At The Movies // Battling with the Dark Side

People Star Wars fans in the room?

Yeah, that's right, we got some Star Wars fans.

Hey, whether you are a big Star Wars fan or you are not a Star Wars fan, here's what we know about Star Wars.

It is a battle of good versus evil, right, the Jedi versus the dark side.

Right, in the world that we live in, we know that there's a lot of evil here, isn't there?

In fact, it's almost like we're just so used to it.

I mean, there's abuse and violence.

I mean you think about what happened yesterday with the assassination attempt of Trump and man, no matter what your political leanings are, if somebody's trying to kill somebody, I mean that's just evil.

And don't we live in a world where there's just so much evil?

It seems to be all around us and I think about the evil in the world.

I actually think about a song that came out when I was a teenager.

Now, this is back in the day when they actually think about a song that came out when I was a teenager.

Now, this is back in the day when they had personal CD players.

You guys remember personal CD players.

Yeah, this is before the tablets and the smartphones and all that.

I'm sure there are some people in the room you don't even know what a CD is.

You know what I'm saying Personal CD players.

And there was a song that came out by a great group you may have heard of them, the Black Eyed Peas, called when is the Love?

You guys remember that one.

Let me refresh your memory a little bit.

What's wrong with the world, mama?

People living like they ain't got no mama.

I think the whole world's addicted with the world, mama, people living like they ain't got no mama.

I think the whole world's addicted to the drama, only attracted to the things that'll bring you trauma Overseas.

Yeah, we no, I'm just kidding.

I'm just kidding.

Hey, it's true though, isn't it?

It's a rough world out there.

There's a lot of evil.

So what we want to do today is we want to answer three questions.

One where did evil, where did the dark side begin?

Like, where did the dark side begin?

Where did all this evil come from?

What are the operations Like?

What are the ways of the dark side?

What are the ways of Satan, like, how does he operate?

And here's what's going to happen You're going to leave this room knowing exactly how the enemy wants to operate against you.

And then the third question we're going to ask and answer is what do we do about this?

That's what we're going to see today.

So here's the first question we're going to ask and answer is what did we do about this?

That's what we're going to see today.

So here's the first question we're going to answer when did the dark side begin?

It actually began in heaven.

The dark side began in heaven.

What would he mean?

There was a beautiful angel.

His name was Lucifer.

Everybody say Lucifer Ready.

Lucifer led the worship music in heaven.

But Lucifer got filled up with pride, and Isaiah 14 tells us what happened.

Because he was filled up with pride.

It says, shining morning star, how you have fallen from the heavens, you destroyer of the nations.

You have been cut down to the ground.

You have said to yourself I will ascend to the heavens.

I will set up my throne above the stars of God.

I will sit on the mounts of God's assembly in the remotest parts of the north.

I will ascend above the highest clouds.

I will make myself like the most high.

Lucifer thought he knew more than God.

He thought he was greater than God, and God kicked him out of heaven.

And Revelation 12 tells us that a third of the angels went with him and became demons.

Now we know, based on different passages, that there are millions and millions of angels, millions of angels, and this is how the dark side began.

And the dark side does something very specific they seek to deceive you and lie to you so they can destroy you because you are the object of God's love.

In John, chapter 8, look what Jesus says.

John 8 · chapter mention

He says you are of your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires.

He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him.

When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature.

This is obviously speaking of Satan, because he is a.

What does the church say?

He is a liar.

He's a liar and the father of all lies.

So what does Satan and his compadres do?

Lie, deceive, make good appear evil and evil appear good.

Why?

So he can devour you and destroy you.

This is why Peter later on writes this.

He says be sober-minded.

1 Peter 5.

Be sober-minded B.

Can we get the next slide up on the screen?

He says B, what's the word?

B, be alert.

You guys ever had a dog?

That's alert man.

I grew up with German shepherds.

Let me just tell you right now, those German shepherds they hey, don't mess with me when my German shepherds are around you know those ears.

It's alert, be alert.

Why?

Because your adversary, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone.

He can what's the word?

He can Devour, devour.

He can devour.

He's looking, and what we need to do is we need to be alerted, and I don't say that to scare you.

This is why I say that, because some of us need to wake up.

Wake up and realize that there actually is a real enemy, that there actually is a real Satan.

We need to wake up from our spiritual apathy.

For some of us.

We need to wake up and realize that there's more to life than just what we can see.

We need to wake up because there is a real enemy and there is a real dark side.

But that brings up the question what are the ways of the dark side?

How does the dark side operate?

If he wants to destroy?

You lie to you.

How exactly does this happen?

Well, I want you to know, because I really want to move back the curtain so you can see inside how he goes about this.

The first thing the dark side does is he blinds.

The enemy blinds those who do not believe in Jesus, who do not yet know Jesus.

It says in 2 Corinthians 4, in their case, the God of this age.

He has done what he has blinded Blinded the minds of those unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel, of the glory of Christ.

This is what the enemy wants to do.

He wants to blind you from seeing that there's forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

He wants to blind you from seeing that there's eternal life through Christ.

And he wants unbelievers, those who are not followers of Jesus, to be damned in a terrible place called hell for all eternity.

Okay, so what he does is he blinds us.

He blinds people by saying all religions are basically the same and Jesus is just one of many teachers.

He blinds by saying your good works are enough, you don't really need Jesus.

He blinds people by saying, as long as you're sincere in what you believe, you believe this, I believe that everything's all good.

He blinds, he blinds.

He blinds from seeing the glory of the gospel, that Jesus is the only way.

I recently was reminded of the importance of a vision in sight a couple weeks ago because I did something I've never done in my 35 years on planet Earth.

I went to the eye doctor.

I've never gone.

Why have I never gone?

It's very simple I've been in denial.

I've been in denial.

That's why Been in denial, many of you have probably been to the eye doctor.

In fact, just so I know who I'm talking to, how many of you guys have been to the eye doctor?

Okay, okay, all right, like me and one other person had not been to the eye doctor.

So this whole eye doctor thing, this is new to me.

I mean, this is brand new.

So I go into the eye doctor and one of the first things they tell me is they say we're going to blow air in your eyes.

I said okay.

So they did it and she said you blinked.

I said well, yeah, you blew air in my eyes.

Oh, keep your eyes open, okay.

Then she took me to this other machine thing and it was like a.

I felt like I was playing video games.

She said every time you see a white light, you press this button.

So, so I just started just pressing the button.

You know what I mean.

And then they, and then they, they took me out of that room and I'm like what, what just happened to me?

I went to this other room and they had me, like, sit in a chair and the lady goes now you got the optometrist, goes in, you know the big wig of the place and she says all right now.

So now, and she talks like this is just old hat.

You know, I know what she was saying.

She was like now we're going to dilate your eyes.

I said you're going to do what?

You're going to dye my eyes.

She explains this, and so she, she dilates my eyes, you know.

And then, and then she, she says I want you to look in these lenses and I want you to be able to read the letters.

You know what I'm saying.

Now, I don't know why, but for some reason the letters were easy to read, but she kept making them smaller.

She kept making these letters smaller.

She said can you read that?

I'm like oh, yeah, yeah, can you read that?

Oh, yeah, Can you read that?

Oh, yeah, yeah, can you read that?

Oh, yeah, yeah, can you read that?

Oh, yeah, yeah, can you read that?

No, nobody can read that.

It's too small, it's impossible to read that.

And she goes one bigger.

She's like can you read that.

I'm like, yeah it to find out I needed a prescription.

Still working through that guys, still working through that one Nearsighted I know and she said, hey, here's what's going to happen.

She said so she had me look back in the little lens thing.

She says read that.

And I was like I can't read that.

She's like that's how you see it right now.

She says but I'm going to show you what it's going to look like with your prescription.

And she put this new thing on and I looked at it and it was as clear as could be.

Now, check this out, check this out.

I didn't realize what I was missing until I saw the world through a new set of lenses.

Did you get that?

And as long as you're blinded to the life-giving truths of the gospel, you'll never realize what you're missing.

You'll never realize it.

Here's the gospel.

There's a creator god that's holy, that's righteous, that we, we've all sinned, we've all messed up.

We know that.

I mean goodness, if you think you're a good person.

I mean, consider this.

For example, we can't even keep our own rules, much less god's rules.

Have you ever tried to keep your own rules like I'm not gonna.

I'm gonna go on a health diet or whatever.

I'm not gonna eat junk food.

Like day three you're going through the drive to the McDonald's.

It's like what happened, right?

Like we can't even keep our own rules, much less God's rules, right?

Come on now.

Because of that.

We're sinners in need of a savior, and Jesus came and died and Christ were forgiven.

This is the beauties of the gospel, and what the enemy will do is do anything he can to blind you from this truth.

He'll use the cares of this world.

He'll use your past.

He'll use distractions, believe it or not.

He'll use religion to blind you to this simple truth that salvation is available to all that comes, anybody who comes to him.

His operation is to blind you.

His other operation, another one, is to take scripture from your hearts.

It says in Matthew 13, when anyone hears the word about the kingdom and doesn't understand it, the evil one come and snatches.

The evil one come and snatch away what was sown in his heart.

See, god's plan is to use his word, his truth in your heart to root you, to grow you spiritually, to mature you spiritually, to strengthen you.

And the dark side knows this.

They're smart, so what they want to do is snatch the word out of your heart.

But the dark side's real, crafty and creative in snatching the word out of your heart.

Real crafty, real creative.

They don't go to you and say hey, debra, here's what I want to do.

I want to snatch this from your heart.

I want to get you away from this book.

I want to get you away from the body of Christ, where you're hearing the word of God taught.

That's my goal, because if that happens to you, I got you right where I want you.

I got you right where I want you.

So that's my plan.

I'm going to get this out of.

He doesn't do that.

This is what he does.

He makes you busy, he keeps you distracted, he makes sin look alluring, he plants doubts in your mind.

There's no such thing as objective truth.

Truth is whatever you feel truth to be.

And if God or somebody tells you that this is the truth, but you feel another way, they are oppressing you and they are putting you in bondage Doubts, doubts, doubts.

But ironically, this is what Jesus says.

Jesus says the way to freedom is from the truth.

In John, chapter 8, he says you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

John 8 · chapter mention

Free, indeed, for freedom, christ to set us free.

And with the enemy, his operation.

He will do literally anything he can to get you from this book and get this book out of your heart.

He will do anything he can to keep you from gathering on a Sunday morning and hearing a short, stubby preacher teach you the word.

That's what he's going to do.

He's going to do anything he can to get you from not jumping on that YouVersion devotional app, the Bible app.

He's going to do anything he can and use anything he can, because he's crafty and he's creative and he wants to get you.

And sometimes it's funny what he'll do.

Sometimes he'll use misleading packaging to get us to go away from scripture.

Let me illustrate it this way I brought something to church service today that's glorious and that's absolutely amazing.

It's life-changing, it's wonderful.

I brought Teddy Grahams guys.

Teddy Grahams, teddy Grahams, teddy Grahams.

How many of you guys like y'all were waiting for it?

How many of y'all love Teddy grams?

You guys like Teddy grams?

Oh gosh, teddy grams are so good.

I mean, they're just you know, they're just so cute, so cute, and I just you know like, and with these you can't just eat one at a time.

You just got to eat like a.

You know what I'm saying.

It's like there's it's almost like there's like ten Teddy Grahams in this package.

It's like I can eat that in like two and a half bites.

Like, give me like four packages of these.

You know, teddy Grahams are awesome and the thing about this packaging is, when I look at it, I think these Teddy Grahams are actually pretty healthy.

Based on this packaging, I mean, check this out First of all.

First off, there's no artificial flavors or colors.

Isn't that good?

I mean, I don't want artificial flavors or colors in my food.

There's none of that in here.

It's great, it's better.

There's no high fructose corn syrup.

Yeah, I like.

Yep, that's right, come on, and.

And eight grams of whole grain.

Just wait, wait, wait.

The best is yet to come.

It's a good source of calcium.

Calcium builds strong bones, people.

Do you want to have weak bones?

I mean, come on, you want to like be walking and then you break your leg because you didn't have weak bones.

You know why?

Because you have weak bones.

You know why you have weak bones?

Because you didn't eat teddy grams.

You need more calcium in your life.

This is what the packaging says.

But if we flip this thing around.

This is what the packaging says, but if we flip this thing around and really look at this, it very conveniently did not say how many carbohydrates was in this package.

It also has ingredients that I can't even pronounce.

I mean, you got to have like a PhD to announce some of these things Maltodirextin, whatever that Monitrate.

There's something called acid in here, folic acid.

I don't know.

That can't be good for you.

I don't know.

And here's my favorite I was looking at this.

I'm really not a health expert.

Some of y'all think I am.

I'm really not.

It's all for looks.

It says ingredients derived from a bioengineered source.

That's right.

Yes, I'm not a doctor.

I don't think that can be good for you.

Now, based on the packaging, this looks good, sounds good.

I'm like this is good, but when you look closer at it, it's not good.

Now, this is what the dark side does.

He uses misleading packaging.

He says things that may sound good, that may look good, that everybody else around you, everybody else in culture, says is good, but when you buy into the packaging, it's not exactly what it seems.

The packaging of you are your own authority and nobody can tell you right and wrong.

The packaging of.

As long as you feel this way and you feel sincere, it's okay to do it and that's what's right.

The packaging of well, god wants you to enjoy your life.

Yes, this over here is outside of God's plan and clearly outside of scripture, but God doesn't want you to be sad, so God wants you to do this.

So God is holding out on you Misleading packaging.

And you guys remember the devil appears as an angel of light and you guys remember the devil appears as an angel of light In 2 Corinthians, chapter 11, it says this.

2 Corinthians 11 · chapter mention

And no wonder, for Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

He blinds, he uses misleading packaging.

And why does he do this?

So he can trap you, so he can stop you and destroy you.

In 2 Timothy, chapter 2, it says then they may come to their senses.

2 Timothy 2 · chapter mention

This is me and you, that we will understand that our eyes would be open and escape the.

What's the word escape?

The Of the devil who has taken them captive to do his will.

I'm curious any of you guys have you ever trapped an animal Like?

Have you ever hunted or trapped an animal before?

I'm curious, any of you guys ever tried?

Okay, some of you guys have.

Now, I'm a me being a good old suburb boy from the suburbs, not really a big hunter, not really a big animal trapper, but I do have a friend.

It's called Google and I was using Google this week and I was looking up how do you trap animals?

Because I read this text, so I'm thinking about like nature and how does nature work?

And it said something that makes a whole lot of sense.

You trap animals by baiting them with the type of bait that they're drawn to.

It's really simple.

I was like, oh duh, that makes sense.

So this animal may be attracted to this bait, but this animal over here, they're not attracted to that bait, not attracted to that bait.

So, based on what you're trying to trap is going to determine the bait you use to trap them.

Now, here's why I bring this to our attention.

It's because there's an enemy that knows what some of our vulnerabilities are and what some of our weaknesses are and what some of our propensities are, and what the enemy will do is he will use certain bait that will trap you so he can get you.

Have you ever noticed this?

Okay, maybe it's just me have you ever noticed this?

If there's a place of vulnerability in your life, some area where there's like a weakness in your life.

It seems like you're being attacked in that place, right.

Like, maybe you have a propensity that's different than somebody else.

Like, maybe you have a propensity towards worry.

Like that's just kind of like your propensity.

It seems like there are things that are, all these things that are coming up that will cause you to worry about things.

Right, maybe you have a propensity towards lust and it seems like all this stuff is just coming up towards that propensity.

Maybe you in your life, maybe you're at a place where, like, you're trying to leave a party lifestyle, and as soon as you decide to leave a party lifestyle, it seems like those friends show back up or those friends invite you out to do something.

Maybe you're trying to learn how to give of your finances and be generous with your finances and trust God at his word and maybe give it that 10% level.

And then your hot water heater goes out and you're like stink.

So he invites you on a weekend trip and you're like, oh, that'd be great, but I'm gonna have to drop a thousand for that, right, and what the enemy will do is he will go after your vulnerabilities because he wants to trap you.

He wants to destroy your Christian testimony.

He wants to destroy your family.

He wants to destroy your relationship with God.

This is what he does.

So last question this morning what is our response to all of this?

What's our response to the dark side?

What do you do about it?

Do we just sit here and kind of eat popcorn and enjoy?

Here's what the first thing we do is.

We're aware of it.

As the great theologian GI Joe said, knowing is half the battle.

We're aware, we're aware.

We're aware.

Somebody told me on the 9 o'clock service they're like oh my goodness, I needed to be aware.

Like I've been kind of not aware of this, like we need to be aware that there's a real battle that's happening in the unseen realm.

There's a battle for some of our relationships.

There's a battle for our families.

There's a battle for our families.

There's a battle for our spiritual life that's going to affect the future generations.

There's a real battle.

We also need to know and this is so key to know and paramount is we fight from victory, not for victory.

We fight from victory, not for victory.

You say, oh, what do you mean I fight from victory?

What do you mean?

What do you mean I fight from victory for?

Do you mean You're gonna fight from victory for me?

I don't understand this.

Okay, first John, chapter four, tells us something that's really important in this battle.

It says you are from God, little children, okay, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who's in the world.

That's what it says.

The one who's in you is greater than the one who's in the world, and it's easy for us to look around at the evil of the world.

It's easier for us to look around and we're like man.

Like things are tough, things are difficult.

Like man, I'm just going to fight for victory.

I'm just going to do this.

Guys, fight for victory.

I'm just going to do this.

Guys, we have already won the victory in Christ.

Like Satan may not be a completely disarmed foe yet, but he is defeated.

We just sang a song about the living hope that we have in Christ At the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Hey, he was defeated.

Hey, death no longer has a grip on us.

And, guys, this is really important right now, especially, we're going into and we're in this election year and there's so much evil happening, there's all these things that are going on around us.

This is what we need to know.

We don't need to cower and hide.

We don't need to be scared about the future of America.

We don't need to be scared watching the news and it's like all these terrible things are happening.

We don't need, we don't need to fear Because greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world.

Like God has not given his people the spirit of fear, but of power and of a love and of a sound mind.

Like God has given that to you.

And what has happened is the people of God.

Frankly, we look around the world so much and naturally, when we look around the world, we're scared and we're fearful and we're cowering.

The people of God aren't people that look around.

We're the people that look above.

We don't let what's happening in the news, in the media, determine where we are.

We look at what Jesus says in His Word, and His Word says this that greater is he that's in us than he that is in the world.

So what we do is we look at our church and we say this that greater is he that's in us than he that is in the world.

So what we do is we look at our church and we say this that we are in a community that needs the Lord, that there are people that are broken and hurting and they are looking for hope.

And we say, hey, guys, we have him, it's Jesus.

We look around and we see violence and we see division and we say, hey, we have a God that brings peace.

We look around and we see all these things happening.

It's like you know what I'm not worried, and this is what I know that the darker the night, the brighter the light.

So, guys, this is what we do.

We don't fight for victory, we fight from victory.

Ephesians 6,.

We put on the full armor of God, the full armor of God.

We use the shield of faith yes, this is coming, but I have faith because I know my God is we pick up the sword of the word of God and when temptation and when things come this is what we do, this is what I battle with we take the helmet of salvation and we purify our minds.

We have the breastplate of righteousness, our identity in Christ, and we say this is who I am.

I am going forward because I have already won the victory.

This is my question for us today Are you living your life fighting for victory?

Or are you living your life fighting for victory or are you living your life fighting from victory?

Are you in a place right now where you're just like, oh man, there's so much on my plate, there's so much happening, and can I just say I feel you, bro, like life is hard sometimes, but can I just say you have victory.

Maybe you're in this room right now.

Maybe there's a place where the battle's heavy you know where it's heavy at.

Maybe it's heavy in a place in your life that nobody else knows about.

This is what I'm going to invite you to do To ask God for strength in that place, in the battle that you're fighting.

It's tough, huh?

You didn't expect this would happen.

You thought you'd be past this, this.

I'm going to invite you to lean in and have strength from God in this place that you're fighting in.

And I have one other place.

Maybe some of you are like me at that optometrist and your eyes can't quite see straight.

And maybe you've been blinded to the gospel and today, for the first time in, and maybe you've been blinded to the gospel and today, for the first time in your life, you've seen the gospel clearly, that Jesus died for you, that you're a sinner and that if you turn to him in simple faith, you can be forgiven.

I'm going to invite you today to trust him to be your Lord and Savior.

However, god's dealing with your heart.

Can we just do this?

Can we just bow our heads?

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