This Week's Light Service Sermon

Light Service Sermons for the Month
What Does Christianity Teach About.Resisting Evil.
DATE: March 25, 2001
TEXT: I Peter 5:8-9

Let's not kid ourselves. There is a pit bull trying to destroy our lives.
Many people will say that its fantasy, that there is no devil, there is no Satan. Friends, the Bible tells us there's a supernatural world, an unseen world. You and I cannot see it because of our limitation as humans but the Bible tells us there is a war raging for our spirits. Satan is the accuser.
The Bible tells us in I Peter 5:8-9, "Be on your guard and stay awake. Your enemy, the devil, is like a roaring lion sneaking around to find someone to attack. You must resist the devil and stay strong in your faith."
We have all experienced pain of one kind or another. If you've lived but for a short period of time, you've experienced brokenness; you've experienced suffering. It's real. Yet if I were to ask you, "What are the times in your life that you have grown the most?" What would be your answer?
I think if you're really honest, you would say, "The times in my life I've grown the most are the times I have suffered most, the times of excruciating pain." That's the reason why we can say, "No pain, no gain." When you know pain, you can know gain.
Well today, we're going to take a look at the battle around us, the fact that this enemy, this accuser is real. The word devil in the Bible is Diablo; it means a slanderer, someone seeking to wreck our lives. What God wants for our good, the devil wants for the worst, for the dark side of life is a reality.
Today we want to talk about some of the schemes of the devil's war plan. Chuck Swindoll in his book Hope Again says:
There is no military commander that could expect to be victorious in battle unless he understood the enemy. Should he prepare for an attack by land and ignore the possibility that the enemy might approach by air or by sea, he would be open to defeat.
Or should he prepare for a land and sea attack and ignore the possibility of an attack through the air, he would certainly jeopardize the campaign. No individual can be victorious again the adversary of our souls unless he understands that adversary, unless he understand his philosophy, his methods of operation, his methods of temptation.
What the devil wants to do is to convince us that our real enemy is pain. Friends, that's not true. Our enemy is not our pain; our enemy is not our suffering. Our enemy is the devil and all the evil that the devil represents, all the plans he has for you and me.
Today I want to talk about ways to deal with that, ways to lives as a Christian in light of what the Bible has to teach us. There is hope beyond the battle. But before we do that, let us pray.
(PRAYER)
Here are some steps that we need to take with regard to resisting evil:
1) The first is to be alert.
By being alert, we're talking being wide-awake. The evil one cannot catch us off guard when we know and we admit that the devil is real. The devil is real. One of the things that Satan hates the most is to be exposed. So today, we're exposing the evil one. We're talking about things that God warned us about in the Bible when He said, "Watch out, there is one who is trying to wipe you out and go against everything good that I have planned for you and your future. In your relationships, in your decisions, in your life."
One caution. By being alert, I don't mean getting to the point where we see a demon or devil behind every bush, around every corner. I hear people say, "Well, my vacuum cleaner quit, there must be a demon of vacuum cleaners." Or my computer is possessed since it is not doing what I want it to (which may, of course, be true). Or you can say there's an automobile demon when you get tickets or flat tires or whatever. In fact, we can even get to the point of shifting the blame onto "The devil made me do it."
We have to be careful so we don't go there. But what we want to do is to be alert. We want to be awake, understanding there is an evil presence, lurking in the dark, prowling around and trying to deceive us and destroy us.
2) We need to Be Respectful.
I remember as a Boy Scout working on my second-class scout badge. It required that I start a fire. I was given two matches. I carefully prepared my fire then lit it with a match. Up it went. When a small log fell out I instinctively reached out to catch it and throw it back. Well, from that moment on I learned to respect fire--especially hot glowing coals.
Just as we don't have to be afraid of the devil, as we will talk about in a few moments, that does not mean we must not respect evil. We can't underestimate its ability to hurt or subvert.
3) Third, we need to be Resistant
In the Bible passage that we read a few moments ago in Peter, it talked about resisting evil. There's a quote from C.S. Lewis in the Screwtape Letters where the devil is talking to his troops, his army. I thought this might be interesting to read. He tells his army:
Like all young tempers you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that they have a cumulative effect to edge the man away from the light and out into nothing. Murder is no better than cards, if cards can do the trick. Indeed, the safest road to hell is the gradual one, the gentle slope, soft underfoot without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.
In the film, "Bedazzled", our hero wanting to have it all, makes a pact with the devil for 7 wishes. Each wish, however, when granted turns out to be all he imagined but less than he hoped for. Ultimately, he find himself in jail for crimes resulting from his innocent wishes.
(Film clip: Bedazzled)
The good news today is that Jesus Christ conquered sin, death and the power of the devil. He became one of us to convince us of the love of his Father. As Christians when we welcome Jesus Christ to take charge of our lives, we give Jesus control over our lives. His power is available to defeat the one that seeks to destroy us. In Ephesians it tells us what to do, what our response would be, "Finally, let the mighty strength of the Lord make you strong."
It isn't our power or our might; we can't taunt the devil and win. But it is the power of God himself that wins. "Put on all the armor that God gives so that you can defend yourself again the devil's tricks."
How do you do that?
Well the first thing is to pray to God to guard your mind, attitude and thought life.
Take time to read the Bible. We're told the Word of God is sharper than a two-edge sword. It pierces into the very marrow of the bone.
And then take the opportunity to worship as you have today,
To help you get intimate with Jesus Christ, be part of a family who loves Christ, supports you, encourages you, and cheers you on.
God wants us to receive the gift that's available to us, that overcomes evil. The battle was won as Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. And so today for you and for me there is hope beyond the battle and that hope is the person of Jesus Christ.
Years ago in London there was a great singer named Charlotte Elliott. She was a world-renowned vocalist and she gave the performance of her life. The adulation of the audience was impressive. After it was all over, a preacher who happened to be in the crowd complimented her on the gift God had given her. Then he said, "I know that you will honor Christ with your life in a great way some day." Charlotte Elliot responded to this preacher in no uncertain words. "I don't believe in God." Then she stomped away.
In 1821, Charlotte suffered an illness which resulted in her becoming a permanent invalid, so that all her word was done with great effort against her physical weakness. In 1822, she met Cesar Malan, an evangelist. Through his influence and perhaps remembering what that preacher had said to her, one night in 1834 she sat down and turned a light on at her bedside table; she took a pen and a piece of paper and wrote the words, "Just as I am without one plea but that your blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come to thee, oh Lamb of God, I come, I come."
If you've been in the church for any part of your life, you know that song has welcomed literally hundreds of thousands of people into a relationship with Jesus Christ.
There are areas that we all need to clean up; there are areas we all need to relinquish and surrender. And so today I would like to invite you to surrender as much as you know to be true about yourself to as much as you've discovered to be true about the Lord Jesus Christ. As you allow Christ to take over these areas, you will be the winner.
Let us pray. Lord, we thank you today that the battle is yours. Thank you for helping us be alert, respectful and resistant. Lord, we offer now our life; we offer the darkness as well as our hopes and our dreams. We give them to you. We want to be your person. We want to live totally for you. Thank you that you want us, that you died for us. Now in these moments, we know even as we think about these areas that need your touch, that you are more willing to come and forgive us and help us and lift us up and fill us with hope that we are even dare to hope. And so we offer ourselves to you now in this prayer.
AMEN