The Tempter, a sermon based on Genesis 2: 15-17, 3: 1-7 and Matthew 4: 1-11, preached on February 22, 2026

This Gospel lesson from Matthew describes the first temptation of Jesus, and so temptation is my focus for this sermon. Your temptations. My temptations. As well as the particular temptation that Jesus faced. I say the particular temptation that Jesus faced because Jesus was tempted by none other than the devil himself. Our daily temptations are not like that of Jesus. He gets the Son of God treatment, so the great preacher Barbara Brown Taylor once said, “When it’s our turn, none of us is going to get the Son of God treatment from the devil because the devil only needs an all you can eat buffet and a tax refund to get our attention.” That’s true. From Adam and Eve down to us, let’s be honest: The devil doesn’t have to work too hard to tempt any one of us. It just takes an apple. Or a chicken wing. I was at a breakfast buffet determined not to get a donut yesterday, but someone suggested that I have at least one and so I got two. The devil tempts Jesus in ways that are particular to the Son of God. When the devil whispers in our ear it’s particular temptations to each one of us, and so the devil may not use the same words that he did with Jesus with us, for to Jesus, he said, “If you are the Son of God,” while to us, the devil might say, “Don’t you want just one more slice?” The devil may not say, “Throw yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple,” but you may hear the devil tempt you to do harm to yourself in more subtle ways. My point is that the temptation of Jesus described in our Gospel lesson is more personal to Jesus, and Jesus, being the Son of God, can withstand so dramatic an attack from the devil himself, yet do not underestimate the devil, for he comes to us all, whispering in our ears, and we are most tempted to listen when we are hungry and desperate in the wilderness. After 40 days and 40 nights, the Tempter said to Jesus, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” Don’t you know that He was tempted to do just that? He was hungry. His belly was empty. He would have eaten the crumbs that fell from the table right off the floor, and this is when temptation comes to us. This is when the devil’s words have the most power to tempt us: not when we’re full, but when we’re empty, so we’re cautioned never to go grocery shopping on an empty stomach because when we are hungry, everything sounds good, and just as the food we shouldn’t eat calls to us when our stomachs are empty, so we are tempted to do the things we shouldn’t do when we are far from home and we long to be accepted. Do you remember the old cartoons when the angel would sit on one shoulder and the little demon on the other? The angle would lead towards virtue. The demon towards destruction. But if you’re hungry, and the Tempter offers you something to fill up your belly, then his voice is hard to ignore. Therefore, fill yourself up. Before you face temptation, eat a healthy breakfast, for when we are empty, the voice of temptation is hard to ignore, and that goes for all kinds of emptiness. Before you leave the house, look yourself in the mirror and remind yourself that you’re beautiful. Before you make a big decision, HALT. HALT stands for hungry, angry, lonely, or tired, for whether we’re desperate for food or desperate for affirmation, the devil has far more power to tempt us when we are empty, so fill yourself up. Remember who you are. Many of you know that I grew up in this church. Last week, I had lunch with the new pastor of Maple Avenue United Methodist Church. She asked me how long I’d been here. “I’ve always been here,” I said. Then she said, “That history comes with a lot of trust and probably a lot of baggage.” She’s right about both. When I was in confirmation class here as a 7th grader, for whatever reason, my friends and I thought it would be more fun to skip confirmation class and to hang out by the railroad tracks. I don’t know why we thought that would be such a good idea. Our parents would drop us off at 4:30. Confirmation class met right before the evening youth group back then. My parents would drop me off, and my friends were waiting right by those front doors. We’d wait for our parents to drive off and then go to the back of the building rather than confirmation class to run around and do a bunch of nothing, really. Why did I do that? Why was I tempted when I knew it was wrong to go with my friends and not to confirmation class? I wasn’t hungry for bread, but I was hungry for acceptance, and if the hungry are tempted by bread, what will the desperate do to be accepted? Parents will say, “If everyone else jumped off a bridge, would you jump, too?” I literally did. There was an old railroad bridge that went over Lake Allatoona that I jumped off more than once, not because it was fun but because everyone else was doing it, for the hungry are tempted by bread, the desperate are tempted by acceptance, but Jesus knows who He is and doesn’t need the devil’s approval. Do you know who you are? These days, plenty of people are looking for an answer to that question, and they’re finding answers on social media. Young men, especially, are searching for meaning. They’re searching for purpose. They’re searching for affirmation and approval, and who is whispering into their ears? I’m so interested now in livestreaming and modern technology. I’ve just been to another conference to do a presentation that Rev. Cassie Waits and I created, telling the story of our church and how God is at work here through livestreaming and our tremendous outreach to the community, and so I’ve read all these books about the internet and social media. There’s a book out about the dangers of social media called The Anxious Generation. This book presents a convincing argument for keeping kids off the internet for as long as possible because they are so susceptible to the voices of temptation that come through those phones and tablets. The statistics are concerning. Young kids on social media suffer from lower self-esteem and higher anxiety because they are bombarded by the message that they don’t look good enough and don’t have the right clothes. It’s not just the cool kids at school who send them the message but the advertisers and influencers who have access to them, plus the kids at school aren’t just at school, for our kids still hear from them through text messages all day long. It’s constant. The only group resistant to the statistics are those kids who are active in a faith community. Why? It’s because kids who are a part of a faith community like this one know that they are loved by God, and so they don’t chase after the world’s approval. Kids who are part of a faith community like this one are accepted so they don’t compromise their morals chasing affirmation from those who would do them harm. They know what love is. They know that they matter. They know that they are beautiful. Do you remember who you are? Do you remind the people around you that they are beloved in the eyes of God? My friends, it’s true that the temptation of Christ is not our temptation, for He gets the Son of God treatment, yet His temptation is not just His. It is for our salvation. Remember what He did for you and rejoice in the truth that you are worthy of His love. Don’t go out into the world empty, and don’t let your neighbor. Before you go back out there to face the tempter’s voice, remember that you are God’s beloved and that Christ is ever by your side, and look to the person next to you and tell him the same. Amen.