Feb 19 2017 How to be Victorious over the darkness and evil in Our World

Lord, thank You for the opportunity to hear from You this morning! Give us ears to hear, that we might be changed. In Your name we pray.

Like we mentioned last week – we are going into the seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation – the question we have to ask – what Revelation asks –

Who or What will we Give Our Allegiance to? And the second:

Where do our Loyalties Lie?

As we understand this – it will have huge ramifications for our involvement in our political, cultural, social and economic aspects in our lives. There are so many things clamoring for our allegiances.

Revelation demands our lives. People were conforming to the world and Revelation says no – the allegiance is to be to Jesus –

What we worship will capture our loyalty. That can be a person, a sports team, it can be ‘things’ – the word WORSHIP – what you are devoted to will capture your loyalty. Anything that takes precedence in our lives over God is what we worship. ANYTHING. It could be a person - that takes first place or has a higher priority than God in our life. That is what we worship. We will be transformed into the image of that which we worship. For the people in Revelation – Will you be transformed into the image of the beast or the image of the Lamb? For us – will we be transformed into the image of our culture – or Jesus? Whatever you devote to – that is what you become like.

Each of the letters – they are short letters – being written to the churches – and each has this phrase –

Revelation 2:7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.'

To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life,

To those who are victorious, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life,

Overcomes/Conquers/Victorious – How to be victorious over the darkness and evil in our world just as John is writing to these churches to overcome their world.

How do we overcome – how do we not conform? And the letters will bring out ways we conform and ways we don’t.

Many years ago – back when I was on campus at OSU – there was this one guy in North Campus who was by far the best athlete in our group – football/tennis – and one day – Dick and I took him out golfing – This guy was talented – and takes a mighty swing – and misses the ball… - and John Ortberg says this – “you don’t change by trying – you change by training.”

If you want to hit long straight drives on the golf course – you have to practice.

That is the way it is if we want to overcome stuff in our lives – we need training – and practice.

AA has 12 steps. If you know anything about it – it is not a ‘trying’ program – it is a TRAINING program. Many who struggle with alcohol have tried and failed. But that is the point of the program – trying won’t get you there – you need to be trained.

It is the same thing spiritually. Over the next several weeks – we want to do some deep soul work – the interior of our being– so I want each of us to get in a training program for our hearts, minds, spirits, and bodies. We will look at this process and how it happens.

I have – over the past few years – I have read all kinds of stuff on spiritual transformation. So I am synthesizing that. And I will read some of what I have synthesized.

First – “some who have attempted to be like Jesus have failed because they have tried very hard to keep his teachings using their own strength and resources.”

This is mistake number one.

They try to act like Jesus in the moment of a crisis – but they have failed to practice the disciplines that Jesus did on a daily basis. They have not trained in the day to day – the necessary training.

When a person follows Jesus in every arena of life – He or she will learn that being like Jesus flows naturally from a trained heart – they will profit from a trained heart.

Like kids who get LeBron James shirts and shoes – and try to do the LeBron James moves – and of course they fail – and there is one problem – they have not put in the years of training he put in.

And so a lot of us put on the Jesus shoes and shirt – but we haven’t trained and lived our lives the way Jesus did. So when you get into that moment - Maybe you think you won’t get angry. But then you fail.

Whatever the temptation is – maybe you say, "I’m not going to look at that" – and then you look at that. You don’t change at the moment of temptation. You change, when, in your daily routine, you live and act like Jesus did – when it is practice time – it is not different than becoming good at a sport.

The navy Seals have a saying – “under pressure, you never rise to the occasion – you sink to the level of your training.” I think that is how it is with temptation. When it hits – we sink to the level of our training. If our hearts are transformed – it becomes natural to act like Jesus.

We need to learn to live like Jesus lived in all areas. We need to engage in a training regimen – where we do the things Jesus did and think the way Jesus thought – and as we do that – we become changed on the inside to such an extent that we naturally are no longer angry. If you struggle with whatever it is – patience, anger – you can become the kind of person who is no longer that way.

A good tree bears good fruit – a bad tree bears bad fruit. Apple trees don’t struggle to bear apples – we need to become good trees – and that good tree will naturally do what it ought to do.

I believe that some of the deepest things we struggle with can begin being transformed by Christ. It only happens when we learn to deal with the temptation – not at the moment of temptation – but in our training.

I wrote it this way: Loving your enemy is key and critical to overcoming jealousy, gluttony, lust, pride, anger, greed, etc. – How does loving your enemy have anything to do with that? It doesn’t directly – but as you love your enemy – you are more like Jesus and change on the inside and naturally become the type of person who is patient. It’s not just loving your enemy – it is all the things He says.

Our problem – we focus on the dysfunctional behavior. Even in AA – one of the steps is dealing with regrets. What does that have to do with alcoholism? They know it has everything to do with it! Making amends – forgiveness. If we are unable to forgive someone who has wounded us – we will struggle to get victory in a seemingly unrelated area.

When Jesus said take my yoke upon you – my yoke is easy and my load is light. He is asking - taking His promises in every way – and it comes in tiny steps. I encourage you to read the Sermon on the Mount. That is Jesus’ longest message in the Bible and He covers a tremendous amount of ground. There is a lot there.

Second – read stories in the gospel where Jesus interacts with people – and do it the same way.

Third – reads stories in the gospels how Jesus interacted with the Father. And then you can pick up His yoke – light and easy. Then you will understand what it means to be like Jesus.

Many have not experienced transformation. We don’t know how it works so we keep struggling with the same stuff – we don’t’ learn what changes people.

Spirit driven process of the inner world in such a way that it becomes the inner being of Christ Himself – Dallas Willard. =

So when Jesus says love your enemy - that is His heart. That is just so hard to do – but loving one’s enemy – is so difficult for use to comprehend –

Spiritual formation is about more than developing coping skills or overcoming unwanted habits – we may want to do that – but that is not our goal. It is not about morality or not having addictions – it is about being like Christ – and most of it is positive. The negatives go away when the positives appear. So when you give to those who ask of you and bless instead of curse and do not judge – then the areas that have grasped ahold of our lives begin to loosen.

Five Things –

So – first thing – it starts with the Holy Spirit. Spiritual Formation starts with His work – a direct work of Him regenerating us into the image of Christ. God is the initiator. If we leave out the Holy Spirit…. Our tendency is to focus on technique and therapy – but if you leave out the Holy Spirit – you leave out the POWER.

Once we recognize that it is the Spirit’s work – that does not mean we have nothing to do – Philippians says we are to work out our salvation with fear and trembling – God is the one doing all the work, so God says – start doing the work! We come alongside with His power. We do it with God’s power.

I will give you four things to do – each is a series – first – the reading of Scripture! That is new and exciting! Reading the Bible.

Eugene Peterson – “we need to learn to read scripture formatively, with a focus on being more like Christ and not just gaining more knowledge.”

Our tendency – living in our world – we are into information and it comes in in smaller and smaller soundbites. We get so much information – in our media – and our tendency is to do the same with the Bible. The purpose of reading the Bible is to encounter God. That should encourage you to read your Bible. That you could actually encounter God in it. You can experience God in the Bible.

I really believe that – I know that has happened to me – not that He has come to visit me – but in His Word, it is obvious that He knows more about me than I know! He reveals stuff to me. And it is usually bad stuff – but that is good stuff because it moves me forward.

Three things you should train together to do –

First – read the Bible – look for commands, promises, warnings about sin, examples – whether good or bad – life lessons…

Is God telling me to do something in this passage? If it says Do not murder – yes, God is telling you that.

Is there a promise or blessing?

Is there something to avoid doing?

That is one way of doing it – read a short passage and ask yourself – what do I need to pay attention to today?

Second – read the Bible – the narrative parts – and enter into the story – become a part of it. We do this naturally with movies. Think of the children – they become Batman – or whoever it is – becoming the hero of the story.

We need to enter into the stories in the Bible. We need to find out who we are.

Dave just emailed me a blog – and it just so happens – The title is, “Don’t be the hero of all the stories you read in the Bible.” We tend to only choose the good person – the hero’s perspective. But read each story from each character’s viewpoint. Read as a Pharisee! That wouldn’t be that far off a number of times in our lives. Read it as the woman caught in adultery – or as the guys wanting to stone her!

Third - Read to hear from God – Psalms/Proverbs – read a short passage over and over – read it slowly and quietly – listening – and all you are doing is listening for God’s voice – and when a phase or word stands out – zero in on that phrase or line – and ask – what is going on in my life right now that that verse speaks to me? What is God saying to me in my current circumstance?

Reading scripture is a spiritual discipline. Like golf – if you have a slice – you don’t cure a slice on the first tee – it takes a lot to learn the inside out swing – and it takes a lot of work.

It is the same with us – we need to learn to square our clubface at the moment of impact – like doing simple spiritual disciplines.

“Spiritual discipline is any activity that we engage in within our power to enable us to do what we cannot do by direct effort.”

If you have never lifted weights – you won’t be able to bench press 300 pounds tomorrow. But you need to start with 20/30 – and eventually – you’ll get there.

PRAYER! Another big one! Pray every day! It is not impossible!

“A prominent characteristic of American spirituality is viewing prayer as a method for getting what you need form God. Prayer is about human transformation –not God persuasion.

It is of value to pray for that which we need – but that should be a small part of our prayer lives.

First- PRAY – acronym – Praise/Repent/Ask/Yield

ACTS – Adoration – Confession – Thanksgiving – Supplication.

At least you have four things! At least it gives a format by which to pray.

The Bible says to go to prayer in listening first.

As Paul would say – And let me show you a better way… Pray the prayers of Scripture – because the ones who originally prayed them knew how to pray! Pray them to a point where they become naturally within us.

It helps to pray them until they become part of our vocabulary to pray in our own voice.

Finally – in closing – this one you can’t practice – formation really takes place through suffering and trials

James 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

We will not be spiritually transformed without suffering and trials – they go hand in hand. The journey toward transformation will be fraught with roadblocks and detours – God uses these events to transform us into the image of Christ. Difficulties and struggles provide a context for incredible personal change. It is in the difficulty that you have the opportunity for transformation.

Romans 8:28-29 tell us this.

Our progress and growth will be determined by how we respond to the incident. It is our response that changes us more.

Trials are God’s vehicles for personal transformation.

Nouwen – we lose the transformational power of suffering because we focus on relieving ourselves of its pain – we need to let God transform it to our greater good. He is saying - Shoving it under the rug is of no good – God wants us to go into it and for Him to do His work right there.

Negative events will occur in our lives and we cannot avoid them. When they inevitably happen we have a choice – Nouwen says that we must not focus on what happened – but how we respond. IF we are grateful, rather than resentful, we will be transformed by the trials - the losses are non-negotiable – but how we live and relate to the losses is our choice.