Week Commencing Sunday May 30th 2021

William Booth, adapted Lex Loizides.

Holy Spirit, we welcome you
Holy Spirit, we welcome you
Move amongst us with holy fire
as we lay aside all earthly desire
hands reach out and hearts aspire
Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, we welcome you!

Holy Spirit, we welcome you
Holy Spirit, we welcome you
Let the breeze of your presence blow,
that your children here might truly know
how to move in the Spirit's flow.
Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, we welcome you

Holy Spirit, we welcome you
Holy Spirit, we welcome you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUIXBmT-JNk

Sermon.

Back in April we looked at Daniel, a man who would not compromise, and we saw how he interpreted a dream God gave to an ungodly king foretelling the future. We saw over the following centuries how that dream came true and that today we are living in the days when it was foretold that Jesus will return to reign on this earth. We saw how what is foretold in the bible has literally come true and is still unfolding today. We have therefore, no reason to doubt that the bible is true in everything it tells us.

In 2 Timothy 3:1-4 Paul writes: - But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. ²People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, ⁴treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—⁵having a form of godliness but denying its power.  Is this not an apt description of the days in which we are now living? Do we not hear about this everyday in our news bulletins?

The following week Lorna spoke from Ephesians 6, putting on the full armour of God. We live in a physical world and believe what we can see and touch but often fail to recognise that there is another dimension – a spiritual dimension, and because we cannot see it or touch it, many do not believe it. Verse 12 of our reading says: - 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. Whether you believe it or not, there is a battle going on in the spiritual realm for our souls, the part of us that lives on forever after the body in which we currently live dies and passes away.

In Ecclesiastes 12 we read: -    Remember your Creator in the days of your youth,  before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say,   “I find no pleasure in them”— This passage then goes on to describe the onset of old age with the failings in the body of strength, hearing, eyesight etc. and finally death. Where it says, then man goes to his eternal home and mourners go about the streets. Remember him—before the silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

So, when we die our spirit or soul, the real you and me, goes back to God and He determines where we will spend eternity based on whether or not we have accepted His provision of salvation though faith in His Son Jesus Christ.

I have often heard people ask “if God is a God of love why does He allow all the evil that is going on in the world?” or questions along those lines. Sometimes we are tempted to question where God is when suddenly some catastrophe hit us. The story of Job is a good example of how many people think, when tragedy hits us. But to understand this, we need to understand the bigger picture. And we get a glimpse of what happened in the past in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14. As they recall the fall of Satan and banishment by God

In Ezekiel 28 12-17 we read: -

            “‘You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; ¹⁴You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you.

            You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones. ¹⁵You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created till wickedness was found in you. …. and you sinned. So, I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. ¹⁷Your heart became proud   on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendour. So, I threw you to the earth;

In Isaiah 14:12-15 we read: -

  ¹² How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations^. You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. ¹⁴I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” ¹⁵But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.

From these two passages we get a glimpse of the fall of Satan. God created a perfect being but pride got the better of him and he tried to set himself up as God so he got thrown out of heaven along with those angels who rebelled against God. So now we have the forces of good and of evil in the spiritual realm. What was Satan’s aim? He wanted worship, he wanted to take the place of God. He set out to usurp God’s authority.

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness after His baptism (Mark 1.) what did Satan offer? He offered an easy way out.

Jesus knew He was facing a battle and for Satan to be finally defeated, and sin dealt with, He would have to die a horrible death. Satan offered Him an easy way out but what was the condition? Fall down and worship me! Although Satan was defeated at the cross, when Jesus arose triumphant from the grave, his final destiny has yet to be fulfilled as God is working out His plans and purposes. So, the battle for our souls, yours and mine is still raging today. It is a battle for worship. Who will we serve?

In Joshua 24:15 Joshua faced the Israelites with a choice, they had started to worship other gods. He said: - if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

Today we each one of us is faced with the same choice, there are plenty of gods out there for us to choose to serve and replace God in our lives and worship. We can serve money – getting rich, or sport can be the focus of our attention or even ourselves, we can focus on serving ourselves and our own interests, anything that takes first place in our lives can become our god. Or, we can decide like Joshua and say, as for me and my house we WILL serve the Lord, the living God who sent His Son to take the punishment for our sins. BUT THE CHOICE IS OURS ALONE, no one can force us to choose which god we will worship or serve. Even God Himself does not force us to worship Him or obey Him. We decide and where we spend eternity will depend on the decision, we make for ourselves.

The apostle Peter writes in 1 Peter 5:8-10: - Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. ⁹Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. ¹⁰And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

Satan is an accuser and a destroyer. He wants worship, he wants to take God’s place and he wants to destroy our faith and the work of God in our lives. So, he comes in on the attack and he will use any means to do so. The encouragement here is to resist him – stand firm in the faith. Stand on the promises of God. How did Jesus resist him? – He quoted scripture. Satan misquoted scripture or took it out of context and Jesus came back with the word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit and defeated him. This is why it is so important that we read the bible. How can we counter the attacks of Satan with God’s word if we do not know it? In this Jesus has set us the example but even if we fail the God of all grace, … will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. Satan comes to destroy; he is in the demolition business but God is in the restoration business! He knows how to put right all that has gone wrong.

Regardless of what Satan might throw at us to bring us into sin or draw us away from God, God will still rescue us. We are in a spiritual battle, even if we do not recognise it, a battle for control is raging and anything that takes our focus off God, who is our help, is fair game as far as Satan is concerned.

Jesus said (John 16:33) - In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” If you have put your faith in Jesus Christ and asked Him into your life, you are on the winning side, no matter how fierce the battle may become, you can still overcome and still be rescued.

There are many ways attacks can come against us and in a spiritual battle there are going to be spirits at work. The bible talks about some of these spirits, of course there is the Holy Spirit sent to help us but there are those that work against us.

Isaiah 61 says: -. The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, this is the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised as our helper, our comforter, sent to help us and lead us in all truth to counter the attacks that come against us. And what does the Holy Spirit enable us to do? - to preach good news to the poor.  … to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’S favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,³and provide for those who grieve in Zion — to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

The Holy Spirit brings hope but working against that is a spirit of despair

Where everything has been burnt up and destroyed, God through the Holy Spirit brings a crown of beauty

2 Timothy 1:7 Paul writes: - For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love and of sound mind. – Satan attacks with a spirit of fear. Fear can hold us back and destroy us but it is countered with a spirit of power, love and sound mind. We have heard much about mental health during this pandemic but for a believer with faith in Jesus Christ that should not be an issue because the promise is a sound mind, but it depends on where we have put our faith. We find strength and comfort when we focus on the promises of God, looking to Him rather than that which brings fear.

Another spirit Satan uses is sometimes called the Jezebel spirit, it refers back to Ahab’s wife and appears in the Thyatira church in Revelation 2. It is a spirit of rebellion or a controlling spirit. Jesus said to this church: - You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. This woman wanted control, her teaching was false, she claimed to be a prophetess and she was leading others into sin and the church was tolerating it and not dealing with it to stop her. She had wormed her way in and gained power and control. And Jesus held this against them.

But there are other spirits that Satan uses to destroy the work of God in a church or in our lives. A critical spirit can undermine the work in a church, the confidence of a person, destroy a pastor, it will often manifest itself in a person who is actually out of touch with the Holy Spirit, and that can happen to anyone of us who is not wearing the full armour of God.

So, the word today is – Put on the full armour and take your stand against the devil’s schemes…. Stand firm… And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.

How do we recognise what spirit is at work in us or others? We recognise it by the fruit it produces. It is not always apparent at first, fruit takes time to develop. When we moved into our house nine years ago there were three apple trees. I recognised them as apple trees but I did not know what sort they were. I had to wait months to find out. Eventually they produced fruit then I could see what they were. It is the same in our lives.

Jesus said: - by their fruit you will recognize them. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. (Matthew 7:20-23)

So, if we are recognised by our fruit, what fruit is evident in our lives?  The fruit we are producing will be apparent by the way we live, the things we do, and often in the things we say. Often how we speak will reveal our true character. Some years ago, I was talking to man who had overheard a conversation between a couple of men nearby. He said “do you know I have overheard the conversation over there and that man has used the same swear word 34 times in one sentence!” It was true every other word that man uttered was the same swear word and that is definitely not the fruit of the Holy Spirit!

Is it our sinful nature that is evident as shown in Galatians 5:19-21 (New Living Translation)? – ¹⁹When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, ²⁰idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarrelling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, ²¹envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

Or has our nature been changed by the work of the Holy Spirit in us?

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. ²⁵Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. ²⁶Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

The good news is regardless of the battle that rages for control of us in the spiritual realm, we can be overcomers, Satan is a defeated enemy and through faith in Jesus Christ we are on the winning side, we have the power to stand firm and to hold our ground. We can be overcomers and we WILL be overcomers in the spiritual battle raging to control us when Jesus is the centre of our life.

As it says in Hebrews 3:1: - so, dear brothers and sisters who belong to God and are bound for heaven, think about this Jesus whom we declare to be God’s Messenger and High Priest. ²For he was faithful to God, who appointed him, - That is the example for each of us to follow!

…………………………….

Hymn  

(Will you make this your own personal prayer?)

Spirit of the Living God,
Fall afresh on me.
Spirit of the Living God,
Fall afresh on me.
Break me, melt me, mould me, fill me.
Spirit of the Living God,
Fall afresh on me.

Blessing (Numbers 6:24)

“May the LORD bless you and keep you. May the LORD show you his kindness and have mercy on you. May the LORD watch over you and give you peace.”’ Amen.

Edwin Cottingham 17/5/2021