Satanic Temptation

Welcome to Cross Church. We're so glad you decided to join us. Come on, let's stand together across this room. We're gonna praise the Lord today. Come on, let's get our hands going in the house, right here. Let's sing this together. ♪ I'll praise in the valley ♪ ♪ And I'll praise on the mountain ♪ Yeah, come on. ♪ I'll praise when I'm sure ♪ ♪ I'll praise when I'm doubting ♪ ♪ I'll praise when I'm numbered ♪ ♪ And I'll praise when surrounded ♪ ♪ Cause praise is the water my enemies drown in ♪ Come on, we declare this this morning. ♪ As long as I'm breathing ♪ ♪ I've got a reason to praise the Lord of my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord of my soul ♪ Come on. ♪ I'll praise when I'm feeling ♪ ♪ And I'll praise when I don't ♪ ♪ I'll praise cause I know your sin and control ♪ ♪ Cause my praise is a weapon it's more than a sound ♪ ♪ My praise is the shout that brings Jericho down ♪ ♪ As long as I'm breathing I've got a reason to praise the Lord of my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord of my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord of my soul ♪ We sing. ♪ I won't be quiet my God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep it inside ♪

♪ Praise the Lord of my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord of my soul ♪ All right, come on everybody hands up, let's go. ♪ I'll praise cause you're sovereign ♪ ♪ Praise cause you reign ♪ ♪ Praise cause you rose and defeated the grave ♪ ♪ I'll praise cause you're faithful ♪ ♪ Praise cause you're true ♪ ♪ Praise cause there's nobody greater than you ♪ ♪ I'll praise I'll praise cause you're sovereign ♪ ♪ I'll praise cause you reign ♪ ♪ Praise cause you rose and defeated the grave ♪ ♪ I'll praise cause you're faithful ♪ ♪ Praise cause you're true ♪ ♪ Praise cause there's nobody greater than you ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord of my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord of my soul ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord of my soul ♪ ♪ I'm singing praise the Lord of my soul ♪ ♪ I won't be quiet my God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep it I won't be quiet ♪ ♪ I won't be quiet my God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep it I won't be quiet ♪ ♪ I won't be quiet my God is alive ♪ ♪ How could I keep it inside ♪ ♪ We say praise the Lord of my soul ♪ Come on everybody hands up. We're gonna praise the Lord this morning. ♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Praise the Lord ♪

♪ Hey ♪ ♪ Hey ♪ Well, happy Memorial Day everybody. We really are excited that you are here on what is a significant weekend in really the life and history of our nation. We today honor all of those who have given the ultimate sacrifice of giving their life for this nation. And so we say thank you to people in our own church family who have lost service members in their own family. And we honor all of you who are currently serving or have served at any point. So thank you, thank you, thank you. Hey, today we begin a brand new series on spiritual warfare. We're calling it This Means War. We're talking about the seven battles of spiritual warfare. spiritual warfare that you've got to fight every single day in your life. And now there are more than seven, but we're just talking about seven over the next several weeks together. And we're really excited about this series. You know, something that we all deal with is spiritual warfare. Sometimes we may think it's people or we may think it's circumstances, when in all reality, we are facing an enemy

who is dead set on our destruction. So today, here's the title of our message. We're gonna talk about satanic temptation. And I hope you've come prepared to take notes, open up the word of God together as we look at the scriptures right now. Lord, it's our desire that you would speak to us about how the devil tempts us and how we can find victory in our lives and really wage war against what the enemy tries to do in our lives. It's in Christ's name that we pray, amen. All right, well, welcome to church, everybody. Glad you're here today. If we haven't had the chance to meet, my name is Mark. I'm one of the teaching pastors here. And if it's your first time, we just say welcome. Come on, let's put our hands together for everybody joining us for the very first time. I wanna look into the camera. I wanna welcome everybody that's joining us online as well. And for those of you that it's your first time here, myself and your campus pastor, Jeremy, we'll be out in the lobby after service. We'd love to shake your hand and hopefully just help you feel a little bit connected here. But like Pastor Nick said, today we're kicking off a new series

called This Means War, where we're gonna be tackling a subject that I think oftentimes in the Christian faith we kinda overlook. And this topic of spiritual warfare, I would say it's more important that we might realize. And as we talk about this topic over the next few weeks, I believe this is important because many people acknowledge Satan exists intellectually, but I believe that we live with a lack of awareness that Satan is waging war in our lives in a daily battle. So I believe it's important that you and I come to an understanding that there is a war between us and Satan, and there is a daily battle at hand. And maybe you've never thought about that. Maybe you've never heard it said that way. But I think it's important we recognize you're in a daily battle against Satan, your enemy, your adversary. And here's the thing about Satan, he is constantly developing a plan to bring about destruction in your life. A few weeks ago, maybe about a month ago now, my wife Michelle and I, we went on a vacation, a cruise, just the two of us. Come on, somebody, praise the Lord. No babies in the mix. It is a great thing, okay?

We went on a cruise together, and we had a great trip together. But when I think about cruises, anybody love cruises? Okay, some of us, there we go. A little tepid applause right there, God bless you. All right. I'm learning that cruises aren't a big thing here in Northwest Arkansas, but I'm a Floridian. That's what we do, all right? We love cruises. I grew up a cruiser, and we went on this cruise about three weeks ago. And in my mind, there's a couple different ways to go about a cruiser, if you know, you know, okay? The first way is this, you wake up, and you don't have a plan. What do I wanna do today? I don't know, I'm on a boat, and it's gonna be amazing. You sleep in, and I don't know, maybe you're like me, you go to the gym every day so you can eat everything that you want without any guilt, okay? Maybe you go to the shows, you go to the spa. That's my type of cruise. But for my wife, I love her a lot. She sees cruises differently. She wants to get off at every port and go to the beaches. She wants to put her feet in the sand and put her headphones in, her sunglasses on, just kind of tune out the noise of life

and just be a little unaware of everything happening on around her, okay? She wants to just recline back in her beach chair and just do her thing. For this chocolatey brother, that ain't it. I don't wanna be in the sun any longer than I have to, okay? So that's Michelle's idea of going on a cruise. Now, I bring that up, though, because as I think about that, that's kind of a picture of how some of us are living as it relates to spiritual warfare. What do I mean when I say that? Some of you today, you are living unaware of the battle that is surrounding you. There you are, reclined, chilling, having a good old time, but meanwhile, you have an adversary, you have an enemy that is waging war against your life. He's coming up with a plan to bring about destruction in your life. Maybe I want you to think about it like this. No one ever goes to the battlefield with flip-flops on when everybody else is carrying weapons. Can I tell you today, Satan has tactics, he has weapons of mass destruction, and he's coming after you and I with an artillery, and he's using it to bring about war against each and every one of us that are committed to following after Jesus. As we talk about spiritual warfare today, I believe that some of us not only need

to increase our awareness and recognize that we are in a spiritual battle, I think that some of us need to have a battle plan to fight back against temptation and satanic temptation that we experience. in our life. The Bible says in John chapter 10, verse 10, the thief comes only to do what? To steal, kill, and destroy. But Jesus has come that we would have life and life more abundantly. You see, as we talk about temptation, one of the ways Satan, your enemy, the tempter, one of the ways that he tries to steal, kill, and destroy your life is not simply tempting you. It's by getting you to give into temptation. Satan doesn't win when temptation just shows up at your front door and knocks. Satan wins when you open the door to temptation and you allow him to enter into your home and you believe the lies of the enemy and you fall into the temptation. So today, as we talk about temptation, I wanna speak from this title, How to Fight Back When Satanic Temptation Attacks. As we talk about temptation, here's what I wanna, let me give you a little bit of a working definition as to what temptation means. Temptation is the pull to disobey God and trust yourself or your desires instead of God.

Let me say that again. Temptation is the pull to disobey God and trust yourself or your desires instead of God. And what we'll see in Matthew chapter four, here is Jesus, the Son of God, finding himself face-to-face at battle with Satan. Let's begin in verse one, it says this. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit. I want you to underline that. Into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he became hungry and the tempter, you wanna underline that as well, he came and he said to him, if you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. But he answered, it is written. Somebody say, it is written. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Now we're gonna work through 11 verses, but just in those first few verses, here's what I know. You could preach a whole sermon series on just that. Because there's some great truths about temptation, but the first thing that we see is that the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness where Jesus would be tempted. Now there's oftentimes a lot of differing thoughts on why the Holy Spirit would allow Jesus to be led into a place where he would be tempted, but perhaps one of the ways that we could see this moment

is a moment where God is furthering the revelation of who Jesus is. What God might be showing you and I is that Jesus, he's completely God, he's completely divine, but he's also completely human just like you and I. But here's the cool thing. Jesus in his divinity and in his humanity, he differs from you and I, hear me, not only because he's divine, but because he never gave into the temptation. Jesus, unlike us, he never gives into temptation, nor did he give into the temptation here in the text. Now as I say that, I want you to know this is more important than we might think, because how many of you know in Matthew chapter four, if Jesus gives into the temptation, the whole narrative of the Bible changes. We no longer have a sinless savior. There is no such thing as a spotless lamb of God. You see, the good news is for you and I, the Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter five, verse 21, he, meaning Jesus, who knew no sin, he became sin for us that we would be made right with God. What does that mean for you and I? Because Jesus never gave into the temptation, because Jesus never gave into the sin, you and I can have new life. We can have life, and life more abundantly. Let me give you some truths about temptation. Number one is this, temptation can be a form of testing.

Temptation can be a form of testing. You see, there will be moments where God allows you and I to be tempted, just as he did with Jesus. And the Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter eight, we get another picture, all the way back in the Old Testament of God allowing temptation to happen. As the Israelites enter into the wilderness, the Bible says that they were tempted and tested so God could see what was in their hearts. Deuteronomy chapter eight, verse two, it says, remember how the Lord your God led you all the way into the wilderness these 40 years to humble you and to do what? To test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. The Bible also says in James chapter one, that we shouldn't see God as one who is tempting us, but rather God is the one that is allowing temptation to happen in our lives to see what is inside of us. Let me be very clear as I say that, because some of you find yourself in the midst of battling temptation, satanic temptation in your life. God is not allowing temptation to enter into your life in hopes that it would lead you away from him. I wanna be very clear when I say that. God, he allows temptation to come about in our lives as a form of testing in hopes that it would actually push you closer to him. That word tempt, when you look at it in the Greek,

it actually has a dual meaning. There's two different meanings that you can associate to it. In a positive sense, that word tempt, it means to test, refine, or prove what is within someone. Now, but if you look at it in the negative sense, or its negative meaning, it means to entice someone towards sin and destruction. In other words, God may use the test to strengthen your faith, but hear me, Satan, he wants to use temptation to destroy your life. Let me say that again. God may use the test to strengthen your faith, but Satan, he wants to use temptation to destroy your life. As I say that, I want you to understand, the moments where we find ourselves being tempted, we have a choice. Am I gonna give in to the temptation? Or am I gonna obey God's word and his truth? You see, when we respond to temptation with obedience, it becomes a moment of spiritual growth. When we obey God's word, when we obey God's direction for our life in the midst of our temptation, I believe it becomes a moment for us to experience spiritual growth, but when we give in to temptation, it becomes a pathway towards destruction. Truth number two is this, the presence of temptation in your life

is not a sign of a lack of holiness. Temptation being present in your life is not a sign of a lack of holiness. This is important because many people, I think they live with this feeling of ongoing condemnation because they go about experiencing temptation in their life. Start looking at yourself differently, start feeling like a shame, and let me just say it again, temptation is not a sin. Giving into temptation is where sin begins. So maybe you're here today and you find yourself experiencing temptation in your life. Can I tell you, you don't need to find yourself in this place of condemnation. You can turn to Jesus and recognize that there is hope. The Bible says that he will be faithful to give you a way out. As I think about this idea of temptation being a sign that there's a lack of holiness or that doesn't mean that you aren't walking in good standing with God, I just want you to think for a moment, who is being tempted in this text? Jesus. The son of God, the sinless lamb of God, the one who is without sin. So you know what that means for you and I, you might be the most faithful, spirit-filled believer, you're still gonna experience temptation

because temptation is a part of this sinful, broken world that we all live in. Truth number three is this, we must be aware of when we are most susceptible to giving into temptation. As you look at Matthew chapter four, what's interesting about this is, as you study the text, this is moments after Jesus experiences one of the greatest blessings in his life. In Matthew chapter three, specifically verse 17, what do we see? Jesus is getting ready to be baptized and as he's getting ready to be baptized, what happens? The Bible says the sky opens up over him. The Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus and the voice of God, probably sounded like Morgan Freeman, okay? The voice of God appears from heaven and says, this is my son whom I love and am well-pleased. For Jesus, this is probably such a great blessing to experience this moment. But now when you look at Matthew chapter four, right after that moment, what do we see? Jesus standing face to face with Satan. Here he is face to face with this battle with the tempter and I'm sure some of you in this room, you've found yourself maybe in a similar moment like this. You found yourself in a point in time where you experienced great blessing,

maybe it was in your marriage, maybe a relationship, maybe in your career, your finances, I don't know what that area is, but you turn the corner and boom, you find yourself in a spiritual battle where Satan himself is testing you and showing up at the front door of your life. And you maybe wonder, well, why is this coming about? Can I just remind you? Satan, he wants to steal, kill and destroy each and every blessing in your life. And he doesn't just come after you in a moment of weakness or a low moment of life. Oftentimes Satan will come after us when we kind of find ourself at a high point moment in life. Why, because in the high point moments of life, oftentimes what do we do? We start dropping our guard and Satan recognizes here's my opportunity. They're unaware, they're not really paying attention to. satanic temptation in my activity around me. As we look at the text, Jesus in this moment, he goes from the affirmation from the father to confrontation with Satan in a moment. He goes from experiencing the affirmation of his heavenly father to now experiencing confrontation with Satan. Now, as we look at the text, here's what we're gonna see in further study Matthew four today.

What we're gonna see is how Satan, the tempter, goes after Jesus with these tactics. And I think that when we look at this story or this narrative here, what we'll see is not only how Satan tempts Jesus, we'll recognize in many ways, this is how Satan, the tempter, he comes after us with tactics in our own life. Verse three is where we pick up and it says, the tempter, who's Satan, he came and said to him, meaning Jesus, if you are the son of God, I want you to maybe underline that. If you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. But he answered, it is written. Somebody say, it is written. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Let me tell you this. This is the tempter's tactic. This is the first one for you today. The tempter's tactic is to tempt you to question your identity. One of the tempter's tactics in your life to steal, kill, and destroy your life is to get you to question your identity. What do I mean when I say that? In this moment, what does Satan do? He looks at Jesus.

He says, if you are the son of God. And I can imagine as he's saying that, he's kind of saying that as a snarling remark, trying to kind of throw Jesus off from what he just encountered in Matthew chapter three. In Matthew three, the spirit of God descends upon Jesus. The voice of God affirms Jesus is his son. And now here he is, finding himself, being attacked by Satan in the area of his identity. Can I tell you this is something that we all experience even in this day to day? As Satan, one of his tactics is to get you to question your identity. He wants you to question who you are, whose you are. He wants you to question your worth, your purpose, your salvation. For some of you today, he even wants you to question your identity, God's design for your life. I think there's no denying that we live in a generation that's filled with an identity crisis. And hear me, it's not just young people. I think there's countless amounts of adults in this room right now, and you are questioning, am I enough? Does God really love me? Does God have a purpose for my life? Could God really use someone like me with a messed up past? I want you to hear me clearly. When the enemy attacks your identity, the answer is not to trust the voice in your head.

It's to trust the truth of God's word. When the enemy starts playing with your mind, the answer is not for you to trust the voice in your head. It's to trust the truth of God's word. What do we see in verse four? Jesus responds as the enemy's going after him. He says, it is written. It is written. I think this is powerful. Some of you need to adopt this as a part of your vocabulary and vernacular because as the enemy attacks you and goes after you, it is so important that you have the truth of God's word stored up in your heart, so when he comes after your identity, you can declare the truth of God's word over your life. It is written. I think that's probably one of the most powerful statements really in the New Testament, as we look at it, that Jesus in this moment, he's reciting the truth of who God says he is. He says, I know who my father is. I know what God has to say about me. Some of us need to get that into our vocabulary. Picking back up in verse three, he says, if you are the son of God, command these stones to become what? Loaves of bread. I want you to maybe underline that in your Bible, but Jesus answered him.

It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Here's the second temptation in the text. The tempter's tactic is to get you to trust your appetite over God's word. He looks at Jesus in this moment, he goes, turn them stones right there into some bread. Now let me just say, if Satan showed up and he said, hey Mark, you need to turn them stones into some Chick-fil-A, I might pray, okay? I might have me in a moment of weakness. Notice, the interesting thing about this is, Satan is trying to make an appeal to Jesus's fleshly desire. The Bible just told us that Jesus had just gotten done fasting for 40 days. Here he is now being tempted in a way to give into his fleshly desires. Jesus was fasting. He had withheld from eating any food for 40 days in hopes of getting closer to God, but now in this moment, Satan, his tactic is to come about in a way to pull him away from God. So he makes an appeal to his flesh. Why does Satan make an appeal to the flesh? Because just like Jesus, your flesh has a desire. Our flesh has a will. Each and every one of us need to recognize that our flesh, it has an appetite,

and Satan knows that if he can appeal to your appetite, he'll lead you astray. James chapter one, verse 14, it says this. Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death. He makes an appeal to our fleshly desires. He makes an appeal to our appetite. Maybe you've seen this video that was largely famous several years ago of an experiment with small children where they would place a child at a dinner table and place like this big tray of cookies in front of them. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Some of y'all need to try this with your children. You're gonna be like, they are a sinner in need of saving, okay? The experiment is an adult that sets this plate of cookies in front of a child, and they'll walk out of the room and tell little Johnny, hey, don't eat the cookies until we tell you to, okay? And what happens? They close that door, and little Johnny, he be going to town on them cookies, okay? Just going in. Because there's a fleshly desire. There's an appeal to the appetite. That's how the flesh works in our life.

And one of Satan's tactics is to lead you away from God's best. He does this by trying to get you to trust your appetite over the instruction of your heavenly Father. See, Satan will always try to entice you with something that feels appealing, whether that leads to pleasure, or idea that you might find relief, or comfort, recognition, or maybe something leads to a way of escape. And I think as we talk about satanic temptation, I think it's really easy for us to blame everything on Satan. Let me just remind you, your flesh has a will. Some of our weakness in our life, it's not just satanic temptation, it's our battle against our flesh. Picking back up in verse five, it says this, then the devil took him, meaning Jesus, to the holy city, and he set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you, on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. Jesus said to him, again, it is written, you shall not put your Lord God to the test. Here's the third temptation that we see. One of the tempter's tactics is to get you to twist God's word to fit your desires. He wants you to twist God's word,

or he will twist God's word and pervert God's word to align with our desires. At this moment, Satan, he takes Jesus to the highest place in Jerusalem. He has him overseeing and overlooking the entire city of Jerusalem, and what does he do? He recites the Bible. He recites Psalm 91. It's important that you understand, Satan, one of his tactics is to twist God's word. How? Because he knows God's word, and he understands how powerful the word of God is within the life of the believer, and in Psalm 91, what does he do? He twists it. He manipulates the scriptures. This is a verse that actually is a reference to how God has angels surrounding his children. Those angels serve him, and in this moment, Satan, he's making an appeal to Jesus. He's saying, hey, just go ahead and gamble your life. Throw yourself down off of this building, and surely God will save you. He's twisting God's word. He's trying to deceive Jesus in this moment. Isn't this what he did with Adam and Eve? He gets them a question, did God really say? Did God really say that? Can I tell you he'll do the same thing in your life?

He'll lead you to think, man, is it really that big of a deal to look at that? Is it really that big of a deal to do that with my boyfriend or my girlfriend? He'll lead you to think, man, God's word only speaks specifically about sex, not the other stuff. I mean, God's word says that I shouldn't steal, but it can't be that big of a deal to cut corners with my taxes. He'll show up in subtle ways such as that, and he'll also lead you to believe, is it really that big of a deal? Like, after all, God is a God of grace. He's gonna forgive me my sin. He tempts us to twist scripture, knowing that it will lead you to sin and destruction. Let's close out in verse 11 through, or eight through 11. It says, again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and all of their glory. And he said to them, all these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. I want you to underline that. He says, I'll give it to you if you worship me. Let me just give you a side note. Satan wins when he gets you to worship anything other than God. He says, I want you to worship me. Some of you today, he's saying, I want you to worship your job.

I want you to worship your paycheck. I want you to worship your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your relationship. He wins when he gets us to that place. But then in verse 10, it says, then Jesus said to him, be gone, Satan, for it is written. There's those four letter words again. 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. Here's the fourth tactic. The tempter's tactic is to get you to trade eternal glory for temporary pleasure. Satan, in this moment, he takes Jesus to the highest mountain. And he says, all of this can be yours if you worship me. I hope you see the irony in this moment. Satan, in this moment, he's offering something to Jesus that is already his. I once heard it said this way, Satan wants you to settle for sandcastles while God is offering you an eternal kingdom. Don't miss that. Satan, he wants you to settle for something that is temporary, something that quite frankly is meaningless in light of all of eternity. So he can cause you to miss out on what God has for you. One of his tactics in your life. It's one of the ways that he goes about stealing

and killing and destroying our lives. And he'll do this in subtle, subtle ways. And he'll speak lies into our ears. Satan will say things like this. Compromise your purity or your faithfulness to your spouse. And on the other side of that compromise is destruction. But here's what God says. God says, honor me and you will experience a life of legacy. Satan will say things like cut corners financially, but God says, trust me and watch me show up as Jehovah Jireh, your provider. Satan says, take the shortcuts of life, but God says, there is blessing in obedience. You see, giving into temptation always promises momentary satisfaction, but in the end, it always results in long-term destruction. Bring about this momentary satisfaction. Meanwhile, simultaneously, it's leading you down the path of destruction. You know, as we read Matthew chapter four, one of the things that I love about this text specifically is it's not just the fact that we see how Satan tempts Jesus. It's not just the fact that we see the tactics of the tempter, but I love Matthew chapter four because we see Jesus, he has a battle plan to overcome the tactics of the tempter. As we talk about this battle that we find ourselves in, I wanna be practical as to how we can overcome

and end up victorious over the satanic temptations of life. Number one is this. If we wanna overcome the enemy's satanic temptations, we have to fight temptation with God's word. How many of you know God's word is the greatest weapon of defense in the life of a believer? It's the whole reason why in this moment, Jesus, as he's standing face-to-face with Satan, he responds with the truth of God's word as Satan tempts him. He recites Deuteronomy chapter six and Deuteronomy chapter 10, and he recites the scripture saying, it is written each and every time. I think some of us today, we need to get those words into our mouth, understanding the power of that statement. It is written. The word of God is spoken, victory over that struggle. It is written. I'm no longer bound to my sin and my shame. It is written. Satan no longer has to have a hold over your life. Some of us today need to understand the power is in the word of God, not in your own ability and your own struggles. The Bible says in Psalm 119, I'll never forget, as a young boy memorizing this verse, I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Some of you today, you need to memorize scripture. You need to stay in the scriptures.

You need to read the scriptures, pray through the scriptures, listen to worship that declares scripture over your life that you might not sin against God. The word of God, it's the sword of the spirit. It's the most powerful thing that we have in our life. If we wanna fight temptation, not only do we need to fight with God's word, we need to fight with boundaries. We need to fight with boundaries. I believe that boundaries are essential for every single believer. Oftentimes, you'll hear a talk on boundaries in church, and it kinda becomes this whitewashed thing or a little played out, but can I tell you, boundaries aren't a form of. of restriction, it's a form of protection. God has given you and I the great gift of boundaries in his word as a form of protection in our life. And I want you to know, you can never have too many boundaries in your life. You can never have too many boundaries in your life. Some of you, you need even more boundaries in your life. You go, Mark, I've got boundaries. Here's the word for you, you need more boundaries. Anybody in the room ever stubbed their toe on something? Like a piece of furniture in your house? And you do it, not just once, but twice, and after a while, some unholy words start leaving your mouth?

Oh, y'all wanna lie in church, okay. My little daughter, Reese, she's gonna be two soon, and when she started learning how to walk, we had this coffee table in our living room, and that became her greatest enemy in our house. That girl, every time, she'd try to pull herself up, and just, I swear she had a concussion at like nine months old, all right? But what did we have to do as parents? We had to create some boundaries, some guardrails as a form of protection for our daughter. Can I tell you, some of you today, you need some boundaries as a form of protection to keep you from continuously running your head into that thing or stubbing your toe against the thing that's tripping you up and leading you to pain in your life. When I talk about boundaries, I'm not just saying you need just one simple boundary. Some of you need boundaries and more boundaries. What do I mean when I say that? Let me say this, some of you today, you find yourself in a place where there's somebody at work that keeps tripping you up, or you're experiencing temptation with that guy or that girl at work, so you go, man, I've got a boundary. I'm gonna keep from that person in the office. That's great, that's one boundary. But maybe you need to create another boundary that sounds like this.

I'm gonna stop hanging out at the coffee machine that's close to their desk. That's a boundary and another boundary. Some of you have a boundary where you keep on scrolling through things late at night and it's tripping you up, it's leading to lust in your life, it's leading you to compromise in many areas of your life today. Can I tell you, it's one thing to say, I'm just not gonna look at the phone. That's one boundary and that's great. But it's another thing to have another boundary before that boundary where you go, you know what? I'm not gonna sleep with the phone next to me at night. Better yet, I'm not gonna just sleep with the phone away from me. I'm actually gonna put God's word, the Bible on my nightstand. So when I wake up in the middle of the night or I'm struggling late at night and satanic temptation overcomes me to lead me to fall into sexual sin or whatever may have you, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna turn to God's word. And I'm gonna start declaring the scriptures of God over my life. Some of us today, we need boundaries and more boundaries. And I'm not just saying that as a preacher, like, oh, you need boundaries. Can I tell you, I got boundaries in my life.

And I don't just have boundaries in my life, I have people in my life that will hold me accountable to my boundaries. One of the pastors on our staff, Nick Bethea, he and I on a weekly basis, we talk through our boundaries, we talk through our struggles, why? Because I am not strong enough to walk this Christian faith out alone. I think the temptation of the enemy is to lead you to believe that you can just walk this Christian faith out alone, that you don't need people, you're strong enough. Can I tell you, that is the furthest from the truth. That's why we're always talking from this stage about groups and getting involved, going to growth track, why? You cannot be the Christian that God has called you to be living this life alone. You need the body of Christ, you need other like-minded believers to hold you accountable and walk this out. The third thing I want you to know, if we wanna fight temptation and end up victorious, we need to fight temptation with an eternal perspective. Hebrews chapter 12, it says, let us throw off the sin that entangles us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. In other words, one of the ways we fight temptation is by fixing our eyes on Jesus

and what he has promised will come about in heaven. Because as children of God, you and I have an inheritance waiting for us in heaven. Did you know that? The Bible tells us that if we are in faith, in right standing with God, if we've surrendered our life to him, there will be a day where every tear will be wiped away, sin will be defeated, suffering will be defeated, Satan will be defeated, the satanic temptation will be defeated, and every single believer will stand in the presence of God forever, joining with all of the angels, glorifying God and worshiping God in all of his glory. And when I think about that, here's what I come to. Man, sin seems pretty foolish in light of that truth. Temptation starts to look smaller in light of that truth. You should begin to think, I'm not gonna sacrifice, I'm not gonna trade what is eternal. for what is temporary. I'm not gonna sacrifice tomorrow's reward for today's satisfaction. That's what that truth should bring about in your life. So as we get ready to respond here in a few moments, I believe that God is calling many of us in this room, each and every one of us, in fact, to respond. For the unbeliever in the room, what I'd say to you today is, you haven't been living with the hope of heaven.

And I believe today's a day that you can live with the hope of heaven, not because of anything you do or what you have done, but rather because of what Jesus has done for you. See, the Bible is very clear that each and every one of us, we have sin in our lives. And sin doesn't make us bad, sin makes us dead. But can I remind you of what Hebrews 4.15 says, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tempted just as we are. Here's the beautiful part of that verse, yet he is the only one without sin. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, he became the sinless sacrifice on the cross. He didn't look at you and I as sinners just going, man, you need to distance yourself from my Father, the one that's holy and set apart. No, he took the world's sin upon himself, not just dying on a cross, but dying on our cross, that we would have life. And the Bible says if you put your faith and your trust in Jesus, you go from death to life, that you receive not only the abundant life that God has to offer you here on earth, but you receive eternal life for all of eternity with God. In a few moments, I'm gonna pray and I'm gonna invite the men and women of our staff up to the stage.

And maybe you're here and you're going, that's me, I need a relationship with Jesus, I wanna live with the hope of heaven. Maybe you came to church today just kind of as a last straw or final swing of the bat, and you're hopeless, finding yourself in a dark place. Can I just tell you, come. Come experience the life that which God has for you, and the hope of heaven. But for the believer in the room, I think that many of us, if we're to be honest today, we find ourselves in a spiritual battle. Some of you find yourself in a season of darkness, maybe what I call a spiritual rut. Maybe you're dealing with real temptation, satanic temptation that keeps tripping you up and leading you to a place of condemnation. I wanna invite you to come to this altar and have one of the men or women of our staff just pray for you, pray with you. It's power in confessing our struggles and making it known. This is what the Bible says in Hebrews chapter four, verse 16, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in a time of need. Some of you find yourself in the midst of a great battle in your life. Here's what the enemy isn't showing you, that on the other side of the temptation

that you keep giving into, it's gonna cost you everything. It's gonna cost you your marriage. It's gonna cost you your relationship with your children. It might cost you your career. It might cost you your legacy. It might cost it all. But I believe today's a day where you can do what Hebrews four, 16 says, come to the throne of grace to find mercy and grace in a time of need. I wonder, are you in a time of need today? God wants to meet you. And today he says, come, come to me. Every head bowed and every eye closed all across this room, I'm gonna pray here in a moment. And if that's you and you're saying, I need a relationship with Jesus. I wanna experience the hope of heaven. I want eternal life with Christ. I want you to come. Just tell one of the men or women of our staff, to lead you in what we call a sinner's prayer, to begin a relationship with Christ. Maybe today you need to come to this altar and admit that you're struggling with satanic temptation, darkness in your life, opposition in your life. I want you to come. And I want you to experience the mercy and grace to help you in a time of need. Father, right now, we just come before you.

And we thank you for the truth that Lord, you aren't a God that distanced yourself, even in the midst of our sin and our struggle. No, you made a way back through the blood of Jesus. Father, we thank you that even while we were yet dead in our sins, your son, Jesus would humble himself to the point of death, dying, not just on a cross, but our cross that we might find life. I pray right now, Lord, in the mighty name of Jesus, that whoever needs to would respond to that truth, putting their faith and their trust in you, acknowledging I'm a sinner in need of saving. I pray in the mighty name of Jesus, Lord, for the believer in the room that finds himself trapped in spiritual darkness, experiencing satanic temptation and opposition, hemming them in on every side. I pray, God. that they would respond in faith coming to this altar, saying, Lord, I need to experience your mercy and your grace to help me in a time of need. Lord, as they come and respond in faith, I pray that you would be faithful to meet them right where they are stuck, right where they are broken, right where they're experiencing pain in their life. Father, we pray that you would have your way and that you would do what only you can. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.