Illuminate: The Holy Spirit As A Guide

[Music] we're in the illumination series and this has been passionate for me I'm thinking about how important it is for us to understand the power that we have in God's Word the reason why this tagline for this series is called power in plain sight is because very often we've got this this book in front of us are in our hands or on our apps and we are not using it the way that it was intended to be used we are not giving room and space to the Holy Spirit to shed light on what's in this word and when I think about Hebrews 4:12 that says that the Word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword that it's able to pierce the division of soul and spirit the soul is like the essence of who you are and the soul is like the emotions of who you are in the spirit is kind of the essence of who you are they're very nuanced aspects to this intangible aspect of who we are but I find it interesting that Hebrews describes it that way because that means it's not just a clunky like machete it's a sword but it's also got like some scalpel like attributes because it's it's precise there's a lot of power in the Word of God Ephesians 6 after Paul goes through the entire armor of God that we need to bear he finally at the end of all that says and then I want you to pick up the sword of the Spirit it's the only weapon in our arsenal that's offensive that we need to do something with and so that's been my passion um I was talking to my son the other day he's working on some math homework and he's only in the first grade but he bout to age me out I can only help for so long okay cuz math wasn't my strength all right I don't man and I word and letter and talk so I trying to help him but he's working on some multiplication stuff I don't think so but I got him a big chart you know a man from Amazon and so I got him a little multiplication chart that's hanging in front of his desk and sometimes will allow him to you know try to memorize and see what he knows by memory but a lot times for his homework because I want him to do more than memorize it I want mastery I want him to be extremely comfortable with with these numbers and so I have this chart up there many times I'll say do your sheet yeah it's for time it's a little bit of test but you can use the chart right so he's sitting at the desk the chart is on the wall so he's got like 10 rows of problems I come in there three days later he's still on the first night I was like what is happening so I knew he was gonna take a little while because he has focused challenges he would rather be drawing or flipping or ninja moves or whatever anything besides that math homework and so I said son when you come in when I come back in here this needs to be half done so I come back in there and it's not half done and so I'm asking him what is the problem and he says to me I didn't know the answers now for all the parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and all that you know you're not you really don't want to roll your eyes and patronize your children but sometimes they say things and you're like I'm gonna get you tested I don't understand these words coming out of your mouth and so he's like I couldn't find the answer and I'm looking over here trying to be sweet and I was like um something where were you looking for the answer he was all right here I knew the answer wasn't right here that's why it's right there on that wall so I said all you need to do is look and find the answer you can do your homework it's like open book use the chart cool yeah okay yeah mommy right I come back a few minutes later he's done like one problem sounds like son what's the problem well I saw the answer but I couldn't figure out which one it was well why not I said because here's here's what it is you you got 0 through 12 here the top 0 so if it's 4 times 6 you go for you go over to 6 and this little square right here in this 24 that is your answer here's that open is so far away all the numbers were looking jumbled up y'all know what George I was like oh Jesus let me take this chart off the wall lay it on his table I said now use your finger to find the answer solve the problem and finish the test it's not that hard it's open book you have all the answers and so um a little while later I came back and he had not finished but he was making some progress and I just kind of peeked my head around the door and every time he found an answer that matched the problem on his sheet he was a little bit amazed like he was so surprised he's like mom do you know all the answers oh right here on this chart I was like yes son I do Merry Christmas happy birthday just be blessed finish your homework right so we finally finished his homework and I'm telling my husband about this I was like yo son it's challenging me and I said he was trying to do his mother occasion he said oh yeah he's still learning someone said no no I let him use the chart and he still took forever and it still took him a minute to click that everything here was on the chart and he and I true to fashion because everything becomes illustration realize how true that is for us that very often God has given us some tests and we think that we are out there on our own and he's like but it I have the answers and so all I need you to do is when you see the problem I want you to go here and I want you to find the answer you don't you're not out here on your own I actually have every answer that you need right here so it might seem like a test but you've got all the answers already this is just character building and it may take you a while to find some things because you're not familiar with it but then you need to bring it closer because sometimes we have to really examine the Word of God because here's what Matthew 4 is gonna tell us tonight we're going to look at the story of Jesus being tempted on the mountain and we're gonna realize that even Jesus the Son of Man had to go through temptation but the illumination that the Holy Spirit gives us is exactly what we need even in times of temptation that there's not a thing that God will allow to happen to us that his word does not address so Matthew chapter 4 we're gonna read the first 11 verses the entire story and then we're gonna walk through this passage and get some great lessons from Jesus our Savior Matthew 4 verse 1 says then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil and after fasting forty days and forty nights he was hungry 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 shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God verse 5 then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him if you're the son of God throw yourself down for it is written he will command his angels concerning you and up and on their hands they will bear you up unless you strike your foot against a stone and Jesus said to him again it is written you shall not put the Lord your God to the test in verse eight 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 them all these I will give you if you will fall down and worship Me then jesus said to him begone Satan for it is written you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve then the devil left him and behold angels came and were ministering to him now this passage to me is so powerful because Jesus has just been baptized let me tell you something how life works before you get to chapter 4 verse 1 if you just go back a few verses chapter 3 verse 16 and 17 it says and when Jesus was baptized immediately he went up from the water and behold the heavens were open to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove coming to rest on him and behold a voice from heaven said this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased you know chapter 3 ended on such a high note he had been baptized the heavens had parted God was commencing his earthly ministry the Holy Spirit came down like a dove it was beautiful and in that same spirit precious dove led Jesus into the wilderness this is what happens in our Christian life we have these high moments and you feel like god I feel so affirmed by you I'm on the right track this is about to be my year I know it big days about to be poppin for me because you have affirmed me I have a calling I know what I'm doing and as soon as you feel like you're in a good place with God you find yourself in the place of Jesus chapter 4 verse 1 then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness y'all say wilderness to be tempted by the devil not he was led by the spirit and he was tempted he was intentionally led by the spirit to be tempted by the devil sometimes I really wish that I could learn all my lessons with the dove just you know just the dove in the water and the Lord said I'm well pleased I'm pleased with you like yes I have all that I need to know but even in this story while while God was not testing the character of Jesus he was certainly setting up an example a model for us to follow so that Jesus could make the claim later that he has walked in our shoes that he's experienced everything we've experienced and so in Matthew chapter 4 verse 1 we see Jesus being led up to the mountain to be tempted by the devil the humanity in him the the man the man part of Jesus is what's undergoing this temptation but we can learn a lot from that number 1 that the spirit may do the leading but the devil is the one that does the tempting James one says what let no one say when he's tempted I'm being tempted by God for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself temps no 1 this is important to know because while the spirit may take you through some wilderness places the temptations themselves are not from the Lord he's not setting you up to fail he's setting you up to win now when you fail it's because you've given in to temptation not because the Lord has set you up to fail the Lord's Prayer says that we should ask that God lead us not into temptation right so that even though God may lead us to the place where temptation happens that he's not the one that actually leads us into it we go there on our own the spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness a dry place so it's a desolate place not a place of comfort not a place of Plenty but a place of dependence a place of hunger because we can see illumination who's our first thought illumination allow to see clearly in the midst of our weakness illumination allows us to see clearing them clearly in the midst of our weakness verse two yah says and after fasting forty days and forty nights he was hungry somebody stay hungry now y'all can relate a little bit those of you that participated in the Dania fast I mean all of the way some of y'all we still be praying through us lord have mercy we struggling with a limited fast like we just cannot survive with our carbs like we just have to have bacon we cannot make it without me and so we can understand a little bit if you've ever done a complete forty day fast or 21-day fast you know the hunger is real but it's interesting that the scripture says and after y'all say after the fasting forty days and forty nights he was hungry now there's a lot of parallels here because the children of Israel were in the wilderness for forty years this is what number forty usually in the Bible is referring to some type of character testing or or some type of test or trial and so we see that Jesus is fasting forty days and forty nights and he was hungry this is important because it sets up the importance of how he handles what they did what the enemy is going to bring his way he see temptation is only a temptation if it actually potentially meets a desire that you have if there's an EC the devil might not know everything you need he might not know everything on your mind but he knows what you won't and so when he lays out before you is something that's gonna stir up a desire John calls us a lust for the flesh a desire of the flesh doesn't have to be sexual it's just something that our body wants sometimes your body just wants that cookie or your feet just want those shoes amen it happens your feed be talking they like those right there and they talk to you because I flesh desires certain things right you're all want they're bad that's what happens it just it just happens we desire a lot of different things not just physical and sexual things but a lot of things that our body desires and so the Bible makes it clear that Jesus was hungry because when the enemy comes and says verse 3 and the tempter came to him and said notice he's called the tempter first if you are the son of God command these stones to become loaves of bread well this is relevant because Jesus was hungry see a lot of times we claim victory over temptation that was really never a temptation if the look if you've never stolen something in your life and someone asks you to commit a theft and steal something and you say no that's not a victory shout you weren't even tempted to do that it's when the devil offers up something that almost meets your desire it just looks good it looks like you want it to look it's packaged just right that's when you know that you're being tempted and you have to decide how you're going to respond to that situation so the temperature says to him if you are who you say you are command these stones to become loaves of bread and y'all there's something about the timing of this because if you do the Danya fast or maybe you're trying to eat right a liver I may be trying to save your money you might not be tempted on day to day till you're still going strong day 15 you're like it's hard but I got this you're doing a forty day fast me to you some day 38 you like you know what Laura I've done 38 days I've done more than what I thought it was really gonna do so really it's already a victory no we tell ourselves I plan to save a thousand dollars over the next year or five thousand dollars and five hundred dollars ten dollars a month whatever your goal is if you like two-thirds of the way there you like it I would I used to spend all this but at least I saved this much so really the last fourth is like a treat to myself for saving more than what I thought I would say right so many of us slipped up on that Daniel phase when it was like two days out cuz you were already planning what you wanted to have to break the past because it gets so close that you like maybe I can do it so when when the Bible says after the 40 days it is to emphasize the fact that Jesus wouldn't his willpower wasn't fresh on day two he's hungry it's been 40 days and the enemy knows exactly the timing I wish to offer you a certain temptation so when you decide you gonna be celibate and you really not gonna have sex you get married this time for real for real God for real for real and you're like no for real though I'm sober I'm trying to get my life on one little pur yes Lord rededicated me use me send me all that stuff you'll be great you'll be great right until February 14th roll around Joker that you had all the willpower to say no to cuz you know he trifling but when he checks you on the 13th you like I mean you ain't gonna be nothing I Know Nothings don't come over but we both don't have anything to do right forty days you hungry you get hungry sometimes it's easy to say no to the buffet when you fool the enemy not gonna offer you up a plate when you fool you don't wait to you hungry you can't wait till you hurt and when you hungry you don't even have to be quality food don't need to go all the way there I don't need to go all the way there we settled for anything to put into our stomachs when we hungry don't we he knows giving you old trash can't good and Vienna sausages you're like I could have been at a steak house but I had to wait for that I didn't want to wait I didn't want to wait so this timing thing is important because he was hungry y'all and even though Jesus was God he was yielded to his humanity so he could have generated food out of his body or called it out of the air but he did not he chose to be in the hunger so that we might see when we're hungry how we should respond to the enemy so in his hunger after the fasting then the tempter shows up and he says if your God command these stones to become loaves of bread and Jesus says it is written I'll say it is written man shall not live by bread alone but every word that comes out of the mouth of God every word that comes out of the mouth of God now here's what's interesting about this what the enemy asked Jesus to do is not bad Jesus has every ability and capability to turn those stones into bread so it's not always that the enemy is going to ask you to sin I mean sometimes he leads us into that too sometimes he just asked you to misplace your ability and it'll trump or disrupt your assignment sometimes there's things you can do that God has given you the ability to do but he didn't say do it right now sometimes you have the right answer and you have that word to say to somebody he's telling you to be quiet he's like don't say it I know you know it I gave you the answer but I don't want you to say it right now because right now assignment is listening right now assignment is patience right now the assignment is long-suffering see there going to be times where you have legit ability you're the smartest one you're the most qualified you actually have the power to do whatever it is that you're tempted to do but God is saying but that's not your assignment can you say no to yourself and say yes to me so he asked Jesus to do something he's very capable of doing that probably would be fine in any other circumstance but Jesus knew he was being tested and this is the time that I yield to my obedience and so he says I only need the word of the Lord now what he's doing is quoting a scripture from Deuteronomy eight two and three where the Lord is talking to the children of Israel he says to them you should remember all the ways which the Lord your God led you in the wilderness these 40 years there's a parallel here he humbled you let you be hungry fed you with manna that you didn't even know about nor did your fathers know that he might make you understand y'all say understand so Jesus is quoting a scripture where God was reminding the children of Israel that hunger serves a purpose he was saying don't forget I led you in the wilderness for 40 years just like this spirit led you into this desert fasting place for 40 days don't forget that I let you be hungry just like I let you be hungry here don't forget that I provided manna which you hadn't even seen before but in your hunger my provision revealed my power and so Jesus is saying let me let me take the devil back to what really needs to be talked about here not my current hunger but God's faithfulness over time that God has always created situations where he's allowed us to be hungry or led us to places that are not comfortable so that we can see his supernatural provision and the end of Deuteronomy 8 verse 3 says this so that you might understand that man does not live by bread alone but by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of God so he quotes the Old Testament in response to Satan he's not intimidated y'all illumination Trump's intimidation that's little Ryan for y'all so he's not intimidated by that but he also applies the truth in a way that's relevant and speaks to the challenge that he's facing in that moment the illumination is really about application is not just not which you can memorize all the scripture you might know that scripture already but it might not come to memory if you're not meditating on it allowing the Holy Spirit to shed light on it so you can apply it at the right time there's a lot of things we know that we don't actually apply at the right time I mean I know some math but I generally use my calculator I don't generally dig deep and try to remember how to do long division I use my calculator because we can easily find the most convenient way to do things and I'm saying that if we're gonna really live in a life that's applied truth allowing the Holy Spirit to illuminate we have got to be open to when he gives us this knowledge and in in situations where our wisdom actually works so we have to have a steady diet of truth in order for this to even come out when the test comes number two illumination is surrendering to the power of God's Word and not our words illumination is surrendering to the power of God's Word and not our words verse five it says then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple now this is interesting because it says that the devil took him to the holy city I don't know why the devil is taking him to church so because he will take you to church he'll take you to where you comfortable and so then he sets him on the pinnacle of the temple you know every time that you're set at the top of something or promoted it might not be from God sometimes the enemy is taking you to a certain level just so he can stir of longing in you he wants you to be like oh I finally made it now just got three more steps to reach my goal but the first promotion wasn't even from the Lord it was that it was the enemy inviting you to something and you know if it's not from the Lord because if you had to shade the integrity a little bit or if you had to do anything that did not honor God you know that that's not a promotion from God and you said oh the Lord understands I was disadvantaged they weren't gonna pick me anyway I never was gonna get it I wasn't gonna win I wasn't gonna do this and you make those slight adjustments in your integrity and it's just the enemy saying come here let me show you what the top looks like but it's not the top from God's view it's the top from the devil's view so he takes him to the top shows him the pinnacle of the temple and he says to him in verse 6 he says if you are the son of God the yourself down for it is written now this is this is where the story turns this is where you get to see the strategic adjustment of the enemy but as first he says hey command these stones to become bread but Jesus uses a scripture to reply to Satan so guess what Satan does I'm second time around oh I know some Bible I know some Bible now it's some Devil's in your life there's no subscription and you like oh but they know the Bible no no no they know the words but it's not in their heart and it's not illuminated it's not in context there's no real revelation no wisdom many ideologies and doctrines and all kinds of foolishness throughout the history of mankind has come from Scripture taken out of context used to the benefit of man so don't let anybody that knows a little bit of Bible make you think that they have the wisdom of the Holy Spirit Satan says 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 now this is fascinating because he's actually trying to encourage Jesus he was like you can do it listen that angels got your back you remember that one scripture said the angels are gonna bear you up and see when you when you are not dealing with people who truly are trying to walk in the obedience of the Spirit they will take scriptures that make you feel good about you or that support their agenda and you'll realize yeah it's truths but it's not what God had for me in this moment and so every single time something goes wrong it's not a time for you to press harder because you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you sometimes the things that you can do through Christ is to sit in wait and every time something knocks you down or you're disadvantaged or you feel something was unfair it's at a time for you to fight back because you the head and not the tail it might be the time for you to say His grace is sufficient and every time a boss or an authority or a teacher or a parent rubs you wrong and you're like you know what God has freedom for me I know that God's called me to greater things but wait a minute what about Romans 13 that says all authority is from God you can't rebelled against Authority without rebelling against God so you can take scripture out of context and when you do that you find yourself in a lot of trouble and you are aligning with the father with that would with the father of lies with Satan because he takes truth and makes it a lot what he's quoting is Psalm 91 here's what's interesting so he says he will command his angels concerning you on their hands that will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone this is a true statement but it's out of context y'all set context when you are in the Word of God this is why it is important to have a steady diet of God's truth so that when the Holy Spirit speaks to you in certain moments he's gonna speak to you with the fullness of insight and wisdom and context see when you don't rely on the Holy Spirit when you don't have a steady diet of the word when life gets hard or you need an answer from the Lord you go to your concordance and you try to find a scripture and you're like what I need something job cuz I need to fan if the Lord want me to take this job and you like many of course about this job job being in the Bible and so you find something in you like huh foolish ok proverbs says oh ok anybody that listens to a fool when you start coming up with scriptures like you know what my boss is a fool I need to quit this job thank you Lord Jesus because what happens is we try to cherry-pick stuff we try to customize scripture to what we're going through you know my son um has allergies he has crazy allergies and he has an allergy regimen he he takes some medication for his allergies and I know I don't have to email me I know that there are some holistic solutions so you have to send me no oils and the least cuz I know y'all gonna be late if he just chew on his bark allergies would go away and I know it will before right now we own this regiment ok so he's on this he's on algae regimen but the thing about this allergy medicine is it's not topical you have to take it and you have to take it every day you have taken consistently so if you start to skip a day or two I will notice that he's gone somebody has put him to bed that did forgot to let him make him take his medicine or he fell asleep and we didn't wake him up to take it because maybe by day two or day three he'll be like my eyes hurt right now what's interesting is the allergy medicine is not hydrops it's a it's a it's a liquid that decreases all the histamines in his body the certain ones that he's allergic to but he'll say oh my I hurt or my head is hurting I have a headache well what I could do is give him a motrin or giving some eyedrops that might help it for a little bit but that's not the real issue and I can't just double up his dose and they say that doesn't fix it it takes several days for that medicine to build back up and stay at a certain level when it stays at a certain level all of the other symptoms are resolved so what happens is in our spiritual walk we let the truth out our diet of the truth starts to drop and then life gets hard and we like I'm gonna eat some extra meals today I'm gonna I'm gonna go hard today I'm gonna take some extra scripts or some extra verses and then you wonder why you still lost and confused because God's Word is not a band-aid to be applied it's a steady diet it's a nourishment it's the food if you all of a sudden have vitamin deficiency you can't eat just a whole stalk of broccoli this don't get fixed that day you have to shift your diet you might take some supplements they may help for a while but that's not really the long-term solution the long-term solution is to change how you eat and the same thing is with the truth of God you have to have a steady diet so when you come up in these situations when the holy spirit has been fed the Word of God because you are partnering with God to take in his word all of the time let me tell you something he won't give you illumination in wisdom even when you don't want it you trying to get an attitude something you're trying to just really be in your old self you're like what you know what I got some words for her I got a lot of words this because I'm delivered o me my words left' i got words for her and you already you like i'm gonna go off and say what i'm saying that my ask forgiveness the lord know he know why I'm upset and you get in there and you're like this I can't even go off like I used to I don't even have no good words I can't even get angry the way I used to because now I'm starting to think through the fact that you know what she's broken and she's had a hard life too and dang how can I come and hurt like that cuz I know God is giving me grace maybe she just needs my prayer you can't even think the way you used to think because the Holy Spirit is in there black and your foolishness even when you don't want to the Holy Spirit will have you blocking that person in your phone leaving that house in the middle of you don't think i'ma let myself have fun this one time it's been so long I've been good for so long about to give myself a treat and then you can't even enjoy it you can't even enjoy it because the holy sprit of you too much to give you peace of mind and you've been feasting on the word of God that he will disrupt you and create discontentment in the thing that used to please you because that's what a steady diet will do if you did the Daniel Fast and you took it seriously what you'll notice is by the end of that time your palate and your appetite changes and you get all excited about something and sometimes the thing you've been wanting so much you taste it on the day you break the pass and you're like oh it's not that good is it don't I give you a headache bacon got you in the bathroom that's why I'm like listen break the past your own house but that's what happens you you start to tell yourself is gonna be so great and some of you know what I'm talking about it's a letdown you taste any like Colley and it's just eat these Triscuits let me just go back to what I've been eating now here's what's interesting about it six months from now a month from now you might find yourself eating the way you ate before the day is because even if it's not good to you if you continue to give it to yourself your appetite will shift again and all of a sudden the bacon is pretty yummy again and that's why this time next year when this time do dang fest is gonna be hard all over again so even though you can shift into a place of having a steady diet of truth if you don't stay on it and you allow yourself to be exposed to things that tear down that true that the Bible says then then allow to take root in fertile soil you'll find yourself reverting spiritually and that's why you have people who have walked with the Lord for a year and they seem to be knocking it out the part and people who have been with him 20 years and still seem to be stuck in what they learned 20 years ago because time is not the thing is truth and consistency so Jesus responds to him because he's quoting out of Psalm 90 91 context y'all he gives Jesus one verse he says for it's written he will come in his angels concerning you on their hands they'll bear you up there strike your foot against a stone that sounds amazing and empowering but in Psalm 91 the context of that some ninety-one first at eleven through twelve says this actually I'll say skip around the first twelve verses in Psalm 91 it starts off with he who dwells in the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow of the Almighty so there's a condition it's the dwelling in the shelter of the most high that you get to abide in this shadow this resting place because in the wilderness it was hot so when you found a shade tree or a place that was shaded that became a resting place so the psalmist is painting this picture that when you dwell in the shadow the shelter and the safety of God you find a resting place many of our poems are written like that so there's a condition he who dwells in the shelter of the almighty will abide within the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow though mighty everything else after that is a promise based on the condition he says you won't fear the terror of the night nor the arrow that flies by day nor the pestilence that stalks and darkness nor the destruction that wastes at noonday some of y'all know these verses cherry-picked but you might not know the context verse seven says a thousand may fall at your side ten thousand at your right hand but it will not come near you you will only look with your eyes and see the recompense of the wicked the consequences for them verse nine because you have made the Lord your dwelling place the Most High who is my refuge no evil shall be allowed to befall you no plague will come near your tent he's basically saying you're gonna be free from disease you're gonna win everything you always gonna conquer everything's gonna be amazing and he is by saying for he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone so the enemy posts the final verse of the context of this entire song when the condition is dwelling in the shelter of the Most High so Jesus replies back in verse seven he says again on the other hand it is written you shall not put the Lord your God to the test now he's like alright now devil I'm on you guys Scripture I got scripture for you and what he's doing is not only checking the enemy and putting him in his place he's also establishing his identity because he says you should not put the Lord your God to the test which implies that he is the Lord your God so he's like women you might test him other people you can test me because of women I know I know I'm Jesus and I bleed and I'm hungry right now but I am still the Lord your God and you can't put me to the test now this is an answer really to a question behind the question because when Satan says two different times if you are the son of God what he's saying is before you even if I even throw this temptation I'm gonna make it be connected to your identity he's like I mean if God is for you just do it if you are who you say you are let me see you act like this let me see you do what you say you should be able to do there are times y'all with the enemy God is gonna lead you into a place and it's gonna be a setup and the enemy is going to tie your compliance to his temptation with your identity and he's gonna put that on the line you gonna say you know what I am I am somebody I am valuable I am more than what they say I am I can't do this and you'll start to operate on your own strength because he starts to feed our flesh he starts to make us say you know what I need to validate my identity this world is gonna draw you into situations where you feel like you need to validate your identity before them if you don't have a rest and a peace and a confidence and who God says you are you're gonna find yourself set up for traps that's exactly what happened in Genesis 3 when when Satan came to even says now wait a minute what did God really say because the enemy's goal is to plant doubt here's this goal is to plant doubt and so even when you think oh I know this is what God told me or I know this is how God told me to respond when the thing doesn't work out the way you thought it was gonna work out the enemy is right there he like I don't know why you did it that way you could have done it the way I told you to do it at least what it felt good for a little while because he offers instant gratification but God offers eternal satisfaction the enemy says I can give you something that feels good and looks good at now but God says but I can change your destiny your entire eternity you may have to say no to yourself on the way but if you do it in the truth with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit I'm telling you it changes lives and not only that it becomes a witness for others who watch your life so Jesus says you should not put the Lord your God to the test this is the second time he's had to respond to the enemy this is another reminder that illumination helps us to see the misuse or the abuse of truth illumination helps us to see the misuse or the abuse of truth but here's a sub point to that illumination requires persistence persistence y'all sometimes the enemy come at us and he got that one verse and all we got is one verse to say back if he come with a second verse I don't let me see what pastor said in my sermon notes last last week because we don't have enough in us to really go toe-to-toe with him and he will keep coming at you until until you have the upper hand or until he has the upper hand and so it's interesting here that Jesus goes back and forth with him and he could just shut it down but he's showing us the power of God's Word not only that everything that he's addressing in Satan y'all is not something new Jesus not writing no new scripture everything he's quoting is from the Old Testament he is basically telling the enemy come again because everything you're bringing my way God has already addressed anything the enemy is bringing your way in your marriage and with your kids and in your health with your body and your finances the Lord already has a word for it you can pray and get clarification and get some details and all that great stuff but the Lord has already spoken into that situation Jesus Christ who was the Word made flesh did not declare a new word when the enemy brought temptation his way he used the Old Testament because he said listen you not even creative enough to come up with something then my God has not already addressed and so when this world tries to tell you that the situation's that we're experiencing our environment our culture all these shifts oh the Bible's outdated the Bible that you better know your word enough to be able to tell them the Bible doesn't expire the Bible is not outdated there's no there's no there's no due date on the Bible it's not finished at some certain point it's always relevant it's always true in the only way that you can apply this word to today's life is with the illumination of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit will show you what God's Word means for you today what it means for the people that are watching your life so he says you can't put the Lord your God to the test in here in verse 8 y'all it says again the devil took him to a very high mountain y'all say very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory now first he takes him to the pinnacle of the temple little height little perspective Jesus mother listen if you're just gonna do this with the stones and the bread thing the angels gonna come go minister to you is gonna be amazing it's gonna be like baptism in when the Dove came ain't just gonna do the same thing I've been in the scriptures this is a promise from the Lord Jesus says nope I got a word for you don't test the Lord your God then first it says then he takes me to a very high mountain higher than the temple they all say that I don't know if y'all listen y'all every promotion is sometimes just a temptation just to see if you can say no to the thing the enemy the enemy do you know the enemy can take you huh he leads Jesus to a very high mountain to entice him to say listen I have greater things for you I can I give you the kingdoms of this world and here's what's interesting Luke 4 verse 5 says and the devil is Luke 4 verse 4 Luke chapter 4 is a parallel description of this story and Luke says it this way and the devil showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and said to him to you I will give all this authority in their glory for it has been delivered to me now this is what you need to know did any power that the enemy has has been delivered to him he may have some power but he doesn't have all power and so don't let him make you think or your friends who are thinking like the enemy or your own voice that is thinking like the enemy is not always some demonic force sometimes it's the people around you the people we let into our space and they're convincing us that the thing we want is the thing God wants for us and it's the only truth in your mind is your truth then you're gonna do what you think is right and we are enter your truth kind of code you know that's your truth right whatever you think I mean I get it but you know that's for you there's really only one truth but we don't invite God to make to make that truth clear for us to make it plain and so we find ourselves susceptible to the plans of the enemy and don't forget someone 1998 through 99 you need to memorize this one psalm 119 98 to 99 from our last time together we remind you it says your Commandments make me wiser than my enemies for it is ever with me I have more understanding than all my teachers your testimonies are my meditation you know this is not a passing glance first of the day is a good start but if all you're getting is a couple of seconds in the Word of God it has to take root is a reason why Psalms and proverbs tells us to meditate to contemplate to think about it think about the things that occupy your mind space in the course of a day you are worried about who likes you or who loves you or who accepts you or how you look or who what's going on with your friends maybe what's going on your family maybe what's going on with work maybe some unmet desire that think about all the things that you really meditate on because the things you meditate on become the lens about what you see everything so when you're meditating on discontentment in your marriage or in your single life everything is an irritant everything you're looking on Instagram like what are you happy whatever man we making a nice announcement for church manna singles my oh we're always having a singles bar okay but it's supposed to be fun why are you bitter right somebody celebrating a great anniversary you don't that's cuz husband like my because that's your perspective the thing you meditate on becomes a lens about what you see everything through so if you're bitter because God hasn't given you something if you're hurt because you have pain in your life that you haven't dealt with whatever it is that's why Jesus says the word says meditate on Scripture because that changes everything I was in a situation just a few days ago with someone very close to me and we were talking through a very personal issue and this friend asked me this thing that really was upsetting to both of us after about an hour I was like you know what whatever and so my friend was like I don't understand how you can just let that go because this person is wrong and they were wrong and we could list all the bullet points as to why they were wrong and y'all listen I'm not always that guy because I'm kind of a scorekeeper so I don't want y'all to think that I'm just super godly but I had a moment at a moment of just yielded 'no stay he was like Jada before you judge get the log out of your eye before you look at the speck in someone else's eye and I love that scripture one is for somebody else when I'm trying to encourage them in the Lord I'm like you know what girl get the log out of your eyes the word is so good for somebody is so sometimes you hear a message you know but the tips about to text her right now you should have been here today because the word was for you no no no it for you first it's for you first and I can tell you that in my flesh the way I was feeling at that moment I did not go before the Lord and say Lord how can I handle this on a godly way Lord I just want to please your Lord that's not what I say it I was like okay you got to get blocked just ugly I was just being ugly and I was like whatever and and as I was you know blocking the number before I actually wait a minute did I block it I did like about an unblocked it aim ever unblocked I did and I sat there and and I felt like mm-hmm take that like the person somewhere in the world knew they just got blocked you just feel like so I was sitting there and then I was like you know what just don't serve any purpose and all of a sudden against my wheel the Holy Spirit starts helping me number one to see my own issues and they said you know what in this relationship data you don't do that but in these other two relationships you do the same thing so so don't think that because you don't do it here that you're exempt and Tator don't forget you remember what you know about this person remember how they grew up their upbringing the things they struggle with we should just be glad that they are not insane so they may do things that hurt your feelings but that's actually victory compared to the life they lived and I was sitting there really irritated that the Holy Spirit was trying to soften my heart with compassion I wasn't really trying to say upset and so I could not hold on to my anger or my self-righteousness and I was like you know it's gonna be alright whatever and so my friend asked me I don't understand and I said listen I don't understand either but I can tell you this the truth of God does not return void and when you steady when you have a steady diet of it and you feast on it even when you don't want it to do good it does good in you because that's what it means to yield to the spirit and not to the flesh and so my encouragement is not for you to say gosh what things do I have to memorize what do I need to do so I can address this issue start with a daily diet and if you don't have an hour to sit and read scripture have some time and let that time increase let that time grow and you will be amazed what the Holy Spirit does in your heart here's how this passage in illumination gives us the strength to persevere not two times with three times jesus answered the enemy with scripture in verse 10 after in verse 9 the devil says to Jesus all these things I will give to you if you fall down and worship Me and it seems so extreme y'all that the enemy that the devil would Jesus to worship like now say not could have told you that wasn't gonna work you're crazy this is Jesus but here's the thing the longer that you are able to resist the enemy the more his original plan will be revealed because really when he was asking Jesus to turn the stones into bread that was worship he was saying obey me choose my my instruction in my command over what the Lord has told you so even in the subtle things when he's saying fight for your place at the table have your promotion get Joe saying all these things that seem subtle it's worship and if you resist him long enough his plan will be revealed that's why he says just fall down and worship me shows that's what I'm trying to get Jesus I tried to tell you to turn these stones into bread cuz I know you were hungry then I tried to encourage you and tell you the Angels gonna minister to you you came back just worship Me cuz that's the bottom line the enemy won't show allegiance now he may package it and some very attractive ways but the longer you resist him the more his plan will be revealed so he says just fall down and worship me and in verse 10 Jesus says go Satan for it is written you shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only verse 11 then y'all say then then the devil left him then the devil left him and behold according to some 91 as it should have happened it says behold angels came and began to minister to him do y'all understand when James 4 says resist the devil and he will flee the reason many of us are still trying to go toe-to-toe with the enemy is because we ran out of stuff to say after that first verse because we don't have enough truth to go to spar with him a little bit when he brings the next thing I weigh we don't know what to do we're fresh out we don't have anything that's taking root in us that we can come back the enemy with Jesus had to resist the enemy three times scripture says then the devil left what happens if you just on your first time he's still present he's still coming for you what happens if you're on your second time however many times the Lord may ask you to resist the enemy it might not happen on the first go-round it might not happen on the fifth time it might not happen on the sixth time but I know the Bible says if you resist the enemy he he's gonna get tired of your perseverance he's gonna get tired of your persistence he's gonna be frustrated that you know the truth because he's gonna take his little bit of truth and try to try to twist yours and when you know more than him he's gonna be tired of it and when he gets his way he's gonna be done with you it's the same thing he did in the garden y'all Adam and Eve didn't have any truth to cling to they had some but they chose not to use it and the enemy came and twisted the truth in the words of God and he got his way and changed the course of humanity I just wonder if we didn't have our own words and our own inspiration and our own quotes and if we didn't have the things our pastor said or our favorite Bible teacher said or our favorite inspirers said to us if we only had to answer everything in life with the Word of God when would we run out of stuff to say if everything that the enemy brought your way every doubt in your mind every insecurities every fear if God said you can only answer with my word how quickly would it take for us to run out of something to say whatever that answer is believe me there is an enemy that knows first Peter 5 says you need to be sober and alert because your enemy he is seeking to devour you he is roaming around like a roaring lion he is waiting he's waiting at the door he's patient he's waiting on you to run out of whatever spiritual high you're on he's waiting on the feelings for that worship service to end he's waiting on the high from that sermon to go away he's waiting for you to be 41 days and to the thing you said you were giving up because at the right time in the right wilderness the right temptations don't come along and there is not any encouragement or pat on the back there's nothing that's gonna give you the strength to resist that except the truth of God so my prayer for us as a church as a culture of believers is this be the weapon that we arm ourselves with the most then it won't be a catchy phrase and listen some of the things that the Lord gives you is not gonna be cute on a tweet it's not postable it's not gonna feel like a deep revelation it's just gonna be a reminder and he's gonna bring it up at the right time my challenge is that whatever your diet is of this right now that you increase it that's it I'm not gonna even tell you how much it needs to be that's between you and the Lord but increase it this is the thing that's good for you and there are things in your life that you're facing now and there are things that are waiting to face you around a corner or down the road that can only be addressed with the illuminated truth of God and that's our goal for this journey let's pray father we thank you so much for your word we thank you for a Bible that never expires that's always relevant god I thank you that you loved us enough to leave instruction I just pray right now Lord that you would begin to shift our priorities that you would stir up a desperation that we would be like the psalm one encourages us to be then we would meditate day and night on your law and find ourselves like trees firmly planted by the water and our fruit never withers and we bear it in due season and we always prosper got all those things all those other things God would you show us that they are just the fruit of a diet of truth we thank you for the Holy Spirit God that even when we don't want to he shines a light a lamp to our feet he shows us the steps to take he shows us the words to say he shows us the words to keep to ourselves he is a faithful comforter I just pray God that you would make us desperate for the wisdom of your spirit that will not be any influence or any person we follow any person we are more impressed with that we need more than the illumination of your Holy Spirit so we thank you keep us safe as we go let this truth resonate with us God's that we can be different not just informed but different in our decisions that the evidence would show that we don't just know the word that we apply the word that we walk in wisdom and everyone around us is better and different because of it in Jesus name Amen [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Jada Edwards

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Length: 53min 42sec (3222 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 07 2020