What Are You Willing to Give Up?

Scripture: Matthew 4:1-11

Introduction

• Today is the first Sunday of Lent
• Lent officially began on Ash Wednesday
• Lent is a 40 day period ending with Easter to commemorate the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert fasting and enduring the temptation of Satan.
• Does anybody know where the word Lent comes from? It means
• Christians use this time to reflect on sins in their lives and repent by giving something up.
• Is there anything in your life that you need to give up?
• I’ve decided that what I need to give up for Lent is me worrying about everything.
• Somehow I think by worrying about everything, I’m going to control anything. Nope
• God’s in control and Jesus will fix everything if we just give in to Him.
• So what about you? Think about what is holding you back and pulling you down.
• Is it something you could try to do without for 40 days?
• It’s a time to prepare for the Easter Passion and the great sacrifice that Jesus made for us.
• Step back and prepare yourself for the great work Jesus has come to do in your life.
• As we reflect on what we need to give up, let’s take a pause to think about what Jesus gave up:

1. The good life
2. The power of God
3. The kingdom of earth

1. The good life

• Jesus is the source of everything that exists in the universe – He created it all.
• Jesus is ENTITLED to every good thing that there has ever been in this world.
• We see a lot of people running around in this life who think they are entitled.
• They think “I deserve this. I have this coming to me”
• We covet all the things we don’t have; everything in the world.
• We see all these famous people in movies and on TV and all their riches.
• We want to live the good life and chase the American dream.
• They live in giant houses and drive fancy cars and go to all the greatest parties.
• Until they don’t.
• Drug abuse, alcohol abuse, wife abuse; we hear it about our “so-called heroes” every day.
• How hard the high and mighty do fall from the pedestals we put them on.
• Jesus could have had it all, but instead we see Him in the desert starving Himself.
• Jesus had a very real human body and He chose to deprive it of food for 40 days.
• What happens when a human goes without food? According to com:

Your body normally uses glucose, or sugar, as its main source of energy. When you don’t eat, your glucose reserves are used up within one day.

After one day without food, your body releases a hormone called glucagon. This hormone tells your liver to make glucose. This glucose is used mostly to feed your brain.

After two or three days, your body starts to break down fatty tissue. Your muscles use the fatty acids created during this process as their main source of fuel.

Fatty acids are also used to form ketones in the liver. Ketones are another substance the body can use for energy. These are released into the bloodstream. When the brain uses them for fuel, it doesn’t need as much glucose.

When the fatty acid reserves are gone, the body switches to protein. Depending on how little fatty tissue you had, it may take only a few days to reach this point. By one week, however, the bodies of most starving people will be actively breaking down muscle in order to obtain protein.

As the breakdown of muscle speeds up, the body begins to lose heart, kidney, and liver function. This is what may ultimately lead to death.

Because a starving body lacks the resources to stay healthy, infection is another possible cause of death.

The exact length of time human beings can survive without food is an open question. Estimates indicate that starving people become weak in 30 to 50 days and die in 43 to 70 days.

• Forty days without food would clearly cause the average person a great deal of suffering.
• Forty days without food would place the average person very near death
• Jesus was no average person, He was a God as well as a human.
• No one can ever say that Jesus didn’t do everything possible to experience humanity.
• He could have chosen to live the good life and enjoy all the finer things of His creation.
• Instead, He chose the bottom of humanity the most vile of humans and He chose me.

2. The power of God

• Jesus may have chosen the low road through this world, but He was still GOD.
• A supreme being that had the power to create the word could certainly manipulate it.
• God has allowed Satan to have dominion over the earth, but his power is limited.
• At any time, Jesus could have simply spoken Satan into nothingness.
• Instead, we see Satan tempting Jesus at the end of 40 days of fasting.
• After fasting forty days and forty nights, Jesus was hungry.
• So Satan approaches Him and says to him: “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”
• This is where Jesus demonstrates for us that His power is in His Word.
• We can also use the power of His Word as a weapon.
• The Word of God is the only offensive weapon that we have against the enemy.
• Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 when He tells Satan:

Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

• The enemy Satan caught on to Jesus’ methods and tried quoting Scripture himself, after he took Jesus up to the highest point of the temple, using Psalm 91:11,12:

“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“‘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 a stone.’”

• Well, again Jesus wields the sword of His Word with Deuteronomy 6:16 saying:

“Do not put the Lord your God to the test.”

• Jesus did not come to destroy the enemy; His plan was to sacrifice Himself for us.
• Humanity was in a place of complete depravity with rampant sin.
• Even the religious leaders who were supposed to lead people to a right relationship with God were corrupt.
• The most powerful thing that Jesus could do was to become a sacrifice for sin.
• Satan was trying to tempt Jesus in His humanity to show His mighty power,
• But Jesus was waiting for a time when in His most humble moment, He would be the most powerful.
• Satan never understood this great power because he was so caught up in the world.
• Sin is the biggest tool the enemy uses, but Jesus destroyed the power of sin on the cross.
• Jesus could have used His unlimited power for His own gain, instead He chose us.

3. The kingdom of earth

• The final temptation of Satan was to take Jesus high on a mountain.
• On the mountain, Satan offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world if He would bow down and worship him.
• Again, Jesus told Satan to get lost and turned again to quoting Deuteronomy 6:13:

For it is written: “Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.”

• Satan was thinking he could really show off his position, but Jesus wasn’t interested.
• Earth is just a tiny part of His creation. His kingdom is in heaven over all the universe.
• Jesus only came to earth to save His people – not to rule them. John 3:17

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

• Yes, Jesus could have had it all: the good life, the power to do anything His heart desired.
• Jesus could have ruled over all the earth, but instead, He chose to become a servant.
• In Mark 10:45 Jesus says: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
• Jesus came to set us free and bring us home with Him.
• Jesus has made it possible for us to have it all, but our reward is not here on earth.
• Paul says in Phillipians 3:20-21:

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

• We place so much importance on the things of this earth because the enemy tempts us.
• The enemy lies and promises us so many things that we can never take with us.
• As we move through this season of Lent, may we have a renewed sense of what we need.
• Say the same thing Jesus said: “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”
• Then the devil will leave, and angels will come and attended you.