Satan Is Alive and Well

This last Sunday night, 12.4 million viewers were exposed to a shocking presentation during the 65th annual Grammy awards for the music industry.
 
Devil worship.
 
Of course, all the normal superficiality and lewdness were on display at the Grammy’s, but what happened on stage with artists Sam Smith and Kim Petras was unprecedented.
 
Sam and Kim identify with the new sexual revolution in the culture. Both are biologically male, but neither of them identify as heterosexual. Sam Smith identifies as non-binary and Kim Petras identifies as a transgender woman who, as a teenage boy in Germany, underwent so-called gender reassignment surgery. Together, they won the Grammy for the Best Pop Duo Performance and then they put on a satanic performance.
 
With flames and the color red everywhere, Sam Smith put on a hat with horns (playing the devil) and all the musicians and dancers turned a backdrop of flames (indicating hell) into a glorification and celebration of Satan.
 
What’s crazy about it all is that Satan typically uses subtle deception and craftiness instead of blatant and open display. No matter which tactic he uses, he craves attention and worship (Rev. 13:4–8). It does say something about how much our culture has fallen and how easily Satan can co-opt one of culture's most influential mediums like music and use two men who have bought the lie of sexual corruption.
 
It is a fresh reminder that Satan is alive and well on planet earth. He’s real, he’s fallen, he’s strategic, and he's influential. He’s “the god of this world” (2 Cor. 4:4) and “the ruler of this age” (John 14:30), yet he isn’t sovereign, God is (Satan’s authority is limited). One day, he and his angels will be thrown into the lake of fire forever and ever (Rev. 20:10).
 
The good news for us is that he is a defeated enemy (1 John 3:8) and we are given all the resources we need to win the battle and resist his incessant attacks (i.e., Word, prayer, God’s armor, and His promises). We must “be on the alert” and “resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Peter 5:8–9).
 
Let’s stay sober-minded as we fight the good fight of faith and walk in the victory Christ won at the cross.
 
Pastor Jeff