Deliver Us Form Evil

it was a blessing for me to go throughthis week of prayer I don't know aboutyou but um it was wonderful to cometogether with the saints of God nightafter night and uh to drill deeper intothe word of God uh I'd like to give youall a warm welcome today it may be coldoutside but it's warm inside and um it'swonderful to gather together with thesaints of God on this his day in thishis house and so as we um we're going tobe opening the word of God this morningand uh I'd like to invite you to Bowyour heads and ask once again for thepresence of the Holy Spirit as webegin father God uh today we we comeinto your house and Lord we we've justcome through um what for some has been aa a wonderful week but father for manythis has been a dreadfulweek father we've just entered a newyear and as we look back at2014 it seems that the world kind ofstumbled over the Finish Line in2015 father we've seen the scourge ofEbola inAfrica we've seen the scourge oftensions in this nationhere we've seen the scourge of war inthe midle East and Plaines dropping outof the sky in SoutheastAsia and so today father as Jesus taughtus how to pray we say with a newearnestness Deliver Us from Evilfather as we come into your presencethismorning I pray that you'll indeedcontinue to Deliver us from evil speakthrough me today Father May My Words Beyour words may your spirit speak to eachof our hearts this morning in the nameof Jesus I askamen uh in September this year I was inthe Philippines the island of Palawanwhich uh is a Long pencil-like Island onthe western side of the Philippine ARpelo and um I spent some days in themountains there where we have somemissionaries and um up in the mountainsthere um animism and worship of spiritsis isprevalent um as as you go to sleep atnight and I was there just before therice Harvest you hear these these drumsgoing through the night and those drumsthey beat at about 65 beats a minute andthey kind of get into your system beforeyou know it your whole body is kind ofquivering in Rhythm to these drums andthese drums are not for for musicalpurposes those drums are calling upcertain spirits to help with the riceHarvest and uh when you're up there inthe mountains you see um holy men asthey're called and and their job is todance themselves into a trance andinvite Spiritpossession uh and you see um a man uhdoing this and others are coming up andblowing onto him like this and whatthey're doing is they're inviting Spiritpossession and before you know it thatman is Spirit possessed for for a shortperiod of time and then the game is foras many villagers to see um how many mendoes it take to hold this guydown so Spirit possession is viewed as aSunday afternoon entertainment in thatpart of the world and on on coming outto the mountains um I I felt kind ofokay it's a long track up into themountains and it's a a steep track outof the mountains I had a few falls onthe way out I trashed my backpack um onestage it never made it home to BaranSpringsand two days after coming out to themountains I was sitting in um ourmissionaries um the the logistics basedown in the lowlands and I felt thisheavy pressure come onto myshoulders and um I was sitting at thedesk and this this pressure was pressingme down and down and down and then itfelt like my whole chest was caught in avice and my chest was being constrictedlike thisand andthen and then these pains started comingacross my upper back and um I kind ofsank to the floor and uh our Missy KentGeor says are you okay I said uh maybethis is uh I don't know I don't knowwhat it is maybe it'll just pass and soI I was s i sank to the floor and I saidmaybe I'll just go and lie down for aminute so I kind of dragged myself uminto my room where there was a cot and Ilay down on the cot and I was gaspingfor breath it felt like there was anelephant sitting on top ofme and um you know you you kind of thinkis this a heart attack what's going onhere and um you don't quite think it socalmly is that I can assure you and uhso I was lying on the bed gasping forbreath I eventually cry Jesus Save MeJesus saved me and the pressure startedto go and the pressure started to go butI could still barelybreathe and so uh our missionary saidwell let's take you to the hospital andso we got into the car or he kind oflifted me into the car and we drove itwas merely 100 yards but for me that wasmiles we drove to the public Hospitalthere and he kind of uh carried me inand um it's a kind of hospital whereeven if you're at death's door they sayjoin thequeue I said this guy is dying would adoctor please see him and they said welljoin the queue so he said well we're notstaying here so we dragged me out to thecar we drove to another hospital APrivate Hospital which was I know half amile away and he dragged me in and hewent to the first door that said Doctoron it and he dragged me into the roomand there was somebody there having aconsultation and uh I miss he said tothis lady you know op it so she oped itas we say in England and he plumps medown in front of the doctor and he saysthis man is dying treat him and um thedoctor turned out to be a apediatricianum so um anyway she she looked at me andshe says what's wrong I can'tbreathe it wasn't very nice nice and Ifelt kind of embarrassed you know to beputting her out like this and so um shesaid well let me take your your heart soshe put a stethoscope on my chest andshe says well your heart's absolutelyfine she says absolutely nothing wrongwith it she says why can't you breathe Idon't know so she said well lie downwe'll take an EKG so I lay down on onthe couch there and two nurses came into do the EKG and they they took myshirt off and I was lying there gaspingfor breath and and the first nurse'sface appears over like this and she saysare you from America I yes she sayswould you take me toAmerica no she says I'm verynice no she says do you have a wife Isaid yes she says that's no problem noproblem just take me to America I saidjust do the EKG and she put the thethings on me and then another nurse camebeside me and she put the the I don'tknow there's electrodes on my left armand and I heard this other voice sayingshe says I'm pretty she says take me toAmerica I said just do the EKG and umthe EKG turned absolutelyfine so um you'll be glad to know I camehome single from thePhilippines wellum by about late late that night I couldbreathe properly again the pain was gonethe the the pressure on the chest wasgone I came home to the states and spokewith my wife about it and she said wellshe says you've you've just turned 40which is a polite way of saying you awhile ago actually she said um and if Icheck your health insurance policyyou're supposed to get an annual checkupand youve never had one so why don't yougo along for your annual checkup so Iwent to the for my annual checkup and Itold the the the the the person thereand they said well um Let's do an EKGand they said no your heart's fine andthey said let's do a stress test I saidyeah I've got a lot of stress know shesays you get on that treadmill and weput some electrodes on you and we checkyour heart rate and your lung capacityand she said you're absolutely normaland your heartbeat is 60 beats to aminute you're pretty healthy and so theysaid well let's send you for a CT scanif I get it right I think it was a CTscan and so I went up to the hospitaland um and then I had an ECG scan andall these scans and every scan came backsaying you're basically healthy there'snothing wrong with yourheart and so um as I reflect on thatexperience out there in thePhilippines when when I come home to thestates every test comes up blank there'sabsolutely nothing wrong with my heartI've been wondering what was going onout there because I was living in a partof the world out there even if onlytemporarily where the spirits are veryvery active Spirits are real they'reactive and they areoppressive in our Western World we'vebeen shaped over time by the Renaissancethe reformation and the Enlightenmentand the result is that our Westernworldview is basically a rationalisticand a scientific worldview we assumethat there is noreality beyond the natural the materialUniverse if something cannot be measuredit does not exist and whether we like itor not this Western worldview therational scientific worldview it hasdirectly impacted WesternChristianity uh you don't have to readvery far among modern theologians torealize that the stories of Jesuscasting out demons in the New Testamentare view are viewed at best with a sneerand at worst with downrightmockery there's a very famous umTheologian William Barkley maybe you'veread some of his commentaries on Romansand when William Barkley who is awell-renowned theologian um I have someof his books on my shelves at home whenhe writes about Jesus casting out demonsum he says that Jesus came not to castout demons but to eliminatepain which is um he kind of softens thethe message um from the gospels Jesuscame to eliminate or to defeat pain andby implication Jesus himself was avictim of primitive Superstition andmany people in the west today assumethat stories of demons are simplynothing more than primitiveSuperstition that if you believe indemons and demonic attacks that there'ssomething wrong with your head that youto be pied and yet the irony is thatwhile many whilst many WesternChristians are moving away from theunderstanding of the reality of Satanand his fallen angels are Western worldis drowning in theoccult if you go to Barnes & Noble todayand you look for the Bible section it'sonly you know so large but you look forthe spirituality section or the occultsection and it um outnumbers greatly interms of numbers of books um theChristian books in Barnes & Noble youdon't have to look very much at modernTV cable TV or movies from Hollywood torealize that the idea of superheroes andpeople with special powers and peopletraveling across time is is prevalent inwhat Hollywood pumps out and ourchildren are being raised in anenvironment in which they we they maythey may be taught by the world aroundus to mock the idea of God and hisangels and Satan and his angels butthey're being raised an environmentwhere where um occultic themes andimagery um are all aroundthem so the Western Skeptics May mockthe Christian portrayal of Satan and hisdemons but the reality it is the Westernworld is is kind of hooked on Satan andhis and his FallenAngels so this morning we're going tofirst of all look at what we read inscripture then we're going to look atwhat we can Proclaim from scripture andthen we're going to look at what we willpractice from scripture in response tothe reality of demons so the first thingwe we read in scripture is that it is afatal misconception to assume that God'speople are immune from the attacks ofSatan the scriptural message is loud andclear clear if you are in the kingdom ofGod you are a special subject of Satan'sattacks we may look in the Bible at somefamous examples the most famous of whichwas job now job was directly harassed bySatan would you agree with me read Jobchapter 1 where God gives permission forSatan to personally attack job and Satanis permitted to attack job um hischildren all die his wife turns on himhis reputation is shattered his his hiscattle his sheep his goats his camelsare stolen and finally Satan is givenpermission by God to attack job withinhis physical body and what to um amodern physician might might look at joband said you just have boils all overyou the reality is that yes there's aphysical manifestation of boils butthere is a satanic cause for those boilsin the same way that when when thedisciples brought a boy to Jesussuffering from epilepsy Jesus recognizedthat beyond the physical symptoms ofepilepsy there was a satanic cause forthatepilepsy Satan was given permission toharass job at no stage do we read thatSatan possessed job but we do realizethat Satan was allowed to to to toharass uh job the turning point in theattacks on job by Satan came we see thisslide on the screen here I inan job 42and verse 10 this the turning point forjobum was when it says there in job 42:10the Lord restored the fortunes of jobwhen he had prayed for his friends priorto that the only prayers we read of jobare his prayers for his children inchapterone but when job starts opening up hisspiritual concerns to be praying forother people who are not related to himthat's the moment to which God deliversjob from satanic oppression or umharassment when job was stopped ffocusing on his own difficulties butstarted to intercede for his friends andwas primarily concerned for thespiritual well-being of others ratherthan his own spiritual well-being atthat moment God delivered job fromsatanicharassment uh that kind of harassment isnot unknown among Christians today um in96 I went to aaban to a region calledthe nichan autonomous Republic uh whichis it flows easily off the tongue Nan aswe used to call it it and um there weretwo Western Adventists there myself anda guy who now lives in Tennessee it wasa region of about 3/4 of million peopleex-communists all Shia Muslims and um Iwent and stayed with him on my firstnight in a small Soviet apartment blockand the next morning I couldn't get outofbed you may have never experienced thisyourself but he had had the sameexperience on his first morning as I asI woke up the next morning it felt therewas a ton of bricks just holding me onthatbed I couldn't see that ton of bricksbut it was real and I lay there on thatbed I couldn't move my arms I couldn'tmove my legs I knew I wasn't paralyzedthere was a force holding me down onthatbed and it seems to me at the time thatmaybe Satan doesn't want us to be hereit was only through crying out to JesusChrist that I was able to get up fromthat bed and a year later there was achurch for the first time ever in thatregion of 100x Muslims you say praiseGod for that Satan you was going tohappen and he was doing his utmost tostop the kingdom of God from goingforward the next um pass the next personwe look at in the scripture who washarassed by Satan was the Apostle Paulhimself now I didn't mention this muchlast week as I was talking on the theconversion of Saul to Paul um but Paulperhaps the greatest Apostle to haveever lived we read in the scripturesthat he endured constant demonicharassment during his Apostolic Ministryand you say where didd you get that fromwell the next um uh slide on the screentells us 2 Corinthians 12: 7 Paul sayshe talks about in 2 Corinthians 12 anduh 2 Corinthians 11 Paul talks about thephysical reality of being an apostlethat he was Shipwrecked and burnt um umstoned and beaten and in danger fromfriends and danger from enemies alike soPaul talks about the horizontalDimension that which he can see in thelife of but in second Corinthians 12Paul talks about the spiritual dimensionof being an apostle and he talks aboutthe fact I know of one who was caught upinto the third heavens we say what is hetalking talking about there well theJews believed in seven Heavens that Goddwelt in the seventh heaven and they hada form of mysticism called maravamysticism marava is is a chariot likeElijah went to heaven on a chariot andthere were seven gates in the sevenheavens and you had a scroll with SevenSeals and to get through each of thegates to to the next level of Heaven youhad to break one of those Scrolls wefind a scroll with Seven Seals don't wein Revelation but this time it's not ustrying to reach God this time it's Godreaching down to to us with the sevenththe seventh seal breaking open to revealthe second coming of Jesus Christ but in2 Corinthians 12 Paul discusses thevertical dimension of his life as anapostle his Revelations from God but healso discusses the negative spiritualrealities of being an apostle he sayseven considering the exceptionalcharacter of the revelations thereforeto keep me from being too elated a thornwas giving me in the flesh a what amessenger of Satan to torment me to keepme from being to ated and that wordmessenger is literally the word Angelosfrom where we which we normallytranslate as Angel so God allowed Satanthe the the obvious interpretation ofthis text we may try and spiritualize itbut the obvious and literalinterpretation of this text is that Godallowed overt demonic harassment on theApostle Paul throughout his ApostolicMinistry why would God allowthis because at the the end of thatsentence it says God allowed this tokeep me from being tooelated Paul the guy with the IV Leagueeducation the brilliantmind socially wellconnected God gave him allowed Satan toharass Paul in order that Paul mightremember his daily dependence upon Godthat his Christian Life his Christianexperience Grace from God all came fromGod and that Paul could not minister inhis own strength but he could onlyminister in the strength of God the nextperson we find in the scriptures we readin the scripture is is the Apostle Peterand in the famous dialogue of Matthew 16Jesus taught his disciples about hisimpending death in Jerusalem and Petertook Jesus to one side and we read inMatthew16:22 we read that Peter began to rebukeJesus saying God forbid it Lord thismust never happen to you and in responseJesus recognized that it was not Peterspeaking here but it was Satan and sothe next slide on the screen we readwhat Jesus said to to Peter Jesus saidto Peter get behind me Satan you are astumbling block for me for you aresetting your mind not on Divine thingsbut on human things there's no recordthat Peter was ever possessed by Satanbut he allowed Satan to influence histhoughts and his words if onlytemporarily and in this instance whenPeter rebuked Jesus and said no you'renot going to Jerusalem todie Peter was saying the same thing toJesus as Satan did in the thirdWildernessTemptation where Satan said said toJesus you can have all the glories andkingdoms of this world without thenecessity of Calvary if you Bow Down andWorshipme when Peter said to Jesus you don'tneed to go toCalvary it was the same temptation toJesus and so sat Peter was even ifunwittingly he was speaking the words ofSatan and when we directly contradict ornullify direct teaching of Jesus Christwe are also allowing Satan to taketemporary control of our minds and ourwordswe need to be serious about what we sayto people we need to ask ourselves whensomebody asks us for counsel oradvice um am I going to directlycontradict the teachings of Jesus heream I going to kind of finesse them sothat somebody's got an out an out clausefrom what Jesus really said when I sharethe gospel with somebody am I sharingthe Gospel Light or am I sharing theFull Gospel withthem the other person we find in thescripture we read in scripture who waspossessed uh by by Satan was actuallyJudas himself and John records in 6 John670 the fact that Judas was in factpossessed of a demon read in the nextslide on the screen from John chapter 6and verse 70 after Jesus has spokenabout himself as the bread of life andand so forth and most of the followersof Jesus leave Jesus and Jesus turns tothe 12 and said are you going to leaveme aswell and uh the TW said no we're stayingwith you but Judas has aproblem Jesus answered them did I notChoose You thetwel yet one of you is a devil the wordthere is diabos a devil diabolical is anadjective we get from that the wordmeans devil or slander there is norecord of Jesus Christ ever deliveringJudas from demonicpossession Jesus healed everybody whocame to him seeking relief from demonicpossessional harassment but Judas nevercame to Jesus and asked fordeliverance in fact in the upper roomjust before Judas went out and betrayedJesus and shortly thereafter he hangedhimself we read there in John 13:27 thatafter Judas had received the bread Satanentered intohim and so one of the 12 wasdemon-possessedand Jesus never delivered him hedelivered everybody else who came to himfor healing but Judas never asked JesusChrist forhealing the twel certainly did notsuspect it you might say that Judas wasthe equivalent today of a highlyrespected denominationalTreasurer actually possessed of a demonpossessed of Satan according to John 12and nobody suspectedit the lesson from the life of Judas isthat unless somebody turns to JesusChrist for deliverance there will be nodeliverance and people around may notsuspect that someone is suffering fromdemonic harassment orpossession only Jesus can see that butif we do not turn to Jesus fordeliverance we will not experience thatDeliverance so this is what we read inscripture about certain characters inthe Bible who are harassed by Satan jobis a good example Paul is a good examplePeter is a good example of someone whogives temporary control of his mind andthoughts to Satan when he startsexpressing thoughts that are opposite towhat Jesus has has just been teachingand Judas is a good example of someonewho professes to be in the kingdom ofGod but was actually possessed by Satanso what then do we Proclaim fromscripture well the scriptures teach thatbehind the scenes of Earthly Affairsthere are invisible Supernatural forcesfor good and evil engaged in a cosmicWarfare for the allegiance andultimately control of every human beingEphesians 6 and verse 12 in ourscripture reading the scriptures teachthe existence of a literal personaldevil once called Lucifer Isaiah 1412and now named Satan the accuser of theBrethren who was once the highest rankedand most beautiful angel in heavenEzekiel28:15 the scriptures teach that Satanexperienced a moral fall and took athird of all the Holy Angels with himinto Rebellion against God Revelation12:4 and that at the conclusion of thatfirst war in heaven Satan and his angelswas literally and physically ejectedfrom Heaven eventually coming down toplanet Earth Revelation 12 7-9 thescriptures teach that Satan and hisFallen Angels we'll call from this pointon demons continue to this day in 2015in waging ruthless SW against thekingdom of God and all that is good andworthwhile in the universe Revelation 1213-1 17 and the scriptures also teach inthe Book of Revelation chapter 16 thatduring Earth's final days that is todaySatan will send forth three demonicspirits who will delude and control theoverwhelming majority of the powers andinhabitants of our world to fightagainst God Almighty in the battle ofArmageddon and they will persecute God'sfaithful people the scriptures revealthat at the end of time that there willbe an upsurge of demonic activityworldwide and we're deluding ourselvesif we don't think that is true the thescriptures teach that Satan will bringabout an overwhelming delusion at theend of time to deceive if possible eventhe very elect of God and those who donot love the truth and notice that Paulin 2 Corinthians 2: 9 and 10 he doesn'tsay that the deception will come uponthose who who who um will not come uponthose who do not know the truthPaul says the deception will come uponthose who do not love thetruth there's adifference those who love the truth asopposed to those who merely know thetruth the scripturesteach that Fallen Angels tempt FallenHumanity they make attractive to us sinsof commission 1 John 3:4 sins ofomission James 4:17 and that they tornand and torment Fallen humans thescriptures teach that the forces of evilthat weigh down Humanity are so powerfulthat we in our un own unaided Humanityare powerless to withstand those forcesof evil we cannot fight against theforces of evil on our own yet thescriptures teach in the first ChristmasStory the arrival of the kingdom of Godset up a direct confrontation betweenthe kingdom of God and the kingdom ofSatan and John chap 1 ver 5 says thatthe light is shining in the darkness andthe Darkness did not overwhelm it or didnot overcome it and I love that versebecause John uses the present tense hesays the light is shining that means thelight continues to shine today that thelight of Jesus Christ continues to shinetoday in the person of his Saints youand I here this morning and the Darknesscould not overcome it that when we aresecure in Jesus Satan May attack theGates of Hell May attack but they cannotPrevail the scriptures teach that 1 John3:8 the reason the Son of God appearedwas to destroy the devil's worknow I was buying a suit on Monday nightwith a couple of friends from here andwe went down to um South Bend and andthere was a guy there who was servingand he said what you do well I'm apreacher and what do you do I'm apreacher and what do you do well I'm apreacher there were three preachersbuying suits and he said well I'm a laypreacher he said I I want to test yourknowledge of scripture he said uh whatdoes John 3:16 say Isaid that's a pretty easy test isn't ithe says okay and now I'm going to testknowledge of scripture what does John3:17 say so well that's pretty easy aswell so he quoted it for him that Goddid not send his son into the world tocondemn the world but that through himthe world might be saved he okay now Iknow your preachers so um uh we we got apretty good deal from that guy as we allbuild our suitstogether and we tend to think of Jesuscoming into the world to save us that istrue but John also says in first Johnthat the reason the Son of God came wasto destroy the works of Satan it wasn'tjust to save us from sin it was todestroy the works of Satan and in hisfirst sermon at Nazareth Jesus declaredthat he had come I quote now to procaProclaim release to the captives that isto deliver the victims of satanicharassment and possession now thescriptures teach that while and I'mquoting from Ephesians 6:12 here ourstruggle is not against enemies andflesh and blood but against the rulersremember that word rulers against theauthorities against the Cosmic powers ofthis present Darkness against thespiritual forces of evil in the HeavenlyRealms thoserulers when we compare them with Romanschapter 8 you realize that Paul istalking about Fallen Angels when Paulgoes on in Romans chapter 8 he says forI'm convinced that neither death norlife nor angels those are good angelsnor rulers those are fallen angels northings present nor things to come norpowers nor height nor depth nor anythingelse nor creation will be able toseparate us from the love of God God inChrist Jesus our lord this is wonderfulnews brothers and sisters that demonscannot separate us from the love of Godthey may try they may try to discouragethey may try to depress they may try todivert they may try to deny our faithbut according to the Apostle Paul thatdemons can never actually separate usfrom the love of God the scripturesteach that Jesus Christ has never lostan encounter with Satan period that inthe Heavenly War before the creation ofthis world when Jesus the armies ofHeaven against uh Satan leading the thethe armies of the Rebellion Satan lostthat war and he was cast out of heavenwhen Jesus met Satan in the wildernessafter 40 days of fasting and prayer onceagain Satan Was Defeated and he wasdriven from the presence of Jesus thatthereafter Jesus went around in Galileeand Judea delivering the captives ofSatan and setting them free why could hedo that he said that you cannot enter astrong man's house and plunder his Goodsunless first you bound the strong manand in the wilderness The Showdown inthe wilderness Jesus had bound up Satanwas now at Liberty to deliver thecaptives of demons and the Bible alsoteaches that in the final conflictbetween good andevil Christ will once again triumph overSatan and Satan will not merely be castfrom the presence of God or driven fromthe presence of Jesus but Satan will beone of the first to be cast into theLake of Fire Revelation20:10 the scriptures teach us today thegood news that Jesus Christ is the SAsavior of mankind Philippians3:20 for our citizenship is in heavenabove from where we are expecting asavior the Lord Jesus Christ that he isour savior he is not just a teacher heis not just a Healer yes you may believethat Jesus was one of the most giftedteachers of human history and manypeople believe today that Jesus was agreat teacher if you ask a Buddhistthey'll say that he was a great teacherand he's an ascended Master people haveall kinds of ideas of who Jesus wastoday but the Bible teaches us thatBeyond being a teacher and a Healer heis oursavior and it is precisely because theevil we experience today has a satanicorigin that we cannot overcome thatsatanic Evil by Simply Having betterChristian education more completeparenting skills carefully nuanced GCresolutions or more efficient localchurch programs these have no impact onthe reality of evil in ourlives our greatest enemy as a human raceis not ignorance and our greatest needis noteducation our greatest enemy as humansis not poverty and our greatest need isnot Economic Development our greatestenemy is humanity is not social Divisionand our greatest need is not socialreconciliation our greatest enemy ashuman beings is not disease and ourgreatest need is not the Affordable CareAct our greatest enemy as human beingsis not poor government and our greatestneed is not a revolution our greatestenemy is not boredom and our greatestneed is not entertainment our greatestenemy is not having an iPhone 6 and ourgreatest need is for an iPhone7 rather the scriptures teach that ourgreatest enemy is evil a personalmalevolent being called Satan and hisfallen angels and our greatest need is apersonal savior called JesusChrist that is our greatest need andthat savior in scripture is the Man fromNazareth the scriptures teach that JesusChrist Accord to Hebrews 13 and: 8 isthe same yesterday today and forever thescriptures teach that Jesus Christ hasbeen given all authority in Heaven andEarth and therefore according to Hebrews7:25 Jesus is able for all time to savethose who approach God through himbecause he always lives to makeintercession for them somebody shouldsay Amen we have a savior who's able tosave for all time those who come to Godthrough him regardless of what Satan hasbeen doing in our lives we have a saviorand his name is JesusChrist so what then or how then do wepractice these truths fromscripture wellfirstly we are to pray daily fordeliverance from Satan now um Youprobably learned the Lord's Prayer whenyou were veryyoung and as I go around the world somepeople have different versions of theLord's Prayer some people saying Deliverus from our debtors I learned uh um andforgive us ourdebtors as we forgive our debtors uh welearned in England and um How does it gouh and forgive those that trespassagainst us as we forgive those thattrespass against us and there differentcultures have got different ways ofexpressing The Lord's Prayer but thereis one sentence that never changes inany culture that's this sentence andlead us not into temptation but DeliverUs from Evil I've never come across anyvariation of that one line from TheLord's Prayer Jesus taught us to praylead us not into temptation and DeliverUs fromEvil now a few lines before that Jesussays give us this day our daily bread byimplication this is a daily prayer forChristians and Jesus taught Christiansthat we are to pray on a daily dailybasis that God might indeed Deliver Usfrom Evil now that's what the King Jamessays now a more literal translation ofDeliver Us from Evil goes like thisDeliver Us from the evilone Jesus does not command us to prayfor deliverance from evil as an abstractconcept you know deliv me from the evilof my bus being late this morning delivme from the evil of sleep falling fromthe sky as I'm rushing to work Jesus donot tell us or command us to to pray forfor um deliverance from the generalevils of living in a fallen World Jesussays quite literally and Deliver Us fromthe evil one that's the literaltranslation of what Jesus says Jesuscommands us today that we pray on adaily basis that God might Deliver UsFrom The Daily attacks of Satan on ourlives and on ourpersons we are to pray that prayer dailyGod deliver me from the attacks of SatanRevelation 12 and and 1 Peter 5 indicateclearly the identity of the attacker ofjesus' disciples uh Revelation 12 Idon't have this text for you but uh it'sa famous verse where um the Apostle Johnreveals the identity of that attacker sohe is the Great Dragon who was throwndown that ancient serpent who is calledthe devil and Satan the deceiver of thewholeworld he was thrown down to the Earthand his angels were thrown down with himwe are to pray daily for deliverancefrom Satan's attacks and there isimplicit within that command to pray apromise isn't there why would Jesuscommand us to pray for deliverance fromsatanic attacks if God is not inposition to respondpositively when we pray to God DeliverUs from the attacks of Satan we pray tothe only one who can Deliver Us from theattacks of Satan and to the only one whowill Deliver Us from the attacks ofSatan implicit within that prayer is apromise from God that when we turn toGod in Humble prayer God will hear thoseprayers the second thing we are to do iswe are to stand firm in the armor of Godin the New Testament we find that Christhas already defeated Satan in Ephesians1 19 19-23 that every conversion eventoday demonstrates that Christ isSupreme Over Satan we find that theexistence of the church today is proofpositive that Satan's power over thisEarth has been broken remember in thetime of Noah how many righteous peopleexisted on planetEarth One Noah alone was righteous andtoday there are millions of peoplearound the world who claim Jesus Christas Lord maybe over a billion peopletoday claim Jesus Christ as Lord theexistence of the body of Christ today isproof positive that Satan's power hasbeen broken and although he is adefeated foe Satan is still dangerouswhom we are to resist and not attacknowhere in the scriptures are wecommanded to attack Satan and his demonsbut we are commanded to stand firm andwhen Satan attacks us we we are toldthis is how you respond to Satan'sattacks the next slide on the screen umshows us Ephesians 6 and: 11 uh and Paulwrites there he says put on the wholearmor of God God so that you may be ableto stand against the Ws of the devil yousee the verb there to stand the nextslide on the screen is Ephesians 613 hesays therefore take up the whole armorof God so that you may be able towithstand on that evil day and havingdone everything to stand firm and thenext slide Ephesians 6:14 starts againwith the command stand therefore andfasten the belt of Truth around yourwaist and put on the breastplate ofrighteousness uh three times the ApostlePaul Comm commands us to to stand nowimagine you in the Infantry in in thetime of Paul and if you have beencommanded by your commanding officer tostand with a shield in front of you isthat an offensive posture or is it adefensiveposture it's a defensive posture we areto stand when we're attacked by Satanbut we're not to go out there lookingfor demons to cast out nowhere inscripture are we commanded to go onprayer walks to name and claim a city ora district for God and to to pray thatall the demons be cast out out nowheredoes that command appear in scripturebut we are commanded in this battleagainst spiritual principalities to puton the armor of faith and have theshield of faith and the armor of God andhave the shield of faith and to standfirm we're not to run away God gives usa breastplate he gives us no coveringfor our backs if we run from the attackswe're we're vulnerable to Satan'sattacks we are commanded to stand withour face to the foe confident that Jesuswill indeed give us thevictory how how do we put this intopractice in our lives well in Acts 19the next slide upon thescreen when Paul was in Ephesus whichwas a center of occultic activity justas much of America istoday Center of ultic activity we readthere in acts 19: 17-2 when this becameknown to all the residents of Ephesusthat is the sons of ska trying to castout demons and the demons attacking theseven sons of skver and beating them upwhen this became known to residents ofEphesus both Jews and Greeks everyonewas a struck and the name of the LordJesus was praised also many of those whobecame Believers confessed and disclosedtheir practices a number of those whopracticed magic collected their booksand burnt them publicly when the valueof these books was calculated it wasfound to come to 50,000 silver coins sothe word of the Lord grewmightily andprevailed the the truth about this storyhereis that we can cooperate with God ingetting rid of satanic influence in ourlives imagine your life is a city andtown hall and the hospital and theCentral Plaza are clear of crime butcrime takes place in the side alleys andthe back roads away from the glare ofthe public eye and in all of our Liveswe have those areas that are on publicdisplay that seem to be clean and pureand under the rulership of the kingdomof God but in each of Our Lives we havethose back alleys and side alleys wherewe have yet to surrender sov y to Godand it is in precisely those areas thatwe are opening ourselves up for theattacks of Satan now those side alleysthey may be um attitudes of bitternessor hate towards somebody it may beunresolved differences with people fromthe past it may be actively watchingstuff on the internet or playing violentgames it may be being abusive to yourchildren or to your or to your um toyour spouse it may be using addictivesubstances engaging in in pornography orPride or spiritual self-sufficiencygossip or slander there are many manyareas there are many many back alleysthat may exist in our lives and theChurch of Ephesus gave us an example ofwhat we do when we want to clean up ourlives we get rid of those things in ourlives we go home today from church andwe ask ourselves the question is therean attitude of my heart is there a wordof my tongue is there a deed of my handsis there something passing my eyes thatI cannot give to God as a LivingSacrificewhat part of my life today can I notgive as a Living Sacrifice to a holyGod and probably we all have a fewthings in those nooks and crannies ofOur Lives the Church of Ephesus thepeople of Ephesus they burnt the thingsthat came between them and the holyGod I'm not suggesting you go home andburnsomething but I am suggesting that we gohome to our homes today and we to usmaybe a self- inventry and ask ourselveswhere are those nooks and crannies of mylife where I Harbor attitude and engagein in activities that do not bring honorand glory toGod those things need to be put awayotherwise those are open invitations forSatan to enter our lives let me give youan example I was onceministering there was a gentleman in mychurch who was um um he he struggledwith weight his entire life he was umalmost crippled and in desperation hebought himself some CDs and the idea bebehind the CDs was that you fell asleepand you played the CDs to yourself itwas kind of a form of self- hypnosisthere were these messages beingimplanted into his brain and I didn'tknow about this at the time until um hehe stopped being able to sleep and he'dwake up in the middle of the nightcursingJesus and he'd come to church in themiddle of a church service he he wouldbe cursing Jesus from the top of hisvoice what's going on with this guyand so um with a group of Elders westarted fasting and praying we went tovisit with him and we said to himbrother so and so what's going on inyour life tell us uh what have you beendoing recently he said well you knowI've I've been doing this I've beendoing that we looked around the house hetraveled around the world there werevarious occultic symbols disguised astourist gifts sitting around the housewe said well brother you probably wantto get rid of those from your housephysically he so I can't I said well whynot well I can'twell well why not well I physicallycan't get rid of them we'll just walk tothe mantle piece and put it in the trashand we'll take it outside it took maybethree or four hours for him to muster upthe courage to take that those thingsoff the mantle piece and put them in thetrash he said and uh what have you beenwatching or listening to what have youbeen putting into yourmind and uh he said okay these are thecassettes I've been listening to and mycursing of Jesus Christ occurred soonafter I started listening to these in mysleep these self self- hypnosiscassettes and um he said well in thatcase you need to get rid of these thingswell I can't well why not I need themwell no you don't need them you you haveto get rid of them he said well you getrid of them no he said you have to getrid of them you have to reach acrossyour bed and pick those up and put themin the trash and until you do that youwill never be free of this demonicharassment we spent two days with thatgentleman before he could physically puthis hands out and take up those DVDs andput them in the trash he was deliveredfrom that point on from from thesewaking up in the midnight cursing Jesuscoming to church and cursing Jesus umbut it took 2 days of fasting and prayerand I can tell you the atmosphere in thehouse when they say it was heavy man youit was Heavy it was a heavy atmosphereand once the stuff was cleared out ofthe house the atmosphere changedinstantaneously he was a brother in thechurch a church officer who hadunwittingly allowed Satan to enter hishome uh in in the guise of doing good inhis attempt to control his weight but umSatan attacked even under the guise ofdoing good thirdlywe are to turn to God in prayer andfasting when under satanic attack uh thenext slide on the screen Matthew 17: 14through 21 it describes the occasionwhere Jesus just been transfigured onthe Mount of transfiguration and he andhe comes down to the Valley and the thenine disciples are down there they'vebeen fighting among themselves over whowas the greatest they were jealous ofthe three that went with Jesus to themountain and um they've been separatedfrom Jesus characteristics of manydisciplestoday and um a father had brought hischild to them um presenting as asepilepsy but Jesus recognized thatbeyond the epilepsy there was a sataniccause to that epilepsy it wasn't aphysical cause says and Jesus rebukedthe devil and he departed out of himthat is the child and the child wascured from that very hour then came thedisciples to Jesus apart and they saidwhy could we not cast him out and Jesussaid unto them because of your unbelieffor verily I say unto you if you havefaith as a grain of mustard seed youshall say unto this Mountain removehence To Yonder place and it shallremove and nothing shall be impossibleunto you how be it this kind as in thiskind of spirit goeth out goeth not outexcept by prayer and fasting Jesuscounseled the disciples that when youare faced with a demonic attack you arenot to try and dialogue with the demonyou're not to try and dialogue with thedemon to know his name as some peoplewould suggest today you're not to tryand identify from the demon hisgeographical territory that he controlsor the person that he control controlsor the spirit that he controls eventhough people today will say that Jesussays when you're are faced with thepresence of a demon you do not dialoguewith the demons but you turn to God inprayer andfasting that is a Christian responsebecause on our own we cannot fight thosedemons the sons of ska learned that totheir own uh they were beaten up by thatdemon inEphesus we turn to God with prayer andfasting we find that when Jesus wasabout to confront Satan in thewilderness what did he do for 40 dayshe prayed and he fasted when Daniel wasstruggling in Daniel 10 because the 70years were up and the new King of PersiaCyrus had yet to send the Jews back homeagain even though the prophecy ofJeremiah 29 and 25 had been fulfilledwhat was Daniel doing for 21 days he waspraying and he was fasting and Jesusappears to Daniel and reveals thatbehind the scenes while you were prayingand fasting there's been a strugglegoing on against the princes of Persiaand the princes of Greece those demicSpirits with with control over thoseregions we find that when Esther whenGod's people were under attack in thestory of Esther even though the Book ofEsther is the only Bible in the book bybook in the Bible where the word God isnot mentioned clearly this was a satanicattack why because if hmon had succeededin eliminating the Jewish race then theMessiah could not have come because theMessiah was going to be of the family ofAbraham and ofDavid so this was a satanic attack andhow did Esther call the people torespondthree days of prayer and fasting whenSamuel uh met with the people ofIsrael they suffered defeat and and theArk of the Covenant had been taken bythe Philistines remember that story whenthe ark eventually came back to Israelthe the people of Israel came togetherand said what happened D and Samuel saidthis happened because you worship theasth and the molexes and the Bales youworship the the gods of this land and myversion of the Bible calls those Gods umgoat demons some versions of the tribe Iliterally we call those false gods goatdemons have you ever seen a picture ofof Satan like um a man with a goat'shindlegs the Bible actually says in threeplaces it calls these false gods goatdemons they are living demons who theIsraelites were worshiping and Samuelsays to the people of Israel you've beenworshiping these demons masquerading asasth Bales and and Molex now to freeyourself from demonic oppression we'regoing to have a corporate day of prayerandfasting as we look through um uh in theBible John the Baptist before he engagedin in Mission before he came across theJordan to preach he was on a partialfast of of um wild locusts andhoney so we find throughout thescriptures that whenever God's peopleare engaged in encounters with Satanprayer and fasting are the means thatGod has ordained by which his he will beglorified and his perfect will will bedone so what do we say in conclusionthis morning the biblical worldview isthat there has been a fall and the humanrace is broken and wounded the biblicalworldview is that the evil in our worldis bigger than we are it is basically ofSupernatural origin and Satan is behindall evil and our struggle today is notagainst human forces of evil but it isagainst spiritual principalities andpowers and it is precisely because ofthe enormity of this vast evil that weneed a personal savior to save us theBible tells us in the fullness of timeGod so loved the world that he sent hisson Jes Jesus Christ the one who wasanointed with the Holy Spirit and God'spower to free us from the Dominion ofSatan acts 10:38 says this God anointedJesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spiritand with power he went about doing goodand healing all who were oppressed bythis by the devil for God was with himlater after Jesus ascended to heaven theentire community of disciples was filledwith the Holy Spirit at Pentecost andthus filled with Heavenly power theearly church engaged in three basicactivities they proclaimed the gospelthey healed the sick and they deliveredSatan'scaptives and today we want to proclaimthe gospel and maybe heal the sick butwe've forgotten all about deliveringSatan's captives but that is what theearly church did Jesus was very clear onwhy he came to Earth Luke 4:18 he saidhe that is God has sent me to Proclaimfreedom for the prisoners and recoveryof sight for the blind to release theoppressed and to proclaim the year ofthe Lord's favor Jesus did not comemerely to teach lifestyle or ethics hecame to deliver us from Satan and soJesus commanded us each day to prayDeliver Us from the evil one and thefact is and the fact that we can praythis prayer with the promise that Godwill and lead to Deliver Us from Satanis good news indeed it's wonderful newsbecause satanic oppression leads nowhereexceptdeath um just recently as you know I wasin arel NorthernIraq and uh I lay down the first nighttherethe hotel was empty except myself anAmerican friend from LincolnCollege and we lay down there and thestreets were empty and Isis would justdown the road and he said to me he saidum what happens if Isis comes totown I said well I guess they'll come totown I was trying to get to sleep atthis stage I said well they'll come totown I guess he says and what happens ifthey come to the hotel I said well whenthey come to the hotel they'll probablyput a pistol to the receptionist deskand say where are you westerners andhe'll say because he wants to save hislife they're in this room here andthere's the key they'll come upstairsand they'll kidnapus and we'll probably appear onCNN not for reasons that you want toappear onCNN he said so what are we going to doabout it should we move hotels I said nowe're not going to move any hotelstonight we're going to ask God to sendhis angels to protect us then we'll turnover and we're going to go tosleep and so weprayed uh and uh we claim the promise ofPsalm 347 and8 that the angel of theLord watches round about them that fearHim and delivereth them but the nextverse is beautiful who taste and seethat the Lord is good happy are thosewho take refuge inhim when you taste the protection of Godand his deliverance from the forces ofevil you can indeed sleep easily atnight that is what we did that night inbbel my prayer for each of us is that aswe turn these matters over to God andclean our lives up and turn to God withfasting and prayer that we will indeedtaste and see that the Lord is good thatit is a blessed thing to take refuge inhim that we may be able to sleep easilyin our beds at night Deliver Us fromEvil says Jesus and that is my prayerfor each one of us today may God blessus as we live lives in the Kingdom livesthat are under satanic attack but livesthat have the promise of heavenlyprotection may God bless us in thiscoming week amen[Music]turn ofso father God today we would indeedstand like the brave with our face tothe foe knowing that you are Captain arenear us knowing that you have never losta battle withSatan father in our lives may we gainvictory over those attacks may we standand sing your praises from Sabbath toSabbath may we enter your courts withThanksgiving and praise as we say weekby week that God indeed has delivered usfrom the evil one and father as we gainvictory in our lives I pray that otherswill see and they will say we want totaste that Victory as well father thisis our prayer may you be glorified inour lives in this coming week in jesus'name we ask amen[Music]