This past Sunday, we had a guest preacher at church and let me just say, his sermon really stuck with me this week. So much so that I want to share my notes with you all.
He talked about heroes and the difference in modern day heroes and past heroes and how they are/were portrayed. In the past, heroes were indestructible. When they entered the scene, you just knew everything was going to be okay. The "good guys" were going to pull through. Heroes were solid, untouchable, and unaffected. Modern day heroes are a bit different. They are portrayed as individuals who are broken, struggling, tormented people. They are more like "regular people" that have made a commitment to do the right thing. But, they aren't unaffected. Their feelings, pasts, relationships, every day struggles can affect them.
But, what we do know is that heroes save us, they help us, they give us hope.
A great question/statement that Les began with was: "Think about our heroes--where do I go in my mind/heart to console me? Where ever that is, there my hero lies."
When reading Luke 4:1-13 Les pointed out 3 points to us.
1. There's an inevitable conflict that's going on:
No one gets away from this.
Jesus is living the most spirit filled life we've ever heard of, he had just been baptized (in one of the sweetest moments between God the Father and His Son, Jesus), and then what do you know? Here comes the temptation, immediately after.
Here we have Jesus, living perfectly in the center of God's will and he is being tempted and tried.
We so often think that as Christians, we won't be tempted--that for some reason our lives will be easier because we love Jesus and this makes us become blamers. We blame our sin on our circumstances, good or bad. Rest assured in this--Jesus will sign up the most spirit filled people with struggles.
2. What is this battle really over? It's a "me-centered" universe:
Jesus was tempted by things that he could have easily wanted and even "humanly need" and been acceptable in making them happen/giving in to those temptations.
He has just fasted for 40 days and satan tells him to turn a stone into bread--who would have blamed Him? He hadn't eaten in 40 days and so it's the same for the other temptations. He is the Son of God and these were things that people would have "understood" if he would have done it.
What would have been the problem with Him taking those temptations?
It would have been the first time He used His miraculous power for HIMSELF. He wasn't here to do that-He was here to pour out His life FOR ME.
This is the center of real temptation--to use your influence and privilege to serve you--that's where the true temptation lies.
(This, this is where it got me! It's so true. We use our influence in our work place, in our home, in our relationships and we use that to serve ourselves. Not to serve our spouse, or our coworkers, or even people that we barely know. We are so tempted to please ourselves. Me first, then you. It's our auto-setting.)
It's the tiny defining moments--no one would have ever known if Jesus had made bread out of a stone and even if they did, people would have understood and accepted that.
We choose to do small sins because it's easier.
We are always placed with the burden of making choices---will you make "you-centered" choices or "me-centered" choices.
3. What is the key to victory?
The first key, scripture plays a really big role in the victory--when Jesus is tempted, he uses the bible--it's a picture of the mind of God in Him. It is why it's so important to be in the word daily and to "hide His word in our hearts" it's the key to victory when tempted by this worlds. God gives us the help we need.
We are faced with the temptation to remap the world around MY needs without keeping the bible and God at the center.
The second key, seeing what Jesus is really doing--do we see Jesus as a hero in this passage? Do we see what He did as great? We need to let Jesus help us deal with our temptations by taking our place, as he already did and already has--he is the only one who can empower me by reminding me that he has done it for me.
The True Hero.
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