Sermon Tone Analysis

Avoiding Satan’s Snares

Text: 1 Peter 5:8

Introduction

At the time the Apostle Peter wrote these lines, no one knew better about the prowling’s of Satan.

We see in scripture that Jesus warns Peter several times that Satan was seeking to influence him, but Peter failed to heed Jesus’ warning.

I’m sure you recall the night of Passover, just before Jesus was crucified.

He had asked the disciples to stay and watch while he prayed:

Today, many Christians have failed to be watchful, they have gone to sleep, opening the way for Satan to go to work.

Today I want to give you three points to help prevent you from the prowling’s of Satan.

The first is:

Don’t Stray

Psalm 119:67 (ESV)

67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.

There are many ways a Christians can go astray.

As you sit there and contemplate this idea you are probably thinking something along the lines of:

A Christian might go astray by giving in to alcohol or drugs, abusing substances that can destroy your body, destroy your family and destroy your career.

Or perhaps you’re thinking a Christian might go astray by pursing the lusts of the flesh.

involving themselves in an inappropriate relationship or becoming involved in pornography, giving in to the baser desires of the human nature.

You may be thinking a Christian might go astray by taking advantage of a business partner or committing petty theft from an employer, or maybe something as simple as not informing someone of all the inconvenient details as you sell them a used car.

Granted a Christian can go astray in these ways and multitude of others, but I think it begins with something that you probably haven’t even thought of yet.

The most common way that a Christian begins to go astray is to neglect their prayer life and fail to study God’s work.

If you neglect your prayer life you are cutting yourself off from that vital communication with God.

Communication is a very important aspect in any relationship.

When a marriage goes astray, it is usually because communication has broken down.

It very well may be attributed to any number of other issues, but the root issue is that communication has broken down.

If we cut off our communication with God, then our relationship with Him will go astray.

In the Old Testament book of Jeremiah, it says:

And the Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians:

Often when we start to neglect our prayer life, then we also start to neglect the study of God’s word.

Imagine you just paid a lot of money to see a popular play, a Broadway production that is being brought to your local area.

You enter the theater and take your seat.

Pretty soon the curtain rises as your anticipation rises, but something is wrong.

The actors seem to have forgotten their lines and they are talking over each other.

Their movements seem unsure, and they are running into each other.

The backdrop behind the actors has nothing to do with the scene that is supposed to be playing out.

And you’re wondering, “what in the world is going on, what has gone wrong?”

The problem is none of the actors have studied the script.

They have no idea which way to go because they are standing on the stage at a loss as to what their next line or next move is to be.

You see God’s Word is His script-ure.

He is committed to the script.

Studying scripture is digging into the Word, it’s getting an understanding of what is written so we can know God and do what God wants us to do in the way He wants us to do it.

The Psalmist says in 119:162:

I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil.

This verse says, as you study, and God opens up His Word, it’s like finding treasure.

I bet you never thought of the Bible as a treasure map.

So, what happens when we don’t study?

We end up just like those actors in that Broadway play.

We don’t know just where to go, or just what to do, and things will just end up all wrong.

The famous Christian writer Corrie Ten Boom said:

“When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles.

When he stops studying the Bible, the devil laughs.

When he stops praying, the devil shouts for joy.”

The Apostle Paul told us:

You cannot be a complete man of God without studying scripture.

The next step in avoiding Satan’s snares after Don’t Stray is:

Don’t Strut

Proverbs 16:18 says:

“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

Some Christian lack humility.

They desire the praise and honor of people, rather than the approval of God.

John 12:43 (ESV)

43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.

Here John is talking about people who had heard the call of God, believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah, but they would not confess the name of Jesus.

And the reason they would not is because they did not wish to lose their coveted position in the synagogue.

They had too much pride in their position to give that up.

Isaiah 2:12 (ESV)

12 For the Lord of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up—and it shall be brought low;

There is an account in the 26th chapter of Acts where Paul is telling King Agrippa about his conversion experience on the road to Damascus.

Afterward, Kind Agrippa says:

Acts 26:28 (ESV)

28 (And Agrippa said to Paul), “In a short time would you persuade me to be a Christian?”

Agrippa was almost ready to accept Jesus, but his position just would not allow him to do so.

Today we have much the same situation.

There are a great many people who have a certain spiritual sensitivity to the message of Jesus Christ but they are just not ready to commit themselves to Jesus because of the social price they would have to pay.

You need to have an awareness of people who are in this situation.

You probably have had people in your life who were on the edge of making that decision for Jesus, but because of pride of life, they just couldn’t do it.

Your task, in this case, is to ensure them that they are not alone in dealing with this.

They need to see that they have some support from someone.

God places these people in our paths for a reason.

You are there to show them love, and answer their questions and assure them that they are not alone as they travel this path.

No one had more reason to be prideful than Jesus, but we never see Jesus being prideful in scripture.

Instead, we see the humbleness in Jesus.

If you think of a king on one hand, and a servant in the other, you probably will not see too many things in common with each other.

Jesus left a throne in heaven to be servant on earth.

Jesus was also humble in regard to His father who sent Him.

We must be humble too.

We avoid Satan’s snares by doing those things that are pleasing to God and by giving Him first place in our lives.

And the last point after don’t Stray and don’t Strut is:

Don’t Stop

Life is full of examples of people who have stopped.

They have stopped going to church.

They have stopped reading the Bible.

They have stopped praying.

They have stopped witnessing to others about Christ.

They have just stopped.

Covid presented a wonderful excuse for people to stop, but people have always found reasons to stop.

“I can’t go to church anymore, it’s just too full of hypocrites.”

Sure, the church has its share of hypocrites, just like every segment of life.

Have you ever heard anyone say they quit that job because the workplace held too many hypocrites?

If we want to stop, we can always find excuses, but there are really no excuses that justify us stopping in growing our relationship with God.