Title: Don’t Believe the HYPE
Introduction:
A blessed morning to everyone!
I am so honored to speak and to preach the word of God this day. I hope you too are honored to hear the word of God this morning. The topic that I was prepared for this day is entitled… “DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE”. What is Hype? Hype, according to answers.com, hype means misleading, misinformation or half-truths. So when we say don’t believe the hype means believe not on half-truths and misinformation.
We all know that the enemy comes to steal and kill and destroy (John 10:10); also that he is the father of all lies; according to the bible he is the vicar of all lies.
However, though all of us here are aware of Satan’s attributes, he can still deceived us. Sometimes, we tend to be Satan’s victim all over and over again. Let me share to you three major lies of Satan that I believe we experienced much more when we are experiencing God’s greatness upon our lives.
The first lie of Satan…
I can give you what you want. When you read the Gospel of Luke chapter 4 verses 1 to 13, it all talks about the temptation of Jesus Christ in the wilderness. As we look upon the verses written on the book of Luke chapter 4 Satan tempted Jesus 3 times.
First, he suggests making the stone into bread. Why? Actually, when you paraphrase that, it goes like this… “If you are the Son of God” this is not a suggestion but an affirmation. It literally means “since you are” or “in view of the fact that you are the Son of God.” The first temptation would be no temptation at all if Jesus were not indeed the Son of God. The devil is well aware that God exists and I don’t think that he applies a great deal of effort trying to discourage us from a belief in God. His basic strategy is to persuade us believing that God can’t be trusted. It means, if Jesus make the stones into bread, Jesus has no longer authority over the enemy because He was the one who ruled by the enemy’s dominion
Second, he offered the riches and glory of the world. This temptation was actually experienced by many. Satan told Jesus that he will give the domains and riches of the world. In our present times what are these riches, domains and glory? These are the material things that we posses (gadgets, laptops, cell phones, what else?), Fame! According to Ms. Ermalee we are all craving for fame. He wants us to believe that we need all this things that we want.
Third, he offered false truth. As we read verses 9-11 of chapter 4 this was the first time that Satan used scripture from the word of God. Satan quoted, Psalm 91:11-12 "For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone" this prophecy is not concerning Christ, but any holy man; therefore the devil wrongly interpreted Scripture; and that had he certainly known, that this is written concerning the Savior. What Satan wants to convey? That since Jesus Christ was the Son of God; His Father will protect Him for all harm. The devil tries to impose that since Psalm 91:11-12 told us about Gods protection we must listen to him.
What is the Truth behind all these lies? If we would look at all those things that Satan’s offered, it was all good, but what will be the reason for Jesus to ignore all of those?
First, this temptation may have been an appeal for Jesus to do a work of messianic significance. Probably, His temptation may have been to satisfy His own need and gratify Himself. The issue therefore, is not one of appeal to change His supremacy but a challenge to act apart from faithful dependence on God. Man shall not live on bread alone. He will not leave You nor forsake You. That’s the promise.
Second, the messiah would one day rule over the entire world, possessing all “Authority and Splendor.” To worship devil in order to recapture the world is not needed; because Jesus posses all things in this world because He is the creator. However, Jesus response to the enemy “Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.” And we, as His sons and daughters, just have faith that Jesus overcomes the world, no reason to worry.
Third, though Satan tends to use the word of God, Jesus the Son of God knows the right interpretation of it. So we as Christians for us to avoid deception of the devil know the word of your Father. Yes, Satan can use many words that comes from the word of God but you must know the intend meaning of the passage for you to know the real message of God almighty.
Not only Jesus but also the Man after God’s own heart was tempted by the devil, this time King David gives in to sin.
The second lie of Satan…
I can give you physical satisfaction. Let’s open our Bible to 2 Samuel chapter 11 verses 1-5.
1. In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king's men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
2. One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful,
3. And David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?"
4. Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home.
5. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant."
Here, we can see that David commit adultery. Before David commit sin first thing happen was David was not where he should have been. That’s why the enemy grabs the opportunity to offer something to David, the enemy temps David through Bathsheba the wife of Uriah. He slept with Bathsheba and in verse 5 the woman was conceived. Sa palagay ko, nung nalaman ni Haring David na nag dadalantao si Bathsheba, nag iisip na sya kung pano nya ito itatago, Hari sya kapag nalaman iyon ng mga pinamumunuan nya isa iyong malaking kahihiyan na ang hari ng Israel ay nag kasala sa mata ng Diyos at sa harap ng malaking tao.
As the result, the general consequence of David’s sin was the division over his family and over his kingdom. If you will read the story of Ammon and Tamar, you will see the consequence of what David had done. His son Ammon raped her sister Tamar and afterwards Absalom knew what happen to her sister and give revenge to what happen after two years. It’s hard to know that your sons and daughters are having this kind of life and immorality because of your sin and much painful when you saw that because of you your kingdom or in a way sa lugar na lang natin nagkawatak-watak dahil sa sarili nating kasalanan. This is the question, is David becomes satisfy after he had slept with Bathsheba the wife of Uriah? No! Rather he regret from it. He was totally felt sorry and grieve for a long period of time. This implies that Satan never satisfy our emptiness and longings, if you give in to the enemy’s work then you will experience great hardships, oo masarap sya pero the very thing is the after effect.
I have a short story, in a very cold place where some of wolves are living in, there was a hunter who desires to kill wolves and made their skin cloth for cold season. Then the hunter thinks of how he would kill those wolves. Then after a long period of time ung hunter ay nakagawa na ng paraan or I should say strategy. He places a very sharp edged sword and put blood on its sides. He studies what were the weaknesses of those wolves, and he knew that it was blood. While waiting for the wolves, he saw that little by little the wolves smell the fragrance of the blood, and little by little the wolves found out where does the blood placed of. At ng Makita na nila, dinilaan nila ng dinilaan hanggang sa hindi nila namamalayan sariling dugo na pala ang dinidilaan nila hanggang sa mamatay lahat sila. This story was also related to the story of Adam and Eve when the enemy tries to tempt them.
The third lie of Satan…
I can give you pleasurable life. Genesis 3 is the account of the Fall of Man wherein Adam and Eve fall short from the Glory of God. What happen? Let’s read…
1. Now the serpent was craftier than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
2. The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,
3. 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.' "
4. "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.
5. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
6. 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.
7. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
The serpent speaks only twice, but that is enough to offset the balance of trust and obedience between the man and the woman and their creator. The centerpiece of the story is the question of the knowledge of good and evil. The serpent implied that God keeps the knowledge from man and woman, while the sense of narratives in the first two chapters has been that God keeps the knowledge for man and woman. In other words, the serpent tries to challenge the central theme of the first two chapters that God will provide the “good” for man if he will only trust Him and obey Him. When the woman saw that the tree was good, then it portrayed as a quest for wisdom and “the good” apart from God’s provision. Having knowledge that the tree was good ay masasabi kong simula na ng pag hihiwalay ng wisdom ng tao at wisdom na nang gagaling sa Diyos.
Having thus shown the temptation to be quest for “wisdom” apart from God, it is also temptation to rely on our own understanding, that’s why the word of God is very important. If we fail to know and understand the word of God than it is very dangerous for us because Satan will deceive us using this false truths and as the result of false truth you will have false pleasurable life. After Adam and Eve ate the fruit of knowledge, God cursed them in verse 14-19 saying…
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this,
"Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
15 And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel."
16 To the woman he said,
"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."
17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
"Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return."
This sin that Adam and Eve committed has the consequences that until now we have suffered, the consequence that harms many, the pains and the hardships, the corruption, identity crisis, and miserable life. You want all of these consequences had, and then give in to the temptation of Satan. Are Adam and Eve achieves their purpose of eating the fruit? Imbes na gumanda at lumawak ang kaalaman nila nag hirap sila. Imbes na sana tayo ngaun nag eenjoy sa buhay na ibinigay sa atin ng diyos ng walang halong pag hihirap. Dahil sa kasalanan nilang dalawa nag patukso sila sa kaaway ito tayo ngaun subject to death.
However, this time, Jesus died on the cross to give us liberty. Freedom to temptation.
What happen to Adam and Eve as well as to King David reminds us and establishing the imporatnce of knowing the scripture and having God’s authority over ourlives, because out of God’s word and presence, all things are lies. Know your God, know His word, so that you will not be Satan’s victim. As I end, let us be reminded the three lies of the Devil
1. He can give you what you want- learn from Jesus attitude and unwavering faith.
2. He can give you physical satisfction- learn from King Davids life, and…
3. He can give you pleasurable life- learn from Adam and Eve’s mistake.
For only our Father who is in heaven can give those things. Things that can satisfy us, things that can make our life so meaningful, and things that can give life for us and for those people around us.
Don’t believe the HYPE.
God bless us all!
