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A Pastor’s Lament from the Darkness of Vermont

This sermon originally preached March 22, 2009.

As I was driving home from church a couple of Sunday’s ago; I asked the Lord to show me whether or not He approved of my sermon by leaving at least one encouraging unmistakable entry in my web page guest book. In one way or another I get lots of encouragement and I have never made such as request before, but I’m glad I did this time. I knew that sermon would offend non-Christians and perhaps many who are, but I wanted to know if it pleased the One to whom I had been prayerfully pleading with for help in crafting it. In other words, I didn’t want to deceive myself and perhaps lead others astray.

I get hammered every day by those invisible demonic fiery darts the Apostle Paul warns about, (Ephesians 6:16). They bombard my mind from all directions just as they do yours, but with me it’s especially when I’m prayerfully struggling with my sermon. And you can’t imagine how much this demonic activity is always intensified whenever the primary subject of my message is Satan and his cohorts. For instance, from the moment I awakened on the Saturday before last I experienced a fierce relentless barrage of those fiery darts. They had been fired at me in hopes of penetrating and becoming imbedded in my mind and left there to fester. All sorts of temptations and distractions ranging from imagining the possibility of evil lurking close to the folks I love and care about the most; folks such as my family and each of you and those at Harvest Time and other special people through whom He has blessed me; to that of receiving abnormal results from recent my lab work, or both of my hearing aids suddenly whistling simultaneously for no apparent reason. If I hadn’t learned how to use my shield of faith as Paul directed, I could easily have done a number on myself and kissed today’s sermon goodbye. After a while I became so annoyed by being subjected to this kind of stuff that I went to the Lord in fervent prayer and told Him I was tired of being on the defensive so much. Then I pleaded with Him to help me to become a powerful spiritual warrior. I asked Him to first show me how to go about becoming one, and then to please give me the courage and strength to go on the offensive and fight as vigorously as He enables me to in His war against the kingdom of darkness. From that moment forward all sorts of terrific suggestions came gushing into my mind for today’s message. A little later I checked my e-mail and received the following from one of my closest friends who couldn’t possibly have had any idea of what I had been wrestling with on that particular Saturday morning.

“Good Morning Brother. Just finished reading your sermon; “The War Between the Kingdoms.” It certainly is clear, at least to me, that there is a spiritual battle raging. The manifestations of the battle are clearly seen in our society, here in the Green Mountains of Vermont, and throughout the World. I agree with you, that the world is not equipped to wage this warfare, for they cannot even identify the enemy. I agree with your assessment that; “A failure to heed sound biblical advice guarantees the continuance of global evils….” Keep preaching Brother! Expose the enemy for what he is, a liar and the father of the lie. Thank you for being willing to take the fiery darts of the enemy on behalf of God’s precious children. For His Kingdom’s Sake, Guy.” I encourage you to read his entire entry as well as the others which were such a blessing to me.

In my message Guy referred to I said that: “you and I would one day find “ourselves living during an era in which, figuratively speaking, we would each shine like tiny specks of light sprinkled throughout the Green Mountains of Vermont; the least churched state in the nation, a state which is almost engulfed in spiritual darkness.” I went on to mention the fact that “pure unadulterated evil lurks throughout our dark sin-infested world including within the beautiful state of Vermont. It’s manifested whenever its secret activates come to light. For instance, a prime example is the fact our State legislators are currently considering making a law which, if it’s enacted, will be a contemptuous slap across our Creators face.”[1] You could easily get the impression that Satan is alive and well in our world, but it only seems that way because in my opinion all too many Christians are spiritually feeble. Allow me to explain by means of a personal prayer in which I express some of my heartfelt concerns about the Christian Church and evil in Vermont, America and the rest of the world.

A PASTORS LAMENT FROM THE DARKNESS OF VERMONT

Father, I enter into your presence with a heart full of thanksgiving and praise. To think that back in eternity past you planned, ordained and then by speaking your world into existence, predestined me to become one of your adopted children is so awesome that I can’t even begin to comprehend the magnitude of such love, nor find words to adequately express my appreciation. I humbly stand before you as a deeply grateful man who was once alienated from you and was a former enemy of yours in my mind because of my evil behavior, but also as a person who has been reconciled to you through the death of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’s physical body, in order to present me before you at all times including this very moment as being holy and blameless and above reproach in Your sight (Col. 1:21-22). It is in Him and through faith in Him that I approach you this morning with confidence and boldness (Eph. 3:12; Heb. 10:19). I acknowledge my creature-hood and that it is in Him that I live and move and have my very being and apart from Him I can do nothing, (Acts 17:28; John 15:5). I’m awed whenever I meditate upon the fact that it was He “who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it,” Isaiah 42:5 (NIV). By faith I understand that the universe was formed at Christ’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible, (Hebrews 11:3). “Worthy are you, my Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created,” (Revelation 4:11). The heavens declare your glory; the skies proclaim the work of your hands, (Psalms 19:1). Through your Son all things were made, and without him nothing was made that has been made, John 1:3 (NIV). For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him, Colossians 1:16 (NIV). When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, I have to ask, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? (Psalms 8:3-4).

I thank you Father for reveling the fact that on the sixth day of creation, you created man in your image, (Genesis 1:27). You placed the man in the Garden of Eden and told him everything in it was his to enjoy with one exception: eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Later you said: “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him,” (Genesis 2:18). And you did, and you brought her to him, (vs.22) and joined them together in marriage saying: (vs24) therefore a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh, (vs. 24) a command which would be echoed by Jesus thousands of years later (Matt. 19:6).The man’s wife was tempted by Satan and she took the bait and ate a piece of the forbidden fruit and gave some to her husband who did the same, (Genesis 3:11) and our world and its inhabitants have never been the same ever since. King David acknowledged the awful consequences of this tragic fact the time he wrote: “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me, Psalms 51:5 (NIV).

Thank you for the Scriptures, Father. They help me make sense out the wretched condition of the world I’m traveling through on my way home. A world in which the Bible tells your children that: “The wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Genesis 6:5). The intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth, (Genesis 8:21). And Father, I have to acknowledge the truthfulness of those divinely inspired words because they accurately describe my former self. I’m so grateful that when the fullness of time had come, you sent forth your Son, born of woman, born under the law, Galatians 4:4 (ESV). “For you so loved the world, that you gave your only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life, (John 3:16). I can almost hear your beloved Son consoling a grieving woman with these comforting words that are full of encouragement and hope: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” John 11:25-26 (ESV) It thrills me Father whenever I take the time to ponder your Sons promises such as when He said “truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. 25 “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. John 5:24-25 (ESV). I now know without a doubt that I was born into this world spiritually dead. I’m reminded of another time when 3 Jesus answered a certain religious leader of His day when He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:3 (ESV) 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. John 3:5 (ESV) 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. John 10:28 (ESV) 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6 (ESV) Father, I can imagine myself being among those first Christians when they heard Paul’s letters read to them. Wonderful revelations such as: the Lord has commanding them and us through them us when He said, “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth,’ ” Acts 13:47; Isaiah 49:6 (ESV) 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, Philippians 2:15 (ESV) 5 For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness, 1 Thessalonians 5:5 (ESV) 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light Ephesians 5:8 (ESV)

Father, you know how sorry and deeply ashamed I am of myself because of those all too many times I don’t walk as a child of light and return to the darkness whenever I sin. Help me to remember the Apostle Paul’s constant warning to those early Christians such as when he told them “to get rid of the deeds of darkness and instead put on the armor of light.12 The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, (Romans 13:12)because “… the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 2 Corinthians 4:4 (ESV) 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. Ephesians 4:18 (ESV) Jesus also graphically described the magnitude of this spiritual darkness when he declared, If your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! Matthew 6:23 (ESV) 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. John 3:19 (ESV) The Apostle John opened his Gospel by calling attention to this horrible fact of our world being engulfed in spiritual darkness ever since Adam and Eve disobeyed our Creator 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:5 (ESV) I’m reminded of the horrible fact of spiritual darkness whenever I read the following passages referring to Old Testament unbelievers.5 They have neither knowledge nor understanding, they walk about in darkness; Psalms 82:5 (ESV) 19 The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble, Proverbs 4:19 (ESV) .

Father, many Vermont Christians I know are deeply distressed by the global evil in our world and the pathetic condition of the Christian Church in America. Some elderly and chronically ill Christians feel so helpless about the situation. So much so, that they yearn to go home and be with the Lord. I can understand how they feel. Father, the church your Son paid such an agonizing price to purchase is under a relentless attack by your enemies. It isn’t only from those who despise it, but from one another. It’s not uncommon for brothers and sisters in Christ to do and say all sorts of awful things to one another. Gossip, bad-mouthing, envy, sexual immorality, gluttony, throwing temper-tantrums and such, seem to be as prevalent within Christ’s church as they are outside. So much so, that many professed Christians are indistinguishable from those who aren’t.

Some of Christ’s churches have succumbed to a market driven mentality. It isn’t unusual to hear your Word come out of the mouth of a man acting like a clown or comedian. All too many of your children are living beyond their means, and are enslaved by the pursuit of acquiring more and more money. They lavish upon themselves unnecessary things instead of sharing their abundance with the poor, the ones your Son has a soft spot in His heart for. Others are overly preoccupied with worldly pleasures that they spend very little of their time thinking about you and meditating on your Word, or going to you in prayer except when they want something from you. Father, please wake us Christians up. Wean us from all this disgraceful behavior by subjecting us to as much unpleasant circumstances as are necessary to bring us to a point where we will habitually desire to put you first and foremost in our lives; to sincerely want to first seek your kingdom and your righteousness; to seriously want to delight ourselves in you and to want to really struggle to become holy just as you are holy.

Father, by whatever means you desire, please drive out the false teachers who have infiltrated Christ’s churches as well as those who by their conduct greatly upset your children. So much so that they dread attending a church these despicable people are in. They want to avoid them as much as they would a plague. Those professed Christians are like a cancer attacking a body of otherwise spiritually healthy believers. Please rebuke them, Father, and if they won’t listen get rid of them, because whether or not they realize it, they are attempting to destroy your Son’s church. While you’re at it, don’t forget those phony representatives of yours on TV and the radio who become wealthy by fleecing your gullible sheep and make followers of Christ look like a bunch of morons. Please shake up those business people who operate so-called Christian Bookstores which are stocked with spiritual trash, even if you have to put them out of business. Let your holy righteous wrath be poured out all those religious leaders who claim to be Christians and teach that Christ isn’t the only way to gain entrance into your presence. And severely admonish all those true Christians who support these Christ dishonoring churches by their attendance, money, time and lack of relentlessly protesting against this kind of demonically influenced teaching.

Father, I ask you to wake up those poor deceived people in Vermont who are promoting the passage of legislation which is an abomination to you. Deep down in the conscience you gave each of them they know homosexual behavior is a perversion of human sexuality. Father, please bring these poor satanically deceived homosexual women and men to their senses. Please don’t let any more of them perish eternally. Draw them to your Son by whatever means you deem necessary. Finally Father, you know how greatly distressed I am by the horrible acts committed by hideously evil men in the world; men such as terrorists, kidnappers, murderers, rapists, sexual predators and pedophiles. Please strongly incline them to accept your Sons loving forgiveness while there is still time and don’t let any more of them perish eternally. Father, I realize the fact that you alone know the future as to whether or not they will turn to your Son before each of them draws their last breath. If they do I will rejoice in your mercy when I come home. But if they won’t, then I ask you to please make that inevitable event become a reality much sooner than later. Thank you for allowing me to share my lament with you, Father. I take comfort in knowing you will deal with it in perfect love and infinite wisdom.

And may it please Him to make this message a blessing to you folks who just heard it and all those who may read it later. Lord willing, next week…

[1] My sermon: THE WAR BETWEEN THE KINGDOMS.

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May 24, 2015 Posted by Categories: Uncategorized 3 comments

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