Sermon Tone Analysis

DEALING WITH THE DEVIL

Stacey and I got away Friday and went to a Matinee at the movies and saw the Lion King.

And I haven’t seen the Lion King since I was a kid.

All the stories that we tell borrow their power from the Great Story he is telling.

The story begins with the rule of a good King, Mufasa.

Who rules his dominion with strength and power?

His Kingdom flourishes because of His strength and character.

And Mustafa has a young cub named Simba , who, his father reminds him, that one day he would be a ruler.

But the Kingdom was stolen by the evil one.

Its glory has been marred.

Badly.

Now it’s time for the true king to come back and take over.

But Simba—the lion heir to the throne—doesn’t believe who he is.

His father was murdered when he was young, and the enemy blamed it on Simba.

Simba ran away, and after years of losing heart, he winds up living with a wart hog and a meerkat whose highest ambitions in life are breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Then, one night, Simba’s father appears to him in a vision:

MUFASA: Simba.

SIMBA: Father?

Stacey and I got away Friday and went to a Matinee at the movies and saw the Lion King.

And I haven’t seen the Lion King since I was a kid.

But as I was watching the movie I realized But in case you haven’t watched it

MUFASA: Simba, you have forgotten me.

SIMBA: No! How could I?

MUFASA: You have forgotten who you are, and so forgotten me.

Look inside yourself, Simba . . .

you are more than what you have become.

The story begins with the rule of a good King, Mufassa.

Who rules his dominion with strength and power.

His Kingdom flourishes because of His strength and character..

And Mustafa has a young cub named Simba , who, his father

SIMBA: How can I go back?

I’m not who I used to be.

MUFASA: Remember who you are.

You are my son, and the one true king.

Remember who you are.

Simba finally throws off the veil of shame and self-reproach and goes back to take the kingdom that is rightly his.

As a result, his glory and the glory of the realm are restored.

This morning I want to remind you of who you are because I am willing to bet that some of you have forgotten.

You are not a sum of your experiences, a sum of your failures, rather imagined or real.

If you are a child of God all things have be come new.

If you are a blood bought child, youa re free, you are brave, as scripture says you are more than a conquerer through him.

When Simba returns he finds that the Kingdom has been overran with darkness, The Evil One has devoured the Land.

There is death, and darkness.

And this is what it is like today.

Because Christians have forgotten who they are.

They have bought into the false belief, go along to get along and as a result have allowed darkness to conquer the land today.

They have settled in and made comfort king, and because they refuse to embrace discomfort, because they run from any sort of conflict, refuse to bear any sort of cross bearing.

What you have is a bunch of overweight flabby Christians who have made peace with sitting on the sideline.

They have forgotten who they are, they go to sleep at the tune of Hakuna matata

Drug addiction is at all time highs, divorce is rampant, child abuse has risen to staggering rates, murder is rampant, pornography is at an epidemic rate/ Darkness has overtaken the Land.

I heard a statistic the other dasy about those that were sentenced to Hitler’s Death camps.

Those that gave up hope, gave up their purpose and just lost the will to fight any longer.

They just accepted their fate died at a much higher rate than those who did not lose purpose.

Do you know what the devil wants good people to do in evil days?

Nothing.

He wants them to do nothing.

He wants them to sit, soak and sour.

He wants them to debate about things that produce division.

He wants them to march to the beat that we are just poor ol sinners saved by grace.

And while that at the start is what is true, that is not the end result of salvation.

If you think that the Lord is a pacifist, you need to reread your Bibles.

If he was a pacifist, he would have just stayed in heaven.

In the book of revelation Jesus gives commands to seven Churches and I believe these 7 churches represent all of the church today in some form some fashion

And do you know what he says to every single one of the churches

Rev 2

Rev 2

Rev

The Greek Word for Conquer is the Word NIKE- and it means to overpower, to overcome, prevail, triumph, be victorious, sup[remacy, power!

It is the symbol for Victory, its the name of victory.

Now its importantn at this point that you cannot Nikaeo in your own power, but Because we have a lion like lamb that Nikao we can Nikao.

And because He has Conquered we can conquer, and God’s Word you you is no more excuses- JUST DO IT!!

Simba forgot who he was, and it was only when he remembered who he was, was he able to go back and face his fears, and send evil packing.

Yes it took courage, it took battle, it took stiffening his spine and saying no more

now turn your bibles to -200

He is saying do not forget who you are, and Whose you are.

You are twice born people living in a once born world.

You are citizens of a heavenly city, walking around in a lost world

FUTILITY OF THEIR MINDS

Futility- useless, empty.

That is trying to understand God through our logic or reason.

God chooses the way of the cross… The the Greeks foolishness.

trying to understand God His ways, or your circumstance and How God or to what degree God is involved you are always 1000% going to end in a wrong conclusion

MINDS- A WAY OF THINKING

Do you know that if you are in here this morning and you have never come to the foot of the cross, been forgiven of your sins and if you have never recieved the Holy Spirit , the spirit of truth, then you will be a slave to lies.

Trying to understand the God of the Bible through the reason of your mind is futile.

It is empty and if you Christian are not arming yourself with truth, then you will begin to believe some horrible things about God.

Apart from the enlighten ment of the holy spirit you are darkneded in your understanding.

You will begin to see every horrible thing in your life as if God were responcible.

The Bible says that God is the author of life, not the giver of death!

And you will become if you walk in darkness,

Verse 18

Eph 4:

Darkened- to become unable to perceive and thus unable to understand—‘to be incapable of perceiving, to not be able to understand.

Darkened in their Understanding- When you are alienated from the Life of God, when your heart is hardened, and you have twisted theology you are going to believe some pretty horrible things about God

And trying to understand God through the faculties of your lost mind will always 100% lead you to a very wrong conclusion about God.

And the devil will capitalize on those lies and keep you bound up with strongholds!

You will be at the mercy of forces you cannot control and cannot possibly understand

Paul through the rest of this chapter commands us through the Lord to put off the old self

These deceitful desires lead to spiritual strongholds that can ravish a persons life.

Rather we are admonished to be renewed in our minds