The Devil Is Real and He Doesn’t Like You
The second sermon in this series was entitled “The Devil’s in Your Desert”. This was a contrast in images from last week’s look at the devil in our garden. The primary text for this sermon was Satan’s temptation of Jesus in the wilderness from Matthew’s gospel 4:1-11. We also looked at what Peter says of Satan in 1 Peter 5:5b-11.
Although these temptations were uniquely messianic they do provide us with a basic scheme from God’s enemy. Life is a desert at times. Sickness, depression, poverty, worry, physical weariness… any of these things come to us in seasons- sometimes long seasons. In this state we become easier prey for our enemy the devil- that roaring lion. That’s why after 40 days of fasting Satan came to Jesus. He was weak, tired, lonely, seemingly broken- lion food.
It was then that Satan used 4 tactics that we would do well to be aware of when we are in the desert.
Scheme 1. He tried to get Jesus to question his identity. Jesus had just been baptized by John and heard the great affirmation. God the Father called out from the heavens "This is my son in whom I am well pleased." That's who Jesus was. But Satan's first two temptations begin with "If you are the Son of God..." It was an attempt to get him to question who he knew he was. Satan's first ploy against us in the desert is the same. Are you really God's child? If God really did care for you why this 40 days of trial and weakness? The truth is we are heirs with Christ- we are God's children and just like it was the Spirit that led Jesus into the wilderness, so too it is God who has led us into our own deserts- because the testing of our faith produces endurance that we may be made mature in Christ Jesus!
Scheme 2. Satan appeals to Jesus' most fundamental need at the moment- his physical hunger. "Turn these stones into bread." Satan would have our carnal appetite distract us from God's greater purposes. C.S. Lewis' demon Screwtape speaks of appealing to that part of his patient over which he had most control- his stomach. Tiger Woods "turned stones into bread" and fed his carnal appetite because he could. He became lion food.
Scheme 3. Satan appeals to that part of Jesus' humanity that was self-aware- his ego. "Throw yourself down off of the temple mount- let the world see how great you are." There is a part of us that longs to be noticed- to be recognized, to be honored in the eyes of others. There is an appetite for ourselves to be the objects of other’s envy. Satan would have us feed our ego just as he would have us feed our physical desires. Screwtape writes, “The Enemy [God] wants to bring each man to a state of mind in which he could build the best Cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in that fact, without being any more or less or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another.”
Scheme 4. Satan appeals to that part of Jesus' humanity that would accumulate earthly glory and excercise power and dominion over others. "Worship me and the world is yours." The will to power is the poison of Satan. The first and worst place he makes this appeal is within the marriage. Satan would have us be people constantly striving for dominion over our own worlds. God, of course, would have us take the lowest seat at the table in order that we might serve.
So how do we withstand the schemes of the devil when he is in our desert? Jesus stood on the rock of the Word of God. How fitting that Jesus' retorts to Satan's temptations all came from the book of Deuteronomy! Deuteronomy was given to the children of Israel when? After 40 years of wandering in the desert where God had brought them right before going into the promised land!
Be alert! Our enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. The devil is in your desert. Let us stand fast on the Word of God knowing that we are his.
Pastor Scott
Click here to listen
No comments:
Post a Comment