We’re going to begin in John 8:44.
“Ye are of your father the devil...”
When Jesus says “ye are of your father the devil” what’s telling the people is you have the same nature as your father, which is the sin nature. He not saying this because they are arguing with him. It’s not like he’s calling them names. Before we got born again, we were “of our father the devil” too. Okay?
He says “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him (because there is no truth in him, BECAUSE there is no truth in him). When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.”
I wanted to read that one verse to launch us on where we’re going this morning. It’s one of the lies that Satan has fed us. And this lie started long before I was born and probably before everyone here.
It’s one of the most dangerous lies around. But it’s so subtle, so deceptive, and if you’re not paying attention, so innocent. But we’re taught it as a child. I repeated this more than once as a child and even a time or two as a grown up. It’s one of those sayings that is designed to show people how tough you are. But, in reality, what it has done is blinded us to the fact that this very thing is why some people are going spend an eternity in the lake of fire.
I’m getting ready to show my age. I grew up during the time when Chubby Checker was popular. “I’m going to twist again like I did last summer.” I remember doing the twist and my friends looking at me and laughing. “You are a horrible dancer! We can’t believe you’d even do this in public!”
And so, I looked at them and said “Well, stick and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me!”
“Sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me!”
I lied that day because my response showed that the words did indeed hurt me. But it’s one of those lies that Satan has gotten into the world, and in the Body of Christ, that the only things that hurt you are physical.
Satan knows how important words are. But if he can get us to believe that words have no power over us, words can’t hurt us, words can do us no harm – he’s got us right where he wants us.
Sticks. Stones. Words.
When we say words can’t hurt us, we are devaluing the impact of words in our lives. As I was thinking about this again this morning, another lie rose up in my spirit. How many times have you heard someone say “I’d rather see a sermon than hear one preached?”
Listen, for people who say that, if you don’t want to go to church, just don’t go! You don’t have to say that because, you see, you wouldn’t recognize a sermon if you saw it. Again, this saying devalues the Bible, the written Word.
Everything about us, ladies and gentlemen, is in this book. Everything! It’s here. And when we say we’re rather see a sermon than hear one, what we’re saying is this [I’m holding up the Bible.] is not that important to me. What I see in you is what’s important to me. That is what’s going to determine my relationship with God.
I’m going to tell you something right now. If you’re going to determine your relationship God by the Christians you see today, just go ahead and sign the dotted line “I’m on my way to the lake of fire and an eternity away from God.” Most Christians are not preaching a sermon you should be watching.
Now I have a question for you. Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me. How many of you have ever had a bone broken by a stick? How many of you have ever had a bone broken by a stone, or a rock, or a brick?
Now how many of you have gone through life and heard words that have not hurt you? Show of hands. [No hands were raised.} None because words do hurt.
I want you to listen to some of this.
With words....
• You can kill a person’s hopes and dreams. For example:
• “You’re not smart enough to be an engineer.”
• “You can sing but you’re not good enough to sing professionally.”
I remember hearing a story about Anita Baker, an R&B singer. You could hear her music all over the place in the late 80s and early 90s. She was told by her fifth grade music teacher that she would never sing professionally because she had a sultry like deep voice.
So, after she won her fifth Grammy [I paused for effect and laughed.], she visited her fifth grade music teacher. “I have five Grammys.” How she has eight.
You can kill a person’s hopes and dreams with words.
• With words, you can degrade a person.
• “You’re not pretty enough to be a model.”
• “You’re just like ____. You won’t amount to anything.”
How many times have we heard that?
Do you remember of the story about Jesus having a meal at the home of a Pharisee named Simon? When Jesus arrives, Simon did none of the things the host typically does for the visitor. This woman comes in, she’s a sinner, and she proceeds to wash Jesus’ feet with her hair – with her tears. She pours oil on his head.
Simon says if Jesus only knew what kind of woman was doing this, he wouldn’t allow her to touch him. The Pharisees had degraded her so much that she believed her sins were so great that nothing could be done to reverse her eternal future in the lake of fire.
Can you imagine telling someone that it doesn’t matter what you do, you’re still going to hell? That is what the Jewish leaders told this woman. But not Jesus! Praise God! Not Jesus! I encourage you to read the story.
• With words you can put a person in a prison without the use of shackles.
• Harriet Tubman, you know her story. She was a slave who escaped to freedom and returned to bring other slaves to freedom. She once said that she could set more slaves free if they knew they were slaves. ‘I freed a thousand slaves. I would’ve freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves.”
There are so many Christians who are slaves in this world and don’t know they’re slaves. They live and operate according to the world’s standards and not according to God’s standards.
When a Christian is a slave to this world that is one less person Satan has to worry about. That person is not a threat to him and his kingdom.
Study after study show that a woman who has been physically abused was repeatedly mentally abused first. The physical abuse followed the mental abuse. The woman has been beaten down so long by her husband verbally that when the physical abuse takes place it’s seen as a natural progression of what should happen.
And see, a woman who has gone through verbal abuse has been put in a prison so that she believes that she can’t survive without her abuser. “I earn the paycheck. I pay the bills. You need me.” The abuse starts with words, with words.
• With words you can move people to act in their own self-interest.
What is the prosperity gospel all about? [Sings] “It’s all about me, it’s all about me!” What’s in it for me? What can God do for me? If I’m willing to give him a little bit of my money, how much is he going to give me back? That’s the prosperity gospel ladies and gentlemen. You’re not giving because you love God. You are giving because you want. You are giving because of lust of the flesh. That’s why you’re giving.
• With words a spouse can make his or her spouse feel worthless, unattractive and unloved. With words. Look at Ephesians 5. I want to show you something. We’ll begin with verse 22.
(22) Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. (We’re not going to stop here. There’s more.)
(23) For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the Saviour of the body. (Do you see the relationship? The wife submits to her husband because her husband is supposed to act like Christ acts for the church.)
(24) Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
(25) Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.
There are so many marriages, ladies and gentlemen, that do not reflect what we just read. The first responsibility: the husband is to love his wife like Christ loves the church. What did Christ do for the church? He laid down his life for her. If the husband is to be to the wife as Christ is to the church then she is the focus of his love.
But in so many homes we have three standards at work. No. We have three possible standards that could be at work.
(1) The first is the standard based on the Word of God – what we just read here in Ephesians 5.
(2) Second, you have husbands who have standards for their wives. If the wife doesn’t meet the standard, there’s going to be friction.
(3) Thirdly, you have wives who have standards for their husbands. If the husband doesn’t meet the standard, there’s going to be friction.
The Bible says we are to respond to each other as Christ responds to the church and the church responds to Christ. The husband and the wife, to have the relationship God desires, must be submitted to Christ first above all else. Do you understand this? The marriage relationship will struggle without both the husband and the wife being submitted to Christ.
• With words, parents can so abuse their children that they grow up not liking themselves and then display that dislike in self-destructive behaviors. (Tell me you’ve seen that. Do you think a child grows up to be this way without any influence from the parent? Let’s go to the Word on this one. Turn to Matthew 18 and we’re going to begin with verse 1.
(1) At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
(2) And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them.
(3) And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted (be born again) and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
(4) Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Among the thing that this passages teaches us is that a child is teachable. Children take things literally. What they hear they believe. Did you hear me? For example, Ephraim, my oldest. He was probably 3 or 4 years old. So my wife told him “Go tell Daddy, you’re crazy.” Ephraim walks up to me and says “Daddy, daddy, I crazy.”
That was not what my wife said. She told him to go and say to your daddy “you’re crazy”. So he tells me that he is crazy.
Now let’s take this a little farther. Can you imagine what will happen to a child who is constantly told “you’re no good” or “you’re not smart” or “I wish you were more like the neighbor’s kids.” “I wish you would make better grades.” “I wish you had athletic talent so you could play basketball.”
Can you imagine hearing that over and over for the first five, six, seven years of your life? Because what you’re hearing is your parents saying “You’re not good enough.”
So you grow up thinking I was never good enough for my Mom and my Dad. I was never good enough. And if I was not good enough for my Mom and my Dad, I must not be good enough for anybody.
Words hurt ladies and gentlemen.
• With words Satan deceived one third of the angels. With words Satan deceives Eve in the Garden of Eden. With words Satan poisoned the thoughts of men so much that it resulted in the flood in Genesis.
What do you think about when you hear “but words can never hurt me?”
• “What people say doesn’t bother me.”
• “Words are just words.”
What does Satan think about when he hears “but words can never hurt me?”
• “I can fill their minds with my thoughts because they don’t believe it will impact their lives.”
• “Here is someone else I can cause to self-destruct.” Did you hear me? How will the person self-destruct? Through the words that they use.
How do you think understands the power of words more? The people who say stick and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt me? Or Satan, the enemy of the soul.
Satan uses words (thoughts) to convince us, the body of Christ that
• We’re powerless against him.
• He still has authority in our lives. The only authority Satan has, listen to me, the only authority Satan has in our lives and the only authority God has in our lives is the authority we give them – the authority we give them!
God is not going to grab Barry by the collar of his shirt and drag him into the promises.
God is not going to grab Barry by the collar of his shirt and make him obey.
God is not going to grab Barry by the collar of his shirt and make him confess the Word, make him pray in tongues, make him fast or make him spend time reading the Bible.
God is not going to do any of that. Those decisions are Barry’s to make. Those decisions are yours to make.
Satan uses words to convince us that we will never be like Jesus.
Satan whispers, “Barry, I know 2 Corinthians 3:18 says that you stand in front of that mirror and you’re changed Barry from glory to glory! But I got news for you Barry. You’re never going to be like Jesus.”
This is what he wants us to believe. He knows that the closer we get to that image of looking like Jesus the more suffering he’s going to undergo. I’m not big on suffering for Barry but I want him to suffer! I want Satan to suffer.
Satan uses words to convince us that God doesn’t hear our prayers. “Do you remember Barry praying for Stephen’s runny noses and three days later he still had it? God didn’t answer that prayer Barry. You see? You see?” Satan will whispers junk like this over and over again. But that’s all he can do. All he can do is whisper.
Satan uses words to convince us that the ungodliness is so strong in this country that we may as well give up.
Satan uses words to convince us that the gospel is about my comfort, my happiness, my prosperity and not about rescuing the lost from his eternal night. Satan wants us so focused on us that no one else matters.
Since words can hurt let’s make sure that this is year we hurt Satan like never before. Since he’s the father of lies, what will hurt him the most? Speaking truth.
In Matthew 4:4 we see that Jesus responds to Satan’s temptation with “It is written...” We must respond the same way – with truth on our lips. What truth? The truth found in scripture. We must have the words on our lips.
Turn to Colossians 1. We’re going to read verses 12, and 13.
(12) Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.
(13) Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness (that is truth) and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.
So this is what we say, “I live in the kingdom of God. You have no power here.” Where we live, Satan has no power ladies and gentlemen.
Hebrews 1:14 says “Are they not all ministering spirits (talking about angels), sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation.”
Angels are beings created for the kingdom. Ladies and gentlemen, you were not created for the kingdom. You were born into the kingdom! “Satan, you are a created being. I am a son of God. I have power and authority over you.”
Ephesians 4:25 says “Wherefore (if you want to shut Satan down in your life, this is the verse) putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.” What is Satan the father of? Lies. “From this day forward, I will never lie again. I will always speak truth.”
Turn to Colossians 2:15. It reads “And having spoiled principalities and powers (talking about Jesus), he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”
When a king defeats another king, he puts the defeated king and everything he owns in shackles and parades them through the city behind his horse. The conqueror is putting the conquered on display. “You are defeated Satan. You are a lion without teeth. All you can do is growl.”
We’re going to end in with the first four verses in First Timothy 2.
(1) I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men.
(2) For kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
(3) For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour.
(4) Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
So why do we pray for our leaders? Primarily to give us the freedom to speak the Word and set the captives free. That’s why we do it ladies and gentlemen.
“Satan, I joyfully pray for my country and my leaders because I am keeping the doors of freedom open for the lost to become the saved.”
Sticks. Stones. Words.
Never underestimate the importance of words because that is what Satan uses to defeat us. Let us use the words of Scripture to defeat him!
