Satan's Will For Your Life Series

From a “Pastor’s Weekly Briefing” provided by Focus on the Family -

“A large share of people who attend Protestant or Catholic churches have adopted beliefs that conflict with the teachings of the Bible and their church, according to Barna Research Group

35% believe that it is "possible to communicate with others after they die."

50% of all adults argue that anyone who "is generally good or does enough good things for others during their life will earn a place in Heaven."

44% percent contend that "the Bible, the Koran and the Book of Mormon are all different expressions of the same spiritual truths."

59% reject the existence of Satan, calling him merely a symbol of evil.

The thief comes to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come to give you life and that more abundantly. JN 10:10

Satan is the ultimate eavesdropper and a constant gate crasher. As far as he is concerned we are like E.F. Hutten when we pray.

Whenever and wherever we invite God to come we can be sure that Satan will also show up.

Satan came to our revival last week. He was excited to be here because he had lots to do.

He had hearts to harden. He had minds to make wander.

He had seeds of truth to steal away before they took root in people’s lives.

He brought a full bag of tricks and the schemes that worked best on people who did not think they could be fooled. The ones who thought they were safe. Probably the people who did not see themselves truly in need of revival. They remained the same

I think that when we one day get beyond this world and know as we are known and see many things in a new light that we will be shocked at how much our lives were influenced.

We will then see how the things we did, the attitudes we had and the words we said were deeply rooted in lost spiritual battles. I think there will even be a long list of times we thought we were serving God or even listening to God when we were actually caught up in the influences of the demonic.

Revival changes not only the individual us but also the us we are as Holly Brook Baptist church. Those who came together in revival also left together more one than they came.

This past week we saw a church on its knees together. Satan saw that too.

This week we saw many who broke down some personal walls. Satan saw that too.

This week some people stopped thinking about what other people thought.

This week some people realized they belonged to a body of believers together.

A good definition of a successful revival is when God gets a whole lot more accomplished than Satan does. If that happened this week in your life or in the life of our church then Satan failed in our midst.

The thief comes(he came) to STEAL and to KILL and to DESTROY…

That was and is Satan’s will for your life and for the life of our church.

That is his will for this morning, for this week, for the rest of this year and for the rest of your life.

GOD’S WILL is much different: I have come(God comes/Christ came) that you may have LIFE and that more abundantly.

What an amazing contrast in wills we find in this one verse. Few people realize they have such an enemy but so few also seem to realize that God has such an amazing plan for their lives.

Consider the activity of Satan in the life of Job. Job was an amazing man. Job was a very godly man.

JOB 1:1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.

There is not a person here who would not like to be described in this manner.

Job was a man who was blessing on the inside with a great and godly character but he was also blessed on the outside.

2-3 Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. His possessions also were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants; and that man was the greatest of all the men of the east.

Job was not only a great person in God’s sight but also had favor and status before men.

Job had a problem that many godly people surprising have in this life. People like Lot, David, Adam and Eve, Samuel, Solomon, Eli the priest, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Even the godly father of the prodigal. He had a family that had made room for Satan in their hearts. Job was a very godly man but his children seem to have ‘gone wild’.