St Theodore's Sermon <DATE?>

	St Theodore's Wattle Park

	Sermon of the Week
	18/1/98.

A TEMPTING START

Luke 4:1-13

Gen 3:1-24

A TEMPTING START

When was the last time you were tempted? Do you remember what the temptation was? I could ask, when was the last time you sinned? Do you keep a record of such things? Do you remember when it was? Well, if you can remember the last time you sinned, do you remember how the temptation to sin came to you? Was it in something you saw, or heard? Or was it just a stray thought that flew into your mind and stayed there until it grew into something more?

Today I want us to think about temptation. Specifically about the temptations of Jesus. But we can use this account to learn about our own temptations. So I want to think about the nature of temptation, how we can fight it, and what we do when we fail.

First though, we need to be aware that the temptations of Jesus were specific to him and his role as the promised Messiah, the Saviour of the world. They come straight after his baptism; straight after the moment when the Spirit descends on him and the voice from heaven speaks and identifies him as God's beloved Son; and they come as the Spirit leads him out into the desert for 40 days and night of testing. It's as though Jesus is being tested to see whether he's worthy of the role of Messiah. Is he worthy of the title the second Adam as Paul refers to him (Rom 5:18-19)? That is, will he resist all the temptations that Satan throws at him, where Adam and Eve failed?

But having said that, as I said, these temptations of Jesus are such that we can find useful parallels with the sorts of temptations that we all face day by day. So let's think about the nature of temptation as we find it here. (Luke 4:1-13)

Well, first of all, notice how Satan attacks us at our point of weakness. "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished." Jesus is hungry so Satan attacks him where he's weakest. That's how it often happens doesn't it? We have some area of weakness or stress in our life and Satan homes in on it and usually he scores a direct hit. The share market drops and our superannuation fund starts to look a little shaky and he tells us we're in trouble. Anxiety starts to rise. We have some success at work and he tells us it was all due to our hard work and our ingenuity. And pride wells up inside us. You've come to the end of a big Christmas dinner and your hostess offers you a second helping of Christmas pudding with brandy sauce and you think to yourself, in the words of Oscar Wilde, I think, "I've had plenty but thank goodness I'm greedy." So Satan often attacks us at our point of weakness.

But then Satan's next ploy is to plant a doubt in Jesus' mind. In fact we find the same thought repeated in vs 3 and 10: "If you are the Son of God". He doesn't deny it. He just plants the doubt. Maybe you are, maybe not. Why don't you just test it out? Put your money where your mouth is. It's the same technique used in the temptation of Eve. Did God really say "you shall not eat from any tree in the garden?" Twisting the truth just enough to put a doubt in her mind about God's intent. Satan's desire, you see, is to have us questioning God's goodness, or his righteousness, or his justice, or the truth about him.

The next thing we find is that sometimes temptation seeks to remove us from the arena of faith to that of works or self-reliance. Why should Jesus trust God to look after him when he's quite capable of looking after himself? Why not just turn those rocks over there into loaves? He did it with water into wine a few months later. - Why should Adam and Eve trust God to lead them in the ways of righteousness, that is, to show them good things to do and guard them from evil, when they can find out for themselves what's good and what's evil? Why should Jesus trust God to see him through the pain and suffering of the cross, when he can achieve the same end by bowing down to Satan?

This seems to me to be one of our great danger areas in the late 20th century. We put so much store on self-reliance that it's not easy to trust God to look after us. We want to be in control of our own destiny, so we sometimes find it hard to leave our destiny to God. One of the great temptations for the religiously minded person is to seek to achieve our own sanctification, our own level of holiness, by religious means - by fasting, or meditation, or Bible reading, or prayer, or even attendance at worship services, as though such outward shows of religion could make us right with God.

Sometimes the temptation comes in the form of an easy solution to a dilemma. "the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6And the devil said to him, 'To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. 7If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.'" All Jesus had to do was bow down to Satan, and his Lordship over the Earth would be established. Just like Eve: all she had to do was to eat of the fruit and she'd be like God, knowing good and evil. She could avoid all those years of learning and growing before she came to maturity. Imagine if someone came to you when you were about to enter year 11 at school and said, I can get you straight into University if you want. All you have to do is pay me a small fee and you'll be there next year. It'd save you all that stress of VCE assignments and exams. What a bonus! But the trouble is, you'd have missed out on all that basic teaching that you need to understand what you hear in your university course. Well, that's what it was like for Adam and Eve. They jumped to graduate level before they'd even done the basic course. What was needed was for them to take one step at a time. To obey God in this little thing and trust him to see them through the rest. What Jesus had to do was to learn obedience, first in this small way, but later on the cross. That was a much harder route to follow, but it was the only route that would truly achieve what he'd come to do.

That raises the next point. One of the ways Satan tempts us is by telling us lies dressed up as truth. Often he'll tell us half truths. Plausible stories with just enough truth in them to lead us astray. "If you worship me this will all be yours." Well, it might all be his, but only under the overall rule of Satan. And even then, still under the authority of God. Notice Satan doesn't mention the fact that he too is a creature subject to the rule of God. Any authority he may have is only his because God allows it for the time being. But Satan is under the judgement of God and his kingdom will be destroyed. - But his lie has another subtle twist to it. He says "If you worship me this will all be yours," But in fact Jesus hasn't come just to make all the kingdoms of the world his own. Perhaps Satan misunderstood his purpose as much as the Pharisees did, or perhaps he was just hoping Jesus had. No, Jesus had come to put an end to Satan's power over people. He came to enable us to stand before God with our sins forgiven. Conquest of the world wasn't his goal, it was conquest of sin and death. It was liberation of all those people whom Satan claimed were his. So Satan's half truth in fact couldn't have been further from the mark could it?

Finally, sometimes Satan attacks us at our point of strength. Steve Waugh is arguably the greatest batsman in the world at the moment. But people who know these things have pointed out that he has one vital flaw. It isn't the short pitched delivery. He just ducks those. No, it's a ball just outside the off stump, where he's strongest. If you've ever seen one of his cover drives, it's a joy to behold. But his strength is also his weakness. That's where he gets out the most. And that's true of most of us. Satan delights to attack us at our point of strength as much as at our point of weakness. So he comes to Jesus and says "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' 11and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'" Jesus loved to quote Scripture. He believed God's word implicitly and so Satan uses it to tempt him. We evangelical Christians occasionally fall into a similar temptation. We believe implicitly in God's word and so Satan tempts us to read it unthinkingly, to take it out of context, to read it literally where it isn't meant to be taken literally, to read into it what our traditions have taught us rather than checking our traditions against what it teaches. Don't be fooled by Satan's subtlety. He'll use every means he can to defeat us, to lead us astray.

So how can we fight Satan's temptations? Well, obviously, Jesus example is a good one isn't it? Use God's word. In Romans 8 Paul says (Rom 8:13 NRSV) "for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." Now how do you do that? How do you put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit? Well, remember the description of the armour of God in Ephesians 6? The only offensive weapon in that list is a sword. It's called the sword of the Spirit. And what is it? It's the word of God (Eph 6:17). God's word cuts through Satan's lies and exposes the truth. It tells me how I'm to live. It tells me where true happiness is found. It assures me of God's love and care. It gives me hope for the future even when hope seems futile. It shows me the source of real joy and meaning and fulfillment. e.g. "In your presence is fullness of joy, in your right hand there are pleasures forever." (Ps 16:11) It promises the peace of God to those whose minds are filled with what's good: "Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you." (Phil 4:8-9 NRSV) Read God's word and write down the promises you find there, memorise them, so you can use them when you're tempted to disobey God.

Well, I thought before we finish, I might let you suggest some areas where Satan commonly tempts us, how they affect us and then think about how we might fight such temptations.

Anxiety:

about finances - leads to - greed, hoarding, theft, coveting

about success - - irritable, abrupt

about relationships - - withdrawn, avoidance, indifference, uncaring, short-tempered

About others perception of us -
- cover up, dishonesty, lying internalised feelings

- comes from a doubt of God or a lack of trust in God. Will God look after us? Is the future in his hands?

Matt 6:25-34 - God cares for you just as he cares for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field.

Phil 4:6,19 Be anxious for nothing ... my God shall supply all your needs.

2 Cor 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness."

Here's one for the oldies or those getting old: Is 46:4 "even to your old age I am he, even when you turn gray I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save."

Pride:

- self reliance - we're too sophisticated, too educated, to rely on God.
- We can stand on our own. "I think, therefore I am."
- 'a turning away from God to take satisfaction in self'
- self-determination and self-exultation: 'I am the greatest'
- essentially a plea of autonomy and independence.

- We need to be reminded that all we have is God's gift to us. Here the OT is useful. The OT stories of conquest and battle all point to victory coming to those whom God chooses. eg Read Is 45 to see how God even gave victory to Cyrus the Persian so he could act as God's agent of deliverance for his people.

- Read Proverbs to learn about the foolishness of pride.
- Read Daniel 4 to see what happens to someone who says they've done it all by themselves.
- Read Paul's prayer for the Philippians in Phil 1 to see how he thanks God for their faithfulness, rather than simply praising them for it. Do the same thing for yourself. Constant thankfulness to God for his goodness to you may be the most effective antidote to pride that you'll ever find.

Shame

- from guilt - well-placed - right to feel it but it shouldn't stay with you - ask God for forgiveness and then accept it.

- from your own shortcoming - (eg. Olympic failure) You just weren't as competent as the opposition. - misplaced shame

- from impropriety. ie. a social blunder - you feel foolish and embarrassed - misplaced.

- real question to ask in the case of shame is who has been dishonoured. If it was God then it's right to feel shame. If it was you then it's not. Satan will tell you that your honour matters. He may even suggest you do something that dishonours God in order to restore your own honour. But it's God's honour that really matters. (Worship the Lord your God and serve only him.)

Covetousness

- Desiring something so much you lose your contentment in God.

- See 1 Tim 6:6ff Godliness with contentment is great gain.

- Col 3:5: Covetousness is idolatry - note the 10th commandment is the same as the 1st.

-this is a temptation to have a heart divided between two gods - 'You cannot serve both God and Money' (Matt 6:24)

- Rather be grateful to God for what he's given you. - Count your blessings.

Learn to be content in whatever circumstances you find yourself. (Phil 4:11-12 "I have learned to be content with whatever I have. 12I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.") remember that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. (Phil 4:13)

Bitterness

- ie holding a grudge - against others, - against God.

- trust God to judge justly 'vengeance is mine, I will repay (Rom 12:19)

- follow Jesus example and don't repay evil for evil (1 Pet 2:22-23)

- learn to forgive others as God has forgiven you.

Lust

- a promise of pleasure or happiness if I follow it.

- a lie. - true happiness comes from following God.
Matt 5:3-10: Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled. Happy are the pure in heart for they will see God.

- look to the lasting reward promised by God rather than the fleeting pleasures of sin. (Heb 11:24-26) (Ps 16:11) (Phil 4:9 Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.)

Lying

- Satan tells us we can get away with it. No-one will ever know. It's just a little white lie.
- But 'be sure your sin will find you out.' (Num 32:23)
- Remember that not bearing false witness is one of the 10 commandments.
- 'So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.' Eph 4:25.
- Remember that Satan is the father of lies. Whose child are you?

Finally, What do you do when you fail? Well, I hope you know the answer to that. You go to God and ask him for forgiveness on the basis of Jesus holiness. This is the whole point of this account of his temptation. Hebrews chapter 4 sums it up for us. (Heb 4:14-16 NRSV) "Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. 16Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Don't let Satan accuse you unjustly. Go to Jesus and ask him to plead with the Father for forgiveness on your behalf. For those who are followers of Jesus forgiveness is granted freely, because Jesus has paid the penalty on our behalf, because he alone was tempted yet didn't sin.

Understand the nature of the temptations Satan throws before you, fight them with God's word and seek forgiveness from Jesus when you fail, knowing that he understands what it's like to be tempted. That's the message from this passage today.


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	A TEMPTING START
	When was the last time you were tempted? Do you remember what the temptation was? I could ask, when was the last time you sinned? Do you keep a record of such things? Do you remember when it was? Well, if you can remember the last time you sinned, do you remember how the temptation to sin came to you? Was it in something you saw, or heard? Or was it just a stray thought that flew into your mind and stayed there until it grew into something more?
	Today I want us to think about temptation. Specifically about the temptations of Jesus. But we can use this account to learn about our own temptations. So I want to think about the nature of temptation, how we can fight it, and what we do when we fail.
	First though, we need to be aware that the temptations of Jesus were specific to him and his role as the promised Messiah, the Saviour of the world. They come straight after his baptism; straight after the moment when the Spirit descends on him and the voice from heaven speaks and identifies him as God's beloved Son; and they come as the Spirit leads him out into the desert for 40 days and night of testing. It's as though Jesus is being tested to see whether he's worthy of the role of Messiah. Is he worthy of the title the second Adam as Paul refers to him (Rom 5:18-19)? That is, will he resist all the temptations that Satan throws at him, where Adam and Eve failed?
	But having said that, as I said, these temptations of Jesus are such that we can find useful parallels with the sorts of temptations that we all face day by day. So let's think about the nature of temptation as we find it here. (Luke 4:1-13)
	Well, first of all, notice how Satan attacks us at our point of weakness. "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, 2where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished." Jesus is hungry so Satan attacks him where he's weakest. That's how it often happens doesn't it? We have some area of weakness or stress in our life and Satan homes in on it and usually he scores a direct hit. The share market drops and our superannuation fund starts to look a little shaky and he tells us we're in trouble. Anxiety starts to rise. We have some success at work and he tells us it was all due to our hard work and our ingenuity. And pride wells up inside us. You've come to the end of a big Christmas dinner and your hostess offers you a second helping of Christmas pudding with brandy sauce and you think to yourself, in the words of Oscar Wilde, I think, "I've had plenty but thank goodness I'm greedy." So Satan often attacks us at our point of weakness.
	But then Satan's next ploy is to plant a doubt in Jesus' mind. In fact we find the same thought repeated in vs 3 and 10: "If you are the Son of God". He doesn't deny it. He just plants the doubt. Maybe you are, maybe not. Why don't you just test it out? Put your money where your mouth is. It's the same technique used in the temptation of Eve. Did God really say "you shall not eat from any tree in the garden?" Twisting the truth just enough to put a doubt in her mind about God's intent. Satan's desire, you see, is to have us questioning God's goodness, or his righteousness, or his justice, or the truth about him.
	The next thing we find is that sometimes temptation seeks to remove us from the arena of faith to that of works or self-reliance. Why should Jesus trust God to look after him when he's quite capable of looking after himself? Why not just turn those rocks over there into loaves? He did it with water into wine a few months later. - Why should Adam and Eve trust God to lead them in the ways of righteousness, that is, to show them good things to do and guard them from evil, when they can find out for themselves what's good and what's evil? Why should Jesus trust God to see him through the pain and suffering of the cross, when he can achieve the same end by bowing down to Satan?
	This seems to me to be one of our great danger areas in the late 20th century. We put so much store on self-reliance that it's not easy to trust God to look after us. We want to be in control of our own destiny, so we sometimes find it hard to leave our destiny to God. One of the great temptations for the religiously minded person is to seek to achieve our own sanctification, our own level of holiness, by religious means - by fasting, or meditation, or Bible reading, or prayer, or even attendance at worship services, as though such outward shows of religion could make us right with God.
	Sometimes the temptation comes in the form of an easy solution to a dilemma. "the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6And the devil said to him, 'To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. 7If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.'" All Jesus had to do was bow down to Satan, and his Lordship over the Earth would be established. Just like Eve: all she had to do was to eat of the fruit and she'd be like God, knowing good and evil. She could avoid all those years of learning and growing before she came to maturity. Imagine if someone came to you when you were about to enter year 11 at school and said, I can get you straight into University if you want. All you have to do is pay me a small fee and you'll be there next year. It'd save you all that stress of VCE assignments and exams. What a bonus! But the trouble is, you'd have missed out on all that basic teaching that you need to understand what you hear in your university course. Well, that's what it was like for Adam and Eve. They jumped to graduate level before they'd even done the basic course. What was needed was for them to take one step at a time. To obey God in this little thing and trust him to see them through the rest. What Jesus had to do was to learn obedience, first in this small way, but later on the cross. That was a much harder route to follow, but it was the only route that would truly achieve what he'd come to do.
	That raises the next point. One of the ways Satan tempts us is by telling us lies dressed up as truth. Often he'll tell us half truths. Plausible stories with just enough truth in them to lead us astray. "If you worship me this will all be yours." Well, it might all be his, but only under the overall rule of Satan. And even then, still under the authority of God. Notice Satan doesn't mention the fact that he too is a creature subject to the rule of God. Any authority he may have is only his because God allows it for the time being. But Satan is under the judgement of God and his kingdom will be destroyed. - But his lie has another subtle twist to it. He says "If you worship me this will all be yours," But in fact Jesus hasn't come just to make all the kingdoms of the world his own. Perhaps Satan misunderstood his purpose as much as the Pharisees did, or perhaps he was just hoping Jesus had. No, Jesus had come to put an end to Satan's power over people. He came to enable us to stand before God with our sins forgiven. Conquest of the world wasn't his goal, it was conquest of sin and death. It was liberation of all those people whom Satan claimed were his. So Satan's half truth in fact couldn't have been further from the mark could it?
	Finally, sometimes Satan attacks us at our point of strength. Steve Waugh is arguably the greatest batsman in the world at the moment. But people who know these things have pointed out that he has one vital flaw. It isn't the short pitched delivery. He just ducks those. No, it's a ball just outside the off stump, where he's strongest. If you've ever seen one of his cover drives, it's a joy to behold. But his strength is also his weakness. That's where he gets out the most. And that's true of most of us. Satan delights to attack us at our point of strength as much as at our point of weakness. So he comes to Jesus and says "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' 11and 'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'" Jesus loved to quote Scripture. He believed God's word implicitly and so Satan uses it to tempt him. We evangelical Christians occasionally fall into a similar temptation. We believe implicitly in God's word and so Satan tempts us to read it unthinkingly, to take it out of context, to read it literally where it isn't meant to be taken literally, to read into it what our traditions have taught us rather than checking our traditions against what it teaches. Don't be fooled by Satan's subtlety. He'll use every means he can to defeat us, to lead us astray.
	So how can we fight Satan's temptations? Well, obviously, Jesus example is a good one isn't it? Use God's word. In Romans 8 Paul says (Rom 8:13 NRSV) "for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live." Now how do you do that? How do you put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit? Well, remember the description of the armour of God in Ephesians 6? The only offensive weapon in that list is a sword. It's called the sword of the Spirit. And what is it? It's the word of God (Eph 6:17). God's word cuts through Satan's lies and exposes the truth. It tells me how I'm to live. It tells me where true happiness is found. It assures me of God's love and care. It gives me hope for the future even when hope seems futile. It shows me the source of real joy and meaning and fulfillment. e.g. "In your presence is fullness of joy, in your right hand there are pleasures forever." (Ps 16:11) It promises the peace of God to those whose minds are filled with what's good: "Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you." (Phil 4:8-9 NRSV) Read God's word and write down the promises you find there, memorise them, so you can use them when you're tempted to disobey God.
	Well, I thought before we finish, I might let you suggest some areas where Satan commonly tempts us, how they affect us and then think about how we might fight such temptations.
	Anxiety:
	about finances - leads to - greed, hoarding, theft, coveting
	about success - - irritable, abrupt
	about relationships - - withdrawn, avoidance, indifference, uncaring, short-tempered
	About others perception of us - - cover up, dishonesty, lying internalised feelings
	- comes from a doubt of God or a lack of trust in God. Will God look after us? Is the future in his hands?
	Matt 6:25-34 - God cares for you just as he cares for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field.
	Phil 4:6,19 Be anxious for nothing ... my God shall supply all your needs.
	2 Cor 12:9 "My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness."
	Here's one for the oldies or those getting old: Is 46:4 "even to your old age I am he, even when you turn gray I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save."
	Pride:
	- self reliance - we're too sophisticated, too educated, to rely on God. - We can stand on our own. "I think, therefore I am." - 'a turning away from God to take satisfaction in self' - self-determination and self-exultation: 'I am the greatest' - essentially a plea of autonomy and independence.
	- We need to be reminded that all we have is God's gift to us. Here the OT is useful. The OT stories of conquest and battle all point to victory coming to those whom God chooses. eg Read Is 45 to see how God even gave victory to Cyrus the Persian so he could act as God's agent of deliverance for his people.
	- Read Proverbs to learn about the foolishness of pride. - Read Daniel 4 to see what happens to someone who says they've done it all by themselves. - Read Paul's prayer for the Philippians in Phil 1 to see how he thanks God for their faithfulness, rather than simply praising them for it. Do the same thing for yourself. Constant thankfulness to God for his goodness to you may be the most effective antidote to pride that you'll ever find.
	Shame
	- from guilt - well-placed - right to feel it but it shouldn't stay with you - ask God for forgiveness and then accept it.
	- from your own shortcoming - (eg. Olympic failure) You just weren't as competent as the opposition. - misplaced shame
	- from impropriety. ie. a social blunder - you feel foolish and embarrassed - misplaced.
	- real question to ask in the case of shame is who has been dishonoured. If it was God then it's right to feel shame. If it was you then it's not. Satan will tell you that your honour matters. He may even suggest you do something that dishonours God in order to restore your own honour. But it's God's honour that really matters. (Worship the Lord your God and serve only him.)
	Covetousness
	- Desiring something so much you lose your contentment in God.
	- See 1 Tim 6:6ff Godliness with contentment is great gain.
	- Col 3:5: Covetousness is idolatry - note the 10th commandment is the same as the 1st.
	-this is a temptation to have a heart divided between two gods - 'You cannot serve both God and Money' (Matt 6:24)
	- Rather be grateful to God for what he's given you. - Count your blessings.
	Learn to be content in whatever circumstances you find yourself. (Phil 4:11-12 "I have learned to be content with whatever I have. 12I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need.") remember that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. (Phil 4:13)
	Bitterness
	- ie holding a grudge - against others, - against God.
	- trust God to judge justly 'vengeance is mine, I will repay (Rom 12:19)
	- follow Jesus example and don't repay evil for evil (1 Pet 2:22-23)
	- learn to forgive others as God has forgiven you.
	Lust
	- a promise of pleasure or happiness if I follow it.
	- a lie. - true happiness comes from following God. Matt 5:3-10: Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled. Happy are the pure in heart for they will see God.
	- look to the lasting reward promised by God rather than the fleeting pleasures of sin. (Heb 11:24-26) (Ps 16:11) (Phil 4:9 Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.)
	Lying
	- Satan tells us we can get away with it. No-one will ever know. It's just a little white lie. - But 'be sure your sin will find you out.' (Num 32:23) - Remember that not bearing false witness is one of the 10 commandments. - 'So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another.' Eph 4:25. - Remember that Satan is the father of lies. Whose child are you?
	Finally, What do you do when you fail? Well, I hope you know the answer to that. You go to God and ask him for forgiveness on the basis of Jesus holiness. This is the whole point of this account of his temptation. Hebrews chapter 4 sums it up for us. (Heb 4:14-16 NRSV) "Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. 16Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Don't let Satan accuse you unjustly. Go to Jesus and ask him to plead with the Father for forgiveness on your behalf. For those who are followers of Jesus forgiveness is granted freely, because Jesus has paid the penalty on our behalf, because he alone was tempted yet didn't sin.
	Understand the nature of the temptations Satan throws before you, fight them with God's word and seek forgiveness from Jesus when you fail, knowing that he understands what it's like to be tempted. That's the message from this passage today.

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