Beyond Sunday S2: Trusting our Deliverer

Sin and temptation are realities of our broken world. God gives us the gift of forgiveness and the opportunity to be made right with Him through Jesus. When Jesus is faced with temptations of appetite, approval, and ambition He responds with scripture, empowered by the Spirit, and trusting God’s provision. A Jesus-shaped church follows Jesus’ example in the wilderness and holds tightly to our Deliverer.

• Transcript

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  Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the Beyond Sunday podcast with a desire to take the conversation beyond Sunday. I'm Devon and joined by my friend Sherea. How are you today? >> I'm good. How are you? >> Fantastic. Ready for this one? >> Good. >> As I'm ready for everyone. >> Okay. >> Okay. Hey, before we dive into the conversation, take a look at this video. All right. As we dive into the conversation, Shrea, what this week, what was the big idea and the scriptures

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  we were in on Sunday? >> Yeah. Um, so we are kicking off this new series of Lent. Uh, we're in the Lent season. Um, and so there's this uh this idea of a stripping away um or a surrendering. So, our series right now, fully surrendered. And so, in this first one, um the idea the idea of trust is what's going to run through this season because as we're stripping away and pulling away, surrendering things, um that requires an act of trust. If I'm going to lay this down, if I'm going to set

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  this down, I'm trusting um that there's going to be enough or that I'm going to be held or whatever the case may be. So, this one um trusting our deliverer. And we're we're looking uh we were looking this week at temptation. Um, and so for me in the the scriptures, there was two different stories of temptation being highlighted and then compared. Um, and so in Genesis, we've got uh kind of the big one, the big fall in Genesis 3 with uh Adam and Eve and the tree and the snake and and all of that. Um, and then

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  the contrast of that in ma uh Matthew 4, we see the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Um, and then for me, Romans 5 uh also existed in our scriptures this week in the RCL. And that um was just this contrast between Adam and Christ and the way um kind of the way they responded to temptation. And uh really what that highlights is God as the deliverer. Um and so that uh >> yeah, that's where I was in those spaces. >> Yeah. And and as we are in the first week of of Lent, as we head towards Easter, one

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  of the one of the things I love about this se season of Lent and is the preparation that it provides coming into Easter that um we can be unintentional with the season that we're in uh and just kind of go day after day into the next season and the next thing that comes. Uh or we can be intentional with um you know the season of of time and and space that we're in as we approach something like uh the Easter holiday, resurrection Sunday, this wonderful celebration that we call attention to

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  that the the tomb is empty. He is risen, right? We come we come into Easter and often we re we recite and repeat that phrase, he is risen. He's risen indeed. Um, and then and and and there it's such a a hallmark of a phrase and it and brings life uh into our souls of like we we worship a risen savior, not not a dead one, but a risen one who um in his death has given us a way back to God and in his resurrection has also given us life. >> Right? So, I do like this season of Lent and and being intentional with it. Not

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  just um walking through day after day as we approach um springtime and as we approach uh Easter, but part of that preparation is what we called attention to like what you just said, the stripping away. Uh what have we attached to our um to ourselves that God's not invited us to attach? what what have or what are we holding on to that God's inviting us to be open-handed with and surrender and um and in this season that's what has been the case year after year is this um uh reminder from God

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  come to me I you know I I will give you what is needed I will take care of you right so come to me um all who are weary and I will give you rest and um or the Matthew 11, right? Come and be with me and learn these unforced rhythms of grace. I will I will sustain you. I will care for you. Uh that's sort of the invitation I sense in this season. Um and even how we started from this Sunday. >> Yeah. Uh yeah. Because I think, and this is not um this isn't a surprise, but for me, what this started with was the

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  stripping away of um any any part of a identity that I've taken on that isn't from God. Um because as I was uh reading and praying through um the idea of temptation, for me, it landed differently. I mean, these are stories we're all familiar with or many of us are. Uh if you grew up in church, you're familiar with these stories. Um but typically uh you know when we're teaching temptation, it's like here's how we say no to to temptation. Um but what was landing for me in the contrast

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  of these two is that really this is like uh temptation is is lost identity. It's the spaces where I'm I'm tempted or I have already >> um temptation comes when I've already listened to other voices including my own >> to tell me who I am. Yeah. >> Or what's true of me instead of God's. And that was a huge echo that has been I think we've talked about this on the podcast in the last month or so. Um, but that's a huge echo for me is this idea of um what voices are the loudest, like

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  who's speaking loudly and the places where I've uh I feel or believe or exist in a way um that something is true that actually isn't what God has said. Um, and >> well, isn't and isn't that the um we started the Epiphany season talking about the identity of Jesus, the divinity of Christ, and now here we we step into this Lent season as we approach Easter and we are calling attention and being reminded of our identity in in God, our identity in Christ. >> Well, not only that, but we bookended

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  Epiphany. So, Epiphany starts with God speaking identity over Christ in the baptism. Epiphany ended with God speaking the same identity over Christ on the mountain. >> Um, so literally just the week before and then that probably is part of why this week as I'm reading this, as I'm going into this, it was like, oh, this is an identity thing. And that's the difference, right? Um because where this falls in the story, >> God has just spoken identity over Christ in the water at his baptism and then he

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  steps into the wilderness with this like I know who I am. I know who I've been called to be and with the spirit present leading him, guiding him. >> Um >> and and so that idea of like what Satan's trying to do is chip away at that identity if you're really who God says you are. >> Yeah. Um, and it's the same thing that he did in the garden. Don't you want to be like God? If you do this, you'll be like God. And and he's confusing an identity that says actually you already

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  are like God one chapter before. You were made in the image of God to be like God >> to carry his presence into the world, >> right? And I think that's that's how it exists for us. And so we talked about um and I know this is you're you're familiar many people are familiar with the temptation triangle. We talked about the way that the the way Satan tempts Jesus in the wilderness highlights three kind of main ways that that uh temptation can show up for us. Um but I actually think those are all identity.

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  So appetite that says like I'll never have enough. Um that's an identity piece that's that like that it's my responsibility >> to to have enough. Um or where it says like I'll never do enough or I'll never be enough. those things are all identitydriven. Yeah. >> Um and so I think >> that that piece for me and then the and this is where like the big idea trusting God as our deliverer because what Romans calls out >> is like Adam uh Adam sins, sin enters

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  the world and now there really is uh almost a hopelessness in that space. But because of Jesus, because not only does he show us uh how to respond to temptation in the wilderness, but what he does on the cross puts an end to the power that it has over us. And so that for me was the huge piece of like because Jesus because of Jesus's death and resurrection, um when I'm met with other voices and temptation to believe other identities, it actually doesn't have to hold power over me because Jesus has already

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  defeated that. Um, which means when I when Satan says you'll never be enough, I can actually respond like God God gets to tell me who I am. >> Yes. Right. And they even like in verse uh chapter 5 verse 15, but the gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if the many died through the transgression of the one man, right, being Adam and sin entering the world, how much more did the grace of God and the gift by by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, multiply to the many others? And this is the amplification

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  part of this, right? It it it um it multiplied to the to the many um and spread out from that. And the gift is not like the one whose sin for judgment resulting from the one uh from the one transgression led to condemnation. But the gracious gift from the many uh failures led to justification. Right. Jesus um uh offering justification through his uh life and sacrifice and resurrection. >> Yeah. Um well, and for me, the other piece of that that landed because it says in 15 and 17, there's an echo. Um there's a

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  great difference between Adam's sin and God's gracious gift. The sin of one man brought death to many. Even greater is God's wonderful grace and this gift of forgiveness. 17. Even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness. Um the the other piece of that was like uh sin looks heavy and rampant and brokenness is everywhere in me and in the world around me. And so in the spaces where I'm tempted to throw my hands up and like it's too much like this world is too much of a disaster or

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  even in myself in those spaces where it's like man I cannot get this right. um that reminder in Romans of like yes sin entered the world and there is much of it but even greater is God's grace like >> like there is no um there isn't a comparison between like the amount of grace and forgiveness and righteousness that God offers um because of what Jesus did. Yeah. And so >> yeah, the language in there like the the gracious gift, the abundance of it. um and that it and and that it's far

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  greater than um the when it calls out the sin entering the world like this is it's more than and how often though am I sitting in a place where I'm um you know struck down and crushed by the thought of my own sin and the sin and this the the systems of sin that are so pervasive in in our world that I I forget I forget How abundant, how great is this gift of grace, >> right? Which essentially is just another attack of the enemy. >> Because if he can tell us >> if he can tell us there's so much sin,

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  >> it's hopeless >> um in us or in the world >> um >> then yeah, then then there's discouragement and there's hopelessness. Um >> but it's not what God's offering. It's not what God's saying, >> right? >> Yeah. And it's even even if you fast forward from the next uh generation from Adam and Eve in the garden in sin to Cain and Abel and um even God comes to Cain and he asks the you know he's like look Cain sin is crouching at the door

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  and it wants to devour you. If you do what is right will you not be accepted? Right? So even God coming to Cain in this and if you know the story like it didn't work out well for Cain. He he couldn't resist >> the evil one. He couldn't resist the the the sin that had crouched at his door. He opened up and then it consumed him to the point where, you know, then he's murdering his brother. So the the even that the identity that gets um twisted, the identity within Cain that is like,

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  look, God is is there offering a a way back and a warning even. >> Mhm. um do what is right and you know what that is. Um and yet the within Cain, right, all the like jealousy or everything else that was raging within him, >> right? >> Uh it it just overcame him. >> But that's true for that's that's true all through the Old Testament. Yeah. because there's this um and and there is it's the reason that this whole sacrificial system looks the way it does, right? Because there is so much

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  sin that the people are um unable unwilling to avoid. And that's where I think I was having a conversation on after church on Sunday with Andy. Um but again this reminder of a God who pursues >> and continually says like it's not good enough. Um and and meaning not us, not not that we're not good enough, but like I want more for you. Um when I read scripture, when I read the Old Testament, well the the entirety of scripture, I see a God who just seems to keep whispering over humanity like, "I

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  want more for you." And so like, uh okay, I'm going to give you all these laws. I'm going to call you my people and through Abraham and through Isaac and I'm going to call you my people and I'm going to give you these laws so that my my presence can dwell among you but you're not actually able to hold up your end of this. So I'm going to do it both. I'm going to do both sides. I'll I'll take both sides of the covenant. And then like this is better but it's still

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  not good enough. So now my presence is going to reside with you permanently in the space of the temple. This is better but it's still not good enough. And so now Jesus like there's this constant >> now my presence will be here with you among you. >> Yeah. And because of that and that was the thing that was really I guess that's what sat with me Sunday. Um I had not seen the story of Jesus's temptation in this way before because typically I think we look at Jesus in the wilderness

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  as an example of how we are supposed to respond to temptation. So, okay, great. Like, when temptation comes, just spout scripture back at it and call it good. I'm not saying that that's wrong, but recognizing that actually um without the work of Jesus on the cross, I'm powerless to resist temptation. And that's what we saw through the Old Testament. And so, there's atonement and there's redemption through sacrifice. But the people are sinning like that. there there is a certain element of and

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  and I recognize that there's places and there's people in scripture um in the Old Testament who you know God does call righteous and who are able to resist but as a whole like there's a lot of depravity like in humanity but what Jesus did on the cross takes the the example that he set in the desert and uh makes it permanent for us on the cross now sin doesn't get to have power over me because of what Jesus existed and because I because of what because Jesus's death and resurrection gives me

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  access to the presence within me now I have that same power within me which means instead of um instead of only being able to hope for forgiveness and restoration on the back end God I've sinned will you forgive me will can I bring these sacrifices I actually have the power to resist on the front end >> yeah and in the midst >> and in the midst and in the way that Jesus did um by by essentially like he speaks scripture, but it really what he's doing is he's he's saying, "No,

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  here's what's true. You're saying this, but this is what God has said." Yes. >> Um and that's a huge echo. >> Yeah. And and and also the thought of like if if Jesus is going to be uh led out into the wilderness and tempted by the evil one, I too ought to prepare >> Yeah. and and assume and expect that the evil one will tempt me in all kinds of ways in ways of like we we already called out like the appetite like I'm if I don't take it I won't have enough

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  >> right or or ambition if I if I don't work uh for it or or uh do enough I'm I u I won't I won't have >> do I have value do I have worth yeah >> yeah I won't have value worth or or the approval right if if people won't don't like me or receive receive me and my presence then um right am I going to be accepted? >> Yeah. >> I won't be enough. >> Yeah. I won't be enough. So the the I should I should expect I should anticipate and part of that anticipation

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  I should prepare and part of that preparation and what I see with Jesus is I is the word of God. the truth uh that exists in the word of God that if that sinks in and resides within me that's what comes out and my so and we've talked about this is in in reading the word and maybe through um the the spiritual discipline of of just reading scripture but if I am if I am so immersed in it would it also come out right if I have immersed in God's word and the truth uh that's there that then

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  when attacks come when um my identity is put into question by a simple a simple thought or a or just a twisting of the truth in such a way that doesn't actually match up with God, would God's word be so uh prevalent within me that that's what flows out in response to uh the the truth of God's word. What flows out in response to the the twisting of the truth or the lie that sits before me? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think that comes in two ways because I do think um Jesus knew scripture and he knew the word. Um

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  and I think that we are um invited to do the same like you said in in this the spiritual discipline of reading scripture, immersing ourselves in scripture because in that it makes space for me to get to know the father and that's the other piece of it because yes, Jesus knew scripture. Absolutely. We see that uh we we know that because of of his cultural context and and who he is, but we also see that in scripture. He's in the temple. He's calling out. He's quoting scripture. Um

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  but he also knows the voice of the father um in real time, not just through written word or memorized word, right? He hears the voice of the father. This is my dearly loved son who brings me great joy. And it says specifically, it's the spirit that leads him into the wilderness. the spirit descends like a dove leads him into the wilderness. So in that space not only um a head knowledge of scripture by wrote but do I have am I abiding am I dwelling so that when Satan bumps into me actually not

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  just scripture that's coming out but it's actually the spirit within me that's coming out >> well and isn't that isn't that in the way of it's the it's the voice of the father it's his words over us to us being lived out through us through obedience righteousness right it that's what's flowing Yeah. Well, and it I guess the the distinction for me is that it and I I called this out on Sunday, but recognizing that Satan actually uses scripture. The demons know scripture,

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  right? So, it's not enough for me to just memorize some verses so that when so I can just say something by wrote. That's the piece for me that um uh otherwise I'm not going to recognize otherwise will I recognize where Satan's twisting something or not? Because that's in both stories, right? Did God really say you can't eat from any of the fruit? Like take he's just taking words that have been said and twisting them just enough. And he says he quotes Satan quotes scripture in Matthew 4 to Jesus.

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  So if I only have a head knowledge >> right >> of that then I I don't have um I don't have that identity piece that's the that's the thing like >> and the other piece of that is also do I have people around me that in the spaces in the moments where uh I do forget or I I might be confused on what voice I'm hearing. Do I have people who I can trust to to say hey this is what the father says this is who he is. This is who he who you are. Um because I think that's that's the other that's the gift

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  of community when we have community who can echo the voice of God. Um >> yeah and and and there is as you say we take in the word not just for head knowledge but actually to transform us. >> Right. >> Right. It transforms us in in knowing who God is knowing who we are because of him. Right. And we read those words and those truths of God and the and and the story of God throughout scripture that then helps to transform us. Not just inform us about God, but transform us and remind us I am

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  a child of of God. I I I am seen and known by him. Right? that that's that piece of not just informing me through the word and my identity but transforming me so that what I reflect and what uh when others bump into me whether it's the evil one or others what comes out is the image of God >> right yeah and that's the response to all of those temptations like I don't have to take for myself >> fear doesn't have to tell me that I'll never have enough because God is enough

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  and I have and He's promised. He's promised that I I have uh >> all that I need in him, right? So, I don't have to perform or or ask um will I ever do enough to have value or worth because God's already said like actually your value and worth isn't tied to what you do. You have value and worth because of who I made you to be. >> Um and I don't have to ask uh I don't have to strive for the attention or approval of other people and ask if I if I'll ever be enough. Um because actually

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  God's opinion is the only one that matters and he already said he already said yeah >> dearly loved son daughter >> who brings me great joy >> um and so those are the truths that get to remain um and those are the things that help me stand against the temptation in those places. >> Yeah. Yeah. It's good. As we wrap this episode up, what would you say Zakyos? Is God inviting you uh to hear or to know? And how is he uh calling you to respond? >> Yeah. Um this is a long chyros over the

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  last this is um I don't know that I would say it's a slinky chyros, but this is just a consistent over the last couple weeks, month or so. Um and it is it's tied into this um uh distinguishing between God's voice and other voices. So um both in the knowing so the broad picture of like how well do I know the father's voice and where are the places that I have uh believed other voices. I've believed other stories other lies that actually aren't true either about who God is or who I am or how the world

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  works. Um, so that's the big picture and that's what this reminder was um, specifically for me and coming out of camp last week and conversations with with teenagers and also just um, you know, I think I shared on the podcast a couple weeks ago um, just sitting in a hard space of like, man, I I'm wrestling with some things that uh, really what it was was like, God, how I'm feeling and what I'm seeing right now don't line up with who I know you to be. So, um, there's a tension in that for me and I

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  kind of sitting in that space and God's been speaking and and moving um, in the last couple weeks in that. And so, specifically, um, for me, the Chyros right now is to actually spend some time um, what does God say about some specific things? So, um recognizing that I may have had a misunderstanding of um God's description of like gentleness and uh a quiet spirit um and and what those look like. And so, I'm sensing an invitation of like see what I say. That is um get to know me a little bit better in that.

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  And so, >> come away with me. >> Come away with me. Let me show you what this actually means. Yeah. Yeah. Uh for me the the chyros from Sunday that God still seems to be speaking is this um uh surrender. Will will you trust me to surrender? I'm not asking you. It doesn't seem like the ask is to give up. Uh but it is to trust him. And sort of that I guess the the the visual for me is this like are there spaces which I've been holding on to um tightly and God's like actually I I'm

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  I'm looking for this. >> Will you do this in these spaces? And uh and so I I sense the the chyros is all right Lord, where are those spaces that I have been like this? And do I do I do I notice? >> Mhm. >> Right. Am I recognizing? And would I be willing to surrender and be open-handed and um maybe God uh lets me keep some of those uh area, spaces, things. Um uh I sense I sense what the invitation is like. Trust me here. >> Mhm. >> Will you trust me here? And um yeah, so

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  that's a a big one. one, I was like, I'm still looking for clarity on on those areas that I may be unaware that I've I've not surrendered or I've I've been holding on to something and um God's inviting me to to surrender it um open-handed and trust him with it. >> Yeah. >> That actually even what I read from Romans and know about God in in scripture is is a God of abundance. So, um yeah, maybe in the surrendering what comes forth is is abundance, not >> not scarcity.

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  >> Yeah. Cuz actually, um when we're holding like this, we can't actually like our hands aren't open to receive any more than what's already there. >> Right. Yeah. >> Um >> Yeah. So, uh that's a big one and one probably that uh I'm I desire for him to continue to speak. >> Yeah. Well, welcome to the trust cyros because that used to always be mine. >> Good to be here. Good company. >> Yeah. >> All right, guys. Well, thanks for

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  listening into this episode of the Beyond Sunday podcast. We hope and pray that your conversations are going beyond Sunday. people in your life who uh you can have these kinds of conversation with and and to wrestle with what we're hear you're hearing from God and what you're reading in his word and um and that uh together praying for one another and walking faithfully as God in the way God is calling us. So until next time, have a great week.