top of page

Why Satan Comes Knocking

Updated: Jul 23


 

Sermon Summary:


Say, "No, because of the Cross, even though the garbage is coming up, even though the failure is coming up, even though I'm at my worst right now, my confidence is not shaken. My confidence is not in who I can be for God; my confidence is and will forever be in the cross of Jesus Christ."


Why? Satan comes knocking. We're going to talk about the concept of perseverance. Perseverance is the effort required to do something even if it is hard. The Word tells us that we are his house if we hold fast the confidence. If you are the house of Christ in this analogy that's being written in Hebrews, that means he has the plan for you. He's the one that organizes and orders your life. That is what your life is like. That is who you have become.

I believed in Jesus, and now I'm just being built up by God. My life is—yes, it's ever-changing. He has a plan for my life; he's leading me into it. This is who you are. If the Word says if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end, who can testify to this? Sin is trying all the time. How much are we trying all the time as well to exhort one another? Your neighbor, your sister in the Lord, your brother in the Lord doesn't end up stuck or hardened by sin.


The Word tells us to look out for each other, to be involved in each other's life daily, so that something doesn't happen in the heart. If you hold fast to the confidence, steadfast until the end, he warns people that those that don't let God lead their life daily, those that don't let God lead them, those whose hearts are not fully set on God, not fully trusting him with their steps, their future, their direction—they did not persevere. They did not hold their confidence in God. Those kinds of people will not enter his rest.


Sin can no longer send a believer to Hell—thank you, Jesus, he paid for the sins of the world—but sin, if unaddressed, if we allow sin to be a part of our life, whether it is rebellion, whether it is sexual sin, whatever kind of sin—selfishness, covetousness, whatever may be trying to get to your heart—if you allow sin to linger long enough, it becomes hard to still fully believe that you are forgiven and favored by God, that there's a Kingdom purpose now to your life. It becomes hard to believe that you are fully in the favor of God.


We have become participants with Christ. In Christ, that means everything that Christ was able to do—what does he say? What does he say to his disciples? You will do these things and greater things because the Spirit of God, when he comes to live inside of your heart, you become a partaker of the way Christ lived, the way Christ trusted the Father, the way Christ heard from the Father, the way Christ was able to glorify the Father through the Spirit. He wasn't doing it in his own strength. He wasn't doing it in a way that you and I cannot follow him. He invited us to follow him. He promised us the same Holy Spirit so that we would be partakers and participants of Christ.


The Word says if we hold fast to the hope, to the confidence, steadfast until the end. Now, the Book of Job is written as poetry. The Word calls him a servant, but in Job's life, all of a sudden, permission is granted in a measure, and Satan is allowed now to come knock and get this: on the door of a man who's living like a servant, who could be regarded as blameless, who was upright, fears God, and stays away from evil. That's who Satan notices.


Church, Satan comes knocking on your life when God is proud of you. I can just imagine the Father being so proud of his son who is learning to walk in what is good. Whenever God is confident that you trust him and that you will trust him no matter what comes your way, when God is confident that you will trust him, Satan comes knocking on your door. Satan comes knocking on your life as he seeks to make you give up on trusting God and waiting on God.

Church, Satan has a plan when he comes knocking on the door of your life. He has an incredible plan. He's planned it out. He knows it's going to work. In his pride, he just knows it. He believes that it will cause you to grow skeptical of God's direction for your life, God's intentions for your life, God's intentions with you having to lay your life down. He has a plan, and he comes knocking. But what you and I cannot forget, what Satan has forgotten but you and I cannot forget, is that there is an end intended by the Lord. Satan does the knocking, Church, but God writes the ending of that story. Hold fast to the confidence. Stay confident in what God is doing. Stay confident in what he has promised. Stay confident that he knows better for your tomorrow.


And then, when Jesus tells Peter, "Satan has asked for you and desired to sift you as wheat," what is Satan seeking to do? He's seeking to bring up all of the garbage in our lives. He's seeking to bring the worst out of you. He's seeking to bring up the worst possible things in your life. He wants to beat on your life so hard that all of the garbage begins to come out, that the worst comes out of you. Again, Jesus tells him, "I'm writing the end to this story."

You've gotten Satan's attention. Every single person that is called after the name of the Lord, sooner or later you're going to experience that the enemy has set his heart on you. He's seeking to bring the absolute worst out of you so that you may lose your confidence in the cross. The end intended by the Lord is clear. He says, "Peter, when you come—you're going to make it—when you come back, strengthen the people around you. Explain to them what the enemy seeks to do in your life."


The Father has finally sent the Messiah. That means whoever believes on him can be forgiven. There was a time in your life where for the very first time, the Father revealed to your heart that Christ has come into my life. He has come. The Father has sent the Messiah. I'm forgiven for my sins. I am forgiven for my sins. Anyone can be forgiven for their sins. And then he gives this incredible promise that he's going to give power for you and me, for people that have seen that Christ has come, to be involved in the Kingdom, to be involved in building the Kingdom.

Some of you are right there where the enemy is just landing blow after blow after blow on your life. You have believed on Jesus. You don't have much, but you believed on him. You've trusted him. God is proud of you. He has a plan for you, and Satan comes knocking on your life to try and literally knock the faith out of you, to try and knock the confidence out of you and take you down. Some of you, you're feeling like a failure. You have thoughts of giving up on your call, on your favor in the Kingdom, on your place in the Kingdom, on the way that you speak to people about Jesus.


This is the time for you to hold fast, to hold on to the confidence that is in the cross. You need to hold on to it and say, "No, because of the Cross, even though the garbage is coming up, even though the failure is coming up, even though I'm at my worst right now, my confidence is not shaken. My confidence is not in who I can be for God; my confidence is and will forever be in the cross of Jesus Christ."


I should not be, but I am forgiven because of the cross of Jesus Christ. By all accounts, I should not have a part in the Kingdom, but I do because of the Cross. Because of the Cross, let that be the reason one more time that you get up in the morning with a hop in your step, that you open your mouth around people. "No, I really shouldn't be forgiven, but I am because of the Cross." Let that be the reason that you forgive the unforgivable that is being done to you. My confidence is in him.


-Pastor Stan Mons

bottom of page