Last we left the Apostle Paul, he was in the city of Ephesus preaching the message that Jesus is the Savior. He stayed there for two years. During that time frame, a congregation had developed in Ephesus. A decent crowd of people would gather together each week to hear Paul’s sermons, sing hymns, say prayers, and high-five each other in the fellowship hall.
 
But this church crowd wasn’t the only kind of crowd that developed in Ephesus.
 
Today we’re going to learn about a crowd that developed in direct opposition to the Gospel. Our goal is get some guidance about the dangers of crowd-following in 2019 Raleigh. Before we begin, a prayer: O Lord, strengthen us by the truth, your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see, our ears to hear what you want us to hear and our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.
 
I. A Crowd Forms
 
The lesson comes from Acts 19. It says, “There arose a great disturbance about the Way. A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in a lot of business for the craftsmen there.” (v.23)
 
A couple of notes:
 
Demetrius is a Greek name. It means, “servant of Demeter.” Demeter was the Greek goddess in charge of crops. She made sure that the grains grew. She made sure the oats grew. She made sure the corn grew. She made sure that they were golden and delicious. She made sure that they were a part of a daily balanced breakfast. (Something tells me that Demeter looked something like a breakfast food character).
 
But Demetrius wasn’t only worshipping deities around the food pyramid. He worked for the temple of Artemis. Artemis was the Greek goddess of hunting (meat). The story was that you could call on her and give gifts at her temple to increase your likelihood of bagging a quail on the morning hunt.
 
In Ephesus was the Temple to Artemis. It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. The temple was 425 feet long by 200 feet wide. It was tall and ornate with beautiful marble columns. People came from across the ancient world in order to visit this incredible wonder.
 
And while the tourists were visiting the temple, they could pick up a souvenir! That’s where Demetrius came into play. He was a silversmith. His job was to build replica temples and replica statues of Artemis that he would sell on the corner right outside the monument. The little silver statue would become a keepsake or a household idol that people would pray to and hold close for protection.
 
But business had been down recently.
 
It wasn’t related to the economy.
It wasn’t related to a lack of work.
It wasn’t due to the weather keeping people from going outside.
 
It was because of Paul.
Paul had been preaching against idols.
Paul had been telling people that Artemis wasn’t a real god.
Paul had been telling people that Jesus was the only real God.
People were believing him and subsequently buying fewer idols.
 
So…Demetrius called together a meeting of all the people involved with the temple. Silversmiths, store owners, gift shop employees, temple janitors, even Amazon Prime drivers who delivered the statues across town…
 
Demetrius gathered together everyone involved with the trade and said:
You know, my friends, that we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that gods made by human hands are no gods at all. There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited; and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty. (v.25b-27)

Do you see the issue?
 
Paul is ruining Demetrius’ fine way of living. Before you know it, Demetrius might not be able to go the Angus Barn. He might not be able to afford his fancy jewelry and fine cheese. He might not be able to buy Grey Poupon at the local grocery store.
 
Demetrius was upset because he was losing money. You can almost hear him:
 
Sure, these people get forgiveness.
They get joy.
They get the promise of heaven.
 
But I won’t be able to make my payment on the second Lexus I bought, so…
 
Paul must be stopped!
 
Here’s the truth:
Crowds led by SINFUL HUMANS are opposed to HOLY GOD.
 
That was Demetrius. He was a sinful human. He was leading a crowd against God’s message.
But this will be true in any situation.
 
Why?
 
1) Because Sin opposes God.
 
God is good.
Sin is bad.
 
God is against sin.
Sin is against God.
 
God doesn’t say to sin: “You’re awesome.”
Sin doesn’t say to God: “Let’s be best friends.”
 
They are drastically opposed to one another.
 
It’s like UNC and Duke. When they are playing one another in their next basketball showdown, every time one team makes a basket those points are good for one side and bad for the other.
 
Duke can’t throw an alley-oop slam dunk and divide the points evenly among both squads.
UNC can’t hit a three pointer and have it appear on the other team’s scoreboard.
 
By the very nature of a game with opposing teams, good news for one team means bad news for the other.
By the very nature of reality, when something godly happens that’s good news for God’s side and bad news for crowds led by sin.
 
When a sinful leader is the leader of the crowd, that crowd will inevitably clash with God.
 
2) Because the Perspective is different.
 
Humans live on a timeline.
We are born.
We grow.
We live 30, 40, 50 years.
 
Everything we do is on a timeline:
I need a report in by Friday.
I need to finish schooling by December.
I need to make enough money for my son’s inheritance before I die.
 
God is different.
God is eternal.
He is off the timeline.
He is concerned with eternity.
 
Because the temporal perspective is so different from the eternal perspective, there’s a contradiction.
 
Case in point:
God wanted people to stop worshipping idols so that they could know the Savior and have eternal life.
Demetrius wanted people to stop worshipping Jesus so that he could have more money and buy himself a nice steak dinner.
 
The perspective is different.
The result?
Crowds led by SINFUL HUMANS are opposed to HOLY GOD.
 
This is still true today.
 
In 2018 in rural Mexico, Pastor Eduardo Garcia served at local country church. One of the struggles in Mexico is drug addiction. Crystal meth has taken over in the area. It’s ruined health, finances, and family. Pastor Eduardo Garcia preached against the danger of Meth.
 
He taught that Meth couldn’t save you; only Jesus could.
He taught that Meth didn’t remove guilt; only Jesus did.
He taught that Meth eventually brought death; and Jesus brought life.
 
And a few drug addicts listened.
He got them help.
They got off the drugs.
 
Great news, right?
 
Except for the Drug Cartel.
They were losing money.
So…
 
The Drug Cartel had Pastor Eduardo Garcia gunned down in the streets.
 
Crowds led by SINFUL HUMANS are opposed to HOLY GOD.
 
Beware.
 
II. The Crowd Rages
 
Back to the story. When the crowd heard Demetrius’ speech, “They were furious and began shouting: ‘Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!’ ”(v.28)
 
They rushed into the city.
They shouted.
They screamed.
They pumped their fists.
They motioned for others to join them.
 
People joined the crowd who agreed with their cause.
People joined the crowd who loved Artemis.
People joined the crowd who enjoyed shouting.
People joined the crowd who didn’t want others to get mad at them for not joining the crowd.
People joined the crowd because they didn’t want to miss out on whatever was about to happen.
 
Regardless, the crowd grew in number.
 
They grabbed two men – Gaius and Aristarchus – two church members that worked with Paul.
They dragged them through the streets.
 
Eventually, the streets were so narrow – and the crowd was so big – that they had to make their way to the local theater. It was the only building big enough to house the large crowd that had gathered.
 
As they gathered and shouted, they threw a guy named Alexander to the front in order to explain this message of Jesus.
But – thing was – Alexander wasn’t even a believer.
He just looked like he might be.
When he tried to explain that, the crowd got angrier. They didn’t want to listen.
 
And then it started.
Two hours.
Two straight hours of shouting:
 
Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!
Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!
Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!
Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! She’s the greatest god of all time.
Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! This guy named Jesus is costing us money.
Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! I really, really hate the Jews.
Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! I just drank a bunch of booze.
Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! I don’t know what I’m doing.
Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! That plane in the sky? Is that a Boeing?
 
Two hours of screaming.
Screaming from people who don’t even know why they’re screaming in the first place.
 
Here’s the warning:
Crowd following can be a MINDLESS activity.
 
Maybe you’ve fallen victim.
 
Peer pressure in high school, “It’s what the cool kids are doing.”
Friends egging you on at a bar, “Come on. Just say it.”
Your family, “Hate those people. It’s what we do.”
Comments on your social media profile, “If you don’t believe this, you are despicable.”
Society, “If you want to fit in, get rid of the god stuff. That’s the way the crowd is going.”
 
It’s so easy to follow the crowd.
 
Even mindlessly.
 
But MINDLESS crowd following is NEEDLESLY dangerous.
 
Jesus is loving.
Jesu is our Savior.
You trust him, right?
He died for you.
He rose for you.
He loves you.
There’s no one more trustworthy than Jesus, right?
 
Look at what your trustworthy Savior said in the Gospel for today:
Do not be afraid of the one who can kill the body, but be afraid of the One who can destroy both body and soul in hell. (Mark 10:28)
 
Do you hear what Jesus is saying?
 
Don’t fear a dislike on Facebook more than holy hellfire.
Don’t fear the loss of a friend more than the loss of your God.
Don’t fear society calling you a name more than your Lord calling you DAMNED.
 
Don’t fear anything more than your God.

III. The Crowd is Defeated
 
Because no crowd can OVERPOWER God.
 
Back to Ephesus.
 
The shouting had been going on for a solid two hours.
Finally, the city clerk, who is a high-ranking individual in Ephesians society, made his way to the front of the steps.
After motioning for them to be quiet, they finally chilled.
 
He said to them:
 
“Calm down; don’t do anything rash.” (v.36)
 
Guys, we need to stop.
Artemis is still known around the world.
We’re still rich.
Tourists are still visiting.
These two church members haven’t done anything illegal.
The reality is that if Caesar hears about this riot – we’re the ones who did something illegal.
And we’ll be the ones getting into trouble.
 
Chill.
Relax.
Go home.
 
Then, he dismissed them.
And the crowd went home.
Because sometimes God protects his people through people that aren’t even his people.
 
TRUTH:
No crowd can OVERPOWER God.

Take one more example from Jesus.
 
He was arrested by a crowd of angry men.
They brought him to the Assembly.
They shouted for hours, not ‘Great is Artemis!’, but “Crucify Him!”
They dragged him through the narrow streets.
They hung him on a cross…all the while jeering, mocking, and spitting.
 
He took his last breath and it looked like the crowd had won.
 
But…
 
Three days later.
Three days later…
Jesus came back to life.
 
And that wasn’t the only crowd against him!
Because Jesus went to the cross with a crowd of your sins on his back.
The sins of rebelling against his Word.
The sins of bowing to peer pressure.
The sins of following the crowd opposed to God.
 
But those sins didn’t overpower Jesus.
He overpowered them.
 
Through faith in him, those sins won’t overpower you.
You are forgiven.
You are victorious.
Christ will bring you home to heaven.
 
Because…
Christ following ALWAYS leads to ETERNAL life.
 
No other crowd will do that.
Not a crowd of your friends.
Not a crowd of your coworkers.
Not a crowd of social media followers.
 
Only Jesus can.
And does.
Only Jesus will.

IV. What Now?
 
1) Identify the Leader.
 
Have you ever driven cross-country in a caravan? That’s when a bunch of cars all follow one another. If you’re going to do that, suddenly it becomes very important that you know who you’re following. Because if you don’t pay very good attention. Well…
 
I remember one time I was following a red van. I was supposed to follow it to a place in Durham. But after it was taking awhile, I looked up at the road signs and saw that I was approaching Greenville.
 
Turns out? I had been following a red van that wasn’t the one my friend was driving.
 
It’s important to identify the leaders in your crowds of people. Because that will tell you where you’re going.
 
Is the leader a sinful human?
Is it a sinful human who doesn’t care about Jesus?
Is it a sinful human who is led by Jesus? That’s the crowd you want.
 
2) Unfollow the Sinful Crowd.
 
Unfortunately, this is a lot harder than simply going onto Facebook and hitting “UNFOLLOW.” (Although that might be part of this.)
 
If it’s a crowd that you’ve been following for a while, you might have acquaintances, friendships, and good friends in that crowd.
Those relationships, emotions, and feelings will make it hard to unfollow that crowd.

But…

If that crowd is leading you away from your Savior…
 
Don’t be Demetrius.
Don’t forfeit the Christ in exchange for money, for fame, for fortune, for good times, for a momentary pleasure…for stuff that doesn’t last.
 
3) Follow the Christ.
 
Because Christ is not overpowered by any crowd.
And if you’re following him, neither will you.
 
Because Christ always leads to eternal life.
If you’re following him, that’s where you’ll be.
 
Check out Revelation 7. It describes a different kind of crowd.
A bigger crowd.
A more diverse crowd.
A crowd shouting louder than that Ephesus crowd.
A crowd shouting longer than that Ephesus crowd.
A crowd shouting about a being greater than the Ephesus crowd was shouting about.
A crowd shouting in heaven:

“Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

Friends, that’s the crowd you want to be in.

We’re continuing our sermon series about EYEWITNESS Easter accounts where we read reports from people who saw Jesus come back to life with their own eyes.
We heard from a group of three women at the tomb.
We heard from Mary Magdalene a bit later.
We heard from 2 disciples on a road trip to Emmaus.
We heard from about 20 disciples in a locked room.
 
In total on Easter Sunday, there’s around 25 eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ resurrection.
In 4 different locations.
At 4 different times.

That’s a lot of proof.

And yet…maybe you’re not convinced…
 
Have you ever played the game of OLD MAID before?

What happens is you are dealt a hand of cards. Once it’s your turn you draw cards from any other player on the table. The goal is to get pairs until you run out of cards in your hand. And you never, ever want to get the Old Maid.

Which I’m not sure why anyone doesn’t want the Old Maid.
Generally speaking – I’d love an Old Maid.
It’d be great to have someone help around the house…but I digress.
 
What happened when I was growing up is my dad used to take his hand.
He’d spread it out in a fan.
He’d take one card and put it up…enticing-like.
And he’d say, “You should take this one. Trust me. It’ll be good.”

And I’d believe him.
And…
OLD MAID.

Eventually. I didn’t take that card.
I was burned too many times.
I was skeptical.
 
Maybe you’ve gotten the Old Maid too many times.
Maybe you’ve been burned too often.
Maybe you’ve believed too many sinful people who have let you down too many times.
Maybe you’re skeptical about Jesus.

Today we’ll look an eyewitness account from a guy that was filled with skepticism. Our goal is to listen to how Jesus transforms his skepticism to faith – and see how we might transform ours into faith. Before we begin, a prayer: Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; our ears to hear what you want us to hear and our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.
 
I. The Eyewitness Account

Thomas’ eyewitness account comes from John 20. It starts in verses 24 with a caveat, “Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.“ It doesn’t say what Thomas was doing when Jesus appeared to all of the other disciples. Picture what you’d like. Maybe he was out for a walk. Maybe he was visiting a relative.

I like to think he was out getting coffee.
Probably a Venti black coffee.
Real stiff.
Real dark.
And as he was sipping the coffee – because the coffee is taking his mind off the terrible events that have happened recently - he sighs.

This is really awful.
We spent years following that guy.
And…he dies.
He’s no Messiah.
And we’ve got no hope.

As Thomas gets close to the door of the house, he takes a deep breath.
They are my friends. I should try and cheer them up. Get them ready to move on.
But from within the house –
Thomas doesn’t hear sadness.
He doesn’t hear crying.
But laughter.
And…joy.

Thomas has to really knock on the door to get them to hear him over their talking.
Finally, the door bursts open:

Alive! Thomas! He’s alive.
We saw him. We saw him. We saw him.
Jesus…here… resurrected.
Thomas – we touched him. We put our fingers in his hands. We put our hands into his side.
He’s real.
It’s real.
Jesus’ resurrection is real!
 
And this goes on for a while.
Excitement.
Happiness.
Joy.
Thomas’ friends trying to share their exuberance with their friend.

Until….
 
Quiet!
Enough.
Ya’ll are crazy.
 
I don’t know happened. If you had too much to drink or you’re hallucinating.
But.. I do know what didn’t happen.
Jesus didn’t visit you.
He isn’t alive.
He’s still…dead.
When will you guys get it through your thick skulls!
 
But one of them approaches:
But…Thomas.
We aren’t crazy.
We aren’t drunk.

Look around. There’s like 20 of us in the room.
20 of your closest, most sincere, loving friends in this room.
All of whom are telling you the truth – Jesus is alive!
We saw it with our eyes.
We touched him with our hands.
We’re telling you with our words.
Doesn’t that count for something?

To which:
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” (v.26)

Well…
One week later.
Same room.
Same time of day.
Same disciples.
Only this time…
Thomas is with them.

Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” (v.26)
Then, Jesus made a bee-line for Thomas.
Hey friend. “Do you see me?” I’m right here.
Put your finger here. That’s where the nails were.
Put your hand into my side. Isn’t that what you wanted?
While you’re at it. Close your eyes and listen…Can you hear my lungs breathing?
Put your ear against my chest. That’s my heart.

Thomas.
If you won’t listen to your friends.
Listen to me:
Stop doubting and believe. (v.27)
To which Thomas.
Doubting, skeptical Thomas.
Can only say:
“My Lord and my God!” (v.28)
In other words:
I believe.
 
II. Resurrection Truth

There it is. Thomas’ eyewitness account.
An account that has made Thomas forever known as Doubting Thomas.

Which – not super flattering.
I think, anxious Thomas, kinda-believing Thomas. or even average, everyday common Thomas would have been preferable.

But Doubting Thomas it is…and that’s important. Because his skepticism leads us to three incredible resurrection truths:

(1) Jesus Rose from the Dead
 
Fourth time it’s been key truth #1. It’ll keep coming.

But for real this time – because if last week’s account of 20 some odd people seeing, feeling, touching the risen Jesus … if that wasn’t enough.
Then, Thomas’ account is for you.
If you don’t believe this happened, Thomas’ words are for you.

He says, “I get it. I was skeptical too. Some guy dying and rising for the forgiveness of sins? It sounds crazy. It doesn’t happen.  But it did. I saw him with my own eyes. I touched him with my own hands. I did a thorough investigation – And it led me to this truth: Jesus is alive!”
 
And here’s the really cool part.
If Jesus is really alive.
Then so is his forgiveness.

Even for the doubter.
 
Because…notice what Jesus does when he enters the room.
The first thing he says is: “Peace to you.”

That “you” is plural.
It is all encompassing.
It includes Thomas.

Jesus didn’t say, “Peace be to most of you…but not you Thomas. You can sit over there and be anxious for a bit.”
Nope.

Jesus brought real forgiveness.
Even to the doubter.

Because maybe you’ve been doubting God.
Maybe you doubt this resurrection.
Maybe you’ve been doubting this Jesus thing.
Maybe you’ve never believed before.
Maybe you doubt God is with you, that God cares for you, that God loves you.

Repent.
And listen to Jesus’ voice:

“Peace be to you.”
 
(2) Faith is a Gift
 
Thomas had said, “Unless I see Jesus with my own eyes and touch him with my own hands, I will not believe.”
Which…
Stop and listen to what just happened.

Sinful, imperfect Thomas just gave Holy, Righteous God…an ultimatum.

Good idea?
Bad idea.

God doesn’t owe Thomas anything.
He’s God!

And yet – God gives Thomas exactly what he asks for.
He GIFTS Thomas exactly what he asked for.

He gives him the opportunity to be an eyewitness.
He gives Thomas faith.
 
And in fact, go a bit farther:
Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (vs. 29)
People who haven’t seen Jesus.
Who is Jesus talking about?

You see Jesus?
Dear believer, he’s talking about you.

But don’t get a big head. Listen again to Jesus’ words:
“Blessed.”

Blessed means given a gift.
And if you believe in Jesus…
If you believe that some dude died 2000 years ago, came back to life, and in him you are forgiven of all your sins?
That…is a gift.
A miraculous gift.
Don’t forget that.
 
I was talking with a woman the other day who was pretty excited to tell me that she got saved.
I said, “Oh. That sounds nice. What do you mean?”
And she said, “Well…I was already living a pretty perfect life. So, I though I might as well do it and decide to bring Jesus into my life. And Pastor, you should have seen it. I really did it.”

Did you catch that?
I did it. I did it. I did it.
I thought she said that she “got saved.”
But what she meant was, “I saved myself.”

Here’s the thing:
Faith isn’t something you do.
Faith isn’t something that you make happen.
Faith isn’t something that you get down on the ground, clench really hard and will into happening.

Faith is a gift of God.

If the devil has made you think that it’s something you do – be careful. It’s a line of thinking that leads to two scenarios:
(1) Pharisaical. AKA – Trust that I’m really awesome at believing.
(2) Despair. Because I’ll never be able to bring myself to believe this.

In both of those instances, faith isn’t in Jesus.
Faith is in oneself.
And that’s NOT saving faith.

Friends, faith is a gift.
Take a moment.
Give thanks to God for your Savior Jesus, yes.
But also gives thanks to God for your gift of faith.
 
(3) The Gift of Faith Comes through the Gospel
 
Because maybe you’re thinking – “God! I want this gift of faith. How are you going to send it?”

Fed Ex?
Amazon Prime?
UPS?
Maybe you can send me it via USPS?

But look at what John writes right after this eyewitness account. He says this: Jesus did many other miracles in the presence of his disciples – some that we didn’t even get to hear about – but these words are written – why? – that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. (v.30-31)
 
Get it?
Faith is a gift that comes through God’s Word.
Faith is a gift that comes through the words about Jesus.
Faith is a gift that comes from hearing about your Savior.

Scripture says this, “Faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the Word of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:8,9)

That’s it!

There’s not any fireworks.
There isn’t any magic incantations.
There isn’t any incredible 60 day fast that you need to do in order to cleanse your body and pray yourself into the kingdom of faith.

You simply need to hear the Gospel.
Because the Gospel brings the gift of faith.
 
How does it do that?
Because it’s not just some person’s words.
It’s the Word of God Himself.
The all-powerful, all loving, doing everything it can to reveal to you Jesus’ saving work to get you to heaven: God’s Word.

That leads me to two very simple WHAT NOWs:

(1) Immerse Yourself in God’s Word
 
Because if you have doubts, if you are unsure, if you are a skeptic…
The cure is not an ultimatum to God.
The cure is God’s Word.
His gentle, powerful, faith creating Word.

I love you.
I died for you.
I rose for you.
Believe.

If you want a stronger faith – study God’s Word.
In church. In a group. With others. On your own. In your family.

If you think your faith will grow without God’s Word – that’s like thinking your home garden will grow without any water.
It won’t happen.

Some of ya’ll need to hear God’s Word on this. Immerse yourself in the only thing that gifts faith in order to grow your faith: God’s Word.

(2) Share God’s Word

Because you probably know someone who is a skeptic.
You probably know someone who is unsure.
You probably know someone who is doubting.
You might even think – I don’t know what needs to be done.

You know the solution.
It’s God’s Word.
Bring them God’s Word.
Tell them about Jesus.
Tell them about the Savior.

Because it is through that message of God’s Word and only through that message of God’s Word that God gifts faith. Why it’s so important to share it with others.
Go and tell!
Amen.

We are finishing up our Fighting Temptation sermon series this morning. If you’ve been here following along, this is the culmination. We’re going to take everything we’ve learned about fighting temptation and apply it to enduring in the fight against temptation.

If you haven’t been here, that’s okay. Because we’re going to be talking about how to endure your walk of faith -- in a world filled with doubt, shame, guilt, and other things that make it feel like you should just give up on faith.

In short, if you want to enjoy eternal life…this is for you.
 
Before we study, a prayer: O Lord, strengthen us by the truth, your Word is the truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; open our ears to hear what you want us to hear; and open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.
 
I. Surrounded by Witnesses

The section we’re going to look at it from the book of Hebrews 12: 1-3. Briefly – Hebrews is a letter written to believers anywhere at any time. We are believers. We are somewhere and sometimes – so…this is written to us.

This is written to you.

Look at the encouragement in chapter 12:
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
 
Right away, I get this picture of a track and field meet. The stadium seating is filled with people. They’ve got their popcorn. They’ve got their sports drinks. They’ve got their sunglasses on and a granola bar for the kids. They are cheering on your behalf – “You can do it! You’ve got this! Keep running.”

There’s even that coach running alongside the infield. He’s the one’s that’s running by you as you hit the corner – he’s screaming. He’s yelling. He’s waving his arms in big old circles – (because I think he thinks that it’ll help with the airflow so you can run faster.) He’s part of the crowd of people that are encouraging you and cheering you on.

But who is this group of people that the Bible is talking about?
Who are these witnesses?

Two answers:

(1) Those who have Finished the Race

It is usually in good taste, once you finish a race, to turn around and cheer for those who are still finishing up. You’re letting them know it’s possible by the fact that you already made it.

Scripture is filled with those who have finished the race.
Scripture is filled with those who have fought the fight against temptation.
Scripture is filled with those who have walked the walk of faith.
 
Like a guy named Abraham -- God said to him, “Get up. Move your family. Go to a different country. Even though I won’t tell you where, it’ll be good, just…trust me.”
And Abraham did.
And God gave him the land of Israel that would lead to the entire nation of Israel as we know them today.

Like a woman named Sarah – God said to her, “Even though you’re 90 years old and are barren, I will come back in a year and you will have a son – trust me.”
And Sarah did.
And God gave her a child named Isaac --- the great, great, great, great, many times over, grandfather of Jesus Christ.

Like a guy named Moses – God said to him, “I will work through you to do miraculous signs and lead my people out of slavery in Egypt – trust me.”
And Moses did.
And God sent locusts, frogs, hail, bugs, darkness and blood until the king of Egypt finally let them go.

And a young boy named David – God said to him, “Even though you are small, I will take care of you. Trust me.”
And David did.
And God protected him – guiding a tiny little stone from a sling shot into the gap of the giant goliath’s helmet – knocking him down – dead.

And a young man named Joshua – God said to him, “Even though there’s a gigantic wall surrounding the city, I will help you defeat Jericho and it will be yours…trust me.”
And Joshua did.
And God roared, Jericho trembled, God shook the city of Jericho and sent the walls of Jericho a tumbling down.
 
And a guy named Daniel – God said to him, “Even though the king has threatened a night in the lion’s den for not worshipping him, don’t do it. I’ll protect you…trust me.”
And Daniel did.
And God sent angels to calm those ferocious beasts – that come the next morning – the lions were snuggling up to Daniel purring like housecats.
 
And a young woman named Mary – God said to her, “Even though you’ve never slept with anyone – and biology says it’s impossible, trust me…You will have a Son and will call his name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
And she did.
And God did. And Jesus was born of a virgin.
 
And a guy named Peter…And Andrew. And James and John…and Thomas and Philip and hundreds more – to whom Jesus himself said, “They will kill me…. But…three days later…I will come back to life. Trust me.”
And they… didn’t.
But God did anyway. He came back to life.

The Bible is filled with people who have finished the race of faith.
And through the pages of Scripture – they cheer you on:

Trust God.
Trust Jesus.
You will win.

(2) Those who are Running the Race with you

Because when you run a race – it’s good to run a race with friends. It’s nice to have people there to push you. People there to encourage you. People there to say, “You know what. Why don’t we walk for a bit.”

God has given you people to encourage you.
God has given you people to uplift you.
God has given you people to witness to God’s grace and run the race with you.
 
I remember Pastor John Jeske. He was a pastor of mine growing up. He preached rather long sermons. (Some of you are wondering – “How long does he think a ‘long sermon’ is…?”) He was a kind, gentle, older man – who always took the time to shake my hand and ask how my day was going.

He encouraged me.

One of the interactions that I ever had was a graduation card that I received from him. It said, “Philip, keep holding onto Jesus and keep sharing him with others.”
It wasn’t much.
A few simple words.
Yet – even today –
Years after I received that card.
Years after Pastor Jeske became a member of God’s congregation in heaven.
I hear his encouragement.
 
I want you to take a moment and think about some of the people God has given you to encourage you.
A grandma? A grandpa?
Mom? Dad?
Uncle? Aunt?
A friend?
A church friend?

Because that’s really the point of church. It’s a group of people who gather together to encourage, uplift, run beside, pull each other along, and occasionally -- give someone a ride on their back as we run the race of faith together.
 
If you don’t have that group of people, God says you need it.
If you have that group of people, God says, “Don’t forget to encourage them too.”
 
II. Un-entangled

Next section:
 
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
 
Because you wouldn’t do very well in a race if your shoelaces were tied together.
You wouldn’t do very well in a race if you were wrapped up in toilet paper.
You wouldn’t do very well in a race if you are the only one with a weighted backpack of about 50 pounds. (Unless you’re that one guy at my gym – who always wears the 50-pound backpack…I think he wears it when he brushes his teeth.)

But you get the point? You can’t run well when things are tangling you up and slowing you down.
And you can’t run the race of faith when things are tangling you up and slowing you down.

Again, what might entangle you? Two things:

(1) Sin that Entangles
 
This one seems easy.
Sin is bad.
God is good.
Sin is wrong.
God is opposed to wrong.

If you are trying to run the race of faith with God, then you’re going to be immensely slowed down.
 
And we’re not necessarily talking about tripping up in sin – that happens to all Christians all the time because we are all sinners.
But we’re talking about sin that entangles.
Sin that’s repeated.
Sin that’s repetitive.
Sin that’s got you all wrapped up.

Because think about it:

It’s hard set your heart after God, when your heart is after a bunch of porn on the internet.
It’s hard to run with all your strength, when most of your strength is boasting on social media.
It’s hard to run with joy, when you’re harboring bitterness in your heart.
It’s hard to share Jesus with people of all cultures, when you’d rather share your racist thoughts about other cultures.
It’s hard to trust God’s forgiveness of you, when you’re struggling with forgiving in your heart.
It’s hard to work together to share the Gospel, when you’re working on your own to share gossip about others at church.

Throw off the sin that entangles.

(2) Anything that Hinders

But it’s not just that. Scripture says to throw off anything that hinders.

Anything.
Meaning things that aren’t necessarily sin.

Cause there’s all kinds of things in this world that aren’t necessarily sin. They are spiritually neutral. Things like: TV, sleep, food, money, career, sports, Rice Krispy Bars, Pokémon, and vegetables – (except for brussels sprouts – those are probably sinful – just kidding…kind of.)

Neutral things are not wrong on their own.
But…
They become wrong, when they consume you to the point of slowing your spiritual race.
 
Like video games. I enjoy video games. Not the violent, intense, R rated games that have all kinds of questionable content.
But the light-hearted, goofy video games – that leave you questioning how old I am.

But here’s the thing. If those video games start to take up my time, if they start to envelop my thoughts, if I start thinking more about “How can I save princess Peach from Bowser” – rather than – “How can I share Jesus who saves eternally with that person…”

Video games have become a hindrance.
They need to be thrown off.

Think about you and your life.
What is slowing you down?
I bet it’s different than mine.
But I also bet there is one.
The devil will do everything possible to make you think that’s most important.

But it’s not.
Jesus is.
 
So…whatever has become a hindrance to growing in faith, following Jesus, and sharing his message.
Identify and throw it off.
 
III. Eyes on the Prize

One more thing that Scripture implores us to do as we run the race of faith:
 
Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. (v.2)
 
Over at Lafayette Village, every September they hold Octoberfest. Let me say that again – Every September, they hold Octoberfest. (I think that the 4th of July is celebrated on August 10th this year, too). Part of the celebration is the Annual Wiener Dog Race. (Picture it.) It is exactly what you picture. A race with wiener dogs. The race isn’t long. It’s probably the length of a pew. And the dogs are dropped off at the starting line. They are positioned behind a starting gate and then, their owner goes down to the finish line – ready to call for the dog and cheer them to victory.

Sounds simple, right?

But…here’s what happens.
 
The announcer says, “On your mark. Get set. Go!”
The gates open…and…
One of them immediately runs over to the walls and starts trying to jump over them to get to the crowd.
Another sees a butterfly in the air and chases it to the other side.
A third was on his way to the end but stops when he sees the little kid eating a “hot dog.”
And a fourth – just kinda settles down for a nap.

I remember watching a race. It’s literally 30 feet in length, but it took about 5 minutes because the dogs couldn’t keep their attention on the endgame.

The same thing is true in this life.
We can’t get distracted by shiny, flashy things.
We can’t lose focus from Christ – and drift to career, money, friendship, physique…

None of those things lead to the finish line of eternal life.
None of those things lead to the finish line of heaven.

Only one thing does --
Jesus.

So fix your eyes on Jesus.
Why Jesus? Three reasons…
 
(1) He is the author of your faith
 
An author is someone who writes a book. They are the ones who come up with the ideas and write it on a page. People like Dr. Seuss, Maya Angelou and Nathaniel Hawthorne. All authors – all wrote their ideas and thoughts down on paper.

Jesus is the author of faith.

Its contents: He looked down upon earth. He saw that we were mired in sin, guilt and shame. He saw that we couldn’t get ourselves out of it – and eternal death was our destiny. So…he wrote “Faith.”

He came down to earthly willingly.
Lived perfectly when we couldn’t.
Died innocently in our place.
And rose triumphantly for the forgiveness of all of our sins!
 
He said, “Put your faith in ME, in ME, in ME, not in yourself, in ME!”

Jesus authored the contents of our faith – but – more than that – he authored your faith.

He came to you through Scripture.
He came to you through the words of someone who knew Scripture.
He came to you through the waters of baptism.
He brought you the message that we are sinners and are in need of a Savior.
He wrote on your heart the words of faith:

“I belong to Jesus.”
“He is my Savior.”
“I will follow him.”
 
Think about it: If he is the one who set you on this journey of faith!
Since he’s the one who started you on it, keep your eyes on him – he’ll help you through it.
 
(2) He is the Perfecter of Your Faith
 
In fact, he’ll get you to the end! The Scripture says, “He is the perfecter of your faith.” That means – you can’t do this race without him. You can’t do this race without your Savior. You can’t do this race on your own.

Be careful with that. It’s so common for Christians to say – “Thanks Jesus for starting me out on faith. I appreciate it. But…I don’t want you to get tired…Let me run it on my own.”

And a couple of paces – they’re passed out in a spiritual ditch.

Jesus said this, “I am the Vine; you are the branches. If someone remains in me and I in them, they will bear much fruit. Apart from me; they can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
If you think you can do this race without Jesus, you’ll be like one of those old branches lying in the woods. Brittle. Withered. Dead.
But…if you stay connected to Jesus, hear his promise: you will grow.
 
You will be nourished.
Your faith will flourish.
You will run and you will run fast.
 
(3) He’s Excellent at Keeping His Eye on the Prize
 
One more reason to keep your eyes on Jesus.
Today is Palm Sunday. It’s the day we remember how Jesus came to Jerusalem in a festive fashion.

He rode on a donkey.
People were cheering for him.
They were waving Palm branches in the air.
They were pumping their fists in the air.
They were laying their coats on the ground so the donkey didn’t have to step on mud.
The entire city of Jerusalem was watching this one-person parade of Jesus and shouting:
HOSANNA! HOSANNA TO THE SON OF DAVID!

The scene is impressive.
And you might think – I can understand why Jesus wanted to go to Jerusalem.
If that was his goal…Who wouldn’t want to have an entire city singing your adulation and giving praise and attention to you.

But…

That’s not why Jesus went to Jerusalem.
 
“We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be delivered over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him and spit on him; they will flog him and kill him.” (Luke 18:31-33)
 
Do you see it?

Jesus reason for going to Jerusalem wasn’t Palm Sunday; it was Good Friday.
He didn’t come to earth for the adulation of the crowd; but the ridicule of the soldiers.
He didn’t come to hear “Hosanna!”; but to hear “Crucify him.”
He didn’t come to have palms waves at him, but to have nailed driven into his him.
He didn’t come to ride on a donkey, but to hang from a cross.
He didn’t come to gain glory for himself; he came to gain glory for you.

Which means…

Jesus’ eyes were on the prize.
And the prize wasn’t himself.
The prize was YOU.

Hebrews says, “For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
That joy.
That ultimate joy of God.
That ultimate joy of God that powered Jesus to go through with dying on the cross.
Was the promise of eternity with you.
 
What helped Jesus endured his immensely painful moments on the cross, was considering eternity with you.
What will help you endure the intense painful moments in this life, the moments that make you doubt, the moments that make you want to give up…
Is considering Jesus.
 
Because…
In Jesus?
You will not grow weary and lose heart.
You will run.
All the way.
To your Savior’s waiting arms. Amen.

Amen.

Over this sermon series, we’ve talked a lot about Fighting Temptation. But…How confident do you feel that you can fight temptation and win?
Today we’re going to study God’s Word and my goal is to teach you why you have every reason in the world to Fight Temptation confidently. Before we do that, a prayer: Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; our ears to hear what you want us to hear and our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.
 
I. Reasons for Lacking Confidence
 
The lesson for this morning comes from Isaiah. He was a prophet who lived around 640 B.C. Mainly he preached warnings about what would happen to the Israelites if they didn’t start fighting temptation.
 
But most people didn’t listen.
God, through Isaiah, even predicted that they wouldn’t listen. 
It’s why he prophesied that they would be taken into captivity.

Which…is exactly what happened. In 597 B.C., the Babylonian army ransacked the country of Judah. They destroyed the infrastructure and took hundreds of thousands of Israelites captive as prisoners back to Babylon.

It was then, in captivity, that many of the people began to listen.
They looked back at the prophesies of Isaiah and discovered sections like this:
“Who handed Jacob over to become loot, and Israel to the plunderers? Was it not the Lord, against whom we have sinned? For they would not follow his ways;
they did not obey his law. So he poured out on them his burning anger, the violence of war. It enveloped them in flames, yet they did not understand; it consumed them, but they did not take it to heart.” (v.24-25)
 
Can you imagine?
 
Being in captivity.
And realizing…
 
We sinned.
We didn’t follow his ways.
We did not obey his law.
We are in flames because of our sinful failures!
 
I can’t imagine that the Israelites had a lot of confidence.
Just a lot of “if onlys.”

If only I’d listened to God.
If only I had fought back against temptation.
If only I had told that merchant, “No. We don’t need your bejeweled god statues. We worship the one true, invisible God, the Lord.”
If only I had told my wife, “No, we aren’t going to teach our kids that worship isn’t important. We’ll tell them that worship is the most important thing to their eternal relationship with God.”
If only I had told my friends, “No, I’m not going to get drunk with you tonight…then I never would have done a lot of other things that I wish I had never done.”
If only I had told myself, “Get up. Fight these temptations. Stop being complacent and follow your God.”

Then, I wouldn’t be in captivity.

But now…?
It feels too late.
I’ve failed too many times.
God has abandoned me.
I’m alone.

Temptation will always win.

Can you relate?

Maybe your record against temptation isn’t good.
Maybe you keep losing in your personal battle against your personal demons.
Maybe you have a weakness that you’re so ashamed of – you question if you even belong in this church family.
Maybe you feel weighed down by guilt, alone in your battle, like you are in captivity to a particular sin!
Maybe you’ve tried psyching yourself up, waking up in prayer, saying, “Today is the day I beat that temptation,” only…to attempt your day…and…lose.
Maybe you feel alone like you are the only one who is fighting against a particular sin.

And, maybe, all of these thoughts convince you…

That you’ll never win.
That you’ll always fail against temptation.
That you have NO reason to be confident in ever winning again.

But…
If that’s how you think…
You’re wrong.
 
II. Confidence from God Himself

Listen to Isaiah 43.
It’s written for God’s people.
It’s written for God’s people in captivity to Babylon.
It’s written for God’s people in captivity to their own sinful choices.
It’s written to God’s people – like you.

And it’s filled with confidence-boosting statements from God himself.
 
But now, this is what the Lord says—

he who created you, Jacob,
he who formed you, Israel:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
 For I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. (Isaiah 43:1-3)
 
Look at those words.
Do you hear God’s voice?
He’s speaking to you.
And giving you all kinds of confidence.
 
(1) “You are my Creation.”
 
Look at the first verse. It says, “This is what the LORD says, he who created you, O Jacob; he who formed you, O Israel.” (43:1) It’s not even an actual statement of God yet, but through it, God still communicates something to you.

“You are my creation.”
 
Over at Precious Lambs, the kids take their artwork very, very seriously. They are proud of their artwork. They love to show off their artwork. They love to show me their artwork. They love to bring artwork home for mom and dad.
 
And they get really, really upset if they lose their artwork.
 
There was a girl the other day whose conversation with mom went something like this:

“Calm down. Honey. What’s wrong!”
“You threw my artwork away!”  
“Are you sure? I just threw some of the pictures with scribbles on them away.”  
“It wasn’t scribbles. It was a picture of a unicorn!”

Kids love their artwork because it’s their artwork.
They created it.
They put it on paper.
Their imagination developed the piece.

The same is true with God and you.

You come from the annals of God’s divine mind.
He thought you up before you ever thought your first word.
He knit you together with his own powerful, yet gentle hands. (Psalm 139:13)

Do you think God will just leave you to suffer?
Do you think God won’t come to your rescue?
Do you think God won’t work tirelessly to get you back even after your own sins have left you feeling like garbage?

He won’t.
He didn’t.
 
(2) “You are Redeemed.”
 
Verse 2 says this, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you.” (Isaiah 43:2a)
Redeem means to “buy back.” To “pay for.” To “purchase again.”

And God has redeemed YOU.

Because yes! We fell to sin.
Yes, we were owned by our guilt.
We were owned by our shame.
We were owned by our addictions.
We were owned by our brokenness.

But then…
Jesus came to earth.
He offered the most precious currency of all:


His perfect blood.

Jesus bought you.
Jesus paid for you.
Jesus redeemed you.

You do not belong to your addiction.
You do not belong to your temptation.
You do not belong to your sins.

You belong to God!

It’s like at Sola café: They have this little card at Sola café that if you remember to have it stamped every time you order a drink, the 10th drink is free! Even if you do what I do and order a small coffee, the cheapest thing on the menu, for the other 9 drinks, you can get a large, 6-dollar Caramel Macchiato for FREE. Fully paid for.

You have been fully paid for.
No matter how much sin you have fallen to.
You belong to God – fully and completely.
 
(3) “I know you.”
 
God says, “I have called you by name.” (Isaiah 43:2b) That’ s an uplifting truth.
 
Because it’s easy to feel like you are just a number.
It’s easy to feel as if God’s redemptive power is big and great, but not that personal.

It’s like calling for tech support. And you say, “Hi! I’m Phil calling from Gethsemane Church” and they say, “What’s your equipment ID number?” And you say, “I don’t know that. But I’m from Gethsemane Church, we have an account with you.” And they say, “Equipment ID Number please.” And you say, “I spoke with you about 15 minutes ago? Don’t you remember me?” And they say, “I remember you. You haven’t given me the Equipment ID Number yet.”

God says you are more than an Equipment ID Number to him.
You are you.

He knows your name.
He knows your first name.
He knows your last name.
He knows your middle name.

He knows your nickname.
He knows your maiden name.
He knows your username.

He knows your pet name.
He knows your surname.
He even knows your Superhero name – that you found out from that one Facebook quiz you took way back in 2014.

God knows you.
Personally knows you.

He knows your struggles.
He knows your weaknesses.
He knows the things you’ve told your friends.
He knows the things you’ve told your counselor.
He knows the things you haven’t told your counselor.

He stands beside you.
And whispers: “You have a new name.”
I will call you, “Mine.”

This is why he also whispers:

(4) “I am With You.”
 
God has Isaiah write this, “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.” (Isaiah 43:3)
 
This is a metaphor.
But…also literal.

Because in the Old Testament, the Israelite people had once been surrounded by their enemies and a deep, vast sea. They had no where to go! They were as good as dead.
But God was with them.
He split the waters and they crossed through on dry ground – fish and sea weed and currents on each side.

And again in the Old Testament, some men were thrown into a fiery furnace because they didn’t bow down and worship a giant golden statue of the king.
But God was with them.
He kept them safe in the flames so that not a hair, not a thread, not even a little piece of beard was singed in the fire. Neither did they smell of smoke.

And you…when you are surrounded by temptation.
When you feel all alone.
When you think there’s no way out.
When you are terrified of what’s going on in your life.

God is with you.

He will keep you safe.
He will help you out.
He will lead you safely – undrowned.
Unburned.
Victorious over temptation!
 
And here’s how he does it:
 
(5) “I am your Savior.”
 
God has Isaiah write this, “I am the LORD, your God, the holy One of Israel, your Savior.” (v.3)
That same powerful God who defeated split the Red Sea.
That same powerful God who kept the men safe in the furnace.
That same powerful God who died on the cross and saved you from sin – is your Savior.

It isn’t like waiting in the doctor’s office to see your specific specialist about your specific special problem and then someone walks into the room.
You don’t recognize them. You look closely at their name badge and it says: “Intern.”

Nope.

God is your Savior.
 
Not your “might be Savior.”
Not your “Try-the-hardest-to-save-but-failing Savior.”
Not even “Everyone else’s Savior.”

No. Your Savior.

Which leads to a very powerful passage. Friends – write this down. Memorize it. Bring it from God’s heart to your heart:
“I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions. I will forget your sins and remember your wickedness no more.” (v.25)
God has destroyed your sins so completely that he can’t even remember a single sin.
He can’t even remember that you’ve failed.
He can’t even remember that you’re a failure.

To him.
Because of him.
In him…
You are a winner.

III. What Now?

And so.
Fight like a champion.
 
And let me tell you:
Champions don’t come on out and let the other punch first.
Nope.

They come out swinging.
They come out dodging.
They come out with a plan.

Do you have a temptation that you struggle against?
Come out swinging.
Come out dodging.
Come out with a plan.  

(1) Come out Swinging
 
Because too often we are reactive against temptation. We wait for it to strike and hope that we can react when it does.

It’s like coffee. I drink too much.
Maybe…some of you knew that.
But here’s the thing…I know I drink too much yet, I put myself in the same situation each day.

I stay up later than I should.
I don’t have anything to drink until I have my morning coffee.
I hang out for the first hour of every weekday – within about 50 steps of the coffee pot.

No wonder I keep failing.
 
Why not go on the offensive?  Romans 8:13 says: “By the Spirit, put to death the misdeeds of the body.” Don’t just punch them in the mouth or put them in a headlock. The language is stronger. Put them to death!
 
Talking about my caffeine struggle:
Why not drink 2 glasses of water before the coffee pot gets put on?
Why not go to bed 30 minutes earlier so that I’m not so tired?
Why not tell an entire congregation about it so that they can hold you accountable and tell you to drink a bit less?

Whatever your temptation is, think about it: how can you attack it?
 
(2) Come out Dodging
 
But there will be times when temptation blindsides you.
When suddenly you find yourself in situations in which things don’t look good.
When Satan pulls some guerrilla warfare on you.
What then?

Dodge it. 
Run.
Flee.

The Bible tells the story about a guy named Joseph. He worked as a servant in the house of a rich government official. He loved working there. He respected his master. He wanted to keep his job.

One day – the government official’s wife – she developed a crush on Joseph – he was young and handsome – one day when noticed him working in the house when no one else is around. She said to him, “Come to bed with me. Sleep with me. No one is around. No one will know. You’ll be all mine.”

And Joseph said?
“I’m out of here.”

Literally – the Bible says that he runs away.
He flees.
He dodges the temptation.

Why not do that?
 
Too often I think we tried to play the hero. We try to put ourselves in situations that we know we fail at – and wait to see if we might beat temptation.
The Bible says differently. 2 Timothy 2:2 says, “Flee youthful passions.”
 
Don’t hover over the page with all the scantily clad women -- click the “x” and get out of there.
Don’t hang around the coffee pot or water cooler that’s bringing up your favorite gossip. Leave.
Don’t sit at the dinner table, getting angrier and angrier ready to blow your top on your spouse – say, “Honey. Give me a second.” Walk away. Cool down. Don’t sin.

Dodge temptation.
 
(3) Come out with a Plan
 
I imagine that’s what the final two teams in the NCAA tournament are doing right now. They are planning how to defeat each other. They are coming up with plays, they are coming up with values, they are getting ready to explain to their teams: “When we are in this situation, do this. When we are in this other situation, do this.”

It would be ludicrous for a team to be in the finals of the NCAA tournament and have their plan be, “I don’t have a plan. Try to win.”
It’s ludicrous for us to attempt to fight temptation without a plan.

Proverbs 14:22 says this, “Do not those who plot evil go astray? But those who plan what is good find love and faithfulness.”

Friends, champions make a plan.
In Jesus, you are a champion.
Make a plan to fight against temptation.

If you have a sin that you struggle with…repeatedly, why not come up with a plan?
Why not take a moment and write it up. Literally write it up in a notebook.
Pray about it. Seek God’s wisdom about it. Ask a trusted friend about it. Then, write up your plan.

If you need help in this – I will help you.
So will the others at church.
That’s what I hope you’ll do for others.

Because that’s what church is.
Our goal is to help out, swing, dodge, and plan for your fight against temptation.
Which leads to our final point.
 
(4) View Yourself as the Champ!
 
Because it’s so easy to view yourself as nothing more than a sinner.
And to a certain extent that’s important. It leads us to Jesus.
But once we have heard the promise of God’s forgiveness and we leave these walls to battle temptation, it is so important that we see ourselves as God sees us – as winners in Jesus.

It’s like what happens during a basketball game. If you go into the game thinking, “We’ll probably lose because we are losers,” you’ll probably lose.
But if the coach can get you to think you have a chance or even that you’ll win, you have an advantage because you are already in a winning frame of mind.
 
Friend, you are a winner in Jesus.
Think of yourself as a winner.
Envision yourself squashing the devil and all of his foolish attempts – even if it’s a temptation by which he has squashed you over and over again.

Because you are in Christ.
Christ is in you.
And Christ?

He stomped the devil.
He stomped sin.
He stomped guilt.
He stomped shame.
He stomped death itself when…three days later…

Three days later, he rose from the grave.

Friends, as Christ is the winner, you are a winner.
Have confidence.
Fight temptation. Amen.

We are four weeks into our Fighting Temptation series.

Question: How is it going with that?

Are you on a hot streak against temptation like never before?
Have you been sinless for three weeks?
Are you a perfect, 1,567-0 against every temptation in the month of March?

Hmmm…
Maybe a better question is:
Have you won any temptation battles?

Today we’re going to talk about what to do when you have failed at fighting temptation. Before we do that, a prayer: Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; our ears to hear what you want us to hear and our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.
 
I. Two Different Reactions
 
The lesson we are going to look at is from the book of James 4. James is a letter written by James, a pastor in the early Christian church to Christians everywhere. In his letter, James gives all kinds of guidance to FIGHT temptation. He tells them to not be prideful (1:11), to be slow to anger (1:19), to get rid of moral filth (1:20), to watch their tongues (1:24), to not show favoritism (2:1), to care for others (2:15), to not curse (3:10), to not be envious (3:14), to be peace-loving (3:17), to not fight amongst each other (4:1), to not covet (4:3), and to not be romantic with someone that isn’t your spouse (4:4).

That’s a lot of commands.
That’s a lot of opportunity for temptation.

But about midway through chapter 4, James begins to talk about what to do if you find yourself falling to temptation. He identifies two completely different approaches to losing: God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (4:6)

Have any of you been watching the NCAA Tournament? Teams win and teams lose. It’s interesting to listen to teams when they lose – whether it’s in an interview or Twitter – there’s really two different reactions to losing:

Some say, “We lost. We didn’t play well. We didn’t deserve to win. We failed.”
Others say, “It was the refs’ fault.” “My teammate didn’t play up to his potential.” “I read a mean tweet and I wasn’t able to focus like I should.”

Two different reactions:
Humility and Pride.


It’s the same thing when we fail at temptation.
We can respond in humility or pride.
 
God opposes the proud.
God gives grace to the humble.
Be humble.

Amen?

II. Types of Pride

But it’s not necessarily that easy.
 
One of the trickiest things about pride is that pride tends to be very good at disguising itself.
It’s very good at not realizing its own sinfulness.
It’s very good at making you think – that it’s not prideful at all.

Because of that – I would submit that each and every one of us -- even long time Christians – struggle with some version of pride when we fail to temptation.   
Here’s a list of a few different prideful ways that we respond when we fall to temptation. Which one are you?
 
1. The Bar-lower-er
 
It’s like the high jump. Did any of you have to do the high jump back in high school gym class? It isn’t easy. You have to time your run, time your approach, plant off the back foot while arching your back in the air, throwing your feet back and then jack-knifing over the top.

If you aren’t very good at it, what happens? The coach lowers the bar. From 5 foot to 4 foot 6 inches to 4 foot to…maybe let’s try laying the bar on the ground.

Bar-lower-ers do the same thing with the bar of conduct that God has set:

“God, I know you said to love my spouse – but marriage is hard. You should be happy! I wasn’t that rude.”
“I know the Bible says, ‘Don’t lust,’ but that’s unrealistic. God’s probably happy that I didn’t actually sleep with her…for long.”
“I know the Bible says, ‘Love your neighbor,’ but have you met my neighbors? I’ll tolerate them. What more can you really ask for?”
 
And there’s no sorrow.
There’s no humility.
Because the bar-lower-er makes it over the fake bar that he set up – while ignoring the divine bar that God set up way over his head.
 
2. The Fixer
 
That name comes from politics. A fixer is the person on your political team who has the ability to fix any negative, dirty laundry news story and make you into the hero of the narrative. If you’ve ever watched Scandal, this is Olivia Pope’s job. She finds out the bad story that’s going to hurt her client, she reworks it, and feeds that story out instead in order to make her client look good.
 
The Spiritual Fixer responds to sin the same way.
 
Bitter and angry at work? No. I was just standing my ground against all the bitter and angry people who were challenging my ideas!
Cheated on my wife? Nope. I’m just a romantic. A fan of true love. I’m the good guy in the story.
Said something racist? Nope. I was baited into it…by some other friends…who knew it would happen. They’re the real racists.
 
And there’s no sorrow.
There’s no humility.
Because the fixer imagines himself the hero of his story --- even when God says he’s clearly not.
 
3. The Accountant
 
Kudos to actual accountants. They do impressive work. They take numbers. They take receipts. They take line items and mistakes and put them all together to try and make the numbers balance – no matter how it is.

This is hard work. It’s why Kevin from The Office developed a “Keleven” It’s a made up, magic number he uses to balance the numbers when he can’t figure out the mistake.
 
The Spiritual Accountant does the same thing. They try to take the seeming “good” that they’ve done and balance it against the bad that they just committed. Like some kind of magic number, they try to make it balance.
 
Sure. I was grumpy this morning. But I was nice from like 1:15-3:30p yesterday afternoon so…
I have been gossiping a lot lately. But I did go to church Sunday and Wednesday for the Meditation service.
I know I told a lie there. But this morning I told like 4 truths. Things like “Good morning” and “I had an egg for breakfast.” It all balances out.

And there’s no sorrow.
There’s no humility.
Because the Spiritual Accountant thinks they’ve made up for their wrongdoing – even when God says the only way to make up for sinful wrongdoing is death.
 
4. The Bootstrapper
 
This type of person “Pulls themselves up by their Bootstraps.” Have you heard that phrase? Apparently, it means to be lying on the ground with your boots on and then, to grab ahold of the strap at the top of the boot until you are standing. This isn’t actually that possible. It’s really, really, really hard. Hence the phrase, “Pulling yourself up by your bootsteps” being an exemplary thing. If you can do that, then people will forget all about the fact that you fell – they’ll be way too impressed by the fact that you pulled yourself up by the bootstraps.

Spiritual Bootstrappers think they can do the same thing. They focus on how they’ll get themselves out of sin to distract themselves – and God – from the fact that they have sinned.
 
I know. I know. I got drunk for the 8th day in a row You might even call me addicted. No worries. When I get out of this, it’ll be that much more impressive.
Yes, I lost it on my kids again. But I’m gonna keep improving, keep working harder, and I’ll figure out how to deal with 4 whining kids all by myself.
And…I said things that made my spouse mad at me. But I’ll fix it. I’ll buy flowers. I’ll buy a nice card. I’ll send her a cutesy emoji. I’ll pull myself out of the pit I dug.
 
And there’s no sorrow.
There’s no humility.
Because the Bootstrapper distracts himself from his severe sin by looking at his half-hearted, sin-tainted, feeble efforts at righting it.
 
5. The Humble Looking
 
This seems a bit like an oxymoron. Because this type of response to sinning doesn’t seem prideful at all. In fact, they sound humble. They say things like, “I am a miserable sinner.” “I did an awful job.” “I am a horrible, no good, very bad person – God!”

It sounds humble.
But then…
 
God, I have so much sin, that it’s too much for you to handle on your own. I’ll try to help.
God, I’ve done so much wrong. I don’t think your blood can cover it all.
God, I really messed up. I can’t ask you to help. I don’t belong in church. That wouldn’t be right.
 
There’s false sorrow.
There’s false humility.
And there’s this strange clinging to a tiny ounce of sinful dignity, because “I’ll feel better about myself if I can help God out with getting rid of my sins.”
 
Here’s the truth:
All five of these responses to sin are prideful.
All five of these responses to sin set oneself up against God.

The Bar-lower-er says, “God, your bar wasn’t good enough. I’ll make my own.”
The Fixer says, “God, you don’t know the whole story. You’re wrong for rebuking me.”
The Accountant says, “God, if you don’t accept all the good I do for you, you’re the one who isn’t any good.”
The Bootstrapper says, “God, don’t patronize me. I don’t need your help. Even if you tell me I do need your help.”
The Humble Looking says, “God, you can’t do this on your own. You need my help.”

All five of these responses to falling at sin will leave you…imagining that you’re up and on your feet again.
 
When in reality…
You’re still lying on the ground.
You’re still beaten.
You. Aren’t. Getting. Up.
 
God opposes the proud…
But…
God gives grace to the humble. (v.6)
 
III. Blessings of Humility

Our Old Testament lesson was from the book of Judges. Have you ever read the book of Judges? It fits in really well with today’s lesson, because it is filled with a very repetitive theme:
Repeated, repetitive failures to temptation.
 
It’s a cycle.

Israel falls to temptation.
God warns them to stop.
Israel has too much pride to listen.
God warns them again.
Israel still doesn’t listen and…
God is against them.
God sends a foreign nation to overtake them.
Israel is overrun by the Assyrians, the Moabites, the Philistines.

The once proud people of Israel are defeated – lying flat on their backs.
 
But then…
As they are on their backs…
They realize that they cannot get themselves out of the predicament.

Their story changes.
They ask God for mercy.
And…
 
WHAM!
 
God acts.
He sends a conqueror.
He sends a hero.
He fights for his people and gives them the victory!
 
Friends, there is blessing in humility. Look at what James says:
 
1. The Devil Flees
 
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  (v.7)
 
Which seems strange. Because you would expect your best chance at beating the devil to involve puffing your chest out, getting really big, really prideful. Like scaring off a grizzly bear. You act as impressive as possible so as to scare him off.
But…
Newsflash:
The devil is not scared of you.
Not one bit.

On the other hand, when you are humble…
When you admit that you can’t do it alone…
When you call out for help…

The devil…?
He’s absolutely terrified!
 
2. God Comes Near
 
This is the reason the devil is terrified. Look at what James writes, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”  (v.8)
Because God is a God of mercy.
He is a God of compassion.
He is a God who helps those who need help.

Also?
 
He erupts volcanos.
He flicks his wrists to send hurricane like winds.
He pours out rushing flood waters.
He is the undisputed, undefeated, champion against temptation – and there is no love lost between him and the devil.

God shows up and the devil runs.
Nope…
Sprints.
Nope…
He does one of those things that the Roadrunner used to do in Looney Tunes and leaves a cloud of dust behind.
 
3. Purification
 
James writes, “Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” (v.8b)

Because the reality is that falling to temptation can feel awfully icky.
It can feel like the end of a long day working outside.

There’s dried sweat on your forehead.
Dirt under your finger nails.
And this…stench that just seems to be deeply entrenched in your skin.
But Jesus?

He washes us cleans.
He washes away your guilt.
He washes away your shame.
He washes away the stink and the stench.

And replaces it with the beautiful perfume of the phrase: “Forgiven.”

4. Uplifting to the Highest Heights
 
James writes, “Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” (v. 9-10)

The truth is the humbling yourself means that you will be lowering yourself.
There’s a moment when you say, “I am a sinner.”
A moment when you say, “I failed, again.”
A moment when you say, “I can’t do this on my own.”

During that time, you can feel really low.

But…then?

God forgives you.
God uplifts you.
God lifts you up beyond where you were before – and places you up beside Him – in His kingdom!
Do you get it? If you fall and a friend picks you up, your feet are back on solid ground.
But if you fall and God picks you up…your feet are on heavenly ground.

IV.  What Now?

The one WHAT NOW? It’s pretty simple:
Be Humble.

When you fail against temptation…

Humbly confess.
Humbly seek God’s help.
Humbly hear his promise of forgiveness.

No matter how many times you’ve fallen to temptation.

Like the son in the story that Jesus told.

Remember what he did?
He came up to his dad – long before his dad was dead – and said, “Give me my inheritance! I’ve had enough of living under your roof. I’m sick and tired of doing what you tell me to do. I’m sick of being here. There’s a whole world full of life out there. Give my money. Give my money so I can leave and never have to look at your ugly face again.”

And his dad was sad.
But he gave him the inheritance.
A couple hundred thousand dollars.

And the son takes the money.
He heads to the city.
He goes downtown.
He rents a high-rise $4,000 a month apartment.
Every night he goes to the finest steak restaurants.
He drinks top notch scotch after drinking top shelf vodka after drinking a $25 dollar shot of whiskey.
And he buys for his friends.
And he buys illegal drugs for him and his friends.
And he buys women for him and his friends.
And he wakes up around 2 pm the next day.
And does it all over again.

Until…

The money’s out.
No one will hire him.
He gets evicted.
His “friends” ignore his text messages.
He pretends to have enough cash for an Uber out of the city – only to pretend like he left his wallet in the other pants when he gets to a local pig farm that’s hiring.

And he gets a job.
Feeding the pigs.

He gives them slimy old applesauce.
He gives them moldy old cheese.
He gives them this greenish, brownish muck that he’s not sure – isn’t snot.

But…

It looks so good.
He’s so hungry.
He’s so…pathetic.

And he says to himself, “I should never have done it. I should never have left my dad. I had it good in my dad’s house. I was fed. I was clothed. I was…home.”

I sinned.
I don’t deserve to be his son.
But…maybe he’ll let me clean the outhouse. And gives me a few pieces of bread for supper.

And so…
He returns.
He makes his way to his dad’s house.

And…
When he reaches the dirt road, the long dirt road that leads to his Father’s house…
He takes a deep breath…before he walks up.

But before he can get far, way off in the distance…his dad. He sees him! And he takes off down the dirt road.

And the son thinks, “Here he comes. He’s going to give it to me. He’s going to scream at me. He’s going to tell me how awful and terrible I messed up and that I should buzz off and never be around again.”

And as his dad approaches.
He lifts up his hand.
And his son braces himself to be smacked on the cheek.

But.
His hand doesn’t hit his face.
Instead?
It embraces him.

But the son shrugs him off! “Seriously, Dad! I sinned. I did wrong. I don’t deserve to be your son! Let me work my way back. Let me do my own thing. Let me be a worker on the lowest run in your farm.”

But the dad…isn’t listening.
“Hey Walter! My son’s back!! Run; tell the cooks to get the steaks from the freezer. Go grab some of my finest wines. And text everyone that I know. There’s a party at my house tonight.”

Because…This son of mine is lost; but NOW? is found.

Friends, this is God’s reaction to you.
When you fail against temptation, humbly return.
And you’ll be welcomed home.

Amen.

We are in the middle of our Fighting Temptation mini-series. So far, we’ve watched Jesus defeat the devil in a one-on-one temptation battle, learned some lessons from the champ, and contrasted the cost of fighting temptation with the cost of NOT fighting.

But maybe so far you have said, “Pastor, this has been nice. It sounds important. I should fight temptation. So…I’ll put it on the schedule for some time this summer.”
 
It’s like one of emails that goes to your junk mail. You peruse down the list and about 6 emails down is an email, written in all CAPITAL LETTERS, that says, “URGENT” with a few exclamation points behind it!!!

And you blink quickly, move the mouse, and click away.
Is someone in trouble?
Is a friend trying to reconnect?
Am I late on a bill?

And…
 
“Hello sir. Just a note that there is currently a deal for 10% off pictures frames down at Michaels. We wanted to let you know – because you shopped here…one time…for your wife.  This deal is only available for a limited time. So, act now! It’s urgent.”

Until…I get very similar email the very next week.
Maybe, it’s not so urgent.

Do you feel that way about fighting temptation? As if it isn’t urgent?  

Today Jesus himself is going to explain to us the urgency of fighting temptation. Before we do that, a prayer: Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; our ears to hear what you want us to hear and our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.
 
I. An Urgent Warning
 
We are studying Luke 13 today. Look at what verse 1 says, “Now there were some…who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.”

This is a bit strange, so a bit of background. Galilee was a country that was in the northern area of the Holy Land. Galileans were people who lived in Galilee. Apparently, some Galileans had been in the temple offering sacrifice (aka worshipping God) when the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate (he’s going to become very important as we get closer to Good Friday) ordered that they be killed. It’d be similar to a church shooting. Which unfortunately, is not unheard of.

It wasn’t unheard of back then either! According to Josephus, a Jewish historian, Pilate did this about five different times during his reign. Each time it was violent. Each time it was awful. Each time it was a very disheartening event.

That’s why the people were talking to Jesus about it.
It was troubling.

Like some kind of awful current event (take your pick: shooting, bombing, kidnapping, rape, etc.), they were trying to make sense of what had happened.

The answer that was most popular?  

These guys must have been terrible sinners. 
They must have done something really, really, really bad.
I heard that they were running an illegal drug ring through the temple.
This was a punishment for them!

Jesus overhears it and, being true God, He offers a unique assessment that a sinful human being would never be able to offer:
“Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” (v2-3)
 
First thing to understand about Jesus’ statement:

Sin is sin is sin. The Bible teaches that, “the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) It teaches that “all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory.” (Romans 3:23) It teaches that “If you stumble at just one point, it’s as good as breaking all of God’s law.” (James 2:10) Sin is sin is sin. It’s all awful to God. Therefore, these Galileans killed in the temple were not worse sinners than any one else.

The slaughter in the temple wasn’t some kind of special judgment by God against a special breed of sinners.

But in case you’re reading this and you’re saying, “Well, okay. This wasn’t. It was done by Pilate. A sinful human being acting in a sinful, fallen world. But what about natural disasters? That’s the kind of stuff that only God can control. What about tornadoes down in Mississippi and flooding in the Midwest? Is that God’s judgment against them?”

Look at Jesus’ next words: “Those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them (a natural disaster. Not a murder. Still horrific.) —do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”  (v.4-5)
 
The Galilean slaughter was not a special punishment.
The Implosion of the Siloam tower was not a special punishment either.
Stop looking at these horrific events for the sake of others.
 
Look at them for the sake of yourself.

As a warning.  
A reminder that life is short.
As a wakeup call to repent! To get right with God. To stop sinning before God acts against you!
 
Here's the first truth God wants you to get through your head this morning: “Don’t view disaster as an indictment of others, but as a warning to yourself.”  
Stop deflecting.
Stop pointing at others.
Stop ignoring your own sins.
Stop thinking, “I love this sermon. Go get ‘em pastor! In particular, look at this guy right next to me. He needs to hear this.”

No.

You need to hear this.
Even if you’ve been a Christian for 40 plus years.
You need to hear this.
And listen.

Because if you don’t…

Jesus continues. From horrific current events to gardening:
“A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any.“ (v.6)
 
Ever had a fig before? They’re pretty tasty. This man must have really liked them. In fact, I picture him having a gigantic, fig tree farm with thousands and thousands of fig trees growing. It makes him a lot of money for fig jam, fig jelly, and fig Pop Tarts.

Every once in a while, he takes a break from the paperwork of owning a fig tree farm to go and walk through his product line. He marvels at the beautiful of the trees. He samples some of the figs as he goes. He whistles to himself as he is so happy for how well everything is growing.

Until…
There’s that one tree again.
(He remembers it from last year)

No figs.
Not a lot of green.
Seems kinda sickly looking. 
 
“The owner said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to Look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any.’” (v.7a)
It isn’t producing. It isn’t doing what we planted it to do. A fig tree without figs on it is…worthless.
 
“Cut. It. Down!”  (v.7b)

Friends. This is more than garden tip.
This story has a spiritual meaning.
God has brought you into his family.
To fight sin.
To bear fruit.
To bear the fruit of the spirit: “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23)

And if God is walking through his rows of Spirit fruit trees…
And he walks past the section where you are planted…
And you aren’t bearing fruit?

Instead of love – hatred.
Instead of joy – complaint.
Instead of peace – grumbling.
Instead of fighting temptation – enjoying the sin that you’re doing.

What do you think the Father will say?
It’s the worst three words that God could ever say about you.
 
Cut. It. Down.
 
II. A Patient Promise
 
Thankfully for the fate of the fig tree this isn’t the end of the story. Because while the owner is the one who paid for him to be planted, he has another friend who cares for him.
The gardener.

The gardener is the one who has been watering this tree for three years.
He’s seen it struggle.
He’s weeded it.
He’s fertilized it.
He’s even gotten up at 5am to come out and sing Eric Clapton to it.

Nothing.
For three years, he’s put his heart and soul into getting that fig tree to bear figs.
And he isn’t ready to give up…not yet.

“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’” (v.8)
 
Friends, you have a gardener, too.
You have someone who cared so deeply for your soul that when he saw your fruitless, sin-filled life, he came to earth and died on a tree to save you.

It’s Jesus.

Jesus is an advocate on our behalf! The Bible says, “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous one.” (1 Jn. 2:1) It says, “Jesus is at the right hand of God interceding for us.” Romans 8:34) It says, “Jesus is our Great High Priest…that we approach God’s throne with confidence.” (Hebrews 4:14, 16)
Do you get it?
Jesus is pleading to the Father on your behalf, while pleading to you on behalf of Him!
And here’s the good news: It’s working.

How do I know?
Well, you’re here today.
You’re listening to this message.
You get to hear Jesus’ voice calling to you right now.

No matter how barren your branches are.
No matter how dead your spiritual life looks.
No matter how shriveled your attempts at fighting temptation have been.

God has been patient with you.
You have not been cut down.

Bloom.
 
And it isn’t as if the gardener said, “If it bears three times as much fruit next year in order to make up for the past three years of not bearing any at all, fine.”
He didn’t say, “I think that this tree will be worth the wait because it’s fruit will make some top-notch jam—better than the rest.”
He didn’t say, “As long as it produces 27 figs by this time next year, then we won’t cut it down.”

Nope.

The fig tree doesn’t need to earn the right to be called a fig tree.
It simply needs to do what it was made to do. 

And you don’t need to earn the right to bear fruit.
You simply do what God called you to do.

The result?

You won’t be cut down!
You’ll live.
You’ll one day be transplanted from your life on this earth – to eternal life in heaven.
 
III. What Now?
 
With the urgency of death lingering and the promise of God’s grace patiently keeping us alive, WHAT NOW for this week? A few things:


(1) Repent
 
It’s a phrase that appears twice, word for word in this section from Jesus. If Jesus thinks it is important enough to repeat, I think we should repeat it:
Unless you repent, then you too will perish. (v.3, 5)
 
Repent means to turn.  
To do a 180.
To turn from sin to Savior.
To turn from falling to temptation to fighting temptation.
To turn from unbelief to faith in Jesus.
 
It’s like watching Pee Wee Football. And there’s that little running back, the one that looks like his pads are gonna swallow him up. It’s the end of the game and the team is up by 4 touchdowns, so the coach calls a play to give him the ball. After the quarterback hands it off, he turns, he runs…and goes in the exact opposite direction of his endzone.

And the coach is screaming, “TURN AROUND! TURN AROUND!”
And the crowd is shouting, “TURN AROUND! TURN AROUND!”
And his teammates are chasing after him to tackle him and stop him and turn him around!

That’s what God is doing with us here today.
When we sin, we go the wrong way.
Today, God calls out to you – repeatedly, persistently, patiently, lovingly – TURN AROUND!
Turn to Me.
Turn to salvation.
 
(2) Be Urgent about It

Because absolutely nothing in Jesus’ words today imply that you’ve got all the time in the world.
Nope. In fact, the point is that you don’t know how much time you have at all.
Before Pilate has you murdered.
Or a tower falls on top of you.
Or you get sick.
Or in a car accident.
Or have a stroke.

Our time is short.
Do not wait on repenting when you’re older.

Repent now!
Get urgent about fighting sin.

Fighting addiction? Seek help today.
Fighting greed? Give more money in the offering plate.
Fighting hatred? Ask God to soften your heart.
Fighting sexual temptation? Stop putting yourself in situations to sin.

If you’re fighting the temptation to continue to NOT follow Jesus – keep fighting against it!
Put your trust in your Savior.
Believe.

Be urgent about fighting temptation because Jesus was urgent about fighting for you.
He came swiftly off his heavenly throne.
He suffered death.
He quickly and efficiently defeated it by rising from the dead.

(3) Be Patient about Others
 
Because it is so easy for us to be patient with ourselves, “C’mon guys. Greed is a hard thing. Give me time to get past this sin.”
But not so patient with others, “That dude was a jerk to me AND it’s the second time! God!?! Get him.”

But we can’t react like that. Not when God has every reason to cut us all down simultaneously right now, but he hasn’t.
Because God is patient with us, we are patient with others.

We forgive them.
We love them.
We kindly rebuke them…again and again and again and again.

We share the Gospel with them…even if it’s 8 years running.

There’s this one guy that I invite to Easter every year. I’ve invited him for seven years in a row – this year will be my eighth. Sometimes I invite with a text message. Sometimes with an email. Sometimes with a voice message. Sometimes it includes a graphic design. Sometimes it includes a Bible passage. Sometimes it includes a brief synopsis of the Gospel.

Every year? He doesn’t come.
 
I was thinking about not doing it this year.
About wiping my hands.
And shaking the dust off my feet.

But…
Then…
This lesson.

I’ll guess I’ll invite him again.

Friends – be patient in your interactions with others.
Take advantage of the Easter season.

Share the Gospel.
Share the Gospel.
And after you’ve done that.
Share the Gospel some more.

Patiently planting while urgently fighting temptation! Amen.

Last week we started our Fighting Temptation series by looking at Jesus’ one-on-one battle against the devil. We watched him effortlessly defeat Satan’s attempt at trying to make him sin. Jesus is the Undisputed, Undefeated, Unblemished Champion against Temptation.

But maybe you also noticed that the battle had some cost for Jesus.
It cost him time with his friends.
It cost him a stress-free month.
It cost him a delicious meal for about 40 days.
 
Truth is that temptation costs…
Is it worth it?

A couple of years back one of the dads at Precious Lambs taught karate. With some encouragement, I tried it out. And I enjoyed it! I liked learning the proper way to punch. I enjoyed learning a few combos. I think I looked pretty good in the ghee.

But after about a month of training, the Sensei invited me to a sparring match against another gym. I wouldn’t do any sparring, but I could watch more experienced classmates in action. He said, “In the future, this could be you.”

So, I watched.
It looked pretty fun.
I thought, “I sure would like to do that.”

Until about 30 minutes in. One gentleman began a reverse turn while lifting up his back leg (almost parallel to his head). As he completed his revolution, he brought his heel down in a striking manner towards his opponent’s head. Now – his opponent was ready and put his arm up to block the heel kick.

He did everything right.
But then…
CRACK.

Broken forearm.  
And I thought: “I think I’ve had enough karate…”
It cost too much.

Today we’ll examine fighting temptation when it costs. Our goal this morning is to identify those costs, compare them to the costs of NOT fighting temptation and get some motivation to keep fighting even when it costs. Before we do that, a prayer: Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; our ears to hear what you want us to hear and our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.

I. The Costs of Fighting Temptation

The lesson for this morning comes from Philippians 3:17-21. A brief bit of background. This is from a letter written by a pastor named Paul to his former congregation in a city called Philippi. One of the key parts of the letter is to encourage the believers in Philippi to fight against temptation.

In 1:10 he says, “Be pure” and fight sexual temptation.
In 2:1-3 he says, “In humility consider others better than yourself” and fight selfish temptation.
In 2:14 he says, “Do everything without grumbling or arguing” and fight temptation to discord.
In 3:2 he says, “Watch out mutilators of the flesh” guys who taught you needed to be circumcised to be saved and fight the temptation of trusting your own works more than God.
 
All of this fighting temptation talk leads up to verse 17. Paul writes, “Join together in my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do.”
 
Fight temptation like I, Paul, have fought temptation.

That sounds nice.

Paul was an apostle.
He fought temptation well.
It’d be good to fight like him.

But…
Problem is…
Do you know what happened to Paul for fighting temptation?

I don’t know exactly how this letter got to the Philippians. But if it is anything like today, there’d be a return address up on in the corner of the envelope containing the letter. And…based on where Paul was when he wrote this, the return address would have said something like this:
 
Roman Inmate #1764
Roman Federal Prison
Rome, Italy 2761 Jailbird
 
And I bet the church thought:
Did we break some kind of legal code?
Is someone asking our church for money?
Did one of our youths from youth group get in a bunch of trouble?

Nope.
It’s just your former pastor…
…in jail.

And yet Paul tells them! I’m in Chains for Christ!
“I’m in jail not because I fell to sin. But because I didn’t fall to sin.
Because I kept preaching the Word of God.
Because I kept telling others about Jesus.
Because I kept sharing the Gospel even when the temptation (and the temptation was great) even when the temptation was to stop sharing the Gospel.”

And now Paul tells the to join in his example, to fight temptation just like him.
But if I’m one of the Philippians reading this message, I’m not so sure!
Because if fighting temptation means going to prison, then…

Fighting temptation has a cost.
It costs you time with your family.
It costs you your job.
It costs you your freedom.
It costs you 6 am fresh coffee from Sola Coffee Café!

It’s like one of those commercials for a new drug. The voiceover tells you that this new, simple pill will allow you to grow back your hair in only 3 months. Everyone in the commercial looks happy. They all have a full head of hair. And you think: “Sure I’m interested. I’d love to get rid of my balding look.” Then, at the end of the commercial, there’s that part where they run through a few of the side effects in 10-point font:

Side effects include: nausea, headache, joint pain, dizziness, loss of sleep, too much sleep, loss of taste, loss of vision, loss of hearing and loss of hair. 

Fighting temptation has side effects.
Fighting temptation has costs.  
Here are a few common costs to fighting temptation

1) Earthly Relationships
 
I remember one time that I found a pretty good devotional. It was talking about a hot topic social issue. I posted this pretty good devotional on a hot topic social issue despite the temptation to maybe…move on. The result? I had a friend message me that if I ever did that again – he would block me. We wouldn’t be friends on Facebook.

Fighting temptation can cost you relationships.

“No, I won’t meet together for coffee and complaining anymore.” And they reply, “I guess you’re not our friend.”
“No, I won’t support your addiction and tell you that you don’t have a problem.” And they respond, “Okay. I’m done with you.”
“Significant other…I love you, but NO I won’t be sexually intimate with you until the promises of marriage.” And they say, “Well, then. You don’t love me. And we’re done here.”

2) Career Path
 
If you’re looking at Paul’s career strictly from an economic perspective, he made a big mistake by using his oratory skills to preach Jesus. Before he did that, he followed the Pharisees. He was an up and comer. Rich people liked him. He was a made man – a future leader in the city of Jerusalem. Thankfully Jesus intervened and taught Paul the truth – about what to believe and what to preach.

But then he taught about Jesus.
That landed him in jail.

Fighting Temptation can cost you your career path.
 
“No, I won’t fudge the numbers of my sales calls…and I’ll probably lose the promotion to the guy who does.”
“No, I won’t bad-mouth my coworkers…and I’ll probably lose the bonus to the guys who do.”
“No, I won’t hide my faith at work…and I’ll probably have to get a talking to from HR.”
 
3) Bodily Pleasure
 
Easy example. Think of the temptation to overeat. The temptation to have the third eclair is great! To say, “No!” comes with the cost of not having the pleasure of enjoying it.

Fighting temptation can cost you bodily pleasure.
 
“If I say NO to porn, it will cost me an excited feeling.”
“If I say NO to getting drunk, it’ll cost me a wonderful relaxation.”
“If I say NO to letting all of my rage out on that loser over there, then It’ll cost me the opportunity to get my stress out.”

4) Human Glory

For Paul, he lost all kinds of glory! He could have been something big. He could have been a guy that people walked by and said, “Now that guy’s impressive. He’s really good at following God’s laws. He’s so religious. He’s so holy.”
 
Instead? “That Paul guy is a loser.”

Fighting temptation can cost you human glory.
 
“If I say NO to racism and stop bad-mouthing people of another culture, it’ll make me feel inadequate because I won’t be able to distract people from my own flaws.”
“If I say NO to berating my wife, she might feel valuable and worthwhile to this family at the expense of me feeling like the sole provider!”
“If I say NO to pride, it’ll cost me all those people over there knowing how awesome I am!”   
“If I say NO to making that funny dirty joke, all my grade school friends won’t think I’m cool anymore”
“If I say NO to drugs, all my high school friends will think I’m a loser.”
“If I say NO to supporting that sinful thing society says is “OK,” all my adult friends will think I’m a bigot.” 

There is no doubt that Fighting Temptation comes with costs. 
There is no doubt that Fighting Temptation will be painful.
There is no doubt that the temptation to not Fight Temptation is enticing.

But…
 
II. The Cost of NOT Fighting

Before we give up on fighting temptation and give in to whatever sin is tempting us, we need to look at this from the other side.  
We need to compare the cost of Fighting temptation with the cost of NOT fighting Temptation.

That’s exactly Paul’s next point. Look at what “not” fighting temptation costs:
 
For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things.  (v.18-20)  
 
Did you catch it? Let’s break it apart to find some of the costs of not fighting temptation:

1) A Relationship with God
 
Specifically, Paul writes, “Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.” (V.18) Before we said, a cost of fighting temptation is that you might lose some relationships: friends, family members, boyfriends, girlfriends, etc.

But if you stop fighting temptation and live in sin? You’ll forfeit your friendship with God.

And it isn’t that you’ll be an acquaintance or some guy on the bus that you have a neutral feeling with.
But you’ll be an enemy of God!

Why do that?
Why would you want to be an enemy of the One who gave his life for you to save you from sin and death?
Why would you want to be an enemy of the One who is all powerful? Who conquered death itself and will have no problem conquering YOU?

Understand: Giving up on Fighting Temptation means that you will be giving up on your relationship with God.

2) Eternal Path
 
Paul writes, “(Those people who don’t fight temptation) their destiny is destruction.” (v.19a) Contrast this with the loss of our career path.
Because “Yes,” fighting temptation may mean you lose out on the career prestige of this world, but NOT fighting temptation leads to a change in your eternal destiny.

Instead of the promise of eternal life forever in heaven?
Destruction.

It’s like a soda can. When you are done with a Pepsi, you might throw it on the ground and crush it. Destruction.
Do you really want your destiny to be the same as that of an aluminum 7-Up can?

That’s the cost of not fighting temptation.

3) Heavenly Pleasure
 
Paul writes, “Their god is their stomach.” (v.19b) Think about that. If your stomach is your ‘god,’ that means that it is the most important thing to you. Everything that you do in life is for your stomach and to serve your stomach.

But…what can your stomach give you?
A full feeling…for about 2 hours.
Nausea? Yep.
How about constipation?

If your stomach…better yet…if your physical body is your God, then your pleasure will be momentary.
But if Jesus is your God?

You have the pleasure of forgiveness.
You have the pleasure of a peace with God.
You have the pleasure of knowing your salvation is certain.  

Not fighting temptation costs you that heavenly pleasure.
 
4) God’s Glory
 
Paul writes, “Their glory is their shame.” (v.19c) It’s an interesting verse. Because we said earlier that if you fight temptation, you might lose some of your own glory! Pride helps you feel good about yourself. Pride makes the world pay attention. Pride makes everyone in church pay attention to how awesome you are! It gives you a human version of glory.

But at the same time that it earns your momentary, human glory, it forfeits eternal heavenly glory.

And heavenly glory lasts!
Heavenly glory lasts forever.
Heavenly glory comes from the mouth of God himself as he says,
 
“You are forgiven.”
“You are mine.”
“Come, dwell with me…forever.”
Giving up on saying “No” to temptation forfeits that glory.
 
It forfeits heaven.

III. Other Reasons to Fight
 
Do you know the process for becoming a citizen in the United States?

You must have a valid Green Card for at least 5 years. There are costs involved in that.
You must apply and do paperwork and do some more paperwork. There are costs involved in that.
You must attend classes, take tests, and await results. There are costs involved in that.
Finally, you must be approved and take an oath of citizenships. Again – there are costs involved in that.

It costs a lot of money.
It takes a lot of work.
It involves a lot of time.

But that’s nothing compared to becoming a citizen of heaven!
God says we need to be holy.
God says that we need to be perfect.
God says that we need to love him with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind…all of the time!
We could never earn his citizenship. We fall to temptation too often.

But…
The fact remains…
Dear believing friends…
Our citizenship is in heaven. (v.20)
 
Jesus paid for all of it.
Jesus did all of the paperwork.
Jesus has made you a citizen of his kingdom.
God the Father has approved you because of Jesus’ work.

You are a citizen of God’s kingdom.
And as a result, you have an incredible reason to fight temptation:

1) You are a Citizen of God’s Kingdom
 
A citizen of the United States may join the military and fight for our country.
Athletic citizens of the United States may join the Olympic team and win a gold medal for the U. S. flag.
Ambassador citizens of the U.S. may go to another country to watch out for and keep safe the U.S. Citizens in that foreign country.

If you are United States citizen, you do things on its behalf.
If you are a citizen of God’s kingdom? You do things on its behalf.

You fight temptation.

You are part of the one and only eternal kingdom of God Himself.
He fought for you and gave up his life to get you there.
Live like a citizen of His kingdom.
Fight temptation.
 
2) Fight on the Winning Side

Paul writes, “And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.”  (v.21b)
 
Savior implies that he does saving.
Which implies that he is successful at saving.
Which implies that he wins every battle against anyone that tries to stop him from saving.
Which implies that he is a winner.
Which implies that whoever is on his side…is also a winner!

In Christ, you are a winner, too.

Remember – Jesus destroyed the devil in that one-on-one temptation battle last week.
Then he went on to crush Satan’s head with his work on the cross.
And as an encore, he destroyed death by emerging victoriously from the grave.

And in him – you are victorious.
In Jesus, you are a winner.
In Jesus, you will receive all of the victory spoils.

Which includes:

3) The Promise of a Glorious Body
 
Paul writes: “Jesus, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” (v.21c)
 
Our bodies are lowly.
I can sleep for 8 hours and I’m still tired.
I can do about 30 pushups and then I just lay on my stomach.
I can resist putting a second Dorito into my mouth – for about 5 seconds.

Our bodies are lowly.
They are tired, weak and dying. 

In Jesus…
God promises that our bodies will be transformed.

After our bodies die.
After our souls are in heaven.
On the Last Day, when God does an incredible miracle and brings our bodies back to life.
They will still be our bodies, but…

They will be glorious!

Just like what happened to Jesus.  
When rose from the dead, he made his way to see his disciples on that first Easter evening.
 
Think about all he went through.
Surely, his body would be weak.
Deformed.
Pathetic.

But when Jesus walked in…
He was different.

He had nail marks in his hands, but they weren’t bleeding, bruised, or scabbed. His body was without pain.
He had a smile on his face and no sweat on his forehead. His body was without weakness.
The sin that he had taken on his body – our sins – was gone! His body was without shame.  

That same kind of body is promised to you.

In eternal life, there will be no pain.
In eternal life, there will be no weakness to temptation.
In eternal life, there will be no remembrance of sinful failures.
There will be no guilt.
There will be no shame.

Friends, the benefits to following Jesus and fighting temptation far outweigh the benefits to not fight temptation.
May Jesus empower us to keep fighting temptation even when it costs.
Amen.

Our sermon series is all about the fight that goes on between humans and temptation.
Fighting temptation is something that we all are familiar with in some shape or form…
Fighting temptation is something that we all struggle with in some shape or form.

I have every confidence that this will be a good series for you to be a part of.

To start our study of temptation, we’re going to watch a film.
If you’ve ever been in a sport before, maybe you’ve done that. You’ve watched films of those who are good at the sport in hopes that you’ll learn how to be better at the sport.

And if you wanted to be a better fighter, there is no shortage of epic fights that you could watch.
 
Muhammad Ali against Joe Frazier in the Thrilla at Manilla.
The Immortal Hulk Hogan versus Andre the Giant at Wrestlemania III.
Holly Holm defying the odds and taking out Ronda Rousey at UFC 193.  
 
If you want to learn to be a fighter, it is valuable to watch the best fighters battle against some of their most feared opponents.

Today we’ll do that. We’ll examine a one-on-one battle between the Undefeated Against Temptation, Jesus, and the Master of Temptation, Satan, the devil himself. Before we do, a prayer: Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; our ears to hear what you want us to hear and our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.

I. The Stakes
 
The battle we’ll look at today is recorded in Luke 4:1-13. But before we get into the specifics of the fight, I think it’s important to look at how high the stakes were.

Because epic fights, usually have high stakes:

A championship belt.
A gold medal.
Even a $100,000,000 purse.

What were the stakes in Luke 4?

1. Title of “Most Powerful”
 
The devil is powerful.

He has been winning temptation battle after temptation battle since way back in the Garden of Eden! Back then, in the first temptation battle ever – Satan did not really break a sweat in getting Adam and Eve, two people who had never sinned, to…sin.
 
Since then, the devil had been on a rampage causing person after person after person to fall to temptation.

Hundreds of millions of people…
All people in all of history up to the point of Luke 4…
All losers to the devil.  

He’s powerful.

Along came Jesus.
He was supposed to be the Savior…
Could he be the One to break the devil’s power?  

2. Unblemished Record
 
Up to this point, Jesus hasn’t sinned. The reason takes a bit of explanation:
 
Jesus, unlike any other human ever, was born differently.
He was born of a virgin and God.
As a result, he didn’t have a naturally sinful heart like all other humans do.
And was not tempted by his own sinful heart like all other humans are.

In short, he had no sin.

But in Luke 4, the devil gets a chance to go at Jesus in a one-on-one attack out in the desert, away from other people, in a desert wasteland. All with the goal of taking Jesus’ perfect record and adding one blemish to it. 
 
If he can only do that, he can do more than ruin Jesus’ perfect record against temptation, he can also ruin…

3. Your Salvation
 
The Bible teaches that “the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) We have sinned; we deserve death; even eternal death in hell. The Bible also teaches that Jesus came to be our substitute. He would pay the wage of our sins for us by dying on the cross.

In order for Jesus to be able able to pay for our sins, Jesus needed to live his own life without any sin.
Otherwise, when he went to the cross to pay for our sins, the Father would look down at Jesus’ record, see his own sinful blemish, and say, “The wages of sin is death.”

It’d be similar to me having one dollar and wanting to pay for your Dollar Menu Item at McDonalds and the cashier at the register says, “Sir, before you can pay for your friend’s McChicken, I’m going to need you to pay for your own Dollar Fries.”

Sorry, dude. No McChicken for you.

If Jesus sinned – even once, he would have to give his life to pay for it.
And then he couldn’t pay for ours.
And then we wouldn’t be saved.

II. The Fight
 
The stakes are high. Let’s look at what happens:
 
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.  (Lk. 4:1-3)
 
Right away, did you notice that the deck is stacked against Jesus?

He’s Alone. No one else is around. No one to encourage him not to sin. No one to tell him, “Hey, don’t do that.” Sometimes the harshest temptations hit us when we’re alone. That’s not a good start.
In the Wilderness. There aren’t any amenities around to get his mind off the temptation. He can’t relax in the hot tub. He can’t grab a drink from the minibar. He can’t just ignore the devil while watching HBO in the hotel room.
He’s hungry. Like…he hasn’t eaten in over 40 days. That’s crazy. Because…I have a hard time fighting off the temptation if I don’t eat every two hours!!! We call that hangry.

And the devil knows it.
This is the opportune time.
Hit ‘em, while he’s weak.

1. Round One
 
The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” (v.3)
 
It wouldn’t be hard for you. You control the elements. I know you changed water into wine not that long ago. This should be as easy as a snap of your fingers.

Because…yes…I know the Father promised to care for you but…. 40 days!?! Without food? That’s love!?!

He forgot about you.
He doesn’t love you.
And those pangs in your stomach?

Proof. 

Take matter into your own hands.
Love yourself.
Make that stone into some bread.

At first, does that even seem like it’d be sinful. Because Jesus absolutely had the power to change stones into bread.
He once turned five loaves of bread into food for 5,000.
He also turned 7 loaves of bread into food for 4,000.
It wouldn’t have been hard for Jesus to turn stones into a nice warm loaf of Subway herbs and cheese bread, smothered in butter!
 
But that’s not really the heart of the temptation.

Because Jesus had gone into the wilderness because the Spirit led him there.
He went into the wilderness because it was part of his Father’s plan.
He went into the wilderness trusting his Father loved him and would keep him alive.

The heart of the temptation isn’t: “Use your powers,” it’s, “Distrust God’s Love.”
 
That’s important to recognize.

Because specifically speaking this is a temptation that the devil could never bring to you or me. Because if the devil told me, “Change that stone into bread,” I would simply say, “I can’t.”
But categorically? He uses this all the time.
 
“If God loved you, you wouldn’t be so far behind on your rent. Better take it into your own hands. Commit a little fraud on your taxes.”
“If God really loved you, why would he let your relationship be so difficult? Go ahead. Start flirting with other women.”
“If God really loved you, your sister wouldn’t be so sick. Denounce him. Move on.”
 
The temptation to distrust God’s love is great.
I’ve failed at this plenty of times, too.
You?

But look at Jesus. He says, “It is written: (pay attention to that phrase, we’ll hear it again) ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” (v.4)
 
In other words:

It isn’t bread that sustains. God does.
It isn’t bread that determines that God loves me, the fact that I’m alive does.
And I’m alive so…

Devil, you lie.
I trust God’s love; not your words…
 
Boom.
 
It’s like the devil came in with a few left jabs, Jesus blocked them and countered with a punch to the gut.
 
Round One. Jesus.

2. Round Two
 
The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world.  (This is a bit of a miracle. Don’t forget. The devil is powerful. Not all-powerful, but powerful. And in an instant he shows him the kingdom of Israel, the Roman Empire, parts of Asia, down into Africa and maybe the futuristic Kingdom of Raleigh NC in 2019.)

And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. If you worship me, it will all be yours.”  (v.6-7)
 
Because Jesus… I know God’s plan.
I’ve read the Scriptures.
He said that once you’ve finished your work on earth, that you will sit at his right hand and rule over all things.

Once you’ve finished your work…
 
Doesn’t your work involve betrayal?
Doesn’t it involve being arrested?
Doesn’t it involve you being punched, beaten, whipped, crowned with thorns, nailed hand and foot to a cross, and dying by asphyxiation on two old, blood stained pieces of wood?

That sounds awful.
That sounds terrible.
That sounds…like a BAD plan.

Jesus, I’ve got a better plan.  
Bow down to me.
It’ll be quick.
It’ll be painless.
All of this will be yours.
And it will all be yours.
 
Never mind the fact that the devil doesn’t actually rule anything.
Never mind the fact that the devil’s promise was something he couldn’t deliver on.
Focus in on the temptation.

Because the heart of the temptation isn’t: “Bow down to me, but “Distrust God’s Plan.”
 
Specifically, this isn’t a temptation that could apply to us. God’s plan is not for you to suffer and die on a cross.
Categorically this temptation is something I am sure you have dealt with.
 
Is God’s plan really that you be kind to your enemies at work? That’s foolish. We need to go call them a few very specific names.
Is God’s plan really that you stay faithful to your spouse? You’re missing out. Check out this xxx website and you’ll feel instantly better.
Is God’s plan really that you sweat your way up the ladder? That’ll take too long. Go on Facebook and spread rumors about your coworkers. You’ll get the promotion faster…
Is God’s plan really that you share the Gospel? They’ll probably ridicule you. Just listen to my plan. Clam up. It’ll be a lot easier.
 
Avoid pain.
Avoid suffering.
Wow. That’s a good temptation.
I’ve failed at it too many times to count!

But Jesus responds his way, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only’” (v.8)
 
In other words:

It isn’t you who is all-knowing, God is.
It isn’t you who is all-loving, God is. 
It isn’t you who is all-powerful, God is!

Devil, you lie.
I trust the Father’s plan, not yours…
 
And WHAM!
 
The devil tried to come back with sideswipe, but Jesus stepped out of the way and clocked him in the back of the head. 
 
Round Two. Jesus.
 
But the devil hasn’t given up. He slugs some water, spits out some blood and heads to the final round.

3. Round Three
 
The devil led Jesus to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here.” (v.9)
Because, I get it. I misjudged you, Jesus. I really did.
You trust the Father implicitly!

You trust His love.
You trust His Plans.
You trust His Word.

Let’s do something to show that trust. Just jump. The southern most part of the temple is only about 450 feet about the ground. It’s scary. But…you’re so good at trusting. Look at what God promised:
 
For it is written: (“I know you’ll like that Jesus. It’s the Scriptures.”)  “‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
You won’t strike your foot.
And you won’t splat.

Trust your Father, Jesus.

Wow. Talk about tricky.
The devil makes jumping off the Wells Fargo Building in downtown Raleigh sound like it should be our next church outing.
Something like that would be sinning if we didn’t do it!

But it isn’t.
Because God never told us to.

This temptation is tricky.
It isn’t a temptation to MISTRUST, but to TRUST.
Specifically:  It’s a temptation to Trust Presumptuously.
To trust beyond what God promised.
To let your trust lead you into a realm that God has clearly forbidden!
To be fair – you’ve dealt with similar temptations:
It’s good to trust God. He promised to always protect you. So, go ahead: Drink and drive.
It’s good to trust God. He promises to hold you in faith. So, go ahead: Stop going to worship.
It’s good to trust God. He promises to always forgive you. So, go ahead: Sin as much as you want. In fact, if you don’t go on sinning, you aren’t very good in trusting God’s forgiveness.
 
If you are a long-time Christian, be especially careful of this one. Because the devil plays on our desire to feel like a good Christian at the expense of being a good Christian!
He only tells half the story.
He only brings up half the truth.
He’s lying!

And Jesus knew that: Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” (v.12)
Because the Father is the one who sets limits.
And the Father is the one who determines when those limits are broken.

Devil. You’re wrong. God is the one testing, not the one to be tested.

Get.
Away.
From me.
 
And the devil unleashes a barrage of jabs to Jesus’ stomach,
But Jesus just stands there, absorbing the blows.
And then…
Winds up….
And delivers a killer upper cut to knock the devil out. 
 
Winner.
The Most Powerful of All.
The Unblemished by Sin.
Your Salvation-Winning-Savior – Jesus Christ.

III. WHAT NOW?

 1. Celebrate His Victory!
 
Because you may have fallen to temptation.
You might have lost to the devil.
You might have lost to the devil so often that you feel like your record is 0 - 76,845.

You might feel like a loser.
But you aren’t.
Because Jesus won.

He defeated the devil.
He didn’t sin.
When he died, he paid the price for your sins!

And then – three days later…He rose triumphantly defeating the devil’s counterpart known as death!

Jesus is victorious!
And as a result…
You are victorious.

You are forgiven.
For all the times you have mistrusted God’s love, you are forgiven.
For all the times you have mistrusted God’s plans, you are forgiven.
For all the times you have trusted God presumptuously, you are forgiven.
 
Take a moment.
Celebrate that.
When the devil tries to get you to think about all the times that you have lost to him…
Remind him about how he lost to Jesus!

2. Fight with your Greatest Weapon

A phrase that Jesus uses time and again throughout this entire fight is “It is written.” It’s a reference to Old Testament Scripture. And it’s Jesus’ favorite way of fighting temptation.

I think that’s incredible!
Because if I was predicting how this battle would go, I would imagine that Jesus would have sent lighting bolts to turn the devil to a crisp.
Or maybe called down a bunch of flying monkeys to toss him off the top of the 450-foot temple point.
Or even imprisoned him inside of a heavenly cage where he isn’t allowed to eat bread for 40 some odd days!
 
Nope.

Jesus doesn’t use his miraculous power.
He simply uses God’s Word.

A weapon – that you and I have access, too.
 
Hebrews 4:12 says this, “The word of God is living and active sharper than any double-edged sword.”

Friends, use God’s Word to battle temptation.
I don’t mean pick it up and swing at the devil.
Nope.
I mean use God’s Word.

It’s powerful.
It’s effective.
It tends to knock the devil out.

When he tempts you to lust, tell him, “It is written: Don’t lust.”
When he temps you to hate, tell him, “It is written: Don’t hate.”
When he tempts you to doubt God, tell him, “It is written – that Jesus kicked you in a one-on-one temptation battle. Then he died and rose again. Tell me again…Why should I doubt God?”

3. Fight Alongside Jesus
 
You don’t need to fight on your own.
You don’t need to take on temptation by yourself.
You have the Savior on your side.
 
And what happens when Jesus fights the devil?
Well…
Check out the last verse.

When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left… (v.13)
 
Did you catch that?
He retreated.
He gave up.
He submitted at the hands of Jesus.

That is what Satan will do when you fight along Jesus.
And as a believer in Jesus, you fight along Jesus.
May God give you confidence to fight temptation this week and always. Amen.

We’re in the middle of a sermon series called FRESH. It’s all about getting a FRESH start in the new year. So far, we have gotten a FRESH perspective – that God is not for the “righteous,” but for sinners; and we have learned about the personal FRESH start that God offers to us in baptism.
 
But…how does all of this affect YOUR day to day life?

It’s kind of like becoming a vegan. Once you get a Vegan Life tattoo, you don’t just go to Burger King for a Triple Whopper.
Or if you are diagnosed with Gluten Intolerance, it’s not wise to bemoan the diagnosis with a package of saltine crackers.  
Or even if you declare yourself a Duke fan and you attend the Duke basketball game in full Duke blue, it would be unwise to stand up and cheer when a baby blue Tarheel slam dunks the basketball.

Once you have been given a FRESH start, it necessitates that you live in a FRESH way.  
 
Today we are going to dive into God’s Word to learn more about what a FRESH lifestyle looks like. Before we do that, a prayer: Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see; our ears to hear what you want us to hear and our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.

I. The Ephesian Issue

The lesson for today comes from the book of Ephesians. It’s a letter written by a pastor to church in Ephesus. And there are two main reasons that he writes the letter:

(1) Young Church. 
This church in Ephesus was not that old.  The majority of the people that belong to that church were fairly young in their faith, too.  
This isn’t necessarily bad. Usually when people are young in their faith, they are filled with enthusiasm and excitement for their Savior and for the FRESH start that He has given them.

But one of the challenges when you are a young-in-faith Christian is that you don’t have very deep roots in the faith.
Like a young plant that hasn’t had a long time to grow deep roots, young in faith Christians haven’t had a long time to grow roots.
Paul’s letter was written, in part, to deepen their roots and grow their faith.

(2) Ungodly Culture.
The second reason for the letter goes hand in hand. Ephesus was not exactly a place well-known for worshipping the true God.
It wasn’t a place that taught that Messiah.
It wasn’t a place that was blessed with a temple or filled with Old Testament readers.

It was a city that developed a good portion of its economic capital from false god worship.
There were temples devoted to false gods.
Priests paid to man those temples to false gods.
Maintenance men paid to fix the toilets at those temples devoted to false gods.

In fact, in Acts 19 describes a marketplace that was dedicated to buying little handmade false gods for you to take home and worship. Can you imagine? I picture storefronts with names like: “Idols ‘R Us”, “JC Idols,” and “Build-a-Bear: False God Edition.”

One of the most famous false gods to worship in Ephesus was a god called Artemis.
Artemis was not a god like the LORD.
Artemis didn’t have so many rules.
Artemis didn’t care if you were drunk when you worshipped her.
She didn’t care if you chose to worship her by sleeping with people you aren’t married to.
In fact, she encouraged you to come to special room in the temple where lots of people slept with other people they weren’t married to – all in the name of Artemis!

The new church in Ephesus was young in their faith.
Paul’s concern was that many of them would claim to be followers of Jesus, but then follow the same, regular old, sinful, Ephesian way of life.

As a result, Paul writes his letter:
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. (v.17)
“Gentile” is a word that usually means not Jewish.
But here it’s focus isn’t on the genealogical code of the Ephesian people.
But on their lifestyle – as a people far apart from the true God.

Paul wants them, the people who are close to God, to stop living like the people who are far apart from God.
Three reasons the Ephesian way of life wasn’t all it was cracked up to be:

(1) Darkened in Understanding.  
The picture is of a two people. A guy who is blindfolded and in darkness and a guy who isn’t blindfolded and can see. The guy who can see has no problem maneuvering as he goes about life. He can see things, so avoid obstacles and walks around bumps in the road. But the guy who is blindfolded has troubles. He bumps into walls. He stumbles on steps. He steps on Friendly, the neighborhood cat!

It would not make a lot of sense for the guy who doesn’t have the blindfold on to say: “I wish I was wearing a blindfold. Then, I could bump into things, trip over obstacles and be viciously attacked by Friendly, the neighborhood cat.”

Yet – that’s exactly what the Ephesians believers were doing.
They were the ones in the light. They knew what the truth was. They knew what pleased God.

But they were being tempted to live like the people with the blindfolds on!
“Man, I wish that I was drunk more. It’d be fun to ruin the few friendships I have left by screaming obscenities at people.”
“I’m so jealous of Bob. I wish I had the intimacy issues that he has thanks to playing the field and sleeping with a different girl each night.”
“Family is alright, but I think I need to be more like others at work to focus more on money, money, money, money, money…”
This is foolish. If you are in the light but walk around with your eyes closed – don’t be surprised when you leave a relational mess everywhere you go.    
 
(2) Lost Sensitivity.
Paul writes, “having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity and they are full of greed.” (v.18)
Does this ever happen to you? You’re looking for a late-night snack and you grab the bag of chips up in the cupboard. You figure. “I’ll just have one.” You sit down. Turn on Netflix. And place one chip into your mouth.  
You start searching through the “Because You Watched The Office” section of Netflix and have switched to putting two chips into your mouth.
You settle on your show and suddenly your find yourself, almost subconsciously, throwing in 5 or 6 chips at the same time.
Before you know it, you’re doing that thing where you just grab a pile with your hands, toss your head back and drop it into your open mouth.

You’ve lost all sensitivity.

It’s the same thing with sin. Something might seem morally repugnant to you: I hate looking at porn.
Then, you make that one concession: “I feel really, really bad. Granted, it was only a lingerie ad and I kinda have to look at it because it’s a pop-up ad. But it wasn’t right.”
Then, another concession: “Well, it’s only nudity. I suppose it’s not good for me, but it could be worse.”
And before you know it– “Yep. I watch porn. What’s the big deal?”

Staying on the path to an ungodly way of life leads to losing all sensitivity.
Like a friend of mine. I remember this back in college. Things were kind of going downhill for him. He took some of us aside and was in tears. He said, “I am struggling with the party lifestyle. I get wasted. I get high. I sleep around. It’s horrifying.
But…that’s not the reason I am concerned.
That’s not the reason I am horrified.
The reason I feel horrified…?
It’s because I don’t feel horrified.  

Living a sinful lifestyle will lessen your sensitivity to sin. Be careful.

(3) Separated from the Life of God. 
One final reason: “They are separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.” (v.18) And I think, really, this manifests itself in two ways.

They feel dead inside. They can’t shake sin. They can’t shake shame. They can’t shake this feeling that they are directly responsible for messing up their own lives. They are apart from God. Apart from the “life” that has forgiveness and stuck with the dead weight of their sins.

If you are a believer, this is multiplied.
Because the devil comes along and takes full advantage:

“You’re a believer…but you do that stuff. Hmmm… Are you sure?”
“You’re a God lover, why do you love that sinful thing so much? Maybe…God doesn’t love you.”
“You’re supposed to be his child? You’re acting like his enemy. You MUST be his enemy.”
If you continue in your sinful lifestyle, you will continue to deal with this dead inside feeling; and miss out on the joy of forgiveness!

But this is about more than feeling dead inside.

Do you remember John 3:16? It says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
That’s nice. That’s encouraging. That’s good news.

But…have you ever read John 3:18? “But whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he does not believe in the name of God’s Son.”
Condemned? That’s a reference to death.
Eternal death.

Here’s Paul’s point: Are you, as a believer headed towards heaven, really jealous of the unbelieving way that leads to hell?
Do you believe it’s a better way from life?
If so, do you believe you are still a believer if you believe that life apart from Jesus is better?

Here’s the truth.
Living your life apart from God, threatens living eternal life apart from God. 

This is a warning.

A warning Paul wrote.
A warning the Holy Spirit preserved.
A warning that God is speaking to your heart today. 

Take heed. Because “That is not the way of life you learned when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.” (v.20-21)
 
II. Zacchaeus – a Case Study

Zacchaeus grabbed the lowest hanging branch of the sycamore fig tree and pulled himself up. He positioned his feet in the crook of the rather large branch, steadied himself with his left hand and while trying to catch his breath, he looked over the crowd to the speaking 300 some odd feet away.

Jesus.  
 
Zacchaeus had always wanted to see him. He had heard Jesus promoting a new perspective on God. The promise that God loved even scum of the earth, tax collecting sinners like himself and sent the Savior for scum of the earth tax collecting sinners like himself.

It gave Zacchaeus hope. Because Zacchaeus lived a lifestyle without a lot of hope.
He had gotten into the tax collecting business for the money.
And the money led to greed.
The greed to deception.
Deception to stealing from his neighbors.
And the stealing from his neighbors…to not having many friends.

He got drunk.
He paid for women.
He paid for the illegal drugs for that table over there if only…they’d hang out with him.

It wasn’t real friendship.
It wasn’t a good way to life.
It left him alone, guilt and ashamed.
 
That’s why he had to be in the back – he was too sinful to be near a teacher like Jesus.
And he had to be in a sycamore fig tree because he was too short to see over anyone.

But from up in that branch…he could see just fine.
And he could see just fine…as Jesus spoke.
He could see just fine…as Jesus ended his sermon.
He could see just fine…as Jesus walked…directly…towards…him.

And Zacchaeus thought: “Surely! He’s going to call me out! Surely. He’s going to point out to the crowd a modern-day example of sin and filth – which is exactly what I am.”
But Jesus said something different: “Zacchaeus. Come down right now. I’m going to your house today.” (Lk. 19:5)
 
And Zacchaeus moved down from that tree faster than any house cat.
He was excited that Jesus wanted to be with Him.
He took him home to his house.
He listened as Jesus spoke about forgiveness.
He heard as Jesus proclaimed himself to be the Savior for scum of the earth, tax collecting sinners like himself.

And Zacchaeus believed Jesus.
 
And then! Zacchaeus said something that is altogether incredible:
“Look Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” (v.9)
 
Do you see it?
 
Zacchaeus didn’t need his money-based life when he had the promise of the eternal things.
Zacchaeus didn’t need to fill his life with greed when he was filled with the love of Jesus.
Zacchaeus didn’t need things and stuff when he had the one thing needful.
Zacchaeus didn’t need sin that condemns when he had the Savior who saves.

Neither do you.
You have the One.
You have your Savior.
You have absolutely, full and complete forgiveness with Jesus Christ.

You don’t need your former way of life.
You don’t need your sin.
You don’t need the stuff that the world apart from Christ chases after.

You have the eternal, constant, all-powerful, undeserved love of Christ Jesus.

Here’s what God’s Word is telling you:
Jesus gave up everything to be with you. Give up your sinful lifestyle to be with Him.

Just like Jesus said about Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house.” Literally!

Jesus, who is salvation, came to Zacchaeus’ house. What else did he need?
And that same Jesus, has come to your house, by faith. What else do you need?

III. WHAT NOW?

And so…the WHAT NOW? It comes from the next part of Ephesians four. Verse by verse. A three-step encouragement to find a new way of living.

1) Put Off Your Old Self

Paul writes, “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires.” (v.22)

A few years back I had this black shirt that I bought off the clearance rack of TJ MAXX (Because I only buy off the clearance rack at TJ Maxx) and I bought this on my own, without Julianna present. Anyway, I thought it was cool. It was a long-sleeved black, nice shirt that had charcoal stripes running lengthwise, and a subtle hint of flashiness when the light hit it the right way.

Julianna thought that the light should never hit it and it should remain in the closet.

Understand. This is the gist of what God is telling you.
Take off your old way of life.
Take off the addiction.
Take off the greed.
Take off the lust.
Take off the rage.
Take off the bitterness, gossip, and pride.

It doesn’t look good on you.
And…more importantly…it’s not who you are!

Take a moment. Think about a sin that you struggle with. Think of a sin that you like to wear.
I want you to identify that sin and this week, like right now and take steps to take off that old, sinful lifestyle!

Which might sound intimidating.
It might sound hard.
That’s why we need to remember the second point:
 
2) Be made NEW in your Minds

Paul continues, “You were taught…to be made new in the attitude of your minds…” (v.23) Look carefully at that verb. It’s passive. It doesn’t say, “Make your attitude new.” That’s really hard to do. Theologically, it’s impossible to do. If your mind is one of sin and the former way of life, it won’t be able to make itself new and develop a new way of life that’s actually new.

Instead, it’ll just be:
“I should stop gossiping.” And then, “Man, aren’t I awesome at not gossiping?”

From a lifestyle of gossip to a lifestyle of pride – aka – from a lifestyle of sin to a lifestyle of sin.
 
We need Jesus.
We need to BE MADE NEW.
We are made new in God’s Word.
We are truly made new through repeated, repetitive, persistent and consistent time in God’s Word.

It’s like moving down to Raleigh after living many years up North in Wisconsin. And now that I have been here 8 years --- I’ve noticed something about my vocabulary. I say things that I didn’t used to say.

I say things like:
“Ya’ll”.
And “Puddin.”
and “Bless your heart.”

Time around people who said things like that has led me to be made new in my mind and speak things like that.
It’s the same with God’s way of living.

Time in God’s Word… Repeated, repetitive, persistent and consistent time in God’s Word will make our minds new.
Repeated, repetitive, persistent and consistent time watching that TV-Mature Netflix series? It won’t make you new. It’ll keep you in your old lifestyle.
But time in God’s Word?

It makes your minds new.
Because it reminds you of who you are.
God’s child.

This all leads to the final big point from Ephesians:
 
3) Put on the New Self

Specifically, Ephesians says: “Put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” (v.24)

Because as the alarm goes off in the wee hours of the morning and you’re trying to figure out what outfit would look good and which pair of novelty socks you should wear today:
Don’t forget your watch.
Don’t forget your wedding ring.
And don’t forget to put on Jesus’ love.

Clothe yourself with the fact that you are forgiven.
Put on the socks that say you are SAVED.
Put on the T-shirt that says God’s child.
Put on the hat with the phrase HEALED FROM SIN visible on the brim!

Put on the NEW self and live as the NEW self the rest of the day.

Be kind.
Be pure.
Be true.
Seek holiness.
Love others.
Love God.
Follow Jesus.

That’s a NEW way of living.
That’s a FRESH way of living.
That’s the way of living that God has called you to. Amen.

The other day I saw on Facebook that a person was trying to start a movement – not quite as far reaching as Jesus, but… Their goal was to saturate Social Media with pictures of cute kittens doing cute things. Maybe it doesn’t seem like a big deal – but the goal was to help get rid of negativity and be positive.

Who would be opposed to a picture of a cute kitten? 
Answer: Lots of people.
 
 People who like dogs.
People who were downright mean.
People who told her to get a life and that the kittens needed to be her profile pic because she was so ugly.
 
Here’s the reality -- movements always have opposition – even harmless cat picture movements have opposition.
 
And so does Jesus.
 
The American Revolution had the British Forces.
The Civil Rights movement had the KKK.
Even in the fantasy world -- the Rebel Alliance was opposed by the Imperial Forces.
 
Movements always have opposition and so does Jesus’ discipleship movement.

Last week we learned that disciples are those who follow Jesus’ call. Today we want to dig into Scripture and learn from Jesus himself who our real opponents are and how we can defeat them. Before we begin, a prayer: Lord, strengthen us by the truth; your Word is truth. Open our eyes to see what you want us to see. Open our ears to hear what you want us to hear and open our hearts to believe what you would have us believe. Amen.
 
I. The Story 
 
The lesson for today is from Mark 1:21. It takes place less than a week after the account about Jesus calling the first disciples on the fishing docks. In fact, verse 21 says it was on the next Sabbath Day. Since the fishermen were fishing in the last account, that means they were working.  They wouldn’t have been working if it was the Sabbath Day (Saturday); so, it has been at most six days since Peter, Andrew, James and John started following Jesus.

That isn’t a lot of time.

It means they were still in the orientation part of becoming a disciple. They were still at the basics of their training. They were learning about their employer, about the benefits package and the specific role that they would play in the company.
 
And on this particular day class was outside the local synagogue.

And Jesus was on a roll.
 
“He is so amazing!”
“I know. His message is so on point. So different.”
“Yep. He talks about forgiveness. He talks about grace. I’m starting to feel like even I could be a part of his kingdom.”
“And it’s not like he’s making it up. Those Pharisees – that’s what they always say. They say, ‘I think’, ‘I surmise’ and ‘my personal opinion is.’ Not Jesus. He says, “This is God’s Word,’ ‘God says,” and “This is truth.”

As the disciples listened to the crowds’ reactions, they couldn’t help but feel excited. This thing had legs.
People were listening.
People were excited.
People wanted to be a part of this.
 
At least, most people…
 
WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH US JESUS OF NAZARETH!?!
 
All heads from the crowd immediately turned to the back.
There stood a man. Disheveled. Hair eschew. A bit of drool coming from his mouth as a wild-eyed gaze stared hatefully at Jesus.
He didn’t look good. And the vein that was throbbing from the top of his head screamed evil.

He spoke again.
 
What do you want with us? Did you come to Destroy us?
 
As he spoke, he motioned with his hands to the crowd around them. He meant to call into question Jesus’ motivation for this movement. He was implying that Jesus wasn’t really there to help, but to cause total and absolute destruction.

“I know who you are…!” He made his way forward – inching closer to Jesus as he pointed at him violently – “You are the Holy One of God.”  (v..24)
 
At this, the disciples started to get a bit uncomfortable. Maybe it was the violence the man was spewing or the possibility that he was right! Regardless the crowd’s whispers had changed:  
 
Who is this guy?
Is he right?  
Is Jesus really against us? Or is this guy just a demon?  
 
John’s ears perked up. A demon? If that last one was right, maybe this discipling wasn’t really worth it.  After all, they had signed up to be fishers of men not fighters of demons. John’s eyes started darting as he looked for an escape route.

At this point, the man was feet away from Jesus.
The tension was building.
The drama was at a high.
The uncertainty of who would win was palpable.

Then, Jesus spoke:

“Be quiet and come out of the man.” (v.25)
 
No sooner did Jesus finish the “m” on the Hebrew word for “man” than the intruder began to shake.
Violently.
He fell to his knees and let out a terrifying shriek and fell to the floor. Limp.

Jesus checked on him and the man sat up.

No longer looking evil but exhausted.
No longer hateful, but thankful.
No longer a demon, but a follower.
 
This is a very important account. It teaches what we said earlier -- there is opposition to Jesus’ message and it’s scarier than you think:  
 
Jesus is opposed by the all too real demons of hell itself.

 
II. The Terrifying Reality of the Opposition 
 
Have you ever seen Ghost Hunters before? It’s a documentary show on one of the cable channels. The premise is that a bunch of scientists will spend the night in a place that’s “haunted” and try to figure out if it’s real or fake. And they always come back with footage that’s questionable. A floating light. A moving picture. A high-pitched noise.

And…I don’t know. It could be a weird coincidence. It could be camera editing. It could be some guy in the background throwing things on camera.

I’ll tell you what it’s not. It’s not ghosts. The Bible doesn’t teach ghosts. The Bible teaches that when people die their souls do not hang out on earth to try and get done some unfinished business. Ecclesiastes 12:7 says, “The dust returns to the ground it came from and the spirit return to God who gave it.” This means that those noises and weird instances on ghost hunters cannot be caused by ghosts.  
 
But it could something much worse.
Demons.

If you are skeptical, this account of Jesus is very helpful. Consider the following:

1. Visible Immediacy of the Change 

Notice: as soon as Jesus says, “get out of the man,” there is a violent reaction. It describes him as shaking, a violent shake and screaming. The original Greek sentence says, “And he loud noised a very loud noise.”

And it isn’t just a show! There are hundreds of people presents who absolutely believe something very strange just happened. The Bible says, “The people were all so amazed that they asked each other, “What is this?...He gives orders to impure spirits and they obey him.”
 
And we know it wasn’t something that they were unsure about. Because do you really want your neighbors to call you crazy?  Yet the people were so certain of this happening that they told anyone they could. In fact, the Bible says, “News about Jesus spread throughout the whole region”

This leads to the second point.

2. The Public Nature of the Event 

Because this miracle was not done in vacuum.
It wasn’t behind closed doors.
It isn’t like only a few people saw it.

It was at the synagogue.  
Lots of people saw it.
Lots of people knew the man who had been possessed.
And lots of people knew that after Jesus talked to him, there was a giant shriek, shaking and suddenly the man was perfectly sane.

And guess what?  These people were still around by the time this document from Mark was circulating. Mark’s Gospel is written only about 10 years after the event. The people who read about the demon defeat near at the Synagogue near Galilee could have said “This isn’t true. I was there. It’s fake!”

But they didn’t.
Because they saw it.
And it was real.  

In fact, it isn’t the only time.
 
3. Only One of Many Instances 

The Gospel writers report that Jesus drove out other demons. What’s very interesting is that when he did so, there was always a visible, public, instantaneous change that took place in the person which proved to onlookers this was not phoniness.  

Jesus drove out a mute man’s demon in Luke 11. The proof it was real? The man spoke -- for the first time in ages.
Jesus drove out a young boy’s demon in Mark 9. The proof it was real? The boy stopped convulsing on the ground, he was held by his father and his father confirmed his healing. (Think about it – would the dad really force his son into convulsions and cutting himself in order to pull one over on some gullible people? No way!)

And then, there’s the story of Legion. Legion who lived on an island. His name wasn’t really Legion – Legion is just the name that the demons referred to themselves because like the Roman Legion – they were many. Legion had been on an island because people were terrified of him because they knew he was demon possessed. They were so terrified that they chained him up.

Jesus went to see him. Terrified the demons, said, “Don’t get rid of us – send us into that herd of pigs over there.”
Jesus nodded.
And instantly – the man fell to his knees healed.
But at the same instant – the pigs started squealing. The crowd with Jesus looked over to the fields and saw a stampede of pigs heading to the lake – to drown themselves.

And you might think? How cruel Jesus!
 
But understand this – If Jesus had simply said, “be well.” And the man was well – who would believe anything happened?

Instead, Jesus made it very clear –

This wasn’t a ruse.
This wasn’t phoniness.
This wasn’t a trick.

Demons were real.
Very real opposition for his disciples.
 
All of this leads to one very important truth for you to take home. BE WARY. The Bible says, “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion waiting for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8) And to be fair – lions don’t usually come running out, roaring and making as much noise possible in a bum rush attack.  Nor do demons.

Instead, they tend to prowl. They hide. They make you think that there is no possible way that they exist…that you are safe…that you don’t need Jesus...that the sin isn’t so bad…that the temptation will be ok…
 
Then…BAM!

Sin.
Guilt.
Unbelief.  

Be wary.
 
III. The Awesome Reality of Being Jesus’ Disciple
 
But don’t be afraid.
 
Because in the account, did you notice something?

There wasn’t a battle.
No fight.
No blood.
No sweat.

Jesus simply spoke, and he utterly destroyed the demon.  

Later on – with that Legion guy – when the demons saw Jesus coming, the demons are the ones who scream!
Because while demons might be the things of a horror film for us – Jesus is the thing of horror to them.

THEY DON’T STAND A CHANCE.
 
Not even years later – when they had successfully tempted people.
When the devil entered Judas to betray him.
When the demons had led people into vitriol and violence that they angrily scream, “Crucify Him!”
And Jesus is nailed to a giant piece of wood to hang and die.

The demons celebrated and drank in the wine of this violence….
 
…until…
 
…About 5 am Sunday morning. The demons were still waking up from the hangover of their celebration…when…an earthquake, an empty grave – Jesus was alive!

He was not defeated.
He defeated the thing – death – that defeats us all.
He defeated thing – sin – that causes death.
And he defeated the things – demons – that tempt us to sin which leads to death.

Jesus defeated the devil and his demons on the cross!

And that’s the Jesus who is on your side.
 
So. Do not be afraid.  If he was able to take their best shot and turn it around on their heads in devastating defeat while he was dead… What will he do while he lives?

He’ll protect you.
He’ll keep you safe.
He’ll destroy Satan’s attacks.
 
IV.  What Now?
 
A. Don’t Play with Fire

Have you heard that one before? It makes sense. If you prefer not to get burned, it would be wise not to grab burning logs from your fire place for something to cuddle with. Stay away from the fire and you won’t get burned.

It’s the same thing with these demons.  Because maybe you’re thinking: “This isn’t a problem for me. I don’t like the devil and I don’t worship him. It’s all good.”

 Ouija board with my Friday night group – It’s just a joke.
Visit to a psychic? It’ll just be fun.
Some kind of mirror trick that I saw on YouTube? It isn’t real - -is it?

Careful. That’s playing with fire. You’ll get burned.
Even the movies we watch. We need to reevaluate. Because horror films – especially stuff related to the devil – it can get to you. It can scare you. It can cause nightmares. Some of you know this and it’s why you avoid it.

But I’m almost concerned for the people who think, “It’s no big deal. It doesn’t affect me.”

Watch out. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion…hidden, making you think it’s no big deal, waiting for the right moment to devour you.
 
With fear.
With guilt.
With anxiety.

Don’t let him have that opportunity. Don’t play with the Spiritual fire.

B. Call on Jesus 

Because Jesus is powerful, and He has authority. His Word has authority.
 
I remember one time when I was an assistant pastor we were invited over by a fellow pastor to go to a house that the owners said was haunted. Honestly, the pastor seemed a bit spooked by the stories of what was going on there – weird changes in temperature, strange things in the mirror, and little kids who was insistent on seeing scary things.

We went together – a group of us – and…
 
…we prayed.
We read God’s Word.
We implored the devil to leave.

And – I don’t know how much was going on – but I can at least say this: The devil had the lady spooked.
And God’s Word brought peace to the house.

God’s Word is powerful.
So, whatever your demons are – real, possession like demons – or (more likely) guilt, the temptation to lust, addiction, racism, you name it – run to Jesus’ powerful words.

Read it.
Learn it speak it.
Jesus will drive your demons away.

C. RELAX

Because Jesus is on our side and we know who wins.

Unlike the many who will watch the Super Bowl this Sunday and they will get nervous. They’ll get anxious. Maybe the game will get close and they will think, “I don’t know if we’re going to win.”

You know who wins.
It’s not the devil.

It’s not his legions of demons.
It’s Jesus.
And Jesus gives you the victor over the opposition. Amen.