Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Amen. Well, I'm going to start a talk now called the battle for our minds. There are three sources of challenge to us. Living in the fullness of the life that God has for us. Because God has the plans of good life for us. John 1010 says that Jesus came, that we might have life in all its fullness, but there are obstacles for us to step into that fullness. It's not just a simple case of you becoming a follower of Jesus, and then everything is full of that abundant life. There are challenges along the way. There are hurdles that you have to overcome. And there are things that we need to make sure don't stop us from entering into it. There are three things that will try to stop us from entering into the fullness of the life of God. The first one is the world. That's quite a big thing, isn't it? I don't mean the world, the globe. I mean the cultures and the ways of this world that are contrary to the things of God will try to hinder us and stop us stepping into the fullness of Christ. The second, and this sounds a bit like a zombie film, the flesh. The flesh. What is that? Well, you and I have some instincts in our flesh that are not necessarily good for us. I've been praying for a while that the Lord will cause my flesh to crave salad, and it just doesn't work. It seems like my body, my flesh craves the things that are calorific, high in sugar. Why is that? And in the same way, in the natural, the flesh often has an instinct that's unhealthy, that there's a flesh in terms of our spirituality, that tries to influence us in a way for things that are not healthy. So there's the world, the flesh, and then there's the third, which is the devil, Satan. Call him whatever name you want to. And modern western society doesn't want us to believe that the devil is real and exists, wants us to imagine he's some sort of fairy tale and that it's not a reality. But the scripture teaches us that the devil is a reality. And John eight, verse 44. Jesus called the devil the father of lies. Now, that's not a very nice description. If you're going to father something, then make sure it's not lies. All right. Father of lies, he's the originator of deceitfulness. He's the originator of those things that are far away from the truth.
[00:02:42] And one of the biggest lies he sows is that he doesn't exist.
[00:02:47] And it's to his advantage if we have a society that doesn't believe the devil exists, because if the world believes the devil exists, then they want to crave the light of Christ.
[00:02:58] And so the easiest thing is to pretend he doesn't exist and just to lurk in the shadows. But don't mistake that with not understanding that he's at work in the earth and he's at work in a very real way. He's real.
[00:03:14] But the good news is this. Jesus came to destroy all the works of the devil. All the works.
[00:03:21] There's a cosmic battle been taking place over the generations between good and evil, truth and lies, light and darkness. But that cosmic battle is not going to be a flip of a coin. The outcome is not uncertain. The outcome is absolutely cast iron guaranteed that Jesus wins, that light triumphs over darkness, that truth triumphs over the lies. That's a cast iron guarantee. If you're not sure of that, then sit down with someone who knows Jesus and let them show you in the Bible the promises that Jesus has overcome the enemy through the death and resurrection of Christ. Jesus the devil is a created being. He's not divine. He was created by God, and therefore his power is not equated to the power of God or the power of Jesus. Yes, he has power, but it is nothing in comparison to Jesus. So if you're on the side of truth today, be aware that you are not in this contention with someone who is equal to us. That greater is he who lives in us than he that lives in the world. But he is a deceiver.
[00:04:30] And this deception, we seek deception everywhere around us in this world. In fact, in 2015, there was a company in California that somebody pretending to be the CEO of that company wrote to one of their finance people and said, I'd like you to transfer some money into some accounts. And this conscientious financial person in their department thought, I better do what the CEO asks, and he transfers 39 million U. S. Dollars.
[00:05:00] But it wasn't the CEO.
[00:05:02] That money was fraudulently gained from that company. There have been many others. Maybe you have had people impersonate others. Sometimes some of the staff here, they get emails purported to be from me saying, oh, I'm in a bit of difficulty. Can you create some or can you buy some Amazon vouchers to help me? What?
[00:05:25] That's really going to help, isn't it? I've had people contact me, say I'm stuck in Bulgaria. Could you wire me some money? My phone has gone missing.
[00:05:34] Yeah, right.
[00:05:36] And maybe you've had some of those messages. I remember the first time that I received an email purporting to be from someone who was heading up a trust fund from an ambassador that had died, that it was a multimillionaire and he had no surviving family. And so this person purportedly was now saying they were representing the trust and I had come to their attention and they wanted to give me some of the millions. I remember, yes, God, thank you for your provision. How wonderful. What a miracle this is. It's not a miracle. It's a fraudulent spam.
[00:06:10] And we are aware of the concepts of the difficulties of the hazards of spam in today's world. I don't mean that stuff that used to pretend to be meat in tins. I don't mean the stuff that comes into your email inbox or the stuff that arrives on your phone saying, I'm from your bank and there's been a security threat with your bank account. Please click this link and log in to affirm your security details. Don't do it. It's not your bank. Don't fall for it. But the thing is, you see, if you've fallen for one of those things once, you will never fall for them again. But I keep finding christians that keep falling for the same deceptive spam time after time after time. The enemy keeps putting things in their minds that they keep falling for, and it keeps keeping them from the purposes of God in their life. And we need to learn church. We need to wise up to the things of God and to the wily schemes of the enemy. See, we have spam filters in our email inbox, and we need spam filters in our lives in terms of our spiritual walk. We need to be aware of what's deceptive, what's deceitful, because the design of the enemy is to keep us away from the purposes of God. So how does the devil deceive us? Well, he sends spam thoughts to our minds. We read in John's gospel, chapter 13, verse two, talking about Judas Iscariot. You remember the disciple who betrayed Jesus. It says this, the evening meal was being served and the devil had already prompted. Judas Iscariot sent him some spam thought into his mind and the son of Simon to betray Jesus. This wasn't just Judas having a thought of, I fancy some extra silver, some 30 pieces of silver. I'm going to betray Jesus. This was a deceptive, spamful thought that had come into Judas mind and Judas had gone with it.
[00:08:14] Now, it's important to note that the devil can't make you do anything.
[00:08:20] He gives a thought, and it's our decision as to whether that happens.
[00:08:26] If you reply to one of those texts that say, this is your bank, please log in. It's your decision. They can't take money out of your account unless you are part of that process.
[00:08:40] And the same with the devil. He can't rob you or steal from you, but he will try to deceive you to a place where you allow him to lead you down a path that will take you away from the best that God has for you.
[00:08:54] Judas did that much devastating results for him, ended up taking his life. We see this account in acts five, where this couple had sold their field and their possessions, and they were bringing the money to the feeding apostles. They were saying it was all their money, but it wasn't. It was a large section of money, but it wasn't all of it. They tried to deceive. If you try to deceive, be aware. The origins of that can never claim to be godly.
[00:09:23] Deception is always something that comes from the father of lies.
[00:09:28] And Peter said this in acts five, three. Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? How is it that you've allowed this spam to come so much into your heart and mind that it has caused you to do this deceitful thing?
[00:09:51] There are three ways that I find that the enemy wants to keep us off track. The things of God. The first is temptation. The second is accusation. And the third is deception. And if you imagine you're running a race on an athletics track and you're running this race with all of your might, and, you know, just like the apostle said, I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. The enemy, the devil. Satan cannot run onto the track and push you out of the way. He cannot knock you over. He can't stick his foot out and trick you. But he can call from the side, and he calls from the side with three things, temptation, accusation and deception. Let's look at temptation. First of all, when you're tired and you're finding the race difficult and your resilience and resistance is low, he might tempt you with something that looks like a better offer than the road that you're on right now, maybe those marriage vows that you made before the sight of God, maybe the tiredness and the strain and the arguments and the pressures have now kicked in and someone in your workplace flutters their eyelashes at you and maybe that feels that temptation is a way out of your issue. Tell you what, it's not a way out. It's a way into. Difficulty is a way to step away from the things that God has his best for you. The temptation is designed to take you out of God's race. It's designed to come and to bring you to a place where you are sidelined from the purposes that God has. I got good news for you.
[00:11:35] Jesus came full of grace and truth, and he's a God who brings fresh mercy every morning. He's a God of restoration. He's a God who repairs broken relationships. He's a God that restores those things that are irreconcilable. God is an amazing God who brings hope and life no matter how desperately difficult the situation feels. That's our God. And I've sat and worked with couples that have experienced and gone through the trauma and the pain of infidelity in their relationship. And I've seen God beautifully restore. That's what our God does when we go his way.
[00:12:08] But temptation, however that might look, might not be relational temptation, but it might be something that's trying to take you off the purposes of God. Secondly, accusations from the sidelines. He shouts, you're an awful Christian.
[00:12:22] You're not as good a runner as the people around you. Look at your technique, look at the gate, look at the trainers you're wearing. They're not as good as other people's. And he throws these accusations.
[00:12:35] Somebody in this room thinks that they're the worst Christian in this church.
[00:12:42] It's probably more than one of you think that because the enemy is on the sideline shouting accusation after accusation.
[00:12:52] He's the father of lies and his goal is to stop you running towards the purposes of God. And then thirdly, the deception.
[00:13:01] He shouts, hey, I've got a better way. I've got a shortcut for you. I've got some other way that you can engage in this. It's an easier way to follow.
[00:13:13] Jesus doesn't always lead us to the simplest path or the most popular pathway. He doesn't lead us to the places that win us the biggest accolades. He calls us to be faithful, to run the race. Well, you see, but the design of temptation, accusation, deception, is to take you out of the race.
[00:13:33] And what happens is, as we allow this voice and we don't look and we don't see the devil on the sideline, we think it's an internal voice, the spam gets through, and we think, oh, that's come from me. Yes. I'm the worst Christian in the room.
[00:13:46] We internalize it, and we think it's from us. But once we've allowed that temptation or that accusation or deception to distract us, it's like we open a doorway into our lives, and the devil gets a legitimate place of influence. The Bible calls this a foothold.
[00:14:04] Now, Jesus purchased his followers with his own blood.
[00:14:10] So this is not a debate as to whose you are Jesus. If you've given your life to him, if you've received the forgiveness and the mercy of the Lord, if you are following him, you are his.
[00:14:25] There's no debate or discussion about that. But what the enemy does, he wants to get a foothold.
[00:14:31] He wants to create some inroads into our lives where he can influence us destructively.
[00:14:38] And when he gains a foothold through temptation or accusation or deception, this can easily be dealt with, because there's no match between the power of God and the power of the devil.
[00:14:52] But we need, in order to get to that place of freedom, to get the foothold out of our life, we need to allow God to deal with the root cause that gave access to the foothold in the first place. And that root cause is often dealt with repentance.
[00:15:07] One of the most common footholds I see in people's lives is unforgiveness of others, because it doesn't fully appreciate the scale and the depth of God's love and grace to us.
[00:15:19] It shows that we don't understand it if we can't minister it, because we're so overwhelmed by the greatness of his love that surely we must distribute that to others.
[00:15:31] Guard our minds.
[00:15:33] We know that if a thought is from the devil or from our own imagination, how do we know that?
[00:15:39] Sometimes we don't. But it doesn't matter, because the strategy of dealing with the thoughts is exactly the same.
[00:15:46] Two Corinthians ten, verse five says that we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.
[00:15:55] And we take captive every thought, whether they come from the devil or whether they come from the flesh or whether they come from the world. We take captive every thought, and we make it obedient to Christ.
[00:16:09] Listen, you spam thought, you obey Christ. Now, I'm not letting you get any further in my life. I'm wrapping you up. I'm chaining you up, and you stay there until you obey Christ.
[00:16:20] I don't feel a very good christian. Listen, that thought, I am owned by God. I'm his child. I'm loved by God. His mercy is new every morning. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You sit there and you obey the word of God, and we've got to start taking captive every thought that comes into our minds that takes us off the track that God has for us and make it to a place that surrenders to the truth of God. Scripture says, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
[00:16:57] But how do you know what's true?
[00:17:00] See, I meet some christians. They're obsessed with the devil.
[00:17:04] They are obsessed with talking about darkness and spiritual warfare, and those things are real. But I do not think it's healthy to be obsessed with them.
[00:17:14] I don't think it's good for you. I think if you've got an over fascination with the devil, you probably need some prayer ministry, because there is a bigger issue that you need to be fascinated by, and that's God.
[00:17:33] Number of years ago, Neera and I were overseas on holiday, and we went to a big market.
[00:17:39] It was one of these markets where hundreds of stalls, all exactly the same. It looked like the Scooby Doo set where. You know what I mean by that?
[00:17:46] Scooby Doo runs, doesn't he? And there's tables and just lots of food, and all the food looks the same. They go through the phases. And this market was just loads of stores that all look the same. And there was one store that I saw, and there were loads of stores just the same, but they sold watches. And I bought a tag, her watch.
[00:18:08] It wasn't real, but it looked lovely. It was a fake. A fake tag, her watch. It felt weighty. I had a good price. I think I paid €10 for it. And I used to wear this tag, her watch. And people would say, well, I like your watch. Yeah, it's lovely tag. It's lovely, isn't it? And one day it stopped working.
[00:18:30] So I took it to the tag. Her main dealer took the watch off. I put it before them and said, I wonder if you could fix my watch? They picked the watch up, they looked at it for a second, they handed it back and said, you better leave now, sir.
[00:18:49] How do they know that it was a fake watch? They didn't pull it apart. They didn't look inside. How did they know it was fake?
[00:18:56] Because they handled the real ones all the time.
[00:19:02] You and I were called to be people that are able to discern good and evil, truth and lies, because we handle the truth all the time.
[00:19:16] We need to become people that are proficient not with understanding all the intricacies of the darkness but understanding the wonders of the truth.
[00:19:26] When you know what is true, then it allows you to discern.
[00:19:32] Spend your time knowing the truth and the fake will jump out at you with increasing ease and discernment. As I close Philippians four eight says these words, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. Let's pray together.
[00:20:11] God of truth, God of power, God of freedom.
[00:20:21] We ask that our lives will be filled with the truth of God, that every lie, every deception of the enemy will be exposed for the destructive thing that it is and that we will serve you and walk in the light and run our race really well and finish to take hold of the prize for which you have given us in Christ Jesus.
[00:20:51] Amen.
