Sermon Tone Analysis

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Series: On the Move: Overcoming the Obstacles to Growth

Title: Secret Sarin

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VIDEO – TONY EVANS

Did you catch what Tony said?

Everything visible and physical is controlled by the invisible and spiritual.

There is more to life than what you can see.

The truth is that your struggles have a spiritual background.

As Ephesians six teaches us, We are fighting an enemy we can’t see in a place we can’t go with weapons we can’t form.

Yes, you did have an argument with your wife on the way to church, but she’s not your real enemy, no you’re fighting an enemy you can’t see.

There is more to life than what you see.

Yes, you did fall for the click bait you saw on that web page and followed your lust to a page that brought you temporary pleasure but hollowed out your soul.

Yes, you did fall for click bait but digital pornography is not your ultimate enemy.

There is more to life than what you see.

You are fighting an enemy you can’t see in a place you can’t go with weapons you can’t form.

NEED

And some may be asking right now, “So what are you saying, Rusty?

Are you just trying to excuse our failures by blaming them on the devil.? That sounds awfully convenient.”

But don’t misunderstand me: I am not saying that you are not responsible for your actions, I’m just saying that your actions are not only the result of your own sinful desires; they are inspired by the enemy you cannot see.

Now, even though his forces are working, we are often unaware that he is involved.

I compare him to Sarin.

Sarin is a colorless, odorless compound that, if inhaled, is lethal within 1-10 minutes.

Pic --- Tokyo Subway

On the morning of March 20, 1995 five men entered the Tokyo subway system, each with bags of sarin.

Each boarded a separate subway line, their trains all headed toward the Tsukiji Station in central Tokyo.

At virtually the same time, each attacker dropped his bags of sarin on the floor of the train and punctured them before exiting the train and station and leaving the scene in a waiting getaway car.

As the liquid in the bags started to vaporize, the fumes began affecting the passengers.

The trains continued on toward the center of the city, with sickened passengers leaving the cars at each station.

The fumes were spread at each stop, either by emanating from the tainted cars themselves or through contact with liquid contaminating peoples’ clothing and shoes.

Many of the individuals who were overcome by exposure to sarin during the attack were those who came into contact with the agent while trying to assist those who already had been stricken.

Among those who died were two subway employees who died attempting to dispose of punctured bags.

I compare Sarin to Satan.

He operates under the radar and quietly destroys people.

He is even involved in tempting believers, only they often don’t know it’s him.

Satan is the sarin many believers inhale.

And whether we realize it or not, as Christ-followers, you and I are in a mortal battle.

BACKGROUND

And that’s the last obstacle I want to address in this series.

We’ve been addressing the obstacles we must overcome if we are to grow both personally and as a church.

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been following Paul as he engages the lost on his missionary journeys.

In , he arrives in the city of Ephesus.

Ephesus would remind you of some of the metropolitan cities in this country.

They were religiously open places.

Many different religious were openly tolerated and practiced.

But behind that openness was a real darkness that permeated the prolific idolatry of this city.

You see, Ephesus was known for witchcraft and sorcery.

If the gospel of Christ was to make headway in this place, there would be spiritual resistance.

It didn’t take long for the opposing spiritual forces to come to blows.

Read about this conflict with me:

Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.

13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists took it upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.”

14 Also there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did so.

15 And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?”

16 Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

17 This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

18 And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds.

19 Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all.

And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver.

20 So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.

Now you can probably tell just from a first reading of this passage that there is a powerful spiritual battle going on in Ephesus.

The gospel was encountering and overcoming great spiritual resistance.

Paul’s spiritual victory, though, was not limited to Paul or to Ephesus.

No, Christ still overcomes spiritual resistance and He does so in some very specific ways.

I want you to look at those ways with me today.

In this passage we can see that spiritual resistance is over come, first, when:

D1

Spiritual resistance is overcome when God empowers people.

EXP

Now when I say that Ephesus was a spiritually dark place, I mean it was a spiritually dark place.

It swarmed with soothsayers and the sellers of charms.

It was in Ephesus that the “Ephesian letters” were first mentioned four years before the birth of Christ.

The Ephesian letters were actually six magical terms people would repeat to ward of demons.

These letters were written on good luck charms or “amulets” that were then worn around the neck to ward off demons.

And people wore them religiously because witchcraft and spells were practiced in this town.

-12

In fact, Luke writes in v 11, Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.

Luke seems to indicate that God worked in unusual ways in Ephesus because the situation called for an unusual display of God’s power.

Luke seems to indicate that God worked in unusual ways in Ephesus because the situation called for an unusual display of God’s power.

Now these verses have caused various reactions by biblical students.

Some very conservative scholars way that this was something that happened back then but that, since we now have the New Testament completed, there is no longer any need for things like this to take place.

Other liberal scholars say that this could not have happened while more radical students would use this passage of scripture to start a prayer cloth ministry.

The truth is that this happened in Ephesus as a part of the sovereign plan of God to reach a community that was in need of His powerful manifestation to break the spiritual grip that Satan had gained over this city.

And what a manifestation it was!

When v 11 speaks of Paul’s “aprons” or “handkerchiefs,” it is probably speaking of what he used to wipe the sweat from his body.

We already read back in ch 5 that the shadows of the apostles would bring healing; now their physical presence isn’t even necessary.

Just a hanky that has wiped the sweat from their bodies is sufficient not only to heal physical diseases, but also to cast out demons.

The point is this: God greatly empowered Paul to face the spiritual warfare of Ephesus.

And I firmly believe that God still sovereignly empowers us—you and me—to fight the spiritual battles that we encounter in our lives as well.

APP

So, when I make a statement like that, I know many of you might be asking, “How?”, right?

How do you get this kind of “sweat-rag” power so that you have powerful impact?

Well, in the first place, you can’t skip the basics.

God’s power flows out of those habits we talked about in week one of this series.

We focus on God’s word; we focus on community connection—relational accountability; we focus on worshiping God and seeing Him for Who He is; and we focus on prayer.

And as we focus on these habits, His power gets released in our lives and we begin to experience His strength in spiritual warfare.

And then, you and I also have to realize that this power of God is not something that we can command; it is the SOVEREIGN power of God and He works according to His own plan not mine.

I do not seek to command Him as my servant to intervene as I think best.

This is the primary problem with the “Word of faith” movement today.

It seeks to treat God as its servant instead of becoming His servants.