7/ 8/ 2000  Worship service

         
Many resident aliens are trying hard to obtain US citizenship.  This is because US citizenship is the only way for people to receive all the benefits and protection afforded by the US government.  However, language barrier is one problem for these people in obtaining US citizenship.  One needs to speak English in order to pass the citizenship test;

however, many of the elderly Korean aliens do not speak English.  Once, in Illinois, an elderly Korean lady, who did not speak any English, decided to memorize every question and answer in the citizenship interview questionnaire to take the test.  This lady, in her 70s, went in front of the testing official to take her citizenship test.  When the official asked her "How are you," she answered "George Washington," remembering the answer to the first question in the test booklet, thinking that the official had asked her the first question of the booklet, who the first president of the US was.  When the official smiled and asked her "would you please sit down," she replied "Abraham Lincoln."

 Remembering that the third question in the booklet was the name of the governor of Illinois, when the official asked her "do you like this country," she replied "Jim Edgar."  To relax this lady, who was very nervous and jittery, the official told her "please be relaxed, and don't get so nervous."  Thinking that the official had asked her the fourth question of the booklet which had asked how many states in the US, the lady then replied "50 states."  This is a true story.

As we lead our lives, we are sometimes faced with a very difficult question or a problem.  Sometimes we cannot adequately solve these problems with our own abilities.  As we embark on our journey of faith, we are sometimes faced with difficult problems, or temptations.  Temptations often arrive upon us when our faith in weak and deviate from God's grace.  We then experience hurt and fall into temptations.  The temptation often takes us away from the teachings of our religion, our faith, and lures us to live according to our physical wants and desires.  This temptation seeks to part us from the path of God's will and succumb to the desires of our physical bodies and those of the devil.  The important thing to remember is that regardless of how strong one's faith is, everyone can and will face temptation sometime in their lives.  The magnitude of this temptation is so strong, the lord's prayer even includes the phrase "lead us not into temptation."

According to the word of Matthew, Jesus himself faces temptation in the wilderness when he goes on a 40-day fast.  You must remember that people of faith usually become subject of temptation when their bodies, and hence their mind, are weak.  Satan came to visit Jesus precisely when he was at his weakest during the 40 day fast, when he had nothing to eat nor drink.  So the important thing to remember is that Satan will come upon us when our minds and bodies are at their weakest.  One does not attack one's enemy when the enemy's morale is high and he is at his strongest.  

Most effective attacks occur when the defender has low morale, is complacent, and is weak.  Satan works in same manner.  He looks for the opportunity when our faith and spirits are weak, and we deviate from Christ.  This is when he lures us with temptation.  The second thing we must remember is that in Matthew, Chapter 3, when Jesus is baptized by John, the Spirit of God descended upon him like a dove and a voice from the heaven said "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."  It is after that Jesus comes upon Satan's temptation.  Satan tries to befall us when we realized that we are the children of God.  To rephrase, Satan tries to convince us that we are not the children of God, to lure us to believe that we are the offsprings of secular and physical desire.

According to Matthew, Jesus undergoes three temptations by Satan.  First, Satan tells Jesus, "If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread."  He wanted Jesus to perform the miracle.  Jesus must have had strong temptation for food since he was starving.  One of the greatest wants, or needs, of man is food.  Since we need food, clothing, and shelter to live, our need for these things often causes us to fall.  The want of these things, in themselves, is not to be condemned; rather, it is when this need stands in the way of our faith to God and His teachings, this becomes a problem.  Satan tried to entrap Jesus with a conditional question.  

He said, "If you are Son of God," make these stones turn into food.  Satan often tries to lead us to pay more attention to, and heed our need for, food, clothing and shelter rather than following and living by the word of God and His teachings.  In other worlds, Satan attempts to have us live by materialistic principles rather than the principles of God's words.  Many people believe that they should become materialistically wealth before following the word of God and live according to faith.  

Elderly couple of Martha and Stumpy always attended annual State Fairs.  Stumpy, who was in his 70s, always wanted to ride the plane during the State Fair.  This year was no exception, and Stumpy asked Martha, "It has always been my wish to ride that plane; I've always watched other people ride it but never had the opportunity to ride it myself.  Please allow me to ride the plane once this year.  I'm in my 70s; if I don't ride the plane now, I may never have the opportunity to ride the plane again."  Martha replied, "Do you know how much it is to ride that plane?  It's $10.  Ten dollars is ten dollars.  You cannot ride it.  Just take a look at it."  The pilot heard and saw the elderly couple's argument and decide to give a ride to them on his plane for free.  "I'll give both of you a ride for free, under one condition.  No matter how I fly, you must not comment, even a word, on my flying.  If you utter even a word, I will collect $10 from both of you."  The couple rode on a plane for first time in their lives.

 The cruel pilot, in an attempt to collect $10 from them, performed numerous rolls, dives, and climbs with the plane.  Despite the pilot's violent flying, the couple did not say a word.  Once the plane landed, the pilot asked Stumpy, "How could you not even say a word when I performed all those rolls and dives?"  Stumpy replied, "I almost screamed when my wife fell from the plane, but ten dollars is ten dollars."  He kept quiet, even when his wife fell from the plane, because of the $10.  What a sweet revenge for the old miser Martha!  Jesus, when tempted by Satan to turn the stone into bread, replies "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God."  It is only when we prioritize word of God in front of our needs, that we can overcome temptations.

As the second temptation, Satan took Jesus to the holy city of Jerusalem, atop the pinnacle of the temple, and tempted him to throw himself down, because it is written that He shall give His angels charge concerning you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.  This is a temptation on popularity and vanity.  Satan wanted Jesus to display his showmanship atop the temple.  Rather than upholding a principle, Satan tempted Jesus to become a PR man, to satisfy the bodily senses of people around them.  You want to make a statement?  You want to make an impact?

 Do you really think that the world is going to listen to a poor carpenter, Jesus?  But people want Larry King.  They want the Entertainer.  They don't need the truth!  They just need a good PR man.  They just want to see Jesus' show.  Satan was tempting Jesus to become a pure entertainer on top of the temple.  To this Jesus replied, "Thou shall not tempt thy Lord God!"  Many churches advertise that belief in God will automatically result in all the materialistic gains, success, happiness and health.  God wants us to be happy--but not with what the world counts as happiness.  He wants us to know a joy that is deeper than any felling, one that can sustain us even in our darkest hours.  God wants more than just physical healing.  The grace and blessing of God is above materialistic, it is spiritual.

As the third and final temptation, Satan took Jesus up onto an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and said "All these things I will give You is You will fall down and worship me."  If Jesus broke His ties with God and allied with him, Satan was going to give him powers and glory of the world.  This was a temptation of power.  As a creature of God, when we succumb to temptations of power and be unfaithful to God, we have befallen to temptations of Satan.  To rebut Satan's temptation, Jesus replied "Away with you, Satan!  For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve."  

Phrasing Deuteronomy 6:13 and 10:20, Jesus was able to repel the temptation of Satan.  Worshipping and serving secularly visible things, rather than Lord our Father, is pagan worship.
In conclusion, Jesus repelled Satan's temptation through word of the Lord and His prayers.  Even today, Satan looks to subjugate us to his temptations when our bodies and minds are weak.  By focusing on prayers based on the word of God, we can live according to the word of God and walk in His path.  We can overcome temptations.  Let's pray in the name of our Lord, to have us be ever vigilant and not fall into temptation, and if we do, to bestow upon us the ability to repel the temptation through Lord's word and His prayer.