This was an email from our pastor here in Nashville regarding his sermon this week. It will encourage you. Alot:
While preparing to preach from Luke 4:1-13 on the temptations of Jesus, I have been trying to understand the nature of each temptation, what each one means and how each one applies to us. Today it dawned on me that even though each temptation does mean something specific for Jesus and His mission, and each one does help us in our temptations, one big lesson in the temptations of Jesus is that we are simply called to do the next right thing and to stay at it. Our priority should be to do what we know we are to do today, this moment, and not be distracted.
Jesus was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit to fast and pray, and to keep doing that until He was told by the Father to do otherwise. Jesus was not told to use His divine power to work miracles, to turn stones into bread, or to jump off buildings to prove He would not get hurt. That was the devil’s idea. As far as we know, He was to simply go into the wilderness until the Spirit led Him to leave the wilderness. That’s what God told Him to do. He couldn’t listen to the devil’s temptations and succumb to his distractions. He had to do the next right thing, the thing the Father told Him to do.
In Jesus we see that obedience to God in the next thing is the good and right way. It may not be easy, but neither is it complicated. There are many distractions, but the calling is clear. Do the next right thing.
Don’t complicate obedience to God. What’s the next right thing for you to do? Is it to. Love your spouse? Go to work? Pay a bill? Kill a thought? Break off a relationship? Read a book? Help a neighbor? Say, “I love you”? Apologize? Forgive? Volunteer? Give? Pray? Sleep? What is it that you know you need to do now?
Don’t get distracted. Keep doing the next right thing, today, for 40 days, and for the rest of your life. You have no idea what the future holds, and you certainly can’t control it. So take today, and in obedience to God, being led by the Holy Spirit, do the next right thing.
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Hi Michael,
Not to beat a dead horse, but that sermon above is antithetical to the Keller video you posted where Keller says, “The Bible is not about us.” That sermon makes Jesus temptation in the wilderness all about us, how to overcome. Where do we see the calling to do the next right thing? I see Jesus conquering temptation, thats all. What about telling people how Jesus overcame all temptation FOR US,in our place. If we teach that we are to overcome, what do we say to those who struggle? Try harder? You don’t have enough faith? Are you really a Christian? No, we should be telling them that though they failed, Christ was victorious in their place, giving them credit for the victory. This was God’s plan all along (cf Deut 20.1-4). Where there are clear commands, let us also be clear and exhort to be obedient. But let us also overwhelm people with the facts that where there are imperatives for the Christian in scripture, they (the Christians) are already the indicatives in Christ.
I just saw where Trevin Wax is coming to join you guys there at LifeWay. Can we hope to see a paradigm shift in the curriculum in the future?
In Christ,
t
Tracy – Thanks for commenting. Your point is strong, and is correct in many ways. However, I don’t think this post is antithetical to the video. The choice to do the right thing is based in all the great truths you’ve outlined above. We can choose to do the next right thing, but we do so out of faith, not out of our will.
Or to put it another way, the victory of Christ in Luke 4 is something we can BELIEVE in. Because we BELIEVE in it, we can follow in faith.
Part of the issue, too, is that this is but one segment of an entire message in which the great focus was on what Christ has done. What He did do. How do we respond to that? We believe that He has overcome the devil, and our belief is worked out in confidently walking in that faith.
As far as Trevin coming on board here, what a huge thing that is. Trevin is a staunch supporter and defender of the gospel, and I can’t help but think that anywhere he has influence will be better for it.