I feel as though I cannot go through the day without seeing some sort of awful news. Rape, Murder, Abuse, Discrimination, Poverty, it is everywhere. It gets scary sometimes because it's not just everywhere, but it is right here. It is closer than we think and it keeps getting closer.
Social media does an incredible job at keeping people aware of the evil around us. Social media has a way of revealing these victims to us, as though they are not strangers, but people we know. Then we get mad. We are disgusted and angry with the people in the world that are doing the damage. We want to fight back but we do not know how. Send the guy to prison for the rest of his life…that should teach the rest of them. Write an angry Facebook status about how awful the people of the world are and hope it gets a million shares. That's going to change something.
I am here to tell you all today that we are fighting the wrong person.
Fighting against each other is not going to help anything. We keep tearing each other apart for our sins and picking battles with each other that are impossible to win. People are not the root of evil, Satan is. Yall please hear me when I say that we already know how this ends. We've read the end of The Book. We know who wins. The evil we are looking to destroy is not going stop by locking them all away. I am not saying that people shouldn't be sent to prison, because I think that is the best form of punishment we can manage, but I am saying that it is not going to solve the problems with the rest of the world.
The crime and heartbreak rippling across the nations is not going end until we stop fighting against each other and start coming together to fight the devil. He is smooth and he has made it so that we forget that it is him. He just makes these people seem so broken and so sinful that it has to be they that are causing the problems. But let me say this, on God's scale of sin, rape and murder are just as bad as that lie you told this morning. When we are standing face to face with Our God He is not going to be comparing our sin to anyone else's. He does not look at all the sin you've committed and then rate it compared to the sins you could have committed, no. He judges you rightfully. He is the only one who can judge.
We are here to welcome all sorts of sinful people into our church, into our home, into our lives, because we are here to love like Jesus does. No one has tried to kill me yet though, so maybe I am not doing something right. When Jesus was here, He sure wasn't playing it safe. When Paul was telling all the nations about God He wasn't going to the "already saved, they probably won't kill you" people. They had one goal, which was to form an army that was destined to win.
What other way are we going to get rid of evil than to fill ALL of our hearts with Jesus. Leave no room for evil. Leave no room for yourself. God tells us that when we are nothing, He can be everything. So I will leave you with this, it is not about us. It is not about who did what and why. This life we are living has two endings and that is Heaven or Hell. If you understand even the slightest bit of Hell, you know that any person God has made in His image you want to bring to Heaven with you. (God made EVERYONE in His image.) God has a crazy love for His people. A people that need to come together and start fighting the same battle. When we are on God's side, no one, not even Satan, can stand against.
John 16:33 - "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
