Pastor Jon Burgess
September 4, 2016 - W1636

The best way that the Devil tries to go after our identity is through false accusation. 

He accuses us through people that we love, people that we don't love, people that we know, and people that we don't know. And the truth of the matter is, the more that we hear these false accusations, the more we begin to fight. But then if we hear it long enough, we start to believe it. Maybe this is true about me. 

The Devil is going to be destroyed tonight. Jesus has a 100 percent success rate; death has already been conquered on the cross. It's not the people that have said those things to you that are the enemy because we don't fight against flesh and blood. And that's the thing that we got to understand right off the bat. We are going after the accuser of the brethren.  We are going after the one that is trying to steal our identity as sons and daughters of Jesus Christ. 

Let's be honest. When someone says something about us, hoo?hoo, we're getting' into the fight; right?  I mean, we're going to let them have it; right?  No, no, no.  Because we're Christians, we don't do things like that. 

However, that's our natural bent. When someone is accusing us, we're going to protect ourself. But tonight, we're going to do the opposite. We're going to allow God to protect us.  We're going to let God be our defense. 

That’s why in 1 Peter 2:21-23 it says,

“To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps. He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in His mouth. When they hurled their insults at Him, He did not retaliate; when He suffered, He made no threats. Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges justly.”

When we are entrusting ourself into the Father's hands, we'll know how to use our own hands. When someone is accusing us, we end up becoming a pointing finger - pointing out their faults and their issues.  We're going to transition from the avenging clenched fists that our hands can often turn into when we're defending our own reputation against those false accusations to the Father's hands. Our hand is going to be open to a place of allowance; allowing God to be our defense. We will allow the Father to show us how to extend grace to someone who does not deserve it because we don't deserve it.

We've been called to live by grace, that just because we have the right to do something doesn't make it right to do as a Christian.

But most of us don't respond the way Jesus does. We respond out of our flesh.  We react rather than respond.  We react in self?defense rather than responding in grace.

Ask yourself three questions when you are confronted by false accusations:

1. Will I be the Devil’s advocate or the Devil’s adversary?

   If we're not careful, we actually become the devil's advocate because we're approaching people from the opposite point of view of grace. If we're not careful, we're agreeing with the devil and we're becoming his voice to the people in our lives.

   We become the devil's advocate instead of the Devil's adversary when either we agree with his lies about us or we agree with his lies about others.

   Revelations 12 verse 10, calls the Devil the accuser of the brethren who stands before the Lord day and night. He's lying about us to God. That's the Devil's job.

   However, he wants us to help him. No one else is going to convince you more of the Devil's lies about you than if you start hearing those same lies from people that you trust.

   Job lost everything because the Devil laid into him, destroyed his family, destroyed his home, and destroyed all of his cattle and his riches. Job's life was laid to waste. He had boils all over his body, but he refused to turn against God.

   If you read through the book of Job, you're going to notice that the devil is only in operation against Job in the first two chapters.For the rest of the book until the final chapters of Job, Job's friends picked up where the Devil left off. And for chapter after chapter after chapter they are telling Job this is Job’s fault.

   When someone is going through a hard time, they don't need us agreeing with the Devil's lies. They need us speaking the truth of God's word over them. That's what we need from each other. That's why we're here for each other. That's what God has called us to.

   And I love God's response to Job and his friends at the end of Job. God says,

   "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has … My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly ..." (Job 42:7-8)

   Peter writes, "Finally, all of you, be like?minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing." (1 Peter 3:8-9)

2. Will I choose sincere conversation after false accusation? Will I choose relational preservation over personal vindication?

   We know the story of Joseph in the Old Testament. Joseph was falsely accused by Potiphar's wife of trying to sleep with her. Potiphar threw him in jail. But Joseph rose to power anyway. It would have been easy for him to punish his brothers years later since they had sold him into slavery in the first place.

   "But Joseph said to them, 'Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.  So then don't be afraid.  I will provide for you and your children.’  And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them." (Genesis 50:19-21)

   Even years later, when you meet someone that had grievously wronged you, what immediately rises up inside of you? It's as if it just happened; right?

   Matter of fact, Joseph would have felt all the same emotions because he was a human just like us. Yet somehow he was able to look at his brothers through grace eyes; through the eyes of God. Joseph saw that God had him go through all of these things so he could put him in this position to save not just his brothers, but all of Israel.

   How many of us feel like being gentle and respectful to someone who's been mean to us, to someone who has disrespected us, to someone who has been talking about us behind our back or to someone who's been lying about us? Do we feel like preserving the relationship? No. No. Do we feel like having a sincere conversation with somebody who's been mean to us? No. But this is what Joseph did, this is what Jesus has called us to, and this is why He calls us to this, because, it's not about them. It's about you.

   The accusers are going to stand before God one day for what it is that they've said and what it is that they've done, but what he's trying to do is to preserve you. He's trying to defend you. In Matthew 7:2, Jesus says very clearly that the measure that you use is the measure that will be used against you. And in Matthew 5 He says He wants you to pray for your enemies.

   Why is he asking us to do the impossible? Because the measure that you use is the measure that will be used against you. In other words, what you're serving up is what you'll end up eating. The way you are reacting to somebody is what's going to come back on you. What we sow we reap.

   So Jesus is saying that He want you to do what He did on the cross; He wants you to serve your enemies. When He died on that cross, He endured every false accusation. He's called us to walk in that same pattern of grace. When you pray for your enemies, that allows God to come in and deal with them and cover you.

3. Will I get defensive or let God be my defense? Will I get offended or make God my focus?

1 Peter 3:16?18 says,

"...keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander. For it is better, if it is God's will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.  For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God.  He was put to death in the body but made alive in the spirit." 

In other words, Jesus is asking you to do something, but He's going to help you do it because He's already done it. Pastor Wayne says that the best way to prepare yourself for false accusation is before the false accusation comes, not after. In other words, live a life worthy of the calling. Live righteously. We live in a fallen world. It's not a matter of if false accusations will happen.  It's a matter of when they will happen.

Peter leads us to the place where we're looking at Christ again because He's our shepherd, and He's going to lead us through all of these valleys. Jesus will not leave us behind and will not give up on us. If fact, 1 John 2:1?2 says,

"My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the father ?? Jesus Christ, the righteous one.  He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world."

Jesus asks us to leave our enemies in His hands because He died for them too. Jesus asks us to pray for our enemies that have falsely accused us because He died for them too.  He ask us to let him be our defense because He doesn't want us to get stuck in the hole of offense.  He doesn't want us to get stuck in the hole of self?defense.  He doesn't want us to worry about our reputation.

Tonight He's asking you put it back into His hands. Let Him have the person that makes your blood boil every time you think about them.  Put them back into His hands tonight, and you won't be stuck in that hole anymore. 

You see, it's not that person that gets stuck. It's you who gets stuck.  When we don't let God take this unforgiveness, this bitterness, and this spirit of offense, we get stuck.  They don't get stuck.  We're actually giving them more power over our lives by holding onto this against them instead of trusting them into God's hands, and then we end up eating this bitter stuff instead of eating and feeding ourselves on the faithfulness and the grace of God.  Tonight you don't have to be stuck anymore.  Let's pray.

Questions:

1. What is your reaction when someone falsely accuses you?

2. What are the three things we can do when we are confronted by false accusations?

3. Why does the Bible call Christians to live differently?

4. What happens when we try to take matters into our own hands instead of letting God handle it?

5. What lesson can we learn from Joseph when he was sold into slavery by his brothers and then thrown into prison because of false accusations?