Luke 4:1-13, Tools Of The Tempter

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Jerry Simmons shared this Verse By Verse Bible study from Luke on Sunday, January 8, 2023 using the New Living Translation (NLT).

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I don't know if you've ever driven a car that was out of alignment, just a quick show of hands. Anybody anybody ever driven a car out of alignment? Seems less and less common these days, but I remember it being more frequent when I was young and and I remember as a teenager actually driving home me and my dad went to pick up our car that was in the shop and. So we I went with him and he was driving behind me as we were driving home and as I was driving I I was beginning to feel that pool and and I began to wonder is this car out of alignment. I was not really sure if I knew exactly what that meant, but but it really seemed like. It was tugging. To the right. And so I started going through the process of elimination and you know the street we were on at the time had a little bit of a an angle on it, so I was thinking, well, maybe it's just the angle of the road. It just seems like it's pulling that way, and so I was trying it in different lanes that different. You know roads that we were on on the way home and and. I began to realize and understand. Yes, this car is really out of alignment. If I take my hands off of the wheel. I'm going to crash because the car is pulling to the right. It's going to take me off of the road up the curb, into a tree or something like that and so so I I begin to understand that there was this problem, but also I was trying to figure out well how do I communicate this to my dad who's behind me. Now I know that's hard for some to imagine here. Today, but a long time ago we didn't have cell phones and there was no way to communicate between vehicles. I mean, if you go a long time before that then they had CB radios in every car and you could communicate, but we didn't have that and So what I began to do was I would get my car in the middle lane and straight and then very obviously so my dad would try to like catch his attention. I'd throw up my hands in the air. Like this and let the car drag. A little bit until almost it. Was in danger and then I pull it back, pull it back and. And put my hands up again. And when we got home, my dad was like what were you doing? And I was like, well just trying to tell you the car was out of alignment. We ended up having to take it back to the mechanic to. Get it fixed. I I I find that illustration helpful because as we think about temptation this morning there there's a couple aspects to it we need to understand. Of course, that there is a tempter that there is someone who is seeking to lure us to the side, lure us off track. Iraq, but we also need to understand. That, well, we're. All out of alignment and and we have these pools and these drives that that would take us off of the path that God has for us. Another way to think about it is that I'm broken and I'm broken in a particular way that sends me off course. In in different aspects of life that that I'm more likely to. And I'm pulled towards certain things that would keep me away from the plan that God has for me. Now here in Luke Chapter 4 as we see the example of Jesus in the midst of this temptation, we can understand of course, that Jesus was unlike us in that he had perfect alignment. He he didn't have those broken pieces that automatically pulled him that that sinful nature. That kind of spurred on the the things that he was facing, but. He really did. As a human, as a man face temptation. And so Satan here is trying to get Jesus to veer off course as we look at this passage. I've titled the message this morning, tools of the Tempter. And I I wanna help you consider I want to consider along with you some of the tools or tactics or strategies that the enemy uses in seeking to pull us. Away from the path of God and the. Man of God. And so there's three temptations that we see unfold here in Luke Chapter 4. Now I think it's also important to understand that these are three temptations as a sample of many. It tells us in verse two that he was tempted by the devil for 40 days. That that wasn't just these. 3 temptations that were going on in this wilderness, time for. Diseases for 40 days he was experiencing a bunch of different temptations. It was a whole season of trial for him, but here kind of at the end of those 40 days are these three and and these three temptations serve as a representation of all those that came before. And even you could understand all. Those that would come. Later that these temptations really are parallel to all temptations, if. You go back. To the Garden of Eden. With the first temptation of Adam and Eve, there's some strong parallels with you as you walk through these three temptations that Satan brought to to the Lord. There is direct parallels to the temptation as far as Adam and Eve were concerned in partaking of the forbidden fruit. The apostle John and 1st John two tells us about three types of temptations or cravings. All of these things that are in the world. First John Chapter 2, verse 16. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, and and these correspond with these temptations as well, and so there's some representation here going on. It's not. That every temptation is exactly like these three, but these three are good examples. Good representations of temptation as a whole, and the different types of temptation that people will face that you will face, and that I will face. Paul tells us in Second Corinthians Chapter 2 as he's dealing with the church and seeking to instruct the church and how to recover someone who has fallen and needs to be restored, but but he instructs them to do so to forgive that man who had fallen and needs to be restored, but he adds. On the reason why he says in verse 11 of 2nd Corinthians 2 so that Satan will not outsmart us for we are familiar with his evil schemes. And they're the apostle Paul is teaching us we we need to take some action and be deliberate about some of the things that we do, because, well, Satan is seeking to outsmart us. He is seeking to trick us to deceive us, to cause us to go astray, to put ourselves in a situation that is not good. Not of God. But Paul says we we should know better. We can know better. We can become familiar with his evil schemes, his techniques, his tools, the things that he uses to trick us and trap us. It's valuable for us to have an awareness of these things so that. We protect ourselves. And so we want to look through these verses here in Luke Chapter 4, and the temptation of Jesus to help us understand a little bit about how the enemy operates and some of the tactics and techniques he might try to use. Or I should say he will try to use in each of our lives, so point #1. Tool #1 looking at verses one through 4. Temptation to act on your feelings. One of the first tools that the enemy brings out of the toolbox is a temptation that is levied against the way that you feel. Let's look again at verses one through three. It says. Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan River. He was led by the Spirit. In the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil for 40 days, Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry. Then the devil said to him, if you are the son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread. Here we find Jesus in the wilderness again. He's in the wilderness for 40 days. During that time he's fasting and I don't know I won't ask for a show of hands because the pride would be overwhelming, but if you've ever tried to fast for 40 days, you can imagine this statement is quite real. That says in verse two he became very. Hungry if I last if I fast for 40 minutes I become very hungry, right? Just like Jonathan who can't fit on the Batman ride anymore. He's very hungry. Now Jesus is there by the spirit. He was led by the Spirit. In the wilderness, and it's important to note the set temptation itself is not sin, and the fact of temptation is not an indication of being in a right or wrong place necessarily, that sometimes being right in the center of the will of God, we will face some of the biggest challenges we will. Never see now, of course, there is the opportunity for us to ignore God and run away from him and put ourselves in situations that are very tempting and very challenging, but. But that's not to say that in the will of God, as you're seeking God, you're just always going to experience smooth sailing and no challenges, and no temptations, no sometimes. Led by the spirit. We will enter into these seasons and so we need to understand. The enemy is going to try to take advantage of these times in our lives, and so this first temptation that Jesus experiences is based upon his position of being very hungry. And you can imagine I'm sure you've had those times of hunger how you get a little bit irrational sometimes. You know we have the word hangry for a reason because you get emotional even though the hunger is physical. There's something that happens emotionally to you as well. There there is some strange reactions we have to hunger, and it's a very vulnerable place to be. And so it's at this point Jesus, having fasted for 40 days. Is hungry. And the devil says, if you are the son of God. The word if could also be translated since. Not a question of whether or not Jesus is the son of God necessarily, but because you are the son of God. Jesus look, you don't have to put up with this kind of hunger. This kind of discomfort. You can tell these stones. To become loaves of bread. And so Jesus here feeling hungry. Is tempted to act on those feelings. To resolve that discomfort. And to provide for himself bread. For his hunger now, feelings are something that we could spend a lot of time talking about, of course, but I always like to point out that feelings are part of. Who God created us to be? And so feelings are not always bad and we can't like just write them off entirely. I mean, that's kind of my. Preference if I could do that, I would prefer to just let's just analyze and calculate. Let's do formulas and math and just put feelings off to the side and never consider them ever again. But but that's not how God created us, and it's not a healthy way to approach life. And so I often say that you need to feel your feelings. You can't run from them, you can't bury them. Whatever you're feeling, you need to be honest and real about that and take those feelings to the Lord sometimes feeling. Things are good and sometimes they are accurate, but we also need to understand that feelings sometimes are absolutely false and completely the opposite of reality. For example, if I fast for 40 minutes and I feel hungry, I might feel hungry. I might feel like I'm starving. But I'm not actually starving, right? Like we all understand that and and a lot of things that we feel. Are not accurate depictions of reality, although it feels that way to us. And so it feels real to us. It seems like it's the truth. It seems like it's real. It is often not the case. Here it also seems that Satan is not just praying upon the hunger of Jesus, but. There's a little bit of a question of the provision of God, and perhaps he's trying to see if Jesus is feeling unloved by the father. God hasn't provided for you bread. Why don't you provide for yourself? And so here Jesus is feeling hungry. It's an accurate feeling this time. He is hungry. In fact he is on the verge of starving, having fasted for 40 days. And so the temptation here is for Jesus to use his power as the son of God to provide for himself instead of trusting in the father to provide for him. Using the resources that he has to provide for himself. And this would have been a violation of Jesus's power and authority, because he came to live life as a servant of the father later on in the Gospel of John will see that Jesus declares I only do that which my father has instructed me to do, and so if the father hadn't instructed him to. Turn the loaves of or turn the stones into loaves of bread. Jesus, although he had the power he had, submitted himself to the father's plan and authority, he didn't have the authority to use that power to use those resources. In that way. And so, in verse four it tells us Jesus said no. No, the scriptures say people do not live by bread alone. And here's an important thing that Jesus does all throughout these temptations he refers back to he finds a solid foundation in the word of God to help. Protect against these temptations that the enemy brings. Here he's quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse two and three. It says, remember how the Lord your God LED you through the wilderness for these 40 years, humbling you and testing you to prove your character. And to find out whether or not you would obey his commands. Yes, he humbled you by letting you go hungry and then feeding you with manna, a food previously unknown to you and your ancestors. He did it to teach you that people do not live by bread alone. Rather we live by every word that comes from the mouth. Of the Lord. There in Deuteronomy chapter 8 Moses is re recapping for the children of Israel how God provided for them in the wilderness and and there's a strong parallel here that children of Israel in the wilderness were hungry and and Moses says God allowed you to hunger. To bring about the humility, the reliance upon the Lord. But but he provided for you. He didn't let you go hungry permanently, forever he. He then provided you with manna. And and it was previously unknown to you, and that's important because in that midst of hunger, it would be easy to look around and say there's no way for food to be provided. Except for us, to take matters into our own hands and figure something out on our own, they wouldn't have calculated mana. They wouldn't have understood mana, but but God miraculously provided for them in ways that they had never known before, and it's important to understand that because a lot of times when we're facing intense feelings. A lot of it is looking around or looking ahead and thinking there is no other way out. Of this situation. There's no escape. There's no rescue. It's impossible. I can't imagine any way for there to be a relief or a rescue from the midst of. But God has ways that we can't imagine. He has ways of working and providing that we would never think of. And then we would never know or understand in advance until God does the work. And so Jesus looks back to this time in Israel's history. And he says, I'm hungry, they were hungry. I can't see any solution except for this suggestion here to turn the stones to bread. But I also know that the father is evil to provide solutions. That we're not able to see in advance, and so Jesus says, no, I'm going to. Trust the Lord. I'm gonna trust he will come through and it's more important for me to live by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. It's more important for me to be obedient to the Lord, even if it means that I starve to death. It's more important for me to obey God. And so my feelings are telling me I'm starving to death. I'm gonna die if I don't eat right now. If I don't take advantage of this situation or use my power to make these stones red. But what's most important? What's more important than that? Is obedience to every word of God. When you're driving a car that is out of alignment, again, it's pulling in One Direction or the other, and it's really important in those situations to. To have a clear focus on the lines of the road, you need to see where the road is because, well, the car is going to be continually pulling you in a different direction and and those lines now become really helpful to to help you understand where you're at. And if you're going off course. In the idea of temptation here and the sense of feelings, the word of God is useful for us to check our alignment. It provides those guidelines. It provides those lines on the side to help us understand. Where our lane? Is to help us understand how to stay on track? Of what God has for us. Again, God created feelings. They're good and you should feel your feelings, but you should also understand. Sometimes they're accurate, and sometimes they're completely false, like all of God's creation has been affected by the fall by sin, and so we cannot obey our feelings completely. We cannot ignore our feelings. Completely, we need to take our feelings and turn them to the scriptures and analyze them and assess them by what are the the guidelines saying about this? Is this the reality and do I have the authority to act in the way that I'm? Invented to act, the enemy wants to tempt you to act. On your feelings. Now, hunger here is just one example, but we feel all kinds of things and there's all kinds of behavior that could be the result of what we are feeling. And sometimes what we are tempted to do. Is to allow those feelings to override what we know to be true to allow our feelings to override what we know God has said to allow our feelings to dictate and govern our actions and behavior. If we do that, we fall right into the trap. Now Jesus, of course, withstood this temptation. He was tempted in all points as we are yet without sin. And so he not only right here, but all throughout his life he felt feelings. Similar to the feelings that you and I feel, but he never allowed those feelings to override the things that God had declared. In his word. For you and. I we wish we could say the same. Right? Please stand up if you have never allowed your feelings to override what God has said. And I'll have to sit down just so I don't blasphemy anything, right? We do fall short in this. Because I am broken, I am out of alignment and. If I'm not checking the lines. I drift and I I veer off to one side or the other and I allow my feelings to move me in directions that are not good and that are not. Of God. Now for Jesus. Here in Luke Chapter 4 this was a, you know, a a climactic point of these 40 days, and for Jesus to fail once in any of this changed everything, because failing in any of these temptations would make him unfit as a savior and as a sacrifice for us. But you and I face these. These temptations, a little bit differently, because what we have already failed in them and we know of course, because of our sinful nature, that we will fail in them again. And so I think it's important also to consider as we walk through these that there is still the opportunity to have victory. Even in the midst of failure. That the idea here is that we never fail in regards to our feelings that we never fail in the temptation to act out on our feelings, but that we understand that even when we have a loud feelings to move us in a bad direction and to move us away from the Lord, that there still is the opportunity. To have victory and the victory comes from the fact that Jesus. Always had victory and never failed. It qualified him to be that perfect sacrifice on our behalf so that we could have the opportunity. By faith in Jesus Christ. To receive complete forgiveness. From God. First John chapter one. Verse 9 tells us if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. There is the opportunity for us. To be. Forgiven and cleansed from all wickedness. There is the opportunity for God to relate to us as if we had perfectly upheld every temptation. As if we had never given in, never acted out on our feelings inappropriately. By confessing our sin, there is still the opportunity to have victory, and so you can look at this, and you can say, well, Jesus was perfect. I'll never be that, and so. Why bother? You know, it doesn't matter. I'm going to fail in this. Even so, you can still have victory by running to the Lord, not running away from the Lord. Here's Satan's plan. Understand his schemes, and understand his strategy. If he can get you to believe your feelings and to allow your feelings to override. The truth override what God has said. Well then he's not finished. It's not a OK you failed and I'm done and I'll leave you alone now. But now here's what the enemy does now that you failed, you moved in the wrong direction. You got out of the lane you went up on. The curb you hit the tree now. Satan's great at using those feelings again to now bring about guilt. Bring about thoughts of how dumb and pathetic I am, I can't believe. I allowed that feeling of insecurity to cause me to behave that way again. I can't believe I allowed that. That feeling of hunger or thirst or desire. I can't believe I allowed that that feeling to cause me and and Satan piles on the guilt, the regrets. In a way that pushes us away from God. Where God says. If you confess your sins. I am faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse from all wickedness. And so we need to check our alignment as we fall short. There's still the opportunity for victory, understand the tools of the tempter, and what what he wants to do. Acting on that one feeling isn't the end game, that's just play one of 100 plays that come next to continue to try to drive you away from God more and more. And so you could still. Have victory even in failure by running. To the Lord. Having your. Sleek, wiped clean. Having your sins forgiven. Being reset. And fellowship with. The Lord, well, we need to move on verses 5 through gives us point #2 and that is temptation to act on your goals. Here's the second tool of the tempter. He wants to manipulate you on your feelings, but he also wants to take advantage. Of your hopes and. Dreams the goals and objectives that you have. Let's look at verses 5 through 7, it says. Then the devil took him up and revealed to him all the kingdoms of the world. In a moment of time I will give you the glory of these kingdoms and authority over them. The devil said, because they are mine to give to anyone I please. I will give it all to you. If you will worship me. Here we have an interesting temptation, because of course, Jesus came. For the world. His goal and his objective is. To have his rightful place as King of Kings and Lord of Lords over all creation over all kingdoms and all nations, that is his promise. God promised to him. You can check out Psalm chapter two. He tells the son ask and I will give the nations as your inheritance the whole earth as your possession. So what Satan is offering here is something that God has promised to him. We can also understand it's something that Jesus wanted. He willingly came. Being God, he became man. He came to this earth for this purpose. To be able to impact the whole world to have authority and to make a difference for all people everywhere. In Luke Chapter 13 you can see a glimpse of this as Jesus is heading into Jerusalem. He cries, he weeps, he says oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem. How many times I've wanted to gather your children together. But you wouldn't let me. I've wanted to gather you. I've wanted to. Lead you. To help you to provide for you, but you resisted Jesus wanted. This role of authority over all kingdoms. And that's part of the promises that God has given to him. It's why he came. And So what Satan is offering here is a shortcut. Instead of waiting for those promises to be fulfilled, it's what you want. Instead of going through the hard path of suffering in the cross to obtain those things, here's an easy way to achieve your goal. I'll give it to you. Jesus, if you will worship me. The enemy. Likes to use. These hopes dreams these goals and objectives we have. To offer shortcuts. To get us to go away from what God had said to veer off of the narrow Rd. the hard Rd. The road of suffering sometimes. And and we can justify it in our mind, because, well, it is the thing that God promised. It is the thing that I want so desperately that the goal is there. It seems so clear there's little downside. And so he offers to us these opportunities. To jump off the road to go a different path, but to achieve the same thing. Now we need to understand. That seaton's a liar. And if Jesus had listened to this and given in to this, of course it would have derailed everything. And perhaps, yes, there would have been some momentary benefit to all the kingdoms, but there would have not been salvation. Forgiveness for any of us, and so Jesus recognizing the issues here in verse 8 responds and says the scriptures say you must worship. The Lord your God and serve him only. Here he again is quoting from the Scripture Deuteronomy chapter 6. Where the Lord instructs his people to not worship any other God, you must fear the Lord your God and serve him. Only him, no one else, no competition for Lords in your life. Goes on to say in Deuteronomy Chapter 6 God is a jealous God. There there can be no competition between gods in your life. He won't put up with you worshipping him as well as something else. It's him and him alone or not him at all. That's the only thing that God will will allow so temptation. To act on your goals here, the Lord looks at it and says, I can see what you're offering I. Can see I want that. That's what I came for. That's what God has promised to me, but what you're asking me? To do in order to get there. God has forbidden. That shortcut the Lord put a off limits sign. No entry sign. This is not appropriate, but. But the enemy will. Use this many times in our lives. Those objectives we have, we want that that goal we're we're working towards that career. We want that relationship. But we can't take shortcuts to get there and think. That we will be right with God and blessed by God. And in the midst of what God wants for us. Think about. The goal. Of a family, the goal of a spouse. God's promised it, they're good objectives. Good goals to have. But boy are there are a lot of bad ways to try to accomplish that goal. To try to reach that to have a family to get married. There's a lot of. Off road off limits paths that could be taken that the enemy dangles before us and that the world around us celebrates. And promotes and offers but. The Lord has some clear direction on that, and so again we need to check our alignment and and use the word of God to see those boundaries to see those lines in the road that that we don't allow. The shortcuts. To be so tempting to us, but then we can recognize, yes, I I recognize I want that I want that lifestyle. I want that. Opportunity that job. I want that amount in the bank account. I want that type of retirement. I want that type of. Whatever it is that you might be looking at, I want that kind of education. I I want that. And and it's a good thing, and perhaps even God has promised it to me. But the enemy? Will often present then shortcuts to try to achieve it. Now Jesus saw through it. Of course, he resisted that temptation. He was perfect and flawless in facing it. You and I were broken. We've got that alignment even without a lot of help from the enemy. We'll veer off track just by ourselves in those shortcuts that we want to take, and achieving the goals, but also the enemy piles on and adds on to our broken alignment and sets before us. Opportunities and gives us. A chance. To act on those goals in a way that God has not allowed. And we can follow the example of Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit and we can resist that temptation. But also we can recognize I'm going to fail in that temptation from time to time. There's going to be issues in my life. Where the objective was good and it was a good result. I was going for. I had good intentions. But the way that I tried to get there. Was not good and was not something that God allowed or could bless. But there's still the opportunity to have victory in failure. Even when I've taken this shortcut. Even when I've messed things up because I've tried to get there too fast, I've tried to make it happen outside of the Lord's timing and outside of the Lord's Ways. There's still the opportunity for me to find victory. Think about Hebrews chapter 4. The author of Hebrews tells us that our High Priest Jesus understands our weaknesses, faced all the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. And so he says, let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God, that we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. We can come to the Lord in those times of failure. That's when we need grace and mercy the most. He understands he sympathizes with our weaknesses. He faces these things. He understands the temptations that we face, and so we can come boldly to the throne of grace. And find the help that we need and God is so gracious and merciful as we come to him in our failure with confession. Even though we took the shortcut, even though we made a mess because oftentimes as we take those shortcuts they they come with some, some big gotchas that that are gonna hurt and hurt other people and cause pain and and we come before the Lord understanding and recognizing our failure. Recognizing our sin. We're able to find mercy and Grace, and God doesn't make it as if nothing ever happened typically, but. But he is so merciful and gracious in helping us get back to where we need to. Be helping us resolve the hurt and the pain that we caused. Helping us make things right and experience his fellowship again and so run to the throne of Grace and find Grace and Mercy to help in time of. Need and while you're there. Then ask the mechanic to fix your alignment so you don't get there so often, right while you're there when you run back to the Lord for confession, for Grace and Mercy, as you're asking for forgiveness, invite the Lord to transform you so that you don't continue to veer off. You will but but the Lord is also able to. Work and transform you so that you do not go back those paths to those paths as much or as frequent as you used to. Well, moving on to point #3 for verses 9 through 12 temptation to act on bad information, here's another tool. The enemy pulls out of the toolbox bad information to mislead you and get you to do something that is not wise because you don't have the right information or all of the information. Verses 9 through 10 or 9 through 11, it says then the devil took him to Jerusalem to the highest point of the temple, and said, if you are the son of God, jump off. For the scriptures say he will order his angels to protect and guard you, and they will hold you up with their hands so you won't even hurt your foot on a stone. Here the enemy takes Jesus to a high point in the temple, the pinnacle of the temple. And he says, hey? Since you're the son of God, why? Don't you prove? It and jump off. There was some. Understanding in that day that the Jewish people believed many of them that the Messiah would reveal himself to Israel by doing just this by standing at the highest point of the temple. And so the enemy here is saying, why don't you reveal yourself to the people? As the Messiah. This was at the beginning of Jesus's ministry. He's saying all right. Reveal yourself, show yourself to be the Messiah. Now that was Jesus's call. He is the Messiah. He would show himself to be the Messiah, but not this way. And So what the enemy is offering here again is kind of a shortcut, a different path than what God had called the Lord too. Now I think it's interesting to note. Here he takes Jesus to this highest point of the temple. But he doesn't push Jesus off. He tries to get Jesus to jump and this is one of the ways that the enemy often works. He cannot take from you what God has given to you. And he cannot do in your life what God does not allow him or want him to do in your life. He he has very little power in that way. And So what he works to do is to not try to force something. But he works instead craftily and deceitfully to try to trick you. Into jumping yourself, he can't push you off, but if he can convince you to jump then same thing, same objective. So that's his tactic. His his approach is deceitfulness. He's the ultimate scam artist. Let me trick you into thinking you will never be satisfied unless you partake of those drugs. Let me. Trick you into being. Convinced that you will never be satisfied unless you pursue that relationship outside of marriage, let me trick you into thinking that that you will never experience the good things of this life unless you behave this way and do that and pursue that he he can't make you. But if he can trick you into doing it, if he can scam you into doing it. Yourself, then he has the victory that he wants to have. And so this time in the tactic, the enemy uses the scripture. Jesus has been quoting the scripture, so he. Says OK, I could do that. And he quotes from Psalm chapter 91. And they're in Psalm chapter 91. It does indeed say he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go. They will hold you up with their hands, so you won't even hurt your foot on a stone. Satan quotes from the scripture. And as you look up the scripture, you could say. You know, actually, it kind of does say what what he said it says here. I mean, that's kind of surprising. I wouldn't expect him to quote Scripture accurately. He does say the words that are recorded in the scripture, but of course violating the whole sense of the scripture it wasn't. Given this promise in Psalm 91, in the context of you should just jump. You should just be reckless. You should just do something crazy and just, you know, let God work miraculously to preserve you, that that is not what the passage is. Saying at all. But he's using accurate words. To present a completely false. Opportunity or conclusion. Pastor David Guzik says Satan is a Bible expert and knows how to twist Bible passages out of their context. Sadly, many people will accept anyone who quotes a Bible verse as if they taught God's truth. But the mere use of Bible words does not necessarily convey the will of God important to understand. Just because we can find a verse or someone can tell us a verse doesn't mean that that's actually. The truth that we need to act upon. There's more to the story, and there's some context to figure in to understand it. And there is also the rest of Scripture to consider, and so verse 12. Jesus responded. The scripture also says you can't just base it off one, but look at what the scripture also says. You must not test. The Lord. You're God here. He's quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 6. You must not test the Lord your God, and again, talking to Israel in the way that you behaved at this place called Masa, which is referring back to Exodus Chapter 17 where the people were thirsty and God provided water from the rock. But they tested the Lord with their grumbling, and they're complaining and saying, you brought us out here to kill us and to let us die. In the wilderness. There there was a testing that the children of Israel did that. Moses reminded them about that also instructed Jesus. To not test the Lord to not just be reckless and do whatever is presented or whatever, I feel like doing whatever I think about doing because, well, there is this need for me to not put myself in a position where God has to work a miracle to Get Me Out of it. That's going to work miracles in my life. But to force his hand to put him in that kind of position is not what the Lord desires and is not what the. Promises are about. Pastor Warren Wisby said Jesus balanced scripture with scripture to get the total expression of God's will. If you isolate verses from their contexts or passages from the total revelation of the scripture, you can prove almost anything from the Bible. And so we need to be careful to not just grab a verse, not just receive a verse. But to take in the whole Council of God's word, and it's why it's so important for us to be regularly and consistently reading through the scriptures to immerse ourself in the word of God, so that we understand the context. But we also understand what the rest of the scriptures say about the situations that we face. And so. There's temptation to act on bad information now. I don't have to go into all the details. I don't think there's a lot of bad information out there. There's a lot of false understanding, false ideas, bad philosophies about marriage, about love about you, know careers about opportunities about. Religion there's there is a lot of bad information out there and we need to understand what the scriptures also say that that that we know this word forwards and backwards. To be able to understand what God wants for us and to protect us from those temptations. To act on information that is incomplete or out of context. Well, finishing it up in verse 13 point #4. The final tool that we'll. Consider this morning of the tempter. Temptation at opportune times. Verse 13. When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came. Notice Satan is very opportunistic in his temptation. He came to Jesus when he was hungry after fasting for 40 days. Now, of course, he'd been with Jesus that whole time, but but in that point of hunger, at the end of the 40 days he brought this temptation related to his hunger. There's some temptations that are really strong when you're hungry. But also there's some temptations that are really strong when you're full. There's some temptations that are really strong when you're wealthy and there's some temptations that are really strong when you're poor. There there's different seasons in life and and at the opportune time. Satan would return with the next temptation. For the Lord. This wasn't the last time Jesus was tempted. These three were not the only three. Again, it was 40 days, but but he was using this opportunity to try his best to get Jesus to stumble throughout the rest of the life and Ministry of Jesus. He would look for those opportune moments when Jesus was hungry when Jesus was tired. When there was a a situation that was. From Seton's perspective in his favor. Then he would bring another temptation, trying to take advantage of the situation in. Jesus's life. Also understand that the enemy does not limit himself to one thing at a time, right? Typically temptations come as as combo attacks that you could think about even the garden. The fruit that was forbidden as the enemy presented it to her. He presented it to, well, all three of these things, the lust of the flesh, the lust. Of the eyes. And the pride of Life says Eve think. About how you feel. And and here's some bad information and you know you really want it. And and so all of these three, three things combined. In that temptation attack against Eve, he often works this way in our lives. Taking advantage of our financial situation of our family situation of the big fight that we just had or the big failure that we just had or the big victory that we just had. He takes advantage in the opportune times. To try to prey upon a weakness, pastor Tony Evans says that Satan has been watching Jesus. He knew his weak spot was hunger. Therefore, Satan attacked at his point of crisis at his point of need, he will do the same to you. You need to. Be aware of your weaknesses and vulnerabilities, because you can be sure that Satan is. Aware of them, again, we're we're all out of alignment. There's a direction that we're pulled towards. Again, saying in another way I'm broken in a particular way, and. I'm broken differently than you're broken. We all have our different set of brokenness. Although we experience similar types of temptation, there's there's different ways different things that we are pulled towards, and different ways that we are, you know, more likely to fail in. The enemy knows those. It's important to understand yourself a little bit to understand this is a weakness in my life to protect yourself. Because Satan is no gentleman. In your weakest moment, when you've you know lost the one that you love the most. When you have been hurt, the most deeply you've ever been hurt before, or when you've achieved the greatest amount of success and you know you deserve a break. Well, no, that's when the enemy attacks. He uses temptation at opportune times. Jesus was faithful to the Lord, to the father in all of these temptations. He did not act on his feelings alone. He did not allow the goals and objectives that he had to authorize him to take shortcuts from the. Father's plan He didn't believe the bad information he was fed, but he checked it with the rest of the scriptures. Even in the most opportune times in his life, he proved himself to be the perfect savior. The perfect sacrifice. The one who could redeem all mankind. As he died upon the cross for us. Jesus had perfect alignment. You and I will have perfect alignment in eternity. Until then We're going to have pulls and tugs. We're going to drift. By ourselves and by the temptations of the enemy, we're going to hit the curb. We're going to hit the tree. We're going to cross over to the lane at the wrong time, we're. We're going to have those kinds of issues, but we can still have victory. By coming to the cross by asking forgiveness. By receiving Grace and mercy from the Lord in our time of need, we're going to finish our service today with a time of communion and a great opportunity to have that fresh cleansing that fresh slate before the Lord to have our alignment checked and transformed so that we continue on in the path that. God has for us, and so the worship team can come up. The ushers are going to come up, and before we actually enter. Into the time of communion. The ushers are going to pass out a special cup. It's a cup that the Devilles brought us from Israel in their last trip, and these cups are carved out of an olive tree and it. It reminds us that it speaks of that time in Gethsemane that the word Gethsemane. Means Olive press, where Jesus right before the cross cried out before the Lord father. If there's any other way, let this cup pass from me another temptation, really. For the Lord there in the Garden of Gethsemane to to run away from the suffering that he was about to endure on our behalf. But he said in the end, not my will, but your will be done. And he submitted to the will of the father resisted that temptation also, and went to the cross on our behalf. And so we have the opportunity and, and I would encourage you as you think about that cup, we have enough for one per family. So hopefully your family got one. If not, you can see Richard. Into the service, but you can remember what Jesus endured and what he did on our behalf to receive the suffering that was required. For him to be that perfect sacrifice on our behalf, and it represents for us the opportunity to be forgiven, the opportunity to be cleansed. Jesus gave us communion as the reminder, the bread representing his body that was broken. The cup representing his blood that was shed. So that we can have victory in failure that how we're issues with alignment because we go off course, we go off the path. They are issues, but they don't have to be the end. The final story. We can be transformed. We can be renewed. We can be forgiven. By receiving what Jesus did for us upon the cross. Believing in him. And receiving the cleansing as we confess our sins to him, he's faithful and just to forgive us. He's faithful and just to provide the mercy and grace that we need. As we approach the throne of Grace because he can sympathize with our weaknesses, and so, let's do that as they lead us in worship this morning, the ushers are going to pass out the bread and the cup, and you're free to partake at any time during. The time of. Worship, but but let's do that. First let's. Enter into the presence of the Lord and Experience victory in the midst of failure by receiving what Christ has done for us as the. Of it sacrifice Lord, we thank you for your gift towards us for your suffering on our behalf. We thank you Lord, that you withstood all temptation throughout your whole life to be that perfect sacrifice for us to give yourself Lord, that we might have life, that we might have the opportunity to be washed and cleansed. And so Lord, we. Come before your communion table this morning to remember you to be washed and Lord, we do pray that you would transform us that you would correct us, Lord, that you. Would fix our. Alignment, or that we would stay the course that you have set before us. We pray this in Jesus name.