Sermon Leftovers

click the picture above to hear the sermon. below are the accompanying notes:

Some words carry a certain heaviness with them: "murder" "hate" "attack" "destroy" Of course there are other words which are even more harsh and leave a more bitter taste in our mouth, but I don't like those words so they aren't here. "Flattery" isn't one of those words. In fact, "flattery" is one of those words that doesn't taste so bad at all. Calling someone a "flatterer" isn't exactly nice, but it is certainly much better than calling someone a "liar", right?..... right? According to Daniel 11, flattery is the tool Satan's servants use to deceive God's people and cause them to fall away. With flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people who know their God will firmly resist him. Flattery has been Satan's tool since Genesis 3, when he painted a picture for Eve in which she was god-like and only a bite of fruit away from being God's

How does Satan use flattery to divide us from God? He paints a desirable picture of us (leads us to believe things about ourselves that aren't true) He contrasts that with a distorted concept of God (suggest things about Him that aren't true) He suggests a disastrous path for our future (read Genesis 3 to see this played out)