Overcoming the Temptations of Satan

In 1992 in the Discipleship Journal, readers ranked areas of greatest spiritual challenge to them:

Some listed pride, others laziness, others bitterness or lust.

Survey respondents noted temptations were more potent when they had neglected their time with God (81 percent) and when they were physically tired (57 percent). But notice this, the most success respondents had in Resisting temptation was accomplished by prayer (84 percent). Others said avoiding compromising situations (76 percent), Bible study (66 percent), and being accountable to someone (52 percent).

Notice that in this survey the most powerful way to overcome temptation was prayer. Today as we discuss resisting temptations, we come to a moment when Jesus was just beginning his ministry…

One day Jesus walked into the water of the Jordan river, where his cousin John had gathered with his followers. John was baptizing people in the Jordan river who desired to repent of their sins.

Jesus stepped into the water that day and approached John, and told him, you must baptize me.

John was stunned and looked at Jesus and said, “I’m the one who needs to be baptized by you.” But Jesus insisted that it would fulfill all righteousness.

And so John agreed. As John baptized him, Jesus was praying, and it says the heavens were opened. And the Holy Spirit descended like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, declaring, “this is my Son, with him I am well pleased.”

What a powerful moment! But immediately after these stunning events, Jesus would face one of the greatest challenges of his life… in the wilderness.

Have you ever been in the wilderness? A challenge comes forward. The unthinkable occurs in your life. You feel stuck. Things aren’t the way you want. You’re annoyed. Frustrated. And angry. You feel weak.

And then there it comes. A temptation, something you know is wrong, or at least you know isn’t quite right, and it begins to lure you.

Think of the fishermen, with the lure, the worm attached to the hook, dangling in the water. The enemy too bates his hook, with what he knows we are drawn to, and the temptation battle begins.

Will we bite down, or will we walk away? When we bite down, the hook is set, when we walk away, we may feel we missed something, but, what we protected ourselves from is far greater.

Jesus has experienced this kind of temptation too.

Open in your Bibles to Luke 4, starting in verse 1: “Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness...”

Jesus left the Jordan full of the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit led him, where did the Spirit lead him?

Into the wilderness.

What is the wilderness? The Bible is replete with wilderness experiences. Job after the loss of his family and wealth, Jacob fleeing from his brother, Joseph sold by his brothers into slavery, Elijah fleeing from Jezebel, Moses in the desert, and the Israelites wandering in the wilderness.

Verse 2 says, “…where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.”

There are different types of wildernesses. This wilderness that Jesus enters is a wilderness of temptation. But, this temptation we discuss today is not just any temptation, it is one plotted and staged against us, by our enemy, the Satan.

And we will specifically discuss today, how to face these challenges by battling against the enemy in prayer. Your chief weapon against the enemy is prayer.

Jesus embraced this time of testing. In fact it says at the end of verse two Jesus fasted to face these moments.

Verse 2 says: “He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.”

We’re going to talk about fasting more later in this series, but suffice to say, that when we’re facing a challenge in our lives, some unexpected problem, fasting and prayer is a key way to respond.

Notice this time of tempting would last forty days. There was a time frame. Always remember that, no temptation can last forever. The enemy is on a clock.

Who is this enemy we speak of? For that question we must go back to the beginning of history...

We understand that God made all things in the beginning. But we also understand that there is a problem in our reality, that problem is sin, and the fall. And we understand that part of that fall included the fall of the angels, servants of God who chose to disobey.

We know that according to the word of God, this world is under the control of the evil one. The new testament tells us that Satan and his demonic forces inhabit the kingdom of the air. And they engage in attempts to lead humans away from God, and influence human society to abandon God.

We know that God protects us by way of his angelic armies, angels that stayed loyal to God, and we know that we face attacks, deceptions, and temptation from demons, angels that joined the rebellion of lucifer against God.

Also, understand that demons are not free to do anything they want. They have to function within the rules of the system God has setup. If you remember when Satan wanted to test Job, he had to have God’s permission.

Satan is going to follow a playbook outlined in the word of God, from 1 John 2:16-17: "For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God abides forever".

Let’s take a look at how the devil begins to tempt Jesus.

Verse 3 says… The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

The enemy attacks with the lust of the flesh. He knows Jesus is hungry from fasting, so he tempts him to use his divine power in an inappropriate way.

We too face this temptation of the things we desire in our flesh.

We all have desires within us, for food, romance, safety and security, entertainment. But when we exercise these desires in unholy ways they can get out of whack.

We have an honest need for food, but, food can become an addiction, not because of the food itself, but because the desire within us has become distorted.

It’s the same with romance, we all have romantic desires and we fulfill them in marriage, but, through things like pornography, or engaging in multiple partners, or even things done to us, like sexual abuse, the desire can get our of control and become distorted.

The enemy will come into our lives from time to time, to tempt us to misuse the desires of our flesh. He tempts us by telling us, it’s no big deal, just once will be fine. But, it’s never just once. And when we begin down that path, it can become very addicting over time, until we have a desire within us that we can’t control.

This is most commonly illustrated I think in alcoholism. Slowly it goes from enjoying a few drinks, to increasing loss of control, to eventually I’m an alcoholic and I can’t stop. It’s deadly.

But it can be anything, it can be as simply as swearing, and now, we can’t seem to quite control our tongue, and those cusses keep flowing out.

Let’s see how Jesus responds to this temptation: (Verse 4) Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3: “Man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.”

I’m sure some of us here have secret desires that we can’t quite control. And it happened slowly over time without us realizing it. The world doesn’t tell us that such a thing is happening. They just encourage us to keep doing what feels good. That’s a deadly trap. And soon we find ourselves with desires we can't control.

But I can tell you this, God is able through Christ Jesus, to overcome and restore any desire in us that has gotten out of control.

If the enemy has corrupted our internal desires, and the good desires God gave us have grown out of control, prayer is the answer to our battle with the devil.

We come to the prayer of repentance. The Holy Spirit will guide the prayer. A prayer of repentance is a turning away from sin. Use that power phrase, "I repent Lord." Forgive me for this sin. Heal my flesh Lord. I submit to you God. Lord deliver me from this, in Jesus name, amen.

The prayer is the beginning, not the end. But, I’ve seen many people delivered, they pray, they repent. I was at a men's group, this guy was struggling with lust, and I led him in a prayer of repentance. Lord, I repent, I prayed with him, and he was delivered in that moment. He got up and hugged me. It was so exciting, he was in tears because something in him shifted during the prayer.

But what happens after is key. The temptation will come up again, but every time we say no, it builds our wall of resistance higher. Every time we say yes and fall to it, the wall comes crashing down, and we have to start over. That’s why the first few months of recovery are crucial for an alcoholic. If they can stay sober and build a few months of sobriety, particularly 1 year, suddenly, there is a far greater chance of long term success.

If you’re struggling with swearing, repent, and guard your lips, if you’re struggling with smoking, keep that door shut, pray everyday, and over the weeks, and months, and years, the victory will remain.

Next, the second temptation, verses 5-7: “The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

The Satan shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. The second lust before Jesus, is the lust of the eyes.

Satan is the god of this world, he has authority over the kingdoms. But we as Christians now have the new kingdom authority, and we are able to break the enemy’s power over regions, counties, cities, neighborhoods.

But Satan offers all this authority to Jesus, in exchange for worship.

How does this relate to us? We often desire the good things of this life. Nice cars, boats, fine jewelry, pleasant homes, property, anything we can see with our eyes. None of these things are wrong in themselves. They are to be received with gladness, says the Lord. But, we are to always keep God first, and keep our worship for God alone.

How does a desire of the eye become sin? When we want it more than we want God, or maybe better said, when it erodes our love for God, and becomes our idol.

Take the example of a young couple in love. The emotions are very powerful. But if they don’t keep their focus on God, the excitement of the romance can become the main thing in their lives. Many in our society worship romantic love like this, as the most important thing in the world. The romance desire over-rules the desire for God, and becomes an idol.

Let’s see how Jesus dealt with this temptation of the eyes.

Verse 8: Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”

Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:13 “Fear the Lord your God, serve him only…”

How do we face the lust of the eyes?

We overcome these temptations through the prayer of worship. How does this work? Worship is all about reverence for the Lord. We love Him. We fear Him. We view Him as Holy. We bow down to Him.

When I’m tempted by something of the eyes, I pray and say, "Lord you’re so much more than this thing." When I see a beautiful home and I’m tempted to desire it, I pray, and say, "Lord thank you that my mansion in heaven is of much more value."

If you’ll turn to the Lord in that critical moment when you’re tempted by your eyes and turn your eyes to the Lord, you’ll overcome this temptation.

Lord, I worship you, Lord I praise you, you are higher, you are greater, you are more desirable than this thing in front of me. I love you. Lord I fear you, I regard you as Holy. You are first in my heart. Not this thing. Lord I repent of desiring this, I worship you, I love you. I tremble before you, Lord deliver me from this temptation, in Jesus name, amen.

A great tip with this one, is to turn on some worship music ,in your car, at home, on your phone, and just start singing, start worshiping God. And your heart will re-orient and remember, the lust of the eyes is nothing compared to my God!

Now we come to the third temptation: “9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here.”

This is the pride of the life. The Son of God’s purpose was to offer his life on the cross as a ransom sacrifice for our sins. But Satan tempts Jesus to do it his own way.

Then Satan even quotes scripture in verse 10: 10 For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
11 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

This is very clever. He tempts Jesus to prove to the crowds that he is the son of God by throwing himself down, forcing God to send angels to keep him from falling.

We all also face the temptation of the pride of life. We want to be in control of our lives. We want to rely on ourselves. We want to be the god of our own lives.

It’s a very American attitude. I’m going to gain the world. I’m going to show off my accomplishments. I’m going to be the best of the best. I’m going to pull myself up by my own bootstraps.

We also can be tempted to try to do the right thing at the wrong time. Or, to try to force God to give us what we desire. God if you don’t do this for me, you aren’t really God. Or God you let me down because you didn’t make this thing happen!

We are not God. We do not get to dictate to Him what happens in our lives. He is the King. We are the servant.

The pride of life moves in when we try to force our way, instead of allowing God to have the authority.

Let’s see how Jesus handles this temptation.

Verse 12 says: Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:16, “16 Do not put the Lord your God to the test as you did at Massah.”

And what happened at Massah? The Israelites were in the wilderness and didn’t have any water. So they demanded to Moses saying, “Is God really among us or not?”

How often we do the same thing, something bad or unexpected happens in our lives, and we come to that place we never wanted to be, of being tempted to angrily ask the question: "Where are you Lord!? Do what I want or else!"

That is pride. That is the pride of life. Thinking we know better than God, and angrily demanding God prove himself to us.

So how do we overcome the pride of life? The third prayer we want to utilize against our enemy today, is the prayer of humility. 

This prayer is all about submitting under the lordship of Jesus Christ. The pride of life says we can do it ourselves. The humility of faith says I need Jesus to be my king. This is really a prayer of submission to God. The pride of life says "It’s my life and I want it my way." But Jesus is our life. The pride of life is insidious, the most deceptive of the three. It slowly works it’s way in, and convinces us we can do life without God.

Fear, anger, annoyance, pride, self, all seem to mix in here, with this sense of "I want what I want." I’ve seen it in myself, I’m sure we all have, when we’re having a tough day and we’re annoyed and angry, and we start to throw a tantrum. And in the midst of that tantrum, pride demands God prove himself or else.

But instead, let us offer this prayer and counter the pride of life with the humility that Christ taught us.

Heavenly Father, we humble ourselves. We can’t do life without you. We give you control of our lives. We tried to control it ourselves, and it didn’t work. We surrender all to you. We give you the lordship of our lives. We declare, our life is in you Lord Jesus. Be our King forever. We reject the tyrannical reign of self. We trust you in the wilderness, in Jesus name, amen.

We get a detail in Matthew 4, which recounts this same encounter in the wilderness, in which at the end Jesus commands the devil: “Go away from me Satan!”

And then verse 13 in Luke says, “When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.”

In conclusion today, I want to underline for all of us that Satan’s time is limited. He can only tempt us for so long. As the word of God tells us, 1st Cor 10:13: “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”

If you believe you are being tempted by the devil, I want you to “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Then pray out loud, and command the devil “in the name of Jesus Christ, go away from me!”

Notice it says Satan left until a more opportune time. I believe that moment was when Jesus was on the cross, and someone said, “If you are really the son of God, come down from the cross.” (Matthew 27:40).

When we’re in the wilderness, we all want the suffering to stop. But we must trust in the Lord. Remember the three prayers we talked about today...

The prayer of repentance, when we see in ourselves a disordered desire, we can pray and ask the Lord to forgive us, repent, and the desire in us shifts, giving us a road of repentance to travel down.

The prayer of worship we can utilize when we’re tempted by the beauty of the things of the world, we can immediately turn our eyes to God, and worship Him, and remind our soul that it’s all about Jesus, and He is greater than anything in this world. 

The prayer of humility helps us to reject the pride of life, humble ourselves, submit to God, surrender all to Him, and allow God to be the king of our lives. We let go of control, we set aside pride, and we allow fear, and annoyance and anger to die at the feet of Jesus. He is our life.

When you face the lust of the flesh, remember Jesus is the way. He will guide you through.

When you face the the lust of the eyes, remember Jesus is the truth. He will show you what life is really about.

When you face the pride of life, remember Jesus is the life. Real life is found in Him only. 

Bold and Persistent Prayers

Growing up did you ever read the book Owl Moon by Jane Yolen? It was my absolute favorite. I asked my mom to read it over and over when I was a kid. It tells the story of a little boy whose father takes him out into the woods to go owl watching. It always mystified me as a child. 

I loved it and I wanted my dad to take me out to do the same thing. And I kept pestering my parents, and finally one day, I think with my moms help, my dad took me out one night to try to spot owls. And as we walked around through the woods, we saw an owl. And I believe that was a gift from the Lord. But I was persistent. I kept after my parents over and over and over, until finally they agreed.

That’s what we’re talking about today, persistence, and in particular, persistence in prayer.

During Jesus’ life he often spoke in parables, a story that explains a deeper spiritual truth. I remember when I was minister in The Salvation Army we went through a series studying every parable Jesus ever taught, and wow, did it open up a deeper spiritual realm to me.

Today we’re going to look at two parables that Jesus taught, that both illustrate different factors about prayer.

We’ve begun a new series to start the year, Jennifer began us down that road talking about dangerous prayers, then last week, over the livestream we discussed the Lord’s prayer. Now today, we look at two heart positions we should take in prayer.

The best prayers are not from the mind, in fact most anything in our Christian faith is meant to affect mainly our hearts, not just our minds.

Do you allow the truths about God into your heart, to affect your emotions, your decisions, your deepest sense of self, or are you stuck analyzing them in your mind? Let the word of God into your heart. Let the sermon affect your heart. That is where lasting change occurs.

So it is also with prayer. The best prayers, the most powerful prayers are a heart cry, something that goes from the heart, out of the mouth and up to God.

Open in your Bibles to Luke 18, and we’ll be looking at verses 1-14.

The first thing to notice here, Luke, gives us the reason why Jesus told the parable.

Verse 1 says, “Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.”

So what’s the reason? That they should always pray, and never give up.

Who is Jesus speaking to? His disciples.

When should we pray? Always.

Should we ever give up on our hopes and dreams in prayer? Never.

That is an extreme word, always pray. Not often, non consistently, but always.

Your whole life, saints, can be a continuous prayer to God. Sometimes I’ll just think about someone, and long for them to be saved, I was thinking about Joe Rogan the other day, and I was just praying in my mind that God would save him. Then I was thinking about Christopher Nolan, the creator of Interstellar, Dunkirk, and the Batman remakes, longing for him to be saved, those thoughts can become prayers to God in our minds at any time.

Whenever you’re fretting about something on the news, something in politics, something with your family, even with your own mental health, turn it into a prayer request. I used to sit there and fret and worry; I’m a Christian, make it a prayer! Lay it before God. He will answer.

Second extreme word: Never give up. My grandma prayed for me for so many years, she almost gave up, when I got in trouble again in 2012, a friend of hers told me about it, then she got the news, a few months later, I’d gotten baptized.

Jesus is going to give us a parable to help us understand what this means in a deeper way.

Next, verses 2-3: He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. 3 And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’

So we’ve got a judge, someone appointed to make decisions on legal cases. But this judge doesn’t fear God or care what people think. 

And we have a widow, someone who in this historical context would have no power, and very little standing in the community. Women, and particularly widows were powerless in ancient Israeli society.

We are like the widow, powerless in regard to our adversary, the evil one, left with only one option, to petition for help. The widow has direct access to the judge, just like we have direct access to God. The widow came boldly, we should do the same.

Notice the heart of the widow, she is persistent. She doesn’t care that she is perceived so lowly in this society. She is truly in a desperate situation, because normally a widow would not appear in court, she would have a male representative, either her father, her brother, her husband, or her son. The fact that shes appearing herself proves how desperate her situation is.

Yet despite all this, her desperate situation creates this boldness. “I’ve got nothing to lose, I’m going to keep coming to this judge over and over.”

Her heart is bold to come to the throne over and over. And this is beautiful to God. Boldness, whether it’s born from desperation, or sorrow, or whatever birthed it, it’s result is beautiful, we’re told in scripture to come boldly to the throne of grace, just like the widow.

Next, verses 4-5: 4 “For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, 5 yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

The judge refuses at first. But finally, he gives up, and gives the widow justice against her enemy. He fears the widow will ruin his reputation, most likely.

What does this mean for us? Is God unjust? Does he not care? Is that why we have to pray so often? Of course not.

For things on Earth there is often a time delay, because God works within the system he created, free will. If you pray for someone to be saved, God isn’t going to snap his fingers and make them saved, he’s going to bring about experiences in their lives, people they meet, that will slowly lead them toward Jesus. Things on Earth take time. Now don’t get me wrong, sometimes God does answer instantly, in certain situations it is possible. Sometimes when we pray for someone to be healed, they are suddenly healed, the cancer is gone, other times it doesn’t happen that way.

If we are persistent in our heart, not giving up, not becoming weary, we will receive an answer from the Lord.

It is easy, if we’re not careful, to become weary with praying. We pray for a few years, and nothing seems to happen, so we start thinking prayer doesn’t work, but it’s not true.

Guard your heart brothers and sisters, don’t give up on prayer, be like that persistent widow, coming again and again to the throne of God, petitioning. Trust God’s timing, not your own.

And yes, even trust if God doesn’t provide the answer you desire.

Next,6-7: 6 And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. 7 And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?

Jesus says listen to the words of the unjust judge. The judge is worried about his reputation. For the Lord God almighty, he is longing to show His glory (His reputation) to a lost world through the answers he provides to your prayers.

Jesus reminds the disciples: God will bring justice for his chosen ones! If they cry out, day and night, if they are persistent even when life seems crazy, and grace is needed. He will not put them off as the unjust judge did. He will answer.

What do you do when you’re down? It was the 2017 Superbowl, and the Patriots were playing the Falcons. At the end of the 3rd quarter the Patriots were down 28-3. I watched an interview with Tom Brady their quarterback, and he had to make a decision, am I going to give up, or am I going to go to the end? He chose to give it his all. And they came back, 28-9, 28-12, 28-20, and they won that game 34-28.

The persistent widow never gave up. She didn’t just sit at home and say well it’s over. Her heart I’m sure was overwhelmed, depressed, miserable, bitter, wanting to give up, but birthed from that came a holy boldness, I’m going to strike out, no matter the cost, I’m going to keep going, and never give up.

There’s a scene in the Fellowship of the Ring, LOTR reference here, where Frodo is going to have to leave with the ring, Aragorn says goodbye to him, and turns, and finds he’s surrounded by enemy troops, orcs all around him, and what does he do? He launches off right into the midst of them, and starts swinging, fighting with all his might.

It’s like that for the body of Christ, when we’re in retreat the enemy takes us out, shoots arrows at us, hits us in the back, and we fall. But when we’re marching forward, it doesn’t matter how few of us there are, God gives us the victory! Choose boldness!

In these last days in which we live, we’re going to see darkness get darker, we’re going to see chaos and confusion, we’re going to see growing evil, but we must refuse that internal desire to flee, instead, like Aragorn, like Tom Brady, like the persistent widow, we must march out into the battle spiritually, and overcome the enemy, by refusing to run, but striking out with righteous abandon.

A bold heart is what we need, that sees chaos all around us, and says, you know what, every time the enemy hits me with something, I’m going to pray even harder. I’m going to dig in even deeper in prayer.

Then your deeds will be remembered for all eternity in the halls of paradise, in remembrance of the dark days in which we persevered, and the glory that God showed through us.

The enemy wants to try to create circumstances in our lives to poke our weak spots, so that we give up. But the best way to respond to those enemy attacks, is to strike out even harder, pray even harder, read the word even more, witness to even more people, and eventually the enemy will realize, this isn’t getting me anywhere. They just keep serving God and praying even harder.

Jesus next makes a fascinating declaration:

8 I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

God will see we get justice and quickly. Often it won’t take as long as we thought. But then he asks:

“Will I find faith on the Earth when I return?” Jesus knew that as we approached the end times, things on Earth would get harder and harder. He warned that the love of many would grow cold.

I think we get a key to surviving through the perilous times in which we live, Jesus I think is telling us, if we want to continue in the faith to the end, through tough times, we should utilize this form of bold and persistent prayer to God, over and over, until we receive the answer.

Persistent prayer is like a road we travel down, continuing on and on along the years of our lives, never giving up, always praying about all things, and enjoying the answers to those prayers.

It’s just the same in our faith walk overall.

Persistent faith is also like a road we travel down. And by the spiritual choices we make, we walk down it. We must persist to the end to receive the prize, which is the salvation of our souls.

The second parable is called “The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.” We’re not going to spend too much time on it, but I felt it tied beautifully in with our theme today.

It says this: (verse 9) "To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable."

Jesus addresses some of us who have been believers many years, who may feel tempted to think we’ve got this thing down. We know what we’re doing. We’ve got it figured out. And he’s going to challenge us to change our thinking.

We all battle pride from time to time, particularly as Americans, we have so much material abundance and frankly we Americans tend to be know it alls, we think we’re right and we’ll explain to you why if you want to know.

Next verses 10-11: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.”

Two men: One, a Pharisee, a religious leader of that time, thought of as holy, righteous good, and true. Second, a tax collector, working with the Romans, taking money from the poorest people, often collecting more than was owed to enrich themselves. Hated, and considered a terrible sinner.

The Pharisee prays and compares himself in the prayer to other people he thinks of as less than himself.

Verse 12 says, “I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’”

He cites all the things he does for God, he fasts weekly and tithes as well.

What is the attitude of his heart? He thinks of himself as better than others. His focus is on himself. His heart is looking not up at God, necessarily, but at himself, his life, the things he does. He is so focused on himself, and how good he is, God is an after-thought. It’s really all about Him. That is a heart of pride, constantly looking at ourselves.

In prayer, the focus really can’t be ourselves and our own needs. That may be surprising. But I think we often view prayer as, God needs to come in and fulfill my checklist. But that is not the purpose of prayer at all.

The goal in prayer is not just to make endless requests to God on different topics, the goal in prayer is, through intimacy we discover the will of God. Our mind is then filled with a checklist quite different from our own, it is the agenda of God. And we begin to instinctively know it as we spend times in deep prayer and study of His word.

The Pharisee was so focused on himself, he missed the agenda of God. Sometimes we do the same thing.

Begin to change how you pray, instead of always going to that list of things you want, begin to keep it open ended: Lord, what do you want me to pray about? Holy Spirit prompt me. Pretty soon, God will bring to mind an old friend, pray. God will bring to mind the riots in Minneapolis, pray. He’ll bring to mind victims of domestic violence in Traverse City, pray. He’ll bring to mind a sin in your life, pray. And now, we’ve found the heart of true prayer, where the focus in on God’s purposes, not just our own. But trust me, God also cares about our desires too. It just needs to be second to His.

The Pharisee missed the heart of God, what about the tax collector?

Verse 13: “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

The tax collector just like the widow was bold, even though the tax collector was hated, he was willing to come to the throne of grace. Many stay away when they’re in sin, fearing they’ll burst into flames if they walk into church, but the tax collector understands the heart of God, he knows he can come boldly and request mercy.

He was repentant, beating his breast for the things he’d done. His prayer was simple, God have mercy on me! And he receives it. This is exactly how we need to pray for our family, our friends, our neighbors, our enemies, and everyone in this world.

Lord, have mercy on them! They’re a sinner, we know that, but God you are so full of mercy on sinners, lead them to your son Jesus Christ, lead them into your loving arms God. Knowing you is the most amazing thing that has ever happened in our lives, we want that for them too, please God, not because of anything they did, but because of your own mercy, please save them, in Jesus name, amen.

“Lord, have mercy.” I encourage you in your prayers always return to that simple praise. This type of prayer greatly pleases God, it’s humble, and it appeals to His own infinite grace and mercy. It’s the only standing we have to hope in, that God grants mercy to lost sinners.

Lastly, verse 14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Notice the heart of the tax collector, it’s a heart boldly coming to God, meek, in submission, yielded, lowly. It’s all about the heart. Submit to him. Surrender all. This is a humble heart position.

Let’s tie it all together today.

Prayer is most powerful when it comes from the heart, not only the mind. Remember the persistence of the widow, who never gave up, and resisted the desire to become weary. The powerlessness of the widow actually caused her to come even more boldly. She knew, my only hope is God!

God is building within each of us a heart of determination, a heart that keeps praying no matter what, a heart that looks to Him for His agenda not our own, and a heart that surrenders all, humbly yielded to the Lord almighty, seeking His mercy and forgiveness for lost people. 

Always pray, never give up, stay humble, and your heart will grow to be like the heart of Jesus.

Lord, Teach us to Pray

Lord teach us to pray.

It’s such a simple phrase. The disciples wanted to understand the mystery of prayer.

We all need to learn to pray. And what prayer really is.

If we went around this chapel today we’d find people at so many different points in their prayer journey.

The main thing we all have in common though, and is we all need to grow in this area, and understand the true power behind prayer.

So we begin a new series, where we’re going to study prayer. We’ve gone through the healing journey, now, it’s time to focus in on prayer.

It is titled The Power of Prayer: Learning from the Master.

I hope you’ll make it your goal during this series to develop your prayer life in deeper ways.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, but it’s not enough to hear a good sermon, or read a good bible verse, or have a nice prayer. But do you know when Christianity really happens? It’s when we hear something in a sermon or read something in the Bible, and then we think you know what, I think I can do that, and we take the idea, and we do it.

Jesus said blessed are those who hear my words and do what they say. And Jesus said if we just hear and don’t obey, we’re deceiving ourselves.

But I think I understand the difficulty with prayer. Many I think look at prayer and say well God already knows what I need, God controls everything, God is sovereign, so why should I pray, if God wants it to happen, it’ll happen.

Yes, God can do anything he wants. But God has chosen to give us authority to pray. Don’t fall into this trap of thinking that it doesn’t really matter if you pray or not. Because it does. God answers our prayers. We are here on Earth as His body. And he works through us. And the simple fact is, if you don’t pray, it may not happen, that healing, that salvation for a loved one, your prayers will change the world. Because God has chosen to set things up that way. Because he wants you to take responsibility for your family, your friends, and this world, to pray. And if you don’t, nothing changes.

Did Jesus pray? Yes he did. He prayed deeply and consistently. Which means if Jesus was utterly dedicated to prayer, we should be too. Unless we think we’re better than Jesus, and don’t really need it?

Our scripture for today is found in Luke 11:1-13.

Starting in verse 1: "One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

Jesus was out in some quiet place praying, talking with His heavenly father, and one of the disciples came to him.

Lord, teach us to pray.

Is this the cry of your heart as well?

If it’s not, I understand. Sometimes our priorities get out of whack. And we need to ask ourselves: What really matters most in my life? Is it television shows and scrolling on my phone? Or is it communicating with the Creator of the universe?

Make this your prayer, if you struggle to pray… Lord, I admit I don’t care about prayer the way I should. I struggle to pray. Lord, have mercy on me. Change my heart. Cause my heart to long for prayer, in Jesus name, amen.

Jesus responds by saying, verse 2, “When you pray, say..."

And I’m going to switch over to the New King James translation for the prayer, because I think we all know this version much more so than other modern translations.

"Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.”

Jesus gives us instructions on prayer, and we just begin to get a taste of it here.

Our Father. When you speak to God, call Him your Father. That is the level of intimacy we ought to have with God. Do you see God as your Father?

He loves you so very deeply. And he wants to fill that space in your life, of a perfect Father.

Holy is your name. God is more than a Father to us in the prayer realm though. He is Holy. Which means Perfect, Righteous, Set apart. God is not just our Father, he is our Creator and our God and our judge. So we must view him this way, as the Holy one.

He is our Father who loves us, he’s also our God who is righteous, and will judge the living and the dead one day. He is not like us, he is Holy Other, very different from us.

As the word says, "your ways are not my ways says the Lord our God." (Isaiah 55:8-9)

Your kingdom come, is the request God wants us to make in prayer. Ask God for His kingdom to come in this world, as it is in heaven. That’s present, and it’s future. It’s a desire for manifestations of his kingdom system in our city, as well as calling on God to bring the ultimate fulfillment of His kingdom, which is the new heavens and new earth.

Your will be done, on Earth as it is in heaven. Is God’s will always done on Earth? No it’s not. Ultimately we know God’s purposes prevail on a large scale. But the holocaust wasn’t God’s will. A car accident isn’t necessarily God’s will. A hurricane isn’t God’s will. For me to commit some sin isn’t God’s will. But it happens when we live in a sinful world. So God calls us to pray, and ask for His will to be done. And then take actions consistent with that desire.

Verses 3-4 are as follows:
"3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
4 And forgive us our sins,
For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.”

Verse three is the request for continued provision. This can be requesting actual physical food from God, but I think it also means requesting spiritual food from the Lord as well. Again, he wants us to ask.

Notice we also see the request to forgive us our sins, which tells me this is an ongoing process. This is a prayer we’re so supposed to repeat as Christians daily. We know our past sins are forgiven. But what about future sins we commit? We need to ask forgiveness, if we sin today or tomorrow. That’s why it says in the “Our Father” forgive us our sins.

Often when I pray I stop and ask the Lord to reveal any sins I may have committed recently, so I can specifically ask His forgiveness.

Second part of verse 4, is the principle of forgiving others. If someone sins against us, we’re told we must forgive them. Jesus even said, if you don’t forgive others their sins against you, I won’t forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:14-15)

When I pray the Our Father I often pause at this section of the prayer and ask the Lord to help me forgive anyone I’m holding something against.

Praying we see so far gets into two areas, seeking God to know Him and obey Him, and self examination, looking at ourselves and our needs and turning to God for help with those needs.

And the prayer concludes: “And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.”

One of the most challenging situations we face as Christians is when we come into temptation. Often there is a sin in front of us, and we simply walk by and ignore it. It doesn’t harm us. 

But sometimes given certain circumstances, we “fall into temptation.” It’s almost like falling into a swamp. And what once wasn’t a big deal, now begins to swirl around in our minds, and we begin to feel drawn to it, we know it’s wrong, but the emotions are powerful, the draw is powerful, and once we end up here, it’s hard to resist the temptation. We can end up falling to it.

If you recall, Jesus when he was in the garden of Gethsemane, he had told Peter that Satan desired to sift him like wheat, but Jesus had prayed for Peter that his faith would not fail. But that night Jesus knew Peter would be tested. So he kept urging them to stay awake with him and pray, but they kept falling asleep. So, when Peter faced his temptation to deny Jesus, indeed he denied Jesus three times. He fell to the temptation, but that wasn’t the end of the story, because Jesus restored him afterward. And he repented.

All that to say, that we should pray, and ask God to not lead us into temptation, and God will respond to those prayers with deliverance from temptations in key moments. Again, if we don’t pray, we’re going to have a much harder time.

These are the basics of prayer. I know many of you are probably thinking, I already know this stuff, but, as this series continues we will go deeper and deeper.

After Jesus taught his disciples this powerful prayer, he gives them a parable to explain another key aspect of prayer.

Verses 5-7: Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’

We have a scenario in which a man comes to a friend at midnight, and asks for bread for someone who is visiting him. And it appears the friend may turn him down.

Verse 8 says, “8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.”

The friend of this man, wakened up late at night, annoyed and tired, opens the door and gives the man everything he needs, the loaves of bread and all, not because of friendship, but because he’s so impressed by the audacity and the intense desire of his friend. So he gives him all he needs.

This is a key principle in prayer. And Jesus explains it in verses 9-10:

9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Keep knocking on that door. We are the ones in need. God is our powerful friend. God gives us this picture to remind us to be audacious and bold in our prayer requests. Believe for amazing things. Believe for huge shifts in society. Pray for the end of abortion. Pray for your loved ones to get saved. Pray over the war in Ukraine. Pray for your nephew to get into the right college. Pray for the situation in Iran. Pray for Venezuela. Pray for shifts in our political system. Pray for your waitress at the restaurant. Pray for a sin in your life you feel like you can’t ever be free from, and God will do the impossible.

But it’s key that we’re called to keep praying. Persistence is key. We pray for a week and get upset when it doesn’t happen. We pray for a month. We pray for one year. God thinks differently than we do. His timing is different than ours.

Prayer works through never giving up, and always continuing to pray.

Next, verses 11-12: “ “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?”

Here the Lord Jesus gives us another comparison of God as our Father. If I asked my dad for dinner is he going to give me a rock? Of course not.

We are God’s children, he knows how to give good gifts to His children. It reminds me of that famous scripture from Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”

God is working for our good. His goal is not to hand us a scorpion or a snake. Sometimes it can feel that way in life. In the earth realm we face all sorts of problems and difficulties. So, sometimes it feels like this problem is from God. But it’s usually not from God. Sometimes it could be, as a trial or test of our faith, but overall God’s desire is to give us what we need, for our good, and His glory. He is Father, we are children.

Lastly verse 13, “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Though we are evil in comparison to God’s infinite goodness, His perfect holiness, God gives this basic comparison so we understand God desires to give us good things. But always remember he expects persistence in prayer. That’s why he gave us the parable about the friend at night.

God also wants boldness at His throne. Dare to make big requests. Dare to make outrageous requests.

We all know how to give good gifts to our children. My parents growing up gave me many wonderful gifts. God knows how to give us good gifts.

Jesus gives us an interesting statement next, he says... how much more will the Father give you the Holy Spirit if you ask.

This is a great mystery about prayer. But if we can learn this principle, our prayers are going to have power. They will indeed have the power of God.

We are told in scripture in several places to "pray in the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:18, Jude 1:20). Often times when you hear someone giving a beautiful prayer, it’s not because they figured out some beautiful thing to say, it’s because as they were praying, they were speaking in concert with the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit, who is God within them, was guiding the words of the prayer. And we often sit back and think wow, what a prayer! Well that was God.

We have the Holy Spirit living within us as Christians. But here we’re told to ask for the Holy Spirit. So everyday I will include in my morning prayer, Lord I ask the Holy Spirit to fill me today, to lead me today. Ask for the Holy Spirit’s activity in your life everyday.

When we pray by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the prayer takes on a life of it’s own. It surges with the power of God. We pray things we shouldn’t even know about the person we’re praying for. We perceive things in the Spirit.

I know things about some of you, because the Spirit reveals it to me as your pastor, and I pray over those things.

How do you pray in the Spirit exactly? It’s kind of hard to explain. One thing I’ll do is as I start praying, I’ll invite the Spirit to lead. Then as you pray, focus on God, and you’ll simply know things and you’ll begin to pray them out loud as the Spirit leads.

When we pray we go into a spiritual realm, where we commune with God, and we hear the voice of the Spirit, and we simply pray out His will, if we’re yielded and surrendered.

So in conclusion today, I want to share two key takeaways from our message today.

First, prayer is powerful because it causes our connection with God to flourish. We will flourish in prayer if we chase it, pursue it, keep seeking, keep knocking. And we will begin to glow with the power of God in our lives.

But I’ll tell you this, my wife can take one look at me and she knows if I’m spiritually prayed up or not. She can either see I look drained and cranky and a bit empty, or I look at peace, strong, and locked in.

There is so much value in prayer in building our connection with God, but remember this, it restarts each day, and our choices for each new day determine how spiritually connected we will be.

Remember this: One day at a time. Make spiritual choices.

Most of us understand this I think, but we often stop there.

But second take away, prayer changes the world. We as the church of Christ on Earth are like Jesus’ representative body on the Earth.

And I want you to think about it like this, every time you register a prayer with God, it’s like you’re issuing a vote in heaven, on how things should be on Earth. And the one receiving your vote is able to institute the most amazing things you could imagine. But when you don’t pray, you aren’t voting. So as the pollsters say, please vote!

We know that prayers change the world. Many of us have seen it in this church over and over and over. It’s real. It’s powerful. It’s true. And it’s God. It’s not us. We aren’t casting spells with our prayers. We’re petitioning the one able to do the impossible.

And in this series we’re going to see so many applications for prayers, in prayer we can go deeper with God, we can experience His presence, we can change and influence world events, we can see people healed, we can fight the devil, we can prayerfully overthrow principalities, and we can see ourselves overcome sin and shortcomings. Let’s go on this prayer journey together, and see how God flourishes our spiritual lives through it!

The Awe & Wonder of the Journey of the Wise Men

Mystery, awe, wonder.

Three men, in an ancient observatory, looked up into the night sky, filled with intrigue. Filled with desire. Filled with a longing they could not explain.

It seemed their entire lives had led up to this moment. This longing had pulled them from the time they were young, wondering, what is really going on in the world? What is the meaning of life? What is the purpose of all things?

Why does tragedy occur? Why does the night sky inspire me so much? What is this draw in my soul toward something beyond this world? Is there someone who could change this world, and change me from within?

They gazed up in awe at a new star that had risen in the night sky that night. And they knew nothing would ever be the same again.

From Matthew 2:1-2: “2 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem 2 and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”

Somehow these magi, these wise men from the east knew that this bright light in the sky was leading them to Israel. Somehow they knew it signified the birth of a king.

The most likely explanation, from a biblical perspective, is that the light they saw, was a supernatural sign created by God to guide them.

This “star” rose in the skies over Israel, and these three wise men, knew, perhaps from a dream, or a vision from the Lord, to make a long journey to Israel to inquire of the location of the birth of the messiah.

How do we today fit into this saga? What does it mean for us?

I remember growing up, I was maybe 4 or 5 years old, and I stopped for one moment on a beautiful summer day, and I thought to myself, “Why am I here? Why do I exist?”

Over our lives, through the prism of hundreds and thousands of different experiences, and I think of my own experiences... riding four wheelers at the farm, digging in the sandbox as a child, watching the twin towers fall on 9/11, reading books about fantasy and adventure, exploring forests, Christmas family get togethers, bullying in school, losses of loved ones, scraped knees, and quiet moments watching sunsets, a pull begins to take us, drawing us toward a realm unseen.

It’s a desire for a country we’ve never been. It’s the hunger for something bigger than our experience in this world. And it’s something as we begin to experience God, and His Kingdom, that we begin to get small tastes of here and there, of that world beyond this world, that owns our deepest desires.

The magi may be chasing a star, but they are ultimately chasing a desire within themselves, a desire which God has placed in every human heart. The desire for eternity, as it says in Ecclesiastes 3:11, God has placed eternity in the human heart.

That is why you are here, you are drawn by a power that you can’t quite explain, to long after the mystery of the birth of Jesus. Our hearts resist it at first, but what if it really is the meaning of behind our lives?

Let us then go together tonight, chasing toward the Lord, with the wise men, as they make their journey to Jerusalem, the capital of Israel.

Verses 3-4: "3 When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him. 4 When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Messiah was to be born.”

The wise men ask Herod about the newborn king. And Herod is disturbed. In fact the entire city is disturbed.

The reaction from Jerusalem is not a positive one. And that’s not surprising. When Jesus was an adult, preparing to enter Jerusalem he said, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you…" (Matthew 23:37)

Herod is troubled, because the birth of a king is a threat to his kingship.

This is why many, many people are not willing to let Jesus be the Lord of their life. They are the lord of their life. They are in control. They do what they want to do. And that’s power. Unfortunately, with us as the lord of our life, our lives falls apart. I know from experience.

That’s why it’s so important to raise our children in the Lord, then they never have to go through the trauma of trying to build their own little kingdom, and then watching it crumble all around them.

We make a bad god over our own lives.

But I think what happens is, the enemy lures us in with pleasure, power, good feelings, and encourages us to build a world around ourselves. We get hooked on addictions, and pleasures, and invested in self-based pursuits. And once the enemy has us there, on our own little throne, but he’s actually the one in control, we’re so deep into our own little kingdom, that when we see the offer of Jesus, we don’t want to give up what little we have, and have a king over us that’s not us.

So Herod asks the religious leaders where the messiah is to be born. Here is their response: (v. 5-6) 5 “In Bethlehem in Judea,” they replied, “for this is what the prophet has written: 6 “‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for out of you will come a ruler
who will shepherd my people Israel.’”

The location is of course Bethlehem. And here the religious leaders quote Micah 5:2, 4. But notice, the messiah is said to be the shepherd of the people. And what does a shepherd do?

He leads the sheep. With his shepherd staff, the sheep follow the leading of the shepherd, and the shepherd protects the sheep in times of danger, and even rescues them when they wander off.

We were all searching so hard for something beyond ourselves. Something greater. And when we found it, it at first was a bit hard to swallow. Because we wanted to be in control. We wanted to run our own lives. But we remembered where that got us, it didn’t go well. So, we gave our lives to Jesus, to let him be our shepherd, to shepherd us toward heaven, the news heavens and new Earth. And in that place, we believe we will ultimately find fulfillment of the hunger for eternity in our souls.

Next we see a secret meeting between Herod and the Magi, verses 7-8: “7 Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared. 8 He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.”

A secret meeting in the dark of night, at least that’s how I picture it, in the king’s chamber, oddly quiet, few servants around, and Herod urges the Magi to go and search out the city of Bethlehem.

We’re seeing a powerful contrast between Herod and the Magi, Herod is scheming, rejecting the new king, trying to learn information from the Magi, but the Magi are honest seekers, hungry to know the truth about who this new king really is. We see the Jewish authorities very much resistant to the messiah, and gentile strangers from foreign lands seeking the messiah.

Where do we fit in this? Well, we either seek to protect our own power like Herod, or we honestly submit to the messiah. Even after becoming a Christian, this is an ongoing question in our lives: Will we begin to take our will back? Or will we continue to seek the messiah, and return again and again to our first love, which is Jesus himself?

If you’ve found in yourself a resistance to Jesus lately, a distance growing, a desire to control your own life, lay it at the altar tonight, submit yourself afresh to the Lord, and return to your first love. For Jesus loves you.

Next, verses 9-10: “9 After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.”

Can you imagine what this must’ve felt like? They had seen a star before, but now, they are headed to Bethlehem, and the star appears again, this time it moves ahead of them, as they follow it. I think my head would be spinning. I’d be thinking.. Is this a dream? Is this really happening?

They follow the star, which reminds me of how we follow God’s leading.

Let’s put ourselves in this moment. We see in the natural the wise men are following a star, to find the newborn messiah.

But now think about someone who doesn’t know about Jesus, but then they hear the gospel. This begins a journey similar to the wise men, of groping in the dark toward God. It’s like following a dim light in the distance, and slowly, we pursue it, not sure even what it is, but, as we get closer and closer it becomes clear, Jesus is really real.

Now think about for a Christian, someone who is reconciled to God by Jesus, we are on a journey too. We follow the leading of the Holy Spirit. See when one believes in Jesus for salvation, they receive the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity to come and live within them. And by the Spirit, we receive guidance from God, I like to call them divine nudges, and so we continue to follow the Spirit as if it were that star in the sky the wise men were following. That is our journey to heaven.

So then the “star” stops over the house where Jesus is. Can you imagine? Wow. It stops in mid air! 

For the magi, the appearance of the star causes them to be overjoyed. I know when I sense a divine leading of God, and follow it, the result is joy. God’s leading in all it’s awesomeness, really will lead us back over and over again to a person, to Jesus himself.

Next, verse 11: “11 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.”

The magi arrive, and find Mary and the newborn Jesus, and they worship Him. Only God may be worshiped. How do we know Jesus is God in human form? He was worshiped in his life, over and over.

They gave the family gifts, gold representing Jesus’ royalty, Frankincense representing Jesus’ priesthood, and myrrh representing Jesus healing ministry, as well as his future death and resurrection.

What was the purpose of these gifts? Many have speculated that these gifts would’ve been helpful when Mary and Joseph had to flee to Egypt after Jesus’ birth. But we don’t really know how they were used.

Lastly, verse 12: “And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.”

One last supernatural experience, a dream given by God to one of the wise men concludes the miraculous events we celebrate each year over Christmas.

The wise men discover from God that they should not report back to Herod, so, they take another path back to their homelands, forever changed by their experiences on that fateful journey to Bethlehem.

In conclusion tonight, after encountering Jesus, we return to our lives, forever changed. I remember in 2012 when I received Jesus in my heart, one of those church services, I came back home and looked around that same home with new eyes.

After some new adventure with God, we still live our lives day by day, same people, same family members, similar connections, same stores we go to, but we start to see everything differently. Because we may have gone home, but Jesus came with us, we are new, and nothing will ever be the same.

I’ve read many books, had many experiences, had overwhelming experiences, went to parties, traveled different places, studied different philosophies of life, but no matter what I studied or what experience I had, I always came back the same person, but, when I gave my heart to Jesus, and named Him as savior of my life, everything changed. Why? Because God changed me. And nothing else can compare to that. It’s real.

Like the wise men that fateful night… chase after God. Seek Him diligently. Explore who Jesus really is. And when you’re ready, call out on His name, and He will change everything. And the new adventure begins. For those of us already on that adventure, continue to seek Jesus, follow His Spirit’s leading, and He will take you deeper and deeper into spiritual depths beyond your imagining.

Like the many stars in the sky, our lives shine in the darkness of this world, as a witness to the lost world that Jesus really is real.

The awe and the mystery of Christmas is the joy of knowing the God who made us. Let him light the fire of the Holy Spirit within you. And if your flame is getting dim, let him restoke that fire within you afresh.

As they say, wise men and women still seek Him. Merry Christmas!