Satan’s Battle Tactics
Part 3
Scriptures: John 10:10; Luke 16:13; 19-31; 1 Timothy 6:10
This is part three of my series “Satan’s Battle Tactics.” Our foundation Scripture for this series comes from John 10:10 which says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” Last time I shared with you that if Satan cannot outright steal the Word from you he will try to get you to sacrifice it on his altar (making in null and void in your life). If this does not work he will try to destroy the Word from operating in your life by piling on the cares of this world. His whole focus is to minimize the power of the Word in our lives. Keep this in mine this morning as we examine the next tactic of his battle plan. Let’s go back to Mark chapter four and we will begin at verse eighteen.
In Mark the fourth chapter we read about the seeds that were sown among the thorns. In the explanation Jesus referenced how the deceitfulness of riches chokes the word out of us. Let’s read this again to refresh our minds. “And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” (Mark 4:18-19) While Jesus also states that the cares of this world and the desires for other things also chokes the Word from us, I want us to pay close attention to the deceitfulness of riches. This tactic works against Christians who are strong in the Word so I want to focus on this one specifically. You will not have to do an extensive search to find Christian leaders who are caught up in the power of money and end up losing the gift that God has placed within them. One of the most popular things Satan likes to do is hiding behind religion and tells us what God is and what He isn’t. To this end he tells us that God wants all of His believers to be prosperous and have plenty of money. He wants us to believe that God equates faith and blessings with money and material things. This is why we often hear testimonies of how God has “blessed” us with something when we receive material things (new house, car, job, etc.) because that is what is being taught. If the devil can get us to believe these lies then it makes sense that if we do not have the material things that the world says we should have then we are not truly being blessed according to our faith in God. Also, and this is important, if we feel that God is not blessing us as He does others because we do not have material things, we spend our lives trying to obtain them so that we can prove our faith! Do you see this? We work harder and longer hours to pay for things to prove that we are walking in the favor of God. And to make this even worse, we begin to place our security in the money versus in the God who enabled us to have it in the first place. When we allow our minds to go here, the devil wins. He has us because he has the authority to give money especially if he understands that the money will remove our focus from God! The deceitfulness of riches is a powerful tool that Satan is using against us and none of us are exempt from this deceit. Let me demonstrate this to you.
Turn with me to Luke 16:10-13. It reads, “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? And if you have not been faithful in the use of that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” I want you to focus on verses eleven and thirteen.
In verse eleven we see something that most people overlook or do not think about as it relates to their personal finances. I want you to see that God pays attention to how we use the money that is placed within our hands. Jesus said, “Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? (Vss. 11) Let me say this first, if you are living with a mountain of debt that is not God’s will for your life. While we may desire to be financially free, when it comes to making buying decisions for something we want, we do not necessarily have the patience to wait until we can pay cash for it. Many of us live in debt because we give in to our flesh of wanting something right now! I have told you before that there is a level of accountability that comes with being a Christian and how we use “unrighteous wealth” is one of them. Many people use the majority of their funds to feed their selfish desires which leaves them little to give to the work of God. This is a form of not being faithful with unrighteous wealth and being deceived by riches. How we use our finances is a test God uses to assess whether or not we are ready for the higher levels of blessings, prosperity, responsibility and authority and sadly, many Christians are failing this test. The word “faithful” in this verse comes from the Greek word pistoi which paints the picture of someone who is known to be faithful, responsible, conscientious and trustworthy in contrast to someone who is rash, irresponsible and untrustworthy. If someone is not trustworthy with unrighteous money, how can they be trusted with true riches? This is the statement that Jesus is making.
The word “unrighteous” in this verse does not mean that it is sinful, but unspiritual. It comes from the Greek word adikia which means unspiritual, common, worldly or something which belongs to the realm of human beings. The term “unrighteous wealth” simply means worldly money. It refers to money and all of its buying power in the earthly sphere. But look at this. When Jesus refers to true riches the word “true” comes from the Greek word alethinos which means true, real, bona fide, genuine, indisputable, or authentic. So while money seems so powerful in this earthly realm with all of its buying power, in reality it is nothing compared to the power of God. So if we cannot handle money how can God trust us with spiritual power that surpasses the power and authority of money? If you want to know what spiritual power you are ready for with God, just examine how you are handling your finances. God is actually watching us to see how we are using money so He can determine our faithfulness. Now why is this so very important, let’s read verse thirteen.
Verse thirteen says, “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” First and foremost, who are the two masters? God and wealth! Not God and Satan, God and wealth. It’s important that we understand this. Satan does not care if we “actively worship him” as those who identify themselves Satan worshippers. He does not care who or what we worship as long as we are not worshipping God through His Son Jesus Christ. That is his one and only objective. So if someone chooses to worship money over God, he wins. Any material thing that we gather unto ourselves on this earth will be utilized only on this earth. We cannot take it with us! However, that is not true of spiritual things. Jesus said that a servant cannot serve two masters for he will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to one and despise the other. A servant cannot serve both God and money.
Second to God alone there is no other force on this side of eternity that carries the power that’s in money. On this earth money equates to power, especially when you have a lot of it. This is simply because people will treat you differently if they know you have money. Some people strive on knowing “rich folks” because it makes them feel better about themselves. And if you are the person with the money it’s hard not to allow people to treat you special because of what you have. While we may start out blessed and humble to have what we have, over time as people give us preferential treatment we begin to expect it. He is one thing that I want us to understand. Unlike what is often taught about how money will change a person, I personally believe that money does not change a person but it allows a person to be who they truly are already. If you are poor and deep within you are a snob, when you have money your snobbishness will fully come out. If you are a giver and believe in helping others while you are poor, when you have money that will not change as its part of your core. My point is this, money will either enhance the good within us or it will enhance the bad – it’s all based on how grounded we are in the Word of God. Most of us desire money, not so we can do more for the Lord, but so we can serve our “lust for other things” which was recorded in Mark 4:19 as one of the things that choke the Word out of us. Are you starting to see how all of these things are tied together?
First Timothy 6:9-10 says, “But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.” Look closely at what it says. Those who want to be rich fall into temptations and snares because their search and desire for riches will lead them away from God. Money in and of itself is not sinful, harmful or unrighteous. However, it’s the love of money which is the root of all sorts of evil – not money itself!!! Timothy also said that some by longing for money have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. These individuals longed for the money and went after it only to discover more troubles as they walked away from their faith. Just imagine the lengths people are willing to go through in order to obtain money. They will lie, cheat, steal, and betray family and friends just to obtain money. Many people have walked away from their children in their desire of obtain more and more money. This has never and will never be God’s desire for us! Money for many people represents security and power. While I am not saying that we should not be saving and managing our money as this is the will of God, I am saying that we should not be worshipping it. Our lives should not exist to obtain more and more money so that we can sit back and spend it on our selfish desires. If we are not willing to use whatever amount that God wants us to use for Him, we are mismanaging our funds. If we are not able to support His work, we are mismanaging our funds. Yes we all suffer hardships during our lives, but those hardships should not be a permanent way of life for us because we have mismanaged the money that passed through our hands!!! Our money should be working for us versus us working for it! Our money works for us when we are sowing it in others and when we are saving it as part of our overall financial management.
I want to close this morning with something Jesus told His disciples about their lives and I will pick this up next week as there is more to learn about the deceitfulness of riches. Jesus told His disciples, “Do not worry then, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear or clothing? For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:31-33) How many hours have we spent thinking about how to make ends meet and just when they are about to something comes up and pulls them farther apart? Most of us may have had a time or two when things were so tight that we did not know how we were going to make it; how we would be able to take care of the needs of our family. It is during these times when we really begin to understand if we truly believe what the Bible said. During these times we experience a high level of anxiety which Jesus’ disciples had also experienced. To help them prepare for what was coming, Jesus taught them about how to handle anxiety, especially the anxiety that comes with worrying about their daily needs.
In verse thirty-one Jesus said “Do not worry then…” In this phrase Jesus is painting a picture of someone who is worrying, full of anxiety and cares, someone deeply troubled. This person is worrying about how their basic needs will be met. But Jesus is saying that we should not do this because God knows what our needs are and have made provisions for us. I can tell you from personal experience that God has always met the needs of my family even when I did not know how He would do it. While I desired to worry about the situation, and there were times when I did worry, God always proved my worrying for naught. It took some time for me to understand that I did not have to know all of the answers as to how God would work out my situations. Jesus said if we just “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Instead of seeking riches as a means of security Jesus said that we seek the Kingdom of God first and then everything that we need will be given to us. Put God first and things will work out.
I want to share a personal testimony that some of you have heard before. I have told you before that I grew up poor without the full knowledge of how poor we were. My father worked several jobs to make sure we had food to eat and clothes to wear. When he was unemployed, he worked with my grandfather building houses to make money. Money was so tight in some years that we sometimes did not get to participate in our Church Christmas gift exchange programs because while most families only had to buy one or two gifts, my parents had to buy four or five depending on our ages. Our family, friends and Church members knew we were poor. We were so poor that one of my grandmother’s friends offered to take my brother and me to raise us, but my mother, wanting to keep her kids together, said no. I remember participating in school lunch program for kids whose family’s income was below a certain level and because of this I had friends who made fun of me because they knew I was getting lunch or milk at a discount. During the summer we would go to the community center for their lunch program for needy families. When I tell you there were times when I did not know where my next meal was coming from I am not exaggerating. At my young age I was embarrassed to be poor, but it was later that I learned how rich I was and it was not based on my parents all of a sudden coming into money. My parents were believers and they instilled their beliefs into my siblings and me. During those very tough times my parents never stopped giving their offering/tithes to the Church. Even though we could have used the money for food, my parents believed that God should get His first and He did! Through their faith and belief that God had them, they never stopped giving and we always had what we needed. Sometimes our needs were met through the gifts of others, but God fulfilled His promises. My mother went home to be with the Lord at a young age, but my father lived to see retirement. He lived to see the day when he did not have to work. He was so faithful to God that even while on his death bed, when his retirement check came in he sent his offering to the Church. God had taken care of him and his family through the years so it was unthinkable that he would not give God of his income.
This is the legacy that my parents left for all of us. If we put God first in our lives everything else would take care of itself. I have lived this. I am living this. I will continue to live this until I take my final breath. Money should not rule over us, but we over it. I will leave you with this thought this morning: “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”
As I leave you this morning, I want to give you a simple five step process that if you implement it, you can secure your financial future and you will be one that God sees in truly managing the unrighteous wealth and are deserving to be entrusted with true riches. Here are the five steps:
1. When you get paid, give God His first. Whatever He tells you to give or whatever you decide to give, give God His first.
2. Pay yourself. Put money away for your future. This is not your emergency fund it’s for your future.
3. Pay your bills. Pay your bills on time!
4. Put money in your emergency fund so that when the unexpected happens you are ready for it.
5. After doing steps 1-4, take what you have left and decide how much you want to sow in others and how much you want to spend on yourself. If you find that you have nothing left after steps 1-4; make it your goal to get to the place where you do.
Next week we will pick this up with the story of the rich man and how his misuse of his wealth led to his being separated from God for an eternity.
“The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
(If you are ever in the Kansas City, KS area, please come and worship with us at New Light Christian Fellowship, 15 N. 14th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102. We look forward to you worshipping with us. If you would like the audio version of this sermon please email me at rodneyv1960@gmail.com and I will email you the Mp3 file of the sermon. May God bless and keep you.)
