Satan filling the heart

1) A striking statement is found in Acts 5:3.

2) Peter said Satan had “filled the heart” of Ananias.

a) At times we speak of a person’s life being filled (overflowing) with something.

b) We may speak of a heart (life) that is filled with anger, hate, jealousy, rage.

c) We might also say a person is filled with love and compassion.

3) Imagine a heart (the deepest and innermost part of man) that is filled with the Satan.

4) If a person has that kind of heart we probably most would not want him for a next door neighbor.

5) We are told that Satan cannot fill a person’s life without an individual’s consent.

6) The 4^th verse in Acts 5 says Ananias made a decision in his own heart to let Satan reign supreme.

7) Satan cannot take control of a life unless someone issues an invitation to him.

8) When someone is willing to let the devil into their life, Satan is ready to come in full strength.

a) 2 Cor. 4:4 calls Satan the “god of this world.”

b) Satan is a false god, but this does not mean he is a powerless god like a wooden idol.

c) In Jn. 12:31 Jesus referred to the devil as being the “prince of this world.”

d) Satan is active, operational, and ready to be the spiritual ruler over the hearts of men.

9) The man who developed the sub division where we live has a daughter who is a landscaper.

10) This daughter does a lot of the work in our subdivision. Sometimes she and I talk.

11) Not long ago she was telling me about someone who asked her to come over and do some weeding.

12) This time of year is usually busy for landscapers so they like to finish jobs in a hurry.

a) The weeding that needs done is not going to be a fast job.

b) Someone allowed a large area with all kinds of plants to become overgrown with weeds.

c) There is just a thick mess of weeds and plants a homeowner wants separated.

d) I do not know where the prospective customer is, but the problem sounds a lot like Satan.

e) Think if you will about one of the stories Jesus told (Mt. 13:39).

f) In this account of the wheat and the tares the Lord said Satan is an “enemy.”

g) Jesus used this description while talking about a man who sowed good seed in his field.

h) He said an enemy came along after the planting was done and sowed “tares.”

i) The enemy sowing the bad wheat didn’t drop a few bad seeds here and there.

j) The picture we get from the Lord is that the entire field was affected.

13) What Jesus said is an excellent description of the devil.

14) Satan wants full control over a person’s life just like he achieved in Acts 5.

15) He doesn’t want a foothold or influence a few times a month. He wants domination – full control.

16) Satan will seek to obtain this control in any way he can get it.

17) Jesus said the devil is a “liar” (Jn. 8:44).

18) If deception is needed to secure a person’s heart, Satan is ready and able to use this method.

19) Paul said Satan is the “lawless one” (2 Thess. 2:8-9).

a) Our world has laws that are designed to help keep things competitive.

b) When one company wants to become a monopoly, a lot of people get nervous.

c) If a single entity has complete control, things can get out of control.

d) Satan is not interested in lawful behavior.

e) He wants total control and he will use lawless and ruthless means to get it.

f) When it comes to the devil Satan does not care what it takes to obtain or achieve this goal.

g) In the case of Ananias, a man lost his life. Did Satan care?

h) What if Ananias and Sapphira had children?

i) Did Satan care that children were going to lose their mom and dad in the same day?

j) Satan had no respect for the man; does Satan respect women?

k) The answer is found a little later in the text. The wife of Ananias came in.

l) Did Satan have a change of heart because a lady was a widower? No.

m) Satan had won the husband and he let the wife carry out his bidding too.

20) In the business world there are sometimes references to “hostile takeovers.”

21) Satan is interested in taking over our hearts either peacefully or aggressively.

22) Jesus called him a thief in Jn. 10:10, and Satan is what I would call a high class thief.

a) Satan is not interested in junk; he wants the good stuff. He knows the value of a heart.

b) Our heart is one of the most important items we have and Satan wants to steal it.

c) He was able to steal two in Acts 5, and he has stolen untold thousands since.

d) Were we to meet a person who behaves like Satan we would say the person is “evil.”

e) This is precisely what Jesus said about the devil.

f) The Lord called him the “evil one” in places like Mt. 5:37 and Jn. 17:15.

23) The apostle Peter knew some things about the devil.

24) In 1 Pet. 5:8 he said Satan prowls about like a “roaring lion” seeking people to devour.

a) We do not know what Peter said what he did.

b) Here is an interesting point to consider.

c) We know it was Judas was the apostle who betrayed the Lord.

d) As an apostle Judas would have spent time with Peter and the other apostles.

e) Jesus warned Judas about Satan and the betrayal but Judas allowed Satan to do his work.

f) In Lk. 22:3 the Bible says Satan had put the Lord’s betrayal into the “heart” of Judas.

g) Like Acts 5, this was not a supernatural act; Judas had a choice and he made his choice.

h) Peter and the other apostles had a first hand view of how Satan operated.

i) Then at a later time Peter was able to witness the events in Acts 5.

j) No wonder he said in 1 Pet. 5 Satan prowls about like a lion.

k) Peter knew this from first hand experience.

25) Satan can fill the heart in so many ways, and some of his ways are extremely sneaky.

26) Perhaps one of his most unusual tools is the Bible itself.

27) While in school I remember a story someone told regarding an old debate.

a) A gospel preacher was in a debate with another man.

b) The second fellow had created a detailed nice chart that was full of Scripture.

c) The gospel preacher was to be the first speaker so he got up and made an introduction.

d) Then he turned to the chart, which was not his, and used it and all the Scriptures on it.

e) The gospel preacher reasoned that if he had the truth, all these passages were on his side.

f) The other man, though the chart was his, never appealed to his chart.

g) Satan tries to adopt this same strategy.

h) He will appeal to the Bible in hopes of making it his.

i) Satan can and will fill the hearts of religious people with twisted truth.

j) When a liar (Satan) starts quoting from the Bible, it is time to be on high alert.

28) When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness Satan appealed to the Word of God.

29) Jesus knew the Bible inside and out, but Satan still tried to use it against Him.

30) Since none of us know the Bible like Jesus, will Satan not try to use this same strategy today?

31) The gospel can be twisted so people believe a lie and feel good (righteous) about that lie.

32) Satan is willing to have the Word of God fill the heart as long as it is not used correctly.

33) The Bible does not tell us to just “have the Scriptures in the heart.”

a) 2 Tim. 2:15 says “handle aright” the word of truth (the Word of God).

b) We know the importance of this from another text.

c) 2 Cor. 4:2 refers to “handling the Word of God deceitfully.”

d) Satan can fill a heart with verses from Genesis to Revelation.

e) He can allow people to be filled so full they can quote the Bible from English and Greek.

f) As a master liar he can allow that information to deceive and misrepresent the truth.

g) At a future day and time, his deception will become apparent but it will be too late.

h) Mt. 7:21-26 – READ.

IN ACTS 5 PETER SPOKE OF A MAN BEING FILLED WITH SATAN.

a) Just a few verses later in this chapter (28) the same word “filled” is used again – READ.

b) A few years ago I spoke with a man who decided to go into the insurance business.

c) He thought he would begin by selling AFLAC.

d) It did not take him long to realize that everyone and their brother was selling AFLC.

e) The market for this product has been practically filled up to the brim.

f) This man realized that he would need to find another product to sell if he wanted to make money.

g) We know what it means to be filled (overflowing) with something.

h) When it comes to our heart, Satan wants to claim it for himself.

i) This does not need to be the case; other forces are also interested in us.

2) The word “filled” is also used in Eph. 5:18.

a) Paul said “do not be drunk with wine.”

b) If we make this choice, Satan is the one who is control of our lives.

c) Rather than staying by the liquor bottle Paul said, “be filled with the Spirit.”

d) A lot of people look at this verse and seem to get uncomfortable.

3) What does being filled with the Spirit mean?

4) It does not mean that we will be jumping over the pews when we come together.

5) It does mean we have God is going to be the one who directs and controls our lives.

6) We can follow the lifestyle from the devil or the one we find in the Word of God.

7) A complimentary reference is Phil. 1:11 – READ.

a) Do we not find Christians who are filled with good deeds and godly living?

b) We do, and we should expect to find these folks.

c) In fact, if we are a Christian, this way of life should be descriptive of us.

d) The goal is to create a heart that is full of God and good and shoving out Satan and wrong.

e) John the Baptist once said, “He must increase and I must decrease.”

f) Such is also a way to look at the Christian life.

g) What makes the heart good and right should increase and the bad stuff should decrease.

h) We know what Satan wants to fill up a life with.

i) Rom.1 :29 refers to people being filled with “all unrighteousness.”

j) Today we ask a simple question: who owns our heart—God or the devil?

k) God can only be the owner if we obey Him, and this obedience is expressed in the Bible.