THE POWER TO UNDO
1 Jn. 3:8
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: Back-seat drivers
1. It was a beautiful summer's day and Blake decided to take his wife Emily and his mother Grace for a ride around Hempstead.
2. Grace and Emily got into the back seat of his car and Blake waited until they both buckled their seat belts.
3. Then, almost as soon as he put the car in gear, Emily shouted, "Blake, you're going too slow. Can't you speed up?" After which Grace shouted, "Blake, please slow down!"
4. A little later, Emily shouted, "Blake, you need to keep closer to the curb." And Grace shouted, "Blake, don't you think you are too near to the curb? You might hit it!"
5. Then Emily shouted, "Blake, could you please put on the radio." And Grace shouted, "No Blake. I don't like the radio being on. I want peace and quiet in the car."
6. Finally Blake couldn't keep quiet any longer and said, "Emily, who’s driving this car, you or my mother?”
7. Nobody likes back-seat drivers. But the worst is someone who wants to harm us. Let’s read this morning’s scripture from 1 John 3:8.
B. TEXT
“For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” 1 Jn. 3:8, KJV.
C. ILLUSTRATION
1. One of the things I loved to do when I was in elementary school was to write on the blackboard.
2. Whenever the teacher wanted a volunteer to write on the blackboard, I would regularly raise my hand.
3. One of the beautiful things about a blackboard is that if you make a mistake with the chalk, there's always an eraser to get rid of your error.
4. Forgiveness works the same way. It’s the cancellation of something. It is the removal of an error. It is the ability to erase a mistake and start over again.
D. THESIS
1. The Greek word translated “destroy” in the KJV and the NIV is not a word describing tearing things up, but is the Greek word “lu-o” from which we get our word “loose.”
2. It’s translated as “destroy” because that would be better than saying He came to “loose the devil’s works.” The Amplified Version supplies the best meaning when it says,
3. “The reason the Son of God was made manifest (visible) was to undo (destroy, loosen, and dissolve) the works the devil [has done].” Amp. Version.
4. So Jesus came to “UNDO” the devil’s works in our Past; He’s commissioned us to undo the works of the devil in other’s lives.
5. The subject of this morning’s liberating message is: that you have “The Power to Undo.”
I. TO UNDO THE WRONGS IN OUR LIVES
A. TO UNDO OUR PAST
KEY POINT: ALL THAT SATAN TOOK FROM US AT THE FALL OF MAN IN THE GARDEN OF EDEN, JESUS RESTORED TO US AT HIS CROSS & RESURRECTION.
1. HE UNDID THE SEPARATION BTW GOD & MAN
a. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve became separated from the Presence of God because of their sin. Isaiah said, “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear” (59:2).
b. But when Jesus died on Calvary, God tore the veil – the symbol of our separation -- from top to bottom, signifying that the separation between God and humans had been removed.
c. Adam & Eve never got to eat from the Tree of Life in the Garden, but Jesus promised that we will eat of it in heaven! Rev. 2:7.
2. HE RESTORED OUR STANDING BEFORE GOD
a. Because of the Fall, Paul said we were “separate from Christ…foreigners…without hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12).
b. But because Christ atoned for our sin we can be new creations in Him, Children of the Most High, washed in the blood of the Lamb & heirs of God!
B. SCARS
1. JOKE. In a lot of ways, adults are like kids; we make mistakes and sometimes get hurt.
a. A young boy, Jayden, came into the house covered with mud after finishing a rough day of play. "Mom," he shouted at the top of his voice, "if I fell out of a tree, would you rather I broke a leg or tore my pants?"
b. "That’s a silly question," his mom answered from the next room. "I'd rather you tore your pants!"
c. "Well, I've got good news for you then," Jayden said triumphantly. "That's exactly what happened!"
2. SCARS WE HAVE. My scars serve as mile-markers in my life.
a. On thumb. When I was about eight, I was using a large hand saw when it jumped from the groove and sawed partway through my thumb.
b. Scars on my knees. When I was a teenager, I had a motorcycle wreck in the high school parking lot.
c. Many of us have permanent marks on the landscape of our lives from accidents, cuts, and wrecks. d. Other scars are hidden from human view. Scars from verbal or physical abuse, divorce, traumatic losses, betrayals by those you loved. But those scars don't escape the Master's sight. Jesus sees them and knows all about them.
3. There’s an urgent need for forgiveness. Many of the scars we have were caused by our own poor judgment and sometimes we have a hard time forgiving ourselves.
C. ILLUSTRATION
1. For years, Tom Anderson’s life had been plagued by the memory of a fraternity escapade that caused the death of a classmate.
2. He lost job after job. After six years of marriage, he and his wife separated. Then something happened. Life began anew. This is his story.
3. “For years I thought, ‘Nothing can undo what I’ve done.’ The thoughts of my guilt would stop me in the middle of a smile or a handshake. It put a wall between others and me. Then I had an unexpected visit from the person I dreaded most to see – the mother of the classmate who died.”
4. “Years ago,” she said, “I found it in my heart, through prayer, to forgive you. Your wife forgave you. So did your friends.”
5. She paused, and then said sternly, “Tom, You are the one person who hasn’t forgiven Tom Anderson.”
6. He said, “I looked in her eyes and found there a kind of permission to be the person I might have been if her boy had lived. For the first time in my adult life I felt worthy to love and to be loved.”
7. Some of you need to forgive yourselves! Jesus gives you permission to put it behind you/ let it go!
II. THE POWER TO UNDO OTHER’S MISTAKES
A. DEFINITION OF FORGIVENESS
1. The Son of God was manifested to UNDO the sins of our past. He wants us to UNDO other’s mistakes. This often must begin in our back yards -- us forgiving others.
2. WHAT IS FORGIVENESS? “To give up resentment toward someone who has wronged you; to cancel the debt; to renounce any desire to get even. To pardon, excuse, condone.”
3. Forgiveness is more than just saying some words; it must come from the heart.
B. WHO UNFORGIVENESS HURTS
People harbor unforgiveness because they like the idea that the offender knows that they are angry at them, but the main person who is hurt is you. Why?
1. YOU CAN'T WALK W/ CHRIST W/ UNFORGIVENESS
a. Unforgiveness keeps us from following through on the specifics of the Christian life, because the heart is all wrong.
b. Rather than having the fruit of the Spirit, we end up having the fruit of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21). Instead of love and gentleness, we have anger and resentment.
2. RESENTMENT SPILLS OVER
When you were growing up, did you ever notice that if your mother got mad at your sibling, and you happened to mess up right then, some of her emotion would spill over to you? It always does.
3. DEVELOPS INTO BITTERNESS.
a. Unforgiveness starts small, but always grows. Certain toxic chemicals corrode even the containers are stored in. Unforgiveness hurts the person who harbors it.
b. Was a miner whose boss always slapped him on the chest when he got mad. The miner told his friend he was going to strap a stick of dynamite to his chest with an igniter so that the next time his boss slapped him on the chest, the boss would be blown up! [But him? Worse!]
4. GOD WON'T FORGIVE US, UNLESS WE DO
Matt. 5:16 "Forgive us our debts..." "... if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
C. FORGIVENESS HEALS US!
1. ILLUSTRATION
a. I heard about a pastor who was driving home and got hit from behind. He got out and examined the damage. The rear of his car with dented in.
b. It was the other driver’s fault, but it was his inconvenience. He took out his license and said, "Let's exchange insurance information." The other driver said, "I don't have any."
c. The pastor had a problem: he had a dent. If he waited around for the other man to fix it, he'd be driving around for years with a dent in his car.
d. So guess what he did? He picked up the tab; the pastor paid for it. That pastor chose to get his car fixed rather than be held hostage by someone else's lack of insurance.
e. Many of us are living our lives with dents on our souls. Someone ran into us, messed us over, or insulted us and we've been driving our lives for years with dents, waiting for their insurance to pick it up.
f. But they’re never going to pick up the tab. If we refuse to pick it up ourselves, we’ll be forever dented in our souls. Let’s let it go.
2. In Eph. 4:32, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
III. TO UNDO LIVES WITHOUT TRUE PURPOSE
A. MAKING YOUR LIFE BETTER BY OWN EFFORTS?
1. A couple decided to strengthen their marriage by a hobby, and chose duck hunting. They'd heard of other people duck hunting with dogs, so they got a dog. They got all the other equipment, and their dog, and went hunting.
2. They tried getting some ducks, but they came to the end of the day and hadn't gotten one. The husband looked at the wife and said, "Honey, we've got to be doing something wrong here. We haven't caught a duck yet!"
3. The wife said, "Well, maybe if we throw the dog up a little higher, he can catch a duck this time."
4. That's what a lot of people are doing; trying to get the dog to do what a gun was meant to do, trying to do things with the wrong tools.
5. You need firepower to bring a duck down! The power of Christ is the firepower you need to live the Christian life effectively! [Tony Evans Bk of Illus. #23].
6. There’s worlds of people around us with no purpose, or the wrong purpose. God’s purpose is to transform us into the image of His Son & that we fulfill the purpose He saved us for.
7. “Christ himself gave…pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up…and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” Eph. 4:11-13.
B. ORIGIN OF VICTORY POWER
1. I remember the story of the man whose wife was making spaghetti with Prego spaghetti sauce. The aroma filled the house. He could smell the ingredients!
2. He walked into the kitchen and said, "Honey, where's the mushrooms?" She answered, "They’re in there!"
3. "But what about the sausage?" She answered, "They’re in there!" "What about the ripe tomatoes?" Every time she answered, she'd say, "It's in there!"
4. If you're looking for victory, it's in the Bible! If you're looking for transformation, it's already in there! If you're looking for power... deliverance... a brand-new you -- it's all in the Word of God!
5. We just need to read it, absorb it, and put it into practice!
C. SUMMARY
1. So when we hear the words, “The reason the Son of God came/ was manifest to undo the works of the devil,” we need to remember that He came:
a. To UNDO the wrongs of our past;
b. To give us the POWER TO UNDO other people’s mistakes; and
c. To UNDO lives misaligned with God’s true purpose.
2. WE HAVE A MISSION: WE HAVE THE PRICELESS “POWER TO UNDO” WHAT THE DEVIL HAS DONE. LET’S NOT FAIL IN OUR MISSION!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION
1. The biggest bulldozer in the world is the D575A. It's 16 feet long, 25 feet wide, and 41 feet high. It weighs 225,000 pounds. It's a huge machine to bulldoze dirt.
2. A couple of years ago it came to a county where there was an overload of garbage, and the bulldozer was brought in to dig a big hole that would collect the garbage and remove it from the lives of the citizens.
3. On the cross, God dug a hole so big He could collect the sins of the whole world -- past, present, and future.
4. On the cross, He gathered all the sin and took out His eternal wrath on Jesus Christ for you and for me. "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us" 2 Cor. 5:21.
[Tony Evans Bk. Of Illus. #329].
B. THE CALL
1. How many of you would like to “erase” something from your past? Christ’s blood was shed to wash us and make us white as snow. The Bible says that God will chose “to remember our sins no more.”
2. Have you had trouble forgiving yourself for something? God, in Christ, gives you permission to let it go!
3. Have you failed to forgive someone for how they hurt you? This is between you and God alone. You must forgive or God can’t forgive you. Will you drive a dented life because you won’t forgive them?
4. Can you think of someone with a messed up life that you could help UNDO? “Remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins” James 5:20.
5. Prayer.
