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#April 3, 2011
Morning Worship
Text: Luke 10:17-24
Subject: Spiritual Warfare
Title: Strongholds Must Come Down
I want to begin this morning by asking a question. Is spiritual warfare real? And if you believe that it is real, then how significant do you think that it is in your life? I suppose what I am really asking is this, “Do you think that satan and his demons are in continual opposition to you and will do anything they can to bring you down or render you ineffective for the cause of Christ?”
Back in 1993 a young family with three children decided that Mom and Dad should become foster parents. The oldest daughter had gone off to college. Mom and Dad had been saved for five years and the three children had followed suit. The two children at home were fifteen and thirteen. Although the parents were saved the church that they were in never taught them about spiritual warfare. It was never mentioned, mainly because this church didn’t believe in the authority of the believer. Let’s get back to the story. In early spring of 1993 a nine-year-old girl was brought into the home by family services. Sheila was a pretty girl with dark hair and big brown eyes. She looked like she could have been one of the family. Sheila’s caseworker assured the family that all Sheila needed was love. So they took her in and loved her.
It would be a wonderful ending to a nice story if I could tell you that the family loved Sheila so much that they adopted her and took her to be one of their own. Wonderful – but not true. The fact is that shortly after coming to the house Sheila began to exhibit some strange behavior. She began to play with her Barbie and Ken dolls in a very inappropriate fashion. She started acting out in school. Even though her grades were improving she would shut down every time she was corrected by one particular young male teacher. She would hide under her desk and would not come out. At home whenever Mom was gone and Sheila was left with just the dad present – even with the other kids at home – she would act out. When corrected for something she had done she would hide on one of the shelves in her bedroom closet and no one could find her. She would get a wild look in her eyes and it would appear as if there was no one at home inside her little body. Finally it happened that one day when mom was away from the house Sheila really began to act out inappropriately and had to be put in “time out”. When the mom came home she found Sheila sitting in her time out chair with her knees up in her chest rocking back and for and chanting with an obviously demonic voice that was not hers, “The devil is in me… the devil is in me…”
Some of you may know or may have guessed that this is a true story about Charlotte and I and our daughters Emily and Tricia. Jill was away at college so she didn’t experience much of it. The reason that I shared this story with you is not just to offer proof that there is a spiritual battle, but to show you the depth of the spiritual battle. First, Charlotte and I were very effective in leading other Roman Catholics to salvation after we were saved. The devil doesn’t mind religious people but he doesn’t want them saved. So he decided to attack us. Secondly, look at the depth of the spiritual battle. 1) he used the case worker to deliberately deceive us about Sheila’s condition in order to get her into the house. She never told us that Sheila’s mother’s boy friend was the high priest of the satanic worship in Lincoln County. She never shared that Sheila had been sexually abused over and over during satanic worship. We never heard that Sheila apparently saw a baby skinned alive – we later found out that she shared with her therapist in great detail to process. She never told us that Sheila was often locked in a closet full of snakes when she was bad. (That explained why she would hide up on a shelf in a closet when we corrected her – she didn’t want the snakes to get her.) 2) he used Sheila to bring disruption to our house and begin to attack our daughters. They became so frightened of her that they would go to their rooms and stay. 3) he used the whole situation to try to drag us down and turn us away from God. I can only thank God that it was at this time in our spiritual walk that we had begun to understand the concept of spiritual warfare by reading the novels This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness by Frank Peretti.
Looking back on those six weeks of our lives, it isn’t the warfare that is surprising, but the depth of the warfare that your enemy will use in order to bring you down.
Read Luke 10:17-24
I want to share quickly with you what the Lord spoke to me Friday morning while I was at prayer.
The church in Palmyra is deceived. The city is a stronghold of satan beyond what anyone has ever thought, and these strongholds must come down.
I. DEMONS MUST SUBMIT TO THE NAME OF JESUS 17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” For those who claim that the power of God to cast out demons and preach and heal was only for the apostles, then this verse should be left out of their bible, because this is seventy-two (seventy in the KJV) followers of Jesus who were not apostles. This authority is given to all believers. Now here is a problem. In order for you to operate in the authority given you, you must believe that there is a reason that the authority was given to you. Is there a spiritual battle going on? Of course there is and I don’t know many who will deny it. But what most Christians fail to realize, especially mature Christians, is the extent of the battle. Many see the battle in the big event or crisis that comes, but fail to see it in the little things. Most see little things as things that just happen in life. A bump in the road here, a little detour there – I’ll get over it. In 2 Corinthians 3 Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 4, The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Can satan blind the eyes or minds of believers too? Let’s just look at how Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus in Ephesians 1, 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. Now look at verse 18. 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened… Why? …in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength… So my assertion is that if Paul prays for the eyes of believers to be opened then it must mean they can be blinded by the enemy. In order for us to have authority over demons we must have the spiritual awareness of when the enemy is at work. Many people in Christianity today will tell you that we put way too much emphasis on spiritual warfare – we insert satan as the problem in areas where he isn’t active. I say that the opposite is true. He is relentless in his attack and will do everything he can do to get you to take your eyes off of what God wants the church to be. Now that doesn’t mean that we should give satan credit for disrupting our lives. We just understand who the source is. Instead we should be willing to give God glory for what He has already done to remedy the situation. 1 Peter 5:8-9, 8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith… I am in my eighth year as a mentor at the middle school. Every student that I have mentored was diagnosed with ADHD. You can choose to believe this or not… but when I first started mentoring I didn’t know what ADHD was all about and I prayed for my students and this is the answer that I received from the Lord. “ADHD is a spirit”. Wow. That through me for a loop. So I started researching it. Do you know that there is no medical test that can be used to diagnose ADHD? Only observed behavior. According to WEB MD -Some symptoms suggestive of ADHD in children include inattention, hyperactivity, and/or impulsivity in a variety of ways. Many children with ADHD: Are in constant motion; Squirm and fidget; Make careless mistakes; Often loose things; Do not seem to listen; Are easily distracted; Do not finish tasks. I didn’t know how to pray for those kids until the Lord revealed to me the problem. I want to go back to Ephesians 1:18, 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened… I want you to see here that when satan attacks believers, he will always attack the heart or the spirit of a person. And to do so he will attack any area of your life that will make you lose heart. For some that may mean an attack on your health. For others an attack on your relationships, and still others an attack on your faith and it goes on and on. All he wants to do is to get you to lose heart – stop having faith. Jesus knows this. He was there when satan was cast out of heaven. And that is why in Luke 10:19 He says, I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. Matthew 16:19, 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” Finally, in verse 20 Jesus tells us something very important. 20 However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” It is not authority that we should seek, but the relationship with God through Jesus. If you have that then the authority is yours. If you don’t know Jesus Christ that way you have no authority.
II. IT IS GOD’S DESIRE TO REVEAL THIS TO THE SAINTS … 21 At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure. The little children referred to here are not immature Christians, but the ones who accept the words of the Father as a child because He is their Father. We don’t have to understand them fully. You just need to believe them in your heart because they are His words. And that is where we falter at times. We have a tendency to believe that after we have been a Christian for years that we are mature and that the enemy of your souls cannot do anything to you. The truth is that satan can find a way to work in even the most aged of believers. There are three ways that satan will work in believers… remember, he is after your heart. 1) He’ll work through temptations. That was the origin of the first sin. Eve was tempted to do what looked good. That is why James says that believers must… James 4:7-8, Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 2) he’ll work through accusations… Revelation 12:10 calls him the accuser of the brethren… he will take a sin from your past and continue to bring it to your mind until you take authority over him by the blood and claim the forgiveness and cleansing that is yours. 3) he will work through deception… his goal is to tell you a lie and get you to believe it. By doing so he can start you on a path of wrong thinking and it is through wrong thinking that strongholds are built. A stronghold is formed when deception takes hold in a person's mind. A stronghold is an incorrect thinking pattern that stems from believing something that is not true. Romans 12:2, Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind… Where does satan attack? He attacks your heart. Satan has deceived the town of Palmyra and led them to believe that this is the perfect little town with perfect little churches and perfect little people. Listen, do not be deceived. Palmyra is a stronghold of the devil. There is paganism, witchcraft, and sorcery taking place here and you don’t even know it. In Galatians 5:20 there is a word that is translated as sorcery/witchcraft and it is the Greek word “Pharmakia" the same word we get pharmacy from. it means the general illicit use of drugs (same application as today) and the use of drugs to cast spells. Are drugs prevalent in Palmyra? You may not know how much so because we are sheltered in our nice little church with our nice Christian friends. Yet there are people in town who have connections to this church who are or have been involved in paganism, sorcery or witchcraft. A young man that I have connections with – he has struggled throughout his young life – I met with him the other day and here is what happened. I always ask him how things are going in his life. That day he was carrying around a book. I didn’t pay any attention to what it was. But after I asked him how things were going he began pulling things out of his pocket. First it was a box of tarot cards that spirits use to predict the future. Then a leather bound book was brought out – a book of high magic. Then I noticed the book that he had been carrying with him – a book of charms and spells. Now here is the deception that the enemy would throw out to people – “he’s just curious. It won’t hurt anything.” The fact is that this young person had given his heart to the Lord recently and the enemy is attacking him on the most basic level. Is this just an isolated case? Consider this… I asked him where he got all that stuff. “From my mom…” Thursday night I asked our youth group this question… “How many of you have ever seen dark shadowy figures in your homes?” Of the sixteen kids that were there at least ten raised their hands. You see demons want to attack our young people. Listen to me church. Look around you. You know that it is the young that this church is missing. We blame it on the culture. We blame it on family life. We even blame it on our own inability to attract kids. It is the work of satan and his demons and it is about time that we begin to fast and pray for our young people and to begin to tear down strongholds. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
III. YOU ARE BLESSED TO SEE AND HEAR… 22 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Who does Jesus reveal the Father to? How do we know what God’s will is for us in the area of spiritual warfare? How can we be sure that what the bible says about spiritual warfare is real? 23 Then he turned to his disciples and said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. 24 For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.” What did the prophets long to hear and see? What Jesus had just finished talking about – the victory over the enemy-the god of this world…
1 Corinthians 2:9-12, “No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love him”—
10 but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.
The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.
I want to close with this. Since I have been a pastor here I have encountered the work of the enemy on many fronts. A spirit of religion or tradition among the churches… a spirit of anger or jealousy in believers that have them fighting with one another… but mainly I have dealt with attacks of the enemy on our young people. And what I have found is that there is a spirit of deception among the young that tells them 1) they don’t need church, 2) they can live their lives anyway they want and still be in a relationship with God. 3) They have plenty of time to make a decision. And strongholds have been established.
Up to this point the church has been playing defense. When the enemy comes against us we stand on God’s word to counteract what he is trying to do. It is hard to pull down strongholds when you are constantly back-pedaling. It is time to go on the offensive. In Luke 11:24-26 Jesus said, 24 “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ 25 When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. 26 Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.”
It’s time to cast out demons and keep them out. It is time for the church to fast and pray for our youth. It is time for the church to recognize that the enemy is after your heart. It is time for the church that Jesus established in power to be the church of power. It is time to be filled and refilled with the Holy Ghost. It is time to take a stand against the wiles of the devil. It is time to repent of your sin and failings and to once again stand in His awesome power.
Going back to the story I began with. I would love to report that We prayed over Sheila and the demons came out and she turned out to be a wonderful little girl. I would love to say that but I can’t. We didn’t know enough about spiritual warfare to take the authority that was ours. After six weeks with Sheila in our house we told family services that we had done all we could. They took her from our home and placed her in a group home in Springfield. O how I wish I could have it back to do all over again.
The truth is, I do have the opportunity. I have it with our youth. I have with our church. I have it with the town. It’s time o pull down the strongholds.
I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.
