Sermon preached at Grace Church, Molokai 2/21/10 - "Temptation of Christ"

Luke 4:1-13 1And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread." 4And Jesus answered him, (J) "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone.'" 5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6and said to him, "To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." 8And Jesus answered him, "It is written, "'You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.'" 9And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10for it is written, "'He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,' 11and "'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'" 12And Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'" 13And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time."

Temptation seems to have been big in the news this week. Tiger Woods spoke about it on Friday. And some Olympians have said that gold medallists gave into temptation and cheated. Even a sport as simple as the Skeleton got included in temptation's web. It seems that the helmet of the winner had an aerodynamic design that was accused of fraud.

I bet some of you have never heard of the Skeleton. It's where a man or a woman gets on a small sled and hurtles down the track, headfirst, at 80-90 MPH. Whoa! Kinda makes bobsledding and luge athletes look like wimps! But the point is, whether you're sliding headlong at incredible speed, or downhill skiing in the Super-G, you have to know the course. A lot of us envision temptation like Satan jumping out in front of you without warning and bam! It's over. But we CAN know the course and we can be prepared for the conditions that make it dangerous.

Temptation is serious stuff. When it comes to temptation I've noticed there are mainly 2 types of people. There are those people who struggle with temptation and those who should. Which category do you find yourself in this morning? Temptation is not a benign question like "Would you like hash browns or rice with your eggs?" Temptation is a struggle between good and evil, light and darkness, righteousness and sin, faithfulness and disobedience. That's why the consequences of caving in to temptation are so dire. Secret pornography destroys marriages. Secret greed causes people to embezzle money, and destroys businesses. Humiliating and mocking others for the sake of humor causes hidden anger that burns holes in our souls and affects every relationship we have. No matter if you are currently struggling, secretly struggling, or if you soon will be struggling with temptation, I believe God's word has a message for each of us today.

Have you ever watched a pro baseball or football game where they signal in plays from the sidelines to the players on the field? Pinching your nose might mean to bunt. Wiping your forehead might mean to hit and run. Or swing your arms in an arc might mean to blitz. Two hands on your stomach means the pizza you ate last night is getting to you.

Anyway, the opposite team is always trying to figure out the signals so that they can know in advance what the other team is going to do. If they know the type of play the other team is planning to make, they can counter it and score. It is called stealing the signals or stealing the signs. When the stakes are high, if a team can steal the signals from their opponents it can be the difference between losing and winning. A few years ago a book came out that said that the New York Giants may have stolen the signals and relayed them to Bobby Thompson when he hit his championship home run heard around the world in the 1950s.

Well Satan was so desperate to knock out Jesus in the wilderness that he tipped his hand on the ways he tempts us. He showed us the signs that tell us the types of plays he will try to make against us too. The Bible's recording of this temptation is important because, first of all, we see that to be tempted is not the same as sinning. What a relief. Temptation is not sin! The pressure is off. Jesus, the Son of God was tempted. Sometimes when we wrestle and resist temptation we feel terrible and almost as guilty as if we had crossed the line. We wonder if we are not spiritual enough. But Jesus was tempted… with the same types we get hammered with. He didn't sin! Hallelujah! That is great news. And when we desperately struggle with temptation, Jesus is there… right there beside us.

Not only do we see that He was tempted just as we are, not only do we learn how He prevailed, but also we get to see the ways Satan can tempt us. If we can learn the course, maybe we can see his play coming and counteract it. It may be that the only acceptable time to steal is when we can steal Satan's signs to help our own or someone else's temptation. If you can see the devil setting me up, you can call out his play to me before I get whacked. And if I can steal the signs of how he might tempt you, I can help you send him away empty-handed. Pretty cool, yeah?

Let me work a bit backwards: here is the final answer. The way Jesus overcame temptation was to go back to the Word of God and say NO! He leaned on the Word; He stood on the Word, and told the devil to get lost. That's why we have to take the Scriptures in and make them ours. It is the main way to send the devil packing.

Jesus knew that the consequences and suffering from giving in to temptation are always greater than the suffering and consequences from resisting temptation. Let me repeat that - it is not scripture but you should write it down and never forget it…. the consequences from giving in to temptation are always greater than the consequences from resisting temptation. No matter how hard it is to resist, no matter how much we might feel we are suffering to repel temptation, the cost of yielding is always greater. There are eternal consequences. Ready to steal the signs from Satan?

The quick list: each of us can be tempted in 3 basic ways. Many temptations involve a variation on one of 3 easy themes; we can be tempted by our physical desires, we can be tempted by our own need for self-importance, and we can be tempted by not trusting God.

1. Jesus was in the wilderness and He was hungry. Satan tempted Jesus to turn stones to bread. Jesus knew His was a fast of obedience and to eat was to sin. Ours might be a fast of obedience to a marriage vow, to being honest, to not cheat on our taxes, to keep away from sex, drugs, or rock and roll (not counting praise and worship songs!). For us, to disobey and give in to temptation would be to sin.

One of Jesus' inner circle was John. He later became the Apostle John. During the last years of his life he wrote, (1 John 2:15) "Stop loving this evil world and all that it offers you, for when you love the world, you show that you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only the lust for physical pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride in our possessions. These are not from the Father. They are from this evil world."

I love the King James translation for our physical desires: "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life." This can be in your face and the most gut wrenching of temptations. I would bet that each of us here has struggled with some type of physical temptation.

James, Jesus' half-brother, wrote that if we resist the devil, he will flee from us. Sometimes it seems as if I have spent a whole lot more energy and time in resisting than the devil has in fleeing.

Some of you remember the years when Scotty commuted daily to Honolulu. He also spent a lot of time in his travels by himself, especially when the legislature had hearing after hearing for bills he was watching and so he over-nighted in too many hotels. But he had a few rules. He did not rent in-room movies, he wouldn't give his room number out, and any ladies he had to meet with were in the lobby. He knows that we are at our weakest when we meet the HALT syndrome….Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired. When he travels, he's usually all 4. But he says the cost of being tempted and yielding makes that hurt seem like a little splinter. Long before he commuted every day Scotty was fortunate to read books and magazines written by Godly men who traveled and stumbled. They stole Satan's signs to help him from walking into a trap. Sometimes the best way to keep from being eaten by a lion is to stay out of lion country. Amen? Amen.

We can't flee every temptation. But with God's help we can RESIST every temptation.

2. Now, some of you might be more mature. You have been able to resist most lusts of the flesh and eyes. You're not prone to theft, to gossip, coveting, or lying. And adultery's not your cup of tea. You don't download music or movies illegally and you don't smoke ice. Your life is in control. You can see Satan flashing those other signs and you are simply not tempted. Great…but be cautious. When Jesus resisted the trap to satisfy His hunger another ambush popped up. Satan said, "Look at all these kingdoms. I can give you all of them. Just ask. Just worship me." Jesus went deeper into the Word to tell Satan NO!

Have you ever played the "if I were the queen of the universe" game? Most of us want our own kingdoms, don't we? We believe our own press clippings. We take some of the glory from God and keep it for ourselves. It's the one that scares me the most.
How about this variation? If God loves us, why does He allow suffering? In my kingdom no one would suffer. Or… if God really loves us, why is my kid sick? Or why does my mom have dementia? Recognize the signs yet? If the Lord really loves me, why doesn't He answer my prayer about…? Why doesn't He do what I want Him to do?

This temptation isn't always about acting, it's about doubting. This is different from wrestling with a difficult situation. This is very different from crying out to God "Where are you in my distress?" which we see all through the Psalms. It often hits those who have learned to deal with the physical part of temptation. But if we give in to this temptation, it can be even more devastating. It leaves us lonely and hopeless. God calls us to be a people of hope. When we start to feel hopeless we begin to believe that we can out reason or out think God. We start to believe that the Lord should be doing things the way I see them. Forget the sovereignty and power of God. After all if there is a God, He would be doing things the way that I feel are the best. Standards of good and evil are thrown away and what I think is right for me is what is right for me. Let me share than in the Bible, one of the signs that things are out of control with this temptation, one of the signs of total depravity, is found in Judges 17:6 "there was no king in Israel and every man did what was right in his own eyes"

Do you see how deeply our generations have been deceived? How does that Sinatra song go? " I did it----- -----" (yep, I did it MY WAY) Listen to what Proverbs 26 has to say, "do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him." Think you're better than someone else? Feeling God-like? We need to steal these signs before Satan's gets the play called and more people get hurt.

3. After Jesus refused this temptation, satan tried to draw Him in to the "jump off the pinnacle" game. The devil took Jesus to a high place. Anyone here ever feel tempted to jump off a cliff to test the Lord? Maybe not. So we think that we're immune to this temptation. But maybe a subtle message has been planted. Would God really help you if you jumped?

I have noticed that leaders seem to be the most susceptible to this temptation. What is even spookier is that I know people who have mastered the first two types of temptation and get floored by this one. Why do so many Christian leaders who start out strong fall?
After all, their faith is strong. They know their scriptures. For the larger battles with physical temptation, they have done well. If we were to look at them externally we might say, "Wow, they have it all together." But if we look internally we might find that their righteousness is being held together by duct tape, not super glue.

This is because they were suckered into believing that all their success is solely due to their own hard work. And if they have begun to think that they should get all the credit and not God, they find themselves losing battles with doubt, lust and all other types of addictions; battles that they had already won. All our gifts and talents come from the Lord. All the glory and credit needs to go to Him. We were not built with a praise and glory storage unit. So this means all the credit we take in seems to go directly to our heads.

Many folks remember that passage in 1 Corinthians 10 that says "But remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can't stand up against it. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you will not give in to it." It doesn't say that God won't give us more temptation than we can handle. It actually starts out by saying "if you think you are standing strong, be careful, for you, too, may fall into the same sin."

This isn't a scientific list of temptation. But I really believe that satan was so intent on knocking Jesus out that he telegraphed his signs to us. And I want to again remind each of us that the consequences of giving in to temptation are much greater than the consequences of resisting temptation.
I kind of wish that temptation was like those drug commercials… Satan gets flashy and says "Hey this looks pretty tempting. Try this….smoke that….look over here." And then the quiet voice needs to come on in our heads and say "The side effects of sin are, estrangement from God, being a slave to sin, an ineffective prayer life, loneliness, sadness, and the break up of your family. These side effects can be minimized by refusing to yield to temptation. Side effects may also be reduced by repentance and prayer."
When it says that the devil "departed from Him" the Greek is much more blunt. It says he "stood off." He didn't go far. He left Jesus "until a more opportune time." This battle was over but he had not given up. He didn't go back to the locker room, out of sight, out of mind. The devil will always be on the sidelines, lurking in the shadows, watching, waiting for the next vulnerable moment. Count on it.
By stealing his signs we can prepare and resist temptation.

But what if we miss the cues and find ourselves in the beginning, the middle, or the end of sin? What if we've have already fallen? What if you walked in the door this morning completely engulfed by sinful behavior? What would people say? What would people think? I think that here at Grace Church we would say… Welcome… You've come to the right place. Sit among sinners who are in desperate need of the touch of love and grace from Jesus Christ. Welcome to the church, where the Lord has gathered together people who each need His amazing grace again and again. One of the things I love about Lent is that it is like a huge neon sign to believers: Repent. If you already are repenting, please disregard this notice.

We have all missed the signs and fallen. Isaiah 53 says that each of us has strayed from the Lord's path like a wandering and lost sheep. But then the prophet writes that the Lord has taken all our guilt and sin away from us and laid them on the broad shoulders of Jesus. We need to seek each other's forgiveness and the Lord's. Repentance is a one step turn back towards Jesus. No matter if you are rich or poor, young or old, and no matter how far you have strayed from the Lord's path, He is only one step away. And He is waiting for you to turn to Him. 1 John 1:8 says "If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong."

This morning I want to give those of us who have struggled and resisted, those of us who have struggled and yielded, and those of us who have just stumbled without a struggle to make the one step turn back to Jesus. Repentance is a one step solution. Turn around and Jesus will be there…. please turn in your prayer book to page 321 and we will repent together…"Almighty and most merciful Father, we have erred and strayed from Thy ways like lost sheep, we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts, we have offended against Thy holy laws, we have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things which we ought not to have done. But Thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, spare Thou those who confess their faults, restore Thou those who are penitent, according to Thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord; and grant, O most merciful Father, for His sake, that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of thy holy Name. Amen."

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