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THREE TRUTHS THAT SATAN HIDES FROM WOMEN "Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden." (Gen. 3:1-8) Time is limited today, so I'll be brief in covering the three main points of my Mothers Day message. Just as in Eden, Satan is still lying to women. Sometimes he lies by deliberation, and sometimes he lies by elimination. By deliberation is when he deliberately tells you false things. Lying by elimination is when he refuses to tell you essential truths and leaves you with incomplete information. When you live under such flawed conditions, you will not have a happy mothers day, nor will you have a happy any day. You will live a miserable, unfulfilled life, never finding true joy and contentment. That's a trick of the devil, and women fall for it by the millions. The average woman today will NOT have a truly happy mothers day, because, like Eve, she has forfeited her right to fulfillment and happiness by following the evil counsel of the devil. Let me pass on to you three things that Satan refuses to tell women, and usually this is about all it takes to wreck a woman's life with guaranteed discontentment and misery. Today's woman is taught to believe that the good life is being withheld from her and that she must become proactive and claim her own joy and fulfilment. That's a lie from hell. Satan is withholding at least three crucial truths from today's woman, and she will not know true happiness until she realizes it. I. THERE IS NO HAPPINESS WITHOUT SELF-DENIALYou can read the standard women's magazines and see endless articles on how a woman must love herself, accept herself, promote herself, praise herself and reward herself, but you will not read one word about the need for her to DENY herself. Yet, what did Jesus say? He said, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." (Luke 9:23) But that's not all, he went on to say, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it." (Luke 9:24) Self denial is the first law of Christianity, and no human being, man or woman, will know true happiness without it. The world's method of self promotion and self advancement is self-DEFEATING, and the devil knows it! According to Jesus Christ, a woman who promotes and rewards herself is a woman who will LOSE her life in the eyes of God! That's just what Eve did, and that's what you will do, if you take instructions from the devil. He doesn't tell you everything, and he sure doesn't tell you to DENY YOURSELF.You see, a woman who denies herself is a woman who trusts God to meet her needs and reward her in due time. It's called faith, and you can't please God without it (Heb. 11:6), which means you will wreck your life trying to find this thing called happiness, but you'll never find it, and Satan knows that better than anyone. He just won't tell you. II. HAPPINESS COMES FROM WITHIN The reason for so many people never finding happiness is the simple fact that they're looking in all the wrong places. God had placed WITHIN Eve everything she needed to be happy, fulfilled and complete, yet the devil showed up and led her to believe that something external was needed, the fruit on the tree, and he made it more enticing by emphasizing the fact that it was forbidden. The message was, "You are being deprived of something that you want and need, and you'll never have it, unless you reach out and take it for yourself!" She did NOT need it, and she soon discovered that she didn't even want it. Satan didn't tell her that her happiness was internal, not external.Romans 14:17 says, "For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." See that? He said that JOY (there's your happiness) is found in the kingdom of God. Well, where is the kingdom of God? Is it out there in the world someplace, in the workplace or in the shopping mall? Is it on a Hawaiian beach or somewhere on the corporate ladder? No, it isn't. Jesus said in Luke 17:21 that "the kingdom of God is within you." WITHIN you! You can't reach out and grab it, nor can you buy it or travel to it. It's INSIDE of you, if you are saved, and that's where your happiness is, if only you will claim it.I'll show you more. Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Things? What things? Verse 31: "What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?" The very THINGS that people turn to for happiness are automatically provided by God when we deny ourselves and put God first, but when we cheat and pursue such things apart from God, as do most men and women, we end up defeated, unfulfilled and unhappy. Why? Because happiness is internal, not external. Happiness is not something that one searches for and finds; happiness is something that one realizes from deep within his or her own soul. Anything less is from the devil and will not satisfy. III. EVERYONE IS UNDERSPPRECIATEDSatan tells women that they are underappreciated, which is true, but so is everyone else. We live in a sin-cursed world where there are flaws and imperfections everywhere and in everyone. The notion that women are in some special class of underappreciation is just false. It's a tool of the devil used to advance his own agenda while victimizing women and cursing their lives with perpetual discontentment and misery. Sure, women are underappreciated, but so are men, so are hard-studying students, so are preachers, so are military servicemen, law enforcement officials and everyone else. Most people in my family never thank me for working and paying the electric bill every month, or the gas bill, or the water bill, or the grocery bill, or the Internet bill. Most of my church members never thank me for preaching a good message, and I seldom thank them for showing up and listening. We ALL fall short, and there's enough ingratitude to spread around for everyone. Paul said that the temptations that we face are "common to man" (I Cor. 10:13), not unique to this or that class. Everyone is underappreciated, and everyone can be more appreciative. Period. If you start signing-on to the devil's victim game and class envy, then you'll never be happy. You'll chase happiness like a foolish monkey chasing a banana on a string, but you'll never have it because, as we've already seen, happiness is not external. It is internal, and it is accessible only by meeting God's conditions, not by following the devil's worldly instruction manual. Follow the women of this world, and you'll be as miserable as they are. You'll NEVER be happy. Follow God's word, and you'll stand head and shoulders above them all as you realize that "the joy of the Lord" is not only your happiness, but also "your strength" (Neh. 8:10).