Summit Drive Church

The third test that Jesus faces in the wilderness is a test about power. Jesus rejects the devil's offer of gaining power the easy way, and he shows us that the way through this temptation is allegiance to God and submission to him.

Jesus' second test is to turn faith in God into a magic trick. By refusing to force God's hand, Jesus shows us how being God's child is trusting our Father to do what is best.

Jesus' temptation is not just an important detail in His life, it is a paradigm for our own temptations. In the first temptation, Jesus is tempted to take what He wants rather than to give what is needed—to put His comfort over God's calling. The way through this wilderness, and this test, is dependence on God for our daily bread.

This week, we conclude our series by looking at some guiding principles for how we engage in the political arena. We look at what it looks like to pray for our governments, and see political involvement as one way to love our neighbours.

Jesus himself lived with deep integrity – the “integration” and consistency of every part of life. We are called, and empowered by Jesus, to do the same. In this message, we’ll look at how integrity means love for God, with listening to God, and with love for neighbour. We’ll see how the way of love described in 1 Corinthians 13 is not just for “private” faith, but to be totally integrated into all of life, including our public witness.

Christian public witness honours Caesar, but worships Jesus. We respect the political as a function of God's common grace, but our ultimate allegiance is to Jesus. Right priorities lead us from a fear-driven self-preservative engagement in public life to a love-driven serving posture.

We, as humans, were made to join in God’s rulership of the world with wisdom and justice. Jesus has come to redeem and restore us to this vocation; to be his multi-ethnic, diverse people, not building merely for the ‘kingdoms’ but for God’s Kingdom.

Our new series, “Jesus, Caesar, and the Kingdom of God: Christian Engagement in Public Life” will focus on this question asked of Jesus: “Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not?” (Mark 12: 14). We’ll see how Jesus’ answer avoids a number of pitfalls: Jesus 1) avoids the political trap; 2) avoids political simplicity/polarity; and 3) establishes the appropriate “ordering” of the political realm in relation to God’s reign.

Spiritual formation is not just habits and practices, it is a posture. Psalm 63 invites us into the posture of being a people who seek the Living God as the source of our lives.

God the Holy Spirit is the One who transforms us to become more like Jesus. But what part do we play in this process of transformation? Today, we look at what it looks like to "keep in step with the Spirit," and particularly, the role that the spiritual disciplines – the rhythms of Jesus – play in our journey of growing to become more like him.