The Book of First Peter: Week 6

Now, here's what I'm going to do, okay? First question

I'm going to ask today is simply this. Have you

ever wondered, a legitimate question, am I experiencing spiritual warfare

or am I just having an incredibly lousy week? You

ever thought about that? How many of you? I mean,

that's me all the time. Like, is this spiritual warfare

or am I just the most unfortunate dude on this earth?

So how do you know whether Satan's attacking you? Or

it's just a combination of maybe our bad decisions or

unfortunate bad breaks. So here's what I'm going to do. Now,

I need everybody. I feel pity for the people who's

going to walk in after this illustration because this illustration

sets up the whole sermon. Here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to tell you a 100% true story. And

then I'm going to interpret it two different ways afterwards.

And that's going to set us up for today. So

pay attention because if you don't pay attention to this,

you're going to be lost more than you usually are.

All right, here we go. Now, the first youth group

that I led, we were experiencing God's hand. We were

seeing a couple hundred students come on Sunday night. Most

of these kids did not go to church anywhere. So

it was just a God thing, a revival. And he

was doing some things that just shocked us. There was

four of us on staff. Now pay attention to this

because if you don't get this, you'll be very confused.

Four of us on staff. There was an older youth pastor.

There was me, the younger youth pastor. And then there

was two part-time youth pastors, one male and one female.

One older youth pastor, me, a young part-time female, and

a young part-time male. Okay, so God's doing a great work,

but we were preparing for this big mission trip. And

within a few weeks, almost the whole team was taken

out of action. Very first thing that happened was the

female part-time staffer was hit by a semi and was

almost killed and was in ICU for quite a while.

Bunch of broken bones. It was bad. The male part-time

staffer had been disciplined and needed to step back from

ministry for a season. And that led to a down

season for him significantly. Suddenly, because this is the week

before the mission trip, there are two openings on the trip.

So a young couple from the church volunteered to go,

and they were going to help in the kitchen and

wherever else we needed them to help. About halfway through

the trip, I jumped on a horse... and got bucked off.

I suffered a severe concussion, broke my back, and at

first I was told by a doctor I was going

to die, and then when we got to the hospital,

they said you might not ever walk again. And so

my wife and I naturally were now not on the

mission trip, but in the hospital. The young couple who

came in last moment, who were helping in the kitchen,

now took over my responsibilities on the field And they

went on to the mission field and they got to

be on the same site as, ready, the other youth pastor.

All right. This couple, who should have never even been

on the trip, you know, if everything would have went

as planned, were now on the same site and became

very good friends with the older youth pastor. Fast forward

a couple months, just a couple. The wife of that

couple and the older youth pastor fell in love and

had an affair. Broke up family. It was bad. Hurt

the youth ministry significantly and rocked a lot of us. Okay,

so here's interpretation number one. Ready? Satan was trying to

destroy a growing ministry. First, Two part-time staff members couldn't

go because of unforeseen circumstances. Their replacements came, a young couple.

Then I was injured and I had to leave the trip.

And that brought the other couple who replaced the staffers

closer to the other pastor. And their friendship eventually blossomed into, unfortunately,

an affair. Now, you can clearly look at this story

and see how Satan's hand was all over it. He

eliminated two staffers just so the couple could go in

the first place. Then he took me and my wife

out so that these replacements could become friends with the

older youth pastor. And then Satan began his great work

of helping them fall in love and have an affair.

All right, that's interpretation number one. Here's interpretation number two

of the exact same story. The young male staffer made

some poor decisions and faced discipline. He went through a

painful season. He's okay today. The female staff member reached

for something on the floor in her car, became distracted,

and got hit by a semi. I wanted to be

funny and jumped on a horse that was tied to

an abandoned car that was upside down. The couple who

came on board, they just wanted to help. Circumstances beyond

their control moved them into a different responsibility. And the

wife of that couple and the other youth pastor made

decisions that crossed boundaries that led to an affair. Their

decisions led to a lot of pain for many people.

So here we go. Same events. Two ways of explaining it.

Which one's true? Was Satan arranging all these events? Or...

Was it a combination of people just making a lot

of poor decisions? Or could it be there was Satan

at work and also some really bad decisions at work? Now,

I know what happened. I lived through this. But I

cannot prove to you what happened behind the scenes. But

I do know this, that an affair was not part

of their destiny. They could have stopped. They could have

asked for help. They were responsible for their choices. And

this is where we need to begin today. See, when

it comes to spiritual warfare, get this. We need to

be honest about what we do not know and clear

about what God has told us. All right. So the

Bible doesn't give us an explanation of every accident, illness

or disappointment, but it does tell us what we need

to know about our enemy. All right. So I want

to start here today. Here's four truths about Satan. Number one,

Satan is real and he opposes God and his people. Peter,

in our text today, is going to call him an enemy.

And spiritual warfare is more than just a figure of speech. Okay?

Number two, Satan tempts and deceives. Look at this. He

tempted Jesus over and over and over and over again.

Jesus in John 8 calls Satan a liar. Okay? So

Satan wants us to believe these lies and do wrong.

Number three, Satan... can actually be involved in affliction, oppression,

and opposition in your life. His activity goes beyond a

battle in your mind, okay? Scripture gives us examples of this.

Diseases started by Satan. Spiritual depression. Opposition that comes from Satan.

But the Bible also is very clear that Satan is

not God's equal. That his power has limits. Number four.

Satan's influence, and this is big today, does not remove

our responsibility. In Acts chapter 5, Ananias and Sapphira, they

Acts 5 · chapter mention

got a lot of money. They have this property. They

decide to sell this property. And they could have kept

all the money for themselves. And for some reason, they

decided to keep some of the money back for themselves,

which was perfectly okay. But for who knows why, they

told everybody that they were giving the whole amount for

what they sold the property for. So Peter confronts them.

Now pay attention to what Peter does here. Okay. The

first thing that Peter does is, well, he attributes some

of it to Satan. Okay. But also, he also lets

Ananias know that he's responsible too. Let's look at this.

Then Peter said, Ananias, how is it that Satan has

so filled your heart? In other words, why have you

allowed Satan to tempt you to this level? And then

he turns to Ananias and says, you have lied. Get it?

He didn't say Satan lied for you. He says, you

lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself

some of the money you received for the land. So

Satan was involved. But who's responsible? Ananias. He could have

told the truth. He chose a lie. And again, that

reminds us that spiritual warfare does not remove us from

our own responsibility. See, we cannot blame Satan for every problem.

And we cannot use Satan as an excuse for our choices. Okay?

These two truths belong together. see if if we okay

ignore the enemy we might overlook a you know real

danger in our lives but if we blame him for

everything guess what we're never going to grow spiritually either

so the question is not just what is satan doing

But the better question is this, am I taking responsibility

for my response? Okay, see, we have these moments in

Scripture where Scripture pulls back the curtain and lets us

see behind the scenes of the spiritual world, okay? And

so we can learn something from these moments in Scripture

where we actually get insight into the spiritual world. Number one,

we learn from Job. You guys remember Job? And Job

lost his children, his possessions, his health. Why? Because Satan

came to God one day and he told him, he said, listen.

He says, Job only loves you and Job is only

dedicated to you because you've blessed him in every single way.

And God says, no, Job truly loves me. And so

Satan says, well, then let me touch him. Let me

afflict him. Let me take away everything and let's see

if he still loves you. God agrees to that. But

then also God sets the limits because God is still

in control. Now, here's the interesting thing. Job has no

idea this conversation is going on. And that reminds all

of us, there could be more in your life than

what meets the eye. There could be some real spiritual

warfare going on in your life that you have no

idea about. Now, it does not mean that every one

of us who suffers, we're experiencing satanic warfare. No, no, no.

We also see where Daniel prays. One time Daniel prays,

he does not get an answer for 21 days. 21

days after Daniel prays, the archangel Michael shows up and

he says, hey. We weren't ignoring you. On day one,

we heard your prayers and your prayer was answered on

day one. But you were held up by the demon,

the prince of Persia. Okay, so there was an actual

spiritual battle going on in the heavens that delayed the

angel from answering Daniel's prayer. So what we understand is, okay,

spiritual warfare, it could be literal spiritual warfare. But we

should also not be delusional all the time, I think.

Every time you don't have an answer prayer, be like, well,

the angels are up here fighting over me today. Number three,

we also see that Jesus met a man who was

tormented by demons. He lived among the tombs. He was isolated.

He was suffering. But after he encountered Jesus, what happened?

We see him sitting there. cleaned up in his right mind.

So the possession's real, but what do we learn? Jesus'

authority is greater. Lastly, in Revelation. Now this is fascinating.

In Revelation, Jesus warns the church that Satan is going

to have some of the saints of God put into prison.

Now why do I share that? I'm sharing that to

let you know that even if you do everything right,

you go to church every single week, you pray daily,

you seek the Lord, you want to do what's right,

and you want to please him, that does not mean

that Satan won't attack you. Okay? See, faithfulness does not

mean you will avoid painful experiences from Satan. So those Christians,

they were doing what they were supposed to do, but

they were opposed. Now, you put all of these passages together,

what do we understand? Spiritual opposition is real. It can

involve temptation, suffering, and forces we cannot see. Now, here's

what I could do for the rest of the morning.

And if I was a TV evangelist, I would do this.

I would just make up a bunch of things. No,

I'm kidding. I could spend the rest of the time

together today trying to help you figure out what's behind

the scene. Is this what Satan is? What's Satan doing here? Okay.

But who knows if I'm right? Instead, here's what we're

going to do. We're going to look at how God

tells us to respond. Okay? So that's something that we

can control. And actually, as we close up the book

of Peter, Peter actually gives us the answer. Let's look

together at the end of the book. He says, talking

about spiritual warfare. He says, be alert. Okay? And of

sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, what's he do? He

prowls around like a roaring lion. Looking for someone to devour.

Resist him. Standing firm in the faith. Because you know

that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing

the same kind of suffering. The first word I want

to look at here. And as we jump into this,

I want you to know our big idea today is

simply this. Stand firm against the enemy by standing close

to God. How do we stand firm against the enemy?

By standing close to God. Now what is our response

to spiritual warfare? I only have two points today. Two points. One, okay,

pay attention to the enemy and your own heart. You

got to pay attention to your own heart. Peter begins

by saying what? Be alert and of sober mind. Let's

look at this word sober mind first, okay? Now, in

the Greek, it's the word nepho. Now, what does this mean?

It means basically to think clearly about situations. Don't jump

to conclusions, okay? Process what's going on. You know, have

discernment when you're experiencing trials or temptations. Don't panic. See,

don't assume you know what causes every problem. Look honestly

at the facts and your own decisions. This summer, the

same week, both my vehicle and Gina's vehicle broke down

and it... had thousands, I mean like a lot of

thousands of dollars in damage. Mine broke down when I

was almost home from the mission trip. Hers broke down

in Kentucky on the way home from a vacation with

my family without me while I served the Lord. Okay,

so let's ask this question. Did my vehicle get attacked

by Satan because I was serving the Lord while hers

was just ordinary life or a gentle reminder from the

Lord that her husband could use a vacation as well? Or,

being sober-minded, is it possible that two vehicles way over

10 years old that were driving many, many, many, many,

many miles in 100-degree weather could possibly break down. Okay,

now I can't diagnose whether it's spiritual warfare or not,

but here's what I'm not going to do. I'm not

going to go around to people and say, you wouldn't

believe what happened. Satan just crawled in through my exhaust pipe,

through my catalytic converter, and then he whirled around to

my carburetor and got my carburetor so mad that it

blew a gasket. Hallelujah, praise the Lord. No, I'm not

going to tell you that because that sounds insane. It's

fun to say it that way, but it sounds insane.

Have you ever heard people just tell you the craziest

reasons why stuff happens? You don't know. And you lose

all your credibility if you go around saying crazy stuff.

The second word, Gregorio. It really means to pay attention.

And what it means is to pay attention to what's

really growing in your heart. Because, see, that's the thing.

Satan is a deceiver. A liar. And really, the greatest

way that we fell at spiritual warfare is by not

paying close attention to our hearts. See, you might not

know why someone criticized you, but you can recognize that

you want to get even. You might not know why

something went wrong, but you can recognize when your heart

starts to believe that God doesn't care about you. See,

we may not know what caused the problem, but we

can recognize our temptation in response. Peter calls us to

pay close attention. very close attention to our soul and

our attitude when we face trials or unfortunate circumstances now

pay attention he's saying whenever you're experiencing these things peter

continues on he says your enemy the devil prowls around

like a warring lion looking for what someone to devour

he doesn't just want to injure you he wants to

destroy your life now here's what's interesting a lion is

always looking for an opportunity to strike his prey Yet

we have to understand how a lion approaches. A lion

will use cover. It will use trees, high grass, other

vegetation to cover their approach. Here's what they're trying to do.

They're trying to camouflage their approach and hunt the prey themselves.

when they're unaware of what's happening. And this helps us

understand why Peter says we have to stay alert. We

have to pay attention to the temptations in our life. See,

Satan will help us camouflage even our own temptations in

our life. He helps us move into denial. He helps

us lie to ourselves about what's really going on in

our sinful nature. Also, the enemy, the greatest way that

the enemy helps us camouflage is by giving us excuses.

Gives us excuses all the time. See, a dangerous relationship

can grow through conversations we begin hiding with a person

of the opposite sex. But we can give excuses. Well,

it's just innocent. Right? Bitterness can grow while we keep

replaying the hurt in our mind over and over again.

Dishonesty can grow when we start with one lie, but

then we have to tell a bunch of other lies

to cover up for that one. Pride can grow when

we stop listening to others because we think we already

know better. And Satan, what he wants to do is

he wants us to camouflage all that. He'll give us

excuse after excuse after excuse so we don't actually pay

attention to what's really going on inside our soul. See,

the danger of falling into sin is that sin can

grow while we keep camouflaging the truth by telling ourselves

nothing is wrong. By telling ourselves nothing is wrong. Now,

here's where I had a lot of fun this past

week in writing. Maybe a little bit too much fun.

You'll be able to figure this out. I start realizing

as I start thinking through Satan, Satan is old. Been

around a long time. Satan has watched probably the great

battles of history. Satan knows the great generals' war plans.

Satan has experienced one war after one war, after battle,

after battle. He knows the insights of messed up people,

of generals, all these things. He knows warfare. And so

I started thinking, you know what? I wonder if I

can look at maybe the greatest book ever written on warfare.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu, which was written

over 2,500 years ago. And I wonder if Sun Tzu's Okay,

if Sun Tzu's points about how to have war and

defeat your enemy would line up with Satan's points on

how to destroy your enemy. And guess what? They do.

I got five of them. So this is my favorite

section I've ever titled in my whole life. Sun Tzu

and Satan, warfare experts. First of all, Sun Tzu said

that all warfare is based on what? Deception. Deception. Think

about this. In Genesis 3, from the very beginning, Adam

and Eve are saying, hey, all of this is yours.

Don't touch that one plant. Don't touch that fruit. Satan comes.

What does Satan do? Satan starts to act like maybe

God's lying to you. Maybe God doesn't want you to

have that because you'll be able to know the same

things he knows. So what does he do? Satan convinces

Eve that maybe God does not have all good for her.

So she starts looking at the fruit differently. She starts

desiring it. She takes it. She eats it. She gives

it to her husband. Now here's what the serpent did. Satan.

They made disobedience look like a better choice than trusting God.

Now we hear these lies today when we say, well,

nobody will get hurt. Yeah, they will. You deserve this. Really?

God's way is, well, it's keeping you from being happy.

We have those same excuses today. We need to ask this.

Am I trusting what God has said or am I

making excuses for what I want to do? Number two,

the second place that Sun Tzu and Satan line up

is attack them where he is unprepared. Peter says stay watchful, okay?

And we should not leave any of our areas of

our lives unguarded, okay? Now think about the person who

says this. You know what? I would never have an affair. So?

Here's what they do. They don't pay attention to any

boundaries because they're pretty confident that that could never happen

to them. So they don't think nothing when they begin

having private conversations. Or they start to share their frustrations

about their marriage with someone else. Or they enjoy the attention.

Or they start hiding the relationship. Or they, you know,

their confidence has made them careless. See, saying I would

never is not the same as guarding your heart. It's

not the same. Number three, Sun Tzu says, If his

forces are united, separate them. Oh, man. This is how

Satan destroys the church and families. Okay, let's just go

church history. Church history has typically been divided by when

a church members, you know, they start gossiping about each

other or having resentment towards each other, and it's never addressed.

As a result of that, Well, you see church splits.

Churches break apart. That happens all over the United States.

I know of several church splits just in the last

few years. A couple in this area. All right. Then, okay,

so there's those church splits, but what about our families?

How has Satan worked in our families the last few years?

Let me tell you how. I've seen it. I've seen

it by one family member believing this political party and

another family member believing this political party And all of

a sudden, they can't even be in the same room

with each other. And Satan's back here going, this is phenomenal.

This is phenomenal. This is great. You should fight more.

This is good for the grandkids. And so Satan will

often try to divide us because a family that's weak

can be broken easily. So we resist division by, well,

what are we going to do? We've got to address

the hurt. We've got to tell the truth about how

we're feeling. We've got to work toward peace. Number four,

Son of Zeus says, hold out baits to entice the enemy. Now,

basically what he is saying is that trick your enemy

into thinking it's a good time to attack. And a

lot of times what they would do, an army would

make it look like they're disorganized or they're not ready.

So the other enemy will come and attack. And what

they've done is they've really set a trap for them

to surround the army. So they use themselves as bait. See, bait,

here's what it does. It offers you something you want

while hiding what it's actually going to cost. Here's what

temptation does in your life. It draws your attention to

the pleasure of and away from the consequences. Again, this

is why Peter says, pay attention, stay alert. Last one today.

If your opponent is of a choleric temper, seek to

irritate him. What's choleric temper? It's somebody who is quick-tempered. Oh,

and by the way, if you're a quick-tempered person, you're

like Satan's punching bag. You are so easy. If you

have a quick temper, Satan just goes, what was that?

You know, Satan loves. And people who are quick-tempered, well,

you're more likely to make some mistakes. Okay? You're easily provoked.

And see, being provoked, here's what I want you to understand.

It might not be your fault. Seriously, you might not

have been the one to provoke the situation. But you

have to understand that being provoked does not give us

permission to sin. Now, before you respond and stop and ask,

am I trying to obey Jesus or am I trying

to get evening? Here's what I want to do. I

want you to understand that this last tactic about using

our tempers is exactly the same tactic he used on

Peter over and over again. And it's one that I

hate to, I'm going to share with you here in

a moment, I hate to confess that I got caught

up in sin a couple weeks ago. If you remember,

Peter was told again and again and again by Jesus

that his kingdom was not of this earth. But then

what happens whenever the army came and attacked the disciples?

Peter grabs out a sword and the Bible says that

he cut the guy's ear off. Do you understand what

really happened? He tried to cut his head off. He

missed and hit the dude's ear. He was a bad shot. Okay? Now,

If that would have went forward, what would have happened

that night? Jesus' disciples would have been killed by the

Roman army. And God's will would not have been fulfilled.

This is why Jesus looked at Peter like, you've got

to be kidding me. And he's like, oh, sorry, guy.

Slapped the dude's ear back on, healed it. We all good?

We all good? Okay. See, because Peter let his temper

get the best of his emotions. Now, was he right

in his heart about saying that the Romans should not

be arresting Jesus? Absolutely. Well, but what he did, was

it God's will? No. And I understand. You know, I

can react. For some reason, if I'm really, really embarrassed,

I can sometimes react by saying something very stupid. Didn't

know if you know that about me. But my best

friend from childhood was visiting a couple weeks ago, and

we were sitting on our back patio, and he told

a story from my past that was buried in my past.

And he told a story in front of my wife,

and they both started laughing at me hysterically. I was

a little embarrassed. And so I don't know why, but

this horrible story of something he did that we vowed

never to ever bring to the light a day again.

And I thought, this is a good time to share that.

And I shared that story of something that happened to

him way before he came to Christ. I looked over

at him on the couch on my patio. He grabbed

ahold of his chest. He goes, oh, I didn't know

you would ever bring that up. And that's when I realized,

I think I just sinned. And I immediately, I started

to think, and man, the Holy Spirit grabbed ahold of

me like, You know what, just because you're embarrassed, you

need to pull that story out. That story that, I

don't know why. And I immediately looked at them and said, guys,

I've sinned to you and I've sinned before God. I

am so, so sorry. But wasn't that a funny story? No,

I didn't say that. No, I didn't say that. But see,

we could quickly lose ourselves. That's why Peter says, pay

attention to what you say, what you think, what you do.

Process what's going on. All right, the second point, very

small point. Okay, here we go. Resist the enemy by

standing firm in your faith. Peter goes on to say,

resist him standing firm in the faith. Now, this first

Greek word we use here for resist, it means simply

do not give in. In other words, keep trusting Jesus,

keep obeying the truth, keep believing his truth. And here's

the thing, Peter's instruction that he gives us for standing

against the enemy. By the way, it's not a guarantee

that faithful people will never suffer. No, the same verse

reminds us that people around the world are suffering. See,

you can be suffering and standing firm. So what does

resistance look like for us? Well, here's our defense system.

Very simple. We need to pray before we react. What

if I would have prayed before I told that horrible

story on my friend? Believe me, God would have said, no. Instead,

I felt horrible. Absolutely horrible. Before you send the message,

before you answer the criticism, or you make a decision, pray.

Number two, Replace the lie with God's truth. See, when

the thought is, well, this will never hurt anyone. Remember,

there's going to be other people hurt. Or when the

thought is, I cannot stop. Don't forget the Bible teaches

us in 1 Corinthians that God will always give us

a way out of our temptation. When the thought is

that God can never forgive this. No, no, no, no.

Come to Jesus, confess your sin and receive his forgiveness.

Remember that a strong feeling, does not make a lie true.

Just because you have a strong feeling, you can't trust

your feelings all the time. Let me tell you something.

I have had, not one, not two, but at least three,

three couples over the years where one person came to

me and said this, I have fallen in love with

this other person from this other marriage. And I really

believe it's God's will for us to be together. And

I'm like, I know it's not. It is not God's will.

And they will go on and on and tell you

all the signs and tell you that God has showed

them that they missed their soulmate. Like, this isn't just once.

This has happened multiple times. And I'm like, no, this

is sinful. And don't blame this stuff on God. And

guess what? They never talked to me again. Because they

would rather have their own desires met then obey God.

You can't trust your feelings. Your feelings might, see, the

strength of your feelings does not determine whether your decision

honors God. And lastly today, when you don't know what

to do, just take the next obedience step. And this

is why early obedience matters. As soon as you're convicted,

as soon as you doubt that this might be God's will, stop, pray, thank, obey.

So here's what I'm gonna do as we close up today.

What I want to do is I'm going to do

something different. So the sermon's over, and now we're moving

into response time. And I'm going to do something I've

never done before, but as I was praying for you

this week, I thought about how Satan might attack each

group in our church. And so what we're going to

do here, this is an all play. Here in a moment,

I'm going to go through a lot of categories, and

I'm going to talk about how to prepare yourself or

watch out for what Satan is doing. While I do that,

everybody's going to be standing. And then when I'm done,

what we're going to do is I have, or the ushers,

the prayer partners, have been prepared to do a prayer

of protection and power over you. Okay, so it's kind

of like communion this week, but it's not communion, it's anointing.

You don't have to get up and say anything. You

don't have to share anything. If you don't want oil

on your head, just walk up and do this. If

they don't get that that means you don't want oil,

we'll do some training later. But what we're going to

do is we want to pray a prayer of power

and protection over every single one of you. So here's

what I'm going to do now. I'm just going to

share some of these things that I believe that a

lot of us deal with in temptation. So let's stand

as we Hear these temptations. And then we'll respond here

in a moment. All right. To the Father. Providing for

your family is a good and loving responsibility. But you

may be tempted to believe everything depends on how much

you accomplish, earn, or provide. Your family also needs your presence.

Listen to them. Make time for them. Let them see

you pray, show kindness, and apologize when you're wrong. You

do not have to be a perfect father to show

your family what following Jesus looks like. To the mother,

you may be tempted to believe your worth depends on

keeping everyone happy and having a family that looks perfect.

Then comparison leaves you feeling like a failure. Resist by

remembering your worth in Christ. Ask for help. Let your

family see honest faith instead of a performance. To the

young couple, you may be tempted to keep score, hide

spending and share your frustrations with someone who begins taking

your spouse's place. Resist by telling the truth, protecting your

boundaries and addressing problems before secrecy grows. To the older couple,

you may be tempted to stop investing in one another

or treat years of marriage as permission to become unkind.

Resist by listening again. Apologize. make time together. A long

history does not remove the need for daily faithfulness to

the single person. You may be tempted to let loneliness

persuade you to accept a relationship that pulls you away

from God. Resist by protecting your convictions and building friendships

where you can receive love, encouragement, and accountability to the

young person. You may be tempted to believe fitting in

matters more than following Jesus or that or what you

do online doesn't really count. Resist by making the faithful

choice when pressure arrives. Ask for help. You do not

have to compromise to matter. To the older person in

this room, you may be tempted to believe that God

has finished using you. Resist by encouraging someone, sharing your

faith and staying open to what God can still do

through you. To the new believer in the room, you

may be tempted to think a struggle means your faith

is not real or that failure means you should quit.

resist by staying close to Jesus and his people ask

questions receive correction and when you fail repent and keep

growing and lastly to the long time believer which is

a lot of us in this room you may be

tempted to think you no longer need accountability you know

the right words but you have stopped allowing God to

correct you resist by remaining teachable keep praying keep examining

your heart experience does not make us immune to temptation

So this morning, friends, we understand that we might not

be able to figure out what Satan's doing here or

what Satan's doing here, but we do know that he

is deceitful, that he can cause significant trials in your life.

And so we just want to love on you today

by simply praying a blessing over you of power and protection.

So just go ahead and come down as you want.