Father of Heaven, Universe, and beyond. Lord we humbly come before you flawed and missing the mark of your plans. Lord, please forgive our many sins, as we learn to forgive others in life. Thank you for all of your gifts of life! Please teach us to use them in your service. Amen!
Message: Lost in a World of; TV, Hype, and Me!
I almost titled today’s message Testing, Tempting, and Progressing On, but thought that sounded to typical, so I kept on thinking. Then I thought of maybe trying “It’s better to burn out than to fade away”, using the voice of the bad guy in the movie Highlander, but that would have put me in Pastor Time out. Again! So, here we are with Lost in a World of; TV, Hype, and Me!
Apply put I might add. When one thinks about all the stuff that exists out there to distract, sidetrack, and outright detract us from our goal of following in our Lord’s footsteps a little more each day. Making our faithwalk in and with the Lord and our faith family, sometimes daunting. It’s outright overwhelming some days.
Today marks the first Sunday of Lent in much of the Christian Church around the world. Today many Christians will study and reflect on the struggles our Lord faced for forty days out in the wilderness standing up to the temptations of Satan, and the human condition. And so, I thought today would be a great opportunity for us to look at the adversities that you and I face in our day to day lives. At hardship in general, and how we can rise to the challenges at hand, by using examples given to us in scripture, by our Lord.
I guess the first thing to keep in mind when we are facing our adversities head on, is for us to consider that we are not alone. That this corrupt time in which we live, is like all the corrupt times before it. Populated with selfish, guilt-ridden, acquisition minded, addicted, egocentric, narcissistic people, who are afraid of their own shadows, for a multitude of reasons.
The Lord really was on to something when He instructed in the Sermon of the Mount from Matt. 5:11-12;
11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
And yes, they did, and so they will again in the form of you and I. Not because it’s a conspiracy against you, but the human condition to fight against the rightness of God. Being fallen people in a fallen world means that the free choice so many of us employ in this life, leads to hardship for many, including the people we care about.
This is just what our Psalmist was contemplating in today’s Call to Worship reading. By the way, our Psalmist is not thought to be David, but one of the Temples Workers (a Priest or Levite), who wanted to give a word of assurance to Godly Worshippers, and offering encouragement through adversity. Reading again from, Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16;
1 Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High
will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
*Or in Hebrew; El ShaddaiThe Lord Almighty that introduced Himself to Abraham, and walked with him through a lifetime of adversity, challenge, and adventure on an epic scale! Continuing with verse 2;
2 I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.”
**Side Note; This has a ring like David’s Psalm 18:1-3, where David sings to His Lord after being delivered from the hand of Saul, David begins His song of thanks by saying;
1 I love you, Lord, my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
3 I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,
and I have been saved from my enemies.
David knew adversity, and yet his strength was that he persevered, and kept coming back to God in spite of his continuing missing the mark in his own faithwalk. A lesson we must remember when we have screwed up, and are feeling hopeless. We must cling to the fact that our Lord is our fortress and rock of salvation! Now, back to today’s Call to Worship and our nameless author of Psalm 91:9;
9 If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”
and you make the Most High your dwelling,
10 no harm will overtake you,
no disaster will come near your tent.
11 For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways;
12 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
13 You will tread on the lion and the cobra;
you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
Side Note again; And we know this to be the case, because the Lion and Serpent are indeed the Devil, Satan, and we have scripture to confirm him as such, first through
1 Peter 5:8:
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
Followed by the passage in scripture where Satan is rebuked by God and foretold his place in the scheme of things at the fall of mankind, when Satan egged on Eve’s disobedience to God. Depicted in, Geneses 3:14-15:
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all livestock
and all wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
And God’s history unfolds as foretold by the Majesty in Heaven, described in scripture, and reflected by the history of humankind. Now back again to our nameless Psalmist, continueing in verse 14;
14 “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
15 He will call on me, and I will answer him;
I will be with him in trouble,
I will deliver him and honor him.
16 With long life I will satisfy him
and show him my salvation.”
And indeed, God is there. He has been there for those who have called upon Him countless times. Many times, in ways that are beyond our comprehension, due to the fact that God is playing a long game in history, as we search for instant gratification in everything.
As a side note, I would refer you to the ongoing battle God continues to triumph over against the forces of evil. The Devil who knows his scripture will even recite Psalm 97: 12 when attempting to temp the Lord in the wilderness during Jesus’ trials.
Reading one more time;
12 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
And so, it is with God in today’s Message Reading, that our Lord was foreordained to confront and triumph over all forces of evil in this world and beyond. It is our Lord’s leadership through example in the following passage, that we learn how to stand up to the temptations that come from Satan, the world, and most forcefully from ourselves, from deep within us.
Judge for yourself as we read once more the challenges, temptations, and triumph of our Lord. Reading again today’s Message Reading from, Luke 4:1-13
1Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
*Side Bar; When praying, when reading scripture, when meeting in Church and beyond, if we ask our Lord for His Holy Spirit, asking to be full of His Spirit, we will stand on the firmest foundation there is in the universe. God is our ongoing refuge; we realize this fact when bathed in His Spirit. By the way being in the Spirit does not necessarily mean we won’t feel hunger, pain, sadness, hurt, strife, and angst. The Spirit is God walking with us during those verry times of challenge. Even when we are presented with all kinds of rational to sin, or by our placing God on trial, when the trials in life are actually ours, shared with Him. Continuing with verse 3;
3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”
5 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.”
8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
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. 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.’”
**Side Bar Again; As mentioned earlier, the Devil knows how to manipulate our emotions, and even scripture for selfish gain as reflected when he quotes Psalm 91:10-11. Unfortunately, so does mankind. To include us, when we cherry-pick scripture to win petty debates of the moment, when the long term struggles for eternity must be our focus. Finally, our Lord encapsulates the whole debate with Satan, by quoting Deuteronomy 16:6. Reading again verses 12-13;
12 Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
Keeping in mind, that even when we in our own battles with temptations, are victorious, the battle continues. Satan has not given up, as we just read; “When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.” The war continues.
So many people falsely think that if they make a deal with God, if they go to church, pay their tithe, sing hymns on tune, say the right things, everything will work out just fine. They won’t have to go through testing and temptation, challenge, hurt, pain and loss. That God, the church, and everyone else will owe them one. Only to be devastated because their gaming of God and other people didn’t pan out. Go figure!
That game plan doesn’t only deny reality, it places your Lord in a corner within your mind, and keeps God, and your family in the Lord from actually sharing your life with you, and walking through challenge with you. You see, you mature and get stronger with each skirmish you, God, and your family survive together. That’s a Faithwalk. And it aint pretty sometimes, but can result in supreme beauty lasting into eternity.
As we reflect on the temptations our Lord did battle with personally for 40 days in His wilderness, today serves a prelude to the time coming upon us. We will travel together you and I through a journey called Lent. In Old English the word lengthen (because the days are getting longer thank goodness), and these are the 40 days leading up to our Passover; Easter.
We will as a church reflect on how the Lord’s life was a living example for each of us. Showing us how it is possible to get closer to God in our walk in this life, even when life is often tragic, heart wrenching, messy, and outright hard at times. How it will be different for each of us, and yet, just right because it’s your life with Him! Even when your life less than you or God wanted for you.
This is due to our being fallen people in a fallen world, and yet our lives are a masterpiece of potential. We will look at those possibilities in the weeks to come. But for now, I think it good to remember that in the midst of being side tracked by endless distractions from the TV, and the hype that comes from everywhere in our lives including ourselves, God wants to walk through those temptations with you. You are not alone!
It is me hope and prayer for each of you, that you may grow in him, in the weeks to come, as you overcome being; Lost in a World of; TV, Hype, and yourselves.
Amen!
Benediction; 2 Corinthians 3:17-4:1
17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplatethe Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit…
4 1Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.
Amen!