Oh, verse number 8, where the Bible reads,
Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil,
has a roaring lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,
whom resist steadfast in the faith,
knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
Now turn, if you would, to Luke chapter 22.
Luke chapter number 22.
And while you're turning there, let me give you some interesting numbers from the Bible.
The word Satan, the name Satan, is mentioned actually in the Bible 56 times.
The devil is mentioned 117 times.
And dragon or serpent is mentioned 88 times.
So we have hundreds of times in the Bible. Isn't that staggering?
Hundreds of times the Bible tells us about the devil.
He warns us of Satan, the devil, the serpent, the dragon, all these different names that he's called.
And so tonight I want to warn you about the devil tonight.
And the title of my sermon is this, Satan Has Desired to Have You.
And that's what Jesus Christ told Peter in Luke 22, if you would.
Look at verse number 31.
It says, And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold,
Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat.
But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.
When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
And he said unto him, Lord, I'm ready to go with thee, both into prison and to death.
And he said, I tell thee, Peter, that cock shall not crow this day,
before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me.
Now, the thing that I want to start out by pointing out is that it says here,
Satan has desired to have you.
Now, some people are not aware of the fact that in the King's English here,
when we're reading the Bible, there's a difference between thee and you.
Okay? And that difference is the difference between singular and plural.
Whenever the Bible says thee or thou or thy, it's always speaking to one person.
It's a singular word.
And whenever it says you, ye, your, yourselves, it's always plural.
And so, just as in Spanish, there's a difference between the two and vosotros.
It's the same thing in this older form of English,
that when it's thou, it's one person, and when it's ye, it's plural.
So, notice here, in these new versions, you know, the New King James and the NIV,
you know, aside from just perverting and corrupting God's Word on a whole lot of different levels,
they also eliminate the difference between singular and plural.
And therefore, you lose some of the meaning,
because in this passage, for example, it's important, because in verse 31,
it says, And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan had desired to have you.
So, is he just saying he's desired to have Simon?
No. He's saying Satan has desired to have all the disciples that he's speaking to.
So, it's plural, that he may sift you as we. He's after all of them.
But he says, But I have prayed for thee.
Now, he's talking specifically to Peter, saying, I've prayed for thee, Peter,
and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
So, you see there that it matters whether it's thee or you, because it's two different groups.
One's just Peter, and one's the whole group.
But you see, Jesus Christ is warning the disciples that Satan has desired to have them,
that Satan is out to get them.
Now, I gave you those statistics about how many times the Bible mentions Satan,
but what about the fact that when Jesus Christ is on the throne up in heaven,
and God the Father is up on his throne,
the Bible says that he was surrounded by a host of angels,
and the number of those angels was 10,000 times 10,000,
which is 100 million, and thousands of thousands.
So, we're looking at 102 million plus.
Well, if you remember, the dragon took the third part of the angels with him, one third.
So, if he took one third of the angels with him, what's one third of 102 million?
34 million.
And so, therefore, the devil has a mighty army.
Okay, so he's not just after you as one person,
but he has this mighty army of 34 million plus, probably, devils in his army,
and he is out to get you.
His goal is to destroy you.
You are his enemy.
The first verse we read said,
Your adversary, the devil, walketh about as a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour.
He is our enemy.
We are his enemy.
He is out to destroy us.
It is his goal to target those that are serving God the most,
and to bring them down, and to destroy them.
That's why it's mentioned so many hundreds of times.
Look, if you would, at 2 Corinthians, chapter number 2.
While you're turning there, I'll read you just a short little verse.
Ephesians 4-27, just a short verse.
Neither give place to the devil.
Now, if you remember, it said,
The devils walk about as a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour.
He's looking for the one that he's able to devour.
He's looking for the one that's weak.
He's looking for the one that's a little backslid.
He's looking for the one that's kind of hating spiritually,
kind of drifting,
because that's going to be the target that he can win.
The Bible says if we resist the devil, he'll flee from us.
But he's looking for that one that he can defeat.
He's looking for that one that's a little bit backslidden,
that's starting to fade a little bit,
that's not reading the Bible like they should,
that's starting to miss a lot of church.
That's the one he wants to devour.
We don't want to give place to the devil, Ephesians 4-27.
But look at 2 Corinthians 2-11.
It says,
Blessed Satan should give an advantage of us,
for we are not ignorant of his devices.
God has warned us of the devices that he will use,
and so it shouldn't catch us by surprise when the devil attacks,
because we know he's coming after us.
Look at chapter 11.
2 Corinthians 11 verse 13.
This is a warning by Paul of these false prophets,
false teachers,
and people that are pretending to be good people,
pretending to be righteous people,
but they're actually the workers of Satan.
Look at 2 Corinthians 11-13.
For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers,
transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ,
and no marvel.
For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also,
notice the word ministers,
if his ministers also be transformed
as the ministers of righteousness,
whose end shall be according to their works.
You see,
the devil has devices that are unknown to the world.
I mean, the world looks at the devil,
they think of a guy with horns,
and a pitchfork,
and they think of Porky Pig,
you know, down in hell,
laughing and ruling and reigning in hell.
You know, the devil's not in hell,
the devil's not reigning in hell.
The devil walked at the bow on this earth,
seeking whom he may devour.
The devil goes back and forth between heaven and earth,
going up and down in it,
accusing the brethren unto Jesus Christ,
going to the churches of this world,
and basically trying to devour those who are doing right,
and transforming himself into an angel of light,
and his ministers into the ministers of light.
He is the king of false religion.
He's the king of false prophets and false Christianity.
You know, I was talking to an Islamic man
when I was at a soul wedding this week,
and this Islamic man basically was, you know,
trying to tell us, you know,
why he was a Muslim and so forth,
because I was giving him the gospel,
and I got through the whole gospel
with him, but he did not get saved.
But I explained to him, I said,
you know, this angel that appeared unto Muhammad
was really just the devil.
You know, I explained that to him,
how the devil is transformed.
And the same thing with Joseph Smith.
This Moroni or whatever angel appeared unto him,
it was just Satan, or one of Satan's devils
that appeared unto these men.
And I showed him in Galatians 1,
where it said,
Though we or an angel from heaven
preach any other gospel unto you,
let him be accursed.
Because he said,
even if an angel comes from heaven
and preaches something different
than what's in this book,
it's a lie.
And so we ought to believe the Bible
over anything else.
Believe God's word,
not some kind of an appearance,
or of an angel, or some kind of it,
because even the devil is transformed
to an angel of light,
and his ministers are transformed
unto ministers of light.
So the devil is not always going to come at you
in a form that you're going to expect.
It's not going to be obvious.
Sometimes he'll come in a way
where he seems like he's your friend,
he seems like he's giving you good advice,
he seems like he's helping you,
he seems like a righteous person,
but he's a deceitful worker.
So do not be fooled by him.
Look at Ephesians chapter 6.
Ephesians chapter number 6.
It says in Ephesians 6,
and this is a famous passage of course,
verse number 10,
Finally, my brethren,
be strong in the Lord
and in the power of his might.
Put on the whole armor of God,
that you may be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil.
So he's saying that part of the reason why
you need to be on guard
and studying the Bible,
having your loins girt about with truth,
having on the breastplate of righteousness,
your feet shot with the preparation
of the gospel of peace,
above all taking the feet shield of faith,
wherewith you shall be able to quench
all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Why?
Because the devil is after you.
That's why.
That's why you need to be so prepared for it
and on your guard all the time.
It says in Psalm 11,
it says, what does it say in Psalm 11?
Psalm 11, maybe I'll turn there.
Psalm 11, it says,
I got it.
For lo, the wicked bend their bow.
They make ready the arrow upon the string
that they may privily shoot at
the upright in heart.
So the fiery darts of the wicked
are found in Psalm 11.
Same thing.
He's ready.
He's watching for the chink in the armor
so that he can fire at you
with one of those fiery darts.
And so it says,
put on the whole armor of God,
that you may be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil, verse 12.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities,
against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.
That's what we're up against.
I mean, this is a bigger battle
than just flesh and blood.
He's saying we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against something far more powerful,
the rulers of the darkness of this world,
principalities, powers.
He says we must be girded up
with the armor of the Lord.
He lists all the armor there.
And he says in verse 18,
Praying always with all prayer
and supplication in the Spirit,
and watching thereunto with all perseverance
and supplication for all saints.
We should be praying for the people in our church
that they not be attacked by the devil
because they are in the target
and the crosshairs of the devil.
You see, this church is a soul winning church.
This is a church that goes out and gets people saved.
This is a church that preaches hard on sin.
This is a church where people get saved,
people get baptized,
their lives are changed.
And let me tell you something,
the devil wants to attack our church
more than some dead, watered down church down the street.
Hey, he's after faithful word about this church.
And we ought to pray for all the saints in this church
that they be protected and delivered
from the evil that's out to get them.
It's true.
You see, our church is thriving.
Now, our church has gone through periods
where things are going great,
other times not going so good.
But the bottom line is
that whenever you're reading the Bible,
have you ever noticed how whenever there's a great victory,
many times it's often followed by a great defeat?
Like think about Jericho.
Remember when the walls of Jericho fell down?
That was great, right?
But then right after Jericho comes Ai
where they're defeated by their enemies,
they go running away scared and lose the battle.
You think about the great victory of Elijah
when he's on Mount Carmel
and he calls down the fire from God
when he challenges the prophets of Baal
and all 850 of the false prophets are slain by the sword
and basically the whole nation realizes
that the God of Elijah is the one true God.
But then right after that,
right after that persecution comes to Elijah,
Jezebel sends out her army to kill Elijah
and he goes running scared into the wilderness
and basically just asks God to just kill him
because he's so depressed he pretty much just gives up
and just wants to die.
You know, that was a defeated moment in the life of Elijah
but it followed his most powerful moment
when he called down fire from God
and killed 850 prophets of Baal.
Look at Noah's ark, you know,
great victory, right?
But then right after Noah gets off the ark, what happens?
You know, he gets drunk and then there's the debacle
with his son Ham who was basically a pervert.
And so we see all throughout the Bible
just over and over again, you know,
great victories are followed by great defeats
because the devil wants to attack someone
who's doing something great for God.
And so when a church is thriving,
when a church is winning souls,
when a church is growing,
when a church is doing well,
that's when the devil wants to come in and attack
and that's when you need to be on your ground.
And you know, I've noticed it in the last few months
when things are going great at our church,
I've noticed the devil attacking all kinds of people
in our church in all different ways.
It just seems like everybody's facing an uphill battle
right now in their personal life.
I mean, it just seems like it's one thing after another,
this person, that person.
And I'm here to warn you tonight
that you need to be sober
and be vigilant right now more than ever.
Don't be in the next casualty.
You know, don't be the one that falls out,
that quits, that gets deceived.
Hey, you are in the crosshairs of the devil, right?
And he's looking for you.
If you're the one who's fading right now spiritually,
he's looking for you.
If you're the one who's starting to get lax
on your Bible reading,
if you're the one who's starting to get a little worldly,
starting to go back to some of your old ways,
then you're the one I'm talking to tonight
because Satan has desired to have you.
You're the one that he's looking at and saying,
okay, here's the next one that I can remove.
Here's the next one that I can defeat
and get out of the fight and get out of the army.
Because I'm here to tell you tonight
that he would love to take some of our great warriors
out of this church and slow us down any way he can
and no tactic is beneath him.
And so you've got to be careful right now.
More than ever, you should be reading your Bible right now.
More than ever, you should be praying.
More than ever, you should be praying
for other people in the church
that God would keep them strong,
that God would build them up.
More than ever, you should be out-souling,
more than ever going full speed ahead serving God
because now is the time
that you're going to be under attack more than ever.
Look at Matthew chapter 16.
Matthew chapter number 16.
While you're turning there, I'll read you this.
James 4-7, submit yourselves therefore to God.
Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
You see, when you stand up to the devil,
he'll go running scared away from you.
He'll go leaving and he'll, you know,
he'll run away, he'll flee from you.
Fleeing means running scared.
I mean, that's what it means.
Fleeing isn't just running.
Fleeing is retreating.
It's running away.
And he is a roaring lion and he has great power.
You know, he's no match.
We're no match for him.
You know, he has great power.
He's wiser than Daniel.
He's a very powerful creature,
but if we resist him, he will flee from us.
He's not going to waste time on somebody
who is standing steadfast.
He said, resist him steadfast in the faith.
He's not going to waste his time.
You see, if you just made a decision in your heart,
you know what, I'm going to be in church no matter what,
like that's my priority.
That's the first thing in my life.
I'm going to seek first the kingdom of God,
like church is going to be the most important thing
on my schedule.
He's eventually going to get tired
of trying to get you out of church.
Because if you just always come
and when the tire goes flat, you fix it
and you come to church on the spare,
you know, if you always just find a way to make it,
pretty soon he's just going to say,
well, you know, I'm not going to waste my time
on somebody who's going to just keep resisting me.
I'd rather find the one where every little thing
will keep them out of church.
That's who I'm going to go after.
I'll give them the flat tire.
I'll bust out their window.
You know, I'll give them the call from friends
or call from relatives
because that will get them out of church.
But if some friend or relative calls past,
you know, he's still going to be there.
What's the point?
You see what I mean?
And so if you resist the devil, he'll flee from you.
Resist him steadfast in the faith.
Where did I return to?
Matthew 16, look at verse 18.
It says this in Matthew 16, 18.
And I say also unto thee,
that thou art Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
That sounds to me like the gates of hell
is what we're up against.
You know, it's not going to prevail against us, thank God.
Thank God, greater is he that is in us
than he that is in the world.
But that is what we're up against.
I mean, the devil's enemy is a fire-breathing,
fundamental Baptist, soul-winning,
King James-only church.
The devil doesn't care about some dead-as-a-doornail,
watered-down little social club
that calls itself a church
and doesn't win souls to Christ
and doesn't preach anything controversial
and just tells people what they want to hear
and tickles their ears.
He doesn't care.
They don't need his help.
They're already doing nothing.
But when he sees a church that is making waves,
when he sees a church where people are being saved,
when he sees a church
where people's lives are being transformed
and when they're putting a huge dent in this city
of preaching the Gospel to every creature,
that's the one he's going to go after,
that's the one he wants to attack,
and then he's going to look in that church
and find the ones who are doing the most
and try to destroy them
because he wants to stop the Gospel from going forward.
And let me tell you something,
he has succeeded many times throughout history.
He's destroyed many great churches.
He's destroyed many great people.
He has a method that works
because he's been doing it for thousands of years.
And so we need to be sober.
We need to be vigilant.
We need to be on our guard like never before
and realize that this could happen.
Now, I'll tell you right now,
in the history of our church,
the devil has attacked our church many times.
We've endured persecution in this church.
I mean, we've been persecuted in many different ways.
We've endured problems.
We've had all kinds of things.
We've had infiltrators.
We've had people literally come into our church
and their whole goal was just to come into our church,
pretend to be like us,
and their goal was to try to defeat us from the inside.
It's happened.
And they tried to go around and sow discord
and create factions between different groups of people,
and they tried to lie about us,
and they would take aside brand new visitors.
Like, brand new visitors would come to our church
and they would be really excited about it,
and they would get their phone number
and then call them and tell them
that our church was bad and everything.
They were just here on the inside.
On the outside, boy, the flattering lips.
They were, oh, we love this church.
Oh, we love Pastor Anderson.
But then, they would badmouth us
everywhere they went and lie about us.
I mean, when they were here,
it was like they would almost worship me
to the point where it was ridiculous,
where it was just like,
well, you know, I'm just the pastor of the church.
You know, relax.
But inwardly, they were cursing.
Inwardly, they were trying to destroy our church.
And eventually, were exposed as such.
You know, we've had that kind of attack on this church.
We've had attacks by all kinds of different means.
I mean, we've had attacks from the media.
You know, the media demonizing and attacking our church.
We've had a bunch of weirdos out in front of our church
trying to stop people from coming into the church before.
Who was here during those days?
A lot of hands go up, you know?
I don't even need to say anything else about that.
I mean, there were some weird people out there,
holding signs and homos and weirdos and everything.
You know what?
And it's always been, I've noticed this,
the biggest attack has always been
when things were going the best.
Have you noticed that?
I mean, those that have been with us for a while,
it seems like whenever the church was growing the most
is when all of a sudden these problems start cropping up
and all of a sudden this persecution starts to come
or all of a sudden people start to get backslidden
and start to fall apart.
You need to be able to recognize the time for what it is here.
You need to be able to look at the past
and the present and the future and see,
okay, this is the point that our church is at.
This is how good things are going.
This is where we're growing.
This is where people are being saved.
This is where we're moving full speed ahead
and just realize it for what it is when the attacks come.
You need to be able to recognize them.
And you need to do everything that you can
to protect yourself from the strife
and from the attacks that are going to come.
And it may have nothing to do with church.
It may just come in your own personal life.
You know, the Bible talks about the devil tempting people,
tempting people with the lust of the flesh.
He talks about in, I believe it's 1 Corinthians 7,
tempting people with the lust of the flesh
toward the opposite gender.
That's what Satan does.
It mentions Satan in 1 Corinthians 7, doing that very thing.
And you young men,
Satan would love right now to tempt you and allure you
with the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes
and the pride of life
to get you to go into that movie theater
and watch that skin flick.
You say, which one?
All of them.
You know what I mean?
Which one are you talking about?
You know, these movies are filled with fornication,
with adultery, with smut.
You know, I'm sick of it.
I'm sick of people defending the TV and Hollywood industry.
It's run by Satan, okay?
It's totally run by Satan.
Somebody today just told me,
they said, preach against this certain show.
You know, because I don't know what's on TV, thank God.
I don't watch the stupid thing.
They said, preach against this show.
I think it was called Modern Family.
It's like the top TV show right now
and it's a couple of homos raising a child.
And that's called Modern Family.
No, it should be called Wicked Family.
It should be called Disgusting Family.
It should be called Repulsive Family.
It should be called Sonomite Family.
It should have Modern Family, but that is modern.
That's the modern day we're living in.
Hey, don't let the devil fool you
for one second into thinking,
oh, I'll just let a little bit of Hollywood into my life.
Oh, I'll let a little bit
of the world's entertainment into my life.
Oh, I think I'll go back to some of the old music
that I got rid of a while back.
I think I'm just gonna, you know,
dust off those CDs and tune those things up.
Let me tell you something.
The devil would love to get you living
in the flesh right now
because that's when he can defeat you,
when you're not walking in the spirit,
when you're not clothed in the full armor of the Lord,
that's when he's gonna get you,
when you're not reading your Bible.
And let me ask you this,
member of Faith Award Baptist Church
in the summer or just coming into the fall of 2010,
how's your Bible reading doing right now?
I mean, I know our church is doing great.
I mean, we're knocking all kinds of doors.
I mean, we're getting all kinds of people saved,
but how are you doing?
You know, you look around, oh, the church is doing great,
but how are you personally doing right now?
Is your Bible reading the best that it's ever been?
Is your prayer the best it's ever been?
Is your soul winning the best it's ever been?
Is your walk with God 100% or are you starting to drift?
Are you starting to fade?
Because now is the time when more than ever
you need to be on guard.
It's true.
Anybody who's been in our church for a long time
knows the history and they can see how we go.
You know, life is like this, not even just a church.
Life goes through cycles.
And unfortunately, the prosperity of fools
will destroy them, the Bible says.
When things are going the best is the most dangerous time,
whether in your personal life or in the church's life,
because the prosperity of fools will destroy them.
Sometimes when things are going the worst,
you're running scared, you're reading the Bible,
you're praying, you're on guard,
you're looking out for yourself,
and then things are going good and you get comfortable,
you get lackadaisical,
and you drop your guard a little bit.
We need to be careful about the things
that we let into our mind.
We need to be careful not to let our walk with God slip away.
We need to be sober.
We need to be vigilant because He is after us, the devil.
Now many people today don't even believe in the devil.
They don't even believe the devil exists.
Or even Christians might believe in the devil,
but they don't really think much about him.
But yet, 200 and some mentions in the Bible.
Yet an army, 34 million strong.
Yet even Jesus Christ was faced with the devil.
Every single person in the Bible
was pretty much tempted in some way
or faced with the devil in their own personal life.
We don't know maybe all the details,
but he's out there
and he wants to sift you as wheat.
He wants to sift you and separate you from the group.
He wants to get you out.
He wants to take you out.
And you know, with Peter,
you know, Peter started to drift,
if you remember.
Peter was the one,
and if you're back in Luke 22,
if you want to turn back there real quick.
I'm almost done tonight,
but just a short sermon tonight,
but it's a short sermon,
but it's a necessary sermon
because you need this warning right now
because I'm just,
the more I talk to people in our church,
it just seems like I can see this happening.
You know, and we've had people,
we've had a few people quit the church
in the last few months, you know?
And again, interesting timing.
You know what I mean?
Things are going great.
Things are thriving.
And all of a sudden everybody,
you know, some people start bailing.
You know, it's like, well, whatever,
you know, go ahead and bail.
We were here before you were here
and we'll be here after you're gone, you know?
Because this church is found upon the rock of Jesus Christ.
It's not founded on anybody else.
It's not even founded on me, you know?
And it was here before you got here
and it'll be here after you're gone.
But I still love you.
I don't want you to be the casualty.
I don't want you to flop.
I don't want you to get out of the service of Christ.
And you know, it's funny
because the bottom line is this.
When you quit this church,
you're not hurting us.
You're hurting yourself
because we're still here.
You know what I mean?
We're still when it's old.
We're still hearing Bible preaching
that actually is biblical.
You know, we're the ones that are still here
enjoying the fellowship,
enjoying the singing.
Hey, I don't know about you
but I just love being in this church.
I just love being a part of it.
And you know, when somebody quits the church,
it's really just themself
that they're shortchanging.
They're the one who's missing out.
But in Luke 22 here,
it's interesting because it says in verse number...
31, of course, he warns Simon
that the devil's out to get them as a group.
But he says,
I've prayed for thee that thy faith fail not
and when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren.
You know, Peter did become a great leader,
a great encouragement to his other brethren,
you know, later on.
But look what it says in verse 33.
This is what Peter answered.
And he said unto him,
Lord, I am ready to go with thee
both into prison and to death.
And he said, I tell thee, Peter,
the cock shall not crow this day
before that thou shalt thrice deny
that thou knowest me.
So basically, Peter is saying,
look, I will not deny you.
The devil will not sift me as weak.
He cannot touch me because you know what?
I'm willing to go to prison.
I'm willing to die.
But yeah, Jesus said,
no, you're wrong, Peter.
No, you're wrong.
You will say today
that you don't even know me
before the day is even over
as far as the night is over,
you know, before the cock crows tomorrow morning,
you'll deny three times that you even know me.
And let me tell you something.
Let him that thinketh he standeth
take heed lest he fall.
You might be sitting there today saying,
oh, this message isn't for me.
You know, I am 100%,
I am just strong in the faith.
I would never quit this church.
I'll never quit soul winning.
I'll never, and you know,
one thing if people quit this church
and went to another,
you know, bible-believing church
of like faith and practice,
you know, I mean, okay, that's greater.
Sometimes people move away and whatever,
you know, and I'm not saying anything about that.
You know, of course, you know,
like faith and practice,
yeah, good luck, you know, for that.
But anyway, but the point is,
I mean, it's true.
But the point is though,
you know, when people quit on God
is the main thing, you know what I mean?
And they start to fade spiritually
and they're not winning souls like they should.
But you know what?
Sometimes it's the ones
who might talk the biggest, right?
It's the ones who think that they'll never,
and I believe that Peter was sincere here
when he said this.
I don't think he was just blowing smoke.
I think that he really believed
that he would have the guts
to stand up to anybody
and go to prison and go to death.
But you know what?
It came down to the point
where even before a young girl,
a young girl came to him and just said,
you were in the garden with him.
And he said,
no, I know not the man.
He couldn't even stand up to a young girl.
And you know, some people think
that they're tougher than they really are.
And sometimes those who think they're the toughest,
because I don't believe Peter
was just blowing off his mouth here.
Those who really think
they're the strongest in the faith
are sometimes the ones
that will buckle under pressure.
Because you know what?
I can honestly say this.
I've been attacked by the devil.
I know what it's like to suffer.
I know what it's like to be attacked.
I've been through some really hard things in my life
and some really bad times.
I've been through it, okay?
I've been through persecution.
I've been hated.
I've been threatened.
I've been attacked.
I've had my family in danger.
I'm not gonna go through a litany
of all the weird things
that have been mailed to me,
all the disgusting, filthy things,
all the violent death threats I've received.
I mean, on a daily basis,
for weeks on end,
all the horrible things,
the attacks on my business,
I mean, my whole business being destroyed,
that was a huge, successful business,
I mean, that was making all kinds of money.
I mean, I know what it is to be attacked.
And let me tell you something.
It's easy to say,
oh, I'll go to prison.
You know, it's easy to say,
oh, I'll be willing to die.
Oh, I'll stand up for anything.
But you know what?
It's another thing to stand in the face
of being hated.
It's another thing to stand
when your friends begin to turn their back on you.
It's another thing to stand
when preachers that you looked up to
and they're your heroes
and you grow up listening to preachers
tell you that you're an idiot,
you're a fool,
you're this, you're that,
you know, and you know you're standing on the truth.
Hey, it's another thing to go through it
than to just talk about it.
And so don't just stand there and say,
oh, I'm never going to buckle onto the pressure.
I'm never going to fail.
Well, you know what?
You may rue the day that you said those words
and you better just say,
you know what?
I'm going to take heed last fall.
I better make sure
and make myself a little bit stronger just in case
because maybe I'm not as strong as I think I am.
Maybe I need to do a little more Bible reading.
Maybe I need to memorize the Bible a little more.
Maybe I need to dig down
and get my root a little bit deeper in God's Word
because maybe I'm just not as tough as I thought I was.
You know, and that's where Peter was at here.
And Peter later became a great man of God.
But at this point in his life,
he thought he was better than he really was.
He thought he had more strength than he really did.
He thought he had the boldness,
but he did not have it.
And so what I'm trying to say tonight
is to stop and evaluate where you're at spiritually.
Because I'm afraid that some people in our church at this time
could be fading away a little bit spiritually.
You know, they could be just starting to just go through a phase
where maybe they're just getting a little bit back sledding
and maybe the excitement has worn off
or whatever it is about the Christian life.
And you know, we all go through phases like
where it's just not as fun anymore
or where we're just kind of coming to church out of character
and reading our Bible out of character.
We all go through our ups and downs in life.
Nobody's 100% all the time.
But we need to be steadfast and unmovable.
And we need to resist the devil steadfast in the faith.
And it starts with an awareness here.
Why do you think Jesus is even explaining this to him?
He's trying to give him an awareness here.
Look, the devil is out to get you.
You don't realize how powerful he is,
how smart he is,
the tools that he's going to use.
You need to be stronger, he said,
and you need to strengthen your brother
because he's out to get all of you.
And so I'll close the sermon by saying this.
At this time, September 2010,
you need to strengthen the inward man.
You need to dig deeper into your Bible.
You need to be in church more than ever.
You need to be in the house of God,
getting the strength, getting the preaching,
getting the encouragement.
You need to stand up tall
and be sober and be vigilant
and just realize the attacks that are coming,
the attacks that are on their way,
so that when they come,
you won't think it's some strange thing
concerning the fiery trial,
which is to try you, but you'll be ready for it.
And number three,
you need to pray for the people around you.
Now more than ever,
you need to think about the people that are in our church.
And even the people who've gone to our church for years,
they're not immune.
People, oh, they've been there for years.
That's Pastor Anderson's right-hand man.
You know, no one's immune, my friend.
Pastor Anderson himself is not even immune
to the devil's attack.
And I'm smart enough to know that.
And that's why I'm going to dig down deep.
And I want to be sober and vigilant
because none of us is above falling.
If King David can fall,
you know, anyone can fall.
And so I want you to make it a mission this week
because God commanded us to do it in Ephesians chapter 6.
He said,
Praying always with all prayer and supplication
and watching thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
And then Paul said,
And for me.
He said,
And I want you to pray for me.
He said,
I want you to pray for the saints around you.
And he said,
And for me,
that utterance may be given unto me,
that I may open my mouth boldly
to make known the mystery of the gospel,
for which I am an ambassador in bonds,
that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak.
He said,
Pray for me
and pray for your fellow believer
that we can stay strong in the Lord
and in the power of His might.
I challenge you this week
to just think through.
And you know,
you've been here.
You know the names.
You know the people of our church.
Think down the list
and pray for the people
that are your brothers and sisters in Christ in this church.
I mean,
don't you love your fellow brothers and sisters?
I mean,
I love the people of our church.
To me,
this is family.
I mean,
this is,
this is my brothers and sisters.
I mean,
I feel like Jesus said,
when they said,
you know,
thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to speak with thee.
And he answered seven of them that told him,
Who is my mother and who are my brethren?
And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples and said,
Behold,
my mother and sister and brethren,
for whosoever shall do the will of my Father,
which is in heaven,
the same as my brother and sister and mother.
And you know,
I'm not Jesus today,
but you know what?
I feel today like these are my brothers and sisters in Christ
and you ought to feel the same way.
Amen.
This is our family and we ought to pray down the list this week.
And I challenge you this week to pray down the list of everyone in this church
and just pray that God would strengthen them.
Starting with me,
starting with my family,
starting with my children,
you know,
and then to the most faithful members of our church that have been here the longest.
Pray for them because you know what?
Everyone goes through struggles.
Everyone is under attack.
Everyone goes through periods of ups and downs in season,
out of season.
And you know,
I come up here and you know,
I'll just be perfectly candid and honest with you right now.
You know,
right now I feel like I'm doing great spiritually,
you know,
but there have been times in the past where I didn't feel so great,
you know,
but I get up here by the pulpit,
of course,
you know,
I want to get up here and be the leader and exert power and authority and so forth
and not be up here saying,
Oh man,
I'm having a rough week.
You know,
you know what I mean?
I'm trying to put out a vibe here of leadership all the time,
you know,
even when I was going through some of my most horrific and trying times of pastoring this church,
you know,
I got up here and smiled and you know,
I kept on going,
you know,
and I put on a front that everything's okay because I don't want to be up here and whining or something.
You know,
what's the point of that,
right?
And you know,
I'll just tell you right now,
you know,
I'm doing great right now.
You know,
I feel I feel like I'm closer to God than I've ever been,
you know,
my spiritual life is doing great.
But let me tell you something.
None of us is immune from going through times where that is not the case,
right?
And I can tell you about times where I was starting to feel down,
just had to force myself to read the Bible,
force myself to preach because we all go through our ups and downs and you ought to pray for me,
pray for my family and pray for the people that are around you because I can tell you,
they may come to church and just like me,
they come to church and they yep,
let's go soloing.
Yeah,
you know,
yeah,
the Bible and preaching and singing songs,
but you know,
that doesn't mean that they're not going through difficult things in their life,
right?
You don't know what they're going through in their life,
the struggles,
the heartaches,
the pain of their life because I guarantee you that every person in this church has their own personal struggles and pain and trials that they're going through.
And so you ought to pray down the list that really every week,
but I want to challenge you,
especially this week.
Let's just take a week where we focus our prayer time and just pray for our fellow Christian and pray for the fellow Saints,
of our church,
just just pray down the list,
pray for man,
woman,
boy and girl in our church that God would strengthen them,
that God would bless them,
that God would help them to be in church where they need to be,
that God will help them to win souls,
that God will help them to be filled with the Spirit,
that God will keep them away from temptation.
Remember the Lord's Prayer,
lead us not into temptation,
deliver us from evil because it's out there and that ought to be our prayer this week for ourselves and for the pastor himself and
also just for your fellow believer,
your fellow saint that's in the pew with you,
as far as that word of prayer.
Father,
please help every single person who's here to take the warning and and God,
I thank you that things are going so well in our church and and and really I don't see any,
you know,
huge attack or anything like that on our church.
But Father,
I just,
I just know the pattern and so I pray that you would please just help us to be sober and vigilant,
like now more than ever to God,
strengthen us.
And God,
I pray that you just put a hedge around every single person in our church,
that you would just protect them from the fiery darts of the wicked,
that you would just lead us not into temptation as a church,
dear God.
Every single person here would be free from from the temptations and that the lust of the flesh,
that's bombarding us on every billboard and TV screen and and silver screen of the movie theater.
God help every single one of us to be careful
and to watch in prayer for one another,
dear God,
and help all of us to read our Bibles like never before to pray and to stand fast in the faith.
Thank you for the wonderful blessings of 2010,
dear God.
It's been a wonderful year and I pray you would just help us to finish strong as a church.
And in Jesus name,
we pray amen.