The Battle - Lies and the Devil

Hey everybody! Welcome to Prairie Lakes. Glad you’re here. We’re starting a new series this weekend—and we’ll get to that shortly. But before we do, let me just say this to you about our previous series, “We Don’t Go to Church Anymore:”

Thanks for engaging in that. It seems like it really struck a chord with a lot of people.

I know it wasn’t exactly a “feel good” kind of series that made everyone feel comfortable. But, just so you know:

I heard more stories from that series and about that series than most. Stories like:

“I shared that with my ______. And they watched it!”

Or, “I invited my _______ - and they came! Be praying for them.”

I had more authentic, heartfelt conversations with people about why they don’t go anymore, and thanks for actually being willing to talk about it in a way that didn’t judge me, or here’s where I’m stuck/struggling with, or here’s what my loved one struggling with when it comes to church… just heard and experienced more stories like those than I have in a long time.

And so: thanks. And continue to pray for those stories and those people. Thanks for living out our “No Matter” mission we’ve got here.

Series Intro

Hey - we’re gonna start a series this weekend that is admittedly very different from the one we were just in. The series is called “The Battle.” The Battle.

What kind of battle are we talking about? Well, a spiritual one. A spiritual battle.

Now, before your antennas go up any further—like, “A ‘spiritual’ battle? Are there some snakes that you’re gonna want me to handle here?” No; not like that kind of “spiritual” battle.

The spiritual battle we’ll be talking about is one that being fought for your soul, and even in your soul, on (3) different fronts:

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The Battle

Week 1: Lies

Week 2: Desires

Week 3: Society

Based on John Mark Comer’s book, “Live No Lies: Recognize and Resist the Three Enemies That Sabotage Your Peace”

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This was one of those books that I got into last summer and fall as I was recovering from heart surgery. During the last couple of weeks of my mandatory time off, I was trying to walk a little bit further every day, to the point where I was able to go a few miles an outing. And I was listening to his book as I went.

John Mark Comer is about my age, and was a pastor out in the Portland area—a part of the country that is very much anti-church, with a culture that sees Christianity more like a disease that plagues a healthy and progressive society.

But it’s in that context that he writes this book—and here’s the premise:

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“Our war against the three enemies of the soul is not a war of guns and bombs. It’s not against other people at all. It’s a war on lies. And the problem is less that we tell lies and more that we live them; we let false narratives about reality into our bodies, and they wreak havoc in our souls.”

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For example:

Maybe you’re a teenage girl and you’re attached to your phone and snapchat + instagram + YouTube has you playing the comparison game. And you start to think that you’re not enough—that who you are isn’t enough to be valued, or wanted, or liked, or loved.

And because you believe that lie, you start to live like that’s you’re reality.

Or maybe you’re a 52-year old man who is well into a relatively successful career but you were raised by a dad who was on your case all the time and you start to think that you’re only as good as you’re able to perform.

Or you’re a mom of little kids and they’re aren’t as well-behaved as your friend’s perfect kids, so you start to think that you’re a bad mom.

Or you’re still single at age whatever, so there must be something wrong with you.

Or your teenager made a terrible decision or is having a crisis of faith or is asking questions about their gender or their sexuality and so you’ve obviously failed as a parent because you’re a failure.

And because you believe those lies, you start to live like they are your reality.

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When you believe the lie, you live the lie.

When you live the lie, you make the lie real. You make unreality a reality.

Lies lived out will war against your soul—because your soul craves what is real.

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Hence the title of this series. It’s a battle. A battle being waged for our souls, in our souls.

A battle sometimes that we don’t even know we’re fighting—but one that we need to fight.

Because it’s a battle that can be won. And on the other side of it is peace and freedom.

Exegesis: John 8 & Genesis 3

Ok. Let’s read some Scripture together as we get started this weekend. Because we’re gonna talk about lies that war against our soul, and how to start fighting against them.

Here’s where we’re gonna be:

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John 8:42-47

Genesis 3:1-5

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(Explain how to find… find both if you can, and bookmark…)

We’re going to read both of these in succession, and eventually talk about how they’re connected. But let’s start in John:

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John 8:42–47 “Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires.

He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling the truth, why don’t you believe me? Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

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Now, let’s go all the way back to Genesis, chapter 3, verse 1:

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Genesis 3:1–5 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

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Let’s talk about John 8 first, then we’ll connect it to Genesis 3 and this battle we’re fighting against lies that war for our heart.

John 8: Jesus is the (One and Only) Truth

I know a number of people who would say something like “I like Jesus, but I’m not sure about Christians.” Or, “I’m a fan of Jesus, but I’m not a big fan of the church.” And usually those feelings have something to do with love—Jesus is loving, but his people sometimes not so much.

But then you read quotes from Jesus like the one we read in John 8, and you go…

Huh. That’s… weird.

Truthfully, Jesus is quoted as saying a lot of not-so-nice-did-he-really-say-that kind of things in the gospels, with what he said in John 8 being a great example. In the broader context of John 8, you’d see that Jesus is talking to a group of Jewish people—some of whom believed in him.

In fact, here’s what he says in verse 31:

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John 8:31–32 “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

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So, he’s not talking to his opponents or enemies—at least to begin with. But as we’ll see, they quickly go from being his friends to being his enemies because they are offended by what he’s saying here. Why? Well, verse 33:

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John 8:33 “They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we ‘shall be set free?’”

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Why were they offended at what Jesus said? Because they didn’t think they needed to be set free. From anything.

“Set free.” Set free from what? We’ve already got the truth; we’re the Jews. We’re the ones that God formed a special relationship with. We’re the ones he gave his laws to. We literally know the answers to the test that everyone else has to take. We know the truth, Jesus. We’re not enslaved to some lie or wrong way of thinking about the world. And so we certainly don’t need anything from you.

That’s what they don’t like:

They don’t like what Jesus is implying.

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Jesus said:

My teaching = the truth.

(Truth: that which corresponds to reality; what we can rely on as real; what we can test and see is true.)

Believing in and living according to the truth = freedom.

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If I said to you that “I can actually literally really fly,”

And then I climbed up a ladder to my roof (instead of flying, which should’ve been my first clue), and then jumped off said roof,

I’d be slapped (literally and metaphorically) with a dose of reality as my 43-year-old body hit the ground.

Because that’s not reality. I can’t really fly. Me being able to fly? Not true, not real.

Now, maybe I genuinely believed that I could fly. But my very real belief wouldn’t really matter, because it doesn’t correspond to reality.

So if we said this same thing a little differently:

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Truth is reality. (I can’t really fly.)

Lies are unreality. (Watch me soar! Oh no.)

And Jesus says that his teaching is the truth.

Therefore:

To believe (in) Jesus is to believe (in) reality.

(At least, according to Jesus.)

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That’s his claim. Pretty bold claim on his part, right?

Hey: if you want to live in the real world… if you want the freedom and peace that comes from living in accordance with reality, with what is real and true…

Trust me. Trust what I say. And do it.

Love your enemies. You’ll be free from your anger and their retribution.

Same with blessing those who curse you.

Same with forgiving 70 times 7. You want to experience freedom? Let go of that offense. Don’t, and you’ll hang on to resentment that will plague you whenever you think about that person. It’ll war against your soul.

Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That’s how the world works the best. And that’s how you’ll experience inner peace.

Love your neighbor as yourself. That’s how life is designed to be lived. Everything works when you live that way.

But also this. Jesus says:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one can come to God except through me.”

And:

“The Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost.”

Jesus is saying that he is telling you what is real, what is true, and that if you trust what he’s saying, you’ll be living in accordance with reality. With the grain. How you and this world have been designed.

You’ll be living in the truth, in accordance with what is true. And living in the truth will set you free—just like living according to the reality of gravity will set me free from the bondage of hospital bills and a lengthy, embarrassing recovery.

But Jesus is also saying this—which deeply offended the first people who heard it as well:

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Everyone needs to be set free. (From what?)

From believing and living the devil’s lies. (Which are?)

Anything contrary to Jesus and his teaching.

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And that, my friends, is something that our culture today—outside and even sometimes inside the church—really bristles at.

Because in 2024, this feels…

Arrogant (because who am I to say that? Who can even know that for sure? What about all of the wisdom apart from Jesus?).

Or it seems judgmental (what about all the people who don’t believe in Jesus? Who disagree? They’re all wrong and condemned to a hell they don’t believe in?).

Or it seems dogmatic (just forcing your belief on someone because you think it’s true).

Or even dangerous (because a lot of people have done a lot of bad things in the name of some kind of religious truth).

What an arrogant, judgmental, dogmatic, dangerous thing for Jesus to say—that anything contrary to his teaching is a… lie? A lie that will enslave? A lie we all need to be set free from?

Listen:

It’s true that people have done horrible things in the name of “the truth”—Jesus, even.

It’s true that people have justified harmful treatment of others in the name of Jesus, or standing for what’s “right.”

It’s true that many who have claimed allegiance to Jesus have turned out to be arrogant and judgmental hypocrites.

All of that is true.

But to use those truths as an excuse not to wrestle with what Jesus is saying here…

That’s what’s truly arrogant.

Because:

Jesus isn’t asking you to believe the judgmental Christian next door.

He’s not asking you to believe the dogmatic megaphone preacher on campus.

He’s not asking you to believe the person screaming at you with some slogan on a poster they’re waving or the person posting kinda passive-aggressive cheesy Christian graphics on their social media.

He’s asking you to believe him. Him.

The man who said,

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” And lived that out.

The man who said,

“Blessed are the poor, the meek. Blessed are those who are hungry and thirsty for living rightly.” And lived that out.

The man who said,

“Where are your accusers? I don’t condemn you. Go, leave your life of sin.” And forgave.

He’s the man who also said:

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. There aren’t any other ways to God other than me.”

And the man who said,

“I do nothing on my own, but only what God taught me.”

He’s the man who said,

“If you follow my teaching, you’ll know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

And he’s the man who said,

“If you don’t listen and do what I say, it’s because you’re believing a lie.”

I’m not asking you to believe what I believe about Jesus.

I’m asking you to consider what Jesus himself is telling you to believe.

And if you don’t, I’m asking you to consider why you don’t.

Genesis 8: The Devil is a (Really Good) Liar

This is where the two passages of Scripture we read are connected. Because in sharp relief and contrast to what Jesus has just said—that he is the truth—Jesus then talks about the the father of lies—the devil; the OG liar.

Despite our culture’s best attempts to depict Satan as a horned, pitchfork-bearing minotaur-looking fictional character, or a horror movie-inspired force that animates killer dolls or possesses little children, what Genesis tells us is that first and foremost, the devil is a liar.

And the lie that Genesis tells us he wants you to believe is this:

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The devil says (lies!):

You don’t need God.

You can define reality for yourself.

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You don’t need God—to be good, to be whole, to be happy, to be who you are meant to be. You don’t. Eat the fruit and see for yourself.

And:

You can define reality for yourself. You don’t need his definitions of what is good and what isn’t. You define what makes you happy; you define what is good and what is loving; you define what the right answers are to all of the questions. And you let everyone else do the same for them. You can know for yourself. You don’t need some God, or some book, or some man claiming to be God and speaking on behalf of God to define it for you.

Genesis is the origin story of these lies. But the same lies show up today. Just sound a little different from a tree and fruit. Instead they sounds like…

Who are you to judge what someone else believes? Let everyone define reality for themselves. In fact, that’s the most loving thing you can do.

Or:

You don’t need to honor your marriage vows. You need to be happy. And if your marriage isn’t making you happy, then go define happiness outside of your marriage.

Or:

Church is full of hypocrites. It’s a harmful place for you. You don’t need it. Connect with God in your own way. You’ll be better off.

Or:

Sex doesn’t bond you to someone else in ways that are so much more than just physical and that necessitates the context of marriage for it to be good and safe for both people involved. It’s just a human physical need. Do it however, whenever, and with whoever, as long as they consent.

Those are the best kinds of lies, by the way—the ones that have kernels of truth in them.

And that’s essentially the point of the story in Genesis 3 - to show us the two big lies that we’re being told, and that we’ve been told from the very beginning.

And that’s the point of the entire Old Testament, by the way—to show what life is like when humanity lives those lies out.

Conclusion

And Jesus reaffirms this in John 8.

One of the things that Jesus believed, taught people, and (through the witness of the gospel of John) is telling us: that he is telling the truth—while the devil is lying to you.

And the devil’s lie in Jesus’ day is the same lie he’s telling today and also the same one he told in the very beginning of humanity’s story:

You don’t need God. You can do fine on your own.

And you don’t need God or God’s word or Jesus to define what is good and real. You define what is good and real for yourself.

But Genesis is really clear, and Jesus reaffirms:

That’s a lie, straight from the pit of hell itself. And the more you believe the lie, the more real the lie will become, until it really battles for your very soul.

Fighting (and Winning) the Battle

So: how do we fight that battle? Better yet: how do we win?

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Winning the Battle Against the Devil’s Lies

Hang around the Truth: Jesus’ words (read the gospels!), presence (pray!), and challenge (obey!)