In the sermon titled 'Enter A Cunning Enemy', Jason Dohm explores Genesis 3:1-5, highlighting the critical role this scripture plays in understanding the fundamental change in humanity's condition from a state of perfection to one under curse. He emphasizes that the serpent's introduction of doubt into God's word led to humanity's fall. The narrative shows Eve's entanglement in a deadly game with a cunning enemy, Satan, who deceitfully questions God's command to introduce doubt. Dohm points out that Eve's response to the serpent lacked the precision of God's original command, thus making God appear less generous and stricter. The sermon warns against being naive about spiritual warfare and stresses the importance of recognizing Satan's tactics. Despite the cunning of the enemy, believers are encouraged to find solace in having a mighty defender in Jesus Christ, who protects them from spiritual deception and guides them towards God's best intentions.

The title of the message today is, Enter a Cunning Enemy. So we have a creature introduced to us today that has not been part of anything we've been studying. He's entering the scene and we find a very cunning enemy. This week we're beginning Genesis chapter 3. It's known as the narrative of the fall.

Not a fall, the fall. Mankind enters this narrative in a good, good, very good world. Everything's been seen by God, pronounced to be very good. And we're going to come out of this narrative with all of mankind under a curse, with everything fundamentally changed, with tears and sickness and death in the world. So there are very heavy things before us, that's for sure.

This is not a fall, this is the fall, the thing that fundamentally changes everything for mankind. If it isn't difficult and painful to read knowing how good God is and how much God loved Adam and Eve, so this is the backdrop for the text, Adam and Eve are objects of God's intense affection. Then we've become too familiar with this text. I want to try to plead with you to see these through new eyes again like you were reading it for the first time, and feel how difficult and painful these things are. These are things you don't want to get too familiar with so that you become insensitive to them because they're really important things.

If you don't understand this chapter, then you have no shot at truly understanding the world that you're living in. And you will misdiagnose almost every problem. You'll say, here's the source of that problem. And you'll be totally wrong. And then virtually every one of your solutions will fail because you misdiagnosed the problem and your solutions will actually only aggravate the actual problems.

So you'll misdiagnose the problem and you'll prescribe for yourself a medicine that only aggravates the problem if you don't understand what is in Genesis chapter 3. And I don't think anything that I've just said is hyperbole or overstatement at all. That really is true. You don't understand the world around you until you understand Genesis 3. Then it starts to make much more sense.

Everything in the first two chapters has been good, Good, good, good, very good. Chapter 2 ends with Adam receiving a gift beyond compare in Eve, and he waxes poetic. This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, for She was taken out of man. She came from my very side.

Adam becomes a poet when he gets this good gift. He's so happy about it. Now here in our text, there is an enormous shift. So here we stand sort of at the crossroads of the shift. Let's ask God to help us.

God, we do need help, but I thank you for the revelation of truth. Thank you that you have in some ways here in chapter 3 given us an answer key that helps us understand the things that are actually happening around us in the world so that we don't misdiagnose every problem and prescribe to ourselves solutions that only make things worse. We have a place to run to that is a real solution for these fundamental problems that must be understood. Thank you God for revealing these things to us. I pray that the punches would land.

We would gain a heart of wisdom in Jesus name. Amen. Okay, so we just have chapter 3 verses 1 through 5 this week. We are subdividing. Let's start with the first verse.

Follow along in Genesis chapter 3 verse 1 as I reread verse 1. Now, the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, has God indeed said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Here in verse 1 we have a dishonest question from a cunning enemy. So if you're taking notes on the handout by filling in the blanks, question fills in the first blank, enemy fills in the second.

A dishonest question from a cunning enemy. So let's start here. What is an honest question? It's a question that you ask actually wanting or needing the answer. It's an honest question.

I want or need the answer so I'm asking you the question so I can get the answer. Getting the answer is the objective of asking the question. Then what is a dishonest question? It's a question where the answer is not the objective of asking the question. The answer is really irrelevant for why I ask the question.

Either one, making a statement is the objective. Did you take out the trash? Sometimes you really want the answer to that question. Sometimes it's a statement. You've neglected to take out the trash for the millionth time.

Thinly guised, thinly disguised as a question. Or two, leading and influencing and directing and manipulating the unsuspecting is the objective. So a dishonest question, either it's really a statement disguised as a question, or leading and influencing and directing and manipulating the unsuspecting is the objective. That's a dishonest question. In Genesis 3, we are not encountering a creature with an honest question.

We are encountering a creature with a very dishonest question. Now, who is this creature? Who is the serpent? The Hebrew literally means serpent or snake, and Strong's dictionary says, from its hiss. Well, that's interesting.

So Blue Letter Bible will actually let you hear the Hebrew word pronounced. And so I had blueletterbible.com pronounce the Hebrew word for it. And you can hear the hiss. It's in the word. So it means serpent or snake, but it's really after the hiss that you would expect from a serpent sittingly named.

The text gives no introduction. This is a creature out of nowhere in the text. No background, no data. The text simply doesn't say, And because the text doesn't say, I'm not going to turn this into a topical sermon on Satan or demonology. That's not what you're getting this morning.

I'm going to do my best to stay focused on what the text stays focused on. You can grade me at the end on how I've done it. I'm just kidding. Don't do that. For now I'll just say this.

In this chapter, we do have an answer in the chapter. So We can go to other places in the Bible and I'll give you a few. But you don't have to go outside this chapter because the answer is in this chapter. In the curse God pronounces on the serpent in verse 15, it is clearly more than just an ordinary creature, run-of-the-mill snake, and it is clearly fulfilled in Jesus's victory over Satan. So when we get further in the chapter, we get to verse 15, It'll be the seed of the woman.

Clearly, Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the promise that the seed of the woman, Jesus Christ, will crush the head of the serpent that is Satan. Jesus's victory over Satan is the prophetic fulfillment of Genesis 3 15. I think that would be really clear when we get there and look at it. So the answer is in this chapter. Ezekiel 28 speaks of Satan and actually places him in Eden.

In 2 Corinthians 11, the apostle Paul clearly identifies the serpent as Satan. In Revelation chapter 12, Revelation chapter 20, both speak of quote, that serpent of old who is the devil and Satan. So we are on safe footing to identify this serpent with Satan. My guess is that an actual serpent, an actual snake, was allowed by God to be used as the mouthpiece for this evil spiritual being, Satan. But that's my guess.

That's speculation. You can do with that what you'd like. I see Job chapter 1 and Job chapter 2 for Satan having to ask permission. So at the very beginning of Job, Satan wants to attack this man who is blameless and fears God, and he actually has to go to God and ask permission to attack him. So These are not things unknown to God.

These are things absolutely permitted by God to happen. I'm sure before the end of this full narrative in the next couple of weeks we'll talk about that in more detail. The serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field. This is reflected in Jesus' admonition to his disciples to be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. So serpents even have such a reputation for being shrewd and cunning that when Jesus is looking for a way to tell his disciples, you cannot be naive in this world.

You should be innocent in this world, but not naive in this world. He says be wise as serpents, have the cunning of a serpent but the innocence or the harmlessness of a dove. This Hebrew word translated cunning in our text is translated many times as prudent in proverbs. So same Hebrew word here, it's translated as cunning, which is a fine translation. But also in proverbs, you would see the same Hebrew word translated as prudent in proverbs.

It holds all that range of meaning. So this is our introduction to the fact that something crafty and subtle and shrewd is being undertaken by this serpent. Is it OK if I say tricky? Something tricky is happening here. It's crafty and shrewd and subtle.

Understated on purpose. Now, let me talk about something that isn't in the text. We try not to spend too much time talking about things that aren't in the text. But I'm actually talking about it because it isn't in the text and we need to acknowledge that it isn't in the text and consider that it isn't in the text and that's the timeline. There's no timeline in the text that tells us the gap, if any, between chapter 2 and chapter 3.

Why is this important? Because the text can read like the events of chapter 3 follow immediately on the heels of the events of chapter 2 in quick succession. Day 6, Adam and Eve are created in the image and likeness of God. Day seven, God rests. And if you had to guess just from the reading, you might say, this is day eight, like immediately.

And it can be that, but it doesn't have to be that. The text doesn't say yes or no to this sense from reading the text that it happens right away. It might or it might not. The next actual time marker is chapter 5 verse 3 with Adam and Eve being 130 years old. So you can see already from that statement, time's moving fast in Genesis.

We're only getting the barest of bare summaries. Next time marker, chapter 5 verse 3, Adam and Eve being 130 years old when their third child Seth is born. So here's what we know. I'm just going to give you the data. One, Satan rebelled against God and was cast out of heaven sometime before these events.

He's a devil in Genesis chapter 3, there's no mistaking that. So he's already in rebellion against God and thrust from heaven. Scripture is silent on when the angelic beings are created, but I'm assuming it was in or after Genesis 1 verse 1. I'm assuming that they weren't created before God created the heavens and the earth. Two, no children were conceived until after Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden at the end of Genesis chapter 3.

So they don't have children until Sam and they're cast out. Three, Cain and Abel, their first two children, were born and matured into some semblance of adulthood. Cain was a farmer And Abel was a shepherd until Cain murdered Abel, and Seth was born by year 130. So this is what we do know about the timeline so a Very short time after Adam and Eve were created is Possible for these events it could have happened on day 8th. That's possible But a time period up to a hundred years or even a little more is actually possible.

Just understand that. We simply do not know. So you can assume day eight, and I wouldn't assume a hundred years. I don't think it was a hundred years, but it could be either one of those things from just the facts that we know. We definitely need to allow for the fall of Satan into rebellion previous to our text, and on the other hand to also consider that conception was part of the dominion mandate, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, and that didn't happen until after they're put out of Eden.

So all of these things are things we should consider. Just understand that we're getting a very compressed summary, which only has a small portion of the history. Chapter 5 puts us at year 130, and we're now in Chapter 3. So does a decade even get a single sentence? No, not really.

Alright, what is the dishonest question? This question where the answer is not the objective of answering the question. This question designed to lead and influence and direct and manipulate the unsuspecting Eve. Here it is. Has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

The flat-out denial of the Word of God will come soon enough. But that is not where this cunning serpent starts. He knows better, because he's cunning, he knows better than to start out with a full frontal assault on the Word of God. With a flat out denial of what God has said. He's doing something cunning, crafty, subtle, shrewd, tricky, and so he starts with a question.

Did God really say this? If we turn it into a statement, right, sometimes a dishonest question is actually just a statement, so let's turn it into a statement. It's probably this, surely God didn't really say that. Did you take out the trash? You neglected to take out the trash for the minute time.

So we're turning the dishonest question, did God indeed say this? Into just a statement, which it could very well be, and the statement would be, surely God didn't really say that. It is a subtle, indirect introduction of doubt in the Word of God. So it's subtle. It's not a full-on frontal assault.

Indirect introduction of doubt in the Word of God. Maybe you can't trust this. And once we begin to entertain doubts about the Word of God, Did God really say that? Does that sound like something God would or should say? Is the creator God really the source of this command?

Is it reasonable that God should say such a thing? Once we begin to entertain doubts about the Word of God, the enemy of our souls is well on his way to his objective. So just understand at this point in the text with Satan effectively introducing doubt into the Word of God. He's halfway home to his objective. God planted the garden, we saw that in chapter 2 Verse 8.

This is not a garden that grew from random chance. God planted this garden. Now why would God put trees in the garden that he planted that were off-limits? Why would he do that? How sure are you that God really said that?

See how easy it is to play this deadly game. This is a deadly game that's being played. You see how easy it is. God made the garden. If God planted the garden, why would God put a tree in it and put it off limits?

Why would God do that? How sure are you that God actually is the one who said that? So that is the question, and it is not an honest one. On to verses 2 and 3. Follow along as I reread Genesis 3 verses 2 and 3.

And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, you shall not eat it nor shall you touch it, lest you die. So the woman responds. Here in these two verses we have a sort of okay answer. If you're taking notes by filling in the blanks, okay fills in the blank. A sort of okay answer.

Pro tip. I'm going to give you a pro tip. When you're up against Satan, you want your answers to be more than sort of okay. It's pretty important that your answers be better than sort of OK. OK, what is OK about it?

The main point is fully intact. You can eat the trees of the garden, but you must not eat from that tree. Not a bad paraphrase. What's wrong with the answer? You know I've been reading Alan Ross and his commentary titled Creation and Breasting.

I'll give you Alan Ross because I think he does an excellent job of comparing the actual commandment given by God in chapter 2 and Eve's sort of okay paraphrase in chapter 3. Alan Ross says this, in the woman's response to the serpent's question, it became clear that the precision of the word of the Lord had not been retained. Precision of the word of the Lord had not been retained. Lost. Precision lost.

There are three changes that she made. First, she minimized the provision of the Lord. The Lord had said, you may freely eat. Help yourself. Hand out it as much as you like of every tree but one.

So it's even friend in terms of abundance and freedom. But Eve simply said, we may eat. Second, she added to the prohibition. The Lord had said, nothing about touching the tree, but Eve said that God said, neither shall you touch it. Third, she weakened the penalty for the sin.

God had declared, you shall surely die. But Eve said, lest you die. That's a subtle change. So her answer, minimize the abundance and liberty of what was permitted. Freely eat, abundance and liberty.

She minimized that by dropping all that out. Made the command stricter than the actual command from God. Somewhere along the way, extra got added that made it more strict, and dropped off the absolute certainty of the death penalty for any instance of disobedience. The absolute certainly. You shall surely die.

She dropped off the absolute certainty of the death penalty for any instance of disobedience. I think you'll agree that each of those things is certainly unhelpful. It makes God less generous and more strict. So when you do that, you shift your view of God. God becomes less generous and more strict.

But he didn't do any of that, say any of that. Listen to the Hebrew lexicon for the word translated die. You shall surely die. That's the word I'm looking at. Here's the Hebrew lexicon.

To die, to kill, to have one executed, to die as a penalty. To be put to death. So another line of the translation, die, but just understand when you look at the unfolding of the range of meanings of that word, you get to put to death. And that puts a different construction on it, doesn't it? That is not something we should be softening in any way.

No good can come from that. When God says, if you do that, you'll be put to death for that crime. Softening of that is no favor to yourself. You shouldn't do that. I would add To Alan Ross's excellent work, I would add, Eve calls the tree simply the tree which is in the midst of the garden.

When the identification and the actual command is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And that omission, just calling it the tree in the middle of the garden instead of what the command actually calls it, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, that omission, leaving that out, might make you lose sight of the glorious fact that God has given you a home where you don't have to know evil. I grew in a world filled with evil. People reap in this world and they have a thousand reasons to reap in this world. They were given a world by God where there were no reasons to reap.

They didn't have to know evil. Of course it's possible that Adam is tangled up in this as well because we don't know how the command came to Eve. Maybe God gave it to Eve, maybe it came through Adam. The instance of the command in chapter 2 is before Eve was created. So we know definitely that God spoke it directly to Adam, but we don't know about Eve.

So maybe he has something to do with what we're seeing in this text. We just don't know. And ultimately it doesn't matter. And of course All of this is very interesting and potentially profitable for us as we study it, but it misses the main problem. You know, sometimes the main problem is sitting right below what's explicit.

Okay, so These are interesting things. I think they're really useful for us to study it. We need it. But the main problem isn't stated here. What is the main problem?

Eve is now entangled in a one on one chess match with the mighty and deadly enemy of our souls and she has no idea. That's the main problem. One on one chess match with the mighty and deadly enemy of our souls, and she has no idea that the game's on, she doesn't know they're playing the game, and she doesn't know who she's playing against. That's the main problem. I'm sure you can think of things that would defend Eve for being in that position.

She never encountered a creature like this before. Think of other things that would condemn Eve for being in that position. Like she had a partner in life. She should have gotten that partner in life by her side. So those things you would have to defend her or condemn her.

But setting that aside, that is the bare fact. She's in a one-on-one chess match. For life and death, winner-take-all against the mighty and deadly enemy of her soul and she has no idea. Verses four and five. Follow along as I reread Genesis 3 verses 4 and 5.

Then the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die, For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." And these verses, pretense, abandoned. If you're taking notes by filling in blanks, abandoned fills in the blank. Pretense, abandoned. What is pretense pretending? He's been pretending that he's asking honest questions, entering into an honest discussion.

It's all been fake. He's after her destruction. In verse 4, the serpent, Satan, flatly contradicts God's word. He essentially says, God lied to you. God lied to you.

Again, Alan Ross from Creation and Blessing. The construction of the Hebrews stresses the boldness of this denial. So he now gives us a word for word in sequence translation. Not! You shall surely die.

So that's what you get in the Hebrew. The sentence starts with not. You remember we went through that phase when everyone would say something and then say not. Like to stick it at the beginning. Not, you shall surely die.

Here's what Alan Ross says, in the normal construction, the negative would precede the finite verb, but here it is simply placed in front of the entire construction. So he's pointing out this is this is a strange ordering in Hebrew that you only do to make it really emphatic. The serpent is being really emphatic. So add all caps and exclamation marks in your mind. That's what we should be doing.

Adding, putting it in all caps. You will not surely die! Exclamation mark, exclamation mark, Exclamation mark. That's what the Hebrew construction tells you to do. God is lying to you.

In verse 5, the serpent, Satan, tells Eve what he says is God's motive. She has to be thinking, why would God do that? Why would God lie to me? The serpent is ready with an answer to that unspoken question. Why?

Why would God lie to Adam and Eve? Here's what the serpent says is God's motive. God knows, says the serpent, God knows, says Satan, that as soon as you eat it, you won't be some simpleton hick anymore. Your eyes will be instantly opened and you'll be able to see all sorts of things you've never been able to see before. Wonderful things, by the way, wonderful things.

Things that you've been held back from and you'll be like God and he can't stand the thought of that. He can't Stand the thought that you'll be like him and be able to see the things that he can see, wonderful things that he's holding you back from. Of course, the devastating irony is that Adam and Eve are already like God. There's nothing that they need to grasp for, have to grasp for. He made them in his likeness and image.

The privilege, The honor has already been bestowed on them. There's nothing to grasp for. God made them. He was pleased to make them in His likeness and image. And here's the best part, you poor simple girl.

The best part is, All God had to do was to say that eating it would kill you. That was enough to keep you wandering around this garden, unaware of all the thing God knows and He doesn't want you to know. All he had to do was to say, if you ate it, you would die. And here you are, wandering around, withheld from seeing all the good things that God can see and doesn't want you to see, you poor simple girl. All you had to do was say you'd die if you'd eat it and here you are staying away from it.

I've obviously taken liberties. I've made up words that aren't in the text, but that's the gist of what's here in our text. You poor simple girl. All God had to do, makes me laugh when I think of it, all God had to do was say you'll die if you eat it and there you are staying away from it. Stay away from it.

In 2 Corinthians 11, 14, Paul says, Satan transforms himself into an angel of light. You're never going to see him present himself with horns and a pitchfork. That's for the movies. That's for the movies. It's always going to be as an angel of light.

No, I'm here to help. I'm just here to help. So the trap has been set, and we'll continue on in the text next week. But before we delve into some applications I should say this, ironically it was Satan's desire to be like God that was his own undoing. So you have to know that the history before this, sometime before this, we don't know when, but sometime before this, Satan's undoing was exactly what he's tempting mankind into here.

I have to be like God. Listen to Isaiah 14 verses 12 through 15. Isaiah chapter 14 verses 12 through 15. Isaiah chapter 14 verses 12-15 God says this through the prophet Isaiah How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground you who weakened the nations for you have said in your heart I will ascend into heaven I will exalt my throne above the stars of God I will sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north.

I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like God most high. Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol to the lowest depths of the pit." lowest depths of the pit. And now he hates God, this perfectly good God. He hates Him, and he was determined to bring God's image bearers into his own eternal ruin.

If I'm going to eternal ruin, you're coming with me, image bearers. It's the hatred of God. That's what's happening here. Applications. Let me give you four.

I thought this was going to be a long sermon. Sometimes I don't know. Verse four applications. One, this is a supremely important and relevant case study for every believer. We're getting a case study of Satan bringing a person into temptation and we should study it to arm ourselves.

This is a supremely important and relevant case study for the believer. Listen to 2 Corinthians 2 11. Paul writes this to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 2 11. He's been talking about how it's really important that they forgive this man rather than hold bitterness against him. They should forgive him.

And then he says this in 2 Corinthians 2, 11, Lest Satan should take advantage of us, For we are not ignorant of his devices." Genesis 3 and so many other places in scripture are here so that we would not be ignorant of his devices. We need to study and know his devices. Why is that? Because he uses the same ones over and over and over and over and he just changes little variables but it's the same playbook. We should not be ignorant of his devices because if we are, he takes advantage of us.

He's looking to take advantage of us. Matthew Henry says this, he took the same method that he does still. He questioned whether it was a sin or no. Verse 1. He denied that there was any danger in it.

Verse 4. He suggested much advantage by it. Verse 5. And these are his common topics. He's still whispering the same things today.

Is that really sin? Did God really say, you won't really be punished for that. You won't really have to reap from sowing that. This will end up good, really good. It's the same, It's the same whisperings.

Number two. I can't say it better than Peter, so I'll just let him say it himself. 1 Peter 5 verse 8. 1 Peter chapter 5 verse 8. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

Brothers and sisters, The last thing we can afford to do is naive about these things. Know that the deadly chess match is on and who you're playing against. It's on. There are demonic spiritual forces that want to bring destruction into your life. The game is on.

It's a deadly game. And in yourself, you're no match. If that's true, you're best off to know it. So you go to the right source for help. Be sober.

Be vigilant. Be vigilant. Just the thought that there's a mighty enemy lurking is a help. Because forewarned is forearmed. Your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

Number three, never forget that ultimately believers have a mighty defender. Be sober, be vigilant, but don't be inordinately afraid. Don't be paralyzed by fear. Be sober and vigilant, not paralyzed by fear. Believers have an almighty defender.

Listen to what Jesus says to Peter in Luke 22, 31, and 32. This is worth noting. Luke chapter 22, 31, and 32. 31 and 32. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail.

And the rest is history. His faith didn't fail. He had a bad spell. Satan did sift him his wheat, but his faith didn't fail. Because he had an almighty defender who could keep him.

Every believer has an almighty defender who can keep her, who can keep him, who will keep her, who will keep him. Number four, Children. Children, wake up. You tuned out a half hour ago. I know you did.

I've been a child. Come back for this one. And then I'll pray and we'll be done. God is not keeping us from good things. God is not holding us back from one good thing.

God is keeping us for the best things. If you get a wrong view of God, like He's holding me back from something that would be really good, I really like when you indulge in that, you are forfeiting in a profound way better things that God was keeping you for. He was holding you back from these things that would keep you from the actual excellent things in life. The best, the sweetest things in life. Oh it looks so sweet.

It will be better in the end and you will have been kept back from something that actually is sweet. God is not keeping us from good things, he is keeping us for the best things. Matthew Henry gets the last word, as he often does. Matthew Henry says, it was a most dangerous snare to our first parents, as it tended to alienate their affections from God. See, he's sowing suspicion, so it'll alienate their affections from God.

God ought to have their love above anything else. It tended to alienate their affections from God and so to withdraw them from their allegiance to Him. Thus still the devil draws people into his interest by suggesting to them hard thoughts of God. God's not good, God's keeping you from things that would be so fun, so good. Introducing to them, suggesting to them hard thoughts of God and false hopes of benefit and advantages by sin.

So he's promised them that they'll be able to eat of this fruit and see what God sees and this will be good. How did that end up? Did Satan deliver on his promises? No! He brought misery into the world.

He brought destruction into every human life. In life. Let us therefore, in opposition to Satan, always think well of God as the best good and think ill of sin as the worst of evils. Thus let us resist the devil and he will flee from us. Amen to that.

God, thank you for your word. We need to be taught these things. Most of us are just being reminded of these things. We've heard them many times before, but they're so easily put towards the back of our minds. We're walking around naive when we can't afford to be naive.

So if nothing else happens, God, I pray that you would sweep away naivete, that a deadly game is being played and we're playing against a mighty enemy who is full of malice. I thank you that we have an Almighty Protector in the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray all of us would just be looking to Him day by day in Jesus name, Amen.