Satan's Tool Box

Okay. As I continue with just one more in the next week or two on my series on Success and Leadership, we'll look at this today. This is something that I covered two or three years ago. Well, we have quite a few new people, and probably some of you don't remember that I covered this anyway, so we will cover this in a different light. But too many times, leaders know their strengths, and they do not know their weaknesses. We all think about that at times, but leaders are especially scrutinized for their leadership of how they conduct themselves, also how they're looked at and how they do lead. Great competitors, enemies, adversaries, whether it's in work, war, sports, whatever. Competitors study the competition. They search to find weaknesses.

Because the strengths are very obvious.

There is actually a movie out now called Ford versus Ferrari. Has anybody seen that yet? Nobody yet. Okay, if you're a car enthusiast, as I know, there are a few here. Okay, you realize that was a big competition. There's more than a few here.

They were competitors, so they studied each other's work, even in military. You might remember the statement that was made by General Patton when he was coming up against Rommel, the great general.

And he looked and was defeating him, and he said, I know I read your book, Rommel, because Rommel had written a book on strategy from World War I. And so, Patton studied him, studied his strategies and found some weaknesses.

Competitors look at it that way, just like Coke versus Pepsi. All right? And Coke reigned and ruled the beverage world for a long time.

They even tried to come up with something called New Coke, which obviously sent a message or something wrong with old Coke. And next thing you know, Pepsi takes off, and now they are basically neck and neck with these things. Edison versus Tesla.

Terrible competition. Perhaps even sports like Usain Bolt and Tyson Gaye, or even Gatlin, as Bolt had those things, and they would try to beat each other. Muhammad Ali versus Joe Frazier. No. The, what, Thrilla and Manila and the battles that they had. Well known. Bobby Fisher and Boris Baski, even in chess, as they would study each other. Chris Everett and Martina Natrolova, the ground stroker versus the the volier that came into the net. So we look at that, and we, if you want to be victorious, and so many examples in the past told us, you need to know your adversary.

We need to know our adversary. And we in this room realize, because we know Scripture, we know we have an adversary. If you had a perfect week this week, you may not realize it. But anybody that did not have a perfect week, that everything just didn't go as you wanted it to go, you realize you have an adversary. And the Bible describes that adversary to us in so many places.

Toolbox. Different kinds of toolboxes today. There's the box ones, and then there's a toolbox like this.

I ask you, for those of you who do repairs around the house, those of you who actually go and do work, there's some fundamental tools that we all need or use. And 80 to 90 percent of what we need to fix something, repair something, 80 to 90 percent of what I do, I use only three basic tools. Three basic tools.

Maurice, you work with that for a living too. You know what one of those tools are?

A screwdriver. Absolutely right! As a matter of fact, I have a Phillips, and a straight does quite a bit, right? I use that. I also have a hammer. You can beat things. You can pull things. You can tear things up like a wall and do many things, but they're very, very handy. And then a pair of pliers. Somebody said pliers. Yes! Three basic tools. You can turn things. You can fix things. You can nail things. Three basic tools are laid out for us at home or what all we need. And it's interesting that Satan, our adversary, if I can use the metaphor, has tools. And he has, from Scripture, three basic tools that he uses to try to fix us. He tries to get us to follow his path, disturb our spiritual way of life. I'd like you to look at these tools from Satan's toolbox, as I say, use a metaphor. I'd like you to turn to 1 John. 1 John 2 and verse 15. 1 John 2 and verse 15.

It says, Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of God is not in him. And then in verse 16, it lays out, For all that is in the world. And then he describes three tools of Satan. The three tools, major tools of Satan that have worked for him for thousands of years. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the what? Pride of life. Pride of life.

Such fundamental tools, only three, which we have to ask ourselves, are we more complicated than that? That Satan basically just has these three tools.

Because David knows, Maurice knows, F knows if you've worked in construction. These are nice, but there's a reason you have a toolbox. There's more stuff because it's more complicated than that.

Whether it's compressors, drills, all this kind of stuff, because not everything is so simple that can be fixed by just three hand tools.

We need to be more complicated than just three simple tools to throw our lives outside of God's wishes. Can you be fixed by one or more of these simple tools? The simple tools that Satan lays aside. And I mean fixed, but not in a good way.

Let's read the rest of that. We're talking the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. What world? We realize that is of the world.

It's of this world that Ephesians 2 says that Satan is the prince of the power of the air, and he influences us.

So he has this influence. It's part of his strategy. He can affect us, hopefully not infect us, but affect us by being the prince of the power of the air. And that's why Paul even told the church of Colossae in chapter 3 and verse 2, to set your mind on the things above, because we get down here in his realm, we are more susceptible. To those strategies, those things that can get us off the path. So for the first metaphor I'd like to use today is the hammer, the lust of the flesh. Lust of the flesh, we're all susceptible to it. And it is perhaps even one of the most dangerous, or not the be the dangerous, most dangerous tool that he uses against us. The lust of the flesh is everywhere, and it is so large. Do we think about it in that way? We hear it on television, radio, we read it in articles.

Everywhere we go, advertisers say, what? You deserve the best. You deserve the best. Or wouldn't you like to have this?

Well, yes, I would. Most of the time they're making something look pretty good. They can even make something you wish you'd never bought look pretty good before you buy it. And then you go, this is a piece of junk.

Oh, it works, doesn't it?

I want you to think about the lust of the flesh, because a lot of people just think, well, they're talking about sensual things. Not really.

Lust of the flesh. How many of us haven't seen a picture of a house and gone, boy, like that? You know, and I might be able to double my payment. I might be able to, wow, or go to someone's house and go, wow, wow, did you see their furniture?

You know, I wonder how much a month that would cost me to just try to do that. I mean, there's just houses. And real estate people love that. Let me show you. And Mary watches this show more than I have of where they go, and House Hunters, I guess. And House Hunters International. House Hunters, Womantu, I don't know. House Hunters everywhere, you know. Flip this house. Islands via island house. I'm always kind of soft. And so, here they always say, well, they've got this budget.

And then the agents always take them to a house more than a budget. Only a very seldom is it less. And if they do, they, well, it's not as nice as it's got. Oh, it's everywhere when it comes to looking at a house, buying a house. It happens with cars, doesn't it? Oh, man. You know, it just, boy, that's a, you know. And I was always told by a car dealer one time, I was working for him, I said, you know, how do you sell so many cars?

Because he said, got to get them in the car. Get them in the car. Test drive. No. He said, we've even paid people $50. Take a test drive. Because if we get them in the car, oh, it feels good. And we tell them how good they look behind the wheel. Right. And then next thing they start lusting about this car. Mary and I, we rented a car up there and I got the cheapest, I went in Nashville, and because we flew up there and I wanted a car.

So I've got the cheapest car I could get for life. You know, I had to go to special bargain, you know, because all the others were too expensive. Here's the lowest, cheapest car. And I'm looking, I'm going, wow, that's nice for $18 a day. You know? And it was a convertible. Oh, I look at convertibles, man, down here. It's the highest car.

Up there, it's cold. Nobody wants a convertible. Right? So I was going to get a convertible. And Mary goes, you got a convertible. I, yeah, but it's the cheapest thing. Right? Well, we were blessed. We went to Nashville and he looks at this, he goes, you want a convertible? I just want the cheapest car. And he goes, okay, anything's got the trunk open. You can have it out there. We went out there, it's a nice big vehicle. Boy, we were, you know, and so, you know, I, my little ultimate's fine.

Her little Honda's fine. Man, we set up in that new car. That big thing, it was like, whoa, man, and I was looking down on everybody. I was going, huh, and it made me think, lust of the flesh. And I was thinking, well, I wonder how much this car, no, stop that.

Right? So I see I'm not the only one. Am I? Well, how about food? Boy, can't we lust over some food? Man, yes. And that looks so good. On TV, it looks even better. They can make some cheap, not even meat burger look good on TV. It's called Impossible Burger or something, you know? And they don't even know what's in it.

You know, I don't know if they know. We don't know, but hey, yes. Okay. Yes. There's always something, isn't there? Everything about it hits us from clothes that hits. Okay. To I even saw a commercial on TV about a guy side by side with lawns and they were lusting each other. One guy was lusting the other guy's lawnmower. And it doesn't stop there. Shampoo. Who would lust for somebody shampoo, but they show the head of somebody that looks terrible and then they show a head of somebody wash with their shampoo and she turned into a tan.

Just shampoo, right? This is part of that what? That lust. And you go from there to even bicycles. We got a, where we used to say there was a bicycle place, and we thought, you know, it'd be really nice to have a bicycle. Of course, more people get run over here than imaginable. And so I was like, yeah, but we're just over there. They got this bike place just down there. It's got the average. I was on a bike. Man, they got thousand-dollar bikes.

And the guy didn't take me to the $150 Schwinn, whatever it was. He took me over. Oh, yeah, yeah, well, you're a pretty good-sized guy. You need something that's going to really support you. Well, thank you very much. But I looked at the bike. Man, there's a nice looking bike. I, you know, we get that. And look at cell phones. Apple's door. What is it? Now the 11, 12, 212? I don't know. You know? But here, it's like you got to have, you know, the newest model. And I'm thinking, well, you know, Mary's got an old Apple V, which shows way back, you know, that's like in the 1920s, whatever, in cell phone years. All right? I thought, well, is this, so wonder what, you know, the Apple 11 came on. But so they were selling a, giving you a discount on Apple 10s. I'm going, 10 be all right. You know, hey, maybe I'll do it. Because I was in looking for my phone. I go in there, guy goes, yeah, we've discounted those. They're only like $700 and something dollars. Right, for a cell phone. But boy, did he have a spiel on how good it was to get you to have that. Now, I'm not talking down to anybody that's got, you know, a $2,000 cell phone. You know, I'm not going down. That's just, you know, because computers are the same way. Right? And I mean, I'll move on to this, but wow, there was a, I had to go to Staples in Tennessee. They didn't have it at home office. Some people had to get something for my message. And so I went in there and there was this beautiful chair.

I thought it was an office chair. And I'm like, wow, that is, that's just a little bit over the top. I mean, it just looked like a limousine of chairs. It wasn't for, it was for gaming. Okay? Gaming, they have special chairs made for somebody who's going to sit there and play games on the computer for eight hours. And they sat right in the front of the store.

Say one of your kids going, wow, the ultimate Christmas gift, I guess.

Huh. The key word is lust of the flesh. Lust. Lust. The word means intense desire or appetite. And isn't that what happens? We get an appetite for something. You want a clothes, piece of clothes somewhere and you see it, and then you know, I can't afford it. You leave the store and next day that's like, that's all you can see in your mind. I better go back and get that. Piece of cloth.

The word lust means sexual or passionate craving.

A yearning. It says also hunger. Hunger. A drive towards something. It's all what this word lust means. And I always think of Katie Lang's song, constant craving. It's always been there. Yes, it has. And Satan has known about it all the time. What did he show Eve in that garden? You gotta have, gotta take a bite, you know.

Well, it's interesting that Christ even brings out about a drive that is in us. And he says to take that drive. And he says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for what? Righteousness.

Could we use the word lust? Yeah, I would think so. Lust for righteousness. Because hey, lust is built in us, it's just which way does it go?

Maybe we need to be able to take some of that drive towards something as he pointed us to do. But it's in 1 John. John is the writer, and he's writing this towards the end of his life. They believe him. And he's 80 to 90 years old. Some say he may be in 95 when he wrote this.

At even 80 to 90 years old, I think by that time he had seen and experienced most everything. Wouldn't you say? And he probably felt it all. Well, I must ask you a question today.

Do we have more things to lust than he did?

Who thought about it? Look how much more. I mean, basically back then you worked, you ate, you were a slave, you had this, you went home, you worked all day for food, and very little else.

What do we have to lust after? Everything. Everywhere you turn around, it seems that way, doesn't it? Now, for those of you who are blessed with gray hair like mine, you realized that 50 years ago there was not the same things to lust.

Look how the world has intensified. Look how everything, because of not only computers, but because of travel and everything else. I mean, nobody thought about 50 years ago, of only rich people took a cruise. Now they advertise it all the time, and it's like anybody now can take a cruise. There's so much, and in this country we are so blessed, financially, and with having the newest of everything. We rule and reign technology. China can talk about production, but we rule and we reign when it comes to, it's Google, Intel, Amazon. I mean, we can give you so much more in this country. We can give you so much more to lust after than has ever been on planet earth before. Right? Let's go to the screwdriver. Number two, metaphor, screwdriver. Because we've, hopefully we've beat this lust and flesh to death, okay, to where we understand that that's what we're going to use. But the screwdriver is the lust of the eyes. The lust of the eyes, this tool, metaphorically, lust of the eyes is fashioned are made for men. It is. It's fashion made for men. Because we're typically, whether you want to go with the neuro-linguistic scientists or whether you want to go with social scientists or however you want to do the studies, they all come to the conclusion that majority of men are visual. Okay? About 75% is their estimate. Over the chart here and there. Because they look, and what do I mean by that? They mean that there's a main motivation in all of us. With men, we are stimulated by visual things, 75% of us are. And that may be the main motivation. You can hear even people say, oh, I see what you mean when they're explaining something. There's also another category called auditory, where it's either they're reading or for hearing. And they hear, oh, I hear what you're saying. And they're motivated by what they hear or what they read. And then there's auditory, which, I mean, then there's kinesthetic. Kinesthetic is more of an emotional body. You're moved by emotion. You're moved by things that you feel. And the majority of women, as they found, even 60, 70% of women are more kinesthetic than they are the other. You can have a blend, but most of us are motivated. Well, with us men being visual, it can be a problem. Because we want to see things. We want to look at things. And how many? They even talk about it in Hollywood. When they make a love story, when they want to make a chick flick, if I can use that thing, use that term, they don't want to make a chick flick. They have to make sure that they make a success. They make the movie enough so a guy will go with them.

So they put some visual stimuli in there to get that because they know they need success. Because men typically are the moviegoers. They will go and see something because they'll see a commercial. Yeah, I'm going to go see that. Be motivated by that. And that's what they do. The only problem is our eyes, men's eyes. And I'm not telling the women anything. They don't know because you know how it is when you walk by a bunch of guys or you do this or you see it. They're just like, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh, or even worse, right? Because guys want to look. They just want to look.

It's so much so that even Jesus Christ says, if your right eye causes you to sin, do what? Plug it out. What's he talking about? Lust! Lust! Can't get it out of your head. Now, that's hyperbole he was using because, I mean, you take your right eye out, you still got your left, you can go around. Right? So he's saying this so he can make us think, control, control because that's he knew he was living in the flesh. Jesus Christ came as man, and he was all men, and he knew, and he knew he couldn't give into that.

So, but Satan knows how to use this, and that's why so many men today are addicted to porn. Porn in your pocket, it's on your cell phone. Addiction is so bad. I've worked with it in the church. Yes, even ministers. If you were let go in the last few years, because of porn addiction. Okay, so it happens. It happens because you're the lust of the eyes, and we men have to be very careful of that. We have to be uncontrolled, so we don't become a slave to it, because that's what happens. We become a slave. I don't want to be a slave to anything.

I don't want to be a slave to my wife. Right? So why should I want to be a slave to a video? A video. Right? We need to... We men have to have control, and we have to say, no, I'm more complicated than a screwdriver. You're not going to get me. We can set our minds that way. We can make it happen. You know, what's sad is that today, one of the statistics that I saw was that 33% of all pornography watched today is watched by women, which is shocking. It's not even in the last 20, 30 years. It wasn't even in 5%. It wasn't anywhere. Now it's one-third.

And they asked the younger, under 30 years old, why you... women, why they watch porn. And they said, because all the guys are. We got to see what they want.

You see, bust of the eyes. It's everywhere. Just like, what? You go to the beach. Like Murray said sometimes, I can't really go to the beach because I can't... you know, I want to make sure I got control of my... You go to the beach and it's like, how small can they make those things?

Even for men.

And it's like, wow, what's happening here? Because it's a video age.

And people get to see. And I'm amazed because I go to Deerfield Beach. We're not Miami Beach, but we have enough, you know. But I see young girls or women down there just posing, you know, with each other. Just like doing all these... You won't see me do that. But it's like they're posing for these pictures and their friends are taking these pictures and you're looking and you're saying, they should never make a bathing suit that big. No, that small. No, for that big of a person. It's just like, you know, it's like... And yet they show everything and they don't think anything about it. But it's become the lust of the eyes because women are wearing that. Because why? They walk on the beach and...

They know it. They know it. So they do control us, then, because we are so visual. And now you have something... And Junior, as a matter of fact, one of the teachers told me that she was teaching sixth grade. And one of the problems they had was sexting. Does everybody know what sexting is? It's texting, except you send sex pictures of yourself to someone else. And sixth grade girls are sending it to guys. I mean, who would have thought of that? And that's why you have so many people addicted to cell phones of the younger generation. Because they're used to having something that they can see, something they can read. Something's in front of them all the time.

It's all part of this lust of the eyes. It's part of our world that we have to be on top of, not only for those who have kids, but for us to be able to help other people. Because that's what leaders do. They know the strategy of the adversary. For us to help other people, for us to help each other, and to help us, we need to know the strategies and realize when we're seeing that played out before us all. There's a new clinical disease called nomophobia. Anybody know? N-O-M-O-B-phobia. You ever heard of it? Well, it's pretty new, but they are calling that today.

Nomophobia is the fear, phobia, fear, fear of no mobile phone. The fear of not having a cell phone. That they even have teachers that they bring this certificate in from the doctor because the teachers can't take the cell phones away from the students because they've got this disease. This fear. I don't know whether you have it there at your school yet. She has it. Do you have it? No, you haven't had that yet. You probably will, though. I mean, isn't that amazing? They've got this and say, you can't take it away from me. So I can. I can watch it all day long, and some of them do.

Tablets. Tablets for young children. The stimuli. Oh, it's really great for these kids. Oh, they're little kids or whatever. Their imagination and minds do not develop because it's all laid out for them. Instead of them creating neuro-pathways in their minds of creation and being able and the confidence level because, hey, they thought of this and they developed this and they did this. It's all coming down the pike to us. And as most teachers will tell you, this has caused so much, those who have taught for 10, 15 years, we're saying that the study habits, they're just not there anymore. Because they're studying, okay, I need to read this book and study it because we're going to go over it tomorrow. They get part of the way and they're going, oh, wonder what's happening to here and they need to get on and go check their friends or check this or check this or that. Yes, you have to. So that the focus and it's causing the dumbing down of America. Number three, pliers. Pliers.

They're very handy. Well, so is the metaphor I'm using here for Satan, the pride of life. The pride of life. How does he pump you up so that you feel great about yourself? Go with me, if you will, Ezekiel 28. I'll just touch on a couple of things. As we all know, Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 give us descriptions of what Lucifer is like. And here, this is his mindset.

Even in verse 12, it says, you were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were eaten the garden of Eden, the garden. So he's beautiful. He had all this stuff. And then you go on down to verse 16. By the abundance of trading your violence, you became filled with violence you sinned, therefore I cast you out of the holy mountain. Because, verse 17, your heart was lifted up, or the word proud, your heart was proud, because of your beauty you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor.

And you can see in verse 14 just how beautiful. I mean, you had it all. So that was the problem, the pride. Pride. And so it worked way back then to get, what, Eve? There was the apple, right? It was beautiful. But what was it going to do? He said, if you did this, you would become like God. You would know what he knew. And it was it for a while. You mean we? Wow, we saw what God had created all this. But if we just eat this apple pomegranate, whatever the Jewish scholar says it was, pomegranate, oh no, we don't know. But if you eat this, you're going to be just like God. So it was a pride that was there. It's also, I'm so pretty.

I'm so pretty. Vanity. Look at me. And we see that everywhere today, don't we?

It's that pride. But it doesn't, just doesn't have to do with looks, does it? Where's that pride? Pride can come from what? Having money. Well, I'm a billionaire and you're not. So that makes me what? I'm so much smarter than you.

If you really got to know them, they're smart in their business and everything else.

Not very smart. Money. It can lead to this pride. Why? Because, well, look how I dress. I dress better than everyone else. Look at my house. I can buy a bigger and better house than you. All makes this pride.

The pride of life. And then not only that, if you take out the looks, because looks is, you know, that's a big part. Oh, wow. You know, I don't know a guy that grows up and goes, you know, I want to marry the ugliest girl I can find.

I don't know many women go, you know, I hope I can find me an ugly man. Why? You want? Okay, yeah, I want something that I don't mind looking at for the next 50 years. Okay. And so you find this. But then you have even the pride of life comes into, and I think about it now because all the news stories about royalty.

You know, well, no, he's a prince. He's this. He's, oh, she's this. She's that. And it's prestige that comes with the title.

And doesn't have to be royal. It can be just, oh, well, I'm what? I'm the vice president of the company now.

And so, and so, you know, it begins to fill us and get us there where we don't need to go. And then finally, there's, well, I have a PhD, which makes me smarter than you master degrees. And you be age, it's just not even in my league. I have a PhD.

Right? And so, you know what I'm saying? Oh, well, man, he must be a very smart man. A smart woman. Wow. Look at that. No. That's all part of the pride of life.

As I wrap this up today, the counter to the pride of life is the presence of humility. And because we are to be Christ-like, look at Him.

Look at the example that Christ set. God, coming down from above to live on this puny little planet called Earth and become just like a piece of dirt.

This is where we're made from dirt. Can you imagine that? Let's go. Philippians 2. We'll wrap this up here. Philippians 2. Philippians 2, verse 7 and 8. Philippians 2, verse 7 and 8. But He Himself, Jesus Christ, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a servant and coming in the likeness of man and being found in appearance as a man. He what humbled Himself and became obedient even to the point of death.

How far was that from God to what? Can we even imagine the humility it took? Now, I'm going to bend down because right here, that's a piece of lint. Okay, you can barely see it. You can probably find a piece of lint on there. Okay, look down the floor. See if you can find a piece of lint or a piece of dirt. Okay, then pick it up. Put it in your finger. I got this in my finger.

What would it take for me to say, you know what? I want to spend 30 years as a piece of lint so that we walked on, kicked around, not even thought anything. None of us in our right mind would even do that, wouldn't we? Just, okay, here's our piece of lint. It's going down there, and that's where I got to stay for 33 years.

And that and us is not even close. But that's the only thing we can relate to. If we're not even a piece of dirt, a piece of sand out on Miami Beach and become that, because that's what he did when he came down and came down so much lower. That, brethren, is the true example of humility for us and the exact opposite of the pride of life that Lucifer wants us to buy into.

Well, do we find humble leaders in the world today? It's rare. It's an anomaly. Very rare.

Sometimes they don't stay in office very long.

So, brethren, can as leaders now and leaders who are leaders, anyone who has influence over others, and what are we to be? A light. A light to others so they see God in us. We are the leaders, not only today, but in the coming kingdom of God. Can we lead without power? Jesus Christ did.

He came with no power. He said, I can do nothing to myself. The only thing I can do is through God Himself. And that's all he needed. And, brethren, that's all we need to do.

Can we lead and not be a theologian and know this Bible inside now? Absolutely. Why? Because people have been reading this for years. They need to see it. What part of our leadership is to live it? Live it so they can see it and know that, you know, that way of life is actually possible. Because most think it is not. So, brethren, don't let Satan use his tools on you. Remember Satan's toolbox. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. You will be confronted with that every single day of the rest of your lives until Jesus Christ returns. So, brethren, know your competition. Know your competitor. We are in training now. Know your adversary. Because, brethren, you were born to be a leader. But most of all, you were born to win.