Sunday message: the backwards battle

There are a lot of references to this current world being backwards in the Scriptures, as well as by pastors and commentators.  For example, say Acts 17:

17 Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.” 4 And some of them were persuaded; and a great multitude of the devout Greeks, and not a few of the leading women, joined Paul and Silas.


5 But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious,[a] took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. 7 Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king—Jesus.” 8 And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. 9 So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go.

But I have found that while, in this passage, the world was confused because Paul and Silas were standing straight with God and they were facing the other way, many times we who are Christians are facing the wrong way in another sense.  Let me explain.

How does your day go?  Do you fight with sin, often losing, and at the end of the day feel like your best efforts leave you treading water with God?  Yeah, me too.  But recently I have been praying about "putting God first."  And frankly, I was so backwards I had no idea what that even meant.  But I am starting to get a clue.

Take the sins that so often hit us, the temptations we call, "living in the world."  How do you avoid lust with so much pornography and sexualization out there?  How do you avoid greed or envy when ads give you 24/7 what someone else has- and you can too, with a little more money?  How do you avoid alcoholism with a bar or liquor store on every corner, and today, you will soon be able to buy on Sunday in Indiana?  There are temptations, there are DISTRACTIONS everywhere.  But can we blame them?

A friend of mine posted this passage a few days back, which got me thinking...

"...The Buddhist story is told of Milarepa, who came back to his cave one day to find it filled with demons. He didn’t know how to get rid of them. He tried to teach them Buddhism. They ignored him. He got angry and attacked them. They just laughed. Finally, he gave up and said, “I’m not going anywhere and it seems that you are not either. I guess we will have to live here together. Let’s have some tea.” 

The story says that upon Milarepa’s offer of hospitality, the demons promptly disappeared..."


And it made me think of the "ascetics" - the hermits of the early Church, who abandoned society and its distractions to beat away temptations and get closer to God.  Not surprising, as I found on Wiki a similar story about St Anthony:

Once, Saint Anthony tried hiding in a cave to escape the demons that plagued him. There were so many little demons in the cave though that Saint Anthony's servant had to carry him out because they had beaten him to death. When the hermits were gathered to Saint Anthony's corpse to mourn his death, Saint Anthony was revived. He demanded that his servants take him back to that cave where the demons had beaten him. When he got there he called out to the demons, and they came back as wild beasts to rip him to shreds. All of a sudden a bright light flashed, and the demons ran away. Saint Anthony knew that the light must have come from God, and he asked God where was he before when the demons attacked him. God replied, "I was here but I would see and abide to see thy battle, and because thou hast mainly fought and well maintained thy battle, I shall make thy name to be spread through all the world."

Lesson being, removing the distractions does not get you anywhere.  Because fighting the distractions- fighting SIN- is the wrong battle.

Sin has, you may know, two types.  One is the common sin of all flesh, passed on from Adam.  We don't have to commit A sin to have THIS sin.  It is the one that sends us to hell- unless we accept the fact that Christ died in our place to forgive that sin.  The other is everyday stuff that we do, intentional or unintentional, that we need to confess to MAINTAIN a healthy spiritual, "working" relationship with God.  Now the one, if we have turned to Jesus, is taken care of.  The other is incidental, it is intended solely to drag us down, to make us think God wouldn't want anything to do with us. 

It is a DISTRACTION.

God doesn't want us spending all day breaking ourselves of these temptations, and it wouldn't work if we did.  So how do we stop them, and get closer to God?  By putting God first.  And we do that how?

Solomon, after looking at every other way to give meaning to his life and finding all vanity, ended Ecclesiastes with this:

10 The Preacher sought to find acceptable words; and what was written was upright—words of truth. 11 The words of the wise are like goads, and the words of scholars[b] are like well-driven nails, given by one Shepherd. 12 And further, my son, be admonished by these. Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh.

13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:

Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man’s all.
14 For God will bring every work into judgment,
Including every secret thing,
Whether good or evil.

In other words, everything else comes together if we walk away from the distracting battle against individual sins and JUST.  LOVE.  GOD.  Consider one more passage, between Jesus and Peter:

John 21 15 So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah,[b] do you love Me more than these?"
He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”
He said to him, “Feed My lambs.”
16 He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah,[c] do you love Me?”
He said to Him, “Yes, Lord; You know that I love You.”
He said to him, “Tend My sheep.”

17 He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah,[d] do you love Me?” Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, “Do you love Me?”
And he said to Him, “Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You.”
Jesus said to him, “Feed My sheep..."


Now, most of us understand that this was Jesus' way of "reinstating" Peter after his three denials of Jesus at His Trial.  But Think on this.  Jesus did not say, "So, Pete, I noticed you denied me the other night when I was in a spot of trouble."
"Yeah, Lord..."
"And you even used some foul language doing so, isn't that right?'
"You have sharp hearing, o Lord."

Jesus didn't bring these things up because THEY DIDN'T MATTER.  They were distractions, that made Peter's relationship with Jesus strained because he felt guilty.  The thing that WAS important is what Jesus hammered through to him:  "Do you LOVE Me?"

And that's why I say we are fighting a backwards battle.  We worry so much about the sin, and that is how Satan wants it.  If we are saved by faith, Satan can't touch us- but he can DISTRACT us.  And we get all carried away with the sin, we stop doing the ONE thing that can beat the sin- JUST.  LOVE.  GOD.  If we work on just that one thing, the rest will soon be behind us.  Not that we won't sin- prime example right here.  But instead of pulling an Adam and Eve and cowering in the undergrowth when you hear God coming because you're "naked", you can go RIGHT AFTER your fall to God- and I am going to tell you, THAT makes the difference, because He will teach you some incredible things if you do.