Evil destroys vision

We have taken a couple of weeks to “unmask” the Devil and his mission, evil. His strategy to destroy, his pattern of planting deception and assignment of inventing evil!

1.Evil seeks to destroy mission.

Luke 8:12 (NLT) "The seeds that fell on the footpath represent those who hear the message, only to have the devil come and take it away from their hearts and prevent them from believing and being saved."

1.These are the very words of Jesus telling us that we have an enemy on the loose and one of his missions is to oppose people's salvation!

1.God's mission:save, rescue humanity.

2.Evil's mission:destroy humanity, plant confusion, inspire unbelief, propagate dishonor, disrespect, and rebellion.

2.John 19 one of the accounts of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

John 19:28 (NLT)

Jesus knew that his mission was now finished, and to fulfill Scripture he said, "I am thirsty."

1.Christ's mission was fulfilled now we must fulfill ours.

1.What is God asking of you?

2.What has God planned for you?

3.           God had written out, blueprinted, and engineered "you for such a time as this."

2.Evil seeks to keep you masked, keep you faking your relationship in God so the world will never hear the message of Jesus, never hear about the hope of the cross, or the forgiveness of sins.

Illustrate here: baton

1.There is a mission desperately trying to be passed to you, there is a calling desperately seeking to overtake you, there is a gifting that God is seeking to pour out of you, are you ready?

1.Mission, calling, gifting and evil can not coexist!

2.Are you ready to be all that God has designed you to be?

3.Have you let go of all other things to just embrace Him?

John 8:44 (NLT) "For you are the children of your father the devil, and you love to do the evil things he does. He was a murderer from the beginning. He has always hated the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, it is consistent with his character; for he is a liar and the father of lies."

•                              The Devil cannot tell the truth!

•                  He is the ultimate liar!

•      Isn’t this ironic…the greatest lie of all is to be deceived and convinced that the Devil does not even exist!

•                  Atheist-person who does not believe in the existence of God.

•                  Agnostic-a person who claims neither faith nor disbelief in God.

Romans 1:28-32 (NLT)

"Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, He abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. [29] Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. [30] They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. [31] They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. [32] They know God's justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too."

1.Acknowledge God in your calling, acknowledge God in your finances, acknowledge God in your service, acknowledge God in your future, acknowledge God in your relationships, acknowledge God in and through all that you do.

1.God gives life and Satan takes it! 

2.So the only power that the Devil has and that sin has is what we allow it to have in our lives.

3.Don't give in to evil.

Psalm 23:4 (KJV) "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;"

1.God is with me.

2.God is as close as the mention of His name, His angels guard, protect and overshadow me.

Habakkuk 2:1-4 (NLT)

"I will climb up to my watchtower and stand at my guardpost. There I will wait to see what the Lord says and how he will answer my complaint. [2] Then the Lord said to me, "Write my answer plainly on tablets, so that a runner can carry the correct message to others. [3] This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed. [4] "Look at the proud! They trust in themselves, and their lives are crooked. But the righteous will live by their faithfulness to God."

1.Write the vision(answer)--which I am about to reveal to thee.

2.Make it plain--In large legible characters.

3.Upon tablets--boxwood tablets covered with wax, on which national affairs were engraved with an iron pen, and then hung up in public, at the prophets own houses, or at the temple, that those who passed might read them.

4.So that a runner may carry the correct message--commonly explained, so intelligible as to be easily read/understood by any one running past but then it would be, that he that runneth may read it.

1.Run your race for God to carry the correct message.

5.The vision is yet for an appointed time/future time--Though the time appointed by God for the fulfilment be future, it should be enough for your faith that God has spoken it.

2. Evil destroys vision

1.Evil in you will keep vision from you.

2.Evil destroys vision.

1.Di vision

2.Die vision

3.That's the Devil's job to keep you from envisioning better, to keep you from envisioning freedom, to keep you from envisioning God's perfect plan in your life.

1.If he continues to keep you distracted with the evil things of this world then he will keep the spiritual things, the vision, from you.

2.He will keep the vision from being fulfilled, he will keep the vision hidden, suppressed, keep you running without a message, keep you running without spiritual purpose.

Proverbs 29:18 (NLT)

"When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful."

Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) "Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he."

1.No vision means: no instruction in God's truth, no clarity in His plan, purpose, and will.

2.People perish--deprived of moral restraints.

1.Therefore sin to destroy them, eternally.

3.Obeys the law--has hold of it's understanding, and observes, instruction.

Galatians 1:4, NLT "Jesus gave His life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live."

1.If you are feeling overwhelmed, allow God to comfort you.

2.Every trial you endure will help you comfort other people who are suffering similar troubles. No matter what manner of evil you ever face God is bigger, God is more, God is close.

3.Evil disassembles the most admirable dreams, disrupts the greatest of plans, destroyed many a talented people and thwarts away the purest of motives.

4.Evil divides, evil disrupts, evil evades, evil confuses and evil dispels.

3. Evil will keep you from wisdom.

Proverbs 2:12-15 (NLT) "Wisdom will save you from evil people, from those whose words are twisted. [13] These men turn from the right way to walk down dark paths. [14] They take pleasure in doing wrong, and they enjoy the twisted ways of evil. [15] Their actions are crooked, and their ways are wrong."

1.Some people say I don't know how to make right decisions but that's not true, look around someone will guide you into the ways of God. 

2.Look closely, someone will guide you into wisdom.

3.Look closely someone will guide you into freedom. 

Illustrate here:masks. Use an evil mask to understand how you wear this all day yet this is not what you are. Wear a good mask to understand this is what you wear all day yet this is not what you are.