Frankie Mazzapica - The Devil's Playground
Thank you for tuning in today. My name's Frankie Mazzapica. The title of today's message is "The Devil's Playground," the devil's playground. If you ever watch children playing on the playground, they're having fun, first of all, and they're running freely from one "toy" to another. They run to the slide, and then they run to the swings, and they run to the merry-go-round. They just run freely, and they're laughing about it. Well, the enemy also has a playground where, if we're not careful, he just runs freely. He just does whatever he wants to do, and he has fun doing it. The playground that I'm speaking of are the thoughts in our minds.
If he can control your thoughts, he can move you around like I can just take a salt shaker from one side of the table and move it over here. Nobody has ever yelled at anyone, got angry at anyone without having a thought first. No one has ever sinned, no one has ever done anything bad without having a thought first. If the enemy can control your thoughts, your mind is his playground. He can control you. But the Bible says this in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 11. It says this. We are not unaware of the devil's schemes. Satan cannot outwit us. It's not like we don't know what he's doing. We know that he wants to play with our thoughts. We know that, but we're backing up and we're going, "Devil, I know what you're up to. I know what you're trying to do".
I saw something on social media. It was Mike Tyson sitting in an airplane, and this guy turns around from the seat in front of him and he starts yelling at Mike Tyson for no reason at all. "You're a nobody. You're a wimp. You're a sissy". Now, he was saying some real colorful adjectives, but I don't want to get into that. And he's yelling at him. "You're nothing. You just take steroids. You're a punk. You're this. You're that". And the guy in the next aisle over is videotaping the whole thing. And Mike Tyson looks at him and he says, "I know what you're trying to do to me and it's not going to happen".
See, Mike Tyson knew that this guy was trying to provoke him so that Tyson would punch him right in the face, but Mike knew... I call him Mike like we're friends. Mike knew that if he did punch him, that guy would be rich for the rest of his life. He would take so much money that Mike Tyson would feel it for the rest of his life. But Mike Tyson saw what he was trying to do and he's like, "No, no, no, no, no. I'm not going to let you do that to me". And so that's what the Bible's saying. Don't let Satan outwit you as if you don't know what he's doing.
So I have three major points for you. The first point is how the enemy tries to manipulate our mind. To manipulate someone is to get them to do something that they don't want to do. It's manipulation. The second thing I want to talk about is spiritual dryness. I'll explain that in a moment. And then thirdly I want to talk about how the Lord surprises us. All right, so let's talk about manipulation. And I've got some Play-Dough here, and I want you to just imagine that this is your brain. You remember that '80s, "This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs". But anyway, imagine this is your brain and this is your brain and the enemy knows, "If I can control that, I can control their life, their life".
He can control the trajectory of your life. And so he's after this. He wants to make your mind his playground. Now, what are some ways that he does that? Daily he uses this trick to stir up criticism, to look at someone and think in your head, "I can't believe they're doing that. I can't believe they're saying that. Look how she's dressed. Look at his nose. Look at her lips. Look at the way they walk. I can't believe they said what they said". Criticism. The moment he can get one of us to criticize someone else, he has stepped in and started moving your brain like Play-Dough. Your mind has become his playground. He's got you, and he can affect every single relationship that you're in. He can affect the first thought you think when you are lying in bed. Before you get out of bed, before you open your eyes, he's already messing with your mind. This is how he does it. You walk into work, criticize. You walk into there, criticize.
Look at her, look at him, look at that. Watch this. Your mind, our mind is really his playground when you think about yourself and criticize yourself. I'll get into that some other message. I don't want to chase that. But here, this is also not only criticism and manipulation, but he also tries to inflict you with fear. Now, fear, if you say, "Well, I don't have any fear," do you worry? Do you have anxiety? This is how he tries to manipulate your mind like Play-Dough. Now, watch this. Did you know that fear is an actual spirit? It is not an emotion. It is not a thought. Anxiety, worry, laying there, being consumed with something; this is not a thought, this is a spirit trying to take control of your mind.
You say, "Frankie, are you sure about that"? Yes, yes, I'm positive. "How so"? In 2 Timothy chapter 1, verse 7, the Bible says this. God says this. "I haven't given you a spirit of fear". So there, right off the bat we go, "Huh"? Fear is a spirit. Worry is a spirit. Anxiety is a spirit. And so now as soon as we begin to allow that to happen, we got to back up and go, "I know what you're trying to do to me. You're not tricking me. I know what you're up to". I have a friend of mine, and he was working out at this gym, and he was telling me, "Oh my goodness, there's this gorgeous girl at the gym," which is all fine and dandy until you realize he's married. And I looked at him and I said, "Don't you see what the enemy is trying to do? You're not being fooled, you know what he's trying to do". Are you with me? Say yes. He's trying to play with people's minds. We got to back up and go, "I know what you're doing, so now I have to quit this gym and go to another gym".
You see how that is? Or just lay down and do push-ups. But anyway, he's trying to mess with our mind like Play-Dough. Let me talk about dry seasons. When you're in the sanctuary of the Lord and you're worshiping him, the enemy has no strength in your life. This is why he tries to keep us out of the house of the Lord. Oftentimes we say, "Well, God's everywhere. I don't have to go to church". That's the omnipresence of God. That means if you get into a rocket, you can never leave the presence of God. But the sanctuary is where his presence dwells in a manifest way. You're going to experience him here. But when you leave, a lot of times you just feel dry. I had a friend of mine tell me one time that they were dry, she goes, "I've been dry for over a year".
Now, dry seasons, they make you feel like you are alone. You can be in a room full of people and still feel alone. I've heard single people say, "I wish I was married. I'd never feel alone again". All the married people start laughing. You see, there's certain troubles and problems that the enemy never stops doing, he never stops inflicting. He's always trying to get our mind to be a playground. And so he comes in and he afflicts your mind and says, "Look, God hasn't touched you in so long. You've prayed so many prayers and God hasn't moved. You know God is there but is he involved"? And he just keeps on messing with our mind. I want to say that this is a normal thing. You are not unique. Something bad isn't happening to you because you were bad. The Bible says this. In 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 12, Peter says, "Do not think something strange is happening to you when fiery trials come your way".
Notice he didn't say tough times. He said fiery. There are degrees of tough times. Are you with me? There's degrees. It's like you have a headache all day long. "Oh my God. Oh my goodness. Oh", and then somebody waves at you on the highway with one finger, okay? There are degrees, right? But then there are certain tough times when you don't even know if you're ever going to get out of it, and this is when... these are dry seasons. These are the dark nights of the soul, and the enemy comes in and he says, "Well, if God's not there, then your mind's about to become my playground 'cause I'm going to start mushing it around and laugh as I do it. Your mind is going to be like Play-Dough in my hands". When you can't feel the presence of God, remind yourself of the promises of God. You tell yourself promises, come on, put your hands together for that. I know it's hard.
If you're only going to write down one verse today, write down Matthew chapter 6, verse 6. It says this. "When you pray, go alone by yourself, shut the door behind you, and pray in secret. Your Father who sees everything will reward you". That's Matthew 6:6. When you get in your car, what do you do? You shut the door behind you. When you walk into your office, what do you do? You shut the door behind you. You walk into your house, you shut the door behind you. You walk into your room, you shut the door behind you. It says, "When you shut the door behind you, pray to the Lord in secret. I will reward you". So when you're praying in secret in those dry seasons, you're telling the enemy, "No, no, no, no, no. My mind's not going to be your playground. No, no, no, you're not going to manipulate my mind and play with it like Play-Dough. No, no, no, I'm going to keep praying because he promised he will reward me. He promised".
And you just keep saying that over and over again. "God, you promised you'd reward me. You promised you'd reward me. You promised". And then what is happening is the enemy loses his presence in your mind. You see, your mind can... it will only entertain one presence at a time. If you entertain a dark presence, then you push out the presence of the Lord. If you entertain the presence of the Lord, it pushes out the spirit of darkness. Oftentimes people don't pray because they don't know what to say, and so they just have in their heart this need to pray. But so often we forget how simple prayer is supposed to be. You can't pray anything more powerful than repeating, "I love you. I need you. I love you. I need you".
Sometimes when I'm driving, I look at the passenger seat of my car. I imagine Jesus is sitting there and I go, "You know I need you. You know I need you. You just saw that guy wave at me with one finger. You see what I'm wanting to do. You know I need you". You remind him of his promises. My father told me as a child, "If you ever lie to me, I'm going to beat you like a mule". Now, this was in the days where you could get a spanking without getting thrown in jail, all right? So my dad's Italian, so there is no time-outs. The only time-out you get is when you get knocked out and then you're lying there in time-out. So one day I hit my brother. He's younger than me, 2 years older than me. I just cracked him good. Well, my father found out about it and he is walking to me so fast. He looks like Robert De Niro.
If you've ever heard him preach here, he's got that look. His eyes are usually hazel. They were red as fire, and he's walking to me with anger. He is going to break me. I'm running and then I run out of room. My back is to the wall, and I said, "I hit him, I hit him, I hit him! I'm telling the truth. I'm not lying". And my father, it interrupted everything because I told the truth. You see, when I reminded my father of his promises, instead of being overwhelmed by the fear that I was feeling, I just said, "You promised, you promised". When you are looking to the Lord, you just say, "You promised. You promised. You promised". Come on, put your hands together for that. "You promised". The devil can't use your mind as Play-Dough. He can't allow your mind to become his playground.
Now, let's jump now to the third and final point. This is the times where the Lord just surprises us. He just blows our mind. Take a minute and think back on your life the certain moments where he blew your mind. I remember going to see Allie for the first time. I think I was 21 and she was 19. My mother in the Lord, her name is Jeanie, she went to go speak at another church in Canada, and I was living in Rockford, Illinois. She came back and she goes, "I met a girl that if I heard the Lord correctly, and maybe I didn't, but if I heard the Lord correctly, the Lord told me she's the one for Frankie". And so, having grown up on a playground playing with my friends, "Red Rover, Red Rover, bring that girl right over". So she calls up this girl and she says, "Hey, I want you to come visit me".
And I'm like, "This is sounding good". She comes down to visit, and I stood in the back of the sanctuary so that I could watch her. Usually I stand at the front. So she comes down and a mutual friend of ours walks her in. She comes down. She sets her Bible down and she raises her hands. Well, that's what I do. I'm not in the sanctuary for 2.1 seconds before my hands are raised. And I look over there and I'm watching her worship. I sit down and I take the tithes and offerings envelope out of the seat and I write on the back and I hand it to my friend and I said, "I'm going to marry that girl". I walk over there. I shake her hand and I said, "Hi. I'm Don Juan DeMarco, the greatest lover". No, I said, "Hi, I'm Frankie".
And three days later, we were dating. A year and a half later on Valentine's Day I proposed, and six months later after that we got married, and twenty-three years later she's there on the front row. How many of us we can go back to certain moments and just go, "God, you surprised me"? Sometimes the Lord will allow you to get fired from a job because you're too faithful to quit, and he'll pull the rug underneath you. He'll make you go through that, "Oh, what happened"? And he's got to move you along to get you to somewhere that's going to surprise you. And you may have been praying, "God, don't let me... no, no, no. Don't let them fire me, please". "No, I'm going to fire you 'cause I know you won't quit".
There's some country song out there where they say thank God for the prayers that he didn't answer, something like that. Unanswered prayers, you got the point. You got the point. Sometimes the Lord will not answer your prayer because he has a big surprise. There were girls that I thought, "I'm going to marry that girl. There's no doubt in my mind". And they kicked me to the curb. The Lord had a big surprise for me sitting right around the corner. Let me say this. The enemy wants to make your mind his playground, play with it like Play-Dough, to make you think that God does not have a plan for you, that he doesn't have that. But here's where a surprising scripture comes in.
In John chapter 15, verse 5, it says this. Many of you know it. "I am the vine. You are the branches. If you remain in me, you don't walk off and forget about me, get mad at me because I'm not doing what you want me to do. If you just stay put, you're going to produce much fruit. I'm going to make you successful. I'm going to make you successful". Two verses later, John 15, verse 7, it says this. When you produce a lot of fruit, when you are successful... now, successful, I know I don't need to say this 'cause I'm dealing with an intelligent congregation. Successful, this means that you have a family that gives you life, this means that there's a steady stream of income that's taking care of all your needs, this means that you're healthy. Every box starts getting checked. And he says this.
When you're bearing fruit, you bring a lot of glory to the Father, where you're saying, "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you". And you're looking for opportunities to say, "Look what the Lord has done". It's that, he wants you to say, "Look what the Lord has done". He wants you to say, "Thank you, thank you, thank you". He wants you, come on, he wants you to bear fruit. But what the enemy wants to do is he wants to come in and manipulate your mind and say, "Don't focus on God or heaven or anything eternal. Don't do that. I want you to focus on every goal that you have on this earth and devote every thought every day and all of your time towards pursuing it". But C.S. Lewis said this: "If you pursue heaven, the Lord will throw the earth in. But if you pursue the earth, you won't get either".