BEWARE THE DOG!!!

Warning Signs give us advanced notice of possible consequence if we fail to heed the sign’s message.   And often we find ourselves concerned about the physical signs, making plans in our minds of how to escape the consequence of bodily and financial harm, but ignoring the spiritual signs which have grave consequences.  So because we ignore the spiritual signs, we find ourselves being bitten time and time again by the meanest junkyard dog around – Satan, who not only wants to bite you, but to devour you.

But we don’t have to be bitten by him.  We can escape his bite by knowing how he operates – how he lures us in for the bite, which he hopes will infect us, mame us, and destroy us.

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of all the wounds and scars from bites I’ve taken simply because I didn’t prepare myself to see the warning signs.  So let’s discuss what to be looking for – how Satan operates – so we can avoid at all costs another bite.

And to do that we will look at how the dog first attacked humankind when he tempted Eve.

Genesis 3: 1-7 gives us a great picture of how the dog Satan works in trying to lure us in for the bite.

The first warning sign that Satan is trying to bite you is he has conversation with you.   He begins to have dialogue with you in your mind.   It’s like the old cartoons where the writers gave a great portrayal of this conflict with an angel speaking into one ear and the devil speaking into the other.  It creates a great moral dilemma because the dialogue creates confusion and doubt.

We can know Satan is coming in for the bite when we begin justifying in our minds something that we know is wrong to be okay. 

So what did that conversation look like with Eve, and what can we learn from it that will save us from being lured into Satan’s attack zone?   Now keep in mind that Satan can bite you in many ways, and sometimes it takes no effort if he sees a weakness – vulnerability, but he generally will try to lure you in first with these tactics.

Satan says to Eve, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”

That is Satan’s first tactic of luring you in for the bite – the questioning, the challenging of God’s Word – “Did God really say…”  Can he get you to doubt what you have heard, what you know as true?  Can he get you wondering if you heard God correctly?

Think of Charles Darwin, the scientist who gave humankind the Theory of Evolution for our existence.   He knew the story of creation and heard the Gospel throughout his childhood, yet one day he heard in his head this thought, “Did God really create?  Is there really a God? “  And Satan continues to use this bite to impact countless generations that there is no God – that God is a figment of our imagination and that only the weak need Him.

Eve responds, “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.’”

Did Eve really understand God’s command regarding the tree of knowledge of good and evil?  No, because what did God really say?  He said not to eat of this tree, but never said anything about touching its fruit.  Satan had her dialoguing and now she began to question what God really did say.

Satan then says to Eve, “You will not surely die.”

This is Satan’s second tactic of luring you in for the bite – the denial of God’s word – “God didn’t mean….”  So even when you get part of God’s truth right, Satan will take that part and twist it.  He will take the part that is truth and make a false statement from it.

God did say they would die if they ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  But because Satan had Eve questioning what she knew and heard, he now had her in a position assuring her that all would be okay if she disobeyed – God won’t follow through on what he said.

Satan has done this quite well in our culture.  He has a lot of people believing that God is not to be feared and won’t judge.  People have bought into the ideas that as long as you are a good person, as long as you believe in God, as long as you even state you believe in Jesus, God will not judge you to Hell. 

But if you read the Bible in its context – its purpose – you see that even though God is very loving, He stills hates sin and rebellion.  You see that no one makes it into Heaven on merit, but solely on His grace and mercy offered through His Son’s sacrifice, and this can only be accepted through humility and repentance.  You see that those who call upon the name of Jesus as Savior take on His very nature because they are grafted into Him, bearing His fruit.  You see that those in Christ Jesus persevere in the faith until the end of their mortal lives.

Finally, Satan concludes, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

This is Satan’s third tactic of luring you in for the bite – to puff you up with pride – to get you to rely on your own power and be self-sufficient – “You don’t need God.  You can be like Him.”  Satan puffs people up by making them feel self-sufficient.  He puffs them up by making them feel they can understand all situations and can handle these situations in their own strength.

Yet we know the result of this lure – “pride comes before the fall.”

When we feel that we are self-sufficient, with no need for God, we find ourselves thinking we are the greatest thing to ever come along – I think it is called narcissism.  And so the narcissist replaces God in his/her life with something else, science, medicine, sexuality and sensuality, substances, etc.  The narcissist believes these are the answers to the conversation of good and evil going on in their heads.  The narcissist finds his/her satisfaction in fulfilling desires, and so this satisfaction becomes the good in his/her life.

Eve wanted to be like God, and this lure is the one that got her bit.  But it took the first two to set her up for the third.  Satan got her in a dialogue where he knew she wasn’t grounded, and he kept coming at her until he could get a chance to bite her.  He got her to misquote God’s word by adding to it.  He got her to relax and deny God – to believe that God would not do what He said He would do.  And he built up her ego by telling her she could be like God – that she could have His wisdom.

And so, “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.  She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”

So in conclusion, if there was ever a battle raging in your mind between good and evil – between what God desires and what you want – and you justified your desire over His, then you have been bitten.  If there is a battle raging in you right now over good and evil, then know you are being lured into a place for attack and you still have time to heed the sign.  And if there is a battle raging in you right now over good and evil, and you heed the sign by doing what God desires, then you have used your sword of faith to wound the dog and he will flee.

Satan’s only power over you is when you try to argue/debate/dialogue with him in your strength.  He actually knows God’s word better than you.  He just doesn’t live it. 

His lure comes in trying to trip you up:  in challenging God’s word to see if you know it, in denying God’s word that He will follow through on what He has said, and in making you feel proud and self-sufficient.

Be aware of this.  Go on the offensive.  Be real about what you are facing or have faced in your internal battles.  And learn to rely solely on God’s strength and the strength of others to help you win these battles.

BEWARE THE DOG!!!!

Ever been to a home where the sign “Beware the Dog!” was posted and you were about to enter the property?  What were you feeling:  uneasy, unsettled, unsure?  Were you wondering what size the dog might be?  Were you wondering the breed?  Were you wondering if it were just a sign put up to keep those with criminal intent away?  Were you wondering if the dog was on a leash or roaming free?

Whatever you were feeling, the sign itself put you on guard, didn’t it?  It had you making a plan of action for whatever may happen.  You were ready to flee or fight off the dog if it came charging.  You knew what tree to climb or what gate to run through and shut behind you.  You knew how you were going to respond to that dog before you ever saw it.

Yet the one dog that brings the most destruction - that is roaming free seeking to wreak havoc on our lives – is the one we pay very little attention to even when the signs are right in front of our faces.

And so this sermon series is designed to show us those signs and to make us aware of this dog’s lures and the means to escape them.  This sermon series is to help us beware that the dog is real.  It will help us to see that the dog’s role is not to protect a piece of property or human life.  It will help us to know how to overcome this dog by being on guard against its tactics for attack.

So what is the name of this dog?  You got it, Satan. 

And we don’t want to be coaxing this dog to come by saying, “Come here boy.  Come here Satan.  Good boy.”  I think that is lesson #1 – Don’t call the dogJ  And we call him by not being on guard and reading the signs.

 

Yet here are some Biblical examples of those who did "call the dog".

Eve got bit by giving into the lure that she could be like God – that she could comprehend good and evil like God does.  Sorry, but that bite has infected us all for thousands of generations.

Cain got bit by giving into the lure of jealousy and anger – that he could rid himself of his nemesis brother Abel by killing him.  That bite cost him his family and his stability – he became a restless wanderer who would always fear for his own life.

 

Abraham got bit by giving into the lure that God couldn’t be trusted – that in order to have a son to carry out the promise of God he had to have relations with Sarah’s maidservant, Hagar.  That bite brought him a son, Ishmael, but it created a sibling rivalry that still exists today between the descendants of Ishmael (the Arabs) and the descendants of Isaac (the Jews).  And we wonder why there is such conflict in the Middle East?!

 

And then there is King David.  King David got bit by giving into the lure of lust and desire – that he could have an affair with Bathsheba and no one would know.  That bite cost him about everything - his integrity as a man after God’s heart, his friend Uriah whom he had murdered in battle to cover his sin, his infant son conceived out of the affair who died due to illness, and his kingdom as his son Absalom removed him from the throne and slept with his father’s wives who remained in the palace. 

 

One bite did a ton of damage in the lives of these biblical characters, yet I only highlighted a few of the many examples of those bitten by the Dog Satan.

 

Yet Satan’s bite is still as relevant today as it was then.  And the signs are everywhere.  We have to quit ignoring them.  We have to be on guard.  We have to be willing to put on the armor of God so that when we see the signs we are prepared to be protected from any bite Satan tries to get on us.  And we have to prevent ourselves from being bitten time and time again in the same place.

Ephesians 6: 10 – 18 speaks of putting on the full armor of God, not just part of it, the parts you want, so that you can stand against the devil’s schemes, the devil’s bites.”

 

How do you put on the armor of God?  You stand firm by putting the Belt of Truth around your waist, and placing on the Breastplate of Righteousness.  You fit your feet with the Gospel of Peace, and extinguish the flaming arrows of Satan with the Shield of Faith.  And you put on the Helmet of Salvation and use the Sword of Salvation for fighting.

In other words you are to equip yourself by:  Knowing the truth as given in the Bible, and Living it out.

Often we see the armor of God as only a means of protection against the attacks of Satan.  We see it as a means to fend off the bite, which is true.  But, what we fail to see is that God is preparing us to go on the offensive – to attack Satan and push his forces back.  God would rather have us go hunting than be the one being hunted.  God wants a game plan – a war plan. 

Yet, there are times, even when on the offensive, when we the dog will come out of nowhere to bite us.  In fact, Satan is looking to bite – to lure us into sin - all of the time.  He loves to bite, and many of us have felt his bite.  Some of us are feeling it right now.  The problem is that when we let ourselves get bit; the bite has consequences that last a long time.

 

The bite, sin, doesn’t hurt at first.  In fact the bite makes us feel like it is bringing a fix to the problems – the stress – we have.  It makes us feel happy and relaxed.  But the bite acts like poison – it takes a while to infect the body.  But once it does, the consequence is catastrophe, pain, and eventually death.

 

Basketball players Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant both had adulterous affairs.  Neither one thought they’d get caught.  But Magic admitted publicly that because of his actions, he now has HIV.  And Kobe’s became public because the woman accused him of raping her.  The bite was non painful in the beginning, actually felt good, but once the poison spread, the consequences became a lifetime of pain, distrust, and struggle.

The bite, whether big or small, whether it’s murder or gossip, still has effects on the one bitten as well as those who know him/her.

Right now, Satan is not on a leash or limited to a fenced yard.  No, he is free to roam and is looking to bite.  So, Beware the Dog!  The signs are everywhere.  Start preparing yourself to know the truth (not just that Jesus is Savior) and to begin living it.  Go on the offensive.  And trust that just as Jesus overcame Satan’s attacks, you too will overcome when relying upon Him for your guidance and protection.

Balls of Priority - Work

Here we are – the conclusion to Balls of Priority – looking to discover what God has to say to us about the final ball – work.

And we have learned, and I keep repeating, that if we don’t prioritize faith as the #1 ball, we are assured we will let the other four - family, friends, health, and work –drop at some point.  Faith, which is defined as obeying what God asks us to do, calls us to understand what God desires for the other four. 

And when we do it God’s way, we have success – anyhow, much more success than those who don’t.

Faith shows us that families who desire to do it God’s ways have greater success and greater peace than those who do it on their own.    Faith shows us that friendships, Godly friendships, are critical to our encouragement, our strength, and our resolve to persevere in our faith.  Faith shows us that our bodies are not our own because Jesus paid the price for them.  Our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.  And so even though we are free to do to our bodies anything we choose, God reminds us that not all things are beneficial for the body – for our health, especially those areas that become addictive or cause someone weaker in the faith to fall into sin.

But now faith is going to show us what God desires for us in our work.

Before jumping into the scripture reading, it is important to note that work, though a rubber ball that will bounce back when dropped, is not minimalized.  Work is very important for our survival in this world.  And it is also one of the greatest tools a Follower of Christ can use to witness of one’s faith.  Work creates mission.

Colossians 3: 22 – 4:1 states, “Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.  Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.  It is the Lord Christ you are serving.  Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favoritism.  Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.”

The Big Ideas from this passage are:   Work with Integrity; Work for the Lord; and Work has Eternal Consequences.

Now before diving into the Big Ideas God has for us in our work, I want you to understand that Paul was not agreeing with the culture this church was living in, nor was he politically trying to change it.   He believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ, if lived out in every aspect of life, would bring change:    change to the one living out his/her faith and change to the one seeing this faith lived out.  He was merely saying to the Colossian church, “This is our culture – the fallen culture which has said this is okay – and we are going to live in it as Jesus would have us live in it despite how wrong it may be.”

Paul had already taught the Colossian Church that Jesus, in His crucifixion, showed that fighting injustice with swords was not His desire – Jesus willingly took every bad thing done to Him without fighting back. 

 

Paul wrote, “Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart, as working for the Lord.”

Work with Integrity

 

Paul was saying, “Jesus wants you to work for Him, but to work for Him you show it through your work for others.  You see if you are working for Jesus, your work will be sincere.  Your work will be done with integrity.  You will not care if your earthly boss sees you working so that you might be praised.  You will be praised because your boss will see the same quality work out of you whether he is watching or not.  Your work should be a witness of your faith.”

 

Then Paul wrote, “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.”

 

Work for the Lord
 

Paul makes it very clear, “Your boss is not man.  Your boss is a ‘Jewish Carpenter’.  So no matter what you do, whether work, raising a family, ministry, going to school, being a good steward of God’s resources, sports, cleaning your room, etc., do it for the Lord; and do it well.  Do it well because it is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

 

Work has Eternal Consequences

 

Paul said, “You’re working for the Lord, and He does see everything.  Though you’re not to seek favoritism from your earthly bosses by putting on a show in front of them, you should give them your best effort whether you like them or not.  And then your work will be for the Lord.  Jesus, your real boss, actually will reward you with eternal inheritance, and you might even find yourself being rewarded by your earthly boss because of your integrity and hard work.”

 

Juggling the 5 balls of life is a challenge, but a challenge that can be met by prioritizing them.  And by prioritizing them around our faith, we find what God desires for all of them.

 

God always wants the best for us.  He wants the best for our families.  He wants the best for our friendships.  He wants the best for our health, our bodies.  And He wants the best for our work.

 

And though we are part of a cursed world where everything is not fair, we can have what God desires for us by living as best as we can by obeying His commands and following His life-giving principles.  How about you?  Are you keeping the balls of life in the air?  Are you giving God your best in all of them?  Are you giving God all of yourself?