Key Life Network

Guest (Male): The devil hates it when you pray. Let's talk about it on Key Life. The deepest message of Jesus and the Bible is the radical grace of God to sinners and sufferers. That's what Key Life is all about. So if you're hungry for the hopeful truth that God isn't mad at you, keep listening. Steve Brown is a professor and our teacher on Key Life.

Steve Brown: Thank you, Matthew. We're talking about the devil. Yes, I do believe in the devil, but not the one that wears the red underwear and has a fork and a tail. I believe in the devil as he is presented clearly in scripture, as he has been given to us in the teaching of Jesus. The real devil that the Bible talks about.

Now, let me I said yesterday that I was going to give you five ways to deal with the devil. None of these are surprising. They're not a big deal, and if you've been a Christian very long, you know all of this, but you need to hear it again, and I need to hear it again. So we're going to spend some time talking about it.

It's the way we appropriate the reality that I taught you yesterday that Satan is a defeated foe. I don't know if he knows it. In fact, sometimes I think he doesn't know it. But Satan is the lackey of God, and he's used by God for God's purposes, not his purposes.

One of the interesting things about the book of Job, and there are a lot of interesting things in that. I spent over a year teaching the book of Job. And man, it was a dark time, frankly. That's not the most up book in the Bible. But it opens, you remember, in the throne room of the universe. And you know who's there with God? The devil is there with him.

And then God says to the devil, "Have you seen my servant, Job?" Now, between you and me, and if you say I said this, I'll say you lied. I don't want to be just this side of good. I don't want God ever saying to the devil, "Have you seen my servant, the righteous guy, Steve?" Because I don't want to have to deal with all of the stuff Job had to deal with.

And then the devil and the Lord in the book of Job have this conversation. And the devil says, "Well, you've given him everything. He's got everything he wants. He drives a Mercedes. He lives in a mansion. He's got more money than you do. If you took all that stuff away from him, he wouldn't be your servant anymore."

And then God gives the devil permission to do, as long as he didn't kill him, to do to Job whatever he wants, and that's what the book of Job is all about. It started with a conversation between God and the devil. And the devil had to get permission before he did anything to Job. He still does.

So we encounter real evil and personal evil and the devil. But as a matter of fact, that has first passed through nail-scarred hands, and it's to draw us to Christ. It's to make us deeper. It's to remind us that we're forgiven and we're loved. It's to say, it's God saying, "Child, be at peace."

"I've got this. I've got your back. I've taken care of it." And that's a good place to live. Speaking of which, the first thing you've got to remember is that Satan hates it when we pray.

When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, we call it the Lord's Prayer, but it's not. It's the disciples' prayer. You have said it, and I've said it a hundred thousand times, "Deliver us from evil." Do you know that in the original, that does include deliver us from evil, but it also includes deliver us from the evil one. Matthew 6:13.

The Greek of the Lord's Prayer could be better translated as deliver us from the evil one than deliver us from evil. When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane, and his disciples couldn't stay awake during his moment of agony, they fell asleep.

Jesus told them, "Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation." That's Matthew 26:41. The Christian has his or her hands a vast amount of potential power. Prayer is the only key that will open the storehouse of that power. The Apostle Paul wrote, and this is Ephesians 6:12.

The Apostle Paul said this, "We are not contending against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual host of wickedness in heavenly places." Now, that's a frightening picture, isn't it? If you feel that you understand it, you are on dangerous ground. With our finite minds, it's very difficult, if not impossible, to even comprehend the principalities and the powers and the hosts of wickedness.

However, the Christian has access to one who does understand and who can therefore do battle with the enemy and win. The Christian who does not avail himself or herself of that advantage is very foolish. When temptation comes, the Christian prayer should always be, "Father, I don't understand the power that is against me right now for evil, but you do. You have promised to help, and I claim that victory that you've already won for me on the cross."

When you encounter Satan, get on your knees and pray, and you turn to do battle with Satan, you may find that he's not there. John Bunyan was right. You know what he said? He said, "Pray often, for prayer is a shield for the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge of Satan."

I was once in the Philippines, and I was in a village up in the mountains, and I preached in a little church that was packed. And I said to the pastor, "Is this church always this full?" And he said, "Oh no. Let me tell you what happened." And there was a woman in that village who had been demon possessed, and her family had taken her to the witch doctor.

And the witch doctor did all of the stuff that whatever witch doctors do, and it was ineffective. She remained demon possessed and scary, and they didn't know what to do. So they called the church, or went to the church, and they asked if they could help. And the church's pastor and elders went to visit that woman, and they got on their knees, and they prayed that God would intervene and do something different and real in that situation.

Do you know what happened? The demons fled. She was healed. An exorcism took place. She was fine. And because it was a little village, and everybody knew everything about everybody else, the word got around. And when the word got around, the word said, "God is at that church. God is real." And Satan lost, and it filled up the church.

Maybe we ought to have more things like that going on at the church. We might feel some empty pews if we did. It's the recognition that Satan is a defeated foe. And the part of that recognition that's so important is to remember that God himself has said when you're attacked, when you're when you're afraid, when Satan is real and evil is chasing you, "Don't forget me," God says. "I've fixed it. Ask me. Appropriate the power that I've given you. Come before me in prayer." That kind of prayer. It's the prayer of awareness is a very effective tool in the way we deal with Satan.

I've seen it. I've seen it every Sunday morning when I was a pastor, and the elders met to pray for the service. And one elder, and sometimes more, always said, "Lord Jesus, bind Satan from this worship service so that we might see you more clearly." You think about that. Amen.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Steve, and with that, we wrap up this week of teaching in our Welcome to the Family series with a particular focus on calling out the strategies and tactics of the enemy. And be sure to check out keylife.org/family where you can listen to all of these episodes anytime for free. Tomorrow, we'll be joined by our friend Pete Alwinson for the nearly world-famous Friday Q&A. On tap for them, a question about how a person can be sure they're one of the elect. So, tune in for that answer.

Well, as you may have heard us mention, all of this Welcome to the Family content is based on Steve's book of the same name. And if you're enjoying this series, like I am, I bet you'll love diving into that book too. And good news, for a gift of $15 or more to Key Life, that book is our gift to you. So, call us at 1-800 Key Life. That's 1-800-539-5433. You can also email steve@keylife.org to order that book, or to mail your request, go to keylife.org/contact to find our mailing addresses. Again, the name of the book is Welcome to the Family.

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