Sermon Tone Analysis

Good Morning,

I’ve been meditating these last couple weeks about the spirit of revival.

You may remember the last time I taught that we looked at the Biblical history of revival.

We discovered that it wasn’t a church thing but rather a God thing.

We are fortunate that this is a Holy Spirit church.

The Holy Spirit is welcome here.

He often enters during our worship, during teaching, during prayer and during revival.

We have seen his hand at work as people are healed, set free, and delivered.

He shows up on Wednesday nights before prayer in testimony times, during prayer in thanksgiving, during confession and supplication.

My meditation time has led me to wonder, why he doesn’t stay?

Why does he show up for short periods of time?

How do we move from a place of visitation to a place of habitation of the Holy Spirit?

And I’m not just limiting that habitation to this building either.

This week I’d like to look at nine ways the enemy attempts to prevent not only revival but habitation of the Holy Spirit.

Nine tools the enemy uses to rob and destroy God’s people.

Nine ways he hampers or even prevents the habitation of the Holy Spirit.

Wait a minute Lisa, are you telling me that the devil can prevent God from doing something?

No, I am saying that God will not force himself on any one.

He will not go where he is not invited.

If we want God’s presence in this place, we need to invite him in.

Are you with me?

Then let me say one more thing before we get started, this lesson is not about the enemy.

It is my prayer that by the time this hour is over you will be able to identify nine tricks that the enemy uses to keep you from growing more intimate in your relationship with God.

I don’t necessarily want you to memorize the list; I want you to recognize the tactic, so that when he tries to use this to destroy you (and he will try) you will instantly be aware of it and use your authority, as a child of God, to stop him.

Remember, his job is to kill to steal and to destroy.

If he prevents you from giving the Holy Spirit permission to move in your life, he accomplishes his goal.

1.

I believe the oldest trick the enemy uses is /deception/.

We know that the serpent deceived Eve in the garden.

He misquoted God, and deceived Eve into throwing away the life of habitation with God for a taste of forbidden fruit.

Let me let you in on a little secret.

The Enemy uses the same tricks over and over and over again.

He figures if it worked before, it will work again.

Let’s look at another time he used deception to lead his children away from fellowship with God.

Turn with me to Exodus 32

We’re in the desert with the children of Israel.

Moses has gone up Mt Sinai to meet with God.

We all have that image in our mind of Charlton Heston shielding his eyes as fires moves across the sky and burns the Ten Commandments into rock.

Now imagine halfway through the writing that God stops.

Can you picture Moses scratching his head?

“But lord, you told me there were Ten Commandments and yet you only written five?

Why did you stop?” Now that might sound impertinent to us, but remember Moses was God’s friend.

What could be so distracting, that God would stop doing what he was doing?

Exodus 32:7

7 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt.

8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf.

They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your Gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

Where’s the deception?

Jump up to verse 1

When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us Gods who will go before us.

As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”

These are the same people who crossed the Red Sea, the same people who can see a cloud atop the mountain, the same people who had heard the voice of God, and being so frightened by it that they send Moses up to represent them.

What would lead them to believe that God wasn’t there or that Moses wasn’t coming back?

Deception.

Notice it says, “They saw”, and “ they gathered”, “let us”.

The enemy used the same track he used against Eve.

He whispered the same deception into the ears of a number of people which led them to question whether God would do what he said.

People, he uses the same trick today.

He whispers into  our ears, or the ears of people around us.

He deceives us into questioning whether God will do what he says he will do!

Did the prophet really hear from God?  Or was he making up that prophecy?

Did he just tell me what I wanted to hear so I would open up my checkbook?

Scripture tells us, let God be true and everyman a liar.

God will do what he says he’s going to do.

Scripture also tells us (Num 23:17)

19 God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.

Hear me, God WILL do what he says He will do!

So when you hear otherwise, it is the enemy trying to deceive you

One more thing I want to point out before we go on,

Who made the calf?

Aaron.

What job did Aaron have?

He was the high priest.

There’s a warning in this passage.

Satan not only deceives individuals, or groups of people, he can deceive the church as well.

In Mark 13:22 Jesus says,

22 For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect—if that were possible

That’s why it is important for us to pray for our pastor, to pray for the guest prophets, evangelists, and apostles who visit this house.

Pray for the Sunday school teachers.

Pray that we all remain humble, alert, obedient and wise so as not to be deceived.

2.

/Deception/ leads to /rebellion/.

First the Israelites were deceived and then they coerced Aaron into building them a golden calf.

But rebellion is more than an action.

Rebellion is a spirit.

Rebellion can even enter during a move of God.

God said that he would take care of his children in the wilderness.

How did he provide for them every morning?

It rained manna, thin Honey tasting wafer appeared every morning as the dew dried.

How much did God provide every morning?

Enough for each person’s daily needs, and twice as much on the day before Sabbath so that the Israelites would not have to work on that day.

Not too much, not too little, but just enough.

After a number of days of this new breakfast treat, the Israelites became bored with manna.

This boredom leads to murmuring and complaining which angered God.

They didn’t ask God for meat, they demanded meat.

Rebellion is so insidious that even during a miraculous outpouring of God’s provision the enemy was able to incite people to rebel against God.

God is good.

He’s a loving father who wants to take care of his children.

So he sent them quail.

Rebellion is a strong spirit.

The children of Israel did not receive their quail with gratitude.

In fact the murmuring in complaining escalated to the point that the people began to question Moses leadership.