You Can Have Victory Through Jesus

You Can Have Victory Through Jesus

Matthew 4:1-11

Matthew 4:2 - Matthew 4:11 (HCSB)

1Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil.£ 2After He had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, He was hungry. 3Then the tempter approached Him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4But He answered, “It is written:

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

5Then the Devil took Him to the holy city, had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, 6and said to Him, “If you are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:

He will give His angels orders concerning you and,

they will support you with their hands

so that you will not strike

your foot against a stone.”

7Jesus told him, “It is also written: Do not test the Lord your God.”

8Again, the Devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9And he said to Him, “I will give You all these things if You will fall down and worship me.”

10Then Jesus told him, “Go away, Satan! For it is written:

Worship the Lord your God,

and serve only Him.”

11Then the Devil left Him, and immediately angels came and began to serve Him.

Prayer

I hope that God has blessed you this week as he has blessed me. Have you ever thought about all the things God does for you each and everyday. There are too many to counts. God just continues to pour blessing after blessing on us even when we don’t deserve it. Why even when we were lost and blind God continued to bless us. One He kept us alive so we could hear about Jesus. Two HE sent His Son for our blessing. We did not deserve it but Jesus died to pay our sin debt, so we do not have too.

So why do we walk around mopping? Why are we depressed? I hear Christians who say that they feel like they just can’t accomplish anything. That everything they touch or do goes wrong. They feel like Satan is attacking them and he is winning. Satan can beat us. But he can’t defeat Jesus but he can defeat us. When we face him in our own strength, when we don’t bring Jesus to the fight with us Satan will win. We can’t overcome Him in our own strength. We are too weak and he knows all our weak points. He knows exactly what will tempt us if we face him alone.

There are 3 types of people in this world there are the saved, then you have the saved but backslidden, and then there is the lost. Now the saved are walking that close walk with Jesus and they have a personal relationship with God. In fact they go nowhere without Jesus. They are holding tight to his hand. Satan doesn’t bother to show up for the fight he knows that he has already lost.

Then you have the backslidden Christian. They are saved but they have lost that personal relationship with God because of un-confessed sin in their lives. They are walking without Jesus facing the world alone. Satan comes after them with every temptation that he has. He is sure to show up for this fight because he knows this is one that he can win. Without Jesus we are powerless against him. They finally you have the lost Satan doesn’t even have to fight them they are already his. The lost soul is caught up in the pleasures and temptation of this world. He or she believes the lies of Satan. There is no such thing as God. When you die that is just it you cease to exist. Jesus can’t save me He may have been a good man but He was not God. I must clean myself up before I can come to Christ. Or finally I have plenty of tie and many, many more lies.

So many allow Satan to win because they either don’t have Jesus or they have him but they refuse to let Him lead and block Satan’s attacks. This morning I want us to examine the victory we can have through Jesus which is ours if we are willing to claim it. Satan tempted Jesus. He knows how it feels to be tempted. He can understand the struggle we go through with temptation. Jesus overcame Satan’s temptation not in His human power but in the power of God. Satan tempted Jesus in three areas that we as humans are the most likely to fail.

Jesus had fasted for 40 days and 40 nights and Satan comes as says if you are really who you say you are then turn these stones into bread. I know you are hungry so use your power and make these stones bread. What could it hurt? Who is going to see it? It is just turn rocks into bread and you are so hungry? Jesus had a choice to make God was watching He would know the choice made. Jesus could use His power and get something to eat. He must have been extremely hungry. Or He could follow God’s will and depend on Him. Yes Jesus knows the physical temptations that we face because He faced them. Maybe we are weak when it comes to drink, food, sex, what ever causes us physical satisfaction. If we face those temptations alone we will fail we must face them with Jesus because HE has already over come it and we can have victory also through Him.