Consider Jesus as our forerunner, one who is
an example for us to follow, one who
has gone ahead of us and asks us
to follow him, who never asks us to
go on a path which he never went
himself.
I want to begin with a verse in
Revelation 3, where the Lord spoke to the
church in Laodicea and its elders.
The word comes down to all of us
because it is not a word only to
them in Laodicea.
It says here, He who overcomes anyone, I
will grant to him to sit down with
me on my throne, as I also overcame
and sat down with my father on his
throne.
Put these two phrases together, he who overcomes,
as I also overcame.
So we see that Jesus, when he was
here on earth, although he was God, he
never used his resources and power as God
to live or even to serve.
Because if that were the case, he could
not have been an example for us, he
could not have been a forerunner for us.
Many people think that Jesus lived on earth
and he could live like that because he
was God, but he never used the power
he had as God.
We have some clear examples of that.
For example, it says he came near a
fig tree to find if there was fruit
in it.
If he had used his power as God,
he would not need to come near a
fig tree.
He would know whether there is fruit in
the fig tree on the other side of
the earth.
But he kept himself from using those resources
and powers that he had as God in
order to be an example for us.
It is important for us to see this,
otherwise we will never be able to follow
him.
We worship him because he is God.
People worshipped him on earth because he was
God on earth too.
But we can follow him because he limited
himself.
When it says he emptied himself, what did
he empty himself of?
He could never empty himself of being God.
That would be impossible.
God Himself cannot do that.
But he emptied himself of those powers that
he had as God so that he could
become like us and live on earth like
us.
He was made in all things like his
brothers, overcome sin like we have to overcome,
overcome Satan like we have to overcome, to
be filled with the Spirit like we have
to be filled with the Spirit, to receive
grace.
Luke 2, verse 40 says, the grace of
God was upon him like the grace of
God needs to be upon us and from
that grace he received strength and power and
lived that perfect life, showing us that it
is possible to please God perfectly if we
yield to his grace and even his ministry.
He did not fulfill his ministry as God.
If that were the case, he did not
need to be anointed with the Holy Spirit.
It is because he fulfilled his ministry as
a man with the power of man that
he needed the anointing of the Holy Spirit,
and it was through the anointing of the
Holy Spirit that he did those supernatural miracles.
So he says here, I overcame.
That means he battled and he overcame, and
he says to us, you also overcome.
There was a time when James and John,
two disciples of Jesus, came to him and
said, Lord, we would like to sit with
you on your throne, left side and right
side, and Jesus did not say that is
impossible.
He said, but can you drink the cup
that I am drinking?
Can you be baptized with this baptism of
death and suffering that I am going to
go through?
If you can, then you can sit with
me on my throne.
And here he tells us in verse twenty
-one how he sat on the father's throne
and how James and John and you and
I can sit with him on his throne.
He says, I overcame, and therefore I am
sitting with my father on his throne, and
if you overcome, you can also sit with
me on my throne.
That is the answer to the question that
James and John asked him, how can we
sit with you on your throne?
All of us can.
There is a place there not only for
one or two, there is a place there
for all who overcome.
And that is why the last book of
the Bible, Revelation, is full of this theme
of overcoming.
He who is an overcomer will be my
son, God says, and will inherit all things.
We will not have an opportunity to overcome
when we go to heaven, because there is
nothing to overcome there.
We will have an opportunity to worship, praise,
fellowship, all these things there will be plenty
of time for in eternity in heaven, but
overcoming, no.
Taking up the cross, no.
If we do not take the opportunities we
have now on earth to overcome and be
overcomers, we will never get another opportunity in
all of eternity.
This is the only life where we have
the opportunity to overcome, and every year that
you waste in your life by not overcoming,
you have missed something for eternity.
You can never get it back.
God can forgive your sin, but how can
He give you all the months of 1998
that have gone by which you may have
wasted, all the opportunities you had from January
this year till right now to overcome that
you never took seriously and you wasted.
Even Almighty God cannot give you all that
back.
He can give you opportunities in the future,
but the opportunities that are missed are gone
forever.
And that should bring a seriousness into our
life, to say, Lord, I want to make
use of every opportunity that comes in the
future to be an overcomer.
And in this context, we can look at
Matthew's Gospel, chapter 3, where we read of
the temptations of Jesus.
We saw how Satan tempted Eve and Adam.
We saw how he tested and tried and
attacked Job.
And here we are given in detail the
three temptations that Satan came with to Jesus
in the wilderness.
These are not the only temptations Jesus faced.
Hebrews 4.15 tells us He was tempted
in every point, as we are, right from
childhood all through the years in Nazareth and
all through to the end of His life.
And it was when He had finished overcoming
every single temptation that He died on the
cross, saying, It is finished.
The work of salvation was finished, not only
because the guilt of our sin had been
taken completely, but also because every temptation that
we ever face, also He had faced and
overcome.
It was finished.
And in the midst of that were these
three particular temptations, which are described for us
in detail here in Matthew, chapter 3.
And from this, we can learn a number
of lessons for us to follow, because we
are told we are to fix our eyes
on Jesus, who is our forerunner, the author
of our faith, who has gone in front
of us, and we are to follow in
His footsteps.
And we see, just like Jesus was anointed,
we need to be anointed, we already saw
that.
And once He was anointed, He went into
a period of trial and testing in the
wilderness.
Satan immediately attacked Him.
And the interesting thing here is, we read
in verse 1 that Jesus was led by
the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted
by the devil.
Does the Holy Spirit lead us into such
situations?
It says here that the Holy Spirit, who
anointed Jesus, led Him.
This is the very next thing that happened
after the anointing.
The very next thing that came in Jesus'
ministry after He was anointed was not going
out into a supernatural ministry.
It was trial and temptation.
And the same thing will happen to us.
You see, before God can entrust a ministry
to us, He has to test us.
And the greater the ministry, the greater the
testing.
Just like aluminum is tested in factories depending
on what it is going to be used
for.
If the aluminum is going to be used
for making children's toys, it doesn't have to
be tested much.
Any ordinary aluminum will do.
But if that aluminum is going to be
used for making aircraft, then they will subject
it to intense tests, put it in very
high temperatures in the fire and immediately into
ice-cold water and back into the fire
and back into the ice to see whether
it can withstand such changes of temperature.
Because this aluminum is not going to be
used to make children's toys.
This is for aircraft.
People's lives are dependent on it.
So there we see an illustration from earthly
things how the greater the task some metal
has to perform, the more intense will be
the testing.
And if God takes you through testing, intense
testing, it is an indication that He has
some wonderful ministry ahead of that, if you
can look forward to that.
But you have got to be faithful in
that temptation.
It was like that with Joseph we saw.
He went through a period of intense trial
and testing because he had a great ministry
ahead of him.
And like that with David, who went through
a period of testing.
And I also mentioned, if you remember, that
those like King Saul and King Solomon who
came to the throne without going through periods
of trial and testing, you know what tremendous
failures they were as kings.
And those who don't go through any time
of testing and come into a ministry, those
who have had a very comfortable life and
then begin to preach God's word or seek
for a comfortable life and preach God's word,
their ministry is always shallow in one hundred
percent of cases.
If you want to be a man of
God with a ministry that is going to
accomplish something for eternity, then you will have
to face trial and you will have to
go through things that other people never go
through because your ministry is so important.
God's not using you to make children's toys,
but something far more important than that.
And we see here that Satan comes to
attack just before a period of wider ministry.
And that's happened with all of God's servants
throughout the ages, immediately before, when Satan knows
that after this anointing, Jesus is going to
have a wider ministry.
He's not just going to sit there in
Nazareth like he was for thirty years.
He begins his attack.
And wherever he sees the possibility of a
person going forth into a wider ministry, there
is going to be a period of intense
attack.
But we don't have to be afraid because
if the Spirit has led us there and
the Spirit allows it, we can be sure
the Spirit will give us grace to be
overcomers in that situation.
We can also see here that Satan came
to attack Jesus at a time immediately after
God had blessed him in a supernatural way.
And that is also true in our lives.
Whenever you have had a supernatural blessing from
God, a special blessing, times of tremendous refreshment
when heaven has been opened over you, like
it was at the baptism, immediately after that
comes Satanic attack.
God permits it.
And therefore Jesus is our forerunner, having gone
exactly the same way, we have to go.
And all we have to do is look
at him.
And we read here that Jesus had fasted
forty days and nights and he was hungry
at the end of it.
And the tempter came to him, and we
want to just look at these three temptations
one by one and see how they apply
to us.
The tempter came to him and said to
him, if you are the Son of God,
you remember what we considered earlier in the
temptation that came to Eve.
What were the first words that Satan said
to Eve?
Has God really said?
And those are the first words here also.
What had God said at the baptism?
This is my beloved son.
That is the very thing Satan questions.
Has God really said, you are his son?
If you are God's son, it is questioning
the thing God had said just the previous
day.
And Satan always comes to us questioning something
God has spoken to us very specifically, to
turn us away, to make us doubt, to
make us doubt our acceptance.
Are you really a child of God?
Has the Lord really forgiven your sin?
Are you really justified?
Is your past really blotted out?
I have known believers who live with the
memory and the guilt of sins committed many,
many years earlier, never seem to shake it
off.
And the purpose of that is to hinder
their ministry.
Even though the word of God is very
clear, if we walk in the light, the
blood of Jesus has cleansed us from all
sin, but Satan comes, has God really said
that?
Wasn't that a terrible thing that you did
five years ago?
You should be ashamed of yourself to call
yourself a child of God and do something
like that.
God doesn't forgive easily.
And he teaches you this heathen concept of
forgiveness, that you have to keep on repenting
as though your tears are going to blot
out your sins, as though your repentance is
going to blot out your sins.
He is a liar.
Let me say to you, my dear young
friends, never doubt in the darkness what God
has shown you in the light.
There was a moment in your life, maybe
in a meeting, where the light of God
shone so bright and God spoke something to
your heart.
It could be in a series of meetings
like this.
One week later, two weeks later, when the
light is not so bright, you begin to
doubt what God said.
That's the devil.
Has God really said, if you are the
son of God?
And then he tempts him to use the
supernatural power he has to meet his own
needs.
That's the temptation here.
You are the son of God, okay?
You have just been anointed with supernatural power.
Now use that power to meet your need.
Right now, your need is for food.
Use your power to meet that need.
It is a temptation that will come to
all of us in many, many ways.
Use the gift God has given you to
make money for yourself.
Do you know the multitudes of preachers who
have used the gift God has given them?
It could be a gift of healing.
It could be a gift of preaching.
It could be a gift of evangelism.
It has made them rich.
Jesus never made money.
He never became wealthy through the gift God
gave him.
He was not like today's evangelists and preachers
who have built houses and lands, bought lands
and built houses and many, many things for
themselves using the anointing God gave them.
Be careful, my brothers and sisters.
Don't ever use the power God gave you
for your own ends to meet your own
needs.
That's the way all those people have lost
the anointing.
There are lots of people who have lost
the anointing.
They carry on with the ministry, but the
anointing is gone, because they have used it
for their own selfish ends.
It could be to get honor.
It could be to get power over people.
Use your gift for yourself.
It is a temptation that you will face
throughout your ministry.
And if you are faithful like Jesus, you
will say, No, I will never use my
gift or anointing to meet my own needs.
And so he refused to turn the stones
into bread.
He had no word from the Father, so
he would not turn those stones into bread.
But at another time, when five thousand people
were hungry and they needed bread, then he
used his supernatural power to multiply bread for
others.
So what do we learn from Jesus' example?
That the power God gave him, he would
only use for others, never for himself.
And I want to tell you, if you
will follow this simple rule, that whatever power
God gives you, whatever money God gives you,
whatever abilities God gives you, whatever talents God
gives you, whatever it is that God gives
you, you decide you will never use it
to enhance your own image, to promote yourself,
to make material gain for yourself, to satisfy
your earthly needs, but you will readily use
it for other people.
The anointing of God will remain upon your
life right till the end of your life.
Otherwise you will lose it, like many others.
When I was a young Christian and I
sought God for His anointing and He anointed
me, I looked around at other people who
had been anointed once upon a time, people
who were much older than me, and I
saw them dried up like withered trees, and
a tremendous fear came into me.
I said, Lord, please save me from this
fate.
Whatever the cost, whatever else I may lose
in my life, I never want to lose
Your anointing.
And one of the things which the Lord
made clear to me at that time was
this, never use what I give you to
promote yourself, to enhance your own image, to
gain things for yourself, to make material profit
for yourself.
Go the way Jesus went and the anointing
of God will remain upon you forever.
I want to share that with you because
I have seen too many young people in
this land who have started out well and
have fallen by the wayside.
And I must say honestly, I don't want
to frighten you, but I look at you
and I have a great fear that some
of you will fall by the wayside.
I hope it won't happen.
If you follow what I have told you
now, it won't happen.
If you listen to these words and take
them seriously and look at Jesus and not
look at pathetic examples you see in Christendom
today, you will not fall by the wayside.
You will complete your course with triumph like
Jesus, like Paul, like Peter and like many
others.
And there won't be even a period of
backsliding in your life.
It is always when you are seeking to
use what God has given you to promote
yourself in a church, to exalt yourself, that
God withdraws His anointing and confusion and chaos
and all types of problems come into your
life.
So that's the first thing we need to
learn from here, that we are not to
use what God gives us for ourselves.
That was the mistake of the prodigal son.
He received from his father and as soon
as he got everything from the father, off
he went to use it all for himself.
Do you know the number of prodigal preachers
there are in Christendom today?
Multitudes.
They have sought God with fasting and prayer
for power.
They said, give me the anointing, like the
prodigal son came to his father and said,
give me my portion of the inheritance.
And the father gave it.
And people have received.
And what have they done after they received?
They haven't used it for the glory of
the father or to build the father's house.
They have gone out and built their own
kingdom.
Beware of that.
Unless you want to end up with the
same fate that those people have ended up.
They made a lot of money, that's for
sure.
But wait till Jesus comes and see what
paupers and beggars they will be in eternity.
May God open our eyes.
Jesus said to Satan, man shall not live
on bread alone, but on every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God.
And there we see something else inherent in
this temptation.
Satan was tempting him not only to use
his supernatural powers to satisfy himself and meet
his own needs, he was also tempting him
to put the physical above the spiritual.
And that's another temptation that comes to us
constantly.
Put your physical needs above your spiritual needs.
Throughout your life, you will be tempted with
this, because we have physical needs all the
time.
Here was a physical need Jesus had for
food.
And that can be a very real need.
He had fasted for 40 days.
He could die without food.
But even at such a time, he said,
I have to live by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of my father.
That's how I live.
Bread is secondary.
I'm not saying bread is not important.
God didn't say man shall not live by
bread.
Jesus said man shall not live by bread
alone.
So he didn't say we don't need food.
What he said was food is not the
most important thing.
Every word that proceeds from God's mouth.
And I have not heard a word from
my father to turn these stones into bread.
Therefore, I will not do it.
Even a simple thing like that, which we
would not give a second thought to.
Well, I have a need and I have
the resources to meet that need.
God has given it to me.
I can use it.
Jesus wouldn't live like that.
He would wait for a word from his
father.
That relationship with his father, where he lived
by every word that God spoke, was far
more important to him than food.
He was tempted by food.
Jesus was tempted by food.
And you and I will be tempted by
food to place our physical needs above the
spiritual in many, many areas.
It could be not just food.
It could be other areas of physical need
in your life.
As you go on in the ministry and
you get married, you have children.
There are many, many physical needs that come.
You need housing, you need clothing, you need
education for your children and many, many, many
things.
And in all these material necessities which we
all have, there are going to be many
temptations that come our way to place these
needs above the spiritual.
And that is where you must remember the
command of Jesus, who said, Seek first the
kingdom of God.
Don't be concerned about what you shall eat
or what you shall drink or how you'll
be clothed or how your children will eat
and drink and be clothed.
Don't worry about all this.
Seek first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness, and all these other things will be
added to you.
I remember when I was first gripped by
this truth years ago as a young man,
I felt, Lord, I want to be a
living demonstration of the facts, living demonstration of
a person who spent his life seeking God's
kingdom and his righteousness only and never, never
sought after where I can make more money
or where I can make a little profit.
And Lord, I want you to demonstrate through
my life to my generation of my countrymen
that your word is still true, that those
who seek God's kingdom and his righteousness first
will find all the other things needed for
their material needs, for their family needs added
to them.
And I want to encourage you to follow
that way.
Today, after serving the Lord full time for
nearly 33 years, I can say God's word
is true.
Don't ever put your physical needs or the
physical needs of your family above the spiritual,
above your calling, above your ministry.
That must always take priority.
God is first.
His kingdom, his righteousness is always going to
be uppermost.
Physical means God will take care of.
And you won't die either.
You don't have to be afraid if you
put God first.
And then we see the second temptation.
The devil took him up to the holy
city and stood him on the pinnacle of
the temple.
All this was in his mind.
The temptation was like a thought that flashed
into his mind and said to him, Now
from the top of this temple, jump down.
Again that statement, if you are the son
of God.
You say that God said you are the
son of God.
If you are the son of God, throw
yourself down.
Now Satan is very clever.
He heard Jesus saying it is written.
So he said then we got to tackle
him on this.
He is this Bible type of person.
So we will reach him by quoting a
verse back to him.
Be careful.
If you are the type of person who
wants a scripture for everything, remember the devil
has also got scriptures to quote to you,
to lead you astray.
So when he heard Jesus say it is
written, the devil said, it is written.
That he will give his angels charge concerning
you.
You see the devil knew exactly the right
scripture to quote to Jesus.
And if Satan quoted scripture to Jesus, don't
you think he will quote scripture to your
mind, give you a scripture to jump out
on and destroy yourself?
Sure.
That's why don't just accept any scripture that
comes into your mind.
People have done a lot of foolish things
by just accepting some scripture that comes into
their mind.
Wait on the Lord and say, Lord, is
that from you?
It is written.
His angels will take care of you.
Don't be afraid.
Just jump down.
And Jesus said, on the other hand, it
is written, you shall not tempt the Lord
your God.
On the other hand, or again it is
written.
When Satan tempts you with one scripture, you
must do what Jesus said.
But it is also written.
You know, for example, nowadays there are all
types of operations going on in the world
under the name of, under the label of
manifestations of the Holy Spirit.
All types of disorderly things are going on.
Chaos and confusion in a lot of assemblies.
People barking like dogs and lions and all
that and saying it's the Holy Spirit.
And it's all.
And if you question it, you hear a
voice saying, it is written.
Judge not.
It is also written.
Whoever shall speak against the Holy Spirit will
never be forgiven.
What do you do when you hear such
voices?
You say it is also written.
Believe not every spirit, 1 John 4.1.
But test the spirits to see whether they
are from God.
You must know a scripture to quote back
to Satan.
Otherwise you'll be scared.
You say, oh, perhaps this is the manifestation
of the Holy Spirit.
Maybe the Holy Spirit has started barking like
a dog.
But I cannot imagine Jesus standing up in
a meeting and barking like a dog.
And that's enough for me to know that
that's not the Holy Spirit.
And yet there are multitudes of believers believing
all this rubbish that's going on in so
-called in Jesus' name.
It is written, believe not every spirit.
You say, but there's so much good there.
Sure, when the devil wants to give you
poison, he'll give it to you in a
glass full of pure milk with just a
few drops of poison in it.
That's how he destroys you.
He won't give you a glass of poison.
He knows you won't drink it.
It's with good that poisonous things come, because
then only he knows you'll swallow it.
So don't be deceived by the good that
you see.
Test the spirits to see whether they are
of God.
Don't just be scared because somebody says it
is written.
Say it is also written.
That's what Jesus did.
And the temptation here to jump off the
temple was to presumption, to show your faith
in God.
Do something stupid to show your faith in
God.
And the devil will give you some scripture
which apparently supports that stupid thing that he
wants you to do to destroy yourself.
Now, if Jesus had jumped off from the
temple, no angel would have protected him.
Jesus knew that.
When there are stairs to go down, God
doesn't expect you to jump off.
He expects you to walk by the stairs
and come down.
Please remember that.
God has provided means.
I've seen people who would be living on
earth today if they had taken medicines.
But they died because the devil said, trust
the Lord.
You don't need to take medicines.
Jump off the temple and prove your faith
in God.
Do you know the number of people I've
met in my life like that?
I'm not saying Jesus does not heal.
I believe he does.
But I also believe he doesn't ask us
to do stupid things.
And if there's a staircase going down, I
know that he doesn't want me to jump
off.
I believe that if I were in the
middle of a jungle where there is no
access to any medicine, nothing, I can trust
the Lord to heal me.
But where he provides access to medicines which
he himself has created, what is it that
people call medicines?
Things that God has created in nature.
Herbs, plants, minerals, which Almighty God created, not
the devil, which he created for healing, for
a world which was under the curse.
People have discovered it, put it into a
tablet and call it a medicine.
But these are all God's creation.
It's food.
And the devil says, no, don't touch it.
And he fools a lot of people.
I know fine young people who are dead
today, who would have been living useful in
God's ministry if they had not fallen a
prey to Satan's suggestions.
Jump off.
Trust God.
Here's a promise.
And they commit suicide.
It is a form of suicide.
So this temptation to presumption, to do something
spectacular without a leading from God, it may
not be only in the area of medicine.
It could be in some other area where
you want to do something spectacular.
And you want to trust God.
And there is no clear leading.
And that is why I say to you,
when you are young, when you get some
of these strange leadings to jump off the
top of a temple or something, please go
and consult with an older brother who's got
a little more wisdom before you decide to
jump off.
Whatever it is that the devil is urging
you to do, he doesn't want you in
God's service.
He wants you to destroy yourself.
And inherent in this temptation was also this.
See, he was telling Jesus, if you jump
off from this temple and descend unhurt into
the courtyard below, all the people will say,
oh, you are a man of God.
It was that honor from people that he
was tempting him with.
And very often when the devil tempts you
to do something stupid and foolish, something spectacular,
if you look at your motive, you'll see
very often the motive is that after you
have done this thing and accomplished something, you
can get up and give a testimony as
to what you did.
So that everybody will say, what a great
man of God you are.
It's not for the glory of God at
all.
It's just for your own honor.
Do you know the number of things people
do so that later on they can get
up and give a testimony?
They may go to smuggle Bibles into China,
a good thing to do.
But if the motive is that I can
come back and tell other people what I
did and how God was with me and
what a great man of God I was,
it's shameful.
It's shameful when I'm doing something in the
name of Jesus and the ultimate goal is
that people might applaud me and think what
a great man I was.
And if you examine your heart, you'll see
the number of ways in which Satan tempts
you along that line.
Remember the words of Jesus, you shall not
tempt the Lord your God.
Don't test the Lord your God by doing
stupid things and saying, Lord, protect me.
You won't find His protection.
Don't misquote scripture.
Compare scripture with scripture and then come to
a conclusion and wait on the Lord.
And whenever you're not sure, you don't know
whether this leading is from the Lord or
from the devil or from your own clever
mind, the best thing to do in such
situations is wait.
Wait on the Lord.
Don't be urged on by fanatical extremist preachers
and pastors.
That will save your life.
Then we come to the third temptation.
And the devil took him again in his
mind to a very high mountain and showed
him all the kingdoms of the world and
their glory.
Now, I've often thought, could Jesus have been
tempted with the glory of the world after
30 years of overcoming temptation?
You know, some of us feel after a
while, well, the devil can't tempt me anymore
with the glory of this world.
That doesn't hold any attraction for me.
Don't be so sure, my brother, sister.
The one who thinks he stands will fall.
Till the end of your life, you need
to be careful of the glory of the
world.
Have you noticed in 1 John chapter 2,
it says about the three categories of believers
of different maturity.
1 John chapter 2, verse 12 to 14,
it speaks about children, young men and fathers.
And again, he says, children, young men and
fathers.
Those who are babes in Christ, those who
have grown to a certain amount of maturity
and are like young men spiritually, and those
who have become spiritual fathers.
And to all three categories of people, including
to spiritual fathers, he says, verse 15, do
not love the world or the things that
are in the world.
For the lust of the flesh, verse 16,
the lust of the eyes and the pride
of life is of the world.
Do fathers need to be warned about the
lust of the flesh, and the lust of
the eyes, and the pride of life?
Sure, there is never a time in our
life when we cannot be tempted with the
glory of the world.
And that's the one thing we learn from
this last temptation.
Jesus was tempted at the age of 30,
having overcome for so many years in Nazareth,
never sinning, with such a cheap type of
temptation, the glory of this world.
Money, honor, position, fame.
What do you want, the devil says?
I'll give it to you.
And if he came to Jesus with such
a temptation, you can be absolutely certain till
the end of your life and mine, he
will come to us and say, what do
you want?
You want acceptance in Christian circles?
Come to me.
I'll give it to you, the devil says.
You want popularity?
You want a little fame in Christian circles?
You want to be recognized in Christian circles?
Come to me.
I've done that for many other people, and
I'll do it for you too.
But you have to pay a price.
The devil never gives anything free.
It's only God who gives everything free.
Remember that.
And he says, just bow down to me
a little.
That's all you've got to do.
He asked Jesus to bow down to him.
You think he won't ask you to bow
down to him?
He certainly will.
Don't think you have gone beyond Jesus at
the age of 30.
It's good for us to be humble and
say, Lord, till the end of my life,
I face this possibility of being attracted by
something of the glory of this world.
I constantly need to sing that song to
myself.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in
his wonderful face, and the things of earth
will grow strangely dim in the light of
his glory and grace.
That's the only way.
Otherwise, the world is attractive.
Many things in the world are attractive.
You may have started out your Christian life
with great zeal and sacrifice and devotion and
say, Lord, I want nothing.
I want to live for you.
But after a while, you have a wife
and children and needs and so many other
things, and you find life is a struggle
financially.
Things are difficult.
And then comes the temptation from Satan to
modify your calling, change your vision a little
bit.
Yeah, I know you had that vision in
the beginning, but we've got to be realistic
now.
You're 35 years old or you're nearly 40
and you've got these children to educate.
You can't let them suffer.
And he's got 101 reasons.
Change your vision, modify it.
In simple words, just bow down to me
a little bit.
Forget about what God called you in the
beginning for.
We got to be realistic, man.
That's what the devil says.
And do you know the number of people
who've been led astray, who have lost that
vision which God called them for in the
beginning because something of this world they wanted.
And they looked around at other Christian workers
who were doing the same thing.
And the devil says, all these people, they're
doing it.
Why can't you do it too?
And that gives you more encouragement to seek
for the glory of this world and to
bow your head to Satan.
If you want to follow the Lord, my
brother, sister, I'll tell you from my own
experience, it's a lonely path.
You will not find much encouragement in Christendom
around you or in Christian workers around you,
except an occasional one here and there.
The vast majority will not prove to be
an encouragement to you.
But if you decide to walk that lonely
path that your savior walked, you will have
no regret when you come to the end
of your life.
Say, get behind me, Satan.
I'm not going to yield to you.
I'm not going to bow down to you.
I would rather die and suffer than bow
down to you.
And inherent in this temptation, we can say
was also this, to try and get what
God wants you to have through a shortcut.
You know, the devil was saying to Jesus,
what have you come to this world for?
You've come to get the world, right?
Back to the Father.
Why do you want to go that difficult
way of the cross and suffering and rejection
and death to get it?
I'll give it to you through a shortcut.
And very often the devil comes to us
and says, why do you have to go
that difficult way of the cross?
There are shortcuts, easy ways.
Get the best of both worlds, a comfortable
life here and eternal glory in heaven at
the end.
The devil says, come to me, I'll give
both to you.
Why do you want to go that difficult
way of suffering and rejection?
Is it worth it?
Many, many voices like this can come to
you.
Not now when you're young, you're zealous, full
of devotion to the Lord and great vision
for the future and all, but wait a
few years and you will see these temptations
coming your way.
And in that day, you must remember what
you have heard today and fix your vision
on Jesus and say, Lord, I'm not going
to try and get the best of both
worlds.
I'm not going to live seeking comfort and
ease and the glory and pleasures of this
world.
Whatever the price, I want to do your
will.
I will say, get behind me, Satan, even
if that voice comes from Peter, my closest
co-worker.
I will say, get behind me, Satan, the
way of the cross is the only way
for me.
It came here directly from Satan.
Later on, it came from Peter.
In both cases, the temptation was the same
and the reply Jesus gave was the same.
The temptation was avoid the way of the
cross.
The reply was, get behind me, Satan.
So remember that every voice that tells you
to avoid the way of self-denial, to
avoid the way of death to self, to
avoid the way of the cross, to avoid
the way of suffering is the voice of
Satan.
And if you recognize it, it may come
directly from Satan, it may come from your
closest co-worker and there you got to
put your foot down and say, well, Peter,
you can go that way if you want,
but that's not the way for me.
I've got to go the way of the
cross.
You can never go astray if you choose
the way of the cross.
And so we see in the example of
Jesus, a wonderful example for us to follow
as our forerunner.
And it says the devil left him for
a time, he came back again in other
ways, but for a time he knew he
was defeated.
And I want to encourage you to look
at the example of your Savior, who says
to all of us, follow me.
If you overcome as I overcame, every time
he said it is written, if you overcome
as I overcame, you will sit with me
on my throne.
That's the hope we have.
That's the joy set before us.
And for that we endure the cross, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith.
Let's pray.
While our heads are bowed in prayer, I
want to invite you again to respond to
the word of God that you have heard
and to say, Lord, I want to walk
the way you went.
I want to be an overcomer as you
were an overcomer.
I want to have light on the wiles
of the enemy.
Protect me from deception, Lord.
Save me from bypassing the way of the
cross.
I want to go this way all my
life.
Heavenly Father, we thank you.
You have not given us only exhortations, but
you have given us an example.
And we want to walk in the footsteps
of our Savior till the very last day
of our life on earth.
We humbly ask in Jesus' name, Amen.