YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL - IF ONLY...

Then the Spirit led Jesus into the desert to be tempted by the Devil.² After spending forty days and nights without food, Jesus was hungry.³ Then the Devil came to him and said,
         If you are God's Son, order these stones to turn into bread.
 ⁴ But Jesus answered,
         The scripture says,
         Human beings cannot live on bread alone, but need every word that God speaks.
 ⁵ Then the Devil took Jesus to Jerusalem, the Holy City, set him on the highest point of the Temple, and said to him,
         If you are God's Son, throw yourself down, for the scripture says,


  
         God will give orders to his angels about you;
      they will hold you up with their hands,
      so that not even your feet will be hurt on the stones.
         
   
 ⁷ Jesus answered,
         But the scripture also says,
         Do not put the Lord your God to the test.
 
 ⁸ Then the Devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in all their greatness.⁹  All this I will give you, the Devil said,
         if you kneel down and worship me.
 ¹⁰ Then Jesus answered,
         Go away, Satan! The scripture says,
         Worship the Lord your God and serve only him!
 ¹¹ Then the Devil left Jesus; and angels came and helped him.
(Matthew 4:1-11 Good News Bible)

Well friends, we have made it with Jesus through two of his trials - today we hope to get out of the desert. 
However there is ONE LAST TEST.

Satan has run out of scripture - have you noticed?  He's just plain desparate!

I really don't think this last test was even something that our Savior would consider.

He knew His mission.

Not sure how much Satan knew, except that He was gonna be in trouble.

But Satan offered the best he had - scripture tells us that until the GOD'S KINGDOM COMES that Satan is the prince over the earth. 

And he was offering Jesus these powerful earthly kingdoms.  Who here wants to guess he was lying!?!?!?!  His very name Satan means deciever! 

Satan was trying to get Christ to bypass the cross -

The torture -

The pain -

The weight of the world-

An easy way out -

BUT THAT WAS NOT CHRIST'S MISSION PLAN....

He brought God's Kingdom to earth.

JESUS STILL WAS LOADED WITH SCRIPTURE, who recognizes His response?

Yep, it's right there in the BIG 10!

(Exodus 20:3 or Deuteronomy 6:13).

Kneel before Satan - are you kidding me!

Most of us laugh and say, hey I might get hungry and want to eat, or fall and get caught - those first two tests do tempt me, but not this one - I would never kneel before Satan...

Unfortunately people have.

A deal with the devil....

yeah, I am sure that this short cut to easy street is still being offered by the devil.

But you know he masks himself - he likes to play dress up you know - part of that whole deciever thing he does.

He might mask himself as money - or fame - or drugs - or shopping -

Jesus says- repeating GOD

Worship the LORD YOUR GOD and serve ONLY HIM!

No substitutions.

I think this last one hits the most close to home for me. 

 Even writing this blog - can't be a good work for me. 

 It must be an outpouring my my time before GOD - the ONE

- the only ONE WORTHY OF PRAISE.

So you might not be tempted on a mountain to have kingdoms handed over to you,

BUT

What tries to get between you and JESUS?

What keeps you from reading your Bible?

What keeps you from praying, meeting with Christian friends, going to church or a Bible Study?

that is what you are kneeling to -

 and trust me, it probably isn't God.

WORSHIP ONLY GOD - nothing else before HIM!

These three days in the desert - facing my own temptations -

that I so often get caught up in has been

HARD

Please don't think that I am being hard on you - these last three days I feel like I have been writing to myself!

But the key point I pray that we all take with us today is this....

JESUS DIDN'T TAKE ANY SHORT CUTS TO THE CROSS.

He was offered options...

BUT HE CHOSE to go there

for YOU and for ME.

I wanted to be done with this today

but I don't think I can face anymore today....

So tomorrow - we will wrap this all up...

and put into our hearts all the lessons of the desert...

for now,

LET'S PRAY

Thank you Lord for coming down from Your Glorious throne to walk in the desert and conquer the cross.  As we have stood by these last few days, seeing how you faced evil and spoke truth, we ask for Your forgiveness for all the times we have succombed to the easy way, the hunger pains, the need for instant gratification.  As we wait for you in our deserts, help us to better see the tests and sense that you are there right beside us just waiting to be asked into the sitution to arm us with scripture and SEND THE ENEMY AWAY!  We lift up_____________ and ask that in each life today, Your Presence would be known.  In Jesus Name, AMEN