Recently, I delivered the eulogy for my niece who was killed in a car accident in Memphis, Tennessee. Patricia, her mom asked me to do the eulogy and I said I would. So my wife flew down to Memphis that Friday and I drove down the following Monday.
There was something stirring in me over that Saturday, Sunday and Monday before I left. I was really getting angry. And I know I was feeling the Lord’s anger over what had happened because Kisha was a Christian and she let people know that she was a Christian. I could feel the anger rising up, rising up, rising up so much so that when I was writing her eulogy I had to take a break.
We had the funeral that Thursday and the program said “Celebrating the Life of ...” As soon as I read that the anger hit one more time. Most of the time the person delivering a eulogy does not say what I said.
And I got up and I said “I don’t feel like celebrating.” People looked at me. I look at Patricia and I looked at John, her mom and dad and I asked them “Do you really feel like celebrating today?” They shook their heads in the negative.
I said I understand why we are here – Kisha was a Christian and she’s gone home. So I understand that part of the celebration. But she was 38 years old people. You’re not supposed to be going home at 38. You don’t see that in Scripture anywhere.
As I talked to them, it was almost like sharing what was on my heart – what was on God’s heart. The thing that kept coming back to me over and over and over – you need to make the devil pay. You need to make the devil pay. So that is what I talked about.
I said you need to make the devil pay. I said a lot of things as I was talking that people weren’t ready to hear. But truth is truth whether you’re ready to hear it or not. Now if I’m coming into your church from Ohio and telling you something that is foreign to you, trust me, Barry is not your problem.
So after the service we sat down for the meal I kept saying this is not a happy day for me because Kisha was robbed. Plain and simple. How do you celebrate a life that was robbed?
I put something on Facebook I want to share with you which will allow me to launch into the message tonight – Make the Devil Pay.
When you have a funeral and you are celebrating the life that was snuffed out – you see I’m still angry – when you celebrate a life that has been snuffed out, what you are telling me ladies and gentlemen is Satan won.
If all you do is celebrate the life by having a home-going, a funeral, Satan wins. It’s what you do because of what happened that determines whether or not Satan wins.
This is what I posted on Facebook.
“It has been 9 days since I delivered the eulogy for Akisha. When we gathered to celebrate her life, I told family and friends that I wasn't in a celebratory mood. Akisha was only 38 years old and her life was cut short. I looked at her mom and said ‘Trish, I don't know if you should have asked me to do the eulogy.’”
Most of the time when you hear a eulogy, it’s all upbeat and talk about the things that the person accomplished. We talked about some of that. There were family and friends who go up and talked about some of that. I pulled some things off of Facebook that people had said about Kisha.
We talked about those things but that was not the issue for God that day. He was not in a celebratory mood either.
Back to what I wrote on Facebook.
“I understand the celebration of a life lived -- truly I do. But I was angry. The devil had snatched another life. It wasn't her time. It wasn't the way she had to go, etc. etc. etc.”
You have Christians that when something like this happens they will say “It was her time.” Or they will say “This is the way she had to go. It had to be by a car accident.” You have Christians who say stuff like this ladies and gentlemen and they believe that stuff. It is not true! That’s just the way it happened but her death did not have to happen that way.
Picking up the Facebook post again.
“She was robbed. John 10:10 says the thief (Satan) comes not but for to steal, to kill and to destroy. The bible says God's desire is for us to have long life and I put in parentheses Psalm 91:16: ‘With long life will I satisfy him, and show him my salvation.’”
Now you read that and you think that God is going to satisfy us with long life period. It doesn’t work that way ladies and gentlemen. Yes, God wants us to have long life but sometimes He doesn’t get His way.
When you live in a world of Christianity that says God is in control and that God determines things and then you have a Kisha who dies at 38, 3 months, and 24 days, and you read a verse like this you will come to the conclusion that God orchestrated Kisha car accident.
I don’t know how to tell you how it breaks my heart when I hear stuff like that because it’s a clear indication you have no clue who you are. You have no clue who you belong to. And your enemy knows what you don’t know.
Going back to the Facebook post.
“Thirty-eight years, 3 months and 24 days is not long life by any definition. I looked at Akisha's husband, Antoine: ‘You need to make the devil pay for taking her.’"
Now we are going to do three things tonight.
First of all, before we can make the devil pay, we must know who we are.
The second thing is we must know why we are not making the devil pay.
And the third thing we need to know is how do we make him pay?
The first thing we have to do is know we are. You see, God tells us who we are in the very first book of the Bible. Turn to Genesis 1. We’re going to read verses 26, 27 and 28.
(26) And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
(27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
(28) And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Notice that the verses use the word “image” three times. When you read in John 4:24 you will read that God is a Spirit. That is the image that these verses are talking about. His life. His nature. That is who we are. We are just like God except we are not deity. God had no beginning. We do.
Turn to Matthew 4. So we see that according to the Bible, according to the way God made us, we are just like our Father. In Matthew 4:17 it reads: “From that time Jesus (after he came out of the wilderness and after he kicked the devil to the curb) began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
“The kingdom of heaven is at hand” – what does that mean. Turn to Luke 17. We’re going to read verses 20 and 21.
(20) And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation.
Do you see this? The kingdom of God will come and you will not notice it with your natural eyes.
(21) Neither shall they say, Lo here! Or, lo there! For, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
So when Jesus came preaching and teaching the kingdom of God, He came preaching and teaching what was in him! Do you see this? And because of what was in Him, John 14:12 says “The works that I do ye shall be able to do also.” Why? The kingdom of God is in us like it’s in Jesus. That’s who we are.
Let’s look at Acts 10:38. I really want you to see what this verse says.
“How God anointed Jesus (the son of God? No. It says Jesus of Nazareth. What is he saying? How God anointed Cindy of Beavercreek. Are you with me? This verse is talking about us. How God anointed Knob, Alain, Renee – you get the picture?) with the Holy Ghost and with power who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil: for God was with him.”
God is with us. Let that sink in. God is with us just like He was with Jesus. You, ladies and gentlemen, are special. There’s no one on earth like you and Satan knows that.
I want to read Acts 10:38 out of the Amplified.
“How God anointed and consecrated Jesus of Nazareth with the [Holy] Spirit and with strength and ability and power; how He went about doing good and, in particular, curing all who were harassed and oppressed by [the power of] the devil, for God was with Him.”
Let me ask you something, ladies and gentlemen: that was Jesus’ job description. What is ours? It’s the same. It’s not about a bigger house, a bigger car, a bank full of money. It’s about setting the oppressed free.
So many of us in the Body of Christ don’t want that job description because that job description doesn’t mean more for me. That job description means more for God.
One more about who we are. First John 3:8. The verse says “He that committed sin is of the devil (This is talking about having a lifestyle of sin. It’s not talking about you fall here, you fall there. That’s not what he’s talking about. You have a lifestyle of sin, you don’t care.); for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose was the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy (or loosen, set people free) the works of the devil.”
This applies to us too. “But Brother Barry it doesn’t say Jesus of Nazareth. It says Jesus the Son of God.”
Back up to verse 1. “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.”
So the first thing we must do is understand who we are. Do you now understand who you are?
Now, why is it that we’re not making the devil pay?
Second Corinthians 10, look at verses 3, 4 and 5.
(3) For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.
(4) (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but might through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
(5) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
What’s my point? We are not making the devil pay for two reasons.
Number one, we are still too flesh oriented. We still operate out of our emotions. We still get moved by what we see and what we hear than by what the Word of God says. As long as Satan can push our buttons, we will never make him pay.
The second reason we are not making Satan pay is we are not controlling what goes into our minds. Satan has the majority of the Body of Christ convinced that he is stronger than they are. He’s stronger because they are being ruled by the flesh – his arena. As long as we play in his sandbox, he calls the shots.
Satan has many in the Body of Christ feeling defeated, feeling like what the Bible says it not true. We have to take hold of our thoughts and emotions and force them into submission to our New Nature and the truth of God’s Word.
Turn to Proverbs 14 and look at verse 12: “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
Think about death as being “death to all the promises of God” in your life. When you decide to go your way, more than like the promises of God are not on your path.
Many of us in the Body of Christ and in this church who have heard enough Word to know who we are and what we’re capable of. But for some of us, we need to lay down the gauntlet to our past. We to draw a line in the sand to our past – of how I used to be. We need to “forget those things which are behind.”
Look at Jeremiah 2:13. You do know that Jeremiah was not a bull frog right? Hey, you get stuff like this just for showing up!
“For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters (“they have turned their backs on me”), and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water (they’ve heard what the Word of God says but have rejected it).”
Look at chapter 15 – why we are not making the devil pay – look at verse 16. Remember what it says in chapter 2 verse 13. So what 16 is saying is:
“Thy words were found” – I did not eat them. Broken cisterns that can hold no water. We are doing the opposite of what this verse is saying.
“...and thy word was not unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart” – Why not? I have heard the word but I’ve decided that this and this doesn’t work for me and I’ve created a cistern of the things I agree with.
What we should be saying is thy word was found and I couldn’t wait to eat them. It was all I could do not to get into my room with cup of coffee and donuts and lock the door. The word is my life.
That’s why we’re not defeating the enemy. The word is not really our life. Car payments wouldn’t concern us. Money for groceries wouldn’t concern us. Our mortgage wouldn’t concern us. What would concern us? That guy doesn’t know Jesus and he needs to be saved.
One more about why we are not making Satan pay. Romans 4. We’re going to read verses 19, 20 and 21.
(19) And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb:
The part I want you to see is “not weak in faith”.
20) (Because he wasn’t weak in faith) He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
When God gave Abraham that promise, he knew that he had a word from the Lord. That’s all he needed – to know he had a word from the Lord. That’s why he staggered not. Ladies and gentlemen, we have an entire Bible from God. We shouldn’t stagger at anything.
(21) (Because he was not weak in faith, because he took God at his word) And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
Those two words, fully persuaded, don’t apply to most of the Body of Christ and that is why we’re not making the devil pay.
How do we make the devil pay?
The answer is simple. The “doing” is going to require a decision. The answer is simple. We’ve been taught the four pillars of spiritual maturity: worship (private and corporate), reading and studying the Word, fasting and praying in tongues.
The answer to how we make the devil pay is simple. It’s the “doing” that’s the issue.
It goes back to, Lord, Lord, how many lives you want to celebrate before their time.
How many lives do you want to have a celebration for before their time? I’m done with that. I’m tired of that. We have to get to the point that we get tired of seeing things like this happen.
And the only way it’s going to change is our lives have to be defined by praying in tongues, fasting, worshiping and getting into the word. This is the only way. This has to be a lifestyle for us if we want to make the devil pay.
We have to get to the place spiritually where we can make that happen. And it begins by looking in the mirror (2 Corinthians 3:18) and, every day, living the four pillars of spiritual maturity.
Now this is what I said to Antoine, Kisha’s husband. I said "You make sure that all of your children accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. You get them into church. You teach them who they are as Christians. You teach them that they can live a life of victory over the things of the devil."
That’s how you make the devil pay – by adding to the Body of Christ!
The best celebration of the death of any child of God (I don't care how old they were!) is to make the devil pay and we do that by walking into his domain and rescuing from the power of darkness those who are living in sin and don't know Jesus.
You know something: Jesus would call that a celebration too!
