The devil!
Gtcotr/060219
1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
• Devour means to consume and destroy
• The devil is the loud voice in your life that wants to consume you, control you and ultimately bring you to complete destruction and ruin.
• Sobriety and vigilance are our best weapons to use against this adversary.
Before we go further this morning, let’s establish Three truths about the devil:
1. The devil is real.
2. The devil hates you …
3. The devil cannot devour you unless you let him.
The devil cannot divide, devour or destroy a family, a church, a business, a community, a nation, a classroom or anything else unless he can first find at least one person who is either willing or absent minded enough to work with him. And, the devil cannot consume, conquer or control you unless he can either trick to treat you to work alongside him as well.
This bears asking the question: Why would anyone work with the devil to destroy their own life? Or family? Or friendships … or nation for that matter? It’s the question of a lifetime.
Well, it’s my hope the people who are working for the devil aren’t actually wicked and evil at heart but merely stupid. I’ve got to believe that they just don’t know what “in hell”, or in the name of hell, they are doing.
Thankfully God gave us some questions we can ask ourselves to make sure we aren’t being tricked by the devil into working with him. It all begins with us, our attitudes and our actions. Let’s look at what 2 Peter has to say about these things.
2 Peter 1 NKJV
Now remember … The devil is real; he hates you; and the devil cannot devour you unless you let him.
2 Peter 1
5 … For this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
6 to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,
7 to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
8 For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
9 For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.
10 Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble;
• Stumble means to fall into misery and become wretched.
Each Born-Again Believer holds a personal responsibility for their own Christian growth. Every Believer in Jesus has a duty to examine their attitudes and actions and to hold themselves accountable to higher standards of conduct, not just because they belong to Christ but because His ways are best for everyone.
Therefore, add to your faith:
• Virtue – moral excellence – the devil will try to trick you into being immoral or just mostly moral …
o Examine your attitudes and actions and don’t be tricked or treated into compromising your morals.
o Why work alongside the devil for your own destruction.
o You’ll just fall into misery and become wretched.
• Knowledge –
• Self-Control
• Perseverance
• Godliness
• Brotherly kindness – Uncommon affection for brothers and sisters in Christ
• Love – for everyone that they might have their needs met and come to Jesus.
We can easily ask ourselves if these things are in us and if we are actually being an example of Christ or if we are working alongside the devil and being used to divide, devour and destroy the work of God.
Are you being tricked or treated into working against God? That’s the only two options why anyone would go along with the devil. Either they are gaining something or else they just don’t have a clue. Do you care or do you even have a clue? These are the questions we can ask ourselves and then we should take positive action to correct any ungodliness we find in our lives.
Why? Because everyone should resist the devil and his attempts to divide, devour and destroy lives. It goes back to the scripture passage we began reading this morning.
1 Peter 5
8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
Remember, the devil cannot divide, devour or destroy unless he can successfully trick or treat someone into working alongside him … Don’t be that one!
1. Examine yourself
a. If you find
i. Moral compromise
ii. A lack of self-control
iii. No patience
iiii. Ungodliness
v. No love for others
b. Pray and ask God to forgive you and help you overcome
c. Get counsel on how to defeat the devil in your life
d. Find an accountability partner
2. Resist the devil
3. These same temptations and struggles are happening to others all around you … Encourage and support people who are trying to do better for Jesus.
