The Temptation of Jesus- March 9, 2025

I am so glad that you have joined us this day that we might Worship the Lord together I hope that you have also taken note of the many activities that we have going on here at the church as they are listed on the back of your bulletin and while you are doing that if you will please note the uh friendship pads that are in each of the pews they are either along this side the inside of the Rose

or perhaps they've been left in the middle of the pews we're trying to make it easier for everyone if you could sign your name and let us know that you are here worshiping with us this day this is a wonderful day because we are together to worship but I also wanted to share um a special gift that we have received as a church we had a very kind member and his wife uh offer to replace our old worn out Bibles with new Bibles and you will note that they are in the Pew racks in front of you and so please as we are

worshiping this day I encourage you to take out your new Bible and if you will take a look at them I think you'll find that the size of the font is very comfortable much more so than the previous Edition so we're trying to make it a little bit easier for all of us to be able to truly read the word of God together together so uh please take advantage of these will you because we are so thrilled with this special gift and we are very grateful well we are also grateful that Bob Leon has Ser decided to serve as our liturgist today

thank you Bob we appreciate you and we are also wanting to invite you all to the Lenton soup and study that takes place on Wednesdays this will be throughout the season of Lent leading up to our Holy Week that begins April the 13th our Lenton soup and study you come you share a a cup of soup with your friends and then we have a study about Grace uh we're looking out how we can walk a Grace filled life so uh please plan to join us even if you cannot come every single Wednesday we would love to have you join us for this very special

time together so this is the day that the Lord has made so let us rejoice and be glad in it let us Worship the Lord together good morning again please join me in responsive reading our call to worship where is our home our home is in the shelter and Shadow Of God how can this be our refuge because God's angels will guard your house and those in it from Evil and threat how can we flourish stay close to God's ways will bring our lives to abundance let us worship God and our opening prayer we'll read in

unison Mighty God God you the cries of your people and rescued them from the hand of their oppressors you care for them in the wilderness as we journey through our own Wilderness we give thanks that your holy spirit will sustain us and your love always amen all the all mighty heav heav all of please be seated and again please join me as we read in unison the prayer of our confession God of wide circles we too often revert to our fear filled instinct to cut off those unfamiliar and distant may we evaluate others based on

your may we embrace your creative diversity and include all our life's work help us to be ambassadors of your love to all your people we pray Christ Our Lord amen my brothers and sisters the Lord Our God created us loves us put us here has forgiven us my friend friends this day it is my privilege to once again remind us that in Jesus Christ we are forgiven thanks be to God and God's people said thanks be to God glor to father to the the let us now Proclaim what we believe with the the Apostles Creed I believe in God the Father

Almighty the creator of Heaven and Earth and of Jesus Christ his only son our Lord who was conceived of the Holy Ghost born of the Virgin Mary suffered under pontious pilot was crucified dead and buried he descended into hell the third day he rose again from the dead he ascended to heaven and sth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty from then he shall come to judge the quick and the dead I believe in the Holy Spirit the Holy Catholic Church the communion of saints the Forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and

the life Everlasting amen please be seated [Music] wonder wonder [Music] PR PR for me [Music] my [Music] for [Music] [Music] as we approach this holy time of prayer let us remember exactly what we are doing we are in the presence of the creator of everything who has asked us invited each of us to join together in praying the prayers of our heart praying for our family our friends even for those we don't even know to join our hearts together even as God's holy spirit has already searched our hearts

in minds and is praying on our behalf what an amazing thing it is we Christians do when we join together in the prayers of the people of God so I invite you now to please join me let us pray oh Lord as we arrive at this season of penitence we do not forget Easter as we name our fears our shortcomings and the world's Brokenness we remember that you have already won the victory over sin and death as Easter people we approach you this day with confidence praying even the prayers of our heart that every one

of us brought with us to this worship today Lord God we pray in silence for our friends and our family members members of this congre congregation who need your healing touch be with them Lord touch them help them to become whole be with those who need physical healing emotional healing relational healing and even spiritual healing we pray for those who feel lost Lord anxious hopeless and lonely we pray for those who are grieving grieving the loss of a loved one loss of a job loss of a home loss of a

family we pray for those experiencing losses due to natural disasters those who are caught in blizzards fires flooding tornadoes and other violent weather that we have seen may we be mindful of those who live with conflict around the world strengthen all leaders in this world to act with love and integrity as you have called them to resist corruption call out to you dear God may they lead with humility always seeking the welfare of the people that they serve dear God this day we pray for our president president Trump the United

States Congress the US Supreme Court we pray for their families as well as their individual lives grant them wisdom to use their power and resources and influence for the common good your good to uplift the marginalized and to promote Justice and equity in this world may we hear your voice during these trying times oh God and follow with joy your ways of peace and love for all for we pray this prayer even the prayer that our Lord in Savior Jesus taught us to say together Our Father who art in heaven Hallowed be thy name thy

kingdom come thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we our deor and lead us not into temptation but Deliver Us from Evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever amen my friends the Lord has called us together so that we might build the kingdom of God here through this church and through our lives each one of us it is truly our joy and our privilege to be able to return to God a portion of the financial gifts that we have each

received if the ushers will please come forward [Music] for [Music] PR all will you join me in a prayer of dedication Lord God we do thank you for this privilege how exciting it is that you have called hold us together at this time that we might be able to share the gifts you have given to us our time our talent and our Treasures to be able to do your will in this place we pray Lord that this will be multiplied by the power of your Holy Spirit and certainly that it will serve you in and glorify

your Holy Name through this church through our denomination in service around this world for we pray this in in Jesus holy name amen please be seated our scripture today is taken from The Gospel According to Luke I will be reading from Luke 4: 1-13 and I encourage you to please note the page numbers so that you can follow along silently while I read our scripture aloud give you a moment to find that hear now the word of the Lord Jesus full of the Holy Spirit left the Jordan and was led by the spirit

Into the Wilderness where for 40 days he was tempted by the devil he ate nothing during those days and at the end of them he was hungry the devil said to him if you are the Son of God tell this Stone to become bread Jesus answered it is written man shall not live on bread alone the devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world and he said to him I will give you all their Authority and Splendor it has been given to me and I can give it to anyone I want to if you

worship me it will all be yours Jesus answered it is written Worship the Lord your God and serve him only the devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple if you are the Son of God he said throw yourself down from here for it is written he will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone Jesus answered it is said do not put the Lord your God to the test when the devil had finished all

this tempting he left him until an opportune time this ends our reading of God's holy word may God add to our understanding and application of its truth in each of Our Lives will you join me in a prayer of preparation Lord we do thank you for these words preserved for our hearing even today and how truthful they are that we all are faced with Temptations in our life and how wonderful to know how Jesus Jesus handled this at the beginning of his ministry and so now Lord I do pray that the words of my mouth and that the

meditations of each of our hearts and our minds will be acceptable in your sight O Lord our strength and Our Redeemer for it is in Christ Jesus we pray these things amen well this particular scripture prepares us helps us to learn how to deal effectively with the Temptations that we all face in this life Temptations of the devil now the Bible uses several names for the devil and I think when we hear that name devil I don't know about you but sometimes I think about the little Halloween characters that show up at our

door with the children that are wearing the costumes with the horns and the pointed tail and the Pitchfork most of the time in red and black we think about the devil I don't know about you quite often we hear the name Satan used in place for the name devil Satan means the adversary or the one who opposes what is right well there's a story about a woman who was tempted and gave in to go shopping taking a significant amount from the Family Savings to buy this fabulous dress and when she brought it home she

started to feel guilty and she told her husband I took some of the money from our savings account and I bought this Str and the husband shock said well why and she said well the devil made me do it and he said well why didn't you tell the devil to get behind you she said I did and he said it looks really great from there in 1970 an American comedian clero flip Wilson Jr used a phrase that became well known throughout American culture the devil made me do it he first used that on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1970 but he

went on to have his very own variety show in fact um it is said that Time Magazine said that uh he was Flip Wilson was the first africanamerican comedian to host a successful TV variety show and in 1972 Time Magazine featured Wilson's image on his cover and named him quote TV's first black Superstar unquote he went on to release a number of comedy albums and in 1970 he was awarded a Grammy award for his album the devil made me buy this dress now just as we can chuckle and laugh at these devil made me do it

jokes there's one truth that we all have to understand the devil cannot make us do anything let me repeat that the devil or Satan the adversary cannot make us do anything now in the Bible Jesus called Satan a number of names including the enemy the evil one the prince of this world and the liar you see Satan loves to contextualize his Temptations to each and every one of us just as he did to Jesus in the wilderness Wilderness Satan knows us so well knows what Temptations to bring to you or to me what we have

been thinking about or eyeing or wanting to hide from God Satan is very clever but does not have the power to force us to do anything this is the reason why he has to rely on different tricks and strategies to get us to do what we want now let's begin by first of all looking at what happened to Jesus and I think it will help each of us in our own lives as we Face Temptations first of all the setting of our scripture this morning the Holy Spirit Led Jesus Into the Wilderness now the Wilderness most

scholars believe was that place of land between the Mediterranean Sea and the desert the Wilderness itself was not the desert in fact it did have some Greenery growing in it but it was only good enough for animals to graze it's interesting this terminology of wilderness when we go back through the Bible we find that the Wilderness has been used throughout history for places where God instructed and LED his people now I know every one of us has had a Wilderness experience if not several Wilderness experiences in our life times

when we just were not sure which way to go which way to turn things just were not working out like we had hoped they would and we did not know what to do next it's a time when God is able to come and get into our thoughts get into our minds get into our life and show us what to do so don't be afraid of that Wilderness experience but just open up your heart and your minds to the Holy Spirit of your lord ready to teach you and prepare you for what was coming next now in this story we know that that what happens is

a dialogue between Jesus and the devil and we are also told that Jesus had fasted did not eat for 40 days now that's a long time and if you're thinking that you're absolutely right because as one of my Seminary professors told me you're going to see the number 40 a lot in the Bible and whenever you see 40 please know that it means means a long time 40 was actually about the the number of years that the average person was expected to live in Jesus day it was in fact not only a long time but was a

lifetime so when you see the number 40 you know that that was a long time and during those days of fasting the devil came to Jes Jesus knowing that his created appetites were heightened appetites are something that we all have we know that God has given us appetites so that we can survive in this world God has given us an appetite for food God has G given us an appetite for industry or work and God has also given us an appetite for sexuality every one of those god-given appetites are to be used according to

God's purposes to glorify God in this life but every one of those appetites can be misused in this world as well which leads to destruction destructions of families communities destructions of individuals the one thing that is very true about the temptation of Jesus is that the devil's main purpose was to lead Jesus astray and to divert him from his god-given purpose in his life the devil did everything possible to try to tempt him to do something that was in opposition to what God would have him

do this is true of us as well every one of us was created with with gifts and talents for a purpose your being here in this life is because God wanted you to be here we have been given a purpose in this life and certainly Satan is going to do everything he can to try to divert us away from that purpose in Romans 8:29 we read For Those whom God fornew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son this is a very Presbyterian scripture of course because everybody that finds out your Presbyterian says oh you believe in

predestination don't you yes it's in the Bible right there it is that God fornew he also predestined you to be conformed to the likeness of his son God wants us to be like Jesus that is our purpose and the hope is that after we live out this life that God has given to us seeking to glorify God with the purpose that we were made for in this life that when we come to the end of our life that we will receive those final words well done good and faithful servant hopefully we will receive the words that Paul said I have fought the

good fight I have finished the race I have kept the faith that is our purpose and that is our goal well Satan used three different Temptations to try to get Jesus off track to derail him from his his purpose of coming to save this world of their of our sins the first that s Satan tried was tempting Jesus to exploit his appetite he knew he had been very hungry after fasting for such a long time and he says if you are the Son of God tell this Stone to become bread fill your appetite you can have it now and Jesus defeated

that with the word of God saying that man does not live by bread alone think about the appetites that we all have and how those can be misused by Satan as well the appetites that God gave us for food work sex the January issue of computing today exposed many of those abuses when they said that over 72,000 pornographic sites exist on the internet and it was noted that in those sites there were illegally awful scenes of incest beastiality mutilation abuse of the sexual gift and it was also noted that

in 1996 at a promisekeepers event half of the men surveyed said that they had visited a pornographic site in the last week the sad thing is by misusing the the god-given gift of sexuality it's not just your filling your own appetite but you are destroying relationships you are destroying others because you do not see them as the god-given gift that God has given to you and to this world and you are destroying yourself as well the second Temptation that Jesus had to fa face was one of taking a moral

shortcut the devil led him up to a high place and went after his ego he said I have the power to give you instantly all of the kingdoms of the world I will give you all authority and Splendor if you just worship me he was attempting to tell Jesus forget about the cross you don't have to go through the pain and I'll give you the outcome now you can have the end result now Jesus says no the third is that he takes him up to the highest point in Jerusalem where Jesus knows that he must go and says that you should go ahead and

throw yourself down from this high point and let's watch the Angels rescue you so that not even your foot will strike a stone the PE appeal is for Jesus to do something spectacular that he would be known for if he is in fact the Son of God and of course Jesus says no that you do not tempt the Lord your God I look at the church today and I think how often we have succumbed to a Temptation very similar to that how we have tried to opt for the spectacular for the entertainment side of this world judging by how many people we can get to

come to our service how many followers do I have let's take note of whether we can fill a stadium with people coming to our worship abusing God's word abusing the purpose of the church that we are here to share the love of God we are here to help people find Jesus Christ for their life and to care for the least of these in this world those who are attracted to this entertainment message display a loyalty to whoever provides the best spectacle has the the best band has the greatest entertainment you could ever

imagine maybe you might even meet Jesus along the way Neil Postman wrote a book called amusing ourselves to death to take a look at this phenomena in in particular Western culture in it he contrast two British authors George Orwell who wrote 1984 before and aldus puley who wrote Brave New World and in comparing them he makes his point George Orwell feared that feared those who would ban books aldus Huxley feared that there would be no reason to ban a book for there would be no one who wanted to read

one or well fear those who would deprive us of information Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism or well fear that the truth would be concealed from us Huxley fear the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance in short Orwell fear that what we hate will ruin us Huxley fear that what we love will ruin us how then how then can we make sure that we are able to fend off The Temptations that the devil or the adversary or the liar will bring to us

in this life well first of all those of us who belong to Jesus are well prepared we have the Holy Spirit of almighty God living within us helping us to recognize when something just is not right about what is being said to us offered to us or that we're even thinking about doing but it's very important that we like Jesus know the word of God now I'm talking about knowing your Bible yes reading your Bible certainly helps but I am talking about no knowing the Living Word of God that you have a relationship

with Jesus that in this relationship it is healthy you talk to Jesus enough that you recognize his voice when he says this is not for you my child so how how then can we defeat Satan I think there is a wonderful example in modern life today that comes from a movie of olden days and you may remember this and if you haven't seen this movie I recommend that you go to Hulu or wherever you can look up old movies and find bridge over the river Quai a great movie a wonderful movie about a British Colonel and his men who

were captured by the Japanese in World War II and Colonel Nicholson and his troops were enlisted to build a railroad bridge over the river Quai now Nicholson first protested and said that it was a violation of the Geneva Convention but after a lot of torture of him and of his men he turned around and said okay if we must do this we are going to show you what British Ingenuity can do and they set out to build the very best bridge that anyone could ever build and so you see the pride that starts to swell in

Nicholson as he sees the bridge coming to fruition and the final scene when Nicholson walks over this finished beautiful Bridge about to be opened to take the train from a from jipan over to rangon he looks down Nicholson Colonel look Nicholson and looks down and notices that the river has gone down and he sees that there's Dynamite wired to the base of this bridge and being afraid that this bridge that he is so proud of is going to be destroyed he jumps down and starts cutting the wires to his

men's dismay saying what are you doing you're helping the enemy well I'm going to spoiler alert I'm going to tell you the end he finally goes to a man who is ready to blow up the bridge one of his own men and he ends up killing him trying to stop him from from blowing up the bridge and the man as he's dying said what are you doing he then realizes that his pride had taken over that his whole purpose had been taken over and what he was about to let happen was going to Aid the enemy and in his last breath before he dies he falls

on the the explosion device that causes the bridge to blow up and he says my god what have I done now my friends I pray that none of us will have to come to that point in our life but even if we do even if we realize that Satan has led us astray there is a way back that the holy spirit is there waiting for us and that God will help us repair our lives so that we can be put back on track for the very purpose that we were created for let us turn to the Living God let us turn to Christ now that lives within us

will you say a prayer with me Lord God we do thank you for warning us of The Temptations that are in this life but more than that dear God we thank you that you remind us that you are with us always ready to help us to serve you and to become more like you in our life we thank you for this and we pray all of this in Jesus name amen thank [Music] you give Theory streng to [Music] and [Music] please be seated my friends we have received an invitation this first Sunday of Lent the Lord has invited us to a table to a

feast we know that God has called people from north and south and east and west and looking at this congregation I know that represents just about all of us and I must tell you too that in the Presbyterian tradition we do not fence this table no matter what your background no matter what the tradition you grew up in faith tradition you are welcome at this table if Jesus Christ is your lord and savior he has set this meal before us all if you will turn to your bulletins I would like for you to please join me

the Lord be with you and also with you lift up your hearts we lift them up to the Lord let us give thanks and praise to the Lord Our God it is right to give thanks and praise to God let us pray Lord God we do thank you for this invitation to your table and we do pray that by the power of your holy spirit that every one of us will know your your presence in our lives as we share this bread and this juice may we know even more fully what our place is in your kingdom in your body dear God we thank

you for everyone here that we may gather at this table and we pray that through the experience of sharing these elements we will find ourselves even more dedicated to service to you and to this world we thank you for this we know we stand on the shoulders of all the saints who have gone before us and we pray this with love in our hearts in Jesus holy name amen we know that when Jesus was with his disciples in that upper room about to share in the seder meal he as was tradition took the bread gave thanks to

God the creator of the UN universe but then he did something that changed the world he broke the bread and he said this is my body broken for you as often as you do this do so in remembrance of me we know also that later in the meal he took the cup and he said this is this is the cup of the New Covenant sealed in my blood as often as you drink of this do so in remembrance of me my friends as we share these gifts from God the bread will be passed first please take the bread as it is passed as a sign of your relationship with our

Lord and savior but when the cup is passed if you are able please hold on to it so that we can take it together as a sign of our unity in the body of Christ so my friends Jesus said take eat these are the gifts of God for the people of God [Music] for [Music] for [Music] for [Music] [Music] for [Music] for [Music] [Music] sh [Music] [Music] Jesus said to his disciples I am the bread of life whoever comes to me will never hunger and whoever believes in me will never thirst so let us take this cup as a sign of our unity in the body

of Christ let us pray Lord God we have feasted upon this the body and the blood of Jesus may this be a reminder to each of us that we have a purpose that you created us to be together to be the body of Christ we pray Lord that this will be a Time Of rededicating Our Lives to serving you that we might fulfill what the scripture in Romans said that we who were pre destined to be here to be like Jesus we'll take that seriously every single day of our life as we seek to serve you in all of the decisions that

we make of what we say and what we do to thy be the glory we thank you for this and we pray this in Christ Jesus our lord amen all mer our heart withing Gra thanks we give for the of fa ever fa to [Music] tr of [Music] my friends as we go out this day let us go rejoicing because we know we have the Holy Spirit of Creator God God in our lives helping us all to be the people that God created us to be and let us do so together that we may help one another let us go now in the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit amen.