Know your enemy

Life Giving Lessons in Luke  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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More than words, know God's character

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Who is someone you have heard of and would like to meet?

A jealous angel
There is an angel, he is wise and beautiful, rich and powerful. He isn’t content though. He convinces a third of the angels to follow him and worship him because he will become God. This costs him everything, he is cast down to hell.

12 How you have fallen from heaven,

morning star, son of the dawn!

You have been cast down to the earth,

you who once laid low the nations!

13 You said in your heart,

“I will ascend to the heavens;

I will raise my throne

above the stars of God;

I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,

on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.

14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High.”

15 But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,

to the depths of the pit.

13 You were in Eden,

the garden of God;

every precious stone adorned you:

carnelian, chrysolite and emerald,

topaz, onyx and jasper,

lapis lazuli, turquoise and beryl.

Your settings and mountings were made of gold;

on the day you were created they were prepared.

14 You were anointed as a guardian cherub,

for so I ordained you.

You were on the holy mount of God;

you walked among the fiery stones.

15 You were blameless in your ways

from the day you were created

till wickedness was found in you.

16 Through your widespread trade

you were filled with violence,

and you sinned.

So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God,

and I expelled you, guardian cherub,

from among the fiery stones.

17 Your heart became proud

on account of your beauty,

and you corrupted your wisdom

because of your splendor.

So I threw you to the earth;

I made a spectacle of you before kings.

18 By your many sins and dishonest trade

you have desecrated your sanctuaries.

So I made a fire come out from you,

and it consumed you,

and I reduced you to ashes on the ground

in the sight of all who were watching.

Title:
Life Giving Lessons in Luke
Of heaven and hell

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

Sun Tzu, The Art of War
1Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
(NIV)
The enemy comes when we are at our weakest
The devil appealed to Jesus’ humanness
3The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
(NIV)
Satan tried make make Jesus question God’s provision
4Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’ ”
(NIV)
5The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7If you worship me, it will all be yours.”
(NIV)
Satan tried make make Jesus question God’s purpose for Jesus’ life
8Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’ ”
(NIV)
9The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10For it is written:
“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
(NIV)
11they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’ ”
(NIV)
Satan tried make make Jesus question God’s protection
12Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
(NIV)
The devil is powerful, but he is not without his limits. As we see in Job, he is limited by God’s authority.
13When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
(NIV)
We need to recognize how weak we are in our humanness, and lean on our Lord for strength
Satan knew God’s words and he knew God’s character.
The reason Jesus was successful in this test was because He also knew God’s words and His character
We learn FOUR important things about the enemy in this passage:
-he will attack us at his most opportune time
-his wants our destruction
-he will stop at nothing
-That in the end he is powerless against our God
We see how to pray from this encounter.
We pray that we would receive provision, we pray to avoid temptation of an alternate path, we pray that we remember the Lord is our Lord always.
SO WHAT?
Our reading of scripture, our prayer life, and our worship are the ways we learn the character of God.
14Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
(NIV)
We can rejoice in knowing we will be tended to by angels after our test, and that we will be used to minister to others from our survival
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