Gtcotr/ss063013
In
every situation and with each day of our life, God has His part and we have
ours. Only God can do His part and only we can do ours.
God
reaches to people through people. He has a message but He wants us to be His
messengers.
God’s
plan to use people as messengers to fill the earth with His message is so
effective that satan, a fallen angel and sworn enemy of God, copies that plan
and tries to do the same thing - with one exception. God’s message is a message of faith, hope and love. God wrote His
message first in creation, then on tables of stone, next in His only Son, and
ultimately in the hearts and minds of men.
Satan
could offer no redeeming message so he decided his only chance to be heard was attempt
to discredit God’s message. Knowing
he could not keep people from hearing The
Good News, the devil decided to sow seeds of doubt, distrust and disease in
the earth concerning both the message and the messengers of God.
For
thousands of years and even today, the devil has no greater strategy than to
simply wait for God’s Word to be spoken and then immediately say, “It ain’t so!” – “That’s not true, not
really … not exactly … you don’t believe that do you? Has God really said …?
Surely He didn’t mean it.”
If
attacking the message does not work, the devil often resorts to attacking God’s
messengers. It can all appear so harmless, seem so reasonable or even look like
it is true concern, or all about protecting people’s future.
When others feel they have to protect us from God and His Word, they
have become the messengers of the satan, no matter how sincere and well meaning
they seem. Some are the devil’s messengers without knowing.
The devil has only one
message
– “You can’t trust God”.
· Not for the short
game … the situation at hand – the moment
· Not for the long
game … the future beyond – the mountain
· Not for the moment,
not for the mountain, and not for eternity
God’s
messengers spread the Word of God like seeds. The devil desires to steal those
seeds before they can take root and bear fruit.
Mark 4:14-18
The sower sows the word. And these are the ones by the wayside where
the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the
word that was sown in their hearts … And they having no root in themselves, and
so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises
for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble … and the seed becomes
unfruitful.
The devil and his messengers
have one goal
– to keep the message of God from taking root in people’s life. The Bible calls
the devil:
· satan;
that old serpent
· Abaddon
& Apollyon (destroying angel of the bottomless pit)
· the prince
of darkness
· the god of
this world
· the
accuser of the brethren
· your
adversary (like a roaring lion)
· Beelzebub
(the ruler of demons)
· belial; the
wicked one; the father of lies
· the man of
sin, that son of perdition
· tempter
& thief
· the
antichrist
· the enemy
of your soul
The
Bible has not one good thing to say about the devil or his messengers.
John 8
43 Why do you not understand
My speech? Because you are not able to listen to My word.
44 You are of your
father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a
murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is
no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources,
for he is a liar and the father of it.
45 But because I tell the
truth, you do not believe Me.
In
Numbers 13, the Children of Israel were faced with a critical moment in their
journey from Egypt to the Promised Land of Canaan. In order for them to take
full advantage of God’s blessings and provision they needed to do one thing – they
just needed to believe God, to trust Him above what they were facing. But, the
devil was hard at work.
Moses
sent 12 leaders of the people, one prince from each tribe, to spy out the land
and bring back a report on how to best conquer the inhabitants of the land.
Those spies all saw and experienced the same things for 40 days. When they
returned they all 12 told the same story of the abundant fruitfulness of the
land of Canaan, the great walled cities and of the strong inhabitants who
occupied those cities.
2
of the spies, Joshua and Caleb, did not deny that the Canaanites were strong
and the cities walled, however they believed that the Children of Israel were
well able to conquer them and overcome any obstacle because God was with them.
However, the other 10 spies had been listening to a different message in their
minds and in conversation with one another.
These
10 spies brought back another message. They said, “We are not able to defeat
the people of Canaan. We are like grasshoppers even in our own sight … how much
smaller must we seem to them. We cannot go! We will be destroyed!”
Joshua
and Caleb said, “Let us go at once … their defense has departed from them and
we are well able to defeat them!” Whose report do you imagine the people
believed? Not the true report … not God’s Word …
The
only weapon the devil had was to discredit God’s message and God’s messengers.
Soon the people began to spread the devil’s message amongst themselves and lost
the battle. However, 40 years later Joshua and Caleb led a new generation into
that same land. Just because the devil lies and looks like he has some measure
of victory – don’t believe it is over. It’s not over until God’s message and
His messengers prevail!
People who have been listening to the lies find it hard to believe
the truth.
The devil has one
lie
… “It’s bad and it will never get any better.”
What
have you been hearing lately? About:
· Your marriage
· Your money
· Your health
· Your children;
parents; family; friends
· Your job
· Your nation
· Your future
· The World?
God
has the same Good News today that He
had yesterday and will have tomorrow. And, we are called to be His messengers.
Therefore it is vital we know God’s message and that we stay on target. For The
Good News:
Turn
with me to what we call the “Love Chapter” in the Bible:
1 Corinthians 13 NKJV
12 For now we see in a
mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know
just as I also am known.
13 And now abide faith, hope,
love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
We
don’t see everything, but we see God’s Word. God’s message is:
1.
Faith
2.
Hope
3.
Love
Put
away lesser things and all the lies of the devil. Things are getting better!
God will make them better. Our part is to have:
· Faith which is aimed
at moving the moment
· Hope which keeps us moving
up the mountain
· The Love of God which
will endure throughout eternity
Don’t
dare let the devil rob you of The Good
News!
