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  BAPTIZED INTO THE FIRE
  by Steve Gallagher
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Summary: This sermon delves into the significance of Jesus' baptism by
John the Baptist, highlighting the divine timing and preparation
involved, the presence of the Holy Spirit, the underlying temptation to
do one's own will, the importance of spiritual discipline and
preparation for facing temptations, and the ultimate purpose of our
existence being a test of faithfulness to God amidst trials and
temptations.

Topics: "Divine Timing", "Spiritual Discipline"
Scripture References: Matthew 3:13, 1 Corinthians 10:13, James 4:7, Luke 4:1, 1 John 2:16, Psalm 139:23, Proverbs 4:23, James 1:12

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon delves into the significance of Jesus' baptism by John the
Baptist, highlighting the divine timing and preparation involved, the
presence of the Holy Spirit, the underlying temptation to do one's own
will, the importance of spiritual discipline and preparation for facing
temptations, and the ultimate purpose of our existence being a test of
faithfulness to God amidst trials and temptations.

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CONTENT
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Presence really is, I don't know how to say it, felt. Presence dwells.
Most of you guys came here because it was the cheapest option you could
find.

You didn't have the money to go to the expensive place and you could
have had access to all the wisdom of the world in that other place. And
all we have to offer you is Jesus. And it sounds so trite.

If we were to put that on the website, nobody would come. But it just
happens to be reality. And it just happens to be exactly what you need.

You know, this is the 10th message now in the new series about the life
of Christ. Who was here when Pastor Ed gave that original message back
in December? Saw a bunch of you guys were. This is the 10th message.

We haven't even gotten into his ministry days yet. Wow, the things that
must be coming down the pike, right? You don't look very excited at all.
How disappointing.

All right, we're going to be looking at a couple of episodes in his
life. Jesus and John at this point are 30 years old and they've both
been on their own paths in life. One living down by Jerusalem somewhere
and one living up in Nazareth.

I don't know if they ever actually saw each other before this. I don't
know. It seems to be a mystery.

But now their paths are going to converge. And Jesus will be leaving the
life of obscurity from this point on. John's been down at the Jordan
River preaching his heart out, baptizing people.

God's been moving. Revival has broken out down there in the middle of
the wilderness. People are flocking there from all over Palestine.

And I'm sure that word got to Jesus. No doubt he heard about it. And I
would imagine that there was something inside him that was yearning to
go there.

Just to be in the meetings. Just to be where God is moving. Instead of
the dead religion in the synagogues, God is there and God is moving and
upending people's lives.

Just tremendous. But the Lord had not released him yet to go there. So
he continued on just being a simple, quiet, obscure carpenter in a nasty
little village called Nazareth.

All right, let's read here in Matthew 3 starting with verse 13. Then
Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan. I mean, that alone.

You know, he must have been, like, maybe he had just finished a project
or something. He just finished building a house or something. And then
all of a sudden he felt it inside, that stirring inside him.

Now it's time, Jesus. And so he makes that trek down, you know, down
through the hills and down into the Jordan Valley and down south along
the river until he finds where John is ministering. Then Jesus arrived
from Galilee at the Jordan, coming to John to be baptized by him.

But John tried to prevent him, saying, I have need to be baptized by you
and do you come to me? But Jesus answering said to him, permitted at
this time, for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all
righteousness. Then he permitted him. After being baptized, Jesus came
up immediately from the water and behold, the heavens were open and he
saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on him.

And behold, a voice out of the heavens said, this is my beloved son in
whom I am well pleased. Man, wow. What that must have been like that
day.

And I, you know, I have a feeling that, well actually Luke's version
says that Jesus was there and he waited until everyone else had been
baptized. So I, you know, maybe he got there like at the beginning of
the day. He just wanted to see what God was doing.

And I could just imagine him just kind of off to the side, just a
nobody, not trying to be something, and just enjoying. I mean, I can
relate to it a little bit. When we went to Brownsville, Kathy and I, we
didn't go there out of need.

We went there out of hunger. And we used to just love watching all those
people flock to that altar at the end of Steve Hill's preaching and
stuff. It was such a blessing.

And I can imagine Jesus being like that, even a lot more. And just, you
know, just loving to see God moving in these people's hearts. And maybe
John was preaching, you know, and calling these people to repentance.

There's nothing that Jesus loves more than repentance. Nothing he loves
more than that. Because it means people are turning from the world,
turning from their own self-will and their own ways, and of course their
sin, and turning to God.

And maybe John started talking about the Messiah who is coming soon. And
when he comes, he won't be baptizing you with water. He will be
baptizing you with the Spirit and fire.

Luke's version said that he waited until the end, after everyone else
had already been baptized. I mean, I just see his lowliness and his
patience and just the opposite of being full of self-importance. The
opposite of that.

And yet he's baptized, identifying himself with sinners, sinful people,
you know. And well, I mean, actually it's a fulfillment of Isaiah's
prophecy that said that he would be numbered amongst the transgressors.
And, you know, so there's that aspect.

And yet he waits to the end. It reveals, I don't know what his thinking
was, but it reveals his distinctiveness. He was not one of them, in a
sense, because he was sinless and pure.

So John baptized him. And, you know, this was one of the, I don't know,
how do you say it? This was a Kairos moment for Jesus Christ. Kairos is
the Greek term, one of the Greek terms for time, and it refers to a
specially designated time.

You know, we have time like a half hour or an hour or a day, whatever.
That's chronos. That's just, you know, some basic word for time.

But Kairos is special. It's referring to something that only happens on
occasion. When God moves in and wants to do something, maybe he wants to
give you a revelation.

Maybe he wants to touch you in a special way. Maybe he wants to convict
you, whatever. I wonder how many Kairos moments you guys lived through,
and you were completely oblivious.

God was there to speak to you, to do something for you, but you were so
caught up in your own thing, and you missed it. But anyway, I think
Jesus had a Kairos moment with God here. I mean, he was baptized, not
out of sinfulness, but, well, he said to fulfill all righteousness.

He was identifying himself with sinners, and the Holy Spirit came on him
in bodily form. What does that mean? I don't know. I mean, I looked up
the Greek words, and they mean exactly what it says, bodily form of a
dove.

I don't know what that means exactly, but I believe this was a life-
changing moment for Jesus Christ when the Spirit came on him in that
way. I mean, he was pure before that. You know, the angels are pure.

Have you ever thought about that? Pure like a little child. You look at
a...well, I don't know how pure children are actually, but two-year-olds
are not pure. Two-year-olds are a nightmare.

But you know what I mean. They haven't been fouled by sin yet, and
angels are kind of like that. I wonder if Jesus...I don't know.

I don't want to take that too far, because I don't know what I'm talking
about. But later, Jesus would say, I have a baptism to be baptized with,
and how I am distressed until it is accomplished. And what he's
referring to there was what he experienced on the cross.

That was a baptism of fire. And I mean, the title of my message is
baptized into the fire, because that is what happened that day. He was
baptized into the fire, and from here on out, it is going to be nothing
but fire until he hangs on that cross and passes over.

And you know, his whole ministry would culminate in the cross. People
weren't saved because he was a great preacher. They weren't saved even
because he lived a godly life, and they could emulate him.

They were saved because he died on that cross. And this is the day. We
were watching The Chosen the other night.

Well, I don't want to get into it, but they really had just a moment in
there. It was the episode with the wine turned into water. No, they did
it the other way, didn't they? It's not that I don't read the Bible.

I just have a really rotten memory. But anyway, yeah, there was a place
in there in that show, and they really brought it out beautifully, where
they said, once this happens, there's no going back. And that was what
Jesus experienced here.

He knew when he went under that water and when he came out, he was going
into the fire. So this was his last private act, and we're going to now
going to part two, you know, which is in the next chapter. So we're
going to spend a little time considering this temptation that he faced.

Mark mentions it in two verses. John doesn't mention it at all. Luke and
Matthew give a little more time to it.

Let's go ahead and just read this. I just almost don't even want to read
it. You know, can I not read it? You guys know the story, right? You're
not convincing me.

Do I need to read it? You know the story? Okay, I'm not going to read it
then. Now, the typical way to do a message about the temptation is you
have an introduction, then you have your three points, which are the
three temptations, right? Then you have a conclusion. I mean, any good
preacher would know that's how you preach this text, but I'm not going
to do it that way because I'm not a good preacher.

I would rather just give you guys a few things to think about out of
this story, okay? Number one is this, consider the Holy Spirit's
involvement here. In the baptism, Luke tells us that the Holy Spirit
descended upon Jesus. Then he introduces this passage by saying, Jesus,
full of the Holy Spirit, full of the Holy Spirit.

It says that about some other people. Stephen was full of the Spirit and
so on, but it was not the same. It was not the same.

When Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit, it was completely more than.
I don't know how to say it, you know, just complete filling of the
Spirit. And when he returned from the Jordan, was led around by the
Spirit in the wilderness.

The Spirit descended on him, filled him, led him around in the
wilderness, and it says in verse 14, Jesus returned to Galilee in the
power of the Spirit. John mentioned that the Spirit, when it came, when
the Spirit came on him, the Spirit remained on him. You know, this thing
was a Holy Ghost operation from beginning to end.

This was the Holy Spirit's operation and Jesus was brought into it and
went through it, and he went through it to prepare him for what he was
going into, which was a life of fire for three and a half years. Mark
says, immediately the Spirit impelled him to go out into the wilderness.
And that word impelled, I looked that up too, and it means really, it's
usually used as to throw something.

You know, if I had a ball, I could throw the ball. And that would be the
word that you would use. So that's really, literally what it's saying is
the Spirit threw him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

And you know, you're gonna find, guys, as you grow in the Lord in the
days ahead, you're gonna find that the Lord is going to throw you into
situations that you wish you didn't have to go through. I mean, think of
this thing with Jesus. The sense I get is there's a little bit of
reluctance on the Lord's part.

Do I really need to go through this? You know, I mean, Matthew said the
Spirit led him, and you know, and you get the sense of his meekness. He
just was led like a little boy by the Holy Spirit. But here, in Mark's
version, he's thrown into it.

And the sense I get out of it is as humble and meek as Jesus was with
the Lord, with his Father, and the Holy Spirit, that there was something
about this that he did not want to go through. Let me put it to you this
way. Who wants to go hang out with Satan for a month and a half, right?
It says in Hebrews, because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is
able to help those who are being tempted.

And that word suffering, suffered, is exactly what it sounds like. It
means to suffer, and that's how it's used through the entire New
Testament. Suffering.

Just like if I hit my hand with the hammer, that is going to make me
suffer. There's something about this that caused him to suffer. The best
way I can illustrate it, I mean, I can, I do understand it now like I
never did when I was young.

You know, first coming to the Lord and stuff. But Gary and I were
somewhere, and this is a few years ago, it's just one of those little
incidents that stands out in my mind. I can't remember where we were.

Who knows? Hamburger stand or something. I don't know. We don't go to
hamburger stands.

It wasn't at a hamburger stand. I don't know where it was. But anyway,
there was a group of young guys hanging out, and they're fooling around,
and they're carrying on and stuff, and they're using the phallus
language.

Now usually, you know, language, okay, whatever, you know. I mean, I
don't like to hear it. It makes me uncomfortable.

But when people start using my Lord's name in vain, it is like a dagger
into my heart. It hurts me. It hurts me.

I don't know if you guys feel that yet. I hope so. I hope that you feel
that when you hear someone take the Lord's name in vain.

It's painful. You know what I'm talking, does anyone here know what I'm
talking about? Well, can you nod your head occasionally or something?
Let me know you're not sitting there sleeping with your eyes open. I
think it was kind of like that for the Lord, you know, that the Holy
Spirit threw him into this situation, set the whole thing up, took him
through it, but it was not something he enjoyed.

And he did it for the sake of you and me. He did it because it needed to
be done. He had to prove that at his weakest possible point, that even
then Satan could not win the battle, that Jesus could beat him even when
he was at his very weakest.

And that's why he had to go through it. Second thing you can consider is
the location this battle occurred in. It says it happened in the
wilderness, and that is a really wild area there.

East of Jerusalem, going, you know, you get out there kind of a little
bit to the north, kind of west of Jericho, there's an area out there
that is just so wild and barren. I mean, there is nothing there even
today. As much as the Jewish people have conquered that land, there's an
area there that's like, yeah, it's just bad, it's wild, it's rugged.

But the wilderness is a place that is very important in God's economy.
He uses it continually in people's lives. It was into the wilderness
that Moses fled, and spent 40 years there before God was ready to use
him.

Why? Because it took 40 years to get Egypt out of Moses. It was into the
wilderness that the Lord led the people of Israel. And, you know, it
says, in fact, the Lord said, I brought you here to test you and to
humble you.

And what's unspoken, but is inferred clearly, is he also brought them
there so that they could come to know him. They would not come to know
him in Egypt. He needed to separate them out from the world, where he
could reveal himself like he did to Gomer.

And, you know, guys, that's why God brought you here. That is why he
brought you here. Not to come to a sexual addiction clinic.

He brought you here to reveal himself to you. And, yes, to humble you
and to test you to see what's in your heart. What will this man do? I
know what he's gonna do if he's out there in the world living a pseudo-
Christian life.

Obviously, we know what he's doing in that setting. But what will happen
to this man if I can transplant him and put him in this wilderness
called Pure Life Ministries for nine months? Will he respond to me in
this place where it's so conducive for him to come to know me? Will he
humble himself? That's the test. And you are all being tested on that
point.

The wilderness is a wonderful place because you get away from all the
world's distractions, or at least most of them. And some commentators
believe that Jesus went up into the wilderness, didn't have the
slightest thought about facing the devil or whatever. I don't know.

You know, the Bible's silent about it. But that he went up there to
commune with the Lord. Okay, God, what is next? You know, just sitting
with the Lord away from everyone.

Fasting, praying, seeking God's will for how the Lord now is going to
use him. And that in that setting, Satan came and intruded. It certainly
does not surprise me about Satan that he would do that.

And that that's how all the temptation stuff happened. I don't know.
Maybe.

Third, consider Satan's suggestions. Did he come in bodily form? Or did
he come just quietly in in Jesus' spirit, you know, and just kind of
whisper in his ear like he does to us? Not he, but demons. What do you
think? I don't know what to think, really.

But I have a thought that's kind of different, because I think
commentators are pretty much split on that. Because some ways it seems
one thing and some the other. But I have a different idea, and I could
very well be wrong.

Okay? I could be wrong. So don't leave out of here saying, Pastor Steve
Gallagher is a heretic and says the wildest things. Well, I do say wild
things, but I'm not a heretic.

I believe that, and I tend to think if this is true, that it happened at
the baptism when he came up out of that water and the Holy Spirit came
on. I personally believe that Jesus Christ lived his life with the
heavens open. That when he talked to God, because there's no sin to
separate him and God, that the heavens were wide open.

He could see his Heavenly Father, and he talked with him constantly in
his spirit throughout every day. And not only that, I think when he
interacted with people, and when he came across demon-possessed people,
and you look at the exchanges between Jesus and these demons, and
there's a number of conversations. And I think he was talking directly
to the demon, and he could see the demon.

How else did he know there was a legion of demons in that demoniac? How
did he know that there were seven demons in Mary Magdalene if he
couldn't see? I'm saying it like I really know what I'm talking about,
and I don't, and I acknowledge that. But I just tend to think, I tend to
think it's that way. And so it's kind of both, you know? Where if I
would have been standing there watching what was happening, Jesus
probably would have just been hanging out, you know? And I would have
just been clueless as to what's going on.

Why is Jesus talking to someone over there? No one's there, you know?
But I think Satan, Jesus could see Satan clearly. And I think he saw the
demons and every other foul spirit as he went ministering to people. And
he would come into a place and see demons on a person, and would start
casting them out.

You can also consider the underlying temptation here. Okay, it comes
across as three different temptations, and they do fit kind of along the
lines of what Eve was tempted with, and what we see in 1st John 2. The
lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And all
temptations generally come under one of those categories.

Okay, and so, you know, Jesus made it to where it kind of was shown
that, well, that is what happened. But here's the bottom line. Dig a
little deeper.

Go under the surface. And it really is one temptation. It was really
just one temptation.

Do thy own will. That is the great quote or whatever theme of Satan's
Bible, the satanic Bible. Do thy own will.

That's what it's always all about, no matter what. Do thy own will. You
know, with the temptation to turn the stone into bread, Satan wanted him
to use his miraculous power for his own benefit.

The temple temptation, Satan presented a path not in opposition to God's
will, but in independence of God's will. And the temptation of the
mountain, and the world, and all the world's glory, and all that. It was
just an easy path to world power, where you don't have to go the way of
suffering.

You don't have to go the hard path, Jesus. You're the Son of God.
You're, you know, you don't have to go through all that.

You guys face this constantly, and this is what the Lord wants you to
learn while you're here. It's not my will, but thy will, God. That's
what he's here to teach you.

How are you going to overcome temptation if you can't get that? That's
got to be in you, man. It's got to be an absolute, rock-solid resolution
in your heart. Not my will, God.

I'm tired of my will. It's done nothing but ruin my life. I'm tired of
going my own way.

I want to follow you. I want to listen to your voice. And lastly,
consider the fact that this was only the beginning.

Luke said that Satan departed from him until an opportune time. I don't
know how your, maybe your translation says another season or something.
It's the same word.

It's kairos. That's the word. Opportune time is kairos.

Kairos is an eternal moment, you know, and those times are so
tremendous. I look back over my last 40 years and I see those times when
I met with God, and they were powerful. They're milestones in my life.

They mean so much to me. But you know what? Satan also creates kairos
moments. His kairos moments are when everything is set up just right to
tempt you into sin.

And he knows how to do it, brother. Let me tell you, he knows how to do
it. And that's what happened here after 39 days of going without food
and water.

And Jesus is at his utter weakest. I mean, he couldn't even exist
without water, without some kind of supernatural sustenance. But anyway,
somehow that happened.

And he's at the end. He's exhausted. He's weak.

He's starving. He just, you know, all those physical things which he
experienced like we do. And right then, Satan stepped in to offer him a
smoother path.

And you will find when you leave here that Satan will do that many
times. You have many kairos moments, men, ahead of you. You need to know
that.

This place, this time that you're here is not the beginning and ending
of everything. This is only a time in the wilderness to prepare you for
a whole lifetime where you are going to have these encounters with God
in kairos moments where God will come to you if you're open to him. But
you will also have those kairos moments with Satan when he is looking to
set you up.

Jesus had, man, he leaves here. One of his first stops is Nazareth
where, you know, all the people that he grew up with and cousins and
uncles and, I mean, it's a small little village. Everyone knew
everybody.

And he goes in there and within a few minutes of reading a few verses
out of Isaiah, they turn into a killing hatred for him and treated him
with disdain. Kathy and I last night, I don't know what you guys
watched, but we watched Behind the Sun. It's just a one-hour movie about
an Iranian guy who went back home and his family found out he was a
Christian.

And, man, you talk about all hell breaking loose and that's exactly what
happened. They went from complete love, so thrilled to see their son
back from America, to complete hatred, just instantly full of the devil.
Did they play that for you guys? No? What kind of place is this? Well,
that's what he faced in Nazareth.

Family and friends who turned on him and countless encounters with the
Pharisees and all of it. And like I said, it's all going to culminate at
Calvary. All of that awaited him.

When he was baptized, he was baptized into one long fiery trial. And
yet, most of it would occur in the hidden life where human eyes could
not gaze. We have no idea all that Jesus went through.

All right, I want to start wrapping it up because I want to get the
focus on you. How can you be prepared for Satan's kairos moments?
Wouldn't you say that would be like one of the important things for you
to learn while you're here? First Corinthians 10, Paul said, No
temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. Every other
Christian has faced either it or something like it.

But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what
you're able. But with the temptation will provide the way of escape
also, that you may be able to endure it. You know, in sexual idolatry, I
wrote about this.

I said, When I struggled with temptation, I actually doubted the Bible
because this verse seemed so untrue to me. I hated it when preachers
used this verse. They don't understand what it's like, I would say to
myself.

And I came to understand later that it wasn't them who didn't
understand, it was me. You know, the reality was I was just accustomed
to being a loser. I had trained myself into being a loser with
temptation.

I was like a flabby weakling getting into the ring with a hardened boxer
who knows what he's doing. You know, I was just so weak from years of
flabby living. I don't know any other word to use.

It just sounds like a good word. That's a good adjective, isn't it? Or
is that an adverb? I want to give you guys a few tips from this passage
here. Don't put yourself in situations where you're going to be tempted.

That's the first thing. Solomon said, Keep your way far from the
prostitute. Do not go near the door of her house.

I mean, there is some solid wisdom in that. If you're trying to overcome
something that you have fallen prey to time and time and time again,
then you ought to stay away from places where it's going to be conducive
to that kind of temptation, right? That's just common sense. The problem
I used to have is I liked to think about the temptation.

I liked to just, it was kind of like, I think I, didn't I use the
metaphor of delicious pudding or something? You know, I like to just sit
and think on it. And of course, when you do that, before you know it,
you're going to give over. I was like the little boy who was sitting or
hanging around an apple tree in an orchard.

And the owner of the orchard comes up, and he sees this kid out there in
his orchard, and right away he's suspicious. Okay, what's he doing? Why
is he in my orchard? So, he goes up to the kid, and he says to the kid,
Why are you standing under this apple tree? And the kid says, Because
I'm fighting temptation. You guys aren't getting it, are you? You guys
are one sorry audience, that's all I can say.

Either that or I'm a bad joke teller, and we know it's not that. You've
got to stay away from situations that create temptation. And you know,
really, I want to broaden it out into more of the whole world in a
general sense.

Okay, obviously, don't go to the beach. Don't hang out at the beach.
That's not the place for you.

You can't go there, unless it's in the dead of winter, and there's no
girls around, then you can go there. But really, it's more to do with
the atmosphere of the spirit of the world. Guys, you can't escape it
totally.

Like even here, you go to work, you work with carnal people, worldly-
minded people. I don't know what kind of stuff you have to hear every
day. And it's good, because we don't want to totally sequester you, so
when you get dumped back out into the world, you'll know you've had some
experience.

You're learning as you go how to deal with that kind of stuff. But
please, when you go home, you've got to make your home an atmosphere for
the Holy Spirit, not for the devil. You know, and it's those kinds of
decisions that determine victory and failure.

Those kinds of decisions you make, that kind of a consecration, that's
going to determine, or it's things like that, that's going to determine
whether you make it or not. And another thing, you can't wait until the
day of temptation to prepare yourself for that battle. Now, I've got
here, this is our magazine.

It's a little magazine, but it's a magazine. We send it out to several
thousand pastors. This one, this just came out.

God loves a good fight. And I talk about Muhammad Ali in there, what a
champion he was, and some of the reasons why he was a champion. And in
that article, I said this, skill alone won't win a fight.

A good boxer knows that if he doesn't conquer himself in the gym, he
will never overcome his opponent in the ring. You guys getting the sense
of that? You know, and for you, I'm going to focus mostly on your
devotional life, because that is the gym for the spiritual life, your
devotional life. What kind of a devotional life do you have? I mean,
Jesus just said it to the devil.

He said, man does not live by bread alone, but by every mouth of word
that comes out of the mouth of God, right? I mean, we don't just eat a
big meal on Sunday, and then go starve the rest of the week, do we? No,
God created us to need food every day, not just every day, but several
times a day. TJ eats like 15 times a day. Amen.

Well, he eats tiny little meals. But you know what I mean? God created
you that way, he created you spiritually the same way. Your soul needs
sustenance every day.

You were created to need it. And if you go without, if you start
starving yourself, then guess what happens? You're going to be weak
spiritually. You need time in the Word of God, and you need time in the
presence of God.

And if you don't have those firmly established in your life, you will
never overcome sexual addiction. You will not overcome. Because that is
the place of power for your life, is spending time with God, spending
time in his Word, meaningful time.

Another thing I can tell you is that temptation and temptations and the
way of escape come in pairs. Aren't you glad that's true? I bet you
didn't even know that. Because back in your day, when did you ever see
the way of escape, right? Or if you saw it, you didn't want to take it.

But every single time you were tempted, right there, God put a way of
escape in there for you. He allowed the temptation to come. He has his
reasons for allowing it.

It's the devil or your own flesh that tempts you. It's not him. But he
allows it to happen for a reason.

But with it, he also provides, creates, that's what the word means,
creates a way to get out. And as you guys start walking with God, and
you start developing a real life in God, you're going to start being
much more sensitive to the Holy Spirit in your life and in your heart.
And it's an awesome thing.

You're going to start being able to actually hear the Lord speak to you
in that still small voice. Go this way. Go that way.

He's going to tell you what to do, and he's going to nudge you in
directions. And you know, because at that point, as you grow in the
Lord, and you're no longer just full of yourself and just driven by lust
of all kinds of lusts in life, and you start actually wanting to please
God with your life, and you really want to walk with God, he's going to
be speaking into your life, and you're going to be able to hear him, and
he'll help you. And not only that, but because you've spent time with
him, you are going to find that you have a power inside you to say no to
that temptation.

Where you've been totally weak in the past, so was I, you're going to
find that you have something inside you says, no, I will not go down
that path again. I've had it with that. Anybody here want that in your
life? That's what you signed up for, right? That's what's going to
happen for you.

And lastly, I could say this. It could be argued that temptation is the
whole purpose for our existence. A good argument could be made for that.

Meaning that, just like the Lord told the Israelites that he brought
them into that wilderness to test them and to humble them. There is a
test. In fact, earth is a testing ground.

That's why God created earth, the universe, all this stuff. It's just
nothing but a backdrop for a play that's being acted out amongst
mankind. And will they respond to God? The whole thing is a test.

We're on probation here on earth. Will we prove ourselves to be faithful
to him when he allows those tests to come your way? Man, do you know
what it's like to actually start to win those battles? It is a
wonderful, wonderful feeling for the guilt to be gone, for the shame to
be gone, for the spiritual weakness to be gone, to actually live in
victory, to actually live in it, not just spout it off like some of
these men's events, just painful to me. Because I know the reality of
what's going on in people's lives.

They're all, oh never mind, I don't want to go there. At the end of the
day, will we prove that we really love the Lord, or will our lives show
irrefutable proof that we only loved ourselves? That's really what it's
all about. That is the whole purpose for our existence on earth, is to
face that test, and hopefully, certainly God wants it to go this way,
hopefully that we will pass that test, that our lives will prove to be,
to have been faithful to the Lord, that in the face of a fallen nature
that wants to sin, that wants to be in self-will, that wants to go its
own way, that doesn't want to be told by anyone, that we go against
that, that natural inclination, and we say yes to Jesus.

Oh Lord, I just pray that this incident in your life will resonate
inside these men, the reality of what you went through, that you went
through victoriously, and that we can also give us the faith, Lord, to
believe. Just like that song we just sang, I must tell Jesus. Jesus
alone, Jesus alone can bear that burden, and it's true, Lord, and I pray
that you'll make that real to all of us, God, that in the days ahead,
Lord, especially the men in the program, while they're in this special,
precious time with you here, as difficult as it can be at times, Lord,
that you would instill something powerful inside them, that you would
plant your spirit inside them, that it would grow, that this new life in
God would become a new reality for them, that your spirit would overcome
all obstacles and temptations that the enemy may throw their way, that
you will show them what it means to be an overcomer, that you will show
them what it means to live a victorious Christian life, that they would
leave out of this place victoriously, and keep walking in victory, just
like Doug the other night, 20 years since he was here, and now he's a
missionary in the Philippines, and you're using him to help others, and
so many others who have gone through this program over the years, and
are walking as overcomers in the face of a very dark world, a world full
of devils, Lord, I pray that you will make these men into winners,
winners in your kingdom, to see themselves as that, not in some
Pollyanna delusion, but the reality that they would know what it means
to overcome, make that real in their lives, I pray in Jesus' name, amen.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/Z3T8Af-O3TU.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/steve-gallagher/baptized-into-the-fire/
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