Warfare of the Image Bearer #1
Heritage Church
David Oaks
(This is the beginning message to accompany the congregation wide reading of Waking the Dead, by John Eldredge. Many of the thoughts and ideas come from him.)
Have you ever tried to put together a puzzle without looking at the picture of the completed puzzle on the box?
Do you ever feel like you are trying to put the pieces to the puzzle of your life together and you just don’t know where they should go?
Is your life characterized by the feeling that you are in a hurry to get somewhere but you are not sure where you are going?
“In the movie The Perfect Storm, John Spillane is a Para-rescue jumper sent into the North Atlantic. He has been sent into the worst storm of the twentieth century and is forced to jump into pitch blackness from an unknown height, and when he hits the water, he’s going so fast it’s like hitting pavement from eighty feet above. He is dazed and confused…He is disoriented…for a bit he doesn’t know where he is at. John Spillane’s jump and disorientation is a really good picture of the way a lot of us live our lives; we wish we could snap out of our disorientation and clearly see the real story God meant for us to live.” Waking the Dead, John Eldredge
Often we have no idea who we really are. We are trying to put together the jigsaw puzzle of our lives but we can’t clearly see the picture of who we really are and where we’re supposed to be going.
- It’s almost like we are in the driver’s seat but the windshield is muddied…
And without that clear focus for our lives we tend to scatter our energies and we slide into mediocrity. We do a little in a lot of areas but we don’t seem to make much impact. Our lives are not changed. Our relationships are not strengthened. Our financial needs go unmet. We are struggling yet we keep trying to put another piece to a puzzle that we can’t see.
The more brutal life becomes the more we ask ourselves the question: What is really going on here? If God is for me, why does it seem so hard?
If we could just see the picture of the incomplete puzzle…
Here’s the good news: One of the main purposes of Jesus’ entry into history was to help us see the completed big picture of the puzzle of our lives! Jesus came so that we could see where the pieces of the puzzle of our lives go!
When he came to the village of Nazareth, his boyhood home, he went as usual to the synagogue on Saturday, and stood up to read the Scriptures. 17The book of Isaiah the prophet was handed to him, and he opened it to the place where it says:
18-19“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; he has appointed me to preach Good News to the poor; he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted and to announce that captives shall be released and the blind shall see, that the downtrodden shall be freed from their oppressors, and that God is ready to give blessings to all who come to him.”
Luke 4:16-19 TLB
Jesus came so that we could see the big picture and put the pieces to the puzzle of our lives together with confidence!
Jesus came to show us how to live life.
Why then, do we live in such a fog?
How come we don’t see the big picture to the puzzle of our lives?
Does God not want us to see it?
The answer to our struggle lies in understanding our need to SEE the real world we live in.
Look at this verse:
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
John 10:10 NKJV
Here in the same breath, Jesus talks about thievery, death and destruction and abundant life. Jesus somehow marries this connection between abundant life and a destroying, killing “thief.”
Notice, this is a thief, not a robber. What is the difference? A robber holds you up to your face. A robber steals from you openly by force. A thief is one that steals from you secretly. A thief wants to keep you in ignorance of his thievery.
Jesus is telling us that there is a thief that wants to keep you from the knowledge of the fact that you are being stolen from.
Jesus has promised us abundant life.
"Abundant" life…the word means: Above ordinary; a life of excellence, beyond measure; superfluous; superabundant; excessive; superior in quality
Jesus has promised us abundant life but He is clueing us in that there is a thief who wants to steal, kill and destroy.
- “Steal” - to take another’s possessions:
- The thief wants to steal our position, purpose, and our possessions in this life and the next.
- “Kill” - to cause to die…to kill our faith.
- The thief wants to discourage and bring to naught our faith; to overcome us
Jesus is saying that He come to give us abundant life but there is a thief who secretly never stops plotting to take it from us.
- The thief never stops trying to steal, kill and destroy our “above ordinary” life.
- The thief never stops trying to steal, kill and destroy our “life of excellence.”
- The thief never stops trying to steal, kill and destroy our “superfluous, superabundant, superior in quality” life.
- This thief never stops trying to make me believe that my sin will someday bring me satisfaction.
- This thief never stops trying to make me believe that the grass is greener in the next career, or the next marriage, or the next relationship.
Hosea was an Old Testament prophet who spoke for God when he said:
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge
Hosea 4:6 NKJV
Here is the heart of God saying, ‘My people don’t understand that there is a thief in their lives that is secretly keeping them from seeing the big picture.
- There is a thief in their lives that secretly
- Sabotages their marriages.
- Interferes with their finances.
- Manipulates their lives by playing with their minds.
- Brings death and destruction all around them.
2 Corinthians 2:11
Be not ignorant of Satan’s devices, lest he get an advantage over us . . .
- Through ignorance Satan gets an advantage over us!
- Through ignorance Satan can control our lives;
- Through the lack of knowledge he can get control over our families, our finances, our business, our relationships
- "advantage" - to over reach; get a gain
What we have learned is that there is a thief who secretly wants to gain control of our lives and take away everything that is good. We have learned that there is an incredible life offered to us but we are going to have to find and fight the thief to get it.
WHY?????
What did we ever do to get this thief so riled up against us?
Why are we on his hit list?
Why does he want to steal from us, kill and destroy us?
It’s an old story…….
Genesis 1:26 Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule…
In describing this in Waking the Dead, John Eldredge says that “We were fashioned as living icons of the bravest, wisest, most stunning Person who ever lived!” and that “those who have ever seen him fell to their knees without even thinking about it, as you find yourself breathless before the Grand Canyon or the Alps or the sea at dawn. That glory was shared with us; we were, ‘statues of God walking about in a Garden,’ endowed with a strength and beauty all our own.. All that we ever wished we could be, we were – and more. We were fully alive.”
Here’s the bottom line: We were created as the King’s children and He has an enemy that hates us just because we look and act like Him!
We were created as incredible models of our Father. We bear such a striking resemblance to our Father that His enemies hate us just because of who we are!!
We were created in His image and likeness.
Of all the creatures of the earth, we are unique.
Of all the creatures of the earth, we are the only ones that live with the knowledge that we will one day die.
Of all the creatures of the earth, we are unique in our capacity for rational thought.
In the Garden of Eden, humanity was crowned with glory!
In the Garden of Eden, we got the promotion that the devil wanted!
In the Garden of Eden, we became God’s beloved favorites!
In the Garden of Eden, SOMEBODY DIDN’T LIKE IT!!!
When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—
the moon and the stars you have set in place—
4 what are mortals that you should think of us,
mere humans that you should care for us?£
5 For you made us only a little lower than God,
and you crowned us with glory and honor.
Psalm 8:3-5 NLT
There’s a story about a little girl who climbed up on the lap of great-grandmother and looked at her white hair and wrinkles and then asked, "Did God make you?"
"Yes," she said.
Then she asked, "Did God make me, too?"
Grandma said, "Yes."
"Well," said the little girl, "Don’t you think He’s doing a better job now than he used to?"
We were created in His image and likeness.
Now, this explains our struggles. God created us like Him but there is a thief that secretly connives and schemes to trip us up.
We were created with a crown of glory and honor but there, lurking in the garden, was an enemy.
SO WHAT?
Here’s why this matters.
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
1 Peter 5:8 NKJV
Strength to stand comes when we begin to understand that everything that happens to us is not God, but sometimes it is our enemy the devil.
- Too often we are giving in when we should be resisting.
- Too often, we feel all alone when we should strengthen ourselves by understanding that all Image bearers are in the same battle!
John Eldredge does a great job in Waking the Dead, p17:
YOU MUST FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE
Until we come to terms with war as the context of our days we will not understand life. We will misinterpret 90 percent of what is happening around us and to us. It will be very hard to believe that God’s intentions toward us are life abundant; it will be even harder not to feel that somehow we are just blowing it. Worse, we will begin to accept some really awful things about God. That four-year-old girl being molested by her daddy – that is “God’s will”? That ugly divorce that tore your family apart – God wanted that to happen too? And that plane crash that took the lives of so many – that was desired by God?
We MUST understand we have an enemy and we MUST make the decision to resist him or we will be devoured.
We must fight for our joy.
We must fight for our peace.
We must fight depression.
We must fight lust.
We must fight mediocrity.
In the face of resistance we must pursue wholeness.
In the face of resistance we must pursue forgiveness.
In the face of resistance we must pursue righteousness.
In the face of resistance we must pursue justice.
There are three eternal truths that we need to be aware of in order for so many things about our lives to make sense:
Three Eternal Truths:
1. Things are not what they seem.
2. Some great struggle or quest or battle is well under way.
3. We have a crucial role to play.
What can I do?
1. Commit to coming to church for the next 6 weeks.
2. Commit to sharpening your sword daily for battle.
- Warfare of the Image Bearer daily devotional guide.
- Waking the Dead
- A $21 book. We are offering it for $5 (one per family).
3. Commit to some kind of small group interaction.
- ”Going to church with hundreds of other people to sit and hear a sermon doesn’t ask much of you. It certainly will never expose you. That’s why most folks prefer it. Because community will. It will reveal where you have yet to become holy, right at the very moment you are so keenly aware of how they have yet to become holy. It will bring you close and you will be seen and you will be known, and therein lies the power and therein lies the danger.”
- Waking the Dead¸ p197
- Sunday night group
- PK lunch group
- This Wednesday night, 6:30, dinner, next step meeting…
I want to play a video clip from the movie My Cousin Vinny where Vinny makes the case that a little old lady that thinks she can see really cannot. This little clip sort of makes the point that so often what we think we see is not reality and the reality is that we need a new way of seeing!
VIDEO CLIP: MY COUSIN VINNY
Prayer:
“I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. 18I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future he has promised to those he called. I want you to realize what a rich and glorious inheritance he has given to his people.”
Ephesians 1:16-18 NLT
