Coloring Sheets:

Hey friends, if you have children check your email from Laura for coloring sheets for your kids to have during the sermon today. If we find a way to post them elsewhere we will let you know. So, pay attention in the Facebook Comments for a word from our team on where you can find them and then you can print them out for your children to give them something to do during ther sermon!! [ you may wanna color them, too!! LOL]

It took a while before we recognized that we even had an enemy. Many said it was a fiction or a hoax, but nearly all of us are convinced that there is deadly unseen deadly enemy among us called the Corona Virus.

“It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him.” —J.R.R. Tolkien

We are discovering that we have enemies — maybe not dragons — but deadly, unseen enemies living near us. Therefore we must include them in our calculations.

Of course enemy #1 presently is the corona virus — Covid 2019 — a new edition of an old enemy.

And, of course there is oldest dragon of all time — the deceiver Satan.

My first challenge is that most of you do not believe in ‘The Devil’ or ’Satan’ or ‘The Deceiver’ and that makes it oh so easy for him to pick you off. If you don’t admit that there is an unseen enemy you will make no provision for the unseen war going on all around you. And, you will lose. And it may cost you all that you hold most dear.

I am aware that nearly 60% of us Christians have come to believe that Satan is not a living being but is a symbol of evil.

So, if you’re wrong about that and there really is a dragon deceiver living nearby and you don’t take him into account then all the better for him.

There are two reasons I believe that Satan is a real being and I’d encourage you to at least consider the possibility of this being true as well.

Jesus, the God-man, the smartest wisest person of all time believed in Satan and had encounters with him according Matthew 4:1-11 in a wilderness showdown, and because in Matthew 6:13 Jesus told us to pray for deliverance from ‘the evil one’ and DID NOT say to pray ‘deliver us from nebulous negative emotions.’

Even though I believe there is a devil. I also believe he is a defeated devil as it says in Colossians 2:5 Jesus has stripped satan and his minions and has marched them through the streets and made a public spectacle of them through the power of the cross.

Satan is NOT an equal but opposite force from God. God is all powerful and Satan’s much smaller power is only allowed for a season. He will suffer for all of eternity as God brings history to full restoration of the Divine order int he future.

So, don’t be overwhelmed by fear and YET do not underestimate the evil schemes of the Satan to destroy you and all that you hold dear.

Jesus says in John 10:10 that Satan seeks to kill, to steal and to destroy.

The writer of I Peter issues this warning in I Peter 5:8 about Satan and his strategy to devour you.

Be sober-minded be watchful. Be sober minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone he can devour. 1 Peter 5:8 [CSB]

So, today I want to show you how to win the fight against unseen enemies.

Welcome John Carpenter, Turkey Hunter!

So, our hunter friend, John Carpenter has taught us a few things about Turkey hunters — the invisible deadly enemy of turkeys everywhere!

Six things about turkey hunters

1. They study their prey and they know the turkey’s weaknesses and strengths
2. The hunter uses all means possible to deceive the turkey and call him into the kill zone
3. The hunter uses the turkey’s natural appetites to lure him in.
4. The hunter cannot wait to make a trophy out of the turkey to hang on his wall.
5. The hunter is more skillful, stealthy, cunning, and intentional than the turkey could ever imagine.
6. This alpha predator, the hunter, has an enormous range of skills, tactics and tools to lure the turkey into the kill zone.

So, What gets turkeys ‘harvested’?

1. Lack of awareness. They are unaware of the enemies presence. The turkey acts as if there is no enemy.
2. The turkey’s inability to ‘see’ the danger right in front of him.
3. His natural normal desires draw him into the kill zone. The turkey, most always a male, is lured out of his safety zone into the Predator’s kill zone by natural desires.
4. The turkey ‘hears’ what he wants to hear.
5. He is deceived by decoys that look like the real thing. The hunter will add decoys that look exactly like what the turkey thinks it has to have right now.
6. The Tom Turkey gets his ego challenged and runs straight into the kill box.
7. The turkey is unaware of how intentional the hunter is about harvesting his tail feathers and beard to hang on his wall in his hunting cabin!.
8. The turkey lacks wisdom. The hunter will come back into the turkey’s space over and over again and wait many days to harvest a prize bird.
9. The turkey far underestimates his enemy’s persistence.

There are at least 8 things that turkeys do that we do, too!

1. We are unaware that we have an enemy, or refuse to acknowledge his presence, we will ‘get harvested’ easily by Him.
2. We are not diligent and so we miss the signs that we are entering the kill zone.
3. We are not aware that our natural appetites for food, power, money, more stuff, fame, sex and relationships can lead us into the kill zone and we may become fair game for the enemy to wipe us out.
4. We do not know that the enemy can sound like whatever we think we need the most right now. The enemy can even make his voice sound like God’s.
5. We do not know that the deceiver will plant decoys that look exactly like what we desire to lure us into his kill box so we become an easy target to harvest.
6. Our EGO launches us into an a fight response to protect our turf and we make fatal mistakes and enter the hunter’s kill zone quickly and totally unaware that we are about to be wiped out by our arrogance and pride.
7. We get in a hurry to have what we want right now and rush into the kill zone.
8. We fail to understand how patient, cunning, stealthy, hidden and dangerous our enemy is.

So, how then do we stay out of our invisible enemy’s kill zone?

1. John 10:10 — Know that you have an enemy who wants to wipe you out.

2. I Peter 5:8 Be sober-minded and alert! Pay attention. Realize you have a deadly enemy and act like it.

3. Ephesian 6:10-19 – Stand Up, Pray Up, Suit Up!

I’m praying that you will take this message to heart and that you will win the battle agains the deceiver, the hidden one, your arch rival, that great dragon — The Devil.

This is how you fight your battle with an invisible enemy and win.

The big idea for today that will help you win! Stand UP! Pray UP! Suit UP!

Oh yeah, and don’t be a turkey!