Stand Week 3- Stand and Resist

1 Peter 5:8-9 NIV 8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 

Matt 4:1-10 NLT 

What if coming to church we didn’t have the expectations of going to an all-inclusive resort but going to work?

To stand firm- we must resist. Resist the inward pull. The cultural gravitational pull. Resist temptation…

Matthew 3 NIV 16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” 

His identity and purpose is declared over him. And that specifically is what the enemy is going to test.  I love this moment because Jesus hasn’t performed a single miracle or given a teaching yet. And He receives what we all need, affirmation from our father. We all underestimate how much affirmation we need. It’s the affirmation of God our heavenly father that brings security to our identity and purpose. We know who we are and whose we are. 

John 1:12 NIV  Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God 

You are my dearly loved son, you are my daughter. And with YOU I am well pleased. You bring me great joy.

Jesus saw intimacy, the relationship He had with His Father as the ultimate prize. We are invited into that same relationship. 

V1 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 

This is confusing, right? The greek word for tempted can mean to tempt or to test. Like a test that’s used to refine God’s work in His people. 

Why is this encouraging? Because we can acknowledge that we will be tempted, we can trust that the Holy Spirit is also simultaneously working to turn these moments into refining and our good.

Deut 8:2-5 NIV 2 Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. 3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.  5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you. 

Temptation # 1 Immediate Comfort vs Eternal Fruit 

NIV Matt 4:3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’[b]”

He offers him an escape of comfort. Immediate gratification. And he does this because Jesus is fasting. Why is fasting a spiritual discipline? Something we do in our spiritual formation- it’s feeding our spirit not our flesh. It’s focusing on the eternal, not the temporary. Breaking through the natural to get the valuable. 

To give into this temptation would be to sever trust with the Father and His purpose as the suffering servant. 

John 12:26 NIV  26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. 

Matt 4:5-7 NIV Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:“‘He will command his angels concerning you,   and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’[a]” 7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.

Temptation #2 Cynicism vs Trust 

If your heart grows cold and hard… you will never have a life-giving relationship. And what God wants more than anything with you… is a relationship. Without trust there’s never intimacy.

The final temptation…  Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” 10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.

Temptation #3 Destiny without Intimacy 

It’s a temptation to compromise. To take a shortcut.

What Satan does is he takes a good thing and he seeks to inflame your imagination so that it becomes the ultimate thing. So that you want it more than God. With or without God.  -Tim Keller

The ultimate prize of human existence is relationship with God. If you don’t believe that you will give into temptation. Every temptation is some attempt to come between that intimacy with God.

2 Cor 12:9 My grace is sufficient for you. 

Fast as a practice of resisting the flesh and feast on the Word of God and love of God. This will grow your desire and pursuit of the ultimate prize. Intimate relationship with the Father.