WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.700 We have a new enemy and that enemy is Satan and under Satan is this emissary, this army of demons. 2 00:00:14.300 --> 00:00:20.500 Hey everyone, today I'm going to be talking about the gates of hell shall not prevail. 3 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:27.000 I'm Dr. Steve Holt and for you that are a part of Empower You, you've seen some of my messages 4 00:00:27.000 --> 00:00:31.500 or maybe this is actually your first time to join us. We're so glad you're a part of Empower You. 5 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:37.500 And today I want to talk about this aspect of the power of the kingdom of God. 6 00:00:38.000 --> 00:00:42.300 But I want to start with the enemy and how the enemy works. 7 00:00:42.500 --> 00:00:46.000 And I've done a series on Satan, demons in the fourth dimension. 8 00:00:46.300 --> 00:00:52.800 You can see that series in Empower You and I go into much greater detail there. 9 00:00:52.800 --> 00:00:58.600 But what I'm going to be doing in this series on the gates of hell shall not prevail 10 00:00:58.800 --> 00:01:04.599 is looking at the ministry of Jesus and the power of his spirit to come against cosmic rulers, 11 00:01:04.800 --> 00:01:08.600 principalities and powers in the heavenly realm in his ministry. 12 00:01:08.800 --> 00:01:15.600 And then as we move along, we're going to start talking about how that plays out in our own personal lives. 13 00:01:15.800 --> 00:01:21.600 So in Satan, demons in the fourth dimension, I talked a lot about demonization and demon possession 14 00:01:21.600 --> 00:01:24.400 and what that is. I'm not doing that here. 15 00:01:24.600 --> 00:01:28.400 I'm actually going to be talking from the perspective of kind of two things. 16 00:01:28.600 --> 00:01:34.400 And one is that Satan enslaves and Jesus saves. 17 00:01:34.600 --> 00:01:40.400 So one is about the salvation that comes through what I would call Jesus, a freedom fighter. 18 00:01:40.600 --> 00:01:45.400 So Jesus is a bondage breaker and freedom fighter. 19 00:01:45.600 --> 00:01:48.400 Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy. 20 00:01:49.200 --> 00:01:57.200 And why this is important is because in our world today, it is just so prevalent to embrace things, 21 00:01:57.400 --> 00:02:03.200 even religiously, embrace things in church, embrace things in culture that are going to enslave you. 22 00:02:03.400 --> 00:02:06.200 And there's demonic powers behind it. 23 00:02:06.400 --> 00:02:12.200 And so Jesus approached his ministry from the perspective of having an enemy. 24 00:02:12.400 --> 00:02:15.200 He truly saw that there was an enemy that he had to face, 25 00:02:15.200 --> 00:02:17.000 there was an enemy that he had to do battle with. 26 00:02:17.200 --> 00:02:19.000 And it's exactly the same way for us today. 27 00:02:19.200 --> 00:02:25.000 And so when we become Christians, when we become born again into Christ, 28 00:02:25.200 --> 00:02:29.000 we have a new enemy and that enemy is Satan. 29 00:02:29.200 --> 00:02:35.000 And under Satan is this emissary, this army of demons that oppose us. 30 00:02:35.200 --> 00:02:37.000 And they battle on the front of lust. 31 00:02:37.200 --> 00:02:42.000 They battle on the front of envy and strife and jealousy. 32 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:55.800 But they also can incite and create sickness, depression and other ailments that affect us 33 00:02:56.000 --> 00:02:57.800 that many times, especially us in the West, 34 00:02:58.000 --> 00:03:04.800 totally look at as just a sickness that we have and a pharmaceutical we need to take 35 00:03:05.000 --> 00:03:10.800 rather than taking it to God in prayer, the power of prayer and the power of deliverance. 36 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:14.600 So I want us to turn, if you have your Bible, if you turn to John chapter 10. 37 00:03:14.800 --> 00:03:16.600 I want to start there. 38 00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:20.600 And John 10 is a very interesting chapter 39 00:03:20.800 --> 00:03:23.600 because this is where Jesus talks about being the good shepherd. 40 00:03:23.800 --> 00:03:31.600 But then he comes in to this, I would consider it kind of the highlight of the chapter 41 00:03:31.800 --> 00:03:37.600 in comparing himself to Satan and what the differences are. 42 00:03:37.600 --> 00:03:40.400 So I'm going to call this today Satan's job description. 43 00:03:40.600 --> 00:03:45.400 So for this episode one, I want to talk about Satan's job description. 44 00:03:45.600 --> 00:03:48.400 We're going to start at verse 7 of John 10. 45 00:03:48.600 --> 00:03:54.400 Then Jesus said to them again, Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 46 00:03:54.600 --> 00:03:58.400 All who ever came before me are thieves and robbers. 47 00:03:58.600 --> 00:04:00.400 Y'all to underline thieves and robbers. 48 00:04:00.600 --> 00:04:03.400 But the sheep did not hear them. 49 00:04:03.600 --> 00:04:05.400 I am the door. 50 00:04:05.400 --> 00:04:12.200 If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and he will go in and out and find pasture. 51 00:04:12.400 --> 00:04:15.200 Now, verse 10 is where this is headed. 52 00:04:15.400 --> 00:04:17.200 This is a crucial verse. 53 00:04:17.399 --> 00:04:24.200 The thief, meaning Satan, does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. 54 00:04:24.400 --> 00:04:29.200 I have come that you might have life and you might have it more abundantly. 55 00:04:29.400 --> 00:04:32.200 So here we see the job description of Satan. 56 00:04:32.200 --> 00:04:36.000 He comes to steal, kill and destroy. 57 00:04:36.200 --> 00:04:38.000 That's Satan's job description. 58 00:04:38.200 --> 00:04:40.000 So jot this down. 59 00:04:40.200 --> 00:04:41.000 This is really important. 60 00:04:41.200 --> 00:04:46.000 Number one, Satan comes to steal your heart. 61 00:04:46.200 --> 00:04:48.000 Now, why do I say that? 62 00:04:48.200 --> 00:04:52.000 Because at the heart is not only the seat of your emotions, 63 00:04:52.200 --> 00:04:55.000 but it's also where your passions are. 64 00:04:55.200 --> 00:04:58.000 So when we look at a heart from a biblical perspective, 65 00:04:58.000 --> 00:04:59.800 And by the way, 66 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:04.900 The one word that's used the most in all of the Bible, 67 00:05:04.900 --> 00:05:07.980 used in over 70% of the verses of the Bible, 68 00:05:07.980 --> 00:05:09.320 is the word heart. 69 00:05:09.320 --> 00:05:11.900 So Jesus is fascinated with the heart. 70 00:05:11.900 --> 00:05:13.520 He's always talking about the heart. 71 00:05:13.520 --> 00:05:18.180 He's instructing us on the heart from Malachi to, 72 00:05:18.180 --> 00:05:21.300 I mean, excuse me, from Genesis all the way to Revelation. 73 00:05:21.300 --> 00:05:25.880 The heart is a crucial part of the Christian life. 74 00:05:25.880 --> 00:05:29.380 And that's where Jesus even says, 75 00:05:29.380 --> 00:05:30.220 when he was challenged, 76 00:05:30.220 --> 00:05:32.660 what's the greatest commandment of all? 77 00:05:32.660 --> 00:05:34.260 What is the commandment 78 00:05:34.260 --> 00:05:36.140 that sums up all other commandments? 79 00:05:36.140 --> 00:05:40.540 And he says in Matthew 22 and Mark 12, 80 00:05:40.540 --> 00:05:43.060 he says, love the Lord your God with all of your heart, 81 00:05:43.060 --> 00:05:44.980 soul, mind, and strength, and your neighbor yourself. 82 00:05:44.980 --> 00:05:47.420 So he starts off with heart, loving God with your heart. 83 00:05:47.420 --> 00:05:50.080 So Satan's main goal, 84 00:05:50.080 --> 00:05:54.140 the main objective of the demonic rim 85 00:05:54.140 --> 00:05:55.740 is to steal away your heart, 86 00:05:55.740 --> 00:05:58.820 steal your passion for living, 87 00:05:58.860 --> 00:06:03.580 steal your heart to move forward in your life, 88 00:06:03.580 --> 00:06:06.780 to take away any incentive within you 89 00:06:06.780 --> 00:06:08.500 and to steal your heart, 90 00:06:08.500 --> 00:06:12.420 to cause your heart to be full of envy, 91 00:06:12.420 --> 00:06:15.380 jealousy, comparison, 92 00:06:16.360 --> 00:06:17.980 looking down on yourself, 93 00:06:17.980 --> 00:06:19.060 considering yourself a loser. 94 00:06:19.060 --> 00:06:20.140 That's all the heart. 95 00:06:20.140 --> 00:06:24.780 So the enemy comes to steal your heart. 96 00:06:24.780 --> 00:06:29.780 Number two, Jesus says, steal, kill, and destroy. 97 00:06:30.780 --> 00:06:34.700 So kill, if you steal the heart, 98 00:06:34.700 --> 00:06:38.420 his next objective is to kill your vision, 99 00:06:38.420 --> 00:06:40.420 to give you no purpose for living, 100 00:06:40.420 --> 00:06:42.200 no vision for your life. 101 00:06:42.200 --> 00:06:44.500 I'm telling you, you show me a man or a woman 102 00:06:44.500 --> 00:06:45.940 who's got a vision for the life, 103 00:06:45.940 --> 00:06:49.780 and I'll show you someone who's got discipline, 104 00:06:49.780 --> 00:06:51.580 who's going somewhere, 105 00:06:51.580 --> 00:06:54.260 who has a desire to work hard 106 00:06:54.260 --> 00:06:55.980 because they have a vision. 107 00:06:55.980 --> 00:06:56.900 Vision's important. 108 00:06:56.900 --> 00:07:00.100 Vision is seeing the future 109 00:07:00.100 --> 00:07:02.340 and what you wanna accomplish in the future. 110 00:07:02.340 --> 00:07:04.980 It is looking at your life. 111 00:07:04.980 --> 00:07:07.380 I think everybody should write down 112 00:07:07.380 --> 00:07:09.820 what their life vision is. 113 00:07:09.820 --> 00:07:12.000 Satan does not want you to have a life vision. 114 00:07:12.000 --> 00:07:13.720 Satan wants to kill your vision. 115 00:07:13.720 --> 00:07:16.180 Steal your heart, kill your vision. 116 00:07:16.180 --> 00:07:19.220 You steal any man or woman's heart 117 00:07:19.220 --> 00:07:21.220 and you will kill their vision. 118 00:07:21.220 --> 00:07:24.140 I mean, this is what happens a lot of times in prisons. 119 00:07:24.900 --> 00:07:26.140 Men get thrown into prison. 120 00:07:26.140 --> 00:07:27.540 They've done something wrong. 121 00:07:27.540 --> 00:07:29.300 They're having to pay for that. 122 00:07:29.300 --> 00:07:32.820 And in the prison, they lose their heart. 123 00:07:32.820 --> 00:07:34.100 And when they lose their heart, 124 00:07:34.100 --> 00:07:37.340 they lose any passion for vision in their life. 125 00:07:37.340 --> 00:07:39.420 You show me a man who's lost his job 126 00:07:39.420 --> 00:07:42.380 or gone through a divorce or been betrayed 127 00:07:42.380 --> 00:07:44.820 or seen his wife get involved in an affair 128 00:07:44.820 --> 00:07:47.460 or they've made sinful choices. 129 00:07:47.460 --> 00:07:49.860 You're talking about someone who's letting the enemy come 130 00:07:49.860 --> 00:07:54.860 and steal your heart and kill your vision. 131 00:07:55.100 --> 00:07:58.220 So men and women, you have to have a heart and passion 132 00:07:58.220 --> 00:07:59.660 for the kingdom of God. 133 00:07:59.660 --> 00:08:01.820 And we're gonna talk about that in the next episode, 134 00:08:01.820 --> 00:08:04.020 but you also have to have a vision for your life. 135 00:08:04.020 --> 00:08:05.320 You just do. 136 00:08:05.320 --> 00:08:08.140 So the enemy comes to steal your heart, 137 00:08:08.140 --> 00:08:11.080 kill your vision and then destroy your future. 138 00:08:11.080 --> 00:08:15.640 If you can get a person's heart, 139 00:08:15.640 --> 00:08:18.800 if you can take away their vision, 140 00:08:18.800 --> 00:08:21.040 you will destroy their future. 141 00:08:21.040 --> 00:08:23.600 And I'll tell you, there's a lot of people out there 142 00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:26.280 that are so talented, so gifted, 143 00:08:26.280 --> 00:08:28.880 have so many opportunities in life, 144 00:08:28.880 --> 00:08:32.039 and yet they have no future because they have no heart 145 00:08:32.039 --> 00:08:34.240 and they have no vision. 146 00:08:34.240 --> 00:08:37.840 Well, some of the ways in which Satan works 147 00:08:37.840 --> 00:08:42.840 to destroy our future, kill our vision and steal our heart 148 00:08:42.860 --> 00:08:44.560 is actually in this passage. 149 00:08:44.560 --> 00:08:47.840 So read, go back with me to verse eight. 150 00:08:47.840 --> 00:08:51.680 It says, all who ever came before me are thieves and robbers 151 00:08:51.680 --> 00:08:53.560 but the sheep do not hear them. 152 00:08:53.560 --> 00:08:58.560 So one of the ways that the enemy comes in our lives 153 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:04.000 is through false religions, false prophets, 154 00:09:04.440 --> 00:09:09.120 false messiahs, even false churches, quite frankly. 155 00:09:09.120 --> 00:09:13.840 And so he's saying here that there are thieves 156 00:09:13.840 --> 00:09:17.000 and robbers that are demonized, 157 00:09:17.000 --> 00:09:20.280 that come to steal away people who think they're the sheep, 158 00:09:20.280 --> 00:09:22.200 who feel like they're in the sheep fold. 159 00:09:22.200 --> 00:09:23.720 And this happens all the time. 160 00:09:23.720 --> 00:09:28.720 I mean, I've grown up around so many cults through the years. 161 00:09:28.880 --> 00:09:30.760 There's cults through Jehovah Witnesses, 162 00:09:30.760 --> 00:09:32.840 there's cults through Mormonism, 163 00:09:32.840 --> 00:09:34.400 lots of different kinds of cults. 164 00:09:34.400 --> 00:09:36.560 There's cults with Jim Jones. 165 00:09:36.560 --> 00:09:38.540 Probably some of you aren't old enough to remember, 166 00:09:38.540 --> 00:09:42.060 but I'm old enough to remember back in the 70s, 167 00:09:42.060 --> 00:09:45.580 there was this evangelist in the Los Angeles area 168 00:09:45.580 --> 00:09:50.580 named Jim Jones who started a church that grew into a cult 169 00:09:51.060 --> 00:09:53.740 and they actually left the United States, 170 00:09:53.740 --> 00:09:57.140 went to the Northern part of South America, 171 00:09:57.140 --> 00:09:59.980 set up a city called Jonestown. 172 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:09.560 named it after himself and just became a very licentious cult group and they became famous 173 00:10:09.560 --> 00:10:13.760 because and you've probably heard people say don't drink the Kool-Aid. 174 00:10:13.760 --> 00:10:15.320 That's where it comes from. 175 00:10:15.320 --> 00:10:24.080 He actually put together a Kool-Aid and there was a mass, mass suicide and hundreds were 176 00:10:25.080 --> 00:10:31.680 this, I think it was like cyanide laced Kool-Aid and they were killed, leaving their kids and 177 00:10:31.680 --> 00:10:32.680 everything. 178 00:10:32.680 --> 00:10:33.680 A really sad story. 179 00:10:33.680 --> 00:10:42.480 But there are always going to be these new kinds of movements that pop up that are thieves 180 00:10:42.480 --> 00:10:43.600 and robbers. 181 00:10:43.600 --> 00:10:46.400 They're coming to steal, kill and destroy your life. 182 00:10:46.400 --> 00:10:51.480 And so as you're growing as a new believer, if you're growing as a mature believer, you 183 00:10:51.480 --> 00:10:56.080 need to be so aware of what's happening out there. 184 00:10:56.080 --> 00:11:03.360 Even today with the progressive church movement that's happening that is devaluing scripture, 185 00:11:03.360 --> 00:11:08.160 that is acquiescing to new kinds of theological viewpoints. 186 00:11:08.160 --> 00:11:12.320 Let me just say this, there's nothing new theologically. 187 00:11:12.320 --> 00:11:16.120 There's nothing new spiritually. 188 00:11:16.120 --> 00:11:18.680 There's only old truths rediscovered. 189 00:11:18.680 --> 00:11:24.840 So I like to say there's no new truths, there's only old truths that are being rediscovered. 190 00:11:24.840 --> 00:11:31.680 For example, in the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s, Martin Luther was rediscovering 191 00:11:31.680 --> 00:11:37.600 that the just shall live by faith, that our salvation comes through faith alone and not 192 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:41.720 through the works of the flesh, not through the works of the law, not through the works 193 00:11:41.720 --> 00:11:47.480 of the Catholic Church, but rather through a walk of faith, putting our trust in Christ. 194 00:11:47.480 --> 00:11:57.060 That was a new truth rediscovered or a old truth rediscovered into a new principle. 195 00:11:57.060 --> 00:12:01.320 And so be careful when you're hearing things that are new or stuff you've never heard before. 196 00:12:01.320 --> 00:12:05.080 Be super careful with that because that's what cults do. 197 00:12:05.080 --> 00:12:12.580 Cults come and they try to create new ways of looking at things that are not traditionally 198 00:12:12.580 --> 00:12:15.600 or historically accurate to the Bible. 199 00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:21.360 So let me give you four thoughts of a way to judge new things that you have coming in 200 00:12:21.360 --> 00:12:24.560 your life that can steal, kill, and destroy. 201 00:12:24.560 --> 00:12:30.460 Here's the first thing that I always ask is, does it line up with the whole of Scripture? 202 00:12:30.460 --> 00:12:35.240 Does this teaching line up with all of Scripture, Old and New Testament? 203 00:12:35.240 --> 00:12:37.200 Because if it doesn't, reject it. 204 00:12:37.200 --> 00:12:38.800 It's not of the Lord. 205 00:12:38.800 --> 00:12:43.520 Number two, does this teaching line up with the whole gospel? 206 00:12:43.520 --> 00:12:47.360 In other words, the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, does it line up with what we know 207 00:12:47.360 --> 00:12:50.520 about what Jesus taught? 208 00:12:50.520 --> 00:12:57.320 And so this is important because Jesus came and he did bring a new paradigm to the old 209 00:12:57.320 --> 00:12:58.320 law. 210 00:12:58.320 --> 00:13:04.560 And so it's not just all of Scripture, but it's also the whole gospel as well. 211 00:13:04.560 --> 00:13:11.160 Number three, does this teaching line up with tradition and history? 212 00:13:11.160 --> 00:13:16.200 Now not all tradition and history is of the Lord, but I'm talking about that which comes 213 00:13:16.200 --> 00:13:22.560 out of Christendom or Christian history, we can trust those things in tradition and history 214 00:13:22.560 --> 00:13:33.080 that the men of old, the patriarchs, the teachers of the church have accepted as being true. 215 00:13:33.080 --> 00:13:39.880 And so I would say especially since the Protestant Reformation in 1516. 216 00:13:39.880 --> 00:13:47.720 So the Reformation movement, that history there can, not a hundred percent, but basically 217 00:13:47.720 --> 00:13:48.720 can be trusted. 218 00:13:48.720 --> 00:13:54.760 We do know what are the truths, old truths rediscovered. 219 00:13:54.760 --> 00:13:58.640 And then number four, does this teaching line up with theology? 220 00:13:58.640 --> 00:14:08.080 So I have three volumes of systematic theology that at times I've had to go back to rereading 221 00:14:08.240 --> 00:14:14.240 what the great theologians have said about certain aspects of the last days, eschatology 222 00:14:14.240 --> 00:14:24.720 and times, sanctification, justification, what is the theological perspective on the 223 00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:28.100 inerrancy and infallibility of the Scriptures. 224 00:14:28.100 --> 00:14:29.300 So that's theology. 225 00:14:29.300 --> 00:14:33.780 So all of that comes together when we're looking at something new. 226 00:14:33.780 --> 00:14:41.020 So I want to challenge you to always use scripture, the gospel, theology and history, 227 00:14:41.020 --> 00:14:47.260 excuse me, tradition and history and theology to judge new things that you hear about. 228 00:14:47.260 --> 00:14:49.380 And so this is a job description. 229 00:14:49.380 --> 00:14:56.940 When I think of the job description of Satan and demons, John 1010 gives us that job description. 230 00:14:56.940 --> 00:15:00.060 He comes to absolutely steal your heart. 231 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:03.920 heart, kill your vision, destroy your future. 232 00:15:03.920 --> 00:15:07.880 So in my next episode, I'm going to talk about the job description of Christ. 233 00:15:07.880 --> 00:15:08.880 What did he come doing? 234 00:15:08.880 --> 00:15:09.960 It's right here. 235 00:15:09.960 --> 00:15:10.960 It's in our verse. 236 00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:14.480 It says that he came to give us life that's abundant. 237 00:15:14.480 --> 00:15:20.560 So I'm going to talk about the abundant life, the fruitful life, the super abundant life 238 00:15:20.560 --> 00:15:22.480 that Christ can bring. 239 00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:25.600 And so I hope this has been helpful to you. 240 00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:30.360 Check us out in the next episode because I'll be talking about the job description of Jesus.