Satan’s Strategies – Pretending

Powerpoint Pictures: Disguise a Turkey

I recently came across a competition, where children were asked to disguise a turkey.

Here are some of the entrants.

Can you tell me who the turkeys have been disguised as? *[Examples include Elsa from Frozen, Minion, Wally/Waldo, Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, Wonder Woman]*

Now we’ve been thinking about how the enemy of the church, the devil or Satan tries to cause her harm.

Satan has lots of different ways he tries to hurt the church, and the apostle Paul says we need to know what these ways are: *“…in order that Satan might not outwit us.  For we are not unaware of his schemes.” (2 Corinthians 2:11)*

One way that Satan tries to cause us harm is by LYING.  Another way is similar but more subtle, and that’s by PRETENDING.

Pretending to be something he is not.

He puts on a disguise and so do his followers.  They are like wolves in sheep’s clothing.

“Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.  It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness.” (2 Corinthians 11:14-15)

Satan tries to harm the church by using false teachers who look and sound like true teachers of the Bible, but who are not.

These teachers use all the right words.

They appear to be faithful to God’s Word but in fact twist it.

They say only the things people want to hear and leaving really important things out.

Jesus tells us that we need to “Watch out!”

And we do this by listening with our eyes.

Our eyes looking at the Bible.  Does what they teach match what God’s Word actually says?