Demolishing Demonic Altars
Tony Schachle
Bold as a Lion • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 208 viewsGod commanded Gideon to fully consecrate his life to the Lord by tearing down his family’s altars that were dedicated to the worship of false gods. The Bible tells us that these false gods were actually demonic spirits. So these altars were demonic altars. Sometimes we can have demonic altars, strongholds of Satan, in our lives that are not under the full control of the Holy Spirit. We can allow the enemy control of certain areas of our lives that can hinder our relationship with God. In today’s message, we are exposing some of the areas that Satan tries to use to setup demonic altars, satanic strongholds, in our lives to keep us from receiving all that God has for us. The good news is that we already have access to the victory over the enemy through the blood of Jesus and we can Demolish Demonic Altars!
Notes
Transcript
SCRIPTURE
SCRIPTURE
25 Now it came to pass the same night that the Lord said to him, “Take your father’s young bull, the second bull of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the wooden image that is beside it; 26 and build an altar to the Lord your God on top of this rock in the proper arrangement, and take the second bull and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image which you shall cut down.” 27 So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the Lord had said to him. But because he feared his father’s household and the men of the city too much to do it by day, he did it by night. 28 And when the men of the city arose early in the morning, there was the altar of Baal, torn down; and the wooden image that was beside it was cut down, and the second bull was being offered on the altar which had been built. 29 So they said to one another, “Who has done this thing?” And when they had inquired and asked, they said, “Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing.” 30 Then the men of the city said to Joash, “Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has torn down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the wooden image that was beside it.” 31 But Joash said to all who stood against him, “Would you plead for Baal? Would you save him? Let the one who would plead for him be put to death by morning! If he is a god, let him plead for himself, because his altar has been torn down!” 32 Therefore on that day he called him Jerubbaal, saying, “Let Baal plead against him, because he has torn down his altar.”
MESSAGE
MESSAGE
Gideon had to make peace with the Lord before he could wage war with the Midianites.
The Lord spoke to Gideon on the same night Gideon had built the altar to the Lord he named Jehovah Shalom.
You will never achieve victory over the enemy in your life until you are at peace with God.
If you a friend of the world, you are at enmity with God.
4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
But understand that being at peace with God means that you will be at enmity with the enemy.
When you become a child of God, you are automatically enlisted in the Lord’s army.
As soon as Gideon made peace with the Lord, the Lord gave him his first assignment.
God is just looking for us to demonstrate a little bit of faith.
God is just looking for us to say, “Here am I Lord, send me!”
God is not looking for perfection, if so He would not have picked Gideon.
Gideon did what God asked him to do, but it did it out of fear.
God does not want our worship of Him to be hidden. He wants our worship of Him to be out in the open for all to see.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.
The Lord required total consecration from Gideon.
There was no room for the worship of Baal or any other false gods in Israel.
God had told Israel:
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
The worship of Baal (Canaanite storm god) and Asherah (Baal’s lover and the goddess of fertility) in Gideon’s family was in direct disobedience to the first commandment.
The worship of these false gods was actually the worship of demons:
16 They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods; With abominations they provoked Him to anger. 17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God, To gods they did not know, To new gods, new arrivals That your fathers did not fear.
20 Rather, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to God, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons; you cannot partake of the Lord’s table and of the table of demons.
We cannot mix the worship of anything else with the worship of God.
We cannot have one foot in the church and one foot in the world.
We cannot dedicate our lives to God and hold on to the things of the world at the same time.
We should not have any areas of our lives that are not fully dedicated to the Lord and under the control of the Holy Spirit.
If we do, we have demonic altars, strongholds, that need to be demolished
What are demonic altars?
Demonic altars are places in our lives that have not been completely surrendered to God and are under the control of Satan.
They can be:
Habitual Sins
Occult Activity
Unforgiveness
Emotional Trauma
Generational Curses
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
The Lord required Gideon to demolish the demonic altars in his life.
You’ve got to demolish demonic altars in your life.
You can’t just leave it abandoned, the strongman will eventually come back.
You can’t just renovate it, or try to repurpose it, the strongman will eventually come back.
You’ve got to tear it down and demolish it.
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
What are our weapons?:
The Word of God
The Name of Jesus
The Blood of Jesus
Prayer and Fasting
Speaking in Tongues
Praise and Worship
Resisting the Devil
And you’ve got to dedicate that area of your life to God.
Gideon not only demolished the demonic altars, but he built an altar to the One True Living God.
Gideon became known as Jerubbaal “He Who Contends with Baal.”
Gideon’s actions made some people mad.
Anytime you start standing up for God and for what is right, you are going to make the devil mad and you are going to make some people mad.
18 “If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.
Jesus told us to rejoice when people persecute us:
11 “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Like Gideon became known as Jerubbaal, He Who Contends with Baal, I would rather stand up against the wiles of the devil and face a little persecution.
And if we’re going to make the devil made and face persecution anyway, we might as well go ahead and completely destroy the demonic altars and really give them something to be mad about.
CLOSING
CLOSING
