Of all the things Satan desires, what he wants most is our worship. Listen to what he said to Jesus: “All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me’” (Matthew 4:9). Satan promised Jesus “stuff” in order to get praise from Him; he will do the same to us — deceptively. We must always keep the Lord before us, and always keep His will at the forefront of our lives. Doing this gives the devil what he hates — total allegiance to the Lord. As with all three temptations in the wilderness Jesus countered Satan’s request for worship by quoting from Scripture (Deuteronomy 6:13) saying in Matthew 4:10 Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.
James 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. In the wilderness, the fully human Jesus submitted himself to the will of the father, resisted the devil, and the devil fled from him. Matthew 4:11 Then the devil left him… There are many ways to resist the devil and one of the most effective is to submit ourselves to God in true and proper worship.
This week’s sermon will focus on 4 ways we can submit to God and resist the devil through worship.