The Devil is a Thief

Recovering Stolen Property

Or

Taking back what the enemy has stolen

John 10:10
Joh 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

We live in a land where things get stolen all the time and statistics suggest we are a nation in trouble!

But I don’t want to focus on the natural today.
In the spiritual realm, a kind of stealing is going on in many lives.
Satan is in the business of ripping off things that don’t belong to him!

Jesus said in JOHN 10:10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose, Jesus says, is to give life in all its fullness.

Satan doesn’t need your car or your house, or your money. But he is interested in stealing Spiritual treasures. He wants to steal things that have value with God and are of eternal significance.

For example…Satan wants to steal our purpose for living.
Because, when there is no reason for life, people turn to Drugs, alcohol meaningless relationships, career achievements, pleasure, etc.
Something…anything to fill the void!

God made man to find fulfillment in Him…. And the awareness of what God wants has been stolen from the majority of the world’s population.
Even for those who are Christians the devil has a strategy for theft.

What does Satan want to steal?

I. Our First Love for Jesus.

Yes we still love the Lord.
We still come to Church.
But what happened to all the energy and passion?
Our zeal and our intensity don’t evaporate. Satan steals the hot embers, We get ripped off!
Some might say well, when I got saved I was an energetic teenager!

2 Corinthians 3:14-18
2Co 3:14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.
2Co 3:15 But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.
2Co 3:16 Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.
2Co 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
2Co 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

And all of us have had that veil removed so that we can be mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord. And as the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more.

There is no end to the power he wants to exhibit in our lives. The Bible has no retirement plan.
God can keep his people on fire for Him, can keep us sharp and intense. We need to be honest and admit what has really happened. We have been ripped off!

II. Our Unique Calling?

The gift to serve others…
…To sing
…To preach
…To be a missionary

Ten years ago there was a stirring inside of you.
But then you got discouraged, somebody let you down, something went wrong in your church, you tried twice, but somebody criticized you and soon the dream was gone and you thought the calling wasn’t real!

You got ripped off!

III. Our Homes (Home Burglaries).

Why do Christian couples and families have so much trouble?
Satan fully intends to destroy marriage, relationships with family, ect.
This is a reality of spiritual warfare!
No honest man or woman of God will deny that the devil makes major assaults on their marriage and families.
Why is Satan so intent on breaking up families and churches…because they reflect the nature of God!

Remember the story in 1 Samuel of David and ZIKLAG?
David’s family is gone and everything is lost and His men turn on him in natural anger!
Then came a wonderful phrase in 1 Samuel 30:6. David was now in serious trouble because his men were very bitter about losing their wives and children, and they began to talk of stoning him.
But David found strength in the LORD his God.

1 Samuel 30:6
1Sa 30:6 And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.

1Sa 30:8 And David enquired at the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.
1Sa 30:9 So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed.

1Sa 30:16 And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating and drinking, and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Judah.
1Sa 30:17 And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels, and fled.
1Sa 30:18 And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: and David rescued his two wives.
1Sa 30:19 And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor any thing that they had taken to them: David recovered all.
1Sa 30:20 And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drave before those other cattle, and said, This is David's spoil.

Why am I telling you this story?

Because the moment came when David and His men chose to get up and go after stolen property!

Today we need to say, wait a minute!
I’m not giving up on my calling.
…My son or my daughter.
…My wife or my husband.
…My friend or my family.
…My potential in life.

Satan has no feelings of sympathy for you.
If you don’t resist him, he’ll rip you off every week, all year, every year!

Jesus can revive your fire.
Renew your relationships.
Your call can bloom again.

You can recover the faith that Satan has stolen from you.
God can revive faith in our souls if we ask him!
He will bring faith back through His word!

Romans 10:17
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

The only question is, Do we believe God will recover stolen property?
Or do we think our situation is impossible!
God can get it back!

Jeremiah 32:17-19
Jer 32:17 Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee:
Jer 32:18 Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is his name,
Jer 32:19 Great in counsel, and mighty in work: for thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings: