luke 4 and cheap grace

Our church is making its way through a series on Luke. The past few sermons have been about temptation. The first sermon was about when temptation strikes: when we are tired, when we are isolated, and often after a big win.

Last Sunday our pastor continued to preach about the temptation of Christ.

Some quotes and points that I jotted down:

Many times we are tempted to fulfill a God-given, natural desire in an ungodly way. Jesus was hungry -- that wasn't the problem. The question was how will you fulfill your desires; who will you look to for guidance and to supply your needs? This applies to so many natural drives that we have: acceptance, significance, intimacy, sex, security, love, etc.

"You could argue that all of life is about choosing who and what you will worship." 

Jesus knew that waiting on God's timing would bring about the richest reward, even when the devil offered him shortcuts.

"We worship pleasure to get joy and all we end up with is the shabby substitute of distraction. We worship money to get peace and all we get is more expensive stress."

"All along the devil trying to build a sense of entitlement in Jesus: 'If you're really the Son of God...'"

 "The last temptation was not to fall but to jump. In some way Jesus would be treating God's grace as a right, not as a gift. 'God has to' really boils down to 'I can control God.' And that is dangerous thinking."

"God is not a machine where we can pull the lever and receive grace. He is a loving father who graciously forgives." 

"A sense of entitlement to God's grace is a sin in and of itself. Nothing will stunt your spiritual growth like feeling entitled to God's grace." 

"When you face temptation, dig down to see the bigger question that is being asked. Sometimes a specific situation seems unclear or the lines seem blurred ... If you ask, 'What desire am I fulfilling? Is the desire godly, and is the way to fulfill it in submission to God' or 'Who or what am I worshipping?' things seem to clear up pretty quick."