12/10/2024
Taking back what the enemy stole (Sermon Notes)
We need the whole church preaching the whole gospel to the whole world! On the streets!
I had actually started preparing this message before I found out I had Malaria! Thx for your prayers everyone, I’m much better now! When the enemy attacks our health, our family, our finances, or whatever, we need to know how to hold on to the promises of God!
Dr said this week it was so bad, but it didn’t affect you that much, must be an… Answer to prayer!
1. Worship God in all circumstances!
Music cranking in the Hospital, Vision radio 100% Christian music, changes the atmosphere.
Fears got me living with the lights out
Chained down like a prisoner in my own house
Shame cycles like a daily medication
I try but I can't change my situation
'Cause the liar comes to rob my joy
Yeah, I'm bruised but I'm not destroyed
I'm rising like an army
And you're gonna hear the sound
I'm calling the angels down
I'm storming the gates of hell
Tell the devil he don't own my soul
I'm taking back what the enemy stole
I'm raising the battle cry
I'm holding the banner high
With the power of the holy ghost
I'm taking back what the enemy stole
You can't speak your lies over my family, no
You can't break the promises that are standing, no
Ain't gotta flex to put you back in your place now
One name is all I gotta say, Jesus
I'm calling the angels down
I'm storming the gates of hell
Tell the devil he don't own my soul
I'm taking back what the enemy stole
I'm raising the battle cry
I'm holding the banner high
With the power of the holy ghost
I'm taking back what the enemy stole
Take it all back
I'm taking back what the enemy stole
We're done with all the mind games you try to play
If ain't clear yet I want everything you took from me
In the name of the one who is peace, the one who heals all disease
The only reason that I am free, that name is Jesus
Lord of lords and king of kings
Jesus
The name that makes the demons flee
I want it all now, I'm taking it back now
Yeah, you know it's going down when you hear the sound
I'm calling the angels down
I'm storming the gates of hell
Tell the devil he don't own my soul
I'm taking back what the enemy stole
I'm raising the battle cry
I'm holding the banner high
With the power of the holy ghost
I'm taking back what the enemy stole
Take it all back
I'm taking back what the enemy stole
Taking my peace back (you can't hold me down)
Taking my joy back
Take it all back,
I'm taking back what the enemy stole
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10
What has the enemy stolen from you?
Health? Joy? Backslidden children? Someone you led to the Lord who’s backslidden? In a battle, whoever has the best strategy wins. Our strategy is prayer! And it’s also doing something. Being led by the Holy Spirit. You can stay in the trenches and be safe. But our Commander and Chief the Lord Jesus tells us to go into all the world, he tells us to be people of prayer, he tells us to care for the poor, he tells us to cast out demons, heal the sick. Jesus said in this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world!
Someone asked me what have I learned from Malaria. You get knocked down, get up again, theyre never gonna keep me down! I am an overcomer, more that a conquerer in Christ Jesus!
There is a song I love to sing about “going to the enemy’s camp to take back what he stole” from us. Maybe you are familiar with this song that offers us an opportunity to actually speak with authority to Satan our spiritual adversary, to speak in the name of Jesus and inform him that he is under our feet as believers filled with the Spirit of the living God!
This theme of entering the enemy camp to reclaim our rightful possessions is a familiar one in Holy Scripture.
We first encounter it in Genesis 14:14 when “Abram heard that his relative (Lot) had been taken prisoner” and “assembled his 318 trained men, born in his household, and they went in pursuit as far as Dan. And he and his servants deployed against them by night, attacked them, and pursued them as far as Hobah (“hiding place”) to the north of Damascus. He brought back all the goods and also his relative Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the other people.”
Notice that ALL the goods were restored, and there is no indication that even one person was lost either from Abram’s or Lot’s party. The restoration brought about by Abram’s raid into enemy territory was complete. The enemy was flushed out of even his favorite hiding places and positions of secret influence.
A similar incident occurs in the 30th chapter of First Samuel with King David and his men at Ziklag. The Amalekites had raided Ziklag and burned it to the ground, kidnapping all the wives, sons and daughters of David and his men. David was in danger of being stoned by his own men, even though his wives had also been kidnapped. But scripture tells us that, after weeping with his men over the loss, he
“strengthened himself in the LORD his God.”
2. Strengthen yourself in the Lord
The Hebrew word for strengthen or encourage implies that David attached himself closely and tightly to his God. Nor did David assume that he would chase the Amalekites, but he sent for Abiathar the priest and the ephod, consulting God. God gave him the go-ahead, and with 400 men David overtook the enemy and routed them. “David recovered everything the Amalekites had taken (sound familiar?); he also rescued his two wives. Nothing was missing from the youngest to the oldest, including the sons and daughters, of all the plunder the Amalekites had taken. David got everything back.” (1 Samuel 30, v.18-19) David even made sure that 200 men who had been too exhausted to complete the mission got their fair share of the plunder, even though in the eyes of some they were undeserving. It became an ordinance from that day in Israel that those who stayed with the supplies would receive the same share as those who went to battle. Though it was a bumpy ride and he arrived there by a circuitous and "winding" route, David was already thinking with the mind of Christ!
But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. 2 Corinthians 2:14
3. Spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere!
Which point brings us appropriately to the fact that these raids by two great generals of Ancient Israel, Abram and David, were clearly foreshadowings of the greatest raid into enemy territory of all time by that Commander-in-Chief of All Angel Hosts, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who through His atoning work on the cross and resurrection and ascension has ransomed us with all we possess from the clutches of the god of this world (the devil) who had laid claim to us! In destroying death forever as an outworking of what was achieved on his cross, He is dismantling the very ability of the devil to hold a person or a nation in bo***ge. Bo***ge is itself to be bound up forever, and death itself killed! Multitudes of those who lived before the time of Christ or Messiah looked forward in faith to His preaching and redemptive work. Much of this has happened and is happening on an individual basis, but as with the 3000 harvested in the book of Acts through Peter’s sermon, there are “raiding parties” going forth into the darkness even as I write that will in this last hour ransom great numbers of those who are being prepared by the Spirit of God to hunger and thirst after righteousness and truth.
I wrote this on my last morning in hospital… A lesson about trials and challenges.
A Korean Pastor once told me that when they catch fish in the ocean they put them in a tank and drive them to Seoul. And to keep them fresh, they put a predator fish in the tank! Apparently they taste better because they’ve been swimming for their life! When a trial comes upon us, let’s keep swimming. It might be the thing that makes us come alive! The downside with this analogy is that the fish get eaten in the end! But if that’s their purpose then so it is! What’s your purpose? When you go through a trial maybe it’s preparing you for your purpose? Joseph in the Bible went through many trials, and in Genesis 50:20 it says, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” God used Joseph in an amazing way, but there were May trials along the way. Stay the course. Find your purpose and keep swimming!
I have been very emotional while I was in hospital with Malaria. I have probably cried more in this time than my entire life! It was because of the severity of my physical pain and also the emotional rollercoaster of it all. I was impacted greatly by a book called emotionally healthy Spirituality by Pete Scazzero many years ago and it made me realize how emotionally stunted I was, and often am. My amazing wife is very emotional and I’ve learned from her to actually talk about things and process things well, and it’s ok to cry, and wear your heart on your sleeve. She has been an angel to me in this time. I am so blessed! Many have reached out and supported me as well and I’m very grateful. I just felt to post this and say if you are struggling with anything reach out to someone. Church family are meant to care for one another. The Bible says “God places the lonely in families,” and “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.” We all go through tough times, they say a burden shared is a burden halved. So reach out to someone if you need to and don’t bottle things up.
