Matt 4:1-11
The gods we serve
Introduction
Today we are embarking on a new series called "The gods that we serve". We will looking at the temptations of Jesus in Matthew 4:1-11 as our primary passage of Scripture. This series will cover the 3 temptations, namely the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
Let us pray before we begin.
Let’s try a little experiment. I’m going to ask you to follow my instructions. Number 1, do not think of chocolate. Number 2, do not think of a handphone. Number 3, do not think of getting As for your exams.
How many of you were able not to think of any of those things? Hard isn’t it? Especially with all the distractions around us. This is how it is with temptation, and I hate to tell you this, but everyone faces temptations, even Christians, even Jesus. But Jesus was able to overcome those temptations and so can we.
Let us examine this a bit more by looking at the temptations of Jesus. Turn with me to Matthew chapter 4, reading from verse 1 to 11.
Background
To paint a quick background of this passage, Jesus was just been baptized by John the Baptist, and was preparing himself for ministry by fasting and praying for 40 days. Notice that He was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, and Satan was the one that tempted Him.
Today we will be looking at the "Lust of the Eyes". Let us look carefully at verses 8-10. Notice that again it was Satan who brought Jesus to a high place, and showed him the kingdoms of the world and their glory. Satan promised Jesus the world if He worshipped him. Jesus used the Scripture from Deut, that "You should worship God and serve Him only".
Now you must be asking what has this passage got to do with me? Firstly I’m not Jesus, and I haven’t met Satan, he’s not going to promise me the world, and I’m not going to worship him. But is this really the case? Let’s think a little further.
We call ourselves Christians, that means followers of Christ. Christ Himself went through temptations, so here’s the first clue, we will face temptations too. True, Satan might not pop up in front of you, but we are reminded by Paul that all of us are in a constant spiritual battle, and that we need to stand firm and put on the full armour of God to stand against the devil’s wiles.
The lust of the eyes basically means idolatry = shifting the object of our worship. This is so important in the Christian life that if you remember, God gives this as the 1st of the 10 commandments, Thou shall not worship idols.
If you look into your outlines, we have what I call "Lusting after the 3 Ps". These are areas in our lives that are of this world and often subtly take the place of God in our lives. So even though we might not be thinking about world domination (as Satan offered to Jesus), these are areas that can be tempting to dominate our lives.
1. The first P is Pocket Money. and for most of us, Packet money as well, at Chinese New Year. Broadly, this is the area of finance or money.
How many of you feel that you have enough money to spend currently? As Jack Neo’s movie suggest, "Money No Enough". So let me ask you a 2nd question, how much is enough? There’s always a human tendency for more, we want more, we need more... it’s actually very hard to content with what we have. You might be saying, but who can survive without money? I’m not saying that we don’t care about money, but we need to have a balanced perspective towards money. The Bible says you cannot serve 2 masters, either you serve God or you serve Mammon (or money).
Pop quiz: What is the root of all evil? Not money, but the love of money. Again, money in itself is not bad, but beware that we begin to love money more than we love God.
2. The second P is Possessions. Your Nokias, your Nikes, your Sonys, your Pradas, your Deuters, you get what I mean. Most of us have lots of stuff, if I did a random search of your bags today, what would be some of the things we would find that most of you have? I must confess that I’m quite a techie person myself, phones, laptops and PDAs, I can give you their config, capabilities, prices, etc, etc. We know grow up in the MTV generation, what does MTV actually stand for? Music Television? in actual fact, it’s more like Money Television. The latest brands, the latest gadgets, the latest CDs, the latest fashion trends are all embedded in those 2-3 minute music videos. That’s how media advertising works. You don’t have this, you got to get it. Everyone has one, you need one. Last day, sale, limited edition, while stocks last. Some advertisers even go to the extent of subliminal messages. You guys learn science so you know what sublime means right? Subtle. A survey was done of people watching a movie, they inserted a frame of a Pepsi bottle several times between frames of each scene, and found that this correlated with people feeling the urge to buy a Pepsi after the movie.
Let us be mindful of the things we see around us, through the TV, through magazines, even through people around us. We have to be careful as these things can rob the place of God in our lives, because we shift our focus on them rather than on the things of God.
3. The third P is PhDs. In other words, education or studies. This area is tricky because all of us have to go through it. What we have to note is how much an effect studies play in our lives. We spend all our waking moments studying, eat, drink, sleep books, got to get that A, got to do well in this test, when you get back your results and you do well, we catch ourselves patting ourselves on the back, good job. Keep up the good work. For others, it might be the opposite. True, studies is important, but you ask yourself, "Why am I studying?" Why am I spending so much time, so much effort, barely passing, for 12-15 years of my life? Yeah, you could say, I want to live for Jesus, even if I don’t have a degree/diploma, God can still use me. True, that is true, but remember this, many people do not get the same opportunities that you have to study, to be educated, to have books, resources, and finances (by your parents) to get to go to school and university, are we truly cherishing what God has blessed us with?
When we look at the 3 Ps, we can use this simple formula, ask ourselves, are we using this, to serve God? Do we use money to serve God? Do we use our possessions to serve God? Do we use our education/studies to serve God?
How do we overcome the temptation of the 3 Ps? Jesus answered Satan, It is written, You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only. How can we worship God in our lives? How can we serve Him only? This can seen in the 3 Ss.
A. The first is Sacrifice. This is the area of giving. Romans 12:2, offer ourselves as living sacrifices to God, this is our spiritual act of worship. Tithing, offering, giving to God’s work. On top of all our daily expenses and spending, are we able to set aside some for God? You might say, but I already don’t have enough, anyway, whatever little I give, won’t matter to God, can’t make a difference in God’s kingdom.
There was once a young man who felt this way. His mother encouraged him to be diligent in his tithing. He started his career at age 26, by age 40 he controlled 90% of all refined oil in USA, 20% of American industry. By 46, his company virtually controlled the entire oil industry in the US, and set up branches in Europe and China. At the end of his career, he had become a billionaire, worth almost 900 million, yet at his death, his total estate amounted to about 26 million. Between 1855 (16 years) and 1937 (98 years), he had given away nearly US$550 million to charities and God’s work.
J.D. Rockefeller said, "I never would have been able to tithe the first million dollars I ever made if I had not tithed my first salary, which was $1.50 per week."
With whatever little that you give to God, He can and will multiply it for His glory, blessing you beyond your imagination. The love of the right use of money is the root of all good. Remember that there is always someone out there who is less privileged than us, who could really benefit if we give. Recently our youth missions team is raising funds for their mission trip. You might say, I got so little to give for tithing, how to give to missions? I have mentioned this before, did you know that 42% of our church offering collection goes to missions. That means of every dollar that is collected, 42 cents goes to missions. So even if you can just be faithful in tithing, your money goes to missions too. How can we use our money to serve God?
B. The second is Simplicity. This is the area of blessing others. Why would this temptation by Satan be an issue for Jesus? You must remember that he was living a simple life, he was born in a manger, he grew up as a carpenter, and as much as people wanted to make Him king, and as much as He deserved it, He made Himself poor so that we could be rich, He gave up His life that we may have eternal life. Not to be served, but to serve.
We have to really ask ourselves, do we love people and use things, or do we love things and use people? How many of you have tried to persuade or manipulate your parents to get you something you wanted? I have. It’s not so much that we should not desire any possessions, but we have to always ask ourselves, do we really need this, or can we do without it? Leading a simple life is a choice. Leading a simple life is the way of the cross. Jesus says, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. By choosing to lead a simple life, we can live without the pressure of keeping up with others, or having to buy more and more things for ourselves. I would like to challenge you to consider how you can use your possessions to bless others. Whatever God has blessed you with, can you bless others? How many of you have old clothes/shoes/books? You can donate that to the Salvation Army, for others who can’t afford those clothes, shoes, and books. How many of you have upgraded your phones? Those old phones can actually be used to bless missionaries out there who can’t afford phones. I know that our missionary in North Thailand was blessed by someone’s phone, before that she actually has to travel down the mountain 1 hr plus just to get to an Internet café to check her mail and send her prayer update, so now it’s much easier to contact her. I recently upgraded my phone, was actually eyeing this Nokia 6230, which in the end I didn’t get because it was S$428, settled for a 6610i for S$138, much cheaper. Just last Sunday, I saw one of the youths with it, and I was like, so frustrated, felt so unfair. But then after thinking about it further, I was really quite glad that I didn’t get it. Instead, decided to use the money that I saved to bless others, the youth missions team is currently raising funds for their mission trip, so I decided to pledge some to them.
Jesus says in Matthew 6 that we should lay up treasures in heaven instead of on earth, living for the eternal, rather than existing for the temporal. What are the things that are eternal? The Bible, and the souls of men.
Let me give you an example that you can get involved in, even now.
Do you know how much a Bible cost in China? Anyone can make a guess? S$2.50 for a NT and S$7 for the Bible. Do you know how many Christians are without a Bible? 40% or about 20 million Christians without a Bible of their own. 50 million Christians, 20 million without a Bible, most churches, 25-100 people share one. Imagine that there are 1.3 billion people as of Jul 2004 in China. That means that 1.25 billion do not have God’s word. Amity Printing Press recently celebrated printing 30 million Bible in 2002 (they’ve been printing Bibles for 15 years). At this rate, it will take 625 years to print enough Bibles for every person in China. Can you spare that S$2.50 or even S$7 to bless someone with God’s Word? 2 things are eternal, the Word of God, the souls of men. How can we use what God has blessed us with to serve God and bless others?
C. The last S is that of Spirituality. This is the area of prayer and the Word. Notice how Jesus answered Satan, It is written. All 3 times Satan tempted Him, he used the Scriptures to answer him. Jesus knew the Scriptures well, and He was able to apply it correctly in his difficult situations. Notice also in verse 1 that He was in the desert fasting and praying for 40 days. He was preparing Himself for his ministry. The only way that we can truly overcome temptation of the lust of the eyes is to rely on God, and spend constant time in prayer and the Word. The only offensive weapon in the armour of God is "the sword of the Spirit" -- God’s word. Why are we studying? How do we serve God, glorify God through our studies? We need to know God’s will and direction for our lives. How do we know God’s will? By His word and prayer. Jesus knew His mission in life. That although He was the Son of God, the time had not come for Him to be exalted, rather he made himself a servant, and subjected himself to death on the cross, to glorify the Father by obeying and fulfilling His will.
Most of you know that I almost quit school in Sec 3, and go become a missionary. I had the same thinking as you, if God calls me, I’ll drop everything and serve Him, my studies is not as important as God. Only later I found out that most mission agencies require a minimum of a diploma in intercultural studies. I also learnt that our education could be a way that we could glorify God. It’s not so much study to get an A, study to get into a good school, study so that I can get a piece of paper declaring my intelligence. Rather, it’s study so that I can be an influence for God in school, study so that I can honor God with my brain, my intelligence, study so that I can learn more about God’s creation and world we live in, study so that I can glorify God. How can you use your education to serve God?
Conclusion
In conclusion, let me share with you an incident that happened just 2 weeks ago.
Recently, I had such an experience. I just started school, and needed to get a laptop. But I didn’t want to ask my mother, because I know that she would probably agree. But what happened is that she offered, and so after thinking about it, I decided to go with her to get one. Even then, you thought I would be grateful, but remember I was quite techie fanatic, so I started looking for the most coolest, fastest, most functions kinda of laptop, and was really set on getting this new Sony one. But in the end, I decided to get a cheaper one, cos I found myself asking, do I really need all those functions? Well, some of you may know, that just 2 weeks ago, God taught me a really painful lesson. I lost my laptop. Yup, I was careless, left it on a bench, and 5 minutes later it was gone. It was really a painful loss, cos I never spend on myself, and it was one of the most costly items I owned. I was really lost, was super behind on my homework and assignments, and I had to let my mother know too. Felt so bad about it, and felt so wasted, all the time I spent, all those hours on my laptop doing my essays and presentations. That week I had 1 presentation and 1 5-page essay due too. You know, after brooding over it for 1-2 weeks, I kept asking God what He was teaching me through this, people were praying for me, I even prayed for God to give the person who took it a conscience to return it. But so far no news. God really taught me not to depend so much on earthly possessions, but rather to depend and trust in God to help us through our day-to-day tasks. That such possessions are really temporal, and as much as we rely on them, ultimately our dependence should be on God to give us strength and enable us to go about our lives. It also taught me how much important was the people who supported me through this time, their prayers, and also made me slow down and realized that my walk, my solitude with Him was being compromised because I was trying so hard to keep up with my work.
To overcome the 3 Ps of Pocket money, Possessions, and PhDs, we can choose to live a sacrificial, simple and Spirit-led life, by giving, blessing and living by God’s word and God’s spirit. All Christians go through temptations, but in Christ we have the victory to overcome the temptation of the lust of the eyes, or idolatry, by committing our lives to worship God and serve Him only.
Let us pray.
In response, let us sing this song "Lord I Offer My Life".
