Remember this, as we're going through 1 Thessalonians,
when you hear preachers preach, you always have
to be asking this, are they giving us
the whole counsel of God?
The whole counsel of God.
Paul, in Acts 19 and 20, he says
to the elders of a church that he
had helped started, remembering when I was with
you, I didn't hold anything back, I gave
you the whole counsel of God.
Now, you can be a preacher, a pastor,
a televangelist especially, and cherry pick verses.
Try to figure out what people want to
hear and then just preach on those verses,
but never give other truths that are in
the Bible.
So, it's incumbent upon me and God will
judge me whether I gave you part of
the gospel, the whole gospel, part of the
Bible, the whole Bible.
This is one of those verses, it's very
odd, but it's in the flow of this
letter and as it comes before us, Paul's
writing to the church at Thessalonica and he's
defending himself and people have come after he
left and started the church and said, hey,
y'all listen up, Paul doesn't really care
about you.
If he would have, he would have come
back to seen you.
A year has gone by, where's big time
Paul, the apostle?
He's not around.
Of course, these people are up to nothing
good, they wanted to degrade Paul and they
wanted to get money from the people.
Back then, as we've learned, it already, as
it is today, people had turned the gospel
into a merchandising operation to make money for
themselves, but using Jesus and a few other
phrases, but the bottom line was greed.
So, now Paul is defending himself and he
said a few things about how he was
when he was with them and now he
wants to talk to them about how he
wanted to see them so badly, he wanted
to get to them, but why he was
held back from visiting them.
Remember, from Thessalonica, he went to Berea and
he went on to other places in southern
Greece.
He couldn't get back to them and now
he's gonna explain to them why he didn't
visit them.
But what's interesting is Paul went to Thessalonica
because he went to Greece.
If he didn't go to Greece, he wouldn't
have been in Thessalonica, that's part of Greece.
The gospel had never gone to Greece.
Paul's first missionary trip was in Turkey.
First time he went to preach the gospel,
he went to what we call now Turkey.
He wanted to go to other areas in
Turkey.
He didn't want to go to Greece.
He wanted to go to Turkey, what we
call Asia, Bithynia, and now I have to
show you these verses because this is the
odd thing about using the word hinder.
The name of this message, which is brief,
is called hindrances.
You know, somebody wants to leave the building,
we hold them, we hinder them from leaving.
Someone wants to come in, we hinder them
from coming in because they look like they
have a weapon or something terrible like that.
So now we want to read this.
This is how Paul got to go to
Thessalonica.
Paul and his companions, Acts 16, traveled throughout
the region of Phrygia and Galatia, where we
get Galatians, having been kept hindered by the
Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the
province of Asia.
This is strange.
They want to preach and share the good
news and the Holy Spirit is hindering them
and saying don't go there, don't go there.
When they came to the border of Mysia,
they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit
of Jesus would not allow them.
He hindered them.
So they passed by Mysia and went down
to Troas.
During the night, Paul had a vision of
a man of Macedonia, that's Greece, standing and
begging him, come over to Macedonia and help
us.
After Paul had seen the vision, we got
ready at once to leave from Macedonia, concluding
that God had called us to preach the
gospel to them.
So we learned that the reason Paul even
got to Greece, to Thessalonica, was because God
hindered him from going where he wanted to
go and then as he realized, uh-oh,
God doesn't want this, he waited, then God
gave him directions, here's where I want you
to go.
Now he's talking to the Thessalonians, he's writing
about how he has longed to see them
and it's been a year, now look at
this verse.
But brothers and sisters, when we were orphaned
or torn away from you by being separated
from you for a short time, in person
but not in thought, in other words, we
weren't with you but we were thinking about
you.
Out of our intense longing, we made every
effort to see you.
For we wanted to come to you, certainly
I, Paul, did, again and again, but Satan
blocked our way.
By the way, just notice here, this talk,
it's like boyfriend and girlfriend or someone just
got engaged.
But brothers and sisters, when we were torn
away or orphaned by being separated from you
for a short time, about a year, in
person, not in thought, out of our intense
longing, we made every effort to see you.
Boy, you would think they were dating.
That's how a minister's supposed to feel about
his people.
He's supposed to love them so much that
he misses them when he's not with them.
He doesn't want their money, he wants them.
He cares about them, their progress.
This is a challenge to all ministers.
Look how Paul loved his disciples, his congregation,
shall we say.
It wasn't a job, it wasn't putting in
40 hours a week, it was intense longing.
You know, like a guy writes to a
girl, oh, honey, I can't live without you.
But we wanted to come to you, certainly
I did, again and again, but Satan blocked
our way.
So this is very interesting.
Let's sum it up.
Why did he go to Greece?
Because God hindered him from going where he
wanted to go.
Why couldn't he visit them?
Because Satan hindered him.
By the way, that's a lot of humility
for the greatest Christian we ever know.
How many of us would admit, I wanted
to come to you and it was God's
will, I really wanted to, but Satan just
blocked the way.
How did Satan block the way?
We don't know, we'll get to that in
a second.
We don't know, it's left unsaid, and when
the Bible leaves something unsaid, you shouldn't use
a lot of conjecture and try to figure
out what happened.
Was it a person, was it a sickness?
Whatever it was, Paul discerned, this is Satan
blocking my way, and he wrote and said
it.
So let's go back to how he got
there.
He got to Greece because he wanted to
go this way.
The Holy Spirit hindered him somehow inside here,
it seems.
The Spirit forbid him, don't go there.
But I want to preach the gospel.
Well, I know, but I don't want you
to go there.
I got somebody else to do that.
Okay, I can't go there, so then I'm
gonna go here, and the Spirit of Jesus
said, no, you're not to go there.
I know, but I want to preach, they
need to hear.
No, you're not to do that.
Imagine how sensitive the apostle was to the
Spirit of God.
So then he didn't know what to do,
and when you're blocked and you don't know
what to do, the best rule is do
nothing, just wait on the Lord.
How many say amen?
So wait on the Lord, okay?
Then as he waits, the Lord sends a
dream to him, and he sees a man
from Macedonia, from Greece, saying, come on over
and help us.
And then after consulting with the men he's
traveling with, they concluded, God wants us to
go here, not there and there.
God hindered him.
God works, not only to will and to
do, to bless, to strengthen, to encourage, one
of God's ministries is to hinder us from
going places we shouldn't go, reading things we
shouldn't read, watching things we should never take
in.
Now, if you're not sensitive to the Spirit
of God, you just make up your own
mind and you do your own thing, but
you suffer for it, because if you were
listening and waiting and sensitive, you would have
picked up the fact that God was saying,
don't do that, because God is a hinderer,
not only a supplier, he hinders, he hindered
Paul from going where he wanted to so
he could get him where God's plan wanted
to place him.
So what kind of things would God hinder
us from?
What should be our practice of watching and
waiting and being sensitive and being prayerful?
Oh, God would wanna hinder us, of course,
from walking into temptations to sin.
God would wanna hinder us from having friends
who will tear us down, because the Bible
says, bad company corrupts morals.
If you run with a certain kind of
people, you will imitate those people.
No, no, no, I'm gonna win them.
Be careful, they could win you.
There's a thin line there.
So if we were sensitive, God would say,
no, my will is not, you're not to
go to that club.
You don't belong in that club.
You belong to me.
I am not only not glorified there, my
name is abused there.
They glorify sin there.
The songs, everything about it is sensual, drug
-centered, immoral, don't go there.
You belong to me now.
You used to go where you wanted, but
now you belong to me, and he'll try
to hinder us.
How would he hinder us?
He can make us feel uncomfortable.
He can take your peace from you in
a split second.
You will feel no peace whatsoever.
You'll feel a grieving.
Oh, now you can say no to it
and push through it, but now you're gonna
be left back and have to do that
class over again.
God is trying to hinder us from wrong
relationships, from wrong places, from wrong books, because
God loves us.
Wouldn't you want to hinder your child from
being involved with bad people?
Wouldn't a parent try to hinder and block?
I want to try to stop, with Pastor
Petri's help, a woman, young lady, from getting
married to a con artist who was visiting
this church years ago, and I said to
her, if I could, I would lay down
in front of this door of my office
and not let you out.
I would try to hinder you.
Oh, she didn't want to know it.
She had bought the lie that he was
selling, and everything I said, unfortunately, came true,
and she wrote me a kind letter a
year and a half later.
If only I would have listened.
God sent you to hinder me, but I
didn't listen.
God is always trying to hinder us from
doing things that are bad for us.
He puts up red lights.
He puts us warning signals because he loves
us.
A person close to us, gotten out of
college, met a girl, fell in love.
He loved the Lord.
I don't know about her.
I don't know if she was a Christian,
but you know how it is with romance.
A lot of things are looking fine, you
know.
So he started to date, and they got
serious.
Everyone knew they didn't belong together, but how
do you go to say to someone, you
know what?
She's not meant for you.
That's not God's plan for your life.
That takes a lot of wisdom, carefulness, maybe
pastoral or spiritual authority.
People were praying, God, don't let him do
that.
And then with the girl there, someone handed
her a baby, a newborn baby that was
related to him, a niece.
And just the way she handled that child
and the meanness of spirit that she showed
to this innocent child, God used it to
wake him up.
God used a baby to hinder him from
doing something he shouldn't have done.
I think in my own life, forgive the
self-reference.
Rough days, the first year, year and a
half in this church.
No people, no money, don't know how to
preach, never was trained to do this.
Struggling with yourself, struggling with God.
No light at the end of the tunnel,
discouragement.
18 people one Sunday in church, 16 the
next.
Oh, then there's 24.
Oh, now it's down to 12.
Now it snows.
Now you're lucky if you go yourself.
So I got so discouraged.
I'll be transparent, I got so discouraged.
I wanted to quit, only wanted to quit
once or twice.
Strong.
So I made a plan that I could
do something with a Christian organization, but get
out of pastoring, get out of the Brooklyn
Tabernacle.
I just couldn't take it.
You ever get so discouraged you can't take
it anymore?
Or am I the only human here, the
only person?
You know, as they say in Spanish, right?
Demasiado, too much.
So I made an appointment so I could
get out, set up an interview and all
of that.
Supposed to be with two people who I
knew, they like me.
That morning, one of them called and said,
we don't want you at the meeting.
They didn't even know what I was gonna
say.
God used them canceling me to hinder me
from doing something when I was at the
bottom of the pit.
Oh, has he not hindered us from doing
some crazy things?
Can we put our hands together?
How many can look back on your life?
God hindered me, God hindered me.
So let's be sensitive when God is trying
to hinder us because it's always for our
good.
Do we all agree on that?
Say amen if we all agree on that.
But now I close, it wasn't about, this
verse is not about God hindering.
Now we know Satan hinders.
Paul says, I wanted to be there with
you.
I wanted to come.
This is a mysterious passage.
Most Christians, we're not familiar with language like
this, humility like this.
I wanted to come many times.
I, Paul, more than once.
The Greek is a time and then again.
So not just once, I wanted to come
several times.
But Satan blocked my way or hindered me
or stopped us.
The word in the Greek is they cut
in like you're on a road and someone
cuts in on the road and blocks you.
That's what the word means.
How did that happen?
No say nada, we don't know.
We don't know, was it a person?
Because just like God uses people to hinder
us from bad things, Satan uses people to
hinder us from good things that God has
for us.
Think of all the things that are going
on possibly right now in your lives where
Satan is blocking your way from God's best
for all of us.
And we don't even think of it.
We think it's this person or this circumstance
or these emotions.
It's none of those.
Paul said underneath it all, it was the
devil.
He said, but Satan, the word Satan means
adversary.
This is all part of the equation that
we have to acknowledge.
When you're a Christian, you're in a fight.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood.
Notice we're wrestling.
We're in combat.
We wrestle against not human beings.
We wrestle against principalities and power.
Satan who was once Lucifer in heaven and
in the mysterious eternity past, his heart was
lifted up with pride.
Imagine what pride is like.
Pride turned Lucifer into Satan and was cast
him out of heaven when there was no
devil to tempt him.
Think what pride must have, the power pride
must have when he looked at God and
said, I wanna be just like the most
high God.
So he was cast down and he became
God's adversary.
And because God loves us, he's our adversary.
He hates all human beings because we were
created by God.
But Christians who are in relationship with Christ,
oh, we're his special targets.
That's why the Bible says put on the
full armor of God so that you'll be
able to stand.
No, just trust in God.
You don't have to put on any armor.
Then you'll get knocked down.
Then you will get knocked down.
Put on the full armor of God.
I'm gonna tell you the truth now.
There's spiritual tension to life.
There's an adversary.
That's what Satan means.
The devil means slanderer or accuser.
That's another name he has, slander, accuser.
This should make us very leery like of
what pride must mean to God or slandering
people behind their back or always accusing them
like you're a judge or I'm a judge
that I can accuse people.
Slanderers, you talk about give place to the
devil.
Now you're talking his language when you slander
people.
You might as well just open up and
whistle for him to come.
He's also called the God of this world
behind all the media, behind all the entertainment,
behind everything.
The one who rules this world is Satan.
That's what God says.
He's called the God of this world, the
prince of the power of the air.
He's called a lot of other names.
He's called Beelzebub.
He's called the one who is the master
of filth and smut and manure.
That's another name he has.
These are his characteristics, but he doesn't let
any of that on because his absolute main
tool is he lies.
Jesus said about him, when Satan lies, he's
speaking his own language because he has lied
from the beginning, so he's a liar.
The main tool he uses for all of
us is to get over on us and
lie and make promises that are totally false.
You'll be happy if you only get with
him.
You know, if you only get that degree,
then you'll make it in life.
Then you'll be satisfied.
If you only get your name in lights,
then you'll really, you know, and it's all
a lie.
It's just a lie.
Whenever he talks, he lies.
Like someone said about a certain politician, when
they're moving their lips, they're lying.
This is the first mention of Satan or
the devil in this letter.
And notice he must have told them about
him because he gives no explanation.
He just says, Satan hindered me.
And you know who Satan is because when
I was there, I taught you for hours
and hours and days and weeks, I taught
you about who Satan is.
He blocked my way.
So let's end.
Satan loves to block our way.
There's a call of God on your life.
You're supposed to be in the choir.
You're supposed to be in the prayer bed.
You're supposed to be a missionary.
You're supposed to be a pastor.
He will try to hinder you from doing
what God wants you to do.
You need this word to live.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the
word of God.
This word alone will make you strong.
He will hinder you every day from picking
this Bible up.
And if you do pick it up, he'll
try to hinder you from opening your heart.
He'll let you just read it with your
head.
And he'll try to make you forget it
so that five minutes later, if someone says,
what did you read today?
You won't even know if Satan has his
way.
He's a hinderer.
He knows how powerful prayer is.
So he will hinder you from private prayer
and he will hinder you from the prayer
meeting because if there's anything he hates, it's
when God's people gather together and try to
cry out to him.
Oh, he hates that.
So he'll hinder.
You're too busy, aren't you?
You're tired, right?
You're not tired for other things, but the
prayer meeting, no, I'm tired for that.
I got to watch that thing on TV.
You know, I went on Sunday, that's enough.
He's a hinderer and he's a liar.
This is all he does is he hinders,
he blocks.
That's a good thought.
It's like when you play high school basketball,
one of the first things you learn is
how to block out, right?
So the shot goes up and it's his
team that shot the ball and I'm on
defense and I'm guarding him, right?
When the ball goes up, what you're taught
to do, the fundamental is the ball is
the precious thing to get the ball.
So instead of running for the ball or
trying to jump for the ball, you know
one thing, he'll never get the ball if
I block him out.
So you watch an NBA game, watch Golden
State against Oklahoma City.
So what they do is they go like
this and the ball's up there on the
rim, but you just make contact and you
block him out.
And if he goes to the right, you
move with him and the ball can just
keep bouncing.
He can never get it because I'm blocking
him out.
That's what Satan wants to do, block you
out.
Block me out.
He can't stop me from being in the
ministry, he almost did, but God blocked him
out.
But now he'll try to block me out
from studying and being sincere.
He'll try to get me covetous so I
only do this for money.
Listen, he never stops.
Paul said, I wanted to come to you
many times, but Satan blocked me.
If Satan could block Paul, do you think
he's afraid of us?
If he would tempt Jesus in the wilderness,
do you think he's like, oh no, I
can't tempt a choir member?
He tempted Jesus.
He's a hinderer from prayer, from the word
of God, from service, from loving, from forgiving.
You know, you'll hear a sermon about forgiveness
and you know, that's right, God wants me
to forgive.
But then he'll come and remind you of
some mean thing that person did and you'll
hold on and you'll be bitter till you
die.
My wife and I know people, they will
die in their bitterness, it seems.
Satan is blocking the way to freedom.
What is Satan blocking, hindering you from?
Whatever he's hindering you from, that's where the
peace and the joy and the fulfillment is.
It's not gonna come from, all due respect,
from your wife and your family, your husband
and your children, and earning a living and
going to Curacao on vacation.
That's not gonna fulfill you.
Jesus fills you.
Only Jesus can satisfy your soul.
Remember, he's the author of the Antichrist.
He will block our way, anything concerning Jesus.
If the church has a goal, if the
church wants to expand, he'll try to block
it.
Listen, that lady over there, my wife, that's
all she and I have ever known in
the ministry is one fight after another.
One circumstance, one no shortage of money, this,
one discouragement, that.
That's all it is.
When you're a Christian and you're on the
front line, what do you think he's doing?
Sending marshmallows over there?
He's sending darts.
How many know exactly what I'm talking about?
Lift your hands.
That's all it is.
I'm so happy I married a soldier, that's
what my wife is.
She's a soldier.
I've been noticing no matter what happens around
her, up, down, this, that, disappointment, whatever, how
am I gonna do this?
It's like, all right, let's get this on.
God's gonna help us.
Come on, is God gonna help us?
God's gonna help us.
That's what, you have to be a soldier.
I know, but there are hindrances.
There's so many discouragements, I don't know.
Come on, wake up.
Wake up.
That's like a guy going in a boxing
ring when Mike Tyson was fighting, and you
go in, and you go to fight, and
Mike Tyson's swinging, and he goes back to
his corner.
He's trying to hurt me.
And you're in a boxing match.
What do you think he's gonna do?
Read the Bible with you?
Come on.
That's why the Bible says, here's my last
word, resist the devil, and he'll flee from
you.
I wanna say to everybody here, well, what
do you do?
If God is hindering you from something, be
sensitive.
If Satan is trying to block you from
something, come on, wake up, fight.
No, I don't like to fight, that's not
my personality.
You can't be a Christian then.
You'll never be victorious.
All Christians are warriors.
Whether they're quiet, whether they're male, female, whatever
race they are, whatever their calling is, you
have to be a fighter.
You will not block me.
You will not block me, come on, from
what God wants for my life.
You will not block me.
You will not hinder me.
Let's close our eyes.
Everybody here who say, pastor, that had my
name on it.
That was sermon for me.
I see where the enemy's trying to block
me from that thing that God has for
me.
And I'm not talking about some blessing pie
in the sky.
I'm talking about usefulness, closeness to Jesus, filled
with the Holy Spirit, a blessing to others.
That's what God called us to, not to
a bigger house.
Don't listen to that false American gospel.
Satan's trying to block me from intimacy with
the Lord, my Bible, my prayer life, being
in the church, calling on God.
Imagine how strong the enemy is.
He knows how powerful prayer is.
He not only tries to stop us from
praying and pastors, he tries to shut prayer
out of the church, even though God said,
my house shall be called a house of
prayer.
And imagine, 98% of all the churches
in America don't even have a meeting where
they devote to prayer.
Don't tell me he can't block people.
Entertainment, yeah.
Great teaching, supposedly, yeah.
But where it comes to really calling on
God, no, I'm gonna block that.
I'm gonna block that you will not call
on God.
Because he knows when we call on God,
God is rich in mercy to everyone who
calls on him.
Pastor, that was for me.
I'm breaking out today.
It's breakout Sunday.
I'm gonna resist the devil.
He will flee from me.
I will fight.
I'm gonna say at the end of my
life, I have fought a good fight.
Not I got played, I got conned, I
got maneuvered.
No, I fought a good fight.
Yeah, I might lose a battle like Paul
got blocked, but I'm not losing this war.
I am gonna defeat that enemy in the
name of the Lord.
In the name of Jesus, I'm coming.
You just stand where you are, in front
of me or behind me.
Just stand right where you're sitting and say,
Pastor, I say yes to God today.
I say no to the devil.
And cutting in on me and blocking me,
diverting me with the cares of this life,
worry, money, fretting, family, for what?
God put his hand on my life.
Thank you for your word today, Lord.
Make us sensitive, starting with me.
When you are trying to hinder us from
going down a path we should not go.
Saying things we should not say.
Being with people we should not be with.
But even more so, give us victory over
every device of the enemy.
Break us out of every hindrance.
Every time he tries to divert us, stop
us, discourage us, give us a breakthrough.
Teach us how to resist the devil.
How to use the word of God, which
is the sword of the Spirit.
How to call on you.
How to pray together as a church.
How to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Fill with the Holy Spirit.
Not churchgoers, fill with the Holy Spirit.
Make the choir all it should be.
Make our church all it should be.
Make me and the pastors all we should
be.
Every deacon, deaconess, all that they should be.
Satan, the Lord is against you.
The Lord is against you.
We don't come in our strength, we come
in the name of the Lord.
In Jesus' name.
And all the people said, let's put our
hands together and end the meeting.
Come on, come on, as they play, keep
clapping.
Turn around and greet one another.
God bless you.