LIVING ABOVE THE SNAKELINE
Luke 10:19
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR
1. Did you hear about the man who was arrested for paying his check at a café with a counterfeit $10 bill?
2. He didn’t think it would be a problem…since they served him decaffeinated coffee with nondairy creamer and artificial sweetener!
3. Since everything in the cup was fake, he didn’t see why he couldn’t pay for it with fake money! (Aldo Cammarota)
B. THESIS
1. God has a place above sin, or else it was a false prayer to have us pray, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil” Matt. 6:13.
2. God said to “Be ye holy as I am holy” 1 Pet. 1:16 and to “be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” Mt. 5:48. The world “perfect” is the Greek word “teleos.” It means “the goal or the end,” but can be translated in this context “mature.”
3. But it means that God’s GOAL for us is that we be transformed into the holy nature of His Son Jesus. Jesus, though human, was able to live above sin. So the possibility is there for us and though we fall short, we should attempt to live as He did.
C. TITLE: “Living Above the Snakeline.”
I. THE MINISTRY OF THE SERPENT
A. AFFLICTS THE DISOBEDIENT
1. The original snake/ serpent in the Garden of Eden which tempted Adam and Eve was actually Satan, a fallen angel, posing as a serpent (Gen. 3:1; Rev. 12:9; 20:2).
2. God is able to turn even the worst evil around for good. What use could God find for an evil, fallen angel? God limited his operation to afflicting those who break God’s Laws, God’s boundaries.
3. Eccles. 10:8 KJV says, “and whoso breaks a hedge (AMPC – “fence”), a serpent shall bite him.”
4. A hedge is a barrier God doesn’t want us to go beyond; inside it is an area of safety (Job 1:10). To go beyond it is a sin, a trespass, and dangerous – and God
causes automatic judgment to fall on those who break through His hedges.
5. Amos 5:9 & 9:3 point out that if people escape other forms of God’s judgment on sin, they will still find that serpents will bite them.
B. ESCAPE FROM THE SERPENT’S POISON
1. When the Israelites rebelled against Jehovah in Num. 21:6, fiery serpents – ones whose bite brought high fever and poison – bit them.
2. In Num. 21:7 they prayed for Moses to take away the serpents, and God gave them the Anti-Venom – Jesus Christ – in symbol as a serpent of brass nailed to a pole.
3. So the good news is, we can be healed of the poison we received while in disobedience to God. Faith and trust in Jesus Christ can heal of the judgment on sin, and Jesus’ nature inside us can reverse the fallen nature which triggered the judgment! Praise God!
II. GOD WANTS US TO WALK UPON THE HIGH PLACES OF THE EARTH!
A. THE REALTOR’S SIGN
1. A Real Estate office high in the Rocky Mountains had a sign outside a house advertizing, “Property for Sale Here, Up Above the Snakeline.” When asked what the sign meant, the realtor said, “Up here in the highlands, there’s an invisible line drawn by the hand of God Himself. Up here the air is thin; there’s not as much oxygen as there is down in the valleys. Consequently, you won’t find the crawling creatures of the valley. Up here you won’t find cockroaches, ants, flies, rats or mice; you can build a retirement cabin and have a cookout and there will be no mosquitoes. You can turn the kids loose and not be afraid of them being harmed by creatures like snakes.”
2. GOD WANTS US TO WALK UPON THE HIGH PLACES OF THE EARTH! David testified (Psalm 18:33), “He makes my feet like hinds feet, to tread upon the high places.”
B. ARE WE LIVING TOO LOW?
1. When you begin to see the spiritual parallel, you realize that God wants you and I to live above sin. Many of us are living too low: down in the valley.
2. It’s easy to tell by looking that some of us have been chewed on by the chiggers and the mosquitoes and you could tell stories of being bitten by snakes, squirrels or other rodents.
3. But we don’t have to live that way. Jesus wants to lead you to the high ground of victory and an overcoming life.
4. The Lord Jesus said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.” Lk. 10:18-19.
5. This means we can live above the “serpent influence” – above temptation, above defeat, and above the world’s influence!
C. PROMISES OF VICTORY OVER SIN
1. “We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps [guards] himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.”1 Jn 5:18, NKJV.
2. “[God] holds victory in store for the upright” Prov. 2:7, NIV1984. “You are more than conquerors through Him who loves you” Rom. 8:37.
3. 1 Cor. 10:13, “There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful; He will not allow you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation make a WAY OF ESCAPE that you may bear up under it.” Why? So you don’t fall!
4. “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world” 1 Jn. 4:4;
III. THE CHURCH IN THE VALLEY
A. THE EFFECT OF THE LOWLANDS
1. Church, if we fool around in the lowlands of flesh and carnality, the creatures of that domain will afflict us.
2. It’s easy to see sometimes whose been bitten by the rodents, chewed on by the ticks, stung by the bees, etc. You’ve lost your ability to move in the Spirit; your feet are like lead; you haven’t sounded a praise in so long it would scare the church if you did.
3. The Holy Spirit wants us to go up to God’s place of surrender, power, and experience! The snakeline is not an elevation, but an area surrounded by prayer & God’s
deliverance.
B. VICTORIOUS OR STAGNANT CHURCH?
1. Bishop Lindsey Davis is a natural golfer, but he finally signed up for lessons to improve his game.
2. A young golf pro met with him and began setting up video equipment. Bishop Davis began thought this was ridiculous. The golf pro asked him to take a couple of swings at the ball in front of the camera.
3. Davis thought this was wasting a lot of time and money. But the young golf pro showed him the video on a split-screen with him and his swing up on one-half and Tiger Woods and his swing on the other half of the screen.
4. Then he compared the two swings. Bishop Davis asked the pro what was the root of his problem. He hemmed and hawed a bit before telling Davis, “you have a stagnant bottom, sir.”
5. A stagnant bottom! Davis had expected a dropped shoulder, a lazy hand grip, or wrong placement of the club but a stagnant bottom!
6. The pro went on to say, “Yes sir, when you swing, your back side -- if you will -- just sits there and does nothing. If you want to experience the full power of your swing, then you have to get your back side into the swing!”
7. Bishop Davis said he began to ponder and wonder if the problem of the church is that we’re afflicted with stagnant bottoms! What if every member in every church would get into the swing of things, then we’d be the completed Body of Christ!
IV. PAUL’S MALTA EXPERIENCE
A. A LIFE IMMUNE TO THE WORLD’S POISON
1. Paul, when shipwrecked on Malta, he was bitten by a viper, yet unaffected. This stands as a symbol of the new life, which satan, the great serpent, has no power over.
2. The Israelites didn’t have this power and multitudes died of snakebite. It wasn’t until the symbol of the Redeemer – a Crucified Serpent – was raised, that help came to them.
3. We New Testament believers have the great resources of the Holy Spirit and the Word to combat the world’s and fallen nature’s influences.
4. The light shined in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. The devil can’t even comprehend that power; it’s above him and more powerful than him. “Greater is He that’s in you than he that is in the world…”.
B. PAUL’S ADMONITION
1. But Paul tells us in Colossians 3:1-3, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” In Ephesians 2 he says, “God will cause you to sit together in heavenly places with Christ Jesus.” A fortress for the bloodwashed.
2. At Pentecost the presence of God filled the House before it filled the individuals. Why don’t people get the BHS? Because He’s not in the House! When the church moves up the mountain, it will happen again.
CONCLUSION
A. TAKING OUT THE HEART OF STONE
1. "On February 24, 1948, one of the most unusual operations in medical history took place in Ohio State University’s department of research surgery. A stony sheath was removed from around the heart of Harry Besharra, a man thirty years of age.
2. When only a boy he had been shot accidentally by a playmate with a .22-caliber rifle. The bullet had lodged in his heart but had not caused his death. However, a lime deposit had begun to form over the protective covering of the heart and gradually was strangling it.
3. The operation was a delicate one separating the ribs and moving the left lung to one side. Then the stony coating was lifted from the heart as an orange is peeled.
4. Immediately the pressure of the heart was reduced, and it responded by expanding and pumping normally. "I feel a thousand per cent better already," said the patient soon after the operation.
5. "There is a parable of life here. Our hearts develop a
protective coating because of accidents and incidents in life. But it also makes us insensitive to God. Ever so easily we find it easier to sneer than to pray. May God do heart surgery and cut our callouses off!
B. ALTAR CALL
1. God says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezek. 36:26.
2. Will you allow God to change your heart? Will you repent and pledge to follow the Lord from now on?
3. Altar call and prayer.
