Painting God’s Masterpiece Part 7
Scripture: Genesis 3:1-5; Ephesians 6:12; Romans 10:8-10
Introduction:
In part six of my message last week, I talked about hope. I shared with you that hope allows us to see clearly what shall be – especially when we come into agreement with God that what has been is not what shall be. God has already put forth the image that He has of us, but unless we make the transition from wishing to hoping, we will not be able to fully understand that image or take the proper steps to bring the image into reality. The battle we are in is about the heart – where our beliefs are stored. God knows that once we accept and believe something with our hearts, we will act on it. Satan also understands this which is why he has worked so hard to blind us to who we really are in Christ. This morning we examine how Satan influences what we see and what God’s word has to say about us.
I. Satan’s Influences
We already know that Satan is our enemy and he especially loathes those who believe in God and try to live by His principles. One of the ways he attempts to blind us is by appearing as an angel of light – or as some would say, one who enlightens. We all know that the smarter each generation get, the weaker it become spiritually. The reason for this is that with the intelligence comes distain for God because everything that happens can be rationalized away. Satan uses man’s knowledge to his own advantage. Remember what happened in the Garden of Eden? Turn to Genesis 3:1-5.
Satan’s first appearance in Scripture was in the Garden of Eden. We have talked about what happened so many times that you know this story by heart. This morning as I read this, I want you to examine how Satan changes how Eve saw herself and God. Genesis 3:1-5 records this conversation between Satan and Eve: “……And he said to the woman, ‘Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’ The serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” Notice here what Satan did. Eve originally saw herself as obeying God so she understood what she was not supposed to do. However, in talking with Satan, what she thought she understood was challenged and a convincing argument was made for her to turn her back on God. Satan convinced her that by doing what God had told her not to do she would actually be a better person and more like God Himself. She immediately began to see herself as being more like God versus what God had made her to be. It was no longer about walking with God and fulfilling what He had told her – it became about her fulfilling an image of what she now had in her mind that she could become. God had made them so that they would have lived forever, but they chose the “potential to become like God” over the promises of God. He had made them so that they would never experience sickness, yet they chose this potential versus being what God had made them to be. We continue to do this today. If I can see myself as being self-sufficient, why do I need to cry out to God? Do I not possess everything that I need to do whatever I need to do? It’s the same story, just a different chapter.
Once Adam and Eve sinned, it went down hill from there. Man became extremely evil because that is what they imagined. Genesis 6:5 records: “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Where did these thoughts and images originate? They originated in the heart. The battle is for our hearts. When God commanded Noah to build the ark, He did so after He noticed how sinful man had become. When the images in our hearts are evil, those are the images that we will carry out.
Satan wants to change how we process what we see so that he can influence what we take away from the image. He does not have to change the image, but just influence how we process what we see. I have shared with you before about the ten spies that Moses sent out to see the Promised Land. When they returned, they knew it was filled with milk and honey, but they could not see themselves taking the land. Satan did not change what they saw, he changed how they process the image. He took the inhabitants of the land and made them focus on the giants of the land versus the blessings that awaited them. Remember, these were the same men who witnessed God bringing them out of Egypt. These were the same men who crossed the Red Sea as Pharaoh’s chariots came rushing towards them. With everything they had witnessed, Satan was able to wipe it from their memory through fear. When they saw the giants, they became afraid and that fear was the only thing they could see. Satan did not change one physical thing about what they saw in the Promised Land or the memories of God’s deliverance. What he did was changed how they processed it by using fear as the mediator. Now here is where Satan gets really smart. When he cannot get us to fail on our own, he will use others to get us to fall or to change how we process what we see. The millions of Israelites who were awaiting the spies return were excited about the possibilities of finally entering the Promised Land. If the spies had told them it’s time, they would have entered in. However, Satan used these spies to kill the people’s excitement. This is something he does quite well using others to taint what God is revealing to us.
Do you remember what was recorded in Mark the eight chapter? Jesus shared with His disciples that He had to go to Jerusalem and would suffer many things. Peter rebuked Him, trying to get Him to not say or believe such things. When Jesus responded to Peter’s rebuke, this is what He said: “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.” Jesus recognized immediately that it was Satan speaking through Peter in an attempt to use Peter to get Him off track. We also find a similar incident when Satan entered Judas after he made the decision to betray Jesus. Satan will consistently use people in his attempt to influence what we see. Paul found that this was so important to grasp that he wrote in Ephesians 6:12 “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” All of these references are to Satan’s kingdom. Satan uses people to influence what we see and if we are not aware of this, we will continue to allow ourselves to see what others want us to see.
Throughout the Bible we see examples of Satan using people as a means to hinder God’s people from fulfilling what He has for them. In the Garden there were no other people so he had to use a snake. Once he got Eve he used her to get to Adam. From there the trend started. He used Sarah’s fear of not having children to get Abraham to father a child through her handmaid. He used Aaron’s fear of the people and he made o golden calf while Moses was away communing with God. He used Miriam plus a host of other Israelites in an attempt to get Moses to walk the way they wanted him to walk. He used Saul to try and stop David. He used Delilah to stop Samson. He used a multitude of women to stop Solomon (although Solomon was a very willing participant). He used Jezebel to try and stop Elijah. He used Christ’s disciples to try and stop Him. He used Paul to try and stop the Christians. He used the Christians to try and stop Paul and the list goes on and on. We must be aware that Satan is focused on influencing what we see. He knows if he can affect this, he can affect the outcome. Our only defense against his onslaught is God and understanding what God has said about us.
II. What God Says
From the very first message, I have been focusing our attention on the image that God has of us. That image was shaped through Jesus Christ and continues to be the primary focus of who we are. Even though in our past Satan was able to stop us from fully processing what God has placed before us – remember, he did not change it, he just influenced how we processed what we were seeing – we are in a new place today. God wants us to see what He sees. He wants to influence our vision so that what He has planted in our hearts, we will recognize, accept and act on it. Here are a few examples of what God’s Word has said about His children.
Romans 8:31-33: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies.” If God has your back, even in the midst of your darkest midnight hour, should you not be encouraged? If God is for us, and He is, we are more than conquerors. God wants us to see ourselves as protected and never alone. If you’re worried about a job – if God is for you, He’s better than any one thousand letters of recommendations you can get from others. Get a visual of God being for you and Satan will not be able to make you believe you are walking alone.
Romans 8:37: “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” This statement was made after Paul asked the question about who or what can separate us from the love of God. He spoke of tribulations, distress, persecutions, famine, peril or the sword (death) and he proclaimed that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Then he said that we are more than conquerors. It is not just that you are a conqueror; you are more than that because of the love that God has for us. You are not weak; there is more to you than you think. Understand what God has said about you and you will begin to reach for what already belongs to you.
Romans 12:2: “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” God wants our mind renewed so that we will be able to determine what He has for us. We will not be able to see it unless our minds are renewed and we stop processing everything around us through the lenses of the world.
1 John 4:16: “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” It is a fact that God loves us. There is a different response that one person has to another when there is love between them. We will do things for someone we love that we will not do for someone we just like. Love influences our responses to one another in a positive way. If you see God loving you then you will not see Him as being in heaven waiting to rain down fire and brimstone every time you fail. You will see Him as picking you up in your times of need. This is the image that God wants us to see and the one Satan is so desperately trying to get us to not process.
2 Corinthians 4:8-9, 16-18: “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;……..Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light afflictions is producing for us eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” I want you to understand this clearly. Satan wants us to operate in the realm of our soul and emotions. By operating here, we focus on the things that are seen – the despair, the troubles, the persecutions. God wants us to operate in the realm of what shall be and thus not focus on the problems we are facing. By focusing on what shall be, we can be afflicted, but not crushed. By focusing on what shall be, we can be perplexed, but not despair. By focusing on what shall be, we can be persecuted, but not forsaken. By focusing on what shall be, we can be struck down, but we will not be destroyed and will continue to get up. This is the difference between operating in the realm of the soul and emotions and operating in the realm of what shall be. Paul says that even though our outer man is decaying, our inner man is being renewed day by day. It is the inner man (our spirit) that strengthens the outer man (our flesh). We must focus on the eternal and not the temporal. Focusing on the eternal means that we are always having hope despite what is happening around us. This is what God wants us to see.
Philippians 4:6-7: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” God does not want us worrying. We begin to focus on the problem, we stop focusing on the answer. When we are focusing on the problem, we begin to worry. Worry happens because we are not sure where the answer will come from. If you know the answer will arrive and it will work out for you, you will not spend time worrying about it. Satan wants us to think there is no answer or that the answer will harm us and thus we begin to worry. God wants us to see ourselves having our prayers answered. When we begin to walk in this, God’s peace will protect our hearts so that Satan cannot enter in and cause us to worry and doubt about what God is really doing.
2 Chronicles 7:13-14: “If I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people, and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” Although this Scripture was speaking to the Israelites, I believe it also speaks to us. You see, God does not change so what He said in regards to His children then applies to His children today. God said that when we, those who are called by His name, humble ourselves, pray and seek His face, then He would hear our call from heaven and He will answer. You do not have to question whether or not God is listening when you pray or that He will answer if you are seeking His face and you have turned from the ways of the world. Satan wants you to think you’re by yourself and that God is not listening to you, do not believe it.
Colossians 2:13-14: “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” I have told you before that we were sinners saved by grace – that past tense. We do not have a license through grace to continue in sin because our debt has been paid. We owe God nothing for those sins that have been forgiven except to live for Him. We do not have to remain in the shadow of our past lives – we have been made clean.
1 Timothy 6:12: “Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” Paul told Timothy to fight the good fight of faith and to take hold of the eternal life that was given him through Christ. Timothy had already possessed eternal life since he had first received Christ, but Paul was telling him to also claim its benefits in greater fullness. We have been saved and we will receive eternal life when we leave this place, but there are benefits that we should be walking in today.
Romans 10:8-10: “But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” What we believe in our hearts will be spoken through our mouths. Jesus is the source of our salvation and therefore our hope. He is our vision and our image – the one that we should be painting on the canvas of our lives.
I will complete this series next week focusing on Christ as our hope, our vision and our image. May God bless and keep you is my prayer.
