HANGING ON PART II: FACING YOUR DEMONS
MARK 14:27-31/ LUKE 22: 31-34
NOVEMBER 16, 2003
INTRODUCTION: During a Monday night football game between the Chicago Bears and the New York Giants, one of the announcers observed that Walter Payton, the Bears’ running back, had accumulated over nine miles in career rushing yardage. The other announcer remarked, "Yeah, and that’s with somebody knocking him down every 4.6 yards!" Walter Payton, the most successful running back ever, knows that everyone --even the very best-- gets knocked down. The key to success is to get up and run again just as hard.
Jeff Quandt, Irving Wallace, Book of Lists, 1980.
Young William Wilberforce was discouraged one night in the early 1790s after another defeat in his 10-year battle against the slave trade in England. Tired and frustrated, he opened his Bible and began to leaf through it. A small piece of paper fell out and fluttered to the floor. It was a letter written by John Wesley shortly before his death. Wilberforce read it again: "Unless the divine power has raised you up... I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that (abominable practice of slavery), which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? Oh, be not weary of well-doing. Go on in the name of God, and in the power of His might."
Daily Bread, June 16, 1989.
TRANSITION THOUGHT: Our football thought for the day and this little shred of Wesleyan History points us to a great truth. The enemy of our soul wants to knock us down and cause us to give up on the great work of God and of His Kingdom. We all experience great battles in this life and this truth is never the issue. The issue is what will you do when you face your demon. If you are knocked down, will you get up again? I have always heard it is not how you start, but how you finish! The sad reality is that we often start well, but somewhere along the way, we loose steam and give up. If you want the enemy of your soul to dance and rejoice, give up before the victory is won. And if you do, you will never know the great thing God was going to do through you and great blessing you would have been to others.
THESIS SENTENCE: GOD IS FOR US IN THE BATTLE
I. FACING YOUR DEMONS IS KNOWING YOU HAVE ONE VV. 31
A. Knowing you have one is knowing the enemy of our souls
1. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Remember his scheme is to devour you (I Peter 5:8).
2. He wants to get you to do what is sinful, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning (I John 3:8).
3. He wants to lead the whole earth astray (Revelation 12:9).
4. You see, we have an enemy! Do you remember who the enemy is?
B. Knowing you have one is knowing our weakest link
1. Do you know your weak link? Do know the one place the devil picks on in your life? Are you aware he knows how to get to you?
2. For me, my biggest weakest link is fear of those around me dying. This may sound normal to some and strange to others. When I was in college the devil constantly used this one on me and it worked to his favor. I would become overwhelmed with fear that someone was going to die and it would consume my thoughts. 3. Each one of us has a place where the devil can work if we let him. If I had succumbed to this fear, do you think I would let my wife go to work each day, or my kids to school, or my wife on a mission trip? I refuse to allow the devil hold on my life, but it is only through the power of the Holy Spirit that I can release this fear. 4. Our first scripture for the day reveals what this looks like in the Apostle Peter’s life. He had a fear of failing others. Think about his life. Who was the one who wanted to be in front? Who was the one who always had the right answers? Who was the one who promised they would never forsake Jesus even if it meant prison or death?
5. Maybe I am out on a limb here, but I really believe Peter voiced his fear in his bold statement. I have often heard that we talk about our fears by speaking in absolutes. The old adage is NEVER SAY NEVER!
6. Jesus lets Peter know right up front, you have a demon to deal with and his name is satan!
C. KNOWING YOU HAVE ONE IS BEING SIFTED
1. Sifting is separating from the larger to the smaller.
2. Sifting is scrutinizing!
3. The Scofield Bible has a note that reads, “Peter was the wheat and his self confidence was the chaff (p.1108 note l).”
4. The CEV version reads: “Satan has demanded the right to test each one of you, as a farmer does when he separates wheat from the husks.” 5. Hear Luke 3: 16 and 17, “John answered them all, ‘I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.’”
6. I have always thought of this as a separation of persons. And I believe it is. But, it could also be the separation of a person, separated from sin to serve God.
TRUTH: We will all be sifted! Each one of us has a demon to deal with: satan and the thing we fear the most!
QUESTION: Have you acknowledged your demon? Do you believe satan is after you? Do you know your weak link spiritually?
II. FACING YOUR DEMONS IS KNOWING JESUS IS WITH YOU VV. 32
“But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.”
A. JESUS KNOWS THE GREATER ISSUE
1. What is the greater issue, the devil coming after you, or you losing your faith? 2. Jesus knows that we all have major issues to face in life; he knows the skeletons in our closets. He knows that trials will come.
3. The ultimate goal is that in the trials of life that we would not lose our faith!
B. JESUS KNOWS HOW TO INTERCEDE
1. Does Jesus just know the facts, or does HE do something about the real issues of our lives?
2. Our text tells us that He knows and has interceded for us!
3. Jesus knows the answer for all our needs is in the Father alone!
4. In His greatest time of need he did not stand on His own two feet, but fell to His knees and begged the Father in intervene. Here HIS prayer: “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will (Mark 14:36).”
5. In our text Jesus tells Peter up front, “But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail (verse 32).”
6. This is the story of Job 1:6-12, “One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.” Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.” The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.”
7. Hebrews 7:24-25: “but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.”
Romans 8:26: “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”
TRUTH: Satan cannot do a thing without permission from God! Jesus intercedes/ gets in the middle/ mediates between two contending parties/ prays for us!
QUESTION: How is your faith? Do you trust Jesus in the trials or do you think HE has abandoned you?
III. FACING YOUR DEMONS IS KNOWING YOU WILL SURVIVE
A. Survival is the outcome of sifting
1. You have heard it said, “What doesn’t kill you will make you stronger.” 2. Have you ever heard life can make you better or bitter, you get to choose. 3. Did you catch what Jesus said after HE dropped the sifting bomb on Peter? “And when you have turned back…”
4. Do you hear what Jesus is saying? I can see your future. I know what is about to happen and it will not be the end of the world. It will not be the end of your soul, either. You will have a future. This event will not destroy you.
B. Survival is a relationship with Jesus
1. In verse 35, Jesus asks the disciples a profound question: “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?” “Nothing,” they answered.” 2. Do you know what Jesus is saying? He is saying, “If you have me, you don’t need anything else!”
3. It is all about a personal relationship with Jesus! How do you overcome your demons? Do you do it in your own strength? Can you do it in your own strength, power, fortitude, and determination? NO! When we are linked to Jesus, we have power to overcome ever demon that would oppose us!
4. Hear this testimony: “I can do everything through him who gives me strength (Philippians 4:13).” “But every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world (I John 4:3-4).”
5. A personal relationship with Jesus enables us to SURVIVE!
ILLUSTRATION: The story is told that Andrew Jackson’s boyhood friends just could not understand how he became a famous general and then the President of the United States. They knew of other men who had greater talent but who never succeeded. One of Jackson’s friends said, "Why, Jim Brown, who lived right down the pike from Jackson, was not only smarter but he could throw Andy three times out of four in a wrestling match. But look where Andy is now." Another friend responded, "How did there happen to be a fourth time? Didn’t they usually say three times and out?" "Sure, they were supposed to, but not Andy. He would never admit he was beat -- he would never stay ’throwed.’ Jim Brown would get tired, and on the fourth try Andrew Jackson would throw him and be the winner." Picking up on that idea, someone has said, "The thing that counts is not how many times you are ’throwed,’ but whether you are willing to stay ’throwed’." We may face setbacks, but we must take courage and go forward in faith. Then, through the Holy Spirit’s power we can be the eventual victor over sin and the world. The battle is the Lord’s, so there is no excuse for us to stay "throwed"!
Our Daily Bread.
TRUTH: IN JESUS ALONE WE SURVIVE!
QUESTION: ARE YOU TRYING TO SURVIVE WITHOUT JESUS?
IV. FACING YOUR DEMONS IS KNOWING THERE IS WORK TO DO
“AND WHEN YOU HAVE TURNED BACK, STRENGTHEN YOUR BROTHERS.”
A. WORK IS THE PROMISE OF THE FUTURE
1. The conclusion of the trial is that when it is over, we must get to work. 2. The promise here is that we/ Peter will have a future. I do not want to understress this point; I want to overstress it! Yes, the devil is about to kick you in the teeth and you are going to go through the fiery furnace. You are not the first and you will not be the last. After the smoke clears, get to work!
B. WORK IS NOT ABOUT US
1. “Strengthen your brothers.” Did you hear that?
2. It is not about you! It is not about you and me feeling sorry for our selves. It is not about you and me have a pity party. It is not about you and me focusing on our selves more. It is about thinking about someone else!
C. WORK IS ABOUT SERVING OTHERS
1. Is thinking enough? No, Jesus said, “Strengthen your brothers.”
2. What are you doing? Are you worried about you? Are you reliving your past over and over again? Are you focused on poor pitiful you?
3. Jesus says, “Get over your past, get over your failures, get over your demon, there is work to do!” We cannot do it alone, but we can do it in Jesus name! “And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him (Colossians 3:17).”
4. Peter says it this way: “If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen (I Peter 4: 11).”
ILLUSTRATION: Author Irving Stone has spent a lifetime studying greatness, writing novelized biographies of such men as Michelangelo, Vincent van Gogh, Sigmund Freud and Charles Darwin. Stone was once asked if he had found a thread that runs through the lives of all these exceptional people. He said, "I write about people who sometime in their life...have a vision or dream of something that should be accomplished...and they go to work.
"They are beaten over the head, knocked down, vilified and for years they get nowhere. But every time they’re knocked down they stand up. You cannot destroy these people. And at the end of their lives they’ve accomplished some modest part of what they set out to do."
Crossroads, Issue No. 7, p. 18.
WE BEGAN WITH A LITTLE WESLEYAN HISTORY, LET US END THERE.
From the diary of John Wesley. . .
Sunday, A.M., May 5 Preached in St. Anne’s. Was asked not to come back anymore.
Sunday, P.M., May 5 Preached in St. John’s. Deacons said "Get out and stay out."
Sunday, A.M., May 12 Preached in St. Jude’s. Can’t go back there, either.
Sunday, A.M., May 19 Preached in St. Somebody Else’s. Deacons called special meeting and said I couldn’t return.
Sunday, P.M., May 19 Preached on street. Kicked off street.
Sunday, A.M., May 26 Preached in meadow. Chased out of meadow as bull was turned loose during service.
Sunday, A.M., June 2 Preached out at the edge of town. Kicked off the highway.
Sunday, P.M., June 2 Afternoon, preached in a pasture. Ten thousand people came out to hear me.
John Wesley.
TRUTH: Jesus expects us to serve!
QUESTION: Are you serving?
CONCLUSION: Where do you find yourself today? Did you know you have a demon? Did you know that Jesus is with you? Did you know in His strength alone you can survive? The real question for today is has your demon conquered you or have you, in the power of Jesus, conquered your demon? Can I tell you how you will know which side of this equation you are on? If you are serving others now for the Kingdoms sake, if you are actively involved building HIS Kingdom in His power, you are right were He wants you. If not, your demon is getting you. Will you be bold enough to bring your demon to the altar and ask Jesus to give you power over the evil one? You can be victorious in Jesus alone!!
BENEDICTION: JUDE 24-25
