First Sunday in Lent February 14, 2016

First Sunday in Lent
Matthew 4:1-11
February 14, 2016

“With God We Are Content”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Satan doesn’t want you to be happy.  God does.  He wants you to be happy.  I’ll say that again.  Because it’s kinda gonna be my whole point in this here sermon.  And I’m going to take the rest of the fifteen minutes showing you it’s true from the Scripture readings.  The devil does NOT want you to be happy and content and have peace and joy.  God does.  God wants you to be content and at peace.  He really does.

God has given you absolutely everything you need to be content right now.  To be happy and peaceful and joyful right now.  You have everything you need.  It’s not like you have to wait until spring comes to be happy.  Or wait until it’s warmer.  Or happiness will only come when you go on that next vacation.  You don’t have to wait until you retire.  Or wait until you can go golfing again.  Or wait until your family visits you again.  You have everything that you need right here and now to be content and happy.  You have God’s love.  You are Baptized.  All your sin is forgiven.  You have a place in heaven waiting.  You have hope for every single day.  You know all things are going to work for your good.  God has given you all of that in Jesus because He wants you to be content and at peace.

But the devil doesn’t want that.  So his goal is always to make you believe that you’re not happy and content.  His goal is always to convince you that you need MORE.  You need MORE.  He wants you to think God is holding out.  He wants you to think there’s better and greener grass out there.  He doesn’t want you to be happy.  He wants you to be discontent and drooling and grumbling for things God hasn’t given you.

When Satan came to tempt Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus was content.  He was happy.  He was at peace.  Sure, He was hungry.  And probably a bit hot.  Probably tired, too.  But He was content and happy.  But here comes the devil saying, “Oh, Jesus, look at you.  Poor guy out here all hot and hungry.  Don’t you want more, Jesus?  Don’t you want more?  You’re not happy, are You?  You need some food.  Ooh, wouldn’t those stones make some nice, delicious bread?  And, oh, don’t You want to see if God will really love You and protect You if you jump off the top of the temple?  And wouldn’t you love to have all the kingdoms of the world and all the power and the glory if You just fall down and worship me?  Wouldn’t that be much better than this hot, dry, hungry desert?”

The devil makes it look so enticing.  Yeah, we could be happy with what God gives us but, oh, the devil’s lines sound so good.  And keep in mind, when the devil comes to you he doesn’t look like “the devil”.  He looks awesome.  Pictures of the devil are really deceiving.  He always looks so “devilish.”  You know, the fiery red and the nasty pitchfork and so forth.  The little picture that I put in the bulletin is a good example.  He’s sitting there with his pointy mustache and pointy ears and beady eyes and crooked eyebrows.  He looks disgusting.  If he came up to any of you looking like that, you’d all run away as fast and you could.  But he never comes looking like that.  He disguises himself as a beautiful angel of light.  Like the one who comes to show you some better, secret way.  He looks, like I said, awesome.  Enticing.  Seductive.  Oh, so good.

The devil might appear to you as the guy who “just wants you to be happy.” The guy who lives by no rules. The free-livin’, free-lovin’ gal.  He might appear to you like he did to Jesus—the guy who’s just concerned about your hunger.  Just wants you to be satisfied.  He might appear as a beautiful woman who excites your eyes.  Might appear as a handsome man who looks so much better and more exciting than your man.  Might appear as one of those beautiful women or men in the credit card ads that tell you they can make all your money dreams come true.  Whatever the case, you can bet the devil will come dressed lookin’ good.  You’ll want to go with him.  He’s got the whole vanity thing down really good.

But it’s all a lie.  A deception.  He doesn’t really want you to be happy at all.  He wants you to be miserable.  He wants you to lose all the peace and joy and contentment that you have with God.  So let’s look at how he tries it with Jesus.

First, he goes for the belly.  He knows where you and I are weak—right here in the stomach area.  Oh, how we love to fill our bellies.  It makes us feel so good.  When I say “belly”, though, I’m not only talking about food.  I’m talking about all the stuff that makes us feel so good…be it food, drinks, pleasure, drugs, adrenaline.  All of it.  We want a big ‘ol full belly even tho’ we know it will probably make us sick in the end.

So the devil goes for Jesus’ belly.  Jesus hasn’t eaten for a long time.  He’s pretty hungry.  Like “his stomach is starting to eat itself” hungry.  Like “He might very well die soon” hungry.  None of us probably even remotely knows what His hunger is like.  And here comes the devil looking all good and enticing, probably like one of those beautiful chefs from the Food Network. He’s got like beautiful stacks of cookies all neatly arranged and fancy dishes full of already prepared courses.  He’s like, “Hey, Jesus, you look hungry.  You’re not happy.  Look at you.  You’re a miserable wreck.  You’re disgusting.  You need to eat.  You’re going to die.  If you’re God’s Son, why aren’t you eating?  If you’re God’s Son, you should have more.  Tell these stones to become bread.”

The thing is, Jesus is happy.  He is content.  He doesn’t need the devil to feed Him with lies covered in chocolate frosting.  He knows He is God’s Son.  He knows God loves Him.  And He knows that God will take care of His belly soon enough.  So He says, “Hey, devil, I don’t believe you.  It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

You don’t need a full belly to be content and happy.  You only need God’s Word.  That’s your life source.  You can go without food for days and still be perfectly content and happy.  In fact, you can go without a lot of things.  God will take care of you.  But it’s the devil who lies to you and is always telling you, “No, you need more, more, more.”

How often does the devil get to your belly?  How many times has he convinced you that you can’t be happy until you’ve eaten way too much or until you’ve gone out to eat at the fanciest restaurant?  How many times has he convinced you that you can’t be happy until you’ve got that new TV or that new car or those new clothes?  How many times has he convinced you that you can’t be happy without a drink or without your addiction to whatever?  He’s such a good liar.

The truth is, you can be content and happy.  You don’t really live by those things at all.  Not by food or drink or anything else.  You live by the Word of God.  It’s God’s Word that first brought you into existence and it is God’s Word that will bring you into eternal life.  I know we want to argue with that and say that we need x, y, and z to be happy.  But you don’t.  You only need Jesus and His Word.

Next the devil goes after faith.  After trust.  Tells Jesus to throw Himself off the top of the temple and see if God will send His angels to catch Him.  See, we can be perfectly happy and content knowing that God will take care of us.  But then the devil comes and says, “What if you did this or that, would God still love you and take care of you?”  He wants us to test God and see if God really loves us.”

We like to set up little ultimatums for God.  Like, “God, if you really love me, you’ll let me get this job or get into this school or pass this test.”  “God, if you’re really God and really love me, you’ll give me this boy or this girl or you’ll do pretty much whatever I ask.”  That’s putting God to the test.  That’s what the devil wants.  Because then we won’t be happy.  We’ll be miserable thinking that God must not really love us because He hasn’t given us x. y, and z.  That’s a lie.

You don’t need to test God.  He was already put to the test.  If the test is how much God loves you, then He answered by giving His own Son to die on the cross.  And Jesus answered how much He loves you by giving His life.  So you don’t need to test God.  He most definitely loves you.  You can trust Him.  He has baptized you into Jesus and He gives you Jesus’ body and blood in the Sacrament over and over.  No test needed.  You don’t have to jump off a cliff or the top of the temple to see what God will do.

The devil tries to trick us with that line from Psalm 91, “He will command His angels concerning you.”  But He rips it out of context and takes away the next part about guarding you in all your ways.  That doesn’t mean God will guard and keep you if you go off and choose your own ways and your own tests.  But the devil is good and misusing God’s Word and we often believe Him.  For instance, God wants you to be happy.  This is true.  He wants you to be content and have joy and peace.  But the devil will misuse that one all the time and you and I will think, “Oh, God just wants me to be happy so He won’t mind if I go do this terrible thing.”  That’s a lie.  You will be unhappy and the devil knows it.  So beware of the devil’s tricks.

You don’t need to test God.  He loves you and you can count on that.

Finally, the devil tries to get Jesus with power and glory.  Shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and says Jesus will get it all if He just bows down and worships Satan.  He loves to try and get us with this one.  Even though we can be perfectly content and happy, the devil will shows us all that the world has to offer and says, “Oh, wouldn’t it be so much nicer to have all that?”  This is why we’re so fascinated with celebrity culture.  We see their fancy cars and clothes and homes and the power they have…and the devil tells us, “Look, wouldn’t you be happy if you had all that?”

Power and glory has a big appeal.  But it doesn’t bring any happiness.  The praise of other people isn’t going to bring you happiness.  We tend to think that the more people who know us and the more control we have over people, then the happier we’ll be.  That’s the devil’s lie again.  God has already given you everything you need to be content and happy.  Right now.  You don’t need anybody’s praise or glory to be happy.  Jesus says, “You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.”

You don’t need anyone else.  The devil is good.  He’s smooth.  He’s convincing.  But he’s always lying.  God has given you everything you need right now to be content and happy.  We’re like Adam and Eve in the Garden.  We’ve got it all.  But the devil will come saying we need something more.  Maybe the fruit from that other tree over there.  Don’t believe him.  Jesus has shown him for the liar he is.  And Jesus has taken away all his power by going to the cross to take our punishment.  The devil is nothing.  He will never make you happy.  Jesus is your joy and happiness.

It’s like Paul tells us in the Epistle today from 2 Corinthians.  We commend ourselves to God in every way.  We are content and happy with whatever the Lord gives us.  He says, “We are treated as having nothing, yet possessing everything.”  You have absolutely everything you need to be content and happy and to tell the devil to take a hike.  You have God’s Word.  You are baptized and live in Jesus, your Savior.  You have Christ’s body and blood.  You have prayer and you have the true God.  Tell the devil that you are already happy and content and he will take a hike just as he did from Jesus.  And angels will come and minister to you.

In Jesus’ name.  Amen.