Well, Ephesians 6 is where were at today. In this passage, Paul sounds the alarm. Weve been following the news, this big earthquake in Chile, and a tsunami is going to follow, so in Hawaii and Japan and other places, they were bracing yesterday for the tsunami. It turned out that it wasnt that bad, but they didnt know what was going to happen; so sirens were going off. People were driving around in cars warning people to evacuate and head to higher ground because there is a threat. Its very real, and its coming. Weve spotted the tsunami at sea. Were not sure how large its going to become, so move to higher ground. Evacuate. They were pretty confident that if they responded to that, they would be safe. They boarded up their homes. They headed to higher ground to wait out the tsunami. So thats wisdom. Thats wisdom because when there is a threat, you prepare. You take every means you can to protect yourself and your family. Paul is going to talk here about a very real threat, a very real enemy that is seeking to destroy anyone in his path. Hes going to introduce us to a spiritual world of darkness, a hierarchy, a struggle in which there is conflict between the forces of God and the forces of the enemy. He sounds the alarm, and he says, Prepare yourselves. Get ready so that youre able to stand. Verse 10 (page 1160 of pew Bibles) Paul writes, Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Notice Paul says you have to stand in His power. You dont fight a tsunami because it will defeat you. Youre not powerful enough to fight it. In the same way you cannot fight the force of darkness in and of your own strength. You have to fight and stand in the power of God, and hes going to tell us how to do that. He says to do that, you must, Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devils schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the Heavenly realms, or in the Greek, it just says in the Heavenly. So he talks about this hierarchy, this unseen force. We see the manifestation of evil in our world, but he says, We are talking about principalities and powers that we cannot see. We cannot see the wind, but we see the effects of the wind. We see what it does. We cannot see the earthquake. We cannot see the platelets moving. We see effect. So we cannot see the enemy, but we can see his effect. We can feel the opposition. Ill tell you when this really became real to me. Ill give you a couple dramatic stories. Ill just tell these really quickly because we want to get in the text, but these are times when this whole idea of warfare became real to me. It went from beyond just words in the Scripture to a reality that I was engaged in. If you are skeptical here today-if you dont believe in spiritual warfare or you dont believe in the existence of a literal devil as Jesus obviously did-these stories arent necessarily going to convince you otherwise; but I share these because these were defining moments for me, and they were very early on in my ministry. I was in my 20s. I was pretty green, and Rockford-where Im from-actually became a hotbed for satanic activity. There was a church of Satan-and may still be; I dont know-that was in conflict with one of the local churches in the community. There was satanic ritual activity at the local parks. One of our pastors had a deliverance-based ministry, and people would come out of that lifestyle and want to be delivered. Theyd come to our church, so we had to deal with this on a regular basis-people who had taken part in various satanic ceremonies and activities who were wanting freedom. That pastor would work with law enforcement because they would try to track down [victims who participated in this satanic lifestyle] because crimes had been committed. There were evidences of it in the parks and so forth. Our pastor would work with investigators, so it was not uncommon for us to deal with this in Rockford, Illinois. One particular time, this young man about 17 years old [came to us]. Hed had a real troubled childhood, was really depressed, and he was on his bed listening to Motley Crew. I think it was a Shout at the Devil, song like that. On his bed, he said, I asked Satan to possess me. I asked him to come and live inside of me. Im really afraid now because things are happening in me that I dont understand. This morning at school, I wrote a letter. Its almost like it wasnt even my words and something dark was writing through me, and Im scared. I need help. So several of us began to pray for this young man named John. As we were praying, he gets this sinister grin, and he opens up the desk, almost as if he knows where to look, and he grabs a large pair of scissors-not school scissors, but a large pair that really was a weapon. He stars to glare at everybody in the room. One of the pastors goes, Jeff, you go find the letter. We have to take him on a prayer to renounce these things he said. This letter Im sensing is a key, so go back to the classroom and find this letter. Id like to tell you that I was real brave. Id like to tell you that I was like, Yeah, Satans going to get it now! but I leave the room where he is holding a knife on these guys. I go to the classroom, I have to find the letter! I have to find the letter! Hes going to kill people! (Pastor is saying this with a shaky voice.) So Im just all in a dither, and I get to the room; and there is no trash in the trashcans. We had said, What did you do with the letter? He said, I threw it away. I saw the janitor, Where, where is the letter? Wheres the trash? He goes, Oh, I just emptied everything into the dumpster. I went, Great! I go outside to the dumpster, a big dumpster. I open up the lid, and you know we have a school K-12. He has just emptied every trash can in all the classrooms. Do you know whats in pretty much every trashcan? Crumpled up white pieces of paper, so literally the bin is entirely full with crumpled up white pieces of paper. I mean there are hundreds and hundreds of crumpled up white pieces of paper, and Im supposed to find one letter. Im like, This is impossible. Hes in the church. He has a knife. I dont know if hes stabbing people right now. Im supposed to find this letter. I was like, Lord, please help me find this letter. Im not going to climb in the bin and start looking through hundreds of sheets of paper. What am I going to do? I reach in and I grab a piece of paper, and I unfold it. The first one-gang, the first one, I grab-is the letter from the kid. I couldnt believe it! That was a real sign to me. Now you might be skeptical and say, Well, it just happened, you know. People win the lottery too. Thats fine, but for me, that was really something-that I would find that letter on the first shot. I took it in, read it. It was like, Im going to kill the principal. Im going to kill myself. I hate God! It was just filled with all this bad stuff. We led the kid on a prayer of confession and renouncing of the decisions that he made. Long story short, I got a call from him actually a year ago, just to let me know he was doing well and say he was doing well and thank you for helping me when I was a young man. Now Im a father, and blah, blah, blah; and we reminisced for a little bit. The second story, really quick, is when a guy called the church. He said, Ive made some bad decisions, and Im involved with what I shouldnt be. I feel like Satan has really attacked me. I dont know if Im possessed or oppressed or what, but I need help. So he came to church. Id never seen him before in my life. I open up the door. Have you ever met somebody who just gives you the heebie-jeebies when you meet them? This guy had these beady eyes and this kind of devilish grin. I was like, Hello, come in. I was like making sure my door handle was not locked because I didnt trust this guy. I was like, I dont want to be in the office with this guy with the door locked. I was like triple checking it, Okay, its not locked. Great. I shut the door and sat down. I had not my main desk-which was behind me-but just this desk a bit smaller that I just met with people at and so forth. Its a light desk. It wasnt wood or anything like that, just a light desk. We were sitting there talking, and he started telling me all the perverse things he was involved with. I was like, Man, no wonder. This is just bad. You have to confess this to the Lord. You have to ask His forgiveness, His cleansing, ask Him to come into your life. We have to get rid of this. This is bad stuff! I said, Can I pray with you? At that point, I was young. I wasnt even old enough to realize, Does this guy even want to get rid of this stuff? I would have handled this situation a whole lot differently now than I did then, but we started to pray. As we were praying, have you ever just sensed somebody was glaring at you? I sensed he was glaring at me. I could just sense it. I knew if I opened my eyes, he would be looking at me with an evil look. That was creeping me out. So I was just praying, and pretty soon his hands started to shake violently, and Im just holding on. Then he starts to go, Grrrr. GRrr! GRRR! He started to growl. I just kept praying. I felt like I got on the back of a tiger now, and I didnt know how to get off. He started to shake even more violently and growl louder. I was like help us, Jesus! Help us, Lord! (Pastor is talking with a shaky voice.) Im just scared. All of the sudden, he stands up; and when he stand up, he pushes the table onto me. The table is now at my waist, and his full body weight is against the table; so I cant move my lower body. Im trapped. He takes my suit coat-yes, my boss made us wear a suit coat-grabs it, pulls it up over my head so sleeves are where my elbows are, and I cant move my arms. Im like in a straight jacket. I literally cant move. Im trapped by the table; he was over me; the suit coat was over my head; and he was shaking me while going, Rrrr! RRRR! Im going, Help. Help. Im in my 20s and Im scared! This guy is… Gary, the expert over here, says, Im on my way! I hear him through the wall. He comes around the door, and he goes shake, shake, shake [on the doorknob]. Just a second. The door is locked. I have to go get a key. Im like, The door is not locked. Im thinking, How can this be locked? and right there in that moment, I said, This is real. I know I didnt lock it. I know that door is not locked! How did that door get locked? Something is going on here. Long story short, they got the key. They came. We restrained the guy and prayed with the guy. It was a battle. He was very violent to himself. Eventually, we got him calmed down; and last I heard about this fellow was he was a pastor in Freeport, Illinois. Last I heard-that was many years ago. This would have been almost 30 years ago that this story took place; so a lot transpired in that time. That event, that locking of the door-when I knew that the door was not locked-how did that happen? I had no explanation for that. So those events kind of woke me up early to the fact that spiritual warfare is real. Now hes going to use an interesting word in this passage. It says, Our struggle. That is the word wrestling. We wrestle not, some of your translations may say. We wrestle not. This wrestling, it would be very similar to our wrestling. This would have been the first Olympic sport that did not involve running in 707 B.C.-pale (pay-lay). Its where you throw your opponent several times. You have to throw your opponent, and then you are the victor when you can stand over your opponent and put your hand on this throat, signifying you are the victor. He uses that word and that word picture. He says, We are in a heated match. I have to tell you I respect wrestlers out here. How many of you high school wrestlers or college wrestlers do we have here today? Yeah, dont mess with those guys. That is a grueling sport. I just thank God He made me a basketball player. I used to see their workouts, and I know what they went through to lose weight, to get in shape. It is a hard sport. So he picks one of the most grueling, physical sports-wrestling, and he says, This is like a wrestling match. Paul is acting here as a scout. A good scout, or a good coach, scouts the other team and say, Okay, your opponent today, here are his strengths. Heres what he likes to do. Here are your weaknesses. Heres where youre vulnerable in your match today, so dont let yourself get in this position. Make sure you dont put your hand here or your foot here. Be on guard against this because heres where he always attacks. Hes going to dive for your legs. When he does that, do this. The coach is helping you in advance. Hes warning you in advance of how your enemy will attack. He says, We are not ignorant of his schemes, of his devices, or of his trickery. Paul is saying he has the same moves every time. He has the same moves every time. The place where he attacks first and foremost is where our greatest strength is because if he can attack our greatest strength and have victory there, then everything falls in place like dominos. What is the greatest strength we have? What is the greatest weapon in our arsenal? Its the first weapon that Paul gives us. He gives it to us first for a reason. The greatest weapon that you and I have is Truth. Well I thought the goodness of God or the love of God is the greatest thing we have. The greatness of God, the goodness of God, and the love of God are only wonderful and great because they are true. The Gospel and our faith, I thought that was the greatest weapon we had. We can only have faith because it is based upon what is true, so Truth is our greatest strength; so when Satan attacks, he will attack the Truth. I guarantee you that, and he will always attack it in the same way. He operates by the if its not broke, dont fix it school of thought. Hes been using the same techniques since the dawn of Creation. They always work, so he continues to use those techniques. So if we want to say, In this wrestling match, we know his schemes. What are his schemes? What do they look like? How does he operate? Then we can expect them and respond to them when they happen. I was talking with a woman in our 9:30 service, and she was able to connect the dots in something she was going through, a struggle she was going through. She said, I didnt realize that what I was going through was a spiritual attack until the message today. She said, Now Im ready! Im ready! I have my armor on. Now I understand whats coming, who it is, and how I can defend against it. Lets turn to the Book of Genesis 3 (page 3 of pew Bibles). The setting is Eden; its paradise. The account is the fall of men, and our concern is with the first five verses of the chapter. We kind of know what happens in the rest of the story, but were going to focus on Verses 1-5. It says, Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Did God really say, You must not eat from any tree in the garden? Method number one is doubt, to get you to question the Truth. Thats method number one that the enemy will use. He will get you to doubt what you know to be true. Now, Im not talking about a healthy doubt or a healthy skepticism. Every one of us should have that. If you hear something that doesnt sound quite right or read something that doesnt seem quite right, you go to the Word of God and you say, Is this true or not? Im just doubting what I hear today-Im not talking about that. Thats good. You keep that up. However, Im talking about doubting what we know to be true. Eve knew that was true. He tries to introduce doubt to get her to question the Truth. Thats how he operates. He gets us to try to question the Truth. Our children in the schools-growing up in the church-understand that theyve been made imago Dei, in the image of God. Theyre learning that they are evolved, and that they are simply an accident from cosmic goo. Theres no divine plan or purpose for their life. They simply happen. Theyre an accident. They begin to doubt what theyve been taught that is true. Sometimes because of our sin, were ashamed or we feel guilty because of things weve done or said or the things we didnt do that we should have done or didnt say that we should have said. We start to feel like well, God doesnt love me or I cant be a Christian. He will get us to doubt our salvation. God doesnt really love you. You do not really belong to Him. If you really belonged to Him, then you wouldnt do this. You wouldnt say that. He gets us to question what we know is true. Thats how the enemy operates. There were times when the Apostle Paul, I think, struggled with everything that were going to talk about today. One thing we know about Paul is that Paul was a very timid individual. He writes really bold in his letters. He even talks about that. He says, You know, I came to you. You thought youd see this bold man, and when you actually met me, you saw how timid I was, and you were surprised. You were like, Is this Paul? Youre so loud and demonstrative in your letters, but when we meet you, youre just timid. Thats the way he was. There were times when Paul would say, Pray for me that I can proclaim the Gospel. Pray for me that I have confidence to speak the Word as I should. There were times Paul struggled with doubts, even though he knew God had called him to that mission. He knew the Truth. There were times when he began to question what he knew to be true, and he asked for help in that area. So thats how Satan works, because if he can get us to doubt, then we are susceptible to deceit, to desires-the other things were going to talk about-and begin to fall like dominos. Well, Eve holds up pretty well in this first test. If you question and try to get them to doubt the Truth-what did Jesus do in the wilderness? When Satan tried to get Him to question the Truth, He quoted the Scripture. He quoted the Truth. The woman said, We may not eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say… She affirms the Truth. …that you must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the midst of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die. Then Satan goes, Oh, okay. Ill leave you alone then. Thanks. No, no, no. Hes relentless. He tries another tactic. Verse 4, You will not surely die. The serpent said to the woman. He tries the tactic of deceit-deceit. Deceit is when you have some truth, and you just twist it a little bit. She wasnt going to physically die. She was going to spiritually die. She said she would physically remain alive, but there was going to be a death. There was going to be a separation, but he was like, Oh, youre going to be fine. Deceit. And with this deceit comes a false justification. We begin to say, I am justified in my behavior because it has just enough Truth even though the Truth is skewed. Ill give you a couple examples. Somebody is working, and theyre handling money. Maybe its their job or maybe theyre a volunteer, but theyre around funds. Thats a very trustworthy thing. I have no authority to sign checks. I dont transfer payroll. I cant determine wages. I dont see deposits or offerings. I just try to stay out of that. Im part of the board, but I dont handle any monies. I dont have the authority to handle any monies as far as writing checks or authorizing salary. I just stay out of that, but there are some people that have been put in that position where they have to handle finances. Maybe things are difficult for them. Theyre struggling. Maybe something has happened in their lifestyle where they have bills to pay and they have a lot of pressures; so they take the money, and they say, I know this money isnt mine, but Im going to pay it back. Because they have an intention to pay it back, they take the money, and they use it for their own purposes. Or they might say, I work hard, but Im just underappreciated. Im not paid what Im worth. This company needs to pay me more, so they actually take the money not with the intention of paying it back. They take it because they think they deserve it. They work hard. But the truth of the matter is it was not authorized. They dont have the authority to take it, but they tell themselves they do. They say, I work hard, which is true. They say, I should make more than I do, which might be true, but theyve not been authorized or entitled to take more; and they take it anyway because of this deceit. They cover it up. They hide it. I had a friend who told me this week that an employee embezzled $200,000 from his company-a person that he had trusted for these very reasons. A person is in a relationship, in a marriage, and theyre not happy. The marriage is not going well. Maybe one of the spouses is just very absent, emotionally or physically absent. Theres another person thats paying attention to him, and they start to have feelings for that person. They say, Well, you know, these feelings are justified because after all, so and so doesnt love me anymore. Theyre always gone. That is true. Theyre always gone. It might be true that they dont feel the same way about you, but its not true that youre justified in having this relationship while youre married; so deceit sets in, and they follow and they act on that impulse. What happens? Counselors will tell you this. People in the mental health profession will tell you this. People in the ministry will tell you this-that a person who lives enough in the pattern of deceit pretty soon is not able to discern truth from a lie. They become so wrapped up in deceit that that becomes their reality. They will tell you without feeling any guilt. Its almost like in their minds its not a lie because theyve just lived with that deceit so long, its become a part of who they are. You probably know some people like that. It started with a lie; it started with deceit, twisting of the truth. That justified our actions, our attitudes. The next thing you know, we are engrained in this pattern of deceit, and Satan has us exactly where he wants us. Theres a third way that he attacks the Truth. Verse 5, the serpents says, For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Be like God. Those words ring over in her mind-to be like God. In this tactic, he takes a lie and magnifies it. He takes our desires and then magnifies a lie, and that lie has to do with the promise, the promise of some sort of pleasure, promise of some sort of gain-a promise thats never delivered. Its a promise that never lives up to expectation, but the promise goes like this: If you just had this person… If you just had this object… If you just had this accomplishment… If you just had this much money…then you will happy. Then you will be fulfilled. Then you will be satisfied. Then life will be good. So a person will compromise their integrity. Theyll compromise their family. Theyll sacrifice their family on the altar. Theyll sacrifice any number of things to obtain what they believe is going to bring them happiness. Youve seen that, havent you? Youve even heard that in your ear. Youve heard a little voice telling you when youre looking at something-this forbidden fruit that youre not supposed to have- and saying, Even if you had that, youd be so much better. If you had that, life would be so good, so youre willing to compromise your standards, your ethics, to acquire because theres this promise. The problem is when you finally sink your teeth into that fruit-and you partake of it and taste it-it is not what it was built to be. It does not live up. It does not satisfy. It leaves you empty and void until the next thing comes along, the next promise comes along and says, Well, not that, but this. So this whole idea of being like God was a temptation. Sometimes its not even these things that we would say, Well, thats blatant sin. Sometimes Satan can tempt us with something that is good, but its not the will of God. You know how the Apostle Paul would say, Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and work with your hands? Hed write that. That's Scripture, Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life and work with your hands. I bet you there were times when Paul would write that, and he would go, Man, that sounds good. I bet there were times when Satan would whisper in his ear and say, Paul, youve worked really hard. Youve put up with a lot of stuff. Pauls life was anything but quiet-shipwrecks, riots in which he was the focal point, imprisoned, beaten, starved-all these threats upon him-ridiculed, mocked. And whats more-the pressures of the church as he fights a false doctrine and he fights against those who attack the Truth of the church. We talked earlier about the importance of standing up to deceit. Much of the New Testament was written as a response to deceit, as a response to people who were twisting the Truth. There was a group that would attack the deity of Christ. They were called the Docetists. They began to teach false doctrine about who Jesus was and of His nature. Paul had to attack docetism. There was another heresy called Gnosticism which attacked how a person received salvation; and much of the New Testament is written as a response to defend the Gospel against Gnosticism. There was another school of thought called antinomianism, which is against the law. It was thought that there was no law. As a Christian, you could live any way you wanted to live. Paul defends that in the Book of Romans and elsewhere. He comes against antinomianism. All these other isms, we could go on. They all existed in the first century, and they attacked the church. They attacked the church. All the problems with ethics that we have, they had. Utilitarianism-which says the end justifies the means, that existed in the first century. So Paul, Peter, and the others write against these twistings of the Truth, to uphold and defend the Truth-the very fact that our New Testament exists. Now I understand its the Holy Spirit who inspired the Books and wrote the Books through men and put it all together, but what Im saying to you is understand it didnt drop from Heaven like this. It didnt drop where they picked it up and say, Oh, its the New Testament! It didnt happen that way. The church put together the cannon, or the rule of Scripture. Why? Because the Gospel was attacked. There was man by the name of Marcian, and Marcian attacked the New Testament and the Old Testament. Any reference to the God of the Old Testament was removed. He was an anti-Semite, and by the time he got through slicing and dicing the New Testament, just a little bit of Luke was left and a little bit of some other Books. Hed say, Here, this is all thats left. This is all thats from God. The church went, Oh, we have to do something about this hieratic, Marcian. So they assembled the Books of the Bible together. For the first time-the oldest time we have-is called the Moratorium Fragment from 170 A.D. They wrote a letter and said, Here are the inspired Books of the Bible. They have Apostolicity. Theyd been written by an Apostle. They were inspired by the Holy Spirit, and that was a response to somebody twisting the Truth. Paul was right in the thick of this, right in the heart. There was never a days rest for Paul. He was advancing the Gospel, but while he was doing that, he was encountering opposition from every front. Sometimes it was heresy within the church. Sometimes it was attacks outside of the church. Sometimes it was his health. Sometimes it was any number of things. He was a tent maker. Thats what he did to support himself. Im sure it was tempting for Paul that the enemy would just whisper in his ear as he was writing and say, Make it your ambition to live a quiet life and work with your hands. Doesnt that sound good, Paul? How about when you go to one of those islands to share the Gospel, why dont you just settle down there? Just make tents the rest of your life. Satans not asking him to go against the Gospel, to attack the church, or to tear down what hes built. No, no, no, no. But, you know, youve done your share. Youve gone through more than anybodys gone through emotionally, physically. It has been taxing on you. Live the good life. Just retire. Retire from the Gospel, and go make some tents for a while. Is it an evil thing to retire? Do pastors retire? Sure, pastors retire. And Im sure Paul has thought about that. He was thinking, Yeah, thats probably not a bad idea, but it wasnt the will of God. The will of God was that Paul was going to eventually give his life for the cause of Christ. Im telling you any pastor who is honest with you will tell you if theyve been in the ministry long enough, there are days when they say, Hey, I dont need this. Im going to go do something… Not me. No, Ive never had those days, but there are other pastors that I know of whove said that this is a lot of work. This is trouble. Ill just do this over here, a 9-5 kind of a job. Its hard. Some of you are engaged in ministry. You know what Im talking about. If youre engaged in ministry, especially if youre on the front lines, it gets hard. You might just want to say, Oh, you know. Let somebody else fight this battle. Im going to go do something else. So Paul dealt with those temptations. He kept performing the same techniques. He used the same tactics because doubt, deceit, and desires still work-twisting the Truth, getting us to question the Truth, and magnifying a lie still are believed and acted upon. We can get to the point where we know those attacks are coming and we recognize those attacks. When the Holy Spirit sounds His siren within our heart, and we know that a wave is eminent and a tsunami-a spiritual tsunami-is coming, And I need to prepare myself. I need to put on the armor of God that I can stand against this attack. Thats what were going to do. Next week, were going to actually get into the pieces of armor, and were going to see how each piece of armor has to do with holding on to the Truth. Because we have the Truth in Christ, we have the shield of faith. We have the sword of the Spirit. Its the sword of the Spirit thats powerful and active because it is true. So Satan is going to attack the truth; we are called to defend the Truth and stand for the Truth. To do that we place on the armor, so thats going to be our subject matter next week. Before we move on in the service, lets just spend some time in prayer and lifting up these concerns to the Lord because I know some of you are going through these struggles right now. Father, right now I want to lift up Your people, Your children. Lord, there are some people here who are struggling with doubts this week. Theyre questioning what they know to be true. Maybe theyre questioning that You love them or theyre questioning that Youve saved them. Theyre questioning a promise in Your Word. Theyre questioning Your presence in their lives. Theyre questioning something in the midst of a storm, in the midst of doubt. Father, I pray this morning that Your perfect love would drive out that doubt, remove that fear. Help them to know that Your promises are the same yesterday, today, and forever. They can trust in You. They can trust in Your Word. I pray for those this morning who are [involved in] various levels of deceit. Maybe its in its beginning stages, or maybe its advanced. I pray this morning that Your Truth would remove that darkness, that lies would be exposed, repented of and forsaken. Lord, if theyve engaged themselves in a destructive pattern of behavior or if they are beginning to go down a path which can bring destruction and harm to them or their family, [I pray] this morning is a wake-up call; that they heed the siren; that, Lord, they would no longer be the victim of that deceit; that they would be a follower of Truth. Father, for those of us who believed that temptation of desire, whatever that desire might be, the Word talks about the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of life, the elements in which Satan uses desire-that we follow that carrot, that promise that says if we just have this, well be happy. Well have power; well have contentment. Father, I pray that we would see right now that what we must desire more than any thing or any one is You. Its only in You, Father, that we find the rest for our souls that we seek. Its only in You that we find the fulfillment that we hope for and long for. So I pray that Truth will be magnified and not a lie. Father, I pray too that we as the church of the living God can come alongside those who have succumb to this trickery; those who have magnified the lie; those who have engaged in deceit; and those who have entertained doubt. Right now they are struggling. Theyre wrestling and theyre losing. We will come alongside and help them, stand with them, pray with them, and encourage them in their faith. Help us to be the church today to one another. Grant us wisdom through Your Spirit; [teach us] how to apply this message to our hearts and lives. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.