Morgan Teruel: Thanks for tuning in to the Sandals Church podcast. Our vision as a church is to be real with ourselves, God, and others. We're glad you're here, and we hope you enjoyed this message.
Pastor Claude Hickman: Hey. Welcome back to Sandals Church. We're in the book of Matthew, and this week we're in chapter four. It's a story known as the temptation of Jesus. Now when I was in college, I had a friend, Mark.
He was discipling these two other guys who are football players, and they were all like these d one athletes. Like, they were some of the healthiest guys I knew, some of the godliest guys I knew. And he decided to take these guys out on a boat in a lake in Arkansas just to get away. And so they go out, and then they they get on this boat. They're not drinking or partying or anything.
They're just, you know, having a good time. Jesus was always on a boat, so they go out on a boat. You know? Well, one of them, Anthony, I don't know if he fell in the water or got in the water, but the water was deeper than he thought, and Anthony couldn't swim as well as he thought. And he started to panic, and Anthony just sunk.
You know, these guys are six foot solid muscle. It's lake water. It's not ocean water. And he just began to sink. So my friend Mark takes off his shirt.
He dives in. And he swims underneath Anthony and pushes him up to the surface just so he can get air. And he starts doing this, but Anthony's kinda freaking out, kinda grabbing onto him. And Mark starts just kinda doing this over and over, but they can't push Anthony close enough to the boat. And so for, I think, seven minutes, Mark is swimming this loop and pushing Anthony to the top, and Mark's taking in water.
He's getting tired. They're both getting tired. They're both grabbing onto each other. Now the Bible says that true love lays down its life for a friend. And then what happened next was Anthony, I think, realized Mark's not leaving me.
And if he stays, we both drowned. And Anthony pushed Mark away. Mark got back on the boat, but Anthony passed away. And it was one of the first times that a death like that touched my life, someone that I knew, that someone I'd hung out with. It was tragic.
We're gonna talk about something today, that has touched everyone's life in this room in some way, sin and temptation. And sin wants to bring death to your life. Sin doesn't just wanna splash you in the face. Sin doesn't just wanna get you wet. Sin wants to grab you by the ankle and drag you into the darkness and destroy everything good in your life.
That's what we're talking about today. John Owen actually said this, sin always aims at the uttermost. I'm gonna bring this word back today. I love it. The uttermost.
Sin even the smallest sin in your life is actually one step toward the most treacherous. So I want you to write this down. This is point number one or zero. This is the this is the whole point, okay, of today, is that I must kill sin or sin is gonna kill me. I must kill sin or sin is gonna kill me.
And and I think if we just went around the room, I mean, we could just think about how has sin brought death to your life already. Has anybody ever lost a friendship over a falling out or some kind of, you know, disagreement, and you've experienced death in a relationship that's gone, and it's horrible. And you guys that are married, man, I know for me, you you meet your soulmate, like the love of your life, you know, she marries you, she says yes, and then I feel like every day my selfishness, my unforgiveness is attacking my marriage. It's trying to bring death into my marriage every single day. Man, I love my job.
Okay? I I love my life. I'll be honest with you. Sometimes the only thing that keeps me from sinning is I don't wanna lose my job. Just one sin competing with the other.
Just trying to bring death to my to my job, my life. Well, we are all we've all fallen in this water of sin. The way the Bible talks about it is that we've all sinned. We've all gotten into the same water. And and by the way, if you don't think you're a sinner, you're lying.
That's the ninth commandment. So you broke one of the big ones. We're all our vision is to be real. But there's two reasons why the Bible calls us sinners. One, because we all sin, but the other is because you're a descendant of Adam in the very beginning.
Romans five says it like this. Adam's sin brought death. So death spread to everyone. You can pray about whether or not that's you, but to everyone for everyone, sin. In fact, when we baptize people, there's a reason why that image of immersing people in water is important because when we lay them under the water, that's a picture of how you spiritually have died.
We have all died spiritually. And and the waters of baptism recognize that you ever seen a pastor accidentally drop somebody while they're underwater? Like, they slip? They got this look on their face for a second, like, I wanna meet Jesus, but not today. You know?
And religion, maybe the reason why you're here, you're you're just, you know, checking out Jesus, but religion tries to answer the question, what saves that person? What can get that person out of our sin, out of that water? And religion says it's you, that that your arms need to be stronger. And I meant you know, one of the reasons I remember this story about my friend Mark and Anthony, the reason Mark couldn't save Anthony and Anthony couldn't save Mark is they were in the same water. We needed a savior who was untouched by the waters of sin that wasn't in the same waters with us.
We needed someone who wasn't a descendant of Adam, so he had to be born differently. That's Matthew chapter one and two. He's gonna die differently, but Jesus had to live differently to be your Savior. This is why Matthew chapter four matters. You might read the temptation story and be, why does this even matter that Jesus was tempted or that He was sinless?
But we needed a Savior who was different than all the rest of humanity. So we're gonna go through these 11 verses, Matthew chapter four. Let's start with verse one. Then Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. Now by the spirit tells us immediately, this is not normal.
Like, this isn't his normal rhythm. This is something God called Jesus specifically to do. This is his mission. And by the way, you're not called to do everything Jesus does. You're not called to walk on water or die on the cross or go have a one on one date with Satan in the wilderness, okay?
But this is his mission. And then verse two says this though, but he knows what's happening. So for forty days and forty nights, he fasted and he became hungry. Now here's my question to you. Do you think Jesus was weak in this moment?
Do you think he was vulnerable in this moment? I only know one person who's fasted for forty days. His name is Matt Benjamin. He's from Tulsa, Oklahoma, a friend of mine. I called him toward the end of his time because I was like, teach me what you're learning because I ain't fasting for forty days.
Okay? So just you teach me what you and he goes, Claude, I I can sum it up for you really easy. Your body is a liar. He said your body is a liar. I said, what do you mean?
He goes, let me tell you about fasting forty days. Week one he's actually day one. Day one, your body realizes it might be starving so it starts storing away fat for weeks. Like it knows it can go for weeks, but it sends a signal to your brain that says we're gonna die, like we need to eat right now, but it's storing away fat. No, and that's not true.
So week one's crazy. He's like your body's doing two different things. It's lying to you while it's storing away fat. Week two, the voice is still there. It's just not as loud.
Because you're like, well, you know, we didn't die last week. Come on, man. We got we're gonna die. You know, it's still storing away fat. He said week three, it's like it's a whimper.
If that voice is like, come on dude, really seriously? This is a big deal. Let's get a Snickers. He said, listen to this, week four there's no voice. He goes, by week week four, man, I had said no to my flesh and my body 10,000 times.
10,000 times. He goes, Claude, right now, I I have never felt so disciplined physically, spiritually, emotionally. This is the strongest I've ever felt. I I wish I didn't have to quit. And I wish I had time to talk to you who are struggling with addiction.
Let me just say this, man, every no matters. And and and the way your brain is God has made your brain, every time you say no, it actually remaps physiologically something in your brain that makes it easier to say no the next time. You can change. You can change. Even those of you that struggle with habitual sin, then every no matters.
McKay Vandenberg: Hey, Sandals Church. Thank you so much for joining us for today's message. I just wanted to take a brief moment to invite you into the work that Sandals Church Church is doing. One way that you can do that is by going to give.s c. For now, let's get back into our message.
Pastor Claude Hickman: Jesus, I believe, wasn't at his weakest. I believe he did this to be at his strongest. This was like his UFC training camp to go into the wilderness. And by the way, if He prepares like that to face Satan, what should we do? So it's during this time, it says the devil came to Him.
Right? When we all saw this coming, this wasn't a surprise. During this time, Satan comes to him and says, if you're the son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Goes immediately for the hunger. But Jesus told him no.
There it is, 10,001. No. For the scriptures say people do not live on bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of God. Now I think I've looked at this before and kinda went, okay. Bread, Satan?
That's like the biggest arrow you got in your quiver. You know, it's the son of God. You're throwing bread. Like is that was Jesus really tempted? I think we look at some of the things He does and we're like, oh dude, well He's Jesus.
Of course He said no. As if this was easy. Can I tell you why I think Jesus was the most tempted person in all of history? That he was tempted to the uttermost for us. I think he was tempted to the uttermost because he has the uttermost power.
He can make bread. You can't. Think about that. If you can make cheesecake, where would your life be right now? Cheesecake.
Bitcoin. You know? She loves me. Vengeance. Where would your life be if you had all power?
I think he was the most tempted because he's the most powerful person. And Satan's reminded him, you can get out of this anytime you want to. I think he was most tempted because he had the full human experience. You don't think he was tempted to steal to feed his family when his dad died? You don't think he was tempted, to covet Zacchaeus' wealth?
You don't think he was tempted to lust when Mary's washing his feet with her hair? You don't think he was tempted to gloat when he silenced his enemies? He experienced everything you experience. And he experienced it to the uttermost because he never gave in. Jesus felt the full heat of temptation because he never said yes.
He never gave in. Have you ever thought about that? I mean, the other day I did a plank, and I don't know if you've planked before. I tried to do one this morning. My body just said nope, so I couldn't put it in the story.
But, I planked the other day for like two minutes and my friend's like, that's actually pretty good. You know? Do you know what the world record for planking is? It's nine hours thirty seven minutes forty seven seconds. So do you think if me and that person are having a conversation about planking, you know, like, oh, yeah, I plank too, two minutes.
You think you think we're talking about the same thing? CS Lewis said this, man, you don't know the full heat of temptation because we give in after five minutes. You don't know what it would have felt like after an hour or after a year or after a lifetime. That's why the Bible talks about Jesus' one act of obedience. It's just one.
Like the world record for planking should be one plank. You with me? If you did two, you quit. You know? Jesus lived a life of one continuous act of obedience.
He was tempted to the uttermost. Now this devil comes back to him again and he takes him to the holy city Jerusalem. This is where you would expect the Messiah to show up. Takes him to the highest point of the temple. This is where they would expect him to be.
And he says, if again, if you're the Son of God, jump off. In other words, prove it. Jump off for the scriptures say, now Satan's quoting scripture, so be careful. Scriptures say he will order his angels to protect you and they will hold you up with their hands. You won't even hurt your foot on a stone.
You're not even gonna stub your toe, Jesus. Right? How many bad ideas start with, man, you're not going to get hurt. You know, this isn't going to get this is going to hurt everybody else, but it's not going to hurt you. Oh my gosh, dude.
I grew up in Oklahoma, like in the country, like we had 23 acres. And I would run around as a kid. Every once in a while, I would run into a snake. And like it's one thing to see a snake in a zoo, you know, you're like, oh, that's a cool snake. No.
It's different when it's like staring at you in Oklahoma. And I'd go run and I'd get my dad, I'd call out for my dad. And my dad would come out, my dad was like a snake assassin, okay? He'd just grab a shovel, I'd hear a thud, and he'd come back with a body. No head, just like the body wrapped around his arm.
And and, you know, he one time I saw him shoot one with a rifle. That's pretty bad, okay? That's awesome. But you know what? My dad never asked, what kind of snake was it?
He didn't he never was like, was it a black snake, green snake, water moccasin, you know, rattlesnake. He he never it just, all I knew is there was a no snake policy on our property. Like, if we saw a snake, it was gonna die. Okay? He killed it.
Colossians three says this, you are to put to death what is earthly in you. Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, greed. Jesus, man, he calls this testing. He doesn't deny that the angels might catch him, but he says, man, I'm not here to test God. I'm not allowing that on the property of my life.
And he says the scriptures also say you must not test the Lord your God. Let me ask you this. What in your life are you testing God with? Do you know what that phrase pet sins? Ever anybody ever heard that phrase?
What are the pet sins in your life? Because your pets are predators. The pet sins in your life are actually predators, and God's calling you to take some drastic steps. And maybe it's a relationship. Maybe it's a secret sin.
But but he's saying, man, cut the head off that. Today, cut the head off that. Well, next, Satan tries one more thing. He takes him to the peak of a high mountain. And he shows him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
Now I don't know what this would have looked like, but He's showing him the world, the whole world. He says, I will give it all to you. A global kingdom. I'll give it all to you if you'll kneel down and worship me. And I've always been really confused by this third one.
And I've read about it. I asked Pastor Fredo, man, help me. Am I is this mean what I think it means? And what Satan is offering to Jesus is his kingdom that he wants, his glory filling the earth, but without the cross. He's offering him a shortcut to what God wants, but without suffering and without the cross.
Listen Christians, if if Satan can get you to believe that the Christian life doesn't have any suffering and it doesn't need any endurance, you'll never make disciples. You'll never be on mission. Anything good that God's gonna do through your life is probably gonna involve some pain, some suffering, some endurance to it. There's no shortcuts. So and by the way, these lies that Satan tells Jesus, I think they stuck in his head for the next three years of his ministry.
Why do you think he talks so much about bread? I have bread that you don't know of. My food is to do God's will. And then the best one, I'm the bread of life. What a great one liner.
You know, but I think those are still living in his head. And in the Garden Of Gethsemane before the cross, he prays and asks God, is there any other way that this cup could pass from me? He's still thinking, is there any other crossless way to do this, but not my will, but your will be done. His life was one continuous act of righteousness. He but he responds, verse number 10, get out of here, Satan.
For the scriptures say, you must worship the Lord your God and serve Him only. Then Satan went away and angels came to take care of Jesus. Now we're not called to do everything Jesus is called to do, but I wanna show you what the Bible says and give you four ways that we as disciples are to fight sin. I wanna give you four ways disciples work to fight sin. And the first one is to stay out of the wilderness.
Okay? Don't go in the wilderness in the first place. That's not what you're called to do. This was Jesus's mission, not yours. And, and so I'm not talking about, you know, if God calls you the mission field or like John the Baptist has a ministry in the wilderness.
I'm talking about there are places in your life where you know Satan is waiting for you to tempt you. And 99% of the temptations in your life, you can avoid by staying out of the wilderness. You know, right? You know how to avoid those things. You guys know, you know how to avoid carbs, you know how to avoid frenemies, you know how to avoid jury duty, police, taxes, Right?
If if we avoided sin the way y'all avoid rush hour traffic, the world would line up at the door. It'd line up. You know. This is what Paul says in second Corinthians, so I wrote to you so that Satan wouldn't outsmart us, for we are familiar with his schemes. I know exactly where he's gonna meet me.
And can we just be honest? It's probably not Satan tempting you or demons. My thumbs do it. My thumbs do enough work for Satan. I go this way and I covet.
I go this way, lust. I go this way, jealousy or anger. And if I make it through all those, it's just pride. I go this way and it's pride. So I have to adjust my life because I know the areas that Satan wants to tempt me.
I don't go to the gym at the same time every day. I also don't work out, so it works out. So, but I adjust my life. A couple years ago, ten years ago, I asked my wife to do this. I said, will you just restrict the internet on my phone?
She put a password on it that I don't know and she probably doesn't know. Okay? So it means I can't Google, like, the entire internet. And so sometimes it's really weird. It's inconvenient.
I I went to buy a BMX tube for my son, and I can't Google tubes from Walmart. So I don't know what you weirdos are doing with tubes out there, but I can't Google that. I can't even watch some of the sermons from Sandals Church because of keywords in the sermon. But you know what? Here's what I decided.
That I I am willing to live a life of inconvenience so I can have a life of influence. And I think God's calling you to do the same thing. And if that sounds weird, this is what Proverbs 22 says. A prudent person, a wise person foresees danger and takes precautions, but a fool goes blindly on and suffers. Now not everything in your life can you foresee.
There's some things that surprise us. One of the guys I discipled in college, Kyle, he called me at two in the morning one time. And he's like, Claude, man, I gotta talk to you. I went to hear my friend's band play at this club. After we were dancing, this girl started dancing with me.
She looked like Ariana Grande. Never had a girl dancing me like that. She's like, hey, we're leaving my cousins. Come spend the night with us. And he goes, I heard myself say yes.
And I and I stopped him right there. And I was like, Kyle, look, first of all, whatever whatever happened, I love you. You know, if you got this girl pregnant or whatever, man, I love you. God loves you. He goes, no.
No. No. No. I didn't go. He goes, I actually I went out to the parking lot fully planning on going still because I got in my truck, and there on the dashboard is my memory verse that says, young men flee.
Flee sexual immorality. And he goes, man, I punched it. I was like, you punched the dashboard? He goes, no, I punched the gas. He said, I drove off the sidewalk, like I drove off the parking lot.
He goes, I ran over a street sign, it was like Grand Theft Auto, dude. Like I just just punched it. He goes, in fact, I'm calling you right now because I still don't wanna turn around. Will you stay on the phone with me? Listen, number two, if you're a disciple, you need to flee temptations that surprise you.
You need to learn to flee. This is why first Corinthians six says this, flee from sexual immorality. First Corinthians 10, dear friends, flee from the worship of idols. We're called to flee, not ask questions, just flee. My little sister was in Alaska with some of her friends and she said I hiked down by the lake and I was by myself, but I looked up at them and they're all waving and pointing, waving and pointing.
And so she just was like, I just started sprinting. Like I didn't know. And like like later they're like, we couldn't tell if it was a wolf or a bear or a coyote. But she's like, I didn't even look back Claude, I just started sprinting to get out of there. That's what you need to do, you just need to flee.
Don't hang out with it. Don't ask questions. You know why I read the Bible? It's because these stories, when I'm in a bad situation, man, Joseph waves to me who fled from Potiphar's wife, left his coat, everything, just fled. Joseph goes, clogged.
Get just get out of there. Just run. David says, man, I wish I would have made different choices. I shouldn't have been there. I shouldn't have done that.
And and not everybody in the Bible did everything great, but they waved to us and they warn us. Man, flee. Now some of you don't flee and we don't run because we don't have a mission to run toward. First Timothy six, this is what Paul says to a young man. He says now, but you, man of God, flee from all this and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness.
He says it again for in second Timothy. Flee from evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness. You need something to run toward. I remember when I was dating Rebecca, y'all are gonna think this is really weird. Okay?
If you didn't think I was weird already, buckle up. Because, she had never dated anybody before me. She never had a boyfriend. She never kissed anybody before me. And I remember when we started dating, she said, you know, Claude, I want my first kiss to be with my husband.
I was like, yeah, that's that's great. Then Then I started realizing wait a minute, the only way I can guarantee I'm her husband is if I'm like saying I do at the altar. Like altar, like our first kiss is gonna be at the altar? Well that's at least two years out and so I'm I'm kind of thinking about this like that would be a cool story to tell our kids but alter, you know? Maybe top of a cliff, you know, with a sunset, maybe that'll do it.
First kiss on the beach, you know, I was trying to like think about what would be another, maybe a closer story in the timeline. Right then my friend came back like from his date with his girlfriend. He's like, we had our first kiss. And I was like, bro, beach, cliff, sunset. He goes, we were in the Taco Bell parking lot.
And that's when I knew. Altar. Altar was the story. Like, it has to be. That's the I don't wanna tell my kids Taco Bell parking lot.
You know? But, man, it helped us. Like, that vision and that that idea, that mission, that story, it helped us stay pure. You need a mission and and to live with a mission that's worth suffering for. You need a mission in your life to make disciples, to impact the world.
God wants to use you, especially listen, young people. Man, it's worth it. Let me just tell you, it's worth it to protect your life because God has a mission for you and it's worth suffering for. That's why Proverbs 29 says, where there's no vision, the people cast off restraint. They don't know how to say no without a vision.
Jesus had a mission. And Hebrews tells us that's actually what helped him endure. Hebrews 12 says this, let us lay aside every weight and sin, looking to Jesus, who for the joy set before him endured, endured the cross. He had a mission. Now I think a question always comes to me when I read this.
Well, why Claude, why is Jesus in this wilderness? Why is he not fleeing? Why is he doing these things? Because he's called to a different mission and the greatest mission in history. He's called to remake a new Adam, a new humanity.
Where Adam failed, Jesus has to succeed. And I think all heaven is watching this moment. And when Satan offers Jesus a food that he doesn't need, I think Jesus remembers not bread, but the fruit in the garden that was offered to Adam. But where Adam failed, Jesus wins. And when Satan offers him, you know, you won't surely die, you won't even hurt your foot, it's almost word for word what he says to Adam, that you won't die.
And Jesus says, man, where Adam failed, I've got to have victory. And where Satan offers Adam a shortcut to be like God, Jesus says, no, I'm not taking your crossless shortcut. Listen, this was like the UFC rematch. I think all heaven was watching. You ever see those guys come out to the center of the ring and just go, we're gonna do this right here, right now?
Listen, I think that's what happened. And so I took Romans and Hebrews and I just put them like this, and I just want to read to you what the New Testament and let the New Testament explain to you how big of a moment this is. You ready? Says this, yes, Adam's one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ's one. Remember, continuous lifelong act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone.
Because one person, Adam, disobeyed, many became sinners. But because one other person, Jesus, obeyed God, many will be made righteous. Listen, Jesus didn't just die for you, he obeyed for you. And then Hebrews says this, So we don't have a high priest who's unable to sympathize. Jesus isn't rolling his eyes at your struggle and your sin.
He understands it and he's been there and he's been through it. He understands and sympathizes with our weakness. We have a high priest who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. He was tempted to the uttermost. Why?
Therefore, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him. So how do we respond? Hebrews four. So then with confidence, with confidence, draw near to him. Reach up to him from the water.
What is Jesus doing right now? He's not shaking his head. He's not disappointed. He's got his hand on the water, and he's saying draw near to me. Reach for me and to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of temptation, our time of need.
So number four is this, disciples, reach to Jesus for his supernatural power. It's your only way. It's your only way. Reach to him for the power that you don't have. The good news, Christians, is that, man, we have a rescuer on the water.
We have a hero. We have a spotter for us. I don't just reach to Jesus for my salvation. I reach to him when I struggle. And I think in a room like this, many of you are thinking, well, surely if I reach my hand to God, he's gonna slap it away.
It's hard to have a message about sin without us feeling incredibly unworthy to reach to God. And so I I just wanna leave us with this question. If you can believe in a God who did all of this to cure your sin? If you can believe in a God who did all these things and sent his son to cure your sin, can you also believe in a God who's most happy when you reach to him for that cure? Can you believe that His face shines towards you?
And He's most happy when we reach to Him. So I wanna pray for us, and and I just wanna model a prayer that I would pray as I read through this for my own life, but I wanna lead us through a prayer. So I wanna ask you to bow your heads, wherever you're at and just pray these three things with me. God, we invite you to shine a big light on us, in our hearts, and, God, would you search us today? Are there areas where I'm lingering in the wilderness?
God, are there areas where I'm testing you? And would you help us with your strength to turn, to kill those sins, to take drastic steps today? The Bible says today to do that. And then, God, would you give us a future vision? Lord, a better story to tell.
Would you rewrite where we're at today so we can tell another generation, man, God helped me. I changed. I killed that sin, and it's worth it. Would you give us a vision like that? And then, God, I pray that you would rewrite our view of Jesus toward us from disappointed to devoted.
God, remind us to reach for his arm 10,000 times because his arm does not grow tired, and he lives forever to intercede for us in our time of need. Pray we'd reach for him. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Morgan Teruel: Thank you so much for tuning in today. If you want more content from this series, we have a YouTube playlist linked in the description. And if you want more information about who we are and what we do, you can go to sandalschurch.com.