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Grace-based biblical teaching and sermons with Pastor Jason White. Messages that focus on Life in Christ and practical application as New Covenant believers.
Last week, we started a brand new message series on Spiritual Warfare. And, you know, it's one of those things that I think a lot of us don't really know kind of what it is, or we think we have some ideas. And if I were to ask a lot of you, I think, honestly, we'd really be all over the map on what first comes to mind. When we think about spiritual warfare and about Satan and demons and those kinds of things. I mean, one of the things that comes to mind is when I was a lot younger, I can't remember the exact age but I guarantee I was way too early. And somehow I was exposed to the movie, The Exorcist. Again, I don't know if I was at a friend's house, or I don't, or where I came across it by guarantee I was too young to be watching this movie. And I mean, it literally scared me to death. That little girl was freaky. I mean, she's like levitating off of the bed. She's speaking in this deep, grungy man voice and she's causing all this destruction and wreaking havoc. And, you know, is as strong as Mike Tyson was back in the day, she's like, 12 years old. And I mean, I'm having nightmares for weeks on end, right. And I think that's the one of the first few times I began to think about Satan and demons and spiritual warfare and that kind of thing. And I think if I were to ask some of you, that's where your mind would go. Yeah, The Exorcist or poltergeist right, or, I don't know, fill in the blank with whatever horror and you know, haunted house and demon possession kind of movies and that kind of thing it would go to, to that kind of realm of things. There are some of you when we talk about spiritual warfare, who think of being personally spiritually attacked, I've heard you and other people mentioned that kind of thing. You'll say, Well, I've just feels like I'm being spiritually attacked. And usually what follows those remarks is something around dark, negative situations or circumstances in life. Right, I feel like I'm being spiritually attacked, because I lost my job. We're struggling with finances right now. I've been diagnosed with cancer, someone that I love has chronic pain in their life, there's these big situations or circumstances that are hard, and we're having a really wrestle and grapple with and go through those things. And we go, I'm being spiritually attacked right now by Satan. Because of these things that are going on. Sometimes people say the same thing about things going on in the world, you know, there's a tsunami or a hurricane, or there's wars, and there's the spiritual attacks that are going on. And so I hear a lot of people talk about those things when it comes to being spiritually attacked. But also here, every now and then people saying they've been spiritually attacked when they've just kind of been inconvenienced, and a little bit of a minor way. You know, there's a little bit too much traffic out there. For my taste. I had to wait a little bit too long at, you know, a restaurant for my food Chick fil A is closed on Sundays, right? I mean, well, maybe that is spiritual attack, I don't know. But really, and we say these things. And it's funny and half joking, but a lot of times people talk about being spiritually attacked, when it comes to these little, minor inconveniences in our lives as if God's primary purpose is to make our lives convenient and comfortable. We have this perception of things. So anything that's away from comfort, and convenience, must be the enemy, kind of attacking me in these moments. And so I think we'd all be all over the map. Some of us when we talk about spiritual warfare, or going to the, you know, exorcist in Poltergeist, and all of those kinds of things, and others of us are going to attacks in these dark, negative ways. And some of us it's just these inconveniences. And others of us go, I don't even know we don't ever talk about Satan, or the devil or spiritual attacks, or maybe I don't even believe in him kind of thing. And so, last week, as we opened up the series we talked about from a biblical perspective, the idea of it painting the picture of Satan, and how he works in and through the world and a worldly system as the ruler of this world, Scripture says, and even how he works with our flesh, what the Bible talks about when we try to live independently from God or before we come to know him a sinful nature that we are born with and those kinds of things and so if you missed last week, you can certainly go online and get caught up with all that we said there but today I want to shift from knowing In our enemy to talking about his tactics, how does Satan work in this world and in our lives to rob and to kill and destroy, to steal, kill and destroy, as Jesus said, that's what he did in John 10. How does he work in our lives and in this world to devour us, as Peter said, and First Peter 589, when he said, The the enemy prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. What I want to suggest to you this morning, while I won't deny that some of the things that we talked about earlier, could certainly be spiritual attacks from satan in ways that he works in our lives and in this world. What I want to suggest to you this morning, is that his primary tactic, not his only one, but his primary tactic in this war is lies, and deception. His primary tactic in this war is lies in deception, which he uses in subtle and consistent ways that we miss, because we're looking for the poltergeist, we're looking for the Exorcist, we're looking for the wars and the cancers and the big things that he's causing in our lives. And I think we miss a lot of times, that even though he could be at work in a number of those things, his primary tactic, and the way that he steals, kills, and destroys and devours us is through lies in deception. And we miss it. Because it's so familiar to us. It's all around us. And we're immersed in it. Sometimes. John eight, Jesus is having a conversation with some of the religious leaders of the day, before we jump into Genesis, he says this, in verse 44, you belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desires, he was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language for he is a liar, and the father of lies. This is how Jesus talks about Satan. He addresses him as the father of lies, that there's no truth in him at all. He even referenced how he was a murderer from the beginning, right? This this reference that he was, he was killing us of life, even from the beginning. It's how he's always worked. And we miss it, because we look for it. In other things. Most commentators when he is saying this believe that he's referring all the way back to Genesis three in the garden, that this was his primary tactic and strategy as the father of lies to create lies and deception, even in the garden. And it's still how he's working today, because he's referencing that it was at work in their lives. However many 1000s of years later it had been. So let's look then at Genesis three and see what Satan was up to, in the beginning, see what his tactics were and how they work. And if we can figure out any way that that applies to us today. In Genesis chapter three, beginning of verse one, it says, Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made underline the word crafty, there, it means cunning. It means widely, it means to have or show skill in achieving one's goal or one's end by deceit. Satan is a liar. He is a deceiver. This is who he is. It's even being referenced right here in the beginning, and Genesis chapter three, verse one, look at how he does this with Eve, how he, how he lies and deceives to her and the rest of chapter three, verse one. He said to the woman, this is the serpent Did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? That's not what God said. Now what God said He starts with twisting God's word. Starts with putting an idea in her head, could God be lying to you?
Look at what he really said. Genesis chapter two, backup one chapter and look at verse 15. This is what he really said. The law Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden, to work it in care of it. And the LORD God commanded the man, you are free to eat from any tree in the garden, you're free to eat from any tree, you got all of these trees, Satan shows up to even said, the gods say you couldn't eat for many of these trees. Now he did say, all but one. But that's a huge difference in saying you can eat from all look at all of these trees. Except for this one, in saying that God said you could need from any of these trees right here. He's twisting, and he's putting an idea in her head. He's lying to her. He's trying to deceive her. This is how he works. But when he goes on to say, you're free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it, you will certainly die. Now this isn't God holding out on them. This isn't God being mean, he's just telling them the truth of what will happen if they eat from this tree. Just before this, he had talked about in Genesis how he had put two trees in the middle of the garden, the tree of life, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. All throughout scripture, God is referenced as life itself, that he is the source of life. To eat from that tree means to draw upon Him as your source from for life, the way that he had created all of us to do in the first place. Right were to eat from him to eat is to gain nutrients and to get our needs met through those things. That's our source for nourishment to eat, from the tree of life is to live with God is our source where we're living daily and dependent upon him and the life that we have in him and him working in us and through us. If you choose to stop eating from the Tree of Life, guess what's gonna happen to you? You're gonna die. It's just telling them what's gonna happen. So don't do it. Right, you're going to be spiritually cut off from me, as your source. Satan knows this. He knows the truth. So he's trying to twist and work and get them to remove themselves from the life they're receiving and God and deceive them into thinking it can be found in other things. Look at how this played out. Go back to chapter three. The serpent had said Did Did did. Did God say you couldn't eat from any tree in the garden. And then he says, The woman said to the serpent back in verse two, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden. But God did say you must not eat fruit from the tree that's in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it or you will die, you will certainly not die. The serpent said to the woman. So now he just flat out lies. He knows what will happen to them. If they eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil that they will die they will be spiritually cut off from the source of life who is God himself? So he lies in John eight. What did Jesus say about him? He was a murderer from the beginning. He knows that he was attempting to try to kill them, you're not certainly going to die. So again, maybe maybe God's lying to you. Right? This would be the idea. So well, he said it. Well, you're not gonna die. Oh, well, I didn't ever stop to think that he might have been lying to us. Maybe he's lying. Maybe God is a liar. Right? These are the things that are going on here. Verse five goes on, and says, For this serpent talking to Satan, For God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. In other words, God is holding out on you. He doesn't want what's best for you. If you eat from this tree. Listen, you'll have way more life than you're experiencing right now. I know you're receiving life from him, but I'm just telling if you eat from this tree, you're gonna have way more life than you'll ever have by by drawing upon Him as your source of life. As a matter of fact, you'll get to be your own God you'll be like him you'll have position and status like him, you'll be a way better God of yourself than he could ever be a god over you. Your life, right. She fell for it for six 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. And she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it. And of course, they did die spiritually they were removed from God's presence and, and all heck broke loose in their lives and in their children's lives and in every one that would come after them, and we see the results of sin and destruction. Entering into our world, we see us all trying to go our own way make up our own meaning our own truth, our own fulfillment, our own everything, because we've been cut off from the source of life himself. And it all started with Eve, believing a lie. It all started with Eve, believing a lie. It says that she saw that the fruit was good for food. She believed the lie that this food was going to fulfill her in some way, a better way than all the other food that God was providing for them in that garden. This one is going to do more for me than all the other stuff that I have. She believed the lie. The second thing was says it was pleasing to the eye she was sensing that this was this was something beautiful, right and in both fell for the lie that this beautiful thing was going to please her more than all the other beautiful things that she was around in the garden, they think about this. This is the beginning of creation. There's no sin in the world, everything is perfect. There's beauty all around her stunning, magnificent, glorious creation, nothing that's affected it yet everything's glorious and beautiful. But this one thing, Oh man, it's gonna be it's I need that because it's more beautiful than, than anything around. She fell for the lie, says that she discerned that the tree was desirable for gaining wisdom, in other words again to to boast in the position, God's the source of wisdom. So if I can be like God, and and know, the knowledge of good and evil, right, and then he thinks he's above us. Well, you know what? Well, if I have this, then I'll be up here with him the lie that I can be a better God over my own life and my own affairs than even the one who created me. It knows how I was created to function and live best. It's the lie. Satan convinced her that God was a liar. And these were the truths no exorcist type stuff. No poltergeist stuff. No big scary, huge haunted demons and all these other things going on, no hurricane, no tsunami, no cancer, no, no big life situations just whispering lies. Spiritual Warfare is a war between truth and lies. This is Satan's primary tactic to get you and I to believe his lies to fall for his deception. And he does it in the lives of unbelievers. He does it in the lives of believers. And he does it through a whole worldly system that he set up of lies and deception. So let's talk a little bit about each one of those three areas. And we mentioned this verse last week in second Corinthians chapter four, verse four, where Paul says, the god of this age, Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, Satan, as the father of lies, lies to us and deceives us into believing that if there is a God, you can't trust him, he can't be trusted. He lies and deceives to trick us into thinking that there really is no God in the first place. That there really is no devil that he doesn't exist as one quote from one movie says the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist.
says what Satan's up to and blinding the lives of unbelievers trying to keep it Since that point in time from knowing who God is, knowing His love, what Jesus ultimately did on the cross, the forgiveness, the life that's offered to them. But it's not too big of a darkness for Jesus to overcome. He's broken three and through and many of our lives who are here today are watching online. Because there was a time we were in darkness. And we didn't know if God really existed or who he was and what it really meant for us. And God turned on the lights, he gave us a light bulb moment for us to see who he really was to see the love that he had the forgiveness, the problem of sin in our lives and the forgiveness that we really did need the life that we were missing, and that we really could have and many of us have said said yes to Jesus, and we've received that forgiveness, we've received that life in him. And so it's not too big for Jesus to overcome. If you're here today, and you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus, you're watching online, you never received him. You don't you don't know necessarily exactly who he is, or or what to think about him. Make it your prayer. Jesus, I don't know if I really believe in you. I don't know what to think about all of these things. But will you reveal the truth to me about them? What he does, he turns the lights on for us. Ask Him to reveal Himself, be open to what he says and where it is that he leads. But as I mentioned a second ago, it's not just that Satan is at work to blind us from tricking us into thinking that he doesn't exist or you know, that we can't trust him in the first place to keep us from knowing him. He is at work of lying and deceiving. Those of us who have already put our faith and trust in Jesus as well. Paul says in Second Corinthians 11, three, to Christians to the church at Corinth. He says I'm afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the Sun serpents cutting your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. In other words, Paul saying it is possible for those of us who are Christians who are believers to be deceived by Satan. How through our mind, right I mean, even says it I'm afraid that just as Eve same way deceive others serpents, Connie, your mind. It is a battle. Spiritual Warfare is a battle between lies, and truth, be led astray through the lies. Now Satan knows that he's ultimately lost you to Jesus, that there's nothing that he can do to snatch you ultimately, from his hand to keep you from eternally living life in Heaven with Him one day, he even says in John 1028, I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one will snatch them from my hand, Satan knows this. So what he's up to and lying to us and deceiving us, as Christians is to rob us from experiencing the forgiveness and the life that we already have in Christ. When I was thinking about this earlier, I couldn't help but think of a really great example of this as of my friend, Bill Loveless, some of you know, Bill loveless He has been here to speak he runs a nonprofit ministry called Christ His Life Ministries, and he he talks and shares his testimony. He's written his testimony, down and in Here's his story, bill basically says, Listen, I I became a Christian around the age of 18. But not too long after that, I began to ask the question, like, many of us have all asked the questions, how does this thing work? What am I supposed to do now? How do you live the Christian life and so he when he tells a story, he talks about how he began to listen to sermons and he was listening to different teaching and and as he dove into these things, he began to receive all kinds of different answers. He was told me you need to read God's word and and really be diligent and careful to do everything in it. You need to find out and be aware of what sin is and what sins are going on and do your best to make sure that you're not sinning to please God and honor God and, and give Jesus a good name. You need to understand the rules and the commandments. You need to be more righteous, you need to be more holy, and then listen, it's all about your dedication and your persistence with God's help. So pray for God's help. And through your persistence and dedication. If you keep working at it and striving like this, then you will experience victory, you will honor Christ, you will be a great church member. And so Bill says I set out to do all of those things. aches. And here's what happened in his own words. He said, after hearing everything that people were telling me that I needed to do, I tried. I tried, I tried so hard to accomplish all of those things for 30 years as a Christian, he said, The problem is, is that the more I tried, the worst things actually became, instead of experiencing the freedom and victory and transformation that God promises, I was getting more frustrated with my Christian walk, because nothing ever seemed to change. I felt more and more like a failure as a Christian. And in addition to that, all throughout that 30 year journey, I also had many internal struggles. I mean, I was wrestling with things like inadequacy and fear and anger and unworthiness. And, and here again, I was told that if I just tried hard enough with God's help, that I could set myself free from these things. But as hard as I tried, that never happened. He says, in fact, the feelings got worse. After several years of trying to be set free from the struggles, I came to the conclusion that what I was doing was not working, and was never, ever going to work. The truth be known somewhere along that 30 year journey I gave up on the Christian life, because it wasn't transforming me. It wasn't meeting my expectations. And it was not producing the promises of freedom and victory I was told about, I felt that I had let God down, that he had even let me down, and that I was on my own. I was more miserable. Listen to this, I was more miserable before I was even saved. After 30 years of trying to make the Christian life work, he was more miserable at that point, as a Christian than he was before he ever became a Christian. And he says, I thought, Where is the abundant life that God intended for me to live all of those years? What was I doing wrong? Was there some key truth that I was missing in my understanding of the Christian life? What a heart wrenching, gut wrenching story of Satan, robbing him stealing from him the life that he had in Christ, keeping him from an awareness of knowing that he was already a new creation in Christ, that He already had complete forgiveness, that he had abundant life already in Jesus Christ dealt in spite of whatever his situations and circumstances were, and that that he was already set free from bondage and sand that Satan had no real power over him. It was all things that he was being lied to, and deceived by Satan, listen, through people in the church. The big stuff, the demons, the poltergeist kind of stuff. It's the it's the people who are out there and you know, are evil, who are Yellin And these far extreme people who are saying all these things over here, and he's in a good church, surrounded by good people. Satan's using them and tricking them, lying to them going, hey, it's about following the rules. It's about being dedicated. It's about trying hard. It's about checking boxes. And Satan was keeping him from knowing that Christ was his life and that he was the one who would express his life through him that that Jesus is the only one that can live the Christian life because he is the Christian life. He's going to do it in you and through you. So finally, when Dale came to an awareness of, of his life being found in Christ, that He was a new creation, he had complete forgiveness. He had abundant life and Christ had been set free from the bondage of sin and these other things that were going on. He finally once he understood the truth, the truth set him free, just like Jesus said it would do. And he finally began to experience the abundant life that Jesus said He came to give because he was experiencing it in Jesus as his life, rather than trying to find it in what he was doing or a position or a place that he was trying to get to in the Christian life.
Satan will lie to you and he will try to deceive you from knowing these truths so that he can rob you, of experiencing Christ as your own life. He will whisper to you that the way to do this is to follow the rules to get to this certain point, he'll say, You know what, you shouldn't have done this, you shouldn't have done that. As a matter of fact, you're a terrible person, you're a sinner, you're, here's some shame to kind of go with that, right? He'll just whisper all of these lies of you're guilty. You're, you're dirty. You know what God doesn't really love you? Do you see that person over there. They're the one who's really living the Christian life, if you would be more like them, then God might love you more. Right? These are the things that he's going to whisper that cancer, that job loss, those things that are hitting your family so hard, that's your fault. That's God punishing you for those things. And he's all against you right now, because of how you are performing in the Christian life for something it is that you have been doing, Satan will lie to you to whisper these half truths, he will deceive you into trying to believe what He says. So that you won't know the actual truths, or to keep you from walking in them. But as Jesus said, The truth will set you free. This is why it is so important for us to know what Jesus said in John 14 Six that I'm the WAY the TRUTH and the LIFE, he's the truth and the life, right? We go to him to find truth. When we do, he'll reveal it to us, he'll guard our heart in her mind from Satan, when he's tempting us to fall for the lies and what it is that he wants us to believe, so that we can't walk in victory. So Satan is at work in the lives of unbelievers and the lives of believers. But he's also actively working in this worldly system that he has created, that Jesus referred to him as the ruler of this world. And Ephesians two we read last week, how there are ways of this world, there's a system and things that we follow and do and listen. Hear me that doesn't mean that everything in the world is evil in from Satan, because God is at work in pushing back the darkness. But it does mean that we need to be aware, we need to understand that Satan can even take good things and twist them to believe us, make us believe that this things are those things are these are the solutions to our problems. This is where real life can be found in anything outside of Jesus. And so all throughout the world, we in his ways, in that kind of thing. You see things like materialism and the styles of government that we put our faith and our trust in and and we see things like we are going to science and the American dream and gender and sexuality and racism and putting ourselves above classes and all these things that Satan is tricking and deceiving us to try to find our life and meaning and purpose in are that these are the solutions to the all the problems. And if everybody would just agree with me about all of these little things that we brought up here and what the general way of the world and is becoming familiar to us and those things, then everything would get better, our world would be better, everything would begin to be better. One of the ways that I think, while I'd love to dive into a number of these things, that I just want to highlight today that I think is pretty obvious that Satan is working in this worldly system as the ruler of this world. And he's been at this for a long time now. But I think it's even more evident with where we're at right now. And we need to be aware of it. And we need to recognize it. And that's this one of his deceptions is through politics. He leads the world to believe that government and rules and policies and laws, that these are the solutions to all of our problems, and that this particular party and their way of viewing those rules and those policies and these things, if we would implement all of these things and do it this way, then again, everything would be better. The problem is all of these people on this side of the aisle, and if we could just get them over here, and we could just implement this law and this policy and get back to doing these things and those things, then the whole problems of all the world would go away every one to be able to get along. We'd be so much better in all of these things that Satan is trying to deceive us in. I don't know if you know who Leslie newbiggin is, but he's a British theologian and as far back as the 1970s. He was predicting that as the West listen to this, as the West secularized, that religion would not go away. But it would redirect itself to politics. He warned even in that time of the rise of ventually, of political religions sound familiar to where we're at today? Political religions, listen to what John Mark comer says about new begins prediction. He says guys, we are living in New Beginnings vision, our nation is more divided than it's ever been since the Civil War, right and left are no longer two opposing sides that keep each other in balance. They are two rival religions locked in a holy war with zealots fighting it out online and increasingly, on the streets. As David Brooks put it in a New York Times op ed over the last half century, we've turned politics from a practical way to solve common problems into a cultural arena to display resentments, people import a religious like devotion and Frenzy into politics. The economist called it America's new religious war. And in the sweeping craze, so many people have been taken captive to ideology, which is a form of idolatry. A growing number of people are more loyal to their ideology or political party than they are to Jesus and His teachings. That got about 10 amens in the first service. I think he's right. We've we've moved and Satan has deceived us in not just unbelievers, but believers into thinking
that this is what's going to solve all the problems of the world. And it completely ignores the root of the problem, which is sin completely ignores that Jesus is the answer to those problems. We could put in all the ways of Jesus, all the policies, make people walk in all the ways that Jesus created us to walk in and all of these things, but people would still die and go to hell without Jesus, even if they began to walk in the ways of Jesus, but they never experienced him, making them spiritually alive, they would never be able to find the life and the meaning of fulfillment that they're looking for the ways of Jesus are not the answer to the problem. It is Jesus himself. He's the life. He's the way he's the truth. It's him. And yet we have made it about our own thing and casts. It's not just in the news course, it's in the news course, it's all over our social media feeds. And Satan's just got our faces addicted to it. And it's piling more and more and more and more of just everything that we've clicked and liked and believed and believed, and Satan's going, just immersed in this, just keep thinking of this, don't take into consideration anything else over here. And he just uses it to deceive us. But he's also at work in our churches. Churches today are being split, people are leaving them because of a not having the same views. And it's moving too far extremes. You've got to believe every single little thing that this one does, or you're not a real Christian, or you're not a conservative Christian, at least. And we're leaving. And this isn't a real church and Satan's blinding all of you from everything. We've got people in churches who are well known and up there and going, let's invite all the political leaders to come join us on our stage and celebrate America and make it all about patriotism and all of these kinds of things. And Satan is sitting up there going, Yeah, I got him. It's all about whether this person is right or wrong. And it's all about being a good patriot. And it's all about making sure that we make sure this person is in the right hand White House and it's all of them and Satan's just up there laughing. He's smiling. He's robbing us of the life. He's stealing, he's killing. He's destroying us through the ideologies that he's bringing into, that it becomes so familiar and a part of our ways and we can't let that happen to us here or Satan will destroy us. He will devour us, as Peter said, because he has a lion prowling around looking for someone to devour. What's the answer? Well, no, the Truth Number one, right? We go to Jesus as the truth. We're not I'm not going to Fox News to say give me the truth. I'm not Going to CNN news to say, give me the truth. I'm not going on my social media feed to say, give me the truth. I'm going to Jesus, I'm going to His Word. And I'm going to ask him to speak to me through it. Because I know I can take my own preconceived ideas and ideologies and read the Bible and make it say whatever I want it to. So even as I read it, I'm going to say I'm open Jesus, to wherever you lead me. And the Spirit leads me even if it's different from what my grandma said, even if it's different from what my grandpa or my mom or my dad taught me, or this preacher or that preacher, because they were on my favorite news channel, or this person said, I could trust them, or even my word for it. We're gonna go, we're gonna ask the Holy Spirit because Jesus is truth, and he is where it's found. So that's the first thing number two, we've got to be aware, we've got to be made aware that he is working in and through a worldly system all around us to to lie that this is his tactic. I'm not denying that he's not involved in any situation or circumstance or things that are going on in your life. But the deception is to keep you focused on that, because when we go Satan's attacking me in this situation, and if it would just get better, then I would finally have life in Satan's tricking you in the Battle of the mind and the lies to put the focus on the situation or circumstance which we're making it all about. Because Jesus says, I'm the life not when your circumstances and situations are good or bad, just all the time. It is a battle of lies, and truth. Look for the lies, ask Jesus to expose the deception in those things. Once we know the truth, we see it. Then as Paul said, in Romans 12, we renew our minds to the truth. And here's the final thing. We join ourselves and unite ourselves to a good church. And we do life with people, and we give them permission, as Ephesians four says, to speak truth in love to us to say, Listen, I know Satan's at work to lie to me and deceive me, in that I can fall from it sometimes. So we're in this life together as brothers and sisters and family. You've got permission to slap me across the face when I am falling for the lies and deception. In love, of course. But we need the community. This is how Jesus works. He works in and through people a lot of times to keep us from going astray and moving in those different directions. Know the truth. Be aware of the lies, renew your mind to the truth in do life with other people and give them permission to know you and for you to fully know them and speak into each other's life.