Guilt
Satan's Favorite Arrows • Sermon • Submitted
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Satan is a Prowling Lion
Satan is a Prowling Lion
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8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
You probably don’t think much about Satan, demons, and the spiritual world, but the Bible speaks a lot about it.
We often think about movies like “The Exorcist” or “The Conjuring”
But the Bible presents a different idea about the spiritual battle around us.
Have you ever considered how Satan and the spiritual world impacts your life?
11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 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.
ephesians 6: 11-
Paul says we are not just battling against flesh and blood, our own sinful flesh and the temptations and distractions from others.
We are also fighting against spiritual powers that we cannot see or touch.
Paul tells us to prepare ourselves for battle
The first thing we must do to be prepared for battle is acknowledge our enemy.
We must understand that spiritual evil is a reality, not some kind of superstitious wives tale.
Secondly we have to recognize the way The Enemy works.
Satan has tactics and strategies he uses to steers us away from Christ.
Over the next 5 weeks we are going to talk about 5 “Arrow” satan uses
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8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
Condemnation vs Conviction
Condemnation vs Conviction
Have you ever considered how Satan and the spiritual world impacts your life?
11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 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.
When you do something wrong, is feeling bad about it a good thing or a bad thing? [Leader: This is a great place to differentiate between guilt and conviction!]
3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah
3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
Guilt is not just a subjective feeling as much as it is an objective reality.
ps 32
If someone has committed a crime they are guilty, regardless of whether or not they feel like they are guilty.
If you get caught cheating on a test and your teacher confronts you, you can’t say “I just don’t feel guilty” and expect to get off without consequences.
Now our objective guilt leads to feelings like David talks about in the Psalm.
Emotional and physical feelings as we deal with the realities of what we have done and the consequences thereof.
The feelings we have that come from guilt is rooted in condemnation.
To condemn someone is to expose them because of what they have done. This is what we all deserve.
When we are condemned we are under the weight of the judgement against us and facing the reality of our sentence (penalty).
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
romans
everyone who has ever drawn a breath since Adam and Eve has been condemned because of their sin.
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Eph
“Children of Wrath like the rest of mankind.”
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
Condemnation points to our hopeless state apart from Christ.
Condemnation points to our hopeless state apart from Christ.
It is real and should not be disregarded.
But it is not the reality for a Christian
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
For Christians, condemnation is no longer our reality.
Difference between condemnation and conviction.
Difference between condemnation and conviction.
John 3:17
Jesus came not to condemn us, but in order that we might escape our condemnation through Him.
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,
There is no condemnation for those who are IN CHRIST JESUS.
There is no condemnation for those who are IN CHRIST JESUS.
We have been set free from the condemnation that comes from the law of sin and death.
“No condemnation” means God will never count my sin against me.
Even the most shameful things I’ve done will never be used against me.
His disposition will forever be one of favor.
He will always be for me, never against me.
Conviction- points us to the better way.
Conviction- points us to the better way.
Conviction is rooted in truth that exposes unbelief or false belief.
But we often confuse conviction with condemnation and this is where we find one of Satan’s favorite arrows.
Satan’s Arrow of Guilt
Satan’s Arrow of Guilt
The bible calls Satan the father of lies in
One of the ways he steers us from Christ is by speaking the lies of condemnation over us.
God doesn’t love you, look what you have done!
God won’t forgive that sin, you have asked too many times.
You are dirty, unforgivable, worthless, weak...
Satan’s goal is to cause us to forget the reality of and
He wants us to live in defeat rather than living in the freedom bought for us by Christ.
He wants us to give up fighting our sin rather than live in the power of the Spirit over sin.
He wants us to be defined by our failures rather than defined by who we are in Christ.
Read
What is this verse saying? What does it mean to you? Have you ever wished you could hide something from God?
When we’re guilty of something we have two choices:
o We can either run away from God out of guilt and shame OR
o We can run to God in confession and repentance.
Which of these do you normally do when you’ve done something wrong?
Read and
What is God’s response when we ask Him for forgiveness? What happens to our guilt?
Have you ever felt so much guilt that it kept you spiritually stuck? Do you think that’s what God wants? Why or why not?
Read and 2 Corinthians 5:21
FOR LEADERS: The Enemy’s arrow of guilt is aimed at your past. Satan wants you to really dwell on and get stuck in past mistakes you’ve made. But God doesn’t want you to feel stuck in your past! He wants you to be set free! That’s what Jesus came to do, and He did it.
How does that truth make you feel, and what hope does it give you?
What issue/mistake/sin in your life is Satan trying to keep you wrapped up in? Do you believe that Jesus has set you free and that God does not want you to live in guilt?
Pray as a group that the truth of our forgiveness and the freedom from condemnation would guard our hearts and our minds from the schemes of Satan.