This Fall, Brookside Church is preaching through much of the Gospel of Luke on Sunday mornings. (Check out our "Best. News. Ever." series here.) And in Luke 4:1-13 we read the story of Jesus overcoming Satan's temptations in the wilderness.

There are two levels you can read this story on. The first level points to WHO Jesus is. With the name "Adam" - our first father - still ringing in our ears at the end of Luke 3 (Luke 3:38), we then read about Jesus doing what Adam didn't - overcoming Satan's temptations, relying on God rather than himself (cf. Genesis 3:1-6). Jesus is the "better Adam" who has victory over Satan.

The second level unpacks HOW Jesus defeated Satan. Most practically, he did this by rightly using Scripture (and relying on the Author of Scripture). Satan overcame the temptations and lies of Satan with the truth of Scripture. 

I've included a practical resource we developed for this below (tied most closely to this "second level" of reading the story mentioned above). Our hope and prayer is that this resource can help you both identify lies of Satan and immerse yourself in Scripture - so that you can overcome the lies of the enemy with the truth of God's Word.

Recently I taught on 1 Timothy 4:7-8: "7...train yourself to be godly. 8 For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." Over the course of about 40 minutes, I get into WHAT true godliness is, WHY it's important, and HOW we train ourselves for it. 

As the Brookside Institute champions values like biblical literacy and theological formation, let's not forget that these aren't ends-in-themselves. Let's train ourselves for godliness.