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.
Psalms 137:3 For there our captors demanded of us songs, And our tormentors mirth, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion."
Psalms 137:4 How can we sing the LORD’S song In a foreign land?
They were in a place of suffering, and notice very carefully what they did: they hung up their harps. They stopped worshipping.
There are things that can happen to you, to make you want to hang up your harp.
You better learn how to sing the Songs of Zion in a foreign land, because you will find yourself there more than once or twice in life. When we worship in difficult places and season amazing things can happen like in Acts 16. Not only did worship free Paul and Silas from their chains, but it also freed every other prisoner in that prison! Your worship in difficulty has the power to release not only yourself but others also.
Worship can be hindered by a hurried spirit, pastor’s can shut down worship because of a fear of the “clock,” or a rush to do announcements, or a rush to preach. People can be hindered in worship by their cell phones, their schedule, distracting thoughts. The devil knows that when we worship we are connecting to God in a powerful way, and he hates that and seeks to shut it down.
(Note to pastors: at this point in the message I repented/apologized to my church that I realized their were times I didn’t have an altar call, or didn’t wait long enough because of time and other pressures. I asked for their forgiveness and prayer for me to not succumb to the clock.)
In our church we raise our hands in worship, some people don’t because a spirit of intimidation and an over awareness of others causes them to shut it down.
3. Fear Can Hinder Us
I want you to picture two containers, one in a bucket inside a house, and one planted outside. How do you think these plants will grow? The one outside because it can spread it’s roots will most likely grow much higher and flourish more. The one inside where it’s roots are limited to it’s bucket size will be stunted.
In an effort to protect the tree it has caused it to not flourish. In like manner there is a difference between healthy fear and fear that sucks the life out of a person. There is a healthy fear for Corona virus and unhealthy fear. Healthy fear will help you make wise decisions, unhealthy will cause you to lock yourself away in fear. I recently read of a woman who wouldn’t let her grandchildren to come see her (though vaccinated) because she was afraid they might get covid, or might give it to her. That is unhealthy fear. She wants to life her life as if in a bubble, that is too much fear and it has crossed the line from healthy fear, to one that is ruining her life.
Jesus tells of a man who buried his talent in fear, and how God in anger took it from him. When we let fear run our life it will produce miserable consequences.
4. Offerings can be hindered
PPT 7 text
Matthew 5:23 "If therefore you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you,
Matthew 5:24 leave your offering there before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.
Our text tells us that our offerings to the Lord won’t be accepted if people have legitimate griefs against us. What does that mean, our offering won’t be accepted.
It means God won’t accept the honor you intended to lavish on God will be not be accepted until you make things right with your fellow man. It also means any benefit that would flow back to you from giving to the Lord, will be delayed or denied. There will be no hundredfold return.
5. Hearing can be hindered – dull of hearing
PPT 8 text
Hebrews 5:11 Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.
Hebrews 5:12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
Your ability to hear God speak can be hindered, the writer goes on to say that strong meat is given to those who by practices have their sense trained.
If you read your bible once a month, don’t expect an explosion of revelation when you crack it once a month. You have not practiced, and developed your spiritual hearing. Daily devotions produces daily results. Intermittent devotions dulls spiritual hearing, in the same way that muscles that are not used atrophy and decay.
6. Last one I want to talk about is: Prayer can be hindered
Prayer can be hindered in two ways. The first is praying itself can be hindered, by ourselves and by evil principalities, and the second is that receiving answers can be hindered.
Here is a text showing we can hinder our own prayers:
PPT 9 Text
Isaiah 59:2 But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. (NAS)
Isaiah 59:2 There’s nothing wrong with God; the wrong is in you. Your wrongheaded lives caused the split between you and God. Your sins got between you so that he doesn’t hear. (MSG)
We can cause our own prayers to go unanswered. If we walk in unconfessed sin, it will cause God not to listen to our prayers.
Evil angels will also try to keep us from praying. Here is a quote that shows why:
PPT 10 Quote
Leonard Ravenhill – A sinning man will stop praying, and a praying man will stop sinning.
I ran across and interesting illustration about how to remember things:
Vance Havner once wrote Any housewife knows that the best way to remember the things she meant to do and forgot is to start praying. They will come to her mind to divert her from prayer.
That illustration hints that when we pray evil powers will try to distract us from that holy endeavor.
Evil angels will also try and keep our prayers from being answered.
PPT 11 text
Daniel 10:20 So he said, "Do you know why I have come to you? Soon I will return to fight against the prince of Persia, and when I go, the prince of Greece will come;
The text refers to the previous chapter where Daniel had a vision and couldn’t understand, but prayed and waited. He is told that his waiting was caused by and evil spirit with charge over Persia (Iran) that hindered his answer from coming. In this chapter the angel states that a different spiritual evil is coming (Prince of Grecia).
These texts teach us that evil angels work to prevent prayers from being answered, and that certain regions have evil angels working over them. This explains in part why some places have high murder rates, are dominated, crime, sex trafficking, gambling and other ills.
Here is a verse of a city that is said to be full of demonic entities:
PPT 12 text
Revelation 18:2 And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! And she has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.
Babylon has become a habitation of devils.
The murder rate in Chicago, is not only gun related, not only defund the cops related, it can be also related to a spiritual principality. He was a murderer from the beginning. You cannot solve with politics that which has as a (not the) root cause spiritual principality roots. Poverty, gang culture etc., play a part, but you also cannot discount spiritual wickedness in high places.
Having said all that I want to remind you of two things about hindered prayer:
Prayer delayed is not prayer denied.
Jesus taught us to keep praying.
PPT 13 text/PIC
Luke 18:1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.
Ppt 14 We end where we began with the picture of a person with a ball and chain around their ankle, does that describe you?
Close: We covered a lot today. Don’t let your worship be hindered, don’t hang up your harp, and if you have, pick it back up.
Pray for victory over childhood stumbling blocks
Recognize that there is spiritual warfare over praying, and prayers being answered.
May God free those who are bound by fear, and those who are carrying stumbling blocks from childhood. May God break them off you in Jesus name!
Prayer around the altar.
