A Mind: Besieged

Dato' Dr Lai Fong Hwa
06-10-2019 (Mental Health Awareness Weekend) 

Luke 4:1-13 New International Version (NIV)
Jesus Is Tested in the Wilderness
4 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted[a] by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.

3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’[b]”

5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.”

8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’[c]”

9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written:

“‘He will command his angels concerning you
    to guard you carefully;
11 they will lift you up in their hands,
    so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’[d]”

12 Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’[e]”

13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

Genesis 3:1 New International Version (NIV)
The Fall
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The devil's way was to twist God's word and to question God's word to us. In Genesis, when the devil tempted Eve, God already said something and the devil came to say did God really say that? A lot of times when we are faced with life's difficulties, sometimes the devil would come and say, "Did God really say He loves you? Did God really say He will take care of you? Did God really say He will heal you?" He will put in questions to doubt God's word.

As we read through Luke 4, we see the devil using the same technique again with the Lord Jesus. God told Jesus that "You are My Son whom I love. With You I am well pleased." Now the devil comes and says, "If You are the Son...?" He's trying to question what God had already told Jesus.

Lie #1: You are what you do. (Luke 4:3)

The devil said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

Are we human beings or are we human doings?

A lot of times the devil lies to us and say, "You are only somebody if you do something."

Jesus didn't buy the devil's lie. For Jesus, "I am the Son of God whether or not I do anything."

And so are we. We don't have to buy the devil's lie.

We are children of God in Christ. Just like our children. We still love them and care for them whether or not they do anything for us. 

Luke 10:20 New International Version (NIV)
20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

The Lord sent out the seventy to heal the sick and cast out demons. (Luke 10:1-23)

The disciples returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”

Jesus replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

Do not let your identity be based on what you can do but let your identity be based on who you are in Christ. Don't be happy so much by what you can do for the church, for God but be more happy because of who you already are in the Lord Jesus--that you are children of God and that your names are already written in the Book of Heaven and the Book of Life. Rejoice in that.

Lie #2: You are what you have. (Luke 4:5-7)

The devil showed Jesus the kingdoms of the world and all the riches and properties around the world.

The 5Cs: Cash, credit card, career, car and condominium. These are all things that you possess.

But the Lord says something different.

Luke 12:15 New International Version (NIV)
15 Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

Life doesn't depend on what you have. Life is more than that. That's what the Lord tells us. Don't buy the devil's lie. Our material possessions don't make us happy. Our material possessions don't constitute life for us. The Lord tells us this 2,000 years ago. Today, Harvard University did a study and found this to be true. An 80-year-long study at Harvard University claims the quality of good and loving relationships-more than money, health or fame-are the key to a happy life. "Those who kept loving relationships get to live longer and happier. But the loners die earlier. Loneliness kills as powerful as smoking or alcoholism."

The most important relationship is our relationship with God.

Lie #3: You are what others say you are. (Luke 4:9)

In the Lord Jesus, we are fellow citizens of heaven. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are joint-heirs with Christ; we will rule with Christ one day and we will judge angels together in the Lord Jesus. Our identity is not what we have here. What matters is who you are in Lord Jesus. In Christ, we are sons and daughters of the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And that make us higher than angels and more glorious than all the kings and prime ministers and presidents of the world.

Mark 15:32 New International Version (NIV)
32 Let this Messiah, this king of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.” Those crucified with him also heaped insults on him.

If what others said of Him mattered to Jesus, the Lord would have responded by coming down from the cross. The devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness but that wasn't his last attempt to tempt Jesus. Right at the end of Jesus' life on earth, when He was on the cross, the devil tried to tempt Jesus again. Jesus could have easily come down from the cross because He has twelve legions of angels waiting to do His command. (Matthew 26:53)

Was it the nails, O Savior,
That bound Thee to the tree?
Nay, ’twas Thine everlasting love,
Thy love for me, for me.

It wasn't the nails that put Jesus on the cross. It was His love for you and I that kept Him on the cross. If He had come down from the cross, we would all have perished.

You are not what you do.

You are not what you have.

You are not what others say of you.

These are actually seeds of mental illness. One of the things that causes stress and mental illness is lies that the devil tells us. Believing in the lies that the devil tells us will leave us totally stressed and depressed and we may even become mentally ill.

We need to start not believing in these.

The Lord knows us.

How then do we define ourselves?

We define ourselves by what God says of us.

“You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11)

Cling on to what God says of us in the bible. It is enough.

Your identity in Christ. How God sees you in Christ.

Genesis 1:26a New International Version (NIV)
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness,

Human beings are innately valuable to God. Human beings are innately precious to the Lord. 

In the beginning, God made us in His image. Nothing else in the world were created in God's image. Only you and I are created in God's image and God sees us as precious.

Matthew 16:26 New International Version (NIV)
26 What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?

Your soul is more precious than all the money that the richest man in the world has. That's how Jesus sees everyone of us.

1 John 3:1 New International Version (NIV)
3 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

The image of God belongs to everyone, even your non-believing friends.

But when we believe in the Lord Jesus, our value goes up even higher because in Christ, we are made children of God--sons and daughters of the eternal God. You are princes and princesses. Next time when you go to heaven, the angels bow down. 

Psalm 84:10 New International Version (NIV)
10 Better is one day in your courts
    than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
    than dwell in the tents of the wicked.

Because the psalmist realised that his identity does not depend on what he does, on what he has and what others say of him, he is so happy for he know who he is in the Lord. As a believer, he prefers to be just a doorkeeper and he feels himself more valuable.

We are beloved of God. 

RELATED:
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A MIND: BESIEGED

A MIND: RENEWED