The Devil in 3D

For that, so I'm grateful for them.

Also, grateful for moms.

Let's hear it for the moms today.

Happy Mother's Day.

So I had a bit of a of a scheduling crisis this week because I'm not a hyper-organized person, which is a huge understatement.

Um, I'm just not an organized person, let's say that.

And so I'm one of those people, and and I would love just some some support from the dudes in the room.

Like, how many of you didn't realize it was Mother's Day until like six days ago or less?

You like, oh, it's Mother's Day.

I better some of you are not brave enough to raise your hand.

Okay.

Yeah, that's fine.

I'm one of those people, I just kind of live my life one day at a time, one week at a time.

You know, we've got we've got four kids, life is really busy.

And so I looked at the calendar like last Sunday, was like, oh man, next Sunday is Mother's Day, but I'd already planned out this series, and just it turns out, I just want to say this up front.

It was not on purpose.

This isn't some type of like Freudian thing where um we're talking about the devil today, and uh and you know, scheduling wise, had I been more aware, would I have planned to speak about the devil on Mother's Day?

Probably not.

Um someone asked, is this kind of like a dig at mothers in law?

Is that what this is today?

And I was like, No, it's not.

It's just that I'm bad at schedules.

So maybe think about it this way.

Uh, what's like the opposite of a loving, nurturing, caring mom?

Satan?

I guess.

So we're gonna talk about that for some context.

For some context, we're in a series right now, if you're just joining us, called Lessons from the Garden.

And what we're doing is we're actually looking at really the first story we have of God and his interactions with people.

And this is a story that we find in the first chapters of the Bible in the book of Genesis.

It's the story of Adam and Eve, and they're in this garden, and you know the story.

Even if you haven't grown up in church, even if you don't believe that the story is true, you know the story.

You have to at the very least admit that it has resonated throughout human history for a reason.

Adam and Eve, they they get tempted, there's a serpent, they eat the forbidden fruit, everything kind of falls apart, and that begins this long process of restoration that God starts to put into motion to bring the world back to himself ultimately through Jesus.

And what's incredible about this story is that it's very short, it's very broad stroke, and yet, even though it's thousands of years old, we can look back at this story and we learn so much.

It's so practical for our lives today.

We learn a lot about who God is, we learn a lot about who we are, a lot about how we are meant to interact with God, a lot about the pitfalls that exist.

It's amazing how much you can learn by looking at the beginning of something.

And so we've just been going through looking at the beginning of our story with God.

And we've talked a little bit about the tree of life and what that means.

That's a big thing for our church.

If you weren't here, listen to that from a few weeks ago.

Last week we kind of addressed the elephant in the room, or maybe like the serpent in the room would be a better way to say it.

Like, why is there a snake in the garden?

Why does God allow there to be this presence, this nefarious force?

And we talked about the idea that maybe there are things God values more than safety.

Maybe he desires us to be strong.

Today we're gonna sort of deep dive into the way that the serpent in the story goes about messing with us and messing everything up.

We're gonna really examine the sort of tactics of our enemy.

Now, I just want to say this on the front end.

I know that for many people, the whole idea of Satan, the devil, it starts to sort of drift into this whole like, is it superstition?

Is it real?

Like, what's what's the deal there?

Some people have a really hard time believing in the devil, because it's kind of an uncomfortable thought, right?

But but if you've ever wondered whether or not there's some like force out there working against you, because sometimes life feels like that.

Like sometimes things happen and you're like, oh, I've had a bad day, and other times you're like, someone knows what they're doing.

Because the things happening to me are just too, they're too good.

They're too perfect, it's timed too well.

It's almost like there's some intelligent force pulling the strings coming against me.

And and scripture would actually say, yeah, that's that's true.

That's not superstitious.

1 Peter chapter 5, verses 8 and 9 says, Stay alert, watch out for your great enemy, the devil, he prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

1 Peter 5:8

Stand firm against him and be strong in your faith.

We have an enemy.

Jesus talked about our enemy, he talked to our enemy, Satan, the devil, whatever you want to say.

He had conversations with the devil.

So Jesus affirms this, and it's something that we find even in the first pages of Scripture, that there is this force that is against us.

And it's so vital for us to understand who we're dealing with and how they operate.

I remember when, uh I don't know if you guys know this, I have a son who plays basketball.

I'm just gonna fit that into every message I ever give for the rest of my life.

When Liam was in like second grade, third grade, I was coaching him and we started to scout some of the other teams, and my wife was like, You're going to scout third graders.

And I was like, Yeah.

And even Liam was like, why?

I was like, because we have to crush them.

Like, we it's not enough to win.

You have to, you have to destroy their spirit.

That's like we need to make them quit.

I'm just joking, I didn't say that.

I didn't say that.

I thought it, but I didn't say it.

Right?

But there's this idea in life that you want to understand what's against you.

If you have an opponent, you want to understand your opponent.

Because I'll say this one thing becomes clear as you read scripture, our opponent understands us.

And if we can understand our enemy, our adversary, the word Satan literally means adversary.

If we can understand our adversary, we can guard against the ways that he tries to sabotage the things that God has for us in life.

Ephesians 2.10 says that we are God's masterpiece, that we've been created anew in Christ Jesus to do the good things that He planned for us long ago.

That's who you are.

Whether you've ever realized it or not, you are God's masterpiece.

He created you specifically.

He knows you, he loves you, and he has a plan for your life, and that plan is not an easy plan.

God having a good plan for your life doesn't mean that only good things are going to happen to you in life.

No.

God has created you, though, for a good purpose.

There are good things that He's planned for you to be part of, and you have an enemy who wants to sabotage that, who wants to mess it up.

And so it makes sense to understand our enemy.

This isn't superstition.

Now, we have to understand, we can be superstitious about it.

In fact, I was having a great conversation with Fred Goodwin.

Many of you know Fred, he's a big part of our church, and Fred and I were talking about some of the superstitions related to Satan, to all of that stuff, and Fred said, you know, one of the big ones is that people believe that Satan and God are like equal.

That it's almost like this tug of war, and you know, they're equal in strength.

No, not at all.

Our enemy has already been defeated.

Jesus defeated our enemy on the cross.

Now, here's the the way I tend to think about it.

If we have a defeated enemy, why would we be on guard?

And sorry to use a sports metaphor on Mother's Day, but it's kind of like it's kind of like a game where it's it's over.

Like sometimes games are over before the clock runs out.

Like it's just, it's it's over.

It's done.

Like you guys remember when the Falcons were up like 21 to 3 and half.

I'm sorry.

Is it too soon?

It is too soon.

Like 20 years from now, it'll still be too soon.

Um, but you know what I'm talking about.

It should have been like that.

But sometimes, sometimes some people are just so down right now.

I'm so sorry.

I don't mean to.

I I live here too.

It's my pain as well.

Um, sometimes a game is over, but there's still time left on the clock.

And when an enemy, when an opponent knows they've lost, but there's still time left, they often become desperate.

So we have to understand we have a defeated but desperate enemy.

We have a big and powerful God.

And thankfully, Scripture helps us see the way that our enemy goes about things.

So here's what I'm hoping for today.

I'm hoping we walk out of here today with an understanding of the way that our enemy comes against us, tries to sabotage our lives, tries to get in the way of our relationship with God, tries to sabotage our marriages, our relationships with our children, our careers, our hopes, all those things.

Like, let's just be people who are better at recognizing the way that works so that we can guard against it.

I think this is actually gonna be a super practical thing.

And I want to look at three words that begin with the letter D.

I'm gonna give those to you now.

Um, it's doubt, deception, and division.

This is how our enemy operates.

These are his go-to tools, and we're gonna see them in the story today.

It's doubt, deception, and division.

So, with that said, we're gonna jump into Genesis chapter 3, verses 1 through 7.

Genesis 3:1–7

It says, The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made.

One day he asked the woman, Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?

Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden.

The woman replied, It is only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat.

God said, You must not eat it or even touch it.

If you do, you will die.

You won't die, the serpent replied to the woman.

God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.

The woman was convinced, she saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her.

So she took some of the fruit and ate it, and then she gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate it too.

And at that moment their eyes were open, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness, so they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

That's the first story we ever have of the enemy having a conversation with someone, trying to tempt them, trying to get them off track.

Actually, it's one of the most detailed conversations we have in all of Scripture.

But it's not the only one.

And as a parallel, because these two actually go so well together.

I also want us to read Matthew chapter 4, verses 1 through 11.

Matthew 4:1–11

By the way, if you have the mobile app, I'm just reading everything off of that.

It says, Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.

This is right after he's baptized, to be tempted there by the devil.

For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry.

During that time the devil came to him and said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.

But Jesus told him, No.

The scriptures say, people do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Then the devil took him to the holy city Jerusalem, to the highest point of the temple, and said, If you are the Son of God, jump off.

For the Scriptures say he will order his angels to protect you, and they will hold you up with their hands, so that you won't even hurt your foot on a stone.

And Jesus responded, The Scriptures also say, You must not test the Lord your God.

Next the devil took him to the peak of a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

I'll give it all to you, he said.

If you will kneel down and worship me, get out of here, Satan, Jesus told him.

For the scriptures say you must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.

Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus.

These are the two most detailed interactions we have in Scripture of our enemy with people.

One ends in failure, the other ends in success, but both of them we see the exact same tactics.

It's doubt, deception, and division.

So let's explore this a little bit.

Let's talk about doubt.

The very first thing that Satan says to Eve, that the serpent says to Eve, is, did God really say?

And you can tell in that that there's this seed of doubt being planted for Eve.

Did God really say that you're not supposed to eat any of this stuff, which by the way is not what God said.

God said, You can eat freely of all the trees in the garden except for this one.

Don't eat from that.

But everything else is yours.

But the enemy comes and plants this seed of doubt.

It says, Hey, did God really say, and it's almost like the enemy is saying, Is God holding out on you?

Is God keeping something good from you?

It's this doubt.

We see the same thing in Jesus' temptation.

Jesus gets baptized.

Matthew chapter 3.

Matthew 3 · chapter mention

Jesus gets baptized.

Verses 16 and 17 say that after his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were open, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him, and a voice from heaven said, This is my dearly loved son who brings me great joy.

This is something other people saw as well.

So Jesus gets baptized, and God says, You're my son, I love you, you bring me joy.

What's the first thing that the enemy says to Jesus when he tempts him?

If you really are the Son of God.

Are you sure?

See, Jesus had just heard the Father, God the Father, confirm you're my son.

And the enemy comes along and says, if you're really the son, which implies that maybe you're not.

It's doubt.

Now, I want to say this.

There's a sort of doubt that is healthy.

There's a kind of doubt that's like a curiosity within us that leads us to ask questions that can actually be part of seeking God.

As a church, it's very important that we all know this.

This is not a place where you're like, don't ask those questions.

Ask away.

Ask any question.

And I mean this.

If something, if something ever bothers you, if you're ever struggling with some aspect of your faith, you don't understand something, you have some type of holdup, ask someone.

You can come and find me and ask me.

You can go to the prayer room and ask someone in the prayer room.

You can set up a meeting and we will do our best.

We don't have all the answers, but we'll do our best to help you work through those things.

There's a certain type of doubt that it's curious, it's actually seeking God, and Scripture's fine with that.

In fact, 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 20 and 21 says, do not scoff at prophecies, but test everything that is said and hold on to what's good.

1 Thessalonians 5:20

You should test everything that is said.

There's a little bit of doubt that you can have that leads you to ask the right questions.

But that's not the kind of doubt that Satan is using in these temptation stories.

Because there's another kind of doubt that isn't rooted in curiosity, it's rooted in skepticism.

There's a fine line sometimes.

Like it's good to be curious and hungry for knowledge.

You want to seek God, you want to find answers.

But on the flip side, there's this kind of doubt that is it's rooted in skepticism and suspicion.

And I've never seen that kind of doubt lead to a stronger faith.

Now, I mean, it's my own personal experience, I might be wrong, but there is a kind of doubt that if it takes hold, it only goes the other direction.

It doesn't lead to questions.

It's so rooted in skepticism and suspicion that it doesn't ever bring you closer to God.

Not that God can't meet you there, God can meet you anywhere.

And if that doubt grows and matures, it becomes disbelief.

And disbelief is a very serious thing.

Disbelief becomes a massive barrier between us and God.

If you read the story of Jesus, Jesus, I mean he's Jesus, right?

Like he can do anything.

And there's certain aspects of how God operates that we don't have all the answers to, and if we acted like we did, we'd be liars.

But there definitely seems to be this relationship, this undeniable relationship between faith and experiencing some of the most amazing things God can offer.

There's many times where Jesus says to people, your faith has healed you.

Jesus actually says that if all you have is the faith of a mustard seed, which is really small, you can move mountains.

If you have a little bit of faith in a really big God, you can do really amazing things.

Better to have a little bit of faith in a big God than a lot of faith in a little God, actually.

But there's still an element of faith that's that's there.

There's one time in Jesus' ministry where he doesn't really do any miracles, or at least not many, and it's when he goes to his hometown and the people reject him there, they have disbelief.

Not doubt, disbelief.

It's not that they they don't believe, it's almost that they can't.

They won't.

And it says that Jesus wasn't able to perform many miracles there because of their disbelief.

So what we have to understand is that doubt is a serious thing.

It's a serious thing.

What do we do with it?

Well, we don't just ignore all the questions in our minds.

No, not at all.

What's the thing that guards against doubt?

Well, it's it's trust.

Do you trust God?

You know, trust is an interesting thing.

It's like the foundation of every healthy relationship.

Like if you don't trust somebody, you can't have a healthy relationship with them.

And when trust is broken, we've all experienced that in relationships, it's really hard to build it back.

Do you trust God?

And some of us would say, hey, it's hard for me to trust God because I've had a lot of things happen in my life that have been difficult.

But I have found this that if you walk with God and you walk in faith, you will see God do things.

You will see him do things that will over time build a deep trust in your heart toward him.

Sometimes you will see God rescue you from situations where you're like, we're saved.

God literally stepped in and miraculously saved us from some terrible experience.

That does happen.

But it's not always that.

If you walk with God in faith, you will see God not only rescue you from time to time, you will see him comfort you like no one else can.

I have watched people go through tragedies and heartbreak and disappointment.

And instead of crumbling and turning away from God like maybe would make logical sense, they have a deeper, stronger connection to God than really most people whose lives are going really well.

Why?

Because in the midst of those moments, as they cling to God and walk with God, they experience a comfort from God.

Jesus actually says, You're blessed when you're mourn because you will be comforted.

That's a promise.

And the Holy Spirit is called our comforter.

We actually sang that today, our comforter.

When you walk with God, you'll experience his comfort.

You'll experience you'll experience him strengthening you when you have no strength.

We read this scripture last week that it's actually in our weakness that we experience his greatest strength.

So here's my point.

It's kind of one of those whole like chicken and egg scenarios.

What comes first?

Do you do you trust God and then you experience his faithfulness and it builds, or do you have to like wait for God to do something and then once that happens, then you can finally have trust that guards against doubt.

I don't know the way it works.

I think it's kind of like walking.

It doesn't really matter if you start with your left foot or your right, just take a step forward and watch what happens.

Sometimes faith comes before experiencing the faithfulness of God.

Sometimes it's God's faithfulness that happens and it's undeniable, and you experience faith because of it.

I can't tell you how it works, but I can I can promise you this.

If you walk with God, and when I say walk with God, what do I mean?

Live life focused on God, connected to God, and in every single situation, every scenario, you go to God and ask him for help.

You open your heart to him and you open yourself up to experiencing what he has for you, even if it's difficult, his strength, his comfort, whatever it is, you will experience his presence, he will strengthen you, and you will develop a deep trust in who he is.

And it will never disappoint you.

It will never disappoint you.

So the way we guard against doubt is we develop trust.

And trust is something that you have to live out, you have to experience it.

So walk with God.

Seek him.

And if you have questions, take those to God.

A great story, if you've never read it before, would be the book of Job, the story of Job in the Old Testament.

Job has some doubts, and he takes those doubts to God.

And he gets an answer.

And it's probably not an answer he likes, but it's an answer.

And it leads to deep trust.

Let's move on.

The second tactic of our enemy is deception.

Deception.

One of the great things about being a parent is that you get lied to all the time.

Right?

But for the most part, kids are terrible liars.

They're just bad at it.

You know, it's actually scary when they get good at it, but they're bad at it.

Not very long ago, our youngest Eli, who's uh he's not properly domesticated.

We haven't figured that out yet.

He is just wild.

I don't know how, and in the same home as our other children, Eli is just, he's wild.

And there's this thing about him where if like he's that kid that if you don't hear him, you're like, oh no.

And something terrible.

And it's it's yeah, he's written all over something, he's climbed a 20-foot-tall tree.

He's like, that's that's those are things that have happened.

And so a few months ago, um, we have this rule, and it's just no food on the couch.

And the reason we have this rule is because we bought a couch several years ago, and our children destroyed it.

Like, it was it was just it was disgusting.

And thankfully they broke it, and we had a warranty on the couch, and we got a new one.

And when the new couch came in, I was like, no one, you will not jump on this couch, you will not eat food on this couch, you will wear pants when you sit on this couch, right?

You will like, it's time for us to, you know.

And so, Eli is our only child who's not in school.

A few months ago, he's on the couch, he's got, there's a bowl of food right beside him, and food is all over the couch.

And Megan's like, Eli, and he looks and he goes, Judah did it.

And she's like, Judah's at school.

You're the only one here.

You got a bowl of food next to you, food all over your face.

You're gonna, this is where, this is what you're gonna go with, right?

This is your and he just doubles down.

He's like, he did it last night.

And he stares at her, just like, he's a bad liar.

The problem with Satan is he's a really good liar.

He's really good at deception.

Now, sometimes Satan's deception is overt.

You know, we go back to the story in Genesis.

He says in Genesis 3, 4 and 5, regarding eating the fruit God said not to eat, you won't die.

He says so clearly, you won't die.

God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, you'll be like God, knowing both good and evil.

You won't die.

That was just an overt lie.

But look, sometimes people can say something that is completely untrue, but if they say it with enough conviction and passion and confidence, it can feel like it's true.

And you start to go, well, am I wrong to not believe this?

We see a lot of this in our culture.

I don't even have to name the examples.

There are all kinds of things that are spoken in our culture that are so clearly not true.

Like it's just not true.

But enough people say it with conviction and with passion that sometimes you should go, well, am I wrong?

I mean, there is a kind of overt lie that is easy to believe if the person saying it or the people saying it have enough gumption behind it.

Sometimes our enemy lies like that, and we have to be people who have enough common sense that when something is said that is clearly not true, we can just be like, no.

I don't care how many people say it, I don't care how loud, I don't care what marketing campaigns are behind it, that's not true.

And I won't go along with it.

But very often, very often, our enemy's lies are so, so subtle.

So subtle.

Let's go back to Jesus' temptation for a second.

And I've given a message on this, but it's been years, and so in a minute I'm gonna ask for a response.

And and if if you know where I'm going with it, if you've already like, just don't spoil it.

That's what I'm trying to say, I guess.

Like, help me out.

So, three temptations, right?

Let's work our way backwards.

Temptation number three.

He shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world, and he says, If you worship me, Satan says, These will be yours.

I'll give these to you.

Okay.

We sang a song this morning, and we spoke in that song that Jesus is the King of kings, that he's the Lord of Lords.

Matthew chapter 28, when Jesus speaks to his disciples before he ascends to heaven, he says that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

Satan is offering something to Jesus that Jesus already has.

Go back to Eve.

If you eat this fruit, your eyes will be open and you will be like God.

If you go to Genesis chapter 1, right toward the end, God creates man and he creates woman.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

And he creates them, he says, to be like us.

We were already created to be like God.

And Satan says, Oh, if you eat this, you'll be like God.

They already were like God.

It's like Satan offering Jesus something he already has.

It's subtle, it's sneaky, it's deceptive, it's but it's it's it's it's good.

You gotta give him credit.

Like, hey, it's tricky, it's good.

Go to temptation number two of Jesus.

Right?

He takes Jesus to the top of the temple and he's like, jump off.

And a lot of scholars will debate about what in the world is that about.

A lot of people will sort of go with this idea that he's asking Jesus to do something demonstrative, do something that a bunch of people see that will prove to people that you really are the son of God, because temptation one and two, he leads both of those with if you are the son of God.

But what happened right before Jesus was tempted?

He was he was baptized, we just read it, and the Holy Spirit comes upon him and says, This is my son who I love, and that was a public moment.

Like there's already been a public moment where God has affirmed that Jesus is the son of God.

That's already happened.

It just happened.

And now Satan's like, hey, if you'll do this, then you know, people will see that you're the son of God.

People already have seen it.

It's that subtle same sort of thing.

My favorite, though, is the first temptation.

Jesus is hungry.

He's been fasting for a really long time.

And what is it that Satan offers him?

Someone shout it out.

Bread.

That's what everyone says, but it's not true.

It was a trick question.

I wasn't trying to make you feel dumb.

I'm sorry.

I I did that on purpose, but it's sort of.

Everyone thinks bread.

But but did Satan offer Jesus bread?

No.

What did he offer him?

Stones.

He doesn't come to Jesus and say, hey man, you look hungry.

I happen to have this fresh baked bread.

In my mind, it would be like a cheddar biscuit from Red Lobster, because those are the best.

Like, here.

They haven't even invented these yet, but just wait till you try this, right?

Like, that's not what he does.

He doesn't show up with a with like donuts or something like that.

He says, if you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.

Jesus, later on, Matthew chapter 7, 9 through 11, this is a very famous teaching of Jesus.

Matthew 7 · chapter mention

He says, You parents, if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead?

Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake?

Of course not.

So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him?

When I used to read this, I would always read it like these were just silly examples.

And then it hit me years ago because I had recently read the story of the temptation that when Jesus says, hey, if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead?

That's not some made-up scenario for Jesus.

That's experience.

That's what happened to him.

Here he is, he's hungry.

And Satan tempts him with rocks.

With a stone.

It's subtle.

Subtle enough that most of us will read that story and just be like, oh, it's bread.

But Jesus saw it.

He saw the deception for what it was.

How offensive to offer someone who's starving a rock?

Like, how offensive is that?

Satan's really good at passing off stones as bread.

So how do you guard against deception?

The answer is discernment.

The way that you guard against deception is discernment.

Notice that every time Jesus combats the deception of his enemy when he's tempted, it's with Scripture.

Eve actually sort of tries.

Adam just stands there.

I don't know.

You know, we don't really know if he's there when Eve begins the conversation.

At some point, Adam shows up because he's there when they eat the forbidden fruit.

But Eve actually misquotes God.

She says, Oh no, we can eat freely.

It's just that one tree he said, don't even touch it.

Actually, God never says that.

But every time that Jesus is tempted, every time Satan comes at him with a deception, Jesus responds with the truth of Scripture, and it's to the T.

If you want to guard your life against the deception of your enemy, you have to know the truth.

And you gotta like really know the truth, right?

Like the subtleties of it.

Because if Satan's really good at using subtlety in his deception, then we've got to know the subtleties of the truth of God.

We've got to know it that well.

Jesus knew the word.

He knew the truth of scripture.

So when the enemy came to him with a lie, he was able to combat it with the truth.

And we happen to live, it's a really interesting situation.

We live at a time where we have more tools at our disposal to know scripture than anyone's ever had before.

I mean, it's like, what translation do you want to know it in?

What commentary do you want it?

It's all there.

And in some ways it's a little bit like intimidating how much there might be.

And sometimes that leads us to not engage, but like we have more opportunity to know the truth, to know the word, the truth of scripture, than any generation ever has before.

But at the same time, what's become sort of the most popular thing in at least in Christian culture is just sort of very broad-stroke truth.

It's kind of like the verse of the day thing.

Nothing, there's nothing wrong with the verse of the day.

But it's just it's not enough.

It's not enough, right?

Because the enemy knows the truth well enough to twist it in very subtle ways.

And if all we know is kind of the broad stroke truth, we'll miss a lot of that stuff.

And so my encouragement to you is just know the word.

And if you're like, how?

Well, one great way to start would be read it.

There's actually a really amazing app that I've downloaded called Dwell.

If you've never heard of this before, it's so cool.

It's called Dwell.

You download it.

Um, I think it has a really low-cost, like, yearly subscription.

It's not, it's not expensive.

Um, and all it is is just the Bible read to you.

And you kind of, you can, it's really cool.

You can pick your translation and then you can pick your accent.

And so, I know my wife has some British dude read her the Bible, probably.

She loves British voices, it bothers me.

Whatever, I'll get over it.

It's Mother's Day, she can have her British Siri and her British, her Siri is in a British guy.

Is it like, should I be threatened?

I don't know.

Sometimes I feel it.

Um but like I you you pick your translation and you you pick like even the accent.

And that's just kind of cool.

And there's even like background music, if you want no background music, and all it is is just scripture.

And so I've gotten to where when I drive, one of my favorite things to do is I just like pick a book of the Bible, and in in a week, it's like literally in one week, you're like, you could listen to a significant chunk of scripture.

And that counts, by the way.

There's some people like, oh, it doesn't count if you don't read it.

No, it counts to listen to it.

In fact, for most of human history, no one could read.

So most people who knew scripture listened to it.

So read scripture, listen to scripture.

Know it.

Guys, know the truth because your enemy is a really good liar, and he's very subtle in his deceptions.

But if you know the truth, you can you can spot it.

You're like, uh, that's a stone.

Get away from me, Satan.

How dare you offer me a stone in place of bread?

But you gotta catch it.

Discernment.

Great quote, Charles Spurgeon said, true discernment is not knowing right from wrong, it's knowing right from almost right.

And scripture teaches us that.

Okay, last one.

Division.

Division.

Notice that Satan, when he comes to tempt in the garden, he's talking to one, but not both.

Now, I talk about my kids a lot, and I'm sorry, it's just they give me material and I need it.

It's just the way it is.

Our kids are just amazing at dividing and conquering.

Like, like I've we we catch it now.

So like anytime one of my kids will come up to me and say, Hey, can I have you know some chocolate?

There have been so many times I'm like, sure.

And then Megan's like, they just came to me and asked like five minutes ago, and I've said no.

And I'm like, oh, sneaky little jerks, right?

Like, here we go.

I love my kids, I'm just teasing.

But but they they do that, they'll kind of like divide, right?

So I've learned that when they come to me and ask for something, I'll go, have you already asked your mom?

And I know if they just, if they're silent, if they just go, I'm like, yes, what'd she say?

No?

Well, okay.

We're a team, and I'm with her.

Like, you can't, don't divide us, right?

But but you gotta give them credit, they're smart, right?

Because if you they can get you one-on-one, it's like, oh, my daughter, Lily, if she can get me one-on-one, it's like I would give her everything.

You know, I'd be like, hey kids, I don't know how this happened, but Lily uh now has all the bedrooms to herself, and you boys.

It made sense when she told it to me.

Somehow you guys need to sleep on the couch, but she she just needs all of it.

Because like she's my only girl, and so she can get me one-on-one, but Megan's there for like, don't let her do that to you.

No, Lily's amazing.

But my point is we're stronger together.

We are so much stronger together.

The typical way that the story of God creating people goes is that God makes everything and it's good.

If you read Genesis chapter 1 over and over again, God makes it and he says, it's good and it's good.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

And so usually the way we think about it is everything's good until we mess up, and then there's something bad.

That's not actually what it says, though.

Before we ever sin, God says something isn't good.

And it's that man is alone.

God says, Oh, it's not good that man is alone.

From the very beginning, God created us to be together.

We're meant to live connected together.

We are stronger together.

Scripture says that two heads are better than one, and a cord of three strands is not easily broken.

But we happen to live in an incredibly isolated society where we're more connected in some ways than ever before.

Like, I probably know what more people ate for lunch yesterday than I care to if I want to get on social media.

It's easier to learn those surface details, but it's a lot harder to know the heart.

Because we are a very isolated society.

We close ourselves off.

And I'll ask you, how many people know you?

How many people know you?

They don't just know your highlights, they don't just know the obvious stuff, but they know your heart.

And they know you well enough and love you enough that if they ever challenged you, if they ever said, hey, I think you're way off track in this part of life, you would receive it.

It might be hard, but it wouldn't break the relationship because there's that level of connection and trust.

How many people know you?

It's hard.

We're more isolated as a society than most societies have ever been because we can kind of live our lives just compartmentalized.

And we do our thing, we show up, we sit down, we go to the next place, we sit down, we're in one line, we get another line, we just live our lives that way.

But we need to be connected together.

Because how do you guard against division?

And the answer is unity.

You've got to be unified.

Like Megan and I have have learned, we've got to be a unified front as parents.

And even as a church, we've got to be unified.

Like, this is really important to say this.

We're almost done.

If this is your church, you know, we don't have membership, it's not like a.

We are gonna start this thing called His Hands Plus.

I've been thinking about it.

It's it's a$14.99 a month, and you get all kinds of extra stuff.

Um, it's more like a premier tier to.

And then when you call and you have a complaint, I'm like, oh, are you a His Hands Plus member?

Well then you don't get to complain.

So that's the way it works.

No, I'm teasing.

You know, we don't have membership.

Not that it's wrong for churches to have membership.

It actually makes a lot of sense in a lot of ways, but from our very beginning, we've always just sort of looked at Jesus and said, well, how did he do it?

And Jesus didn't have an official membership.

People followed him, and then people would not follow him, and he wouldn't like chase him down and say, hey, hold on.

Like you said you were, you know, you never made him sign anything.

And so we've always just had that sort of culture where if this is your church, it's your church, and we love you.

And I want you, we love you.

And we're here for you.

And so you don't, if you ever feel alone, you're not.

You are not alone.

You are loved, you are cared for, your children are loved, your children are cared for, and I don't care how messy it gets, we'll be here for you.

Yeah, one woo.

It's okay.

No one knows to clap.

I mean, to a point, right?

But if it's like really messy and like, uh, that's weird.

No, I'm teasing.

And and I'm I really want to say it's important to say this from time to time.

I've heard, I've I've heard so many people who have said things like, I don't want to bother you guys because I know you're busy.

So no one was busier than Jesus.

Right?

I mean all he had to do was save the world in three years.

Like that's pretty, that's a full schedule.

But Jesus was interruptible.

Jesus always had time for people.

And so never say no on someone else's behalf.

Especially when it comes to people who are invested in your life and who care about you.

There are people at this church who have been through whatever you're going through, and they can help.

And whatever you're dealing with in life, whether it's right now or it's five years from now, no one's going to look at you here and look down upon you because you struggle with something.

We all struggle with things.

I struggle with all kinds of things.

Like I'm messy.

I say I'm sorry a lot in the car, on the way to church, on Sunday mornings.

So I just we've got to be unified.

That's that's the point.

We have to be together as a church.

Or you have to know that if this is your home, we're not gonna let division happen here.

We're not gonna let the enemy divide us because we're united, we're together.

We love each other.

Jesus actually prayed, John chapter 17.

John 17 · chapter mention

I pray that they will all be one as you and I are one, talking to God the Father, that we would be united, just like God is united.

That's the cool thing about God, right?

He's Father, Son, Holy Spirit, three and one, just kind of like we're flesh and we have a mind and we have a spirit, but we're like at war with ourselves all the time.

Like we don't like ourselves most of the time.

We fight with our own thoughts.

But God's not like that.

He's he's at one with himself.

And he prays that we would be one as he is one.

So we gotta be united.

And I just I need it to be said sometimes from this stage that you're loved, you're cared for, and whatever you go through, there's someone who's here for you and will drop anything and everything to come alongside you.

Because we gotta be like that.

That's how we guard against division.

So, wrap it all up with this.

We have an enemy, and he sucks.

Can we agree with that?

Satan sucks.

Like I said, sucks from the stage.

I know.

I I say I will say this.

I notice certain generations saying sucks is I'm sorry.

I gotta figure it out.

Stinks, it just, I my generation grew up, sucks was our word, and it comes out naturally, and I apologize.

So, my bad.

But he sucks.

Um he is an adversary, he's an enemy.

And he's a worthy adversary.

I mean, he's really good at what he does.

He's good at sowing seeds of doubt, he's good at deception, and he's good at division.

But he's not better than Jesus.

And you know how we know that?

Because Jesus beat him one-on-one.

Like, that's the cool stuff.

I mean, Jesus had the Holy Spirit, so it's never really one-on-one in that sense.

But like, Jesus went toe-to-toe with Satan.

And just boom, boom, boom, no, no, no.

Pack your bags, go away.

And Satan did it.

He left.

That's awesome.

And so we have an enemy, but we also have a champion.

You ever thought about the fact, and worship team, you guys can make our way out because we're going to wrap up with baptisms.

Um you ever thought about the fact that Jesus is your big brother?

Like, think in those terms, it's hard sometimes, right?

Because he's our savior and he's the king of the world and he's God, and like that's all true.

But scripture says that he's the Son of God, right?

We get adopted into the family.

The Bible says that if you confess everything and you give your life to Jesus, right?

That you become adopted and you're now adopted.

God is your actual father, and if that makes God your father, that makes Jesus your big brother.

When I was in elementary school, there was this kid on the bus that would pick on me a little bit.

I was like first grade.

And I have an older brother who's eight years older than me.

And so, and in my mind, as a like six, seven-year-old kid, my older brother was like, How tall is he?

I don't know, 12 feet tall.

You know, he probably lift like four million pounds.

Like he was when you have an older brother that's eight years older than you as a little kid, you're like, he's there's nothing he can't do.

Um and so I remember one day I'm riding bikes outside, and that kid that he was three or four years older than me was was down the street, and I pointed to him to my older brother, and I said, That's that kid that picks on me on the bus.

And my older brother chased him down on his bicycle.

And looking back at it now, it's like that probably wasn't good, you know?

But my older brother just like went after him and I loved it.

I was like, beat him up! Like, I was like yelling, like, you know, I want to have you know, vindictive young child.

But the point is, he was my champion.

I had an older brother, and whoever my enemy was ran away from my champion.

You have a champion.

You've Jesus, there we go.

See, the enemy also messes with technology.

I have learned that, I will say, technology has given Satan a whole new wait.

I don't know if that was Satan or not, it might have just been a battery, but it's fun to blame Satan for everything.

So, you have a champion.

You have Jesus.

He is your older brother.

And so, when you're tempted, when you're struggling, when you're fighting whatever it is you're fighting, the scripture says our battle is not against flesh and blood, but actually against spiritual forces.

When you're fighting the enemy and the lies and the deceptions and the division and the doubt, run to your champion.

You I'm sorry.

Run to your champion.

Go to Jesus, ask for help.

Because you don't have to fight alone.

And Jesus just wins.

He just wins.

Let's pray.

Father God, thank you so much for giving us a champion in Jesus.

Lord, we all deal with temptation, we all have doubts, we've all believed lies and deceptions, we've all experienced what it's like for division to separate us from people we love or used to love, maybe even to separate us from you.

At least it feels that way.

Nothing can separate us from you when we belong to you, but sometimes it feels that way.

All of us deal with our enemy, with our adversary, but remind us, Lord, that all of us have a champion in you.

That if we've given our heart to you, we belong to you, and you've made promises to us, and you've told us, Jesus, that you have us in your hand, that we are in your hand, and you actually say that you're in the Father's hand.

And so it's like we have this double layer of protection that we're in you and you're in the Father, and we are strong.

Lord, sharpen us.

Give us a trust in you, that no doubt that our enemy ever brings our way can win out.

Give us a trust in you, Lord, that's so deep that no doubt can push it away.

Lord, give us a level of discernment that comes from knowing the truth of your word that allows us to see all the deceptions, all the subtle lies that our enemy puts our way.

Give us a discernment, Lord, that can recognize the lies when they come, just like you recognize that it wasn't bread, but it was a stone.

Give us that level of discernment.

And Lord, give us unity.

Let us be unified together, let us be united with you.

All of us united under the love that you have for us, committed to one another, committed to loving and serving one another, and helping one another in every season of life, Lord.

Unify us.

Because, Lord, if we have those things, we are we are strong and we are well guarded against our enemy.

Lord, I pray if there's anyone here who who is yet to commit their life to you, to give their life to you, Lord, I pray that that happens today, that they recognize that this is not a battle they can win on their own, and there's no reason to fight it alone.

So help us go all in with you in our hearts.

And if there's anyone here who hasn't done that yet, I pray they do it today.

I pray they get baptized soon, Lord.

I pray that they just experience all the goodness that comes from knowing you and walking with you.

And I pray this in your name of Jesus.

Amen.