I call upon you Lord for constant guidance in everything that I say and I do.
Lord move me behind the cross.
That your word will be glorified.
Cover me with your great and awesome spirit and let the ears hear a word from you.
Gracious Lord nurture us with your word.
Give us the scripture.
Give us your freedom.
Give us your guidance in your direction.
Grant us that we may be all that you call us to be this day.
And let us know Lord that your love and grace is enough.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
Usher's you may be seated.
Thank you for your service.
Ms. Allen thank you this morning for the information and our info keepers going on the things we need to do.
Ms. Brendan the Goppe Choir thank you for your music and your ministry to God through music.
And Ms. Joyce Mims thank you for all your service.
Usher's, greeters and anyone who was involved in worship this morning.
Ms. Gwen Butler thank you for your training yesterday.
We all were enlightened.
Thank you for your assistance.
God is a good God.
He is a mighty, mighty, mighty God.
All the time.
The songs that we're singing through the month of February
are those that were either written by African Americans,
either spirituals that have come from our history,
but all of the hymns that we sing this month are in the United Methodist hymns.
We have written much as great people.
We have given our lives to the Lord.
And our history is something to be celebrated.
God is a mighty God.
But even in all His mightiness, even Jesus was tempted.
This morning's message is simply titled,
Tempting Choices.
Have you ever just decided on your own?
Anybody who has you can just raise your hand.
But you've decided on your own that you just want to be in the wilderness.
Any people that just run out to be in the wilderness?
There's a few.
It's quiet in the wilderness.
It's a change of pace in the wilderness.
And all of us who may visit the wilderness from time to time,
we expect a miracle on the other side.
But it's amazing even though we may walk into the wilderness,
there is such a wilderness experience to be led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit.
It's a different kind of journey.
It's a different kind of encounter.
But to be led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit is a different thing altogether.
I know some of you have been to Lakeview.
And as you're approaching the wilderness in the 21st century, things happen.
Our phones get a little tricky.
We shake it and say, excuse me, I think I'm in that range where my phone,
my signal is getting ready to drop.
I'll call you back.
Or maybe when we get into the wilderness, all of a sudden,
instead of having regular street lights, you have that one traffic light that just kind of flashes.
Check and see if anybody's coming through.
But if you don't, stop if you need to, go if you might.
I'm talking about your hometown.
Is that the town with the gas station at the beginning and the one at the end?
No gas station?
You know he's in the wilderness.
But our wilderness is, we see the signs that we're approaching wilderness.
And it's not necessarily this big sign that says wilderness two miles ahead.
You start to see a change in the scenery.
Fewer homes, fewer cars, fewer interactions.
It gets kind of quiet, and even the radio stations in the wilderness are a little different.
You've got about three or four to choose from.
Not that many?
I've been in a different kind of wilderness, huh?
I think I brought my radio to the wilderness.
I might have cheated.
But wilderness experiences are designed to change us.
And so before you go down memory lane and think about your last wilderness experience,
I just want to give you a few notes from the Gospel passage.
This is basically for the background.
Many of us have known these things, but this is a little background.
The Matthew passage is a narrative.
It is telling us a story, and it involves three major characters, the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and the devil.
And then there are three major temptations that the devil makes against Jesus.
In verse three he says, if you're really hungry, turn these stones into bread.
In verse five he says, if you're really who you say you are,
throw yourself down from the highest point of this temple.
But then the third one is the clinger.
He figures if he can get Jesus on this one temptation, the other two will just come right away.
The third one he says, all of this belongs to you.
But it can belong to you if you bow down and worship me.
For you see, Satan wanted to tempt Jesus with something Jesus already had.
He took him to the highest point and mountaintop.
He showed him. He said, look all around.
You can have all this if you just bow down to me.
That's in verse nine.
But Jesus' actions are what we're going to focus this message on, because Jesus took three actions.
To the first one where Satan said, turn this bread into stone if you're so hungry.
The background to that is Jesus had been fasting for nearly 40 days and 40 nights.
He was almost at the end of his time in the wilderness, and guess what?
He was hungry.
You ever been in the wilderness for 40 days and you done ate all the berries you want to eat?
You done fasted and prayed, and you said, now look here.
I prayed, I talked to the Lord, and the Lord has talked back to me, and I need some manna from heaven.
But Jesus said, man doesn't live by bread alone.
But on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
That is his answer in verse four.
But if you go back to the Old Testament and remember that Jesus was fulfilling prophecy,
you have to look at Deuteronomy 8 and 3.
And basically it says, he humbled you, causing you to hunger, and then feeding you with manna,
which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone.
But on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
And he goes on and says, your clothes did not wear out, and your feet did not swell during these 40 years.
So Jesus was covered.
Jesus was covered, but Satan was trying to imply that he wasn't.
Jesus also goes on to the second temptation and says, do not test your God.
Do not put your Lord, your God to a test.
That's verse seven.
Let's go back again to Deuteronomy 16, 6.
And it says, except the place, he will choose as your dwelling for his name.
There must be a sacrifice in the evening when the sun goes down on the anniversary of your departure.
For you see, he's talking and he's teaching, but he's telling us, don't test the Lord.
Because believe it or not, the devil knows who Jesus is.
But the third thing that's really, really interesting, that Satan wants him to bow down.
Jesus says, worship the Lord and serve him only.
And that's where we're going to plant this message.
Worship the Lord and serve him only.
Say to your devil, just worship the Lord and serve him only.
And the benefit of serving him is in verse 11.
And it says, then the devil left him and the angels came down and attended him.
But only when Jesus begins this wilderness journey, he has to call the angels.
But Jesus demonstrates a great and holy bonus that defies almost our understanding.
Because, you see, Jesus was convicted.
Jesus was a righteous Lord.
His actions were a pure faith and obedience.
But he was aware that you will get tempted.
And like I said, the name of this message is Tempting Choices.
Jesus was tempted by the devil.
But he was such a great and awesome God that the temptation didn't stick.
That's good news.
Because we're all tempted.
And because Jesus set a tone, guess what?
He set an example for you and for me.
On top of the temptation, Jesus knew his identity.
And so did the devil.
You say, well, why is that important?
Because the key thing in this passage is the devil wanted Jesus to betray life.
That's right.
Satan wanted Jesus to betray what he was called upon to do.
A commentary writer, her name was Dr. Alice McKenzie, she writes about this story.
She writes about this temptation.
She says the key phrases that Satan keeps saying is, since you are the Son of God, do this.
And since you are the Son of God, do that.
But Satan is not trying to decide Jesus' identity.
Because it's already a known factor.
Satan is trying to get Jesus to betray who he is.
But the good news is he didn't.
That's what's important to you and me.
And it says here that the temptations Jesus encountered are not his alone.
For you see, they are his at that moment.
But they are the temptations over all of God's people.
Are you a child of the King?
Are you in a situation or has there occurred in your life that you know that you know that you know you was tempted?
And you say to yourself, yeah, it happened.
But did you follow the model of Jesus Christ?
Or did you give in on those tempting choices?
Truly I say to you that the first two temptations set atone.
But it's that last one.
That's the last one.
That's the newsflash that says I understand you are Jesus the Messiah.
I know that you say you're all that.
But I want to tell you what can be done.
But Jesus says, flee.
He says to the devil, worship the Lord your God and serve him only.
Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.
That means the temptations can only be dealt with if we worship the God and not the tempter.
For you see, Jesus was on the mountaintop.
Jesus was where there was great splendor.
Jesus had been taken to a point that was high above all things.
But his conviction and his faith superseded the devil's temptation.
So what are your tempting choices when you go into the wilderness?
Do you go and prepare?
Do you carry your word?
But do you carry it beyond just a book and carry it in your heart?
Do you pack your bag that has all the things you need?
Do you carry your keys?
Or do you just let the Holy Spirit take you on the journey?
Or maybe you carry a specialized bag that has a little room for a sandwich that's got a little thermo
covering the front that you can get away with a sandwich for a couple days.
But you know as well as I do, there's not a sandwich in America that'll last 40 days.
Even without the mayonnaise and the mustard, it's just not going to make it.
You can pinch it, but it ain't going to last 40 days and 49.
So you want to recognize that some journeys are extremely huge.
Some journeys are beyond our imagination.
Some journeys to the wilderness we might get a hint.
Holy Spirit may tap you on the shoulders and say, I'm getting ready to do some things in your life.
I'm getting ready to move some things in your spirit.
I'm getting ready to change some things around.
And you've got to go with who leads you.
The Holy Spirit is an awesome leader.
Now I've seen some wilderness experiences that don't include being led by the Holy Spirit.
Being led by the one and only, the comforter of all comforters.
You can go into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights knowing that a miracle is forthcoming.
You can pinch off that man on bread and know that you can make it.
You can say whatever's in me, you'll make it work.
You can say to the situation, oh no. Oh no.
Kiss me if you want to, but I'll worship the Lord I love.
I serve a risen Savior and I take my bath fast.
Because I never know when I'm going to be called.
Have you been on a wilderness journey lately?
As you're carrying stuff that doesn't even need to be on the journey.
You can carry a bag and think that you have all that you need.
And you'll leave it on your kitchen table.
And next thing you know you'll be in a wilderness experience because he told you he was taking you there.
40 days and 40 nights.
In this Lenten season we are in 40 days and 40 nights.
We are in a time period of change.
We're in a time period of transformation.
We heard some testimony during the Lenten prayer service where people say,
I don't know what's going on in my life, but people have seen a change in me.
They looked at my eyes and they looked new.
They looked at my walk and they did too.
Oh, there's a transformation coming.
And wilderness experiences are the miracle time period.
I love my God.
And I know you love the Lord your God too.
So let us not be afraid of the wilderness.
Because when the Lord leads us, when the Holy Spirit takes us in, He's going to bring us out.
That's the good news.
That you may fret and you may be undernourished, you may be hungry, but God is a good God.
And He will fill you from the top of your head to the soles of your feet.
He won't worry about if you left your bag on the kitchen table.
He won't worry about if you had what you needed,
because He'll give you what you need to sustain yourself.
Our God is an awesome God.
So I say to you, when the tempter comes, what will you say?
When the Holy Spirit says it's wilderness time, will you go?
Don't worry about if your cell phone doesn't work,
because what you need to hear won't come through the cell phone.
It's all right to be in the wilderness and be quiet,
but it's even greater to know that the Lord thy God through the Holy Spirit is taking you to a place
to transform your soul, renew your heart, give you mercy and grace above all that you can imagine,
and bring you out a brand new creature.
You are an awesome person, and God has said this day,
if you're in the wilderness, I know where you are.
If you're standing on the court and you ain't been saved yet, I know where you are.
If your heart is hurting, I know where you are.
If your situation is upside down and you want to turn around, I know where you are.
All but a mighty God we have.
And even He was gifted and He came through in a mighty way, and because He did,
He's given that to us.
Will you receive your blessing when your wilderness experience is over?
Walk this journey shoulder to shoulder, arm to arm, reach forever,
because if I'm in the wilderness and you're a part of the kingdom, you might be there with me.
But I say to you this morning, don't be fooled by the tempter,
because the tempter can give you what the Lord has for you.
May the Lord add a blessing to the hearing, a reading of His greatest and wonderful word.
Will you stand with me this morning as we sing our hymn of praise
every time I feel the Spirit on page 404? Amen?
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
The doors of the church are open.
I'm coming out to the wilderness.
He sent me to say, it's all right.
Don't worry that you don't have a white colored bag,
and that you don't have a thermal spot on your backpack,
because He's going to cover you with everything that He has.
Drop your bags at the side.
Be who God has called you to be.
If you want a relationship with Jesus Christ, the day is the day.
Every time.
Hallelujah! The doors of the church are open.
Will you come? Renew your relationship with Jesus Christ.
This is your day.
Awesome day. Awesome day in the Lord.
He's on a journey.