The message from the February 26, 2023 gathering of Tapestry Church. Matthew 4:1-11 while in God’s rule humanity was tempted, chose their own will, and was sent into the wilderness. The Son of God went into the wilderness and was tempted in order to bring humanity back into the presence of God.
Autogenerated Message Transcript
Lenten 1 2 26 2023 – Mono.mp3
00:00:01 Robert
If you would like to escape your parents for a little while, Miss Loretta and Miss Maria and Maria, that’s my southerness coming out with the miss there now are going to be going into the cafe.
00:00:12 Robert
You do not have to, but you are more than welcome to, so the rest of us. We’re going to talk about Jesus’s temptation.
00:00:22 Robert
So if you have your.
00:00:23 Robert
Bulletins. It’s in front of you. If you have your Bibles with you, it’s the 4th chapter of Matthew’s gospel.
00:00:29 Robert
So the gospel according to Matthew’s fourth chapter, it will also be appearing by the Magic of light on a piece of fabric.
00:00:38 Robert
Remind me.
00:00:40 Robert
So this is what the word of the Lord says.
00:00:45 Robert
Then Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
00:00:50 Robert
After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry.
00:00:54 Robert
I got to be completely honest and I’m just gonna say that’s one of my favorite sentences in all of Scripture.
00:00:59 Robert
Just because of the way it it downplays that after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights he was.
00:01:07 Robert
I have never fasted 40 days and 40 nights I have fasted, but I have not fasted that long.
00:01:11 Robert
But I have known some people who have and one of them you’ve actually met.
00:01:16 Robert
He was one of my good friends, a guy named Andy, who many of you know, has passed away not because the fasting.
00:01:23 Robert
And he did it.
00:01:24 Robert
And he talked about.
00:01:27 Robert
How he couldn’t have done it without other people that it like, you’re literally he was like, I could barely move as a result.
00:01:34 Robert
So it’s neither here nor there.
00:01:36 Robert
I just love I I think every now and then scripture gets a little snarky.
00:01:39 Robert
That’s a little snarky right there.
00:01:42 Robert
After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry.
00:01:45 Robert
The Tempter came to him and said if you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread.
00:01:51 Robert
Jesus answer it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but own every word that comes from the mouth of God.
00:01:58 Robert
Then the devil.
00:01:59 Robert
Took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the.
00:02:03 Robert
Well, if you are the son of God, he said.
00:02:07 Robert
Throw yourself down, for it is written.
00:02:10 Robert
He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against the stone.
00:02:18 Robert
Jesus answered him.
00:02:20 Robert
It is also written.
00:02:21 Robert
Do not put the Lord your God to the test.
00:02:24 Robert
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
00:02:31 Robert
All this will I give you, he said.
00:02:35 Robert
If you will bow down and worship me, Jesus said to him away from me, Satan, for it is written, worship the Lord your God.
00:02:44 Robert
And serve him only.
00:02:49 Robert
Then the devil left him and angels came and attended him.
00:02:53 Robert
So we’re talking about the temptations that Christ went through, and he went through a lot.
00:02:59 Robert
I think it’s best to to understand temptation kind of from this mindset that Oscar Wilde, if you’ve ever read any of his stuff, he said he had a very effective way of getting rid of temptation and that was to give in to it.
00:03:11 Robert
Your temptations grow when you deny.
00:03:13 Robert
In them they don’t decrease.
00:03:16 Robert
So I believe that most likely Jesus was not only tempted like us, he was probably tempted much worse than any of us had ever experienced because of the fact he never gave in to them.
00:03:26 Robert
There are temptations I have most of you don’t know this.
00:03:29 Robert
Some of you do.
00:03:31 Robert
I have very little self-control when it comes to orange juice. Now you may be saying oh, that’s not that big a deal like.
00:03:37 Robert
I have very little self-control when it comes to orange juice. I have been. There’s a place in Madison called the Upper House where they do lectures every now and then.
00:03:46 Robert
It’s a wonderful place.
00:03:47 Robert
I go there every so often, and if any of you remember Connor Hanson, he and I went there one time and they offer free orange juice.
00:03:56 Robert
And at the end of it, he was he was like Robert, I just did not believe that anybody could drink that much orange. I just don’t have any self-control there.
00:04:09 Robert
At least according to the the Orthodox Christian belief, which is what I hold.
00:04:13 Robert
Was tempted and never gave in.
00:04:17 Robert
So this was not just like three time temptation and that’s it.
00:04:21 Robert
It’s probably all of his life and it gets worse and worse and worse.
00:04:27 Robert
Lent typically begins.
00:04:30 Robert
With two readings in the church and I find this interesting, it usually begins with the story of humanity’s sin.
00:04:39 Robert
Which is what?
00:04:41 Robert
Gamely read for us.
00:04:43 Robert
And then it usually also involves the reading of the temptation of Jesus.
00:04:49 Robert
It’s it’s so interesting to me because these temptations, well, there’s some very specific things that are involved in it.
00:04:55 Robert
The the first of the temptations that Jesus goes through deals with his appetite, not just physical.
00:05:01 Robert
We are all tempted with our appetites.
00:05:04 Robert
We all have things that we just have these cravings for.
00:05:07 Robert
Sometimes their needs, sometimes their wants.
00:05:09 Robert
But we see them and it just draws us.
00:05:13 Robert
Could be food, could be consumption on other levels.
00:05:16 Robert
There may be advertisements that you know if you see that advertisement, you’re immediately going to start thinking, oh, I want that like to be honest right now, what’s going through my head is I’m making popcorn when I get home tonight.
00:05:28 Robert
OK.
00:05:28 Robert
Because somebody made popcorn and did not offer me any.
00:05:33 Robert
And she’s acting all nice and sweet.
00:05:36 Robert
But you notice she’s still not offering me any.
00:05:40 Robert
You laugh, but there’s truth.
00:05:42 Robert
I mean, I’m making a joke there, but the reality is we have things that just get.
00:05:45 Robert
Us and you?
00:05:46 Robert
They just get in your crawl.
00:05:50 Robert
Jesus is tempted by an appetite, and that appetite is a God-given appetite. We were designed to receive nourishment from food and to enjoy the process, to enjoy the eating, and to enjoy who we eat with.
00:06:02 Robert
Many of you enjoy the process of cooking the food you just get into it.
00:06:09 Robert
It’s a part of the nourishment that happens.
00:06:11 Robert
Those appetites are God-given they are holy, and they are wonderful. And yet Jesus, for this point needed to deny it, and it became a temptation.
00:06:21 Robert
It’s interesting.
00:06:23 Robert
The first scripture we read.
00:06:25 Robert
The temptation there is also about appetites.
00:06:29 Robert
That food looks good.
00:06:30 Robert
That fruit looks good.
00:06:32 Robert
He’s also tempted on identification.
00:06:36 Robert
If you are the son of God.
00:06:41 Robert
Now sometimes we use the word if as incense, but other times we use it to question and you’re like, what do you mean by sense?
00:06:47 Robert
Well, like you have probably said to somebody, hey, if you’re my friend, you’ll go do this knowing that what you’re saying is, hey, would you bring me?
00:06:54 Robert
A cup of coffee when you come back.
00:06:57 Robert
You may have done it with people you love.
00:06:59 Robert
If you love me, you’ll.
00:07:00 Robert
Do this and.
00:07:01 Robert
You’re just joking about it.
00:07:02 Robert
What you mean is because you value me.
00:07:04 Robert
You’re going to do this, and I know it.
00:07:06 Robert
But then there are other times where we say if and we mean if in the sense of like, maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not.
00:07:15 Robert
Satanist is using that that question of do you really believe you are the son of God?
00:07:23 Robert
If you are the son of.
00:07:24 Robert
God, you can throw.
00:07:25 Robert
Yourself down.
00:07:28 Robert
And then the last one is that he uses glory, who will receive the worship here.
00:07:34 Robert
Who will be the one declared worthy now? The reason I bring this up is so often we hear things like this and it it becomes about self-discipline.
00:07:42 Robert
We are all quite good at this and I say we here because tapestry church, you are a bunch of very successful people.
00:07:49 Robert
You may not feel that way, but think about the people that are in this room.
00:07:53 Robert
Think about the people that you know are watching this video.
00:07:56 Robert
You are very successful people.
00:07:59 Robert
It it amazes me it actually amazes some of my friends when I talk about the number of people that we have that will get up here and lead music on any given Sunday.
00:08:08 Robert
Air can be used you for just a second.
00:08:10 Robert
You’ve told me about your your parents church before.
00:08:13 Robert
They’ve led music for a long time, or church is significantly bigger than us.
00:08:19 Robert
Do they have as many people leading worship as we do?
00:08:22
It would be.
00:08:24
For someone else to lead.
00:08:26 Robert
And I’m sorry, I kind of did that without your permission.
00:08:30 Robert
But I I didn’t think you might.
00:08:31 Robert
Whereas we have so many people that that want to do this and have the ability to do this, that we literally just have a.
00:08:37 Robert
List that we rotate.
00:08:39 Robert
If you notice, we don’t really ever have the.
00:08:41 Robert
Same person up here anymore.
00:08:44 Robert
I’m not trying to brag on.
00:08:45 Robert
You were just a group of hugely successful people and the danger with that is is it begins to make you think I have to be able to.
00:08:53 Robert
Do this on my own.
00:08:55 Robert
Because it’s worked out for you in some ways, self-discipline is not a bad thing. It’s a good thing.
00:09:01 Robert
Think of the hobbies you have. Think of the professional things you have. Think of the parenting things you have that involve self-discipline. That’s not bad. It works out.
00:09:12 Robert
It’s just bad when it’s what’s ultimately your meaning.
00:09:17 Robert
I don’t know about you.
00:09:19 Robert
But as a parent.
00:09:21 Robert
Raising my kids, I could do everything right and everything could still.
00:09:25 Robert
Fall to pot.
00:09:28 Robert
I think I just created a saying there.
00:09:29 Robert
I don’t think that’s actually a saying, is it?
00:09:33 Robert
Falls apart, fall.
00:09:35 Robert
Go to pot.
00:09:36 Robert
There we go.
00:09:37 Robert
Thank you.
00:09:37 Robert
I mixed my metaphor.
00:09:40 Robert
Guys that self-discipline is not a bad thing until.
00:09:44 Robert
It’s like it’s.
00:09:45 Robert
Entirely dependent upon you and the reason I bring this up is what happens is we so often read the stories of the.
00:09:50 Robert
Temptation and go ohh.
00:09:52 Robert
This is a way for me to avoid temptation if I just know the right scripture, I can take care of this if I just have the right saying if I just.
00:10:00 Robert
Do the right thing or say the right prayer.
00:10:03 Robert
It will take care of everything.
00:10:07 Robert
And yet, the beginning story of Christianity that Kaylee read for us is that humanity had everything going for it.
00:10:18 Robert
And we couldn’t say no.
00:10:22 Robert
I mean literally, Satan’s temptation is did God say you can’t eat from any fruit of the tree, which is a lie?
00:10:30 Robert
It’s like literally you can eat everything except for this wine.
00:10:33 Robert
Do you eat this wine?
00:10:34 Robert
You’re going to die.
00:10:35 Robert
Eat everything else.
00:10:37 Robert
I like to think there was like a rib eye.
00:10:39 Robert
Fruit tree there.
00:10:40 Robert
OK, I could just eat this and be satisfied and thrilled.
00:10:44 Robert
I don’t get it very often.
00:10:45 Robert
OK.
00:10:45 Robert
So therefore I would just be thrilled if we could just eat that all the time, God says.
00:10:49 Robert
Everything eat it.
00:10:51 Robert
They had one thing to say no to.
00:10:55 Robert
And could they say no?
00:11:01 Robert
And I think when we’re honest for ourselves, we’re the same way we can be so self disciplined, we can work out so many strategies to take care of so many different things and we are just like Adam and Eve.
00:11:13 Robert
We fail.
00:11:20 Robert
Our self-discipline is so good until it fails and the worst thing is is that the tempter says to us again and again, if you just work harder, if you just try harder, you’ll get it right.
00:11:32 Robert
Oh, you didn’t get it right.
00:11:34 Robert
You’re a bad person.
00:11:37 Robert
That’s why we come on Lent and we remember.
00:11:42 Robert
We remember that we are dust.
00:11:45 Robert
It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person at all.
00:11:48 Robert
You are created in the image of God and more importantly, you are loved by God.
00:11:54 Robert
Even now, after we have blemished that image.
00:11:58 Robert
It’s not just something that was done then think of the things that we have done.
00:12:02 Robert
Think of the things that you have done that were selfish, the things that you have done that have hurt others that you loved, the choices that you have made, all of us.
00:12:11 Robert
In the room.
00:12:14 Robert
We were created to look like Jesus.
00:12:17 Robert
And so often instead, we live like the tempter.
00:12:23 Robert
So we come here to say remember you are dust, but not for some reason that would would be you’re a bad person not to say.
00:12:34 Robert
Therefore you’re unworthy.
00:12:37 Robert
When we come here, we want to declare the worth of Jesus and we declare the worth of Jesus best by how he grabs sinners like us and proclaims us to be Saints.
00:12:48 Robert
And there’s a.
00:12:49 Robert
So often we think sainthood is something that is earned by righteous acts.
00:12:55 Robert
And yet what Jesus does instead is he.
00:12:57 Robert
He says.
00:12:58 Robert
Oh, oh, yeah, you’re falling, just like your father and your mother beforehand.
00:13:03 Robert
But I will declare you righteous.
00:13:07 Robert
If you remember the words that Joanna read so effectively and Eric did an OK job of following after.
00:13:14 Robert
I so wish Jan had been here. I’m I’m missing her right now. She’ll be back eventually. But if Jan was here, we all know what would have happened when Joanna finished reading. She would have applauded it right then. And I was like somebody’s gotta applaud.
00:13:30 Robert
That whole passage from Paul is is where he is saying.
00:13:35 Robert
You’re just like your father, Adam.
00:13:38 Robert
You’re just like your mother, Eve.
00:13:40 Robert
But Jesus has now declared you righteous.
00:13:43 Robert
Here’s the end of that passage.
00:13:47 Robert
Simply, just as one trespass, trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification in life for all people.
00:13:57 Robert
Just as through the disobedience of one man, the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
00:14:10 Robert
You can’t do it.
00:14:11 Robert
It’s OK.
00:14:12 Robert
It’s been.
00:14:13 Robert
Done for you.
00:14:17 Robert
See the passage is the scripture we’ve been reading today are about the fact that we gave in to the temptation from a tempter.
00:14:25 Robert
And Jesus has started the process of defeating that temperature.
00:14:30 Robert
Now wilderness in Scripture is very important.
00:14:35 Robert
It’s often referred to as desert.
00:14:37 Robert
We think of desert as in sand.
00:14:38 Robert
That is true in many of the cases here, but it’s more wilderness wilderness in the sense of there may be trees and such there, but it’s a lonely place separated from others.
00:14:51 Robert
The passage that Kaylee read today.
00:14:54 Robert
Starts with us in the garden.
00:14:57 Robert
Surrounded with all God’s goodness, and we choose evil and we are chased out into the wilderness.
00:15:05 Robert
If you read the passage, it’s for our own protection.
00:15:10 Robert
The passage that I read today.
00:15:13 Robert
Is the son of God surrounded by goodness going out into the wilderness?
00:15:20 Robert
To defeat the tempter.
00:15:23 Robert
To begin the process of bringing us back into the presence of God.
00:15:30 Robert
That’s why we remember we are dust, not so that we leave this place sad and guilt ridden, but so that we are ready to accept his grace and say I can’t earn it.
00:15:43 Robert
I need someone else to defeat the tempter in my life. I need someone else to defeat my selfishness. I need someone else to defeat my hurtful actions. I need someone else to come and declare me righteous because my self-discipline will never do it.
00:16:02 Robert
And it doesn’t mean we don’t try.
00:16:05 Robert
We try really hard.
00:16:08 Robert
It means we’re not dependent on our trying for our victory.
00:16:16 Robert
He is the one who will crush the Serpent’s head.
00:16:20 Robert
He is the one who will say to the tempter, and I call him the tempter, because that’s what he does.
00:16:26 Robert
Again and again, he proclaims that you are unworthy, that I am unworthy.
00:16:32 Robert
That’s what hospital means.
00:16:34 Robert
He is the adversary.
00:16:36 Robert
He is the accuser.
00:16:38 Robert
Satan literally means the one who accuses.
00:16:41 Robert
Who says you tried really hard and you failed?
00:16:45 Robert
That means you’re a failure.
00:16:52 Robert
Rather than the the wine.
00:16:54 Robert
Who crushes the Serpent’s head and says?
00:16:58 Robert
I call you friends.
00:17:04 Robert
So on Lent we come to remember.
00:17:07 Robert
Not that our self-discipline is worthless, it’s just not good enough.
00:17:13 Robert
And the joy is we don’t have to be good enough because we have been declared good enough by the one who has the right to do that.
00:17:22 Robert
That’s what Joanna and Eric read.
00:17:26 Robert
We’ve been brought back in to the place of God from the wilderness.
00:17:32 Robert
So while my stomach growls, I don’t know if you.
00:17:35 Robert
Can hear that or.
00:17:35 Robert
Not before I end.
00:17:37 Robert
Does anybody have anything to add?
00:17:42 Robert
Go for it clients.
00:17:50
Right.
00:17:51
This part like him going away, he.
00:17:52
Come to me, enlightened and.
00:17:54
Then come to that.
00:17:59
Is there similarities?
00:18:01 Robert
All right, that’s interesting.
00:18:02 Robert
So if you heard, Clancy said, sometimes I think of it with the story of Buddha, where Buddha goes out into the into the wilderness and becomes enlightened, and then comes back.
00:18:10 Robert
There’s a difference.
00:18:12 Robert
I can’t go back to my scripture.
00:18:14 Robert
This happens after the declaration of who he is.
00:18:18 Robert
So if you read the passage before this, if you notice the scripture I read, it says immediately after.
00:18:25 Robert
So does anybody know what happens right before the the temptations?
00:18:31 Robert
Is baptism.
00:18:32 Robert
Jesus’s baptism, which you could declare almost like a coronation because what happens is he is anointed and the father says this is my son in whom I am well pleased. Buddha goes out and earns this enlightenment through right actions Jesus is declared.
00:18:53 Robert
You’re my son.
00:18:55 Robert
So I think the biggest difference is that Jesus going out in the wilderness was not a I’m going to learn this.
00:19:01 Robert
It was this is who I am now.
00:19:03 Robert
I start the process of bringing those in the wilderness back in.
00:19:06 Robert
I would describe that as the biggest difference.
00:19:09 Robert
Now there’s big differences between Buddhism and Christianity.
00:19:12 Robert
Also, Buddhism at its core is ultimately.
00:19:15 Robert
Suffering comes out of desire, therefore you get rid of desire. Christianity is in many ways the opposite is going back to appetites. Your appetites are God-given.
00:19:24 Robert
Your appetites are God glorifying in that sense, one of the best things we can do is to use our appetites to glorify God, IE we literally eat as a symbol of remembrance of Jesus.
00:19:37 Robert
We taste in.
00:19:38 Robert
In our case, the Welches grape juice.
00:19:40 Robert
We don’t deny ourselves the welches.
00:19:42 Robert
We taste the welches and it reminds us there’s there’s good in Buddhism.
00:19:46 Robert
I’m just saying there’s big differences there.
00:19:49 Robert
There’s good all around us because of the fact that God is the creator here.
00:19:53 Robert
Anything that’s true belongs to him, regardless of where it comes from.
00:19:58 Robert
But there’s also difference.
00:20:00 Robert
I believe Jesus is the ultimate way.
00:20:02 Robert
Anybody else before I close this down.
00:20:07 Robert
OK, I’m going to take that as a no.
00:20:09 Robert
So here’s what I I hope you get out of this.
00:20:14 Robert
A few things.
00:20:20 Robert
Your self-discipline.
00:20:23 Robert
It has some advantages.
00:20:24 Robert
Don’t hear me say it’s wrong.
00:20:25 Robert
OK, I know.
00:20:26 Robert
I’m talking to a group of people that have a lot of discipline.
00:20:29 Robert
I know that.
00:20:30 Robert
I’m not saying don’t.
00:20:31 Robert
Use it at all.
00:20:33 Robert
I like the word the phrase best practices.
00:20:37 Robert
Best practices mean this is usually helpful.
00:20:41 Robert
But it’s not always helpful.
00:20:44 Robert
See, Legalism is if you do this, this, and this.
00:20:47 Robert
That’s going to happen.
00:20:48 Robert
It’s a guarantee.
00:20:49 Robert
Best practices.
00:20:51 Robert
Well, Kaylee, in your work, you can tell people some really good things that will probably help.
00:20:57 Robert
Have you ever told people some good things that would probably help?
00:21:00 Robert
And it didn’t help at all.
00:21:02 Robert
Yeah, because sometimes I think of it like gardening.
00:21:06 Robert
You can do everything right or in my case you can do everything wrong.
00:21:11 Robert
And stuff grows.
00:21:14 Robert
And and those of you who are gardeners, I’m going to look at Ellen right now.
00:21:18 Robert
You can do everything right and then suddenly it’s like the seeds go.
00:21:21 Robert
Nah, not going to grow.
00:21:24 Robert
Or hail.
00:21:25 Robert
I didn’t even I didn’t.
00:21:26 Robert
Think of that.
00:21:27 Robert
Difference between a farmer and and a non farmer I’m.
00:21:30 Robert
Like nature’s good. And you’re like, no, it’s.
00:21:33 Robert
Not ice comes from the sky.
00:21:38 Robert
Your discipline is good.
00:21:40 Robert
It just can’t bring you ultimate meaning.
00:21:45 Robert
And what I love about Lent is it’s a reminder that doesn’t have to.
00:21:50 Robert
At the end of the day, we are declared righteous.
00:21:55 Robert
You’re good enough.
00:21:56 Robert
So when you fail and you will fail.
00:22:00 Robert
Many of us will fail.
00:22:01 Robert
Literally the 2nd we walked out of this room.
00:22:04 Robert
You may have failed.
00:22:05 Robert
While I’m saying that I think my Southern accent is coming out as I say, the word fail.
00:22:11 Robert
When you fail.
00:22:13 Robert
Much like an addict.
00:22:15 Robert
You have the choice of do I turn back to Jesus?
00:22:17 Robert
Do I get up again or do I stay down?
00:22:21 Robert
The tempter is wanting you to go.
00:22:22 Robert
You’re just a terrible person.
00:22:23 Robert
Jesus is saying, come on.
00:22:26 Robert
And he grabs us by the hand and lifts us up out of the water.
00:22:32 Robert
So this week, remember you are dust.
00:22:36 Robert
But remember that the creator of the universe creates and breathes life into figures made of dust.
00:22:45 Robert
Would you join with me in closing and singing or closing prayer, which we have already sung?
00:22:52 Robert
And I’m excited about that.
00:22:58 Speaker 2
Praise God from whom all things flow.
00:23:07 Speaker 2
Praise him.
00:23:08 Speaker 2
All creatures here be low praise.
00:23:19 Speaker 2
Ye Heavenly go first, praise for Father, son and holy goes.
00:23:40 Robert
If you are our guest today, there are guest cards in the back.
00:23:42 Robert
If you fill it out, I will bribe you with a with a meal or with a cup of coffee just to say thank you for being here today.
00:23:49 Robert
Because we really do appreciate it.
00:23:53 Robert
God’s grace is all around us.
00:23:56 Robert
It is given to you.
00:23:58 Robert
But it’s hard for us to receive it when we’re too busy going.
00:24:01 Robert
I can.
00:24:02 Robert
Just work harder.
00:24:03 Robert
It’s meant for people that are made of dust.
00:24:06 Robert
Have a great week.
00:24:07 Robert
OK.
00:24:08 Robert
Thank you for joining us on video.