Satan's Playground

I... put this off.

Seein'! Do you know it when you see it? Are we aware of it? Oh, does the Word of God define us as His people? No. Obeying God's Word defines us as His people. I want to look at something today that I had not intended to speak on. Had a totally different sermon, planned all week until this came about, and worked on this sermon. Matter of fact, Joe and I talked about it, and told him I was working on it, and somehow we got it done this week. Because I think it's something that we all battle with. Something that we all contend with. So the title of the sermon today is Satan's Playground. Satan's Playground. Growing up as a child, we all enjoyed playtime. Yes, you did. Yes, you still do, with a younger one. You know, in school, there was recess. I grew up. Maybe date myself some. I look around. Some of you are even older than I am. But at recess, there was a playground. Most all schools. You can see the playground off of this one. When I grew up, the playgrounds all had swings. We had what's called monkey bars, whether you had that or not. Had a slide. We would play games like tag. There's also what we call teeter totters and seesaws. And later, we had ball fields. We tied to the playground and went out and played sports from hours upon hours upon hours. Then there were swimming pools. When you're a child, you can swim for hours and hours and hours. And you never want to quit. Enjoy us so much. And it was fun. It was, for most of us, a form of our first entertainment. Now, I guess, kids at a very young age have their little games that they play and so forth. But in my family, we run out of the house. You're going to play outside. If not that way anymore. Much. Or maybe you remember having so much fun, you never wanted to go home. I remember my first trip as a child to Six Flags over Georgia. And it was magnificent. And I had so much fun, I never even wanted to go home. I started to cry when my parents said, it's time to go. Why can't I just have fun like this all the time? Then there's Disneyland, Disney World, Busch Gardens, various places you can go to as a child. Even as an adult. Find yourself enjoying that time. So no matter the playground, you felt a rush. Different times in your life. You sometimes had a visual overload. But you wanted to do this. Go do this. Go do this. It's like there was not enough time to do everything.

And I think all of us know, why can't this last forever? Like you turn to 1 Corinthians 13, verse 11.

1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians 13. Verse 11. Paul tells the Corinthians, he just taught them about love and got me. Verse 11, he said, when I was a child, I spoke as a child. I understood as a child. I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. I became more mature. How mature are we? To be mature Christians, we, all of us, must be mature enough to not only spot sin, but to fully recognize it. And the thing about sin, it's so enticing. It looks good. It feels good. And even for a while, it can be fun. But we know the Scripture says the wages of sin is death. That's why it's important to recognize it. I'd like to turn somewhere first to Revelation 21. Revelation 21.

Revelation 21. Verse 8. Revelation 21, verse 8. It said, Go back to Corinthians, 2 Corinthians. So lay the groundwork here. 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians 4, verse 3. It said, But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. Through his mind, the God of this age has blinded. Who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. Talking about people of this world, that the God of this age has blinded. Blinded to all most or some aspects of sin. I'd like to turn one more here. 2 Timothy. 2 Timothy 2. 2 Timothy 2, verse 25. It says, In humility, correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do Satan's will. How about you? Have you ever been taken captive? By Satan?

See, Satan has a plan. He's always had a plan. And I like to compare it to a door. See, Satan has a plan to crack open the door. Now, so many times we will see a door, and it's just barely open. And if it's to a room, you may ask, what's in that room? We seem to be intrigued by a cracked open door. And Satan knows that. He knows we are intrigued. And he wants to keep us intrigued. So a lot of times he will just crack open that door. And he tells us, being the prince and the power of the air, just take a peek. Just take a peek. Just look. Just look. But then you need to go away. Okay? He doesn't open the door wide, so you can just see everything that's there. Because chances are you wouldn't go. But he just cracks the door in so many ways. Think of how many times he said, just come and look. See, he's subtle. He says, more cunning, devious. And he's wise in the ways of this world. This is his world. But thankfully we know God's still in charge.

I don't know how many of you ever did a little fishing growing up, or maybe fish now. No Carl who's not here today was a big fisherman. Love to fish! You know, your husband does. I don't know if you do or not. But various people have gone fishing. You know, I realized after sitting hours on the bank of a creek at age 10, 11, and 12, that unless I had the right bait, I was wasting my time. Most fishermen will tell you that. Fishermen need the right bait. I think we must realize, Satan's a fisherman, and he knows the bait. He knows the bait. He knows the use. Are we aware of that? And he knows just what you like. And he knows just what you will go...

Knows what will get you to fight. And it's not the same for all of us. It makes a different bait for faith. And it does for glass. But he knows. Satan knows that. It's like advertisers. I had my company. One of the things I had to do every week is come up with a new scheme for advertising. Draw people. Get them interested. You couldn't do the same thing over and over and over again. It didn't work. People get used to it. Satan's pitch. Satan's bait is the purpose of this message today. So we can all recognize the sin, but not just sin. Sin in our lives. The enticement that Satan has laid before us individually and even as a church. I hope to expose and shed light on this thing I call Satan's playground. And hopefully, after today's message, you will be more awakened to look at that playground in your life. To look at that playground in your life. All have been at one time or another on site, the playground. Every one of us in here. And like it or not, we'll all go there again. And again! And again! And again! Unless... We can see it for what it is. Unless we can recognize the bait before we bite. Recognize the bait before you bite. Turn away from the crack in the door. Put your mind somewhere else. Before we expose the playground, God gives us a warning of the bait. Very simply put, for most of us, it's part of Satan's fishing taglots. It's in 1 John 2, verse 16. 1 John 2. Sometimes we do not recognize it. All in one verse. It's laid out for us in one simple verse. 1 John 2, verse 16. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of this Word. So we have lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Which one do you bite on most often? Or for some of us, we have to battle all three, don't we?

This bait was used almost 2000 years ago with Jesus Christ, the temptation of Christ, in Matthew 4. Remember the story? It went up in fasted for 40 days on the mountain. It was visited by Satan. He had no food. As Satan said, turning these stones into bread, and as much power Satan had, how important this temptation was. Can you imagine the smell? It was on top of that mountain. We've all driven by a bakery before. We've been driving down the road and thinking about it. Ah, man, that smells good. Mmm! We may not have been hungry, but we get hungry. I imagine that's what Satan put up there. He's devious. I would probably think he also had a loaf of fresh bread in his hand. Ah, boy! God! Go ahead. There's all kinds of stones here. I know who you are. You're the power. Turn that into bread. Get yourself! It's good! The lust of the flesh. Lust of the eyes. And what did he do? Well, that didn't work. He said, go ahead. Throw yourself down. Throw yourself down off here. God said nothing will happen to you if you are the Son of God. Are you the Son of God? Pride of life. The pride of life! Go ahead. Take a bite. Show me. You're the Son of God. Hmm. Where's your weak spot? Think about it. You have a lust of the flesh? We all do. We sometimes try to hide it. How about the lust of the eyes? Pride of life. You want to be somebody. I want to read from the New Living Translation. I think it puts an interesting spin on this verse.

I John 2. Read verse 15. He says, Do not love this world nor the things it offers you. For when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. And then verse 16. For the world offers only a craving. Only a craving for physical pleasure. Just about. Feed the flesh. A craving for everything we see. And pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from the world. Satan wants us to have a constant craving for the things of the world. Because if we have a constant craving for the world and the stuff of the world, we won't have a constant craving for God. Remember, we can't have two masters.

Katie Lang had a song called constant craving. She said, it's always been from the song. A constant craving has always been here. Ever since man got here. Turn back to Genesis 3. Prove this point. Prove this bait. Genesis 3. We see in verse 5, Genesis 3. It said, for God knows, the serpent is telling them. Verse 4, he said, he called God a liar. He said, you will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Then we come to verse 6. So when the woman did what? Saw. She saw. That the tree was good for food. Man, hungry. She had no desire for extra food. She had all she wanted. It was all over the place. God just said, just don't eat him. This tree? The door was cracked open. Come on over. Just trolling. Just trolling. Look at that tree. Look at that apple. Fruit, whenever they say it was. She looked at it. It was good for food. That it was pleasant to the eyes. So here was the lust of the flesh. Oh, I need some food. And here was this beautiful fruit. And it was so good to the eyes. And then what happened? And a tree desirable to make one wise. Pride of life. It worked! She took of its fruit and she ate, and she also gave it to her husband and he ate.

I got you. You know we had it. Once they started looking. Yeah. Once we started looking, to have that craving, he's got us. He's got us. He dangles that hook. If you've ever been fishing along the hook, you sometimes realize you have to move the hook. Move the line a little bit. Make it a little attractive. Come on! Come on! Get that attention! Satan knows how to do that with us, doesn't he? We may be riding in a car. We may be sitting home. Jerk that line. He wants to pull us in. Sometimes I wonder if he says, you suckers. I think you've already said there's a sucker going every day. We. We. I think something was up. Is that better? Better? Aye. Does he look at us? Does he say to us? I got you. I got you. I got you. Come on. Look a little bit longer. Cray. Just a little bit stronger. You'll be able to feel the lust of the flesh. There was a man. He was 50 years old. Old enough? No better. Who decides one night to take a walk? Beautiful night. Not like tonight. He's tired. But he's had some rest. So he's feeling a little bit invincible. Since this man was used to working. Hard job. He was a soldier. He was a fighter. And he'd gotten a little old and he wasn't as good a fighter anymore. Scriptures tell us. And so he's asked to stay behind this spring. Spring of the year. Start feeling better. He's out there. Wishing he'd gone. Singing in his mind, well, I'm not totally washed up. But my men really don't want me fighting with them. Had to protect me the last time I went out. Somebody almost killed me. But I haven't lost a step. See, I'm still a pretty strong guy. And what happens?

Satan goes fishing. And the 50-year-old man looks over and he sees this beautiful woman. Young, young woman. Probably, they think, early to mid-20s. And she's taken a bath. And she's close enough he can see her? It was time to turn around and go back in. He had a wife. He had multiple wives. And she concubines. That hook, the bait was out there. Small indications he had seen her before. She was one of his favorite men. Wife. Man was out fighting. The lust of the flesh.

The lust of the eyes. And then comes the pride of life. Because he calls for her. Sends one of his people over to get her. Because why?

He's not going to turn down the king. Pride of life. It worked. Worked at the beginning of mankind. And it worked with King David. And the sword never went away from his house. I got one. I got a big one. Satan said. Is he real? Is this one in? One night of pleasure. Would forever haunt him. David's known by being a young man. Standing at 15, 16 years old and killing a giant. But what's he known for as a man? What is his legacy? He bit. He took the bait. So can you. And so will you. And so will I. We're not careful. We do not see it as it is.

Life. Today. Has a different playground than a David's dime. But it's still Satan's playground. We must realize that. You want to overcome this flesh. Overcome the constant craving. We need to be able to see what is out there. To trap us. To trap us. To trap us. To trap us. Like the playgrounds of yesteryear, let's look at some of Satan's playgrounds in our lives today.

Because they're out there. And sometimes we do not realize it. Guilty. Sometimes we've already pushed the door open ourselves. So we can have a little better look. Because that bank was moving. And it attracted us. Just look at your computer. You need to look at it.

That's Satan's playground. Now, it's good. We like using it. I use it. By most people in this room, use it. It can be for good. But it is Satan's playground. And you need to realize it. We all need to realize it. It'll take you to places you don't need to go. It'll lead you down a path you don't need to go. And I'm talking more than just what it does to entice men. She does. I can be reading an article, and there's something down there in the corner. And I go over there, and that's an interesting read. And then over here is another read. Wow, this is interesting here.

This is what I need. All right, next thing you know, you're three or four hours. You spent more time on the computer than you did in the book. The book of God. We have to realize it.

We have to realize when the bait is set. When the hook is set. And sometimes you'll jump on something and not even think anything about it, and then something else will pop up that's just totally obscene. You realize I don't want that. You'll go to hit the little X and leave, and you hit the thing and see it. Exactly what it wants. Exactly what it wants. Then we have television. We need to realize Satan's playground. There's good there, but it was the tree of good and evil that she took from.

There's both good and evil there. And you may start out perfectly good. Something to turn evil. And Satan's got you. Same way with the radio. Beautiful music out there. Boy, there's some other things. Not movies, entertainment. You know, we all watched this year, most of us. We watched. I don't spend hours upon hours watching the Olympics. But I watched a little bit. We see here and there. I want to see Usain Bolt win. Because I know how much he gives back to the nation of Jamaica when he wins. But then we all were intrigued, if you watched any of it, by the women's volleyball.

Because here they were winning for however much time it was. Unbelievable. They won four or five Olympics in a row. And this was something...

And you look at what they were wearing. And I remember my brother wearing plain volleyball a lot on the beach, with... He's used to it! Taking playgrounds! What? You get used to something! We are going to be moving fast. We are going to be moving fast. To those who want to see the ball. To those who want to see the ball. What happened? We had a hat time back here. Here's one of the most beautiful animals in the world. With a beautiful voice. What happened? I lost his hat. What did you do? You were a friend of mine. I was born here a couple of years ago. I was a friend of mine. I had a baby in the woods with the entire world. And when you saw the big day, everybody was like, Oh, how great the hat was!

I just grabbed it out and hit it a little bit. What? We have to make sure what we are doing. Another, Satan's playground, can be your work, your job. Is it all important to you? Is it everything? Is it more important than God? Is your pride of life? I was guilty. Ten, fifteen years ago. Ten years ago, my wife probably said five years ago. That I was my company. That's where I got who I was. I was successful. It was a pride of life. It can happen to all of us. Go to the beach. I go, try to go two or three times, four times if I can. Get up in the mornings, head to the beach. My knees aren't what they used to be, so I have to try to find the thickest sand and walk fast or jog in the sand. So I get a good exercise so I can keep my life's food off my stomach. You know what's there? It's there. You need to look away. How about boats? Last night before the surprise of Sabbath was coming, we were sitting out by the water. I know where it. Nice and relaxing. Here came this beautiful boat. You know what hit my mind? Boy, you know, I'd like to have one of those. I don't need a boat. I don't have time to do the things I have now. But he got me, because I'm like, oh, that beautiful boat, boy, wouldn't it be nice? And then I thought in my mind, what do I need? Oh, well, if I had a boat like that, take the breath out now. Time to justify it. Right? That would be good. He's reeling. And then I've seen cars down here I never saw in 40 years in Tennessee. The Lamborghinis. On the road right beside you. Maseratis. Incredible cars. Two hundred, three hundred thousand dollar cars. Why? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Then the casino. What you'll hear? The sound of money. The sound of the lust of the flesh. You can be rich and have the pride of life. All Satan's playgrounds. Even reading novels. I used to love reading. Novels still love reading. John Gresham, most of his. Robert Ledlam, good mystery. Tie myself up for hours. Put myself in another world. Of the writing of books, there is no end. But that too is wearisome to the soul. Nothing wrong with reading a book. It's just, is it Satan's playground? Does it take you away from the things of God? Satan's playground must be seen and realized for what it is. Sin. So because it's all around us, we just have to realize when it is baked. And when it's not. And when he's trying to hook us. That's what's important. Even in the Church of God, people don't realize the ground they're playing on sometimes. Turn to Matthew 16. Turn to another Scripture as we wrap this up. I'd like you to turn to James. I'd like you to turn to the book of James. Most of you probably know where I'm going. James 1. Verse 12. Powerful verses! They help us. It says, Hmm.

And enticed. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin when it is full grown brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. He's trying to warn us about the bait. Satan's playground. Have you looked too many times in the crack of the door this year, as we prepare for the spring holy days? As we start searching ourselves to find where the sin might be hidden, sometimes in our lives? Have you done the good imitation of Joseph? Please. Did you take the bait this year too many times? Let's look for the hook underneath the bait. Let's look for the hook. Let's look for the line leading to the hook, leading to the bait. I think it's time in the Church of God to start calling out Satan's playground to others. Help us to realize, because sometimes we don't. You may need to help another member blinded by the God of this world. Poor, wretched, blind, naked. We have to realize. How did God get Paul's attention? Blinded him. Couldn't focus on anything but God. Samson. Boy, he talked about an example of hook. He was out every day swimming so he could look for some more bait. And God finally had to blind him so he couldn't see. Lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh. Took away his pride of life. He got his attention. Let's not have to have a Samson in this room this year. Okay? Let's do what we can to make sure there's not a Samson in this room. Some people are blinded. Some brethren are blinded by Facebook. Spend so much time on Facebook. And some people are blind on Facebook. Because I realize, look at some of the things that my wife's, those people put on there, and I realize they don't even realize it's wrong. They're talking about movies. They're talking about things they're doing. And they go to the church of God. And it's totally wrong. And they don't realize it. They're so blinded that they put it on for everybody to see. Sometimes we need help. I need help. I expect you to help me. Not turn your back and go, well, he's a minister. I don't want to correct him. I want to help him. We're here for each other. It's a family. That's what it's about. Ask God to remove the scales. Help us all to see. Like the man said, I was blind, but now I see. If we can see, let's look for the bait, the hook, and beware of Satan's playground. As it says, you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. That's His Word. So we have a choice, either Satan's playground today, or God's kingdom forever. Which you want to choose. You can't have both. You cannot have both. Unless you think. God does not know. You don't have to write. You don't have to turn there, but I'd like you to remember. The end of Ecclesiastes, says the preacher. Chapter 12, 13-14, says, Fear God, and keep His commandments. For this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing. Secret thing. Whether it is good, or whether it is evil. There is good, there is evil. Satan's playground. Let's make sure. We look for the hook, we look for the bait. And we close the door.