Satan’s Greatest Trick

James Greer (00:00):
Ooh, amen, what a testimony. Amen? And she was talking about that Wednesday night as we were here in service and we prayed for him, he did open his eyes. And that reminds me this Wednesday night by the way, we’re going to come together and we’ll have a prayer service. We’ll be praying for our Saturday event. We’ll also be teaching a lesson on how to resist the devil. So I want to remind you this Wednesday night, we’ll all be coming together and I want to invite you to come. Also, this is the last Sunday of Heaven, Yes and Hell, No. And we’ll start the miracle month in November and what’s on your miracle list. And you start thinking. I already know what I’m putting on my list. And we’re going to take these up and the staff will actually pray and say God, would you grant Pastor James the miracle in his life if it’s biblical. We’re going to actually try to find promises in God’s Word.

James Greer (01:04):
So if you know what it is already, you can write it down and you can put it on a kiosk in the back and if not, you can bring it home and you can start praying about it. And next month, the whole month, we’re going to ask God to answer prayers and do miracles. A miracle is just something where God can move in a situation or a circumstance you can’t do on your own that only God can do. And the whole month will be miracle month. Amen? And so I’m going to ask you to start asking God right now. But what I want to do, I want to kind of close the series out with the tricks of the devil. And there’s so many that he has. I mean there’s things like he makes us worry about what other people say instead of what God says.

James Greer (01:46):
There things that he makes us believe that we shouldn’t forgive some people. He makes us think our problems are bigger than they really are. But I’m going to focus really quick on seven things and then we’re going to get into the message. First of all, Satan tries to make us think we’re smarter than God. And he always does that because, he does that because we wouldn’t do things that God tells us not to do except we think we are smarter than God. It’s always been that way since the beginning of Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve thought they were smarter than God and we all inherited that. Second of all, Satan makes us think that God wants to be happy instead of Holy. Holy, we’re not holier than thou. I mean those holier than thou people keep us out of church. When I’m talking about Holy, I mean set apart to be used by God. I mean God doesn’t always want us to be, and this is a true story. I had a couple sitting in my office one day not that long ago when I was still doing counseling. I do it every now and then. And he said, this particular person said I just don’t love her anymore. And I know what that means. Usually, it means they’re running around. And I said are you having an affair? I thought he was going to lie. And he said yes. I said oh, great, she’s in the room.

James Greer (03:10):
And of course, she’s crying and screaming and hollering. Dude. I said well, what’s the deal? He said well, I just wasn’t happy. This is true story. You do not [inaudible]. And so we just weren’t happy. And so I found another girl that I thought made me happy. And so I thought it was okay. Now so Satan had lied to him. And so you think that because he wasn’t happy that he thought it was okay for him to have an affair. Let me tell you what God didn’t call us just to be happy. He called us to be Holy and if you’ll stay Holy long enough, you’ll then be happy. Amen? But see, that’s just some of the tricks. That’s just some of the lie. Then people that are really worried about their money and their paycheck. And so they’re worried and they’re stressed out. So then Satan tells them it’s okay to steal on the job. That’s not true. But then they even feel good about it. They justify it. And those people that aren’t married, they’ll say well, I’m probably going to marry them anyway. So let’s just have sex and try it out. I don’t know. But that’s not in the Bible. This is the one that gets me and I know y’all don’t do this. These people are just driving me crazy. Long enough, long enough, surely God, Satan says it’s okay that you can finally just cuss them out and feel good about it. Amen? But that’s not really right. I mean what if I said what is it going to do, what’s it going to take to show them I really love them? Oh, that puts another light in it. What if it was like Peter that said Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother? Seven times? God says no. Seven times, 70. Ooh.

James Greer (05:12):
Satan makes us think it’s okay to make decisions based on emotions and feelings instead of God’s Word. But yet the Bible says a heart is deceptively wicked. Who can know it? Only God can. That’s why you’re going to hear over and over today how important it is to make decisions based upon God’s Word, not your feelings. I’m only going to touch on this for a second. That’s why the devil tries to make you think it’s okay not to tithe. I’m not going to preach on that, but see, when you don’t tithe, you always think the preacher preaching on tithing. And the devil says man, he’s always preaching on tithing. That’s not true. I don’t always preach on tithing. The real truth, the reason I only do preach it on tithing, it’s not because God needs your money. God needs nothing from you. It’s what God wants for you. And God doesn’t want you to be under a financial and spiritual curse. He wants to bless you. Amen, Brother James.

James Greer (06:08):
Those are just some of the things. See, to have victory over the devil, you got to understand his lies and his tricks. And in John 8:44, it says you’re of the Father of the devil and the desires are you the father that you want to do? In other words, he said the devil was a murderer from the beginning and he does not stand in the truth. In other words, the devil can’t stand the truth. Listen to me, the only real power that the devil has over you is for you to believe a lie because there’s no truth in him. He speaks lies. He speaks from his own resources. He is a liar and the father of lies. Now I’m going to give you the very essence of the series.

James Greer (07:04):
The very goal of Satan. This one statement will change your life because you’ll understand the purpose of sin and Satan. And if you don’t get anything else through the whole series, if you don’t get anything else from the message, get this statement. The goal of sin and Satan has always been and always will be to bring separation from God and separation from others. The goal of sin and Satan is always to bring separation between God and others. I mean when you and your mate start fighting, Satan’s goal is to bring separation between God and you. It’s to bring separation between your families. It’s to bring separation between your friends. It’s to bring separation from church. See, Satan’s goal, sin and Satan’s goal is to bring separation from God and others. That’s his goal.

James Greer (08:10):
Let’s look at some of his tricks. Number one, he gets you to focus on religion versus relationship. We’re not going to spend a lot of time on that because I preached on that last Sunday. And God will say, Satan will say okay, you can be religious, just don’t have a relationship with God. But Jesus said I’m the way, the truth and the life. No man comes in the Father but by me. You can talk about you know God. You can say you have faith but when you’re talking about your faith comes through the blood of Jesus Christ, it changes things. Second of all, the trick is that the Bible is one of God’s many ways of speaking to you. Know the Bible is the ultimate authority. Period.

James Greer (09:02):
But Satan’s trick is he doesn’t want the Bible to be the ultimate authority in your life. He doesn’t want it to be the ultimate authority in the world. Often when we don’t have the Bible as the ultimate authority, it’s because we want to be the authority. The main people that argue about the Bible being the ultimate authority, it’s because they want to be the authority. See, how are you going to have an authority when fear comes into your life? When you worry? When sickness comes? When Satan comes? When you have financial problems? When you have marriage problems? You got to have an authority. God’s Word is the ultimate authority. If you want to answer, it’s God’s Word that has the answer. We got to say God’s Word, the ultimate authority is the Virgin birth. Jesus lives a sinless life. The devil is real. We’ve all sinned. There’s a real Heaven. There’s a real hell. I mean you got to believe almost things. 2 Timothy 3:16 tells us this. All Scripture is given by inspiration, it’s God-breathed. Do you understand? Listen, when you’re reading God’s Word, God breathes His Word into being. It’s profitable for doctrine. It breeds conviction. When you’re reading God’s Word and you’re preaching God’s Word, it brings conviction. Instructions. Correction. Instructions and righteous. In other words, God said listen, I want you to know that I breathed this into being. It just did not happen. This is the very breath of God. And this is where you get instructions for living. This is where you get correction for living. This is where you’re getting instructions for living. This is where you find my purpose for living. It’s all in God’s Word.

James Greer (10:53):
Isaiah 40:8 says the grass withers, the flowers fade. But the Word of God stands forever. People are going to come and go. But God’s Word will be with you forever. It will be with you on earth and it’ll be with you in Heaven. John 1:1 says in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Now let me say something about that. If you drop down and you look at John 1 and you went to 14, it says the Word became flesh. You do understand the closest you might ever come to fellowshipping with Jesus Christ in the flesh is through the Word of God. If you understand the power and the purpose of God’s Word, you’ll read it in a new and powerful and practical way.

James Greer (11:55):
One of the greatest problems in America today is so many people want to be in authority in so many things that only God can. Satan is having his will and his way because there’s no authority. If we really wanted to have peace out of chaos, we could. If we wanted to have peace out of chaos in our family, in our city, in our country, we can take God’s Word as the ultimate authority. In 1 Corinthians 14:33, it says that God is not the author of confusion but of peace. God’s not the author of all this confusion in your home and in the city and in the world but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints. In fact, John 13:34 says this. He says I give you a new commandment. I give you as Christians that you love one another. What is the new commandment that he’s given me in you? That we what? Love one another as I have loved you. How did He love me and you? He died for us that you shouldn’t also love one another. By this, you show you’re my disciples. Why? If you love. By your love one for another. God said I want you to know that. Did you know that one of the greatest tricks today in society if the church wanted to be honest was racial prejudice?

James Greer (13:38):
Amen, Brother James. Do y’all not watch TV? Is it one of the greatest tricks today is racial prejudice both with blacks and whites and every other race in the world today. It’s more today than any time I’ve seen it in my lifetime. The nation desperately needs healing and instead, we got a mess on our hands and the churches and the body and even the church doesn’t want to talk about it. You can’t ignore it. It doesn’t go away. Why does God hate racists and prejudice? Number one, because racial prejudice questions God’s creation. Let me ask you a question. Do you think that you have anything to do with being born white? Do you? Do you think you’re that superior or black or Darrell, a Mexican? Sometimes looks black. He can’t help it. He was born that way. See, see, one of the reasons that God hates that is because God’s the one that chose variety. Not you. You can’t do anything about it. Second reason is it shows your ignorance. It reveals your foolishness. Now I want to tell you both black and white today are prejudice.

James Greer (15:06):
I hear white preachers, I hear black preachers both preaching from the pulpit. The Bible says in 1 John 2:11, says anyone who hates his brother and sister. Uh-oh. Many times when you’re looking in the Bible and it’s called brother and sister, it’s talking about Christian. Anyone that hates his brothers and sisters in darkness and walks around in darkness. And they do not know what they’re doing because they’re in darkness and they’ve been blinded. The Bible says brothers and sisters that hate each other. If you say, man, I hate somebody that’s black, I hate somebody that’s white, I hate somebody that’s Mexican, I hate someone that’s and you’ve been blinded by the enemy. The Bible says if you hate somebody because that person is different than you that you’ve been blinded and that’s a serious accusation.

James Greer (16:03):
God’s Word has to be the ultimate authority. You ready? Not how you feel. Not even how you’ve been raised. Third, racial prejudice disobeys God’s Great Commandment. Ooh. Galatians 5:14 says the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one commandment. Love your neighbors yourself. Uh-oh. But if you bite and devour each other, watch out. You’re going to be devoured by each other. See, that’s one of Satan’s greatest tricks, not only on racial prejudice but to get us fighting among each other in your own families, in your own churches. And it said then you devour your own cells in your disobeying the plain truth of God. Fourth, racial prejudice is a serious sin but it’s not only racial prejudice. It’s the appearance how you judge other people? One of the things that I love about our church, somebody recently asked me what’s so different about Journey Church? And I say that I honestly believe that we accept you no matter what you look like and where you came from. When you walk in the church, you’re welcome. Did you know in James 2 in the today’s English version that it says if you treat people according to their outward appearance, if you treat them different because they look different in their outward appearance whether it’s their color, their dress, their hair, their looks, you’re guilty of sin. And the law condemns you as a law breaker.

James Greer (18:05):
I thank God and I hope we never forget where we came from. I believe one of the reasons that God has blessed us so much, do you realize as of last Sunday, last Sunday, we baptized two more people? Do you realize as of last Sunday we baptized 84 people this year? Do you realize some of them were kids, some of them were rich, some of them were poor, some of them were blind and some of them can see? They came from all walks of life. They were all colors. And do you know at Journey Church I didn’t hear one person say that made any difference to them? Nobody judged them. Some of them had tattoos, some of them didn’t, some of them had them terrible rings in their nose like my granddaughter who I love. Not judging, just saying. Some of them don’t. That we love him no matter what. Amen? I’m so thankful to be in a church like that. I pray we never take it for granted. Racism and prejudice, it never has been a skin problem. It is and always has been a sin problem and always will be. That’s one of Satan’s many tricks of today.

James Greer (19:40):
The cure, if that’s you, and I think at one time or another whether you’re black or white or a Mexican, I think Indian, whatever it is, I think everybody has struggled with it. I think that’s why 1 John 1:9 is so great. If you confess your sins, He’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Isn’t that something? So what’s the cure? Confess our sins. He’s faithful and just. Forgive us of all our sins. If you would not do that, it’s only because you’ve been blinded to the truth or you want to deliberately disobey God’s Word. No other reason. One of the other tricks, one of the third tricks is God’s way is not the best way. It started out that way with Adam and Eve and they thought they were smarter than God. And they said hey, God said don’t do that and we did it anyway because they thought they were better. There’s other ways. They think it’s okay to be angry with our brother without cause and we justify it. One of the most dangerous is in Matthew 18:15. In Matthew 18:15, it’s very dangerous. It says moreover if my brother sinned against me. If you got a problem with somebody, if you think they hurt your feelings, if you think they did something to you, what you do is don’t say anything and you go tell everybody else. I can’t believe Brother James said that. I can’t believe the way he acted. I can’t believe he ignored me. I can’t believe he was ugly to me. No, moreover if my brother sinned against me. Especially to Christians, you go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. Uh-oh. If you’re a member of Journey Church, do you know we have something called a church covenant? If you have a problem with somebody, the first thing you do is you go to them and them alone and not everybody else. Amen? And if you come to me and you say you got a problem with Mike, I’m gonna say hey, let’s call Mike. And you do that too.

James Greer (21:56):
Listen, if he hears you, you gain yourself a brother. So this is what you, you don’t gossip. Instead you go. If you don’t gossip and you go, you have the great opportunity of gaining. Don’t gossip. Go and gain. Don’t gossip. Go and gain. You know why we don’t do that? Because we think we’re smarter than God. Stop doing that. Stop doing it at home. Stop doing it on the job. Stop doing it in your own family. If you got a problem with somebody, go to them and go to them alone or don’t say anything at all. Amen. Matthew 5:43. We’re talking about the tricks of the devil. Tricks of the devil is you start thinking you’re smarter than God. You’ve heard it said you shall love your brother and hate your enemy. Oh, no, no, no. That’s not what you do. But I say to you love your enemy, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. Let me ask you this. If I said do y’all believe God’s Word, everybody would say amen. When was the last time you tried to bless your enemy and pray for him?

James Greer (23:15):
That is hard to do. Let me tell you what. When you pray for them, it’s hard to hate them. I know because I’ve done it before. I got people I just hate. Let’s say I just don’t like them very much. And man, when I pray for them, God begins to change my heart. Now I really don’t want to be good to them. I really don’t want to see them. But I know that God, listen, God be true and let every man be a liar. I can tell you that God’s Word is right. Even if I don’t do it, you should do it and God bless you for it. Fourth, fourth, that it’s okay, it’s okay to be good instead of great. Many people are settling for good instead of the best. Many people settle for coming to church instead of being the church. I did it for a big majority of my life. I’m what’s known as a late bloomer. I didn’t even go into ministry until I was in my 30s. Never went to a cemetery or seminary, whatever they call it. Never was able to do that. I didn’t read well enough to do that. I was lucky just to get here.

James Greer (24:49):
But what I missed out was the fullness of joy. When I did finally start coming, it was great. Listen, I love for you to come. I love to preach to people. But I know with all my heart that so many people that come to church and don’t learn to be the church miss out on what God has for them. And I’m not preaching this to get you to be part of the church. I’m preaching this where you can understand how to have the fullness of the church. In Romans 12:4 and 5, it says for we are many members in one body, not all members have the same office but we being many are one body in Christ. Later on in 1 Corinthians 12, it explains how it functions. In 1 Corinthians 12:14, it kind of explains it better. Let’s drop down to verse 14.

James Greer (25:50):
For in fact the body is not one member but many. That’s us. It’s the church. It’s not just one. We’re many. And it says if the foot should say because I’m not the hand, am I not the body? Is it therefore not the body? Of course not. And if the ear should say because I’m not the ear, am I not the body? Is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were the ear, well, they’re not hearing or if the whole or the hearing were not the smelling and it goes on. But if God has set the members, each one in the body just as it has pleased Him. Now what the Bible is trying to tell you is though you may not realize how important you are that everybody’s important. You may not think your big toe’s important, right? You do without it or drop something on it and you’ll see how important it is. Amen?

James Greer (27:06):
You ever put a little piece of dust in your eye and it really hurts. But what I’m really trying to tell you is this. It holds the body of Christ back. But more than anything, you miss it. You can come to church all your life and you know there’s something missing. It’s because you’re not connected completely to the body because you haven’t found your part of the body. You’ll never really realize what you’re missing until you connect. I pray that you’ll say hey God, where’s my part? Where should I connect? Satan will tell you that you don’t need to ever connect. That’s a lie. There’s many members in one body. Not all members have the same body part but we being many, we make up one. Sixth, today Satan would like to make you in the world think there’s not even a real hell. But there is a real hell. If you looked at Luke 16 and you would read the whole chapter, you would see how big of a, how true hell really is because you have to believe that the Bible is true and it’s the ultimate authority. It talks about there was a rich man in Luke 16:19. And there was a rich man. He had expensive clothes and every day he ate the best foods. But there was a poor beggar named Lazarus and he was brought through the gate of the rich man’s house.

James Greer (28:50):
And he was happy just to eat the scraps that fell from the rich man’s plate. And his body was covered in sores and the dogs kept coming up and licking them. And the poor man died and the angels took him to a place of honor next to Abraham which I think is Heaven. And the rich man also died and he was buried. And guess where he went? He went to hell. Where’d he go? Hell. And it was, it’s real. And there he’s suffered terribly. What goes on in hell? Suffering and it’s terrible. And when he looked up, he saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus at his side. And then he said this. He said to Abraham, have pity on me. Send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and touch my what? Tongue. He still had feelings. I suffer terribly. I’m in this fire. Hell is real. There’s a fire. Abraham answered, my friend, remember that while you lived and everything, he had everything good and Lazarus had everything bad. Now he is happy and you are in pain. I want you to know that it’s real. Besides you, there’s a ditch between us and there’s no way that you can go across it. Once you’re dead, you’re dead. You can’t go back to Heaven despite what everybody says. There’s no crossing it. But then the rich man said, Abraham, then please send Lazarus to my father’s house. Send somebody please and go tell them, let them warn my five brothers so they don’t come to this horrible place. Anybody’s that in hell doesn’t want anybody to go. And Abraham said, your brothers can read what Moses and the Prophets wrote. They should pay attention to them. Guess what?

James Greer (30:30):
Then the rich man said no, that’s not enough. If only that you from the dead would go to them, they would listen and they’d turn to God. And Abraham said if they wouldn’t pay attention to Moses and the Prophets, they’re not going to listen to somebody that comes back from the dead. And what he’s trying to say is this. I want you to know hell is real; hell is hot; in hell, there’s suffering; in hell, there’s feeling; in hell, there’s memories; hell, you don’t want anybody to go there. Anybody there doesn’t want anybody to come. I don’t know why in today’s society in church, hell is almost not even mentioned anymore. Every one of us, this side of hell owes, everybody that’s going to Heaven owes everybody the right to the Gospel where they don’t go to hell. It’s real.

James Greer (31:43):
Seventh and last, the devil doesn’t want us to believe that God’s ultimately in control. But He is. I don’t know what’s going on in your life today but I want you to know that God is in control. Proverbs 21:1 says the king’s heart is in the hands of Lord. Like the rivers of water, He turns it wherever He wishes. Now let me get ready to sum up. Number one, I think you should vote. Amen? If you hadn’t voted, vote. But I got an eye-opener for you. You ready? Trump is not in control. He’s nothing but a pawn in the hand of God. God will turn him whichever way he will to eventually accomplish His purpose. If Biden gets elected, Biden’s not in control. Let me tell you. God uses kings and presidents to ultimately accomplish His divine destiny. Amen? So relax. God is in control. God is in control of this country. He’s in control of the destiny of everything. And God’s in control of your life. Romans 8:28 says all things work together for good to them that are called according to His purpose. Whatever’s going on in your life, God can turn it around to something good. So relax. Amen? He takes every situation and turns it around. So in closing, I want to know, have you been tricked into believing that your situation is out of control?

James Greer (32:59):
If not, if so, turn it around and give it to God this morning. Amen?. Second of all, have you been believing the wrong authorities? Have you been to listen to somebody else and thinking hey, they’re right, they’re wrong? No, God’s Word is the ultimate authority. Whether you have fear, whether it’s worry, whether it’s marriage, whether it’s finance, let me tell you ,turn to God’s Word. He has the answer. Amen? Maybe you’ve been prejudice and today you need to confess it and forsake it. Maybe you’ve been coming to church and today you need to say God, I need to become the church and not only come to church.

James Greer (33:34):
And then maybe you’ve forgotten that hell is real. If you’re here today and you’re not sure that you’re going to miss hell, if you’re not sure that you would go to Heaven, in just a minute, Darrell will be down here. We may not have a direct invitation but you can mark that card and you can put it in the [inaudible]. You can wear a mask and hand it to him. I don’t think we’re going to have direct contact this morning. But if you just mark it and you say hey, I want to know that I’m going to Heaven, we’ll get with you and we can make sure that you go. What I’d hate more than anything else if you had come this morning and not sure that you know that you go to Heaven. Remember this, that the goal of sin and the goal of Satan is to bring separation.

James Greer (34:40):
He wants to separate you from God. He wants to separate you from each other. That’s why John 10:10 is so important. The thief came to steal, kill and destroy. But Jesus came that you could have a life and you could have it more abundantly. Satan’s trying to tear you apart. Jesus Christ is trying to pull you together. Would you stand and let me pray with you and pray for you? Father, I thank you for your Word. I thank you that you can expose Satan for the liar that he is, that he has no power over the Christians other than we believe the lie. God, we believe your Word because your Word will set us free.

James Greer (35:27):
God, I pray for those right now, maybe been blinded by him that their eyes would be open, that they would be free, free from worry, free from fear, free from worry about the future. Help them to know that you have the future in Your hands, that You’re in control. Help us to relax. You said all that worry and heavy laden coming to you and they could have rest. Give rest today. For those who want to come and join the church or follow through in baptism, let them take the card. Let them mark it. For those that want you to do a miracle in their life and press upon their heart what that miracle would be, begin to stir their hearts. Let them know there’s absolutely nothing too hard for you. Let us go out today, God, and become the church, not simply come to church. Give us a peace of surpasses all understanding. Father, let it have Your will and Your way in our life. In the precious name of Jesus. Amen.

Andrew Barber (36:44):
Thank you so much for joining us live here today. If you have any prayer requests, we have people on standby, ready to pray with you, to talk to you and to just walk you through whatever you’re walking. This weekend, we are having our Greatest Showman event, our Halloween special. Please be sure to be there. Bring your family. It’s going to be an incredible time. Also, be sure to join us next week right here as we start our brand new series.

Recorded in Pineville, Louisiana.