Satan Wants To Destroy The Church

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SATAN WANTS TO DESTROY THE CHURCH

Ephesians 2:1-2, 4-5

            I have stood in this pulpit and preached about 275 different messages in the history of this church, but I have a dilemma. Now that I’m a lame duck pastor, what do I preach? What should I do?

It would be easy and very tempting just to pull out one of my better sermons of the past, work it over a bit, bring it up to date with a few illustrations, add some warm and fuzzy comments, and preach it to you. Again, that would be easy to do, but I’m not convinced that is what God would want me to do.

You see, we’re all here together this morning, young and old and those in-between, teenagers, families and singles and single parents, members and visitors and guests.  What is the message that God would have me bring to you today? Maybe it was in response to this concern that an idea began to formulate in my mind.

Over the years I have had the opportunity to talk with many of you who have come to Faith from so many different places. You’ve opened up your hearts to me. Some of you have been extremely kind in expressing how much you love attending Faith. You feel that you have found a “church home,” and you look forward to coming here.

I’m glad that you feel that way, but some of you have also poured out your heart to me about your former church, about some of the personality problems and heartaches and power struggles that seem to be going on in some churches. You’re confused and heartbroken over what is happening. But folks, it’s almost everywhere. Why is that? Why does it seem that so many churches are having problems of different kinds?

Well, I believe I know the answer to that question. And that is the reason I have chosen to use as the theme of my message this morning an idea presented in a small but powerful book by C.S. Lewis that I have read called the Screwtape Letters. In it he suggests that: “THE DEVIL AND DEMONS GO TO CHURCH!”

Does that idea surprise you? Do you have a hard time accepting such a thought? 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, and parents are unusually on edge with one another. And it doesn’t always end when we reach the friendly confines of the church building. In some ways, it can even intensify.

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 wait for missed cues, sound-system malfunctions, video projection mistakes that keep taking us to the wrong verse of a song, or …. well, you can fill in the blanks. You know what I mean.

In fact, I believe that I can safely assert that demons spend more time in church than many Christians. It makes sense for him to do so. If they can hang around Christians and create confusion, division, or discouragement, then he has effectively gotten the church off-track and has won a great victory. All too often the church has forgotten about the enemy’s concern over what we do, and in our ignorance, we allow him to create problems within the church.

Remember, the Bible clearly warns us, 1 Peter “5:8  Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (NIV)

There is a very real reason that demons go to church. The Bible presents a picture of a great cosmic battle going on between the forces of God and the forces of Satan. And those of us who have become Christians are people who have changed sides and are now on God’s side in the battle. Have you ever thought about it in that way? Paul writes about this switching of sides when he says:

“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.” (Ephesians 2:1-2, 4-5) CEV.

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 instruct, and as we encourage one another to live and proclaim the kingdom of God. And Satan will do all he can to prevent that from happening.

C.S. Lewis tries to help us understand that in his book, The Screwtape Letters. In it, Satan is telling Wormwood, an apprentice demon: “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 and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy. But fortunately, it is quite invisible to these humans.”

The real danger for us is our being unaware of our enemy’s schemes. We seem to act as if difficulties in church are just natural things. When churches divide up over whether or not to use hymns or contemporary choruses, it is not natural. When the flock turns on the shepherd, it is not natural. When the saints, called to live in love, instead spend their time criticizing and accusing one another, it is not natural. In such circumstances it is easy to see that the devil has come to church!

There is one obvious thing about Satan’s attacks on the church…he is consistent. He does basically the same things over and over again in church after church, as he has done down through the ages. How does Satan want to destroy the church?


1. Satan Wants To Destroy the Church Through DOUBT and DECEPTION

Sowing doubt and deception has been one of the devil’s weapons from the very beginning. In the Garden of Eden, the serpent came to Eve and caused her (and Adam) to doubt God’s Word…asking the insidious question, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat…?” In other words, “Does God really mean what He says?

Then when Eve told him what God had said, and 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 and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4-5).

The demons are going to church today and still trying to cause people to doubt God’s Word. Just listen to the controversies in many denominations now. The Bible speaks clearly on some of the subjects they’re discussing, but there are many who doubt that God really means what He says. So discord and 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, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22).

Studying Scripture without doing it is one of Satan’s great deceptions.  But it’s not just doubt about God’s Word that the devil seeks. When tragedies come in life (and they do), even Christians sometimes find themselves victims of the devil’s schemes seeking to cause us to doubt the love and 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 perfectly possible for me this morning to spend some time discussing that question with you. But that’s not my purpose right now. All I want you to see is that our whispering enemy is constantly at work seeking to cause God’s people to doubt the goodness and power and 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


2. Satan Wants To Destroy the Church Through DISCOURAGEMENT

I know that some of you are discouraged because I have resigned, you even told me you are mad at me, but I have confidence that this won’t deter this church from becoming what God desires for it to become.

There is a verse of scripture in the Book of Hebrews, where the Apostle Paul, urges Christians to be faithful in gathering together to worship Christ. He says, “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

Did you notice, the focus of the passage is not merely on meeting together, but on encouraging one another? One of the very practical reasons for this scriptural command is to counter the devil’s strategy of discouraging the believers. Many a faithful Christian, who has withstood the attacks of Satan in the area or morality, truth, and righteous living, has found himself blind-sided by discouragement. Suddenly there is a “down” day, a little loss of vision, a staff that didn’t work out according to plan, a building plan that didn’t work out, and suddenly we find ourselves discouraged and wondering if we can go on.

Many great women and men of God have had severe bouts with discouragement and 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 and ended up in this situation: “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.’” (1 Kings 19:4)

I’ve always found it humorous that he could stand strong against 400 prophets of Baal, but couldn’t handle one mean woman. Now that is serious discouragement from a great man of God. It took the intervention of the Lord Himself to bring Elijah out of his depression. You may not have sat under a tree with a desire to die, but discouragement can hit us all. The great word of God to the church in this case is that we are called to be an encouragement to one another. We are to build one another up in our faith. Faith’s gatherings need to be times of great encouragement and joy. This needs to be a church that is obviously a place of love and support and encouragement; where the enemy’s plans have been thwarted.

There is an old story about discouragement 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, and there were a lot of treacherous instruments: hatred, envy, jealousy, deceit, pride, lying, and so on. Lying apart from the rest of the Devil’s tools was a harmless-looking tool, worn more than any of the others and 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 and 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 is of the enemy, we can begin to counter it using the weapons of our warfare found in Ephesians 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.


3. Satan Wants To Destroy the Church Through DIVISION

I really am convinced that the devil is trying to plant his seeds of destruction in your life and in mine, seeds of:  Doubt – to make you question God’s Word and His goodness and His Will.

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

and Division – so that the church will never be the mighty army that God desires

One of the most effective strategies of Satan has been to bring about division in the church, the body of Christ. It makes sense that the 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 of Gethsemane? Of course, the one we remember the best is when 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.” But He also prayed for His disciples, the apostles He was leaving behind. Just summarizing His prayer in my own words, He asked God to watch over them, to protect them, and to help them do the work that He was leaving them behind to do.

Then He prayed for us. Listen to His prayer, “Neither do I pray for these alone,” (That’s the apostles) “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.” John 17:20-21 KJV

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 and love of God. And the devil is doing all he can to destroy that testimony.

I honestly believe with all my heart that the price we’re paying for a divided Christianity – for so many different denominations and groups – is an unbelieving world. People are looking around and saying, “With so many churches, I just don’t know who or what to believe.” No wonder that Christ’s last prayer for us was that we might be one; united in soul and spirit with each other and with God, so that the world might believe.

But it is not just the worldwide church that the devil seeks to divide. He’s just as interested in dividing and conquering the local church, 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 and our enemy, the devil, is always involved. But the victory belongs to the Lord. And I’m convinced that our best defense against the devil and his schemes is a congregation united in prayer and with an overwhelming love and commitment to each other and to Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Lord.

Kay Poe and Esther Kim grew up as best friends and fierce competitors. Their sport was Tae Kwon Do, a form of martial arts that was featured for the first time in the 2000 Sydney Olympics. As Kay and 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 to be combined, so in the pre-Olympic trials they would probably have to meet each other in head to head competition, and 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. If that had been her final match of the tournament she would have had plenty of time to recover before the Olympics. But it wasn’t her final match. She still had one more match to win to gain the championship that day and that one was against her friend, Esther Kim.

Esther had watched Kay’s match and saw the coach carrying Kay to the dressing room. It was obvious that the outcome of the final match was a no-brainer. All Esther had to do was show up, and she was on her way to the Olympics. Her injured friend didn’t have a chance. Esther knew that she, not Kay, would be going to the Olympics.

But in a moment of incredible love and sacrifice, Esther decided to bow out of the final match and 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. “Don’t you dare argue with me about this,” Esther told her. They held each other and cried. “Please don’t think I’m throwing my dreams away,” Esther said, “I’m not. I’m putting my dreams in you.”

Esther signed the scorecard, withdrawing from the match. Then the two friends had to bow to each other on the mat to make it official. 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 Kay was the winner. Then the women locked arms, sobbing.

As they slowly walked off the mat together, the Tae Kwon Do officials stood and bowed while fans applauded them both. Esther later told the stunned reporters, “There’s more than one way to be a champion.”

Did you know that there is someone who gave himself up for you, so that you could be a champion in this life? As a matter of fact He died so that you can have victory over sin and death. Would you like to receive that gift today?

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