Sermon at First Presbyterian
Church Lockhart
Deuteronomy 26:1-11, Psalm
91, Romans 10:8-13, Luke 4:1-13
February 21, 2010
by James Greene
In this season of Lent we are called to reflect, remember and remind
ourselves who is The King in our
lives and in the universe. How God became flesh in Jesus Christ and faced the
temptations, hunger, thirst, and agony of crucifixion. How Christ has come to show us that we have
life and hope, through our hardship. He came to show us God’s heart and what it is, for us to live in, and to be in God’s Will, as part of the
people of God.
In Deuteronomy this
morning is the outline of early
worship and faith of the Hebrews. It describes the central theme of all worship-- which is the praise of God. It is demonstrated in the
In this worship, there
is a long speech that each head of the family makes a declaration. They recite the history of
their faith and the history of
God’s people. It calls them to remember the hardship and trials in
The temptation, not to remember God, was always
with them:. But their remembering God, and God’s
providence is and was part of God’s Will for them even through their temptation. In remembering ‘whose they are’ they become a part of God’s Will - knowing that
God keeps His promises to his people. The
Lord is faithful, and by being in
His Will, we too must be faithful
to the one who is our defender and shield. We must rejoice
in all the good things that God has given us, even in the midst of our trials, and temptations.
In Psalm 91 there is the key
use of the word “will” through
out the poem. It is a look into the faith of the believer. It is an affirmation that God is and will always be our redeemer. It is an illustration
that in our faith, we shall touch
the heart of God, and he
will hear us. We see in the Psalmist’s statement “I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge, fortress, in whom I can trust. Knowing
in that trust, God will watch over us. It shows us God’s heart and intent for
his people.
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The
use of the word heart in the Old
Testament is critical in understanding
this text. The heart is the individual’s point of contact with the Lord.
It is the seat of ones
emotions. It is the center of one’s intellect, and decision making. The heart
is the court, in which, moral
choice occurs within the individual.
It is the center of their will and of their being.
We see this in the
Psalmist, and we see a glimpse of the Heart of God, and His intention
for our redemption.
The last verses are a testament to God’s Will for his people. He “will command his angels, and
they will lift you up. So that, in your trials, you can overcome
evil and
temptations. It reveals, that God, is an active participant
in our defense and protection. They are a prophesy, and a command
and of the believer’s love and protection,
and salvation of his creator.
This
is an outline of The Gospel of the
Christ for both his and our redemption.
In Paul’s letter to the Romans, we see God’s will,
- and the heart of the believer in
dialogue in the text. Like the reading
from Deuteronomy, we see the believer in worship and in a profession
of their faith. It is the heart and core of our faith: the trusting of, and believing
in God. In that trust and belief, the
individual is justified and saved. This doctrine is all inclusive, and is intended not just for the Jews but for all people in God’s
creation, that all might be saved. It demonstrates
that Jesus is the Lord of the Gospel, and he is the Lord of all,
and will bless all who call upon him. It is also the heart of God’s will and intent for all people.
In Luke, the story of the temptation of Christ is right after
his baptism by John. He is filled with the Holy Spirit, and
he is immediately confronted with
trial, and temptation. He is vulnerable
in the midst of his temptation. Have you
ever been hungry and missed a meal,
- or several meals,
because of work, or travel,
or problems. Then you can identify with and understand
the difficulty that Jesus faced
in this trial. It is hard
to keep focused, when hungry.
Food becomes your focus.
You become irritable, nervous, and short tempered when
you are hungry. Now add being challenged and tested when you are weak,
and irritable. It takes all
that you have to keep focused and to be civil with the people who are pushing on you, and pushing
your hot buttons. It is being up for 36 hours, and someone verbally picks a fight with you, when you are not your sharpest, and your patience
is thin. That is when we are most tempted to error. Jesus was tempted to compromise; to use his power for
something that it wasn’t intended. He
was tempted to use that power for the wrong reasons, instead of his call. Yet he remained focused on his Father’s Will
for him.
When your
only day off from work is used in being
at the nursing home with your Mom
for 6 hours. Then you go, to your
parents house, with your Dad, to help him make dinner, and he is billigerant and angry, because, he is dealing with the anger in his loss.
You know it is then, than
that you have to have, that trust
in God. You have to reach down in your inner core to find God’s Peace, and to be able to help Dad
through this trial and pain.
This is, something of what it is like, to be tempted to error.
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The dialogue between Jesus and the devil
parallels several challenges
that we face in our every day
life. We find ourselves in distress,
in our hunger, or in our burdens, and we must remember that the Lord is with us at all times. He is there ‘with us’ in our trials,
and in our struggles. Christ has gone through hardships and pain, and death. Just as the Psalmist reminds us of who’s we
are; Jesus reminds us that He is there with us in the midst
of the temptations.
We
must remember like the Israelites in
Deuteronomy who is King in our lives. How God cares for us, even in our struggles, and how we
should even in the midst of our trials,
reach out and help those around
us, because it is in our trust in God’s Will that is the foundation
of our faith.
In Luke the devil
challenges Jesus when he is hungry,
to turn the stone into a loaf of bread, Jesus quotes from the
middle of Deuteronomy 8:V-3 “He
humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna,
which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live by bread alone but on
every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.” Now bread
is symbolic and a metaphor for wisdom in the Old Testament.
This is a play on words when he is asking Jesus to turn the stone into bread. The Lord is known as
our rock and our redeemer,
(the salvation) and as The Bread of
life (the wisdom).
Jesus is next tempted with the splendor and power of temporary worldly kingdoms, and is asked to worship Satan. Being faithful, Jesus keeps his focus upon righteousness and the Lord, and quotes from the beginning of Deuteronomy 6:13 “Fear the Lord your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name.”
The Satan then
uses scripture to counter
scripture when he quotes from Psalm
91:11-12 (read this morning) “For
he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; They will lift you up in their hands
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Again, there is a play on words with
the use of stone. This reminds us of how Jesus later will be
identified as the “stone” that
the builders rejected, that becomes a “stumbling block”to the Jews.
Sometimes we give in,
when devil’s arguments use scripture against our sorrow and sadness. When Job’s
friends said that his suffering
was the result of some sin he
or his parents committed reveals how evil
can use text against us and against
our faith.
Again, Jesus
counters Satan with scripture: Deuteronomy
6:16 “Do not test the Lord your God
as you did at Massah.” Now Massah is a reference to Exodus 17:7 where the Israelites quarreled
with Moses because there was
no water in the desert. The Lord tells Moses, to take his rod and strike the rock and water came out for the people
to drink, and they…”called the name of the place Massah and Meribah,
because of the fault finding of the
children of Israel, and because they put the Lord to the proof by saying
‘Is the Lord among us or not?’”
Again, we see
where a stone is the stumbling
for those who put the lord to the test.
Again, the play on words, when Moses struck the rock, and when the Satan is tripped
up, by the Lord, who is The Rock.
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Christ
has come to show us that we have hope through and in our hardship. Our life in
the Word shows us how God will
be our shield and shelter through out all of our lives. He shows us how to endure through and overcome temptations in our faithfulness, and by staying close to The Word, and focused upon God’s faithfulness and heart
for all his people. It is done by, being
faithful ourselves, and remembering that God is with us in and through all of our trials
and temptations. We like Jesus need to keep our focus on God’s Will in the midst of it all.
And when we are tested, all we can do is call
upon the Lord to
help us to remember His Will, through our trials and temptations even as we minister to those around us in
the midst of their trials and
sorrows, by remembering that we do it all …
In
the Name of … the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. Amen
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