Cooperate Or Compartmentalize
Do You Cooperate Or Compartmentalize?
Luke 4:31-37 February 3, 2013
Ephiphany season is the brief time between Christmas and Lent when we look at the Biblical readings that express the divinity of Jesus and His ministry, marked by His miracles and, as in our Gospel today, His authority over the evil empire of Satan and his demons.
Question for today: Do you willingly cooperate with the Holy Spirit in your spiritual journey? Or, do you stuff your spiritual things in a God compartment after Sunday worship and forget about it the rest of the week?
When we never give God any of our time we cannot expect to have joy in our journey. When the trials and troubles of life hit we are victims instead of victors. God wants us to put Him in first place in our lives.
I. God Wants Us to Remember.
I think we can all easily agree that God the Father wants us to talk about him, to believe in Him and to trust God the Son as our only Savior. Scripture repeatedly supports this position. As an example look to Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Or in Deuteronomy 6:12 “be careful that you do not forget the Lord who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”
We could spend days reading scripture to support this view. It is only natural for Christians to want to talk about Christ.
But we have a spiritual foe who is against our every spiritual move.
II. Satan Wants Us to Forget.
Satan and his legions of demons on the other hand want us to forget that they even exist. They would like nothing better than for me to stand here this morning and give you the latest medical information about dopamine, serotonin, or nor-epinephrine receptors in the brain and convince you that this was not a demon that Jesus drove out of the man. Why it was a chemical imbalance that Jesus “tweaked” back to normal!!
How ridiculous can you get! The God of the universe says it is a demon yet Satan thinks that I am going to stand here and follow the latest scientific theories and call this a chemical imbalance. What a lop sided contest: The Triune God vs. sinful man aided and abetted by Satan and medical research that most likely will be laughed at in a few years whereas the word of God endures forever. Fast forward to Luke 8:26- 33. This is the story of the demons asking to be transferred to the herd of pigs. Why would Jesus inflict a chemical imbalance on a herd of pigs?
These were in-fact demons and today’s lesson is talking about demons not chemicals, not mental illness. The word demon or demons occurs 78 times in the New Testament. Mental illness is not mentioned at all. We are talking about demons, evil spirits reporting to Satan who would like us to forget that they do exist.
Look at what St Paul says in Ephesians 6:12 “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
And Jesus himself in Matthew 6:13 tells us to pray for deliverance from the evil one. Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer we repeat that. But do you believe it?
I think our constant awareness of these dark powers is so important that we should consider adding a line to the creeds saying that “we believe Satan and his legions are real and an ever present threat to our walk with Christ.”
Personally, I thank and praise God that He has allowed me to see many cases of demonic interference in humans, both on the mission field on the other side of the planet, and here in America, in my last parish in Omaha and here in Nevada. When time after time I have seen the victory come by application of spiritual principles, namely the Name above all Names, I am rock-solid convinced that the Biblical worldview is the only correct one, and that modern psychology is itself deceived in it’s diagnosis of mental illnesses and the use of mind altering drugs to cure. What medical doctors have been unable to explain have been cured by the name of Jesus. By God’s permission, I’ve been a part of it, praise be to God.
It is good to briefly review what God’s Word says about the evil empire of Satan and his demons.
III. God has Defeated Satan.
The good news is that while Christ was crucified, Satan was defeated and we know his final outcome. The Bible says in Colossians 2:15: “And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he [Jesus] made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”
However, never underestimate power of a dying enemy. Satan is defeated but able to lie and deceive us or to flatter us causing us be self centered and to forget Christ. Jesus called him “the father of lies” in John 8:44, and so it is, that his favorite method of attack against those who are the sons of Adam and daughters of Eve is lies and deception. And so is it any surprise that there is such a varied buffet of false religions and cults all over our planet? These are all Satan’s webs of deception. “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Corinthians 4:4)
Islam, Hinduism, Taoism, Atheism, Animism, all the other “isms” and the Christian cults that deny the divinity of Jesus, they are all the lies of the devil which he has promulgated through misled and deceived gurus of religion.
It is a fact that you need to come to grips with that…
IV. Satan Is Still Alive and Well and Busy Telling You Lies.
Satan wants us to think that there is a secular life and a spiritual life. He wants us to compartmentalize God -- give him an hour or so once a week.
C.S. Lewis once wrote “ There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square inch is claimed by God and counterclaimed by Satan.”
We are in a spiritual struggle -- both God and Satan want to control our lives. The truth is that every person on the face of Planet Earth serves, worships, witnesses to, and supports the work of God or the work of the demonic. These are the only options. This struggle should not upset us, it’s absence should. It’s presence indicates that our faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord is alive and that we are fighting a genuine war against the satanic realm. If we feel no struggle, then we are under Satan’s control.
Saint Augustine, an early fifth century Bishop in North Africa, rightly observed that every single person has a God shaped vacuum in his soul. We can attempt to fill this hole with a host of other things, but ultimately nothing satisfies our hunger for meaning and significance except Jesus and His saving Gospel.
V. Problem: People Listen To the Lies.
We try to fill this God shaped hole with money, power, pleasure, alcohol, food , gambling, sex, sports cars, sports and an endless list of glittering attractions or should I say distractions that leave us empty -- we still try to find meaning in everything except our maker and His will for our lives. These things, in normal circumstances, can be quite harmless and yet the pursuit of them can become our personal demons. Ask any alcoholic, drug addict, or compulsive gambler, in recovery, if you want additional verification.
Jesus drove out this demon in the synagogue, a demon so bold it even went to church!
Jesus can drive out our demons anywhere. But are we willing? Do we actually want them driven out or do we like our demon infested lives? The master liar - Satan - tells us we deserve to fill our spiritual hole with pleasure -- things -- chemicals -- excitement -- living on the edge. He tells us that when old activities are no longer satisfying -- just up the dose. Take more, use more, party more, drink more, eat more. Without realizing what or how it happens suddenly Satan is totally in control -- we are living exclusively for ourselves, addicted to a substance or behavior, and have no idea why our souls still feel so empty.
These things are progressive -- we start out small and require higher and higher doses to achieve momentary pleasure and ultimately momentary pleasure is replaced with permanent misery.
St Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:14 that “Satan masquerades as an angel of light.”
Satan tempts us with “come let me teach you how to live life to the fullest. Why it’s all legal and respectable. You are number one. You owe it to yourself, you deserve this. Enjoy the fruits of your success -- God had nothing to do with it -- it was your hard work.”
To gain control of people Satan does not need to persuade us to live openly wicked lives. He needs only to persuade us to live useless, self-centered lives. (Matt. 25:14-30)
We are not here to live comfortably but usefully to the glory of God in the service of others in all that we do -- daily work, education, family life, leisure activities, use of money and service in the body of Christ - the Church.
Sometimes Satan is less subtle. The Small Catechism (question #100) Says that the “evil angels are also many and powerful. They hate God and seek to destroy everything that is good, especially faith in Christ.”
They lure people into the dark world of horoscopes, mediums, psychic readers, satanic arts, transcendental meditation yoga and ultimately Satan worship .Yes you heard me right -- I said yoga -- it’s origins are the pagan Hindu religion. Remember it is all progressive -- it sneaks up on you.
VI. Solution: Listen to the Holy Spirit.
We are saved only by the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. There is nothing extra that we can do to add to or assist our salvation. That’s the Gospel, the Good News!
But God doesn’t want us to just receive salvation and then stay in a spiritual rut. He wants us to grow in grace and understanding of His truth and become effective messengers of the Gospel, vessels of honor that are overflowing with love to impact the lives of others and draw them to the cross as they see Jesus reflected in our lives. We call this process sanctification.
We are sanctified by the on-going work of the Holy Spirit in our lives as we learn to listen to His voice, spoken mostly through the Word of God, the Holy Bible, but also spoken directly to the heart for those who have learned to be still and listen, and not do things that will grief the Spirit and cause him to leave us.
However, the decision to use these gifts to the fullest extent is our decision. We can decide to daily turn our will and our lives over to the care of God and make fuller use of the Holy Spirit to free ourselves from our controlling sinful behaviors of mind and body -- our personal demons. Minds filled with negative thoughts and wrong beliefs generate harmful feelings and actions. Paul tells us in Ephesians 4:22-24 “You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” He tells us in Romans 12:2 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.”
God himself renews our minds. The Holy Spirit given to us when we trust in Christ, working through the Word works in us. As God gives us new minds we anticipate receiving “the fruit of the Spirit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.” (Galatians 5:22-23) This newness will be a work in progress and will come to completion in the world to come. Trust in God! He does make powerful changes in the lives of sinful people like us.
Our part in this process is to a have a willingness to co-operate with the Holy Spirit.
We are called to…
VII. Cooperate with the Holy Spirit, Not Compartmentalize God.
We decide to make fuller use of His gift of the Holy Spirit. We decide to live by the spirit (Gal 5:16). We decide to make use of the power the Holy Spirit Provides. We decide to put into practice the kind of life the Holy Spirit inspires and enables.
We act on this decision immediately and on a daily basis. We surrender ourselves to God and ask Him to do what we cannot do for ourselves. By the spirit’s power in us we can turn our will and life over to the care of God and his life transforming power. By God’s power we can experience freedom from our demons. There may be setbacks. We may at times find ourselves doing what we do not want to do. As we daily turn our will and lives over to God a new person can emerge living free from our demons.
The power belongs to God. The willingness and the decision to allow this power to sanctify our lives is ours.
If you are one who has in the past put God back in a compartment for the rest of the week, I beg you to please consider making God a number one priority in your life, every day of the week. What is your decision?
Scripture Prayer: “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” Amen.
(1 Thessalonians 5:23-24)
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