Don't Make Deals With the Devil | Sunday Message

Hey there, thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners.

I'm Greg Laurie encouraging you if you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org. and speak to us from your word because your word is truth. It's truth in a world filled with half-truths and outright lies. And your word tells us what to be careful of, what to embrace, how to live, how to think. And we do pray that you'll speak to us now from Scripture. We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen. I read a story about a man that adopted a hippo, a hippopotamus, as a pet. He lived in South Africa and apparently he found it when it was still a calf and he raised it. He said he would ride it around like a horse and even brush its teeth. And he was quoted to say, he's like a son to me. He also said in an interview, and I quote, people think you can only have relationships with dogs and cats and domestic animals. I have a relationship with the most dangerous animal in Africa, end quote.

Famous last words. Have you heard of the little game Hungry Hippos? Unfortunately this didn't turn out so well for this man because Humphrey the hippo grew from a calf to a menacing creature that ultimately killed him. So that's a very sad outcome. Take away truth, don't make hippos into pets.

Right? But we can also do the same with sin. You know maybe we have what we might describe as a little sin.

It's not a problem. We have control of it but then it grows larger and larger. When we first start playing around with the sin in our minds it looks like this version of a hippo. But as it gets larger it turns into this version of a hippo. And then your sin starts taking you over.

And that's what I want to talk about today. You know the Bible doesn't compare the devil to a hippo. Though hippos do kill more people in Africa than lions, leopards, elephants, and water buffalos combined. But still the Bible compares the devil to a lion. 1 Peter 5 says, stay alert watch out your great enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Now the devil can take many forms. He can come to us as the devil of hell or a fiery dragon. But he can also masquerade as an angel of light. If you don't answer his call at the front door he will knock at the back door. And he might tunnel up to the floor. He's always looking for a way to get into our lives. Sometimes he'll slither in like a snake. And that is the case here in Joshua chapter 9.

I guess the devil operates by the old adage which says if you can't beat him join him. So we see now the story of the Gibeonites. So the Gibeonites from the city of Gibeon was about 25 miles from the camp of Israel. These inhabitants knew they could not defeat Israel. They had heard how God had done miracles on their behalf opening ultimately first the Red Sea later the Jordan River and then how they defeated the people of Jericho and how they were defeated and then came back and defeated the inhabitants of Ai. So these Gibeonites knew they were no match for Israel so they came up with a strategy.

Let's get them to sign a deal with us. We'll pretend like we're coming from a long ways away. We're not even in this land that they're told by God to conquer.

And we can deceive them and they'll give us immunity. So that's how the story begins in Joshua chapter 9 starting in verse 3. But when the people of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and Ai they resorted to deception to save themselves. They sent ambassadors to Joshua loading their donkeys with weathered saddle bags, old patch wine skins. They put on worn out patch sandals and ragged clothes and the bread they took with them was moldy and dry. And when they arrived at the camp of Israel at Gilgal they told Joshua and the men of Israel we've come from a distant land and we ask you to make a peace treaty with us. We'll stop there.

Here's point number one if you're taking notes. The spiritual battle never stops. I wish it would. I wish the devil would just take a day off. Better yet a month off.

A year off. But he is always out there trying to destroy lives. The Bible describes him as always active, always working, seeking to undermine the work of God.

But let me ask you a question. Do you find yourself under constant spiritual attack? Do you find yourself being tempted to sin constantly? So much so you've begun to wonder if there's not something wrong with you spiritually. Why is this happening to me? Why am I always getting tempted? You may think it's because you're not doing well as a Christian but it might be the very opposite.

Am I because you're doing extraordinarily well? Therefore you've become a target for the devil because you are a threat to his kingdom. Remember the story of Job. How all the calamities befell God's servant. Not because he was a godless man but rather because he was a godly man. And specifically because the Lord had been bragging on him in heaven and the presence of the angels. Lucifer also known as the devil included. Where God said have you considered my servant Job a perfect and upright man. One that fears God and shuns evil. The devil said oh yeah.

Let me have some time with him. So these calamities came upon Job because of his godliness not his godlessness. So here's my point. If you're getting attacked spiritually that could be an indication you're on the right track. If you would say to me Greg I can't remember the last time I was even tempted my response would be well maybe you're not worth tempting. Maybe you're not a threat to the devil or his kingdom as the old saying says you don't kick a dead horse. The spiritual battle is always raging. Don't be surprised by that.

Number two. Don't make deals with the devil. These Gibeonites were clever. They said they were from a distant land when in reality they were from a city that was around 25 miles away. And in the same way we have people come in our ranks and they'll claim to be Christians. Oh I'm a Christian too. They'll sit next to us and sing the songs with us and carry a Bible as well. And we think oh they're believers.

Well I'm not sure. I don't believe you're a Christian just because you say you are. You should not believe I'm a Christian just because I say I am. The Bible says by their fruit you shall know them.

So I look for results or evidence in a person's life. Sometimes people come into the church and they say they are seekers but in reality they're sneakers. They're not real believers at all.

Here's an example. Judas Iscariot the hypocrite extraordinaire. The literal definition of the word hypocrite is not a person who claims to be a Christian and falls short. That's called humanity.

That's called you and me. Because we all fall short all the time. A hypocrite is a person who is playing a role. They're an actor.

They're pretending to be someone they are not. Judas was so effective at pretending to be a follower of Jesus that when our Lord in the upper room said one of you is going to betray me no one thought it was Judas. You would think they'd say it's Judas isn't it. We always suspected him. We all wear white robes and he wears a black one. In fact it's a black leather robe and he wears sunglasses and they haven't even been invented yet. Sinister character lurking in the shadows. It's Judas. No.

In fact to the point they all say it isn't me. No one thought Judas would be the betrayer. I think they should have an award named after him.

We have Oscars for acting performances, Emmys for television performances, Grammys for musical performances. We could award the Judas. The Judas this year goes to and we give it to the person that fooled all of us into thinking they were a believer when they really were not. That's the Gibeonites.

They're pretending to be someone they really are not. They wanted Israel to enter into a deal with them and it was effectively a deal with the devil. And God warned them to not make deals with the inhabitants of the land. In fact over in Exodus 34 12 God warns Israel be careful to not make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going or they will be a snare to you. And indeed when we look forward historically we find that this deal was problematic on many levels.

Israel got into a war they didn't need to be into because they had made or built this alliance with the Gibeonites and there were other problems to follow. So take away truth. Don't make deals with the devil because you will be the loser. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 4 27 don't give place to the devil. Another translation of that is don't give the devil a foothold. Listen the devil is wicked but the devil is also cunning.

He's been honing his craft for a long time. He generally will not try to take you down in one fell swoop. He'll take you a bite at a time. It's like death from a thousand cuts.

He doesn't come to a Christian and say hey you happy Christian. Hi I'm the devil. I hate you.

I want to destroy you. So here's my offer. Why don't you forsake your God. Abandon your faith. In fact while you're at it abandon your family too.

And become a drug addict or something else and just completely ruin your life. How does that sound. There might be one taker somewhere.

Oh okay sure. Which way do I go. No but most of us are going to say get behind me Satan. I'm not going to listen to that. So the devil's clever.

He comes and says hey I have something I want to say to you. Why don't you try this thought on for size. Why don't you take this little sample or a test drive and play this out.

And see how it goes for you. And we must keep our distance from him. I mean look at the story of when God delivered Israel from Pharaoh. So Moses walks into the Pharaoh's court and says let my people go. Pharaoh says no way.

I'm not going to let them go. But then a series of plagues come upon Pharaoh in Egypt. Moses goes back in. Let my people go. Pharaoh says all right I'll let you go but you can't go too far. I want you to stay kind of close to Egypt. Moses said nope we're going to completely leave.

Then the Pharaoh says okay I'll make you a deal. Leave your children and you can go. No Moses says we're taking our children with us. And the Pharaoh comes back and says how about this.

You can go with your kids. You can go as far as you want but leave your animals behind. Leave your livestock with us. I love what Moses says.

He says not a hoof will be left behind. Here's the deal devil. You get nothing. Nada. There's no deal here.

And that's the same thing we need to do. The devil will try to get you to make compromises. You see devil you don't get anything in my life.

Certainly you don't get my children. Don't make deals with the devil because you always will if you do. More people have been brought down by the sin of compromise than probably any other. That warning from God was they will be a snare to you.

See here's the thing. You can get into a relationship with a non-believer and it can hurt you spiritually. Now look we need to have relationships with all kinds of people including non-believers. How else will we evangelize them? But we have to be very careful especially if it's a romantic entanglement.

And here's why it's a problem. It's far easier for a non-believer to pull you down than it is for you to pull them up. Because gravity is on their side. And in the same way you have an old nature but the non-believer does not have a new nature so I can find myself going in the wrong direction. That's why the Bible says don't be unequally yoked together with non-believers. For what fellowship does light have with darkness? So as another translation puts it, don't become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a partnership out of right and wrong? That's not partnership. That's war. Is light best friends with dark?

Does Christ go strolling with the devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Exactly. So we have to be careful of these entanglements. So Israel was now entangling themselves with these non-believers, these Gibeonites that were going to pull them in the wrong direction. But point number three. God can intervene even if we've made a bad decision.

Right? We do make bad decisions. We do things we regret. Let's say that you weren't just romantically entangled with a non-believer. Let's say you married them.

And now you've been married for a little bit of time and you're saying, oh, that was a big mistake. They don't want to go to church with you. They don't want to raise your children the way you believe they should be raised as a Christian. They don't want to pray.

They don't want to do anything you want to do. So you go to church alone and one day you say the Lord spoke to you. And the Lord said, my child, dump your heathen husband and marry the hot Christian guy you just met at church, telling you God said this to me. God didn't say that to you. Here's what God said.

You may not like what he said. But he says in 1 Corinthians 7-12, if a fellow believer has a wife who is not a believer and she's willing to continue living with him, he must not leave her. If a believing woman has a husband who is not a believer, but he's willing to continue living with her, she must not leave him. So now you have a new mission. No, you shouldn't have married the non-believer, but you did.

So you built an alliance just like Israel did with the Gibeonites. And you made this commitment. Now you've got to honor that commitment and make the best of it.

And your new mission is win your spouse to the Lord. That's not going to happen overnight. That may take months. That may take years.

Listen, it could even take decades. But you have to keep being a witness to them and praying for them. Paul gives the reason for staying with the non-believer in 1 Corinthians 7-18. He says, don't you realize that your husbands might be saved because of you?

Or don't you husbands realize your wife might be saved because of you? And I've seen this happen so many times where the person eventually comes around. But let's say other things happen in your life. Let's say you find yourself pregnant and you're not married.

Oh boy, that was a mistake. Well yes, but now a child has been conceived. Well I'll just get an abortion. Don't you even consider that. That is a child made in the image of God that has every right to live now.

It's not just your decision. Unborn babies are innocent no matter how they were conceived. And if you don't want to keep the child, we'll have the baby and put the baby up for adoption. There's a lot of people who are ready to adopt children.

I just spoke at a crisis pregnancy center a couple of days ago. And one of the things they do when young women come in who are pregnant is they do a sonogram. When the mother-to-be looks at that little baby, and sonograms are so sophisticated today.

It's like a three-dimensional view of the face of your baby in your womb. When they see that sonogram, they say nine out of ten change their mind and decide to have the baby. One woman went in, they told me about, who had two sons and she was pregnant. And she didn't want to have another baby. And so she was going to get an abortion, but they did the sonogram. She decided to have the baby and I met the young man who is now ten years old. And then she went out and became a foster parent to two more kids. So she turned into super mom, right? But I love that. Yes, Craig, but what about if the mother's life is in danger?

Okay, let's play that out for a moment. I heard the story about two missionaries, Bob and Pam, true story. They were serving in the Philippines in 1987 when Pam contracted amoebic dysentery, which was the leading cause of death in that country at the time. She was pregnant with her fifth child. She was very dehydrated. She went to her doctor and he said, Pam, you need to abort this baby because if you carry this baby to term, you will die when we deliver the baby. And so Pam, along with her husband, Bob, prayed about it. And as Christians, they said, there's no way we're going to abort this baby.

I'm willing to take that risk. And it was not an easy time they went through. Bob said, we almost lost that baby four times. It's a miracle baby. The baby was born, so they named him Tim. You probably know him best as Tim Tebow.

So that's how he came about. Now, let me tell you another story. It's a bit sadder but very powerful. It's about a young lady from Samoa named Simia Mativa. She was known best as just being called Teva for short.

And by the way, that name means poor thing, Teva. So Teva got pregnant, and it turns out she had a blood disease and there was no cure for it at the time. And she was told if she delivered the baby, she would surely die. So her family came and said, you've got to sign the form. Tell the doctor to do the abortion.

And we're all for it. And she said, okay. And so she signed the forms. And then her family left, and she called the doctor back in.

She said, I changed my mind. I don't want to have an abortion. I want to have this baby. And if I die having the baby, I die.

So the doctor delivered the baby. Sadly, Teva did die giving birth to this little one. But she named him Moses. And she was not able to raise him. So her sister raised little Moses. Her sister married a man with the last name of Katina. And so little Moses Katina eventually grew up. He got married. He and his wife had 12 kids, 34 grandkids, 21 great grandkids.

That's 67 in total. All of them have come to Christ, and 14 of them are in ministry today. Here's the Katina family. And among those Katinas is a great band that we've had out over the years, the Katinas, right?

Remember the Katinas? So all of this happened because of the sacrificial decision of Teva. It looks like the poor thing, the meaning of her name, did a great thing, the ultimate thing. Look, we don't control what hand is dealt to us in life.

But we do control how we react to it. I think about our friends in our church over in Maui right now, who are so devastated by that horrible wildfire. It completely leveled the old town of Lahaina. There's quite a few people in our church that lost their businesses and their homes, and some of them new people who lost their lives. But the Bible promises that God can bring beauty out of ashes. So they're beginning to rebuild again over there. But I'm reminded of something that's so amazing that this devastating fire took everything down.

It looks like a bomb went off there in downtown Lahaina. But one thing that survived it all was this banyan tree, the biggest tree you've ever seen. And it survived the wildfire. And I read an article the other day where there was a new shoot of growth coming out of the banyan tree.

So it's budding again. And it reminds me, it reminds me of the motto of my family, the Laurie family. I was adopted into this family. And my father Oscar told me that the motto of our family, it's a Scottish clan, is rapool a lot, which means it buds afresh. And on the family crest, it's a tree that's been cut down with a little bit of growth coming out of it. So look, whatever has happened to you, no matter how you've been cut down in life, it can bud afresh because we serve a God who gives second chances, right? That's something to remember. Point number four, this is my last point. We need to pray about things before we decide.

We need to pray about things before we decide. Joshua 9, 14 says the Israelites examined their food. That would be the food of the Gibeonites. They brought this moldy bread. Oh, this was fresh out of the oven when we left home and now it's all moldy.

Oh, wow, okay, looks good to me. So they looked at their food, but look at this. They did not consult the Lord. In other words, they didn't pray about it. With Jericho, God gave to Israel a battle plan.

And with Ai, the same was true. But there was no battle plan with the Gibeonites. In other words, they didn't pray. Hey, Lord, is this a trap? Is this a good thing?

Should we enter into this agreement with these people? They didn't pray about it. You need to pray about everything. The Bible says in the book of Philippians, in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. It doesn't say in only giant, big things, in everything. Nothing's too small to pray about. Nothing's too big to pray about.

Lord, help me with this. I need wisdom. We're told in the book of James, if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who will give it generously and not hold it back. See, God wants to give his wisdom generously to you. You need to reach out and take that wisdom because it's there for you. And in the case of Joshua, he could have gone to the high priest and asked for direction. Hey, should we make a deal with these guys? I'm not sure if this is a good thing.

No, he didn't do any of that. So that's why it's always good to seek counsel. Seek counsel from godly people, specifically seek counsel from people that have been around the block a few times. You know, when I was a brand new Christian, I befriended a bunch of adults who were old enough to be my parents. I would like go hang around Chuck Smith. I would hang around others that really helped me, a pastor named Romain at Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa, another man named Keith Ritter that became very helpful and influential to me.

And then later I met Alan Redpath who was a great British preacher and I became friends with Billy Graham and others. I would spend time with them. I would ask them questions. I think when we're young, we wanna hang around all the young kids and that's fine, but I always felt like I could learn so much more from older godly people. And there's wisdom there.

You can ask them questions. It's like you're not the first generation experiencing what you're experiencing. I know it has a different name or a different look and I know there are many challenges young people are facing today that are unique to their time. But at the same time, there's a lot of collective wisdom that is there for you if you'll seek it out from others. Proverbs 15, 22 says, plans go wrong for lack of advice.

Many advisors bring success. To this day, I still seek out biblical counsel from a lot of people that I look up to. I have something I need to decide about and I'll say, what do you think about this?

What's your opinion on that? I found that really helps me make my decision. Another thing that helps me decide if something is the will of God or not is do I have the peace of God about it? Colossians 3, five says, let the peace of God rule in your life.

Or as another translation puts it, let God's peace act as an umpire in your life settling with finality all matters that arise. Umpires are not very popular now, are they? Because they gotta make that call. He's safe, he's out.

Touchdown, no, there was a penalty. People turn on the umpires. Let the peace of God act as an umpire in your life. You say, I don't know what you're talking about.

There might be something that looks good on the outside. You say, I think this is God's will for me. Circumstantially, everything's fallen into place. This is a good investment. This is a good relationship.

This is a good business opportunity. This is an open door for ministry. Pray about it. Because inside you might have sort of a lack of peace.

There's something about it that isn't sitting right. That's why I like to have time to think about things before I say yes. Let me just think about that for a while. Let me pray about that for a while. Because I want the peace of God. The Bible says you go out with joy and you'll be led forth with peace in Isaiah 55.

I try not to make rash decisions. So in closing, the Gibeonites, they didn't have to do this. It could have just come, hey, we're the Gibeonites.

Our city 25 miles away. We know that you are blessed by God. We've heard the miracle story.

So how about this? We want to repent of our sins. We want to turn from our wickedness. We want to stop sacrificing our babies on the altars of pagan gods. And we want to follow the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

We want to become believers. It could have been. It could have been. Did God not spare Rahab the harlot? Did he not give her a second chance when she took the spies in and hid them in her home? And then when Israel came into the land, hey, they didn't kill her. They said, you're part of us now. But no, these Gibeonites didn't want to believe. They wanted to live in their sin.

And they tricked Israel. But here's the thing. We serve a God of second chances. I can't change my past, nor can you, any more than I can unscramble an egg. All I can do with my past is learn from it. And if I've sinned, admit I've sinned. Repent of my sin.

Accept the forgiveness of God and move forward. The title of this message is Don't Make Deals with the Devil. I think some people think they've made a deal with the devil that's unbreakable. I've heard people say they made a deal with the devil. They sold their soul to Satan.

How would you know? Newsflash, you can't sell your soul to Satan. And I'll tell you why. Your soul is not yours to sell. God says all souls are mine, the soul of the Father and the Son. So I can't sell my soul to the devil or broker some deal with Lucifer or if he gives me this, then he controls me for the rest of my life, nonsense. All deals are off ever since Jesus Christ died on the cross and broke the power of Satan.

Because in the book of Colossians, it says Christ disarmed powers and authorities, speaking of satanic powers, and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. So when Jesus said one word from Calvary, tetelestai, which is translated, it is what? Finished, you're right. It's finished.

What's finished? The power of Satan in your life. The stranglehold of the devil.

Any addiction that has a grip on you right now, any lifestyle you can't break free from, it is finished. Christ broke that power. Now do you want that power broken? See, the problem is sometimes we still want to live in that old life. We don't want to be free. But if you want to be free, if you want to be forgiven, if you want a second chance, it's there for you. All you need to say to Satan is all deals are off. We're done here. You get nothing. Not a hoof will be left behind.

You can't have any area of my life at all. The Bible says submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. See, the problem is we don't resist the devil.

We have conversations with the devil. You say, what do you mean? Well, we check out what he's offering.

Hey, I'd never do it, but just for my knowledge, what is it you're offering? No, no, don't let him do that. Remember when God said to Adam and Eve, they could eat of any tree in the garden, but stay away from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Pretty clear. Enjoy yourselves.

Enjoy my creation. Just stay away from that tree. Scene two, Adam and Eve at the tree.

They shouldn't be behind. And there's the devil coming as a serpent, offering his wares. You know the rest of the story.

They gave in to it, and sin spread throughout the human race. Here's the thing. When you're a Christian, you don't have to be afraid of the devil anymore. But if you're not a Christian, you should be really scared of the devil because he's real, he's powerful, far more powerful than you or me. I'm no match for him.

There's nothing I can do that can keep him away from me. The only force or power out there greater than that of Satan is the power of God himself. Now when Christ comes to live in your life, you no longer have to be afraid of the devil. When the devil comes knocking at your front door, you just say, Jesus, would you mind getting that? And when the devil says, oh, okay, never mind.

He'll move on. And here's my question. Is Christ living in your life? Maybe I'm talking to somebody today that needs a second chance. Somebody today that is trapped by sin or some kind of an addiction.

Someone today that has just made a mess of their life and you've tried to fix it and you've only made it worse. Well, you need to turn to the Lord. I love the testimony of Dennis Quaid.

You know, Dennis made a lot of mistakes in life and he admits it. And God forgave him of his sin and gave him a second chance. And God will do the same for you as well. But you must admit your sin and turn from it and ask Christ to come into your life. Jesus died on that cross for you and he's standing at the door of your life right now and he's knocking and he's saying if you'll hear his voice and open the door, he will come in. So in closing, have you asked Christ to come into your life yet?

If not, would you like to? You can do it right here, right now. Let's all bow our heads. Father, speak to every person here, especially those that don't know you. Help them to see their need for Jesus. Help them, Lord, to come to you and believe.

And find that second chance. Find that forgiveness that you offer to them because of the death of Jesus on the cross. Now while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed and we're praying, would you like your sin forgiven? Would you like to know that when you die, you will go to heaven?

Would you like a second chance in life? If so, wherever you are, I want you to raise your hand up right now and I'm gonna pray for you. Just raise your hand saying I need Jesus today. I need Christ to come into my life. I need his forgiveness.

I need that second chance. Pray for me wherever you are. Lift your hand up and I'll pray for you. God bless you and God bless you. God bless you.

Anybody else? Wherever you are, God bless you. And you and you. All around the room, I see your hands. God bless all of you.

Some of you are watching this screen. Of course, I can't see you but the Lord sees you. You might raise your hand as well. God bless all of you. Now you that have raised your hand, you that want Christ in your life, just pray this prayer right where you are after me. Pray these words. Lord Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner but I know that you're the Savior who died on the cross for my sin. I turn from that sin now and I choose to follow you from this moment forward as my Savior and my Lord, as my God and my friend. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. God bless you. Thank you.