Diversions and Distractions: Tools Used Against Us
Scripture: Second Corinthians 2:10-11; Joshua 9:3-14; Deuteronomy 20:10-11
The title of my message this morning is “Diversions and Distractions: Tools Used Against Us.” Paul wrote the following to the Christians in Corinth, “(10) Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, (11) lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.” (Second Corinthians 2:10-11) In verse ten Paul talks about hearts that forgive without compulsion before transitioning to verse eleven where he tells us how Satan takes advantage of us when we choose not to forgive. But I want you to focus on what Paul wrote in the last part of verse eleven. He said, “…for we are not ignorant of his devices.” Through God’s Word and the Holy Spirit residing within us, we can know how our enemy operates for his plans, thoughts, cunning, and skills have not changed since he first appeared in the Garden of Eden. We should not be ignorant or surprised by the great number of devices he consistently uses against us as he tries to destroy or minimize the effectiveness of our walk with Christ. This morning I want to make you aware of two of those devices that our enemy uses very effectively against the Church - diversions and distractions.
Several years ago I was returning home from a trip to the east coast. My flight took off from New Jersey and was scheduled to arrive in Kansas City around 7:30 p.m. There was bad weather scheduled for Kansas City so I changed my scheduled flight for an earlier one hoping to beat the weather. Once we took off, the weather worsened in Kansas City and we were not allowed to land. Our plane was diverted Tulsa, OK as we were getting low on fuel circling the airport. We were told that once we got to Tulsa they would refuel the plane and then we would return to Kansas City. That did not happen. Once we arrived in Tulsa we were informed that the pilots could not fly to Kansas City and we would need to find hotels for the night. I had been away from home for three weeks and I was determined that I was going to get home that night. So after retrieving my bags I went to the rental car station to rent a car. There were several others doing the same and three of us decided to share a ride. I got into the car with 2 strangers in Tulsa, OK for a 3 hour road trip to Kansas City.
Now as it turned out the guys I traveled with were Christians and each of us prayed that we would arrive home safely, which we did. But here is something that I found out the next day: had I stayed on my original flight I would have gotten home at the scheduled time as the weather had cleared up enough for that flight to land. However, had I waited overnight in Tulsa for the flight the next morning I would have been stuck there because the weather deteriorated overnight causing the airport to shut down. When I boarded my flight in New Jersey I boarded that plane with the expectation that when I stepped off the plane I would be in Kansas City. That did not happen. Why – because bad weather caused that plane to be diverted to another airport 3 hours away. However, before that happened, I saw the forecast and came to the conclusion that I needed to change my flight. I allowed myself to get distracted by the potential weather changes and figured I should be proactive and get ahead of it. My only goal was to get home that night. My distraction by the weather led me to make a decision that caused me to get home 4 hours later than I would have had I not changed my flight. Because I was so distracted by the weather forecast, fear set in that I wouldn’t be able to get home so I made the decision to change my flight which ended up being diverted to another state altogether. Now here is something I want you to remember. When I prayed about the situation I did not pray and ask God “should I change my flight” because of the weather. No, I prayed and asked God to allow me to get on the earlier flight. Do you see the mistake I made? I did not ask God what I should do and I ended up making a mistake. Our enemy will use diversions and distractions to get us off course just like my trip home. But let me show you this in Scripture.
Turn with me to the ninth chapter of the book of Joshua. Joshua 9:3-14 records the following, “(3) But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai, (4) they worked craftily, and went and pretended to be ambassadors. And they took old sacks on their donkeys, old wineskins torn and mended, (5) old and patched sandals on their feet, and old garments on themselves; and all the bread of their provision was dry and moldy. (6) And they went to Joshua, to the camp at Gilgal, and said to him and to the men of Israel, ‘We have come from a far country; now therefore, make a covenant with us.’ (7) Then the men of Israel said to the Hivites, ‘Perhaps you dwell among us; so how can we make a covenant with you?’ (8) But they said to Joshua, ‘We are your servants.’ And Joshua said to them, ‘Who are you, and where do you come from?’ (9) So they said to him: ‘From a very far country your servants have come, because of the name of the LORD your God; for we have heard of His fame, and all that He did in Egypt, (10) and all that He did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon, and Og king of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth. (11) Therefore our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, ‘Take provisions with you for the journey, and go to meet them, and say to them, ‘We are your servants; now therefore, make a covenant with us.’ (12) This bread of ours we took hot for our provision from our houses on the day we departed to come to you. But now look, it is dry and moldy. (13) And these wineskins which we filled were new, and see, they are torn; and these our garments and our sandals have become old because of the very long journey.’ (14) Then the men of Israel took some of their provisions; but they did not ask counsel of the LORD.” (Joshua 9:3-14)
What happened in this story? Did you see it? Gibeon was the head of the four towns occupied by the Hivites. When the inhabitants of Gibeon heard that the Children of Israel were coming their way, they devised a plan to get the Israelites to enter into a peace agreement with them by deception. They knew that all the inhabitants of the land of Canaan were to be cut off and the Israelites would show them no mercy. This made them afraid of facing them because they understood that there was no way the Israelites would make a covenant with them. Their solution was to trick them into a peace agreement. By disguising themselves they made the Israelites believe that they came from some very far off country which the Israelites were not commanded to make war upon nor forbidden to make peace with but were particularly appointed to offer peace to. It is very likely that they knew some of what the Israelites had been commanded in the Law because of how they had treated other cities, specifically what was recorded in Deuteronomy 20:10-11. It says, “(10) When you go near a city to fight against it, then proclaim an offer of peace to it. (11) And it shall be that if they accept your offer of peace, and open to you, then all the people who are found in it shall be placed under tribute to you, and serve you.” (Deuteronomy 20:10-11)
Now unless they could be admitted under this notion, they knew their fate would be the same as Jericho and Ai. So, they used a diversion and a distraction to deceive the Israelites. In verse eight the Israelites asked the right question, got the answer they were expecting but paid too much attention to what they were seeing. And here is the kicker as recorded in verse fourteen, “….but they did not ask counsel of the LORD.” Their attention was so distracted by what their eyes seeing and what their ears were hearing that they failed to ask God what they should do. When you read the rest of the story, when Joshua found out he had been deceived he honored his agreement not to kill them but that agreement caused them to disobey what God had told them to do. And to make matters worse, they knew why they were not to make peace people who were not Israelites. God has told them Deuteronomy 7:3-4 what would happen if they did live peaceably and enter into marriages with foreign nations. It says, “(3) Nor shall you make marriages with them. You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son. (4) For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the Lord will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.” This was God’s issue the whole time with the children of Israel and why He gave them the instruction that He did. He knew that if the children of Israel began to spend time with the other nations that they would eventually turn them away from Him. Sadly, we are seeing this in the Church today. The Church is spending so much time paying attention to the culture, paying attention to what society says, paying attention to what this person says, or what that person says, that they have forgotten what the BOOK says.
By definition, a diversion is “the act of an instance of diverting or straying from a course, activity, or use. In the case of my flight home, it was a diversion or change of course. It also means a deviation – trying to do one thing but ending up going off course. Satan wants to divert us from the place God wants us to go. Let me give you another example – a military analogy. A well-known military war tactic is to feint attack on one area to draw the enemy’s attention away from the primary target. This is a strategy that military personnel are very familiar with and it’s not just used in the military. Boxers use this strategy and you see it employed in football games weekly. The overall goal of this strategy is to get the opponent’s attention off of the primary goal being attacked. If you think about this from our enemy’s viewpoint, he is a master of getting us so diverted and distracted that we have very little time for the things of God. Yes, we have great intentions, and we love to see the participation trophies we obtain for those intentions, but when it comes to doing what we intended it is often lacking in substance.
A diversion, as a principle, is neither positive nor negative until it is utilized and the intended outcome manifests. It all depends on the motivation behind it and who wins. If the person utilizing the diversion to gain something from an opponent and they are successful, then for them the diversion was extremely positive and had a positive outcome. The opposite is true for their opponent. For them it was negative all the way around. We can easily get distracted and diverted from doing something that we need to do because the things that distract us are often things that we enjoy. For example, how much of your free time do you spend on Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, Instagram, YouTube? If you were to evaluate this time, would you say that you spend more time using those apps than you think? I have an Apple phone and there is a setting on my phone where I can check to see how much “screen” time I am using. In other words, it tells me how much time I am looking at my screen. Now the only reason I would be looking at my screen is because I am engaged in something. When I was writing this message I checked my phone and saw that I had spent 4.5 hours on my phone reading and researching – as I do not play games on my phone. If I am looking at it I am responding to a message, reading the news or researching something. Regardless though, that was a lot of time for just the first 4 days of the week. I was averaging an hour per day and I do not look at my phone that often. Now imagine if I was spending that same amount of time everyday studying God’s Word or in quiet praise and worship of Him.
My point here is simple, a successful diversion, one that has an aim and a purpose, is dependent upon, now listen to me closely ladies and gentlemen, is dependent upon the person seeing the diversion, but not recognizing it as a diversion, and then responding to it. A diversion from our enemy is to get us off course or distract us from what we are supposed to be doing and he is very good at this. Do you remember what I said about my plane being diverted from Kansas City to Tulsa, OK? Remember how it all started with me looking at the weather forecast and hearing about what was happening at home? Remember what I said about praying and asking God to allow me to change my flight but I didn’t ask Him “if” I should change it? You see I was distracted immediately when I saw the forecast and I made the decision about what I needed to do and I asked God to help me implement my decision version asking Him about what He wanted me to do. When it comes to a diversion and a distraction, what the eyes see and what the ears hear are what we follow and what we follow is what diverts us. Do you see this?
Let me give you a recent event that was used by the enemy to cause not only a diversion within the Church, but also was very successful in diverting the lost from even considering coming to the Church. I want to set the foundation for this event by reading what the Apostle Peter wrote in First Peter 1:24-2:2. He told the Church, “(24) Because ‘ALL FLESH IS AS GRASS, AND ALL THE GLORY OF MAN AS THE FLOWER OF THE GRASS. THE GRASS WITHERS, AND ITS FLOWER FALLS AWAY, (25) BUT THE WORD OF THE LORD ENDURES FOREVER.’ Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you….(1) Therefore, laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, (2) as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.” The goal of the Church is to become more and more like Christ by putting aside everything that is associated with the world – malice, deceit, hypocrisy, etc. But one of the goals of our enemy is to use diversions to keep the Church spiritual babies by keeping us off the narrow path that leads to spiritual maturity and he is working through the pulpit to make this a reality. Yes, you heard me right. Our enemy is using some of us in the pulpit to make sure the Church body does not grow spiritually. Our enemy does not care about the Church growing in number as long as they remain weak and ineffectual.
Some of you may have heard about this event that happened on New Year’s Eve 2023. Some of you may have seen the video of the New Year’s Eve service where the pastor/bishop of the Church entered the Church swaging to the secular song “Walk it Out.” This song has absolutely no place being played in any house of worship. Some of the lyrics says, “Now hit the danceflo’, and bend ya back low. She do it with no hands, now stop pop and roll. I’m smoking bubble ho, yeah dey in trouble ho, I like the way she moves, an undercover ho…” You get the point. This pastor/bishop entered his Church for a New Year’s service with this song blasting. People were dancing and swaying to the music just as the song said and doing it down before the altar. If you didn’t know better you would have thought you were seeing a party at a night club and literally you would have been right. People were dancing and gyrating before the altar as if they were in a club. So how do I know this one act diverted non-believers away from the Church? Well because they actually said so. Some responded to the incident by saying they were appalled by these “church goers” and the church’s leader. They said they expected more from Christians as they did not expect to see a night club in a Church. Do you think by those statements they had a better image about what Christianity means? I do not know what this pastor was thinking, but when he was asked about it he justified his actions by saying he was being relevant to the people and making the Church relevant. Some have forgotten that Jesus never tried to be “relevant” as He held to His Father’s standards and those standards were never lowered to make the world feel better about themselves or their respond to Him.
I want to close by sharing with you one way we can minimize and withstand when the enemy attacks us with diversions and distractions. Remember the story we read earlier about how the Gibeonites fooled the Children of Israel. Remember Joshua 9:14 recording, “And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the Lord.” When they were approached by the Gibeonites, they listened with their ears and accessed with their eyes and accepted what they heard and saw. In doing this, they did not “feel” the need to ask God about the situation. How many times do we accept what we see and hear as gospel and do not seek God’s face about a situation? There is a word in the Hebrew that aptly describes how we can minimize the enemy’s successful use of diversions in our lives and it’s the word sur. It appears 56 times as “turn aside”, and 51 times as “turned aside”. We are only going to look at the first time the word is used. Exodus 3:1-4 says, “(1) Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. (2) And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. (3) Then Moses said, ‘I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.’ (4) So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’” (Exodus 3:1-4)
In verse three Moses said, “…..I will now turn aside, and see this great sight….” Moses made a purposeful decision to investigate the diversion, the distraction. In verse four, based on Moses’ initial action, God did something. It says, “So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him…” The Lord made a purposeful decision to speak to Moses after Moses allowed Him to divert and distract him. What we see in these two verses are purposeful decisions to follow the leading of the Lord. For us today, it’s something that we feel on the inside. We can feel the Lord tugging at our hearts and minds, and we must come to the place of yielding to that tug. We must come to the place of turning aside when we feel it.
When I was in High school we were required to take driver’s education. This was a requirement that had to be met before we could take the test to obtain our official driver’s license. There was the classroom work that had to be successfully completed followed by behind the wheel driving training – where they actually took us out on the road and we could put into practice what we learned. During that training we had to hold the steering wheel at the 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock position at all times while paying attention to our surroundings. Now here is what’s important. We were not allowed to have music playing and those riding in the back seat were not allowed to be carrying on conversations. The car had to be quiet and the reason was simple – the instructor did not want us distracted.
Distracted drivers are more prone to getting into accidents and injuring themselves and others because they run red lights or swerve into on-coming traffic because they take their eyes off the road. Many Christians are going through life as distracted drivers – getting into spiritual accidents because they are distracted. If this is you and you have experience a diversion in your walk with Christ, today is the day that you can get back on track. It starts with the decision to remove any and all distractions that are hindering you.
Until next time, “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)
