“Do I think that the devil specifically is assigned to your case? Probably not. He’s not omnipresent, he can’t be everywhere. He’s concerned with maybe some bigger fish to fry than me or you. But one of his little underlings is probably assigned to you. You And you know what? They’re offering their own little mini version of what the devil offered Jesus.
They’re off they’re offering you Wealth, power, glory in exchange for worship. You’re like, I’ve never been offered worship in in the enemy. Maybe some of you have, but most of you probably haven’t. Guess what? You worship yourself? You worship the world? The same thing. The flesh and the world, they’re allies of the enemy.
And if you worship them, you’re worshiping him.”
—
Pastor Joe Parker
Excerpt taken from “The Battle of Temptation”
Video Transcript:
Now, some of you are like, Joe, I was tracking with it until now. Now you lost me. I have never in my life had the devil come up to me and offer me the world and all its power, wealth, and glory. Never happened to me.
I don’t know about you, but it’s never happened to me. Let me ask you a different question. Has there been a time in your life where you could seek a promotion at work, but all you needed to do was throw somebody else under the bus? Maybe there was an opportunity to make some easy money, but it was. done by breaking the law.
Maybe popularity at your school, but you needed to gossip and put down others. Maybe it’s social media followers, but you needed to dress a certain way and act a certain way in order to get that.
Now, do I think that the devil specifically is assigned to your case? Probably not. He’s not omnipresent, he can’t be everywhere. He’s concerned with maybe some bigger fish to fry than me or you. But one of his little underlings is probably assigned to you. You And you know what? They’re offering their own little mini version of what the devil offered Jesus.
They’re off they’re offering you Wealth, power, glory in exchange for worship. You’re like, I’ve never been offered worship in in the enemy. Maybe some of you have, but most of you probably haven’t. Guess what? You worship yourself? You worship the world? The same thing. The flesh and the world, they’re allies of the enemy.
And if you worship them, you’re worshiping him.
We cannot be drawn in to the devil. Okay, those are the four ways the enemy attacks, and we’ve got about four minutes here to close this up. He attacks when and where we are weak by offering us a way out to gratify our flesh. He attacks by twisting the word of God. He attacks with doubt as a weapon. And he attacks with offers of wealth, power, and glory in exchange for worshiping him.
Now, I hope most of you now are sufficiently desperate to hear this last part. How do we resist? Joe, how on earth do we fight this guy? This cosmic battle that’s been going on for thousands of years, how can I possibly fight? The beautiful reality is that Jesus lays out for us in this passage a battle strategy that is not inaccessible to you and me.
Jesus could have, right off the bat, the moment the enemy came up to him, be like, Be gone, Satan. Guess what would have happened? Satan would have been gone. But instead, He trusted God’s will, and the Spirit’s leading, and instead He showed us, you and I, the way. The beauty of Jesus earthly ministry is He didn’t just tell you what to do.
No, of course not. He showed you how to do it. And this passage is perhaps one of the best examples of this. Alright, quickly, but if you, if you haven’t been taking notes the whole time, that’s okay. Take them now. And I’m not saying because my words, this is, this is from His Word. But I want you to hear this and hear this well.
How do we resist? How do we take victory in this battle? Here is how. First, by being filled with the knowledge of the Bible. Now some of you are rolling your eyes. You’re like, oh, the Bible again. Yes, I know, I need to read the Bible because of what good Christians do. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that the Word of God is your weapon.
And if you don’t take it up, you cannot win. You, you cannot win. Not that you might not, you will not. You will not win. Jesus was overflowing with the Word of God. You know how he answered back every time? Not with his own words. With quotes, it is written, it is written, it is written, over and over again.
Jesus didn’t need to reinvent the wheel. He was filled and overflowing with the living Word of God. And it’s so important for us. I have, I have a quick just, I want to speak directly to you. I wrote this down. I knew, because I knew I needed to say it just how it was written. Men and women of God, this is your call.
This is your battle strategy. Listen to this. Be filled with the word meditate on it with your minds speak it with your lips sing it out with your voice Live it out with your life cover yourself with a blanket of his truth. Is it any wonder you’re losing the battle your sword is dull Sharpen it every day until it can cut through even the toughest of lie and most twisted deception Does it not stir you that the enemy is taking your sword and stabbing you with it?
Does it not goad your spirit that he’s taking the word of god and twisting it and you don’t even You Have yours out. You’ve got to be filled with this word Morning devotionals. It’s not a it’s not a checklist people But in the same way that a warrior has to sharpen his sword each morning to be ready for battle So you need to sharpen your knowledge of the word of god not as a works thing But as a battle that we must fight but now here’s the warning and the second thing we need to do First in our battle.
We need to be filled with the knowledge of the scriptures Second we need to be led by the spirit now. Listen to me here You All the sharpening the world will do you no good if you don’t know where to stick and to swing.
You could have the sharpest sword in the battle, but if you don’t know how to use it, what good does it do you? Here is the truth in Ephesians, we’re later gonna come to a section that says the The Armor of God. And in that section it’s gonna talk about the sword of what, which is, what the word of God is it the sword of Joe.
No, is it the sword of you? It’s the sword of the Holy Spirit. It’s not my sword. I don’t know how to use it, only he does. Why was Jesus in the wilderness in the first place? Who led him there? The Holy Spirit. Church, you could be filled with the knowledge of the word. The enemy’s filled with the knowledge of the word, believe it or not.
He’s a theologian, not a very good one, but he has all the knowledge in the world and it puffed him up.
The Pharisees were filled with the knowledge of the word, but without the knowledge that comes from the Holy Spirit, or rather the understanding. What good is a sharp sword? Sharpen it, learn how to use it by being led by the Holy Spirit. You have Him. If you are a Christian, it’s a guarantee. You are filled with the Holy Spirit, now be led by Him.
Be filled with the knowledge of the Word, be led by the Holy Spirit. And lastly, be filled with faith. Remember, church, the enemy’s goal is to sever your trust in God the Father. Hold on to it, though. He can’t take it unless you give it to Him.
The final thing I want to point out to you is that if In all his strategies with Jesus, in everything he offered. Did you notice, that every single thing he offered, Jesus would one day have? In God’s timing. Did you notice that? I’ll give you, I’ll just real quick play it out for you. The stones turned to bread, he would eat again, just in the Father’s timing, not in his own.
Jesus did not eat for the rest of his life, he ate again. He broke his fast, but in God’s timing. Secondly, and this might be the one where you guys have a hard time tracking, the whole pinnacle of the tower thing, it’s like, well, Joe, he never did that. Yes, he did. He would go to Jerusalem. He would go to the hilltop.
He would cast himself upon the cross and down into the pit of hell and be raised up again and shown to be the Son of God in truth. But he didn’t prove it to put God to the test. God put Jesus to the test. And he was raised up and shown to be the Son. In God’s timing. Amen. Amen. And lastly, the glory, the authority, and the power.
What does it tell us at the end of the Gospel of Matthew? What does Jesus say as a comfort to the believers? All authority in the heavens and on earth has been given to me, go therefore. He received it, everything that the enemy pretended to have, God really had, and offered it to him in his timing. We watched, we began our time this morning, as we close, we began our time this morning with a video, a silly video of kids looking at a marshmallow.
But you know the key of that video? What was the, what was the whole premise? Why would, why would the kid wait? To get a double portion, right? It’s no different here, Church. What God has for you is so much better than what the enemy has for you. It’s so much better. It’s not just being obedient and, and, you know, you never really see the results.
It’s God’s way is better. This isn’t a prosperity gospel. It’s the truth. I’m not talking about money or possessions. I’m talking about Him.
All right, we’ve got to close. Amen. I just want to end with just a simple word to you as we close. If temptation is a test of trust, trust in God the Father and His Son. You can’t win this battle alone, but you can with Jesus, by being filled with the knowledge of His scriptures, by being led by the Holy Spirit, and by being filled with faith.
And when you are, you respond to the enemy, not in an argument, but in a final statement, a finality of faith. Jesus didn’t argue with the devil. He just rebuked the lie with truth, and then moved on.