Luke 4:1-13

The temptation of Jesus serves as an illustration for the temptation we face in everyday life. Last week we looked at the temptation to turn stone into bread. Jesus was hungry, but he knew there was more to life than stuff (even necessities). In the same way, we are tempted by possessions, often to have great excess and the events of the past weekend exemplify this problem. Over the weekend Lehmans disappeared; Morgan Stanley was bought in a firehouse sale, and AIG this week was saved by a government loan of 85 billion! But all this financial ruin was not chance; instead, banks are failing because of greed! They made risky loans and are paying the price…

Of course the foolishness of so-called mature adults is not limited to the first temptation of wall street. We are in the midst of the political election and nothing reveals the second temptation of Jesus more… click here to go to a factcheck.org video.

Isn’t it amazing that the people seeking the highest office in our country have to be fact checked! Literally this whole website was created because of all the twisted truth or outright lies that are voiced during elections. Of course John McCain and Barack Obama and the people behind them are willing to do and say just about anything to get elected!

But this power grab does not just happen at the highest level, it happens throughout our culture. It may be worse in the Middle School, where students make fun of each other constantly just to be accepted, just to get into a certain crowd, just to be popular. Of course we would never literally worship the Devil, but we find ourselves bowing down to his creation by using hateful speech, gossip, rumors against those around us. All the while so we can be raised up above our neighbor…

The path of the world – due West – is a constant temptation, and it is not something we will mature beyond. Instead, we will find ourselves as adults acting just like middle school students: making business deals to get more and more, talking behind someone’s back to get ahead… the only way to break the cycle is to choose today to move East! As Ezekiel 47 declares, the river flows East! And it flows upon the very footsteps of God! The only way to break free is to follow hard after God. So today I challenge you to not wait until you are older, but to break the trend and strive after our Creator who loves us!

Random: As a blogger I am sure there are times I have written something that does not make sense or is misspelled or that could really use some further explanation… but I imagine this line “making business deals to get more and more” caused some to stumble. They may think I should have clarified that there is nothing wrong with a successful business and of course they would be right. But success can not be defined by the business world, which declares increased profits a success. To pursue more is the temptation of the Devil. To grow, to profit, these things may happen, but success must be defined by God. He does not define success by the profit line! For God success is defined by following Him. How can your business follow Him? How will He define success? I believe He is much more concerned with how you treat employess and customers, much more concerned with the benefit you bring to the community, must more concerned with integrity…