04/10/2022 - Part 2 -How The Devil Is Using The Pandemic

Grace Place Atlanta COGBF 4700 Mitchell Street Forest Park, GA 30297 Website: atlantacogbf.org Email: info@atlantacogbf.org Phone: (404) 241-6781 Wayne D. Mack, Pastor Pastor Wayne D. Mack Sermon Notes April 10, 2022 How the Devil is Using the Pandemic . . . with the Saints Genesis 3:1-6; John 10 Genesis 3 (NKJV) 3 Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was [a]pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves [b]coverings. 8 And they heard the [c]sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the [d]cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” 11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” 13 And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” John 10: 7-10 7 Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8 All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9 I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. GM GP Many of you have heard the term: “For every action there is an equal reaction”. This is a scientific term coined by Sir Isaac Newton a famous English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author. He proved the theory to be a true phenomenon. “For every action there is an equal reaction”. Today, I want to use the term to illustrate how Satan always works to devise an opposite or alternative response to everything God does. If God meant a thing for good, then you can believe that Satan is on the other end to turn it into evil. If God meant for a thing to live and have life, you can bank on the fact that the devil is working to kill, steal, and destroy it. This morning, I want to expose how Satan has taken the two-year pandemic -- which God has used to bless the church (more than harm the church) – and has turned it into a matter of ungodly behavior throughout the Body of Christ. That should not be so. The pandemic has proven to be a blessing and not a curse throughout the universal church – that is, if the churches were attuned to what the Spirit was saying to them. Last Sunday, I delineated 22 ways God Used the Pandemic to Bless His Church and the Saints. Out of those 22 ways, each one of us should have been able to identify 2 or 3 ways God dealt with us. And in His dealing, we should have come away with a clearer understanding of what God was doing in our lives through the pandemic to strip us of ourselves in order to mature us into Saints more capable of bringing GLORY in GOD’s church. Not the church we knew before the pandemic. And not the us we were before the pandemic. But the spiritually mature Sons and Daughters that God needed us to be all along. So, with the 22 blessed ways in mind that God revealed to us last week, this morning, I want to flip the script and minister from a message entitled – How the Devil is Using the Pandemic . . . against the Church. This message is intended to expose Satan’s deceptive tactics against the church and to slow down, if not crush, the potential infighting and confusion now on the brew in some of God’s Houses – Grace Place included. So, how is the Devil Using the Pandemic . . . against the Church and the Saints? Let that simmer for a minute! First, let me ask: Do any of you believe the devil would use the pandemic and all its ramification and modifications to wreak havoc in the church? We should note that it is a job to do so. God said in Genesis 3: 14 & 15 14 So the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, You are cursed more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you shall go, And you shall eat dust All the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” This passage primarily predicts the ongoing hostility between Satan and the woman (representing all mankind), and between Satan’s seed (his agents) and her Seed (the Messiah). It’s also about the church and how Satan’s goal is to try to destroy, discredit, and overthrow it once it is birthed into the world. “But the gates of hell shall not prevail. Now, here are 3 ways the Devil has used and is Using the Pandemic . . . against the Church and the Saints? 1. To bring Division – though we are called out to be ONE church in Christ, the pandemic has given Satan a ready platform to divide God’s people. Mark 3:25 says: 25And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. The biggest divide started at the outset of the pandemic in 2020. That’s when the church was divided on whether the Coronavirus was from God or Satan himself. This divide lasted too long and in many instances made the church and the people of God look bad. Some churches closed, many didn’t. Others jumped on the evangelical hoax train and tried to blow it off by denying that it ever was. The secular world had more unity on the virus than the Church. They at least agreed it was from Wuhan. The church should never be in the dark on issues this big. We the Body of Christ should always have the clearest read and the clearest voice on matters of world affairs, morality, and Truth. In some circles, the church looked like the Saints in the Book of James, Chapter 4: 1 1 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? Because of the big divide, some churches have split, others closed permanently, and yet among the church members a lot of love has been lost as relationships have suffered due to hard feelings and disagreements. Satan has and is using the tenacles of the pandemic to divide the church. But let me remind you of what the Apostle Paul told us in Ephesians 4: 1-6 1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. 2. To Create a Distraction – It is clear that God used the pandemic to bring an experience of “Divine Intervention” for the church, but Satan made it a Distraction. He drew the church into a secular think mode. Among the saints and the church, he has used the pandemic as a diversion to get the Saints off “mission” – mainly to stop focusing on God alone - and causing God’s people to divide their attention between Me, Myself, and I alone. A similar thing happened to the Galatians Church. Listen to Galatians 3:1-3 1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you [a]that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? 2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Satan would have God’s people characterize the pandemic as a demonic interruption and an assault upon the church. Too many churches became too busy, too consumed with trying to keep church doors open more than keeping an open heart to what the Lord was saying. Satan created a false narrative in the minds of church people that the church was less than Wal-Mart, Nail Salons, Bowling Alleys and Massage Parlors. This became a huge distraction and it diverted attention away from using available outlets to reach more people than the church ever has in recent years. We forgot that the church is called to work in harmony with government. As long as government doesn’t contradict God’s way of righteousness, then we are called to be the example of obeying and respecting the authorities that be – for as Romans 13: 1&2 says: 1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. Satan pitched the lie that government declared the church wasn’t essential. The church should know that it is more than essential -It is eternally, supernaturally indispensable. Then, Satan blew up the distraction tactic further and caused some church leaders to flat out accuse the government of shutting down churches. Nothing could be further from the truth. The church hasn’t missed a beat since the start of the pandemic; yet many churches lost valuable time fighting alongside Satan’s distraction ploy. The church must remember what God instructs in 1 Peter 2:12-14 12 having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. 13 Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether to the king as supreme, 14 or to governors, as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. So, what if all churches were exempt from all the health rules that were in effect to protect the church congregation and the general population? What would that have looked like? We did witness some defiant churches who invoked their apostolic faith despite what the Bible instructs. Nevertheless, Satan meant this distraction for evil, but God meant it for God. [How the devil has used the pandemic . . . ] 3. To Distort What God Has Made Clear – Using this scheme during the pandemic is probably Satan’s most crippling work – that’s because he is still milking it and the effects of its fallout will be manifested over the next several months as people contemplate returning or not returning to church. The distortion here has to do with a “distorted view” of things. Such a view leads to Misrepresentation, Falsification, and a Twisted View of reality and what is true. However, in our society, a person’s perception is their reality. It ranks with the conspiracy theorists who rather than admit and acknowledge what is fact, science, and verifiable information – would rather lean to their own understanding and persuasions. It bodes with the quote stated by Daniel Moynihan to some dignitary of the time: Sir, you are entitled to form your own opinion, but you’re not entitled to your own facts. When it comes to the pandemic and the church, distortion occurs when Satan causes Christian Maturity to become Christian Immaturity. Rather than seeing, understanding, and thinking like an adult, you drop your guard and begin seeing, understanding and thinking like a child. It is at this point that everything about church and everyone affiliated with church is wrong. Satan feeds you bad stuff and you start to feel sorry for yourself or abandoned by everyone. Bitterness, unforgiveness, and isolation sets in. Distortion amplifies situations 10 times larger than they really are. That’s where God steps in and admonishes us to check ourselves before we get dupped by distortion. The danger here is that your emotions, and irrational thinking can eclipse God’s voice, His care, and His loving promises toward you. Instead, we conclude that everything is wrong. Distortion handicaps us and deceives us into blaming God, the Saints, and the church. So at this point, we have to check ourselves to ensure we aren’t being unreasonable. Here are two test verses of Scripture to apply: Matthew 11:16-18 NKJV 16 “But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, 17 and saying: ‘We played the flute for you, And you did not dance; We mourned to you, And you did not [a]lament.’ 18 For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ Romans 1 & 2 As believers we have to fight hard not to let Satan distort our view of what we know is from God and what we understand to be firmly right. In cases like this Satan start to play with the mind by distorting the truth. Stern warning to the Saints: In addition to the 22 blessings God bestowed upon us through the pandemic – here are two more to round our number out to 24 – which equals one blessing for every month of the COVID-19 Crisis: For such a time as this, God had given us season to make a Year of Jubilee-like reset. In that time, it would have behooved us, and still behooves us to take advantage of recharging, reassessing, and repenting. These three will put us on the right path to experiencing our greatest Joys, our closest walk with God, and our healthiest dispositions as God’s children in His Glorious church. We should not take the last 2 years for granted. None of us can afford to let God’s window of generosity and wisdom close on us. If we do or if we have, then it would be the equivalent of Jeremiah 8:20 and Numbers 13. Jeremiah says: 20 “The harvest is past, The summer is ended, And we are not saved!” Numbers 13 is about the 12 spies God sent up to survey the Promised Land; a Land that He promised to give to the Israelites. 13:1 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, everyone a leader among them.” 21 So they went up and spied out the land from the Wilderness of Zin ... 25 And they returned from spying out the land after forty days. 26 Now they departed and came back to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation of the children of Israel in the Wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. 30 Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.” 31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we.” 33 There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants); and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.” Why the devil interested in using the Pandemic; the church is Satan’s biggest threat in the world. It doesn’t answer to him; it can’t be touched by him; it is his biggest embarrassment and embarrassed because he has no power over her, nor any authority equal to hers. All of this is contrived to distract the church from being God’s refuge in the world; to discredit the church from being the hope ; to crush the spirit of the Saints. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%END%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%