October 9, 2025 • 57 mins
Are you tired of losing the same battles over and over? Do you feel surrounded by walls of temptation you can't seem to break through?In this powerful episode, "These Walls of Temptations," Pastor Tim Smith reveals that these struggles aren't random!
They are a calculated, demonic assault on your God-given identity. Discover the three primary walls the enemy uses to trap believers: the Wall of Appetite ("I gotta feel it"), the Wall of Affirmation ("Look at me"), and the Wall of Ambition ("I'll do anything to get it").This isn't a message about simply "trying harder"; it's a masterclass in spiritual warfare. Learn how Jesus dismantled every attack not with feelings or logic, but with the supreme authority of God's Word. This is more than a podcast; it's a battle plan for freedom.
Our challenge to you is this: If this teaching equips you, don't keep it to yourself. Share this episode with at least one person you know who is in a fight. Help us arm the saints for victory!
If this message touched your heart or challenged you in any way, we're asking you to pass it along. Share it with someone in your life who needs to hear it. Your willingness to share doesn't just help us it extends God's Kingdom. It plants seeds. It opens doors. It points people back to Christ. That's the real mission. So don't keep it to yourself. Let it travel. Let it matter in someone else's life. Love & Need Ya!!!
🎧 New episodes drop every Friday | Available on: Spreaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio
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Pastor TIm: pastortim@kingdomchicago.org
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They are a calculated, demonic assault on your God-given identity. Discover the three primary walls the enemy uses to trap believers: the Wall of Appetite ("I gotta feel it"), the Wall of Affirmation ("Look at me"), and the Wall of Ambition ("I'll do anything to get it").This isn't a message about simply "trying harder"; it's a masterclass in spiritual warfare. Learn how Jesus dismantled every attack not with feelings or logic, but with the supreme authority of God's Word. This is more than a podcast; it's a battle plan for freedom.
Our challenge to you is this: If this teaching equips you, don't keep it to yourself. Share this episode with at least one person you know who is in a fight. Help us arm the saints for victory!
If this message touched your heart or challenged you in any way, we're asking you to pass it along. Share it with someone in your life who needs to hear it. Your willingness to share doesn't just help us it extends God's Kingdom. It plants seeds. It opens doors. It points people back to Christ. That's the real mission. So don't keep it to yourself. Let it travel. Let it matter in someone else's life. Love & Need Ya!!!
🎧 New episodes drop every Friday | Available on: Spreaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, iHeart Radio
👉 Like, Subscribe, and Share
Pastor TIm: pastortim@kingdomchicago.org
Brothers In The Word - Facebook
Brothers In The Word - YouTube
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to brothers in the Word. Have you ever felt
trapped surrounded by walls of temptation that seem impossible to
break through? What if I told you those walls are
not random. They are a strategic, demonic assault on your
God given identity. The enemy's goal is to make you
forget who you are by attacking your appetite, your need
(00:25):
for affirmation, and your ambition. In today's teaching these walls
of temptations, you will learn that this is a spiritual
war that cannot be won with your feelings or good intentions.
You need a spiritual weapon. Pastor Tim Smith provides the
blueprint for victory, showing how Jesus demolished these same walls
(00:45):
with the sword of the spirit, the Word of God.
This isn't just a sermon, It's a battle plan. Get
ready to be equipped.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
The city is back up. That's your fancastic God. I
need you to do me a favor. Please like, love
and share. That's the only offering that I'm asking you for.
Grab your Bible, open your notes to app take detailed notes.
Get ready shout out to Shannon. Our power word for
this teaching is identity, and I need you to write
(01:15):
that down identity. Make sure you have something to write
with we're going I'm gonna give you a lot of
notes identity, I D E, N T I T Y,
because this is what I need you to understand as
we get ready to go into this lesson. Every attack
from the enemy is a case of mistaken identity. He
only has power when you forget who you are and
(01:37):
whose you are. So before we even get into the
main event, we're going to be looking at Matthew chapter four,
verses one through ten. But before we get to the
main event, we have to understand the prequel. You can
appreciate this fight until you hear the declaration of war.
So I want to start in Matthew chapter three. We're
gonna look at verse sixteen and seventeen, and I'm gonna
(01:57):
read it for you. Says this. When Jesus was baptized,
immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the
heavens were open to him, and he saw the Spirit
of God descending like a dove and coming to rest
on him verse seventeen. And behold, this is God speaking.
A voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son,
(02:19):
with whom I am. Well, please now I want us
to look at this, and I want you to understand
what's happening. We're at the Jordan River, because this moment
right here, there's no other moment like this in scripture.
This is going to shift everything because the thing that
(02:41):
I love about this is that it's so descriptive. The
heavens don't just open. The heavens crack open. They don't
just crack open, They rupture. The Father doesn't just send
a memo. He doesn't whisper some gentle affirmation into Jesus' ear.
Now God roars this declaration. He roars it across the cosmos,
(03:02):
and in this moment, every demon in Hell heard exactly
what God said. Every angel in Heaven stood at attention,
Every principality and power felt the shockwave of that announcement.
This is my beloved son. That's not a suggestion. That
declaration is not up for review. And then he doesn't
(03:24):
stop there. Oh no, it gets better, he says in
him I am well pleased. So I need you to
understand what just happened. God, the Father just went public
with his delight. Jesus is not wondering if he measures up.
He's not questioning his identity. He's not checking his spiritual
(03:44):
resume to figure out if he's qualified. No, he steps
up out of that water. He's drenched, not just in
H two O, but in the underluted, uncut, unfiltered approval
of all Mighty God himself. So what is this saying
to us? Jesus is secure in his identity, he is
(04:04):
sealed in his identity. He is sun God just sunned him. Now.
I want you to watch this, because you would think
after that kind of heaven sent confirmation, you would think
Jesus would be heading off to a celebration. You would
think Jesus would be popping champagne bottles. He would maybe
hold a conference, maybe set up a speaking tour. Come
(04:27):
here from the one who was just endorsed by Heaven.
But no, I want you to look when we step
over in the verse four because that's where the I'm sorry,
in chapter four, because that's where the warfare is. I
need you to hear this. The Bible says over in
verse four that he is led by the spirit, the
same spirit that descended on him like a dove. That
(04:49):
same spirit is now going to drive him into the wilderness,
not to a vacation not to a retreat, not to
a victory. Lab He is going to drive Jesus into
the valley of satanic assault. Now you got to ask yourself,
why would God do that? And I need you to
understand this. God will absolutely allow you to be led
(05:14):
into a situation that forces you to cash the check
that his mouth already wrote over your life. Will you
be the same person in the wilderness that you are
in church? See, there was a declaration that God made
at the Jordan River, and that was the promise of sonship.
(05:35):
This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
But that wilderness, oh no, that wilderness, that's the performance
of sonship. There's a difference between the two. There's a
massive difference between God saying who you are and you
living like you believe it when all hell is breathing
(05:56):
down your neck. The wilderness wasn't to discover his identity.
He had already had that locked in at the Jordan River.
The wilderness was to demonstrate what was already true when
everything around him in that wilderness is screaming otherwise. And
I need you to recognize something. That's the pattern promise first,
(06:20):
then the proving ground. We all have to go and
stand on the proving ground in the wilderness. The wilderness
is not a punishment. The wilderness is in fact proving ground.
So I want to clear something up too before we
get started, before the enemy even starts playing with your mind.
(06:46):
Understand this, Jesus is about to be tempted. But I
need you to get this understanding. Being tempted is not
a sin. To everybody write that in the check. Being
tempted is not capital not is not a sin. I
need you to catch that because Satan is out here
(07:08):
trying to make you feel like you need to take
a spiritual shower every time a wrong thought pops into
your head. He wants you walking around feeling condemned. Remember
Romans chapter eight, verse one. There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. He wants
you to feel dirty. He wants you to feel the
shame just because the thought showed up. You don't have
(07:30):
to feel dirty. That's a lie from the pit of
hell and it probably got sent to you with the
express shipping. Now I want you to understand this about temptation.
Temptation is not a reflection of your character. You know
what temptation is. Temptation is a reflection of your humanity.
You know how I know because the Bible says over
(07:52):
in Hebrews, chapter four, verse fifteen, and it makes it
undeniably clear. The Bible says over in Hebrews four fifteen
that we have a high priest, that high priest, his
name is Jesus. And the Bible says this about our
high priest, Jesus. It says that he was in all
points tempted as we are, yet with our sin. I
(08:15):
need you to hear that Jesus was tempted. The sinless
son of God got tempted. So if the enemy is
trying to make you feel guilty just because temptation knocked
on your door, you need to tell the enemy, bro,
you tried it with Jesus too, and it didn't work.
(08:36):
Because I need you to understand there's a massive difference
between the knock and the invitation. Temptation is the knock.
It's not a question of if temptation comes, it's when
temptation comes. If I had to rename this lesson, it
would be the anatomy of temptation, because temptation is going
(08:58):
to knock on your door. Temptation is going to knock
on my door. Temptation is going to knock All of
us can get it when it comes to temptation. I
just need you to understand that. But now here's what
you also need to get in your spirit as well.
Sin is when you open the door to temptation. Sin
is when you open the door, pull up a chair,
(09:20):
make it some tea, and say, hey, get comfortable, let
me show you around. That's when we got problems. But
the knock itself, that's just to prove that you're still breathing.
That's just to prove that the enemy still sees you
as a threat. Because if he wasn't worried about you,
he wouldn't waste his time with you. So stop letting
(09:42):
the devil make you feel defeated before the battle even starts.
Jesus was tempted and he stayed sinless. You know what
that means for you and I. That means it can
be done. That means that we can get the victory.
And He's going to show us exactly how to do it.
So with the same spirit that raised him from the
(10:03):
dead is living inside of you. Then you know what
that says that says we have back up. The temptation
is the test. Sin is failing the test. Please get
the understanding of the two. Temptation is the test, sin
(10:23):
is failing the test. So Jesus entered the wilderness show
you and I once for all that it's possible to
face the worst that the enemy has to offer and
still walk out clean. So your charge is this, I
want you to learn how to fight back, not with
your feelings, not with your emotions, not with your logic,
but I want you to learn how to fight back
(10:45):
with the word of God. You ready, Let's get it now.
I got to read these verses. I got the latest foundation,
and then we're going to circle back around and then
we then we're going to chop up these verses. So
I'm going to be reading Matthew chapter four, verses one
through ten, and I'm going to be reading this out
of the ESV version. Are you ready? Then Jesus was
(11:08):
led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be
tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and
forty nights, he was hungry, and the tempter came to him,
came and said to him, if you are the son
of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.
Underline that word, if, if you are the son of God,
(11:29):
command these stones to become loaves of bread. But he,
Jesus answered, it is written. Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that comes from the
mouth of God. Verse five. Then the devil took him
to the Holy City and set him on the pinnacle
of the temple, said to him, if you are the
(11:50):
son of God. Underlying that word, if again verse six,
if you are the son of God, throw yourself down,
for it is written he will command his aim angels
concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up.
Let you strike your foot against a stone. Jesus said
to him again, it is written you should not put
(12:12):
the Lord your God to the test. Verse eight. Again
the devil took him to a very high mountain and
showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
And he said to him, all these things I will
give you if you fall down and worship me. Then
said Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, be gone, Satan,
(12:36):
deuce peace out, for it is written you shall worship
the Lord. You're a god, and him only shall you serve.
We got a lot. It's a lot in this but
I want you to see verse one. I want you
to pay attention to as we move along with this text.
Verse one says Jesus was led by the spirit. Now
(12:56):
I need you to let that marinate in your soul
for just a minute. Spirit the peraclet the comforter. He
was not protecting Jesus from the test. He was leading
Jesus to the test. And I know that just messed
with somebody's theology right there, because some of you are
in the wilderness season right now, and you think God
(13:17):
has forgotten your address. No, he hasn't forgotten your address.
He has given you an assignment. He has enrolled you
in the graduate level course of spiritual warfare bucal up.
And you're a professor of this course. Your professor for
this curriculum is the devil himself. Verse two says the
(13:40):
physical stage. Bible says forty days, forty nights. Forty is
a number of testing. So for forty days and forty nights,
Jesus has no food. He's hungry. And this isn't the
I miss my lunch kind of hungry. This isn't I
need a snicker bar hungry. This is a primal, cellular,
(14:03):
agonizing weakness. Every part of his human body, of his
human body, is screaming for relief. Some of us can
go just a few hours without something to eat, and
then after that we gonna we're gonna start moving some
furniture of somebody. Don't don't feed us. Imagine he went
through this for forty days. I need you to understand
(14:26):
the weakness in his body. And that's when the temper comes.
That's when the devil shows up. You know why he's
showing up at this particular juncture because he is a coward.
He never fights you fair. He waits for you to
be at your breaking point. Hungry, angry, lonely, and tired.
(14:48):
That's the acronym for HAT for halt, Hungry, angry, lonely,
and tire. And that brings us to the first wall
in this lesson. These walls are temptations. Wall number one.
If you take a note, the wall of appetite. I
gotta feel it. The wall of appetite, I gotta feel it.
(15:08):
So the devil slithers up. He's smelling weakness, and you
know what he says. He says to Jesus, if you
are the son of God, command these stones to be
to become bred. So right off the bat, you know
what he's doing, same thing that he does with Jesus,
the same thing he does with you. He's questioning his identity.
(15:31):
And I want you to look at the diabolical brilliance
of that first word. If Satan heard the declaration that
God made concerning his son in Matthew chapter three, verse
sixteen to seventeen, he heard it just like everything else
in the cosmos heard it. But what he does, He's
(15:53):
going to take the father's exclamation point and he's going
to twist it into a demonic question mark. God just
declared this is my son. And now Satan sliitzes up whispering.
But are you sure if you really were the son
(16:13):
of God with a loving father, let you starve like this, Jesus,
you out here in this wilderness, you done lost weight?
You ask she you have nothing to eat? And you say,
your Father in heaven it's providing for you. And what
this is is this is ancient gaslighting. Satan is trying
(16:37):
to make you doubt the last thing that you heard
God say. And I want you to see how he
operates because he's very ruthless with this. If you are
the son of God, that's the identity crisis right there,
and that's what he's after. He's after your identity, the
challenge to authenticate your sonship through performance. He tells Jesus, Okay,
(17:01):
your son, command these stones to be turned to bread.
That's the appetite appeal, that's the lust of the flesh.
It's the temptation to give your god given authority to solve.
Get this a legitimate problem. This is a legitimate problem
that Jesus is having right now. He's hungry. Okay, what's
(17:25):
the problem past him with him getting something to eat?
What's the problem with him turning these stones to bread?
Here it is Satan is challenging Jesus to step outside
of God's provision. He wants him to step outside of
God's timing. He wants Jesus to step outside of his
(17:47):
father's will. And this is the same exact play that
he ran in the garden all the way back in
Genesis chapter three and what I like to call the
scene of the crime. He questioned God's word, Did God
really say that to you? Eve? And then what did
(18:09):
he do? He went to ease appetite. Genesis. I believe
it's like around three six. The Bible says, she looked,
and she saw that the tree was good for food,
the tree that God told her not to touch. And
so what it does, Temptation always starts with the feeling.
Temptation always starts with the craving. Temptation always starts with
(18:32):
the I need this now, And it's an impulse that
promises you in our immediate relief. And here's Satan's entire endgame.
He wants to get you into wilderness living. He wants
to get you into a state of spiritual isolation where
you feel that you have defend for yourself because God
(18:55):
can't be trusted. But Brother James has something to say
about that over in James Chapter one, verse fourteen and fifteen.
And when you really kind of step back and look
at this verse that I'm about to read for you,
James gives us, in my estimation, the most terrifying breakdown
of how temptation works and what temptation does when it's successful.
(19:22):
Once you understand the anatomy of temptation, then what you
realize is that the devil is not trying to destroy
you immediately. He's trying to isolate you. First, James, Chapter one,
verse fourteen and fifteen. Listen to these words that James
writes over there. James is speaking to the church, he says,
(19:42):
But each person, each child of God, is tempted, when
he or she is lured and enticed, get this by
their own desire, he says. Then, desire, when it has come,
what does it do? It gives birth to sin. I
(20:03):
want you to see this chain reaction, and sin, when
it is fully grown, brings forth death. Let me reverse
fifteen one more time. I need you to let this resonate. Then,
desire when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin,
when it is fully grown, brings forth death. James is
(20:28):
breaking down the devil's playbook, and it's terrifying. First, this
is what the devil does, or this is what temptation does.
Baits the hook, baits the hook. You ever went fishing before,
Certain fish like different types of bait. All fish don't
(20:48):
like the same bait. So to fish successfully you have
to know the bait of that particular fish that you're
trying to pull up out that so the enemy does
the exact same thing. First, he baits the hook. The
enemy knows your favorite bait. Some of you, it's lust.
(21:10):
For others, it's bitterness. For others, it's control. For others,
it's victimhood and so. But the point is this, whatever
your bait is, he's going to customize it because he
has studied your appetite. Then you get dragged away. You
(21:30):
see the bait and your own desire. This is the
point that's so crucial here. It's your desire that bites
down on the bait, not the devils, but yours, yours,
your appetite bites down on the bait, and the moment
you bite, just like that fish, you get hooked. And
(21:52):
the moment you get hooked, you get dragged away from
that Jordan River. You get dragged away from the presence
of God, you get dragged away from safety, you get
dragged away from community, and you get dragged out onto
a dry, barren bank of wilderness living. But it doesn't
even stop there. It gets worse, because I want you
(22:14):
to see what happens next. That desire, the Bible says,
it conceives that thought, You entertain that fantasy, You replay
that bitter conversation in the car it's no longer just
a thought. It's an embryo of sin. That means it
has life. And when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin.
(22:41):
And when it gives birth to sin. Now you're ready,
You click the link, you send the text, you unleash
the words. But get this, Hell's famidy tree doesn't even
stop there. You would think that would be enough. No,
because sin is not done with you. Sin when it
(23:01):
becomes a habit, when it becomes a pattern, when it
becomes a stronghold, you know what sin does. What it does,
then it bursts its own child. The final step in
all of this is that child's name is death. Death
to your joy, death to your peace, death to your relationships,
(23:23):
death to your calling, death to your intimacy with God.
That's the anatomy, And now you know exactly what you're
fighting against. The enemy's goal is to lure you into
the wilderness with a piece of bait. He's going to
(23:43):
hook you with your own personal desire, and then he's
going to leave you for dead. So now this is
exactly what he's getting ready to try to do with Jesus.
So let's see how the master works this out. Because
he's a seized debate. But you know what he decides
to do. He refuses to bite debate. Turn these stones
(24:09):
into bread, some fresh bread. But he doesn't bite. Why
because he knows something Satan doesn't want you to understand.
A stone in the will of God is better than
a loaf of bread outside of the will of God.
That stone is a foundation. It's a building block for
(24:31):
your testimony. It's a place for you to stand firm
submitted to God. That stone becomes an altar of worship.
But that loaf of bread, oh wow, that loaf of
bread that you conjure up through your own disobedience. That
loaf of bread that's debate. Oh it's laced with poison. Yeah,
(24:54):
it might feel your belly for a moment, but you
know what it's going to do to your spirit. It's
going to starve your spirit. Jesus chose to be fed
by God's promise over being filled with his own power.
Could he have turned those stones into bread? You're absolutely right,
he could have. But this is the revelation. True freedom
(25:15):
for you and I is found when our spirit is
nourished by the word of God. Because when your spirit
is nourished by the word of God. Then you will
have absolute dominion over the appetites of your body. We
started this off by setting the record straight. Temptation is
(25:35):
going to come. Temptation is not the sin. The sin
is when you open the door and you invite temptation
to sit down on the couch with you. So Jesus
just shows you the blueprint. The spirit rules, the flesh submits.
That's how you and I can be victorious against these temptations.
Here's a challenge for you. I want you to identify
(25:57):
the primary appetite that hijacks your will when you're under pressure.
When you're under pressure, what happens with your appetite, what
happens with your decision making process? How often do you
trust in the Lord with all your heart and you
don't lean to your own understanding. Yet in all of
(26:18):
your ways you acknowledge God, because God will direct your path.
See God can direct your path even while you're in
the wilderness Proverbs chapter three, verse five and six. Because
what I want you to do is once you identify it,
once you identify these propensities that you have when life
puts you under pressure, then I want you to find
(26:41):
a specific scripture because that specific scripture is going to
be the direct antidote to that temptation. This is spiritual
and you need to understand that. Got a question for you,
what temporary bread are you creating for yourself? It's cause
you to lose your appetite for the word of God.
(27:04):
Think about it. So after this first temptation, Satan is
zero for one. Satan sees he can't win on the
ground floor of the flesh. So you know what he's
going to do. He's going to switch it up. So
he changes tactics and he changes locations. So what he
(27:27):
does he takes Jesus from this private wilderness setting to
the public stage. And this is the second wall in
these walls of temptations, Wall number two, the wall of affirmation.
That wall is saying, look at me, all eyes on me,
(27:50):
because if you think about our world, that's what our
world is right now. Think of the times you scrolling
on social media and somebody will just have a camera
pointed on them. They walk in, they got these slow
motion walks and they're doing it. It's just look it.
I want you to look to look at me. And
this is exactly this isn't anything new. I need you
to see this. In Verse five and six of Matthew
(28:13):
chapter four says this, then the devil took him, Jesus,
to the Holy City and set him on the pinnacle
of the Temple and said to him, if you are
the son of God, throw yourself down, for it is
written I want you to see. This setting is very strategic.
(28:35):
The pinnacle of the temple was the highest point in
religious in the religious capital of the world. It was
a place of maximum exposure. So any kind of stunt
here is going to be the lead story on Jerusalem
nightly news. And again the assault begins with that insidious whisper.
(29:00):
If he's still poking at Jesus' identity. But now if
you look at it, the test has pivot and this
is the pride of life. This is the temptation to
seek validation from the masses. This is the look at
(29:20):
me virus that has infected our culture. And Satan has
a very slick pitch. You say you trust God's word, great,
let's use it. Jump. Let's make God prove his love
for you in front of everybody. It'll go viral. Jesus,
you'll be an overnight messiah. The gram is gonna blow
(29:43):
up Jesus. You can skip that whole suffering, serving thing
and you can go straight to celebrity status. And here
is where the enemy gets audacious. He opens the Bible. Yes,
Satan is weaponizing the word of God against the word.
(30:07):
Verse six eight. Satan is speaking, He says, for it
is written, he will command his angels concerning you. So
he's telling Jesus to jump based on what I just
read to you. Satan is quoting Psalm's ninety one. You
should make a note of that. You should make a
reference of that. He's quoting from Psalms ninety one. Now
(30:29):
I want you to let that sink in the devil
noe scripture better than you do, and he will weaponize
it against you. What he's doing Psalms twenty one, he's
twisting a promise of protection into a justification for presumption.
(30:51):
He takes verses about God guarding those dwelling in his
will and uses them to encourage reckless pride outside of
God's will. Satan is tempting Jesus to force God's hand
to trade authentic faith for a public spectacle. And this
(31:14):
is the wall of affirmation. This is that treadmill living
that so many people to do where you're just running
and running and running and running and running for people's approval.
You're performing, you're not living, you're curating, not creating. And
there's a dopamine rush, there's a dopamine hit of validation
(31:35):
that so many people are chasing after. Jesus is anchored
in a much deeper reality than that. Jesus doesn't need spectacle.
Go back to Matthew chapter three, verse sixteen to seventeen.
Why doesn't he need that because he already has the
(31:56):
father's approval. He's not willing to change the father's approval
for this little dopamine hit. And guess what Jesus does.
He counters twisted scripture. He counters scripture taking out of
context with true scripture. Family, Please hear me, know the word,
(32:18):
know the context, know the God who spoke it. That's
how you stand. Verse seven, Jesus said to Satan again,
it is written, you shall not put the Lord your
God to the test. When Jesus says it is written,
he is literally quoting scripture. Jesus hits Satan back with
(32:39):
Deuteronomy chapter six, verse sixteen. You should make a note
of that. The revelation here is this. There is a
distinction between trusting God and testing God. Trusting God is
staying on the cliff of obedience when you can't see
the ground below. Testing God is jumping off the cliff
(33:03):
of obedience and demanding that God grow you wings on
your way down. So Jesus is saying, you know what, Satan,
My relationship with my father is built on faith. It's
not built on theatrics. I don't need to perform stunts
to prove my Father loves me because I already heard
(33:27):
his voice at the Jordan River. And this wall is
the source of your performance, anxiety, and life. We find
ourselves trying to perform for people to get their approval,
trying to build affirmation in the middle of the devil's wilderness.
(33:54):
Can I tell you something. Your identity is not something
that you build with likes and shares. Your identity is
what you receive from the mouth of God. So please
hear me. Please do not trade the external social media applause.
(34:20):
Don't trade the applause of the father for the social
media temporary likes of the crowd. Don't trade that because
that's not a fair exchange. Please don't trade for that.
So I want to give you a challenge, and I
want you to think about it, and I want you
to pray about it. But I think it'll help you.
I want you to unplug from the affirmation machine. And
(34:44):
this is what I want you to do. I want
you to choose one full day within the next seven days,
within the week. I want you to just choose one
full day that you will fast from all social media.
Some of y'all start and as soon as I said it,
just one day, can you just go one day? All
(35:05):
of it? Go for twenty four hours, quiet the noise
of the crowd, so you can amplify the voice of God.
It'll surprise you when you cut out all of the
noise of this world. Saints, Family, please hear me. You
will hear God in a way in which you can't
hear Him with all of this distraction and all of
(35:27):
this noise. Give me one day, just one day. You
picked the day, but just take one day no social
media at all, and then be intentional about hearing from God.
Because you need to hear from God while you are
in this wilderness season. You can't just keep wandering around
(35:48):
in this wilderness. You need to hear from God. So
show God that you're serious. Put him first, Block out
all the noise. I'm just asking for one day. You
got three hundred and sixty five days in a year.
Can you just give me one day? No social media.
You're going to be intentional about worship. You're going to
be intentional about reading your word. You're going to be
intentional about prayer, about prayer, and just hear from God. Okay,
(36:11):
So I got a question for you. From what cliff
of performance are you about to jump? Hoping that the
applause on the way down will be worth the inevitable
crash at the bottom. Because sometimes we make decisions based
(36:32):
on what we perceive people want us to do, not
the Father's affirmation in Matthew chapter three, verse sixteen and seventeen,
but because hey, all eyes are on me, so I
have to do something. No, you don't. So at this
point in juncture in this text, the devil is zero
and two. And guess what he's mad Now he failed
(36:57):
with the flesh, he failed with pride, and he's he
has one last card that he's going to play. And
he's going to play this card from the bottom of
the deck. This is the awe or nothing gambit. Guess
what he does. He takes Jesus to the highest mountain
for the highest stake. This is the final and most
(37:17):
dangerous wall in these walls of temptation, Wall number three,
the wall of ambition. And you know what this wall
is saying. This wall is saying, I'll do anything to
get it verse eighty nine. Again, devil took him to
a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms
of the world and their glory. And he said to him,
(37:40):
all these I will give you if you will just simply, Jesus,
fall down and worship me, if you will just bow
and worship me. This is the ultimate demonic shortcut. This
is the lust of the odds. Now, you might ask,
(38:02):
how can the devil offer Jesus the kingdoms of the world.
Did he have that authority to make this offer? And
you know what the tragic answer, Yes, he did. When
Adam bowed his knee at the scene of the crime.
Back in Genesis chapter three, when Adam and Eve bowed
(38:23):
their knee in the garden, Adam abdicated his god given dominion,
and he handed the title deed of this world over
to Satan. For the scripture with it over. In Sect Corinthians,
Chapter four, Verse four, Paul writes, and he called Satan
the god small g the god of this world. Paul
(38:46):
says that the god of this world has blinded the
minds of the unbelievers. So please understand when he makes
this offer, he's not bluffing. He is making a legal
offer to Jesus based on stolen property. He is showing
Jesus all the power, all the wealth, all the influence,
(39:09):
and he makes the deal of a lifetime. I'm going
to break this last temptation down verse eight. Showed him
all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, And
this is the temptation of the destination without the journey.
And this is what I mean by that. What he's
offering to Jesus in this specific moment is the crown
(39:32):
without the cross. He's offering Jesus the thorn. I'm sorry,
the throne without the thorns. He's offering Jesus the glory
without Gyasemite. So everything that Jesus is going to go
through to get to that cross, Satan is letting him know, Hey, bro,
you don't have to do that. You don't have to
(39:53):
go through the betrayal. You don't have to go through
the scourge, and you don't have to go through the
beatdown that you're going to take. Hey, here's something for
you right here. You want a kingdom. You came for
a kingdom. I got some kingdoms for you verse nine.
In all these I will give you fall down to
worship me. And that's it right there. That's the quid
(40:16):
pro quote. This is the diabolical deal. Satan reveals his
ultimate motive. It was never about the bread family. It
was never about the angels catching Jesus family. It has
always been about what was declared in Matthew chapter three,
verse sixteen and seventeen. It was always about the sonship.
(40:41):
It was about the worship. He's asking Jesus to trade
his divine destiny for a demonic contract. The devil was
offering temporary power for eternal allegiance. So Satan shows Jesus
all kingdoms. He's showing the money, the influence, the power,
(41:05):
everything that people are killing themselves over every single day.
Satan was offering it all to Jesus. Man, skip that cross,
skip that suffering. I'll give you the crown without the thorns.
Jesus just bow down and worship me. The enemy wanted
Jesus to genuflect to darkness in exchange really for what
(41:30):
was already his by divine right. He's offering him a
shortcut to the throne. But if Jesus takes this shortcut
to the throne, it's not the throne of God, it'll
be the throne of save And it would have made
him a slave to the kingdom of darkness. That's the
quid prop that's the quid pro quote. I'll make you
(41:52):
king of the earth, Jesus, if you make me God
of your life. And he's still offering people that very
everything today. This is the same spirit that's operating today Church.
The enemy still pushes this transaction. Compromise your worship and
I'll give you the world. But I remember Jesus once
(42:13):
he said, but what shall it profit a man to
gain the whole world and lose his soul? He said,
And what shall a man give an exchange for his soul?
This is the wall of ambition. This is that seductive
lie that whispers in your ear, that the end justifies
(42:36):
the means. The voice that whispers, I'll do anything to
get it. And at this point I love this because
now he's zero for three, and Jesus' entire posture shifts
at this moment. Forty days, no food, no drink, forty days,
(42:58):
forty nights, and after three temptations, his posture shifts. The lecture.
The lecture is over. And so what Jesus does is
he moves from defense to dominion. And that's a lesson
we all need to learn how to move from defense
to dominion that God has given you. Verse ten. Then
(43:22):
Jesus said to him, here's the dominion, be gone Satan,
for it is written. So he doesn't answer Satan anymore
at this point in time. You know what he does.
He evicts him. He speaks from the core of his
divine identity and authority, be gone Deuces. It's not a request,
(43:46):
it's an eviction notice. And then Jesus delivers the final
non negotiable principle of the entire universe. From Deuteronomy, chapter six,
Verse thirteen. Jesus says this, as he's putting his foot
in Satans behind. You shall worship the Lord your God,
and him only shall you serve. If we could just
(44:10):
get that only part, we will find so much success,
so much peace, so much purpose. Our lives will just
have so much more clarity if we could just worship,
I believe over in Revelation chapter four, John says, behold,
I saw one on the throne. If we could just
(44:33):
put God on the throne of our lives and leave
him there, because that's what Jesus did through these three temptations.
He put his father on the throne, and he did
not move him off of the throne. And this is
the ultimate declaration of allegiance. Jesus is saying, there's only
one throne in my life. There is only room for
(44:55):
one throne in my life. There is only one being
who is worthy of my worship. My ambition is not
for the temporary glory of these kingdoms that you're offering me, Satan.
My ambition is for the eternal glory of my Father.
So now I want you take a hard, honest look
(45:16):
at your life's ambition. What is your life's ambition right now?
If you have to write it down, If you have
to write down your one year plan and then hold
it up before God and ask God, God, here's my
one year plan. Is this about building my kingdom or
(45:36):
your kingdom? Seek he first, the kingdom of God and
his righteousness and all these other things. He said, I'll
give them to you. You and I. We have to
be willing to surrender our plan to God today. We
have to be willing to surrender our will to God today.
(45:58):
Not my will, but your will be done. You have
to tell God, and you have to pray to God
that God, I want your will more than I want
my way, even if this path involves a cross before
(46:19):
it leads to a crown. God, I want your way,
not my way. I got a question for you family,
What small bow are you making every day? And what
temporary kingdom are you receiving in return for that small bow?
(46:42):
I want you to really give some thought and some
consideration to that, because without even being intentional, there are
times where we are bowing to things and we may
not even realize the consequence. Because it's just these small
little steps that the devil will use to draw you
(47:03):
away from God, just small steps, just a little sin here,
just a little compromise here. It's a little and before
you know it, you are so far removed from where
God first originally called you. So we've had this journey
through the wilderness today, and we face some walls of temptation.
(47:25):
We saw wall number one. That was the wall of appetite.
That wall screams that you I gotta feel it. And
we learned to fight back with man shall not live
by bread alone. We saw wall number two. Wall number
two was the wall of affirmation. That wall screams, look
at me. And we learned to fight back with the
(47:48):
word that says, you shall not test the Lord your God.
Then we touch wall number three. Wall number three is
the wall of ambition. That wall screams, I'll do anything
to get it. But what we learned, we learned how
to fight back with you shall worship the Lord your
God only. So Jesus faced this unholy trio. The Bible says,
(48:13):
all this in the world is it less to the
id of ust, of the flesh and the pride of life.
And he demolished all three of these walls, all three
of these temptations, with three verses of scripture from the
Book of Deuteronomy. He didn't have no divine cheek code,
he ain't had no oil, he didn't need no offering,
(48:36):
he didn't pull any rank. It was just the word
coming out of his mouth. That's all. He had. Nothing else.
There was no choir. There there was no praise team. There,
there was no lights, there was no smoke machine, There
was none of that there. Jesus didn't debate Satan. He
didn't share his feelings with Satan. He weaponized scripture. Can
(49:04):
I tell you something, It's just a little intel about
the enemy. Enemy doesn't care about your church attendance. He
doesn't care about your title. He doesn't care where you
go to church. Only one thing makes demons tremble. You
want to know what that is. The one thing that
makes them tremble is the word of God. The word
(49:25):
of God in the mouth of a believer who knows
their identity. Can't cry your way out of temptation, can't
bargain your way out of temptation. You can't think your
way out of temptation. You know how you're going to
come out of the temptation. You got to fight with
the sword of the spirit. And that is the word
(49:46):
of God. And here's what should shake you, Jesus, Son
of God, this is my beloved son in whom I
am well pleased. The Son of God took down the
Prince of Darkness after fasting for forty days and forty nights,
he took him down with three verses, three verses. Question,
(50:16):
can you quote three verses verbatim right now? Can you
stand on those three verses when all hells is breaking
loose in your life. That's not a suggestion. Jesus just
gave us the blueprint. But here's the explosion, the same
(50:40):
spirit that was in Jesus. It's send you to the
same word that he swung. It is in your hands
to You're not a victim. No, you're not a victim.
You're a warrior. And you are equipped with demolition. You
(51:00):
are equipped with dunamus. You are equipped with dynamite. That's
what the word power means, dunamous, dynamite. You're equipped with
that to blow up anything that's blocking you, to blow
up anything that's standing in your way, any Satanic attack.
So I need you to stop being intimidated by the
(51:20):
walls of temptation. And this is what I need you
to do. Simply start swinging the word of God. Start
swinging the sword. When you pray, swing the sword, when
you fast swing the sword. You know why, because the
Bible says that the devil is a liar. The Bible
says he comes to still kill and destroy. But Jesus said,
I've come that you might have life, and have it
(51:42):
more abundantly. You have the truth that sets you free,
that will set you free. Please understand, we have more
access to the Word of God now than any other
generation that's ever lived on the face of this earth.
We have the Word of God everywhere in anywhere we turn.
So it's take down time. This is your moment, and
(52:05):
this is your call to action. Call action number one.
Identify your wall. We all got a wall. I need
you try to hear me. We all got a wall.
Our walls are not alike, but we have some walls.
Stop playing games, and I need you to be brutally
honest with yourself and with God. You don't have to
(52:25):
front here. Which of these three walls that we looked
at is the primary stronghold in your life? Because I
need you to name it. I need you to write
it down. You cannot defeat an enemy that you will
not define. You must call out the enemy. You must
(52:46):
call out who's coming against you. Call action number two.
Find your scripture. You must get on the offensive. This
is not passive. Faith. Have to get on the offensive.
Search the scriptures, find your weapon, find the verse. That
(53:06):
is a direct CounterPunch to the lie that you've been believing.
And I need you to make that verse your war cry.
Write it down, speak it, live it, put it on
your phone screensaver. So every time you look at it,
that verse is just hitting you right upside your head.
(53:29):
Let this mind be in you, Philippians two to five.
Let this mind be in you, which also was in Christ, Jesus,
the same mind that he had in that wilderness. That's
the mind of Christ that the Bible is calling us
to have called Action number three. Declare your identity. Yeah,
the battle is one or lost in your mind and
(53:51):
your mouth. Go to a mirror, look yourself in the eye,
and speak God's truth over yourself. You're going to simply say,
I am a beloved child of God and my Father
is pleased with me. My identity is not based on
(54:14):
my feelings. My identity is not based on my followers.
My identity is not based on my failures. My identity
has been sealed by the blood of Jesus. And you
have to declare that. Until your spirit hears it and
until your heart believes it. You must know who you
(54:34):
are and who you are. So now, if this teaching
has knocked down at least one wall in your life.
You know what I need you to do. I need
you to share it Facebook, family, I need you to like, comment, share,
tax some people that are living behind their walls of temptations.
You all are having communications with people. You know what
they're going through, and so if you can help them,
(54:55):
if you can any in any way, be a blessing,
Be a blessing to them. To all the podcast listeners,
those of you listening on Speaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, and
iHeart Radio, please subscribe, please like, and please follow. Please
share the podcast with your family and friends. Join us
next week for these walls of itching ears. Let's pray. Father,
(55:19):
we honor you, Man, God. We thank you for this
time the fellowship in your word. God. I thank you
that we clearly know our identity in Christ. God. I
thank you that you have declared it before the foundation
of this world. I thank you God that you called
us with a holy calling, not according to our not
according to our works, but according to your grace and
(55:40):
your purpose that you gave to us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. And so God, I thank you
that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. I
thank you God that we walk by the spirit and
not by our flesh. We know God that the flesh
and our spirit is enmity with each other. And so God,
I pray now that we will begin the process God,
of of feeding our spirit. God, I pray that we
(56:03):
will feed our spirit and starve our flesh. God, help
us to be more committed to you. Help us God
to see you high and lift it up in our lives.
Help us God to see you sitting on the throne
of our lives, our decisions, our jobs, our marriages, everything
that we go through. God, help us to see you
(56:24):
more clearly. And so, Father, we thank you for this hour.
It's time of sharing. It's time of fellowshipping in your word.
I pray for my brothers and sisters, God, that they
will walk out the calling that you have placed on
their lives. God. I pray God that you will heal.
I pray God that you will deliver. I pray God
that you will wipe tears from eyes. I pray Father
that you will lead your children God while they're in
(56:47):
this wilderness. God, but it won't be a wilderness of wandering.
It will be a wilderness of purpose. God, help them
to stand on your word while in said wilderness. So God,
we thank you, and we honor you, we bless you.
That's in Jesus thing that we do. Prayer.
Speaker 1 (57:04):
What a powerful and timely word from Pastor tim On
behalf of brothers in the word. We pray you feel
equipped and empowered to demolish the walls of temptation in
every area of your life. Remember, the battle is real,
but you are not defenseless. Pick up your sword, the
Word of God and use it. That is your victory.
(57:27):
Be sure to join us next week for an all
new episode these Walls of Itching Years. And remember, get
into the Word of God, and the Word of God
will get into you, and we'll see you next time. Peace.
Welcome to brothers in the Word. Have you ever felt
trapped surrounded by walls of temptation that seem impossible to
break through? What if I told you those walls are
not random. They are a strategic, demonic assault on your
God given identity. The enemy's goal is to make you
forget who you are by attacking your appetite, your need
(00:25):
for affirmation, and your ambition. In today's teaching these walls
of temptations, you will learn that this is a spiritual
war that cannot be won with your feelings or good intentions.
You need a spiritual weapon. Pastor Tim Smith provides the
blueprint for victory, showing how Jesus demolished these same walls
(00:45):
with the sword of the spirit, the Word of God.
This isn't just a sermon, It's a battle plan. Get
ready to be equipped.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
The city is back up. That's your fancastic God. I
need you to do me a favor. Please like, love
and share. That's the only offering that I'm asking you for.
Grab your Bible, open your notes to app take detailed notes.
Get ready shout out to Shannon. Our power word for
this teaching is identity, and I need you to write
(01:15):
that down identity. Make sure you have something to write
with we're going I'm gonna give you a lot of
notes identity, I D E, N T I T Y,
because this is what I need you to understand as
we get ready to go into this lesson. Every attack
from the enemy is a case of mistaken identity. He
only has power when you forget who you are and
(01:37):
whose you are. So before we even get into the
main event, we're going to be looking at Matthew chapter four,
verses one through ten. But before we get to the
main event, we have to understand the prequel. You can
appreciate this fight until you hear the declaration of war.
So I want to start in Matthew chapter three. We're
gonna look at verse sixteen and seventeen, and I'm gonna
(01:57):
read it for you. Says this. When Jesus was baptized,
immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the
heavens were open to him, and he saw the Spirit
of God descending like a dove and coming to rest
on him verse seventeen. And behold, this is God speaking.
A voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son,
(02:19):
with whom I am. Well, please now I want us
to look at this, and I want you to understand
what's happening. We're at the Jordan River, because this moment
right here, there's no other moment like this in scripture.
This is going to shift everything because the thing that
(02:41):
I love about this is that it's so descriptive. The
heavens don't just open. The heavens crack open. They don't
just crack open, They rupture. The Father doesn't just send
a memo. He doesn't whisper some gentle affirmation into Jesus' ear.
Now God roars this declaration. He roars it across the cosmos,
(03:02):
and in this moment, every demon in Hell heard exactly
what God said. Every angel in Heaven stood at attention,
Every principality and power felt the shockwave of that announcement.
This is my beloved son. That's not a suggestion. That
declaration is not up for review. And then he doesn't
(03:24):
stop there. Oh no, it gets better, he says in
him I am well pleased. So I need you to
understand what just happened. God, the Father just went public
with his delight. Jesus is not wondering if he measures up.
He's not questioning his identity. He's not checking his spiritual
(03:44):
resume to figure out if he's qualified. No, he steps
up out of that water. He's drenched, not just in
H two O, but in the underluted, uncut, unfiltered approval
of all Mighty God himself. So what is this saying
to us? Jesus is secure in his identity, he is
(04:04):
sealed in his identity. He is sun God just sunned him. Now.
I want you to watch this, because you would think
after that kind of heaven sent confirmation, you would think
Jesus would be heading off to a celebration. You would
think Jesus would be popping champagne bottles. He would maybe
hold a conference, maybe set up a speaking tour. Come
(04:27):
here from the one who was just endorsed by Heaven.
But no, I want you to look when we step
over in the verse four because that's where the I'm sorry,
in chapter four, because that's where the warfare is. I
need you to hear this. The Bible says over in
verse four that he is led by the spirit, the
same spirit that descended on him like a dove. That
(04:49):
same spirit is now going to drive him into the wilderness,
not to a vacation not to a retreat, not to
a victory. Lab He is going to drive Jesus into
the valley of satanic assault. Now you got to ask yourself,
why would God do that? And I need you to
understand this. God will absolutely allow you to be led
(05:14):
into a situation that forces you to cash the check
that his mouth already wrote over your life. Will you
be the same person in the wilderness that you are
in church? See, there was a declaration that God made
at the Jordan River, and that was the promise of sonship.
(05:35):
This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
But that wilderness, oh no, that wilderness, that's the performance
of sonship. There's a difference between the two. There's a
massive difference between God saying who you are and you
living like you believe it when all hell is breathing
(05:56):
down your neck. The wilderness wasn't to discover his identity.
He had already had that locked in at the Jordan River.
The wilderness was to demonstrate what was already true when
everything around him in that wilderness is screaming otherwise. And
I need you to recognize something. That's the pattern promise first,
(06:20):
then the proving ground. We all have to go and
stand on the proving ground in the wilderness. The wilderness
is not a punishment. The wilderness is in fact proving ground.
So I want to clear something up too before we
get started, before the enemy even starts playing with your mind.
(06:46):
Understand this, Jesus is about to be tempted. But I
need you to get this understanding. Being tempted is not
a sin. To everybody write that in the check. Being
tempted is not capital not is not a sin. I
need you to catch that because Satan is out here
(07:08):
trying to make you feel like you need to take
a spiritual shower every time a wrong thought pops into
your head. He wants you walking around feeling condemned. Remember
Romans chapter eight, verse one. There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. He wants
you to feel dirty. He wants you to feel the
shame just because the thought showed up. You don't have
(07:30):
to feel dirty. That's a lie from the pit of
hell and it probably got sent to you with the
express shipping. Now I want you to understand this about temptation.
Temptation is not a reflection of your character. You know
what temptation is. Temptation is a reflection of your humanity.
You know how I know because the Bible says over
(07:52):
in Hebrews, chapter four, verse fifteen, and it makes it
undeniably clear. The Bible says over in Hebrews four fifteen
that we have a high priest, that high priest, his
name is Jesus. And the Bible says this about our
high priest, Jesus. It says that he was in all
points tempted as we are, yet with our sin. I
(08:15):
need you to hear that Jesus was tempted. The sinless
son of God got tempted. So if the enemy is
trying to make you feel guilty just because temptation knocked
on your door, you need to tell the enemy, bro,
you tried it with Jesus too, and it didn't work.
(08:36):
Because I need you to understand there's a massive difference
between the knock and the invitation. Temptation is the knock.
It's not a question of if temptation comes, it's when
temptation comes. If I had to rename this lesson, it
would be the anatomy of temptation, because temptation is going
(08:58):
to knock on your door. Temptation is going to knock
on my door. Temptation is going to knock All of
us can get it when it comes to temptation. I
just need you to understand that. But now here's what
you also need to get in your spirit as well.
Sin is when you open the door to temptation. Sin
is when you open the door, pull up a chair,
(09:20):
make it some tea, and say, hey, get comfortable, let
me show you around. That's when we got problems. But
the knock itself, that's just to prove that you're still breathing.
That's just to prove that the enemy still sees you
as a threat. Because if he wasn't worried about you,
he wouldn't waste his time with you. So stop letting
(09:42):
the devil make you feel defeated before the battle even starts.
Jesus was tempted and he stayed sinless. You know what
that means for you and I. That means it can
be done. That means that we can get the victory.
And He's going to show us exactly how to do it.
So with the same spirit that raised him from the
(10:03):
dead is living inside of you. Then you know what
that says that says we have back up. The temptation
is the test. Sin is failing the test. Please get
the understanding of the two. Temptation is the test, sin
(10:23):
is failing the test. So Jesus entered the wilderness show
you and I once for all that it's possible to
face the worst that the enemy has to offer and
still walk out clean. So your charge is this, I
want you to learn how to fight back, not with
your feelings, not with your emotions, not with your logic,
but I want you to learn how to fight back
(10:45):
with the word of God. You ready, Let's get it now.
I got to read these verses. I got the latest foundation,
and then we're going to circle back around and then
we then we're going to chop up these verses. So
I'm going to be reading Matthew chapter four, verses one
through ten, and I'm going to be reading this out
of the ESV version. Are you ready? Then Jesus was
(11:08):
led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be
tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and
forty nights, he was hungry, and the tempter came to him,
came and said to him, if you are the son
of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.
Underline that word, if, if you are the son of God,
(11:29):
command these stones to become loaves of bread. But he,
Jesus answered, it is written. Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that comes from the
mouth of God. Verse five. Then the devil took him
to the Holy City and set him on the pinnacle
of the temple, said to him, if you are the
(11:50):
son of God. Underlying that word, if again verse six,
if you are the son of God, throw yourself down,
for it is written he will command his aim angels
concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up.
Let you strike your foot against a stone. Jesus said
to him again, it is written you should not put
(12:12):
the Lord your God to the test. Verse eight. Again
the devil took him to a very high mountain and
showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
And he said to him, all these things I will
give you if you fall down and worship me. Then
said Jesus. Then Jesus said to him, be gone, Satan,
(12:36):
deuce peace out, for it is written you shall worship
the Lord. You're a god, and him only shall you serve.
We got a lot. It's a lot in this but
I want you to see verse one. I want you
to pay attention to as we move along with this text.
Verse one says Jesus was led by the spirit. Now
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I need you to let that marinate in your soul
for just a minute. Spirit the peraclet the comforter. He
was not protecting Jesus from the test. He was leading
Jesus to the test. And I know that just messed
with somebody's theology right there, because some of you are
in the wilderness season right now, and you think God
(13:17):
has forgotten your address. No, he hasn't forgotten your address.
He has given you an assignment. He has enrolled you
in the graduate level course of spiritual warfare bucal up.
And you're a professor of this course. Your professor for
this curriculum is the devil himself. Verse two says the
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physical stage. Bible says forty days, forty nights. Forty is
a number of testing. So for forty days and forty nights,
Jesus has no food. He's hungry. And this isn't the
I miss my lunch kind of hungry. This isn't I
need a snicker bar hungry. This is a primal, cellular,
(14:03):
agonizing weakness. Every part of his human body, of his
human body, is screaming for relief. Some of us can
go just a few hours without something to eat, and
then after that we gonna we're gonna start moving some
furniture of somebody. Don't don't feed us. Imagine he went
through this for forty days. I need you to understand
(14:26):
the weakness in his body. And that's when the temper comes.
That's when the devil shows up. You know why he's
showing up at this particular juncture because he is a coward.
He never fights you fair. He waits for you to
be at your breaking point. Hungry, angry, lonely, and tired.
(14:48):
That's the acronym for HAT for halt, Hungry, angry, lonely,
and tire. And that brings us to the first wall
in this lesson. These walls are temptations. Wall number one.
If you take a note, the wall of appetite. I
gotta feel it. The wall of appetite, I gotta feel it.
(15:08):
So the devil slithers up. He's smelling weakness, and you
know what he says. He says to Jesus, if you
are the son of God, command these stones to be
to become bred. So right off the bat, you know
what he's doing, same thing that he does with Jesus,
the same thing he does with you. He's questioning his identity.
(15:31):
And I want you to look at the diabolical brilliance
of that first word. If Satan heard the declaration that
God made concerning his son in Matthew chapter three, verse
sixteen to seventeen, he heard it just like everything else
in the cosmos heard it. But what he does, He's
(15:53):
going to take the father's exclamation point and he's going
to twist it into a demonic question mark. God just
declared this is my son. And now Satan sliitzes up whispering.
But are you sure if you really were the son
(16:13):
of God with a loving father, let you starve like this, Jesus,
you out here in this wilderness, you done lost weight?
You ask she you have nothing to eat? And you say,
your Father in heaven it's providing for you. And what
this is is this is ancient gaslighting. Satan is trying
(16:37):
to make you doubt the last thing that you heard
God say. And I want you to see how he
operates because he's very ruthless with this. If you are
the son of God, that's the identity crisis right there,
and that's what he's after. He's after your identity, the
challenge to authenticate your sonship through performance. He tells Jesus, Okay,
(17:01):
your son, command these stones to be turned to bread.
That's the appetite appeal, that's the lust of the flesh.
It's the temptation to give your god given authority to solve.
Get this a legitimate problem. This is a legitimate problem
that Jesus is having right now. He's hungry. Okay, what's
(17:25):
the problem past him with him getting something to eat?
What's the problem with him turning these stones to bread?
Here it is Satan is challenging Jesus to step outside
of God's provision. He wants him to step outside of
God's timing. He wants Jesus to step outside of his
(17:47):
father's will. And this is the same exact play that
he ran in the garden all the way back in
Genesis chapter three and what I like to call the
scene of the crime. He questioned God's word, Did God
really say that to you? Eve? And then what did
(18:09):
he do? He went to ease appetite. Genesis. I believe
it's like around three six. The Bible says, she looked,
and she saw that the tree was good for food,
the tree that God told her not to touch. And
so what it does, Temptation always starts with the feeling.
Temptation always starts with the craving. Temptation always starts with
(18:32):
the I need this now, And it's an impulse that
promises you in our immediate relief. And here's Satan's entire endgame.
He wants to get you into wilderness living. He wants
to get you into a state of spiritual isolation where
you feel that you have defend for yourself because God
(18:55):
can't be trusted. But Brother James has something to say
about that over in James Chapter one, verse fourteen and fifteen.
And when you really kind of step back and look
at this verse that I'm about to read for you,
James gives us, in my estimation, the most terrifying breakdown
of how temptation works and what temptation does when it's successful.
(19:22):
Once you understand the anatomy of temptation, then what you
realize is that the devil is not trying to destroy
you immediately. He's trying to isolate you. First, James, Chapter one,
verse fourteen and fifteen. Listen to these words that James
writes over there. James is speaking to the church, he says,
(19:42):
But each person, each child of God, is tempted, when
he or she is lured and enticed, get this by
their own desire, he says. Then, desire, when it has come,
what does it do? It gives birth to sin. I
(20:03):
want you to see this chain reaction, and sin, when
it is fully grown, brings forth death. Let me reverse
fifteen one more time. I need you to let this resonate. Then,
desire when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin,
when it is fully grown, brings forth death. James is
(20:28):
breaking down the devil's playbook, and it's terrifying. First, this
is what the devil does, or this is what temptation does.
Baits the hook, baits the hook. You ever went fishing before,
Certain fish like different types of bait. All fish don't
(20:48):
like the same bait. So to fish successfully you have
to know the bait of that particular fish that you're
trying to pull up out that so the enemy does
the exact same thing. First, he baits the hook. The
enemy knows your favorite bait. Some of you, it's lust.
(21:10):
For others, it's bitterness. For others, it's control. For others,
it's victimhood and so. But the point is this, whatever
your bait is, he's going to customize it because he
has studied your appetite. Then you get dragged away. You
(21:30):
see the bait and your own desire. This is the
point that's so crucial here. It's your desire that bites
down on the bait, not the devils, but yours, yours,
your appetite bites down on the bait, and the moment
you bite, just like that fish, you get hooked. And
(21:52):
the moment you get hooked, you get dragged away from
that Jordan River. You get dragged away from the presence
of God, you get dragged away from safety, you get
dragged away from community, and you get dragged out onto
a dry, barren bank of wilderness living. But it doesn't
even stop there. It gets worse, because I want you
(22:14):
to see what happens next. That desire, the Bible says,
it conceives that thought, You entertain that fantasy, You replay
that bitter conversation in the car it's no longer just
a thought. It's an embryo of sin. That means it
has life. And when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin.
(22:41):
And when it gives birth to sin. Now you're ready,
You click the link, you send the text, you unleash
the words. But get this, Hell's famidy tree doesn't even
stop there. You would think that would be enough. No,
because sin is not done with you. Sin when it
(23:01):
becomes a habit, when it becomes a pattern, when it
becomes a stronghold, you know what sin does. What it does,
then it bursts its own child. The final step in
all of this is that child's name is death. Death
to your joy, death to your peace, death to your relationships,
(23:23):
death to your calling, death to your intimacy with God.
That's the anatomy, And now you know exactly what you're
fighting against. The enemy's goal is to lure you into
the wilderness with a piece of bait. He's going to
(23:43):
hook you with your own personal desire, and then he's
going to leave you for dead. So now this is
exactly what he's getting ready to try to do with Jesus.
So let's see how the master works this out. Because
he's a seized debate. But you know what he decides
to do. He refuses to bite debate. Turn these stones
(24:09):
into bread, some fresh bread. But he doesn't bite. Why
because he knows something Satan doesn't want you to understand.
A stone in the will of God is better than
a loaf of bread outside of the will of God.
That stone is a foundation. It's a building block for
(24:31):
your testimony. It's a place for you to stand firm
submitted to God. That stone becomes an altar of worship.
But that loaf of bread, oh wow, that loaf of
bread that you conjure up through your own disobedience. That
loaf of bread that's debate. Oh it's laced with poison. Yeah,
(24:54):
it might feel your belly for a moment, but you
know what it's going to do to your spirit. It's
going to starve your spirit. Jesus chose to be fed
by God's promise over being filled with his own power.
Could he have turned those stones into bread? You're absolutely right,
he could have. But this is the revelation. True freedom
(25:15):
for you and I is found when our spirit is
nourished by the word of God. Because when your spirit
is nourished by the word of God. Then you will
have absolute dominion over the appetites of your body. We
started this off by setting the record straight. Temptation is
(25:35):
going to come. Temptation is not the sin. The sin
is when you open the door and you invite temptation
to sit down on the couch with you. So Jesus
just shows you the blueprint. The spirit rules, the flesh submits.
That's how you and I can be victorious against these temptations.
Here's a challenge for you. I want you to identify
(25:57):
the primary appetite that hijacks your will when you're under pressure.
When you're under pressure, what happens with your appetite, what
happens with your decision making process? How often do you
trust in the Lord with all your heart and you
don't lean to your own understanding. Yet in all of
(26:18):
your ways you acknowledge God, because God will direct your path.
See God can direct your path even while you're in
the wilderness Proverbs chapter three, verse five and six. Because
what I want you to do is once you identify it,
once you identify these propensities that you have when life
puts you under pressure, then I want you to find
(26:41):
a specific scripture because that specific scripture is going to
be the direct antidote to that temptation. This is spiritual
and you need to understand that. Got a question for you,
what temporary bread are you creating for yourself? It's cause
you to lose your appetite for the word of God.
(27:04):
Think about it. So after this first temptation, Satan is
zero for one. Satan sees he can't win on the
ground floor of the flesh. So you know what he's
going to do. He's going to switch it up. So
he changes tactics and he changes locations. So what he
(27:27):
does he takes Jesus from this private wilderness setting to
the public stage. And this is the second wall in
these walls of temptations, Wall number two, the wall of affirmation.
That wall is saying, look at me, all eyes on me,
(27:50):
because if you think about our world, that's what our
world is right now. Think of the times you scrolling
on social media and somebody will just have a camera
pointed on them. They walk in, they got these slow
motion walks and they're doing it. It's just look it.
I want you to look to look at me. And
this is exactly this isn't anything new. I need you
to see this. In Verse five and six of Matthew
(28:13):
chapter four says this, then the devil took him, Jesus,
to the Holy City and set him on the pinnacle
of the Temple and said to him, if you are
the son of God, throw yourself down, for it is
written I want you to see. This setting is very strategic.
(28:35):
The pinnacle of the temple was the highest point in
religious in the religious capital of the world. It was
a place of maximum exposure. So any kind of stunt
here is going to be the lead story on Jerusalem
nightly news. And again the assault begins with that insidious whisper.
(29:00):
If he's still poking at Jesus' identity. But now if
you look at it, the test has pivot and this
is the pride of life. This is the temptation to
seek validation from the masses. This is the look at
(29:20):
me virus that has infected our culture. And Satan has
a very slick pitch. You say you trust God's word, great,
let's use it. Jump. Let's make God prove his love
for you in front of everybody. It'll go viral. Jesus,
you'll be an overnight messiah. The gram is gonna blow
(29:43):
up Jesus. You can skip that whole suffering, serving thing
and you can go straight to celebrity status. And here
is where the enemy gets audacious. He opens the Bible. Yes,
Satan is weaponizing the word of God against the word.
(30:07):
Verse six eight. Satan is speaking, He says, for it
is written, he will command his angels concerning you. So
he's telling Jesus to jump based on what I just
read to you. Satan is quoting Psalm's ninety one. You
should make a note of that. You should make a
reference of that. He's quoting from Psalms ninety one. Now
(30:29):
I want you to let that sink in the devil
noe scripture better than you do, and he will weaponize
it against you. What he's doing Psalms twenty one, he's
twisting a promise of protection into a justification for presumption.
(30:51):
He takes verses about God guarding those dwelling in his
will and uses them to encourage reckless pride outside of
God's will. Satan is tempting Jesus to force God's hand
to trade authentic faith for a public spectacle. And this
(31:14):
is the wall of affirmation. This is that treadmill living
that so many people to do where you're just running
and running and running and running and running for people's approval.
You're performing, you're not living, you're curating, not creating. And
there's a dopamine rush, there's a dopamine hit of validation
(31:35):
that so many people are chasing after. Jesus is anchored
in a much deeper reality than that. Jesus doesn't need spectacle.
Go back to Matthew chapter three, verse sixteen to seventeen.
Why doesn't he need that because he already has the
(31:56):
father's approval. He's not willing to change the father's approval
for this little dopamine hit. And guess what Jesus does.
He counters twisted scripture. He counters scripture taking out of
context with true scripture. Family, Please hear me, know the word,
(32:18):
know the context, know the God who spoke it. That's
how you stand. Verse seven, Jesus said to Satan again,
it is written, you shall not put the Lord your
God to the test. When Jesus says it is written,
he is literally quoting scripture. Jesus hits Satan back with
(32:39):
Deuteronomy chapter six, verse sixteen. You should make a note
of that. The revelation here is this. There is a
distinction between trusting God and testing God. Trusting God is
staying on the cliff of obedience when you can't see
the ground below. Testing God is jumping off the cliff
(33:03):
of obedience and demanding that God grow you wings on
your way down. So Jesus is saying, you know what, Satan,
My relationship with my father is built on faith. It's
not built on theatrics. I don't need to perform stunts
to prove my Father loves me because I already heard
(33:27):
his voice at the Jordan River. And this wall is
the source of your performance, anxiety, and life. We find
ourselves trying to perform for people to get their approval,
trying to build affirmation in the middle of the devil's wilderness.
(33:54):
Can I tell you something. Your identity is not something
that you build with likes and shares. Your identity is
what you receive from the mouth of God. So please
hear me. Please do not trade the external social media applause.
(34:20):
Don't trade the applause of the father for the social
media temporary likes of the crowd. Don't trade that because
that's not a fair exchange. Please don't trade for that.
So I want to give you a challenge, and I
want you to think about it, and I want you
to pray about it. But I think it'll help you.
I want you to unplug from the affirmation machine. And
(34:44):
this is what I want you to do. I want
you to choose one full day within the next seven days,
within the week. I want you to just choose one
full day that you will fast from all social media.
Some of y'all start and as soon as I said it,
just one day, can you just go one day? All
(35:05):
of it? Go for twenty four hours, quiet the noise
of the crowd, so you can amplify the voice of God.
It'll surprise you when you cut out all of the
noise of this world. Saints, Family, please hear me. You
will hear God in a way in which you can't
hear Him with all of this distraction and all of
(35:27):
this noise. Give me one day, just one day. You
picked the day, but just take one day no social
media at all, and then be intentional about hearing from God.
Because you need to hear from God while you are
in this wilderness season. You can't just keep wandering around
(35:48):
in this wilderness. You need to hear from God. So
show God that you're serious. Put him first, Block out
all the noise. I'm just asking for one day. You
got three hundred and sixty five days in a year.
Can you just give me one day? No social media.
You're going to be intentional about worship. You're going to
be intentional about reading your word. You're going to be
intentional about prayer, about prayer, and just hear from God. Okay,
(36:11):
So I got a question for you. From what cliff
of performance are you about to jump? Hoping that the
applause on the way down will be worth the inevitable
crash at the bottom. Because sometimes we make decisions based
(36:32):
on what we perceive people want us to do, not
the Father's affirmation in Matthew chapter three, verse sixteen and seventeen,
but because hey, all eyes are on me, so I
have to do something. No, you don't. So at this
point in juncture in this text, the devil is zero
and two. And guess what he's mad Now he failed
(36:57):
with the flesh, he failed with pride, and he's he
has one last card that he's going to play. And
he's going to play this card from the bottom of
the deck. This is the awe or nothing gambit. Guess
what he does. He takes Jesus to the highest mountain
for the highest stake. This is the final and most
(37:17):
dangerous wall in these walls of temptation, Wall number three,
the wall of ambition. And you know what this wall
is saying. This wall is saying, I'll do anything to
get it verse eighty nine. Again, devil took him to
a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms
of the world and their glory. And he said to him,
(37:40):
all these I will give you if you will just simply, Jesus,
fall down and worship me, if you will just bow
and worship me. This is the ultimate demonic shortcut. This
is the lust of the odds. Now, you might ask,
(38:02):
how can the devil offer Jesus the kingdoms of the world.
Did he have that authority to make this offer? And
you know what the tragic answer, Yes, he did. When
Adam bowed his knee at the scene of the crime.
Back in Genesis chapter three, when Adam and Eve bowed
(38:23):
their knee in the garden, Adam abdicated his god given dominion,
and he handed the title deed of this world over
to Satan. For the scripture with it over. In Sect Corinthians,
Chapter four, Verse four, Paul writes, and he called Satan
the god small g the god of this world. Paul
(38:46):
says that the god of this world has blinded the
minds of the unbelievers. So please understand when he makes
this offer, he's not bluffing. He is making a legal
offer to Jesus based on stolen property. He is showing
Jesus all the power, all the wealth, all the influence,
(39:09):
and he makes the deal of a lifetime. I'm going
to break this last temptation down verse eight. Showed him
all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, And
this is the temptation of the destination without the journey.
And this is what I mean by that. What he's
offering to Jesus in this specific moment is the crown
(39:32):
without the cross. He's offering Jesus the thorn. I'm sorry,
the throne without the thorns. He's offering Jesus the glory
without Gyasemite. So everything that Jesus is going to go
through to get to that cross, Satan is letting him know, Hey, bro,
you don't have to do that. You don't have to
(39:53):
go through the betrayal. You don't have to go through
the scourge, and you don't have to go through the
beatdown that you're going to take. Hey, here's something for
you right here. You want a kingdom. You came for
a kingdom. I got some kingdoms for you verse nine.
In all these I will give you fall down to
worship me. And that's it right there. That's the quid
(40:16):
pro quote. This is the diabolical deal. Satan reveals his
ultimate motive. It was never about the bread family. It
was never about the angels catching Jesus family. It has
always been about what was declared in Matthew chapter three,
verse sixteen and seventeen. It was always about the sonship.
(40:41):
It was about the worship. He's asking Jesus to trade
his divine destiny for a demonic contract. The devil was
offering temporary power for eternal allegiance. So Satan shows Jesus
all kingdoms. He's showing the money, the influence, the power,
(41:05):
everything that people are killing themselves over every single day.
Satan was offering it all to Jesus. Man, skip that cross,
skip that suffering. I'll give you the crown without the thorns.
Jesus just bow down and worship me. The enemy wanted
Jesus to genuflect to darkness in exchange really for what
(41:30):
was already his by divine right. He's offering him a
shortcut to the throne. But if Jesus takes this shortcut
to the throne, it's not the throne of God, it'll
be the throne of save And it would have made
him a slave to the kingdom of darkness. That's the
quid prop that's the quid pro quote. I'll make you
(41:52):
king of the earth, Jesus, if you make me God
of your life. And he's still offering people that very
everything today. This is the same spirit that's operating today Church.
The enemy still pushes this transaction. Compromise your worship and
I'll give you the world. But I remember Jesus once
(42:13):
he said, but what shall it profit a man to
gain the whole world and lose his soul? He said,
And what shall a man give an exchange for his soul?
This is the wall of ambition. This is that seductive
lie that whispers in your ear, that the end justifies
(42:36):
the means. The voice that whispers, I'll do anything to
get it. And at this point I love this because
now he's zero for three, and Jesus' entire posture shifts
at this moment. Forty days, no food, no drink, forty days,
(42:58):
forty nights, and after three temptations, his posture shifts. The lecture.
The lecture is over. And so what Jesus does is
he moves from defense to dominion. And that's a lesson
we all need to learn how to move from defense
to dominion that God has given you. Verse ten. Then
(43:22):
Jesus said to him, here's the dominion, be gone Satan,
for it is written. So he doesn't answer Satan anymore
at this point in time. You know what he does.
He evicts him. He speaks from the core of his
divine identity and authority, be gone Deuces. It's not a request,
(43:46):
it's an eviction notice. And then Jesus delivers the final
non negotiable principle of the entire universe. From Deuteronomy, chapter six,
Verse thirteen. Jesus says this, as he's putting his foot
in Satans behind. You shall worship the Lord your God,
and him only shall you serve. If we could just
(44:10):
get that only part, we will find so much success,
so much peace, so much purpose. Our lives will just
have so much more clarity if we could just worship,
I believe over in Revelation chapter four, John says, behold,
I saw one on the throne. If we could just
(44:33):
put God on the throne of our lives and leave
him there, because that's what Jesus did through these three temptations.
He put his father on the throne, and he did
not move him off of the throne. And this is
the ultimate declaration of allegiance. Jesus is saying, there's only
one throne in my life. There is only room for
(44:55):
one throne in my life. There is only one being
who is worthy of my worship. My ambition is not
for the temporary glory of these kingdoms that you're offering me, Satan.
My ambition is for the eternal glory of my Father.
So now I want you take a hard, honest look
(45:16):
at your life's ambition. What is your life's ambition right now?
If you have to write it down, If you have
to write down your one year plan and then hold
it up before God and ask God, God, here's my
one year plan. Is this about building my kingdom or
(45:36):
your kingdom? Seek he first, the kingdom of God and
his righteousness and all these other things. He said, I'll
give them to you. You and I. We have to
be willing to surrender our plan to God today. We
have to be willing to surrender our will to God today.
(45:58):
Not my will, but your will be done. You have
to tell God, and you have to pray to God
that God, I want your will more than I want
my way, even if this path involves a cross before
(46:19):
it leads to a crown. God, I want your way,
not my way. I got a question for you family,
What small bow are you making every day? And what
temporary kingdom are you receiving in return for that small bow?
(46:42):
I want you to really give some thought and some
consideration to that, because without even being intentional, there are
times where we are bowing to things and we may
not even realize the consequence. Because it's just these small
little steps that the devil will use to draw you
(47:03):
away from God, just small steps, just a little sin here,
just a little compromise here. It's a little and before
you know it, you are so far removed from where
God first originally called you. So we've had this journey
through the wilderness today, and we face some walls of temptation.
(47:25):
We saw wall number one. That was the wall of appetite.
That wall screams that you I gotta feel it. And
we learned to fight back with man shall not live
by bread alone. We saw wall number two. Wall number
two was the wall of affirmation. That wall screams, look
at me. And we learned to fight back with the
(47:48):
word that says, you shall not test the Lord your God.
Then we touch wall number three. Wall number three is
the wall of ambition. That wall screams, I'll do anything
to get it. But what we learned, we learned how
to fight back with you shall worship the Lord your
God only. So Jesus faced this unholy trio. The Bible says,
(48:13):
all this in the world is it less to the
id of ust, of the flesh and the pride of life.
And he demolished all three of these walls, all three
of these temptations, with three verses of scripture from the
Book of Deuteronomy. He didn't have no divine cheek code,
he ain't had no oil, he didn't need no offering,
(48:36):
he didn't pull any rank. It was just the word
coming out of his mouth. That's all. He had. Nothing else.
There was no choir. There there was no praise team. There,
there was no lights, there was no smoke machine, There
was none of that there. Jesus didn't debate Satan. He
didn't share his feelings with Satan. He weaponized scripture. Can
(49:04):
I tell you something, It's just a little intel about
the enemy. Enemy doesn't care about your church attendance. He
doesn't care about your title. He doesn't care where you
go to church. Only one thing makes demons tremble. You
want to know what that is. The one thing that
makes them tremble is the word of God. The word
(49:25):
of God in the mouth of a believer who knows
their identity. Can't cry your way out of temptation, can't
bargain your way out of temptation. You can't think your
way out of temptation. You know how you're going to
come out of the temptation. You got to fight with
the sword of the spirit. And that is the word
(49:46):
of God. And here's what should shake you, Jesus, Son
of God, this is my beloved son in whom I
am well pleased. The Son of God took down the
Prince of Darkness after fasting for forty days and forty nights,
he took him down with three verses, three verses. Question,
(50:16):
can you quote three verses verbatim right now? Can you
stand on those three verses when all hells is breaking
loose in your life. That's not a suggestion. Jesus just
gave us the blueprint. But here's the explosion, the same
(50:40):
spirit that was in Jesus. It's send you to the
same word that he swung. It is in your hands
to You're not a victim. No, you're not a victim.
You're a warrior. And you are equipped with demolition. You
(51:00):
are equipped with dunamus. You are equipped with dynamite. That's
what the word power means, dunamous, dynamite. You're equipped with
that to blow up anything that's blocking you, to blow
up anything that's standing in your way, any Satanic attack.
So I need you to stop being intimidated by the
(51:20):
walls of temptation. And this is what I need you
to do. Simply start swinging the word of God. Start
swinging the sword. When you pray, swing the sword, when
you fast swing the sword. You know why, because the
Bible says that the devil is a liar. The Bible
says he comes to still kill and destroy. But Jesus said,
I've come that you might have life, and have it
(51:42):
more abundantly. You have the truth that sets you free,
that will set you free. Please understand, we have more
access to the Word of God now than any other
generation that's ever lived on the face of this earth.
We have the Word of God everywhere in anywhere we turn.
So it's take down time. This is your moment, and
(52:05):
this is your call to action. Call action number one.
Identify your wall. We all got a wall. I need
you try to hear me. We all got a wall.
Our walls are not alike, but we have some walls.
Stop playing games, and I need you to be brutally
honest with yourself and with God. You don't have to
(52:25):
front here. Which of these three walls that we looked
at is the primary stronghold in your life? Because I
need you to name it. I need you to write
it down. You cannot defeat an enemy that you will
not define. You must call out the enemy. You must
(52:46):
call out who's coming against you. Call action number two.
Find your scripture. You must get on the offensive. This
is not passive. Faith. Have to get on the offensive.
Search the scriptures, find your weapon, find the verse. That
(53:06):
is a direct CounterPunch to the lie that you've been believing.
And I need you to make that verse your war cry.
Write it down, speak it, live it, put it on
your phone screensaver. So every time you look at it,
that verse is just hitting you right upside your head.
(53:29):
Let this mind be in you, Philippians two to five.
Let this mind be in you, which also was in Christ, Jesus,
the same mind that he had in that wilderness. That's
the mind of Christ that the Bible is calling us
to have called Action number three. Declare your identity. Yeah,
the battle is one or lost in your mind and
(53:51):
your mouth. Go to a mirror, look yourself in the eye,
and speak God's truth over yourself. You're going to simply say,
I am a beloved child of God and my Father
is pleased with me. My identity is not based on
(54:14):
my feelings. My identity is not based on my followers.
My identity is not based on my failures. My identity
has been sealed by the blood of Jesus. And you
have to declare that. Until your spirit hears it and
until your heart believes it. You must know who you
(54:34):
are and who you are. So now, if this teaching
has knocked down at least one wall in your life.
You know what I need you to do. I need
you to share it Facebook, family, I need you to like, comment, share,
tax some people that are living behind their walls of temptations.
You all are having communications with people. You know what
they're going through, and so if you can help them,
(54:55):
if you can any in any way, be a blessing,
Be a blessing to them. To all the podcast listeners,
those of you listening on Speaker, Spotify, Amazon Music, and
iHeart Radio, please subscribe, please like, and please follow. Please
share the podcast with your family and friends. Join us
next week for these walls of itching ears. Let's pray. Father,
(55:19):
we honor you, Man, God. We thank you for this
time the fellowship in your word. God. I thank you
that we clearly know our identity in Christ. God. I
thank you that you have declared it before the foundation
of this world. I thank you God that you called
us with a holy calling, not according to our not
according to our works, but according to your grace and
(55:40):
your purpose that you gave to us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. And so God, I thank you
that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. I
thank you God that we walk by the spirit and
not by our flesh. We know God that the flesh
and our spirit is enmity with each other. And so God,
I pray now that we will begin the process God,
of of feeding our spirit. God, I pray that we
(56:03):
will feed our spirit and starve our flesh. God, help
us to be more committed to you. Help us God
to see you high and lift it up in our lives.
Help us God to see you sitting on the throne
of our lives, our decisions, our jobs, our marriages, everything
that we go through. God, help us to see you
(56:24):
more clearly. And so, Father, we thank you for this hour.
It's time of sharing. It's time of fellowshipping in your word.
I pray for my brothers and sisters, God, that they
will walk out the calling that you have placed on
their lives. God. I pray God that you will heal.
I pray God that you will deliver. I pray God
that you will wipe tears from eyes. I pray Father
that you will lead your children God while they're in
(56:47):
this wilderness. God, but it won't be a wilderness of wandering.
It will be a wilderness of purpose. God, help them
to stand on your word while in said wilderness. So God,
we thank you, and we honor you, we bless you.
That's in Jesus thing that we do. Prayer.
Speaker 1 (57:04):
What a powerful and timely word from Pastor tim On
behalf of brothers in the word. We pray you feel
equipped and empowered to demolish the walls of temptation in
every area of your life. Remember, the battle is real,
but you are not defenseless. Pick up your sword, the
Word of God and use it. That is your victory.
(57:27):
Be sure to join us next week for an all
new episode these Walls of Itching Years. And remember, get
into the Word of God, and the Word of God
will get into you, and we'll see you next time. Peace.
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