Watching Jesus and His Wilderness Experience | Dr. John Maxwell

thanks for tuning in to christ fellowship church on youtube we're so blessed that you've chosen to take some time out of your day to spend it with us we hope you enjoyed this week's message exciting different time isn't it i i've started i've started labeling 2020 as as the wilderness year and when i think of wilderness i think of uncharted territory i think of the possibility of getting lost i think of a lot of uncertainty i think of the fact that we've never probably been this way before uh some wondering and i i just think that that's kind of where we are and it's kind of what we're going through right now but today i want to uh talk to you about our our model our example of how to handle a wilderness experience and that's jesus uh we are we are encouraged in hebrews as you know hebrews chapter 11 is the faith chapter half chapter 12 the hebrew writer begins to talk to us about the race that we run and in doing and running that race he talks about the fact that the people that have gone on before us are in the stands cheering us on as we run the race but he also talks about the fact that while we're running that race we we watch jesus so i want to just start with that passage only because it just sets i think in our mind today that our model that we follow is jesus and that if we just follow him if we just do it like he did it then we're going to have a wilderness experience that's going to have a tremendous positive outcome in our life so i'm just picking up in hebrews chapter 12. and the hebrew writer as he's talking about these pioneers who have blazed away all these veterans that again are in the stands cheering us on he he asked us the quote he said do you know what this means well it means we'd better get on with it in running this race strip down start running never quit no extra spiritual fat no parasite sins and then comes the phrase keep your eyes on jesus keep your eyes on jesus who begin and finish the race that you and i are in in other words he's already successfully not only run the race but he's already successfully gone through the wilderness experience and then the hebrew writer says these words study how he did it in other words how did jesus run the race how did jesus handle the wilderness experience because he never lost sight of where he was headed that exhilarating finish in and with god and he could put up with anything along the way cross shame whatever in our translation covet 19 and he said when when you find yourselves flagging in your faith when you get a little tired of this experience and and and what we're going through right now he said when you find yourself flagging in this faith he said go over that story again and again item by item that long up litany of hostility that jesus plowed through and what the hebrew writer says is if we study jesus if we watch how he did it it will shoot literally adrenaline into your souls and that's what i hope to do in this teaching today i hope to that that we as we begin to really understand how jesus handled the wilderness experience that it will give us a sense of adrenaline and just maybe a little bit more boost and strength as we're going through what we're going through so now let's go to jesus that's going to be in luke chapter 4 and his wilderness experience and there are three things that i want to give you very simple things that jesus experienced going into the wilderness that that we do when we go into our wilderness when when we go into 2020 when we go into coven 19. and here are the three things number one you will be tested i will be tested the wilderness experience means that it's testing time number two the testing is good for you it's good for me it's good for us in fact as i pick up in luke chapter four beginning with verse one now jesus full of the holy spirit left the jordan now let me stop here for a moment he had just been baptized in the jordan in fact he had just finished a spiritual high i'll come back to that and now he's left the jordan and he was led by the spirit into the wild in other words god is bringing him into a wilderness experience and for 40 wilderness days and nights he was tested by the devil recently this thought came to my mind and i want to give it to you and i just want you to feast on it during this teaching today and it's a very simple thought here it is a faith that cannot be tested or a faith that is not tested cannot be trusted in other words for our faith to be vital for our faith to to work in our lives it has to be tested it just can't be cerebral it can't be just the statement well i believe god can help me or i believe god can take me no no we have to have a tested faith to be able to trust it and what's interesting is god's own son jesus is taken now into the wilderness he's going to be tested and tempted by satan and he's going to have his faith tested the best way i can express that thought that i just gave you was at 51 i had a heart attack and and for just a couple of hours in the hospital they couldn't stop the the heart attack and and it became quite serious and there was a pretty good possibility that i might die in fact i remember talking there were four doctors in my room and i remember talking to the kind of the lead doctor and i asked him i said am i going to die and he said well he said if we can't stop the heart attack yes and um and i can remember thinking while i was in that situation of christians who talked about dying grace the grace to or peace to die the the the fact that when you cross over from one world to another world that your faith um your faith will really give you peace and i i can remember thinking i wonder if i have that i mean i mean do i have dying grace well that day i discovered something i i had dying grace i had peace i had peace during that whole situation although i was uncomfortable physically spiritually i was at as much peace as i am right now talking to you now why do i teach you this is because again a faith that hasn't been tested can't be trusted and i can tell you now when i look at death in fact my father passed away a couple of months ago when i look at death of someone else's or my own death i can honestly tell you there is no fear at all in it i have already been i've already had that part of my faith tested and when jesus went into the wilderness isn't it interesting if god's son's faith needed to be tested your faith and my faith need to be tested and when jesus went into the wilderness he was tested in three areas first of all he was tested in his humanity we find that in verses two through four for while jesus was in the wilderness he ate nothing during those days 40 days and when the time was up he was hungry of course he was hungry humanly was starved and the devil playing on his hunger gave him the first test and the first test was basically he said since your god's son command the stone to turn into a loaf of bread and then jesus said you know it it takes more than bread to really live and what i want you to see here is jesus was tempted in his humanity and when i think of our humanity i think of of of who we are but i think of of my weaknesses i have weaknesses you have weaknesses i have areas in my life that i'm not strong there's there's a humanness a a whole area of my life where where i i could be attacked i can i i could be i need to be tested and and so jesus he was tested in his humanity think of that the son of god tested in his humanity if the son of god is going to be tested there you and i will be that's for sure and basically jesus his answer was to satan i i i live bigger than my hurt sorry i live bigger than my weaknesses okay he was tested secondly in his loyalty that's in verses five through eight for the second test satan led him up and then he spread out all the kingdoms of the earth on display at once and then the devil said they're yours in all of their splendor to serve your pleasure i'm in charge of them all and can turn them over to whomever i wish worship me and they're yours the whole works now jesus refused again back in his refusal with the passage out of deuteronomy worship the lord your god and only the lord your god serve him with absolute single heartedness being tested in in in loyalty it reminds me of the verse in in psalm 27 1 the lord is my light you know it well and my salvation whom shall i fear the lord is the strength of my life who shall i be afraid and i just want to say this that during this testing time you don't run from your problem you run to the source and i think too many times we're we're focused on how do i get rid of the problem instead of how do i get to the source and our source of course is is is god and you can see beautiful example in this wilderness tempting of jesus how he constantly ran to the source he ran to the source and thirdly jesus was attempted in his identity that's in verses 9 through 12. the third test the devil took him to jerusalem and put him on top of the temple and he said now notice this is an interesting phrase if you are god's son you know in the first temptation he said since you're god's son but the more that the testing goes the more that the questions rise boy i wish i had five minutes to talk about that but if you are god's son jump because it's written isn't it that he has placed you in the care of angels to protect you and they will catch you you won't so much as stub your toe on a stone yes said jesus and it's also written don't you dare tempt the lord your god but his identity was being tested if you are god's son well if you are a christian would these things be happening to you if now see jesus knew who he was but he also knew whose he was let's go back to that spiritual high i talked about a moment ago that spiritual high was at the jordan when he was baptized and the reason it was a spiritual high is because jesus heard the voice of his father audibly in fact so did the other people there are only two times that god audibly spoke to other people about jesus at baptism and at the moment of transfiguration and what god said audibly about jesus you talk about identity here's what here's what god the father said about his son this is my son chosen and marked by my love and he's the delight of my life basically god the father said three things about jesus you talk about giving your child identity in fact the things that that jesus heard from his father every child ought to hear from their parents this is my son what what jesus is saying when he hears the father say that is i belong chosen and marked by beloved i not only belong i'm loved and the delight of my life oh my gosh i not only belong and am loved i'm special i find it very interesting that jesus would go through the spiritual high of identity by hearing the voice of his father and then go to the wilderness and have his identity questioned and attacked by the evil one okay we must go on going into the wilderness you will be tempted the testing will be good for you remember a faith that's not tested can't be trusted and thirdly the testings will not stop because in luke chapter 4 verse 13 that completed the testing and the devil retracted oh that's kind of good news isn't it that completed the testing the devil retracted sky like touchdown oh happy day and then the next word kind of grabs me it'll grab you also temporarily lying and wait for another opportunity in other words the testing of jesus is not over it's over but it's not over it will come back and when people talk to me about cover 19 when's this going to be over i can hardly wait oh my gosh i can hardly wait to get this year behind me it's that wilderness year and i would wow when are we done well i just want you to know that when you're done and when it's over it's not over there'll be more testing that's why i share with people all the time that everything worthwhile is uphill and the spiritual journey is all uphill it wasn't meant to be flat it certainly is never downhill will always be tested so if it's not covered 19 it'll be something else that's that's life in fact a book that profoundly affected me 25 years ago was scott peck's book the road less traveled and when you open that book and you go to the very first paragraph and i'm reading it now do not miss what i share with you scott peck said life is difficult this is a great truth one of the greatest truths it is a great truth because once we truly see this truth and transcend it once we truly know that life is difficult once we truly understand and accept it then life is no longer difficult because once it is accepted the fact that life is difficult no longer matters it's just a fact life is difficult and i'm here to say to you in the wilderness experience this is the place in this difficult time of life this is the place that makes us the people that we need to become you cannot i cannot become the person we need to be without the wilderness experience and the right response that we have in the wilderness experience brings us out on the other side better so we've talked about going into the wilderness experience you will be tested that testing is good for you that testing will not stop let's come out of the wilderness experience and let's look at jesus again you will know three things when you come out of the wilderness experience number one you will know and experience a new level of living i pick up in verse 14 luke chapter 4 jesus returned to galilee and look at this next word powerful in the spirit news that he was back spread through the countryside he taught in their meeting places to everyone's acclaim and pleasure you see jesus faith and faithfulness had been tested and he passed the test now he's coming out of this experience faith doesn't make life easier it just makes you stronger so when we have faith it doesn't mean that everything goes our way in fact let me tell you something it rains on the just and the unjust we've we've got to get rid of this idea that as christians somehow we deserve a better tract to run on it's not true in fact i think we run on a more difficult track because we're pilgrims in this world that's a whole different teaching but the point is very simple faith doesn't make our life easier faith just makes us stronger covet 19 makes us stronger if we respond correctly i have done dozens and dozens of teachings over the last few months to three and a half million people and one of the teachings that seems to resonate when i speak in the corporate world the secular world the education world the the faith world doesn't matter is i i keep making this statement and it's just so true that everything that you want and everything you need but you don't have it you want it you need it you don't have it everything you want and need but don't have is outside of your comfort zone the reason that we don't have it is because we've got to get out of our comfort zone to get it and we've when we're comfortable are unwilling to pay that kind of a price but what did kova 19 do it it moved every one of us out of our comfort zone there is not a person in america that hasn't been moved out of the comfort zone you didn't want to be moved you were voting against the move didn't matter doesn't care they don't care you're out of your comfort zone now what i the point that i'm giving you is that you can experience a new level of living when you go into your wilderness experience you're out of your comfort zone but what it does is it allows you to have the things that you never would have had if you wanted to stay in that little secure little area of your own life this is beautiful and that's what happened to jesus he jesus came out of the wilderness and he was powerful secondly he became you become confident in your purpose jesus became confident in his purpose we become confident in our purpose he went into the synagogue which was his practice picked up the scroll read all of isaiah i'm picking up in the middle of the scripture now here's what jesus said god's spirit is on me he's chosen me to preach the message of the good news to the poor he sent me to announce pardon to prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind to set the burden and battered free he's chosen me to announce that this is god's year to act jesus came out of the wilderness experienced went into the synagogue and immediately declared what his purpose was i can tell you nothing defines our purpose like a wilderness experience that refines us you've got to almost be refined to be defined that's exactly what happened to jesus and then oh the third thing we not only experience a new level of living and we not only become more confident in our purpose the reason that we are here but thirdly we possess a moral authority as jesus rolled up the scroll in verse 21 and he handed it back to the assistant and sat down every eye in the place was on him intent and then he started in you just heard scripture make history it came true just now in this place and all who were there everybody watching and listening were surprised at how well he spoke but they also said isn't this isn't this joseph's son the one we've known since he was a youngster how can this carpenter's kid get up and speak with such clarity and purpose and authority i can tell you he just came out of the wilderness he knows who he is his faith has been tested it has been trusted he's got his purpose he's he's been refined and now he can define what he's going to accomplish moral authority that's influence that's based upon who you are and what you have overcome it's bigger than title it's bigger than position i often teach that respect is always earned on difficult ground it's not it's not earned during the easy time respect is earned during covert 19. moral authority is earned during coven 19. i have a practice that i would encourage you to have it's just it's just it's just served me so well that i want to pass it on to you for 40 years i've intentionally every month had a what i call a learning lunch with somebody bigger faster better smarter more successful than me and i take them to lunch i buy their lunch i don't even eat because i've got questions i've got seven questions to ask them and i want to learn from them and so it's kind of like if i buy your lunch can i ask you some questions and because you have something to teach me and i so i go through these seven questions but but the ques i want to talk about one of them briefly one of the questions i ask them is what is the greatest lesson that you have ever learned in life i've asked that question hundreds of times different people different occasions different backgrounds but one thing they all have in a similarity when they talk about the greatest lesson they ever learned every time they talk about adversity they talk about difficulty they talk about darkness they talk about adversity they talk about failure they talk about disappointments it's you see wisdom is extracted from learning something beneficial from that experience and they'll just say well yeah let me tell you this and they'll they'll go they'll tell every time i've never had a person say the greatest learning lesson i ever had in my life was when i was highly successful and everything was going my way and i was just absolutely amazed i've never had it happen now i i know it could happen i'm sure somebody would have that happen to them but 99.9 of us don't know our greatest learning experiences come out of our most dark difficult times wow in fact i was talking to one executive one day and i asked him i said he was talking about he's built a incredible company and in our conversation uh obviously in it with success always comes failure they should never be separated i have no idea why people separate success and failure they're they're they're they they belong together it's never either or anybody that thinks success and failure is either or does not understand success at all and so he was talking about some of his mistakes and failures and disappointments and wrong decisions and and i asked him i said would you like to go back and do some of them over i'll never forget he said no he said i think i'll leave him just as they are i thought that was an interesting answer but then he said because i learned so much during those difficult times the lessons in life my character development all the stuff i am on the inside is because of the dark days i wouldn't trade them for anything because they're making me the person i should be that's what i want for you coven 19 has great possibilities for you it's a wilderness experience but responding correctly will bring you out on the other side on a higher level than you have ever been in your entire life trust me on this it will bring you out with a greater sense of purpose and urgency and it will give you a moral authority that will really help you to be strong in the days ahead and that's the message it's all from jesus we just follow the leader let's pray lord jesus thank you for my christ fellowship friends online on campuses around the world the outreach of this congregation is so wonderful it's so amazing may jesus you inspire all of us today we are exhorted to study how you went through that wilderness experience so we learn from you we receive strength from you inspiration from you and may every person regardless of where they are in their journey of faith now understand that what is happening to them has great possibilities to birth something great within them so protect us from the evil one and give us strength to pass the test in your name jesus amen thanks so much for watching christ fellowship church on youtube we hope you've enjoyed this week's message for more content just like this be sure to subscribe to our youtube channel we hope you have a great rest of your week god bless

Channel: Christ Fellowship Church

Views: 23,122

Rating: 4.9265308 out of 5

Keywords: Christ Fellowship, Christ Fellowship Church, Church Message, Church Sermon, Todd Mullins, Julie Mullins*, * Tom Mullins, God, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Worship, Bible, Biblical Teaching, Encouragement, Freedom, Hope, Peace, Faith, Holy Spirit, Love, Prayer, Hillsong Church, Elevation Church, Gateway Church, Church of the Highlands, Lakewood Church, Fellowship Church, North Point Community Church, Saddleback Church, Life Church, Vous Church, NewSound Church, John Maxwell, Dr. John Maxwell

Id: 1W53O5IHu7I

Length: 26min 58sec (1618 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 04 2020