Have you ever experienced a frustrating time in your own life when again and again you tried to do something you knew was right and found it hard going? You met opposition and hindrance, perhaps even from your own family. That is Satanic hindrance, the psychological manipulation of minds to arouse opposition and plant obstacles in your path.
THE STORY, THE BACKGROUND:
1. Paul wanted to stay with the Church in Thessalonica.
a. It was a young church.
b. It was a church Paul founded.
c. The believers were all new converts.
2. Paul left because of persecution.
3. Paul was unable to return even though he wanted to:
A. “torn away has two meaning, both are applicable;
What we are doing is not what we desire to do, but what we need to do.
We were “torn away” from an intimate relationship – like a child suddenly orphaned from a mother.
B. Sometimes ministry does not agree with our own desire.
Desires are often emotionally triggered.
Duty is related to need, goals, and calling.
C. Satan can and will use our most powerful feelings against us.
Use our feelings to stay when we should go.
Use our feelings to go when we should stay.
Use our feelings so that we never start.
I. THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS TO ASK OURSELVES, AS WE WALK WITH JESUS.
1. What things in our life are ministry driven?
2. What things in our life are emotion driven?
3. If we confuse the two, Satan will stop us from doing what we need to do!
II. DON’T LET SATAN STOP YOU WHEN YOUR PLANS ARE FRUSTRATING.
A. We need to understand that Satan and his forces are real and adversarial!
1. Satan is active.
2. Satan is at work each and every day.
3. Satan has a plan and a strategy!
B. We need to understand that Satan is a DEFEATED foe!
1. Satan was defeated at the cross redemptively.
2. Satan can be defeated daily relationally.
3. Satan will be defeated in the end judicially.
C. Satan had stopped Paul from returning.
1. The word stopped/hindered means to “cut in a road” or to make impassable.
2. Impassible does not mean impossible.
3. Delay does not mean deny.
4. Delays are conquered by affirmation and alternative, not by faltering and fatalism.
a. If we are doing something that is of our own design or desire (not God’s), then Satan does not have to bother with us. Our frustrations are either our own, or God’s redirection. And what we are doing is not forwarding God’s plan or will, and so it is of NO consequence to Satan.
b. If we are doing what God has put on our hearts, THEN Satan is actively trying to frustrate our efforts because what we are doing is forwarding God’s plans and will.
c. Roadblocks may make our progress difficult, but they do not make it impossible.
d. Some roadblocks are actually for our good.
GOOD ROADBLOCKS/TRIALS
a. When the trial produces Character – James 1:2-4
b. When the trial produces Perseverance – Rom 5:3-5
c. When the trial produces sensitivity towards others – 2 Cor 3:1-7
5. We need to focus not on what has stopped our progress, but what we can do about it.
a. Paul’s alternative was to send Timothy
III DON’T LET SATAN STOP YOU WHEN SERVING GETS TOUGH
A. Paul was having trials.
B. Paul expected to have trials.
Every aspect of our lives have trials.
We should not expect that our service for Christ would be any different.
In fact we should expect them because we are serving in a world incompatible with Christ.
C. If Satan is successful in stopping us with tough times it frees him up to work on those God has given to us to minister to.
D. Satan’s strategy is to “unsettle” us.
1. If Paul allowed his circumstances to stop him, then Satan was free to attack the church directly.
2. If we are stopped, who have we opened up to greater scrutiny from the devil?
Pastor Guy Glass - Philadelphia College of Bible (now Cairn University -- Bachelor of Science in Bible Biblical Theological Seminary, Hatfield Pennsylvania -- Master of Biblical Studies, Master of Divinity.
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