What Happens When You Talk To The Enemy?
From Creation To Covenant • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
Remember…the serpent is Satan. And anytime Satan speaks to you, his goal is to destroy you
Every whisper is a temptation
Every temptation is a trap
Every trap leads to death
It’s been the same way since the very beginning…
2 The woman said to the serpent, — Eve starts down a dangerous path here…talking to Satan NEVER ends well — “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When Eve responded to Satan, she inadvertently allowed his question to become a whole conversation.
As a result, Eve began to question what God really meant
Eve became more focused on WHAT God commanded than on WHY He commanded it
Eve is going to learn… Satan lies.
Satan always initiates the sin cycle with SUSPICION
Losing sight of God’s purpose makes us question God’s wisdom
Satan tempted Eve to DOUBT THE WAY OF GOD
When he says “You will not certainly die,” he suggests that God will not follow through on His promises
When he says, “your eyes will be opened…and you will be like God,” he makes it appear as if the way of God is a barrier instead of a pathway to her good
Satan always wants to turn the way of God upside down — he wants to make God seem LIKE A PROBLEM, RATHER THAN A BLESSING
Today, Satan continues to do the exact same thing…
He insists that God is not holding people up — but instead is holding us back
He insists that rejecting God’s way won’t being judgment — but instead equality with God
He insists that rebelling against God won’t destroy our lives — but instead will allow us to truly live
If you start a conversation with Satan, you’ll learn the same thing that Eve learned… Satan lies.
The glaring problem in Genesis 3 is that Eve is talking TO Satan ABOUT her problems with God — instead of talking TO God ABOUT her problems with Satan.
When Satan can get someone to commiserate with him about how bad their life is, he can begin to spin a web of…
Suspicion
Doubt
Distrust
Disobedience
Satan lies.
And talking to him — even just LISTENING TO HIM — is the ultimate act of self-sabotage.
Satan’s lies lead to sin.
6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
When we sin, it almost always begins with lust or pride.
Either we really, really, REALLY want something (LUST)
Or we think we really, really, REALLY deserve it (PRIDE)
When Eve ate the fruit — WHICH WAS SIN — she ate it for those 2 reasons…
It “was good for food and pleasing to the eye” — LUST
It was “desirable for gaining wisdom” — PRIDE
Have you ever wondered how that conversation between Adam and Eve went???
Eve — “It looks like something we want”
Adam — “I’m not so sure…”
Eve — “It looks like it’ll make us better off”
Adam — “I’m not so sure…”
Eve — “Just trust me”
Adam — “I guess if we do it together, it’ll be ok”
When I consider it, it’s a LOT like the conversation we have with ourselves…
It looks good…and it’s just one more click, after all…
I deserve it…and I’ve been under a lot of stress, after all…
It looks good…and it’s just an emotional affair, after all…
I deserve it…and it’s just an anonymous betrayal of a co-worker, after all…
It looks good…and everyone else is doing it, after all…
I deserve it…and I should be happy, after all…
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Adam and Eve sinned and their very first inclination was to cover it up.
They didn’t want confess it.
They didn’t want to correct it.
They wanted to cover it.
And to this day, you and I treat sin the exact same way.
God wants to cut out the roots of sin but our shame drives us to bury it as deep as it can get.
8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
10 He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
Sin builds shame.
So we hide…
From the people who love us
From the places that are healthy for us
From the God who has a great plan and purpose for us
11 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
God would go on to tell Adam and Eve the consequences of their choice to sin
But…here…ON THE VERY FIRST DAY THAT PEOPLE DISCOVERED THE HORROR OF SIN…
God promised victory.
Just when it seemed like you were about to be in checkmate, finished and done, God stepped in and proceeded to provide a path to victory.
And God has never stopped promising you victory ever since that very first moment.
I’m reminded of a moment in 2 Kings with a prophet named Elisha…
14 Now Elisha had been suffering from the illness from which he died. Jehoash king of Israel went down to see him and wept over him. “My father! My father!” he cried. “The chariots and horsemen of Israel!”
Jehoash was NOT a godly king — but he recognized Elisha as a prophet of God.
“The chariots and horsemen of Israel” was a title Elisha had used to refer to the prophet Elijah, who had proceeded him.
15 Elisha said, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he — the king — did so. 16 “Take the bow in your hands,” he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put his hands on the king’s hands.
17 “Open the east window,” he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and he — the king — shot. “The Lord’s arrow of victory, the arrow of victory over Aram!” Elisha declared. “You will completely destroy the Arameans at Aphek.”
18 Then he said, “Take the arrows,” and the king took them. Elisha told him, “Strike the ground.” — It’s a bit unclear what this meant…either he instructed the king to “shoot into the ground” or to “hit the ground”…either way, it’s a similar and kind of simple instruction — He struck it three times and stopped.
The king wanted a path to victory…
Elisha said “Hit the ground with the arrows…”
The king did it 3 times, thought, “That’s probably good enough,” and called it a day…
19 The man of God — Elisha — was angry with him and said, “You should have struck the ground five or six times; then you would have defeated Aram and completely destroyed it. But now you will defeat it only three times.”
******
Can I draw a connection for you???
You have an enemy who is LYING to you
The enemy’s LIES are leading to SIN
That SIN leads to SHAME and DEFEAT and DEATH
Your God promised you VICTORY
But too many of us aren’t willing to do EVERYTHING that is required…
Repent of sin…
Ok…
1 - I feel sorry
2 - I’ll try harder
3 - I asked God to forgive me
“That’s good enough”
True repentance…
Name it clearly — “This is lust…pride…dishonesty.”
Own it fully — “I chose this.”
Turn decisively — “I’m not managing this anymore…I’m killing it”
Create boundaries…
Ok…
1 - I’ll be more careful
2 - I’ll know my own limits
3 - I can handle it
“That’s good enough”
True boundaries…
Remove access
Change actions — not just intentions
Invite accountability — not just willpower
Build new disciplines…
Ok…
1 - I’ll just stop
2 - I won’t do it again
3 - I’ll resist next time
“That’s good enough”
True discipline…
Redirect desire
Rewire habits
Rebuild trust with God
And I hear the Word of God saying…
If you would go ALL IN…you would have complete victory.
But if you only go PART OF THE WAY...you’ll always be dissatisfied with partial victory
The serpent’s head was meant to be permanently crushed…but too many of us are settling for a bruised heel and temporary victory.
INVITATION: Surrender to Jesus
CHALLENGE: Refuse to speak to the Enemy
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
Where do you most often find yourself “talking to the enemy” instead of talking to God?
What situations, emotions, or seasons tend to open that conversation for you?
What lies or half-truths tend to sound most convincing in those moments?
What would it look like to take those same concerns directly to God instead?
What lies have you believed that made sin seem reasonable—or even necessary?
How did those lies reframe God’s commands as restrictions rather than protection?
In what ways did suspicion or doubt come before the behavior itself?
How can you intentionally replace those lies with God’s truth this week?
When you recognize sin in your life, how do you typically respond first?
Do you tend to confess, justify, hide, or minimize—and why?
How has shame influenced the way you deal with sin in the past?
What would honest, specific repentance look like in your current situation?
Where might you be settling for “partial victory” instead of God’s full freedom?
In what areas have you done something but resisted doing everything God is asking?
What boundaries have you avoided because they felt inconvenient or extreme?
How might obedience in one neglected area change the outcome of the battle?
What new disciplines could help you stop revisiting the same sin cycle?
What habits or patterns currently create space for temptation to grow?
Which spiritual disciplines (Scripture, prayer, community, accountability, fasting, etc.) could replace those patterns?
What is one concrete step you will take this week to “strike the ground” again?
PRAYER PROMPTS:
