Willow Ridge Sermons

Sunday, July 31st • Beau Bradberry

"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." — Matthew 4:1

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Show Notes

July 31st, 2022 • "Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." — Matthew 4:1

–
Podcast: https://pod.link/willowridgechurch
Website: https://willowridgechurch.org
Instagram: https://instagram.com/willowridgechurch
Facebook: https://facebook.com/willowridgechurch
YouTube: https://youtube.com/@willowridgechurch

Creators and Guests

Host

Beau Bradberry

Senior Pastor

What is Willow Ridge Sermons?

Sermon audio from Sunday services at Willow Ridge Church.

Hi, and welcome to the Willow Ridge Church weekly podcast.

This is where you can find audio for our current and past sermons.

We hope that you enjoy this week's installment, and be sure to check back next week to hear

the latest message.

Thanks for listening.

Well, good morning, glad that y'all are here with us today.

If you've got your Bibles, open them up to Matthew chapter 4 as we wrap up our 10-week

series that we've been in on the fruit of the Spirit.

Now, next week we're going to begin a new series on discipleship.

We've kind of gotten into a custom of doing this in the fall as we look back and get into

our fall semester, is taking a certain time and looking at discipleship and God's expectation

for us.

And this year, I'm excited about it.

We've got some different aspects that we're going to look at as we're going to talk about

family discipleship, community and discipleship.

We're going to look at personal discipleship, just a bunch of different areas of discipleship

in the Bible.

We oftentimes think there's like one format for discipleship, and that's just what we

do.

And yet, we see there's multiple aspects of this.

And so, we're going to look at this over the month of August.

And so, we'd love to have you here for that.

Now, hopefully, in some chairs around you, or you got one last week and you stuck it in

your Bible and you'll see these.

We've got these cards that are positioned around.

This is something we're trying new for us to kind of get all the important dates of the

upcoming year or upcoming semester of what we're aware of in front of you guys.

And so, if you don't have one, if there's not one on the chairs around you, there are

a bunch of them on the table at the very back of the auditorium.

And so, as you leave today, you can go back and you can grab one of those.

Now, I do want to point out a couple of different things that are on here.

The first is where you'll see our Willow Family Mission Trip on September the 2nd to the 5th

to Black Mountain Children's Home.

Now, I hope you're aware over the last two weeks, we've had two different groups of our

students that have gone and mobilized to go out and to do mission trips and to serve.

We had our high schoolers who went to Utah, our middle schoolers who went to Black Mountain

Children's Home this past week.

So, we ended up with 21 in Utah, 47, I believe, in Black Mountain.

So, it was exciting to kind of see.

And in the momentum of keeping that going forward, we thought about, hey, let's take something

and provide this for the whole church family, or at least as much as we can for us to go

out.

Take that holiday weekend and go and serve together.

And so, that is going to be September 2nd through the 5th.

Now, a couple of things that this trip is a little different than mission trips we've

done before in the past.

So, there's a lot of different things that we want to talk about, but a couple of different

ones.

Number one, parents.

Now, Aaron and I have kind of reached that stage of life and of ministry where I'm just

going to be honest with you, right?

It's that great relief when they both go off to camp, right?

And we know, like home vacation, right?

We got this.

All right.

So, I've had some parents ask.

I want to go ahead and just tackle this one.

All right.

This mission trip, parents, this is not the mission trip that you send your kids off to

and you don't participate in, all right?

That's why it's called family mission trip.

So, we want you all to go and all to be a part.

So, you don't send them off.

You get to go with them and serve at Black Mountain Children's Home.

But then also, if you're in the stage of life where you don't have kids at home, or maybe

you're at the stage of life where you don't have kids, but you want to go and be a part

of this, then we want you to come and be a part of us as well.

That is your family, right?

A family doesn't just become a family if you have kids.

A family is a family.

So, whatever your family looks like.

But I do want to remind you, there will be kids on the trip.

So, when you show up and you're like, I didn't know middle schoolers would be here.

I'm sorry.

This is a family mission trip.

And so, we're excited about it.

There's a lot of fun things that we're going to do that weekend as we have the opportunity

to go up to Black Mountain Children's Home and serve together.

So, we do have some registration forms.

There are some back here at this table.

As you leave, you can grab those.

But then, as always, Aaron and I are going to be back at this table to greet our first-time

guests.

And so, if you would like, if you've got questions about us, we do have some registration forms

over there.

And we would love for you to join us and to be a part of this trip.

And then, also, you'll notice in the upcoming weeks, starting on August 14th, we've got our

Willow Picnic, Willow Bowling, Willow Bingo, where we're just going to gather together as a

church family on Sunday evenings and just spend some time in fellowship and community together as we look

forward and anticipate our fall season and would love to have you.

So, please make sure you grab one of these, throw it on your refrigerator, do what you need to do,

place it in your Bible of all the things that we've got going on.

So, we're going to wrap up this series on Fruit of the Spirit.

And let's do like we've done every single week.

Let's begin by looking at Galatians 5, 22 through 23.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness, and here it is, everybody, self-control.

Against such things, there is no law.

So, this week, we're going to wrap up and we're going to talk about self-control.

A funny story that happened in my family yesterday.

We had been gone, and we come after going and visiting Aaron's parents and my parents yesterday,

and we come back into our house that evening, and someone, I don't remember who, asked,

hey, what are you preaching about tomorrow?

And I said, well, I'm talking about self-control.

It's our last week.

And Grayson looked at me and goes, oh, great.

Which one of us are you going to talk about, right?

I said, none of y'all.

I'll talk about me.

And then I just broke what I said as I lacked self-control when I told the story from yesterday.

But we are going to talk about self-control.

And I don't know about you, but maybe you've gone through this series with me,

and as we look at the different ones, you're like, I struggle with that.

I don't struggle with that.

I struggle with that.

I don't struggle with that.

But I think if we're being honest with ourselves, if we're listening to the Holy Spirit,

I think there could be a lot of yes and amens to who struggles with self-control.

I've been reading a book that was recommended to me as we've gone through this that deals

with pastors primarily implementing the fruit of the Spirit in their life and seeing that

in themselves.

Just kind of a little side note, and for those of you who teach Scripture, it's why it's important

for us to study Scripture and to prepare our hearts and our minds and walk through the

process of what the Holy Spirit wants to do with us, right?

Like, if you're teaching, whether it's on the stage or in a classroom or in a small group,

I want to warn against, I'm just going to wing it.

I'm just going to open a book.

Because what begins to happen is the Spirit of God works in you and through you so that

as you preach or as you teach, you're doing so out of a basis of this is what the Lord is doing

in my life in this, which has been a wonderfully difficult journey for me over the last 10 weeks.

If every single week, me going, I think I'm pretty good with love.

No, I'm not.

I think I'm pretty good with joy.

No, I'm not.

Well, this week I went in going, I know I'm not good at this, all right?

So it made it a little bit easier to walk through getting my feelings hurt this week.

But I was reading the book and there was a quote that I wanted to kind of, I want to read

this to you and it's going to be on the screen behind me that came out of the book.

And I just love the quote as it kind of summed up our battle with self-control.

And so here it is.

Self-control, simply put, is the ability to look at a piece of chocolate cake and not eat

it, to accidentally click on an explicit link and immediately close the window, to hear

a tidbit of salacious gossip and end the conversation.

Self-control is speaking with kindness and love when you want to scream.

Self-control is the resistance of temptation and the refusal to give indwelling sin the upper

hand.

And what I love about this quote is I think everybody just kind of felt it in their gut.

From chocolate cake, right, to the internet.

From gossip to speaking in kindness and love when you want to scream.

Self-control is the resistance of temptation and what we're going to find, not the removal

of temptation.

And the refusal to give indwelling sin the upper hand.

Self-control, for me, is the tangible piece of what God gives us that I'm reminded every single

day when God, through the spirit that lives inside of me, when I exhibit and exude self-control,

reminds me of the victory that I have in Jesus Christ.

And that's self-control.

And that's the goodness and gracious of God.

A few points on self-control before we look at this.

And these are points that could be whole messages if we had time.

But I want to just kind of draw some of these, right?

Is first, like the rest of the fruit of the spirit, self-control is a gift and a command.

Right?

As we've read through these, and I hope this has been something that penetrates our mind

and our heart and our spirit, that every single aspect of what we see in the fruit of the spirit

is both a gift of God to us.

So if you're like, I'm good at joy, like I grasp that, then understand that that's a gift of God

and it's also a command of God.

So if you're like, well, I'm not necessarily great at that, it's a command of God.

And so self-control, when we're able to walk in this and to exude this and this is who we are,

we need to praise the Lord because it's a gift he's given us.

And when we struggle with it, right?

When it's not where we see where we are, we can't just chalk it up and say, oh, well,

because it's a command from the Lord as well.

Number two, another point is this, and I think this is the difficulty in which we find ourselves often.

We are called as God's people to be a people of self-control, yet we live in a world of self-indulgence.

All right?

The world continually says, take what's yours, get what's yours, right?

Like buffets, you know?

And if you're like good and you're like, well, I'm not going to partake in the buffet,

but I like the food that they have, then they have pay by the pound, you know?

Reinforce that bad boy.

We got another one for you, right?

But we're called to be people of self-control, but yet we live in the world of self-indulgence.

What makes you happy?

Then do it.

No.

Right?

We're called to be self-controlled, but we live in a world of self-indulgence.

So we don't have to wait for Thursday night to watch our sitcom that lasts 30 minutes because

we can watch all 42 episodes over the course of a weekend and say we were productive, right?

Right?

We're called to be self-controlled, but we live in a world of self-indulgence.

And then the quote deals with this, but I just want to mention it as well.

Well, the object of temptation will vary from person to person.

What tempts me may not be what tempts you.

What tempts you may not be what tempts me.

Now, there will obviously be things that we share in common with that, but the lure of temptation

is common to us all.

The beauty of the quote.

Chocolate cake.

Right?

Sexuality.

Right?

Gossip.

Losing your temper.

Right?

It's the same lure.

It's the desires of the flesh.

So what we've done is we've taken these and we've looked at and seen like, how does God

in and of himself exude this quality that he calls us to?

And then in doing so, when we do this, when we show self-control, how does that show godliness

in our lives?

And so for us this morning, I don't think that there's been an easier correlation for me to

be able to make, because we've talked through these week in, week out, than what we're going

to look at this morning, right?

In Matthew chapter four, very simply put, in the top of our Bible, what the editors added

to that at the top of the chapter, I'm sorry, the temptation of Jesus.

And so what we're going to see is how Jesus faced three different temptations, right, and

overcame those temptations without sinning, because he never sinned.

And what I would argue with you this morning is that the three temptations that he faces,

while our objects may look differently, right, they're the three common when we break down

all temptations that you and I face.

We're called to show self-control, that in all of them, we can all break them down to

their roots of one of these three temptations.

So let's look, number one, start in Matthew four, one through four.

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry.

And the tempter came and said to him, if you are the Son of God, command these stones to

become loaves of bread.

But he answered, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that

comes from the mouth of God.

And what we're going to see here is the temptation of desire, the temptation of desire.

Now, Jesus is in a state of vulnerability, fully God, fully man.

Jesus hurt.

Jesus got sick.

Jesus got tired.

And Jesus here is in a state of vulnerability.

Now, he had been fasting, what the Bible tells us, for 40 days and 40 nights.

Now, this number is important, and we could go a long amount of time, but you can hear and

feel the biblical implications of this, okay?

Now, a lot of times in Jewish practice, what they would look at for the course of fasting

was sun up to sun down.

Now, that's not what Jesus does.

So for 40 days and for 40 nights consecutively, Jesus fasts.

Now, a thing that's important for us to draw from is this, in the immediate, as we look at

these temptations, okay?

Our desire for holiness, which is good, our desire to live out the righteousness of God,

which is good, our commitment to spiritual practices and spiritual disciplines in our life,

which is good, does not free us from temptation.

They didn't free Jesus.

And so, Satan comes to Jesus, and he gives him this temptation.

40 days, 40 nights fasting.

Scripture says he was hungry.

And he gives him a two-part.

The first part is eat, but he's in the desert.

I was just in the desert, all right, in Utah.

We drove past it.

I didn't go get in it.

Who are we kidding, right?

The second part, right, is through your miraculous abilities, provide for yourself something to eat.

Satan comes to him, 40 days, 40 nights.

I don't know about you.

I ate breakfast this morning.

I'm already a little hungry, right?

Play that out.

He says, hey, command these stones.

Become bread.

Eat.

Why is this wrong?

It appears Jesus had fulfilled this fasting requirement.

The 40 days in the Bible, what he'd looked at and what he'd done, that seems to be fulfilled.

To eat, right, is satisfying a basic need, not a lustful desire, right?

Like, he's not transporting himself from the desert to Rios, you know?

Like, it's this basic need of what he has.

Later in Jesus' ministry, Jesus would perform miracles so that others could eat.

So this isn't going to be something that Jesus doesn't do.

Jesus will perform a miracle so that men and women and children can have their basic needs to eat to be met.

So why is this wrong?

Why is this a temptation that Jesus not only resists but fights against and gains victory over?

Because Jesus' temptation was not just to eat.

Jesus' temptation was not just to perform a miracle.

Jesus' temptation was to use his sonship, his relationship with the Father,

that was inconsistent with his God-ordained mission.

Jesus had come to use his powers for others and to die for others.

To fall into this temptation would be to use his powers for his personal needs

and to deny all of this.

Satan wanted Jesus to use his relationship with God the Father in a way that God the Father did not intend him to use it.

To fulfill his desire.

And you and I, we try to do this all the time.

We try to do this all the time.

You and I often find ourselves in position where we sinfully leverage our relationship with God in order to justify our sin.

Two different ways.

Number one, I call it grace abuse.

Grace abuse.

God will forgive me even if I do this.

We have a relationship with the Lord that is based in, found in, rooted in forgiveness.

We celebrate that.

We live in that.

It's what we declare.

We did not earn it.

He gives it to us.

And God keeps forgiven and forgiven and forgiven.

It's who he is.

But you and I confine ourselves in our heart in patterns of grace abuse.

If I do this, God knows I'm not strong enough.

God knows I have this weakness.

God knows this is where I am.

I'm not doing those other things.

But if I just partake in this, does it really matter?

Because God forgives me.

Speaking the half-truths of Satan.

Paul writes Romans 6, 1 through 2.

What shall we say then?

Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?

By no means.

How can he who died to sin still live in it?

Grace abuse.

In order to fulfill the desire of my flesh, right?

I'm going to abuse the grace that God gives me.

The second is this.

Pursuing what God has for us in sinful ways.

I'm going to talk about this at the end of the message as well.

So it will be a little bit of repeat in this.

But I just want to say this.

There are things that God has for us.

And that God creates for us.

And that God designs for us.

But maybe not right now.

The easiest example.

Sex.

God created sex.

Designed sex.

And says enjoy sex.

In the context of what?

Marriage.

But we pursuing the things.

That God has for us in sinful ways.

Psalm 37.4.

What?

Delight yourself in the Lord.

And he will give you the desires of your heart.

You see, we just want those last few words.

God, give me the desires of my heart.

And God, if you won't give them to me, then I'm going to take them.

And I'll take them in sinful ways.

All right?

I want to feel satisfied.

So I'm not going to delight myself in the Lord and allow the Lord to work in a way that's going to satisfy my very being and my very soul.

So instead, I'm going to seek for those other things that are temporary and that will burn up and that become idols in my life in order to bring satisfaction in my life.

Right?

Does God want you to be satisfied?

Yes.

Who does want you to be satisfied?

In him, not in your latest Amazon purchase.

Right?

Be satisfied.

Does God want to bring joy into our life and for you and I to live in happiness?

Absolutely.

But where does he want that source to be?

From him.

Not in a feeling.

Not in a substance.

Not in a person.

That's the source.

From him.

And so Jesus responds.

And Jesus responds by quoting scripture.

And it's a quote from Deuteronomy 8.3.

And he says that he's going to deny the desires of his earthly body.

Not sinful, because Jesus had no sin, but instead of all the human feeling that he had.

And he said, and instead what I'm going to do is I'm going to lean in and I'm going to trust in God's word.

That this isn't the things of this world are not what sustains me.

It's not the desires of this world that in their satisfaction are going to do this.

But it is God and God alone and God's standard that we trust where we are with him and what he is going to do in us.

And so Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 8.3.

It's a season of life where Israel was hungry and needed, God needed and wanted them to be hungry and not eat out of their convenience.

But when God had planned them to eat and we entrusted in them to eat.

And so to teach them to depend on God and the things that were more important than the things of this earth.

But to lean in and trust on him.

And that's what Jesus says.

It's not our desires.

It's him.

Temptation number two, look at verse five.

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple.

And said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down.

For it is written, he will command his angels concerning you.

And on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.

And Jesus said to him, again it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to test.

So a couple things.

Jesus uses scripture on Satan.

So Satan says, well then I'm going to use scripture back at you.

Right?

As you face temptation, do not, this is a side point, but don't miss the reality that Satan could try to use the things of the Lord, even scripture, against you.

It did in the garden.

And he does it here.

And what we see here, as Jesus responds to him with scripture as well, is the temptation of manipulation.

So we see the temptation of desire and we're going to see the temptation of manipulation.

Now, the setting, we've left the desert and it's now in Jerusalem on top of the temple.

And the devil tells Jesus to throw himself down and then quotes scripture to him.

Now, partial scripture, Psalm 91, verses 11 and 12, parts of those.

And here's what Satan is implying.

Satan is implying that Jesus can do this and can do this safely.

Take yourself to the top.

Throw yourself off.

Jump off.

And that Jesus should do this because the angels are here to help him.

They love Jesus.

They care about Jesus.

They don't want anything bad to happen to Jesus.

So, of course, they'll do this, right?

And Satan, even in his usage of the scripture, he says that not only will you not be hurt, but you won't even bruise your toe.

You'll be, Jesus, completely safe.

Because God would never let that happen to you.

And so, Satan's temptation of Christ is to test the relationship between God the Father and God the Son.

Satan wants Jesus to use the love of the Father that he has for the Son and manipulate him.

Test him.

See how much he really loves you.

Because Jesus, if he loved you, then this wouldn't happen.

This wouldn't happen.

Now, Jesus' response is again from Deuteronomy, and he says,

You shall not put the Lord your God to test as you tested him at Massa.

And so, that's Deuteronomy 6.16.

Now, we'll talk about this, Jesus' use of scripture and looking at this word test in the Old Testament.

Now, Jesus is not refuting scripture here.

Jesus is not saying Psalm 91 is incorrect.

That's not what he's doing.

What Jesus is doing here is correcting Satan's misuse of scripture.

And he says, now, you don't test God.

It's not what we're here to do.

We do not test God.

Now, it's interesting when you look through scripture, there is an instance in scripture in Malachi 3.10 where God gives permission to test him.

Let me read that in Malachi 3.10.

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts.

If I will not open the windows of heaven for you to pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

Now, the use of this word test here, the word that is used is the word bachan, B-A-C-H-A-N.

And this word means to examine or to prove.

And the illustration where this word is also used is in reference to gold.

Is the gold pure?

Is the gold what the gold is supposed to be?

And so what God is saying here is bring your tithe and then examine what you will find is my faithfulness.

You will find my provision.

You will see that this is who I am.

But Jesus uses a different word, and it's a different word that's found in Deuteronomy 6.

And it's the word naka, N-A-C-A-H, which means to test or to tempt.

Don't tempt God.

And the setting that Jesus used in Deuteronomy 6 mentions, as you tested him at Massa.

And this comes from a story that's found in Exodus chapter 17.

God's people were camping, and they were, as they moved through the desert, where God had told them to.

And they had gone where God told them to, and then when they find where they are, there's no water.

And in being that there's no water, they began to complain to Moses against the Lord.

And you can read all of the account of this in Exodus 17, but I want to read to you verse 7.

And God ends up giving them water.

It says, and he called the name of the place, Massa and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel.

And because they tested the Lord by saying, is the Lord among us or not?

Is the Lord for us or not?

And so here is their sin of what God addresses and what God corrects.

If God loved us, then he would do this.

If God loved us, then he would not allow this.

What they're trying to do is leverage their relationship with the Lord against him.

If you've ever been in an unhealthy relationship, let me tell you a line that one partner will use against the other.

If you loved me, then you would do this.

And as a parent, I hope I never have to, but I would say to my kids, if they loved you, then they would never ask you to do this.

Right?

But God's people are coming and saying, if you loved us, then you wouldn't do this.

If Satan comes to Jesus, put yourself on the temple and throw yourself down.

And test him.

Because if he loved you, then he would never allow this to happen.

Maybe you're thinking, I don't face that, Bo.

I don't go through that.

Let me ask you this question.

Have you ever gone through a season of life?

Or maybe you're going through one now.

And the thought continually comes to your mind.

If God loves me like he says he does, then I wouldn't have to go through this.

Maybe it's miscarriage.

Maybe it's a place in financial struggle, of sickness, of going through a rebellious child.

And you position yourself with, if I am who I am in God, and he loves me like he says he would,

then why would he do this?

Because he's not fulfilling his end of the deal.

And what I would plead with you, that the Spirit has worked in my life this week,

is that's the temptation of manipulation.

God, if you loved me, then accept my definition of love.

Accept my definition of grace.

Accept my definition of goodness.

And it's what Satan brings Jesus to.

Temptation number three.

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain.

And showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

And he said to him,

All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.

And then Jesus said to him,

Be gone, Satan.

For it is written,

You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.

And what we see lastly here in the temptation of Christ is the temptation of worship.

And Satan takes Jesus and shows him all the kingdoms of the world.

And he offers Jesus the people without the cross.

He offers them the people without the mission.

Now here's what's interesting.

Could Jesus turn stones into bread?

Yes.

Could God send angels to scoop him down and save him?

Yes.

Could Satan give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world?

No.

Satan doesn't have the authority to give what he promises.

But yet he offers it anyways.

And when Satan tempts you and I with the idols of this world.

Church, I want to tell you and plead with you and plead with your hearts this morning.

He cannot fulfill the promises he's given.

But he's going to tempt him.

But he's going to tempt him with you anyways.

He doesn't have the authority to give.

You see, when we face temptation, what we want is to be satisfied eternally at our core.

The drink that we seek satisfaction from is fading and will leave.

It can't satisfy.

The relationship that we think will solve all the problems that we have cannot at its core satisfy.

The gossip that we want to know that we think can please and satisfy our ear won't because it can't satisfy.

The money that we think if we had in our bank account, then that could satisfy me with where I'm at in my life.

It won't because it can't satisfy.

You see, all of these things for a moment can tweak and turn the situation.

But it can't change it for all of eternity.

And it can't satisfy in our being of what we want and what we long for.

Only God can.

And that's why only he is worthy.

Paul writes in Colossians 3, 5, and he gives a partial list of idols.

And he says, put to death, therefore, what is earthly in you, sexual morality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

We aren't to worship them.

We're to kill them.

I told Berger this morning, I said, I'm going to use the illustration that I've probably used more than any other illustration.

But to me, it just paints the picture of what we do when we don't kill our sin.

Years and years and years ago, I was on the internet.

I was on Google.

And there was a video that popped up, or maybe it was social media, but a video that popped up.

And it said, snake charmer bitten by snake and dies.

And I thought, yep, yep, that's right.

Like, that's what happens, right?

No one should go, didn't see that coming, right?

Like, surprised that that's what happened.

Are you kidding me?

Right?

Why?

Because a snake isn't meant to be tamed, right?

No one gets a pet rattlesnake and says, who wants to cuddle with this?

Nobody, right?

No one.

But that's what we do with sin.

I just want to cuddle it.

I just want to control it.

Because I'm strong enough.

I'm capable.

I'm good enough.

But the Bible says, we don't cuddle it.

We kill it.

Matthew 4, 11.

Then the devil left him.

And behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

Is there victory in temptation?

Absolutely.

What we see here in the faithfulness of Christ to the Father is a battle, a difficult journey.

And what we see is the victory of God.

I'm going to close up just really quickly.

For you and I, we've seen temptation, but this message is about self-control.

How do we embrace self-control?

I got this from the author of the book that I'm reading right now.

And just was able to use these so many points in time this week.

And I wanted to share them with you.

Number one, he says, remember the cross.

Remember the cross.

Remember, number one, how offensive your sin is.

There is not a light sin.

There is not an okay sin.

There is not a sin that doesn't hurt the heart of God.

And there isn't a sin that Jesus didn't die for.

Remember how offensive your sin is to God.

And number two, remember the price that God paid for your offense.

And that.

When you're tempted to click on that next website,

remember the price that God paid for that click.

When you're tempted to share that piece of destructive gossip to the next person,

remember the price that God paid for that word.

Remember the cross.

Number two, embrace the fight.

Embrace the fight.

1 Corinthians 9, 24, and 25.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize?

It's a run that you may obtain it.

Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.

And they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we, an imperishable.

It's going to be a battle.

Know that going in.

It's not easy.

It's not a stroll through the park on a 70-degree Saturday morning with zero humidity.

That's not it.

It's a marathon.

It's a battle.

It's a journey.

You're going to cry.

You're going to sweat.

You're not going to want to be there.

And that's what it is.

And if we stop kidding ourselves that we deserve some easy, free life

and embrace the fight that God has for us, then we'll be ready for these.

And so we embrace the fight and we fight back.

But we remember, the battle's been won.

Not by us, but by Jesus.

And through it all, what God is doing is something in you and through you in this battle.

Number three, bring the fiercest battle into the light.

Right?

Bring the fiercest battle into the light.

Brothers, Galatians 6.2,

Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression,

you who are spiritual should restore him.

In a spirit of gentleness, watch over self, lest you too be tempted.

Verse 2, bear one another's burdens.

And so fulfill the law of Christ.

You weren't meant to fight this alone.

Bring someone else into the battle.

And stop sharing the care bear struggles that you face.

And start getting real.

Okay, so here's the story.

From my family.

It's on me, okay?

Erin and I very early on in our dating relationship had a conversation

about struggle and temptation and lust in my life.

And I said to her, this has been something that I've battled through in my life.

I've experienced defeat.

I've experienced victory.

And I need you.

I think this is like date number two to bring you into this journey with me.

To let you know where I struggle.

A couple years later, we're married.

I'm serving in ministry at a church.

And I come home for dinner one night.

Erin's there.

Dinner's on the table.

Sit down.

And she says to me, I need to bring something to your attention.

And I said, okay.

And she said, do you know?

And then she said a female's name.

And I said, yeah.

Yeah, she's one of our volunteers.

She loves to be around.

She's up there all day long.

She'll do anything that I ask her to do.

She's such a joy.

She's constantly complimenting me.

She's doing all this.

I absolutely, I know who she is.

And she looked at me and she says, she's not good for your ministry and she's not good for us.

Yes, ma'am.

What did she do?

She brought the temptation into light.

Right?

Now, did I go up to that lady the next day and say, I'm sorry.

You're a thorn sent to me by Satan and you cannot be a part of my ministry anymore.

No, I didn't.

But do you know what I did do?

I brought an older man who served in my ministry into my office and said, I need you to help guard me.

I brought another staff member into my office and said, I need you to guard me in this.

Right?

Because the temptation was brought into light.

And a sister in Christ, more so than she is my wife, stepped in and spoke truth that I needed to hear.

And she's brought something that honestly, at 25, not intelligent me, didn't see.

Didn't see.

Number four.

Plead with the Spirit.

I'll do these quickly.

How do we plead with the Spirit?

Number one, we pray forcefully.

James 5, 16.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous man has great power as it is working.

When you pray, pray with determination.

Not in who God is, but who you are.

He will be faithful and he will get you through.

Can I say, when you pray to the Lord, pray specifically.

Name the temptation.

Name the sin.

God already knows it, but you need to be confident in it.

Pray forcefully.

Number two.

How we plead with the Spirit is we pray confidently.

Romans 8, 32.

He did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all.

How will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

God wants to say yes to you.

He wants to.

Remember Psalm 37, 4?

But delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

Right?

It comes with a command verse.

Delight yourself in the Lord, so that what happens, so that the desires of your heart are the desires of God.

This is not a prosperity, health, wealth, prosperity, gospel message.

This is a line from the Lord.

Delight yourself in him.

Maybe the battle for you this morning is to stop praying that God will remove the battle.

And start praying that God and his grace through the Holy Spirit will give you the strength to overcome the battle in his name and for his glory.

And lastly, pray daily.

Very simply, we started off with seeing what Jesus did.

We're going to conclude with it.

Luke 5, 16.

But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.

Often.

Jesus needed to do that.

How much more do we?

The Bible tells us that Satan is like a lion seeking to attack.

And I don't know if you've ever watched those National Geographic shows or the Discovery shows where it goes out into like the African safari and it shows the lion getting ready to attack.

I love watching it.

I'm a softie right when the lion goes.

I cut off the channel.

Just, that's who I am.

I can't take it.

But, you know, a lion doesn't walk by and say, oh, gazelle, let's go, right?

Mm-mm.

What do they do?

They just walk.

They look.

They look back.

And they look again.

They look back.

And they're waiting for that moment where that gazelle is the most vulnerable.

And when the gazelle is the most vulnerable, then the lion attacks.

Satan wants you to be vulnerable.

But if we fight daily on our knees before the Lord, right, we have the battle that we need to overcome what lies ahead of us.

Would you pray with me?

Lord, we come to you this morning, Jesus, thanking you for what you endured.

Not only for what you endured in the cross, but what you endured in this daily life that you lived.

Jesus, you faced the temptations that we face, but yet you overcame them.

And, Lord, you didn't give in to them.

And instead, you depended on the very spirit of God, Lord, and your divinity of who you are to rise above.

And you fight that battle for us.

And, Lord, you've gone through and come out on the other side in perfection.

And so that, Lord, we too can face the temptations of this life.

Knowing who we are in you.

Knowing what you have for us.

Lord, may we stop cursing you when we face the temptation as if it's a punishment.

But, Lord, may we cling to you when the temptation comes at us.

Lord, that we know in your power and your ability that is in us, Lord, that through you, we have the ability to overcome and to glorify you.

And to praise you through it, Lord, and that through that battle, what builds in us is a particular type of righteousness that is building us and molding us and shaping us more and more into being more and more like you.

So our life can be a testimony of hope in Christ that our life can be a testimony of victory in Christ.

So, Lord, from chocolate cake to infidelity, we lay them down.

And we say, Lord, give us the power to show self-control.

Give us the power for you to be displayed.

Give us the power to live in the victory.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Thanks again for listening to the Willow Ridge Church weekly podcast.

We hope that you enjoyed listening to this week's message.

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