2020: What Was God Doing?

Please remain standing for the reading of God's Word. Old Testament reading can be found in Jeremiah chapter 17 verses 5 through 10.

Thus says the Lord, Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the

Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness and in an uninhabited salt land.

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.

The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately sick. Who can understand it?

I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.

The New Testament reading is in Hebrews chapter 12, starting in verse 1.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and every sin which clings so closely and let us run with the endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint -hearted.

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood, and you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons.

My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons.

For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them.

Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For if they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness.

For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

You may be seated. Let's pray.

Father of heaven and earth, our Father, through the

Lord Jesus, we come to you now and ask that you would open your word to us. Lord, we're looking at an ancient text spoken to people centuries and centuries ago, and yet it is the word you have given us by which we are to understand our own hearts and to understand you and understand our world.

And so even though this is an ancient text, yet it speaks to us today. Would you make that happen? Help us to listen to your voice as it speaks to us where we are.

God, help us now in these next few minutes to understand your word. We'll thank you in Jesus name.

Amen. Well, now this is the last

Sunday of 2020, and I thought it would be good for us to reflect on this last year, a year of pandemic and restrictions, a year of political uprest and upheaval, a year of riots and city blocks going up in flames.

We've experienced 10 months of incredible difficulty. And yet there was a people who experienced not 10 months, not one year, but 40 years of suffering, hardship and extraordinary trouble.

Of course, you know, that was Israel after they left Egypt and spent decades, four decades wandering in the wilderness of hardship as a judgment for their lack of faith and obedience.

In light of our 10 months of trouble, I figure, I figure we can learn something from people who had 40 years of it.

Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 8. As you turn there, get in your mind the picture of Israel now standing on the bank of the

Jordan after 40 years in the wilderness, ready to cross over and to occupy the land that God had promised them.

They have reached the end of the 40 years of judgment imposed by God. The whole book of Deuteronomy is a sermon.

It is Moses preaching to the people before they cross over as they stand on the edge of that great river.

He rehearses the covenant that they had made with God at Sinai. He wants them to understand that they must believe what

God has said and they must obey what he commands. And so he reviews with them this covenant that they had made.

Now you follow as I read Deuteronomy chapter 8. The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land that the

Lord swore to give to your fathers. And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your

God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.

And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the

Lord. Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell over these 40 years.

Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. So you shall keep the commandments of the

Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper.

And you shall eat and be full and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.

Take care, lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes which

I command you today. Lest when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up and you forget the

Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you to do you good in the end.

Beware, lest you say in your heart, my power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.

You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers as it is this day.

And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish.

Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the

Lord your God. Now, in this chapter, God outlines for his people the advantage of adversity, verses 1 through 6, and the perils of prosperity in verses 7 through 20.

Moses says to them, recall how God worked through adversity, but be aware of the dangers you will face when he gives you blessings.

Isn't that interesting? Adversity and blessings are both tests from God. And there is advantages in adversity and there are perils in prosperity.

But the issue at the end is obedience. Verse 1, The whole commandment that I command you today, you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land that the

Lord swore to give your fathers. They must see that the issue in adversity or in prosperity is always obedience, whether they will be faithful to that covenant that God had made with them.

Obedience, he says, will bring you the land and all its blessings. Now, in order to encourage that obedience, the first thing they need to do is to recall the last 40 years of adversity, verses 1 through 6.

And so today, let's consider this year of trouble, 2020, and seek to understand the advantage of adversity and the purposes of God in our hardships.

First of all, note that you need to recall the adversity of this year.

Notice what he says in verse 2, And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness.

Now, all of us cannot wait for all the inconveniences of the last year to end.

We just want to be done with it all. We're just ready for this to be over.

My guess is that's what these folks were thinking. We've made it through the worst decades of our lives.

Now it's on to greener pastures. Let's get it behind us. But God says to them,

Remember those years. Rehearse them in your minds. Do not forget those years in the wilderness.

You're standing on the verge of incredible prosperity, but don't ever forget the years you spent in the wilderness.

If you would learn obedience for the years ahead, recall the years behind.

And so it is with us. As you anticipate things getting better, don't forget all that happened in this last year.

Well, I can already hear some of you replying, Are you kidding? Whoever, who in the world will ever forget this last year with the pandemic, the election, and the riots?

Who's ever going to forget this? I mean, this is going to be the topic of conversation I have with my grandchildren when they start reading this as history.

And in fact, we'll be sitting around drinking coffee with our friends when we're in our 80s, talking about funny masks and Governor DeWine and all the carryout food we ate and the craziest election night of our entire history.

Who's going to forget all of this? Well, God's not calling us to just reminisce about hard times.

That's not what he says. He says, and you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your

God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness. You see, it's not just recall the hard times.

It's recall how the Lord your God led you in those times of adversity. And so God calls you to remember 2020 with a particular lens in place.

Remember that year with an eye to the work of God in all those hardships.

That's what he wants you to do. Look back on this last year and when all this is starting to settle down, if it does, as we look back, how are you going to remember it?

Are you just going to remember all the terrible things? Are you going to look at how God has worked through it all?

And so then we need to recall the purposes of God in the adversity of this year.

We need to recall the purposes of God in the adversity of this year. Now, what are they?

What are those purposes? Well, let's look again, verse 2.

And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness that he might humble you.

There's the first. In the events of 2020, God sought to humble you.

Now, as I'm speaking today, I'm speaking to God's people. I'm not talking to the United States of America.

I'm talking to the people of God who live in this country. What did God intend to do with his people in the events of this last year?

The first thing that God sought to do was to humble you. Now, just as a reminder, look at the arrogance of the

Israelites. Turn back, for example, to Exodus 16. They're evidently arrogant.

How so? Well, let's look at chapter 16 very quickly. You follow as I read the first eight verses of Exodus 16.

See what they're saying? He just brought us out to kill us. They're actually grumbling against God, not just Moses and Aaron.

What are we that you grumble against us?

Notice, when hardship comes, people blame whom?

They blame God. They grumble. That is arrogance. That is arrogance.

Who are we to grumble against God? Who are we to complain to God about what's going on? What that says is you know better than God does what's really good for you.

We all know this last year wasn't good for us, right? We're all convinced of that. This was horrible to us.

Well, God thought differently, and we ought not to be so arrogant. Look over. Drop down to verse 27.

On the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. Here's what the Lord said.

He said, okay, on the sixth day, you gather twice as much. Now, it never keeps overnight, but I'm going to miraculously work so that two days will last for you.

I'll give you twice as much. On the seventh day, some of the people went out to gather, but they found none. And the Lord said to Moses, how long will you refuse?

That's plural, by the way, not talking to Moses. How long will y 'all refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?

See, the Lord has given you the Sabbath. Therefore, on the sixth day, he gives you bread for two days. Remain each of you in his place.

Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day. So the people rested on the seventh day. So they gather only for six days.

I'll provide for the seventh. But people go out on the Sabbath to see what God says. This is arrogance.

I know what you said, Lord. I know what you said. But that's not going to work. It doesn't work.

We got to go out on the seventh day. Now look at the next chapter, Exodus 17.

A few verses from Exodus 17. All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of sin by stages according to the commandment of the

Lord and camped at Rephidim. But there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore, the people quarreled with Moses and said, give us water to drink.

And Moses said to them, why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord? But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, why do you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?

So Moses cried to the Lord, what shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.

And the Lord said to Moses, pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the

Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock of Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.

And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the

Lord by saying, is the Lord among us or not? Again, they test

God by blaming and accusing him of evil. They needed to learn humility if they were to obey

God. But what about our arrogance? Everyone hurries through life with their successful businesses, planning their vacations and their nights out, eating and drinking and making merry with no thought of tomorrow or of God.

But the pandemic struck, and the whole world came to a halt with all the lockdowns.

Businesses failed, vacations were trashed, or you can't even go out in the evening because you're stuck at home.

And who gets the blame? Who gets the blame? How can

God be good, we grumble, when he keeps us from pursuing our self -centered pleasures? Have you ever noticed that God's goodness is most often defined as him giving us the things we want?

Have you ever noticed that? How can God be good? He kept us from going to Disney World this year.

Right? You know, Jesus taught us to pray for our daily bread.

Did he not? Give us this day our daily bread. Why? Because tomorrow's bread is not guaranteed.

You are absolutely dependent on God for all of your food, for your entire livelihood.

And some of us have to learn that the hard way. And so God humbled many people, and their businesses failed.

But they didn't see it as the hand of God humbling them. They just blamed the government and everything else, which isn't to say there is no blame to go around, but it is to say you've got to see beyond that.

God did this to humble us. Who needs God when you have Donald Trump?

He's the one we can trust, because he will rescue us from those horrible liberty -killing liberals.

Because if he's there, we'll have the right justices on the Supreme Court, and he'll give us the prosperity that makes life worth living.

Now, that may seem exaggerated to some of you, but, man, you ought to see the passions, even of Christians, to anyone.

On one hand, who would say, I don't agree with Donald Trump. I don't think he's the man. Or to the other side, talking to people who think

Donald Trump is the man. The vitriol and the hatred between Christians, who would disagree on that man, is amazing to me.

But it says something about our arrogance. If Trump was not the savior, neither was he

Satan. You know? People think he's

Satan. If only we get rid of this pompous idiot, we'll have paradise again, right? Have we been humbled?

This is the arrogance that we have. Another form of arrogance. The unjust killing of black people will end if we just defund the police.

What that does is forget that prejudice is born in the human heart. And that none of our genius ideas will change what only the gospel can change.

That it takes the work of God to transform human hearts, so that prejudice is eliminated by the gospel.

But neither will a law and order approach to violence ultimately solve our problems.

It might restrain the looting, but it doesn't change the heart of one person who wants to loot and burn.

It doesn't. What I'm saying is all of this reeks of arrogance, for they all have the same thing in common.

Our welfare and our good depends on us, not God. It depends on the right man in office, not

God. It depends on the right policies, not God. How many of us were driven, how many of us were humbled by God so that we were driven to our knees to pray, as opposed to complaining and griping and blaming?

God wants his people to walk in humility. That is, humbling themselves before his providence and recognizing that earning our daily bread is entirely dependent on his gracious providence.

That we should look to God for the welfare of his church, realizing that it isn't the

Supreme Court justice which will keep the gates of hell from prevailing against his church.

It is God being true to his promise that will keep his church alive and well.

Humility means submitting to God's mighty hand, so that when he does put another man in office, we will not despair, we will not complain, nor will we act as if all our hopes have been dashed.

God used 2020 to humble you, so let me ask you, are you more humble than you were? Have you found yourself humbling yourself?

In the events and difficulties of 2020, God sought to test and thus reveal your hearts.

That's what he says next. And he humbled you, I'm sorry, that's verse three.

That he might humble you, verse two, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not.

He brought the events of 2020 to reveal your heart. Now, God knows what's in your heart already, but you don't.

Trials and difficulties reveal what you've set your heart on, what's most important to you, what motivates you, what you value.

And hardship has a way of revealing what you think is the most important, and it reveals whether or not you will obey

God. Now, the political events of 2020, to me, revealed the hearts of God's people.

So, for example, you think President Trump is an arrogant, immoral, cruel guy who is unworthy of the office of president, but your brother in Christ may see it a little differently than you.

And so you write him off as unworthy of your friendship. You tear him apart when you respond to him on Facebook.

Well, that reveals your heart, doesn't it?

You're not in the mood to love your brother now, because he disagrees with you. You do not obey the command of Christ now to love your brother.

Like Jesus said, this is my command to you, that you love one another as I have loved you.

You know, it's fascinating to me, just as a sideline, do you know that in the band of disciples, there was

Matthew, a tax collector, considered a traitor to his people, and there was another disciple by the name of Simon the

Zealot. You know what zealots were? They were the ones who hated the Romans. So one who worked for the

Romans, one who hated the Romans, are both in Jesus' band of disciples.

Now, he didn't leave them that way. He changed both of them, for sure. But isn't it interesting that God does not,

God's chosen people do not come from one political ideology? You wouldn't know that looking at this last year.

And so a heart is revealed. Political agreement is much more important to me than loving you.

I found this interesting. I read about this in a couple of Christian publications just a week after Liberty University hosted a video conversation between pastor and author

John Piper and the president of Southern Baptist Convention, J .D. Greer, and they had a conversation in this video on the

Great Commission and the importance of evangelism. But those videos were yanked from Liberty's online library and social media feeds because Piper had posted a, he had a post out in which he said, given the character of both presidential candidates,

I'm not going to vote for either of them. And because of that, this conversation about what

Jesus clearly talks about, evangelism and the Great Commission, gets yanked. Why?

Why do you think? Because he wasn't lining up politically. That reveals our hearts, folks.

That reveals our hearts. Listen, this pandemic and its resulting limitations have revealed what folks value the most.

I've had a number of conversations with pastors across this country as I've conversed with them.

And their leadership guys, their elders, are torn apart by the whole mask issue.

Right? They got elders. The very leadership of church is being torn apart over the issue of masks.

Right? Hey, it's inconvenient. Does that say anything about what you value? They're uncomfortable.

Does that say anything about what you value? What you think is most important? Some have had significant discussions.

Will this help us build a reputation of loving our neighbors? Or will we look like puppets of the state?

Well, does that reveal any hearts and what they value? To follow the mask mandates is to infringe on personal liberty.

Okay? So let me ask you, what does that say about your heart? What does that say about your heart?

What do you value the most? Congregations have been torn apart by the mask issue and for the same reasons.

Or I think this is what someone might say. This is what I've heard as I've talked to numbers of pastors.

You know, I think the elders made an incredibly stupid decision with this policy, so I'm not going to go to church.

Well, think about that for a moment. What does that say? I refuse to worship God. I refuse to fellowship with other believers.

I refuse to use my gifts to serve other people because the elders are stupid. Does that reveal a heart?

It certainly does. It doesn't reveal a heart that's moving towards obedience. Now, I realize that these are very complicated issues and that there's something to be said on both sides and we have to wrestle with the issues.

We do. And I don't mean to simplify it, but I will say this. Even in the complicated issues that we face, even in that, our hearts are revealed.

God is testing our hearts to see of what we value the most.

What we value the most. You know what? I believe the most telling revelation of 2020 has been that God's people have hearts that have banked their hopes on the people and the politics and the policies of this world rather than on the

God who rules the world. I think that has been the most telling thing.

We have banked our hopes on the people, the politics, and the policies of this world.

Such hearts are not inclined to obedience. God used 2020 to test your heart, what showed up.

Look at verse 3. God used 2020 to teach you the necessity of God's word.

Verse 3. And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the

Lord. When God delivered Israel from Egypt, he took away everything that was familiar to them.

I want you to think about that. They had lived in Egypt for 400 years. Our country is just now approaching that, okay?

400 years of existence, or at least people, at least since immigrants, since it was colonized, we've been in existence for about 400 years, okay?

Now imagine everything, your whole culture, everything is gone. Nothing that you're familiar with is included in what's happening, and that meant their food as well.

All that was familiar to them, including their food, was taken from them. But he provided for them manna, the bread of heaven, in order to sustain them for 40 years, all right?

Everything that they were familiar with is gone, but day after day, week after week, year after year, for 40 years they had manna.

It was by his word that they received manna. That is, they had to trust him.

They had to trust God to stay alive. They had to trust that his word would give them manna.

And Moses is saying that you have to see that your existence does not depend on mere food then, but on the very word of God, on every word that God speaks, every word that's found in the scriptures.

Now, when we have food and we have health and we have prosperity, we have a job, we have a family, that is, everything is going well, then we are happy and satisfied, right?

When everything's going well, you will find happiness and satisfaction. But sometimes

God will take these things away so that we learn that happiness and satisfaction does not come in the temporal things of life.

The temporal things of life are not enough. And in those times we learn that we live on the word of God, that is, our existence depends on all that his word supplies.

God's commands bring joy. God's promises produce hope.

So when he takes all of that away, testing your heart and humbling you, where will you now turn?

Will you turn to the word of God? Will you turn to what

God says? Will you believe that hope can be found in a Trump presidency, or will your hope be found in the promises of God for his people?

Will you believe that satisfaction can be found in health, hoping that you get the vaccine before you get the virus?

Or will you find satisfaction in the God who promises paradise if you die, but his fatherly concern and presence if you get sick?

Do you believe that you'll find joy when you get back to normal? Or can you find joy now as you obey the commands of God?

You see, the life worth living can only be found in obeying God's commands and believing God's promises, which you will find in his word.

And so what God did in 2020 was to show you, to teach you a greater dependence on the word of God.

Because so many of the things that we found satisfaction in, so many of the things that gave us comfort, so many of the normal everyday routines of life were disrupted.

And it revealed to us we were looking for our happiness in the wrong places. Our existence, true human existence depends on the word of God.

Man does not live by these things alone, but every word that comes from the

Lord. Now, verses four through six, God used 2020 lastly, right?

What has God done? He's used 2020 to humble us. He's used 2020 to test our hearts, to reveal if we'll be obedient.

He used 2020 to show us the necessity of our dependence on the word of God.

And then this, God used 2020 to reveal his fatherly character. Verses four, five, and six, your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell.

Can you imagine that? Walking over rocks in a desert where it's hot, horrible, extreme circumstances, and their clothing did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

That's impossible. Of course, that's what God did. It's just amazing when you read that verse.

Anyway, where were we? Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these 40 years.

Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you, so you shall keep the commandments of the

Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. First of all, he showed his fatherly love.

He never stops caring for his people. Verse four, he never stopped caring for them.

Even as he brought the trials to humble and test and teach his people, in it all, he never stopped caring for them.

He did not treat them as a great experiment. He did not hold them at arm's length.

He showed that he loved them. In the midst of all their wanderings, their thirst, their hunger, the heat, the decades of difficulties, he continued to love and to care for them.

Now, that's what we always need to keep in mind. We need to remember that God never stops loving us, even in the midst of difficulties.

In the midst of difficulties, we are tempted to see that God is against us, but he's not.

He still loves and he still cares for us. In fact, he not only shows his fatherly love, he shows his fatherly concern.

Verse five, he disciplines us through hardship. Now, what does discipline mean to you?

When you hear that word, what does discipline mean? Does it mean to you that your dad gets back at you for the inconvenience you've caused him, or maybe he's getting his pound of flesh for what you've done that upset him, or making you pay because you just interfered with everything?

And that's the way some of us see discipline. That's the way some of us experience discipline. I understand that, but that's not how

God disciplines. Turn back to Hebrews 12, which was our New Testament reading today, and again notice, and this is nothing new to you, but we just don't seem to be able to get this planted in our hearts.

Hebrews 12, let's look at verses 9 through 11.

Hebrews 12, let's start in verse 9. Besides this, we've had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them.

Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they, our earthly fathers, disciplined us for a short time, as it seemed best to them.

But our Heavenly Father disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who've been trained by it.

What is discipline? What is discipline? Discipline is hardship for the purpose of help.

Discipline is hardship to help you, not to pay back, not to make your life miserable.

Discipline is hardship for the purpose of help. According to Hebrews here, it is intended for your good.

It is intended to produce peace. Because if it produces righteousness, that is, produces conformity to the commandments of God, that produces a boatload of peace.

It's intended to produce peace. It's intended to move you to the joy that comes from obedience.

And so you see, God showed his fatherly character in his discipline.

He showed he was a father to them by disciplining them. So that, verse 6, through all the love and discipline

God sent, through all the love and discipline God sent you in 2020, he moves you to greater obedience.

And it's greater obedience, why? Because there's peace in that. There's greater peace in that.

Now you might say to me this morning, Pastor Tim, thanks for crushing us this morning and taking away all our hope.

But I believe you can find real hope here. You see, what you find described here is exactly what

Jesus went through. God sent his son into this world to suffer, to test him his entire life.

And the Lord Jesus proved himself humble, not arrogant.

And so he submitted himself to the mighty hand of God in obedience. God tested his heart, and it revealed a heart perfectly set on God's will, valuing his father's will above all other things.

He lived by every word that came from God. Even note in Matthew 4, where was

Jesus? In the wilderness. For how long? 40 days and 40 nights.

That's supposed to draw a picture for you. And he was tested. And when

Satan said to him, make these stones into bread, what did he say? Man does not live by bread alone, but every word that comes from the

Lord. He passed the test. He submitted to the discipline of his father, and so he was equipped to be a perfect priest for us.

It is this one who went through all of this, who promised us the easy yoke of rest to those who follow him.

He says to you this morning, I did all of this for you, for your sake.

And as we look at the one who never failed, who took the test in our place, listen, you've got to realize that you've got nothing to prove to God.

You're not proving yourself worthy to God. You're not proving any of that. Jesus did all of that for you.

And because of Jesus, God is for you and never against you, and that all the hardship he sends your way comes from his loving hand.

Does he mean to humble us? Yes. Does he mean to test our hearts? Yes. Does he mean to show us and work in us dependence on his word?

Yes. And when you fail, he points you to Jesus and says, he faced it all for your sake and paid the price.

And when you seek to obey, when you say, God, when you test my heart, help me to have the right heart.

And when you do that, he points you to Jesus and says, follow him and find joy.

Does God want us to have hearts that pass the test? Yes. But that'll never happen if you think you've got to prove yourself to God.

Jesus has taken it all. There's no price to pay on your part. Just follow him.

Hear the convicting words of God. Cry out for mercy because of Jesus.

Ask him for strength and keep going. Who knows what 2021 is going to bring?

You have no idea. Is it going to get better? Is it going to get worse? Doesn't matter what happens, whether it's prosperity or adversity, right?

Through Jesus, God's working for our obedience and the joy that comes from that. God help us to do that.

Father, thank you again for your great mercy, your mercy and showing us our shortcomings, but a mercy and a grace that shows us the one who stood in our place.

And so as we follow him, we find joy. Lord, we want you to work greater obedience in us so that we know the peace of righteousness, so that we don't know the joy of obedience, so that we look like Christ.

Point us to him always. Help us to follow him. Thank you for your word.