Hello, and welcome to Session 4 of No Other Gods at Heart to Heart! We have made some wonderful progress so far, and this week, we will expose some of Satan’s most effective weapons against us – lies, deception, intimidation, and subtle infiltration. We will then learn how to put a halt to his tactics while using the Truth in God’s Word to be set free!
One of the most important discoveries we made this week is the difference between lies and deception. They go hand in hand, but there is a subtle difference. We know that Satan is a big fat liar and the father of lies. There is no truth in him! We may not always recognize his lies, and if we are not steeped in Truth, we can easily be deceived and ensnared by his traps. If we begin to believe his lies that contradict God’s Word, we can be buried in a mound of defeat and bondage.
On the other hand, what is even more dangerous is when Satan uses true statements, or partial truths, and twists them into a pretzel. He may tell us true things, but not for the purpose of leading us to Truth. He will use them to subtly lead us down a dangerous path. For example, Satan may use true statements about God’s love and grace in order to convince you to make excuses for sin. “Go ahead; God will understand. He accepts and loves you, so go ahead and do what you want. (Here is where he twists it.) His Word was written for an ancient culture and doesn’t apply to today’s standards.” He wants you to think it is OK to indulge your flesh without any restrictions, but he doesn’t want you to be aware of the consequences that could ultimately ruin your life. He used a truth to bring deception.
You may have been rejected by someone who is broken, and that would be a true statement Satan would capitalize on. However, he will then use that to make you believe that you are unlovable and that no one will ever love you.
Or, he may use a truth that perhaps you don’t have enough money to pay your bills, but then he may lead you to believe you are going to lose everything and that nothing good will ever happen for you. He wants you to believe that God is not good and doesn’t care for you. He doesn’t want you to know that God is going to provide for your needs and use that situation to teach you something valuable about stewardship and trust.
It is much easier to recognize a lie that is 180 degrees away from the truth, but when the devil turns a truth just a few degrees to the left or to the right, we can be thrown completely off course. That is why he is the master of deception! The difference, hence, is that deception often involves a twisting of the truth that is more subtle and more difficult to recognize than a full out lie, and he uses it to bring confusion and lead us astray.
Here is one way to look at it. I work at LifeWay Christian Store, and when someone pays for their order using a large bill, we have tactics to ensure that the bill is legitimate. For example, If someone gave me a $100 bill with a picture of Donald Duck wearing sun glasses, I would immediately know it is a forgery and would not accept it. However, if one of the more obscure markers is missing from the bill, it might slip by if I had not been trained to know what to look for. That is how Satan tries to slip thoughts and ideas by us that veer us away from the Truth in God’s Word that sets us free.
In the story of Sennacherib, the King of Assyria, attacking Judah in 2 Chronicles 32, he used lies to intimidate God’s people. His method of warfare was a form of mental torture with the intent of instilling fear and terror into the hearts of his enemy so they would give up and just quit. Doesn’t he sound an awful lot like our adversary? He bombarded them with lies that God was not able to deliver them, and that they would be slaughtered just like every other enemy of the Assyrians before them.
Hezekiah, on the other hand, was a man of God who would not be intimidated by Sennacherib’s bullying tactics. He encouraged the people by simply declaring the truth. He shouted to them:
“Be strong and courageous!Don’t be afraid or discouraged before the king of Assyria or before the large army that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. He has only human strength, but we have the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles…” 2 Chronicles 32:7-8a CSB
And, God did it too! Verses 20-21 tell us that Hezekiah and Isaiah prayed to God, and He sent an angel to destroy the Assyrian army. The people could have been intimidated by Sennacherib’s lies and fallen into a pit of defeat and bondage, but they were emboldened by the truth about God.
This works the same way for us today too. Satan will try everything he can to bully and intimidate us so that we will be drawn to anything but God, and he does this most often by using deception. However, God has given us a sure-fire way to protect ourselves and be free from the bondage our idols can cause. It is vital for us to be so saturated in God’s Word, meditating on it day and night, so that we can have every spiritual weapon necessary in our arsenal to defeat our enemy and be free.
One more word of warning is that Satan uses “screens” in our modern day and time more often than just about anything else to infiltrate our thinking. Social media and television can be positive influences to spread the Gospel, but these are also areas where we are often too willing to compromise and allow Satan’s lies to trickle in to our hearts and minds.
If we are not vigilant about guarding our hearts and minds and allow the doors to remain open, the devil will subtly but surely gain a foothold. Worse yet, if we spend more time drinking in the values of our culture that contradict God’s Word much more than we do meditating on Scripture to guide our lives, we will become spiritually anemic and weak. This is what opens the doors to idols and false gods that can become such a stronghold in our lives and pull us away from intimacy with our Creator.
Our answers and our remedy are found exclusively in God’s Word! Everything we need is right there! I recommend searching the Scriptures on pp. 78-79 in the study book to reveal how we can close the doors to negative influences and be steeped in Truth instead. John 8:32 says, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
This is our focus Scripture of the week:
All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 CSB
Have a blessed week and enjoy our small group discussions this week!
Session Four Discussion Questions
ICE BREAKER: Summer is right around the corner! What are some things you look forward to most in the summer?
“…He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44b CSB
QUESTION 1: Satan is a big fat liar; that is true! However, sometimes he uses true things, but he never uses them to lead a person to the truth. In the Garden of Eden, Satan made true, or partially-true, statements to Eve, but he twisted God’s Words in order to deceive her and entice her to disobey. Some have said that this kind of deception is more dangerous than blatant lies. Why do you think that is? What is the difference? Have you ever experienced this personally?
“He has only human strength, but we have the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles…” 2 Chronicles 32:8a CSB
“You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4 CSB
QUESTION 2: Intimidation is another weapon Satan uses against us. How does Satan use lies to try to intimidate us? Why might this drive us to false gods? Have you ever experience this personally?
“…I want you to be wise about what is good, and yet innocent about what is evil.” Romans 16:19b
QUESTION 3: On Day 4, we read about the dangers of leaving the doors to our hearts and minds open to various kinds of screens, such as TV, social media, phones, computers, etc. One point Kelly made was that it is not all bad. There is actually some good! It’s awesome to see the Word of God being proclaimed across social media, such as we are doing right now. However, it is important for us to be vigilant about filtering our hearts and minds from allowing certain content or images to influence us negatively.
What is the danger of leaving the doors of our hearts and minds open to screens? Which unfiltered screen has the most damaging effect on you?
“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed…” 2 Timothy 3:14a CSB
“You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” John 8:32 CSB
QUESTION 4: God has given us a sure-fire weapon against Satan’s lies and deception, and that is the Truth of God’s Word. Are you currently dwelling or abiding in the Word of God? What is your biggest hindrance to spending time in Scripture? Why is it so important that we do so?
All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 CSB
QUESTION 5: What truth from this week had the greatest impact on you? Why?
BONUS if time)
QUESTION 6: What is comparison thinking? How have you allowed yourself to be discouraged, discontented, or trapped in this kind of thinking? What can we do to overcome this kind of thinking?
Reading Schedule
- May 14 – 20: Read Session 4, pp. 63-87; Small groups: Discuss Session 3
- May 21 – 27: Read Session 5, pp. 89-113; Small groups: Discuss Session 4
- May 28 – June 3: Read Session 6, pp. 115-139; Small groups: Discuss Session 5
- June 4 – 10: Read Session 7, pp. 141-165; Small groups: Discuss Session 6
- June 11 – 17: Read Session 8, pp. 167-193; Small groups: Discuss Session 7
- June 18 – 23: Catch up and complete study; Small groups: Discuss Session 8
How to Participate
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Have a blessed week!
