The Schemes of the Devil; But the Lord!

Volume 9 Issue 10

Greeting in His Name,

This article stems from a preaching series called A.C.T.S. - A Church To Serve this present age. I have had the wonderful opportunity to share these sermons so far: In Acts 1 the question was asked Can I Get a Witness? In Acts 2 we heard The Noise That Changed the World. In Acts 3 the Apostles challenged us to Give Them What You Have. And in Acts 4 we chimed off of the words of the late-great civil rights activists and Senator John Lewis, "get in good trouble-SAY SOMETHING," with the message Proclaim Jesus! Say Something. So my last message was in Acts 5 where I gleaned today's blog entitled The Schemes of the Devil; But The Lord. Hope you find some inspiration, conviction, and queries.

shalom and love,

heidi

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Some weeks ago a collaborative bunch of people gathered on Zoom to read through the entire bible. It was not until later when I talked with a fellow laborer that I saw she got what I got. She shared that it wasn’t until we got to Revelations that she saw all the hardship, pain, suffering and wandering from the old testament to the new - that in Revelations she heard the words NO MORE crying, NO MORE pain, NO MORE suffering. This promise is not for the faint at heart but for those who endure to the end. It is so important; as children of God, to focus our attention on the Word and prayer. You know why? Because, the schemes of the Devil. He comes to steal, kill, and destroy. (John 10:10) He desires to sift you as wheat. (Luke 22:31) He is a liar and the Father of lies. (John 8:44) But as believers and true followers of the King we can say, But the Lord!

The Devil wants you to steal but the Lord wants you to help Build Fellowship. Acts 5:1-16 (focus - vss. 3-4 NIV)

Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” The devil used Ananias and Sapphira. They allowed a spirit of pre-meditated dishonesty and greed to enter the fellowship. We know it entered the fellowship because at the end when Ananias and his wife were laid in their cold graves the scripture says great fear came upon the church. What we should realize is that even though Christ has triumphed it doesn’t mean the devil isn’t still able to do his dirty work. Just as Ananias and Sapphira was dishonest in their giving so we have believers doing the same thing... not realizing they are not stealing from the local church but God. REMEMBER! The devil wants you to steal but the Lord wants you to help build fellowship. In Malachi we are reminded that we rob the whole nation when we don’t walk in obedience in our giving. But that’s not my focus; my focus is on the interrupted fellowship. Yes Satan wants to hinder our fellowship, and yes - fellowship, in the way we saw it, seems to be a word that’s far from us right now. But in all reality we can still, in the midst of a pandemic, not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. We can still communicate, and express the love of a Savior through Facebook, Zoom, Periscope, Snapchat, YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, Tik-Tok, and Mr. President’s favorite – Twitter, and many other platforms that the first century church didn't have. We can still communicate to a dying world.

I often listen to In the Market with Janet Parshall who recently featured the Netflix release THE SOCIAL DILEMMA; a docu-drama. It's amazing that top techs who saw the meaningful side of the social platform were naive to the flip-side of the growing dangers that come with our dependence of social media. The behind the scene algorithms and calculations of our usage; where we are, what information we need - always having the information at our finger tips may cost us grave damage in the coming future. We can already see the decline in our need to fellowship because we are so centered on our in-my-own-world alone-ship. In Preaching Killer Sermons it is believed that this behavior can be damaging to the preacher because now we have to compete with the distraction of having the world at your finger tips. All I can say to that is instead of seeing it as a social dilemma; BUT THE LORD, see it as a social duty to help build Christ-like fellowship.

The Devil wants you to destroy but the Lord wants you to harness {make use of} Bold Discipleship. Acts 5:17 – 27 (focus - vss. 17-20a NIV)

Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the part of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. “Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people all about this new life.” At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people. The Devil meant for this to be a divide and conquer kind of situation. So it's important to understand the word harness. Harness in this context is to make use of every opportunity for discipleship. The devil thought that by incarcerating the Apostles he was putting a stop to or destroying the work of the master. But No! I’m reminded of a word that Prophet TB Joshua said, "if trouble couldn’t stop you while you were in your mother’s womb - you think trouble can stop you now?" No! The devil would like for all of us to be like the sad Sadducees – filled with jealousy, which hinders and destroys the work of discipleship but Jesus gave the commandment GO! and make disciples. And God doesn’t want us to do it in a spirit of fear or defeat but He desires that we boldly and bravely share our faith with a world that is in despair. Let us declare today over our congregations, over our places of fellowship and worship EACH ONE – REACH ONE! It is sad that we have denominational rifts and the world can't always see that we are His disciples by our love. But remember … the devil wants you to destroy, he wants you to stop, he wants you to make excuses, BUT THE LORD wants you to harness bold – brave discipleship. It starts with you. Hmm... When I think about it we are not trying to boost church membership but build Christ Kingdom.

The Devil wants you to kill but the Lord wants you to have a Well-Built Relationship. Acts 5:28-42 (focus - vss. 29-31 NIV)

Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings! The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. It's amazing the reactions that came after Peter said this, when they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. (vs. 33) When the true Gospel is preached in the power of the Spirit it convicts and enrages. It’s either going to draw you closer to God or drive you further away. The Lord does not want to see any perish but He wants all to come to repentance. Coming to repentance means you die to self and began that process of a well-built relationship. A builder who builds on sand will inevitably lose his foundation but one that is built on the ROCK – Christ will have a sure foundation; one that can withstand when the storms of life blow. So don’t be named among those who are Christ killers; but be one who lifts Christ up that He may be able to draw all men unto Himself. On this planet many know of Christ but far too many don't KNOW Christ. In all essence many are Christ Killers even today because we don't want to take the will of Christ as our own. We don't want to live holy lives. And we most definitely don't want to 'really' be our brothers keeper. It takes too much to do all that. But the only way to true relationship is through true follow-ship. The hmynist says, where He leads me I will follow, I'll go with Him, with Him, all the way.

Closing:

If you have noticed I have said the devil wants you to steal, he wants you to destroy, he wants you to kill because he knows that when we do this to each other we are failing our fellowship, destroying our discipleship and renouncing our relationship. The devil is looking to destroy you whether in your face or behind your back and please don't forget that he knows the word just as much as you maybe even more. But in verse 42 of chapter five, we find what I call A-MUST-DO; it says, they daily met in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach. Meaning people were always being covered by the Word. In our current condition; where every means of contact is available, missing church is not an option, missing bible study is not an option nor is missing prayer meeting an option; your source of contact is at your fingertips, always remember… The scheme of the devil is to steal, kill and destroy you but the Lord desires to give you life through fellowship, discipleship and relationship.

LIFE QUOTE

“He knows you by the name you earned."

-Rev. Dr. Aurelia Jones-Smith

Let Us Laugh!

There was a lady who went shopping and came home with some items of which her husband asked, "why did you buy them?" She in turn told him, "the devil made me do." He in turn asked her, "why didn't you tell the Devil to get behind you?" She further stated, "I did and he told me I looked good back there too."

(Tony Evans, [revised to fit])

Hope to see you Next Month

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