Satan's Greatest Weapon

Happy Sunday. Next week we will begin a study on spiritual disciplines. Today's sermon will set the table for that study and we'll see just why we need spiritual discipline in our lives. Let me start today with a story from Genesis.

Right before Eve was created, we see a moment between God and Adam. This is found in chapter 2. The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and to watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, "You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

If you eat its fruit, you are surely to die." Right after that, Eve was created. In chapter 2 of Genesis ends, as the third chapter begins, we meet the serpent, Satan himself, in the garden. He engages Eve about the forbidden tree and he plants seeds.

We find these sad words in verse six. The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it.

And then she gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it too. Adam and Eve had the whole world to enjoy. They had one job. Be fruitful and multiply.

Yet after the devil planted a seed in their minds, all they could think about was that tree. It's a good-looking tree. I want some of that fruit. I want it.

I want it. It's all they could think about. It dominated their thoughts. Satan, the great architect of distraction, misdirected them right out of God's perfect situation.

I think distraction is Satan's greatest weapon. In his great work, The Screw Tape Letters, CS Lewis writes letters from a demon named Screw Tape to a young apprentice demon named Wormwood. Listen to this advice to wreck a Christian's life. But do remember the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the enemy.

Now in this writing the enemy is God. Let me continue. But do remember the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the light and out into the nothing.

Murder is no better than playing cards. If playing cards could do the trick. Indeed, the safest road to hell is the gradual one. The gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signpost.

CS Lewis recognized that distraction is Satan's go-to weapon. We are easily distracted. I've done many funerals of people that were texting on their phones while they were driving. That distraction cost them their lives and these devices are with us all the time, ready to distract us.

Have you ever been praying and suddenly you're thinking about something from work, the grocery store, the latest news, your favorite team, where you left your keys, anything and everything but prayer. There are so many examples from scripture. I chose this story from Luke the 10th chapter. There we are told, "As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.

Her sister Mary sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what he taught." But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said,"Lord, doesn't it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me."

And the Lord said to her, "My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details. There's only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her." Let me read verse 40 again.

Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said,"Lord, doesn't it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me." Jesus said that Martha is distracted.

Some translations say cumbered. The original Greek word means to drag around. Martha had too much going on. Her plate was too full.

And it's interesting to me. Sometimes our distractions can be good things. Dinner's a good thing. Our phones can be a good thing and used for a lot of good, but they can also be distractions.

Good things can be distractions. What are your distractions? Are there people or places or things that you need to move away from? I don't know where this quote came from, but I've saved it for a long time.

It says, "For many of us, the great danger is not that we will renounce our faith. It is that we will become so distracted and rushed and preoccupied that we will settle for a mediocre version of it." I hope you're not distracted and that you have settled for a mediocre version of faith. I hope you'll join me in the weeks ahead as we look to battle the distractions and grow in Christ.

Pray with me. Lord, help us to seek you. And in doing that, put aside the things that distract us. Help us to take time every day to pray, to study, to know your word, to know you, to listen, to seek you.

And Father, help us to prioritize those times and have the discipline to grow. It's in the name of Jesus I pray. Amen. God bless.

I hope you have a wonderful week.