Let me start off this morning by sharing with you a Video Clip from KWCH 12 Eyewitness News that aired last Monday.
VIDEO: “Jan Kilbourne”
-Watching this entire situation unfold this past week has been a really something hasn’t it? When things like this happen we usually feel like this only happens in big cities or in other parts of the world but the truth is, it happens here just like everywhere. We are not exempt from the evil.
You see, the truth is that evil is all around us and yes even here in small town America. You see, evil doesn't care where, when or even how for that matter. There are no rules or boundaries when it come to evil.
Thinking about the evil in our world and this particular ordeal with Jan Kilbourne has sparked a message that I feel God wishes us to receive.
I have three points to share with you this morning in the hopes that we can be better prepared and inspired to look for and battle the evil that is so prevalent in our world today.
The first thing that I noticed from the Jan Kilbourne search is that we have…
THE DESCRIPTION
Jan Kilbourne is described very well in the news report: He was described as a white man who was 5-foot-5-inches tall and weighs 175 pounds. He has brown hair and a slight beard. He was last seen wearing a red shirt, blue jeans and biker boots.
Wouldn’t you say that an exact description of him is vitally important? I mean how in the world could we ever find him or avoid such an evil man if we have no idea what he looks like.
People need exact descriptions with most things in life in order to accomplish anything don’t we? And if we don’t have an exact description for something we usually try to make one up in order to help us along the way.
I believe we have made up a description of what Satan looks like as well. Unfortunately the red suit, horns and pitch fork are not his usual attire! If we knew his face and what he was wearing, we could easily identify him and avoid his attacks but he is among us and we don’t even know it.
II Corinthians 11:14 “Satan masquerades himself as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness…”
1. So it’s not his appearance that we need to be so focused on, rather it is his behavior. Looks can be deceiving but behavior never lies.
2. Let us never forget one very important truth! Satan can only do his work through people. He doesn't do his own dirty work as he has limited power; he seeks to influence others to do it for him.
3. That is why Paul says in Ephesians 6:12 “for our struggle is not against flesh and blood…” One way Satan attacks is through people, sometimes even you and even me.
Illustration: I have said it before and I will say it again: We shoot too many arrows at people, our friends, family members, and yes, even our church family and we hit nothing. We only exaggerate the problems and the real enemy, the one who is attacking us, only thrives and grows stronger.
4. People are not the enemy- Satan is the enemy!
5. Like it or not, Satan tries to use you and me as his envoys to accomplish his will.
And we know that Satan cannot be everywhere at once, because he is not God, but a creation of God. Therefore, he has limits. And if he is not everywhere at one time, we tend to put him in a box and assign him a place to be.
Law enforcement placed Jan Kilbourne in a box as well didn’t they? The reports said that they were searching in the area north and south of U.S. 54 between Santa Fe Lake Road and Indianola Road. But that’s not where they found him is it?
The box we have placed Satan in is of course Hell. We look at him as this evil boss who has a lot of little demons running around doing his will. This is another early attempt at how people have created a description of Satan.
And Satan loves it when we do things like this, because if we are focusing on myths, we aren’t focusing on what he really can do to us if we let our guards down.
I’m sure Mr. Kilbourne would have loved it if we had false made up descriptions of him as well don’t you?
We read in JOB 1:7 of a conversation between God and Satan.
‘The Lord said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the Lord, "From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”
Satan is not sitting in hell. In fact, Satan is not in charge of hell. Satan is running around on this earth day and night, along with his demons, to see who he can attack and steal away from Jesus.
But this is a truth that Satan wishes we don’t know. He wants us to believe that he is in Hell and that he is in charge. When people believe this lie, it keeps us from looking for him and we become ineffective in noticing him. We become undetermined in locating him. And this allows him to do as he pleases without any one doing anything in stopping him.
I have to say that I was really impressed with our law enforcement when searching for Kilbourne. And this brings me to my second point. The law enforcement had the…
THE DETERMINATION
That Monday morning, Stacy and I took the kids into Andover YMCA to enjoy the outdoor pool one last time this year before they closed it down. We were amazed at the level of security and efforts the police officers and other local authorities had in place.
They had the HWY54 closed and were re-routing drivers; they had helicopters searching, stopping vehicles, dogs out, foot patrol out, and even a S.W.A.T. team.
It was easy to tell that they were very determined in finding Mr. Kilbourne.
This really made me think this past week about us. The Christian. I wonder how many of us are that determined in locating the evil in our lives that has attacked us?
Many times in life we place the blame of our sin on someone else or something else. We say things like, “If it weren’t for so and so, I would not have acted that way or I would not have done what I did.”
I believe we can identify the evil, or sin, that has attacked us but instead of diligently trying to get rid of it, we just accept it and move on with our merry lives, making excuses for it.
We become tolerant and accepting. We believe that those private sins we have in our lives are just that. It’s private and no one knows about it so, who am I hurting?
If you lived isolated on an island in the middle of the sea, then it’s possible your private sin would not affect anyone but yourself. However, since none of us live on a private island, there is a good chance that you have a family or at the least friends and acquaintances that you come into contact with on a continual basis.
All of them will be affected in some way by sin because sin has consequences Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Sin has a way of spilling out over everyone and anyone that comes into contact with us because of something called "association." This means that those around you can be blessed or hurt by association with you and the choices and actions you make, both privately and publicly.
What is secret will one day be made known. Luke 8:17. For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. Can you honestly say that there is no one that would then be affected by your secret sins if they should become known?
Sin that is kept secret produces guilt, and guilt has a way of changing us. Others see those changes and are affected by them. Perhaps a spouse, for instance, is unaware of her husband’s addiction to pornography, but his addiction leads to a guilty secretiveness and change in attitude toward her as his sexual partner. She perceives that change and speculates on the possible cause—he finds her unattractive, he doesn’t love her any more, or he’s having an affair. While none of these things are true, the consequences of his “private” sin are potentially devastating to her, their marriage, and their family, even if his secret is never discovered.
God sees and knows about sin, whether private or public, and He does not let sin go unpunished.
The greatest consequence of private, personal sin is to our own mortal soul. Ezekiel 18:4 says that the soul that sins shall die.
But the great news is that a born-again child of God has a desire to live to glorify God, and even though there are times when we can and do fail, God has made provision for us to be in fellowship with Him. He has promised that in
John 1 :9“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”
And this leads us into our final point for today’s message. Thinking about the shoot out last Monday, I can’t help but to focus on…..
THE DEPUTY
The report tells us that a bullet struck the deputy in the upper right shoulder but did not penetrate his bulletproof vest. He was taken to a Wichita hospital with cuts from the impact of the bullet and has released.
VIDEO: “The Deputy”
I spoke with an Andover police officer this past week about this and he told me that it is mandatory for the Butler County Sherriff’s Department to wear their bullet proof vests.
And this is obviously a good thing for this deputy. Can you imagine the damage that he could have received had he not been wearing his vest? But I think the bigger question is, what we can draw from this as Christians? We too need to be in the habit of wearing our vests as well.
Now most of you think I’m talking about the Armor of God. I agree the Armor of God is highly important but that’s not what I am referring to this morning.
I’m talking about being prepared! The Deputy was prepared for what evil he faced that day and we need to do the same every single day. In our clip, the Sherriff made the comment, that no one ever thinks something like this will happen to them. You’re trained and trained for something like this but you never believe it will ever happen.
I fear that many of us think this way as Believers. We go to church each week and get wisdom about spiritual warfare but for the most part I fear that we may place it off to the side because we think most of the BAD things we talk about will never affect us.
But it can and it does. There is not one of us that are not exempt from Satan’s arsenal and he can attack without warning.
Conclusion: We need to prepare ourselves for battle, for the attacks from Satan through regular attendance in His house each Sunday, through a constant prayer life, through being around good godly friends and family, through our faith in Jesus during the storms of life and also through the reading of His Word.
By staying faithful in our preparations for the evil that we will be faced with on a daily basis, we too will be prepared and ready for the battle.
Just like the deputy, we may get a little dinged up but if we are prepared as he was, we will remain on our feet and when attacked, it will not be the end for us.
