Satan’s Plan to Distract the Christian

You see, friend, the truth of the matter is a person doesn't go from walking red hot with God in intimate fellowship with the Savior, to a life of evil overnight. It's a slow, downward process. They begin to compromise the best thing for good things, and it's not long before they start compromising good things for that which is evil. It made for good preaching years ago to curse the charismatics. After all, some of their big name boys bit the dust to immorality. But, I tell you, friend, we have just as many evangelicals, fundamentalists, and reformed people in the church that are falling. You mark my word tonight. It did not begin with them going from having a vital relationship with the Savior to total apostasy in one night. It was a slow process as you'll see in the life of King Solomon. This is a warning. It is a shepherd's warning. And I want to begin tonight by sharing with you a little satire that I trust will kind of settle things that you might understand where we're going this evening. It's called "The Plan." "Satan called a worldwide convention. In the opening address to his evil spirits, he said, 'We can't keep true Christians from going to church. We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can't even keep them from having conservative values. But we can do something else. We can keep them from forming an intimate, abiding experience with Christ. If they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken. So let them go to church, read their Bibles, and have their conservative lifestyles, but steal their time, so that they do not have time to have an intimate fellowship with Christ. This is what I want you to do. Distract them from laying hold of Jesus Christ and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day.' 'How shall we do this?' they asked. 'Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life, and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds. Tempt them to spend and spend and borrow and borrow. Convince the young wives that they have to work, and the husbands they must work six days a week for 10 or 12 hours a day, so they can afford their lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their family fragments, soon their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work. Overstimulate their minds so they cannot hear that still, small voice. Entice them to play the stereo whenever they drive. Have them keep the TV, VCR, or the CD's going constantly in their homes. See to it that every restaurant and store in the world plays music constantly. This will jam their minds and break their union with Christ. Pound their minds with news and weather hours a day. Invade their time in the car with glowing and glaring billboards. Flood their email and mailboxes with filth and junk mail to make them stumble. Even on vacation, let them be excessive. Have them return from their time away exhausted, disquieted, and unprepared for the upcoming week. Don't let them go into nature. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, concerts, movies, and shopping malls instead. And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, don't let them talk about anything deep or where they're struggling. Discourage them from enjoying His presence when they're together. Instead, make them fearful of opening up and fill their time with small talk, idle chatter, frivolous laughter, and gossip so they will leave with troubled consciences and unsettled emotions. Let them be involved in soul winning, but crowd their lives with so many good causes, that they have no time to seek strength from Christ. Soon, they'll be working in their own strength; sacrificing their family and health for the sake of the vision.' It was quite a convention. At the end, the demonic spirits went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get busy with life and pull them away from the One Who is life." Have they been successful? You judge.