TAKE IT BACK!
One of my all-time favorite movies is Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first film in the Indiana Jones trilogy. I think it’s Steven Spielberg’s greatest work. In the film Hitler’s Nazis have stolen the newly recovered Ark of the Covenant and placed it aboard a German submarine. The Ark is housed inside a wooden crate with a large swastika, the insignia of the brutal Nazi empire, emblazed on the side. During one scene we see the crate in the dark hull of the ship with rats scurrying about. The camera pans toward the swastika as the music builds, and suddenly it begins to scorch. The rats nearby fall dead, and within seconds the Nazi symbol is completely burned away. It’s a powerful scene that is meant to show God’s position on allowing anything to steal or take away His glory.
The scene could have come right out of the pages of Scripture. In fact, it is reminiscent of one that was recorded in the book of 1 Samuel. In this excerpt from Scripture, the Ark had been stolen by the Philistines and placed in the temple of their god Dagon. To the Philistines, the Ark was simply another trophy made in honor of another tribe’s god, so they put it in a tent alongside the idol of Dagon. They didn’t care anything about it. It was just another plunder of war. Yet God’s children cared very much about the ark. It represented the safety, security, blessing and power of God in their lives.
Because it was stolen, God’s people were not the same.
Today, the enemy of our souls, the devil, tries to do the same thing. He attempts to steal our joy, our peace, our security and our hope.
So, let me ask you this….”At what point did the enemy break in and steal your joy”? “At what point did he break in and steal your peace or your hope”?
You know what I’m talking about. Rather than living life and experiencing life to the full, you now walk around in a fog of confusion, fear and doubt. Things you never used to question, you now question.
If God loves me, why did this happen?
If God cares, why am I stuck in this situation?
If God is good, why do bad things happen?
And before long, questions that seem to have no answer lead to a life that has no hope.
How do we break out of this rut? How do we get the vehicle of our life out of this ditch?
First step we must take is to:
Identify the enemy.
The Bible says in Ephesians 6:12 we “wrestle not against flesh and blood”
People are not your problem!
People are only a tool used against you.
The TRUE enemy that you are fighting with is a spirit. Not the Holy Spirit, but an evil spirit, a messenger of Satan, sent to attack and destroy your hope, joy and peace.
In 1 Thess. Chapter 2 the devil hindered Paul
In Luke 13:16 a woman was bowed over because of the works of the devil
In Luke 22:3 the devil suggests to Judas that he betray Jesus
In the Gospels the devil attempts to tempt Jesus
All these and more are the works of the enemy of our souls.
However, in my heart, I know many of you in this room today want your peace back. You want your joy back. You want your security back. You want your hope back. And I admit and propose to you that it’s time to take it back!
The Bible says in James Chapter 4 verse 7:
“…resist the devil and he will flee from you”
So the first thing we need to do to take back our joy, peace, security and hope is identify the enemy.
The second step we need to take is…
Admit Our Inability to Heal Ourselves.
I can’t make the hurt go away In your life.
YOU can’t make the hurt go away in your life.
I cannot answer why good things happen to bad people and bad things happen to good people. But I do know this. We all come to a place In our lives that our winning personalities or our charming personalities won’t carry us through.
They won’t overcome the loss of a job or the loss of a loved one.
They won’t compensate for the loss of a child or the pain of a divorce.
We need something or someone bigger and more powerful than we are to reach into our wounded spirit and heal the deep seated hurt.
We need something more than a “positive mental attitude” to bring back the joy, peace, security and hope!
Which leads me to the third step we must take in order to Take back What the Devil Stole:
Make a Move Toward God
The scripture I read earlier from James about the devil fleeing from us when we resist him, was really only part of the scripture. Please allow me to read the entire verse to you….
It says, “Submit yourself, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you”.
But how do I submit when I’m hurting?
How do I submit when I don’t understand?
How do I submit, even when I’m angry at God?
How do I submit when I feel like God could have stopped all the hurt in my life, yet you are telling me to come to him?
That is a fair and honest question that needs to be discussed. To help all of us understand, I would like to read a letter by a missionary named Charles Moore (you can read more about him at moorereport.com) IT IS QUITE LENGTHY, BUT I BELIEVE IT WILL HELP MANY OF US WHO CAN IDENTIFY WITH HIS PAIN…
Dear Heavenly Father,
Yes Lord, I know I have no right to ask you "why," but I am beyond that. For years I would say that one should only ask you "What" you were going to do as a result of something bad, and never ask you, the Omnipotent God, "Why" you caused it.
You tell me that you are a loving God, and you even have told me that you are Love. I have remembered, many times, that you have said that you love me greater than an earthly father loves his own son. Words, they are only words. I know how much I love my children and I would not let two doctors tell them that their prognosis was suicide nor would I let them suffer nights on end when I knew that their screams of pain were muffled in a pillow? Why should I only find some relief in nearly 200 milligrams of morphine each day? How could I live if I thought for a minute that I could make a difference in my child’s peace of mind or help him in his pain? You a loving God, have turned your back on me. I do have a right to ask "why."
You know I have confessed every sin that I have even thought about committing and how many times have I claimed nearly every one of your promises? Godly men and women have anointed me with oil many, many times. I also know well the story of your deep love for Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, and how you turned your back on them for at least four days. Of course, I know it was for a greater good that of raising Lazarus from the dead. But my Father that no longer helps me. Father I know you turned your back on your own son and allowed Him to cry out to you, "Why have you forsaken me?" I understand that this was done for a greater good, that of providing all of mankind the opportunity of salvation. For me to even mention my Saviors experience in the same letter is presumptive however Father I am trying to understand "why."
Your Word has taught me that my reward will be in heaven and not here on earth. God I truly do not expect a reward on earth. I have asked for one thing and one thing only, to again know your "Peace of God that passeth all human understanding."
To me, that encompasses the essence of the Christian life. Why is that too much to ask of a loving God?
Lord, it has been astonishing to hear so many Godly people say, "You must feel like Job." Your Bible has told me that all of my righteousness is as filthy rags, yet Job was a righteous man in his own right. My righteousness is solely because of my position in Christ and because of his shed Blood. So what consoling value is there for me in the book of Job?
Paul said he would rather glory in his infirmities because he was made strong in so doing. I am not Paul, however, for years you allowed me to see the truth in this statement. I, like Paul believed, that "I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me." For more than seven years, rarely have I seen the reality of this promise.
This same man of God also tells me to "always give thanks for all things." I know that this verse means exactly what it says. The word "all" means nothing less. So of course, God, I have thanked you for things that have destroyed me, hurt the ones I love and in my finite mind seem to be harmful to the ongoing of your kingdom. Do I have a right to look for logic or do I have the right to ask you why?
God, do I have any right to ask for you to show me your love? Why have you not honored your Word? There are so many of your promises that I have claimed after fulfilling the accompanying conditions. Father, is it really true that, "everything works together for good to those who are loving God and are called according to His purposes?" Why should you not keep all of your promises if I am obedient?
I have stored up my treasure in heaven instead of here on earth. God, when you saved me you placed in me a love for you that transformed my life. You gave me all the things the world says a person needs to have for happiness.
You gave me a lovely Christian wife, 11 corporations from Maine to Florida to California and over 500 employees, a 16,000 acre ranch, private airplanes, and a corporation that I saw become the largest of its type in the United States. That you blessed me financially is an understatement. Then you led me to give it all away.
You humbled me as you revealed how much I loved the things of the world. My heart was broken as I was made to realize how much you loved me and how little love I had for you. Why did you teach me so great a lesson about your love, only to remove it in my later years?
After you taught me this lesson, it became very evident that I could no longer serve two masters. You had given me a wife with a kindred spirit, who willingly followed me as I literally was led by you to walk away from a life of luxury and a future of even greater wealth. You placed us in Costa Rica to sleep on the floor for months, to do without a stove or a refrigerator and all of this with four small children.
You taught us to never feel like we had sacrificed or given up anything because our lives were in the center of your will.
You caused me to be arrested and thrown in jail for preaching on the street. You let us endure all kinds of hardships, and to experience the all-out attack of Satan and his demonic host. Never once did we look back, for you were a loving and caring God and being in the center of your will was the most blessed place on this earth.
We experienced over and over again the reality of your promise that if we asked for bread, You would not give us a stone. You were the God of the Old and the New Testament and you were intimately involved in our lives.
From a poor little rich boy you changed me into a rich little poor boy. You performed miracle after miracle. One of these miracles was providing us an "upper room" in the middle of the red light district and main market of the country where over 30,000 people walked in front of our building every day. You burdened our hearts to begin reaching out to these thousands, many of which had open running sores, others were prostitutes, alcoholics, drug addicts and all were people with absolutely no hope.
Do you owe me anything? Do I have the right to say yes? Monetarily, you owe me nothing even though you have left us almost destitute. Physically, you owe me nothing because I know my life was purchased at Calvary. God do you owe me anything? I believe you do. What do you owe me? You owe me the continual knowledge of your presence and your love that I once knew.
Return unto me the joy of my salvation and the sweetness of the relationship that I have known. I only desire to know you, which is not something unreasonable. My heartbeat is only to know you.
God I no longer ask you to heal me, remove my pain, or make our lives easier. Just keep your word. You have promised you would never leave me or forsake me. What have you done? You have said,"We have not because we ask not." God, if you love me more than I love my children why do I have to beg you to know your love and your peace. WHY, OH MY GREAT GOD, WHY?
God answered the prayer found in the letter above and has allowed me again to know HIS sweet presence and HIS peace.
Altar: Close with Arlen Estes story. “swing for the fence”
As I was praying over this message and putting it together, the Lord showed me something that might seem very coincidental, yet it is so powerful. If we…
ß Identify the enemy
ß Admit our inability to heal ourselves
ß Make a move towards God
The first letter of each of those spell “I AM”
