Friendship with Satan

Intro

We are in week two of our sermon series, Friends: I’ll be there for you!

Friendship is important, you were designed to be in friendship.

Matter of fact, the Bible was written with community in mind! We tend to read it with just us in mind, God had community in mind. You most likely is You’ll, You All.

We need friendships in our lives, people who will be there for us.

Last week we talked about you being there for you, otherwise we really cannot live out the great commandment to love your neighbor as yourself.

This week

This week we are looking at friendship with Satan.

Is friendship with Satan a good thing? NO!

He says he will always be there for you, but it isn’t they type of thing you want there.

But, before we even talk about what this friendship looks like, lets set some ground work down, is there a satan?

Picture of typical satan

Isn’t this what we typically think about, this evil looking guy, dressed in red, horns and a pitch fork, with a menacing laugh as he stirs a pot of trouble.

Church - which is more dangerous - if your enemy comes right at you or if you cannot tell who your enemy is?

Think about espionage - sending spies to the enemy and they don’t realize the ones they are trusting are not actually on their side, they are looking for something to destroy them.

So why would satan look like this?

Paul tells us

2 Corinthians 11:14 NIV

And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.

Something beautiful, not fearful at sight, but something to draw you in.

So it would reason that satan would not look like that, but when we see him we will not recognize him as satan.

Isn’t that scary!

Maybe you are not convinced yet...

Is Jesus real? Yes.

Do we have Jesus’ words and life story? Yes

Did Jesus believe there wa a satan? YES

Jesus know there is a Devil

Jesus even told his disciples

Luke 10:18 NIV

He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

If Jesus says there is a satan, guess what...

Why do we have this notion that there isn’t one? Because the master of lies and convinced us he doesn’t exist, and when we are not thinking about him he is up to his espionage games.

“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” - C.S. Lewis

Why - because now our guard is down, now we will become friends with him and not even realize it is him.

There are times you don’t want someone to join your group of friends, this is one of those times!

We don’t spot him as easily as this video shows -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDjlrVTPPQI - (stop at 45 seconds in)

It continues showing Satan and 2020 having a picnic in an empty football stadium, working out in an empty gym on equipment that says they are closed, enjoying a movie at a closed theater, sealing toilet paper out of restrooms, 2020 trying to pull satan into a church, burning tp, and finally saying they just don’t want this year to end…

That would be easier! You would know what you are up against, but it doesn’t work that way.

Friendship with Satan is deceptive.

Look with me to Gen 3

Genesis 3:1 NIV

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’?”

Time out - shouldn’t Eve be screaming, ahhhhh, it’s the devil, get away?

Why wasn't that her response?

Or a better question is how many times had Satan met with her for her to let her guard down and not be threatened by this creature?

He is deceptive and will cause you to let your guard down, then comes the lies.

Genesis 3:2–4 NIV

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 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.’ ” “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman.

What kind of death are we talking about here?

Spiritual death, eventual death, or immediate death?

Spiritual death is when there is a separation between us and God - Did Adam and Eve experience this death? Yes!

Eventual death, did Adam and Eve die? Yes! What that the original plan? NO. They had the tree of life in the garden, they could eat freely from it, God intended on them living forever!

BUT, once sin enters the equation, once they enter a life of deciding for themselves is this good or bad, which is not what God desired, God said let me tell you what is good, they said no we will find out for ourselves…the hard way,

Then God said

Genesis 3:22 NIV

And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”

The problem with us, with humanity, is we want to do things our way instead of God’s way, we want to see if we can be God…Pride - like we talked about last week.

Eve even calls it out.

Genesis 3:13 NIV

Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

(show mind craft church)

My son loves playing this game called mind craft. It’s a world in the computer where you take square blocks to create whatever you want. Digital legos in a way. As you are running through this world, building and destroying, your character becomes hungry, and to stay alive they have to eat.

Most items you eat fill you up, every know and then you will come across something that will make you sick and not be good for you.

This is exactly what Adam and Eve went through, it looks good, why not…oh dear, maybe we shouldn’t have done that.

It is taking what God created and perverting it, change it from what it was meant for. This fruit was the only way they could disobey God. It was created in order to give humanity the chance to follow God by not eating it, and they ate it.

Friendship with the devil is a perversion.

Satan has no real power, only to take what is good and pervert it, change it.

Like with Eve, satan didn’t create the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but he abused the purpose for it, convince them to eat of it.

Soap, it is a good thing. It cleans clothes and allows us to smell nice. That is its purpose, to clean clothing or other things.

Humans see this great invention and say hey, let’s consume them instead, or put them up our nose...

NOT what it was made for!

Antifreeze - a good thing. Keeps our vehicles working in the winter, keeps our RV’s and boats from breaking, even a little in our ice-cream, very little, keeps it eatable but not frozen- don’t add it yourself, let the companies handle that.

The perversion is when we start dumping it in our gas tank, or on our ice cream…it wasn’t made for that.

It is taking what God made and perverting it.

God gave us relationships - we have followed the perversion that we don’t need them. That we are most important in them, that people should accept me just as I am will all of my flaws that I don’t choose to change.

You were given free-will, to choose to follow God, to love Him, and be in relationship with him.

Satan comes and plays on your free-will convincing us to do something different.

Friendship with the devil is filled with lies.

Once our guard is down, we start befriending this deceptive liar, we are more prone to hear him out.

Mind you this is all in our minds, but it is as real as thinking! You can’t see a thought, but they are there!

Sadly, so is an outside influence playing on our thoughts. Sometimes it is something that was passed onto us years ago, sometimes it is happening right now.

When I was very young my mother and I were downtown and something was being passed out, I can’t remember what it was but I remember my mother trying to convince me to go get whatever was being handed out because I deserved it.

At the time I didn’t really want it, and I questioned her, why do I deserve, what have I done to deserve it?

Years later, her voice is still in my head…you deserve this…No I don’t.

It’s simply lies that come into our heads. It distracts us and destroys us.

What looks good really causes damage.

What how this plays out for Jesus:

(Walking through this section)

Matthew 4:1–11 NIV

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Jesus saw through these lies, but they were real temptations!

But they were also lies that would lead to death, separation from God and separation from what God had sent Jesus to do.

Friendship with the devil is to be against God.

The truth is we are either following God, walking towards God, or away from God. There is no neutral ground. What the devil is selling always looks good, but it leads to death and separation from God, because there is only one Lord in our life.

It is God? Is it You? Is it the liar who wants to get you away from God?

Literally, that is all satan is trying to do, get you away from God. Kill and destroy. He is a thief, taking from God what is His, you!

John 10:10 NIV

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Listen to Pauls advice here in Gal.

Galatians 5:13–26 NIV

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other. So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

For Paul, for Jesus, for me, it really comes down to this, who is Lord or your life?

The acts of the flesh, that is pleasure, which pleasure is made by God, this list shows the perversion of it by satan, is that was is Lord in our lives? Or is it the Spirit? Is it Jesus Christ?

Please don’t hear condemnation, hear a warning of what Friendship with satan looks like.

We have one who loved us enough to defeat death, to defeat satan, praise the Lord we are made new through Christ!

But we forget this at times.

We are deceived at times.

Our desires trick us, we say it’s just a little bit, it’s only a little bad...

Video - Poop- Brownies

Hope the kids were watching that one...

But it is a reality…just a little is still a little! It is still not what God wants for us because God wants the best for us, Amen?!

Friendship with Satan, no matter how great it looks, is not the best for us.

Instead,

2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

We say no to the lies, and yes to Jesus. Does this bring glory to God or only to me? Lord help me to decide what is best according to what you say is best.

You tell satan to go to hell, and be done with that friendship. Amen?

Because we have one who isn’t call the accuser, rather one who is the loving shepherd.

Not one who throws into our faces when we mess up, one who loves us even when we mess up.

Not one who says we are nothing, but one who builds us up and makes us everything!

Today, we get to see how this played out in one persons life…watch as one person shares how she is living for Jesus, making Him Lord or her life.

Show Ellies Video

Ellie is all in for Jesus.

She is wanting to become a member of Engage church, a group of people who are all in for Jesus, to Engage Christ and His word, to Engage one another, and to show that Jesus cares.

She has said no to friendship with satan, and Yes to Lordship of Jesus.

Ellie, come on up.

You have shared your testimony, and love for Christ.

Do you reject friendship with Satan, and say no to his lies and schemes?

Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God’s only begotten son, God in flesh?

Do you believe Jesus died on the cross for your sins, and three days later was resurrected?

Do you desire to call Engage church your home church, to continue to grow in your faith, and to serve Christ’s mission for our church?

Church - do you accept Ellie into this church, promising to support her, pray for her, encourage her and worship Christ with her, accepting her as a full member of Engage Church?

Let us pray:

Offering