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Narrator: The world, the flesh, and the devil. Evil's trinity. Let's talk on Key Life.

Matthew: If you're sick of guilt and manipulation and if you're looking for an honest and thoughtful presentation of biblical truth, you've come to the right place. This is Key Life with the founder of Key Life Network, Steve Brown. Keep listening for teaching that will make you free.

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew.

If you were listening yesterday, I mentioned that not all evil comes from Satan. A lot of it does, and we identify it wrongly. We're living in a culture where evil, and it's supernatural evil. There is no explanation for the hatred and division, the way we kill off people, the assassination, the canceled culture. That has a base that is evil and personal.

And it has to do with the devil himself. And if you don't believe that, you're crazy. There social commentators, the sociologist, who try to explain it. And by the way, just so you know, I think sociology is just one step above looking at entrails of chickens to decide on the future.

But I don't care what anybody says. Something is going on in our culture, and some of it's great because God is bringing an awakening to our nation and the world. And at the same time, Satan is ticked. And we see evil, but it's not all that.

And if you were listening yesterday, I mentioned that the Bible says there are three areas. Evil's trinity: the world, the flesh, and Satan. It's important for Christians to diagnose the source of our sin and evil properly.

For instance, when you're talking about personal sin, a Christian may have a problem with gambling. Suppose he goes to a poker party and afterward complains that Satan tempted him to gamble. Now, Satan may have played a part in it, especially if he won.

Satan may have played a part in it, but that man was tempted more by his own weakness and the lure of the world than he was by Satan himself. It is easy for a person to blame Satan for his or her own weaknesses. That kind of cop-out does nothing but encourage immaturity in the Christian because honesty is God's tool for growth.

Every time you fail, every time you sin, every time you refuse the will of God, and every time I do it, don't say, "The devil made me do it." Even if he did, that does not remove your personal responsibility. Even if he did, the main source of our problems may be our leaving ourselves open to Satan by indulging in our weaknesses, the flesh, or by being too much involved with those things in the world that are anti-God, which would be the world.

Okay, I told you I was going to give you two preliminary observations. The first one is, take into account the world, the flesh, and the devil.

Second, it is important for the Christian to remember that Satan, listen up, this is maybe the most important thing I'm going to say about this subject. Satan is a defeated foe. Colossians 2:15, Revelation 20:10.

The Christian is playing in a ball game that has been fixed. The contest has already been decided. The victory has already been won. Satan will come out on the short end of the stick, and you can hang your hat on it. You can count on it because on the cross of Christ, Satan's end was secured.

So, you're saying, if Satan's defeated, why do I have so much trouble with him? The problem is appropriation. In other words, we have not internalized what has already been done for us.

Suppose I had a very rich aunt who lived in another state, and she died and left me a million dollars. Suppose further that I didn't know she had died and didn't know she was rich, and didn't know about my inheritance.

Now, I may be very poor in my ignorance about the million dollars. But I would be very rich in fact. In order to turn my poverty into wealth, I would have to know the facts of the matter and then appropriate the money, that is, go to the bank and get it. And do it for myself.

Many Christians are ignorant of the victory that we have over Satan, which was won for them on the cross. Because of that ignorance, many of us have never appropriated the facts, the reality, the clear teaching of Scripture as it applies to us and our lives and our walk with Christ.

Now, I don't have time today, but we're going to look at five ways the Christian deals with Satan. And I mentioned that I'm going to be teaching a seminar next summer at The Cove. And if you'll go to the Billy Graham Training Center, Google it, you'll find out when, I think.

But I'm going to be spending an entire weekend talking about evil and Satan. But I'm going to sum up some of that and teach you four or five ways that you can deal with Satan and do it successfully because Jesus has already done it and done it successfully. As someone has said, that dragon has been slain, but his tail still swishes. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew: The world, the flesh, and the devil. Evil's trinity. Serious stuff, but no match for God's power because Satan has already lost the game. We're in a Back to the Basics series called Welcome to the Family, and today Steve guided us toward understanding the depth of what God has already done for us. We'll continue with the subject tomorrow, so be sure to join us then.

I don't know about you, but I sometimes struggle to forgive. If that's you too, then lean in. We recently spoke with author Mica Davis on Steve Brown etc. about how to give and receive forgiveness. It was incredibly powerful and practical. Take a listen to part of that episode, then I'll be back to tell you about a special free offer.

Guest (Male) Mica Davis: The truth is many of us have a vast array of opinions and views and experiences with concepts like forgiveness and reconciliation. And what I've found at least is that rarely are these topics as cut and dry as "because the Bible tells me so," right? There's just a mountain of complexity that must be sorted through and tended to and cared for. And so the book was born out of a teaching on pain actually.

I was giving a teaching at Tyndale House Publishing headquarters in Carol Stream, Illinois, and gave a gave a talk called "Three Strikes: You're Forgiven." And as I stepped off the stage, one of the executives there said, "I think that's your next book," which was quite ironic because I had about five other ideas for a book and forgiveness was not one of them. And I remember thinking, "Wait, me? You want me to talk about that?" Right? Because it's just it's such a loaded conversation.

And so, this book is really just my best attempt to distill a plethora of Christian wisdom on an extremely sensitive but necessary topic, especially in this cultural moment. Hopefully in a way that brings hope and healing to the individuals who read it.

Matthew: Is this a subject that you have wrestled with personally or kind of gone on a journey of learning?

Guest (Male) Mica Davis: Yeah, I think this is one of those topics that if you're going to write on it, I think it you lose credibility if it comes from this sort of disembodied, separate space. This is really a lived experience for me, and I tried to establish some of that credibility in the beginning of the book by just talking about some of the pain that I've personally endured.

And the pattern of forgiveness that I've had to walk through has really been with father figures in my life. And so, the kind of 30,000-foot story is I'm the son of two church planters, two pastors. They moved from Nashville, Tennessee to Indianapolis, Indiana in 2002 with sort of a dollar and a dream to plant a new faith community in the city. And it went from a small group of 12 people to over 700 people in just under three years. It was sort of this modern miracle that we were witnessing in real time.

And then in October 2005, my dad came home from preaching one day and sat my mom down and said, "Hey, I'm done. I'm done with you, I'm done with our marriage, I'm done with God. I'm having an affair with your best friend, who was also our kids pastor at the time, and I'm leaving." And you know, there's very few moments in life where it's sort of like a standstill moment, but I'll never forget being out in the driveway and watching my dad come outside, dry cleaning over his shoulder, me saying, "Daddy, where are you going?" and him saying, "Daddy's leaving," and just taken off.

And that was sort of the first in a in a succession of pain that I had to go through with father figures. And so, fast-forward a few years, my parents miraculously reconciled. That's a whole story for another time, but my dad ends up hitting rock bottom, repenting, coming back. My parents restored their marriage.

But in that restoration process, it came out that my paternal grandfather was actually involved in this illustrious string of affairs as well. He was living a double life, and him and my grandmother got divorced after 30 years. And in that in the divorce proceedings, it came out that he had actually adopted my dad as a as a toddler, and it was a secret that had been kept from the family for the first 35 years of my dad's life at that time.

And so that was obviously very painful to have to try to reconcile and and figure out, you know, where we stand from there. Then at 18, my godfather is leading one of the fastest-growing churches in the country down in Nashville, and he does the same thing, has an affair with his assistant, blows up that church, blows up his family.

And then at 25, I'm sitting on my parents' back porch, and it feels like a déjà vu moment as my mom sits me and my wife down and says, "I don't know how to tell you this, but I took an ancestry DNA test and found out that my dad is not my real dad." And it was a secret that had been kept from her for the first 50 years of her life. And so, just father figure after father figure failing, failing, failing, and having to learn how to choose forgiveness in a world that says failure is final.

Matthew: Hey, in this season of new beginnings, why not choose to finally let go and forgive that person you've been holding things against? What Mica says in this episode can help you with that. So, we're going to send you that whole show on CD for free. Just call us at 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That's 1-800-539-5433. You can also email Steve at keylife.org to ask for that CD or to mail your request. Go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Just ask for the free CD featuring Mica Davis.

Matthew: Finally, would you partner in the work of Key Life by giving? You could charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope, or just take out your phone and text Key Life to 28950. That's Key Life, one word, to just text that to 28950, then follow the instructions. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and Forcey in Canada, and as always, Key Life is a listener-supported production of Key Life Network.