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How The Devil Wants To Use You!!!
Contributed by Dr. Odell Belger on Mar 18, 2022 (message contributor)
Summary: There are two things we all will agree on in this congregation:
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(1) WE RECOGNIZE THAT GOD CREATED US
Christians believe in CREATIONISM not in EVOLUTION. Why? One of the reasons is that evolution does not make any sense.
Illus: Did you hear about the six year old girl that was sitting in a classroom? The teacher was going to explain evolution to the children. The conversation went like this:
• Teacher: “Tommy do you see the tree outside?”
• Tommy: “Yes.”
• Teacher: “Tommy, do you see the grass outside?”
• Tommy: “Yes.”
• Teacher: “Do you see the sky outside.”
• Tommy: “Yes.”
• Teacher: “Do you see God?”
• Tommy: “No.”
• Teacher: “That's my point. We can't see God because He isn't there. He doesn't exist.”
A little girl spoke up and wanted to ask little Tommy some questions. The teacher agreed:
• Little Girl: “Tommy, do you see the tree outside?”
• Tommy: “Yes.”
• Little Girl: “Tommy do you see the grass outside?”
• Tommy: “Yessssss” (getting tired of the questions by this time).
• Little Girl: “Did you see the sky?”
• Tommy: “Yessssss”
• Little Girl: “Tommy, do you see the teacher?”
• Tommy: “Yes”
• Little Girl : “Do you see her brain?”
• Tommy: “No”
• Little Girl : “Then she must not have one!”
The lost world is still trying to figure out how we got here, but we believers know that God created us and put us here.
The Word of God says in 2 Cor. 4:7, "For we walk by faith, not by sight" By faith, we know that everything we can see or not see was put here by God the Creator. We recognize that God created us and ..
(2) WE RECOGNIZE THAT GOD HAS A PLAN FOR OUR LIVES
As Christians, we can not help but think about the will of God for our lives. However, sometimes as Christians we do not seem to recognize that SATAN ALSO HAS A PLAN FOR OUR LIVES.
Much of the Scriptures deal with that one thing. For example, the Lord foreseeing the danger of Peter being used of Satan, tried to forewarn him and put him on guard that Satan desired to use him. Look at Luke 22:31, “And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.”
Notice, the Lord Jesus said two things to Peter:
1. “Satan hath desired to have you”
But notice, according to the scriptures, he can never have us as he once had us. The Lord tells Peter something else in the same verse, he tells him why Satan wants him. He wants to ..
2. “Sift you as wheat”.
The Lord knew that these folks were familiar with the sifting of wheat.
Illus: Years ago our mothers had “Sifters” in their kitchens. They would place flour in these little round sifters (about the size of a half gallon container) that had a little screen wire on the bottom, and a wire wheel that would turn with a handle on the side of the sifter. As she turned the handle, the sifter would “sift” out the bad stuff.
Make no mistake about it, Satan wants to sift every one of us to find those he can use to promote his evil cause. The Lord tried to forewarn Peter, but he was not smart enough to heed the warning.
There is a television commercial that says, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.” But there are some people walking around today that make us wonder if they have a brain in their heads.
Illus: Three idiots walked into a bar and appeared to be very happy about something.
• “I can't believe we did it in only 120 days!” The first one says. “The drinks are on me!”
• The second one says. “The drinks are on me!” “I can’t believe we did it in only 120 days!”
• The third one said, “I also can not believe we did it in a 120 days! The drinks are on me!”
The bartender is curious and asks, “What are you fellows celebrating?” One of the idiots replied, “We put this here jigsaw puzzle together in only a 120 days, and on the side of the box it says from 3 to 5 years!"
Yes, a brain is a terrible thing to waste. Evidently Peter must have been that dense, because the Lord tried to warn him that Satan desired to use him, but he could not grasp it.
I believe the Lord would have us consider that Satan wants to use us, for example-
I. SATAN WANTS TO USE YOU TO DIVIDE THE CHURCH
Look at Eph. 4:3, we read, “Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
Notice, the word “Keep”, This is the word “Tereo” (Pronounced as “Tay-reh'-o”) which means TO GUARD BY KEEPING THE EYE UPON; TO PREVENT ESCAPING.