Michael Youssef - Your Enemy's Enneagram of Personality
Deception is one of your soul's enemy greatest weapon. Deception is rampant today. The danger of the enemy of our soul is that he never shoots straight. He never shoots straight. Even experienced leadership falls for some of his deceptions when they're not alert, when they're not alert. Unless we are constantly alert to the enemy's deception we're going to fall for it, and that is why Paul, in 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 11 said, "We are not ignorant of his designs," or of his tricks, of his deception. But like seasoned detective who studied the profile of a criminal, I'm going to show you Satan's profile.
In modern language, the enneagram of his personality. Like a seasoned detective who studies the criminal mind and the criminal character and the criminal purpose and the criminal method of operation, today I want to give you a sevenfold profile of Satan and the satanic work. Please if you're taking notes, jot them down. Here are the seven. Here's his first personality profile: question authority. You're not going to be surprised at this one. Join a church or attend church. Pretend to be sympathetic. He's a master forger. He loves celebrities and celebrity preachers. He's a manufacturer of sugar-coated poison pills. Finally, he never attacks from the front.
Question authority, especially God's authority, especially the authority of the Word of God. Are you not seeing it around you all day long? When the devil questioned God's authority, he was thrown out of heaven, and so, he wants Christ's followers to do the same. Satan did exactly the same thing with Adam and Eve in the garden. He did not come to Eve and said, "Hey, girl, if you obey me instead of God, you will be in the lake of fire with me in the end". That doesn't work. That's not how he operates. Nor did he even come and accuse God of lying. Read the words very carefully. He never accused God of lying. Instead, he led her to question, question, question. "Did God actually say that"? Hear me out, please. Satan's strategy never changed. He turns a command from the Word of God into a dialogue, into a debate. "Did God really say it this way? Did you hear God correctly? Did you really understand God rightly"?
You see, without making false allegation, he made it possible for Eve to debate in her mind the truth. What is Satan doing? He's breaking down Eve's defenses. He's breaking down Eve's defenses. If I have not seen it in the last 40 years, more than once, breaking down the defenses, denomination after denomination after denomination, now evangelical church after evangelical church, now Christian family after Christian family. "Did God really say, is that really relevant for today"? He's breaking the defenses. And once he start breaking the defenses, he's going to get you to question the commands. Sounds familiar? Hear me right, please. This is important. If Satan can get you debating an issue that has been settled in the Word of God, he is two-thirds of the way in. Are you with me?
If he can get you to believe that God only wants you to be happy and therefore it doesn't matter what you do as long as you're happy, he is more than two-thirds of the way in. Remember this. We all are tempted. We all are tempted. Your pastor gets tempted all the time. Every one of us. But the power of God that is poured in us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ will not only make us alert as to Satan's temptation, but he will give us the victory every time we prevail ourselves on that power. Second profile, Satan does not attack churches. He joins them. Did you know that? He joins the churches. If you fall in the trap of thinking that Satan looks at churches and say, "Oh, man, this is not a place for me. I don't want to hang around those people". You've been making a terrible mistake. Think again. Think again.
You see, Satan has already moved into many a church. He introduced his standards in many a church. Satan already convinced people to accept his standards. Satan turned falsehood into gospel. He has dispatched so many of his emissaries and he placed them in leadership in churches. Satan does not fight churches anymore. He joins them. The most dangerous lie is the one that resembles the truth. Are you surprised by that? No. Let me remind you of the principal text that we looked at last message. Acts 20, verse 28 to 30. Acts 20. "Pay careful attention", I wish those three words are written on every Christian leader in the world on the walls: pay careful attention. "Pay careful attention to yourselves and to the flock over whom God has placed you". Why? Why?
Oh, you notice he didn't say because they're going to, people are going to come from outside, you know, the secular society or the terrorists or this group or that group is going to come in and they really terrorize you. No, no, no. He said because wolves from among you will rise and they will not spare the flock. First one is...? The second one...? And the third one, he pretends to be sympathetic. Oh, he's very sympathetic. How many times have you heard someone says, "I got to find me a church that meets my needs"? Don't raise your hand. "I've just got to find me a church that meets my needs". Beloved, listen to me. This is satanic deception at its worst. I was going to say its best, but its worst. Why? Because there is no church, there is no pastor, there is no Bible teacher, there is no ministry, there is not a soul that can meet your needs except Jesus.
And if any ministry in this church is of any help to anybody, it is because it's centered on Jesus. And the Bible said if you worship God with all of your hearts, when you seek his kingdom and righteousness first, all of your needs, not some of them, all of your needs are going to be met by him. When a church begins to focus solely on meeting felt needs, they slowly but surely start excluding the Word of God from the picture. It just happens. But because ultimately the need seeker ends up discovering that this church and these promises are empty and hollow, this is false; because they will see how their felt needs really have not been met, they'll move on to another church, another need-meters church.
Beloved, having said this truth, listen to me, having said this truth, I must hasten to say that when a church... any church that loves Jesus, any church that worship Jesus alone, any church that obeys Jesus and his Word alone, any church, when a church is loyal to Jesus alone, the members of the church are able to bless each other. They're able to bless each other. Your enemy's profile first of all is what? Question... Second...? Third...? And fourthly, a master forger. I think I am somewhat, I want to be careful here. I'm somewhat discerning. Not very discerning, but at least somewhat discerning. But because Satan lived and served in the throne room of God, he can imitate God. He can imitate the voice of God. He can appear as an angel of light. That's what the Scripture said. Because he wants people to think that he's God.
What better way than deceive non-discerning Christians and they think they're hearing God when they're only hearing either their flesh or the enemy? And all in the areas where he controls, his domain, his domain, those who are under his authority; to them he doesn't just resemble God, he's God. That's why the Bible called him the god of this world. Don't ever forget that, Revelation 13:13. Don't forget that verse. Revelation 13:13 says that Satan's man, Satan's man the Antichrist, he will come and deceive the whole world. He's going to perform miracles. He really will. He said he's going to do great signs and wonders. In fact, it says, Revelation 13:13, that he will be able to call fire from heaven and people could say, "Wow, isn't he great"? The Antichrist will say to the non-discerning, "Do you want miracles? Oh, I can do miracles". Look at this. "Worship me".
Beloved, discernment is something that the enemy of your soul does not want you to have. Question authority, join churches, pretend to be sympathetic, a master forger. He loves celebrities. He really does. That's why he's so busy making celebrity preachers. Every time I look in the Christian press and I hear about preacher to the celebrities or celebrity preacher fall, I say, "Well, that's not surprised". You look at a drunk derelict in the streets and say, "Oh, this is Satan masterpiece". Of course Satan is the author of all evil, but I can promise you Satan wants nothing to do with that. He doesn't want that credit. He doesn't want that type of person to be associated with. He takes pride not in this type of person. No. Satan's masterpiece is someone who's accepted by the media, someone who's a rock star, someone who commands admiration and millions of screaming fans. That's Satan masterpiece; someone who holds high authority of leadership, someone who is progressive and teaches that the Bible is an archaic book, someone who never judges sin, even blatant sin.
Remember, he appears as an angel of light. In other words, he wants his followers to appear more loving than those pesky Christians. Someone who never prays in the name of Jesus in public because he or she is very sensitive toward those who are not Christians. "Don't offend them. Don't offend them". I'd rather offend them on earth and get them to heaven than have them go to hell and curse me for eternity. Satan's sixth profile, he is a manufacturer of sugar-coated poison pills. I read a story some time ago. Actually many years ago, several decades ago. It's a true story about a British art critic who is well-known. His name is Devin. Devin took his young daughter to the ocean one day in England, and he wanted to have a picnic and a swimming day for spending time with his daughter and he tried what he may to get his little girl to get into the chilly waters of the Atlantic but to no avail.
Let me tell you, done, put my feet in there once in the middle of summer and I ran out. It's cold. Finally he made a little fire and brought a kettle, and he boiled water on the fire. And with great drama and flair he said, "Look, honey," and he start pouring the boiling water into the ocean. "See, the water is warm now". And the little girl saw not the chilly water of the Atlantic but this boiling water in the kettle and cheerfully she ran into the ocean. Beloved, you can apply this to every area in life. You can apply it everywhere; to your business, to your personal relationships. For those of you singles, apply this to dating, to financial stewardship. Apply it everywhere because this little girl's story illustrates how the enemy of your soul holds up the sparkling one. He holds up the shiny one and he tempts you into ocean of falsehood and deception and many dive in.
Your enemy's personality profile, let's go through them again. Questions... join... pretend to be... a master... loves... manufacturer... Finally, as I come to the end, the seventh, he never attacks from the front. Never attacks from the front. At least there's some sins left for believers to condemn as a big sin, one of the big sins. Ah, but listen to me. There are socially-respectable sins and that's what he focuses on, especially for those who love the Lord and love the Word of God. Socially-acceptable sins. Why? Why they become socially-acceptable? Because they're so widespread that we got used to them. We just got used to them. Gossiping, unforgiveness, spiritual pride and jealousy, and the list goes on and on and on. Remember, Satan is not stupid. He really isn't. He knows that these are socially-acceptable sins. Ah, but listen. They can neutralize your effectiveness. They can neutralize your testimony. They can stifle the gospel. They can undermine Christian unity.
And so he comes in through these back doors. Why? Because he knows most Bible-believing Christians when their front door sins, as it were, when they fall for them they go through the painful experience or crying over their sin, repenting, and turning away from it. Ah, but these backdoor sins, we don't even notice them anymore. We don't notice them. Well, I want to conclude by telling you a story that was drummed in my ear as a boy growing up in Egypt. In the 5th century, a famous holy man used to spend his time in prayer, contemplation in the desert. So righteous was this man that Satan's assigned many demons to trap him, but they couldn't. They used the usual methods of lustful thought, fatigue that keep him from praying, or hunger that make him abandon his fast and all the usual stuff. And no matter what they threw at him, he had the victory.
Satan becomes annoyed with his demons so he took charge himself, personal charge. And the devil approached him very gently, very thoughtfully and he whispered in his ear to blindside him, and he whispered softly. He said, "You know, your brother has just been made the bishop of Alexandria". Instantly, that holy man's jaw stiffened and his eyes narrowed and his nostrils flare. "Bishop of Alexandria? My brother has been made a bishop of Alexandria. What an outrage". By the way, this is a legend. It's not real history, but they taught it to me as one. So I started that way, but I got to tell you the truth. But the point is made. The devil knows that he would get nowhere with this man with the big sins. This holy man sees it a mile away coming. And so he tailor-made socially-acceptable sin. He knew that this man was guarding against temptation of the flesh so he ambushed him this way. Watch out these socially-acceptable sins because they truly can neutralize your effectiveness.