River Lake Church

← River Lake Church18 sept · 1 h 15 min

WE HAVE A REAL ENEMY

WE HAVE A REAL ENEMY18 sept1 h 15 min

<p>We like to think our decisions are our own—driven by logic, feelings, or what&#39;s right in front of us. But what if you couldn&#39;t fully trust any of those things? In this opening message of the &quot;Real&quot; series, we take a hard look at spiritual warfare and the reality that every believer faces an enemy who knows exactly how to distort our perception.</p><p>Drawing from Luke 4, this teaching unpacks the enemy&#39;s playbook using a surprising analogy: retail marketing. Just like stores use lighting, angles, and pressure tactics to get you to buy something you don&#39;t need, the enemy uses similar strategies to lead us into decisions that feel right in the moment but carry long-term consequences.</p><p>You&#39;ll walk through three hard truths: why you can&#39;t trust how you feel, especially in a &quot;wilderness&quot; season when legitimate needs make illegitimate options look appealing; why you can&#39;t trust what you see, since the enemy is skilled at maximizing reward while minimizing perceived cost; and why you can&#39;t even trust truth in isolation, since scripture itself can be twisted to manipulate when conditions are stripped from promises.</p><p>But the series doesn&#39;t end in the wilderness. There&#39;s a &quot;Day 41&quot; coming—a reminder that the struggle isn&#39;t the whole story, and that staying faithful now means you&#39;re never fighting alone.</p>