Pound River Church Podcast

Recognizing the Devil's Strategies

August 13, 2018 Pound River Church
Pound River Church Podcast
Recognizing the Devil's Strategies
Show Notes Transcript
Please take time to listen to this powerful and emotional sermon by Pastor Bill Rose after he spent a week at Camp Jacob ministering to local youth. Key verses: Eph 6:10-18
Speaker 1:

Costume, you got five bucks and you want to go. Let's go to chapter six. Very, very familiar scripture verses together. Verse Ten and verse 18. Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord and then the power of his might put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the day. We did wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that Ye may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand, stand therefore having girded your waist with truth and he put on the breastplate of righteousness and having Sean through feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you'll be able to quit you all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit. Being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for All Saints, say man and well being at a camp all week. I got the privilege to be there to preach every morning and every evening, uh, and uh, it was needful for me because I got to see some things that I needed. He was a great reminder to me of the power of the Gospel. The Gospel has the power to bring hope and peace when there was a great reminder of the importance of love. You know, the scripture says love covers a multitude of sins and get it into here. Kid. Stand up and say things like, um, I pray for a good family to adopt me. And God helped me through that time or God's given me a good family and a hearing them stand up and say things at the last day of service. So they have tests. They get testimonies and hearing them stand up and say things like, um, when I got here, no one. I felt like nobody liked me. I didn't feel loved by anybody. Some of them in foster care, some of them, but he didn't say those things and then to hear them say, but, but now I see from, from, from, from what we've heard, this lake and when I failed this week, there is, that's the power of the Gospel. They may have, I can tell you lots of great stories about kids that got test is Sweden. I could go on with the examples, right? The power of the Gospel is powerful when you mix it with love. It's amazing, man. The lazy thing, what God does and people. So, um, those were great reminders. Will be. But there was something else that God reminded me of lobs there. That's, that Satan works very hard to just rolling everything he gave. He's working hard to shatter as many lives as he possibly can. He's working very hard to destroy this deploys in our minds with doubt and fear and all these different things. Depression and hopelessness and all kinds of other things. And he wants to destroy your family's.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

It wants to tear us apart or destroyed churches, struggle with this generation of Christians that are living now and he really wants to destroy the ones that are been up,

Speaker 2:

man, man.

Speaker 1:

And so I of the preach on this morning was recognizing the strategies and the end of these so that you don't become a victim of first Peter Five, eight. It's not on the screen. So, uh, but, but it comes to mind first Peter Five eight says, the devil goes down like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. See exactly what he did in the first layer. I just got three things that I wanted to tell you this morning. You'll have to forgive me if I don't preach long. I don't know that I've gotten to the inmate. Um, but, but, um, but I feel like this was an important message to bring students and more than we need to be reminded that this is what God, exactly what God put on our first strategy of Satan is to deceit, deception. John Chapter Eight, verse Forty Four. Jesus was talking to them there. They were having some, some, some disagreements. And he said, you know what they were asking him, how could he say the things he said? Who did? Who did he think he was? And he said, let me tell you, he said, you are of your father, the devil and the desires of your father is once you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and he does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in. Yeah,

Speaker 2:

yeah.

Speaker 1:

When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources or from his own character because he is a liar and he's the father of black man. The devil is very, very good at deception. He's the father of last ditch thing produced the moment. Let's go back and you might think it's a little bit basic and this morning that I think it's a good reminder for all of us. When Adam and and Eve cnd each thing, and in particular, why did it happen? Did they did they did that? It wasn't not because of the entity came into deceived them. Was it not been listened to? They intimate. Didn't say eve. Now you've got a choice here, right? You can eat, uh, this, uh, this, uh, this tree that God is forbidding you to heat up and all land comms will be cast into darkness and all will be born in the scene and you will suffer and you'll be separated from your God and you will be cursed and eventually your body will die and let go through the pain that they have and the curse of seeing all these things. But you'll get to say, you hate it. Do you want? No, he didn't do that, but instead what he did, he made it wasn't just a choice between good and evil. It was a deception. That evil was. Do you understand what I'm preaching to you? Bible says, woe to those who call evil good and good evil. He lied to her. He deceived her. He made her think that God didn't have the best intention for her. He made her believe that, that God wasn't being truthful. It neither believe alive. He made her believe that, that he knew better than God. He made her believe that she knew better than God. You better believe that God wouldn't keep his word. He told her, he said, you won't die, but you'll be locked out. Then appeal, turnover, and that is what and who the devil he is. That is exactly what he does all the time. He's a liar and the father of all lies that he's a deceiver. He seeks to go out and and, and, and deceive people and he, it. He paints up ally the best way that he possibly can and it gets us to believe a lot of he, he deceives list and you say, well, thank God preached in the though He. He doesn't see me anymore. He just seems to Christians all the time. I'm just telling you the truth that a, think about this. Think about a failure. Let's look up what a look at. What a great job the devil has done in the church about the seating. It's about what faith he is. He's convinced so many people that when we talk about faith, it just means believing that there's a god. As long as I believe that there's a god, as long as I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, then I've got faith, but the Bible says this in James Two, 19 and 20, you believe that there's one bob, you do well, but even the demons believe and tremble, but do you know? Do you want know Buddhist man? That faith without works is dead?

Speaker 2:

Yeah,

Speaker 1:

but the devil's got most Christians to deceive that. That's not true, that faith is just believing that there is a god and that there is a Jesus, and as long as I believe I'm fine.

Speaker 2:

Yeah,

Speaker 1:

but faith is more than that. Faith is trusting. God has said, faith is trusting. Walked on says about

Speaker 2:

you.

Speaker 1:

Faith is trusting what God says about himself. Faith is trusting what God says about the world. Famous, trusting what God says about everything.

Speaker 2:

No

Speaker 1:

interesting it so much that it moves you to action. That's the problem with a lot of Christianity today is that nobody's moved to action anymore. No, everybody believes in a God. Everybody believes it. Well, here's what I mean. A lot of people believe in God. A lot of people believe in Jesus, but nobody seems compelled to actually anymore. They're not compelled to serve and not compelled to worshiping. They're not compelled to do any of those things because the devil is deceived into the bleed that what we're doing

Speaker 2:

said that you don't need to do even more.

Speaker 1:

That's a great description that happens. That's just one example, but he just labs the man,

Speaker 2:

man.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Do you ever thought, why do you think you hear so much? Now I pay attention to this. This prevalence, my soul. You can ask not why. I talk about it a lot. Why don't we hear so much now that suicide, you ever noticed that it's more and more and more prevalent all the time. You get bored. Every time I hear that and I can't feel the field life saving one, that I can't, but feel that he couldn't be in somebody, that their situation was hopeless. When the Gospel says there's always hope, but it could advance as he lies to the beat convinces people that they're worthless. Revert that they're useless, that they're not loved. I cannot tell you how many children I heard this week, kids, I did not feel this way when I was a kid that would stand up being 15, 16 years old and saying, no body loves me. I am alone. I didn't feel that like I was a kid and that's not the way I feel, but Satan is working double time to tear some things apart and those things that he tells people that they're not loved, but they're not cured. That was all true. We got to go with the truth. What does the Bible tell us? That God so loved us, that he gave his only begotten son, that God demonstrated his love. His love was not just in word, only his word was in deed and in truth, they loved it so much. He demonstrated in that while we were yet sinners crashed that for say manny, but the innovate comes along and he whispers and sometimes he may stand out here he hears and he made to there to here that it's not true. If they're all just lies. I can't. I, I can't tell you. I can't express it to me this morning. I won't preach the way that you want me to this morning because I'm burdened for all the things that heard and saw. To See all those kids just broken and to see how big their faith really was. Then they have to go through trials that

Speaker 2:

we don't play the band.

Speaker 1:

You hear the stories of these kids say, say things like, Hey, this is my third foster family. Will you pray? You pray for me that this family don't leave me and that's not happening somewhere else that's happening here. These are kids from some distant land or something, some other company. These are refugees. These are our children. They this is happening to that. We've got to fight back against the deception of the enemy. We've got to fight back with truth. Jesus prayed for us. Jesus is crowd. He said, sanctify them father with truth. Thy Word is truth. They need to hear the word of God. They need that more than they need. They need that more than they need play time. They need that more than anything else. They need to know that there is a god who loves them,

Speaker 2:

who cares about them.

Speaker 1:

They need to know the truth of grace. They need to know the truth of love, your pure, real love, holiness. They even know the truth of Jesus Christ and salvation. They need it and it's not just kids that need it. There's lots of adults out there in the same boat.

Speaker 2:

He deceives. Second strategy he did. He districts distracts, and this is a big man,

Speaker 1:

probably one of the biggest ones were fighting against Satan loves to distract us from what's important.

Speaker 2:

Yeah,

Speaker 1:

he loves to take our attention away from God and away from each other. He loves to take our attention away from God and I fell away from all the good things that we could be doing. Again, is focused on things that are critically. It don't matter.

Speaker 2:

Yep,

Speaker 1:

he. He does it all the time. Matthew 13, 22, he said he had received the seed among the thorns. He's describing a, a group of people and he said, here's the word, but the cares of this world. And then the wellness of riches choke the word out and they've been coming

Speaker 2:

unfruitful.

Speaker 1:

That's what that is. That's a tactic of distraction. He doesn't want you to focus on what God is telling you.

Speaker 2:

The

Speaker 1:

he doesn't want you to focus on. God is saying to you because it wants you to focus on for you and your

Speaker 2:

I am late.

Speaker 1:

He doesn't want you focused on internal things. He doesn't want you focused on eternity. He knows when you start to focus on that, you'll get dangerous.

Speaker 2:

Yeah,

Speaker 1:

you'll get it done. You will begin to. You begin to come into his territory. You'll start rescuing people and bringing them to craft they man. But if he can keep you distracted, if he, if he can get you to waste all your time chasing after the wind,

Speaker 2:

he wins the battle man.

Speaker 1:

And I know the angst. He threw it out and I believe we did it the same. Yeah, I, I believe we're a hundred percent distributed. I believe 100 percent. We're focused on our lips

Speaker 2:

in there, man.

Speaker 1:

We're focused on what kind of clothes were where. We're focused on what our houses were focused on, those kind of cars we're driving, we're focused on advertisement, promotion opportunities and are checking and savings account are supposed to be and it isn't all just perfect and we're focused on if the house is spotless or not focused on a bunch of stuff that don't amount to anything, can you turn into nothing? It does nothing for the Gospel that does nothing for the Kingdom of God and he's not as focused on these things were were were were just absolutely just worried sick about the opinions of others. Great. How many facebook likes can we get on this post and tweeting all and just the silliest thing happening in the media as if you had any control

Speaker 2:

brother,

Speaker 1:

take the picture from this angle or you don't have to stop, stop and think for a moment. I'm not being critical, but just for me how silly it on in love. A lot of people dying and go on the hill in London. Children committed suicide. A lot of women are lined up today at abortion clinics and kill that inner city in orange. How silly is it? Time staring a little square and maybe pictures on our sales. Just show everybody. I'm pretty. We linked with y'all.

Speaker 2:

This breaks you to.

Speaker 1:

We're so focused on sales and listen, it's not to the point. If you tell people, if you preach to people that are over and entertainment, they'll just go do a draft and entertains them.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

We're so caught up in these distractions. It's unbelievable. When you listen to the camp was different. It was good for me. I put my phone out at all of it and I begin to see things right with, with, with, with new eyes. I'm beginning to feel things that, that, that I have failed in a lot. I saw kids. Mine are no exception. I saw kids who were desperate for affection and attention because they're not getting it from their parents. Their parents were to read that and playing games.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I don't get mad at me.

Speaker 1:

Love so bad because we're not getting it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

They need direction. They need peace and friendship. They need mentors. They need parents.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

When you say, I know I already told you, but when you hear them say, if I had come to camp this week, I was thinking about killing myself because I didn't feel like anybody loved me. That says something. You can't ignore that. You can't. You can't turn a blind eye to that and say, Gosh, you know, I hate that way. Anyways, go play. I'm busy. I've got to get this facebook posts

Speaker 2:

[inaudible]

Speaker 1:

these little children.

Speaker 2:

Yo. Hello.

Speaker 1:

Who felt alone in the last connected time that there's ever been?

Speaker 2:

Yeah,

Speaker 1:

a time when you could talk to anybody who takes nice little because they feel completely alone in Brooklyn. Not One of them. Almost all of it. I'm not preaching like I'm not a part of it. Believe me, I'm a part of it. You think I didn't see that in my own children. How much I go to my kid's got helpless, helpless church, and we're sitting here. We're too wrapped up in a bunch of senseless steps. Don't even matter to help somebody when your ears, when you heard the man say it, he said, he said, man, ever be too busy to help another berries. Love. We are to be fairly caught up in what we want and what we think that we can look around and see that there's people hurting our around. There's people sitting in this church today on the things that we don't even understand or know because we don't care enough to find that out. I need, I mean as parents, grandparents, we traded time with our families for our phones and our tea bags. That makes fake, but that's going to be okay. I'm just going to for as Christians, we've traded time with our church for just some time for our sales because we need a break from God. Don't get to this morning. I understand that sometimes it's friends were trading times, have fellowship with one another conversation for self gratification and entertainment. As spouses, we try and time with each other for time to to work some more so we can make some more money, hustle more junk that we don't even need the man. It's true, and as disciples of Christ, we're treading time in ministry in town, working for the kingdom to do our little hobbies and our families and our friendships and our churches and our whole world is falling apart all around us and we're acting like it's not happening because we think if we ignore it will go away. It ain't going away. It's getting worse. It's not getting a bid or we don't even have. We don't even have real deep relationships with people anymore. Everything's superficial and shallow. Everything is just. It's just that if I have time, I'll talk to this so and so. Got It, but if got anything else going on, I'm too busy. We're distracted. Satan. Satan has distracted us from the things that are really important. You talked to somebody. I. I'm, I'm sorry. I keep using examples from the candidate, but you hang with me when I. When I talked to a 13 year old boy who is absolutely shattered and crying his eyes and just devastate because he's in foster care and he doesn't know he wants to go back home to his mom, but they don't it because his mom is so messed up and he feels so. He just feels like the world is against him and he's tossed around from house to house and he doesn't feel any love and he doesn't feel like he's an any value of net worth. And when you talk to a young girl, listen, who says, Hey, I'm getting beat, and I told people, I told the pastor at my church and I told the social worker and nobody's doing anything and they get killed to the church for hail because we're so busy. Know something's wrong it they rat guys were not living this thing wrapped up. When it's not that we don't love God. We Love God. It's not that we don't believe. I've always believed. I'm just saying that we're getting caught up in a deception of the enemy. We're getting caught up in a lie. We're getting caught up in all this stuff that's in the world. That doesn't really mean anything. We think we, but we don't have the habit. I was thinking this morning as I was studying, I'm trying not to openly. I was thinking about when I was little prayers and your support. When I was little I go out and work in the garden with my views, but my pimple and then we'd go fishing. He grabbed me on the motorcycle club, different things and looking back on that now I see that a. I really helped with the garden and really if you could say off all they did was spent a lot of. He doesn't finish trying to get fixed up and it would've just been easier if he went by sale, but luckily enough not to know. We throw the kids in front of the TV, put a phone in their hand or put an ipad in her hand. We can find and say, sit here and watch it so I can do what I want to do because I'm too busy. Stability. We made our house just a purell breeding ground for the data we put into our kids and then wanting to be wholly accountable. We expect. Yeah, and I'm like, the STD gets owns a lot of youth. Don't misunderstand me. I'm just. I'm against the event that I'm a gift. How much storage controllers and have the opportunity to change the world. I don't just in the best of the kids, we can change logs. We got an opportunity to teach a content, love them at the shoulder. With fiction, they help us. We have to be willing to lay aside other things that are distracting us with. They will invite me to even have to suffer a little bit in denial the lot that we walked, so like never a lot that they can eat without an opportunity to help each other, but we got stop focusing on our sales so much. Maybe we can. We got an opportunity to grow the Kingdom of God that we had stopped growing her own. Indicate wrong too. At the same time, you're either going to be good. Now let's get you to where you're going to build up yours. You're not living. Both men were just an ode to distract. I told you that the third strategy and the hippies, you know if he can't, if he can't, he can't distract you. You're trying to buy this most effective way to stop it already is to get into popular sale. You can get up five of sale. They'll destroy ager. Bible tells us it's not on the screen, but I'm just thinking about that says, be careful when you bought and destroy. Yeah, Ms Dot we're. We're were target because we're growing. Our church is really the numbers and it's growing spiritually. I I prayed and he's like, the devil wants to and he don't look at the do the good thing. He wants to destroy that. He wants to tie that all pieces and he loved us to get mad at one another and start fighting with each other. The love for us to get a feel, get her feeling forced to sit through service and instead of being able to focus on worshiping God, instead of being able to focus on the word of God, the preaching, he left to sit there just just to get our minds just cut this. Concentrate on all the people that were frustrating. The map. That's what he wants for us. He wants to split us up and he wants to hurt us and he loves it when we're offended and he lives at overheard. Yeah, safe. Not just in the church, sent the notes to take a strong family. The bottom. He loves nothing more than to see a, uh, a husband or a laugh, committed adultery, all their spouse and, and he loves to rental standards apart. So those children to become bitter. So they'll turn against the GOP are med psych final testimony. He said, he said, I need you to pray for me. My parents are divorcing and I just wanted to be friends. He said they won't be together. At least I wanted to be friends. He should not have to think about that trend. So art theaters, those kids that were there is there, there is just wording and I saw their family. I have a slight negative out of their families, outside of their families, the divorce. We're going to save the body of their families through all kinds of different ways and they were just broken hearted. They could understand and I kept telling them that God is working. There's a dog or a kid that they're good and we'll site and lives to turning out to be, loves to destroy in the church and you'll destroy our families and it will destroy everything you can get into the hands on the biggest, through pure selfish. That's what the teachers. Let me show you one more verse and then I'll. Because for this first one, James Chapter one, he said, where do wars and fats come from? Above then an outcome from your approved that we're not where we want to be, the most important that will make all the decisions we want to be in charge. That's just prep. Prattle create oversensitive feelings that are easily hurt because we want people to value US above, uh, above others. When they don't, it hurts her feelings, not all the time. Some of that pride is what creates a angry worms that are seeing it on purpose. To hurt creates a desire for control and for power cares more about being wrapped that up. People proud to be bragged on so it causes problems they may have at least eight. Don't let pride get in your heart. It will destroy you. It will destroy your home and destroy your church and destroy your family. You fight against it. The Bible says with humility, submit to God and resist the devil will be willing to be the serve and be willing to be wrong. Be Willing sometimes to be. The woman says, okay, we're doing it even though it's totally, he's just being able to say sorry sometimes don't need. They will look into that to clean a lot. I let me to at St worth it. I'm sorry that I hurt your feelings or the other. That's not the world, that's for sure, but it isn't a biblical. Let's stay that one. I'm sorry I couldn't understand. See it a little bit broken little bit. Build up at the same time because that's all I could see what the enemy's trying to do, and I want to warn you, but all the rapper, let's close our eyes for just to be like a counter a lot for be it maybe under this morning as we pray, God inspired, inspired by it the way that I needed to make me. God spoke to you and maybe you see this morning that he's using some of these strategies on you and your family. Maybe you think I've been too distracted. Rob Blade, some labs. Rob, let my heart get the Bible. It will be. It may just ask you, is you going to steal your home? Stay at your job. Are you going to understand your family from you? You will steal your church family. God wants you to do this morning. If you feel like any of these things apply to you, don't want you to come to the altar and pray and ask God to help you to overcome these things. I want you to pray and ask God to change some things and drive and say, God, you got to change me and you've got to change these things that I'm holding here, a holy church. Not only God knows how. I know that our families are being ripped away from us and I know that we're going farther away from God, that we are getting closer to. I know God is the source of our strength and I know he promised that he would be a very present help in times of trouble. We can depend on and I know if we will give our hearts to him, he will start. We'll start laying aside some Silverstein said, no, bless our efforts. We're less worried about our clothes and our and our pictures and our facebook profiles and more worried about the standing beside us longer than anybody else. Algebra. Before we begin to pray together, pray together for just a few minutes. Other haven, I don't even know the word. It's not the safest site for all. The things that were broken inside of me are just absolutely overwhelmed at the thought out that we could be doing and we're wasting so much time and resources and money and effort, and he said, had no real bad. You've done things that aren't even important. Never make this happen. I said, well, Ben, recoding your kingdom. God, we just need your forgiveness. I can't bear the way now. I can carry that type that we love each other with the strategy of the enemy we had boarded. There's demonic deception. It went up to see that people are delighted that churches are falling apart and I'm old and families and children are suffering. God and spouses are suffering. Got All the of the Father Glass House. The God of this world is flat in our eyes to see the truth, but we know God that you got their scaling and redemption. Jada, you burst forgiveness and users and users risk restoration and revival. Others their weekend ahead, they state that will turn the gun. You said in your word that if we were, people would say your face and turn from our wicked ways that you would hear here when David, Lord, tonight for the damper, God, I pray, Lord, that the spirit will do the interceding for us today. God, I'm gonna kill you. He thought what it is that center heart stopped because put overall on our behalf because I don't have words. Well, I pray God, that you will take every person that stuff around this altar and it's rather harvest to you where they are today. God is Saturday night live and you will change. I pray. This will be more than a trip to the Algebra. We'd go and leave the same as we can be in. I pray. It's not just another time that we prayed and it didn't lead anybody more. I've printed, this is the time about we make up our minds that we're going to live for you and we're willing to love are the people you gave us for our children and love each other and our church family. We're going to be a little different though. He opened Scott, write down whatever barriers need to be told to make that happen. Crushed site and not under your feet. Again, I know God, you defeated him on the cross. I know you the thing what? I know that the blood God has given us victory over sheer nail gun and I probably called it anybody that's believing a lot from him tonight, gone will be able to see the truth. They would know the love that you have. They would know your goodness. No, we need you desperately pray these things together. We're coming together in agreement with one another. God that we need you to move. All those are part of the problem in our lives. We pray in Jesus' name.

Speaker 2:

Amen.

Speaker 1:

Here you can. If you can understand that we have a good week of the Lord.