Resist The Devil

A kids’ church skit told a room full of children to “shoot the devil” and it lit up the internet. We use that moment to ask a sharper question: what does the Bible actually tell Christians to do about Satan and spiritual warfare?

We open 1 Peter 5:8-9 and slow down on Peter’s commands to be sober-minded, be watchful, and resist. That leads to a balanced view that takes the devil seriously without becoming preoccupied with him. From there we get practical: humility is not soft, it is protective. We talk humility toward each other through submission, accountability, and staying teachable, and humility toward God through casting anxieties on him, building a real prayer rhythm, and living like we truly depend on Christ.

We also walk through the enemy’s common tactics: deception that makes sin look harmless, Scripture twisted out of context, temptation that hooks into our own desires, and resentment that grows when we refuse to deal with anger quickly. Finally, we connect resistance to holding firm in faith during suffering, with Job as a vivid reminder that hardship is not proof God has abandoned you. If you want a grounded, Bible-centered guide to spiritual warfare, resisting temptation, and staying alert without fear, press play, then subscribe, share, and leave a review. What part hit closest to home for you?

Transcript

The VBS Play That Sparked It

SPEAKER_00 0:00

All right, 1 Peter chapter 5. If you have it, say amen. Well, as most of you have seen, a Kentucky church made national news this week for a controversial VBS play they put on called Shoot the Devil. So in the play, a character portraying the devil was on stage and portrayed to be an enemy of God and an enemy of the children. And so this brigade called the Commandos for Christ entered the stage armed with nerf-like guns. And the kids were encouraged to shout, shoot the devil, blow him up. And they did. And so they shot the devil, somebody tackled him and they dragged him off stage. I was talking with uh Randy this morning, and we just thought, was there nobody in the church that thought, you know what, maybe we should, you know, second, you know, think through this again. Maybe this is not the best idea. You know, I was thinking about that, and I think it's really bad theology, anyways, because the Bible never tells us, as far as I can tell, to attack the devil. How many know that the devil has already defeated? Amen. Christ defeated him at Calvary. His end, destruction has not come, but he is already present tense, a defeated foe. And so I want to read how do we handle the devil? We talked about this last week, and I want to talk about it one more week. So in 1 Peter chapter 5, I just want to quickly read verses 8 and 9, and then in a moment we'll back up to verse 1.

Resist Not Attack The Devil

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Peter writes, Be sober-minded, be watchful, for your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. And notice what he says here. He doesn't say, strengthen up so you can overcome him, attacking, shoot the devil. He doesn't say any of that. What's he say? Resist him. Resist him. There's a couple opening truths that I'm gonna point out in just those two verses. Number one is that the devil is a real adversary, the forces of darkness, the principalities that Paul talks about in Ephesians 6, beloved, those are real. Now, I we last week we looked at the story in Mark 5. Remember of the demoniac? And uh man, this guy was tormented by this legion of demons. He was in the caves crying out night and day, cutting himself. He had Hulk-like power. They couldn't bind him. But he was tormented day and night until he encountered Jesus. This man was possessed. And I argued last week that as Christians, we cannot be possessed by the devil. But how many know that demonic oppression, oppression, is very real?

A Balanced View Of Satan

SPEAKER_00 3:14

So there are two extremes when it comes to the way Christians kind of think about the devil or relate to the devil. Number one is this the first extreme is that they never think about him, they discount him all together. And I don't think that's smart. It's like imagine you were going to the hiking in the smoky mountains. Like you need to think about the possibility of there being bears, right? And you need to prepare accordingly. Like it's not smart just to pretend, pretend like they don't exist. Then there's a second extreme. You've got on one hand, you've got the ones who don't think about the enemy at all, but then you've got people, and you know people like this. I mean, they are infatuated with the devil, and they give him way too much credit. They talk about the devil almost more than they talk about Jesus. And they blame everything on the devil. Your refrigerator goes back and you're like, ah, the devil. Your car breaks down. Ah, you're laying hands on your car, you know, uh casting out the devil of bad mechanical issues. I don't know what you're doing, you know. Um we see the devil in everything, a devil behind every bush. You know, you get a case of the sniffles, and you're casting out the demons of colds or whatever. I think both of those extremes are dangerous. But I think there's a balance. Here's what I would argue that the balance we need when it comes to the devil. We need to take him very seriously without becoming preoccupied with him. Is that fair? Take the devil seriously. He's a real adversary, but don't become preoccupied with him. Now, the second truth I see here, not only is the devil a real adversary, but Christ has empowered us to overcome the devil, to resist, let's say, the devil. We looked at this truth last week, so I won't really draw it out, but unbelievers have no power to resist Satan. Every unbeliever, and this was true of you before you came to Christ, every unbeliever, the Bible says is in the domain of darkness, or the devil's domain, if you will, and they are slaves to sin. And so they have no power to resist Satan. But believers, we have the power of Christ in us, the power of the one who decidedly defeated Satan. His power is in us. We can't resist him in our own strength. We can do nothing, John's gospel tells us, apart from Christ. So I want to talk and draw out this idea because I just mentioned it last week, but I want to talk about how we can resist the devil.

Humility As Spiritual Defense

SPEAKER_00 6:11

We have all the tools we need in Christ to resist the enemy, but we have to learn to appropriate those resources. So let me just give you four ways out of the text to resist the devil. Number one is to remain humble. And Peter's gonna tell us in two ways, and two ways in which we need to remain humble. Number one, we need to be humble toward each other, and number two, we need to remain humble before God. So let's look first at remaining humble towards each other. First Peter 5, 1 through 5. So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the suffering of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that's going to be revealed. Now he's talking to pastors first. He says, Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight. Watch this, not under compulsion, but willingly as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Now watch this clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another. For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Peter says that we are to remain humble towards one another. And let me say this before I dive into this. What does this have to do with the way we relate to the devil? If you are prideful, here's what will happen. You will think, and I've seen a lot of Christians like this. Well, the devil's no match for me. It's like, no, he's a force to be reckoned with. You know, you'll you'll let your guard down, you will not be ready for, and you'll be overcome because of your pride. But not only do you need to be humble in recognizing the strength of the enemy, you need to be humble towards one another. And Peter starts out by addressing pastors, and it's like, well, why do pastors need to be humble? Well, there are many reasons, but a pastor who is not humble will likely become a tyrant. It's all about him. I worked for a pastor like this, and I don't suggest sitting under one. Peter addresses then not just pastors, but all believers. And first he says to the congregants who are under the pastoral leadership, he says, submit to your spiritual leaders. And like that takes humility. You know, I'm 48 years old, and some of you have been a Christian longer than I've been alive. And to be honest, I know it's hard to submit to a pastor who's that much younger than you. And so some of you know the Bible as well or better than I do. But you know, it is a prideful thing to say, I don't care how long you've been saved, I don't even care how long you've been in ministry, to say, I don't need a pastor. You know, I've told you before, I looked look to Dr. Busky as my pastor because I'm not immune to this. I look to my uncle as a pastor in my life. So that takes great humility. You need spiritual leadership in your life. But then, all believers, you and I both, we are to submit one to another. And it's like, why is that important? Why is humility towards one another necessary? Well, you know what pride does? It isolates us. And let me tell you why, because if you are prideful, you will you will feel morally superior, which means you will never take correction from anyone. And that's tragic. Because other people can often see pitfalls that you're getting ready to fall into before you can. Often we're blinded to our own proclivities towards sin. You know, another thing, if you're prideful, you will never learn anything from anybody. You will be unteachable. And you know, the longer I've been in ministry, even when it comes to the Bible, you know what I've learned? How much I actually don't know. Friends, we always need to be learning. And if we're not, if we're not accountable to other men and women of God, and if we're not always learning and growing in Christ, we will be susceptible to the devil's plans. So we need to remain humble towards each other. Then he writes that we need to be humble towards God. Look

Anxiety Prayer And Humbling Ourselves

SPEAKER_00 11:10

at verse 6 into 7. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time he may exalt you. And watch verse 7, casting all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Isn't that good news that you're not uh submitting to a God who wants to crush you like a tyrant? No, you're submitting, you're being asked, commanded even to submit to a God who cares for you. It's a great thing. Well, what's it mean to submit to God or to remain humble towards God? I think we could say it like this: it means to never attempt to exalt yourself to the place of God. Never attempt to rule your own life. Humbly submit to the Lord, realize he transcends you because not everybody believes this. I mean, Adam and Eve in the garden, why did they eat of the fruit? They wanted to be like God. We can have the knowledge of God, we can be like him. Think of the Tower of Babel that God destroyed. We can make it to the heavens, we can be like God, and we could go on and on and on. And is that not extremely Luciferian? Isn't that why Satan fell? Well, how do you remain humble before God? I love this. Very simple, verse 7, because it's hard to see at first glance the connection between remaining humble and casting our cares upon him. In verse 7, he says, cast your anxieties or your cares or your troubles upon him. Well, what does that have have to do with humility? Let me tell you, when you cast your cares upon him, what you're saying is, Lord, I can't manage my own trouble. I'm utterly dependent upon you. And you say, Well, sure, I recognize this. I'm I'm humble before the Lord, I'm dependent upon him. Well, let me give you a test to see if that's really true this morning. Ready? How much do you pray? Do you start your mornings with prayer? Because what do you pray in the morning? According to Jesus' model, prayer. Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us what? This day our what? Daily bread. Give us this day our daily bread. Why pray that in the morning? Well, it's silly to pray, give us this day our daily bread once the day's gone. Like you should pray at night, but pray first thing in the morning. And this is why that's important, because you're saying first thing, even my food, Lord, even my food, I am not capable of getting without your help. Jesus against him, we can do nothing apart from him. Nothing. Lord, we are fully dependent upon you. That is humility. So we resist the devil by being humble. Number

Sober Thinking And Real Consequences

SPEAKER_00 14:12

two, we need to resist the devil by being watchful. By being watchful. Peter tells us in verse eight, he says these words. He says, be sober minded. Be watchful. Because your adversary, the devil, goes about like a roaring lying lion, seeking whom he may devour. Be sober-minded, be watchful. Those words are worth really thinking about, those first few words there. The first imperative is to be sober-minded. The Greek word there is nafo. You learned a Greek word today. Napho, and it means a couple meanings here to be sober, calm, and collected. In other words, be level-headed. That's a word for somebody today. But it also means to be circumspect. Here's what it means: to consider the potential risks and consequences of making a decision. So if you're flirting with following the devil's plan for your life, which would be the antithesis of God's plan, and you think, well, this is harmless. You know, I'll dabble here. You might want to be circumspect. You might want to think of the potential risks and the potential consequences. Here's let me give you an example. Let's say that how we because we don't do this a lot in American culture. Everybody wants to dry a new car, right? New vehicle. Don't you love that new car smell? Oh man. Okay.

unknown 16:15

I had one sample.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

Okay. Well, uh, another story. No, a lot of people they they love to buy a new car. They love fancy cars. They are they're always wanting to trade in, trade up, that kind of thing. Many, many people in our culture. I hope that's not you. But do you know the average car payment right now? Do you know what it is? It's $687 a month. My first house payment was $400 a month. $687 a month. And young people and older people alike are doing it every day. They're going out and getting in that kind of debt because they'll give a loan to anybody. Yeah, pay $60,000 for a car. And then what are Americans doing? See, they don't think about it. Because what does what's a salesperson do when you go and you look at a car? Well, this deal's only gonna last today. Let me tell you something. A good deal today is a good deal tomorrow. All right, and you're pressured, and they'll say, we can get you pre-approved right now before you leave. Okay? And you and you think about the $687 car payment, and you think we can do this, but you don't really think through that. You're blinded. It's what would you say? It's willful blindness, right? But then the car payment comes in. And in six months from now, the the car is depreciated from then the car is depreciated, and it and you're tired of it. It's just another vehicle. And every month, $687, which with a lot of that going to interest. And five years, seven years later, these loans, you're still paying that. You know why? Because you didn't consider the risk and the consequences. And that's what people fail to do when it comes to sin, following Satan's plans. Okay? So be sober-minded, be level-headed. But then he says, be alert. We need to be alert. And here's what that means: never let your guard down.

Never Let Your Guard Down

SPEAKER_00 18:27

Now, many of you, if you've been here a long time, you've heard this story, but some, but many of you haven't. Um, when I first moved here, which it'll be 12 years next week, hard to believe. 12 years next week will be no, next Sunday will be 12 years at this church. That's what it is. That's got it out. Thank you for praying for me. 12 years of preaching, I still can't get a sentence out. So when I moved here, we first bought a house or we rented a house, excuse me, in Lexington because my sons went to school there. And uh we lived in a pretty nice neighborhood and you know, never worried about anything. Well, one day I had been out and I pulled in the garage midday. I was only going to be home for about an hour, and I left my I parked in the garage and left the door open, and I went inside, and I was just sitting on the couch chilling out before I had to go back to work and hadn't been there very long at all, maybe 30 minutes. And uh one of my sons gets home from school. My mother had picked him up and he comes in and he says, Dad's where, Dad, where's your car? And I said, My car's in the garage, son. No, it's not. I said, I'm not in the mood for this. My car is in the garage. Dad, your car is not in the garage. I said, I'm gonna beat you if because if I have to get off this couch and you're lying to me. He said, Dad, I'm serious. We walk out to the garage. My car is not there. And I know my wife didn't take it because it's a stick shift, and well, that's all I'll say. My car was gone, so I called the cops. The cop comes, he says, Are you sure you parked your car in the garage? I said, Absolutely. He said, It's probably stolen. I said, Yeah, Mr. Obvious. I didn't say that. He said, How'd they get into your garage? I said, Well, sir, I left the garage door open. And he goes, Well, how did they get into the car? I see no broken glass, or doesn't look like anything was pride or anything. And I said, Well, sir, I don't really want to say, but I think I left the car unlocked. Well, he said, How do you think they started the car? I said, I might have left the keys and the ignition. He said, Sir, we're gonna look for your car, but please don't ever do that again. And I just walked away with you know my head down. Here's the thing, guys. You know what happened? I was in a nice neighborhood, and I thought it would never happen to me. And I let my guard down. Be watchful. Never let your guard down. Be alert. Isn't that what the devil does? He'll leave us alone for a little while and we'll get comfortable, things are going good, and we think I'm all right. And we'll put down our Bibles and we'll stop praying and we'll stop being alert. And he strikes right at that moment. So that's the that's what it means to be alert. And and here's in order to be alert, here's what you have to do. You have to know the devil's tactics, right? Like, think about this a solid sports team. Do you know they spend hours upon hours every week watching their opponents, their next opponents, opponents. It's game film, right? They're watching games over and over to see their opponent's strategy. I mean, football uh teams, I think they spend like at least eight hours a week going over film. And you know, that's what we need to do. And it's like, well, how do we go over film, you know, the devil's film and learn his tactics? Well, it's called the word of God. Because in Ephesians 6, Paul talks about how we how we ward off the you know, the principalities and powers of darkness. And he gives, you know, he tells us to put on the armor of God, and then he talks to us about taking up an offensive weapon that is the sword of the spirit, which is what? It's the word of God. And so you and I, we we've got to know the word. That's where we learn his tactics. So let me point out just quickly a few tactics of the enemy. Number

Deception And Twisted Scripture

SPEAKER_00 22:50

one, his first tactic is deception. In John 8:44, I won't read this, but Jesus says, just at the last part of that verse, he says, talking about the devil, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. The devil does not just lie, that is his character. He is a liar. Jesus is truth, the devil is a lie. 2 Corinthians 11:3, Paul writes, But I am afraid that as the serpent, that is the devil, deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. Paul's saying, Listen, you go back to the very beginning. What happened to Eve? And to be fair, what happened to Adam? The enemy deceived them. He came in sly and he says, Listen, God didn't really say, He didn't really mean it. Nothing bad's gonna happen to you. And he's slick, he's good at what he does. And Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11, 3, he says, Don't fall into that. Don't let your heart be deceived and led astray by his tactics. One way to open yourself up to the enemy's deception is simply to put down your Bible. Okay. So Satan deceives us, as we see in Adam and Eve, by making sin look satisfying and harmless. How many people have bought into that? They go, Oh, this looks really fun. You know, teenagers, they they go to a party and they go, I know we're not supposed to be drunk and if, you know, and stuff, but this looks really fun. And I'm at this age and I'll grow out of this. It's really fun until you hit somebody and take their life on the way home from a DUI. And you think, you know, the Bible says, and I know this is unpopular, you're not to have a sexual relationship before marriage, but oh, it's really fun. Sure. For a few minutes, until there's an STD or an unwanted pregnancy and all the other things that go with premarital sex. Satan deceives us by making sin look satisfying. I mean, the fruit on the tree of that that even Adam ate of looked really delightful, didn't it? Satan then deceives us by twisting scripture. Let me just read you quickly, Matthew 4, 5 through 7. So Jesus, remember in Matthew 4, he was uh taken to the mountain, led by the Spirit, to be tempted by the devil. Okay? Here's verses 5 through 7. The devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, Said to Jesus, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down. Jump off. For it's written, He will command his angels concerning you. And on their hands they will bear you up. Notice he says, As you is writ as you have written, he's quoting scripture, paraphrasing it, on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone. And Jesus said, Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Now, this kind of reminds me of the couple that climbed the Empire States building this week. That's really putting God to the test. And imagine Jesus standing on this great pinnacle, and the devil says, Just come on, you're son of God. You can do anything. Just jump. The scripture says God's gonna protect you. So the devil pulled that idea from Psalm 91. But do you know what he did? He took it out of context. Jesus quotes another verse, letting Satan know. No, you've got to take the whole counsel of God into consideration. Can I just warn you today that I see these YouTube preachers that make me cringe? And people are sharing their clips because so many things they say in their scripture, right? They preach so well, but they're taken so out of context. This is what happened with the, I mean, I got sucked in years ago to the prosperity gospel, word of faith teachings. And I said, Well, my pastor, my parents, friends would say, Chris, this is not right. And I'd I'd discunt their their words because I'd say, they're using scripture. Satan used scripture, but he twisted it, and that's exactly what happens with many false doctrines today. So we've got to guard our hearts. That's the first tactic of the devil, temptation. Secondly, or excuse me, deception.

Temptation And The Way Of Escape

SPEAKER_00 27:33

The second tactic of the enemy is temptation. And this is generally how the Lord or how the devil works. 1 Thessalonians 3:5, Paul calls Satan what? It's a title, the tempter. Satan is a title too. It's the Satan, the Satan, but he calls them the tempter. Well, what does Satan tempt us with? Sin, which is disobedience to God. Remember, not only did the devil tempt Jesus, he tempted Judas, he tempted Ananias to lie to the Holy Spirit, right? James 1, 14. This is interesting though. So what kind of sin does the devil tempt us with? Watch this. James 1, 14 and 15. Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then, desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown, brings forth death. Do you see the progression here? You've got temptation, sin of the heart. Then that's not dealt with. Sin is born, the action, and then that brings forth hell, essentially. And I'm not obviously we can be forgiven of sin, but but I'm even talking about metaphorical hell on earth. It'll destroy your life. But what's the devil tempt you with here? It's your own sin. You know, people say all the time, um, uh the devil made me do it, right? I remember when my kids were young and we were uh we lived in Tucson, Arizona, and there was this place, my my in-laws were where you're at. You remember this Pinnacle Peak, remember? And it's a steakhouse, and it was like set up as this western town. Very awesome. If you're ever in Tucson, go there. Well, when you walk in the restaurant, there's ties hanging up, like ties that have been cut off hanging up all over the place. And the deal is if you wore a tie into the restaurant, the sheriff would come and he would cut your tie off and hang it up. Well, Connor, my youngest son, who's probably what, three or four Nikki at the time, three, he, Mom, I want to wear a tie. We're going there. I want to wear a tie. She goes, You sure you want to wear a tie? Yeah, I want to wear a tie. It'll be fun. So he wears a tie. So we're eating, we've got our bread and waiting on dinner. And so the sheriff comes up and he gets right next to Connor, my little three-year-old, and he he yells the sheriff at the whole restaurant. He goes, Hey, we've got us the lawbreaker in here. And Connor just looks like this. He goes, What should we do with them? Should we hang him? And they're going, ah. And he said, Son, you've broken the law. And Connor, with tear-filled eyes, looks up that the sheriff points to his mom and said, She made me do it. Listen, we love blaming people. I mean, that's do you remember Adam did this? I mean, God approached Adam because he's the man of the house, even though Eve ate of the fruit first, and he goes, She made me do it. I mean, this is the very first sin story in the Bible, and we love to blame our sin on the devil. Let me tell you this. Does the devil tempt us? Yes. But we are the ones who give in to that temptation. And those temptations are not random. They are the temptations, the besetting sins, as the writer of Hebrews would say, in our hearts. But let me just read you the really good news when it comes to temptation. 1 Corinthians 10, 13. By the way, this is a verse that's misinterpreted a lot. No temptation has overtaken you. Have you ever heard somebody say, God will never give you me more than I can handle? Like they're going through literal hell in their life and they go, well, uh, like they're ready to just crash. And it's like, well, God's not going to give me more than I can handle. And I'm thinking, are you sure? And that's a really arrogant statement because you can't handle anything without the Lord. It's the Lord who can handle your burden, right? So but the correct translation here is temptation. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful. Watch this. He will not let you be tempted beyond your own ability. You cannot say if you're a Christian, the devil made me do it. But with temptation, he'll provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. How do you overcome temptation? You deal with sin when it's in the heart. You don't wait for it to become an action and then try to flee it. You deal with it at the very beginning. That's an important thing. As far as I can tell, there is no difference between resisting the devil and resisting sin. To resist the devil is to resist temptation. Handle sin at the heart level. Let me just give you an example. Let's say that you're prone to substance abuse. And all of a sudden you're having a really, you know, this massive struggle in your life, and those thoughts of dealing with that with alcohol or drugs or whatever it might be, those are that those thoughts keep coming to your mind. Well, you take that and you confess that right then and ask the Lord to help you. But here's the other thing you do. You might need to change your friends, and you might need to change your environment. You might not even go into the bar and grill. You know why? Because Jesus said it'd be better to gouge out your eye than to have both eyes and be thrown into hell. And the point there, it's hyperbole, obviously, but the point is do whatever it takes to resist temptation. So the devil, the devil tempts us. That's a major tactic. Number three,

Resentment Suffering And Holding Faith

SPEAKER_00 34:01

the tactic of the enemy is this. The third tactic is resentment. Oh my goodness. Listen to me, church. Ephesians 4, 26 through 27. Be angry and do not sin. Are we gonna all get angry? Is anybody angry right now? Thank you. Some one person was honest. Be angry and do not sin. Watch this. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil. Did you know you can open yourself up for demonic oppression? Let me tell you one sure way to do that. It is to not handle issues with others immediately. That's what it means. Don't let the sun go down. Jesus said, Remember, if you have aught with your brother, be reconciled, leave your gift at the altar, go be reconciled, and then come back and offer your gift. Why? Because not handling issues leads to resentment. Leads to resentment. And resent resentment will crush you and it will even impact your worship. Do not be resentful. God willing, next week we're gonna be starting a series in Genesis, and just a few weeks we'll be at the story of Cain and Abel. You know why Cain killed his brother? Because he was resentful. Cain thought of himself as a victim. And he hated his brother for his success. And he killed him. Do not let your heart become resentful. And then another way that we that we resist the devil, I'm not gonna give you any more tactics right now, but another way that we resist the devil is to hold on to faith. Let me show you verse 9. Resist the devil, firm in your faith. Now watch this. Knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. Wait a minute. How does that connect? Resist the devil, but the same kind of suffering is being experienced by other people. One of the tactics the devil uses to make us stumble is to doubt God's goodness and suffering. I mean, you've likely been here, like you're trying to serve the Lord, you're going to church. This is true of some of you right now. And there's a problem in your life with the relationship, or maybe it's economically or whatever. You're trying to do everything you can for the Lord. You're being as faithful as you know how to be. And in those moments, is it not tempting to say, God, do you even see me? That is a strategy of an enemy. And where do we see that most clearly in scripture? The story of Job. You go read that. You know, the Bible says Job was a righteous man, right? Upright before the Lord, and the devil comes and says, God, I need somebody to mess with. And uh, you know, sometimes if the devil's messing with you, it actually means you're doing something right. Because he goes, Hey, if you consider Job, he's a pretty good guy. Have you heard of Job? And the devil says, Oh, well, here's the thing. I know about Job. He's an upright guy, but here's the thing: Job only likes you and worships you and does what you ask because you have prospered. He's got money and a big family. I mean, you have blessed him, but you take that away, and Job's gonna doubt you, he's gonna hate you, he's gonna curse you. And God says, All right. He's not gonna do that. Go ahead, give it your best shot. And so Satan does, and Job loses everything. And even Job's friends were going, Job, this is your fault. And his wife was going, You ought to just shake your fist at God and curse him. That's what the devil wants us to do. This is why Jesus was so clear. You're gonna go through struggles and tribulations. And Paul said, keep your eyes on the mark of the high calling. Suffering is a part of life, believer or not. But don't doubt God's love in those moments. We've got to hold on to faith. And so finally, you hold on to faith and you resist the devil by simply, and I said this at the beginning, abiding in Christ. Abiding in Christ. We can do nothing, we cannot defeat the enemy apart from our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

A Soldier Picture And Final Warnings

SPEAKER_00 39:05

Now, this, as we know, is July 4th weekend, and we celebrated our independence and commemorate the men and women who gave their lives and still give so much to purchase and protect our freedom. And so, in light of this holiday and thinking about the military and all of that, I want you to just picture something as I close. Picture a soldier in enemy territory. He survives by staying close to his unit, by obeying his commander and by being alert, right? Those of you who are former soldiers, you know this. Like you have to be, you never let your guard down, men all right. The moment a soldier lets his or her guard down, thinking the threat is no longer real, that soldier becomes vulnerable. True, and it might cost you your life. Peter is saying here that the Christian life is no less serious. We have a real adversary, so stay humble, stay alert, stay firm in the faith. You know, the devil would love nothing more than you, especially you who are strong in Christ, to crush you. Those of you who are flirting with temptation right now, your hearts may be being drawn to somebody other than your spouse. You're you're going back to that flirting with the ideas of drinking again when you know your propensity towards alcohol is very, very real. Or maybe you're so hungry to, you know, you're struggling in the economy and you're really considering doing a shady deal at work. It's like, cut it off at the root. Like, do not wait for the fruit of sin to grow. Here's what the enemy will tell you he'll say to you, it's just a thought. You know, there's nothing wrong with kind of thinking about this. And even if you, you know, you do it on a small degree, it's not gonna really hurt anybody. Satan doesn't show you the ashes, he shows you the little warm flame. But that flame always leads to ashes, always. You have a real adversary. I love hear that Peter says, you. So you might say that to yourself today. I have a real adversary who wants to deceive me, who wants to lead me away from the Lord, who wants to, as he did Peter, sift me as wheat, who wants to make shipwreck of my faith. But here's the good news, church greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. So let's abide in Jesus and resist the enemy with all that's within us.