Sermon Central
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Suppose You Were The Devil
Contributed by Dr. Odell Belger on Mar 22, 2022 (message contributor)
Summary: On some of the talk shows, like “Hannity and Colmes” on the Fox News Channel, we hear folks debating things and now and then they come to a topic that they both agree on.
To make the debate more exciting, one of them will say, "Let me play the devil’s advocate and ask you this question.” Then they will state the opposing view, to add some life to the debate.
As believers, we all agree on many things when it comes to God, the Bible, and the church. Let me play the devil’s advocate and ask you a question., Suppose you were the devil and you wanted to close down God’s church, HOW WOULD YOU GO ABOUT ACCOMPLISHING THIS?
Let me suggest three things I believe Satan is doing to close the church.
I. HE ATTACKS THE CHURCH ATTENDANCE
Illus: A man wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them! So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."
Signed: Missing the message.
This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:
"I've been married for 30 years now. In that time, my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals for me. But for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today. When you are DOWN to nothing... God is UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical AND our SPIRITUAL NOURISHMENT.”
The people of God have received a lot of help from church services. It is because they have received so much help, that no other organization or institution on the face of the earth can boast of such attendance as God’s Church.
Sometimes we hear a football fan boast and say of a football game, “We had 85,000 people in attendance.”
Now that is a good attendance and something to be proud of, but it is nothing compared to God’s church. Each week, millions of people attend the house of God to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, and this goes on year after year.
While the Lord is rejoicing over this, I can assure you the devil is not pleased and will do anything he can do to try and stop every Bible-believing, Bible-preaching church from doing the Lord’s work.
Our attendance tells a great deal about us and the God or gods we serve, for example:
• People who love football attend football games or make time to watch them on television.
• People who love car racing will attend the car races or make time to watch them on television.
• People who are materialistic will make time to shop at the malls.
WHY DO THEY MAKE TIME FOR THESE THINGS?
Because these are the things they love, and their life reflects that love.
Some would argue, attendance in God’s house does not always prove that someone loves God. And we would have to agree.
They would prove their point by saying:
• Some go to the game, not because they love football, but because they love to be around a big crowd of people, and we would have to confess this is true!
• Some go to the game because a husband might have asked a wife to go, and we would confess that they are most likely right about this also.
A person can go to such places and not go for the right reasons.
The question we would ask is,
• “If a person truly loves football, why wouldn’t they want to go to a football game?”
• “And if a person truly loves the Lord why wouldn’t they want to attend church?”
Sometimes you hear folks say, “I love the Lord but I do not attend church.”
They might say they love the Lord, but their lives say there are a lot of things in their life they love more than they love the Lord.
Illus: Suppose a man that had a family treated his family like this. He says he loves them, but a lot of nights he does not come home because he has more important things to do than go home. Listen, a marriage like this can not survive.
No housewife would be foolish enough to believe that her husband loved her if he missed coming home over and over again. If she did, she would prove to be very dumb.
