Hindered

Hindered

PPT 1 Message Title/pic

A picture says a thousand words. In this case it is a sad story. (The PowerPoint picture was of a person will a ball and chain attached to their ankle, hindering their movement.)

Today we are going to talk about hindrances.

First, I will show God Himself can be hindered, if He can we can, and we will discuss spiritual principalities working to hinder us. We will then discuss 6 areas where we can be hindered in life. Children can be hindered, worship can be hindered, fear can hinder us, offerings can be hindered, spiritual hearing can be hindered, and finally prayer can be hindered.

The picture shows a person hindered in mobility, I wonder today if we had some kind of spiritual camera, how many of us would it show, have things that are hindering us spiritually? Far too many I am afraid. May this message be used of God to wake us up and remove chains that hinder.

We begin with a text that shows God can be hindered. So, if He can be, it is a reality we must all deal with – hindrances.

PPT 2 text

Psalms 78:41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.

Matthew 13:58 And He did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.

The first text is in the KJV, most other versions say they pained God. The Hebrew word means to pain, the Strong’s number for it is 08428. Very unusually it is identical to Strong’s number 08427 which means to scrabble, to limit or to set a mark. For than reason several commentaries suggest it means they caused God pain by limiting Him in their life.

Matthew 13:58 also teaches that God was limited in doing many miracles because of unbelief.

Here are a couple passages showing us being hindered:

PPT 3 text

Galatians 5:7 Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?

Hebrews 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

I have one more text I want to show, and it is a verse I strongly dislike:

PPT 4 text

1 Thessalonians 2:18 Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.

I have often thought of that verse and that Paul never added a, “but it worked out for God,” or “God turned it around.” It is like a dangling participle

An adjective that is missing a noun, illus: "Walking through the kitchen, the smoke alarm was going off." Literally means the smoke alarm was walking.

Paul’s verse is like that to me. So I am talking to the Lord about that missing but, that Paul didn’t add and encouragement about the situation. I was working on this message on hindrances, and I left my desk to get a coffee. I got locked out of the church, now I am thinking satan was trying to hinder this message, called a couple in the church who lived nearby to get their key to the church. (My secretary was away on vacation this week.) I got a key from them and they surprised me with a bag of oatmeal raisin cookies. (My favorite). That was God’s way of saying that even though Paul was hindered God still worked it out for good even though he didn’t say that in connection with that passage. Satan may hinder, but God will work even that out for some good. Paul probably preached somewhere else, and people got saved there.

Ways and things that can be hindered.

1. A child can be hindered:

PPT 5 text

Luke 17:1 And He said to His disciples, "It is inevitable that stumbling blocks should come, but woe to him through whom they come!

Luke 17:2 "It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble.

I have a family member who was sexually abused by a priest as a child, and for the rest of his life he wanted nothing to do with God or the church. He was irreconcilable, nothing could change his mind. The damage he received as a child impacted him for the rest of his life.

Children can have stumbling blocks that hinder them long after childhood.

2. Worship can be hindered

PPT 6 text

Psalms 137:1 By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down and wept, When we remembered Zion.

Psalms 137:2 Upon the willows in the midst of it We hung our harps.