't need to live a life of faith, putting your faith in somebody. You can't see what's come on. There's such an easier way to live your life. We hear that all the time.

Speaker 1: 33:37

But what does Jesus say? And, by the way, it's not lost on us that Jesus is at his absolute weakest right here. 40 days without food. Man, I can't go four hours without food, like you don't want. In fact, I have gone four hours without food right now and I'm starting to shake a little bit right. So Jesus is at his weakest and of course that's when Satan chooses to attack. But Jesus just depends on God's word. He just banishes Satan with a mere word at his weakest and actually this isn't even really his weakest, because later on he's going to be on the cross, he's going to give up his life Probably the weakest thing you could possibly do in the eyes of a human and he's going to defeat Satan with that. He's going to defeat our sin with that. He's going to defeat death with that and then rise from the grave in absolute power.

Speaker 1: 34:29

And it is that power that Jesus offers to us to face temptation, that resurrection power. It's not just a story that gives us a moral lesson. It's real power. You have real power at your disposal to fight temptation. All you have to do is go find Jesus. Go find Jesus and find him before you face temptation. Right, be with him. Before you face temptation, trust him, get to know how good he is, so that when you face situations in life when you doubt God's plan, you remember oh yeah, my Savior is good, I've seen it, I know Him. As we face temptation, it's not so much a strategy as we face evil desires and idolatry. It's not so much a strategy that we need. It's a person and it's Jesus. Let's go to Him now in prayer.