Craig Smith - The Enemy We Can't See
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Well, hey, we are going to dive right into Scripture today because the passage is not overly complicated. It’s not very long, but it deals with a subject that is a little unfamiliar. And so I need a little extra time to unpack what the Bible kind of assumes you and I understand. But a lot of times, in the modern church, we actually don’t understand this really important subject. It’s unfamiliar, and I would say too, I’ll go ahead and warn you, it’s not just unfamiliar for some of you; it’s going to be a little bit uncomfortable. It’s a subject that we often skip over. We skim over it, and I think that’s a mistake.
So even though I know it might make us a little bit uncomfortable, I think it’s better to be uncomfortable than unprepared. Amen? How many of you are ready to get a little uncomfortable if it means you’re not going to be unprepared? You going to do it? I’m not convinced yet, but we’re going to do that anyway.
If you want to grab your Bible, we’re going to be in 1 Thessalonians 2, starting in verse 17. 1 Thessalonians 2:17 says this: «But brothers and sisters, when we were orphaned by being separated from you for a short time in person, not in thought, we never stopped thinking about you. Out of our intense longing, we made every effort to see you. For we wanted to come to you; certainly I, Paul, did again and again, but Satan blocked our way.»
Now, if you’re just joining us, let me get you caught up. Here’s what’s going on: Paul has gone to the city of Thessalonica. It’s a Greek city. He has preached the gospel-the good news that God loves us, sent His son Jesus, who paid the price on the cross for our sin, and that we can have a relationship with Him if we put our faith in Jesus and what He did on the cross, right? And so it’s a relationship. As is often the case, then, religious people started messing with the relationship. You know what I’m talking about. Ain’t it kind of a shame that religious people are like, «Oh yeah, here’s how you get to God: Follow the rules.» I mean, sure, God’s got some rules; we’ve got some rules.
You know, we’ll probably come up with some more rules, and if you follow the rules, then maybe you can have a relationship with God. And yet the gospel says, «No, you have a relationship with God because God loves you and did all the work for you.» It’s not about being faithful to the rules; it’s just about putting your faith in Jesus. And then you have a relationship, which changes you and begins to make you a different kind of person. And so, you know, the rules are actually a result of the relationship. We start to live in accordance with the commands God’s given us because we have this relationship. But religion steps in and says, «No, no, no, the rules are the road to the relationship,» right?
And so Jesus is calling us into relationship; Paul came and he preached relationship, and then religious people messed up the relationship. Okay, anybody know what that’s like? Yeah, it happens, unfortunately, all too often. And so the religious people came in and drove Paul away from Thessalonica before he could even finish, you know, kind of teaching them the fundamentals of the Christian faith. And so Paul really wants to go back, but he hasn’t been able to do that. He keeps getting blocked. They drove him to the city of Berea, and then they followed him there and drove him farther than that.
And so he really wants to go back, but he keeps getting blocked. And I wonder, by a show of hands on all of our campuses, if you’re watching online, put it in the chat or the comments-how many of us know what it’s like to really want something? Maybe something that’s really good; maybe even something you assume God probably wants. Can’t imagine why He wouldn’t want this, and yet you keep getting blocked. How many of us know what that’s like? Yeah.
Here’s a question I want you to think about a little bit as we kind of get into this today: Who do you blame when you get blocked? When you find yourself in that experience and you get blocked, who-some of you are poking each other, right? Okay, 'cause yeah, I know. Here’s what happens: I think sometimes we blame ourselves, and then we just get discouraged, right? Sometimes we blame ourselves, and we get discouraged. We go, «It’s me, I’m not smart enough, I’m not strong enough, I’m just not good enough.» How many of us-can we be real? How many of us tend to blame ourselves and just get discouraged when we get blocked? Yeah. Okay.
Sometimes we blame God. Right? Sometimes we blame God, and when that happens, we get bitter. Okay, I think about this woman named Naomi. In Hebrew, the word Naomi means pleasant. Her name was pleasant, right? But she got blocked. She had a bunch of things she was looking to experience, and she got blocked. She got blocked because she left the place of the blessing. God had said, «Here’s where you’re going to be blessed,» and things got a little bit difficult there. They took off, and so she kind of lost out on the blessing. But it was their own fault; that’s not how she saw it. At one point — and you can read about this in the book of Ruth- she said, «Listen, don’t call me Naomi. Don’t call me pleasant anymore; call me Mara,» which means bitter.
She said, «Don’t call me pleasant; call me bitter, for the Lord has made me very bitter. The Almighty has made me bitter.» How many of us have some experience with blaming God and getting bitter? Yeah, glad it wasn’t just one person there; it’s really awkward if only one person is like, «Just me.» But you know there are a bunch of hands. We’re in good company. Okay, this is something we probably all have a little bit of a tendency to do. We blame ourselves, and we get discouraged. We blame God, and we get bitter. Or maybe the crowd favorite is we just blame others and get angry, right?
We blame others, and we get angry. We get blocked, and we look around and say, «It’s probably her fault. It’s probably his fault, right? It’s probably their fault.» We get angry. It’s interesting-James says you don’t have until you kill. You covet and cannot get what you want, and so you quarrel and fight, right? You create these divisions because what happens is we want something, we get blocked, and then we blame others and get angry. How many of us know what it’s like to get blocked and blame other people? Yeah.
Paul says there’s a fourth option-that there’s another place you can put the blame when you get blocked, and it’s one we sometimes overlook. I don’t know if you caught it. Can we put verse 18 up there again? «For we wanted to come to you. Certainly, I, Paul, did again and again, but Satan blocked our way.» He says it wasn’t God. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t even other people, which is really interesting because if you read in the book of Acts where we get the description of what actually happened, it’s kind of a surface-level historical description of what happened. It was actually other people — these religious people.
It was Jewish religious leaders who came in. In the description we have in the book of Acts, it’s Acts chapter 17. If you go there and look, there’s not a single mention of the devil or a demonic spirit. It’s just human beings. It’s just enemies you can see and touch. But what Paul says is, and it’s so important we understand this, and we overlook this so often.
Paul says, «Listen, the enemy we can see often reveals the enemy we can’t.» Are you with me, church? He says there’s an unseen reality-that there’s another realm that impacts the world we live in. We can’t see it; we can’t touch it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not real. Okay? The reality is we can get so fixated on the enemy we see that we forget about the enemy we can’t, who is very often the real source of the struggle. So He says, «Even though human beings were the instruments, they weren’t the instigators.» Are you with me?
The humans that came against me, the religious people, messed up the relationship, but they often do. They were the instruments; they weren’t the instigators. The enemy we can see reveals the enemy we can’t. And so I want to talk a little bit about spiritual warfare today. It actually permeates this section of the book of Thessalonians, and it’s a subject, honestly, we don’t talk about a lot in the modern church. It makes a lot of people uncomfortable because, you know, it’s like, «Wait a minute, we’re actually going to talk about demons? We’re going to talk about Satan as an actual thing and not as a mythological figure or, you know, just a mindset or something like that?» No, we’re actually going to say, «Yeah, no, they are actual creatures. They’re beings. They’re fallen angels, and they’re really part of the package that we experience in life.»
When it comes to dealing with the spiritual realm, I think what happens in the church very often is that we make one of two mistakes. They’re equally wrong, but they’re opposite kinds of mistakes. When we talk about spiritual warfare and the spiritual realm, mistake number one is we always blame the devil when we get blocked. You know anybody like that? Like, no matter what happens, they’re like, «The devil was coming against me.» Right? Like, «I’m sorry I was late, but the devil turned every stoplight his favorite color.» No, you’re just irresponsible and you left too late, right?
You know, «The devil’s always stirring up my co-workers against me.» No, you keep microwaving fish in the break room. Okay? «The devil came at me early this morning. I went to McDonald’s and he messed up my order.» No, that was an overworked, underpaid teenager. Now, if Chick-fil-A gets your order wrong, that might be the devil. That’s a different conversation, right? But that’s one of the mistakes we make; we can sometimes-and we probably know some people like that-right? Or maybe there are some churches that are like that. I didn’t grow up in one, but I’ve certainly encountered them. That’s the mistake: it’s always the devil. But it’s not always the devil.
Okay, listen, we live in a fallen world. Our sin has broken the world. Okay? And there are bad things that happen because we live in a world that has been separated from the God we’re supposed to be connected to. And so sometimes bad things happen, okay? It’s not necessarily that the devil whipped up a tornado. We broke creation with our sin. We’re supposed to be stewards of creation; we broke it.
Of course, creation’s out of whack; that’s not surprising. Okay? It doesn’t have to be a devil. Our bodies are broken; our minds are broken. There are mental illnesses, okay? There are mental thought patterns that say we’re broken. Okay? Other people are sinful, and sometimes they just do bad things because they’re sinful. And sometimes, listen, I love y’all, but sometimes you’re stupid. I know you are because I am. And you know, I love it when people say, «Well, everything happens for a reason.» Yeah, but sometimes the reason is that we’re dumb and we make bad decisions. It’s not a devil; there’s no demon involved in «I just was dumb.» Right? It’s not always a demon.
That’s mistake number one: we always blame the devil when we get blocked. But mistake number two is the opposite mistake, and it’s equally disastrous. That is that we never blame the devil when we get blocked; we live in ignorance of this reality that we actually experience, but we don’t understand that that’s what’s happening. It can happen for a lot of reasons. One of the reasons it happens, honestly, is that in the modern world, we are kind of uncomfortable talking about the devil.
Can I just tell you something? The devil’s real. He’s not God; he’s not the opposite of God. Sometimes people think the devil is like, you know, the bad God. He’s not. He’s a created being; he’s an angel. He’s a fallen angel. He’s powerful, but he’s not all-powerful. He knows some stuff, but he’s not all-knowing. He gets around, but he’s not all present in the way God is. But there are demonic spirits that are present in the world. We see Jesus interact with them.
And here’s what’s really interesting to me: I think it’s important to understand. Some people say, «No, well, that was just because they didn’t understand sickness. They didn’t understand germ theory. They didn’t understand mental illness. They didn’t understand weather.» No, no, no, no. It’s interesting. If you read the Bible carefully, you’re going to find that sometimes people go, «Yeah, that guy’s sick. There’s no spiritual reality to it; he’s just sick. Oh, her body is broken; she’s bleeding. It’s an issue of blood. It has nothing to do with the devil; it’s just a broken body because we live in a fallen world.»
But sometimes the Bible goes, «That’s a spirit.» This is a spiritual reality. It’s not just a physical issue; it’s a supernatural and not just a natural thing. The Bible actually distinguishes between those two things. And sometimes in the modern world, we end up never recognizing the role of our capital E enemy because we’re like, «Well, aren’t we past that?» No, it’s still the reality. One of the devil’s greatest tricks has been to get us to forget that he exists.
Listen, I grew up in church, but I grew up in the modern church, so I didn’t hear much about this. Nobody talked to me about the devil or demons, and that left me, I’m going to be honest with you, unprepared. I’m going to be really vulnerable and tell you that there was a season in my life early on in ministry where I was struggling with a depression that I just couldn’t shake. I tried all the things, and it just wouldn’t go away.
Then one day-and this is a long story made very short — through a series of things that I believe the Holy Spirit orchestrated, I had this wild understanding that I was actually dealing with a demonic spirit. I’m not comfortable with that, but I understood it, and I really sensed the Lord in it. So I was sitting in an office, and I said, «This is crazy, but if there’s an evil spirit that’s afflicting me, in the name of Jesus, get out.» And I want to tell you something: it left, and I can tell you what wall it went out of, and the depression lifted.
Now listen, and I want you to hear me on this: I am not saying that every time you’re depressed it’s the devil. I have been sad at other times when there was no demon involved, okay? I’ve worked with a lot of people struggling with depression, and there are a lot of reasons for it. It can be chemical imbalances; it absolutely can. It can be bad thought patterns; it absolutely can. It can be events that pile up on you, and they wear you down. Okay, it absolutely can be all those things, but it can also be demonic spirits, and we’ve got to be aware.
When I used to teach at the seminary, I would help the counselors try to understand that what they do is so valuable because a lot of it is about the way we think. And the Bible talks about retraining our minds and having the mind of Christ, and all these things. But listen, there’s this reality in the spiritual realm that sometimes we have to contend with. The Bible recognizes both sides of it, and if we don’t acknowledge one side, we might be very unprepared to help the people that God brings into our lives. I saw a girl delivered from anorexia. It’s another one of the scenarios because I began to become aware of this situation.
I was talking to her, and we were wrestling through some stuff, and I thought, «This is weird because your family history doesn’t lend itself to this. The way it plays out doesn’t lend itself to this. And you just told me your brother used to be anorexic, but then he stopped, and you started right after he stopped.» That was strange. I remember I looked at her and said, «This is so strange. This sounds so weird, and I’m sorry, but I wonder if maybe there’s a demonic spirit involved in this.» She asked, «Well, what do I do?» I said, «Well, in the name of Jesus, cast it out.» She said, «Okay,» but then looked at me panicked and signaled that she couldn’t speak.
I thought, «Uh-oh, I don’t like this. I want to go parse a Greek verb. I want to talk about the ontological quality and the functional subordination of the persons in the Trinity. I want to do some theology. I don’t want to deal with demons.» But I reached out and put my hand on her, saying, «In the name of Jesus, if there’s an evil spirit, I command you to leave.» She kind of jerked and was able to talk again. After that, she wasn’t anorexic.
Now, listen again: I do not go to Facebook and say, «Craig said that if you have an eating disorder, it’s a demon,» because that’s not what I’m saying. As a youth pastor, I work with dozens of girls who wrestle with eating disorders. This was the only one out of all those dozens that I actually think there was a spiritual entity involved. But the thing is, if we don’t have an awareness of it, then we’re not going to recognize it. And there’s no counseling technique that’s going to help when it’s a spiritual reality.
Do you understand what I’m saying? Two equal but opposite mistakes: we always blame the devil, and we never blame the devil. Unfortunately, because this is uncomfortable in the modern world, we often don’t teach on it enough. A couple of years ago, I was talking to someone who was new to faith, who had come to faith here. He was explaining something he experienced with his daughter, going to something I think up in Canada that was some kind of holistic healing. He said, «While we were there, we had these really weird visions and dreams, and it was super uncomfortable. What do you think?»
I said, «I don’t know. It sounds like you might have gotten involved with some demonic entities.» He looked at me and said, «We believe that.» I thought, " I may not teach on this enough.» I don’t go looking for opportunities to teach on this, but when the Bible talks about it, it’s interesting how matter-of- fact it is, isn’t it? «I really wanted to come see you, but Satan blocked my way.» Yes, they were human beings, but the enemy revealed an enemy that I couldn’t see, but I know about him.
Now, of course, the natural question at this point is: okay, how do we tell? Unfortunately, there is nowhere in the Bible that explicitly states, «Here’s the three-step process.» But here’s what the Bible does tell us: four things. You might want to write these down.
Number one: the Bible teaches us to live in awareness, to recognize that there is a spiritual reality, and that reality does impact us. The Bible teaches us to live in awareness. Honestly, just being aware means that we will recognize some things that we would otherwise have overlooked. We’re going to pray differently. We’re going to confront that with the authority of Jesus rather than a mental technique or even medication. Sometimes I’m not opposed to medications; understand, okay? It’s not always a demon. I’m so worried y’all are going to Facebook. Let’s just broaden our awareness. You understand what I’m saying?
Okay, the Bible teaches us to live with awareness.
Second thing, write this down: the Bible teaches us to ask for discernment. As a follower of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is in you. One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is the ability to discern spirits. Now, some people have that as their regular gift, just as some people have the spiritual gift of teaching, prophecy, hospitality, or encouragement.
Some people have the gift of discerning spirits. But the same Spirit who gives that gift to that individual on a normative basis can give the same gift to others, just as other people can be given the gift of teaching in a moment when they need it, or a gift of encouragement when they need it, or a gift of evangelism when they need it. It may not be their normative gift, but it’s the same Spirit who gives it. So, we can ask the Holy Spirit for the ability to discern, and we can simply ask the question, «Holy Spirit, if there’s a spiritual component to what’s happening here, would you open my eyes to it?» Okay, so we can ask for discernment. The Bible teaches us we should do that.
Number three, write this down: the Bible teaches us to pray for wisdom. Discernment helps us to know certain things. But even if we don’t know what the source is, wisdom tells us how to respond to the struggle. We don’t have to necessarily know what the source is. What we need is wisdom in terms of how to deal with this struggle, this issue that we' re confronting. The Holy Spirit can give us wisdom, whether it’s a spiritual force or just the reality of the world we live in, which has been so impacted by that spiritual force. We can pray for wisdom in terms of how to deal with it.
Fourth thing, write this down: the Bible teaches us to act with compassion. This is really important. It’s so interesting that Paul, who says, «Yeah, these human beings are the enemy I can see,» also recognized that there was an enemy behind them that he couldn’t see. He instructed his protege Timothy with these words: «Opponents- the enemies we can see — must be gently instructed.»
Pay attention to that: must be gently instructed. Opponents must be gently instructed in the hope that God will grant them repentance, leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses. That’s so interesting. He says they’re confused. The reason you’re in conflict with them is that they’re confused, that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will. That’s such a powerful verse. He says, «The enemy I can see reveals an enemy I can’t,» and I need to recognize that the enemy I can see is not the real enemy.
In Ephesians, Paul writes, " Our struggle isn’t against flesh and blood.» That may be the instruments, but they’re not the instigators. Our struggle isn’t against flesh and blood; it’s against the rulers and the principalities. It’s against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. He says the opponents-the ones we can see-they need to be instructed gently. They need to be treated with compassion because they’re confused. And that may not necessarily be because there’s a demon stirring their brains.
Anybody read this present darkness back in the Frank Petti? Weird imagery, right? Demons like stirring people’s brains. I don’t know; I don’t think that happens. But maybe some people have evil spirits that are kind of keeping them confused in that direct interaction. Maybe. But here’s the thing: It doesn’t have to be a demon directly interacting with a human being. The reality is we live in a world that is dominated by spiritual forces that are kind of messed up. And so we learn things, and we learn to think in ways, and we develop patterns, and we develop worldviews that are traps of the devil. And people think that way because they’ve been captured. Do you hear me?
And so we need compassion because we’re in conflict with people who have been captured, and they’re confused. So Paul says, «Yeah, the enemy I can see.» It just reminds me that there’s an enemy I can’t, and that’s where the real fight is. So he says, «Uh, listen.» And this feels like it’s kind of out of left field; it feels like out of nowhere, but it’s actually a continuation. He says, «For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy.» And when I was first reading that, I thought a couple of things.
Number one, I thought, like, what does this have to do with what he just came from? He’s going to go back to talking about the devil again. Okay, this whole thing is about spiritual warfare, but it seems like in the middle of it, he’s got this little aside where he’s like, «Oh, by the way, we love you guys so much.»
That was my first thought. My second thought was, «Man, Paul, you’re laying it on a little thick here, right? It’s kind of syrupy, isn’t it? For who is our glory and joy but you? Man, that’s syrupy.» And then I realized it’s not syrup; it’s strategy. This is actually a spiritual warfare thing. He’s continuing the theme of spiritual warfare because what he’s recognizing is that the devil doesn’t always block.
Okay, see, sometimes the devil blocks, and sometimes he beckons. Sometimes the devil puts up a roadblock so it’s hard to get through, but sometimes he says, «Rather than trying to block you, I’m just going to go, 'Hey, come over here. You don’t want to go that way; that’s too hard; that’s too much. Right? Let’s go over here.'» And sometimes he makes it easier. And what’s interesting is that sometimes he makes it easier over here, and it’s not necessarily that he’s leading you to a bad thing. We always think, «Well, all the devil does is he takes us into sin.» That’s not true.
Sometimes the devil says, «Hey, I understand God’s got you on that road, but that road’s awfully hard. There’s nothing wrong with this road. You’re not going to go into sin; you’re not going to walk away from Jesus, but it’s a whole lot easier to go over here and do this, so let’s just make that easier.» Right? Like, there’s a sport in the Olympics-I don’t even understand why it’s in the Olympics-so I’m going to offend a bunch of people here-but curling, you know what I’m talking about? Like, it’s a weird sport, right?
I mean, there’s a guy who pushes a big metal thing on ice, and I’m sorry, like, the other guys are real athletes. I’m sorry, I don’t know what you are — you’re a pusher of fairly slippery objects on slippery ice. That’s that guy. And then there’s the janitors, right? Then there’s the guys with brooms, and they’re like, «What? What are you doing?» But do you understand what’s happening? You don’t understand what they’re doing; they’re actually making it easier for the thing to go in the direction they want it to go.
Can I tell you the devil loves curling? I think the devil put curling in the Olympics, right? But that’s what he does sometimes. He doesn’t block; he just beckons. He goes, «Let me make it easier for you to go over here.» And see, for Paul, Paul knew I’m called to go back. I’ve got to go back and see the Thessalonians because I didn’t finish what I started there, right? I’ve got to give them some more doctrinal development. I’ve got to give them some more encouragement. I’ve got to get them ready. I just gave them the basics. I got them started, but they’re not-I’ve got to go back.
God’s calling me back, and the devil’s blocking him. But also, the devil, I think at the same time, was beckoning him, going, «You know what? That’s too hard. They keep getting in your way, and man, that’s really delaying you. Just-there’s another city that needs to hear the gospel. Why don’t you just go over there? Why don’t you head over there and go into that place?» It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s not the assignment. It’s not the call. Do you understand what I’m saying? I was in a season, just not all that long ago, honestly, that I was tired. I was feeling a little burned out. There was a lot going on.
There was church stuff; there was family stuff. I was just getting a little worn out. And all of a sudden, in the middle of that, I got a call, and I got a job offer. And I’m going to be real with you-15 years ago, if that job offer had come, I would have killed for it because I said it that way: 15 years ago, I would have said, «That’s like the highest possible thing I could do. If I could do that job, I would have arrived.» I would have done it, and it came right in the season. I was like, «That would be a lot easier than what I’m doing.»
And I realized it wasn’t a bad thing; it would have been a good thing, but it wouldn’t have been the God thing. It wasn’t what God had been calling-just so you know, I said no. I don’t know if you’re excited about that or disappointed by that, but that’s off the table, okay? It’s done. They already filled the position. But it was interesting in that moment; I realized it wasn’t so much that God was blocking me or the devil was blocking me. It was that I was being beckoned somewhere, and I just kind of wanted to do it because, like, that’d be a whole lot easier.
And so I don’t know who needs to hear this, but can I tell this because somebody does need to hear it? That opportunity you’re entertaining, it’s not from Jesus. It’s easier. It might look real attractive, and it doesn’t look wrong, but it’s not from God. I don’t know who needs to hear that, but somebody does. And every time I do that, somebody comes and says, «That was me. I felt like God told me to tell you that,» because somebody needed to hear it.
Paul said, «Listen, when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens. And so we sent Timothy, who is our brother and our coworker in God’s service in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them.»
Can I say that again? I didn’t want anybody to be unsettled by these trials. For you know quite well that we are destined for them. In fact, when we were with you, we kept telling you that we would be persecuted, and it turned out that way, as you well know. And here’s what’s so interesting to me: there’s a lot that Paul hasn’t done yet. There’s a lot of doctrinal development that he hasn’t been able to accomplish, and we’re going to see it as we continue on in this book. He’s going to say, «Yeah, I didn’t get a chance to tell you what happens after we die. I didn’t get a chance to tell you any of the details about what’s going to happen when Jesus comes back.»
And some of you are quitting your jobs because you think it’s going to happen tomorrow, and I didn’t say it was going to happen tomorrow, but you’re like, «He’s coming back, so we should just get the welcoming party ready,» you know? Like, «We’ll just quit our jobs, and we’ll just stand around looking up in the sky, I guess. I don’t know.» He’s like, «I didn’t get a chance to tell you how to handle this.»
There’s a lot of important doctrinal development he didn’t get to, but he says, «I did tell you this: you’re going to be persecuted.» In fact, he didn’t say, «I told you that.» Did you catch it? He said, «We kept telling you.» He said, «I told you over and over again.» And by the way, the reason Paul told them over and over again was because that’s what Jesus said, right? My least favorite verse in the Bible- is it okay to have a least favorite verse in the Bible? I feel like if you have a favorite verse, you’re just naturally going to have a least favorite verse. I’ll tell you what mine is if you don’t already know. It’s when Jesus said, «In this world, you will have trouble.» You’re like, «Jesus, you need to take a marketing class; that is not how you sell.»
What’s your offering? «Come follow me; it’s going to get hard.» But Jesus said it, and Paul repeated it. In fact, he said, «I kept telling you.» Why? Because what we expect, we can endure. The human heart is capable of handling a lot of hard things if we know it’s coming. It’s when we’re surprised by it that we’re undone by it. It’s when we’re unprepared for it that we’re destroyed by it. I mean, listen, I like a good roller coaster. Anybody else?
I love a good roller coaster. And my favorite part of the roller coaster is when you peek over that top and you drop and your stomach goes into your throat. I love that; that’s one of my favorite things because I was prepared for it. You know, we’re going click, click, click, click, click, click, click. I mean, the whole time you’re like, «It’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming.» And then when it happens, you’re like, «I got this.» I was on a plane the other day, and we were somewhere over Kansas, and the plane dropped to like, I don’t know, 10 or 20 feet. And I’m going to be honest with you; a noise came out of my throat that I cannot repeat because it was at a pitch that I did not think myself capable of producing.
It was like a four-year-old girl took control of my body and shrieked. It was the same feeling — my stomach went into my throat. I love it on a roller coaster; I hated it on a plane. Why? Because I wasn’t prepared for it; I didn’t expect it. Now, after that, I knew it was coming, so I was cool. Just so you know, I reclaimed my masculinity after that. It happened a few more times, but I was good because I was expecting it, right? What we expect, we can endure.
So Jesus said, «You need to understand it’s going to happen.» And Paul said, «You need to understand it’s going to happen.» Now, that’s why they told them. But why does it happen? Because the moment you say yes to Jesus, your sins get forgiven. Is that good news for anybody? The moment you get forgiven, you get adopted into God’s family. Is that good news for anybody? The moment you get forgiven, the Holy Spirit comes into you. Is that good news for anybody? Yeah.
Here’s the problem: when the Holy Spirit comes, suddenly the spirit that is in the world recognizes that the spirit in you is not the same as the spirit in the world, and you become a foreign object. There’s a spiritual immune system in operation in the world, and when it recognizes that you’re no longer part of the world, the immune system starts to kick in to get you out. I know this is super unflattering, but the problem is that when you say yes to Jesus, you become a virus in the world, and the world comes against you. It’s just what happens. You understand? It’s just what happens.
And it’s so interesting to me. I think partly because we live in an era that, for a long time, the culture around us, at least on the surface, has been Christian. I would say it hasn’t really been Christian, but it had the veneer of it at least. So we didn’t get all the same persecution here. There are parts of the world where they’ve always been experiencing this, but we haven’t had a lot of it lately. But in the last few years, more and more, it’s beginning to happen, and stuff’s going on in schools and at governments, and Christians are kind of coming under fire. It’s so interesting to me; Christians today are getting so offended. Like, what’s wrong? I can’t believe they would come against me like this! I’ve never heard a virus do that.
Just so you know, viruses don’t get offended when the immune system targets them. And Christians — look, I love us, but let’s be real -sometimes we get really whiny. We get so whiny about it. I’ve never heard a virus whine: «The immune system keeps coming after me! The government over there, and the school, and the teachers-why?» Why do we expect redeemed behavior from unredeemed people? Why do we expect approval from people who don’t have the same spirit that we do?
It’s interesting; I’ve never heard a virus whine or complain. You know what viruses concentrate on? Rapid replication, making other viruses. That’s a weird way to bring up the topic of evangelism, but it’s not a bad way. That’s what we need to be focused on: living on mission with Jesus. But the reality is that when you said yes to Jesus and the Spirit of God came into you, the spirit of the world started to recognize you are not one of us anymore. So, of course, this is going to happen. Honestly, it’s a good thing, because if it doesn’t happen, then we look too much like the world that we’re not supposed to be one of.
Paul says, «For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith, and I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labors might have been in vain.» By the way, you might have to underline those words «in some way.» A lot of translations of the Bible actually don’t translate it. It’s a single, very small word -just three letters in Greek. It’s a very small word. A lot of translations just go, «I was afraid the tempter might have tempted you.» But there’s a really powerful but very tiny word in the original Greek that the NIV translates. It says «in some way»; it means if it was at all possible that the devil would have found it. Because what he’s saying is, it’s so important that we understand this: if there’s a way, the devil’s going to find it. Do you hear me?
If there’s a way to tempt you, the devil’s going to find it. He can’t take you; he can’t pick you up and carry you off. But if there’s a way to tempt you, he’s going to find it. If there’s a way, the devil’s going to find it. He’s good at it; it’s what he does, right? I mean, for Cain, it was nursing grudges. For Lot’s wife, it was a preoccupation with the past. For Joseph’s brothers, it was jealousy. For Samson, it was sex. For Saul, it was insecurity. For David, it was power. For Judas, it was money. For Peter, it was a preoccupation with glory. For Ananias and Sapphira, it was a seeking after public praise.
If there’s a way, the devil’s going to find it. That’s the bad news. The good news is God has a way out for every way in the devil tries. For every way the devil tries to get a hold of you, God has a way out. 1 Corinthians says, «No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind.» «Oh, but it’s so much worse today than it’s ever been.» No, it isn’t. «Yeah, but they’re saying things about Christians over here.» Yeah, they used to throw Christians to lions. It’s not worse. This is the way it works when you follow Jesus. But God is faithful, He says, and He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. God’s got a way out for every way in the devil tries.
And so here’s a question that we need to ask ourselves: What’s my way? Because He says so that you can endure it, and we can endure what we expect. So we need to identify; we need the Holy Spirit to help us identify those places in the armor where there’s a weakness, right? Where that’s where the devil’s most likely to try to get in.
So we need to ask the question, what’s my way? Is it a preoccupation with praise? It’s got you checking your Facebook post every couple of minutes to see how many people liked it. Is it a keeping up with the Joneses kind of thing where you’re going into debt to make sure that your car is as nice as your neighbor’s? Is it an internet compulsion that stays up later than your conviction? Is it a hunger for experiences that cause you to go into debt so that you can take that trip that you saw that influencer take on YouTube? Is it a substance that you turn to for soothing instead of God’s Spirit? What’s your way? Because there’s an enemy who is pretty good at finding it, and the enemy we can see, Paul says, often reveals; the enemy we can’t.
Let me give you something really encouraging, though. Can we put up verse 18 again? We skipped over this, but I want to make sure we don’t miss it. He says, " For we wanted to come to you. Certainly I, Paul, did again and again, but Satan blocked our way.» I don’t actually love that translation. I don’t like the word blocked. It’s not wrong, but there’s a nuance to it that doesn’t really come across in English. The Greek word that gets translated blocked there is actually a Greek word for digging ditches. And it’s a specific act of digging ditches, not to make irrigation, but people would dig ditches to keep armies from coming. Because if you dig a deep enough ditch, then people, you know, if they have to go into it and come back out of it, then they’re sort of defenseless in the process of climbing up out of it. The horses can’t get into it; the chariots can’t roll over it.
And so you dig a deep enough ditch, and the army has to take a detour, right? It has to go somewhere else. And the hope is that it will wear them down, or maybe they’ll just go, «This is just too hard. We’re going to stop doing it.» And that’s the word that he uses. It really is blocking by digging ditches. And so what Paul really says is, «I really wanted to come see you, but the devil kept digging ditches.»
And that’s what the devil does. He can’t take you, so he’ll tempt you. If he can’t stop you, he’ll try to slow you. If he can’t destroy you, he’ll try to send you on a detour in the hopes that you get discouraged and you just give up. But can I tell you something? A detour is not a dead end. You hear me, church? And some of you are facing something that feels like a roadblock. It’s not a roadblock; it’s a ditch the devil dug. And you’re going, «But to get where I think God’s called me, it’s going to take a lot longer, and it’s going to be a lot harder, and I got to go over there; I got to do this.» I want to inspire.
Listen, a detour is not a dead end. I know you lost your job and you haven’t been able to find one. A detour is not a dead end, though. You couldn’t get into the school you were hoping to get into. It’s a detour. And a detour is not a dead end. You couldn’t get the financial aid package that you thought you were going to get, which would allow you to go to that school. It’s a detour. But a detour is not a dead end. Your kid has walked away from you, and it feels like the relationship is over. It’s a detour. And a detour is not a dead end. Maybe your kid has walked away from the faith, and their lifestyle is keeping you awake at night.
It’s a detour, and a detour is not a dead end. You’ve been sober for two years, and you slipped. A detour is not a dead end. Your kids are out of the house, and you’re looking at your spouse, realizing you haven’t invested in your marriage in 20 years, and you don’t know who you are, and you can’t for the life of you remember why you married them. And your marriage is a mess. But a detour is not a dead end. Amen. Tell somebody a detour is not a dead end. Tell somebody it looks like a dead end, but it’s a detour.
God, I want to pray that you would plant this deep in our hearts. We have a spiritual enemy, and sometimes the enemy we’ve been focused on is not the enemy we should have been fighting against. Give us awareness. Give us discernment. Give us wisdom. Give us compassion. Lord, some of us have been facing what feels like an immovable obstacle that the enemy has thrown up. And I pray that you’d plant this deep in our hearts: a detour is not a dead end. We’ve got to keep pushing. We’ve got to keep trying. We’ve got to keep praying. We’ve got to keep trusting. And I don’t know who needs to hear that, Lord, but I pray that you would pour strength into them in this moment like they have never experienced. Whisper that truth. Shout that truth into their hearts right now. The devil dug a ditch, and it is a detour, but that’s all it is. It is not a dead end. Keep trusting me. Keep moving forward. God, we know that our greatest weapon against the enemy is not a preoccupation with the enemy but a preoccupation with you. It’s a focus on you. It is praise that is our greatest weapon. And so, Lord, as we close out the service right now, as we enter into a moment of praise, would you fill this place and every place where people are watching with your presence in a way that we sense, feel, and find courage for the real battle that we face in the world? In Jesus' name, Amen.