Dr. Tony Evans preaches about one of the main strategies Satan uses against us. The enemy uses the good in our lives to bring about evil. He turns God’s blessings against us to drive us into sin and away from Jesus. Pastor Evans preaches about how this strategy of Satan works and what we can do to avoid it.
so Satan finds something good that men
and women should have been over and he
uses something good to bring something
bad
and isn’t that how it works in our lives
it starts off looking good
but once infiltrated with his purposes
that what was good even that included
God became bad
all morning I’ve been running into men
and the first con thing that comes up is
what
football
that’s the buzz now
and I can assure you
every single team
has been watching game film all week
they’ve been watching game film of the
enemy
of the team they’re going to play
they want to learn their Tendencies they
want to learn what they are what their
what their uh uh movements have been the
Personnel they want to become fully
acquainted with the group they want to
destroy
God has game excuse me Satan has game
film on you
they got game film you’ve been assigned
to demon
and that demon knows your every move he
knows you’re every moment he knows your
orientation he knows your sensitivities
he knows your inclinations that demon
understands you and so there is a report
on you
me and us
so there is a TaylorMade strategy
to do you in
even as a Believer to defeat you and to
bring negative consequences into your
life
you’re on tape
spiritually speaking
so today I want you to understand the
strategy
because if you know the strategy
you can better see
the landmine
and handle it more appropriately
let me say it in a more raw term
there’s a contract out on you
me us
to bring about
your inability
to finish the journey
understanding this however will help you
me us
to move forward differently than
we perhaps have come to this point
because there’s no use in continuing to
step on landmines that you don’t have to
so let’s look
and see how
the enemy to your journey is working
in verse 1
now the serpent was more crafty than any
beast of the field which the Lord God
had made
crafty means sneaky
crafty means clever or shrewd
the snake the serpent was more crafty
sneaky slithery then
any of the other creatures God had made
so when Satan wanted to make his move
he chose something that would be
consistent with what he wanted to
achieve
he wanted to achieve craftiness so he
chose a crafty creature
Satan knows what to choose
and who to choose
to Slither into your world
in order
to get your undivided attention he knows
how to maneuver
slick knows how to
whine and dine in order to
cause you to have a conversation with
him
has it ever bothered you that this woman
is talking to a talking snake
do we we got a talking snake not only do
we have a talking snake we got a talking
walking snake
because the snake now is walking because
the curse was that from then on it would
have to crawl in his belly which means
it didn’t have to call his belly prior
to that so we have a walking talking
snake
and this walking talking snake
is not a shock that this woman is on
she’s coming on a normal conversation
the very first conversation
between a human being and a person is
about God
kind of sort of because we read in verse
1 that
the serpent was more crafty and the
serpent said indeed has God said You
shall not eat from any tree of the
garden please notice
a missing word
the serpent was more slithery than any
other Beast the Lord God had made but
then the serpent said hath God said not
half the Lord God
now that that’s that that that missing
word is on purpose
the word god Elohim deals with God’s
power the word Lord deals with our
covenantal relationship with God so the
serpents is basically saying let’s talk
about God but let’s leave out
relationship
we can be religious but not be
relational
so the first conversation between a
snake
and a human being
wants to bring up religion but leave out
relationship
let me explain something the devil
doesn’t mind that you in church
as long as you don’t have a relationship
with the Lord he don’t mind
God talk
he doesn’t mind invocations and
benedictions as long as there’s no
relationship with God in between and
mind that
the creature that Satan used
foreign
to bring
death and consequences
to even then Adam and then the human
race
was a creature
over whom men and women were to rule
and watch this and the creature was good
because the Bible says whatever God
created in chapter one was good
so at this point the snake’s not bad
which means
that the strategy is to use something
good to create something bad
he doesn’t go find something bad because
there’s nothing bad to find other than
him so Satan find something good that
men and women should have been over and
he uses something good to bring
something bad
and in that how it works in our lives it
starts off looking good
but once infiltrated with his purposes
that what was good even that included
God became bad
so
his strategy first of all is for you to
miss him
so if you’re looking for somebody with
horns a red jumpsuit and a pitchfork
you’re looking for the wrong creature
he’s going to use something
that is good
to create something that is bad
so that you can have consequences
negative repercussions
like an Illusionist at a magic show
some of these things these guys can do
with just spectacular and one of the
main reasons that they are able to cause
us to go oh wow
is because they do something over here
to get our attention while they’re doing
something else over there
in other words they distract us from
what they’re really about
Satan is not going to tell you up front
I’m here to destroy your future
you know they’re not going to take you
that
he’s going to be crafty sneaky slithery
and we
we know what that means so our
subordinate creature the Bible called
Satan a counterfeit it says he has
counterfeit Doctrine counterfeit
Miracles counterfeit Spirits counterfeit
teachers
in order to do one thing deceive
suicide bombers dress up like normal
people go in the shopping places and
explode things and bring about death
looking normal carrying death
in order to deceive it’s all about
deception
we know what that looks like to have
been duped tricked because it didn’t
look like deception some of
some of you have gotten what I’ve
recently gotten in my mail
from a credit card company
congratulations
congratulations
you have been awarded
a five thousand dollar increase on your
credit limit
you are now because they want to make
you feel good Platinum
who doesn’t want to be platinum who
doesn’t want to feel Platinum
Mission and you are a preferred customer
so they’ve made me they made me feel
good about me they tell me that I’m
worthy
to have a higher credit limit
but behind all that
behind all that
and the reason I know what’s behind it
is because I pay consequences
some of you know what it is to be paying
on something minimum amount
year after year after decade after
decade after decade all because they
made you feel good
gave you a platinum sense of yourself
you started smelling yourself
so
he wants you to miss him
and so he uses something
that’s crafty
but slithery
and will make even God part of the
conversation