INTRODUCTION:
Get up…eat breakfast…head to work…work all day… return home…eat some supper…watch a little tv…go to bed… and then repeat those same steps tomorrow.
Some of us may have a few more steps; some of us may have a few fewer steps. No wonder people ask the question: “Is this all there is to life?” And it’s not just unbelievers who ask that question; there are many who know Christ as their Savior that ask that same question.
God tells us in John 10:10 (NKJV)
10 … I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
God says there is more; and if we don’t see it; or more so, if we are not living that way then we are missing something. We saw the first week; we can miss that “more” by sticking to the routines of life and not listening to the calls of God on our life. God interrupts our routines of life and calls us to do certain things, and if you are not open to Him, then you may miss them. Then last week, God showed us that this world wants us to live in spiritual blindness or at the very least a spiritual fog rather than seeing with clarity. But God calls you and me to spiritual clarity so that we can have “more.”
Today, Jesus is going to show us the third way that you and I miss the “more” out of life. There is a script for our life, and it is called the will of God for our life. I don’t know what your individual script is for your life, and you don’t know the script that God has written for my life, but both your script and my script line up with the Word of God. By attempting to go off script, and we have the free will to go off-script, we move from the “more” of the Christian life and settle for a lot less. Let's look at how we go off-script.
SCRIPTURE READINGS
Romans 12:2 (NKJV)
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Matthew 4:1-11 (NKJV)
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.
3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."
4 But He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' "
5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple,
6 and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you,' and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.' "
7 Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.' "
8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
9 And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me."
10 Then Jesus said to him, "Away with you, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.' "
11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Reality television! Everybody is watching it from Survivor, Hell’s Kitchen, The Biggest Loser to Intervention, to name a few. Even the President of the United States had an unscripted show, The Apprentice. In the year, 2000, there were only four reality shows on all the networks. But the year 2010, the number had grown to 320 shows, and by 2015 there were 750 unscripted shows on TV. And I would dare say that the number has increased since 2015.
Here is the thing: we like things off-script because we feel that there is more excitement. A scripted love story we know that the guy will get the girl in the end. A scripted detective show, we know the good guy will get the bad guy in the end. We don’t know how the unscripted is going to turn out.
And just like we are drawn from the scripted to the unscripted in our tv viewing, the world tries to move us from the scripted plan of God for our life which is His will for our life to an unscripted life which now focuses not on God but me.
And when the world succeeds in moving us from the Scripted plan of God for our lives to the unscripted, we lose the “more” of what Jesus offers us in this life.
POINT #1
THIS WORLD WANTS YOU TO LIVE YOUR LIFE UNSCRIPTED; GOD WANTS YOU TO LIVE YOUR LIFE SCRIPTED.
Have no doubt about it; this world is doing all that it can do to move Christians off the script that God has for their life to an unscripted plan. The writer of Romans obviously felt the world was winning this battle, so he commands the Christians in Romans 12 not to conform to the world but conform to the script that God has for their life. So people can see the good and perfect will of God carried out in your life
Now, I want you to think about the time right after Jesus’ baptism by John when He was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. There is a plan for Jesus’ life, a script for His life, to carry out the will of God for His life. The devil knows that; so, he attempts to take Jesus off-script and to follow an unscripted plan for His life. And the way He does that we need to be aware because those are the same ways the world attempts us to get us to go off-script.
POINT #2
GOD WANTS YOU TO LIVE YOUR LIFE SCRIPTED BY HIS WILL FOR YOU, BUT THE WORLD ATTEMPTS TO HAVE YOU GO OFF-SCRIPT BY TELLING YOU THAT YOU CAN HAVE IT NOW.
2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.
3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."
Part of God’s Script for every one of our lives is patience; it is waiting on God and His timing.
Psalm 27:14 (NIV)
14 Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.
In our Scripture, we are told that Jesus is hungry. That makes perfect sense. He has fasted 40 days. Who would not be hunger after 40 days? And the first thing the devil does is come to him and says: “you can eat now. You don’t have to wait for God; you can have it now.” Just turn these stones into bread.
Think about how many Christians get off script because they want it now rather than wait for God. The world bombards you with commercials telling you can have it now. Take delivery today, and don’t make a payment to next year. The world will tell you that you can have it all, now! I buy on Amazan Prime for one reason; what I order today I can get in two days. I may even pay more, but that is OK because I want it now.
And so this world attempts to use that “now bottom” to get me off Script for God’s plan for my life. Think about what you are wrestling within your life that “you want now.”
POINT #3
GOD WANTS YOU TO LIVE YOUR LIFE SCRIPTED BY HIS WILL FOR YOU, BUT THE WORLD ATTEMPTS TO GET YOU TO BRING ATTENTION TO YOURSELF INSTEAD.
5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple,
6 and said to Him, "If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you,' and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.' "
7 Jesus said to him, "It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.' "
If Jesus had thrown Himself down from the top of the Temple where there would have been thousands of people to see it; it would have brought Him instant success. Everyone would have known His name. He would have drawn so much attention to Himself.
After church, if you go home and watch pro-football, you watch these grown men make a tackle or catch a pass, and then they get up and do some type of childish act to say to everyone, I tackled him or caught the pass. And I think to myself, that is what they pay you to the big money to do. But what are they doing? They are bringing attention to themselves.
God’s script for our life is not to bring attention to us. It is to bring attention to the Father and His Son. Jeremiah 9:24 (NIV)
24 but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD.
POINT #4
GOD WANTS YOU TO LIVE YOUR LIFE SCRIPTED BY HIS WILL FOR YOU, BUT THE WORLD ATTEMPTS TO HAVE YOU GO OFF-SCRIPT BY TELLING YOU THAT YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL BUT FAILING TO TELL YOU IT WON’T LAST.
8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
9 And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me."
Do you know what the devil forgot to tell Jesus something? Oh, by the way, one day, You are going to destroy this earth, and it will be no more. He never told Jesus what I am offering you is only temporary. And that is how the world gets us to go off-script. It offers you the temporary rather than the eternal.
When I bought my new Jeep two years, the salesman told me how great my Jeep was. He never once said to me that it will not stay new. In about five to seven years, parts will start to break. The air condition will not blow as cold. He never once told me that the temporary newness is not going to last. He wants me to assume that the car I buy from him today will last forever.
God’s script for my life and your life is that the things I do for Him will last forever. Listen to what He says:
Matthew 6:19-20 (NIV)
19 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.
CONCLUSION
IF YOU WANT THE MORE OUT OF LIFE, YOU CANNOT LET THE CALL OF HAVING IT NOW; OR THE ATTENTION THAT THE WORLD WANTS YOU TO RECEIVE, OR THE TEMPORARY THE WORLD OFFERS KEEP YOU FROM PURSUING THE MORE OF LIFE.
