2 Thessalonians 2:2, 2:7
2Th 2:2 That
ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word,
nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. 2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who
now letteth will let, until he
be taken out of the way.
We
Need A Restraining Order
A
restraining order is a legal document filed in a court of law that lawfully
obligates a person or persons to be retrained or held back from a victim. In
other words, the law says that if a restraining order is in affect on you, you
are by law required to stay away from the victim and leave him or her alone.
What I want to mention is that the temporary restraining order is for 7 days.
If the judge finds the investigators report to be valid, he or she issues an
exact restraining order that articulates that the perpetrator stay some 100 to
500 yards away from the home, vehicle and work place
of the victim. The order would be good for at least 366 days. If by chance the
perpetrator violates the order, there is a group of restrainers called the Police
who enforces the judges ruling and the perpetrator then has to answer to the law.
The most common need of a restraining order is seen in
the area of relationships gone bad. Um-when you break
up with somebody, you find out either how much they loved you or how crazy the
person really is. In most cases, you become the victim of a stalker whose
motive is to threaten your peace of mind. I need to further mention that the
need for a restraining order has reached the believer and the church. Now I
don’t know if yawl ready for where I’m going with this, but I think that
somebody here needs a restraining order. I’m gonna go out a limb and suggest
that all of us could use a restraining order.
I have reason to believe that there is a perpetrator
following you around; threatening your life; messing with your children; making
you feel unsafe; attempting to destroy your family and tear up the very fabric
of your life. I’ve been
able to identify the stalker and his name is Beelzebub a.k.a. Lucifer, better
known as Satan most commonly referred to as the Devil. I wonder have you
seen him at work around your life?
I’ve got some information for us on today.
The saints at Thessalonica were deeply troubled by some of the rumors
suggesting that the Rapture had come. The rapture is the period of tribulation
when Satan will be loosed for a thousand years. Because of all of the trouble
the church was facing, the people thought that Satan’s time had come to rule
the world so they conformed to the rumor. Let me speak to you a quick word about rumors. Before you
act on a rumor, you oughta at least try to validate the reality and the
realness of the rumor.
I got a slight problem with folks who love
gossip. There are some folks who love to hear something bad about you. They don’t know whether it’s
true or not but they like the fact that the rumor is about you. They just glad
they finally got something on you to talk about. But what they don’t
realize is that acting on a rumor without validating it makes them look like a
fool. They around here spreading stuff they heard and don’t even know if it’s
true. It’s not good to talk what you heard and shout what you think you know.
That’s why I like what Paul said to the church here in the text.
Pick me up in verse 2. Paul writes to the church saying
listen “don’t yawl be shaken or troubled by what you think and what you heard.
Don’t be tripping because of what somebody done said. Like wise, don’t be
tripping off what you’re going through”. No doubt the people of Thessalonica
had to have some serious issues in their lives to think that Satan had free
course to mess up their lives.
May I ask a
question? Does anybody here sometimes feel like everything is going wrong
around your life? You in your 2nd or 3rd marriage and it’s
in trouble; your child can’t get his grades up; your money stay tight; you
still got pain from a previous hurt and you ain’t got right yet; you can’t sleep
at night; there’s something going on in your house that you can’t seem to
figure out; you lonely; your job is a trip cause the people on it tripping; you
got news about a loved ones sickness; now you feel sick; trouble all around;
son in jail; daughter pregnant; sister had a miscarriage; you feel let down; no
love in your house; fake love in your house; you feel abandoned and alone;
you’re dealing with haters; folks mistreating you for no reason; it’s a new
year but you got old problems; sometimes it makes you want to throw your hands
and throw in the towel.
Pick me up in verse 3. Paul had to reinforce his
teachings to the church by reminding them not to be deceived by the multitude
of troubles. I need to park in this area for a few minutes and warn somebody to
be careful not to be so easily deceived by the situations in your life. Can I
remind you that the reason why you’re under attack is not because this is Satan’s
world, but it’s because you’re anointed.
When you live
Holy Ghost free, and charged up in the anointing, Satan recognizes he needs
more than one attack on your life to destroy you. When you’re
flowing in the anointing, Satan can’t knock you down with a cold, he gotta try
high blood pressure or a stroke; he can’t get you angry with a minor discretion
in your marriage; he’s tried to use your relatives against you; he’s tried to
use your friends against you; he’s tried
your job; he’s tried your finances, but you still around here praising God like
ain’t nothing wrong; You still in Sunday school; you still in worship. The
devil is constantly throwing fiery
darts of the wicked at you, but every time he throws something
at you; you find a way to throw up your shield of faith.
Everywhere the devil tries to attack, you ought to go
in that area and praise God. I’m talking about in the kitchen; in the kid’s
room; in the dining room; in the bedroom; in the living room; in the den; in
the bathroom, in the yard; in the out house; in the car and at work; I’m
talking about teaching the dog how to praise God.
I’ve got 2 focal
points to make, an application to file and I gotta go.
Focal point
number one is that God is still in charge. Pick me up in verse 3
again. Satan’s rule has not yet come. I don’t care what it looks like, God is still in charge.
The turmoil in your life that threatens your peace is only an impulsive degree
of anguish inflicted by Satan only by the permission of God. Ok-Satan is hoping
he can destroy you with God’s permission. But God has allowed Satan to test you
because He knows what you’re capable of. That’s why we say that God won’t put
more on you than you can bear. All right-if it’s on you; you can bear it! It’s
your own fault for being so anointed. Don’t you know that Satan ain’t gone
waste time on the folks he already damaged; he after some of these anointed
folks who show entirely too much love and respect to God.
Satan wants the
elite membership of the kingdom to curse God so that it will be a slap in God’s
face.
Stop letting the devil mess up your relationship with God. He’s doing it in
ways you don’t see. Satan is messing with your marriage; he’s messing with your
family members; he’s piercing your bank account; he’s causing distress and
aggravation over the home going of a loved one to make you mad at God. I hate
to say this, but when tragic strike, they get mad at God instead of getting mad
at the devil.
Catch this:
Satan wants to rule, but the Bible say’s here that Satan can’t rule until
there’s a great falling away from God. I know there are a lot of
unsaved folks in the world, and in the church but there are still some folks
connected to God.
Watch this: I know that you have heard the statement,
resist the devil he will flee from you. Do I have a witness, but I got bad news
for you, there is a prerequisite, you have to read the whole verse, the bible
says in Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he
will flee from you. No submission, no flee.
Pick me up in verse 4. That day for Satan won’t come
until the antichrist has deceived enough saints to make them worship and exalt
him as their king. That’s why you gotta be careful who you worship and what you
praise. You gotta be careful about who you exalt and why; please be careful not
to worship the ground Betty Sue walks on; please don’t love Billy Bob more than
life itself. A day will come when the antichrist will destroy the
I gotta say something that might hurt but it’s beneficial for your good. Please
don’t let your spouse mess up your commitment to God and the church. I’m afraid
that some of you do well until you start listening to them. Ok-some of yawl do
well until they start complaining about you not spending enough time with them.
Please don’t let God down to satisfy folks who ought to be in love with God
with you.
Pick me up in
verse 5. Paul says to the church; please remember what I’ve already taught you.
I think it’s safe to think that sometimes we forget what we’ve been taught? We
get sidetracked and forget what we do know.
Look at verse 6. Paul mentions the identity of a
restrainer. I notice that Paul refers to the restrainer in the neuter gender
calling it a what; then breaks off into the singular masculine pronoun in verse
7 identifying the gender as “he”. Therefore, there should be no doubt in our
minds that Paul is referring to the Holy Ghost. He is the restrainer that will
hold Satan back until his restraint is removed or so ordered by the judge. This
brings me to focal point number two; Satan will be held back from his attack
until God releases the restraints.
Pick me up in
verse number 7 again. Paul says that we have Jesus standing between us and
Satan. In other words, Satan can’t just have his way because there’s a hedge
around us.
Therefore Satan can’t kill us unless the restraint is
taken out of the way. Only one person can order that the restraint be removed
and that’s the Lord. Now that should’ve excited about 3 of yawl because in this
world there are 63,000 air diseases and for some reason you and me ain’t sick.
I need to tell somebody that the flu bug missed you because the Holy Ghost is
holding it back; the Holy Ghost is standing between you and cancer; the Holy
Ghost is standing between you and a bullet; the Holy Ghost is standing between
you and destruction; the Holy Ghost is standing between you and disaster; I
said the Holy Ghost is standing between you and death; the Holy Ghost is
standing between you and harm!
Catch this: that’s how come the wreck didn’t kill you;
that’s how come the sickness didn’t last too long; that’s why the cat scan came
back negative; that’s why they couldn’t find much damage from the X-ray; that’s
how come it was just a stomach cramp and not an ulcer; that’s how come you
didn’t get put outdoors; that’s how come your lights didn’t get cut off and
your car ain’t got repossessed; ah-you ain’t paid a car note in 2 months, but
God holding the repo man back; that’s how come your son ain’t in the gang;
that’s how come while you were doing wrong, nothing too bad happened to you
because you’ve got a restrainer!
I’ve got a
serious complaint against the devil. He’s threatening my peace I’m frustrated
to the point of anger. I’m tired of the enemy disrupting my life.
I’ve decided to consult the higher courts about my complaint so that I can get
a restraining order against the devil. I want to know, if anybody else got a
complaint? I want to know if any of you want to make your complaint known to
God and put your complaint to file in the higher court?
Ok-some of yawl just ain’t feeling me; ok, I tell you what, if you don’t have
any complaints against the devil; if he ain’t stalking you and causing chaos in
your life in some kind of way; this ain’t for you; I don’t mind you leaving; my
feelings won’t be hurt; and I’ll see you next time; but I just need those of
you who got a complaint to hang around just a little while longer and let’s
file our complaint.
Do you agree
that the devil is psycho; he’s rude, he’s a stalker and he’s out to kill? If
you agree you qualify to apply for a retraining order. I
know some of us don’t really look like we need a restraining order because of
how good we look on the outside. I need to tell you that you don’t really know
everything that’s going on with everybody.
I think it’s important that we get back in line with
the will of God. It’s important that we use the wisdom God gave to us. Most of the time a
restraining order means that you don’t want to have anything else to do with
the individual. But what’s amazing is the number of times you’ll see folks
back together shortly after a restraining order has been issued. I’m scared
that some of you are still tipping around with the devil. But for those of you
who know you need a restraining order and you know that you’re through dating
that psycho.
Now remember the process is that the application has to
be filled out first, and then God is going to give us a temporary restraining
order while the Judge looks over the accusations. So right now, we’re verbally
acknowledging that Satan is stalking us; he’s threatening us; he’s out to kill
us and we don’t feel safe. Ok-now, I want you to know that you have a 7 day
break from Satan’s mess starting today. Now I know that some of yawl won’t get
it and yawl the ones who’ll still be frustrated after church.
But those who
know you need a restraining order can get ready to have some peace while Judge
Jesus looks over our complaint. And by this time next week, the Judge will
issue an exact retraining order requiring Satan to stay at the least 100 yards
from us for at least 366 days.
You know what, this ain’t for the people who think they
too fine today; this ain’t for the cute folks. I need the remnant of believers
who ain’t too sexy today to thank God because the devil can’t come near you for
at least a year plus tomorrow; I need those who ain’t too dressed up to get up;
I know that some of yawl just got your nails and hair done yesterday and you
came to church to be noticed; I know you want somebody to notice you so I want
everybody to look at somebody and say “I see you” so they can feel good about
being seen. Now I need yawl to get undivafide and undignified for the remainder
of this worship experience so you can get your shout out and get your
breakthrough; you shouting because the Holy Ghost is your restrainer.
I need you to
know that the almighty judge has looked over your accusations and has approved
your restraining order; the devil wants to do something to kill
you but the Holy Ghost gone hold him back until the Lord comes.
I want the church to know that we will make it. The
devil is trying to block our progress. The devil is mad now because we’re
moving forward. He’s mad because God is raising us up. But I got news for the
devil. We’ve got a restraining order in force. Somebody help me say “get back
Satan, don’t come too close”; get back Satan, get away from my health; get away
from my money; get away from my house; get away from my job; get away from my
family; get away from my brother; get away from my sister; get away from my
mother; get away from my daddy; get away from my children; get away from my
wife; get away from my husband; get away from my peace; get away from my joy;
get away from my love;
I need some soldiers now; I need some warriors in this
place; I need Soldiers to help me claim victory in this house; Soldiers are,
you in here? Saints, are you here? Help
me, to tell Satan we still standing; the sickness won’t stop us; the wreck didn’t
stop us; trouble in the home won’t stop us; trouble at work won’t stop us; We
got our hands up in praise; we got our are voice shouting in praise; we ain’t
scared of no devil mess; we serve a God whose able to deliver us from a fiery
furnace; we serve a God whose to deliver us from a lion’s den; we serve a God
whose able to break jail doors open; we serve a God whose able to calm any
storm.
I don’t know about you but
I’m tired of the enemy taking over my life; I’m tired of all of the
mess; I’m so tired of Satan’s game;
………….
Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God,
that ye may be
able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand
therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the
breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the
gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be
able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of
salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying
always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;