Cross Church
Cross Church
Satanic Temptation
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The First sermon in our series: "This Means War"
Scripture: Matthew 4:1-11
Mark Hutchinson
Teaching Pastor
Thank you for joining us today. At Crosschurch, we believe people need Jesus. People need each other. People change the world. And people leave legacies. Our desire is for you to understand, accept, and grow in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Thank you for listening. If you would like to know more about Crosschurch, please visit CrossChurch.com.
SPEAKER_01Well, happy Memorial Day, everybody. We uh we really are excited that you are here on what is a significant weekend in the uh in really the life and history of our nation. We today honor all of those who have given the ultimate sacrifice of giving their life uh for this nation. And so we say thank you to people in our own church family who have lost uh service members in their own family. And uh we honor all of you who are currently serving or have served at any point. So thank you, thank you, thank you. And today we begin a brand new series on spiritual warfare. We're calling it this means war. We're talking about the seven battles of spiritual warfare that you've got to fight every single day in your life. And now there are more than seven, but we're just talking about seven uh over the next several weeks together. And uh, we're really excited about this series something that we all deal with is spiritual warfare. Sometimes we may think it's people or we may think it's circumstances when in all reality we are facing an enemy of dead step on our destruction. So today here's the title. We're gonna talk about satanic temptation. And I hope you've come prepared to take notes to open up the word of God together as we look at the scriptures right now. Lord, it's our desire that you would speak to us about how the devil tempts us and how we can find victory in our lives and really wage war against what the enemy tries to do in our lives. It's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.
SPEAKER_02All right, well, welcome to church, everybody. How are we doing? Love that. So glad that you're here with us. I want to look into the camera. I want to welcome everybody that's joining us online and all of our first-time guests. Come on, let's put our hands together for them. So glad that you're with us this morning. We haven't met. My name is Mark. I'm one of the teaching pastors here. And if it's your first time, man, we would love to get to meet you out in the lobby. Uh, myself and our campus pastor, Jeremy, here at the Fayetteville campus, uh, we'll be out in the lobby. We'd love to shake your hand and hopefully just make you feel a little bit at home. But like Pastor Nick said, uh, today we're kicking off a new series called This Means War. And over the next few weeks, what we're going to be talking about is a topic that oftentimes we maybe neglect or overlook in the church. And it's the topic of spiritual warfare. Now, as we talk about spiritual warfare over the next few weeks, I believe this series is important because many people acknowledge Satan exists intellectually, but I believe that oftentimes we live with a lack of awareness that Satan is waging war in a battle against us daily. He's waging war against us in daily battle to really destroy our lives. And as I say that, maybe you've never thought about that. Maybe you've never come to terms or realized that Satan is waging war against you and I as we seek to follow after Jesus. But here's the thing Satan isn't just waging war against you, he's waging war against you to destroy your life. A few weeks ago, probably about a month ago now, Michelle and I, my wife, uh, we were on vacation together, just the two of us, no children, praise the Lord, okay? Uh we went on a cruise together, and it was an incredible time. But um as I talk about cruises, any cruise fans in the room? God bless our church, all right? I grew up a cruiser. I'm from Florida, so that's what we do in Florida, all right? We love to go on cruises. And uh for me, as I think about cruises, there's really maybe two different ways to go about a cruise. Okay. The first way to go about a cruise is uh to wake up each and every day with no plan. Just no plan. You wake up and what are we gonna do today? I don't know. I'm on a cruise. Do what I want, whenever I want, wherever I want, I'm on a cruise. It's amazing. I love to kick my feet back and wake up and just really not even think about the day. And I'll go to the spa. And here's what I'll also do: um, I'll go to the gym and work out extremely hard each and every day so I can eat everything that I want to on a cruise, okay? That's my idea of a cruise. Now, for my wife, that is not her idea of a cruise. My wife, Michelle, she wants to go to the Caribbean and she wants to get off the ship. And as she gets off the ship, she wants to go over to the small beach and she wants to recline on a chair, put her feet in the sand, put her air pods in, her sunglasses on, just kind of tune out all of the noise of life and be completely unaware of all of her surroundings as she reads a book, okay? For this Hershey brother, that ain't it. This brother ain't trying to be in the sun, if you know what I mean, okay? She just loves to be in the beach, just kind of unaware of all things. And as I share that, here's why I bring that up. I think as we we talk about spiritual warfare, that's kind of how some of us are living. Just kind of unaware of the reality that all around us, there is a spiritual battle at hand. And all around us, we have an enemy that is looking for ways to bring about destruction on our life. I want you to think about it like this: no one ever goes to the battlefield with flip-flops while everyone else is carrying weapons. Think about that. You look like a fool. And here's the reality: Satan, he doesn't just come after you with weapons, he comes after you with weapons of mass destruction. Satan comes after you with tactics, seeking out ways to destroy your life as we seek to follow after Jesus. Now, as we talk about spiritual warfare, I believe that some of us not only need to increase our awareness and recognize that we're in a spiritual battle, I believe some of us need to have a battle plan. We need to have a battle plan as to how we're gonna fight back against Satan and his tactics that he's using to bring about destruction in our lives. And what we'll see today in the Bible is that Satan even tempted Jesus. He went after Jesus. And as we talk about temptation today, what I want you to know is one of the ways Satan, your enemy, the tempter, tries to steal, kill, and destroy your life, it's not simply just tempting you. Hear me, he wants you to give in to temptation. Satan doesn't want you to just uh know that that temptation's gonna show up and knock on the front door of your life. No, Satan wins when we allow temptation to come into the house, to come into our life, and we begin to believe the lies of Satan and believe to trust that his way is better for our lives. So today, here's what we're gonna do. I want to speak from this title, How to Fight Back When Satanic Temptation Attacks. How to fight back when satanic temptation attacks. Let me give you a working definition for this word temptation. Temptation is the pull to disobey God and trust yourself or your desires instead. And in Matthew chapter 4, what we're gonna see today is that Jesus, the Son of God, he finds himself in a moment where he's being tempted by Satan. In Matthew chapter 4, Jesus finds himself in this face-to-face battle with Satan as Satan tempts him. Matthew chapter 4, verse 1 is where we begin. The Bible says, Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit. I want you to underline that in your Bible. He was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to do what? To be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he became hungry, and the tempter came. Maybe you want to underline that part of the text. And the tempter said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become what? Loaves of bread. But he answered, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. So what do we see in the first few verses? The Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness where Jesus would be tempted. There's a lot of differing thoughts as to why the Holy Spirit of God would lead Jesus to be tempted in the wilderness, but perhaps this is a moment where God is furthering the revelation of who Jesus is. Perhaps this is a moment where God is furthering the revelation that Jesus, he is completely man, yet completely God. That Jesus, just like you and I, hear me, he would be tempted in every which way. But here's the difference about Jesus and us, but yet he never sinned. Never gave in to the temptation. No, not even once. And I don't want us to just skip over that because this is important. Because how many of you know if Jesus gives in to the temptation right there in Matthew chapter 4, there is no longer a spotless Lamb of God. There is no longer a sinless sacrifice that would, his blood would be shed on Calvary that would atone and cover for all of our sins. But Jesus in this moment, he does what you and I couldn't do. He doesn't give in to sin. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, he who knew no sin became sin for us, that we would be made right with God. That's good news for you and I, because if Jesus gives into the temptation, perhaps there would be no atonement for our sin and no one that could present themselves as a sinless sacrifice. Let me give you some truths about temptation before we jump in. Thing I want you to see is this is as it relates to temptation, here's the first truth. Temptation can be a form of testing. Temptation can be a form of testing. You see, there will be many moments where God allows us to be tempted, just as he did with Jesus. We even see this in the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy chapter 8, there's a moment where the Bible says, God, He led the Israelites into the wilderness where they would be tempted as a form of testing to see what was in their hearts. Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 2, it says this Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way into the wilderness for 40 days, for 40 years, excuse me. He did this to humble you and to do what? To test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. The Bible also says in James chapter 1 that we shouldn't say that God is tempting us, but rather we should see temptation as a means of God testing us to see what is inside of us. Let me just be really clear for us this morning. Because some of you find yourself in the midst of a battle in temptation or satanic temptation. Hear me. God is not allowing temptation to enter into your life in hopes that it would pull you away from him. God is allowing temptation in your life as a form of testing you to push you closer to him. As you look at that word tempt or temptation in the original language, Greek, actually in this text, it actually has dual meanings. In a good sense or the positive sense, that word tempt means to test, refine, or prove what is in someone. To test or to prove or to see what lies within the heart of someone. But in a negative sense, that word also means to entice someone towards sin and destruction. The Bible says in John chapter 10, verse 10 that the enemy comes to what? Steal, kill, and destroy. So what does that mean for you and I? When we respond to temptation with obedience, it becomes a moment of spiritual growth. But when we give into temptation, it becomes Satan, the tempting tempter's tactic to bring about destruction in your life. Let me maybe say it more simply like this: God may use the test to strengthen your faith, but Satan wants to use temptate temptation to destroy your life. He wants to use temptation in your life to rob you from experiencing all that God has for you. Truth number two is this the presence of temptation in your life is not a sign of a lack of holiness. I think it's important that we address this because many people, even in this room, even some of you watching online right now, you find yourself in this pattern or this place of self-condemnation where you're condemning yourself because you find yourself experiencing temptation. Let me just be very clear. Temptation and sin are two different things. We fall into sin when we give into temptation. And as you look at the text, who's being tempted in the Bible? Jesus. The holy, spotless, sinless Lamb of God was being tempted. So what does that mean for you and I? It doesn't matter how faithful you are to the Lord, doesn't matter how well you know the Bible, doesn't matter how spirit-filled you are. Hear me today, you will experience temptation in this life. Why? Because temptation is a byproduct of sin. It's a byproduct of the sinful world that you and I live in and the human experience that we find ourselves experiencing. Truth number three is this we must be aware of when we are susceptible to giving into temptation. Want you to write that down. We must be aware when we are more susceptible to giving into temptation. Why is this important? Because as you look at Matthew chapter 4, we learn this is a short time after Matthew chapter 3. When you read the Bible and you look at Matthew chapter 3, specifically in verse 17, we see one of the greatest blessings in Jesus' life come about as he's getting ready to be baptized. The Bible says, the skies open up over Jesus, and the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus, and a voice of God speaks over Jesus, maybe like Morgan Freeman, okay? He says, This is my son, whom I love, and am well pleased. This would be such a great blessing for Jesus in this moment, but yet here he is now, moments after, finding himself in a face-to-face battle with Satan. I'm sure some of you in this room, you've maybe found yourselves in a moment similar to this. You find yourself experiencing a moment of great blessing, maybe in your marriage, in a relationship, or maybe with your children, your finances, your career, but boom, suddenly it can shift and you find yourself in the midst of a spiritual battle. Some of you can acknowledge that you found yourselves in moments just like that. Why? Because Satan wants to do everything in his power and in his might to steal, kill, and destroy every blessing in your life. And I think oftentimes we believe that just Satan waits till we're at a low moment in life. But hear me. Satan sometimes he'll wait for a moment where you're at a high-like moment in your life, where things are going great. And what do we do sometimes? We drop our guard and boom, he sees that as a moment to attack. He sees that as a moment to come about and bring temptation in your life. So as we look at Matthew chapter 4, what do we see? Jesus in this moment, he goes from affirmation from the Father to confrontation with Satan. He goes from being affirmed by God the Father in Matthew chapter 3. Then he finds himself being confronted by Satan in Matthew chapter 4. Now, as we look at Matthew chapter 4, what we'll see is how Satan he comes about with some tactics to tempt Jesus. And I believe as we look at the text, what we'll see is these aren't just tactics that were limited to Jesus. This is oftentimes how Satan he tempts you and I. Matthew chapter 4, verse 3. Let's pick up there. It says, in the tempter, you want to underline that, he came and said to him, meaning Jesus, if you are the son of God, I want you to underline that. If you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. But he answered, It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. What do we see in this moment? One of the first tactics in Matthew chapter 4. I want you to write this down. It's point number one. The tempter's tactic is to tempt you to question your identity. One of the tactics of the tempter in your life, one of Satan's strategies to bring about temptation in your life is to tempt you to question your identity. Satan, he looks at Jesus. And in this moment, I'm sure he probably said it as like a snarling remark to kind of derail Jesus. He goes, Jesus, if you are the son of God, like if you really are the son of God, instantly in this moment in Matthew chapter four, what do we see? He's attempting to get Jesus to question what God had just spoken over him in Matthew chapter three. And can I tell you, I think this is still one of Satan's greatest tactics in our lives today. He oftentimes he'll he'll attack our identity. He wants each and every one of us questioning who we are, whose we are. He wants us questioning our worth, our purpose, our salvation. Hear me, even God's design for our life. And I think that we're living in a generation that's filled with an identity crisis. And how many know it's not just young people? I'm pretty sure there's many of you in this room who are adults sitting in this place questioning, am I enough? Does God really love me? Does God truly see me? Does my life have purpose? Can God really use someone like me? Can God really forgive someone that's messed up like me? I want you to hear me clearly. When the enemy attacks your identity, the answer is not to trust the voice in your head, it's to trust the truth of God's word. Some of you, that's just the application for you today. The enemy is hardcore attacking your identity. Some of you need to stop talking to yourself, and you need to start declaring the truth of God's word over your situation. You need to stop listening to the voices that are plaguing your mind and start declaring the truth of what God has already said to you through his word. What does Jesus do in this moment? He does exactly that. In verse 4, he says, It is written. In other words, what Jesus is saying, I know what my father says about me. I know the truth that has been spoken over my life. He's he's saying, I know what God has to say about me. Some of you today, you need to become familiar with those three words, for it is written. Some of you find yourself at night struggling with satanic temptation, lies of the enemy, the enemy waging war on your identity. You need to get to a place where you store up the word of God, his truth, in your life, and you begin to declare in those moments, it is written. This is what God's word has to say about me. Let's look back at verse 3. If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become what? Loaves of bread. I want you to underline that. But Jesus, he answered again, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. I want you to write this down as point number two. The tempter, tempter's tactic is to get you to trust your appetite over God's word. I want you to think about that. Satan in this moment, he looks at Jesus, he goes, You see those stones? Turn them into bread. I don't know about you, but if Satan did that to me, he said, I want you to turn them stones into some Chick-fil-A, I'm gonna have to pray about it, y'all. I might be giving in in that moment. Jesus, in this moment, he finds himself at his weakest moment. Why? Because the Bible tells us that he just got done fasting 40 days and 40 nights. He was fasting to uh reject his flesh to find proximity to the Father, to experience closeness to God. And what does Satan do in this moment? He tries to appeal to his flesh and his desire by saying, Hey, turn it into some bread. Turn it into some bread. Some of you men in the room, you're cringing as I talk about fasting because you can't even go 40 minutes without thinking about food. Jesus, he's at his lowest, weakest moment, and Satan, he's making an appeal to his flesh. Hear me. One of Satan's tactics when it comes to temptation is that he will always try to make an appeal to your flesh. Why? Because your flesh has a will. Your flesh has desires. The Bible speaks of this in James chapter 1. Uh James would say, each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desires and enticed. Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin when it is full grown, does what? It gives birth to death. Satan will make an appeal to your desires in hopes that you fall into temptation. Anybody ever seen one of those videos of a parent that sits their kid down at a dinner table in front of a huge plate of just chocolate chip cookies or something? Anybody? Maybe you need to try this with your children, okay? What you'll see is in these videos, and maybe if you try this with your child, uh the the parent, you walk out of the room and you go, Hey Johnny, I don't want you to eat the cookies. I'll tell you when you can. And what does little Johnny do? He goes to town on them cookies when you go. There's an appeal to the flesh. There's a weakness in the flesh, and they give in to the flesh. And I think one of Satan's tactics is to lead you away from God's best by making an appeal to your appetite. He gets you to this place where you want to trust. Your appetite and your desire over the instruction of your heavenly father and what his word has to say. Satan will always try to entice you to give into something that feels appealing in your life. For some of you, what feels appealing right now is pleasure or relief or comfort or recognition. Maybe it's a way of escape. And I think oftentimes when we talk about this, it's really easy to just kind of blame Satan for all of the temptation and sin that we encounter in life. But let me just remind you, not all that we experience and struggle with is a doing of Satan. Some of that's just us. The Bible says in Jeremiah 17, we are wicked. We are sinful people in need of the Holy Spirit of God in and at work through our lives. Some of us today, we find ourselves in a battle. Can I tell you today? Not all of that is Satan. Don't give him more credit than he's due. Some of that's just you and your flesh. Matthew chapter 4, verse 5, let's pick back up there. Then the devil, he took Jesus what to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple. And he said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, there's that word again. He will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will do what? Bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. Jesus said to him, Again it is written, there he says it yet again, you shall not put your Lord, your God, to the test. I want you to write this down. Number three, one of the tempter's tactics is to twist God's word to fit our desires. He'll twist God's word to align with your desires. At this moment, that's exactly what he's doing in the Bible. Satan takes Jesus to the highest point in all of Jerusalem. He's overlooking the entire city of Jerusalem. And what does he do? He recites the Bible. He recites Psalm 91 and he twists Psalm 91. Psalm 91 is a verse that speaks to God's angels serving God as a hedge of protection or a form of protection over his children. And Satan in this moment, he looks at Jesus, he says, Hey, gamble your life. Throw yourself off of this place if you are the son of God, and surely God will lift you up. He's twisting the scriptures. I want you to miss that because Satan, he'll oftentimes twist God's word to deceive us. Or sometimes he'll get us to twist God's word to align with our desires. He does this so because here's what he knows: he knows the Bible, and he also knows how powerful the Bible is in the life of a believer. So one of the ways he comes about bringing satanic temptation into your life is going about twisting the word of God that speaks to your life. Isn't this what he did with Adam and Eve in the very beginning? Did God really say? Some of you right now, you're you're believing the voice in your head, the voice of Satan that's that's causing you to go, man, did God really say that I shouldn't do this or that with my boyfriend or girlfriend? Some of you right now, you find yourself in a place where you're going, is it really that big of a deal to look at this thing? Some of you find yourself going, man, God's word only really speaks specifically to sex. Like all that other stuff is just kind of fuzzy and unclear. Satan slowly begins to lead us to twist scripture, or he'll twist scripture in our lives to get us to a point where we're walking down the path of destruction and we don't even realize it. Let's look back at what it says now in verse 8. Read verses 8 through 11 and kind of close out there. Again the devil took him, meaning Jesus, to a very high mountain, and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and he said to him, All of these I will give you if you fall down and do what? Worship me. I want you to underline that. I think it's important that we understand, this is just kind of a side note. Satan wants you to worship anything other than God. The win for Satan in this life is yes, to get you to sin, but he wants you to take your eyes off of Jesus and place them on anything else in this life. And Jesus said to him in verse 10, be gone, Satan, for it is written. There's that four-letter statement again. And look at this, this is powerful. Verse 11. Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to Jesus. I want you to write this down as point number four. The tempter's tactic is to get you to trade eternal glory for temporary pleasure. The tempter's tactic is to get you to a place where you trade eternal glory for temporary pleasure. You see, Satan, he takes Jesus up to the highest mountain. And he says, Hey, Jesus, all of this can be yours if you do what? Worship me. Here's the irony. The irony is that Jesus is already the owner above everything that Satan is showing you. The irony in this is that Satan is offering something to Jesus that is already his. I once heard it said this way Satan wants you settling for sandcastles while God is offering you an eternal kingdom. I want you to miss that. Satan, he'll oftentimes lead you to settle for something that is temporary, a sandcastle while God is offering you an eternal kingdom. It's one of the ways he comes to do what? Steal, kill, and destroy your life. He tries to convince you to sacrifice what is eternal for something that feels good in the moment. Satan will say things like this: compromise your purity or compromise in your faithfulness to your spouse. But God says, honor me, and you will experience the fruit of a life of legacy. Satan will say things like, cut corners financially, but God says, trust me, I am Jehovah Jirah, your provider. Satan says things like, take shortcuts. Nobody's watching, but God says, there is a blessing in obedience. You see, giving into temptation always promises momentary satisfaction, but in the end, it always results in long-term destruction. He wants you to get caught up on the temporary satisfaction, and he wants you to overlook or miss out on the fact that right around the corner could be some destruction. Now, as we get ready to close, maybe you're sitting here going, okay, I get it. Like we find ourselves in a real battle. There is satanic tape temptation in my life. There's satanic temptation that we will experience as we follow after Jesus. But what does that mean for us? Here's the beautiful thing about Matthew chapter 4. Matthew chapter 4, it doesn't just show us Satan's tactics against Jesus. Matthew chapter 4 also reveals to you and I Jesus' strategy to victory in the battle against temptation. Let me give you three practical ways that we can experience victory over satanic temptation. Number one is this we fight temptation with God's word. If you want to take victory over satanic temptation, we fight temptation with God's word. God's word is the greatest weapon of defense in our life. And that's why Jesus, he responded to Satan with truth from God's word every time Satan tempts him. What do we see in the Bible? It tells us that uh as Satan, he tempts Jesus. Jesus in this moment, he recites scripture, he recites Deuteronomy chapter 6 and Deuteronomy chapter 10, he recites scripture saying, it is written each and every time. And what happens? How does the story end? Satan leaves him. He leaves him, he flees. You see, when satanic temptation attacks, I think that many of us, we need to get to a place when we have scripture stored up in our hearts. I'll never forget one of the verses that I memorized early on in my faith journey was Psalm 119. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. I believe that some of us today, we need to get to a place as we're experiencing satanic temptation, as we experience a real life battle in our life. We got to get to a place where we're not only memorizing scripture, we're staying in scripture, we're praying through scripture, we're listening to worship that declares scripture over our lives. So we can hide the word of God in our heart, that we might not give in to the temptation that God throws or Satan throws at us in our life. Point number two is this if we want to fight temptation and end up victorious, we need to fight temptation with boundaries. I know that we talk about boundaries from time to time in church and it kind of sounds like a cliche thing at times, but oftentimes I think we see boundaries as maybe a form of restriction. And I tell you, boundaries aren't a form of restriction in the life of a believer, it's a form of protection. God gives us boundaries in and through his word as a means of protecting us and keeping us from falling into satanic temptation. Anyone ever um find themselves like maybe stubbing their toe on some furniture in your house? Anybody? Some of y'all laughing because some unholy words left your mouth when you stubbed your toe, okay? My little daughter Reese, uh, she's gonna be two, but I'll never forget when she started walking, um, our coffee table in our living room, like it was her greatest enemy. Like she would try and pull herself up and just bong, just hit her head on the on the coffee table. I swear that girl had a concussion at one, okay? But but what did we have to do as parents? We had to create some boundaries as a form of protection for Reese. Some of you need to understand that your heavenly father has given you boundaries through his word as a means of protection. And here's what I want you to know: you can never have too many boundaries in your life. Some of us we need to have a boundary and another boundary before that boundary. What do I mean when I say that? Some of us we may go, man, I need to create a boundary and I'm I'm not gonna entertain that person in the office any longer. That's one boundary, that's great, but but maybe you need to create another boundary before that boundary that sounds like this. In order for me to not step over that boundary, I'm gonna create another boundary. Here's the other boundary. I'm not gonna go and hang out by the coffee machine that's by their desk. Some of us need to place a boundary and go, man, I'm not gonna keep my phone beside my bed at night, but here's another boundary that you can place before that boundary. I'm not gonna put my or I'm gonna put my Bible on my nightstand and I'm not gonna keep my phone next to me at night. Why? So when I wake up and I feel this sense of temptation in my life, instead of turning to the phone, the thing that's leading me astray, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna turn to the word of God that gives me power over my struggle. We need to create a boundary and create another boundary. Some of us we go, man, uh, it's just TV. Like TV is the vice and it's it's feeding me lust and feeding me lies, and it's affecting my mind. Maybe it's leading to idolatry. So, man, some of you just go, I'm just gonna stop watching TV. Well, that's not realistic, okay? Maybe the boundary is I'm I'm gonna cut the TV off at nine o'clock because I realize after hours is when I'm most tempted. We need boundaries and more boundaries. I've got boundaries in my own life. And not only do I have boundaries, I have people in my life that hold me accountable to my boundaries. Oftentimes here at church, you'll hear us specifically at Cross Church, we'll talk about get some people in your life that are gonna hold you accountable. Can I tell you, maybe that's the practical application for some of you in this room? Like you find yourself in a place where you're experiencing satanic temptation and you can't seem to overcome the temptation. Perhaps you need to set some boundaries, but you need to invite some godly men or women into your life that are up and close and personal, willing to lean in with you and hold you accountable to those boundaries. Third thing that I want you to know is this if we're gonna fight temptation and end up victorious, we need to fight with an eternal perspective. Hebrews chapter 12, it says, Let us throw off the sin that entangles us. Let us do what? Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. In other words, Hebrews 12, the author of Hebrews, is saying, one of the ways we fight temptation is by doing what? Fixing our eyes on Jesus. When we fix our eyes on Jesus, it sets our eyes on what is to come. Because as children of God, here's the reality: what the Bible tells us is that you and I, we have an inheritance that's waiting for us in heaven. And that inheritance is a life of great blessing where every tear will be wiped from our eyes, there will no longer be sin or suffering, and every believer will stand in the presence of God forever, joining all of the angels, rejoicing over the presence of God in heaven. We have to have an eternal perspective. And when you think about that and live with an eternal perspective, here's what I believe happens: sin seems pretty foolish in comparison to heaven. Sin and giving in to temptation, it just kind of seems smaller and unwise and kind of dumb as I hold it up against the reality of what is to come if I remain faithful to the Lord and if I give my life to Jesus. Some of us today, as we think about an eternal perspective, as we walk through satanic temptation, some of us need to get to a place where we say, I'm not gonna trade what is eternal for what is temporary. I'm not gonna sacrifice tomorrow's reward for today's satisfaction. So as we get ready to respond to the word of God, which we do every week, I just believe that today is the day that some of you come to a place where you live with the hope of heaven. That Jesus, who knew no sin, who never gave in to the temptation, he died for your sins so you could have not only the hope of heaven, but eternal life with him. For the unbeliever in the room today, I just believe that some of you, you maybe have came into church today or you've walked through the doors of church in search of hope. Can I tell you, you can find hope for your soul today? That begins by starting a relationship with Jesus. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 4, verse 15, we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tempted just as we are, yet he did not sin. Because Jesus never sinned, because he never gave into temptation. The good news is that you and I could have a sinless Savior. Because Jesus, he would humble himself to the point of death, the one that was completely sinless, he took on the world's sin upon himself, dying not just on a cross, he died on our cross, that we would go from death to life, that we would experience the abundant life that which he has, not only here on earth, but for all of eternity. Here in a few moments, I'm gonna invite some of the men and women of our staff here on this campus to stand here at this stage. And if you're here today and you recognize I need a relationship with Jesus, I want you to come. They want to lead you in what we call a sinner's prayer, where you're able to start a relationship with Christ and you're able to experience the abundant life that He holds for you on earth, but for all of eternity. But I think for the believer in the room today, the response for some of us is to come to terms with the fact that we are living in a battle. Some of you today, you find yourself in the midst of satanic temptation, this battle that feels like it's overcoming you. You find yourself in a dark place in your walk with the Lord. I want to remind you what the rest of Hebrews chapter 4 says in verse 16. It says, Let us then with confidence, somebody say confidence. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of our gracious Father, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in a time of need. For the believer in the room that's struggling with satanic temptation, sinful struggles, maybe you feel like you're in a spiritual rut in your life. Can I just encourage you as we get ready to respond? Come. Come. Come to this altar and experience the grace and the mercy of God. Come to this altar and experience the freedom and the life that which God has to offer you. Some of the men and women of this staff, they would love to pray with you if that's you. They'd love to pray over whatever that struggle may be in your life, all in hopes that you would find freedom today. With every head bowed and every eye closed. I believe if some of you find yourself in a great battle today, some of you find yourself dealing with satanic temptation. And what the enemy isn't showing you is that it's getting ready to cost you everything if you keep tiptoeing the line. It's gonna cost you your marriage, it's gonna cost your relationships, your job, your legacy, your peace. I believe today is a day that you would come, that you would confess your sinful struggle, that you would repent, that you would turn from your sinful struggle, say, Lord, I'm choosing you, I'm choosing your way. I want to honor you with my life. Some of you need to come and give your life to Jesus to experience the abundant life that He has for you. Lord Jesus, I pray that you would come with power. I pray, Lord, that you would speak to the hearts and the minds of people that find themselves right now plagued in darkness, find themselves struggling with satanic temptation, find themselves feeling engulfed by sin and darkness in every area of their life. I pray you, Lord, by the power of your Holy Spirit, would meet them at this altar, that you would restore them, Lord. I pray for the person in the room that needs to come to terms that Jesus, you paid it all, that you became the sinless sacrifice that we needed so we could go from death to life. So, Lord, I pray that we would respond the best we know how. In Jesus' name. Amen.
SPEAKER_00If you have questions about what you have heard or would like more information about your relationship with Jesus, please email us at info at crosschurch.com or visit our website at crosschurch.com. At Crosschurch, our mission is to reach Northwest Arkansas, America, and the world for Jesus Christ.