Winning Like Jesus, Part 4

God understands the struggles of everyday life, doesn't He? The reason He was tempted in every way like us, but without sin, is that He may sympathize with our weaknesses. What do you say?

You mean very sympathetic? No, that's not what it means. It means that none of us can ever look up to heaven and say, God, you don't know what I'm going through. God, you don't understand my pain. God, you don't understand my circumstances.

Jesus immediately will respond and say to you, I have been through things far worse than you will ever, ever, ever dream of being through. And I won. And with my power, you can too. Welcome to Leading the Way Audio with pastor and international evangelist, Dr. Michael Youssef. Temptations surround us and they appear at the most unfortunate times. Well, today on Leading the Way, Dr. Youssef shows you how you can have power and victory in your temptations. You see, in a moment, Dr. Youssef continues his series called Winning Like Jesus.

Stick around and listen. You are sure to find courage and strength to face whatever challenges lie ahead. So let's pause and listen as Dr. Michael Youssef begins today's lesson from God's word. We have been going through a series on the temptations of Jesus in the wilderness, and I'm calling this series You Can Win Like Jesus. All three temptations, they basically codify and classify all temptations that are known to mankind. No temptation that you and me experience or face or ever will face that does not come under one of those three categories. Pleasure, popularity and power.

I just decided to put them that way so you can remember them. The Bible doesn't say that. Every time you and I attempted, regardless of the subcategory of temptation, you take it all the way back and it goes to one of those three categories. Question, why did Jesus think it important to tell this personal experience that he and he alone experienced to the gospel writers? The Bible said, Hebrews Epistle, that Jesus, God the Son, the divine Son of God, the very God who became very man, is tempted in every way like us, but without sin. What does it mean to you and what does it mean to me? It means that there is no temptation that you have faced in the past facing now will ever face that Jesus had not faced.

That's what it means. So do you feel rejected by someone? Jesus got rejected by everyone, including those who are near and dear to him.

Are you experiencing injustice, unfairness? Just think about how crooked politicians and crooked church leaders conspired together and falsely accused him and sent him to the cross. Are you experiencing temptation to engage in selfish pleasures? Listen, he has been through it all. And he wants to strengthen us to win over those temptations just like he did. Someone asked me the other day, why did Jesus even go to the wilderness? Why did he even allow, I mean, he could have said, Satan, don't get anywhere near, I mean, Satan couldn't have talked to him if he didn't want to.

Well, two reasons. Number one, the Lord Jesus wants to demonstrate to us his power over Satan. And secondly, he wants to tell us for everyone who believes in Jesus that if you walk in his shadow, if you live under his wings, you too can have the strength to defeat the enemy and win like Jesus. Now you can turn with me after this very brief introduction to Matthew chapter 4 verses 8 to 11. Finally, Satan overtips his hand.

Let me tell you something. When you resist the devil, the Bible said he'll flee from you. But as you're resisting the devil and you resist him and you resist him, he comes to the end and he overtips his hand. And you can see through it and he in a sense comes clean as to his ultimate purpose and that is your destruction and destruction of everything you touch. That's his purpose. But he plays the games first. He doesn't come across as telling you, oh yeah, I'm after you. I want to destroy you. No, no, no. He'll come in and he tempts you in a variety of ways. He played these games with Jesus. Oh, Jesus, you're feeling hungry.

Why don't you feed yourself? For me, it's like very subtle, I'm offering you popularity, instant popularity. You don't have to wait for it. And when neither of these worked, he finally goes for the jugular. He goes for what exactly he wanted all along and that is to have Jesus bow to him and worship him. First, he tried to get Jesus to do something for himself.

It didn't work. So then he tried to get Jesus to force the hand of the father for the father to do something for Jesus. When that did not work, he said, now Satan is offering to do something for Jesus. Oh, run a mile when Satan tried to do you a favor, okay? Be on your guard when Satan tells you that he has a big deal for you.

He has a deal for you. When tempting Jesus to disobedience and distrust the father didn't work, when tempting Jesus to force the father's hand and presume on the grace of God did not work, now it's an all-out war. He goes for wanting to corrupt Jesus and that's how it happened.

Somehow, supernaturally, you know when the Hebrew language says, they stood up in a high mountain, somehow supernaturally they were high above the planet earth. And they looked down at planet earth with all of its gold mines, with all of its diamond mines, with all of its oil and gas and with all the wealth and the power and the splendor of the earth and he says, all of this is yours. He can have it and he can have it now.

Oh, the price is so small. I'm not asking you for much, Jesus. But you have to say, wait a minute, didn't 40 days early in the River Jordan when Jesus got baptized, just 40 days early. The father spoken through the Holy Spirit and says, this is my beloved son, means this is the heir apparent. He is the one who is going to inherit the whole universe, not just planet earth. You may ask, well, if Satan knew this, if he knew that this is Jesus' anyway, that he is the one who is going to get it all, what is he doing here?

Why is he doing this? He was saying to Jesus, why do you have to wait to what is rightfully yours? Baby, you deserve it and you deserve it now, right? Why go to the cross when you can have it all now? Why go through the humiliation of the cross when you can have it all now? Why sacrifice so much when you can get it all now? Why give up your life when you can have it all now?

Why, why, why? When you can get it all now, why Jesus? Listen, if you get nothing out of this message except for one word, it is this, now.

Can you say that with me? Satan knew that it all belongs to Jesus and that Jesus is going to get the deeds for planet earth which Adam lost to Satan, but not now. Not at that very moment of history, not at this moment of the life of Jesus, not before the cross, not before redeeming mankind, not now before perfect obedience to the Father, not now before Passion Week, not now before the shedding of his blood on Calvary, as if Satan is saying to Jesus, you paid enough price when you left the splendor of heaven and born as an embryo in a virgin's womb. You have paid enough of a price when you lived in that stinking town of Nazareth with your stinking neighbors of yours. You have paid enough price by growing up 30 years in the worst conditions that any man can submit to. You paid enough price, that's enough. I'm not offering you anything, it's not already yours, I'm not offering you anything that the Father hasn't already promised you.

All you need to do, just do a little bow for me, just do a bow. And it's going to be our secret. Nobody else is going to know about it, just between you and me, Jesus. Oh, be very careful when he says it's your secret.

The Bible said, be careful your sins will find you out. Furthermore, didn't your Father already promise in Psalm 2.8? He said, ask me and I will make the nations your inheritance and the ends of the earth your possession. Isn't that a promise for you?

Sure. What God the Father offered God the Son, Jesus, sovereign kingship over the universe. Ah, but he offered it as a result of righteous obedience.

Are you with me? But now Satan is offering it for unrighteous disobedience. You know and I know that Satan is offering you and me all sorts of deals all day long.

They come through one of his minions, they come through other people, they come through deals coming up our way all the time, all the time, every day. Take a couple who has been dating and they know they're going to get married. The devil comes in and said, why wait?

Can't submit the marriage now. Why wait? Take a person who wants to be faithful steward but doesn't seem to be making headway. And Satan will come in and say, look, you got so many needs, you got so many things you need to do now. There are so many things you want to do in your life, there are so many programs in your life, so many things that you need to accomplish now. Giving to God is going to set you back.

Being a generous giver to the work of God is going to mean that you're going to have less money now. Why wait for God to fulfill his promise to you somehow in the buy and buy when you can't spend it now? Do it now. Get it now. Grab it now.

Exercise your power now. You don't have to wait until tomorrow for you don't know what tomorrow brings. Let me tell you something. For you faithful child of the living God, I can tell you what tomorrow will bring. It will bring a blessing. Because you have the promise of God on it. You may go through tough times, you may go through valleys, you may go through difficulties, but in the end you will be blessed. God's promise.

Try to imagine the devil coming at you with a voice of a nice person or at least a person who pretends to be nice. And he would say to you, you know, you can close that large deal you've been working on. You know what I'm talking about? You can really get ahead with your company. You can get that promotion you've been waiting for, but you've been held back. I mean, this is all you need to do. Just compromise a little. Don't ask you to do much, just a little bit. Keep your mouth shut. That's the easiest thing, isn't it? You don't have to do anything, you don't have to say anything. If you just go with your clients to the strip club because that's where businesses are conducted, it's not much of a price.

If you just loosen up on your bookkeeping activities, I mean, cook the books, not by much, just by a little bit. Keep your mouth shut about what your parents taught you to be a sin and wrong and all this stuff. Whatever he's offering you, it's not much of an offer. Trust me, it's not much of an offer. Why? Because if you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, one day you're going to reign and rule with him over the universe. It's all yours anyway, but not now.

Not now. He always, always makes you promises, but he never let you see the details. Devil will never want you to read the fine prints. He promised Eve, girl, if you eat from this forbidden fruit, you're not going to die.

Girl, listen to me. He said, you're going to be a god. Perhaps there is no man in the Bible, in the whole Bible, who's been held up as example of faith, like Abraham.

Just think with me. Every time you see in the news an act of terrorism, an act of atrocities, every time you read in the news, you see in the news some terrorist acts and beheading of Christians, all of these things that are happening, they all go back to a time when this great man of faith got tempted not to wait on God's timing. See, God made Abraham a promise.

Abraham, you're going to have a son, and he's going to be born of old Sarah, barren Sarah, that's it. So he waited. Then he waited. Then he waited some more.

I have no doubt Satan showed up, maybe in the person of one of his workers. Abraham, didn't you think he waited long enough? Why wait so long? Abraham, Sarah is not getting any younger. Sarah is not going to give you a baby, come on now.

This stuff is for young women, bearing children and giving birth. Look around you, Abraham, everybody is doing it, and it's true. In the pagan culture, it was a custom that a concubine can give an heir to a man.

Everybody is doing it. Abraham, look how pretty Hagar is. Look at her big brown Egyptian eyes. See, for a while Abraham resisted. He resisted. No, God said to wait. God is going to provide supernaturally.

God is giving me his word and God keeps his word. No matter what and no matter how long it takes, God's timing is perfect. And he did wait for a while. Then waiting got a little bit too much. Unlike Jesus, Abraham gave in and he stopped waiting and started taking matters into his own hands. And here we are, four thousand years later, paying the price for his refusal to wait.

You see, when we run ahead of the Lord and not wait for his timing, we don't only hurt ourselves, we hurt everybody around us and may go for generations. Here's something that you must never forget. Regardless of how attractive Satan's offer may be, it's always a counterfeit, always a counterfeit. Never the real thing. Always an imitation. Only God can give you the real thing.

How? But you can be sure that Satan's price appears to be very small. And then when you get into it, you pay through the nose. You pay with your life at times. You pay dearly. Oh, he will come and whisper, You want prosperity?

I'll give you prosperity and I'll give it to you faster and I'll give it to you sooner and it's a whole lot cheaper. Just wink at that thing that your parents taught you growing up as a sin. Don't be prude. Prudish people never succeed in this life. After all, look at all these people. They're all doing it. Surely they can't all be wrong. They told Bishop Athanasius, the man who fought heretics in the entire period of the three hundreds, they said, Athanasius, he said, the whole world against you.

He said, good. I'm against the whole world. Here's something you can take to the bank, literally. You know for sure, it's from the devil, if it goes something like this. The end justifies the means.

Did you get that? The end justifies the means. Question. What was Satan asking Jesus when he said to him, I'll give you the whole thing. Just bow to me. Just bow to me. He was basically trying to get Jesus to sell his soul to the devil. Did you get that? I know strong words, but that's true.

Trust me. See, Satan wanted Jesus to sell his soul to get what is already his. Had Jesus fallen for this third temptation, he would have been disqualified to be the king of kings and the savior of the world. He would have reversed the very cry of the mob at the cross, because their cry was, you saved many. He saved many. Now let him save himself. At that point, Satan would have cried out and he said, ah, he saved himself.

He can't save any. But, what would have happened is this, listen carefully. Instead of being the redeemer of the world, he would have joined the world. Instead of being an inheritor of the universe, he would have lost it all. The very Christ would have become the antichrist, the very lamb of God would have become the beast. Like the other temptations, Jesus quotes the infallible word of God and he said to Satan, be gone Satan. You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only.

I want to tell you something as I conclude this, something of uttermost importance. There is not a single human being anywhere in the world, not a single human being, who has ever lived or will ever live, who does not have a God. Even the Pizaraman atheists, I don't believe in God, yes they do, they have a God called self. Everyone has a God. In Philippians 3 19, Paul said that there are some people whose God is their stomach, their appetite. That's their God. Jesus said in Matthew 6 2, that there are some whose God is money.

That's their God. Whatever and whomever is your number one, that's your God. You can worship the one true God or you can worship a substitute. The question is this, is the Lord first and foremost in your life?

In every aspect or are you often tempted to exchange him for other things? Don't ever forget, don't ever forget, Satan will always work overtime so that he may get you and me to exchange the one true God for the fake one, even for a short period of time. Why does Satan want to defeat a Christian?

So that he constantly beat on him and beat on her. See, you call yourself a believer. Look at you, you can't even have victory, you can't even live in victory. Resisting Satan and telling him every time, be gone Satan. Or if you don't want to be polite as Jesus and be like me, tell him get lost. For I can promise you one thing, every time you take the bait, even for a short period of time, you might not lose your salvation if you're a child of the living God, but you're going to lose your joy, you're going to lose your peace.

Above all, you're going to lose your reward. And so say with the Apostle Paul, I pray at all times. Can you say all times? I pray at all times in the Spirit with prayer and supplication. And that will always make you a winner like Jesus. Dr. Michael Youssef, challenging you to make Jesus first in all areas of your life. Connect further with Dr. Youssef in Leading the Way at ltw.org. In fact, we'd also like for you to connect with a pastor or counselor at Leading the Way.

They'd be so glad to answer your life questions, guide you to biblical truth. Visit our website to begin your conversation, ltw.org slash Jesus. You know, Paul wrote some words in Ephesians that echo loudly in our world today.

He said, We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers and darkness of this age, against spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places. And that is why Dr. Youssef and Leading the Way are completely committed to passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth around the world. For more than 35 years, Leading the Way has touched people across six continents with the Gospel.

In fact, we are now heard and seen in 28 of the world's most spoken languages using so many forms of media, depending on the location. So won't you consider being part of this worldwide outreach? If you'd like to stand with Leading the Way, the number is 866-626-4356 or ltw.org. That's ltw.org. Extend the mission when you join Dr. Michael Youssef in the Open Door Campaign. Join today or become a monthly partner.

Either way, your gifts will make an eternal difference. That number again, 866-626-4356 and the website ltw.org. We also love hearing from you through the Postal Service. Contact us at Leading the Way, post office, Box 201100, Atlanta, Georgia, 30325. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth around the world.