Pastor Stan Mons | Membership Service
Sermon Transcription:
Amen. Allow me to pray with you one more time. Lord, you've allowed me to become so excited, so passionate, and to see so many new possibilities for the future when you showed me this word. But Father, only your Holy Spirit that you sent forth to glorify Christ in our hearts, in our minds, in our lives—only your Spirit can really open our hearts and open our minds to understand, Lord, what you are revealing, what you are showing us, what you're teaching us, what you're calling us into, and what you're inviting us to believe for. Maybe, Lord, to a greater degree, or for things or people we have even given up on, Lord God, you invite us. You have a way to invite us by your Holy Spirit to believe once again, once more, more deeply, in a way that we know no man can do. Lord, your Spirit does this work. I pray, Lord God, that your Spirit may do this work today for every person that is with us online, every person here in this auditorium. Lord God, I pray that you would sow this word into their hearts and that it may accomplish, Lord, what you send it out to do. I pray that our eyes may be able to see and that our hearts may boldly believe you at your word, Lord God. In Jesus' name, amen.
We're going to go into the second part of the Canaan Land Series. So far, part one was last week, and part two is today. Last week, we really saw the Lord give us a word that allowed us to see how God points to cursed places in our lives—not a common, modern-day understanding of the word "cursed," but the biblical understanding of the word "cursed." God points to cursed places, as He did to Canaan Land, which was cursed because Ham, the father of Canaan—Canaan was a person—was the child of Noah who did not honor his father when his father was drunk in his tent, naked. Because of dishonoring his father and because of not covering his father, because of his sin, the Word tells us that Canaan and all his descendants, starting with Canaan (Ham’s son), were cursed. We then see the land of Canaan—the place where Canaan, his kids, grandkids, and eventually many more lived—become the cursed land.
This was the land of Sodom and Gomorrah. This was the land where babies were sacrificed. This was the land where idol worship ran rampant. This was the Devil's playground in many, many ways.
And then, we see God call a descendant of Shem (Ham’s brother)—all the way trickled down the family tree—to Abraham. He tells Abraham, "I’m going to take you from the land of your father, and I’m going to send you to a land that I will show you." And He takes him to Canaan Land. He takes him to the cursed land. Then God tells Abraham, "I’m going to give you this land." We learned how this land, Canaan Land at that time, is the very same earth, the very same place that the Father sent His Son to bleed and die—on that cursed land, on that cursed ground—to redeem all those that were under a curse. We saw that God is not offended by the areas of our lives that are cursed—the areas of our lives where we would love to change but seem unable to. Maybe for a week, but we always come back to where we once were. The cursed areas of our lives are stuck in a direction that, deep in our hearts, we know is not what God has for us.
It could be a behavior, a character trait—you name it. It can be something different for every single one of us. But we learned that God points at the cursed places in our lives and says, "I’m giving the cursed places to the descendants of Abraham." And who are the descendants of Abraham? What does the Bible say? Those who are of faith. Faith is counted as the seed of Abraham, as the children of promise. The Lord is challenging us to believe that those areas in our lives that really seem to be the places where the enemy can still walk around freely and do things—those areas that cause us to even not like ourselves, the unpresentable parts of our lives—God points at those and says, "I’m going to give you that land. Do you believe me? Do you believe the enemy is not going to be in charge there anymore? Do you believe that part of your life is not forever going to be defined by sin? Do you believe I’m going to give you the bad places so that my children are in charge once again, and not the enemy in those lands?"
But there is more that happens in Canaan Land. And so, today: Part Two—Take Possession of the Gate.
Genesis 3, I'm going to read to you verse 14 and 15—14 and 15 of Genesis chapter 3:
So the Lord God said to the serpent (that is the devil), "Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel."
Right here, God makes a promise to the devil. When God makes a promise to the devil, you better pay attention because those are usually really good for us to remember. God tells the devil: In this lineage of humanity, I’m going to send someone. In this lineage of humanity, someone is going to be born, and that person is going to crush your head. Now, in the process, you’re going to bruise His heel. There’s going to be a wounding, there’s going to be pain, there’s going to be suffering that this person will have to go through. But ultimately, this person is going to crush your head.
Now, we know the end of that story. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ—the Son of David, the Son of Abraham, the Son of Promise, the Son of God—was born into this world and that Jesus Christ conquered Satan, death, hell, and the grave. Amen? We know that He crushed Satan under His feet. In the process, He bore our pain. He bore our iniquity. He was bruised for our transgressions, the Word tells us. We know this. This is speaking of Jesus Christ. But pay attention: "He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel." Let me take you to Genesis 22:17. Here’s God speaking to Abraham: "Blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies."
God promises Satan that someone will come—someone will be born—who will crush his head: Jesus. And God promises Abraham: "Your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies."
Now, that’s a very particular choice of words. When you have an enemy, an enemy city, or an enemy kingdom, once you possess the gate, the battle is over. Once you possess the gate, the enemy cannot stay safe behind the gate, but they also cannot freely leave and come and go as they please. So often, when a siege would happen, and a city would be under siege, the first and last thing—the most important thing—that people would seek to conquer was the gate. Because if we can take the gate, then the enemy cannot come and go as he pleases, but we can. God was showing something to us through Abraham, and we’re going to see that in a minute in the story that we’re going to look into—one that happened in Canaan Land.
But who could have known? Who could have understood? Who could have expected that this God, who sent His only begotten Son, would make you and I a part of the body of His Son?
Who would have imagined it? What demon in hell would have expected that God would take the sinner, the broken, the weak, the hurting, and take these people and wash them in the blood of His Son? That He would take us—those of us who so freely sinned and gave up for our transgressions—and graft us, the Word says, into the Vine, the Vine which is Christ, and make us a part of Jesus? Jesus’ body. A part of that body of Christ that is standing and crushing the head of Satan continually. Who would have expected that? Jesus Christ, the one, the Seed of Abraham, was born to crush Satan’s head. And now, through Him, the descendants—all of us, a family of failures redeemed by His grace—are made a part of the body of Christ. And now we dance together on top of the head of Satan while his head is being crushed, and there’s nothing he can do about it.
We are possessing the gate of the enemy, where he cannot go about doing what he wants to do. He cannot come and go as he pleases when the body of Christ is standing on his head, possessing the gate. But the call goes out to every single one of us: Take possession of the gate. And I want you to see the significance of that. Just a couple of chapters earlier, go with me to Genesis 13. We're going to read verses 12 to 18: "Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom. But the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord. And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: 'Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are—northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever. And I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth; so that if a man could number the dust of the earth, then your descendants also could be numbered. Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.' Then Abram moved his tent and went and dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre, which are in Hebron, and built an altar there to the Lord."
So here we have Abraham. This is where we left off last week—Abraham being given the promise that this cursed land will have nothing on him. He'll be able to freely move around in it. God is going to give it to him. No one is going to stand before him. And then God was going to teach Abraham something. In this historical account that we're about to read, He's teaching you and me something. Let's go to the next chapter, Genesis 14:8-20: "And the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went out and joined together in battle in the Valley of Siddim against Chedorlaomer king of Elam, Tidal king of nations, Amraphel king of Shinar, and Arioch king of Ellasar—four kings against five. Now the Valley of Siddim was full of asphalt pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled; some fell there, and the remainder fled to the mountains. Then they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their provisions, and went their way. They also took Lot, Abram's brother's son who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed."
You see, there's so many people in the body of Christ—and this could be your story. God made you promises, and your journey with God, as rocky as it may have been, is going forward. And then there's that one name. In Abraham's life, it was Lot. But there's that one name of a person—a family member, a friend, a loved one. They had a call. They had so much of an understanding of what Jesus has done for their life. But this one too was taken. This one too—and their call, and all that made up what God was doing in her or his life—it was taken. It was taken away. Some kind of a battle was lost, and they were taken away. And now they are disappearing. Now they are gone. "Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, for he dwelt by the terebinth trees of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and brother of Aner; and they were allies with Abram."
Now when Abraham heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his 318 trained servants who were born in his own house, and he went in pursuit as far as Dan. Here's how Abraham responds. Abraham has been made a promise by God: "The cursed land, however far the curse has spread—in other words, I'm giving you this ground. It doesn't matter what situation arises. It doesn't matter who does whatever they do. I'm giving it to you." And Abraham had taken that to heart. And when someone he loves is swept away and taken away, Abraham says: "No. This is my land. My God put me in charge in this place. I'm not just going to sit here and pray. I already had my encounter with God." He gets up and he goes in pursuit. The Word says: "As far as Dan." Then he divided his forces against them by night, and he and his servants attacked them and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is north of Damascus.
"So he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his brother Lot and his goods, as well as the women and the people. And the king of Sodom went to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley), after his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him." In other words, there were four kings—kings that were able to overthrow five kings—but they couldn't overthrow Abraham. And he came with 318 men. You can imagine that those four or five kings didn't come with just 318 men. But here Abraham, somehow, in this miraculous story, goes in pursuit—as far as Dan—in pursuit of them to overtake them, to bring back Lot. And we don't read of anybody that Abraham loses. But we see that Abraham overtakes. Somehow, these four kings—four kings can't stand before him. They can't overthrow him. They can't do anything about it.
The moment that Abraham says, "No, I will not have this. I need my Lot back. I'm going to put a stop to this," somehow, in this cursed Canaan land, there's nobody that can do anything about it. But how many of you, beloved by God, given your life to Him, believed on Him with all of your heart, have seen people that, out of your life, have slipped away or been robbed away, have been taken away? Their hearts are no longer after Jesus, and you looked at it and you prayed for it, but you never got up in pursuit. You never got up and said, "No, God told me that whatever cursed land will ever be a part of my heart, ever be a part of my life, He told me He'd give it to me. I believed Him, so I went in pursuit." There are so many in the body of Christ who can't see, who can't hear with the ears of their heart anymore, that God has said: "I've given you all things in Christ Jesus. I've given you my name to pray in. I've given you my blood to be covered in. I've given you weapons of warfare that are mighty in God."
"Then Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of God Most High. And he blessed him and said: 'Blessed be Abram of God Most High, possessor of heaven and earth.And blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand.'” Church, when was the last time that you said, "No. No, this person is not going to be taken. This person is not going to slip into unbelief. This person is not going to give up on their call. They're not going to be robbed because my God told me that His own children would be the possessors of Canaan land." So whatever is going wrong, whatever is sin-affected, whatever is affected by the curse, my God told me I can walk from the left to the right. My God told me that I can march right through it. It's not going to touch me, but I am going to bring back those that the enemy thinks he can rob and take away.
When was the last time you said, "No," and you brought someone back? Take possession of the gate because the Lord says you will possess the gate. You will possess the gate of the enemy.
You know, you may have heard the word "intercession" around church. If you haven't heard the word or you don't know what it means, I will tell you what it means. Intercession in the original text really means "to get in the way," and that is a form of prayer. Intercession—that word refers to a form of prayer when we pray for other people, not for ourselves, or when we pray on behalf of people. Maybe they stopped praying. Maybe you know about that, and so you're praying on their behalf, or you're praying over them. And you don't even have to be in their presence; you can do that at home, alone.
That word "intercession" means getting in the way. That's what you're doing. You're getting in the way of what the enemy wants to do in a person's life. You're getting in the way of a slippery slope that a person is going down. You've heard it many, many times—of people that got saved and changed by the blood of Jesus Christ. You've heard people say, "I wanted to go way harder into sin, but it just never quite worked out the way I wanted it. I should have been dead three or four times." Well, that was because someone was getting in the way. Lot would have been gone a million times over until Abraham got in the way of those enemy plans. Amen?
Intercession is what we're doing when we're taking possession of the gate of the enemy.
Now, Pastor, who is this for? Because it sounds like you're saying this is for me. How can I believe that? How can I believe? How can I know for sure? How can the doubt be out of my heart?
Because somebody is coming to mind—a family member, a loved one, a friend. Someone's coming to mind. But how do I know that that kind of power, that kind of resource, will be there in my life—that I can pray, get up, pursue, and I will overtake, no matter how many demon kings and enemy kings come against me? That it's going to be a joke? That there's nothing they will be able to do? And not only will I bring Lot back, but everything that was robbed is going to be restored. Everything is going to be brought back and be healed. How do I know this? Well, who to hear it better from than Jesus Himself? Let me take you. Amen.
Let me take you to Matthew 16. We're going to read verses 15 to 19. Jesus, speaking, said to them: "But who do you say I am?" Simon Peter answered and said: "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Jesus answered and said to him: "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
See, we have this promise that God makes to Satan in Genesis: someone’s going to show up and crush your head. Then we see God make a promise to Abraham: your descendants are going to possess the gate of their enemies. And then we see the Lord in that story.
We see the Lord show and teach by experience to Abraham and by story to us that the enemy cannot stand before people that God has promised: "I’m giving you the land, and I’m giving you the gate of your enemy. The enemy won’t be able to come and go as he pleases. The moment you speak up, the enemy won’t be able to just do what he had designed and purposed and strategized to do. The moment that you say, ‘No more, I’m closing the gate,’ or the moment that you say, ‘I’m coming in because I’m taking someone with me out of that gate.’" And this question that we just read—this incredible question of Jesus Christ—resounds throughout the ages and today, right here, for us in the church: "But who do you say I am?" "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." "Blessed are you, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it."
You see, this rock—we know Jesus is so often referred to as a stone or a rock. This rock is that rock that crushes the head of the snake, that head of the devil of old. And if all you have today for yourself is that you say, "I believe that Jesus is the Son of God," that is what the Word tells us. It’s not Jesus singling out Peter. It’s been very misunderstood, and maybe with good motives, but taught very, very poorly—as if Peter received the keys to heaven, as if God was going to build His church on Peter. But the question of Jesus comes forth: "Who do you say I am?"
Peter says: "You are the Son of God." That’s when Jesus says: "Flesh and blood did not reveal that to you, but My Father who is in heaven. On that revelation, on that faith, that revelation that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, on this rock I’m going to build My church."
The word for Peter in this passage is a small pebble—a rounded-off pebble you would find in a river. And that word for rock is a massive rock. Jesus is painting the contrast. He tells Peter, "Well, you are a small pebble, but what you confess now—that I am the Son of Almighty God—on this rock of simple, childlike faith, on this rock of Me being the Son of Almighty God, I am going to build My church. And the gates of hell—the gates of the enemy—will not prevail against it." If all you have, if all you have is that you say, "Jesus is the Son of God," that’s what He tells you. You will possess the gates of your enemy. That’s who it is for. You will possess the gate. You will possess that Canaan land, no matter what takes place in that land. The gates of the enemy will not prevail against it. But it doesn’t stop there. Let me read to you verse 19 again: "And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." The Word doesn’t say that Jesus said to Peter, "I’m giving you the keys to heaven." You’ve seen it in movies. You’ve heard it talked about. That’s not what He said. What did Jesus say? You can read it for yourself: "And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven." What did Jesus say when He began His ministry? "Behold, the kingdom of God has now come near."
A kingdom of failures redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. A kingdom established in this earth. God sent, in the weakest of ways, His Son who became obedient unto death, who was not being honored nor did He bring an army. He sent Him as weak as absolutely possible, presenting Himself as weak as absolutely possible, yet He could not help but obliterate the powers of death, hell, and the grave. He is the Son of God. Glory to His mighty name. The keys to that kingdom—the keys to that kingdom that He brought near—He gave to you and I.
What does that mean? Every single one of us has "cousin Lots" in our life. People that were friends or family—somehow they’re in your heart. You think of them from time to time.
It bothers you that they're not believers yet, or they once were, or they were walking with God, and now you wonder where they're even at. The Word tells you and I that if you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, He will give you the keys to access that kingdom, where no longer the enemy kingdom is in control, no longer the enemy kingdom has the last say. You get the key to be a part of the kingdom of heaven, and this is what it comes with: "Whatever you bind on Earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on Earth will be loosed in heaven."
What is He saying? When Lot gets taken, when he gets taken, you get in the way in prayer, and you get up and you pursue. You bind the devil in prayer, and you loosen the person that he is trying to carry away captive. You have been given the key to the kingdom. You have been given the gate of your enemy.
He can no longer do and go about as he pleases unless you let him. And if you don't take possession of the gate, and you just let him run on, and you just let him go on, and you just stay in prayer—you pray and get in the way in prayer—but you're never in pursuit to bring them home. You're never going after them to bring them back. If God told you, "I’m giving you the cursed land," if God told you, "I’m giving you the gates of your enemy," church, you can pray and get in the way, but you can get up and you can pursue and bring them home. God is with you. Church, if you would stand with me for just a moment, here’s the call: Bind Satan. You may have never prayed to get in the way of what the devil is doing in the life of someone you loved. Jesus promises you to give you the gate of the enemy. Jesus says that He’s giving you so much that you can make the difference in somebody’s life.
In His mighty name, you can make the difference where the enemy can’t go about doing what he was doing in their life, where the enemy can’t continue to carry them away further and further, causing more and more pain and discouragement and darkness. Jesus says:
"I’m giving you the key to this answer. In my name, you pray, and in my name, you go. Bind Satan, and then go and loosen the bonds of the oppressed. Loosen them. Take possession of the gates." Here’s a word the Lord gave me for you: Go to them. God has brought up people in your mind throughout this service. If that is you, this word is for you. Go to them, and no king of darkness will be able to stop you or will be able to stop those who want to come with you afterward. Bind the enemy. He won’t be able to come and go as he pleases anymore.
Church, go after them. Go after those who he’s carried away captive. You were promised the gates—what a promise! The gate of your enemy. Now, if this is you, I want to invite you to join me in prayer here at the altar. If you say this in your heart: "Lord, I believe that I am called to possess the gates of my enemy. I’m hearing something in my spirit. I’m thinking of people today in this sermon." You say: "Lord, I’m ready to take possession of the gates. I’m ready to start binding Satan, and I’m ready to start loosening those that the enemy has carried away." If you want to say yes to that, if that is you today, I want to invite you to come and join me here at the altar. I want to personally pray for each and every single one that is called today to take that step.
-Pastor Stan Mons