Sermon Central
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The Battlefield - The Mind Series
Contributed by Rick Pendleton on Oct 30, 2012 (message contributor)
Summary: Satan, our enemy, is a roaring lion seeking to devour us... but his point of attack is the mind. His attack is like the Japanese at Pearl Harbor... stealth.
The Battlefield
It was a picture-perfect, postcard morning. Light northeast trade winds played over the peaceful South Pacific harbor as an armada of cumulus clouds sailed proudly overhead. The U.S. sailors stationed there yawned and stretched to greet the lazy Sunday morning.
This idyllic setting seemed the least likely place in all the earth for a war to start,
but at five minutes till eight, the calm blanketing Pearl Harbor was slashed
by the ruthless propellers of enemy warplanes.
In a carefully planned strategy, 190 Japanese planes from 6 aircraft carriers swooped down from the cloud cover, diving to make their attack in coordinated waves of strafing and bombing. Around the island 25 submarines waited to pick off survivors of the air attack, while several two-man subs infiltrated the harbor to finish off the crippled U.S. fleet.
When the enemy strike force returned to the carriers and the smoke of battle cleared, 2,113 navy men and marines were dead, another 987 wounded.
The enemy's strategy had been meticulously planned, carefully coordinated, and almost flawlessly executed. With a loss of twenty-nine planes, five miniature submarines, and sixty-four men, the Japanese had sunk four U.S. battleships, badly damaged three more, and wounded an eighth. They had also demolished two destroyers and blown the bow off a third while putting several other warships permanently or temporarily out of commission
The island paradise of O’ahu, Hawaii is one of the least likely places on earth to be a battlefield. BUT IT WAS GROUND ZERO… the main battlefield in Japan’s war against the US because the enemy realized VICTORY WOULD BE WON OR LOST ON THAT CRUCIAL FIELD!
Their scheme was simple, shrewd and deadly.
Today, each of us faces an enemy whose scheme for our defeat is just as simple, just as shrewd and just as deadly.
The warning of Peter, in 1 Peter 1:8, reveals our enemy's strategy, or as Peter calls it… his scheme.
Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Pet. 5:8)
Japan’s scheme for Pearl Harbor was to take out their greatest enemy with an all out attack designed to destroy us.
Our Enemy… Satan… has the same desire for us.
As we see in this verse…
he prowls … Satan is RELENTLESS
devour … Satan is RUTHLESS
Satan does not want to pester you… or trip you up…
His plan is to DEVOUR… DISTROY YOU
In this passage Peter does not discuss the WHY… why Satan wants to devour us
The reason is the same as Japan’s attack on the US
To render the US ineffective, useless, powerless
A non player in the war
That would leave Japan the top dog in the Naval world
Satan wants to render us… you and me… the church… the people of God… ineffective, useless, powerless in the spiritual realm and leave him #1, top dog… free to carry out his plans to hurt God.
Peter does not address the WHY… He is speaking to the HOW
The word schemes in verse 11 is transliterated methodeia in the Greek. From this we get our word method.
If the US had viewed Japan as the enemy, they would have been more vigilant in monitoring their movements and they could never have moved the aircraft carriers into range to attack.
But we did not……….. so they did!!!
If the devil is our enemy, as 1 Peter 5:8 says, it stands to reason
HE-- WILL-- ATTACK-- US
AND
If he• will attack us, it further stands to reason that he will have a plan of attack-a scheme, a strategy.
And his strategy is to get to your mind ... To attack you in your mind…
Your reasoning
Your thinking
Your understanding
Your mind is Satan’s Pearl Harbor… if he can devour you there he will win the war… your actions.
If the US…… on Friday….. had intercepted a message from one of the aircraft carriers to one of the planes saying… “Everything is “go” for the attack on Pearl Harbor at 8 am on Sunday”… do you think things might have gone differently?
I hope so… if they had advance warning and still let it happen… that is treasonous.
Well, listen… I can tell you where Satan is going to attack you!!!
IN YOUR MIND
Satan does not want to attack your body… because he has lost too many battles there
JOB – NICK Vojecic Joni Erickson Tada Beethoven
It does no good to attack the body… if you cannot get the mind
But Satan knows… if he can get the mind… he will get the body
Have you ever heard the saying… God has no hands but your hands and no feet but your feet…?
Ain’t true!!! God can make any feet He needs, he does not need your’s… He uses them… but he is not limited to them.
