No Shortcuts, Part 3 - #FAME @imagechurch Dumfries, VA
Pride looks so good to us, but what is the foundation for that? Imperfect self. Humility is founded on the perfect God who is the rock of ages.
Up to this point Jesus is refusing to use His own power to satisfy the needs of the flesh. Often times we give in to that temptation to build upon ourselves.
Here Jesus is moving from the pride of the eyes and flesh to the pride of life. More importantly, Jesus is showing us how we can overcome this temptation.
With more power comes more temptation, Jesus had all power and authority under heaven and earth, so His temptation was greater than ours.
We do not serve a God of presumption, God cannot be presumed upon. Satan tempts Jesus and us to presume that we can "step out in faith" to do selfish ambitions and desires.
Satan's temptation here is trying to falter the faith of Jesus in the plan of God. He wants Jesus to trust in what Satan is saying and not in God.
There is a promise we have in scripture that i f we believe in Jesus, then God will take care of us, and will elevate us for His glory one day. Earthly praise and criticizism are both dangerous to hold onto, both elevate us, or attempt to, over God.
The reason we take shortcuts is because we doubt God's faithfulness to provide for what we need. We question whether God has our best interest in mind.
Here in Matthew we see that Jesus refuses to take a shortcut to get what is the end result of His life.
Resisting the tempatuon to be FAMOUS:
The "pride of life" is the temptation to make everything about me.
1. Refuse to act recklessly and expect God to deliver (v. 5-6)
The temptation for Jesus here is to be worshiped Himself. We all struggle with the desire to be worshiped, we want others to look up to us. If we are followers of Jesus, where do we feel most comfortable?
Satan does not fear Holy places, these are the places of easiest temptation as we feel most comfortable there. If things around us are great, then we feel great, we believe that we are the one responsible for our situations.
The greatest miracle that Jesus performs is the resurrection of my heart, a dirty and prideful person to worship the One, True God
As men, we never look more foolish then we try to blame our wives for the problems in our families.
Jesus did not give in to the temptation of acting recklessly, so then why do we believe we can? God calls us to hard places to do hard things, but that is not reckless, that is trusting in the truth we know in the Word of God.
God can forgive and redeem us from ANY mistake that we make, but we may still have to deal with the consequences on earth. If we live recklessly and expect God to deliver us, that is prideful sin!
2. Realize true status comes from the sacrifice, not the superficial. (v. 7)
God's plan was for Jesus to be worshiped on a cross and not jumping from some high, holy place. We most often see Jesus spending His time in the low places, with lowly people, not in the high and holy places with religious people.
A big question we must ask ourselves is "why?" we are doing what we do? Is it for God, or to glorify ourselves.
We are never called to put God to some "cheap test" in our minds, but we are called to trush Him. We are called to sacrifice for Him. We grow most, when we are stretched and refined, not when we are comfortable.
cf Hebrews 11:23-26
Imagine this... refusing to live for our own fame, in order to magnify the ONE who chose a cross over a crown.
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