I needed some home in me so I set my alarm last night so I could wake up and tune in for church.  I think my heart will always be with Pastor Haynes at Friendship West in Dallas.  Well I slept through the alarms….that’s not true.  I actually got up and turned them off!  LOL  The phone rang at 11am and woke me up anyway so I should be glad about it.  Pastor laid down a message this morning!  It felt really good to see the choir up there rocking and clapping and getting their praise on.  And then came Pastor Haynes.  Today’s message came from Matthew 4:1-11 (from the NIV)

The Temptation of Jesus

¹Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil. ²After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

⁴Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

⁵Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.⁶“If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:
” ‘He will command his angels concerning you,
and they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ ”

⁷Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”

⁸Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. ⁹“All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

¹⁰Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’ ”

¹¹Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

He started out saying that he had 4 points but after the second one my husband started talking to me about dinner and I couldn’t concentrate on what Pastor was saying.

The first point was that “Your spiritual hookup gives you what you need to deal with the hell you’re going through on earth.” He was focusing on the part of the scripture about fasting….emptying yourself of distractions to focus.  He likened people to cell phones.  Cell phones run on batteries….batteries that will eventually run out of juice.  For the phone to keep working you’ve got to recharge the battery by plugging it in to a power source.   He said it’s like a glow in the dark pen.  For the pen to work in the dark…..it has to spend some time in the light.

The second point was “Don’t allow your appetite to get in the way of your values.” After fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, Satan appeared and told him to turn the stones to bread.  Everybody can imagine being hungry enough after 40 days and 40 nights to want some bread…..but satisfying your appetite sometimes goes against your values.  Pastor said that success will seduce you!  We get distracted to the point where we spend all of our waking time going after the good instead of the best…..like a job.  We work ourselves to the bone on a job because we’re seduced by the “good money” and stop focusing on what our values are.  Instead of thinking about being hungry, focus on the fact that the text says man can not live on bread alone.  A text taken out of context will con you.

Watching service online this morning felt like a little piece of home.  People will say “but you lived in Oklahoma as long as you lived in Texas.”  Let me tell y’all something.  I loved my church so much that I would get up and drive to Texas just for church service!  Get there Saturday night, go to church, fellowship and eat, and drive back home.

I visited a church a while ago that I really liked.  There are 2 more that I want to visit in the upcoming weeks.  I saw the service on tv and was so interested that I need to go in person so that I don’t miss out when they cut it off on tv.