The Antidote to Temptation

We are going to begin part two of Peak Experiences now. What I want you to understand is, for the next few weeks, actually the next few months, we are going to encounter Jesus, his goodness, his glory, his courage, his focus, his mercy, his wisdom. We're going to hear the voice of Jesus again and again and again, because I don't know about you, but I need to hear the voice of Jesus in this day. I need to follow Jesus. I want to take one step and then the step after that, because I believe he is leading us on this epic journey together. So it begins now, and the thread that will connect all of these stories, just as it did in the first section back in the fall, will be these mountains that we will come across in the New Testament. So there are so many of these things that we kind of just take a look at some of them, and some of them will be familiar. If you'll recall, what we said was in the ancient mindset, a mountain wasn't just a symbolic place where heaven and earth met. It was a place of decision. It was a place sometimes of conflict, of surrender, of hearing from God, but it was also a place of flat-out victory. I want you to understand that's where we're going today. So let's rewind all the way back to that mountain that kind of has a funny name to it. We flew right over it, but Quarantinia in the Latin, that's a Latin term, and it means 40. So this is Mount 40. Weird name, right? It refers to the 40 days that Jesus fasted, right before he, well now we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's pray. Father, we come before you now, and we need you. We need your wisdom.

Lord, we need your peace, your joy. Lord, we're asking for you to lead us now deeper and deeper into this story, and as we open the word, as we hear a story, as we hear the words of Jesus, Holy Spirit, would you now move through these places and connect us and remind us that you have called us to a different way, to a different life, and we want to live that life for you to the glory of God the Father, and for those who are in our midst who are saying, man, this is my first step. I am barely in the door today. I don't even know what to do next. Lord, may we put our arms around them, and may you now come in close and remind each of us, no matter where we are on the journey, that what we encounter today is absolutely applicable to our lives. We ask all of this now, in the name of Jesus, amen. All right, so I need you to know the story that I'm going to tell you today is found in three of the four Gospels. No one was there except Jesus. So these Gospel writers weren't there. There were no eyewitnesses. It's just Jesus. So the only way they can put this in their accounts is that Jesus must have told them about it. Jesus thought this particular story was important enough that he said, I want you guys to, if this could happen to me, it could happen to you. Matthew chapter four, verse one. Now here we go. Jesus is born in Bethlehem. He lives in obscurity in Galilee. There's a moment in his life where he steps onto the stage at age 30. This is about the time a Jewish rabbi would enter his ministry. Jesus is now stepping into his public ministry.

But first we read these words in Matthew chapter four, verse one. Then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Okay. Now at some point, some of you, if you've been here for a while, are going, hey, wait, didn't we talk about this story like a couple of years ago? And then like a few years before that, didn't we talk about that story then as well? And the answer to that is yes, thanks for noticing. The reason we're coming back to it is, what was the big theme from last week? Those of you who were here, you remember? Yeah. Ironically, you don't remember. The point was we forget. We forget. So guess what? We're going to go back through this story of the temptation of Christ and we're going to look at this and see how it applies to our lives. Because we forget. And in case you think that's an old person thing, I talk to people of all ages who go, man, I don't know what it is. I don't know. But for the last few years, I just like, I lose things. Like I forget things. It doesn't matter. I was talking with a guy, I think in his thirties, maybe he was 40, he was going, I can't even explain to you how it's working, but man, I just forget stuff. Sometimes you teenagers will look at your parents and go, remember I told you that? And they're like, no, I forgot. Sometimes you parents will look at a teenager. and say, didn't I have you to, weren't you supposed to? It's like, dude, I forgot.

It cuts both ways. Let's try it this way. You ever walked into a room, like you just walk into the room, and yeah, you know where I'm going, it's like, why am I here? Did you know that that is something that happens, and it happens across ages? There are two psychologists at Notre Dame who have been studying this phenomenon for 20 years. Now, my own thoughts are, it would have only taken three years, but every time they walked into the lab, they were like, what were we doing? No, no, no, I don't think that's it. I don't think that's it. It's called the doorway effect. Watch how it works. What they say is that your brain is trying to work as efficiently as possible, which means it's always categorizing and organizing all of the stuff of your day, all of the experiences, all of the memories. I'm being silly now, but like putting them into files, putting them into drawers, everything. When you walk across a threshold, when you walk through a doorway into another room, it signals the brain, this is a new episode. This is a new chapter. And so if you're not careful,

if what you're taking with you, if you're not taking the important things with you, your brain begins to go, oh yeah, well, the stuff in the previous room, the stuff in the previous chapter, I'm gonna go ahead and file all of that and put it away. And we lose stuff. In fact, sometimes people say, the best way is to just go back into the other room. It's like, oh yeah, that. Or, and see if this isn't really helpful. What they say is you just need to be intentional about this. You need to say, this is important, and I'm carrying it with me into the new room. Now, what's my point? Since the last time we talked about this, we have walked through many different doorways. I don't care who you are. I don't care how old you are. You have walked into many rooms in the last two years. And those rooms bring different experiences. They bring different challenges. They bring different temptations. We're gonna be really honest. Some of us have temptations on the radar today that were nowhere in sight two years ago. Some of you have something going on at work, and it's a kind of a big deal, but there's a temptation now to make it everything. Some of you, some of you just got through middle school,

and it's like, it's just gonna get so much easier when I get to high school, and it didn't, amen? High school's complicated. Some of you are saying, I'm retired now, and all of a sudden I got this whole different layer of stuff that's going on. Some of you have a relationship that is on the radar today that was not there two years ago. It's a relationship that in the back of your mind you know could burn the whole house down. But you're playing with it, and you're flirting with it, and it was nowhere in sight two years ago. You see, I think if we look at something like this and a story like this, and we say, you know what? We got it figured out. We did it, we covered that ground. Let's move on to something else. I just think it's really, really dangerous. So what I want you to do, very quickly, is take your phones out. We're gonna use the app. We're gonna do this together, whether you're here at Grants Trail, Fenton, Mid Rivers, those joining us here in the Hub and Overflow, those of you who are online. Just take your phones out. You can download the app if you don't have it. Here's what I want you to do. There's two things, okay? First of all, just, like, here's the question.

Let's just put that up there. Like, what are you dealing with now? No names, right, no names, but specifically, what is it that's tripping you up these days? Go on ahead and be honest about it, and let's come back to it a little bit later. When I talk about temptations, what are the things that come to mind? Real quickly, you do that, okay? And while you're doing that, you don't have to share what you're, you don't have to do that with the person next to you, but just go on ahead and lean over to them and say, you know what? This is gonna be interesting today. Hey, let's hang in there together, okay? Go ahead, just encourage each other real quickly, all right? And I'm just gonna give you a second to do that. Oh, come on, guys. All right, here we go. While you're doing that, I'm gonna catch us up on the story. Matthew chapter four, verse one, says that Jesus was led by the Spirit. Did you guys notice that? He is led by the Holy Spirit. His entire ministry is gonna be led and empowered by the Holy Spirit. I want you to notice that, but also notice this. The story right before this one is when he is baptized. So right before this God the Father says that's my son in whom I am so pleased

and the Spirit of God descends on him anoints him for his ministry. You'd half expect at this point like man that's just a big big thing going on there you'd half expect him to just march into Jerusalem and say hey I'm the king I'm taking charge but he doesn't. The Spirit leads him and it says it leads him up he leads him up the Holy Spirit leads him up. Mark says he's driven by the Spirit so he's driven by the Spirit up. Now if you know the geography there if like where we think likely it was that Jesus was baptized and we'll come back to that story in the spring but it's likely where he was baptized it's not far from the ancient city of Jericho and this mountain that I was telling you about a second ago that's 1,500 feet above the river valley. Like if you go there today you can ride a tram and get pretty far up that mountain. You'll find that there's a monastery there in fact here's a picture of the monastery that's built on that mountain. It's been there since the 300s AD. Now if you go there they will suggest to you that this is where Jesus was tempted in a cave there. Are we sure that that's where this happened? No. Are we in the area code? I think we are. Let me show you what it looks like out there in that wilderness west of the Jordan River. If you go on the other side of that mountain and you look into that it is a desolate place. The traditional thinking of that day was it wasn't just full of wild animals it was full of demonic activity. Jesus hints at this in Matthew chapter 12. This is an ominous start to the story. The Spirit leads him up into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Please notice there's a definite article there. The devil. In the Greek diabolos. We get our word diabolical from this. It means accuser. It means slanderer. He is the liar. You remember that now. He is the the father of lies Jesus calls him elsewhere. But I want you to as we go into this now I'm not talking about a metaphor. I'm talking about someone who is real. I'm talking about a person. He does not have a pointy tail and horns and a pitchfork and he's not all red. That ridiculous image came from the Middle Ages. It is not biblical. He was is an angel that was created by God himself. A glorious beautiful angel who rebelled from God because he wanted to be God. And he takes a third of the angels in the heavenlies with him in a

rebellion against God. He is the arch enemy of God. But you got to hear me on this. He is not the equal of God. But he hates humanity. He hates what God is up to. And he is the leader of the hosts of darkness. And some of you right now are going. He kind of acts like he believes that. That's weird. Like I didn't know they talked about this stuff at this church. Some of you honestly think I'm one sentence away from talking about Hogwarts. Like it's just so weird for you. Now there are others of you who can't quite put the details together. But what I just said kind of rings true because you see in this world an evil that cannot be denied. I want you to know if you read the Bible. The Bible tells us that we live on a contested planet. Oh there will come a day. There will come a day. But right now there is a war between dark and light. And we are about to see a battle between beings who know each other. The Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness now to be tempted. Now let's just kind of start talking about a few things here. Because one of the things you'll see is in Hebrews 4. Let's just show that passage there. Because I think this is an important context. I want you to understand that Jesus knows and understands what we go through. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses. But we have one who has been tempted in every way. Just as we are. Yet was without sin. First big point I want you to see when we go into this. Jesus faced temptation and won. Jesus was triumphant over temptation. He won. But I want you to also understand. Jesus could not sin. Theologically Jesus never did sin. But Jesus could not sin because he is God. Some people go well what if God sinned? Now if you want to get all fancy with it that's a category error. That's like saying hey what does a three-sided square look like? It doesn't. God cannot sin. That's how pure, that's how holy Jesus is. Now you're saying, but wait a minute, then how was he tempted? I want you to understand something here. Jesus is the only one throughout all of eternity who was fully God and fully man as he walked this planet.

But he was fully human. Sometimes we get so, uh, we get so interested in making sure that people know Jesus is God that we forget he was fully human. So then how was he tempted, Greg? I still don't get it because it seems like, how does that work? Well, the best example I can give you is not mine, but I want you to imagine that you're at the gym. I know, I know. Uh, but imagine that you're at the gym and you see two guys that are working out and they're, they're, you know, they're doing their, their, their circuit and they're, they're at the, they're at the bench press now. And the first guy is trying to lift a significant amount of weight. The guy spotting him, he can't lift this thing for the life of him. In fact, he's not lifting it. The guy who was spotting him is lifting most of it. All right. They put the weight back on the rack. They switch places. The other guy takes the weight off of the rack and now he presses the entire weight. No help. He does it. Let me ask you a question. Of those two in that moment, who felt the full burden of that weight? The one who lifted it all. Now, just because he could lift it all doesn't mean that he didn't feel the full weight of it all. There's one scholar that says Jesus was tempted in all ways, in every way, the demonic forces, everything they could think of to throw at him, it came at him. And the fully human Jesus was in agony when he was tempted. I want you to remember that.

So that means the other part of that, that scripture that we looked at is Jesus didn't just face temptation and win. Jesus understands. I want you to remember that. We'll come back to that. But Jesus understands. We keep reading and it says that after he had fasted for 40 days, so 40 days in this wilderness now, he's fasting and now he's going to be tempted by the devil. Now, when I say tempted, at this point, you might be thinking, okay, so like it says that he's hungry after fasting for 40 days and nights, he's hungry. Well, I think there's two things going on here. One, Jesus is preparing for this moment. So this fasting was also a chance for him to, to, to prepare for this. I believe the power of the spirit of God was now coursing through him in a mighty way. He is ready for this battle, but y'all remember he's human, he's hungry. In fact, his body is in survival mode. It is, it's, it's feeding off of itself after 40 days, the body, he's hungry. And so right here, what we see is that the tempter says, if you are who you say that you are, and he knows that he is, but if you are the son of God, then why don't you take these stones and turn them into bread? Now, if we, if we kind of go through this, the first thing that I think is we're not going to be able to apply all of this to, to our lives. We're going to try to, but the first part of this is what he is saying to Jesus is, I don't think the father gets it. I don't think the father cares that you're going through this. I don't think he knows how hungry you are. I don't think he knows what you need right now to satisfy you. So why don't you just take care of it yourself? You see, the first temptation here is just go on ahead and reach out and grab it and

take it yourself. This is the oldest temptation in the book. We're right back to Eden. Hey, the father's holding out on you. The father doesn't care. He doesn't know what can make you, you happy and satisfied. So why don't you just reach out and take it? Right here, Jesus says, no, no, no, no, no. I'm going to trust that the father knows what he's doing. Man doesn't live by, by bread alone, but by the words that are coming out of the mouth of God, I'm going to rely on my father. If you want a first word to kind of write down at this, at this particular temptation, it's trust. I'm going to trust that my father's way is best. I'm going to trust that he has my best interest at heart. Now trusting is not easy. Scott McKnight has a pretty punchy quote about this, where he says, you know, trusting is one of those things. Can we just put that up there? Uh, trusting is another one of those great ideas until we have to do it. I will confess to you in my own life, there are times that I don't feel like trusting, like I'll be in the middle of something and God's like, we're going to take another step, son. Oh God, this really Lord, this, this, this, this, this. Now. Yeah. And it's that journey because as I take that step, then he affirms me and says, yeah, see, I was good for it. Oh yeah, you were. And now we're going to take another step.

And then the one after that, and then that tone of voice changes and I start to sound. or like Psalm 63, oh God, you are my God and I will keep seeking you. I want more of you, God, I want more of you. That's what Jesus is saying here in a really difficult moment. I'm gonna trust that my Father is enough and he will provide enough, and he did. Second challenge, Jesus is taken to a high place, the pinnacle of the temple. Did this happen in real time? Is this some sort of a vision? I don't know. But if it happened in real time, and I could imagine that it did, I want you to see where most scholars think that this happened. This is sort of a computer mock-up of the ancient city of Jerusalem. That's the temple complex up there. That's Mount Moriah that it's built on. But that's a pinnacle, that's the pinnacle of the temple that people would often refer to right there. Now, if you stood on the edge of that and you took the height of that part of the temple plus the height of the buildup there on Mount Moriah plus the depth of the Kidron Valley that it overlooks, if you'd have stood on the edge of it, you'd have been looking down probably about 400 feet. You ever been on the edge of something

where no tether, no nothing, no rail, and you look down like 300, 400 feet? Because I'm gonna tell you, I don't care who you are, it'll take your breath away. So here we are at that place, and the tempter says, if you're really God, then why don't you just toss yourself off of the edge of this thing? And then he quotes Psalm 91, which says that you will be protected by angels, and so he's kind of misapplying some things. The temptation here is to push the timetable. The temptation here is to kickstart his ministry. Just imagine if Jesus had jumped off of this thing, like off, and then the angels pick him up right before he hits the dirt. I mean, that'd have been like the best ski jump ever, right, I mean, just, nobody's watching the Olympics? Anybody watching them at all? I mean, I know I don't see them all, but yeah, maybe just a little bit. Boy, there's a lot of controversy, isn't there? That whole thing, I mean, what do you guys think about the Swedish curling team and the Canadian curling team, and did he really touch the stone twice, and was he over the hog line? I mean, there's a lot going on there. I forget where we were, where we're, oh, no, no, no. So, the point here is that you're just gonna

kind of force the timeline, and Jesus isn't gonna do that. He isn't gonna chuck all of the prophecies that say the king's gonna come as a servant. I'm gonna keep trusting the Father's way. You see, what really is going on here, Jesus says in his response from Deuteronomy 6, you can't test the Lord your God. You can't put the Lord your God to the test. A way for us to kind of summarize this would be, we think we can force, I put that in parentheses, or I'm sorry, in quotes, we think we can force God to act, like we're in charge of God, and so what we do is we take a scripture and we pull it out of context, and we say, God, there, I've got you in a corner. You gotta do that. Let's just be really clear on this. If you're taking notes, this is a biggie. He's God, we're not. We clear? He's God, we're not, and so we can't take these things out of context when you read a scripture that says, you know, it talks about blessings, or it talks about abundance, and you can't take that out of context and go, there it is, God. Somebody told me all I have to do is to claim my millions. That's not how it works. When we see that God wants us to have a full and fulfilled life, I came so that you could have life to the fullest.

We don't get to then come to somebody and say, you know, Pastor, he wants me to have the abundant to the full life, and it's just not gonna be with her anymore. I think the Lord wants me to be happy, so I'm leaving him. I'm divorcing her. That's not how it works. We don't get to keep bulldozing people at work, or at home, or at school. I mean gaslighting them. I mean saying horrible, horrible things in manipulative ways, and then hide behind, hey, I'm sorry, just the way God made me. Image of God, remember, we talked about that. No. I don't get to say, you know, the Lord provides, so I'm not gonna work. I don't get to say, you know what, the sexual fulfillment and satisfaction is a gift from God. Man, we teach this, but that doesn't mean we didn't get to say, you know, that's the way God made me, and I have these desires, and so I get to do what I want when I want. That is not how life with God works. trust His way, because His way is best. You see, I think what happens at the end of this is, Jesus is, it's an act of surrender, because He's saying, yeah, we could have, we could have, like, pushed this along, but I'm gonna trust the Father in His way,

and His way is best. And now, Satan takes Him one more time to a mountain, and I do believe this is a vision. I think this is not a literal mountain, because there is no mountain high enough to see this. We're in the realm of the Spirit now. This happens with Hebrew prophets all the time. In the Scriptures, you'll see Ezekiel, you'll see Daniel, in the New Testament, you'll see people like John having these visions. Remember, these are two cosmic giants, though they are not equals, who now have this conversation where Satan takes Jesus to a place on a mountain and shows Him the splendor of the world, the splendor of the world. I want you to just imagine all the beauty, all the power, all the accomplishment, all the wealth, all the everything. And he says, you know what? It can all be yours if you'll just bow down to me. In fact, what it says in the Greek there is, once, just once, bow down to me. Now, I want you to picture this. This is Jesus we're talking about. What is Satan saying? Let's get you that crown without the cross. And you don't need the suffering. You don't need the abandonment. You don't need the cross.

You don't need the tomb. Let's get you that glory without the cross. Before I jump to how we apply this to us, I just feel a burden for us to make sure that we understand what's going on here. He is worthy of it all. Go read Revelation 5. The Lamb who was slain is worthy to receive wealth and power and glory and honor and praise. It's all His. It's all His. But there was a moment, and it wasn't the only time, where Jesus had to consciously say, I'm gonna keep moving towards the cross because that's how much I love my Father and that's how much I love this world. And in this moment, Satan is saying, can we just bypass all of this? He's a liar. Remember, he's a liar. But could you just once, just once, could you just bow down to me? Just once. Now, how do we apply that to our lives? Well, here's something to write down. Every sin that we commit is a form of idolatry. Every sin is us putting something else in the place of God. It could be a friendship. It could be a desire. It could be an ideology.

It could be an opinion. It could be a habit. It's something that we put in the place of where God should be. I wonder how many times, publicly and privately, in big ways and intensely small ways that you and I are tempted to give allegiance to the serpent and really the request is this, just once. Just once, don't do it God's way. Jesus will have none of it and says, no, be gone from here. He quotes another scripture and he's really saying, you worship the Lord your God. That's how this works. I mean, this is a moment here. If you really want this to come down to a word and the response there is, these last two were from Deuteronomy 6 and to be honest with you, it's right after a passage that Jesus would have been taught as a little boy. I mean, it's the core confession of the Hebrew faith. We talk about, hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one and then you hear the rest of it. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, your soul and your might. Do you know what I think Jesus' response to Satan was there? I love my father and I will do what he says. That's the way forward.

Satan is defeated, he leaves him. It's not the last time that they're gonna do battle. We'll probably come back to some of these things later. But what are we supposed to do with this now? Well, I wanted to just give you some ways that we can live this out. We're gonna go through this fairly quickly. Like I said, if you're taking notes, this in a minute, you can come up, you can take pictures of this, you can do whatever you want. But the first of these things. is one that you're already fighting, I want you to make sure that you don't ignore this warning. See, as soon as I started talking about the evil one, and spiritual battles, and spiritual warfare, and all of that, some of you, maybe you're very new to this, maybe you've been around it a long time, but you're going, oh, Greg, listen, people just do stupid, destructive things on their own. Don't spiritualize everything. I get it. I get it. The Bible never says once, the devil made me do it. You are personally responsible for your choices. But for us to ignore the reality of an evil one and the traps that he lays for each of us, I think it's a huge mistake. Second thing, and these kind of go hand in hand, don't obsess. What do I mean by that? C.S. Lewis says that there are two equal and opposing errors whenever you start talking about these kinds of things. The first one is that you deny the reality of Satan and his minions. Okay, so we've already talked about that. The second is you develop a real unhealthy interest in those things. Like that's all you talk about. It's all you read about. The algorithm on Netflix has figured out that's all you want to watch is documentaries, and things, and movies about possessions, and exorcisms, and you just get fascinated with the dark. And I'm telling you, that is not a good idea either. In fact, what Lewis says is the demons are pleased with either one of those errors. The reason Jesus tells us this is not to scare us. It is to warn us. And I believe if you keep reading, it is to encourage us. It is to empower us. We're going to get to that in a second.

But then the last thing I would tell you here before we take a quick break is don't be thrown. Sometimes, especially early in our journeys, we get to a place where it's like, oh my goodness, I love Jesus, and wow, that temptation, that's me? And all of a sudden you get filled with shame. I want you to hear, having a temptation is not a sin. Being tempted is not necessarily a sin. Now, if you put yourself in harm's way, if you keep playing with it, if you keep flirting with it, if you get closer and closer to it, that's a different story. But for us to be tempted, for us to have things that fall on our path that it's like, wow, where did that come from? Listen, you are in a long line of humanity that has been tempted with Jesus at the front of the line. So don't let a shame keep you from then asking for help. Now, let's take a look at what you all shared with us just a second ago. So I want us to just, first of all, I want you to just see some of the things that you said here as we went through this. Now, the first thing I'm struck with is the courageous honesty. Let's always be a place. Let's always be a place where we start to drag our struggles into the light. But what I want you to do now, if you would, is just, would you just hang out with some people around you? What are you noticing? Like, what is God saying to you? What patterns are you noticing? Some of this isn't you at all. Some of it might be you, but would you guys just talk to each other and go, hey, this is what I'm noticing as we begin to put our temptations to the light. So go ahead, talk to each other. We'll be back in just a second. So all right. So what are you guys, what are you guys noticing just here? I know this have been kind of talking about this as well. Anybody like, what are your observations? Anybody want to share anything in public? What are we noticing about these things? What's wrong with chocolate? Yeah, what's wrong with chocolate? Okay, we'll come back to that. I will say this. It's an interesting thing to talk about how there are things that are not inherently bad,

that the evil one can kind of take and distort if they're out of context and if they're not in, I know you were funnin' with me, but it's just, there are things that we can go, wait a minute, no, that's being given too much weight in my life. Anybody got anything else? Yeah. You're not alone. There's probably pieces of stuff going through your head. Okay, so you're not alone. You start to see some of these things going, and you're like, oh, wait. So I'm not the only one who has that thought. I'm not the only one who struggles with that. It's not misery loves company. It is truly, truly, truly, this is how a community moves forward. We're gonna come back to that in a second. Yes, ma'am. It's everything that's being normalized by society. Ooh, everything that's being normalized by society. So we see these things, and it's like, oh, yeah, no, that's okay. That's just the way it is. That's just the way it is. And before you know it, we're moving closer and closer to it. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. All right, anybody else over in these sections?

Anybody got anything? You people got anything over here? Were you even talking about what I asked you to talk about over here? I hear somebody else, what? People-pleasing, yeah, so we can be specific there. Say it again. Social media. Yeah, so we're getting into some of the specifics of people-pleasing, social media. So we're noticing things. How about this? Did you notice that, I love your observation that we see things that we can identify with, but you didn't identify with everything up there. Like, there were some things that you were like, huh, yeah, that's not me at all. Listen, I want you to remember this now because the temptations that come from the evil one are gonna be customized to you, okay? I mean, bullseye for you, but it might not work for somebody else. He knows what you, what gets your attention. Let me ask it this way. Everywhere, just mass confession, sweet or salty? How many sweet? How many salty? How many chocolate? How many French fries?

And I know, I know some of you are like, you know, Greg, honestly, my favorite food is diet celery. Okay, well, then your temptation is pride, and we can talk about that. So here's the thing. So chocolate, I think I've got somebody who's gonna be my volunteer where you've sort of identified, there you come, come on up, come on up. And would you stand over here? So yeah, me too, me too. You know what? Yeah, we should, don't you think? I don't know. Yeah, we should, come on, I am. Let's go. Yeah, for sure. Oh yeah, that's right, yeah. Oh, I saw that, went back in for a second one. Keep going. Remember that I said he knows what's gonna get your attention. Okay, so you can come back for more in just a second, but here's the thing. If you're a salt freak and chocolate isn't your thing, and I wave this under your nose, you're like, all day, I can say no. Satan knows what it is that is going to get your attention. You want one more? It's okay, it's okay, go ahead, go ahead.

Yeah, me too. So here's the rest of what I wanted to tell you. I think it's fascinating when you start to think about like how he entices us. And like we were saying, sometimes it can be a good thing. Like my GPA is really important to me, but if I'm not careful, then I get sucked into this anxiety that leads to perfectionism, that leads to people pleasing, that leads to all of that, and that's not it. For some people, it's this idea of, you know, I read my Bible, and I'm really glad that I'm reading my Bible, but watch how the evil one will even distort that and say, oh, look at you, you should be filled with a little bit of pride. Look at you, now you can be haughty and look down on. You see, he can do this a bunch of different ways. There's a Puritan author who said once that you need to understand that temptation is like bait on a hook. You see, he's the destroyer and he's not going to lead with this. He's going to lead with this. And once he's got you there, then he sets the hook and he leads to destruction. Are you with me? All right. Thank you so much. You can come finish this later if you'd like. What I want you to know is that he is never going to start off by saying, hey, I want

to show you something that's going to destroy your friendships. It's going to ruin your reputation at school. It's going to blow you up at work. It's going to burn your family down. It's going to fill your kids with more heartache than they know what to do with. Your life's going to be smeared with so much regret, you won't even know how to take the next step. He never leads with that. He leads with this. Hey, and here's where it gets crazy. Even when we intuit there might be a hook in there, we figure I can eat around it. I won't get caught. I won't get snagged. I think I can do this thing. I can fudge the numbers at work just a little bit. I can do the endless scroll on TikTok just to keep up. I mean, never mind that what I'm seeing are influencers that are giving me an unhealthy expectation of my own life, of what I look like, of what my friends look like, and how much money I'm going to make, and now it's starting to destroy me. I'm just going to go one more time. Never mind that. We take just one more, well, one more date, one more drink, one more hit, one more bet, one more visit to that site, and we think I'm just going to give him a little bit of allegiance. I'm telling you now, for the sake of your spiritual health, your physical health, for the sake of your friendships, for the sake of your marriages, if you're married, for the sake of your kids, for the sake of your reputation, for the sake of your legacy, for the sake of everything, I'm telling you this is real. Turn away. Stop.

Whatever you have to do, spit the hook out. Jesus would have none of it. Now, how does he move forward? If you begin to look at what he does next is he's constantly, constantly quoting scripture. If I were to give you one that you could kind of look at here, God's word is essential. God's word is something that is going to help us in these moments. I think the psalmist, when he writes, I have hidden your word in my heart so that I might not sin against you, there's something about it. We're talking about the power of four. That's why first five is something around here. Four times a week, get yourself into the word of God. Let it be here and here and watch what it does. Watch how it colors your perspective. Watch how it prepares you for these moments. I'm telling you, Jesus had these things on speed dial. Commit yourself to just one scripture, memorize one scripture in the next week. I've written just a few of them down here. Proverbs 2.20 talks about the path of righteousness. Psalm 46, you know, God is our help and our ever present help in time of trouble. He's our refuge. First John 4.5, if you're feeling it right now, greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. Romans 8.1, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. James 4.7, resist the devil and he'll flee from you. And then this last one, well, we'll come to this last one in just a second, but Joel, I need you to know as we do this, there is a chance for us to have a different approach. But now the next thing, if we're going to just wrap this up, pray with your eyes open. You know, like, wait a minute, my mom told me I had to close my eyes. I don't mean that, but it's okay to pray with your eyes open, but that's not really what I'm saying.

What I'm saying here is that on the worst night of his life, Jesus tells his three close friends, his disciples, pray and watch so that you won't fall into temptation. They didn't listen to him. One of those three learned the lesson. Peter writes his own letter years later and says, be alert and sober because your enemy, the devil is prowling around like a hungry lion seeking to devour. What I want you to know is that the word alert and watch are the same word in the Greek and they just mean keep your eyes open. Can we tell ourselves the truth? Jealousy kills friendships, gossip destroys relationships, pornography ruins your sex life. Going to that newsfeed 12 times a day doesn't keep you more informed. It keeps you more anxious, or more angry, or in some cases just a little more difficult to be around throughout the day. When we live a self-centered life, it's a shallow life, and it's a friendless life. When we get to a place where we have this delusion and demand that I've got to be right about everything, I'm telling you it burns all the bridges, you and I need to understand this stuff is dangerous, so let's pray with our eyes open. What does that sound like? God, I am jealous of my friend right now, because they have more than I do. God, I can't even admit this to anybody else, but our marriage has fallen apart. Jesus, every time that person comes up in conversation, or they walk into the room, I get so ugly. God, if people could see what I'm saying in the comment sections, what the kind of thoughts that I'm having in my head about that relationship, I can't even believe the hole that I have dug when it comes to how much I'm drinking, or how much I'm spending, or how much I'm betting. God, please, I'm just telling you, let's be honest and pray with our eyes open. This is what I need help with, and then, and then, and I'm getting back to what you were kind of laying the groundwork on over here, we are not alone in this, which means you can go to people, a pastor, a trusted friend, a counselor, a sponsor, and say, hey, can

you keep checking in on me? But y'all, let's ask for help, and let's ask for God's help. Now, some of you are going, I don't need God's help, and I'm sure not going to ask for it. I want you to know, those who try this alone, fail alone. You see, our students know, because at Winter Blast, that one of the things that was going on over was this idea that we invite the Holy Spirit into all of our life, into every room. Am I getting that right? We invite him into all rooms. I want you to understand, there was an author who said, sometimes we keep our temptations secret, I'm saying it this way, we keep them tucked into this one little room that nobody else gets to go to, because we want to go back to them in secret in case we want to, we want to play with fire. I'm saying every door you walk in through, and every room you walk into, you bring the Holy Spirit with you. That's where healing, that's where power, that's where victory comes from. And then the last thing before we leave, it's Jesus, always Jesus. Keep turning to Jesus. I'm telling you, it's Jesus. It is always Jesus. Don't feel like you've got to clean these things up before you confess them to him. Remember, he understands. And if you are at a place where you have taken the bait, and the hook is firmly in your mouth, go to Jesus. He is faithful and just to forgive you, right now. Right now. I don't know how he keeps offering us this grace that he does, but he does. I'm saying no matter where you are, no matter who you are, there is hope for your life. And this is the last thing I'm going to ask you to write down. There is hope, and there is victory.

But that victory doesn't come from willpower, it comes from his power. Let me say it one more time, the victory doesn't come from willpower, it comes from his power. Ephesians 1 will tell us that the same God who raised Jesus from the dead is alive in us. The spirit is in you. The same spirit that helped Jesus in the desert is in you. If you have turned to Jesus, he is with you. And I'm saying right now, let's take him into every aspect, every conversation, every part of our life, because there is victory there. The end of the story is the devil is in defeat and leaves Jesus. And the angels now come and minister to him. And that's such a story, oh man, we'll come across it again, and we should spend some time there. But that's it. That's the end of the story, man. And I'm just going to tell you. If you want to know the rest of what's going on, Jesus walks off of that mountain and onto another mountain. And on that other mountain, he keeps inviting people to follow him and to trust him. In fact, on that other mountain, he talks about what it's like to live as sons and daughters of the king. And he keeps using this term, the kingdom of God, because the king is here, and he's inviting us to follow him step by step into the kingdom. So I'm going to ask you just once to sing this chorus with us before we leave, because this series has begun, and we are going to chase after Jesus. We're so glad that you came today.