Summer blockbuster part 2

Summer blockbuster part 2 Lion king

Let this be the sermon intro. [Show Mufasa confronts his brother, Scar, about his absence from Simba’s presentation ceremony. Scar warns him not to “turn his back” on him.

For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.

Introduction

Good morning Southpointe!! We are in part 2 of our summer blockbuster series!! The Lion King

Well let’s get start this morning!

It’s easy to see, I hope, that Scar is a lot like Satan.

In today’s scripture, Paul writes about Satan and his evil spiritual forces:

In today’s scripture, Paul writes about Satan and his evil spiritual forces: “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

“We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”

Now why does Paul say we “do not wrestle against flesh and blood”?

If you read the Book of Acts and read Paul’s letters, you’ll see that he wrestles constantly against “flesh and blood”:

He wrestles against civic and religious authorities who have him arrested and beaten repeatedly, stoned one time and left for dead;

He wrestles against others—even people in the church—who slander him and try to ruin his ministry;

He wrestles against the Roman Empire, and ultimately Caesar himself will order his execution because of his faithfulness to Christ.

My point is, these are flesh-and-blood people who seem to cause Paul all this trouble, yet he says that his struggle and our struggle isn’t against people at all—it’s really against the evil spiritual forces of Satan and his fellow demons.

It may look like these flesh-and-blood people are doing all this evil—and they are—but someone far more powerful is influencing them, calling the shots.

And they’re completely unaware of it. That’s how Satan often works!

Play a clip of Scar tempts Simba to go to the elephant graveyard.

It’s easy to see that Scar is a lot like Satan.

Many times people do horrible act of violence and just awful things and we will have people, doctors, Psychologist telling this is the reasons this person acted like this and that.

And all their reasons will seem perfectly natural and right.

But these people are only flesh-and-blood. The apostle Paul is telling us to look deeper…to see the spiritual forces at work behind these people’s actions.

I don’t need to be a doctor or psychologist to diagnose the most important cause of these tragedy. It’s the devil himself!

Sometimes, it’s easy to see Satan at work. The vast majority of the time, however, his work is far harder to detect.

Even so, we need to know he’s out there, working against us. And I feel passionate about this because so many times we are afraid to talk about things like this.

Because the super spiritual people have blown everything up, that this is an attack from the devil if they stump their toe then the devil was trying to kill them.

So no one hardly want to talk about the obvious fact that when someone decides to follow God’s call into ministry, they are drawing a giant target on their back and inviting spiritual attack!

If you don’t know what you’re up against, that’s like sheep to the slaughter! We badly underestimate this powerful enemy working against us!

I love Mufasa, but the truth is, he underestimated how powerful his enemy was—until it was too late. When Scar tells Mufasa that he shouldn’t turn his back on him, Scar was exactly right.

We “turn our backs on”the devil at our own risk.

To pay no attention to the devil and to not understand that he is plotting your destruction is not very smart.

Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

I like how the American Standard Bible put it:

that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

Don’t turn your back on the devil, he is your enemy and he has one plan.

The thief cometh not, but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy:

[Show Clip: Mufasa rescues Simba and Nala from the hyenas.

In this scene Simba and his friend Nala give in to Scar’s temptation, lie to their parents, and go to the elephant graveyard.

The Bible is very plain:

The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, He will show you a way out so that you can endure.

But instead of choosing the way out Simba went the other way.

They encounter some of Scar’s evil friends, a group of hyenas, who are threatening to kill them.

You saw the devil there in the background.

📷

Mufasa get really angry at his son’s disobedience. If Mufasa had not gotten there in time, Simba and Nala would have been killed.

You saw the devil there in the background, right?

He gets angry about Simba’s disobedience because he loves his child and wants him to be safe—and he loves Nala and doesn’t want his son’s sin to bring her to harm!

Mufasa get really angry at his son’s disobedience. Because, if Mufasa had not gotten there in time, Simba and Nala would have been killed. Is the potential death of your child worth getting angry about? Of course it is! Mufasa gets angry about Simba’s disobedience because he loves his child and wants him to be safe—and he loves Nala and doesn’t want his son’s sin to bring her to harm!

In the same way, God has anger toward sin—the biblical word for this anger is “wrath.”

Paul writes,

Romans 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”

A lot of people in our modern age, even some Christians, imagine that God’s wrath is somehow the opposite of God’s love. But nothing could be further from the truth, as pastor Tim Keller explains:

When you see people who are harmed or abused, you get mad. If you see people abusing themselves, you get mad at them out of love.

Your senses of love and justice are activated together, not in opposition to each other.

If you see people destroying themselves or destroying other people and you don’t get mad, it’s because you don’t care.

You’re too absorbed in yourself, too cynical, too hard. The more loving you are, the more ferociously angry you will be at whatever harms your beloved.

So you can’t have a God who truly loves you who isn’t, at the same time, angry about sin—a loving God who will always demand that we repent and change.

Because our sin harms us at least as much as it harms other people, and God loves us too much for us to keep on doing it!

Well, if you’ve seen the movie, you know that Scar’s next deadly scheme succeeds in getting Mufasa killed by a stampede of wildebeasts.

Because Mufasa died while trying to save Simba’s life, Scar convinces Simba that Simba is responsible for Mufasa’s death and urges him to run away from home, which Simba does. Scar then takes over as king.

While Simba is away from home, he meets a couple of animals who share with him their philosophy on life.

Timon and Puumba (Mark and Jake) singing “hakuna matata.”

“Hakuna matata”is a Africa word that means “No worries.”

“Hakuna matata”is a Africa word that means “No worries.”

Surely one of the most neglected commands of our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount are these words:

Surely one of the most neglected commands of our Lord in the Sermon on the Mount are these words: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear.”[1] In other words, Jesus says, Hakuna matata.

"That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn't life more than food, and your body more than clothing?

In other words, Jesus says, Hakuna matata.

Seriously, hakuna matata isn’t a bad philosophy on life so long as we understand what makes it possible for us not to worry. And what makes it possible is the fact that our heavenly Father is taking care of us.

The theological word for this concept is God’s providence.

Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren't you far more valuable to Him than they are?

If you’re like me, you wake up in the morning and your mind is instantly flooded with anxious thoughts and worries about the day ahead.

If you’re like me, you wake up in the morning and your mind is instantly flooded with anxious thoughts and worries about the day ahead. Tell yourself: There is nothing that’s going to happen to me today that God doesn’t know about, that God hasn’t planned on happening, and that God can’t handle. Trust him.

Tell yourself: There is nothing that’s going to happen to me today that God doesn’t know about, that God hasn’t planned on happening, and that God can’t handle. Trust him.

Here’s one great habit When you first wake up, before you get out of bed grab a Bible nearby and read and pray.

I find if I don’t do it then, it becomes increasingly difficult to do later.

Because I go and make coffee, I eat breakfast and before I know it, I suddenly don’t have time to read the Bible and pray—and guess what?

I find it’s much harder to have this spirit of hakuna matata for the rest of the day. It becomes harder not to worry.

So Simba grows up away from his home in the pride lands—away from his family and friends. Until he accidentally runs into Nala one day when she’s out hunting.

Nala tells Simba that Scar has ruined the pride lands and he needs to return home, take his rightful place as king of the jungle, and fix all the problems that Scar has created.

Simba refuses. He doesn’t feel up to the task, and he’s still racked with guilt, thinking he killed his father.

Simba’s story reminds me of Moses’story. Like Simba, Moses tried to run away from his past. Remember, after he was adopted into the Egyptian royal family and raised as an Egyptian, he sees an Egyptian mistreating one of his fellow Hebrews.

Moses kills the Egyptian. Then he runs runs far away from Egypt, to a distant land, out of fear that he’ll be caught.

For decades Moses lives there with his wife and in-laws. Surely he thought he’d left all that trouble in Egypt behind—but what did God do?

God called him to go back home and confront the Pharaoh. Like Simba, Moses had unfinished business back home; he had a mission to fulfill.

Which goes to show that we can’t run away from God!

God has this amazing way of redeeming the mistakes of the past!

Do you think that because of mistakes in your past, you can no longer be useful to God?

The world that Simba returns to looks pretty bad. It’s looks hopeless, beyond redemption. And I sometimes hear Christians say that that’s the way our world looks too.

But as Simba says, “If I don’t fight for it, who will?” If we don’t fight for this world, who will?

If we at Hampton United Methodist Church don’t fight for this world, who will? Let’s fight against the “the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Let’s contend with them for every square inch of this town—in sure confidence that not only is our Lord leading the charge, but we know that he’ll be victorious. Because in his resurrection, we’ve already seen the victory.