Words to Live By

God's word is better than your mom's word. God's word is better than your dad's word. It's better than the word you tell yourself. It's better than whatever your friends say.

It is better than your employer, the employees that are beneath you who are telling you that you're not good enough.

It is better than any word that can come from this earth. So live by them. Jesus is going to live by them. You need to live by him.

He's way better than you.

No offense, but he is. And so I want to walk you through this passage, as briefly as I can to give you something that I think will be helpful. I'll give you my first point: the devil doesn't only tempt you to do wrong things. He tempts you to do the right things the wrong way.

Here's how he begins in the passage.

And again, I gave you my kind of my main point: words to live by. It says, "If the tempter came to him and said, 'If you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread.'"

"If you are the son of God. " Now, last week I talked to you—I even summarized it for you this week—what happened right before Jesus is led into the wilderness to be tempted? He got baptized. And when he got baptized, he was affirmed by the Holy Spirit: "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.

" Ain't none of y'all got that kind of affirmation from the Lord. Jesus gets this affirmation from the Lord.

And the first thing that the tempter, the enemy, Satan, the devil, does is it comes to him and says, "If you are the son of God. " God, in one passage—the chapter before—says, "This is my beloved son. " My beloved son. Who is Jesus?

God's

son. Beloved son. I don't know, y'all add the adjective, but I love it: his beloved son.

Jesus is God's son. And the first thing the tempter does is he, he, he, he says, "If you are the son of God. " I've learned in my life that the easiest way for Satan to tempt me is to question—cause me to question my identity. It's to cause me to question who I am, or to cause me to even forget what God literally spoke a moment ago.

James actually talks about this syndrome that we all tend to have. He says you're like someone who looks into the mirror and walks away and immediately forgets what they look like.

What happens for me is Satan tempts me to forget who I am in Christ. He tempts me to forget who God has called me to be. He calls me—he tempts me to forget that I'm the apple of his eye, tempts me to forget that he loves me, and that while I might not be deserving of the grace I've been given, I am a recipient of that grace nonetheless. Satan wants you to forget all of that and to question your identity and calling.

That's what he wants you to do.

And so when he comes to Jesus, he says, "If you are the son of God"—if you are, he is. Yet many of us, when we hear that, he says, "You sure you—you sure you were saved? Are you sure God loves you? Are you sure you haven't done too much wrong to jump into this whole church thing?

Are you sure you're worthy of your spouse's love and adoration?

Are you sure you're worthy to have these kids and develop them in the way that God's called you to do because you screwed up way too much? Are you—are you sure?"

He, he makes me really iffy about my calling. And I wouldn't harp on this so long except for the fact that this is one of the main culprits to people moving away from what God's calling them to, that I see at least. For example, someone will come into the church, maybe your first time. Did we celebrate our first-time guests earlier?

Good, good. We're excited for you. We're glad that you're here. What's going to happen is you're going to come in, you're going to receive maybe some sort of Revelation from God, and then you're going to walk out, and you're going to wake up the next morning, and a lot of your patterns are still going to be the same because you're still learning this stuff.

A lot of all your family members, hopefully, will still be the same, right?

Like everything's still going to be fairly normal. And what's going to happen is you're going to think, "Man, I went yesterday, I enjoyed it, but by—by this time today, I'm like. " What Satan is doing there, he's saying, "It really wasn't that special. God really didn't speak to you.

I know you—you say that you're called now, but if you're called, you wouldn't be living this way. " He makes us iffy. Look at the other neighbor, the one that you like less than the one you talked to earlier, and tell them, say, say, "Don't get iffy. "

"Don't get iffy."

"Don't get iffy." Like, "If—if you're the son of God—" No.

I literally heard from God that I was the son of God. That's—if I'm Jesus and I'm standing there, I—I know I'm hungry. I've been fasting for 40 days and 40 nights. It's like I'm struggling here, I'm hungry.

It's easy to have maybe forgotten, but he remembers—in this case—what God told him.

And again, don't fall into the trap: "Well, that was Jesus. " No, you are in the same boat. God's word applies to you just like it did the son of God. And what he says trumps whatever questions you might have in your mind.

There's some people in here—you, you, you don't question science, but you question the word of the Lord, even though science has failed a million times over. They'd be changing theories all the time.

Just go look at it. I told someone recently, "You got to doubt your doubts. " You got to raise your level of scrutiny about other things, other words, other information, to the level that you've been questioning your faith. Scrutinize all the other words before you scrutinize God's word.

God's word's been scrutinized for 2,000 years, and guess what? Still true.

It's been scrutinized for 2,000 years. Guess what? Still beneficial, still sharp, still gives me discernment, still helps me have peace, still develops people all over the world. No matter what language it's in, God's word is proven, valuable, and true.

But all the other words—

I don't care who it comes from.

If it comes—if it comes from a place that's trying to take you away from your calling and what God already said about you, and it makes you iffy, ignore that stuff. It's not helpful. And one of the words that is the most difficult is when Satan tempts us with some of the right things, but in the wrong way or in the wrong season. The tempter comes to him, said, "If you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread.

" Is there anything wrong with eating bread? No.

Is there anything wrong with the son of God, who has the capacity to do something with something inanimate, like making stones bread? Is there anything inherently wrong with him doing something to make bread? Not inherently, no. What's happening here is there is a logical question from the tempter at the wrong time for Jesus.

And what happens for us is we have all these thoughts that pop into our head about our calling.

We try to follow Jesus, and it's like, "Man, it should happen quicker. " So I try to follow Jesus, and then he allows me to go into a wilderness, and he's trying to shape me. And during that season, he is actually depleting me of something that never really sustained me, but I thought was beneficial to my life. And Jesus is being depleted intentionally by God so that he would be shaped in some form or fashion.

And the tempter comes up to him and said, "Hey, just go—just go ahead and take control of the process. Just shape these stones into bread.

Don't let God keep shaping you. Shape these stones into bread. You have the capacity. If you're the son of God, you can do it.

" Satan comes to us as believers and even non-believers: "Hey, you can get your life under control. You can stop doing that thing on your own.

You don't need anybody else to help you with this. You actually need to speed up the process a little bit. Take the bull by the horns and get some of this stuff done. It's time for you to lock in, get it handled.

" What Satan does is he doesn't just tempt us with the things that are wrong. He tempts us with the things that are right in the wrong season.

And here's where that temptation gets us into trouble: it causes you to take control of something that God wants you to surrender in that moment. My word for this year is surrender, and I have learned this about myself: I like control. When you do something that's not necessarily wrong at the wrong time, that is you trying to exercise your authority and autonomy rather than trusting God with the season that he's put you in. Now, hear me properly, I'm not telling you don't do stuff.

Like, you, you, you got to do stuff.

There's stuff to do. But when we seek God and understand what he's called us to, he gives us the parameters, and stepping outside of those parameters in any moment, regardless of whether it's a good thing or a bad thing—if it's at the wrong time, then it doesn't fit the parameters, and we find ourselves outside of the will of God. So many people find themselves out of the will of God the whole time, doing good stuff just at the wrong time. It's like, "Man, I just really want someone to love, so I want to have a kid.

" But if you do that in the wrong way at the wrong time, it's outside of the will of God. God has a process for us to develop that kind of system in our lives.

I'm belaboring that point a little bit, but I want you to understand that what Satan does is he's not going to tempt you all the time with stuff like pornography, with stuff like gossip and talking mess about people. He's not going to tempt you with the substances every time. Some of you are being tempted by that, absolutely, and that's Satan too. But most of the time, he's going to tempt you with a good thing at the wrong time.

It's like, you could all watch football—there's nothing wrong with football, unless it's 10:00 on Sunday morning.

You know what I'm saying? It's not that big of a deal, it's just football, no big deal. There might be nothing wrong with something that you're taking, but if you already took it once, six hours later, you might not need to take it again. All I'm trying to tell you is that Satan is sneaky, and he wants to tempt you by having you question your identity and tempting you to do the wrong right things at the wrong time, and maybe in the wrong way.

He doesn't make you sin.

He makes you question. He doesn't make you prove yourself to God, he, he causes you to question whether God called you in the first place. Number two: he's not tempting you with bread, he's tempting you with control. He tells him to tell these stones to become bread.

And it's so funny, we, we tend to miss the lack of nuance in this entire passage, because God already created a pathway for sustenance—it's food, right?

And if Jesus is God, he's the one that took part in that creation of the very thing. Yet Satan's coming to him and telling him to turn one thing he created into another thing that he already created. I—I found that interesting. If I'm Jesus standing there, I was like, "Yeah, I know I can, but I made stones cuz I like stones.

" Do you ever think about that? It's like sometimes you don't need to listen to the lies of the enemy, because he's telling you to do something that doesn't logically match what you're called to do.

You're not called to turn stones into bread. Jesus wasn't called to turn stones into bread. I—I think I had this image the other day. It was such an interesting image.

I never thought about it this way before, though I've preached this passage several times, that many of us, we try to turn stones into bread.

Obviously, you're not standing there like Harry Potter with a wand saying "furiosa" or whatever they say in Latin. You're not standing there trying to turn stones into bread, but you're trying to take things that were never meant to sustain you and turn them into something that would. And I started to think about that, like, it would be—it's crazy for us to look at a member of the opposite sex and think that they're going to sustain our deepest needs. Isn't it?

That's crazy.

I hate it when people look at me—Hannah, don't look at me like that. That's why we get into a fight. It's because you think I'm supposed to do something for you that God does for you. And then you look at me like, "You're supposed to be the spiritual leader of this relationship.

" And I'm like, "I know. " That's what the Bible kind of clarifies: I'm the head of the household, and I'm not doing a good job right now. But you can still seek God, cuz he's still there, he's still relevant, he's still present, he'll give you Revelation that goes way beyond me anyways.

And then you could also pray for me, cuz apparently I'm not doing a good job, right? Like, that is—that is—don't look at me as a pastor and think that I'm here to sustain you spiritually. Don't try to turn me—I'm just a stone, a donkey, a Bread. This guy is a stone that I'm trying to turn to.

This dude's going to help me.

Oh my gosh. I don't mind the responsibility. I know I'm called, called to like a not just a double portion, but like a double responsibility here. I'll take the responsibility, but I can't take responsibility for your salvation and your sanctification.

That's the Spirit's job in your life.

Don't try to turn me into sustenance. I'm just, I don't convert that way. I don't work that way. I mean, some of us, we're trying to, we're trying to— it's not a stone, it's a phone, and we're like, "Turn to, turn to bread.

Turn to something that'll sustain me. " Come on, TikTok, make it happen.

Instagram, make it happen. Facebook, make it happen. Netflix, make it happen. Come on, turn into, turn into bread, be something that sustains me.

And I know we don't say it, but I spend like six hours a day on this thing.

So at some level, at least I'm thinking it. I'm thinking that this going to— it's going to fulfill me in some form or fashion. You're looking for your family members. You're looking for your kids.

Your kids cannot bear the weight of responsibility for your spiritual walk.

So stop looking at them thinking they're going to offer you fulfillment by being a good kid, cuz guess what? They're going to turn six years old. They're going to start talking back to you. They're not going to do the chores that you ask them to do.

And you're going to be like, "God, why do I have problems? " And then they're acting up in school and the teacher's coming to me.

I thought that they would be something beneficial, Lord. He's like, "No, you got to go to me for this stuff. " Amen. Only God and His word can sustain you.

So stop trying to turn. I almost asked someone for their phone.

I wanted to break it. I'd pay for the return. But I just stop. No matter how much you hit it, no matter how much you tap it, no matter how much you mess with it, no matter how much you try to exert control over areas of your life, no aspect of your life on this green earth will give you what God can give you.

So the only one you can go to is Him.

That's right. Amen. And so, what is— Jesus knows this. Jesus knows that his intimate connection with the Father is the only thing that can sustain him.

Now Jesus, you know, partnering in creation with the Father and the Spirit is like, "Yo, I made this stuff.

You talking to me about I made this stuff? " And I do think we could have a little bit of cockiness when Satan tempts us or when someone tries to tell us we need sustenance from a different party other than our savior, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, right? Like, I think we can have a little bit of cockiness. It's like, "Yo, He made this.

He made me. I'm not going to try to ask God to change one aspect of his creation to fulfill this aspect of his creation.

I ain't going to do that. Why would I do that? Because I can just listen to his words as they're written on the page. I can look at Jesus, the author and perfector of my faith.

I can look to him as the example.

I can hear the words of God manifested in my mind and I can take it into this world and recognize the same thing that Jesus recognizes with cockiness: man doesn't live on bread alone."

What is it, verse four? He said, "It is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. " Now, I want to clarify something really quickly because God revealed it to me. I've been quoting this the wrong way for so many years.

He said, "Man can't live on bread alone. " It's like, well, yeah, you can. Of course you can.

You can eat bread your entire life and you can live your entire life, and then you die and, you know, spend eternity without God. That's terrible. That's unfortunate. But you can live on bread alone.

But this is actually a command.

Jesus quotes it and he says, "Man shall not live on bread alone. " And so what he's doing is he is quoting the words of God to the enemy, informing him of something maybe he doesn't know, and reminding himself of what is true: that nothing can sustain him but the words that come—and it's so good the way he says it—that come from the mouth of God. Amen. So stop trying to turn stones to bread.

It's not helping you. In fact, that is the pinnacle of your problem, because trying to take something that was never meant to sustain you and convert it into something that will sustain you is the epitome of you taking control from God.

But God has invited us into a relationship with his son that doesn't require us to take control of our lives. In fact, it surrenders

our lives to him. And I know it's hard. What's hard about it? And this is some of you like, "Well, I don't know what comes from the mouth of God.

" Let me break this down for you theologically.

There's a guy named Karl Barth. He's an old school theologian, way smarter than me, very philosophical, so I don't like to read him too much, but when I do, I do benefit. But Karl Barth has this idea about Jesus, like, being the word of God. And he breaks it down into a few different categories.

That the word of God can come through the written word.

This is the Bible we're talking about. The word of God, from Old Testament to New Testament, is from the mouth of God. I believe it's inspired in everything that it intends for us in our lives. And so when we read it, the Lord speaks through it.

So if you're tempted to take control of your life, I would encourage you to actually grab this Bible, open it, and read it a little bit.

And what God will do over time is he will start speaking to you more clearly over time. Now, the second component that Karl Barth talks about is that Jesus is the word that proceeds from the mouth of God. This is super deep theology. You might not understand it fully, but I'm still trying to work it out within my own flesh.

But it says he is the word that speaks forth from the mouth of God.

You take John chapter 1, he says, "In the beginning was the word. " And in John chapter 1:14, it says, "The word became flesh. " So Jesus is God's word manifest in this world. So when we look to Jesus, we see the entire embodiment, the fullness of God in the flesh of Jesus.

So obviously we've got to go to the written word, because the written word is what we have to tell us about the word that proceeds from God, Jesus. In fact, the entire word of God, Old Testament to New Testament, discloses who God is, and it's manifest in Jesus. There's a third way.

The third way [sighs]— says when we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord, believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved. And when we're saved, the Bible says we're also sealed into eternity by the power of the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit within those of us who have believed also gives us self-disclosure about who God is. It gives us the word of God.

Now, obviously, we have to be careful with that, because my emotions and the Spirit sometimes get into conflict.

And so what do I do? I look at the written word that describes Jesus fully and confirms or denies what I believe the Spirit is saying within me. So what I'm trying to say: man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from God. And it's so difficult, because we have to actually say something very difficult.

We have to say that in any circumstance, I have to line up what is said around me in comparison or contrast to what God's word says.

And in every moment, I have to lift up what God's word says over what anyone else says. Amen. Yeah, that's right. And that's hard.

It's hard because when I, you know, I had a bad day, I got to go into God's word and I got to pray and ask him for some disclosure of himself to give me some discernment in this situation.

And I've got to choose to listen to what his word says, regardless of what it feels like and what it might mean. But it's so much easier for me to go to all my buddies and say, "Man, what you think about this? Isn't that stupid? They shouldn't have done that to me.

" It's easier to go to your family member and say, "Man, my husband did this. " And then your auntie is like, "Yeah, yeah, that's why I divorced my ex-husband. You know, he can't be doing stuff like that. " And then you're listening to all those words, and then someone comes to you one day—you've been hearing too much of your auntie's words.

Auntie, auntie, aunt, I don't know, whatever—the aunts, it's always divorced aunts who've been married three times who want to give you marriage advice. That's what I always say. And you hear what they said, and it's become in you a condition that you now think naturally. But then someone comes to you with God's word, and it says how you need to operate as a spouse, and you're like, "I don't know, I don't submit.

" I'm not going to break that down for you today. Just trust me that Ephesians is correct when it says, "Husbands, love your wives too.

Wives, submit to your husbands. Husbands, love your wives. " If you don't love your wife, don't expect submission from someone you're not willing to love. Okay?

So, yeah. So at this, it's like, "Submit?

I don't know about all that. " Like, there's only one potential possible scenario where divorce is an option in Scripture, and even that one, Jesus isn't a fan of— what the Bible, the words of God— yeah, but— yeah, but there's some pastors who say something that I like. There's some people that say stuff that I appreciate. "Surely the word of God means something different, so let me go look in the Greek, " even though I don't know a single thing about Greek nuance and syntax.

"Oh, here's what it must mean, because my spirit"—which is your spirit, not the Holy Spirit—"tells me that this can't be right with the word. " No, you got to lift the word of God higher. Amen.

And you've got to say, "Whatever it says, I'm going to live under it. " If it tells me that I need to seek him first so that he would give me the true desires of my heart, I'm going to seek him first. If he says, "Fix your eyes on Jesus, " I'm going to fix my eyes on Jesus. Not— but she's cute.

No. No.

Jesus only. I'm not going to live on just bread and phones and TVs and relationships and my job. I'm not just going to live on— I'm going to live on the word of God. Amen.

When he says that I am called, because he says those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ Jesus—so I'm called, like he knew I would accept him.

He destined that it would be so in some form or fashion. We're not talking about that today. And then he said, "I'm going to be conformed to the image of his son. " So when Satan comes to me and he says, "If you are—" I am.

I am because of what Jesus did on the cross. He came down, died a death he didn't deserve, paid for my sin on that cross, died, rose again, seated at the right hand of the Father, and he continues on my behalf to intercede by the power of his Holy Spirit.

What is happening right now, as God is continually approving me, affirming me, calling me, developing me, shaping me, moving me, be it wilderness or non-wilderness, I am called by God to do the works of God in this world. So I don't care what the enemy says about me. I'm not going to be iffy. That's right.

I'm going to be confident, because that's what the word of God says.

The word of God doesn't call you trash. It says there's not one who is good. But what it does say is that in the midst of our sin, Jesus covered it. So though I may not be good, he is.

Amen.

And so I am too. And I'm gonna move forward confidently in Christ Jesus. But what happens is Satan comes in and he tries to tempt us to take back control from the God who wanted to pull it from us in the first place, because it was what was best for us. But you win when you relinquish control.

That's right.

And go first to God's word. Amen. And God's word tells us that when we call upon the name of the Lord, we will be saved. So start calling on it.

So if we could bow our heads, close our eyes, the team's going to come back up.

They'll start playing behind me, and we're going to do one more worship song. I want to give an opportunity for those who don't know Jesus to trust in Jesus. But I want you to also know, after that moment, I want you Give him your life. Give him your thoughts.

Give him your activities.

Hand over to him what — what would be best for you in the first place. Give him all of the things, and we're just going to worship with that posture. Some people are going to hop on their knees. Some of them are going to stand right here.

Some of you are going to raise your hands for the first time as a representation of your surrender to God.

Some of you are just going to going to stand up and actually open your mouth and say, "You know what, who cares what people think, because I'm called by you and I'm not going to listen to their voice. I'm not going to listen to the internal voice that says I can't sing or hit a note. I am going to shout loud, because if rocks would cry out if I don't — man, I'm not going to let them do that, because they're definitely more off key than I would be. "

They're rocks. And so, let's worship in a moment. But before that, if you have not trusted in Jesus before, handed him your life for the first time, I think it's time for you to do so.

Cuz if you've been living on bread alone, trying to turn stones and phones and people into sustenance, that is a sad life. I don't want you to feel guilty about it. I want you to feel called into something better. So right now, I want you to pray a prayer giving your life to God.

Sounds a little something like this.

We'll all repeat it together for your benefit. "God, I believe—"

God—

"—that Jesus is your Son."

Jesus is your Son. "I believe he died on the cross."

Rose from the grave. "I trust his word—"

I trust his—

"—above mine."

Above others. "Forgive me of my sin.

Make me new."

Take me. "Take me with you."

As I follow you. As I follow you. "God, I pray these things in Jesus's name. "

All God's people said. Heads bowed, eyes closed.

If you gave yourself over to God today for the first time, I want you to just lift up your head and look at me in the eyeballs for a second, just so I know what God's doing in your spirit. I see you. I see you, man. I'm so excited.

Can we celebrate those who just trusted in Jesus?

Woo!