MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(REVISED: 2022)
NOTE: I borrowed the title and gleaned much of the content of this sermon from an excellent book, “The Devil Goes To Church” (Covenant Publishers, Webb City, MO), by David L. Butts, founder and President of Harvest Prayer Ministries, Terre Haute, IN. I recommend the book highly! (The book is available at www.davenkim.spreadtheword.com or at your local religious book store.)
TEXT: Ephesians 2:1-5, 6:12; 1 Peter 5:8 CEV; Genesis 3:4-5; James 1:22;
Hebrews 10:25; 1 Kings 19:4; Matthew 26:39; John 17:20-21
A. I have chosen to use as the theme of my message this morning an idea presented in a small but powerful book by David Butts titled “THE DEVIL GOES TO CHURCH!”
Does that idea surprise you? Then perhaps you ought to consider the following:
Have you ever experienced the Sunday Morning Wars? It happens to Christian families all over the world as they prepare to worship in their local congregations. Just why is it that Sunday morning is the one time that everything seems to go wrong?
Kids cry, cars don’t work, & parents are unusually on edge with one another. And it doesn’t always end when we reach the church building.
As a preacher I’ve sometimes wondered if the devil pinches babies at just the critical time in the service when everyone’s attention is focused on the Lord.
Or consider the use of modern technology in our services. It can be wonderful – or it can be another opportunity for the devil to distract us as we experience sound-system malfunctions or video breakdowns.
In fact, I believe I can safely assert that the devil spends more time in church than some Christians. If he can hang around Christians & create confusion, division, or discouragement, then he has effectively gotten us off-track & won a victory.
Remember, the Bible clearly warns us, “Be on your guard & stay awake. Your enemy, the devil, is like a roaring lion, sneaking around to find someone to attack.” (1 Peter 5:8) CEV
B. There is a very real reason the devil goes to church. The Bible presents a picture of a great cosmic battle going on between the forces of God & the forces of Satan.
That is what the apostle Paul says in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh & blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world & against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
Those of us who have become Christians are people who have changed sides & are now on God’s side in the battle. Paul writes about this switching of sides when he says in Eph. 2:1-2, 4-5 (CEV).
“In the past you…sinned and fought against God. You followed the ways of this world and obeyed the devil. He rules the world, and his spirit has power over everyone who doesn’t obey God.”
“But God was merciful! We were dead because of our sins, but God loved us so much that he made us alive with Christ, and God’s wonderful kindness is what saves you.”
As a result, the enemy of our God has become our enemy. When Christians gather as the church, we become a real threat to Satan.
We are there to worship as we pray, as we teach, & as we encourage one another to live a life worthy of the kingdom of God. And Satan will do all he can to prevent that from happening.
ILL. C.S. Lewis tries to help us understand that in his book, “The Screwtape Letters.” In it, Satan is instructing Wormwood, an apprentice demon. Satan says,
“One of our great allies at present is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her spread out through all time & space & rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners.
“That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately, that church is quite invisible to these humans.”
C. Is that true? Are we so wrapped up in our own little world that we never see the beauty & glory of the church for which Jesus died?
As a result, are we completely unaware of our enemy’s schemes? We seem to act as if difficulties in church are just natural things. When churches divide over whether or not to use hymns or contemporary choruses, it is not natural.
When the saints, called to live in love, instead spend their time criticizing one another, it is not natural. In such circumstances it is easy to see that the devil has come to church!
PROP. There is one obvious thing about the devil’s attacks - he is consistent. Down through the ages he has done basically the same things over & over again in church after church. We can recognize them as: Doubt & Deception, Discouragement & Depression, Discord & Division.
I. DOUBT & DECEPTION
A. Sowing doubt & deception has been one of the devil’s weapons from the very beginning. In the Garden of Eden, the serpent came to Eve & caused her & Adam to doubt God’s Word…asking the insidious question, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’” (Genesis 3:1)
In other words, “Does God really mean what He says?”
Then when Eve told him what God had said, & that the punishment was death, the devil replied, “You will not surely die…For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened & you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5)
The devil is still trying to cause people to doubt God’s Word. Just listen to the controversies going on in various denominations now.
The Bible speaks clearly on some of the subjects they’re discussing, but many doubt that God really means what He says. So discord & division is the result.
Again, there is no shortage of Bible studies in churches today. But too often we debate the meaning rather than living out the intent of God’s Word. We have fallen into the devil’s trap that James warned us about. He writes, “Do not merely listen to the word, & so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22).
Studying Scripture without doing it is one of the devil’s great deceptions.
B. But it’s not just doubt about God’s Word that the devil seeks. When tragedies come in life (& they do), even Christians sometimes find themselves victims of the devil’s schemes seeking to cause us to doubt the love & mercy of God.
And he causes us to cry out, “How could a loving God allow such a terrible thing to happen to me?”
Now it would be possible for me this morning to spend time discussing that question. But that’s not my aim right now. All I want you to see is that our enemy is constantly at work seeking to cause God’s people to doubt the goodness & power & love of our God.
Truly, the devil is going to church today “like a roaring lion, sneaking around to find someone to attack.” (1 Peter 5:8) CEV
II. DISCOURAGEMENT & DEPRESSION
A. Another weapon that the devil uses very effectively in church is discouragement.
There is a verse of scripture in which the writer of the Book of Hebrews urges Christians to be faithful in gathering together to worship Christ – just as we desire to do in our church service today.
He urges them, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25)
Now that’s good, isn’t it? But notice, the focus of the passage is not merely on meeting together, but on encouraging one another.
One of the practical reasons for this scriptural command is to counter the Devil’s strategy of discouraging believers. Many a faithful Christian who has withstood the attacks of Satan in the area of morality, truth, & righteous living, has found himself blindsided by discouragement & depression.
A few words of criticism here & there, a “down” day, a little loss of vision, a program that didn’t go according to plan - & suddenly we find ourselves discouraged & wondering if we can go on.
Many great men & women of God have had severe bouts with discouragement & depression.
Perhaps the clearest example is that of Elijah following his great victory over the prophets of Baal. In the wake of that victory, Queen Jezebel ordered his execution.
In fear Elijah ran & ended up in this situation. 1 Kings 19:4 tells us, “He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. ‘I have had enough, Lord,’ he said. ‘Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.’”
Now that is serious discouragement for a great man of God. And it took the intervention of the Lord Himself to bring Elijah out of his depression.
B. You may not be sitting under a tree with a desire to die, but discouragement can hit us all. The word of God to the church in this case is that we are called to be an encouragement to one another.
Our gatherings need to be times of encouragement & joy. A church that is obviously a place of love & encouragement is a place where the devil’s plans have been thwarted.
ILL. There is an old story called, “The Devil’s Tool Sale.”
It was advertised that the Devil was putting his tools up for sale. On that date the tools were laid out for public inspection. They had prices on them, & there were a lot of treacherous instruments: hatred, envy, jealousy, deceit, pride, & so on.
Lying apart from the rest of the Devil’s tools was a harmless-looking tool, worn more than any of the others & priced very high.
“What’s the name of this tool?” asked one of the customers. “That,” the Devil replied, “is discouragement.” “Why have you priced it so high?” he was asked.
“Because discouragement has been more useful to me than all the others. I can pry open & get inside a man’s heart with that when I cannot get near him with any other tool. And it’s badly worn because I use it on almost everyone, since so few people know it really belongs to me.”
When we understand that discouragement comes from our enemy, we can begin to counter it using the weapons of warfare found in Eph. 6:10-18. It is not natural for a Spirit-filled child of God to walk around discouraged. This is an attack of the devil to put us on the sidelines.
III. DISCORD & DIVISION
A. I really am convinced that the devil is trying to plant his seeds of destruction in your life & in mine, seeds of:
Doubt – to make you question God’s Word & His goodness
Discouragement – to make you look at your problems rather than at God
Diversion – to make the wrong things seem attractive so that you will want them more than the right things
Defeat – to make you feel like a failure so that you don’t even try
Delay – to make you put off doing something so that it never gets done
Discord & Division – so the church will never be the mighty army that God desires
B. One of the most effective strategies of the devil has been to bring about division in the church. It makes sense that our enemy would push for a splintered, divided church, since Jesus desired exactly the opposite.
Do you remember the prayers that Jesus prayed that last night in the Garden at Gethsemane? First, He prayed for himself, “Father, if it be possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not my will, but your will be done.” (Matthew 26:39)
Then He prayed for the apostles He was leaving behind. Just summarizing His prayer in my own words, He asked God to watch over them, to protect them, & to help them do the work that He was leaving them behind to do.
Then last of all He prayed for us. Listen to His prayer as recorded in John 17:20-21 (KJV), “Neither do I pray for these alone,” (That’s the apostles whom He had just been praying about.) “but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;” (That’s us - we believe in Jesus because of their testimony.)
“That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”
The main focus of Christ’s great prayer for us was that His followers would be united. A strong, united church is a testimony to the world of the reality & love of God. And the devil is doing all that he can to destroy that testimony.
SUM. I honestly believe with all my heart that the price we’re paying for a divided Christianity – for so many denominations & groups – is an unbelieving world. People say, “With so many churches, I just don’t know who or what to believe.”
No wonder Christ’s last prayer for us was that we might be one – united in soul & spirit with each other & with God – so that the world might believe.
C. But it is not just the worldwide church the devil seeks to divide. He’s just as interested in dividing & conquering local churches, too.
When a congregation finds itself facing issues that bring division, the prayer meeting is far more effective than the board meeting. Division always has a spiritual issue at its root & our enemy, the devil, is always involved. But the victory belongs to the Lord.
And I’m convinced our best defense against the devil & his schemes is a congregation united in prayer & with an overwhelming love & commitment to each other & to Jesus, our Savior & Lord.
ILL. Kay Poe & Esther Kim grew up as best friends & fierce competitors. Their sport was Tae Kwon Do, a form of martial arts that was included for the first time in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. As Kay & Esther got older, they found themselves in different weight classes, so they rarely met in competition.
But during the 2000 Olympic games their weight classes were combined, so in the pre-Olympic trials they most likely would meet each other in head to head competition, & only one of them would be going on to compete in the Olympics.
In the final moments of her semi-final bout at the trials Kay seriously dislocated her kneecap. In spite of her injury, she fought strongly enough to win the match. But as she hobbled off the floor her Olympic dreams seemed over.
Now if that had been the final match of the tournament Kay would have had plenty of time to recover before the Olympics. But it wasn’t her final match.
Kay still had one more match to win that day to gain the champ-ionship & qualify for the Olympics - & that one was against her friend, Esther Kim.
Esther had watched Kay’s match & saw the coach carrying Kay back to the dressing room. It was obvious that the outcome of the final match was a no-brainer – because of Kay’s injury, Esther could win easily.
All Esther had to do was show up, & she was on her way to the Olympics. Her injured friend didn’t have a chance. So Esther, not Kay, would be the one going to the Olympics.
But in a moment of incredible love & sacrifice, Esther decided to bow out of the final match & concede victory to her injured friend. She gave up her Olympic dream so that Kay could realize hers.
When Esther told Kay of her decision, Kay protested. But Esther said, “Don’t you dare argue with me about this.” Then they held each other & cried. “Please don’t think I’m throwing my dreams away,” Esther said, “because I’m not. I’m putting my dreams in you.”
Esther signed the scorecard, withdrawing from the match. But the rules stipulated that the two competitors had to come on the mat & bow to each other to make it official. So Kay’s coach helped her walk to one side of the mat. Esther walked to the other.
By the time they reached the referee in the middle, tears were flowing freely. The two young women bowed. The referee signaled that Esther had withdrawn & that Kay had won. Then the women locked arms, sobbing.
As they slowly walked off the mat together, the Tae Kwon Do officials stood up & bowed to them while the spectators applauded them both. Esther later told the stunned reporters, “There’s more than one way to be a champion.”
(Adapted from SC)
INVITATION
