Soar- Releasing the sins of Others

STORY OF PETER and His Downfall

Luke 22:31–34 ESV

31 “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, 32 but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” 33 Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.” 34 Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.”

For the last couple of weekends you have been in the ditches with others, dealing with their sins, wounds, habbits, and hangups.... Thank you for loving them well… Well done.... you have fought well… Their freedom is evident on their countenances.... A lot of you are seasoned soldiers, some of you may be relatively new to this type of battle

I have come here today to remind you of the spiritual battle that is taking place. When Jesus warns Peter that Satan demanded to have him, that he might sift Peter like wheat, well lets just say that Jesus was using Satan as a metaphor. What you have been doing these last few weeks is enterin gon the battlefield of spiritual warfare, dealing with flesh and blood human beings, but thats not all they are, they are flesh and blood but they are also Soul and Spirit. A lot of you are well seasoned soldiers and you are well aware of the enemies tactics. Some of you may not be and I don’t want you to lose a bigger battle when you get home.

Do you know when my biggest battle takes place normally, its usually Sunday afternoon or Monday morning after I have preached on Sunday morning, and usually the greatest victories in peoples lives that I am ministered to is followed up with the biggest assault Spiritually, why? Because you are more prone to let your guard down

We thought is would be a good idea to have a time where you can now release the things that may be clinging to you.

Right now I want to take your hat off as a leader and Just be a person, a child of God. A child that needs mercy and needs forgiveness, yes even while you may be ministering to others

will hitch a ride with you when you go home and use those things that have happened to others to cling to you....

We want to address the Spiritual, because if you don’t watch it you will experience a high high spiritually here and then fall flat on your face when you get home.

And when you fall after a great victory, the impact of that spiritual body slam has greater impact.

Oswald Chamber in His devotional My Utmost for His Highest said this. That an unguarded strength can become a double weakness.

UNGUARDED STRENGTH

When you hear the stories of some, maybe you thought ohh I would have never done that, or I don’t struggle with that....

Well let me tell you that Peter probably never struggled with being a coward.... In fact, when Jesus warns Him that Satan had been demanded him that he would sift him like wheat, Peter responce was Lord , I am ready to go to prison or even die with you… Ha that will never happen to me Lord.... What happened Peter had an unguarded strength that He relied on, that He thought defined him. He was the first one to step out of the water, He was the first one to proclaim that Jesus was the Son of God… But Peter had an unguarded strength, and he underestimated the power of the enemy..,

you may have an unguarded strength, this may be your 30 th time to staff one of these. Listen beware, walk as the bible says circumspectly.

You may have heard some of these stories and thought Lord I would never do that, or I could never be tempted in that way.

Listen if you don’t watch it some of their sin may cling to you, you may not intend on it clinging to you. But when you are cleaning up muddy areas, the mud is going to cling to you. Don’t believe me, call Molly Birch and volunteer to clean her Pig pens, and where your whitest brightest clothes… It happens.... And when we are dealing with peoples crap its important that we take a bath.... Some of these stories that you've heard may have rattled you to the core? It may have deeply disturbed you.... listen when they laid it down at the cross and walked away, its important that you leave it at the cross

Luke 11:24 ESV

24 “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, and finding none it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’

Well the last thing you want to happen is to see Unclean Spirits leave those that you are ministering to you, and then hitch a ride with you on the way home.

Beware of Spiritual and Physical Exhaustion

What might an unguarded strength look like on an event like this?

Well

Yeah we seen the devil get his tail kicked this weekend. You saw victory after victory, stronghold after stronghold demolished, we can go back to the safety of our castles, put our head down… start refueling the flesh, because we have been so over extended spiritually in doing battle for others. And sit back and say ah I just need some rest, I am physically exhausted, but spiritually we don’t refuel

The devil will allow you certain victories sometimes that way he can knock you down further instead of body slamming you from the mat, he will let you get up on the top rope… Any WWE fans?

The question is how do you unload all of the mess that has come from others?

More importantly some of these people probably had demons on them, now their host has been free, how do we keep them from getting in the car with us?