Leading The Way

Guest: Listen now to encouragement from Dr. Michael Youssef to begin this episode of Leading the Way.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Are you going through the pain of injustice and unfairness? Hear the sweet voice of Jesus to say to you, I have experienced far more injustice than you will ever know.

Are you experiencing temptation to take the easy way out? Hear His sweet voice saying, I was offered the biggest shortcut has ever known, but I resisted, and I took the power.

I know how you feel, but I have given you my authority. I have given you authority to defeat Satan.

Guest: Thank you for taking time to join international Bible teacher Dr. Michael Youssef for Leading the Way.

Up next, Dr. Youssef draws his series Taking Authority to a powerful conclusion. You will see how Jesus offers keys of victory for you and me.

And please do remember that Leading the Way is a listener supported media ministry, meaning that Dr. Youssef relies on God's provision through the generosity of those blessed by the worldwide ministry of Leading the Way. Learn ways to stand with Dr. Youssef at 866-626-4356 and at ltw.org. Listen now as he begins this episode.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Our culture and our generation is so characterized by a drive for instant gratification. There are so many people in our society, in our culture, and in the West in general, who live just like that.

They live for the moment. They grab for the gusto. They seek temporary mirage of power. They do not think of the consequences. They do not even plan for the long term. They never give anything thought to their eternity and where they will spend their eternity.

Someone said, power can intoxicate just like alcohol, but alcohol intoxication you can recover from, but power you cannot recover from. It intoxicates you for good. And you do not need me to tell you that we have many politicians today who are like this, intoxicated with power.

In fact, Margaret Thatcher said about power, she said, being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to announce it, and if you have to tell people that you are, then you are not. We are in the third of three parts series on taking authority.

Looking at the model of our Lord Jesus Christ when He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness. The three temptations and how He took authority over Satan in the times of temptation in the wilderness.

These three temptations took place right after a great victory. You remember when Jesus was baptized at the River Jordan, and there God the Father, in the voice of God the Holy Spirit, affirmed that God the Son, He said, "This is My beloved Son." Here the crowd standing on the edge of the river watching Jesus being baptized. Here that voice from heaven thundering saying, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."

He is saying, "This is it. I have no other plan. He is My plan for salvation. He is the one. Without Him, no salvation. Without Him, there is no heaven." And after that great victory, Jesus goes into the wilderness and there He fasts for 40 days and 40 nights, where He spends time communing with the Father, in intimacy with the Father. And at the very end of that glorious time with the Father, Satan comes in and tempts Jesus in three ways: pleasure, popularity, and power.

We saw the first two, and today we will look at the third and the last one. But before I get there, there is something of utmost importance that you must understand about temptation. And when you understand this, you will understand all the temptations that you and I face every single day.

Remember this, there were no one in the wilderness other than Jesus and Satan. Matthew, Luke, John, Mark, there were none there to record this. How did they know about this? Jesus told them about it. It came out of His holy lips. He told them what happened.

Why? Because He wants to make sure that everyone of His followers do not live a defeated life, but like Him take authority over Satan and defeat him every time. In fact, the Bible said that He was tempted in every way, and yet without sin. And that is why I told you at the very beginning that every temptation that you and I face, they have to come under one of those three headings, pleasure, popularity, and power.

And that means there is no temptation that you have ever faced in the past, or even you are facing now, or that you will ever face in the future, that Jesus had not faced. None. In fact, the same text, Hebrews 2:18 tells us that because He Himself suffered when He was tempted.

You see, there is suffering in temptation. There is a great deal of suffering. But oh, how sweet the victory when you have the victory over Satan's temptation. He said, "Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted."

Are you going through the pain of injustice and unfairness? Hear the sweet voice of Jesus to say to you, "I have experienced far more injustice than you will ever know." Are you experiencing physical pain in your body? Hear the sweet voice of Jesus saying, "I have experienced the tearing of My flesh and the tearing of My limbs without the benefit of an anesthetic or even pain killers."

Are you experiencing false accusations? Are you experiencing being unfairly maligned? Hear the voice of Jesus saying, "Being perfect, sinless, holy, righteous, Son of God, they accused Me of being demon possessed."

Are you experiencing temptation to try books and take the easy way out? Hear His sweet voice saying, "I was offered the biggest shortcut has ever known, but I resisted, and I took the power. I have experienced temptations to do My thing, to presume on the Father for instant gratification.

I have been there. I know how you feel, but I have given you My authority. I have given you authority to defeat Satan." Beloved, the reason many Christians live are living defeated lives is because they have never comprehended that incredible authority that Jesus has and He has passed on to every one of us.

Sometime ago somebody asked me a question about this three temptations of Jesus in the wilderness and the question is really a legitimate one. It said, "Why did Jesus talk to Satan? Why did even bother spending time talking? Why did he lead him on and let him go on and tempt him like this? Why did he just say to him, 'Buzz off Satan, I do not want to talk to you.'"

And the answer is very simple and I already gave you a partial answer, because He wanted to show us how to take authority and defeat him in every area of life, every time. Now I get to my text. I always get to my text.

Turn with me please to Matthew 4, beginning at verse 8.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all of the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. All this I give you, he said, if you will bow down and worship me.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Jesus said, "Away from me, Satan, for it is written, 'Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.'"

Dr. Michael Youssef: Then the devil left him, and angels came to attend to him.

Dr. Michael Youssef: The very first temptation, Satan tried to get Jesus to use His divine power to serve Himself. When that did not work, so he came to the second temptation, and he tried to tempt Him to force the Father's hand, to presume on the Father's grace and use His power for the son.

And so, after he failed miserably twice, finally Satan tips his hand. Let me tell you something, resist him long enough, he will tip his hand. He finally reveals exactly what he is after, the very purpose of his existence. And that is he is trying to induce Jesus to worship him.

You see, that is Satan's ultimate goal. In every temptation of every kind, he has one ultimate goal. He will gobble around the edges. He will try all the other things. He knows your Achilles heels and he come in and start harassing you in whatever area you are struggling with, but the ultimate purpose is that he wanted to be worshipped.

Remember, that was the very thing that threw him out of the heavens. Do not forget that he was the angel of light, Lucifer, who was serving in the throne room of God, but he was so jealous of God, envious of God, and he wanted to take God's place, and he and the third of the angelic being were thrown out of heaven.

He wanted to unseat God, so he could be worshipped. So that is the ultimate goal. That is exactly what he wants. Everything else leads there. And that is the one thing he craves the most. How did this third temptation happen? Well, when the Bible talks about high mountain, the idea is that supernaturally they were in a place where they could see all of planet Earth.

They could see Egypt with all of its treasures. They could see Rome with all of its might. They could see Athens with all of its monuments. They could see Corinth with its magnificent. They could see the royal city of David with all of its glory. And here what Satan said to him. He said, "Jesus, I can give you all of that now."

See, now is the operative word. Let me tell you a secret about Satan. Now is his word. I give it to you now. Now. He knew that it is a plan of God before the foundation of the earth for Jesus to be the King of Kings, but not before Calvary.

Satan knew that Jesus is crowned to be the Lord of all Lords, but not before Gethsemane. See, he knew that. And that is why he says, "Now, instant power, instant gratification, now." Jesus. Would not you want to take it now? Why wait for what is rightfully yours? You and I know it is yours. Take it now.

Why follow the Father's plan when you can circumvent the process? Jesus, you deserve to have it now. Jesus, you have already done enough. You already have done too much. You have already left the glories of heaven and came in a form of a man.

Jesus, you do not have to submit to the Father as a servant when you can be king right now. Beloved, do not miss this. Do not miss this because it happens in your life and in mine every time. What the Father promised the Son to get for His righteous obedience, Satan is now offering it. He cannot give it, he is offering it to Him through unrighteous disobedience.

Have you ever been there? Have you ever heard his miserable voice offering you what is yours for obedience to the Word of God and try to get you to grab for it through disobedience? Why wait until marriage? Get it now.

Why wait to be blessed through faithful stewardship? Do some creative financing. Why do you wait for God's timing to take place? Take matters into your own hand. Do it now, grab it now, experience it now. This is where he really blindsided those of us who know and love the Lord Jesus. This is how he blindsided us.

There is nothing that Satan can offer us, nothing that can even come close to what is yours in Jesus Christ. Nothing. He offers you wealth through crooked means. The billions of the universe, all are yours in Jesus. He offers you some temporary power. We are going to be sitting on thrones and judge the universe.

Is he offering you some momentary pleasure? We are going to experience unimaginable, pure, holy pleasures in heaven. What Satan offers you in order to get you to compromise your faith is not really much of an offer. It really is not. And you have got to start seeing through that.

If Jesus is the savior of your soul and the Lord of your life, then you have untold riches, unspeakable joy, power and splendor all yours, but not now. Not now. Our best life is yet to come. It is yet to come.

That is the whole Gospel. That is the core of the Gospel. That is why Jesus came from heaven. That is why He died on a cross. That is why He rose again. That is why He sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us. And if you read the scripture carefully, you are going to find that every time it never misses, every time, somebody jumped the gun, did not wait for God's timing.

Every time, someone moved in disobedience. Every time, somebody was tempted by the shiny, glamorous, glittery one, not only cause heartache to themselves, but to everybody around them. To everybody around them. Read it in the scripture.

God promised Abraham and Sarah a son from their bodies. So they waited and they waited and they waited some more. Nothing happening. Now I am convinced Satan probably came to Abraham and he said, "Abraham, it is getting too late, old buddy. It is getting too late, you are getting old."

No doubt he went to Sarah and he said to her, he said, "Now, look, girl. You are drying up like a prune here. What are you waiting for? It is perfectly acceptable in your culture of the day. Everybody does it. Give him a concubine. Let him produce an heir so he can keep his name. God is not going to keep his promise?"

The Bible said that Sarah sold it to Abraham and Abraham did not resist. Had Sarah and Abraham said, "Satan, get out of here. God promised us a son from our bodies and He will keep His word. Satan, we are going to wait for God's timing. Satan, we are going to hold onto God's promises."

But Abraham did not. And here we are in the 21st century. We are paying for that sin of not waiting. I thought of how the sons of Aaron, the High Priest, when God sends the fire every time to take the sacrifice and one day he delayed. And they would not wait for God's fire to come down and lick the sacrifice.

They lit their own fire and ended up in a disaster. Every time. Now is Satan's operative word. Listen, whatever Satan offers you, he cannot give you anything, but whatever he offers you is always a counterfeit. Always a counterfeit. It is an imitation of what God really has in store for you.

And Satan's price looks cheap in the beginning, but the back pay is hefty. Someone here may be asking the question, "Well, how can Satan offers the whole earth to Jesus? How could he own the earth to be able to even offer it to Jesus?" It is a good question, it really is a great question.

When God established the earth, He gave the property deeds of the earth to Adam. He said, "Now, you are the CEO. You are in charge. You are it. It is Mine and I am giving it to you, here are the deeds." He handed him the deeds of the earth.

When Adam fell for Satan's temptation and would not take authority and resist, he forfeited that dominion over the earth. He surrendered not only his birthright, he surrendered the property deed of planet Earth to Satan. Satan knew that the earth is Jesus, but after the cross, not before.

Jesus, the second Adam, the last Adam, was going to arrest that property deed from Satan's hand, but only after Gethsemane. And that is why he was doing everything possible to stop Jesus from going to the cross. You see, the power is in the cross of Jesus. For Satan knew that after the cross, he is toast.

Satan knew that the cross will expose him as the usurper who he is. The cross will defeat him and depose him. The cross will spill an end to his reign. The cross will give Jesus's followers the authority to defeat him every time and everywhere. And that is why the third temptation, what Satan was trying to do, he was doing his darnest in order to save his hide.

He knew it is over once Jesus gone to the cross. That is why Jesus finally said, "Away Satan." The commandment said, "You shall worship the Lord your God and Him alone." You see, Satan knows that every human being has ever lived and will ever live will have to worship someone or something.

Everybody does. You have to worship something or someone. And that is why he got millions of people worshipping him. Now they may not call it that, they may not know that, but they are worshipping him. Everyone has got to have a god. Whether it is a thing or a person.

Philippians 3:19, Paul said that there are some whose God is their appetite. In Matthew 6:24, Jesus said, "There are some whose God is mammon." That is a god. We know there are some people who worship themselves. They are their own gods, and they are abundant in our culture.

You see it in the commercial. Oh, it may be expensive, but you are worth it. They are forever worshipping themselves, their ideas, their thoughts, their philosophies, their way of life. But listen, here is how you can take the test.

Whoever occupies the majority of your time, your talent, and your treasure is your God. Whomever you love and obey with all of your heart, that is your God. But for those who love the Lord Jesus, those who worship Jesus alone, Satan is forever holding the shiny one, the glittery one, the glamour one, and says, "Come and get it, come and get it." Do not be surprised. Just take authority in Jesus' name. In the power of the blood has shed on that cross.

Guest: A challenge to take authority when temptations come from Dr. Michael Youssef on Leading the Way. And if you would like to listen to more of Dr. Youssef's messages and other challenging content from Leading the Way, start by visiting ltw.org.

Now, as this episode ends, allow me to follow up on what was mentioned earlier. Leading the Way is listener supported, relying on those who are encouraged in their faith by Dr. Youssef to pray for the worldwide ministry and to practice biblical generosity. We do hope that you will consider standing with Leading the Way. Help expand the Gospel reach right here in this community, and in communities just like this one all around the world. We trust in God's provision through one-time gifts. Many give a portion of their tax refund or bonuses or some unexpected blessings. Others participate by becoming frontline mission partners, those who give each month.

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Guest: Reach your personal ministry representative at 866-626-4356. That is 866-626-4356, or online at ltw.org.

Dr. Michael Youssef: Before we run out of time for today, as an encouragement to our fellow listeners, I would like to invite you to share how God is using this program to encourage you in your walk of faith. I believe it is important to give testimony of how God is working in your life, and if Leading the Way is part of that, we would want to know. You can call our testimony line at 877-941-7934. Now I want to hear all about it and we just might share it on the program, that is 877-941-7934. Do it today. Thank you in advance and God bless.

Guest: This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Passionately proclaiming uncompromising truth.