{"id":888,"date":"2021-02-14T22:52:35","date_gmt":"2021-02-14T12:52:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/?p=888"},"modified":"2021-02-14T23:43:04","modified_gmt":"2021-02-14T13:43:04","slug":"know-god-know-his-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/2021\/02\/14\/know-god-know-his-word\/","title":{"rendered":"05-Know God, Know His Word"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Our Situation:<\/strong>
What is your view of the sovereignty of God? I thought that I believed that God was sovereign in everything, until I faced a challenge recently. I lost my passport. Now, you may be thinking, that\u2019s not that big of a deal, why did it challenge your view of God\u2019s sovereignty? Well, I prayed and prayed that God would help us find it. But, it just didn\u2019t show up. For almost a month we prayed and searched. I really began to question God. If we couldn\u2019t find my passport, it would significantly delay our ability to return to the mission field and carry out what God wanted us to do. I just couldn\u2019t understand why God would do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This whole situation really showed me that I didn\u2019t really believe that God had my best interest in mind, and that He was ultimately in control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How about you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Passage: Matthew 4:1-11, Mark 1:12-13, Luke 4:1-13<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. How soon after His baptism does Jesus face His temptation?<\/li>
  2. How does Jesus end up in the wilderness?<\/li>
  3. Compare 1 John 2:16 with Jesus 3 temptations. How do Jesus\u2019 temptations relate to that verse?<\/li>
  4. Take a minute to meditate on Hebrews 5:8 and how that relates to Jesus temptation.<\/li>
  5. How does Jesus respond to each one?<\/li>
  6. How does this fulfill Heb 4:15?<\/li>
  7. How does this impact your view of God\u2019s sovereignty when it comes to difficulties in your life?<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    The Purpose:<\/strong>
    After those beautiful words that God Himself spoke of His Son, \u201cYou are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased,\u201c (Mark 1:11) Mark tells us, \u201cimmediately the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness.\u201d (Mark 1:12) That\u2019s not exactly how I would show my son that I approve of Him. So, why did God do it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Hebrews 5:8 tells us, \u201cAlthough He was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.\u201d Jesus was God, so what does the writer of Hebrews mean when he says, \u201cHe learned obedience?\u201d I like what Wiersbe said about this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    He did not need to learn how to obey because it would be impossible for God to be disobedient. Rather, as the God-Man in human flesh, He had to learn what was involved in obedience. In this way, He identified with us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Jesus experienced the temptation of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life (1 John 2:16) Another temptation that Fruchenbaum brings out is the temptation for Jesus to take the easy way to the cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Jesus life on earth was fulfilling prophecy. Those prophesies meant hardship, persecution, and ultimately death in excruciating pain. And Jesus knew it. What Satan offered was to make God just take care of everything so he wouldn\u2019t have to go through the pain. I think we can relate to that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with us. He was tempted in every way, just like we are. OK, yes, He didn\u2019t sin. But, he did experience all the challenges that we face. He DOES UNDERSTAND! And He modeled to us how to overcome! Jesus lived, and breathed the truth of God\u2019s Word!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    This lays the foundation for Jesus to be our example for Christian living. As we continue through the life of Christ, God is going to show us an example of what living in dependence on God looks like. This was God\u2019s Word in the flesh. Living as God intended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Fruchenbaum also said of Jesus temptation that, \u201cGod allowing the temptation proved Jesus\u2019s messiah-ship by Jesus displaying what God is like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The Plan:<\/strong>
    After a month of praying and searching for my passport, I seriously began to doubt that God was even listening to my prayers. Here\u2019s all the things we asked God for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    • I thought I had lost it in transit. So, we had prayed the airline would find it in the seat.<\/li>
    • We prayed that TSA would find it at security.<\/li>
    • We prayed the airline would find it at the gate.<\/li>
    • Then we prayed that some kind soul would find it and mail it to us. God didn\u2019t do any of those things.<\/li>
    • After a month we resigned ourselves to the fact I would need to apply for a new passport. But, when we went to apply for a new passport, we learned that the PNG offices were closing the opportunity for new applications in less than 2 weeks! Now we had another problem. So, we prayed, begged God, to do some miracle to open doors for us to expedite a passport. We even tried contacting our governor for help. But, nothing!<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

      The reason we hadn\u2019t tried to apply for a new passport earlier is because Robin contracted COVID and I was in quarantine for those 4 weeks. I was frustrated at God for that too. I began to doubt that God had my best interest in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      And then after praying one morning, my wife suggested one more search through all the luggage we had taken on our last trip, and low and behold, we found it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      It wasn\u2019t that God wasn\u2019t answering our prayers, He did have our best interest in mind. He did still want us to get back to PNG to carry on with His work. But, He knew I needed to learn to trust Him more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      God does not tempt us to sin, but he may place us where temptations come. He does so, believing that, through His strength, we will be able to stand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      God\u2019s Word has the answers to our temptations. God\u2019s desire is for us to come to know Him more, and to Know His Word. John 8:31-32 is so true, \u201cAbide in my word\u2026 The truth will set you free.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      That\u2019s my prayer for you today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Our Situation:What is your view of the sovereignty of God? I thought that I believed that God was sovereign in everything, until I faced a challenge recently. I lost my passport. Now, you may be thinking, that\u2019s not that big of a deal, why did it challenge your view of God\u2019s sovereignty? Well, I prayed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[130595],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-reflections-of-jesus","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/172"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/david-watters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}