Interrupting satan's Plan
1 Peter 5 ........
Around here....We talk a lot about God's Plan for our lives.
....because.....We know from His Word that: God has a Great Plan that includes Abundant Life,
Wholeness, Joy, Peace, Strength, Provision and VICTORY.... and MUCH, MUCH MORE
God has many more GOOD THINGS Planned for us IN THIS LIFE........
and then to TOP It all off....God's plans for us Include an Eternity with Him....
....ruling and reigning and Enjoying Him FOREVER and ever......
That's God's Plan....
But we need to know today, that God is not the ONLY ONE with a plan that He's working....
Satan also has a plan.
He's got a plan to destroy your marriage...
.....your children.....your hope and your future
He's got a plan for your DESTRUCTION
1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
So, satan has a plan to destroy YOUR LIFE and mine....
but Peter said in verse 9 "Whom resist...." We are to "....RESIST (satan) stedfast in the faith....."
That means that we're not just supposed to roll over and play dead because there's a devil loose....
.....hoping he doesn't see you or know you're there......
I wonder if that's what some Christians are trying to do.....
....because they are so still and quiet about their Christianity....
They don't have any expression of joy....
You never hear them praise or worship or give thanks to God.....
They never witness or testify about how God saved them.....
...and they never want to get involved in any kind of work for the Lord....
It's like they think they're UNDER COVER or something
Listen, if you're even HUMAN....much less a Christian,.....
satan is LOOKING FOR YOU.....in hopes that he may devour you.....
..... and he isn't going to stop trying to destroy you until he's locked away at the end of this age.
So you might as well go ahead and DIVE ALL THE WAY into JESUS and the things of God....
.....because thats the place you're going to be safe.
Now I know that satan is a defeated foe.....
Jesus whipped him at calvary and took away his power over us.....
But IT WAS AFTER CALVARY that Peter wrote what he did here....in 1 Peter 5:8
and one thing that means is that satan is still a real threat
And that's why Peter said we are to be SOBER and VIGILANT...
Now, SOBER as its used in this verse means Regular, calm; not being controlled by passion
and VIGILANT means: Attentive to discover and Avoid danger or to provide for safety.
Today, we're starting a new series called "Interrupting Satan's Plan for Your Life"
Over the course of this series, I want to talk about several things we can do to Interrupt satan's plan....
....and stop him from getting his desired result in your life......
but MUCH of what we're going to talk about will come back to being REGULAR, consistant, constant and self controlled......
...and also being ATTENTIVE to Avoid danger and Provide for safety....
These things help determine HOW Effective we are at Resisting the devil STEDFASTLY in the Faith.
CONSISTENCY of Action is a Vital Part of Every Principle of Faith
You will find if you look at the character and nature of God, qualities like Consistency and Faithfulness
Hebrews 13:8 declares "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. "
Psalms 102:27 The Psalmist said "But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end".
In Malachi 3:6 God says "For I am the Lord, I change not....."
James 1:17 says of God "...., with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning."
God is a FAITH God and He is CONSISTENT
If we are going to succeed in our Faith Life....we must learn to do some things with Consistency
The First one we're going to look at is PRAYER
Turn over to Phil 4 ........No, turn to Matthew 6 First...then Phil 4
While you turn there, listen to a couple of verses that go along......
Luke 18:1 says "And Jesus spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought ALWAYS to Pray, and not to faint.
Ephesians 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
1 Thes 5:17 Pray without ceasing.
I think of all the things that have potential in the life of a Believer,.....
..... REAL BIBLE PRAYER is the most Underused and Mis-Understood
but it is the Greatest Privilege we can have on this earth in Christ Jesus....
...that we can COME BOLDLY before the throne of God
If we will Pray we can Interrupt satan's plan for our own lives and the lives of others.....
Jesus interrupted satan's plan by praying for Simon Peter
Luke 22:31-32 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
Jesus taught us to be proactive in our praying.
In what we call The Lord's Prayer in Matt 6:9-13 ......
Verse 13 says "And Lead us not into temptation, but Deliver us from evil....
Now God Never Tempts man with evil........
It's satan who has the EVIL PLAN.....satan is the tempter and JESUS KNEW THAT....
....but He was teaching us HOW TO AVOID It....
...How to Interrupt satan's plan By GOING TO GOD BEFORE we even face the Temptation, test or trial...
and getting God's Answer sent out BEFORE the Problem ever shows up.
Philippians 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
(TLB) Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.....;.
We NEVER have to Fall into satan's trap
We Never have to Live in Worry or Fear
All we have to do is Learn to be CONSISTANTLY PRO-ACTIVE in Prayer
No matter what we know we're facing or Even what we don't know....
....If we will make it our Practice to PRAY about EVERYTHING....
Now, I don't mean run around praying Religiously with Elizebethan English and making all kinds of todo about it....
I just mean Conversing with God like you would your best friend.
"Lord, Ive got this and that and the other thing on my agenda today....
....but first and foremost I want to do what you want me to do today."
"Help me to be sensitive to you and your voice."
"Help me not to miss any opportunities you send my way......
".....lead through each part of my day and help me not to get caught in any of satans traps or plans."
It's really just that simple....
And you know, we could do a lot MORE than just INTERRUPT satan's plan if we would do this....
....we could also avoid MUCH of what we even get ourselves into.
How many of you know that It's not ALWAYS the devil that gets us into trouble?
Sometimes we do a better job of it than he does.
I think a good examle in the Bible of this in Joshua 7
After defeating the BIG Adversary of Jericho.....
.....Israel lost an Embarrassing Battle to a Little RUNT Nation of Ai BECAUSE of sin in the camp
Now sin can always be traced back to satan....
...but What We Do About it IS ALL US.
In Joshua 7 .....let me just set it up for you, so we don't run out of time.
Israel went to fight Ai...and before they went, They said "We don't even need the whole army. "
..."Just a few guys can handle it because They're just LITTLE"
And so they didn't Pray or Anything....They just Made their Plans and Off they went.
Here is where we often play right into satan's plan
...when we think "It's TOO Little to bother God with."
Never Under Estimate the Potential of Small Things
First, where we're concerned:
Our beginning may be small but that doesn't mean Our End can't be BIG.
Through Prayer....You can see God Increase your territory....
...and your strength....and your Potential
David was the least in his house..
.....and not even his own father saw any greatness in him...
.....but God made a Great King out of David.
Gideon was the least in his family.....
.....and his family was the least in the whole kingdom....
...but that didn't stop God
1 Cor 1:27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God has chosen the weak things....to confound the mighty;
28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
And He did that so we would learn:
It's not by Might nor by Power, but BY GOD'S SPIRIT that the Real Accomplishments are made.
God alone gets the glory BUT You and I get the BENEFITS
BUT, satan, the counterfeiter, has also learned some things about Using God's Way of Order...
That's why Solomon wrote "Catch for us the little foxes. It's the little foxes that spoil the vine"
Satan learned that little things can have big potential....
....and that we, humans, are prone to IGNORE the little things....
...or we approach them lightly.
That's what Israel did with Ai
They didn't Pray UNTIL AFTER their defeat in the first battle.
Then in Joshua 7:6-9 Joshua is like "WHY did you bring out here and let this happen to us?
"Just look at all the trouble this is going to cause us. Why Lord, why?
But beginning in verse 10 (paraphrasing)....God says to Joshua "Get up! Why are you laying there on your face?
You want to know Why?, I'll tell you.
There is sin in the camp and you cannot win when you sin.
Now, what I really want you see here is that IF Joshua had Prayed FIRST....before the battle
...This loss could have been Avoided.
God knew about the sin and its potential BEFORE the battle ever started...
...but No One Asked Him to Get Involved.
Here is the Biggest Failure where Prayer is Concerned.....We Don't Pray Often Enough....
1 Thes 5:17 Pray without ceasing.
(CJB) says "Pray regularly"
(NLT) says "Never stop praying"
I like that translation......Never Stop.....
There never has to be a time when we are out of communication with the Father.
He's Always with us. He's never asleep, or tired or preoccupied with other things.
He knows every thing ANYWAYS....
We may as well Find out what He knows that will HELP US.
Hosea 4:6 says "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:....."
James said "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him."
Then he said in a later verse "You have not because you ask not."
The second failure where prayer is concerned is that we don't pray about ENOUGH THINGS
The most Powerful Advantage you could have is of NO VALUE if you don't use it.
Prayer is Powerful Right for us to Have....
but we have to Learn to JUST DO IT and to DO IT CONSISTANTLY
CLOSING:
Do you have things in your life that you need to pray about?
Are you for any reason confused, worried or afraid?
Are you facing difficult circumstances or Potential problems?
1 Peter 5:7 says "Casting all your care upon Him; for He cares for you."
You know, that's right BEFORE the text we began with....
....where we began talking about satan's plans.
And that says something wonderful and promising about God that:
...Before He told you about your enemy and the potential problems of life....
God told you about the ANSWER
He told us about His Great Care for us
and Invites us to come to Him for the Help we know we need....
and Even for Help we May Need in the future.
Before there was ever a Problem in the World.....God Make the Answer for us in Jesus.
God wants to help you to Avoid satan's traps.
He wants you to Miss out on the failure and defeats of life...
and He wants you to Miss Hell and Make Heaven your Home.
Are you living like you should today?
....with the Peace of God and the Joy of the Holy Ghost strengthening you in your life?
Are you living Close to God......Under His shadow of Security and Protection?
Or is trouble about to get the best of you?
...Hopelessness, Emptiness and Fear abounding and Crowding in on you?
Why not bring it to the Lord today in Prayer?
You really can Worry about Nothing IF you will Pray About Everything.
Sin is another great thing to pray about...
...about Getting rid of it and it's consequences...
...and free from it's bondages.
And changing the course of your life.
Today, if you're not where you should be.....
...you are being offered GREAT HELP right now.
He wants to help you Interrupt satan's plan and TURN Your Life Around
