Satan's Target
I.
The issue regarding prosperity is not stuff, it’s a
revelation of God’s love, the strengthening of your voice and the empowering of
your cause --- Religion makes it about stuff, but it’s about what God does
through the stuff
A. Ezekiel 16-God called it a time of love, but it
manifested in the prosperity of His people
1.
As God prospers you experience
His love and get a greater revelation of it
2.
Love in it’s highest form is not
displayed in the meeting of needs, but in the fulfilling wants
3.
Gift giving is a part of any
loving relationship-Gifts are tokens of one’s love for another
B. Mark 16:15, Ecclesiastes 9:16-The more poverty/lack
reigns in your life the weaker your voice is and the less impact your words
have in the world (His wisdom delivered the city, but afterwards nobody paid
attention to him)
1.
You can have a good message, but
success and prosperity will act as a spiritual megaphone to make that message
louder and as a spiritual hammer to cause the impact of it to be greater
C. Judges 6:3-6-The first thing Satan targeted was the
prosperity of God’s people, because he knows that if he can stop the prosperity
he can cripple the cause
D. Your greatest asset as a believer is your own prosperity;
it makes you an asset to the Kingdom while poverty makes you a liability
1.
You need to be strong in spirit,
sound in your mind, whole in body, loving in relationships and overflowing in
finances
II.
Judges 6:3-6-The enemy always targets the prosperity of
God’s people because if he can stop the prosperity he can cripple the cause
A. Mark 16:15-The general assignment of every believer is to
go into the world and speak the word of God, the good news to others
1.
Ecclesiastes 9:16-The more
poverty/lack (in any area) reigns in your life the weaker your voice is and the
less impact your words have in the world
a. CEB-So I thought, Wisdom is better than might, but the
wisdom of commoners is despised and their words aren’t heeded
b. CJB-So, although wisdom is better than strength,
nevertheless the poor man’s wisdom is despised; nobody pays attention to what
he says
c. NET-However a poor but wise man lived in the city, and he
could have delivered the city by his wisdom, but no one listened to that poor
man. So I concluded that wisdom is
better than might, but a poor man’s wisdom is despised; no one ever listens to
his advice
d. NLV-The wisdom of the poor man is hated and his words are
not carried out
e. NLT-So even though wisdom is better than strength those
who are wise will be despised if they are poor. What they say will not be appreciated
for long.
f.
Voice-The Wisdom of the poor is
despised; nobody listens to their wise counsel
2.
Even though his wisdom delivered
the city afterwards nobody paid attention to him
B. When God’s people are broke the Kingdom is weakened
1.
How can we do Mark 16:15
effectively and be broke (in any area)
2.
The broker you are the weaker
your voice is; why would we want to listen to somebody tell us about life who
isn’t living it very well themselves?
3.
You can have a good message, but
success and prosperity will act as a spiritual megaphone to make that message
louder and as a spiritual hammer to cause the impact of it to be greater
a. It’s the fruit in your life that makes people want to
listen to what you have to say
b. If Satan can get you in poverty he can squelch your voice
4.
Some people talk about how much
they care about the Kingdom how much they want the Kingdom to advance but
neglect to teach the people how to have victory in their own lives forgetting
that if I don’t come up the Kingdom doesn’t advance because I’m in the Kingdom;
they’ll look down on people who teach and preach people to walk by faith and
have victory in their own lives and they preach it’s not about you, it’s not
about you, but if it’s about the Kingdom then it’s about you