The Unseen Accuser - Part 2

We're going all the way back almost to the beginning, and not

long ago we were in Genesis 3, but we're going to be in there

again today while you're turning to Genesis 3.

I need to vent for a moment. I do.

How many of y'all are getting more scam calls than ever

before? It's ridiculous.

I feel like every week it's another text message or phone

call or another e-mail or another social and media account

trying to convince us that something is happening that just

really isn't true. So if you answer the phone and

you hear someone tell you that the IRS has issued a warrant for

your arrest, you know, unless you pay them immediately, it's

really convenient. You can pay them over text.

Another person will claim your Amazon account has been

compromised. Then there's someone who

pretends to be your bank saying that your account is frozen and

they just need you to verify your password.

All of a sudden, it's not your password anymore.

Every once in a while you get a phone call, even from maybe a

grandchild you never heard of from before that is in jail or

something and they need you to help them get out.

But some of these scams don't sound so ridiculous that you

can't help but laugh. But I want you to remember

something. If they didn't work on somebody,

then the scammers wouldn't keep making calls.

They don't need to fool everyone, they just need to fool

some. We've even had one that has

circulated for years and it is not unique to Liberty Church.

It's unique to churches. I have a pastor friend in

Pensacola that was telling me. He deals with it too.

But it does happen in a lot of different places where you'll

get an e-mail or something and they'll make an e-mail that

sounds very similar to the e-mail address for the pastor.

So this happened to Pastor Tom before me and it's happened to

me since. And it'll say, hey, this is

Pastor Blake. Now, if you go and look at the

e-mail address, it's normally like, I don't know,

[email protected] or something, but it says Pastor

Blake and it'll say, hey, I'm in a meeting or I'm in counseling

and I need you to help me with something.

Please be very discreet. Don't tell anybody.

And then when you start talking to them, they say, oh, well, you

know, I want to surprise people with gift cards.

I want to bless them. So if you could buy them, I'll

reimburse you. And, and the reality is these

things do work. I just want to tell you today,

if you ever get a message from me asking you to purchase gift

cards for me, you have my full permission to tell me no, all

right? Don't feel like you've got to

because it's not me. All right?

But listen, the amazing thing about every scam is they all

have one thing in common. They don't start by force.

They don't shake you down. The phone call isn't somebody

saying, hey, just so you know, I know where you live.

I'm going to come beat your face in unless you give me 10 bucks.

No, they try because they start with something that seems

plausible. There's like a kernel of truth

in it. I mean, if you aren't afraid

that like something could get scammed or broken into at some

point, I mean, you're just fooling yourself.

There's so many ways to do it now.

I mean, we just, we tap our card on things to pay for them.

We tap our phone on things. Soon they'll just scan your

eyeball and you'll pay for stuff.

I'm just telling you like that is the way that things are

going. So there's a lot of

opportunities to get scammed, and it always starts with

something true before they hook you in with a lie.

I was thinking a lot about that this week, and I couldn't help

but realize that that is the same thing that Satan has been

doing since the beginning. He's been running a long scam.

And you know, his methods may have changed a little over the

centuries, but his strategy hasn't.

He's never needed to overpower humanity, not that he could.

More often than not, he just convinces us to believe

something that's not true. And he whispers lies about

ourselves, and he whispers lies to us about other people, and he

whispers lies to us about God. He twists it just enough so that

it's believable. And once you accept the lie, you

start living as if it was a reality.

It's not a scripture for today, but I'll give you one example

and then we'll, we'll touch on it a little bit more in a few

weeks. But how many of y'all are

familiar in the New Testament? There's there's, there's this

time where Jesus is preaching and he's preaching hardcore.

I mean, he is, he's wanting people to understand, look, the

Kingdom of God is here. This is going to happen to the

Son of Man. I'm going to get, I'm going to

get killed. I'm going to be raised up on the

third day. And Peter pulls him to the side

and he's like, hey, Jesus, people don't want to hear this

kind of sermon. Even back then they were

worried, oh, if you preach something mean, then, you know,

the tithes and offerings will dry up.

But essentially he says, Jesus, they don't like this kind of

message. And Jesus looked at him and he

said, get behind me, Satan. And for a long time that was a

very harsh statement to me because I just thought like,

that's your number one guy. I mean, you sure correct them,

but it's a little harsh. You know, could you imagine that

you get something wrong at home? Your wife's like, oh, you're the

devil. And some of you are like, she

told you about that conversation.

Jesus wasn't addressing Peter as Satan.

He was addressing the author of the thought.

Here's the problem, Peter being made in the image of the Lord,

being made in the image of God, just like you and I are,

accepted a lie as the truth and started speaking it like it was

real. So the enemy, the author, had to

be rebuked because Peter didn't know he had been deceived.

This happens to us all the time in Genesis chapter 3, just

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

starting right there in in the first verse.

It's called the fall in most people's Bible and it says this.

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? Now already this is misleading,

right? Because what, what did the Lord

say? He said, do not eat from these

two trees. But now he's like, is it really

true you can't eat from any of them?

And she said, well, of course we may eat from the the trees in

the garden. It's 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'll die. By the way, no scripture does it

tell you that God said you can't touch it.

So all of a sudden we start putting these other things

there, right? It's this is something we do in

church today. We're like, well, if I put these

13 rules in place, then I'll never get in trouble.

So what you have here is like, well, if I don't even touch it,

then I won't, I won't sin. Well, it didn't work.

Verse 4, the devil says you won't die, 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. And the woman was convinced.

She saw that the tree was beautiful and it's 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.

I've heard a lot of people get mad at him there by the way,

they're like he was there, he should have stepped up.

Let's be honest, he probably wasn't paying attention.

He probably zoned out. Honey, you want a bite of this?

Sure. I'm just, I'm just kidding.

Probably verse 7. At that moment their eyes were

opened and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness, so

they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

They essentially started to feel shame over something they

weren't supposed to feel shame over.

Bible never tells you you're supposed to feel shame.

But ultimately they now felt vulnerable.

Because they felt vulnerable, they felt exposed.

The second they felt exposed, they didn't feel safe and they

felt shame. We are battling the same thing

today. Every time I read this story I

know where people's minds go because my mind has gone there

many times too. Like was this really a snake?

Why doesn't it just call him Satan there?

Why in the world wasn't Eve terrified when it started

talking? I've heard preachers say this

before, too. You know, if a snake came up to

me and started talking, I'd be a little freaked out.

I don't know that I would take it as a solid source of advice.

Here's where we start to get a little deeper and a little weird

here. Let's get weird, OK?

In the original creation, before there was sin on the earth, the

garden was housed not just by the sons of God like Adam and

Eve, human beings, but it also housed the sons of God, which

are all these other spiritual beings.

We have no idea what it was like because there wasn't such a wide

chasm between the spiritual and the natural realm.

So to have this, this being walk up to them and speak wouldn't

have been weird. I guarantee you Adam and Eve had

conversations with them all the time.

We'll talk about this a lot more next week when we talk about the

unseen hosts. Because there are so many other

beings that God has created, and at one point they were all

together. So to have some sort of angelic

being, we don't know if it was actually a serpent, if it was a

snake, if it was some sort of heavenly being with reptilian

features or something, We don't know.

All we know is it would not have been weird for her to talk to

something that God had made. She was not expecting to be

deceived. She had never been deceived

before, neither had Adam. Now, these are good questions.

I don't think we should completely ignore them, but I

also don't think they're the main point of the story.

The scripture says the serpent was the craftiest of all the

wild animals that the Lord God had made.

But as you continue reading the rest of scripture of like from

beginning to end, Genesis to Revelation, it becomes very

evident because there's other scriptures that talk about this

ancient serpent who caused us to sin.

And next week we'll talk about a lot more of them.

But I want you to know that what's important here is that

Adam and Eve talked to God face to face.

There was no sin, no death, no curse, no separation between

heaven and earth. The way that we experience that

today. The garden was not just

beautiful, it was holy. It was holy and human beings

were able to walk it. How amazing is this?

Personally, I think Adam and Eve would have been far more

familiar with the spiritual world than we are today because

they were able to walk in God's full presence.

So of course they could walk with all of His creations.

I don't think God wants us staring at the serpent, though.

I think He wants us listening to the conversation because that's

where everything changed. Just like those scam callers,

the enemy does not come charging into your home swinging a sword.

He didn't threaten Eve and he doesn't normally threaten you.

He doesn't force her to do anything.

He just starts talking. More specifically, he asks a

question that starts with this. Did God really say, I mean,

whole churches divide over this, don't they think about it?

Do God really say women can be pastors?

Do God really say that you could be baptized by having a bucket

of water dumped on you? Weren't you supposed to be fully

immersed? These are did God really say

that your predestined? I mean, a lot of you are like, I

don't even know these things you're talking about.

Good. But some of us, we have dug in

the trenches and instead of fighting the Kingdom of

darkness, we've been fighting other churches over things that

really aren't even our business. We make a big deal out of things

that the Bible barely whispers about.

And all it takes is for the enemy to come in and be like,

did God really say that? They're probably not a genuine

believer, you know, because they do.

I don't know, I'm a fill in the blank.

And don't get me wrong, there's a place for solid theology.

It just can't be at the expense of your relationship with the

Lord. Otherwise you'll actually

worship your theology. And a lot of Christians do that.

So the enemy still to this day doesn't begin with an obvious

lie. Could you imagine that?

I don't know. If you wake up one day and the

enemy whispered to you and said, just so you know, your husband

is actually a serpent wearing human skin.

Why did you look at Cody when I said that?

No, that's interesting. Let's set up an appointment.

Let's talk about that later, OK? If you were to wake up and he

gave you something that was absolutely ridiculous, you would

be like, that's a weird thought, throw it away.

But if you wake up and then the enemy goes, I wonder if the

devil's got him, can you trust him?

Remember that one time that he gave you a little white line?

Well, that one then starts, gets your mind thinking, and the more

confused you get, the more susceptible you are.

So I don't want you unaware of the devil's schemes today.

A lot has changed since Genesis 3.

Culture has obviously changed a lot.

The language has changed, but the playbook hasn't changed.

So what happened to Adam and Eve is what happens to us.

They reached for the fruit because for just a moment, I

want you to grab this. For just a moment, they trusted

the voice of the serpent more than the voice of the Creator.

And that's all it takes. So if we're honest, that's still

where every temptation begins. It begins with a voice asking us

to question something that God has already told us.

So the first thing you need to do today is to know your enemy.

You need to know your enemy. If you don't know who your enemy

is, I mean, you're going to fight everybody.

One of the reasons there's so much confusion about Satan is

that throughout the years we filled in a lot of the blanks

that the Bible never actually fills in.

So here we go. How many of y'all grew up

hearing that Satan was a worship leader in heaven?

He he wasn't, not that we know of.

I've preached it, but there's no scripture that says it.

You know why I preached it? Because I heard other preachers

say it and I thought, oh, I bet you they've done their research.

So I'm just telling you today, if you're like, well, I don't

know about that, Go do your own research.

You won't hurt my feelings. Teach me something.

So the Bible never says that he was a worship leader.

There are two chapters that sometimes people will pull from

and say that he's referring to the enemy.

But really those chapters I believe, are talking about human

kings and specific situations, and there's just some area of

overlap that it seems like he could be.

But I will tell you that Satan does have a job.

The idea primarily comes from, by the way, if you want to look

them up for yourself, the chapters are Isaiah 14 and

Ezekiel 28 if you want to read those.

But they are talking about the kings of Babylon and Tyre.

And if you read it through that lens of talking about earthly

kings, it'll make a lot more sense.

A lot of Christians throughout church history have seen a

secondary application. I just don't ascribe to that

anymore. But one of the people who really

helped me think through this was an author who's gone home to be

with the Lord now. His name was Michael Heiser.

And he points out that when we first encounter Satan in the Old

Testament, Satan's really not a personal name at all.

Some of you knew that, but how many of you didn't know that

Satan was not his name, is it? Come on.

All right, so Satan's not his name In the Hebrew, it's

Hasatan, which literally means the adversary or the accuser.

So in other words, the emphasis isn't on introducing us to

someone's name as much as it is like somebody's role.

There's like a difference between saying that's Blake up

there and saying that's the preacher.

One of them is my name, the other one is what I do.

So when we call him Satan, we are calling him the accuser.

But that changes the way that you read some of the most

important parts of the Old Testament because the reality is

that as you read through all of the Bible, it is a huge legal

drama. It's a huge legal drama.

You need to understand this. So what is the accuser in a

court system? It's the prosecution.

They're the ones that level the charges.

They're the ones that come and say this person is guilty of

fill in the blank. So his job is to be the accuser.

Now we're going to be in Job chapter 1 and Job chapter 2 in

Job 1 · chapter mention Job 2 · chapter mention

just a moment if you want to read along.

But this will make a lot more sense to you as well because if

you've ever read through the beginning of Job and you're

like, what is the devil doing in God's courtroom?

Well, he has a Job. Listen to this.

In Job chapter 1, starting in verse 6, it says one day the

Job 1 · chapter mention

members of the heavenly court, we'll talk about a lot of those

members of the heavenly court next week, came to present

themselves before the Lord and the accuser, Satan came with

them. Where have you come from?

The Lord asked Satan. Satan answered the Lord.

I've been patrolling the earth, watching everything that's going

on. And then the Lord asked Satan,

have you noticed my certain servant Job, which I wonder what

Job thought when he got to heaven.

He's like, Lord, you brought my name up.

He wasn't even looking at me anyway.

OK, sorry. It's just where my mind goes.

You just got to go with me. He said, have you noticed my

servant Job? He's the finest man in all the

earth. He's blameless, a man of

complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from

evil. And Satan replied to the Lord,

Yes, but Job has good reason to fear God.

You've always put a wall of protection around him and his

home and his property. You've made him prosper in

everything he does. Look how rich he is, but reach

out and take everything away, and he'll surely curse you to

your face. All right, you may test him.

The Lord said to Satan, do whatever you want with

everything he possesses, but don't harm him physically.

So Satan left the Lord's presence.

OK, let's go to chapter 2, first verse.

One day the members of the heavenly court came in again to

present themselves before the Lord and the accuser.

Satan came with them. Where have you come from?

The Lord asked Satan, same thing, patrolling the earth,

watching everything that's going on.

And once again the Lord brings us up.

He says to Satan, have you noticed my servant Job?

He's the finest man in all the earth.

He's blameless, a man of complete integrity.

He gives the same set of compliments.

And Satan replied to the Lord, skin for skin.

In other words, he knows that what he's allowed to do isn't

going to change what Job's doing.

But he says a man will give up everything he has to save his

own life, but reach out and take away his health and he'll surely

curse you to his face. All right, deal with him as you

please. The Lord said to Satan, but

spare his life. You know what that tells me?

Devil could have taken him out except the Lord said no.

See how powerful the Lord is even back here?

This is before Jesus. So Satan left the Lord's

presence, and he struck Job with terrible boils from head to

foot, incredibly painful skin condition.

And honestly, when most of us think about Job, if you've read

through the book of Job, we think about what we think about

suffering. We think about endurance.

When somebody's going through a hard season, we say they've got

the patience of Job. But before any of those things

happen, something is taking place in the heavenly realm that

Job is not Privy to. But you and I get to have a peek

behind the curtain about it. And that's a really big deal

because there's a heavenly courtroom.

They're sons of God. They're presenting themselves

before the Lord. And standing amongst them is the

Satan, the accuser, the prosecution.

And he's not there to worship God.

He's in there to celebrate what God is doing.

He's arguing with God because he has an accusation to make.

And I hope you listen carefully to what he said, because he

doesn't argue that Job isn't righteous and he doesn't argue

that Job's righteousness isn't genuine.

He just says, of course he follows you, you've blessed him.

He's questioning motives. He's saying if you were to take

away your blessings, then he wouldn't love you and he would

curse you. And that's why his title fits

him so well because he's functioning like a prosecutor in

a courtroom trying to build a case against one of God's

people. Now, one more scripture.

There's a lot of scripture in this because I'm trying to

really like set the tone for you.

It's in Zechariah chapter 3. You don't have to turn there,

Zechariah 3 · chapter mention

but you can write this down if you want to listen to this.

Completely different era, completely different humans

involved. It says the Angel showed me

Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord,

the accuser. Satan was there at the angel's

right hand making accusations against Joshua.

That's interesting. So you've got the Angel of the

Lord and then you've got the accuser at the angel's right

hand. This will mess up some of your

theology. And the Lord said to Satan, I,

the Lord, reject your accusations, Satan.

Yes, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebukes you.

This man is like a burning stick that has been snatched from the

fire. In other words, you almost got

him. He's mine.

Joshua's clothing was filthy as he stood there before the Angel.

So the Angel said to the other standing there, take off his

filthy clothes and turn to Joshua.

And he said, see, I've taken away your sins, and now I'm

giving you these fine new clothes.

And then I said, they should also place a clean turban on his

head. And they put a clean priestly

turban on his head and dressed him in new clothes while the

Angel of the Lord stood by. Guys, this is Old Testament.

This is before Jesus took the form of a man and walked the

earth. And you can already see the Lord

stepping between the accuser and his creation, the only part of

creation made in his image and providing a way.

This time you've got Jeshua the high priest standing before the

Lord wearing filthy garments. And once Satan is there, he's

doing exactly what we already saw him do.

He's accusing. He wants Jeshua's sin to define

him, and he wants guilt to have the final word.

You notice that something that the Lord doesn't say, the Lord

doesn't say, Oh, he's not guilty.

He just says, I reject your accusations.

The judge has the right to overrule whatever's happening.

But he's honest and he's pure and he's a good judge, so he's

never going to be. He's never going to be somebody

who rejects justice. He chooses instead to ignore the

accusations. And we'll touch on why in just a

little bit. When you put these two stories

together, Job and Jeshua, you can see a pattern emerge.

The Bible is not primarily introducing us to an enemy whose

greatest weapon is raw power. It is not yin and Yang, this

eternal struggle between good and evil and oh man, we're just

here on the sidelines and I wonder who's going to win.

It's nothing like that. If you were to put Satan in an

arm wrestling conversation with the Lord, he'd probably get his

arm ripped off just to be honest with you, and he knows it.

It's not a power struggle. You know who has more power than

him? Those made in the image of God.

So if he can. Co opt you.

If he can try to get you to use your power in a way that the

Lord wouldn't, that's his best tactic.

I don't. Know if anybody else shares this

opinion? But I don't care if you disagree

with me. This is a church.

You have the right to be wrong. The best Jim Carrey movie ever

made is Liar Liar. It's very funny.

And you can you can have a different opinion.

It's OK. I heard this week that somebody

thought Supergirl was a better movie than Spider Man They're

wrong. So I got a lot of opinions today

in Liar Liar if you're not familiar with this.

Jim Carrey in. His prime plays a lawyer and he

lies. You probably assume that much.

It's it's just second nature to him.

He lies about things he doesn't need to.

And his whole career has been built on twisting the truth.

And he lies to Co workers, to judges, to everybody.

And eventually his son gets so fed up that he makes a birthday

wish, blows out the candy, says I wish my dad couldn't lie.

And all of a sudden he can't lie anymore.

And it really throws a wrench in his in his plans.

One of probably one of the most famous scenes is he's trying to

just do a small lie and he's trying to say that this pen

that's blue is red. And he's like the pen is.

Royal. Blue, right?

He can't get the lie out. If you saw the movie, you know,

later on, he's, you know, they asked him, what are you doing?

And he's like, I'm, I'm kicking my own now I know who's seen it

and who hasn't. As funny as the movie is, I want

it to remind you of something. The words that you use do shape

the way that you see your reality.

A believed lie eventually becomes a life lived.

And the second. You believe a lie, you live it

out like it's fine. He was so used to lying that he

was OK with it, and it permeated every part of his life even as

he was watching his lies wreck the lives of the people he cares

about around him. Now, that being said, what lie

have you believed? Because you have a lot more

authority than Satan does. And if you're believing a lie

today, you're walking it out like it's real.

And it can have real consequences too.

That's exactly what happened in the garden, and that's what

makes the enemy so dangerous. Let's jump over to Luke.

Luke 10 · chapter mention

Chapter 10 in the Gospels. And while you're going?

To Luke 10, let me just tell you guys, every temptation you've

ever faced, every accusation that you've ever believed, every

moment that you have ever questioned whether God really

loves you or whether you'll ever change has almost certainly

started the exact same way it began in Genesis 3, which is

with a lie. What you've got here in Luke 10

is you've got a really cool moment because Jesus is starting

to ramp up the training of his disciples.

He started to send them out. He's, he's sending them out not

alone, but they're going together so they can spread the

gospel and they can minister. And it's a really powerful

moment. And they come back and they're

amazed at what they have been able to do things they've never

been able to do before. Listen to this starting in verse

17, So Luke 1017. When the. 72 disciples returned.

They joyfully reported to them, Lord, even the demons obey us

when we use your name. You notice something, They

didn't come back and say, Lord, people are getting saved.

They didn't come back and say, God, we saw people healed.

They didn't come back and say, God, we saw your peace manifest.

They came back there like man. Those demons got to do what we

tell them. So verse 18, he he says, yes,

this emphasis is mine, but I just imagined that it was a very

patient yes, because he says I saw Satan fall from heaven like

lightning. Look.

I've given you authority over all the power of the enemy.

Like you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them.

Nothing will injure you. But don't rejoice because evil

spirits obey you. Rejoice because your names are

registered in heaven. Do you hear the legal

terminology? Now they've got a registration.

Their names are registered in heaven.

But you know what's interesting? A lot of times I've also heard

this verse talking about originally when the devil was

cast out of heaven. I also don't think that's what

it's referring to. Just read the context.

Jesus already knew that the demons were obeying his

disciples. Now why?

Because he saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning.

So here's what this. Means he's not talking about

something that happened to eons or thousands of years ago.

He was saying, oh, I could tell that you had authority over the

demons because the prosecutor was kicked out of the courtroom.

He no longer has a job against those who belong to the Lord.

This is what Jesus was referring to.

And when he says he felt like lightning, I'm just telling you

all. It was quick.

Fast like that was a fast throw from heaven.

So how does the? Accuser go from being somebody

who presents himself in in the Lord's courtroom amongst the

other sons of God in this heavenly council, and now he's

cast out because Jesus's work was now advancing.

The Kingdom of darkness was slowing down.

The Kingdom of darkness didn't have the power that we had given

it for so long because now the Kingdom of heaven was now at

hand. This is something He spoke on a

lot. We're going to be all the way

back in Revelation in just a moment.

OK, but do you notice that immediately he redirected his

disciples attention? So as you start to see this, and

I believe that while you're going to have extreme lows,

you're also going to have extreme highs in the spiritual

warfare, don't you give up. You lean on other believers, You

keep praying, you keep pressing in, you keep asking other people

to help you because otherwise he's going to cream you.

OK, But you are going to see a victory on the other side of

this. And when you do, don't rejoice

because you overcame the enemy, because you didn't do anything.

The authority that these disciples carried was what made

the demons obey them. He redirected them.

The greatest miracle for you as well is that your name is

written in heaven. In other words, I would just

tell you, don't become so fascinated with what the enemy

is doing, or even what you're doing that you lose sight of

what God is doing. We're going to spend a.

Lot of time talking about spiritual warfare.

I just never want to become a church that talks more about

Satan than we do about Jesus. I'm just trying to give you all

a good baseline today. OK?

The Kingdom of Darkness is no longer advancing unchecked

because the King has arrived. In the book of.

Revelation. Much of Revelation is future

focused. Listen to this in chapter 12

verse seven. Since then there was a war in

heaven, and Michael and his angels fought against the dragon

and his angels, and the dragon lost the battle and he and his

angels were forced out of heaven.

This great dragon, the ancient serpent called the devil or

Satan, the one deceiving the whole world, was thrown down to

the earth with all his angels. John, who writes the Book of

Revelation, tells us that Satan has been thrown down and filled

with fury because he knows that his time is short.

I think that's one of the most important verses in the Bible to

understand when it comes to spiritual warfare because it

reminds us we're not fighting for victory.

And you've probably heard this before, but we are fighting from

VV doesn't belong to us, it belongs to the Lord, but we also

belong to the Lord, so his victory is ours.

And we'll talk about that in two weeks.

So what does that mean for us tomorrow morning?

Because right now maybe you feel pumped up.

Maybe you feel like you could take on whatever the Lord's got

for you. But you're going to wake up

tomorrow and you're going to have whispers.

What's that mean for you tomorrow morning?

I'm going to give you some tips here.

The first thing that you need to do is stop giving every accusing

thought equal authority. Not every thought deserves to be

believed just because it entered your mind.

I, I'm sorry, but you and I, we are just not that smart.

So every time that you have one of these thoughts, don't be mad

at yourself, don't condemn yourself.

Just ask yourself where it came from.

When you hear something like God is finished with you, or you

won't recover from this, or you won't find someone new, or you

won't find something new, or whatever, ask yourself if it

sounds like the voice of your shepherd or the voice of your

accuser. When you.

Hear that you'll never change, or that person will never

change. Ask yourself whether that agrees

with what God says about you. Because.

We've got to grow up and we got to wake up.

That's what we talked about last week, right?

Mature Christians don't just think every thought that enters

their mind. They learn to test every thought

against God's truth. So we have to be.

Mature enough to test every thought.

I'm mature enough to know that a lot of the thoughts I have just

about everyday are garbage. And I'm sorry to tell you all

that, but they are. I go away from a bad

conversation and my first thoughts are normally garbage.

That's why I asked the Lord into my conversations.

Now I'm just like, God. You could just interrupt my

train of thought. You can talk to me through this

whole chat if you want. Second thing I would tell you is

this, stop living as though the enemy's winning.

And you may say like, why I never said that?

No, you didn't say it, but you act like it.

A lot of Christians act like it. They're just heavily oppressed.

They know the enemy's coming for them.

They know that they've got a lot of reason to hang their head.

They're scared about the future and so they're just acting like

I'm going to need a miracle. First of all.

You are. Second of all, they're not as

hard to come by as you think. You know, Chris, you're right.

Found a way. This past Friday, I went on a

charter fishing boat for the first time.

I would tell you that I went fishing, but I didn't.

I just went on the charter fishing boat.

And. As we're fishing, I'm like, man,

this is so beautiful. I'm taking some videos, throw it

up on my story. I've never done this before.

And then I'm like, Tommy's a little upset, just a little

though. So I said I'm just going to go

inside, get a little cold air. So I went in the cabin and got a

little cold air, but then that air wasn't cold enough.

So I went into the little bathroom where they've got like

this whole blowing cold air. I don't care where that air is

coming from. It's cold, right?

People are checking on me. I'm like, I'm OK.

I think I'm just going to hang out in here.

Eventually. All I could think about was the

two sausage burritos I had from McDonald's that morning.

Now listen to me. This is, this is ridiculous, but

I'm giving you a real story. This is a real thing.

I I got up and I went up to that main cabin and I just laid down

with my eyes closed. It was easier to just feel the

rocking and then to see things. I'd taken some Dramamine at this

point. I didn't want to throw up

because I want to throw up my medicine to make it worse.

And I laid there and I talked to the Lord and I said, God, I need

a miracle. I mean, we're laughing, but that

is what I said to him. I said, God, I need a miracle.

I feel like I'm going to throw up.

Biologically, I probably should throw up.

I don't want to throw up this medicine.

I don't want to throw up the nutrition I've already had.

I didn't just eat McDonald's. So like I said, God, this seems

small in the grand scheme of history, but you can do

anything. And I need a miracle.

And by the end of the boat trip, I was out on the front hanging

out with everybody. Fishing was done.

But I did see a Stingray jump out of the water.

I didn't even know they jumped out of the water.

I felt like I'm Moana. It was so cool.

Listen, you won't convince me that God didn't give me a

miracle. I should have thrown up.

I heard stories from people that have been nauseated.

They threw up. And then once that happened, it

was off to the races. They were just sick the rest of

the day. The rest of the day, I went

home, I took a little bit of like a 30 minute power nap.

I got up, I walked on a treadmill.

We made dinner like I had a good day.

I asked him for a miracle and he came through.

Don't tell me that he can't come through.

You need a miracle and maybe it's bigger than him holding

back your nausea. But hear me on this.

It's not bigger to him. It doesn't require more effort

for him. He can handle.

Any miracle in any scenario in any place, effortlessly.

Now for us, we feel like if we had all the power of God, if we

were Bruce Almighty, it would take more of our power to do

this miracle rather than this one.

Not so would the Lord. He can do anything.

How many of the stories in here have the devil coming at the

Lord face first? There's a reason the enemy is

not stupid. So this week I.

Want you to stop acting like the enemy's winning because he's

not. But if you believe he's winning,

if you buy into that lie, you'll start living like it's true.

And then what's the difference? You got to know the enemy, but

you also need to know his strategy.

We'll be in John chapter 8 in just a moment.

John 8 · chapter mention

Same strategy, like I said, has not changed very much.

We could imagine that maybe it has because thousands of years

have passed and we've got new technology.

But when you read the Bible from the beginning to the end, you

can see that it doesn't change. Why does he not have a new

strategy today? First of all, he doesn't need

one. It still works, it's highly

effective #2 He's really not a creative.

He's just not a creator in any sense of it.

We already have one of those, and God is pretty good at it.

So what He does is He comes and He tempts you.

This is the main attack he has against every Christian, right?

He'll tempt you into something. He's the one that lures you into

it. And then once you do it, then he

accuses you, right? Isn't that dirty?

He's like, man, you should probably just steal a little

from the cash register. This company makes so much

money. It'd be all right.

And then as soon as you take the money, then he's like, I can't

believe you did that. That is what he does.

But here's the problem. We don't recognize him.

It's an unseen accuser. We don't see him.

By the way, Lord, I'm kind of good with that.

I don't really want to see him walking around.

But he convinced Adam and Eve that God was holding something

back from them. He persuaded them that

disobedience would somehow lead to freedom.

And he does the same thing for us.

Jesus. Explains this better than anyone

ever could about how these temptations they over promise

and under deliver. Listen to this just one verse.

John 844 He says you are the children.

He's talking to the Pharisees here.

He said you are the children of your father, the devil, and you

love to do the evil things he does.

He was a murderer from the beginning.

He has always hated the truth because there is no truth in

him. And when he lies, it is

consistent with his character, for he is a liar and the father

of lies. Lots of lies.

Those of you who have read an older translation of that, what

does it say about him that when he lies he speaks his native

tongue? Isn't that crazy?

You notice what Jesus doesn't say here?

He doesn't say that Satan sometimes tells lies.

He says lying is his native language.

It is natural to him. Deception isn't something that

he does occasionally. It is the atmosphere that he

lives in. So every temptation and every

accusation and every distortion of God's character you've ever

had to deal with has been designed to divide God's people

and to make every one of us question God's goodness.

And they all have the same source, which is lies.

One of the things that I've learned over the years of of

ministry is that the enemy doesn't walk into our lives and

say hi. I'm Satan and I'm here to tempt

you today. If anybody ever does walk up to

you and say that though, it's probably not your new friend if

you're just looking for official advice.

Clayton. Where are you, Clayton?

Can I've got somebody who has been waiting in the other room

to come out who's going to help me illustrate this?

And I'm very excited about this. I've been, I've, I've worked at

great lengths to make sure that most people haven't met him yet.

The staff has met him. He may join staff, to be honest

with you, but he has been somebody named Ronan.

Ronan, you're going to get to know him over the next several

months because he's going to help us understand a lot of

things about spiritual warfare. I just want to make Clayton feel

uncomfortable when he comes. Oh, here he is.

Thank you. Thank you.

This is Ronan. You guys going to be rude or you

going to tell him hi? How many of y'all felt weird

doing that? Good.

Good. This is Ronan.

And I know when you look at him, you think that's a mannequin,

but it's not. Here's the deal.

This is my wife. Hear me out.

This is my best friend. This is my other best friend.

This is my family member. This is a church member.

OK. And every time that I get into a

problem or a dispute with one of them, what I failed to realize,

because he's unseen, is that behind him or her is somebody

who's right here messing with them the same way that he's

messing with me. Ronan is going to represent a

lot of problems that we deal with, and the origination of

them comes from the enemy. One of the greatest lessons that

God ever taught me, and I will use this term until the day that

I die. When the enemy attacks you, he

always does it behind a human shield.

Why? Because he's got something that

he knows is going to set you off.

But if he comes right here and he says it, then when you lash

back, is he the one that gets it or is it your husband or is it

your wife or is it your friend? And this is the way that it

goes. To be honest with you, I think

about something I've done with the kids many times.

Got one son, one daughter that live at home.

And so I'll go out behind one of them and I'll flick them right

behind the neck like a good dad. And, and when they turn around,

I'll be like, that was your, that was your sister right

before you say, how could you do that?

They don't believe me, but I messed with them and I'm just

like, that wasn't me, that was them.

For those of you over. Here, my daughter just said.

It's obviously you. You're grounded.

I'm just kidding. No, you're not.

So this is what happens. This is what happens.

I have watched marriages fall apart because two people who

loved each other became convinced that the other person

was the enemy. I have watched lifelong

friendships disappear because neither person recognized that

there was someone else fueling the division.

And I have watched churches split because believers who are

supposed to be standing shoulder to shoulder and proving that

they belong to the Lord by the way they love one another.

I've watched them aim at each other instead.

And I want you to know that the enemy loves that because while

we're busy attacking people that Christ died to save, He slips

back into the shadows where nobody notices him anymore and

just watches what we do. He put the weapon in your hands

and you used it for Him. I want you to remember this face

or whatever this is every time that you see the enemy over the

next few weeks when you get attacked, I want you to remember

this. This face could be anybody.

There, see, he can be young too. This guy represents whoever

matters to you in your life, probably more than that.

This guy represents even people you don't know well, because you

don't know how the enemy has been attacking them that

morning, that afternoon, and that moment.

You don't know what's spiraling in those thoughts.

I know a lot of the issues that several of you have been dealing

with over the next couple weeks, and I'm praying and I'm

interceding with you because I understand the season of

warfare. But just ask for a show of

honesty here. How many of you all have had

some sort of battle with your thought life over the last week

in some form? Look at this, look at this.

You think we don't need each other.

So the enemy gets in there and he starts whispering.

And the more that he whispers and that we adopt it as a

belief, we live it out and we walk it out like it's real.

And the more that you live it out like it's real, the more

it's real to you. The next day, and then the next

day, and then the next day. And what you're doing is you're

actually building what is called biblically A stronghold, which

we'll get to in the next couple of weeks.

But strongholds are built 1 brick at a time, one thought at

a time. Second Corinthians 11/3 says

this. Paul says, I fear that somehow

your pure and undivided devotion to Christ will be corrupted,

just as Eve was deceived by the cunning ways of the serpent.

Isn't it interesting? Paul there doesn't say watch out

because Satan has come up with a new plan.

He says don't let what happened to Eve happened to you because

he knows that it is the same tactic.

Thousands of years have passed, but it's the same thing.

So we have to learn to recognize a lie before it becomes a

belief. The second it becomes a belief.

I'm not telling you there's not a way out of it, but undoing a

belief is harder than undoing a lie.

So. We begin by believing that our

identity is determined by our worst failure instead of God's

greatest grace. And then the devil has us.

If the enemy fights with lies, the greatest defence God has

given us is truth. I'm surprised actually, as I was

talking to some people this week.

A lot of people knew this. But when it comes to counterfeit

currency? Do you know?

How they they study and train to deal with counterfeit currency.

I mean, for a lot of my life, I thought that what it was was you

had to study counterfeit currency.

That's how you're going to learn what's fake.

They study the real stuff. So when they're being trained,

they study real, genuine United States currency.

Why? Because the second that they

hold a fake bill in their hand, they can tell something's off.

And they may not know what it is At first.

They maybe it's just the feel of the texture or it's just one of

these moments, but all of a sudden they can tell something's

off. Ladies and gentlemen, I would

tell you in the Kingdom of God, that is what we call

discernment. Discernment isn't having every

answer, every motive, every why. Sometimes God gives you answers

and that's a real blessing when He does it.

Sometimes He gives you just enough so that when you go into

this, you go, something's off. I don't know what's off, but

something's off. You know what that means?

Invite the Holy Spirit into that conversation if that's what they

do for something that you can touch with your hands.

Imagine so much more that you can accomplish because that same

God who created you lives now inside of you as a born again

believer. I think it's one of the best

pictures of spiritual maturity I've ever heard.

So how do you fight against the lies of the enemy and not let

them become beliefs? I think you and I need to become

experts on Jesus. The more familiar that you

become with His voice, the easier it will be to recognize

every other voice. Lot of times I'll have people

come to me and they'll say, well, I'm having these thoughts

and I can't tell if it's the enemy or if it's myself, but it

sure isn't God, you know, I don't know like where this is

coming from or whatever. And I, I just tell people,

you've got to know him, you've got to know him, you've got to

know him. If you know him, you'll know if

it's not him. And the enemy won't be able to

deceive you. And he's going to try to y'all

remember what the scripture says, that the devil himself

masquerades as an Angel of light.

One of the worst stories I've ever heard.

It was the story of. And those of you who have known

me for a while, you've heard it just act like it's brand new.

I'd appreciate it. I know this story about somebody

who went to their pastor different church and said, hey,

I don't need to come to you for any counsel anymore or come to

Sundays because I have a relationship with Jesus.

Anything. And that's kind of interesting

because Jesus kind of tells us to be in community, right?

And she says, yeah, but he comes in, he meets with me and he

tells me things to do and he tells me things I should know.

And he said, OK, well, the next time that this Jesus comes, why

don't you ask him, are you Jesus born of the Virgin Mary, Jesus

of Nazareth, born of the Virgin Mary?

And she said, OK, she came back about 3 weeks later.

And she said, he said, he's not that Jesus.

How's that set with you? Yeah.

You know that Jesus of Nazareth is not even the only person

named Jesus in the Bible, right? We got to read it.

We've got to read it, but I need you to understand that just

reading the Bible isn't going to get you into that relationship

with you, but it is going to help because to know His Word is

to know His ways. So listen to me.

The more time that you spend in His word, the more time that you

spend talking to Him in prayer, the more time that you spend

worshipping Him, serving Him, walking with other believers,

the more familiar His voice will become.

That's what spiritual maturity looks like.

In Romans chapter 8, the very first verse says this.

Romans 8 · chapter mention

There is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ

Jesus. Why do I share that now?

Because the next time that you hear some sort of spiritual

whisper inside the inner man or the inner woman, here's what I

would tell you to ask, did that come from somebody trying to

condemn me or did that come from somebody trying to convict me?

Conviction is one of the greatest gifts that God will

ever give you. When you do something and the

Lord comes in and says you better tell her you're sorry

right now, or you better go make that right, or you better go

bless that person, or you better repent for having that thought.

That is one of the greatest and kindest gifts that the Lord

could ever give you, and He doesn't hold it over your head.

Spouses. Have you ever had that moment

where you're talking to somebody and they're like, well, six

months ago you said blah, blah, blah, and you're like, I don't

even remember that conversation, but I'm sure I did.

God never does that to you. So when you go to him and you

repent and you're like, I failed again.

He's not going to be like, I know, and this is your 34th

time, but why do I say it like that?

Because sometimes that's the voice we hear.

Of course you failed again. You're going to fail again.

You're always going to fail. Whose voice do you think that

is? I.

Don't know if you can tell but. Ronan's been going to the gym.

His arms are a little toned, right?

He's a he's a, he's a bro. But could you imagine?

And it starts in small ways. I want you to hear me on this

because this is incredibly, painfully realistic.

I mean, seriously, like, do his arms look toned?

Yes. Good.

Thank you for agreeing with me. OK, so then he looks in the

mirror and he's like my arms aren't toned, what I'm doing

isn't making a difference. So now he either goes harder,

pushes himself, or he just quits.

Both extremes are wrong. Or he starts comparing himself

to somebody else and how they look or how they dress or how

they speak or how they handle themselves or their spiritual

life. Many Christians have not even

tried to become more spiritual because they assume they'll

never be as spiritual as fill in the blank and you don't even

know how spiritual anybody is at home.

The statistics of pastors that don't even spend a lot of time

in prayer at home is ridiculous. It's ridiculous.

I spend a lot of time in prayer. Just want you to know that.

Too scared not to. Conviction is one of God's

greatest gifts, but condemnation is one of the enemy's greatest

weapons. Conviction will tell you

something's wrong so you can make it right and move on.

Why would God want to talk to you about that one thing you did

when you were 17 for the rest of your life?

That's not what God does. But you know who does want to do

that? The enemy.

He wants to keep you there so that you're not forward focused.

But in the Kingdom of God, it's always forward.

So condemnation is one of the enemy's greatest weapons because

He'll stop you from even moving forward.

You and I have to learn the difference.

We can't afford not to. As I close this morning, I just

want to make sure that we're leaving here with the right

perspective. Because if all we've done today

is convince ourselves that Satan is powerful, you've missed the

point entirely. The whole purpose of the message

is not to make you fear the enemy, but to help you recognize

him because he's there. There's a tremendous amount of

difference between those two things, and you don't have to

fear someone whose schemes have already been exposed.

In fact, one of the greatest ways to defeat a scammer is

simply to recognize that it's a scam and not answer the phone.

I want to read you one more scripture from Revelation

Revelation 20:10

chapter 20 verse 10. It's really fun.

I've never heard it on K love, but I'm waiting.

Since then, the devil who had deceived them was thrown into

the fiery lake of burning sulfur, joining the beast and

the false prophet. There they will be tormented day

and night, forever and ever. Why am I ending with that?

I think it's important that every believer knows how the

story ends. This is the way that it ends.

There's not a choose your own adventure.

There's not an alternative ending.

There's no deleted scene. Satan's future isn't uncertain.

There isn't one final battle where we're all holding our

breath, wondering who's going to win.

And I want to address another question that I had for most of

my life, because maybe some of you do too.

It raises a very natural question for me that people ask,

which is this? If Satan already knows that he

loses, why does he even keep fighting?

I got an answer for you. I don't think it's because he

still thinks he can overthrow God.

I think it's just that hatred doesn't need hope.

Hatred only needs something to destroy.

It just needs an object that it can focus all of its hatred on.

And if he can convince one more person that God doesn't love

them, he'll do it. If he can destroy one more

marriage, he'll do it. If he can divide 1 more church,

he'll do it. If he can discourage one more

believer into giving up, he'll do it.

But he can't defeat Christ, so he settles for attacking the

people that Christ loves. Every believer who has ever

followed Jesus has had to learn how to recognize the enemy's

lies and how to continue trusting the truth of God.

I want you to know something. This is not a condemnation

statement. You are not the first person who

has ever had to deal with the lies of the enemy.

You're not the first person to battle discouragement, and

you're not the first person to hear the voice of the accuser.

But you also aren't the first person to discover that the

voice of Jesus is stronger than the enemies.

So this is my challenge for you this week.

Every single time an accusing thought comes into your mind,

don't immediately believe it. Stop for at.

Least just a moment and ask yourself, does this sound like

my shepherd? Let him lead you.

If the thought tells you to hide from God, it's not your

shepherd. If the thought tells you that

you're beyond grace, it's not His voice.

If the thought tells you that your identity is found in your

worst mistake instead of the finished work on the cross,

that's not His voice. I want you to learn to recognize

the counterfeit by becoming so familiar with the genuine

article. And while you're at it, keep

praying for one another. The enemy loves isolated

believers. You know why?

Because isolated believers are easier to deceive.

If you're sitting in a group of people that love you and you say

something you feel like you heard and it's a deception,

those people around you can be like, that's not true.

And they're not going to rub it in your face.

Hopefully what they're going to do is they're going to tell you

that's not true. And here's what God has for you.

And we're going to pray protection over you.

I'm telling you there's a reason why he builds us in communities.

Next Sunday, we're going to continue this journey with the

unseen hosts. And I'm going to let you know

that we're going to talk about some of the questions a lot of

people have wondered about for years.

So who are the angels? What are demons?

Who are the sons of God? What is the Nephilim?

We're going to get real weird next week.

So I'll see you then. But guys, I just want you to

know this as you leave this building today, you don't walk

out there and be afraid of the enemy and what he's got for you.

I want you walking out of here empowered.

I want you walking out of here armored up.

I want you walking out of here knowing that we all have each

other's backs. They'll say this at the end, but

if you need personal prayer, there's a spot over there.

I'll be back there to meet some visitors today.

But to be honest with you, if you know even one person here,

go to them and say, will you pray for me and let's see if we

can tackle this enemy together? Amen.