Uncharted: Into the Unknown

Recreation: Check Your Flesh at the Gate

You must Check your flesh at the gate.

Checked baggage is luggage that you give to an airline to store in the plane’s cargo hold. It’s different from carry-on baggage, which you can bring into the passenger cabin.

Matthew 4:1-11 New King James Version
4 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”
4 But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”
5 Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple, 6 and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’
and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”
7 Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”
8 Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to Him, “All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.”
10 Then Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”
11 Then the devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

Matthew 4:1 New King James Version
1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

Wilderness: a place not inhabited by human beings. As such, it came to be considered the natural habitation of demons. The word does not necessarily imply a bleak, desert area, only one not inhabited by human beings.

Three theological ideas associated with wilderness:
covenant, miraculous provision, and judgment.

Anudros: Waterless, dry (Matt. 12:43)

What happens in the wilderness: Testing, Miraculous Provision, Encounters with God, Renewal, Isolation for Preparation, & Divine Deliverance.
Being in the wilderness meant preparing for a new beginning with God: Recreation!

The Flesh must be checked at the gate!

Q. How is flesh checked?
A. Fasting

Purpose of the Fast: to focus upon the spiritual things of God. It allows us to get beyond the desires of the flesh so that we can devote ourselves entirely to the Lord.

Three Biblical purposes of the fast:
Seeking Guidance
Repentance
Drawing Closer to God

Matthew 4:2-3 NKJV
2 And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry. 3 Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

Lowest and weakest in His flesh: strong in spirit?
Hungry: Hangry- feeling irritable or angry due to hunger.

What I will not do today is focus on the three temptations themselves, but the conditional clause within each: (“if [= since]”).

Flesh Will Desire: contained within each temptation.

IF… or since you are: challenges identity, will, and purpose.

It’s something when you make it about YOU, Me-Me-Me, or I!

Check your flesh at the Gate

We are venturing into uncharted waters, diving deep to discover and embrace the things we have longed for. However, we cannot walk according to the flesh to achieve this.

2 Corinthians 5:16-17 New King James Version
16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

Recreation: Re-Creation:

Recreation: an activity done for enjoyment when one is not working.
Re-Creation: Check your flesh at the door.

“You cannot be who you are going to be and who you used to be at the same time.” —Bishop T.D. Jakes

Ephesians 2:1-10 New King James Version
2 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Romans 8 New King James Version
8 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Galatians 5:16-26 English Standard Version
16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.