`Notes from my Preach Last Sunday.

Sermon - 22 / 08 / 2010

Summary. Facing Wilderness.

As Christians we must face a wilderness experience at some point. Once our foundations have been set in the faith we must have our character developed. 

The wilderness is a dry barren place where we are challenged to trust our God. It is a time when we have to know who God is. 

Matthew 3:13 John Baptizes Jesus.

Matthew 4:1-17 Jesus is tested, Jesus begins His ministry.

Matthew 3:13 John Baptizes Jesus.

Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus and fills him with power. 

Then God say's "This is My beloved son, In whom i am Well Pleased. (fully pleased with.NLT)

God is Speaking clearly. He is proclaiming the Jesus IS the Son of God, And that He, as dad, is really pleased with him.

Now Jesus is full of the spirit is led by the same Holy spirit we have today, into the Wilderness. Jesus chose to follow the leading of the spirit.

This was not an accident, or a mistake. Jesus had to do this. 

Jesus goes into a physical Wilderness. On his own for over a month. He fasted for the whole time. Remember, Jesus is fully man, but fully God. John 1:14 - The word becam flesh.

1st Temptation.

If You are the Son of God, Turn these rocks into Bread.

First challenge; IF you are the Son of God! Satan is challenging Jesus' Identity. 

Turn these Stones into Bread.  Its like he is saying, If you Don't, You're Not! 

Deut 8:3 - 3 So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.

Job also said : Job 23:12 - 

12 I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth More than my necessary food.

Jesus knows the scriptures. So we must also know them.

Ephesians 6:17 - 

17 And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;

The word is our sword. It is a close quarters weapon.

Jesus ignores the comment about his identity and focuses on the scriptures.

2nd Temptation

If you are the son of God, Throw yourself down, the Angels will protect you.

Again, Jesus is faced with a challenge of Identity. but, the devil comes at him with a tactic. One of subtlety and cunning. He uses scripture (incorrectly) to back up his challenge. Jesus used scripture to come against the first temptation.

Psalm 91:11-12 - 

11 For He shall give His angels charge over you,
         To keep you in all your ways.
 12 In their hands they shall bear you up,
         Lest you dash your foot against a stone.

The Angels are to protect us on our Journey through life. As we pursue the purposes of God in our life we will face trials and the angels are there to protect us. BUT, they are not there for us to test them. 

Jesus replies with wisdom. It also says " Do not Test the lord your God"

Deut 6:16 - 16 "You shall not tempt the LORD your God as you tempted Him in Massah.nkjv

Temptation 3

"All this i will give to You, if you fall down and worship me"

Jesus replies: Deut 6:13 - 13 Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.

This is not about the Kingdoms but about Power. Satan wants the king of Kings to bow down and worship HIM. 

Satan puts things in our paths daily to distract us from Jesus being Number 1 in our lives.

Jesus knew the devils plan, to get Jesus to worship him. Jesus again replied with scripture. 

Jesus knew that the earth was the Satans dominion at the moment, 

Satans Dominion - scriptures.

Because of the fall, man was separated from God.  Man was bound by the law of moses. Jesus knew that the time was coming when he would pay the price for us, defeating death, and the enemy and bringing freedom to us. 

But the now was not the time to deal with that. WISDOM.

After the Wilderness Jesus entered into the ministry that God had for Him. The wilderness established him in order for Him to walk in his anointing. 

The children of israel. Deut 8:2 - 2 And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.

We all have to go through the wilderness, if we want to walk in the gifts and ministry that God has for us. Jesus did not perform any miracles before the wilderness. It was the start.

i kind of free flowed at the end, so you might want to listen to the podcast.