[0:00] All right, I'll tell you what I'm going to do because of the amount of time. I have 18 minutes. I don't want to preach all this. So what we're going to do, you guys that run around with microphones, y'all get their microphones, and I'm going to ask you questions, and you're going to answer it right out of this text.
[0:13] We're going to start highlighting some things, hoping your Bible there and stay in that one passage, and you're going to teach each other this, if you would. Let's have a word of prayer.
[0:24] Father in heaven, I ask you to work tonight, and I ask you to speak and move in our hearts and in our lives. God, I want to have victory, and I want your name to be glorified and honored in my life, and I know these men do too.
[0:39] God, we want to lead our homes well. God, I mess up more than any man in this room. I mess up in leadership of my home, my personal life, and even the church and all the things that I do, and I want you to be honored and glorified and praised.
[0:55] I want to have victory over sin. I want to live a holy life. And so I ask, dear God, that you would work tonight and bring honor to your name and grow your people in Holy Spirit if you would just take control and move, and I give you praise for all in Jesus' name.
[1:10] Amen. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to do a Bible study, and I'll preach what the results of this are next time, a month from now. But I want you to do a Bible study with me.
[1:23] And so I'm just going to ask questions. You raise your hand if you want to answer. They'll run a microphone to you, and then you can give an answer. If you don't believe me, I can preach on this until Jesus comes.
[1:35] But all right, what verse do you want to talk about? Somebody lift your hand up and say, this is what I think ought to be noticed. Hold your hand up. Anybody? What verse do you think? Sam, let's get a microphone to Sam.
[1:47] Whoever's next got a verse they want to talk about, you hold your hand up and get the next microphone. All right, so you just pass the microphone. Whoever's next, you'll get another mic. Start at the beginning, verse 1. Before he met the temptation, he spent time fasting and praying and was walking in the Spirit.
[2:03] That's a very important point. Could I have problems with temptation if I was full of the Holy Ghost and been fasting and praying?
[2:15] Oh, I could. Oh, okay. Target, yeah. So looking at verse 3, this is a direct attack upon his identity. And this is an area that I believe that we are attacked all the time in.
[2:26] And when we don't have our identity straight, that's when we start faltering. I think it's going to David next, and then it'll come up here. But now listen to this. I think you should underline what these guys just said.
[2:39] You should underline that. If you could see my notes, the verses are just extremely highlighted. And that if that Brother Whitcomb just talked about, that's size 36 font.
[2:51] So I'll see it. Believe me, I will see it. The rest of it's 18. That if. All right, Brother. I think it was Brother David the boy, was it? Yeah. At the end of verse 1, it says, he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.
[3:07] These things have been popping up to me all over through my own personal reading. But, you know, the Spirit led him to the place where it was going to be hard. And I think most of the time we think the Spirit's going to lead us to a place where it's soft.
[3:21] And that's not the case. Definitely not with Christ here. Are you wanting to preach? That's three preachers tonight. All right. All right. That's three great things. All right. I think Daniel, I was next.
[3:31] And then whoever's out, you got another verse. You just hold your hand up. Let's move it. It's good. I just think the verse 4, like immediately after the devil tried to challenge him by making him create his own bread, the first thing Jesus said to him was, it is written.
[3:46] It was, he could have told the devil to hush with his own power, but he said, the Bible says, you will not try me. And so he always stuck with the word before he did anything.
[3:58] I wonder if that's a good point. I wonder if that's a good point. Hey, y'all, I'm not going to preach anymore. I think y'all got it. Go ahead, Ty. It's good. Hey, you should underline three times.
[4:10] He said it's written. Three times. Go ahead. Well, also a number three. It said, you know, Satan will attack us at our weakest point. Obviously, it says that he was fasting. So he was hungry and Satan attacked him at his weakest point.
[4:24] I mean, so that's what we got to be aware of. That's where Satan will attack us. All right. I think Matt Rowan was next and then it'll be Brother David. Brother Matt Rowan. I was going to say kind of one of the longs that was just said.
[4:37] But verse two, it says, being 40 days tempted of the devil. After this, it kind of reads the climax of everything. This is towards the last of it. But he was tempted 40 days not eating.
[4:49] He was praying. He was fasting. So, yeah, he was at his definite weakest point, probably other than, of course, the crucifixion. But he was starving and he was still saying, get behind me, Satan.
[5:03] Okay. Brother David. I was just thinking about what he did. The first thing he quoted, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. And I'm wondering how often in our own lives and in my own life where we prioritize food before we prioritize God's word.
[5:20] And just thinking about that. Now, see, if I said that, it would be rude and brusque. And when I say it, it's mean. And when y'all say it, it's okay. I'm not sure I follow that logic, but yes, sir.
[5:32] And is that a Bible you have in your hand there, Brother David? It is my phone that I'm using. I have my Bible back there. But the truth is, I can read the print on this better than I can read in my own Bible.
[5:45] Because it's a small school field. Who else has a word? Eric. Greg, Greg, what did I say? Eric. Sorry. I saw him.
[5:56] Y'all look so much alike. You look like twins separated at birth. That's what the problem is. Go ahead, Greg. I really enjoyed verse 17. He departed with the power of God on him. And it was after that trial in which he started his ministry.
[6:08] But we're purified in trials. We're forged in trials. And the happy-doable thing is that he left with the power of God on him after that trial. Good. Brother Jeff Mize.
[6:19] So I like skipping down to verse 13. I got underlined it here when he said the devil had ended all this temptation. He departed from him for a season. We've got to remember that we need the word, like Brother David was saying, these other men are saying, and the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
[6:38] Because we'll have a victory today. We can't think we got the victory. Because the devil's coming back. And my brother Ty was saying, he's going to get you when you're at your weakest. When you're tired.
[6:49] You're sick. You're depressed. Whatever it may be. So we have victory. It's through the words, through Christ, through his spirit. But don't ever think that we got the victory. It's through him.
[7:00] And he's coming back. Get him with the word again. Amen. Now, by the way, if I happen to mention the things that y'all have said tonight, the message is already prepared. I sent it out. So I'm not cheating.
[7:11] I really do have it. But anyway, you're hitting all my points. You're doing pretty good. All right. Anybody else? Who? Okay. Verse 6.
[7:23] Verse 6 is really a powerful verse because it speaks of the power of God. That all things come from God. The power. The power that be. And as Jesus was in front of the king, Pilate, he said, Thou would have no power against me unless it was given to thee from above.
[7:41] And you can see where Satan doesn't even have power except it's been given to him by God. So when I think of the chaos that we're in with our governments around the world, I'm reminded very quick in verse 6 that it's God's plan ultimately and he's in control.
[7:59] That'd be good preaching. Lamar, preach on. I like verse 8. It says, And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written that thou shalt worship Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
[8:18] That just, I can imagine God just, I mean, Jesus just looking at him like, Get behind me. You know, I'm not going to listen to what you've got to say. You don't know. Apparently you don't know how powerful I am and who sent me.
[8:30] And he's saying that, you know, you should worship the one and only God. Not some little bitty God, like you said in many sermons. It's got to be moved. You can't even walk. How am I supposed to worship you?
[8:44] Okay. Yes, sir. Ben. Verses 5 and 6, the devil is offering Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. He shows him the entire world in a moment of time and says, I'm going to give you all this, Jesus.
[8:56] I can almost imagine Jesus kind of smiling and saying, Haven't you read Isaiah and Jeremiah and all the minor problems? Don't you know I'm coming back to take this? This is all mine anyway. And Jesus, his victory was in his identity.
[9:08] He is the king who would sit on the final eternal king in the line of David who's going to take it all. And his victory is in our identity and our victory is in his identity too. Amen.
[9:19] All right. Trent wants a microphone. And Sam wants one. He's a little nervous about asking because he'll be double dipping. But he just keeps getting that look. So Trent, you're first. And then Sam. Just go ahead, Sam.
[9:30] Enjoy yourself. Go ahead, Trent. I'll be brief because I know we're going to Brother Sam next. Following what Ben just said, though, about in 4-7 where it said that all this will be thine.
[9:43] And Ben already said that it only belonged to him. So the temptation wasn't about what he would get. But it was about how he would get it. And sometimes our temptation is getting the things that God has for us but not in the way in which he has ordained that we would get it.
[9:56] Amen. I'm not supposed to preach tonight because I'm doing this. But, you know, God, you young men, God's got sex for you.
[10:07] But he's got a way you get it. Amen. And the devil's got another way you do it. And Jesus said, I don't do it your way. I do it God's way. Who was next? I saw a hand. All right, Sam. Come on, Sam.
[10:18] And Eric, I know Eric's itchy, too. So y'all just go ahead. He gets it next. I was just looking at 9 and 10 where it says he brought him to Jerusalem and set him on a pinnacle of a temple and said, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence.
[10:34] A lot of different ways of understanding that. I was taught when I was a kid that the whole point was that all of the crowds at the temple would see him and that, you know, they would lift up Jesus.
[10:45] They would be amazed because of this, you know, him casting himself down. I don't know if that's really what it was or not. But it's a real temptation to us to try to play to the crowd and to try to look good to others and be built up in the eyes of others.
[10:59] And Jesus didn't seem to be impressed by that. Amen. The double dippers are something to give you. Verse 14. And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee.
[11:11] And there went out a fame of him through all the regions around about. And just looking at our family's life in the past five years, we start seeing this pattern. We can go back further than that, but we've been really thinking about this, is that just before there is a step into some kind of ministry, there is usually a huge setback of some kind, an attack either in the family or around the family or spiritually.
[11:37] And going through that, and Jesus did this, going through that with God as my goal, as opposed to getting out of my suffering as my goal, has then established us, as it says here, full of the Holy Spirit, to be Spirit-filled and Spirit-ready to go into that ministry and then speak with power into people's lives.
[11:58] And then, of course, from there on, he goes and chooses his disciples and his ministry unfolds from that point. Amen. All right, Daniel, you want to double dip? I saw you get the mic. Yeah, I decided to join the party.
[12:10] It's just verse 10. Like I said earlier, Jesus used, it was written, he quoted the Bible. We forget the devil also knows the word, too. Because he wrote here, for it is written, and he proceeded to try to quote, and I wrote down there, he quotes Psalm 9, I believe, or 91.
[12:27] And the devil knows the Bible just as much. Jesus even said it, he said, the demons know my name. So just because we're in church doesn't mean the devil can't get to us.
[12:39] He can find a way to justify what he's doing, and he can try to twist the word if we don't know the word in our heart. Go ahead. So following up with that, verse 3 and then verse 41, Satan questions him, if you be the Son of God, it's a challenge.
[12:58] Verse 41, the demons cry out, thou art the Christ, the Son of God. So the Bible opens and closes chapter 4 with the answer to the question. I'm going to resign.
[13:14] I don't think y'all need a pastor. I think y'all are already doing a good job. I think I better go start a church somewhere else. All right. Who's next? Anybody else? All right.
[13:24] I'm going to throw a question at you. He's going to say something. I'm going to throw my last question. I want you to make a comparison between 1 and 14. Y'all have hit everything I'm going to preach, but you hadn't hit that one.
[13:38] So how about that? Buddy, go ahead, Brian. I was just looking at number 6 there. The devil was telling him where he got his power from. He said it was delivered unto him.
[13:49] I guess when Adam and Eve, you know, failed in the garden, he basically got his authority over the earth. And I like how Jesus, you know, when died on that cross and regained that authority.
[14:01] And then in this entire Luke passage, he kind of shows how we're to defeat the devil as a man, which was through his word and his spirit.
[14:12] Amen. Great stuff. All right. Who else? Who wants to say something? Who's going to tell me something about verses 1 and 14? What you notice going on there?
[14:24] It's already been alluded to with Brother Eric, but I want to hear if somebody else sees something. Okay. I'll take three minutes. Check this out.
[14:35] He goes in full. He comes out full. You could get tempted when you're really right with God. You'll have victory and you leave in the power.
[14:48] I don't know if you've underlined it. If you underline your Bible, it's fun stuff. He goes in in verse 1, full of the Holy Ghost. You know, what I'll say to you a month from now is you can go into this.
[15:02] You know, you could be doing this right as rain and be tempted. You can be as close to God and a devil will be tripping you up, trying to get you to fall. The difference is Jesus doesn't fall.
[15:14] And I often do fall and I mess up. But in verse 14, Jesus returned and the power of the Spirit. I love that. It's like I just went into a 40-day fight with Satan.
[15:27] But I won. And I'm leaving. And I got power. Well, thank you very much. I think y'all did a great job. Sunday morning's text will be in the Psalms if y'all just go ahead and get it ready.
[15:41] And be ready to preach. And I'll tell you what I'll do. Let's do this. Thursday night, y'all be ready for Psalm 50, 51. No, Jeremiah 50, 51, and 52.
[15:54] Y'all do that and I'll be ready. I'll lift you. Man, I promise you I will move on. Because I've already got hours in that one. I don't think you're going to see that one quite as quick and easy. But y'all dig into it. Study that.
[16:05] Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for trying to love Jesus and lead your homes. You know, I have the privilege of working with you. But you're the pastor of your wife and children.
[16:16] And you're the guy who's helping them learn to follow Jesus. And you're the picture of Christ in your home. And I hope you keep living that and doing that. Any final words from anybody? Final words.
[16:29] All right, we'll have a word of prayer. And we will be dismissed. Father, thank you so much for how good you are, how kind you are, and all you have done and are doing. God, thank you for the privilege of standing in a room full of men who love you and love your Bible.
[16:45] And God, you as the Holy Spirit just showed them. And God, so wonderfully they have exposed what your scriptures say.
[16:57] They see it and they got it. And God, I just thank you that I am privileged to be around this caliber of men. And I pray, God, you'd help us to reach out and see other people saved so their lives changed.
[17:11] I pray you'd continue to help this group of men train the next group of men. And I pray, dear God, that our younger men would learn from these older men how to walk with you and have all this. And I give you praise, honor, and glory for all you do.
[17:21] We love you. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, gentlemen, very much. Thank you.