Sermon Category: Feasting and Fasting

In his last temptation, Satan reveals his true intentions and shows his full hand. What he really wants is to be worshiped as God. The problem is that he is a false god! Jesus shows in this passage that the whole world is not worth having without God. Worship is the most valuable expression of love and commitment in the universe. Worship is worth living and dying for. As Jesus will demonstrate, when all is said and done, Jesus will surrender his very life to show that his Father is the only one worth living and dying for. In the third temptation, fasting is the process that God uses to empower us to follow Jesus to the end knowing that after the cross comes the crown. To follow him is the only way to gain the world without losing our soul.

Ever since the fall, human beings live to prove their worth. Everything in this world seems to demand that we earn our place in the cosmos. Satan promised Eve that if she took from the fruit, she would be like God but ironically, she already was! In this temptation, Jesus overcame Satan by showing that he does not have to put God to the test to prove who he or God is. Faith in God’s word not in circumstances or public displays to satisfy people’s curiosity is what God is looking for! In an age were influencers are measured by fame and people’s recognition, Jesus reminds us that God’s way is not the way of relevance or prominence but the way of faithfulness and authenticity when we are fully surrendered to God regardless of what we see. In the second temptation, fasting is the process God uses for us to carry the cross renouncing the world’s recognition to live for God’s approval alone.

Satan’s first temptation challenges Jesus’ identity introducing doubt. As in the garden, his first temptation opens a world of possibilities apart from God’s will. He said, “if you are the Son of God.” Temptation navigates a fine line between inflated egos or depressed ones. Whether we think more or less of ourselves the outcome of our flesh is to satisfy our God-given needs in ways that are contrary to his will. The flesh seeks selfish satisfaction of our wants in our ways apart from God. Jesus defeats this temptation showing that our deepest hunger is satisfied not by doing our will but by surrendering in obedience to God’s word. God made us to be satisfied with his word not with the world. It is obedience to God’s word not a selfish miraculous display of our selfish prowess that truly demonstrates what being a child of God is all about. In the first temptation, fasting is the process God uses to learn to deny ourselves. To say yes to God we must say no to our flesh.

Fasting is all about making room for growth. When we have been feasting on God’s goodness, and grow deeper and wider in our identity, security, and significance in the Son, we can be assured that there will be push back to our growth. Spiritual warfare is fought on two fronts. On the one hand, God allows challenges in our walk to test our faith and refine our character in hope. On the other hand, Satan uses the same challenges to tempt us to sin and disqualify us from God’s best. In this second part of our series, we will see Jesus in his fast in the wilderness as the One who overcomes Satan’s worldly temptations through the desires of the flesh, the eyes, and the pride of life.

When was the last time you heard your father say I love you? Some of us grew up in homes where these words were regularly said but others may have heard these said sparsely, if ever. To be loved means that we are held in someone’s greatest esteem. To be loved says not only that we belong somewhere but that we are wanted and cherished. Love is what provides us with a sense of security telling us that even though we live in a broken world, love will carry us through thin and thick. Growing up, our love and self-worth were constantly challenged and conditioned by our performance. Many times we sensed loved was always followed by if. In Christ, God’s love has provided us with the greatest of all assurances. Not if but because. Because of Christ, God has committed himself in a sacred covenant of loyal love to do whatever it takes to provide for our welfare. His love has replaced our fear. Because of Christ we know there is no fear in love, his perfect love casts out all fears allowing us to live lives of gratitude and love. Because God loves us, we are free and secure to live in love.

At the core of our deepest longings is a desire to know we truly are. Who we are depends very much on who God is for, after all, we were made in his likeness and in his image. God is our Creator but in Christ, he is also our Father. Our sense of identity and ultimate dignity comes not from us or from our sense of self-entitlement but from the blessing bestowed on us by God. Because of sin, God’s image in humanity was distorted. We’ve all grown up believing lies about who we are or are not. Those lies have kept us captive unable to experience the Father’s purpose for our lives. In Christ, the image of God is restored when we are adopted and regenerated by the Holy Spirit. To be adopted by God means that we have a place and a family where we truly belong forever. The church is that family where we grow in Christ in the security of who we are in him free from condemnation and free to please him.

Not what I expected. Whether we are disappointed or pleasantly surprised things are not always what they seem. As we go through life, experience preconditions us to see others and circumstances in light of our expectations or personal experiences. As we go through life, our expectations become a deep hunger deep inside directing how we live our lives. God wants us to have expectations but he wants our expectations to adjust to make room for his unfathomable greatness. In this passage, we will see Jesus’ encounter with John the Baptist where Jesus will invite John to let go of what has defined him so far to make room for God’s greater plan. In doing so, Jesus will reveal the tension between our deepest hunger and longings and his provision to fulfill them.