ILLUST> In the movie Patch Adams, Patch is a medical student with a huge heart for people and a dream to be able to offer health care to the less fortunate in society. So he rallies some others around him and begins to chase his dream. Then tragedy strikes; his girlfriend is murdered by one of the outcasts that he was trying to rescue. All of a sudden life makes no sense. He finds himself on the top of a cliff trying to make sense of God and of life. He can only come to one conclusion. God creates us, we suffer enormous amounts of pain, and then we ultimately die. That is the only way that the story, that Patch finds himself living in, can possibly make any sense.
My guess it that life has felt a lot like that for most of us at some point in our lives too. Life doesn’t come at us in black and white or like a math problem that can simply be solved. It comes to us the way a story does day by day, moment by moment, scene by scene. What will happen next we don’t really know, we are forced to take the journey as it comes to us, as it plays out. There are moments when it seems like a comedy, others where it seems like a soap opera, at yet others where like with Patch life feels like a brutal tragedy. We are living in the midst of a story that is sometimes wonderful sometimes awful, and most often some weird and confusing mixture of both. There really is no wonder that we find ourselves losing heart. It often just doesn’t make much sense unless….unless what…unless we know and understand the rest of the story. So what could we possibly be missing? That’s what I want us to talk about as we jump back into this today.
But before we get there and do that good morning and welcome to this place that we call DCC. It is so good to have you with us especially if you are new or if you were new last week because I wasn’t here to welcome you last week. My good friend and mentor Craig McConnell from Ransomed Heart Ministries was here while I was away. He’s a guy who walks more closely with God than anyone I have ever met before, has been a huge influence in my life over the past 8 years, and a huge part of this place that we call DCC. So thanks for being good to Craig, it means a lot to him and to me too. If you are new we hope that you walk out of here today absolutely convinced that these three things are true, all of my story was safe and welcome there, I belonged there regardless of what I believe, and I was just in a building full of people just like me. Hope you believe that because every bit of it is true. So a special shout out to you if you are new and to all of our friends watching online today too. It’s always good to have you with us.
So we are in this series called Ransomed Heart and I want us to jump back in today by going back to two of the things that we talked about in the first week. In week one we said that there is a difference in living forgiven and living free. What we are after in this series is more than forgiveness and a trip to heaven, it is this amazing abundant life of freedom that Jesus came to bring all of us today. We also said that a big part of our challenge in finding that is that we understand the significance of sin but not story. So, we need to change that, starting today with a better understanding of the larger story, of exactly what we are up against in this larger story that we all find ourselves living in. So let’s jump back into this together and chase after that.
If you have a Bible we are ultimately going to be in Revelation chapter 12 today, but are going to start in Isaiah 14. So hold Revelation and go to Isaiah. If you don’t have a Bible we would love to give you one. They are back on the back tables that you can grab right now if you would like if you close or on you can always grab one on your way out. As always you can hit our app or the You Version app too. Or you can ignore all of that and read along with me on the screens. So, we spent a few weeks in the creation story but today I want us to back up. Like, you mean before creation? Exactly. Before we get to creation there’s this Isaiah chapter 14 beginning with verse 12…
How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! 13 You said in your heart, “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon. 14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.
Two weeks ago we talked about how Satan was once the most beautiful of all of the angels and that his special hatred for all of the ladies in the room and in the world stems from that. But what we see there is that even before the creation of Eve, being the most beautiful of all the angels was not enough, he wanted to be like God himself. So what does he do? We get a little more detail in Revelation chapter 12. Now, church people tend to be fascinated by Revelation because it tells us lots of significant things about the future. I get that, but it also tells us something very significant about the past. That’s where I want us to go today…verse 7…
Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. 8 But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. 9 The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
I think that is important that we pay attention to the immediate contrast here. Do you notice the contrast between Satan as he is hurled from heaven and as he appeared in Genesis 3 the story that we looked at a few weeks ago? If you weren’t here let me help you out. In Genesis 3 Satan is the sleepy talking snake hanging from the tree who is trying to trick Adam and Eve into doing something that they are not supposed to do. Now though, he is a dragon. This is not Puff the Magic Dragon. If you back up just a few verses you see this is an enormous red dragon with 7 heads and 10 horns going to war against God. There is a stark contrast here, a contrast honestly that we often overlook and don’t pay much attention to in the church. It’s a big miss. Here’s why…
THERE’S MORE TO THE STORY THAN BELIEVING AND BEHAVING. Did anybody else here grow up in believe and behave church? Yeah, me too. I guess that you could add one more to it, it’s a part of believing, the knowledge piece. So what’s most important in life, in life in the church, in the life of following Jesus really boils down to this, what you know, what you believe, and how you behave. And…if you don’t know enough, know the right things, believe the right things, and behave the right way you are probably not going to feel very comfortable for very long in that church. I spent many years in believe and behave church and in doing so I learned a lot, but I also missed so much of the larger story.
ILLUST> See in all of my years of growing up in a very conservative Bible Teaching church I never once heard Satan referred to as a dragon. Back when I was a kid growing up in church in Sunday School down in the church basement. Have you ever smelled that, church basement, they all smell the same, they ought to make a candle. Not really, it’s not good. It’s why we don’t have one. Anyway, we had flannelgraph and I never saw a flannelgraph of Satan as anything but a snake. It wasn’t like an Anaconda big scary snake it looked more like this one. When I went to the dentist office I would see something much the same in the Children’s Picture Bible in the reception area. The image was always pretty much the same a pretty mild kinda friendly looking talking snake. Not all that intimidating, not necessarily trying to hurt me, mostly just trying to trick me, a snake with an approach like this…
*************ROLL FLIP WILSON********************
If it weren’t for him I guess I wouldn’t have a job. That Devil, shame on him. I think that is exactly what we tend to do. We minimize the real threat. Now, I don’t like snakes. My friend Mike was once hunting out East in the state and caught a rattlesnake, threw it in a cooler and brought it home as a pet. I’m not into that, God’s not in that. All that to say even though I’m not a snake fan, if you tell me there’s a snake in the garden I will still go in there. At a bare minimum my shotgun can handle it. But if there is an enormous 7 headed dragon in there both my my answer and my approach will be different. Look, here’s the point. It is so easy to get caught up in church, religion, the do’s and don’ts and miss the larger story. So first things first, we have to stop minimizing what we are up against. Trust me, there is more to the story than believe and behave. Let’s keep reading…verse 12…
Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.” 13 When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child…17 Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.
Okay so we have this enormous very angry red dragon who first pursues the woman giving birth to the male child which is Mary giving birth to Jesus. So obviously that was unsuccessful so now what? The enemy turns his attention to me and you. See, the enemy’s end game is not to get us to do something that we later regret and have to say we are sorry for. Our behavior is not the target. We are. When we decide to follow Jesus we don’t become untouchable, we become the target.
ILLUST> We want everyone in this place we call DCC to bump into and experience Jesus. We also try our best to be very clear about this…when we decide to give our lives to Jesus and follow him. The life we are signing up is a much better life it is often not an easier one. I wish I could say otherwise. We have looked. That promise is not in here. If you become a follower of Jesus you have to hang on because the ride often gets tricky from here. Why? There is an enemy waging war directly against you. If he cannot get you to change your mind about following Jesus he will do his best to interfere and make that relationship and journey as difficult as possible for you. What I am trying to say is this…
WE MUST MOVE FROM ANCIENT HISTORY TO PRESENT REALITY. Not only can we not afford to minimize what we are up against, but we must also start to take it personally. The War that the enemy is waging in Revelation 12 continues today and it is being waged every single day against every single one of us. He is looking to do so much more than simply trick us into buying a dress, we have to move beyond that. Maybe this will help. Watch this…
***************ROLL PATRIOT CLIP*****************
The enemy here Colonel Tavington doesn’t care at all about right and wrong. He doesn’t care about the rules of war. In his mind there are no rules there is simply one objective to win at all cost, to totally destroy his enemy. Does that sound familiar steal, kill, and destroy. Benjamin Martin doesn’t have a choice. Not only has war been declared it has been declared on him personally. That’s exactly our story too. There is an enemy who has waged war personally against me and against you. It is the story that we are living in. The context of your life and mine ever single day is war. What that means is this, maybe more than learning to what to know, what to believe, and how to behave we had better learn how to fight. It’s a different kind of fight.
ILLUST> One of the things we are learning to do pretty quickly around here on our Elder and Staff teams is to try to quickly get to the question what is behind this. Why does this feel like it feels? What is really going on? We have learned to embrace that the life we are after for ourselves and everyone that walks into this place is violently opposed, to assume warfare and to think fight first. Do you ever ask pause and yourself this question? I get it, it’s not a typical church question, but what may be behind the thoughts and feelings you are having as you sit here today? You are sitting here thinking. Why does he do that? I hate it when he does that. What a jerk. I’ve had enough. It’s over. We just need to get a divorce. I am not saying that you are not justified in feeling any of that I don’t know your story, maybe he is a jerk. I am asking have you thought about where those thoughts are coming from? What about the thoughts you have about yourself? I’m a failure, an idiot, ugly, I will always be this, I will never be that, I will never amount to anything, I will never be strong, no one will ever desire me. I will always be alone. I could go on for days.
Do you ever give this stuff any thought? Most of us don’t. Where are these thoughts coming from? You? Maybe. God? Doesn’t sound like God, how about this, the enemy in your story who is determined to kill and destroy you. If you feel like I am being extreme okay, but what if I am right? What if this is not just ancient history but is the present reality of each of our lives. More than learning to know, believe, and behave we had better learn how to fight. We are getting ready to get a little help with that. Let’s back up and read a few more verses that we skipped over to close this thing out. One last important thing for us to see here…
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. 11 They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb
and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
I love this. John exposes one of the enemy’s most insidious and life-stealing tactics. He is our accuser. If you are like me you probably grew up saying “sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me”. We say that, but at the very core of who we are we know that words have hurt us, they have wounded us, the things that have been said to us, about us, and done to us have shaped us and lie at the core of how we see ourselves. The enemy is constantly there criticizing, critiquing, accusing, summarizing, reminding, trying his best to cause us to give up and lose heart. Yes, the context of all of our lives is war, but there is part of the battle that a lot of us are still missing…
WE OFTEN MISS THE ACCUSATION IN THE FIGHT AGAINST TEMPTATION. We have all made some terrible mistakes and done some terrible things in our lives, if you know my story, me too. But I believe the biggest challenge for us is not the things that we have done, it’s how we see ourselves as a result of what what we’ve done and what’s been done to us. The assault on our behavior is nothing compared to the assault on our identity. In my own life these days it seems that there are 10 accusations for every temptation that comes my way. The temptations that come our way are so tempting because they speak directly into a foundation of accusation that has been established in our lives. We don’t have time to unpack all the strategy in that today. The good news is we already have, go back and watch or rewatch the message called Footholds and Strongholds from November 15th. It will help you with that. For today, I just want to make sure we see this. The enemy may change his appearance, he really doesn’t change the question. The question that he lobs at Adam and Eve in the garden is still the one he frequently lobs our way too…did God really say? Really? Can you really trust that? How does what God says line up with what is currently going on in your life?
ILLUST> I love the way that this kind of moment is captured in the movie The Passion of the Christ. Now, this part is not in the Bible. The Bible says that many things happened that are not recorded in this book. So don’t email me this could be one of those but probably is not. My guess is this is from Mel Gibson and not God but it’s still brilliant and we need to see it. Watch this…
**************ROLL PASSION CLIP***********************
Who are you? Who is your father? How does that line up with what you are going through? Did that really happen to Jesus? Probably not, we don’t know but that’s not the point. The point is that it is happening in all of our lives and stories every single day. There is a relentless assault on our identity, an assault full of temptations and accusations too. So how do we fight it? We just read it. They triumphed over the Dragon by the blood of the lamb and the word of their testimony. Okay, but practically speaking what does that look life in your life and mine today?
ILLUST> It starts by understanding that all of our us are completely hopeless without the blood of Jesus. That thing that we did called communion a few minutes ago we do that here every single week. Why do we do that? We do it because Jesus said do this to remember me. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Because of what Jesus did on the cross all of my sin, yesterdays, todays and tomorrows are covered. There is no condemnation for me. The blood of Jesus covers all of those moments where I have failed to stand up against temptation in my life. That’s true, but there is more to it than just that. I want to encourage to think about that next week when you are holding that little cup of juice in your hand. There’s power in the blood of Jesus that extends beyond forgiveness. I still have a long way to go in my walk with God but one of the biggest changes over the past 8 years through my journey with Craig is my learning to pray the blood of Jesus. When I hold that cup representing the blood of Jesus that was poured out for me I first pray forgiveness but then before I take it I bring that exact same blood covering between me and the enemy. Why do I do that? You would be shocked at some of the thoughts that will come my way up here while I am preaching. You’re failing, no one cares, no one is listening, look she’s on her phone, he’s asleep, he’s walking out, you know you know you are going to get critical complaining emails from some of these very people this week. I’ll admit sometimes it seems awkward and sometimes it seems silly like when I pray the blood of Christ over my house, cars, marriage, my dog and between my girls and the boys in their lives. That’s important. It does seem a little silly and awkward at times, but I have learned to pray the blood of Christ daily and regularly. Why do I do it? Because I have learned that this stuff is not ancient history it is my current reality. I must take what I am up against personally and seriously, take my place under the blood of Jesus, and battle the accusations every bit as hard as I battle the temptations that hit my life.
At the end of the day every single one of us understands how Patch Adams feels. Me too, but there is so much more to the story. How about this version? God creates man. Man chooses to rebel against God and hands his life, the earth, and the history of the human race over to the evil one. All of our misery flows from that. God intervenes and sends his Son to redeem us and restore us. Now we find ourselves in an epic war for the human race and the planet against an enemy who is determined to destroy us. Salvation is free, but freedom requires us to fight. That’s the larger story that we find ourselves living in. That’s where we must start but there is another story that we must pay attention to and sort through as well, that story is yours. We are going to talk about that next week. We hope you come back. Let’s pray.
