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Clap your hands for the ministry of Donnie McClurkin. Everybody. I want you to turn with me or click with me or look at the screens with me to Matthew, chapter number four. Beginning at verse number one. We're in a series all the way to Easter on Jesus. Our argument is that Jesus is the greatest of all time and that the greatest of all time not only wants to be your redeemer, he wants to be your rabbi. The one who was the best at life wants to teach you how to get the best out of life. And so we are in part six of the sixth sermon in this series. Matthew, chapter four, beginning at verse one, says, then Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Dev. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. If you hadn't ate yet, say me too. Okay? Verse 3, says, Then the tempter came to him and said, if you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Jesus answered, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Now, I'm gonna stop the reading of scripture right there. I need y'all to pray for the preacher today. This has been a crazy day. The 8:30 got all the points. The 10:00 got none of the points. I don't know what's about to happen, but I want you. I want to tag a title to this text, and I see this with Jesus in scripture. And the topic of the day's teaching is two words. I see it with Jesus in the text. Two words. Here it is. The topic of the day's teaching is simply this. He ate. That's it. He. Clap your hands if you know I'm right about it. Yeah, he ate. That's. For those that may be unfamiliar or unclear, the words he or she ate, it's simply an urban cultural colloquialism that's used to describe when someone has performed something in an extraordinary way. It's a designation that's given to the different. It's an adjective assigned to the extraordinary. It's a word used to describe rare. So when someone is extraordinary at what they said or extraordinary at what they did, or extraordinary at how they look, some in culture might say they ate. And it is appropriate, if you're not a hater, to acknowledge when someone ate. It's. It's important to appreciate when someone ate. But it is unwise to simply be impressed when someone ate. And I think our sovereign savior Jesus would ask us, are you okay simply being impressed? By what you could be learning from. I think Jesus would say to us about himself that he didn't come to just to impress us with what he could do. He came to teach us how to do it. That he came to reveal to you and me not just as our Redeemer, but as our rabbi, that there is another way you could and should be living your life. And he extends to us an invitation to live our life that way. A life that he depicts and describes in John 10:10 when he says, the thief comes only the only thing the thief will do is steal, kill and destroy. But he says, I have come that they may have life, and not just a little bit of it, but they may have it to the full. Oh, my goodness. I want to tell you people of God, that this particular statement and verse isn't just about the quantity of life. It is about the quality of your life. And I want to encourage some. Someone with this thought who has an appetite for everything God wants to generously give to you. If Jesus is good enough to give it, we should be grateful enough to receive it. Let me read it one more time, because I thought the 1145, I know what service I'm at will respond a little better than that. If Jesus is good enough to give it, we should be grateful enough to receive it. If he died to give me that life, if he lived to show me that life, I want that life. So I've got one word for everybody that'll receive it at this service. Live, live, live, live, live, live. You've learned too much not to live. You live through too much not to live. Too much in your life has done died for you not to live. You've gone through too much agitation not to get some spiritual compensation for all of your frustration. You got to live. Jesus says these words in John 10:10 to people who are not dead. He says, I've come to give you life to people that are alive. Which means there's a difference between existing and living. Let me just pray this over you real quick. 2024 was the year you existed. I pray that 2025 is the year that you live. Look at somebody and say, you look like life and tell them and do. And we'll have it, and we'll pursue it, and we'll chase after it, and we'll pray till I get it. We'll turn my plate down and fast until I walk in it, I will live. But if we want this life, it takes more than an appetite for it. It takes instruction. It takes expanding your understanding of Jesus. And seeing Jesus as more than simply your redeemer, but seeing Jesus as your rabbi, the one who does more than save me, but the one who shapes me. And if you will allow Jesus to be your rabbi, he will teach you and I how to have the life he came to give. And here in Matthew, we see Jesus using this textbook, this textbook, this textbook as an instruction manual to instruct us on a practice we need to include in our life privately if we're going to live like him publicly. It's right here in the book of Matthew. Right here in this Gospel according to Matthew. Matthew is. Watch this family. Matthew is a former tax collector. Watch this. Which means he was assigned by Rome to collect taxes in a specific region. So if he was assigned by Rome, he was equipped by Rome. He was trained. Trained on how to give attention to detail, trained on how to engage in meticulous record keeping, and trained on how to organize content. His life is a revelation that sometimes God will reduce redeem skills and traits you use for one thing and show you how to use them for another. Did you hear what I just said? And May 2000. Can I just pray this over you? I pray that 2025 is the year that God shows you how to do a new thing. With some old skills, you can do more than what you've been doing. I'm going to say that one more time. You can do more than what you've been doing. So he takes these skills of a tax collector and redeems them and uses his ability to keep good records, give attention to detail, and organize content to write the gospel. And you see it in the way Matthew writes his gospel. You see, he organizes the content with a logical flow that makes sense. It's not just random, it's linear. You see in Matthew chapter number one, Matthew talking about the bloodline of Jesus. That's what you'll see in Matthew 1, talking about his bloodline, which shows you and me. If you look at his bloodline, you'll see this lesson I'm about to lift to you. It shows you and me that what you come out of doesn't determine what can come out of you. When you look at his bloodline, you'll see some interesting individuals in the bloodline. But it tells you that what you come out of doesn't determine what can come out of you, that your history doesn't have to be your destiny, that your past is not always an accurate indicator of your future. That in every family, God raises up somebody that's the one and the one Shifts the trend and the trajectory of the family. Things were going in one direction until God raised up the One and the One shifted that thing. I pray that this year is the year that God helps you see you the One. Whoa. I didn't come from a blessed family, but a blessed family is going to come from me. I didn't come from a healthy family, but a healthy family is going to come from me. Because what I come out of doesn't determine what comes out of me. Matthew, chapter one. See the bloodline of Jesus. Matthew, chapter two. We see the birth of Jesus. The birth of Jesus is fulfillment, is New Testament fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Hundreds of years before his birth, people like Isaiah said, aversion shall conceive and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Prince of Peace, Mighty God, Everlasting Father. Hundreds of years before his Old Testament. I mean, before his New Testament birth. You see Old Testament prophecy because the birth of Jesus teaches us that prophetic fulfillment requires human participation. That when you get a prophetic word, you gotta do more than run. You got to work. Let me say that one more time. I said that when you get a prophetic word, you have to do more than run. You've got to work. We've got to do more than praise. Come on. We got to prepare. We've got to do more than bless the Lord. We got to build something. God didn't give Noah a prophetic word that it was going to rain just so Moses could. Just so Noah could dance. If Noah would have just done dance when he got the word, he would have drowned when it rained. But evidence that you believe that what God says is going to come to pass is not seen in your praise. You can praise and doubt, but preparing takes faith. It takes faith to build an ark when it's not raining. And May 2000, I'm just praying everything over you today, May 2025, be the year you got to faith to build an ark when you don't see rain. Cause I believe it's getting ready to rain. It's getting ready to happen. It's getting ready to flow. It's getting ready to fall. The door is getting ready to swing open. Chapter one, Bloodline of Jesus, Chapter two, Birth of Jesus, Chapter three, the baptism of Jesus. In chapter three, he's baptized. John baptizes him. The Holy Spirit descends on him in the form of a dove. And a voice from heaven says, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. So this teaches us that I can't really accomplish my life's assignment until my identity is settled. See, the Heavenly Father tells Jesus the Son, this is my beloved Son, in whom I'm well pleased, says about Jesus, Son, this is my beloved Son, whom I will please. Before Jesus performed one miracle, so he hadn't done anything to earn affirmation. He hadn't opened one blind eye. He hadn't raised one person from the dead. He hadn't performed one miracle. But he gets the affirmation from the Father before he goes into public ministry, so that when he goes into public ministry, he can be used for ministry and not use the ministry to get affirmation. Come on. Can I contemporize the text? He needs to have his identity settled before he builds the business so that he doesn't attach his identity to the business, so that the ebbs and flows of the business don't affect the. The. The. The security with which you have about your identity. I am who I am before I build this, and I am who I am after I build this. And whether this is up or down, I'm up. Because if you don't do it with affirmation, you're going to end up doing it for affirmation, and that's dangerous. If you don't say I do with affirmation, you're going to end up saying, I do four affirmations, and that's dangerous. Chapter three, chapter one, the bloodline of Jesus. Chapter two, the birth of Jesus. Chapter three, the baptism of Jesus. Chapter four. We see the battle of Jesus. In Matthew 4, the rabbi is teaching you how to fight. He's teaching you how to fight the most intense fights you'll ever fight in your life. He's showing you where you're going to have your greatest battles. In Matthew 4, the Rabbi is teaching you that your biggest fights are not going to be on your job. In chapter four, the Rabbi is teaching you that your biggest fights are not going to be in your home. In chapter four, the Rabbi is teaching you that your biggest fights are not going to be in your church. In chapter four, the Rabbi is teaching you your biggest fights are going to be in your mind. Y'all aren't talking to me in here, Pastor. Where'd you get that? I got it in the text. I got it in the text. In Matthew chapter number four, it says, then Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. I'm coming back to that. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him. So verse 3, don't happen until verse 2. The tempter don't come until the fast is over because the enemy tries to exploit emptiness. Did you hear what I just said? I said the enemy attempts to exploit emptiness. He wants to see where we are empty. And then he offers us something that feels like a solution to your emptiness. What the bread represents here is the enemy putting something before you that you think you need, because emptiness impacts your appetite. And it will make you open to things you would not be open to when you're not hungry. Yeah, look. Look at what he said. Look at what he said. I'm not. And he says, if you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread. If you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread. If I'm trying to see who, remember what happened in chapter three. I want you to see why I told you what happened in chapter three. It wasn't because I didn't have anything else to say. I needed to say what he said in chapter three so you could understand what's happened in chapter four. Because in chapter three, God said, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. In chapter four, Satan says, if you are the Son of God. Chapter three, God says, this is my beloved Son. Chapter four, Satan says, if you are the Son of God. Because whatever word you get in chapter three, the devil's gonna challenge you on in chapter four. And what Jesus the Rabbi is teaching you and me is that there's a difference between being able to hear a word and being able to hold on to one. And the quality of your spiritual life is not just determined by whether or not you can hear a word. But can you hold a word? My gosh, I got to get out of here. But I remember when I was growing up, my daddy was teaching me how to change oil in a car. And if you've ever changed oil, you gotta move the oil filter. You gotta unscrew it. You gotta let the bad oil out so you can put the good oil in. And I remember one time I was unscrewing that thing and I was holding it. And he needed some time to get the pan underneath the car so that when the oil came, it didn't hit the ground, it hit the pan. And I was turning that thing. He said to me, he said something to me. I'm going to say it to you. And you better not tear this carpet up at this 11:45 service. You better not praise. Yeah, this is what he said to me. He said, son, hold what you got. Can I talk to A few people in here today. I don't know what word he gave you in chapter three, and I don't know what you're dealing with in chapter four, but I just want to tell you, hold what you got. If he told you weeping may endure for a night, hold what you got. If he said he's gonna start the business through you, hold what you got. If he said he's gonna bring your family back together, hold what you got. He's gonna challenge the last word you heard. Alright, Give my text. Please give my text. If you are the son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Jesus answered. It's written, man shall not live by bread alone. But on every word that comes out of the mouth of God. Give me verse five, please. Because the text says this. It says in verse five, it says, then. This is interesting. Satan or the devil took him. All right, give me verse one again. The spirit led him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. That were tempted can mean temptation or it can mean testing. So it means the spirit led him to be prepared to be tested and Satan wanted to tempt him. It means you can be in the same predicament and God and the devil see your predicament two different ways. Did you hear me? You can be right in the middle of something right now. And the devil's like, I'm gonna use this to destroy them. God's like, I'm gonna use this to develop them. The devil's like, I'm gonna use this to shut them down. God, like, I'm about to use this to blow them up. You better ask Jesus. Won't God do it? If the devil put you in the grave, God will use it to give you a resurrection. Listen, then Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness. Now give me verse five. Verse five says, then the devil took him. So you got to be careful because you can start off led and end up took. Can I get an amen over on this side here? Okay, yeah. You can start off lead and then end up took. You started off, your motives were pure. Your heart was right. You started off for the right reasons. Started off lead, you ended up took. Sometimes you're like, what happened with. What happened with them? They started off leading, but they ended up took. He took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. Okay, y'all see that? Give me verses 8 and 9. It says again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of this world and their splendor. Okay, now give me verse 1. The Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness. So how is he on a mountain and at the highest point in the temple if he in the wilderness? Because he didn't go to the mountain and the temple physically. Satan took him there mentally. The battle wasn't about the wilderness. The battle was about the mind. I'm gonna tell you something. Your stress isn't tied to where your feet are. Our anxiousness isn't tied to where our feet are. Our worry isn't tied to where our feet are. Our stress and our anxiousness and our worry is tied to where your mind is. The devil took it. And I want to know if anybody's honest enough to admit there are some times my mind got took. I didn't hear an amen right there. Yeah, there are times where I looked up and depression had. And confusion had. And where he at? He's fighting in his mind. But the text reveals a weapon that Jesus uses to manage the mind. When you in battle, the text reveals he uses a weapon called meditation. Pastor, where do you see that verse 4? It is written, man shall not live on bread alone. Y'all miss what I just said. Y'all miss what I just said. It is written that man shall not live alone by bread alone. Look at verse seven. It says it is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test. Look at verse 10. Away from me, Satan. For it is written, worship the Lord your God and serve him only see upon first glance. Some people would say this response is recitation of the Word. Others would say it's memorization of the word. But Jesus would say it's meditation of the Word. This is one of the most underutilized spiritual disciplines in the Christian context. We don't do this. We confuse memorization with meditation. And you can memorize stuff you don't believe or like. Come on here. Has a song ever got stuck in your head and you like, why is this song in my. I don't even like this song. Because you can memorize what you don't even believe. But Jesus ability to respond to the battle and the thoughts in his mind with the word. So no matter what the enemy was bringing to him, he was responding out of the well. And the reservoir of his soul with the Word is an indication he engaged in the spiritual discipline of meditation. Because you cannot draw out what you have not put in. And so you must put it in all the time, because you may have to draw it out at any time. You see, when people hear the word meditation, they often think of Eastern religious practices that focus on emptying the mind. Does that make sense? People who are infected with pride, they can't carry out. James command to be slow, to speak, quick to hear. So they hear me say something like meditation. They get an attitude. Where is that in the Bible? If you calm down, I'm going to show you. Because there are three ways to do anything. Culture's way, church's way, king's way, culture's way of meditation. This is rooted in Eastern practices. And this version of meditation confuses relaxation with renewal. It treats meditation as a coping mechanism rather than a conduit for transformation. It sees meditation as an exercise in detachment rather than devotion. It emphasizes the emptying of the mind over filling it with truth. It promotes self centered reflection, encouraging individuals to seek their own version of peace rather than submitting to the Prince of peace. It becomes an escape from reality rather than a tool for engaging it. And it offers temporary relief but no lasting renewal. That's what you want, not me. Then there's a church's way. This confuses memorization with internalization. And it treats scripture as something to be stored in the mind rather than sown in the heart. It reduces engagement with a word to an intellectual exercise rather than a transformational encounter with God. And scripture becomes a task to complete rather than a tool to cultivate. Leading people to value recitation over revelation and familiarity with scripture over formation by Scripture. Which is why you can grow up and they quoting all that scripture and it's like you quoted all that scripture and you still that mean how do you let me go to this side. It's like you got you quoted all that scripture and then you this shy what is. Because memorization is not internalization. And so when, when am I making sense here? So when church says meditate on the Word, what they really trained us to do is memorize so you're familiar with what you're not formed by. Then there's the King's way. And the King's way of meditation is the process of emptying the mind for the purpose of refilling it with God's truth. It involves recitation where we speak and store God's truth within us. Repetition where we revisit and rehearse it daily reflection where we not only read the Word, but we let it read us. And revelation where the Holy Spirit illuminates what we have read so it becomes wisdom for daily life. In other words, biblical meditation is I study the word, I speak the Word, I store the Word, I surrender to the word I study the word I speak the word I store the word I surrender to it I study the word I speak the word I store the word and I surrender to the word I study the word I speak the word I store the word I surrender to the word I study the word I speak the word I store the word I surrender to the word Word I study the word I speak the word I store the word Thy word Have I wish I had a Baptist church right there? Have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee? I study the word I speak the word I store the word I submit to the Word I study that word I speak that word I store that word and I surrender to that word. This is what the Bible's referring to in Joshua 1:8 when it says, keep this book of the law always on your lips and meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything in it. You can't do what's in it if you don't do meditation. Watch this. Then. Then everybody want will come after the then, but won't do what comes before the den. Then you will be prosperous. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord. And in it does he meditate, both day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. He will bring forth his fruit in his season. That'll preach right there in his season. And whatsoever he doeth, shall prosper. That's talking about people who study the Word, speak the Word, store the Word, and surrender to the Word. That's biblical meditation. That is a spiritual discipline that Jesus practiced that most Christians don't. They just told us to read the Bible. We done tario. And if we will do this like Jesus did, it will do for us what it did for Jesus. What did it do for him? Darius, you know you're Baptist when you talk to yourself. What did he do, Reverend? Meditation will fuel you for your fight. When you study the Word and you speak the Word and you store the Word and you surrender to the Word, it becomes fuel that you need for your fight. Listen to Pastor. Spiritual warfare requires spiritual stamina. Jesus had to fight through three temptations in his mind, which means that devil is going to keep coming. And the devil doesn't have to take you out if all he got to do is wear you out. Devil's like they gonna fight strong for A little while, but they don't have the stamina to fight long. So just keep coming. Number two. Meditation fixes your focus. What's focus? That's selective attention. When you focus, you make a decision what not to look at. You ever been to the. What's the eye doctor called? Optometrist. That's what it's called. So, like, you. You know, you go there and then they have. They show you, like, the lines. Then they'll be like. Like, look at line number three. But it'll be four lines on the thing. You have to choose not to look at 1, 2, and 4. You got to choose not to look at more options. That word will go back and fetch your focus, because sometimes that mind begins to wonder, and it'll wander toward opportunity. And meditation will say, come back to assignment. It'll wonder toward what you could do, and it'll bring it back and say this. But what are you supposed to do? It'll wonder to what they're saying, and it'll pull you back and say, what did I say? Number three, Meditation filters false teaching. I want you to look at the fact that the devil used the word as his weapon. The devil did not misquote scripture. He misinterpreted. He misapplied it. Did you hear what I just said? And so sometimes we've been exposed to false teaching not because someone misquoted. I'm done, Tar Heel. Not because someone misquoted scripture, but because they had a bad interpretation of scripture. So they presented to you what they said was scripture, but it was actually their interpretation. So bad interpretations create bad expectations, and bad expectations create frustration because God doesn't perform what you expect him to, but he never obligated himself to. So now the devil uses false teaching to get you to have expectation that God's not going to fulfill. That creates frustration that causes you to question the credibility of God. So when the devil say what a word say, he say, no, it's written. It's written. And number four, meditation fortifies our faith. Faith comes by what I say. Faith comes by what? Hearing. So the more I study that word, the more I speak that word, the more I store that word, the stronger my faith gets. The more I study that word, the more I speak that word, the more I store that word, and the more I surrender to that word and I see that word working. The working of the word starts strengthening my faith. When you get a revelation that faith work, you start working your faith. This is third way. Second way. Just read the Bible sometimes. Third way say no. I'm a study it pastor. One time I was doing a podcast and this guy said to me, he said, you know, I just know you love to read. Tell me some books you want to read. I say, first of all I don't. He said, you reading all the time. You don't love to read. I said, I'd rather be playing video video games. I don't love to read. I hate to lose so I'm willing to do what I don't like so I can have a life I love. This is a third way spiritual discipline that the Holy Spirit wants to infuse into our life. Lord, we have heard your word today. Now would you help us apply it for the season of life we are in in the way that best serves your glory and our good in Jesus name. Can I have 60 seconds before there's a mass exodus before we part the Red Sea getting out of here. 60 seconds.