“DON’T GO SOLO
WHEN YOU’RE FEELING OH SO LOW”
MATTHEW 4:1-11
4:1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit
into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
2 He fasted forty days and forty nights,
and afterwards he was famished.
3 The tempter came and said to him,
"If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread."
4 But he answered, "It is written,
'One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"
5 Then the devil took him to the holy
city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple,
6 saying to him, "If you are the Son
of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, 'He will command his angels concerning you,' and 'On their hands they will
bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"
7 Jesus said to him, "Again it is
written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
8 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, "All these I
will give you, if you will fall down and worship me."
10 Jesus said to him, "Away with you,
Satan! for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"
11 Then the devil left him, and suddenly
angels came and waited on him.
Every
now and then, someone says something that changes your life forever. It happens
when the doctor looks up and says, “Congratulations, it’s a girl.”
It happens when the minister looks at you and says, “I now pronounce you husband and wife.” It also happens
when your spouse says, “I’m sorry, but I don’t love you any more, and I want a divorce.” It happens when you answer the phone and your brother says, “I’ve got some bad news. Mom was killed today in a snowmobile accident.”
All
of a sudden your world is turned upside down and inside out. No matter how hard
you try to figure it all out, it just doesn’t make any sense. You know
what that’s like right? Isn’t it amazing how a few simple words can leave you feeling helpless and hopeless? Jesus had one of those life changing moments.
It happened in the wilderness when the devil came to him in a moment of weakness and whispered a few tempting words
in his ear, not once or twice, but three times.
“Jesus,”
the devil said. “Turn these stones into bread.”
“Jesus,” he said. “Throw yourself down from the pinnacle
of the Temple so God can rescue you and show everyone that you’re a really
important guy.”
“Jesus,”
he said, “I’ll give you all the kingdoms of the world if you bow down and worship me.”
Jesus
found himself in the middle of a crisis and in that crisis he had to make a decision.
Was he going to live his life with or without God? Was he going to go
it alone or go with God? By the time the dust settled Jesus answered that question. He answered it with a series of definitive
declarations.
“It
is written,” Jesus said, “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”
That settled the first temptation.
“It
is written,” Jesus said, “you shall not tempt the LORD, your God.”
That settled the second temptation.
Then
there was the third temptation. Jesus settle it when he said, “It is written,
you shall love the LORD your God and him only shall you serve.”
That’s
the decision each of us has to make. Am I going to go through life with or without
God? Am I going to go it alone or go with God? Now some people do decide to go
it alone. If you take that path though you better make sure that you have a picture
perfect life. You better make sure that you have a life that’s all sunshine
and no showers; a life where bad things never happen to good people.
That’s
not going to happen of course. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor.
It doesn’t matter if you’re young or old. It doesn’t
matter if you’re the smartest person on the face of the earth. Every now
and then something bad is going to happen that’s going to leave you feeling like you want to scream. A teenager knew what that was all about when he answered the phone one day.
“Good afternoon,” the caller said. “I represent the
Society for the Suppression of Profanity. Our goal is to take profanity out of
your life.” At that point the teenager put the phone down and hollered
to his father in the next room. “Hey dad,” he said, “there’s
a guy on the phone who wants to buy your car.”
Life is full of headaches and heartache. Life is full of problems and
predicaments. There’s always going to be the dilemmas and the occasional
disaster. So, the best thing you can do of course is live your life with God.
It’s
amazing though how many people decide to go through the trials and the temptations without God. Or, they turn to something
else that they think will get them through the tough times. They turn to alcohol
and drugs. Or they try to escape the pain by pulling the credit card out so they
can go shopping for an expensive new gadget or gizmo. Or, they just sit down
and just feel sorry for themselves.
None
of that really works of course. Eventually, the high wears off and the credit card bills begin to add up. Feeling sorry for yourself doesn’t do you any good either.
Eventually, the people around you get tired of hearing you cry and complain and they start avoiding you.
The only solution that really works is to live your life with God. Doing
that though means you have to work on your relationship with God. You have to take the time to be with God when life is good
so you can be sure that God is with you when life isn’t so good. You can’t just have a casual relationship with
God.
When that happens what you end up with is a person who looks a lot like the woman who threw a temper
tantrum one day while sitting in her car. It happened when the driver in front
of her stopped to let a pedestrian walk across the street. While he was doing
that though the stop light went from green to red and the woman had to wait. Well,
she didn’t like that at all. So, she let the driver in front of her know
exactly what she was thinking. She honked her horn and started screaming at the
poor guy. Then while she was gesturing at him in a very uncomplimentary manner she heard a tap on her window. When the woman
looke
immediately made her get out of the car. Before she knew it the woman was on her way to the police station.
As soon as she got there she was searched, photographed and fingerprinted. A
couple of hours later the officer went to the woman’s cell and apologized. “I’m
really sorry for the mistake,” he said. “When I pulled up behind your car though, you were really giving it to
that guy in front of you. I heard you cussing and cursing and honking your horn. Then I saw the bumper sticker. The one
that said, “What Would Jesus Do” and figured you had to be driving a stolen car.”
That’s the kind of faith that isn’t going
to get you very far when you’re facing one of life’s trials or temptations.
That’s why you take the time to work on your faith. That’s
why you take the time to deepen you’re relationship with God. You take
time to be with God when life is good so you can be sure that God is with you when life isn’t so good.
You do that so you don’t loose hope when you loose
your job.
You do that so you can continue to love when a child or
a friend disappoints you.
You do that so that when the phone rings and you find
out that you’re never going to see your mother again you can find peace in the promise that you will see her again in
the life to come. You do it so that when your mother or your husband or a child
suddenly dies you know that the Apostle Paul was right when he said,
Lo! I tell you a mystery! We will not all sleep, but we
will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead
will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal
nature must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall
come to pass the saying that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is thy victory?
O death where
is thy sting?”
…thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ.” Amen.
Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes
February
13, 2005
