Don't Believe This Voice (p. 1)
Notes
Transcript
Handout
A young couple had dated in High School and their adored each other. They planned on getting married. However, a handsome young man came to town. He attracted the attention of a number of young ladies. He set his sights on the fiance. He spent a great deal of money and dressed in the latest fashion.
He wooed her and told her he had to leave town for new business opportunities. He promised to take care of her and take her on great adventures. She snuck away with him one evening confusing her family and devastating her fiance.
Months went by and not a word from her. Then one night she returned home. The charlatan took her money, used her and left her penniless. She had to beg and borrow bus money to get back home.
The moment her fiance heard about her return. He promptly went to her house. He knocked on the door. Her mother answered. He said, I’d like to see Mary, I have something for her. Mary listened from her room. She told her mom she would not see him. She knew he would give her a piece of his mind and make her feel worse than she already did.
Steve did not relent. He called each day and stopped by each week. Mary refused to see him. Her mother went shopping one day during the time the mailman typically would come. Mary’s mom said to expect a delivery that would need a signature. When the knock came, Mary answered. To her shock Steve stood there at the door.
She froze in shock. She knew what to expect. He had every right to condemn her for breaking her heart. She couldn’t bring herself to slam the door on him. She closed her eyes, not wanting to see his face. She determined to listen to him and bring closure to the situation.
A minute passed in silence. She began to wonder if he slipped off. She cautiously began to open one eye. She didn’t see his face in front of her. But as she opened her eyes, she realized Steve had not left. He had simply gotten down on one knee.
He said, Mary, though you deeply hurt me, I never stopped loving you. I am ready and willing to forgive you. More than that, I still want to marry you if you’ll have me. The walls of hurt and pain she had built up shattered and she began to weep, he began to weep.
They began talking and mending their relationship. The families joined in the joy. Soon they began to plan for the wedding again.
That’s a powerful type of love. Many people fall for the false promises of those who want to use and abuse people. What is worse is when we continue to believe the lies and live in the hurt when God does not want that. I wish more people would listen and think about the life and love Jesus offers. It would stop a great deal of pain we bring on ourselves because we listen to false promises that in the end can destroy us.
7 Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you. 8 Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 9 Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are. 10 In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation.
Peter speaks to the church persecuted by Rome and others. He identifies the personality behind those voices as the voice of Satan. While our circumstances may not be exactly the same, the Devil uses the same tricks.
The reality is that many people cross lines today that God warns about. We live in a hyper-sexualized society. There’s apps to bypass dating and marriage and just have fun. There’s a thousand bookies waiting for you and they’ll pay you $200 for just signing up. Guaranteed a win. Yet the only real winner is the house and death. The suicide rate for gamblers who are addicted is 20% btw.
Society and media push these things. Girls will wear provocative clothing thinking they’ll get attention and find love. Only that rarely happens.
14 But the natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he is not able to understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1. Recognize the Contrast from God’s Voice.
a. God Cares for you. Satan wants to Kill you.
i. Satan uses his voice to distract you from God.
He Appeals to desires.
What would happen if you INDULGED every whim you felt?
Focus on what you know to be true about God.
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.
Material gain.
Adam and Eve, you can have it all.
Hedonistic pleasure.
Sex, drugs, and general immorality.
God’s holding you back from really enjoying life.
Pride or ego.
Edging God Out!
I know what’s best. I know it all. There’s a
In 1999 a paper written by Cornell University psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger revealed what the Bible has taught for thousands of years. It only takes people thousands of years what God always knew and revealed to us long ago. People will always be playing catch up with God.
Basically it happens when a person lacks self-awareness of themselves and the vast amount of information on any skill or subject. If they lack what is called metacognition, or the ability to step back and examine oneself objectively, they will display this effect. In fact, those who are the least skilled are also the most likely to overestimate their abilities.
It goes back to the old saying, “If one person calls you a donkey’s behind, you might quickly consider and dismiss it. If two people call you that, you may need to make adjustment. If three people call you that, just buy a saddle.”
God is the only one who is always right and humble. So, if there’s a disagreement with God, we know where to find the problem.
Concerning God, if someone disagrees with Him, don’t jump on their saddle my friend.
Pride goes before a fall. And it was PRIDE that went before the big FALL.
ii. Afterwards, He attacks your Value.
10 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: The salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Messiah have now come, because the accuser of our brothers has been thrown out: the one who accuses them before our God day and night.
Satan will attack you before God.
When Satan drudges up your past, points out your flaws, and attacks you worth, Remember your future and Remind Satan of His. You are a child of God, not a contract worker for Christ.
You can only claim that if you have asked Jesus to join His family.
Satan wants push you into the Performance Pit.
Once the Enemy gets you in the performance pit, you can’t get out. Because compared to perfection, you’ll never be good enough. There will always be something that he can push you back down with.
Like Santa, in A Christmas Story, telling Frankie, “You’ll shoot your eye out” while pushing him down with his boot.
2. Remain close Jesus when you detect the enemy’s voice.
i. Jesus Disciplines you to direct you back to Him, not to punish you.
7 As you endure this divine discipline, remember that God is treating you as his own children. Who ever heard of a child who is never disciplined by its father? 8 If God doesn’t discipline you as he does all of his children, it means that you are illegitimate and are not really his children at all. 9 Since we respected our earthly fathers who disciplined us, shouldn’t we submit even more to the discipline of the Father of our spirits, and live forever? 10 For our earthly fathers disciplined us for a few years, doing the best they knew how. But God’s discipline is always good for us, so that we might share in his holiness. 11 No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.
Back when spankings were normative, I remember an older preaching sharing how he ended up never experiencing a hard spanking. He shared that first when he tried to pull away, it allowed for more momentum to build. But once he started to scoot as close as he could, the swats wouldn’t be so fast. The moment the Devil starts digging into you, run as close to Jesus as you can.
Christ guides you to repentance and restoration. He never attacks your value or refuses to accept the humble when they RETURN.
ii. Christ wants to train you to be motivated by love and trust, not fear.
14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one died for all; as a result all died. 15 And he died for all, in order that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for the one who died for them and was raised.
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
3. Reject the voice of Satan and Run to Jesus. Jesus always cares for His Children.
20 So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way from home his father saw him, and his heart went out to him; he ran and hugged his son and kissed him.
When you take refuge in Christ, you are in Jesus. You have joined in God’s eternal family through the church, the circumcision neutral body of Christ. Before one indicated allegiance to Christ through Israel’s covenant and promise. Now we do so through Jesus. You become God’s chosen just like God chose to protect Israel, but not all who were born israelite chose to be exclusively loyal to Yahweh. Let me explain, just because one was genetically a Jew and circumcised did not guarantee that you would be saved eternally. One had to take refuge in Yahweh.
So when you struggle with condemnation, be clear if you are IN CHRIST. Do you take God at His word?
22 Yahweh redeems the life of his servants, and none who take refuge in him will incur guilt.