1. There are things that seem good but are not safe - Name some
Remember Ralphie from A Christmas Story
"I want an Official Red Ryder Carbine-Action Two-Hundred-Shot Range Model Air Rifle!"
What did Santa and his mother say?
Ever want something so bad you could taste it, then when you got it - you regretted it completely?
That car or house or plasma screen TV, but couldn’t afford the payments? That new job promotion but it required you to travel or move or work more than you dreamed.
Jump from the frying pan to the fire.
This theme runs through Lion, Witch, Wardrobe. The lure of sin - selfish destruction
Pass out Turkish Delight
Edmund is the worst mannered of the 4 Pevensie children. He has a mean streak in him. After mocking Lucy for her stories about the other world through the wardrobe, he enters the wardrobe and finds himself in Narnia. Almost immediately he meets the White Witch. She is up to no good, but uses her lures of warm drink and Turkish Delight to break down Edmund’s defenses. The witch wants to know the whole scoop on his family, wants Edmund to bring them to her castle so she can enjoy their company for she has no children of her own. The reader clearly knows she is up to no good, but to Edmund, her wish to have him bring the rest of his family to her castle seems OK since she promises more Turkish Delight. She appeals to his pride and vanity, promises to treat him royally.
Sin = missing the mark. What seems so good and right becomes our downfall. The thrill that seemed so innocent becomes perilous. There are things that seem good but are not safe.
Remember the lines to countless love songs "IT feels so good it must be right" Turkish Delight
To the justification "I’ll only do it just this once" Turkish Delight
To the rationale "everyone’s doing it" Turkish Delight
The Bible teaches us to be wary 1 Jn. 3 & 2 Cor. 11
Edmund lured by Turkish delight but his gut feeling made him suspicious of the white witch, but she lured him with something that mattered to him, and as he focused on the bait, he began to abandon his principles
We make too much of evil masquerading itself as something ugly, dark and spooky, but sometimes it is an angel of light, a white witch, we focus on how one drop turns into something delightful, looking for shortcuts.
Evil is never content with just one, but rather "just one more" the white witch doesn’t want just one son of Adam, she finds that there are 4 so she wants all four
The first thing the white witch did was to make him feel comfortable warmed him up inside and out,
With his defenses down because he has been warmed and comforted, he betrays what and who he is
Even if he had known - he wouldn’t have cared because by now he was given over to the other side
White and dark are not so much opposite, but often walk side by side, so close that at a moment’s notice you can step from light into darkness
Edmund sold his soul for Turkish delight, seems crude and unthinkable - what about Essau
But when we try to manage our lives apart from God, in our own way
Why do you think there is AA and NA and SA - these false gods-idols promise everything but in the end do nothing but ruin us
Look at the lessons Edmund learns about sin and himself from the story:
1 – Sin is most appealing when we are weak.
2 – Sin clouds how evil evil really is. clouds your judgment.
3 – Sin appears as what you want. PR 9:17 "Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!"
Stealing tomatoes from the neighbor even though I didn’t like tomatoes
4 – Sin’s pleasure doesn’t last long.
5 – Sin will eventually kill.
6 – Sin promises better days ahead.
7 – Sin lies about your importance.
8 – Sin leads to the betrayal of others.
- adapted from Pat Cook of Doaktown Wesleyan Church.
Sin is fun - if it wasn’t fun we wouldn’t do it
Why would God make us able to delight in something that would make us sick
Turn the question around - What is there about this thing that makes me sick that is redeemable, that I truly do want or need, ecstasy, out of body experience?
We look at sin as missing the mark by a half mile, wrong direction, but missing the mark may be only by a few centimeters, why is this not good
James 1:13 When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. 16 Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Aqueducts of God’s resources are God’s gifts or grace
PS 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.
2. There is a life that is not safe but it is good
Audio clip "Alsan on the move, not safe but good"
Rudolph otto - mysterium tremendum - idea of holy, terrible, mysterious - unimaginable power
God is wholly other than man - incomprehensible, that is why we fear - stand in awe Moses going up on a fiery mountain, the ark killing people who shouldn’t touch it - The OT is filled with such stories
God is absolutely unapproachable - so He approaches us - Incarnation
To really see God for who He is - we shake in our boots but are obcessed with Him.
This means that God shouldn’t be taken lightly, don’t chum up with God, He is wholly other, mysterious, don’t reduce him to your pal or buddy
God’s response to Job when he hollered at him
There is a life that is not safe but it is good
MT 5:11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
JAS 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Does this sound like a safe life to you?
MT 16:24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it.
Does this sound like a safe life to you?
RO 8:31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
Does this sound like a safe life to you?
HEB 11:32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, 33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37 They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated-- 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
39 These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40 God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
Does this sound like a safe life to you?
The most important lesson is that while God isn’t safe, He is good, and He is good all the time
Aslan is not safe - roaring - cover your ears - flying - hold on tight
When we reject the good God is we embrace the evil He isn’t
3. There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ’Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ’Thy will be done.’
Edward has a desire for power - a love of Turkish Delight lead him to be enslaved by the White Witch and his own lostness. But that enslavement and lostness is more than matched by Aslan’s determination to rescue those He loves. God never wills for us to sin but He is prepared for our sin, and those things that we do that undo us and destroy us are not insurmountable to God
But I can identify with Edmund - If Aslan would do that for a bratty Edmund ...
Next Step
What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step.
Lewis said, "Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither."
A woman wrote CS Lewis about her fear that her son loved Aslan more than he loved Jesus, but Lewis wrote back that it would be impossible for her son to love Alsan more than Jesus because the things he loved about Aslan were most true about Jesus
Is your next step to shake off the lures and temptations that lead you away from Jesus and follow Him?
Is your next step to lose your life, lay it down so that He can save it?
If Jesus were to ask you right here and now, what are you doing with your one and only life?
Could you say that you have invested it the best way possible?
Bring a friend to see Lion Witch and Wardrobe when it opens this weekend, then invite them to church to hear the conclusion of this series.
