Latest / Dwelling Place: The Bible for Moms / #197. How Jesus Overcame Temptation: What Christian Moms Can Learn From Matthew 4 & Luke 4–5

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#197. How Jesus Overcame Temptation: What Christian Moms Can Learn From Matthew 4 & Luke 4–5 · Dwelling Place: The Bible for Moms

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  This is Dwelling Place Firm Entrusted Ministries.
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  I'm Stephanie Hickox, and today we'll look at Matthew chapter four and Luke chapters four through five Jesus does and says many things throughout these chapters, but we're focusing on two specific accounts today.
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  First, his temptation in the wilderness, and second, his rejection in his own hometown.
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  Make no mistake, Jesus is the Word made flesh.
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  The pages of scripture bring Him glory, and He should be the focus of our lives.
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  But Jesus is also our model, and if He lived a sinless life and was victorious over every temptation, then we would be wise to evaluate where the enemy might also tempt us so that we can follow in our
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  Savior's victorious In our biblical parenting study Entrusted With a Child's Heart, our founder and director, Betsy Corning, guides parents in taking a quiz on how their children might be manipulating them.
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  She explains that manipulation is insidious.
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  Kids get so sneaky, and they learn our weaknesses.
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  She points to Satan And his failed attempt to tempt Jesus in the wilderness As the most obvious example of manipulation that we have in scripture, Mark briefly mentioned this in his gospel, but Matthew and Luke go into much
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  more detail on what occurred.
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  let's start in Luke chapter 4 verse 1 Listen for how each side battled and what weapon they used
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  Speaker 85: And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil.
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  Speaker 85: and He ate nothing during those days.
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  Speaker 85: And when they were ended, He was hungry.
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  Speaker 85: The devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread."
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  Speaker 85: And Jesus answered him, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone.'"
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  Speaker 85: And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and said to him, To you, I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered
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  Speaker 85: to me, and I give it to whom I will If you then will worship me, it will all be yours.
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  Speaker 85: And Jesus answered him, It is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.
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  Speaker 85: And he took him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written: will command his angels concerning
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  Speaker 85: you, to guard you.
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  Speaker 85: And, on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone."
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  Speaker 85: And Jesus answered him, "It is said, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
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  Speaker 85: And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time
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  You probably noticed that each time Satan wanted to tempt Jesus, Jesus responded using the Word of God.
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  but I hope you also heard that Satan used scripture.
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  And he used it out of context.
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  What stood out to me is at the beginning of the chapter, it said that Jesus, full of the Spirit, returned from the Jordan, that's where he was baptized, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness Matthew chapter
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  four gives us some interesting insight here.
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  it concretely says, Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil."
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  The Holy Spirit that descended upon him during his baptism remained and led him to be tempted so he could prove himself The baptism and the temptation were two events that happened in preparation for Jesus' ministry Numbers in the
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  Bible are often very intentional.
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  Jesus fasting for 40 days may make us think of Moses fasting 40 days or the prophet Elijah.
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  But does it also make you think of the Israelites wandering in the desert for 40 years after God did something incredible through water?
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  Jesus's baptism And then him being victorious over temptation in the wilderness is meant to show us that Jesus conquered sin in all the ways that Israel was unable to we see this specifically because each time Jesus quotes scripture,
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  it's from the Book of Deuteronomy, and it refers to a time that Israel fell into sin Jesus revealed how different and holy He is by the way He withstands the temptation.
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  I always get a chuckle over that verse that Jesus had not eaten for 40 days and He was hungry.
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  Of course He was.
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  Yet He refuses to be satisfied in any way that the Lord does not allow Him to be.
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  There are several accounts in the Bible where Jesus multiplied food and provided it.
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  The act of providing bread for a physical need was not wrong.
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  It was that Satan had asked him to do it to prove he was the Son of God Jesus fully submitted to God the Father through this.
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  Even at this moment when he must have been so physically weak, he still understood that spiritual nourishment trumped physical nourishment.
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  Next, the enemy tempted him with glory, recognition, and praise by offering him the authority of the kingdoms of the world.
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  Interestingly, these are things that only God the Father can give, and they will all be given back to Jesus.
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  But once again, Jesus showed restraint and patience by waiting until the proper time that he will be made King of Kings.
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  Finally, the devil takes him to the pinnacle of the temple, and if we're to believe the historian Josephus's account, he wrote that this peak overlooked the Kidron Valley and had a drop of four hundred and fifty feet.
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  That's a pretty steep drop-off Satan questions Jesus' very identity and says, If you are God, just ask the angels to help you."
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  Jesus knows that that's not what scripture is saying we don't test God's protection over our lives.
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  We're to walk in wisdom The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was tempted in every way and yet was without sin.
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  We can be so thankful that we serve a Savior that understands our weaknesses took on human flesh, and was victorious.
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  He is our model for how to battle.
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  And thankfully, First Corinthians tells us that no temptation has overtaken us except what is common to man, and God is faithful.
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  When we are tempted, He will provide a way of escape But God is so gracious to us because Jesus actually doesn't get the way of escape.
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  Mark's gospel mentioned that Jesus was continually being tempted by the enemy these 40 days.
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  The reason it finally ended was because Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan," and the devil had to leave And it's after Jesus passed the test with flying colors that angels came to minister to him.
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  It's certainly possible That they brought him a feast to celebrate and ministered to him physically because we've seen angels do that before to Abraham and to Gideon All of this temptation reminds me about when Adam and Eve were
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  in the garden and Satan was tempting them.
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  And these three temptations remind me of Genesis 3:6.
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  Do you remember what Eve noticed about the fruit?
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  So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took the fruit and ate."
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  Let me read those three reasons again.
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  The tree was good for food.
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  It had a practical purpose.
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  It was a delight to the eyes.
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  It looked good It could make her wise.
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  This was something that would glorify and elevate her Let's think about our own lives and hearts.
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  Are you and I also tempted to turn stones into bread?
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  Probably not.
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  But do you worry about finances?
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  When's the last time you were concerned about your health or the health of your kids or another family member?
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  Do you complain every time you have to cook, even though God has provided for you and your family Do we give ourselves over to gluttony?
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  Or do we eat too little because we're just going, going, going, forgetting that we're humans with limitations and needs?
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  There's a lot of temptation that we battle just in this area of food alone.
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  next, when Satan tempted Jesus to receive the glory that He really was due You know, I read that one and I think, Oh, I don't think that's as much of a temptation for me.
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  I don't really need recognition or praise."
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  But oh, flip that calendar to Mother's Day or my birthday, and you bet I'm wanting some recognition for what I do and how hard I work for my family.
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  How different I am from my Savior, who deserved all the praise and was entirely worthy, but he chose to delay it all so he could complete his first mission of saving us from our sins Satan also tempted him
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  to prove his identity.
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  And in a world of social media influencers, where everyone's trying to have the most followers, trying to play a particular part or look a certain way, we can admit it's tempting, right?
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  Maybe we're not even on social media, but we want believers around us to respect us Maybe when our kids act up in public, it rattles us to the core or like Eve, do we see the fruit which is
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  delightful for the eyes?
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  And are we also tempted by Prime Day deals, looking for that perfect skincare regimen that's going to erase years from our face, or the outfit that's gonna remove that frumpy mom look If we're honest, most of us struggle
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  deeply over physical provision, over being recognized and wanting significance, and over our pursuit of beautiful things.
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  How often do we look around our house and compare it to the images we've seen online?
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  There's another verse that points us to these trifold temptations.
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  In 1 John 2:15 and 16, John writes, Do not love the world or the things in the world.
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  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
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  For all that is in the world, The desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life is not from the Father, but is from the world There are so many other temptations I could
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  have mentioned, and that's why we need to follow in Jesus' example.
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  Because everywhere you and I turn, there are people offering advice, sometimes even quoting scripture, saying that you should have exactly what you want Sometimes we even deceive ourselves and take verses out of context We need to have discernment
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  about how to apply God's Word.
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  And that's part of my heart for this entire podcast, that you and I would truly know the Word of God so that we could be rooted and grounded in truth, abiding with the Lord and His Word, and that
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  it would transform who we are.
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  Our flesh wants to deceive us every single day, and we have to be on guard to walk in the Spirit And that's a very difficult thing to do if we don't make an effort to listen to the words
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  of the God who made us, the one who knows where we'll stumble and how we'll thrive.
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  Finally, let's take a quick look at what happens when Jesus goes into his hometown of Nazareth.
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  He's been performing miracles in Capernaum and throughout Judea, teaching in synagogues.
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  He comes back to his hometown and opens the Scroll of Isaiah and reads An undeniable messianic prophecy from Isaiah 61.
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  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
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  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
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  And He rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him And he began to say to them, Today this scripture has been
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  fulfilled in your hearing."
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  The verse Jesus quoted from Isaiah 61 tells of His mission on His first coming, to heal, to restore, to redeem.
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  If Jesus would've kept on reading, He would've read Isaiah's words speaking of the victory He'll have in His second coming, but He stopped at precisely the point where He could sit down and say that this is fulfilled I
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  have to admit that for many years I misunderstood why the people in his hometown were so offended by his message They didn't get enraged at the moment that he claimed to be Messiah.
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  they were on board with this.
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  In Luke 4:23, "And all spoke well of Him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from His mouth.
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  And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?'
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  And in verse twenty-four: And he said, "Truly I say to you, no prophet is acceptable in his hometown.
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  But in truth I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heavens were shut up three years and six months, And a great famine came over all the land, and Elijah was
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  sent to none of them, but only to Zarephath in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.
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  And there were many lepers in Israel at the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian."
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  When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath.
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  They rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff Why are they suddenly so offended?
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  Because Jesus gave two circumstances in which God sent prophets to be a blessing to those outside the nation of Israel They want the Messiah, but they want it to be just for them.
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  And this story of God rejecting Israel because of their unfaithfulness and honoring the faith of outsiders is more than they can take They're so angry, they wanna throw Jesus off a cliff and kill him.
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  And what Jesus does next, this is one of those verses that we're gonna wanna see footage of when we get to heaven.
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  All we're told is, But passing through their midst, he went away."
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  we don't know how he escaped, but it had to be pretty amazing.
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  And if we were to keep reading in Luke, we'd receive more details of Jesus calling his disciples to him.
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  There's a miraculous catch of fish that makes Peter realize how lowly and sinful he is, but also how high and holy Jesus Christ is.
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  When Peter sees the work of the Lord, he says, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man."
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  This doesn't mean that Peter didn't want to be by Jesus It tells us he recognized his unworthiness But Jesus receives him, weakness and all, and tells him he's going to become a fisher of men And I won't spoil
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  it now, but thinking about the effect of Peter's sermon in Acts 2 Makes me want to cry at what God did through this disciple.
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  If we were to keep reading, Jesus gets interrupted.
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  He is probably the most interrupted person that ever lived.
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  But He's always on mission.
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  He always sees people and their need, and he longs to reward their faith And the ministry life that he leads is highly unconventional and entirely controversial.
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  Jesus wasn't there to fly below the radar.
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  He challenged their misconceptions, and he didn't shy away from revealing the true heart of God, even if it put a target upon him That's how much he loves to set his people free Lord, we thank you that you
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  were tempted in every way and yet were without sin.
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  we acknowledge with Peter that we don't deserve your presence And yet we're convinced through the pages of scripture that you still long to dwell with us We're desperate for you to transform us, that the thoughts and attitudes of
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  our hearts and words of our mouths would glorify you we rejoice that your Holy Spirit equips and enables us to walk in holiness.
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  So we ask that you would help us withstand temptation.
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  May we run to your word, that we would know it well and be convinced of the goodness of your character help us to be steadfast, not being tempted by what we see or long to possess or experience And
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  we pray that our kids would also be strong in the face of temptation.
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  Wherever they go to school, whatever devices they have access to, whatever friendships they encounter, we pray that they would stand firm in biblical convictions for your glory.
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  Jesus, we're in awe of your courage, that you did not shrink back from the battle And we thank you for your love for us.
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  it's in your mighty name we pray, amen