Deny Yourself

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Welcome to Make Today Great. I'm going to read from Luke chapter 4, verse 4. But Jesus answered him saying, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. And today I just want to talk a few minutes about the Word. As kingdom citizens, we need the Word of God. The Word of God is everything that God has given us that pertains to life and godliness. Everything we need, we can find an answer in the Word. But more importantly, it is the Word of God that we have to use to defeat the enemy. Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He is as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Satan wants to steal everything that God has given us. He wants to take our very lives. He wants to take our peace. Everything that God has given us, the enemy wants to steal from us. He wants to kill our dreams. He wants to kill our joy. He wants to take our peace. He wants to take our steal our finances. Everything that God has promised us and given us, the enemy wants to take. So he wants to distract us. He wants to pollute our thinking. He wants to contaminate our minds. But we have to use the word of God to stand against the enemy. In this text in Luke 4, Jesus had just fasted and he had a work to do. He knew what his work to do was. See, he had been led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted of the devil. And so he said, If you're the Son of God, command this stone to become bread. But Jesus said, It is written. He was according the script from Deuteronomy. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that the King James says proceeds or comes out of the mouth of God. What is the words that come out of God's mouth? His holy word that the man of God wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We need to know the word. We have to have the word in our spirit. We have to have the word in our mouth. And he said, I'm not bowing to you. I'm only gonna go worship the Lord God. And so Satan, he'll come with negative thoughts, he'll come with demonic thoughts, his demon forces will bring thoughts, and we'll sit there, we'll contemplate on them, we'll think on them instead of casting them down, instead of taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and responding with the word. When the enemy comes and says, You're gonna die, you're not gonna live, you're gonna say, oh no, you're a liar by Jesus' stripes. If you don't know anything else, you know that by Jesus' stripes, I am healed. If the devil comes and says, Oh, you're gonna lose your mind, you're never gonna have peace. Oh no. Jesus gave me his peace. He said, He gives me peace that passes all understanding to keep my heart in mind. You gotta know how to respond to the enemy when he comes telling lies, when he comes to try to distort our thinking. We have to know the word of God so that we can speak the word and that we can get the enemy to stop talking foolishness to us and we can respond with the word of God. The word of God is vital. In Hebrews it said it is powerful, it is mighty to the pulling down of strongholds, and that it cuts and it divides from the bone from the marrow and the joint from the spirit and knows the thoughts and the intents of the heart. We have to know the word of God. It's alive, it's living, because Jesus said that he is his word, and his word is him. So we gotta know the word. We gotta know who Jesus is. We gotta know how to respond when the enemy comes in to defeat us. He can't defeat us unless we let him. Just like Jesus stood and said, Not so, not so. I'm not gonna bow. And see, the enemy will come with the word, he'll come with part of the word, but it won't be the whole truth. He can't tell the truth. He's a liar and the father of liars. So he'll come with a partial truth, but we have to know the whole truth, we have to know the truth of God's word. So when the enemy comes, we can stand and then we can go out in the power of the Holy Spirit working through us and doing the work that we have been commissioned by Jesus to do. He has a work for us, he has things that he wants us to accomplish in the earth, but we cannot do them if we're fooling around with the devil. We're fooling around listening to his lies, if we're talking to him back and forth, having a conversation, don't stand around having a conversation with the devil. He comes, cut him off, nip that in the blood. No, this is what the word of God says. He'll tell us all kinds of stuff, but the word of God has an answer. You're not gonna make it. Oh, yes, I'm gonna make it because greater is he that's in me than he that's in the world. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. He'll come and tell us everything that's contrary to the word of God. But if we have the word of God, we know how to respond, we know what to say, and we can stand firm on God's word. We have to hold fast to our confession of faith without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. If we know this word, we speak this word, we believe this word, it will work mightily in our lives. I pray that we um make today great. It's a decision, it's a choice because every day is a day that the Lord, does every day go perfect? No. Do things crop up and pop up and want to take our peace? Yes, but we don't have to give in to it. We can say, in that moment, okay, this is happening, but Lord, I trust you. This is going wrong, but Lord, I'm depending on you. This pain is in my body, but Lord, I'm holding fast to your word, and I know I'm gonna be okay. We have to hold fast to God's word. So because his mercies are new every morning, and God is faithful, and every day is a day that he has made. We can choose to rejoice and be glad in. God bless you. I love you. Make today great.