Jesus In The Wilderness

Welcome to Tribe's podcast. Hey, we just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you're ever in Jackson Hole, we'd love for you to visit our Tribe fam in person. To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com.

Welcome to Tribe's podcast. Hey, we just wanna say thank you for making this message a part of your week. Our prayer is that these messages will inspire you to make the name of Jesus famous in your life and to the uttermost bounds of the earth. If you're ever in Jackson Hole, we'd love for you to visit our tribe fam in person. To learn more about us, you can find us online or at Facebook by searching tribejh.com.

Morning, everybody. I'm extremely distracted. Your child is one of the cutest kids I've ever seen in my whole life and I have kids but man, he's adorable. Good morning. My name is Amanda Lack.

I am on staff here at Tribe and Brian and Lissa are gone this week. Brian is our lead pastor and Lissa normally does our worship. They are conducting a wedding way up in New England, thank you so much Conor, up in the Northeast this weekend and so they're not here but how many of you know we don't come for a specific person, right? We come for Jesus, we come for others, and we let the Holy Spirit just show up and do his thing. Amen?

It's an honor to be able to talk to you guys, it really is. I enjoy talking, so it's natural. But to be able to open the scripture and look at things together, it really is an honor. I mean that. And I don't take it lightly.

So what we're going to do today, if you've never been to Tribe, it's less of just a monologue, although there's a lot to say, and it's more of a conversation. And so Sarah has the microphone. And if during the service, if you have a question or comment or if you're making a connection from something we're talking about and it's just like burning in your heart and you feel like it would be good for the group, that's what the microphone is for. And it's also so your voice can be magnified but also for our livestream family to be able to hear you. So hello, livestream family.

Shout out to you. Shout out to Pro Presenter for wanting to join our worship today. Technology just is what it is today. Hunters will be back next week and we're going to be at the park again next week but Jay is going to tell you more about that later. Let's pray as we get started today.

Holy Spirit, Father God, thank you so much for being here. You are so welcome here in this place. Lord, we thank you for the opportunity to just open the scriptures together and see what you have to say to us. Let the scriptures just speak for themselves today. Father, thank you that you're here and that you move in us and through us.

Thank you that you are faithful like we sang about today. When people are not, you remain faithful. We just thank you for who you are. We love you. We thank you for softening our hearts to receive the seeds of your word, the truth of your word today.

Let it just be planted deep in our heart so it can be watered and grow so we can be more and more like you. We love you and thank you in advance for the fruit that's to come of our time today. In Jesus' name, amen. Is that Elisha? Good morning.

Good to see you. All right. We are going to talk about the wilderness today, specifically Jesus in the wilderness. And before we get started, I have just an initial question for you. I don't want you to think about it.

I don't want you to weigh pros and cons. I just want you to answer immediately off the cuff. And that is, is the wilderness just shout it out is the wilderness good or bad? Both. Okay, very mixed trees, but we had a good, bad, and a both.

Yes. I mean, I would say bad, right? It kind of has a negative connotation to it, for sure. The world's definition is something that's uninhabitable or like a place of neglect or abandonment. The biblical definition, and just this is my own words from what I see, is an uncomfortable place of testing, trials, but also a place where God's presence can be and where he can show up.

And I want to just it looks like ProPresenter will be joining us all day today. You're welcome here. Thank you. I just want us to kind of establish something at the get go as we talk about wilderness and like hard things. So we're on the same page.

Something that is true is that being uncomfortable is not the same thing as being abandoned. Right? Our immediate flesh response is like, oh, it's negative, bad, make it go away. Right? That's that's a normal human response.

But it is okay and because we're human expected to go through hard things. And so this message today talking about the wilderness and how people did it wrong, how Jesus did it right, is just an opportunity for us to think maybe from a different perspective of what the wilderness is or could be. It's also something that applies to every single one of us because we either have been in the wilderness, are currently going through the wilderness, or are to go through the wilderness or all of the above. And if you aren't right now, you certainly know somebody who is. It's so cute.

Oh my gosh. There's this scripture in Luke. We don't have to turn there. It's in Luke six twenty four and twenty seven. And Jesus is talking and he actually says, Woe to you, who?

And he has these lists of woe to yous, and they're all comforts. And so this really challenges me because I don't want to be in the woe to you column, but in my flesh I also want comfort. So it's a tension to manage. And we're to be like Jesus, right? The whole Bible, people say, can be summed up into four words: Love God, love people.

Jesus meets people where they're at. And if we're to be like Jesus, we're to do the same. And so before we jump into wilderness, I just want to say something. Don't compare and if you could put a mirror up, Ella, so I can talk to myself, too, that would be great. Don't compare hardships.

Right? People have different capacities. They have different thresholds. Some people have a tiny little appetizer plate and some people have a gigantic Thanksgiving buffet sized plate, right, of what you can handle in different seasons, what you're capable of. So don't project your own threshold or what you can handle onto somebody else.

Love people. Meet them where they're at because we want people to do the same for us. Right? All right. Wilderness from the Bible.

Some translations say wilderness, some say desert place. Same thing. I didn't know this until I jumped in, but it's mentioned over 300 times in the Bible. That's a lot. Like, that's a big topic.

And the first thing so there's over 300. We're not going to go over all of them. But the things that jumped to my mind immediately when I was like, okay, before looking it up, like who went through the wilderness and what did they experience? So for sure, yell one out. What's the biggest one you think of, like a people group?

The Yeah. The Israelites in the wilderness, you know, after the Exodus, they were in there for forty years. It was geographically supposed to be an eleven day journey. And because they didn't do the wilderness right, it took them forty years. Elijah, after fleeing from Jezebel, do you guys remember that story?

Elijah, the prophet, he was, he loved god, was on, did did things right, and did amazing things. He, let's see, he poured out the help the widow pour out oil from her jar. Remember and it kept flowing. I mean, it's a miracle of god but Elijah facilitated that so her boys wouldn't be sold into slavery. This is the same Elijah who laid on the dead boy and breathed life back into him.

Again, it was god but this what Elijah was experiencing. And right before he went into the wilderness, if you look at Scripture, he had just called fire from heaven on Mount Carmel or Carmel or Caramel. Whatever we my son says Caramel, and it I don't think that's right. But he was just up on Mount Carmel and all these hundreds of false prophets of Baal, remember the story we just read, like, were worshiping a false god. And Elijah's like, Nudes, that's not God.

Here, go ahead and pour water on my altar. And these guys prayed all day, nothing happened. Elijah prayed immediately. God sent fire from heaven and burned up the altar. And from that point, King Ahab, who was terrible, had been after Elijah for years, but his wife, Jezebel, who was even more terrible, after that bringing down fire from heaven, she was like, mark my words, in twenty four hours, he's dead.

And that drove him into the wilderness. It's kind of crazy with all this stuff he's experienced, but she was no bueno. Okay. It's important to kind of get these backstories for what we'll talk about in a little bit. Oh, how about Hagar and her son Ishmael?

Remember Hagar? Sarah and Abraham before they got their new names Sarai and Abram. Remember God promised them a son and descendants as numerous as the stars, and they were like 100 years old and not having babies. And so they took matters into their own hands and Abram got Hagar pregnant and her son Ishmael. Well, they were sent into the wilderness because Sarah got jealous, right?

Moses, before the parting of the Red Sea and before leading the Israelites out of Egypt, he fled into the wilderness. Remember, he got so mad at an Egyptian master who mistreated an Israelite and he killed them, buried the body, somebody saw. He fled to the wilderness for forty years and he was out there being a shepherd before he came back to do the whole Let My People Go. And then the biggest one that I think of because of who it is, is Jesus in the wilderness. And that's what we're going to talk about today.

That's where we're going to spend our time. If you have your Bible, will you turn or click onto Matthew four? Let's see. Sarah has the mic. If somebody it's not terribly long.

If you'll just read the first 11 chapters, this is the story of Jesus in the

wilderness. Verses?

Verses. Yes. I mean. It's not that long. Did I just read all of Matthew?

Remember, everyone has a different threshold. My capacity for chapters versus verses. It's be really high. Yeah, the Matthew chapter four verse one through 11. So, yes, somebody will We'll get that.

Thank you.

Then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, if you are the son of god, command these stones to become loaves of bread. But he answered, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of god. Then the devil took him to the holy city and 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, And on their hands, they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against the stone.

Jesus said to him, again, it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, all these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, be gone, Satan. For it is written, you shall worship the lord your god and him only shall you serve.

Then the devil left him and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

Are you guys familiar with that story? It's okay if you are or aren't. It doesn't matter but yeah. Matthew, we're reading just Matthew's part today. It's also recorded this story in the book of Luke.

There's a few different nuances. And then it's just mentioned very briefly in Mark, talking about wild animals being there. But this passage of Scripture, all Scripture, is on purpose and amazing. But it's very important to look at context. So we need to take note of what happened right before what we just read and then what happened right after.

So look just above Chapter four, the last couple of sentences of Matthew Chapter three. Water, the heavens were opened. That's remarkable. And saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and settling upon him. And the voice from heaven said, this is my dearly loved son who brings me great joy.

Or some translations say, what is it? Who I am well pleased. Okay, so Jesus was baptized right before. This is huge because up until that point, it's like, is he, he, is he not the Messiah? Is he, is he not?

And God opened the heavens. What was that like in reality? What did that look like? What was the experience? And he declared publicly, this is my son.

So Jesus's identity was declared and then the wilderness happened. And then look at what happens right after. If look at Matthew chapter four verse 12 and if you have titles in your Bible, what does the title say? Jesus begins his ministry. Okay, so we have his baptism, the declaration of who he is by Father God.

And look at what it says. And one, the spirit led him into the wilderness. He's led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. It's very much on purpose. And then he launches into his ministry.

It's easy to just read over, but I think there there's a lot there. I think there's more gold in this passage than we have time to dig around and find today, but we will mine as much as we can. And a little a little note, regardless of what we talk about or who's talking. If you need something to help you in your study throughout the week, like your quiet time or your Bible time, use what you hear on Sunday where whatever church you go to Use what you hear on Sunday as kind of like a springboard or a launching pad into your own study throughout the week and really dig in there and find gold. There are so many treasures hidden in the Bible, not from us, but for us.

Get in there. All right. Jesus is led into the wilderness to reveal the truth of who he is. He's our Messiah, the savior of the world, and he's showing the truth of who he is by undergoing a test. Wilderness means test or trial.

He was an example certainly at this time for his disciples, and he's still this story is still an example for us today because it's evident that wilderness shows up over 300 times in scripture, that it would be something that we would experience and certainly need to pay attention to and know how to handle. So the truth of who we are and where we find our identity is in the one true God, if you've surrendered your life to him. We trust him in all things and in all ways, and he's so gracious to us in the wilderness. We often are there so much longer than we would like. And when I say in the wilderness, what I mean by that is like a time of testing, a time of trial and uncomfortable.

What we said at the beginning, uncomfortable place. We're there often a lot longer than we should be, but God is so gracious and he lets us take whatever testing we're experiencing again and again and again and again until we get it right. And sometimes that prolongs it. We see you guys mentioned it when we're talking about wilderness, but we see this parallel story of this people group, the Israelites, who were to trust God as they were being led into the wilderness. And did they pass or fail?

Failed miserably. But let's take a look at Deuteronomy. You can open or click to Deuteronomy eight. If somebody could read chapter eight verse two through five. Listen to these words Remember.

Think about yourself. This is chapter Deuteronomy chapter eight two through five. Okay.

Remember how the lord your god led you all the way in the desert. These forty years to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart and whether or not you know you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger, and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known to teach you, that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the lord. Your clothes did not wear out. Your feet did not swell during these forty years.

Know them in your heart that as a man is disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you.

Is that kind of challenging and encouraging at the same time? Kind of a both end? It's okay if it's not. Jesus' wilderness experience was in a direct correlation to what we see the Israelites experiencing. He didn't do it.

He didn't come into the wilderness as their replacement, but as their Messiah and King. He succeeded where they failed. Look at what look at what we just read in in verse two. It says, god's led you these forty years into the wilderness that he might humble you. Testing you to know what's in your heart.

That feels really exposed, right? We talk about what David said in Psalm 139, the end of 139, Test me, God, know my heart. Show me where you want me to change, right? Testing our heart, whether or not we would keep his commandments. What's another story in the Bible where a representative of humanity was approached by a tester to be deceived, twisting the words of God.

Hint, it's in the first three pages of your Bible. Yes, the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve. It's kinda like this wilderness that Jesus went through. It's kinda like the garden all over again. But doing it for us this time.

Will Jesus pass or fail? We already know the answer. He passed. And how? So he was about to launch his ministry, but really right.

So the cross is where he redeemed all of humanity, but really he's starting right here in the wilderness to show us what to do where other characters in the Bible who weren't characters, they were real people that really happened, where they failed and where they couldn't measure up. Jesus is here to show us how to do it. One of the great mysteries to me, you know, we all have these questions that we want to ask God when we see him. How was Jesus in the wilderness or just on earth? How is he all God and all man?

He wasn't 50% God, 50% man. He was all God and all man. How? I don't know. It's a mystery.

How does the Trinity work? Right? The triune god. How is god, the father, Jesus, the son, and the Holy Spirit, the comforter. How are they three but also one?

Right? Why did you make mosquitoes? Like, these are my top three questions like just to ask god. He asked her in no particular order. All right, let's look at let's look at the temptations.

And I want to hear from you guys a little bit. But let's look at the first one. Satan came to him and said, remember Jesus is fasting. He I love the Bible for all kinds of reasons, but it's so practical. He was fasting for forty days and he was hungry.

If you have ever truly fasted and I mean like literally not eating food, it's really hard and you feel really weak. And by the way, the best, the most comprehensive teaching on fasting that I've heard and Joy, you've talked about this is from John Mark Comer. He does an amazing job at why we fast, what it's about, what's the point, because we are supposed to be doing it now. But anyway, Jesus was fasting for forty days. And remember, he was all God, but all man.

So he was weak, physically weak. So the devil comes to him and he says, if you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. What do you guys think about that? I want to hear from you. What what what does that mean to every there's all kinds of opinions, but what does that mean to you?

Why would the devil come and tempt him with that particular temptation? Exactly. He was super hungry and I don't think he meant like crunchy old bread. He meant like your homemade sourdough slathered in Kerrygold butter. Best, the best kind of bread there is.

Yeah. He was starving. Anything else? Yeah, please. Joe or Phil.

Like the devil doesn't just start approaching Jesus and say bow down to me and I'll give you all these kingdoms, right? He starts off with this little innocent, seemingly innocent thing like, hey, you're hungry? Turn the stones to bread. You're you have the power. Just why not do it?

And it doesn't really seem like a temptation at first glance. Like, it doesn't seem like it's inherently bad like in the 10 commandments, god never said, thou shalt not turn stones to bread. Right. But yet it's a temptation and so it's usually like the seemingly innocent things that get us down the wrong rabbit trail.

Yeah, it's a good observation.

I also think what I find interesting is him being hungry and wanting to eat is such a legitimate thing. But I think the deception doesn't come with the eating. It's more of gaining the food illegitimately. Mhmm. By using his power or whatever not like leaning on God to provide for him.

Yeah. Yeah. That's great. That's great. Good observation.

Yeah. And did you notice he said, if you're the son of god, I think I see it like two things were happening. One, he's just a dirty dog. And so he's like, if you're the son of God, but they both knew he was, right? And so I see it more like him being like, if you're the son of God, why you be out here starving?

God's not doing you right, right? If you're the son of God, like you say, he knew he was. Why are you out here starving? That doesn't sound like God. Right?

I mean, the serpent speaking of the Garden of Eden, that's what the serpent said to Eve, right? Did god really say not to? Like, he's cunning. Let's not give the enemy more power than he deserves but he is cunning. He's not creative.

He can't come up with anything new but he has studied people for millennia and we haven't changed. Right? He just knows right where to hit, what to say when you're weak, how to push your buttons. So he was just like, listen to this, though. The enemy was trying, remember what happened right before Jesus' baptism is what happened right before this launch.

He was trying to undermine Jesus' identity by pointing out his circumstances. Come on now. He still does that today. Jesus's baptism came right before and the father publicly acknowledged his identity. That's about as great as that's about as confirming of an identity as you can get.

The father god creator of all things calling you out and telling you who you are. And the enemy, he does this today too. He's like, what was the last thing god told you? Or what's that promise that you're hanging on to? What is that?

Oh, that's where I'm going to attack. He still does that. He was also trying to undermine Jesus's trust in the father. What's he doing with that? What's he doing out here with you?

What you going to do? Did he really send you out here? You look really hungry, Jesus. Yeah, like you said, turn the stone into bread. Maybe right thing, wrong time.

Do we trust the father today with our life and our identity and what he's promised us and what we see and what we're hanging on to? And I like what you said. It doesn't say that in the scripture let me look at it again. It says, if you're the son of god, command these but Jesus answered after that temptation. It is written, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of god.

Notice that he didn't say man doesn't live on bread because we do, right? Bread and water, like food and water, those are physically sustaining things that are actually a need. But there was something more. You just don't live on bread only. There's another component here.

Think about it. If we just had just our literal needs met like food, shelter, clothing, we're surviving, not thriving in any capacity. We're just surviving, right? And we're really no different than bugs or birds or dogs. They don't have clothing.

Although some do on Instagram and they're very cute, but they shouldn't be wearing clothes. We're no different. You know this just with common sense. Psychology tells you this, but humans, human beings need purpose. We need love.

We need to feel significant. We need to be part of something bigger than ourselves so we know that our lives matter. We need to be part of a community so we know and are known, so we love and are loved. Right? This is how we flourish.

We can survive. But I don't think that's God's best. We wither without those extra things. We need some kind of word to show us who we are and what God says about us. And God had just told Jesus what he thought about him.

And the enemy immediately is like, I'll attack that. All right. Look at this second one, standing at the high point of the temple. All right. Chapter five excuse me, verse five, it says, Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, that would have been in Jerusalem, and said to him, If you're the son of God, throw yourself down.

Oh, what comes next? He adds a new tactic, that dirty dog, for it is written. Okay, so here we have Satan quoting scripture. And Satan says, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you and on their hands, they'll bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. I I taught kids church for many, many years and we used to say, just because you stand in the garage doesn't make you a car.

Meaning, just because you know the word of god doesn't mean you're a Christian and then here we see the devil quoting scriptures. So, I I think we're mature and we know that but the devil knows scripture, demons know scripture. So just because you know it here is not the same as knowing it here. Having it in your head and your heart are different. Alright, what do you guys think of this one?

The high point. Again, there's lots of different angles and opinions and things that we could see from this. But why would why would the devil tempt him with this particular temptation? He's standing up on the pinnacle. And and did you guys know?

I don't know how it actually happened, but the how many of you have seen Lord of the Rings? The best thing I can picture is like when Frodo puts on the ring and poof, he's somewhere else like a vision. That's like must have been what happened because I don't think Satan and Jesus walked with their physical feet, you know, up to the top of the pinnacle. So it must have been a vision. And that's not out of character for the Bible.

Zechariah, Isaiah, and Ezekiel all had these kinds of visions. So, he was immediately on the top of the the pinnacle. Any thoughts? That's okay. Okay, so there's a new technique added.

He's quote scripture. Do you know where that scripture is? What he was saying? It was it was partial by the way. It's from Psalm 91 that is so beautiful and so poetic and it's like, he he who dwells in the shadow of the almighty but Satan twisted the scripture and he left parts out trying to convince him.

That if Jesus would make god his refuge, then he'll have like, this is the way I see it. That he'll have like health, wealth, and happiness and nothing bad will ever happen. Uh-oh. Have people preached that? I don't I don't think that's what the scripture says.

Does God want to provide for us in his own way and time? Absolutely. But is the the goal of Christianity to have a bigger house, bigger boat, more land? No. This kind of makes God more like a genie.

When you need him, you rub the lamp and he comes and grants your wishes and then tucks back in. We talked about this last week, Brian said, and we've talked about it many times before, but Jesus isn't just something you add to your life. He's your everything and he's at the top. He has the driver's seat, the front seat. He's on the throne of your life, the king of your heart, and everything else comes after that.

He's not just one slice of your life pie. He's everything, right? And so with this perspective is how we should see him. Why would he put him on the high point of the temple Jerusalem? What did the temple represent in that time?

It's like where people would go to worship, right? Where God's presence. Yeah, the house of God, where people would go. So surely there would be so many people there. And I don't know in this vision, this Frodo vision as I'm calling it, would it be like real time?

You know, what was actually happening? I'm just using my imagination. I'm not sure. Or was it just like a hypothetical, you know, what was it? But somebody else perspective, I was talking to somebody and they said, oh, I thought it was so he would jump off while everybody was there coming in and out of the house of God worshiping.

And then the angels would catch him and everyone would cheer and be like, he is the son of god and then didn't have wouldn't have to go to the cross because everyone believed. That's a different perspective. Now, I don't I don't know. The devil is not omniscient. He doesn't know all like god does.

So, I don't know if he really knew what was going to happen as far as the cross goes. Alright, anything else from that? Since we're paralleling Jesus in the wilderness with the Israelites in the wilderness, remember what they remember what they did all the time? Complained. Yeah, Joy, do you have the mic with you?

Yeah, please.

I was just thinking like the the temple is built on a high place and high places are real significant throughout the Bible. And so, the devil takes Jesus up to the high place and I believe my hot take is that the high places are important because they're very close to where heaven and earth meet or possibly are in some cases where heaven and earth meet. And so, to take him to this position that is reserved for god and and where god comes to meet with his people. Because we see the we see like the idols and the false gods also trying to put their altars in high places as well. To try to usurp that place.

That god has set aside for him and so, I wonder if there's also some sort of positioning as far as devil. Again, talking to his, speaking to his identity like here, we'll take you to the high place that's supposed to be where you and or where god and man can meet but instead, throw yourself down and throw yourself out of that position and out of that identity and and yeah, the angels will just like catch you and it'll be alright but I think that Satan knew that there was a bigger symbolic move. Where he's taking himself out of a position of authority. Yeah, that's really good.

Remember, Jesus was all god and all man and we see in scripture that the word became flesh. Jesus was speaking of himself, right? He he was the word. He knew the word. But the devil is still trying to tempt him, and he's changing his tactics as we see.

Progress down to the the third one. When they went to the the high mountain and again, like you just said, this is significant too with like a high place. There's so much to to to dig in. We're just kind of kind of hitting the surface today with the time we have. Alright.

Look at this third temptation. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. I believe it was past, present, and future at that time of what he was showing him. And he said to him, all these I will give to you if you will fall down and worship me. And Jesus had a different response.

Jesus said to him, be gone, Satan. For it is written, you shall worship the lord your god and him only shall you serve. Okay. This third one, he changes his tactics again. Know if your son, know if you're the son of god and all of that, it was just pretty much a bold offer of power and authority.

That to me shows his hand a little bit more. You know, none of this skirting around just like this is a temptation that you could fall for. This is what he does to us now and I'm just gonna this is what it is. Look. Look how great it is.

What do you guys make? Do you have any thoughts on that on that third temptation? Giving Jesus all the kingdoms? Because somebody might say, did did Satan have the authority to do that? The Bible doesn't say he didn't.

And we see in multiple places in scripture after the fall in the Garden of Eden that Satan is the prince of this world. What do you guys make of this third temptation? What do you think?

Just to your point of, like, of Satan being the prince of this world, like, we're supposed to live in the world, but our goal is not to be here. Like, our destiny is eternal life in the kingdom with Jesus. And so this is just like the classic devil being like all the things of this world I can give to you and that's amazing. And like this is great. But then it's like, okay, but what happens afterwards?

Like, what will that cost? Yeah. More than you want to pay. Yeah. Yeah.

That's good. Yeah. In the back.

Hey, when I hear this, it makes me think of the verse where it talks about what is it for a man to gain the whole world and lose his whole soul. And I think what's significant about this is it just shows there's god is better than the world's best thing. So there's there's nothing that can be offered in exchange for serving him and worshiping him in his glory.

Mhmm. That's really good.

I have to remind myself sometimes of the color in between the black and white lines that we read Mhmm. In the Bible here and how the actual experience that Jesus had here of being covered in dust and mud and having sand blown on him for forty days and it's easy to picture the devil as just this like trickster who's like, oh yeah, I'll give you this. Was actually much, I'm sure it was much more because Brian talks about how Lucifer was the, gosh, the worship leader in heaven and how he had a certain amount of beauty about him. So, this, I mean, if this was tempting for Jesus, it must have been much more significant in a in a richer way than it's easy to picture. So, I imagine that it was a temptation that so many of us, man, woman, or child would easily fall into.

Mhmm. The temptation of being given power.

Yeah. Things of this world, like you said, Ella. Yeah. That's really good.

I think also this is something that we get tempted with every day because it's and it's not so blatant. Like, we don't necessarily see it as the enemy saying bow down before me. But it's like worship your beauty, you know, and like throw all your money at like beauty products or something. That's like our way of kneeling down to something like that. Or, you know, whatever that idol is in your life.

Work all the time so that you can make money, you know, bow down before me. But I think also that it, like you said earlier, and kind of going off what Phil said, like the first one is light and it's, Oh, I wouldn't know that that's a temptation. But I think that if we keep resisting the temptations, eventually the enemy does play his hand a little too strong. And I think that if we can wait

it If we're holding fast. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

If we're holding fast and I think that he plays his hand and then you can really see like he starts out with me with like a little tiny thing and I'm

like, yeah, okay. But

then if I can keep holding fast, eventually he'll say something like, that is

a ridiculous thought that is from you and not from me. Exactly. Yeah.

And I think something I noticed within all of these is that Satan knows scripture. Yeah. And he knows how to use it against you. And manipulate people through truth. He manipulates the truth just a little bit to make you believe it and I think it's something we have to take to heart is listening to people and.

Yeah.

Really letting the Holy Spirit guide us in our understanding of scripture.

For sure. Yeah, the the reason his lies work so well is because there's a shred of truth woven in. Whether it's scripture or something else. I mean, the and for humans, the best lies are the ones that have truth mixed in. Yeah, he's a manipulator for sure.

It's very interesting if you look at art depictions of Jesus in the wilderness or anything else, just biblical art throughout the centuries. Something you said reminded me of it. It's like it progresses from the devil being represented like almost like reptile reptilian, like like scales and horns and like like, you know, like, and then it gets a little a little less offensive or grotesque, you know, and then a couple centuries later, it'll be like he's represented particularly for this passage in Matthew where he looks a little more human, but like he still has a tail, you know, and then it progresses. If you look at all the way to more recent and I mean, like early 1900s or late 1800s and it's like he they represent Satan like a monk. Like he looks like a human monk and a monk would be representative of like godly, you know.

I don't know. There's some we don't have to go into to it today like a college art course but it's very interesting how the art progresses, you know, as part of society because I do think it's a little bit how the enemy works like you said, Gretchen, like he just gets just a little more like, wait, do I believe that? Do I believe that? Wait. Yeah, Phil, what do you got?

Please. I'm sorry.

What what Chris said was like kind of resonated with me about like what did what did that look like for Jesus and how tough was that for Jesus when I immediately look at this passage I immediately think of that image of like a reptilian devil like in front of you and and when I'm tempted I almost wish that that's the case.

So it be obvious.

Like no that's a devil.

I'm gonna

say no no matter what he says. But you know that's that's not the case like he's a lot more sly than that.

He's a lot

more sneaky than that and that's when it comes to like that discernment in my own walk where I'm like, god, can you let me know if it's the devil talking to me or not?

Like. Yeah.

Yeah. What's the deal here? And I guess that's just something that we all have to go through and have the spirit discern within us like. To resist the devil which is James four seven which is resist the devil. You know, submit yourselves first to god.

Mhmm. And then resist the devil and he will flee from you and that's what we see in this story. And so it's like always that initial push to just resist, resist, resist. Also with scripture and submitting to God. Absolutely.

When we

don't submit to God, that's when I'm like, okay, I'm I'm going to go do whatever you say, devil, or like whatever my own flesh says. So.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Very good. Yeah. That's the this we talk about it all the time. The discernment of the Holy Spirit. Why we cultivate a relationship with him?

Why we are reading the Bible every day? Why we're spending time with the Lord? Because that's how we that's how that discernment builds. And then over time, you quickly recognize something that would have been very hard to spot in the past. But that's God does his supernatural part with that.

But we do our natural part, which is putting in the time and the effort and the the fortitude to do that and to study. I think so. Yeah, Jesus Jesus was tempted three times by the devil. The devil thought that one of these perhaps could work. Because remember, all God, all man, but I also think it's something that Jesus was just being an example and showing us because these, however, we want to define these three temptations, there's something that we still experience today that all humans have experienced for all times.

What Billy Graham calls them respectively the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And he would say that those three things are still the three temptations that the enemy tries to get us with. So Jesus went in to the wilderness. He was tested. He was led by the Holy Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit, confident in in his identity of who he was, and he combated enemy attack with the word.

That's a pretty good formula. Simple, not easy, but a pretty good formula for us to follow. Let's look at some components of this story. When we read this in Matthew, like what are just and I want to write down some of parents. What are some of these things that you see?

For example, temptations. Like, we just saw that. What is something else that just pops out to you from this passage? Just a component of some kind.

Going back to kinda what you just said. Right? It's like he was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. Yeah. But it's not God that's doing the tempting.

It's not, like, the spirit doing the tempting. It's the devil. And I just think that was a big, excuse me, juxtaposition where it's like, yeah, like, the spirit will lead you into the wilderness where the devil will try to destroy you. But when you do hold fast to like, when you're armed, by him, then it's then it's okay.

Yeah.

That was just like an interesting takeaway for me that it's like, okay, the spirit led me into the wilderness. Why would he lead me into the wilderness? Like, why would the spirit why would God do that? And then Right. Like, just where the devil's ready for me.

But, yeah. I just like using this as a example of you're gonna be in the wilderness no matter what. So be ready.

Right. It's almost like reframing it or reframing your perspective. Like, instead of like the wilderness is bad. Keep me away. And the Holy Spirit, he's he's a gentleman.

He's not gonna drag you kicking and screaming right into the wilderness. So it's like reframe it like, okay. I'm gonna like, it's a fact. I'm gonna go through the wilderness. With that in mind, what is my part?

It's to be led by the Holy Spirit and not if, but when temptation comes or the enemy attacks, what do I do? Yeah, it's just like not pretending like it's not gonna happen, but reframing to make sure you know how to handle it. What else do you see? We see temptation. We see fasting.

Was there a number that kept popping up again and again?

Oh, I don't have a comment about the number.

Oh, yeah. By all means. I can get there in a second.

Yeah. I had a thought based on what Ella was saying. I heard this a few years ago, but, Ella, what you were just saying was making me think of it again. If you do a word study on the Hebrew word for desert, it's med I might I'm probably not pronouncing it right, but it's medbar. Mhmm.

And then if you study the word I wrote it down again. The word for speak in Hebrew is medbar. So they're super close. However, I don't know anything about grammar, but they're really close words.

And Desert and speaking.

Desert and speak. And so just drawing the connection between, yeah, the spirit leading you into the desert, which is a place of weakness so that he can speak to you. Mhmm. And just thought it was really cool that in Hebrew, those words are so close and we see the Lord. We see the spirit doing that all through scripture.

Yeah. So that we can draw closer to Jesus.

That's really good. Do we have the ability to even if he's speaking, can we choose to not listen? Alright, let's look at a few of these components. Identity, we already kind of we talked about this, but identity was one. So God had just opened the heavens at Jesus's baptism and declared publicly, this is my son and who I'm well pleased.

And the first thing Satan does is try to get Jesus to question his identity. If you're the son of God. Boy, do we get off track when we have misplaced identity. Right? We make really dumb choices when our identity is found in anything other than God.

It could it could feel temporarily okay or like we're doing the right thing. But if our identity is not found in God, we're off track. Jesus in the wilderness was our example of how to pass that test. Okay, he was fasting. When we're weak, do temptations feel stronger or weaker?

Stronger. I mean, I confession time, I have fasted before and been like, I mean, it's just like a it's like a grape. It's just like a like a fruit and I'm just already feeding my family so I'll probably just like eat it and it'll be fine and I'm like, no. What are you doing? Like, and that's a very mild temptation.

But when we are weak, temptations feel stronger, goes way beyond food. And it is easy to give in to momentary relief. Right? But the cost of that is always more than we want to pay. A momentary relief could be a coping mechanism for the pain you feel.

It could be this disappointment of some kind it could be looking for a dopamine hit of any kind. That's momentary relief. And that's not what Jesus did in the wilderness he held strong. He was physically weak. Remember, it says he was hungry and at the end, it says the angels ministered to him if he was doing just fine, nobody would need to minister him and he wouldn't be hungry.

This is showing his humanness. Satan tries to use moments of weakness. Here in the story in Jesus's humanness when he was feeling hungry, he even used the word, he even used scripture, but Jesus responded with the truth of the word and that overrode his natural feelings of the flesh. Self control, remember is a fruit of the spirit. Jesus in the wilderness was our example of how to pass this test.

Temptation. We just talked about it, but to sum it up, first Corinthians ten thirteen, this is a this is such a great scripture. No temptation has overtaken you except that was just common to mankind. And God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.

But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so you can endure it. That's a that's a hard truth for me if I'm being honest. I totally believe it and it brings me comfort, but it's also like really challenging. Like do we have to be tested? Do we have to endure stuff?

Do we have to go through pain and be in the wilderness? Yeah because of the fall. Now, if you look at the end of the book, Revelation 20, it won't always be like this. So one of the big discomforts we have is that it is temporary. When we're tested, we can mature and grow spiritually.

Of course, we can get stronger. We can be more ready to be used for God's glory in the future. Remember Jesus was about to launch into his ministry. It's very brilliant and strategic where this story and where these events took place in the life of Jesus. First Peter four twelve tells us not to be surprised when trials come and test you.

This tells me that wilderness is to be expected, right? Like we just said, like kind of reframe it. Okay, well, it's gonna happen, what's my part? And you trust God to do a supernatural part. Jesus said in John six thirty three, trouble will come.

In this world, you will, not you might, you will have trouble, but then he says, but take heart, I've overcome the world. Romans five three, this, get your big glass of water to take this pill down because this is a hard one. Romans five three, we rejoice in our suffering knowing it produces endurance, which produces character. Do you remember the last part which then produces hope. James one:four, Count it joy when trials come because it produces patience.

This is kind of cool, which having its full effect, we become complete and lacking nothing. That's like a, that's a big deal. So these trials, they come, God is not, God does not waste the wilderness. Right? All right.

Another component we see is resisting the devil. And we already hit on this, but people often misquote James four:seven. Phil, you did not. But people will just say, resist the devil and he will flee. Resist the devil and he will flee.

That that is in there, but it's the second part. Remember how on the second temptation, the devil came and kind of like misquoted scripture to kind of fit into his narrative? This the beginning part of James four seven, the first, it comes in mid sentence. It actually says, therefore, submit yourself to god or some versions say, humble yourself to god. Then, you resist the devil and he will flee.

If you are off track or uncalibrated or just living life the way that you want, God still loves you, but you're choosing to be out of his divine protection. Right? Jesus was submitted to the father, wasn't he? He completed James four seven. He was humbled and submitted to his father.

And this is the type of trust and surrender, of course, that we're always striving for as believers. Oh, let's just touch on the following because we don't have time, but it's very fascinating. Numerology is very fascinating. Not the new agey stuff where you get off track, but biblical numerology is very interesting. The number, what number do we see again and again with wilderness or just in the Bible?

40. Look where this shows up. And it's often associated with a time of being tested. Noah, it rained for forty days and nights. The Israelites, we talked about, wandered around for forty years.

Goliath taunted Israel forty days before David approached and did his slingshot thing. 40 lashes were what guilty criminals were supposed to receive as punishment. And do you remember Jesus before the cross received 39 because they didn't because he wasn't guilty and they wanted to wash their hands of it and not deal with the political red tape. So he got 39, but 40 was the number of lashes for guilty criminals. Israel served the Philistines as an old Testament story for forty years before Samson came and saved him, helped him.

Moses spent forty days on Mount Sinai and then Jonah declared that 40 in forty days, Nineveh was to be destroyed if they didn't repent. Do a do a search on that and text me what you find. It's very interesting. The number 40 associated with the time of testing. I I am completely making this up.

It's not from scripture but I feel like turning regarding age like it almost takes, this is just Amanda's hot take. It almost takes forty years of living life to be like, oh, that's what it means to be a human and then at 41, you start like applying what you've learned. That's my own hot take. All right, this last one, we're going to talk about one more and then we'll begin to land the plane. Being led by the Holy Spirit is what scripture says.

Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit and he was led in. Satan didn't lure him. Jesus didn't happen to come upon it. The very spirit of God whom he was filled with led him there. What do you guys think of that?

It's not God's character in nature to lure us into traps that will cause us harm, right? For no reason, that's not his nature. What do you guys think of that? The just that particular piece of the Holy Spirit being the one that led him in. Do you like that or not like it?

Does it sit right or not right? Like it?

Well, from my understanding, god is a righteous god. So, if he said he going do something, he going do it. So, like I don't think that god will want to punish you because he's a good person but if he said he going to do it, then, it's only right that he do what he said he going to do. So, I believe that him bringing Jesus into the wilderness is also a test to a test to well, it's not, don't feel like it's a test to Jesus do. I think it's just to give us hope.

You know, to show us what to do.

Be an example. Yeah. Yeah. Just

tested us basically. Giving us, giving us a blueprint.

Right. And and didn't that qualify him for the cross to handle, the Bible says he handled everything that we handled endured everything that we endure but yet he was without sin. He did it right. He was the perfect example being all god and all man. To say no to temptation and to just show us how to live.

Hey, I'm gonna add something really quick. Yeah, please. I think there's a big difference too between like testing and temptation. Like, I just felt that that was like important to say. I'm like, Jesus like might test you but he's not going to be the one that tempts you.

Mhmm. And I think that's like if you're going through a hard time or something happened or you are like being tempted in some sort of way. Like, that's not from the lord. Yeah. And I think that that's like very different than god maybe breaking you into the wilderness so that you can grapple grapple and deal with those different things.

Mhmm. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, like a teacher gives a test not because they hate you. They wanna see what you know. And it's usually uncomfortable.

And there's one guy who studied and everyone hates him. But remember what the scripture says, yeah, that's really good, Sarah. Like, in Deuteronomy, god said he brought the Israelites into the wilderness so that he can humble them and test them to know what was in their heart. That sounds like a a gracious god, not it is not in god's nature to want us to fail. That's silly.

Yeah. He wants us to succeed. Yeah. That's good. As we land the plane, our original question, is the wilderness good or bad?

You guys had really great responses. Would you change your answer? Maybe. I think I agree with good question mark because it draws me to the presence of god but still very challenging. By the way, you can waste the wilderness.

We as believers have this love hate relationship with free will. Right? But it is our choice. We can choose to not fight or combat it all and just roll over and give up. It's not god's best but we can choose to do that and don't hear what I'm not saying because sometimes in life, things happen that crush you so much that you feel just like a broken glass shattered all over.

There's a time for healing and there's a time where God meets you where you're at. But don't give up. We just briefly touched on Elijah but if you look at first Kings 19, do you know what he said? Do you remember this? He said, he he went to the wilderness.

He found a broom tree. He sat under it and he literally said, I've had enough. I've had enough, god. No more. Take my life.

That's what he said in first Kings 19. I've had enough. How many times have we said that? I've had that we tell god, I've had enough. It's okay to tell him that.

He knows it. It's good to be honest. Psalm thirty four eighteen says, the lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are Christian spirit. Here's a thought. Your deepest need becomes a gift when it drives you to depend on God.

There's a song, my son and I were listening to it on the way here today, actually, but it's by Chandler Moore and here's what the lyrics say. It just resonates with how we feel when we're in a place of wilderness. Trust is hard with a broken heart, but with you I finally learned that when it felt like you didn't come through for me when you didn't do exactly what I wanted, you always gave me what I needed. Foolish of me to box you in but the shape of my broken heart didn't leave much room for you but you always gave me what I needed. Life is really hard.

There are seasons of joy and delight. There are seasons of hardship. You know, we call them mountaintop experiences and valleys. It's life. But when we're in the wilderness, I want you to just remember you are, if you've accepted the lord and surrendered your life and you are filled with the holy spirit and you are there, you are learning something, you have the potential and the opportunity to grow it's not automatic you have to make the natural choice remember Jesus does the supernatural part but like we started today and we were talking about being uncomfortable is not the same as being abandoned.

My final thought today is that wilderness is not a place of punishment but a place of preparation. What is god preparing you for? In scripture it was Jesus launching into his ministry. If you're a believer we kind of all whether you whether a church writes your paychecks or not we're all in ministry right? I love what Dave Poston said one of our favorite authors.

He said there's no such thing as a secular job when you're a believer because you bring the light of Jesus into every place you go wilderness or not what is God preparing you for Before I pray and Jay comes up for announcements, let's just spend a moment. Justin, if you don't mind just playing, just as we say here at Tribe, just spend a few minutes doing business with the Holy Spirit. If you've never invited Jesus into your heart, that's the place to start. And if you're like, ah, what do I do? We're gonna, we have a place we can pray with you right after service in the booths back here.

But just spend a minute with the Holy Spirit. If you're angry, tell him that. If you're at peace, tell him that. Something you're thankful for but just do some business. You're just just for a minute or two.

And then we'll pray and and move on. Some of you I know and I know what you're going through. Some of you I don't, but I know you're going through something. Have, are, or will. And I just feel just the spirit of the Lord impressing in my heart like just make sure you don't do this alone.

You notice in our story today how the devil, chose to come to Jesus when he was alone. I mean, always had the father, but there was nobody else around. One of the biggest tactics of the enemy is to attack you when you're isolated or alone and at feeling at your lowest because without the strength of god, like in our own strength, there's things we go through that we literally cannot get over, right? Some things are just too hard or too crushing. But Jesus promises to hold our hand as we're sludging through the mud of a wilderness season.

But please do not do it alone. Let me pray pray for us today. Heavenly father, thank you so much for the opportunity to open your word together and to see this story that you so strategically designed. Thank you that Jesus is our ultimate example of how to be, how to respond, how to live. Let the seeds of your word that were from you today, Holy Spirit, just find a nice lodging spot in the tender heart soil of us.

And anything that's not of you, just let it be ashes and just disintegrate as we leave. Holy Spirit, thank you that you are our comforter. Thank you that we see clearly you led Jesus into the wilderness. You lead and guide us today into all things and we trust you. You never speak anything that is not of the father and so we trust you.

You have proven yourself to be trustworthy and whether we're saying that because we believe it or by faith, we just say thank you. Thank you for being a good leader. Jesus, thank you for being a good example for us. Combating the enemy with scripture, hanging on to the promises, knowing our identity which is in the father. Let us not for one moment as easy as it is.

Let us be a people who do not let circumstances control our response but the truth of our identity in you and who you are which subsequently is who we are as well. Thank you father for the fruit of your word. Lord, I pray just a blessing over everybody here today. Whatever wilderness season they've gone through or going through or know someone who's going through, let us just be more like you where we meet people where they're at and we just love them. Holy Spirit, I pray that you would point out people in our lives this very week who maybe were surprised by and maybe were not, who just need somebody to come alongside them.

So they know they're not doing it alone. Lord, we thank you that the woes of this life and the pain of this life are temporary when we know you. We stand on that promise. We stand in that hope and we say thank you for who you are, how you lead, and what you're gonna do with us, in us, and through us, for your kingdom as we stand fast on your word. In Jesus name, amen.

Well, we are only going to be together just a few more minutes. I'm going to ask Jay to come up and we're going to worship the lord one more way as we bring our tithe and our offering, a couple announcements, and then get you guys out of here on this beautiful Jackson Sunday, summer Sunday.

Alright, if you want go ahead and stand on up with me, and if you're willing, put your hands out in a position to receive like this. Go ahead and close your eyes. Lord, as we go into our week and we answer all these difficult if questions. We just ask that you be with us, Comfort us. Give us peace.

We know the ways is narrow. We know the way is tough, Lord. But we just ask that you help us to remember as we go on out. As Brian always says, you got this. Thank you, guys.

May the lord be with you. Have a great rest of your Sunday. Amen. Amen.