Who Is Your Enemy?

Jim Clements · Tidal Church Moncton · February 27, 2022 · United We Stand series

Jim Clements teaches from John 8:44, 1 Peter 5:8 and Genesis 1 that people are not our enemy, Satan is. He names the enemy's tactics and reminds us we are created, trusted and loved by God, so we answer hurt with grace and forgiveness.

More from Jim Clements · The United We Stand series

Topics: Faith, Forgiveness, Identity, Relationships

Transcript

[0:00] Today I'm gonna be talking about who the real enemy is. And sometimes we get confused on who that enemy can be. And one time when I was playing college hockey, we were in a game and, like it or not, everyone that was on the ice, a fight happened to break out. Doesn't happen in hockey often, right? I happened to be on the ice when it happened. And everybody matches up with everybody. And as I turned to look for my guy, and I reached out to grab the sweater, all I could see in front of me was the crest of his jersey. And I just went like this.

[0:48] He was a big boy, about six-four, six-five, a little bit bigger than me. Put some skates on him, he gets to a pretty good height. And I hung on and wailed away while he wailed away, the two of us going at it, till the linesman finally got in there long after to break it all up. Thought he was my enemy. At the end of the game, we're getting ready to get on the bus, and I see him coming across the lobby of the arena. I dropped my bag, I got ready, and he came over and he said, "Can I shake your hand?" And I was like, "What?" He goes, "Can I shake your hand?" He said, "When you turned and saw who I was," he said, "most people just grab on to the sweater and pull in." He said, "But you didn't, you stood there toe to toe fighting me, because we were enemies."

[1:35] And he said, "I just wanna thank you for the courage you showed." Right? I thought the guy was my enemy. Sometimes we get confused on who the enemy is. And we see a whole other side, because sometimes we think of ourselves, we're our own worst enemy. How many times have you heard that? We're our own worst enemy. Or maybe we think that others are the enemy. That's not true either. There's only one true and real enemy, and that's Satan. And he manipulates and uses the things for himself. Satan is the true enemy.

[2:22] Let me share with you what some of his tactics are. Number one is he lies to us through the use of words. You know, you think back to Adam and Eve, and what did he say to them? "Did God say you shall not eat of any tree?" Huh. Then he goes on and says, "Surely you will not die." Twist just a little bit, because the lies are for his good. As much as we may think that it's gonna benefit us over somebody else, they're really all for his good. He causes us, through the lies of words, to question the intent, just a little.

[3:11] Moves it just enough that we may then look at somebody else and think they're the enemy. This is the one I love. Temptation, false promises. For me, this is one of those things when I think, okay, if you ever thought or didn't know anything about Satan, when he tempts Jesus, like there's nothing, my mom would be mad if I said there's nothing that makes him more look like an idiot than that. "All this could be yours." Well, guess what? It already is all his, right? He tempts us. He wants us, through temptation, to abandon the obedience that we have learned, that God has taught us, that we live as a life of believers in the obedience of God for our life.

[4:03] He tempts us to move us out of that obedience. And he takes us on a journey then. When you step outside the obedience that God's got for you, then you're on a journey following that temptation, following what Satan has laid out before you. And when the time comes that somebody helps you break that journey, you look up and he's gone and you're probably standing by yourself because he doesn't care. He lies, he tempts us. John 8:44 says, "When he lies, he speaks his native tongue, for he is a liar. He is the father of lies."

[4:52] Number three is he chokes our faith. He steals the word away from us. I don't know about you, but I think about the time when I gave my life to Christ. Mark 4:15 says, "Some people are like seeds along the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them." And when I gave my life to Christ, he was just there to chop the legs right up from underneath me right away. How many of you had that experience? You make the decision that you're gonna go a certain way and then within, like, minutes, hours, like really close to it, now all of a sudden you're in the middle of a struggle, fighting for what you've now made a decision on to believe.

[5:46] And it couldn't even come from, like, peer pressure or friends, like you decide, "I'm gonna make this change in my life," your phone rings, "Hey, how would you like to come do what you just decided you're not gonna do anymore?" It happens, or the one that he uses so much is the recall, right? He chokes your faith by trying to remind you of the sins that are in your past. But the King that we serve says that those sins are remembered no more once He forgives us of it. But he brings back recall each time when he wants to choke our faith out. He's a murderer, he destroys all that you are.

[6:33] John 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full." Satan is somebody who makes you eternally miserable, and so if you can think about that, people are not the enemy, he is, and we can all think of people in our lives that seem like life is just bad for them, right? They're just eternally miserable, and misery loves company, as we say. But if you take that and look and just say Satan has been hammering and hammering and hammering them every day, wouldn't you be miserable?

[7:23] It gives us a different perspective when we start to look at people and say they're not the enemy, for some reason they've succumbed to what the enemy does, and it comes out in this form. Just a constant hammering. He's an accuser of believers, and his accusations never stop. If you remember in the book of Job, Job 1:11, he says to God, stretch out Your hand and touch all that they have, and they will curse Your faith. And then he says in there, he says, they don't really love You, they love Your benefits. Their faith isn't real. He's even then trying to be the accuser in front of God of who his believers are.

[8:13] They didn't get the benefits they got, God, they would never follow You. Their faith's not that real. How many times have you heard that in your own following of Christ? God's not really real. Yeah, things are going good for you right now, but just wait. He's the accuser to believers. But the one thing I take from the book of Job when he comes in there is he has to submit to God. It says God called him to the throne room. He couldn't do anything to Job without God's permission to do, to prove the faith and how strong it was. There are times that we allow him to influence us, to think about others as the enemy when it is truly him.

[9:03] It is truly him. As hard as that is, and I know all of us, including myself, have had certain hurts by people we love or people we know, but it is the enemy at work within that person that comes towards us. He is trying to take us out. He blinds us with our sight. 2 Corinthians 4:4, the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ. Satan hides the truth. He hides the truth. He hides the treasure of the gospel. He allows us to see facts and proof, but then he takes away the preciousness of the gospel that we have. He's continuously putting us in blind spots by experiences and things that we may say or others may say to us, and he wants us to not see the truth.

[10:03] This one I've experienced with some friends. He isolates us, cuts us off to kill. He removes us from our community. He removes us from our church. He removes us from our friend group. He removes us, he removes us, he removes us, and pretty soon we're all on our own. Matthew 7:15, Jesus says they will be like wolves in sheep's clothing. And slowly and slowly we find ourselves by ourselves. As a pastor I've had people say many times to me, I'm just gonna take a break from church. I'm gonna take a break from my small group.

[10:50] I'm gonna take a break from my friend group. That's an enemy just moving you off from your support so he can isolate you. And once he isolates you, he's gonna kill you. That's his tactic. I mean, I'm an animal lover of the show on TV. You don't have to watch long when they come and they separate the feed off from the pack. They don't concentrate on the rest, they're all going this way. They're concentrating on the one. You think through your life and experiences and I've had to walk this with families where all of a sudden they separate off a dad. A dad may have a sin, a mom may have a sin in their life and they separate them off because if they can destroy one, he can destroy the whole family.

[11:42] And that's his tactics, his isolation. Without God's gift of discernment by us spending time with Him, our love will be challenged into questionable actions and words because he will twist it and we've gotta know that when we're gonna say we're gonna do something, that we have discernment that it is from God. Philippians 1:9, and this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and in depth of insight. God wants us to have that gift of discernment that comes from the Holy Spirit that just tells us when it's of Him and when it's Satan.

[12:29] Satan has no interest in anything other than causing division, keeping us separated from God, pushing fear and pushing hate. 1 Peter 5:8-9 says, be alert and sober of mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of suffering. Are there gonna be situations that people are gonna hurt you? They're gonna do things, there's circumstances, we all make decisions?

[13:15] Absolutely. Sometimes people hurt themselves and not just other people. But the consequences of decisions when we're not following God and we're allowing the enemy the influence into our life is that consequences come of it. It doesn't release us from the responsibility or the people of the responsibility of their actions. But we've gotta realize that it's an enemy at work. There's a saying I heard a while ago that's really helped me to not take offense to very much stuff. And it was hurting people hurt people. If you go into any relationship, you go into any connection, and hurting people are involved, and you go in thinking everything's gonna be rosy and they're never gonna hurt you, hurting people hurt people.

[14:14] Don't take it personal. It is the enemy at work within a life that is broken, that you and me as believers are trying to show them the light of Jesus Christ, so that they can find a way, so their hurts can be removed, the lies can be removed, the isolation can be removed, and their faith can be born new and maybe new again for them. It helps a lot when you look at somebody that you know is hurting and not set an expectation for them that's on your life but for them. Let's answer the question, who am I? Who are you? One of the questions I ask when I'm interviewing is, like, everybody hates it.

[15:01] It's the worst kind of question that you can get in the first question. I do it because of fun. I watch them squirm a little. It's like, hey, take the first five minutes and tell me about yourself that's not shown in your resume. You'd be surprised how hard it is for somebody to take five minutes and talk about themselves. And I've met some of you and you could probably do 15 minutes. But five minutes is hard for most people. And you know, of all the interviews I've done in my entire business and ministry career, I have never, and I say this with certainty, never had anyone ever say to me, I'm a follower of Jesus Christ and His teachings as the first thing.

[15:50] I'm not saying you should do that. It might cost you the job. But what kind of world would it be if you started off in an interview or a beginning relationship and you go, I just wanna know that I'm a follower of Christ and His teachings. And I can do this and I'm this and I play this and I do this and all that. Like, what would be if we did it in the priority of our life like that? Who are we? We're created by God in His image. Genesis 1:26, it says, then God said, let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness. The plural in there is the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. So we're created in the image of God.

[16:35] We're created with each one of those things inside of us. This is how much of who we are. We are created in that image. That's an incredible gift that we have. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit that makes them up is made up inside of each one of us. And so when we say we wanna be more Christ -like, we wanna be more Father-like. We wanna be more Holy Spirit-like. We wanna be not just Christ, right? We wanna be more and more of that in all of our relationships in life. Excuse me, sorry. Who else are we? I love these, we're trusted. This is who we are, we're trusted by God.

[17:21] It goes on in the Scripture and says, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all creatures that move along the ground. So God created mankind in His own image. In the image of God, He created them, male and female, He created them. God trusts us. Every opportunity that you get to share your faith or to share Scripture or to pray with somebody, He trusts you because it's His creation. He trusts you, He gave His entire creation to us. That's who we are. It's shared ownership.

[18:08] He didn't say, no, you're just gonna live here, don't touch anything, don't do anything. He actively made us part owners of creation, each one of us, that's who we are. That's who we are, we're one of the owners of everything you see that you just scratch your head about sometimes, and you go, that's incredible. And we're the caretakers of it. And when we think about who the real enemy is, we're the caretakers then of those that don't know Christ. They're part of creation. So if we're the caretakers for them also, we have to help them in the journey that they need to discover who Christ is in their life.

[18:54] Who are we? We're loved by God, John 3:16. For God so loved the world He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. He gave us His one and only Son. God was with us in the garden. When He created mankind, He wanted to be in relationship. He sent Jesus, He could have sent Jesus in any form He wanted, but He sent Him in the form of man and human. And He walked amongst us again in the form of Jesus in relationship with us in human form.

[19:43] But He did it because He loved us. And He wanted to defeat death, that is the enemy's tool that destroys us forever. And when Jesus died on a cross, He put everyone's name on the list to receive. Did Jesus, who are we? Jesus died for everyone. 1 John 2:2, He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the world. Jesus died for everyone. Whoever cut you off driving in this morning, He died for that person. Whoever ticked you off in the grocery store or wherever, He died for that person.

[20:30] He died for whatever person posted on Facebook that you didn't like, and they had all kinds of, like, He died for that person. He died for all those people. The difference is the choice is to receive salvation. And that's where we come in. As part owners of creation is to help people find salvation in their lives and accept Jesus as their Savior. Who are we? He wants to spend eternity with us. John 14:2-3. "My Father's house has many rooms. If that were not so, what I've told you, I'm going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you with Me, that you also may be where I am."

[21:23] Kind of like a parent saving up for a college fund, right? I go to prepare a place for you so that we can be together forever. He's thinking of us. That's who we are. We are the future and in a life with God. It's kind of like when my kids adulted and moved out on their own, right? There was something that Gisèle and I said to both of them when they left. And that is, you can always come home. No matter what happens, no matter how hard the situation is, no matter what you find yourself in, it's one phone call and you can always come home. God says, "I go to prepare a place for you."

[22:10] You're gonna be on earth, you're gonna live the life. I wanna be in relationship with you. I want you to love other people. I want you to care for other people. I want you to share your story. I want you to lead other people to Christ and help them find their way. And when you're ready, you can come home. Because that's who we are. So when we look at all that, we realize the enemy is really at work in the lives of so many other people. We gotta think about ourselves. What are we doing? If we do a self evaluation, how do we feel about when we're on social media? As humans, we can be really clever in our words. We post stuff or say stuff, but man, we can be really foolish at some times too, right?

[22:59] Can we all agree to that? There are things to protect the innocent. I have seen things posted by believers that I know, that profess to know Jesus, that I go, "I cannot believe they just put that on the internet forever." And then I watch people who are unbelievers not call them out on their comment, but call them out on being a believer. Like, "I thought you professed to be a believer and go to church and all." And you know what happens? Did all the dots all connect back to Moncton Wesleyan? Not "Don't worry about Moncton Wesleyan," back to God. And then it just disappears. It's poof, it's gone in a minute. It's amazing how much courage someone can get up by just typing it in a computer and going post and not realize the ramifications that happen on the other end when someone reads that, as far as what happens to your testimony and your story as a follower of Christ.

[23:57] People deserve grace. People deserve forgiveness. We've all received forgiveness. We've all received grace. And in those moments and times, we just need to check ourselves and ask. Remember back, the enemy manipulates? Did we read that in a way that he just twisted it enough in our brains and how we read it and what's going on that now I just became a pawn of the enemy? We gotta ask ourselves those questions. Gossip. Matthew 18 says you got a problem with your brother, take it up with your brother. But yet gossip still seems to run rampant. People deserve grace, forgiveness, reconciliation.

[24:46] People deserve to be honestly confronted. One of my previous context, I happened to be coming down, it was a two-story building and I happened to be coming down the stairs, it was a group of parents, story. Parents that's standing there and they were all talking, and they saw me coming and they said, "There's Pastor Jim, let's ask him." I'll change the names and protect the innocent. And they said, "We were just talking about why Pastor Frank is doing this in youth ministry and we can't figure out why he's doing it." My response to them was, "Did you ask Pastor Frank?"

[25:33] They all looked at each other, looked at me, and said, "Let me ask it differently. Did you ask Pastor Frank before you all decide to stand here and gossip about the situation so that the enemy can use you in division?" I got zero response. I looked at them and I said, "I think you all know what you should do," and I walked away. See, the enemy uses things like this that cause these divisions. Our fight is not with other people, our fight is with the enemy. Our fight is with the enemy. Forgiveness in Matthew 18:35 it says forgiveness is unconditional, it's not optional. Jesus forgave us, we've got to forgive. You don't get to pick and choose.

[26:20] As part of creation, as part of how God's created us, as part of us being followers of Christ, we don't get to pick and choose. Forgiveness isn't optional. Three are intent, it's a heart issue. Sometimes we have to ask ourself, is it a win at all costs? And it doesn't matter what the right outcome is as long as I win. See, in those situations, we think about, you hear me, crazy stuff like, that's gonna be funny for a second, like, you know, potato chips, right? It's a vegetable, right? So I'm eating my veggies, right? Do we really want to go there?

[27:06] Like, what's the intent of my heart? My heart is I should be eating better, not potato chips. Even though it's made from potatoes, it doesn't count. It's not a veggie. See, what comes into play here, and listen to this, This is what, if you take nothing, take this: Do we put our personal preferences over kingdom preferences? If we can answer that question each and every time before we say or do anything, am I putting my personal preference in front of kingdom preference? Because I don't know about you, I wouldn't. That's saying I'm higher up than God is. And I'm not willing to stand next to you when you say that. I got a simple three questions for you.

[27:55] Before you do say, post, write, whatever you want to call it, do, ask yourself these three questions. Is what I'm about to say or do glorify God? Does it bring glory to God? Number two, does it move others who are unbelievers one step closer to finding Jesus? And finally, does it positively impact my influence to leading people to Christ? Before you do or say anything, ask yourself those questions. You know what? Sometimes people make awful choices and hurting people hurt people.

[28:43] And sometimes that person is us, whether we want to believe it or not. Beating people up and calling them or yourself a loser won't help. And neither will excusing behavior or pretending that you or they are helpless and had no choice. It's the enemy at work. We are all created by Him, trusted by Him, loved by Him. He died for all and wants eternity with all. But remember in Psalm 143:3 it says, the enemy pursues me, he crushes me to the ground. Pursue, pursue. He is relentless. He pursues, he pursues. He's not gonna give up. You start falling and crying. He's gonna pursue, he's gonna pursue.

[29:29] He's gonna keep chasing after you. But we're gonna reverse the pursuit. I wanna show you how words can be changed to read something differently one way and another way. And this is what the enemy does just in everyday life. This is done intentionally. It's referred to as a reverse poem. And I wrote this through. And so I'm gonna read it to you at this point in time. I am bound by chains. Don't tell me anything different that I'm a child of the King. Because when each day ends, I dislike who I am more and more.

[30:17] And I'm not going to convince myself by uttering that there is a soul within me that counts. So you can be sure I will tell myself that I'm lost, not worthy, and the enemy's pawn. And there is nothing in Scripture making me believe I matter to the King of kings. Because as time passes, I am not His child. And I am not able to comprehend that freedom is from Him for me. Because when I consider who I am, am I the enemy people think? Words, so harsh, so negative. Reverse the pursuit. Am I the enemy people think?

[31:03] Because when I consider who I am, freedom is from Him for me. And I am not able to comprehend that I'm not His child. Because as time passes, I matter to the King of kings. And there is nothing in Scripture making me believe that I am lost, that I'm not worthy, and I am the enemy's pawn. So you can be sure I will tell myself that there is a soul within me that counts. And I'm not going to convince myself by uttering, I dislike who I am more and more. Because when each day ends, I am a child of the King. So don't tell me anything different. I am bound by chains. That's the difference.

[31:53] In the end, Satan's the loser. Hate to ruin the story or movie for you. Revelation 20:9-10, they marched across the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of God's people, the city He loves, but fire came down from the heavens and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beasts and the false prophets had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night, forever and ever. He is the biggest loser of all. But I wanna challenge you because as we go through life, the enemy is gonna attack us.

[32:44] He's going to give us chains that we're gonna pick up and they're gonna attach to us. And it's gonna be a struggle. But eventually, we kinda get used to it. And we walk through life, allowing him to attach in simple ways that makes no sense. And then we become numb to it and we're used to it and we keep lugging them around until the chains get bigger and heavier. And all of a sudden, now we're way down. We can't do this.

[33:32] God takes the impossible and says, I'm possible through it all. The chains are gone. We are no longer a pawn of the enemy. We are no longer slaves. Whatever the chain is, whether it's social media that causes you to fall, whether it's a relationship of somebody that's offended you, it's time to let the chains go and not let him hold you anymore. Satan uses fear. God uses faith. Satan uses lies. God uses truth. Satan tempts. God strengthens.

[34:19] Satan destroys. God restores. Satan kills and God gives life. Satan isolates and God includes. Satan blinds and God gives sight. Satan offends, but God soothes the soul that's missing. Today, don't let the enemy allow you to be his pawn.