Title: Flattering Fakes/ Topic: Enemy Tactics

Today’s Reading: Ezra 4; Psalm 113; Psalm 127; Luke 9

Scripture: Ezra 4:1-3
1 When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the LORD, the God of Israel, 2 they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, "Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here." 3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, "You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the LORD, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us."

Observation: Notice how the enemies of the Israelites worked. Their tactics are much the same as the tactics Satan uses against us as individuals and as a Church. When they heard what Israel was going to do, they ask to join in "helping" do the work. "We are like you", they say. They flatter and intimate that their goals and motives are the same. But it's a lie. Zerubbabel and the other leaders are discerning enough to recognize the duplicity and take a tough and confrontational stand. Notice that they don't stand on their authority alone but cite the authority of the king who sent them to build.

Application: We need to recognize that Satan tries to come to church. He can do much more sabotage from the inside than from the outside. Most of us would recognize him if he came in to our churches as a crazed lunatic or an obviously evil person. Unfortunately, he most often enters in persons who would say they know and love Jesus, but they are unsubmitted to authority, are a law unto themselves, think themselves to be spiritually superior to those around them and, as a result, unwittingly cause division and chaos in many churches. We need to stay humble, teachable, correctable in order to make sure that our thoughts aren't led astray by the enemy causing us to become a destructive tool in his hand. We also need to discern the motivations of others and when we detect a person being used by the enemy, employ God's authority to kick them out.

Prayer: Father, may we never develop a spiritually superior attitude toward anyone else and may we be given discerning hearts to detect "flattering fakes" among us. Let us correctly use the authority that you have given us to defeat the tactics of our enemies.
This I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.