Putting Things Before God

If you don't toot your own horn, who will? Have you ever heard that before? Let's face it, we really enjoy those moments when good things happen to us. We feel good when we've accomplished something. And with those good experiences, we naturally want to tell others about it. Unfortunately, in the process of telling others, our words can easily turn into, "LOOK AT ME!" We don't have to say those exact words, but it can come across as exalting ourselves.

Along comes social media. These sites are overrun with posts that make the person look really good. And the more “likes” a person gets for what they have said, the better this person feels. But exalting yourself is deceiving and doesn't hang around long. What happens when our next post doesn't get as many “likes”? Then we feel defeated.

Today we're going to talk a little bit about exalting ourselves above God or putting something else before God. Jesus was tempted to exalt Himself in a way that was not right. Of course, Jesus certainly deserves our praise and exaltation, but He would not seek it in a way that was outside of God's plan. As we think about this temptation that Jesus faced, I think we'll discover the joy that comes with making more of God than we do ourselves. Prayer.

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If it's one thing we Christians can look forward to, it's living in the presence of Christ in His kingdom for eternity, amen? This Kingdom was actually prophesied and promised centuries before Jesus came to earth.

Isaiah 9:7 – “The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Armies will accomplish this.”

Daniel 7:14 – “He was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, so that those of every people, nation, and language should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will not be destroyed.”

Let's keep these two passages of Scripture in mind as we look at the third attempt by Satan to tempt Jesus. If we were truthful with ourselves, we would admit that we can be tempted to worship things other than God. The devil had tempted Jesus twice now, but he wasn't finished.

Matthew 4:8-9 – “Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 And he said to him, “I will give you all these things if you will fall down and worship me.”

Let's think about this temptation for a moment. Satan tempted Jesus with something that had already been promised to Him. So, it makes us wonder where is the temptation in that? The temptation came in that Jesus could take the kingdoms of the world at that moment without delay and without the road to the cross that lay ahead of Him. Satan offered Jesus a shortcut: the rule and reign of a kingdom without having to experience suffering.

We know that Jesus's rule over all the kingdoms of the world is a good thing, but to chase after it instead of being obedient to God would have been wrong. So once again, Jesus rejected that offer and responded by citing another truth found in the law recorded in Deuteronomy 6. We'll look at that in a moment.

So, Satan tries to tempt Jesus with the promise of earthly kingdoms and material splendor. Satan does the same thing with us. He is cunning. He offers us good things, even things that are already promised to us, but he tempts us to get them in sinful ways. We see something similar in Jesus's parable of the lost son. The son had an inheritance waiting for him, but out of selfishness, he wanted his father to give it to him immediately.

IDOLATRY

Many times we equate idolatry with worshiping images made of wood or metal, but idolatry happens whenever we place anything ahead of God. We can even make good things idols. When we take something good and place it ahead of God, that is wanting something more than God, and that is the definition of idolatry.

But heads up! Satan is still very much in the business of idolatry today. His goal is to get us to worship anything other than God. He wants us to bow down to these things because he stands behind them. When we bow down to them, we bow down to the devil. It was D. L. Moody who said, "If I walk with the world, I can't walk with God." That is so true. God is asking us to refuse the temptation to worship anyone or anything other than Him. So what does Jesus do?