Agents

17 Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example. 18 For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth. 20 But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. 21 He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.

2 Corinthians 5:18–21 (NLT)

18 And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. 19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation. 20 So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” 21 For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

Focus Statement

Following Christ requires a commitment of FAITH and TRUST in our Lord and Savior. Anything short of FAITH leads us back to being agents of the world.

Point of Relation

Today, we are about to step in some serious business...

Some really nightmarish stuff and how THE MATRIX films really hit the nail on the head when mirroring to us what our own world looks like.

So let’s briefly start where we did at the beginning...

The film opens with green data raining down as if on a green monochrome screen, character by character.

This is, of course, the inner workings…the code…of the Matrix.

Through this, if you remember, we hear chatter between to characters...

Cypher and Trinity....

Where Cypher is asking if her if she really believes Neo is THE ONE.

You will also recall that following that chatter I delivered you to the other end…

to Neo’s blank computer screen, with “Wake up Neo! The Matrix Has you” typing itself out on the screen.

What I didn’t tell you was what happened in between the chatter and the screen...

In that opening scene, Trinity is not attempting to reach out to Neo, but is watching him…along with Cypher...

Preparing to make contact…but not quite seeking to.

You will also recall that Trinity, at one point during their chatting, asked Cypher if the line was clean...

And Cypher said he was sure it was.

After which I brought you to Neo’s desk.

But what really happened was this...

Trinity was within the Matrix, looking to make contact with Neo, but watching and waiting for the right time...

But some how she was detected…she was spotted by AGENTS...

Who are humans given super abilities by the Matrix to hunt and take down any resisitance.

You can call them the FBI of the Matrix.

Trinity, realizing she’s fallen into a trap…narrowly escapes death and is able to return to the Nebuchadnezzar without getting caught or killed in the Matrix,

It is from there that she then reenters and speaks to Neo.

But back to the AGENTS…what are they…and if they are humans....WHO ARE THEY…and how do they get their powers?

These are all important questions which we will discover the answer for…but I promise you, it will lead us to feel a little uncomfortable in the end...

Because, as you know, this will lead back to our reality as well.

SO HERE ARE WHO THE AGENTS ARE: The agents are human beings living within the Matrix, mindlessly living out their slavery in the illusory world of the Matrix.

So, wait, you might be asking, then how are they dangerous if they are just normal people.

Good question.

Let me say this, they are normal people until they are not.

When a crisis happens within the Matrix, one that threatens to undermine the Matrix itself...

The Matrix interjects its SECURITY SOFTWARE into a location closest to the crisis...

Which could be a security breach, the detection of a rogue human in the Matrix…but not enslaved to it…free agents of HUMANITY seeking to bring IT down.

Any time such a thing happens, the security software gets streamlined into the brain of a human being near the action...

Such a “HUMAN BEING” is now an AGENT, acting upon the SECURITY CODE being uploaded into their brains.

This person, as an AGENT, knows all forms of Martial Arts, weaponry, and can circumvent the computer-made rules of the Matrix in order to take out any threat.

So you see, anyone in THE MATRIX is a potential agent…who will deliver death to anyone they fight.

In fact, here’s a great illustration the movie provides. During his training to become The One…Neo encounters a woman in a red dress...

When Neo sees her in the construct…which is a FAKE MATRIX for training purposes...

He immediately is attracted to her and distracted by her.

Asked a question by Mouse, who is training Neo, he turns his head briefly…only to turn back to the woman...

Except she’s is not a woman…but a man dressed like an FBI agent…pointing a gun to his head.

In the Matrix, anyone…ANYONE…can be an agent.

And truthfully the same is true of us in our world as well.

Things to Consider

Just as Neo was being taught the truth of the AGENTS within the Matrix...

We are being taught the same truth in our current world order as well.

Any one of us, no matter who we are, no matter where we are from or what our background is...

We can become AGENTS of this world…standing against God and the people of God....

AT ANY TIME. Don’t believe me...

Just look at politics the last several years.

The ONLY way of avoiding becoming an AGENT of the world’s is to

ACCEPT JESUS CHRIST as your Lord and Savior…and be rescued from THE MATRIX…from slavery to our current world order…to sin and to death...

BECOMING AN AMBASSADOR to ZION...the KINGDOM OF GOD on earth as it is in heaven.

But, as we learn THE WAY, we still have to be diligent to FOLLOW IT, rather than abandoning it for a false sense of peaace and bliss.

What Scripture Says

In our first Scripture reading,

Paul is writing to the church in Philippi...

A church that he clearly has much love and respect for.

He is righting this letter, probably because of disunity within the church...

However, the tone and wording of the letter suggest that this was more of a minor problem than a major one...

For Paul speaks very highly of this church and uses a gentle and compassionate tone.

Still, the church is facing disunity among a couple of its leaders and that can quickly turn real bad.

What causes disunity, typically,

PRIDE…a sin that we a suffer from...

GREED…the idea that what I have…or what status I attain is never enough…a sin of always wanting MORE...

POWER…to have power over another is a sin that humanity has struggled with from the days of Cain and Able onward.

These are just some of the most common causes of disunity...

And let me tell you…the RULER of this world…the DEVIL…LOVES LOVES LOVES IT!

What Paul conveys to his beloved church is this: MODEL YOURSELVES OFF OF ME, PAUL…why?

Because Paul had modeled his life off of Christ and was trying to guide them in the same way...

In verse 18, Paul writes:

18 For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ.

Like the humans in the Matrix…the ones who could be agents at any given time...

There are people within the church, even, whose conduct…whose behavior…shows them to be enemies of the CROSS OF CHRIST.

What does this mean....this means that thought they claim to be Christians...

Though they worship and roll through the obligations...

They really are worshipers of the WORLD…not worshipers of God.

Their hearts are hardened to the Gospel of Christ…and they become enemies…of the Cross…agents of the WORLD.

So, in our context, who are the agents?

They’re us…possessed by the way of the current WORLD ORDER.

Though we were created for Paradise…though we were created to live with, worship serve God...

We, from the outset of world have rejected a perfect world...

Choosing a world that offers something beyond paradise...

Something more…something WE alone can attain.

How could people reject such a paradise?

As-s-s-s-piration…says the serpent in the Garden.

Paul goes on to remind the Philippians and us that such people…such AGENTS…are heading for destruction…as that is exactly where the current world order is headed.

Pauls writes: Philippians 3:19-20

Philippians 3:19–20 NLT

19 They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth. 20 But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.

Similarly, addressing a much more problematic church, Paul writes to the Corinthians in his second letter to them in order to remind them that...

DIVISION IS NOT GOD’s WORK…that’s the work of Satan.

Rather, God has given us the task of BEING HIS AGENTS…HIS AMBASSADORS

God is ACTUALLY making his appeal to the people of the WORLD...

Giving them the choice to be God’s AGENTS rather than AGENTS of the World.

Which brings me to one final point...

Notice that God invites you to be his AGENTS...

Where as, like in the MATRIX films...

THE WORLD steals you away, corrupts you, and turns you agains those you should be loving the most...

Once it has its way with you serve the purpose of the world…it discards you as useless.

We can see this in our healthcare system…and in how ageist our society is.

The Youth are seeing as a hinderance to society....while the old are seen as a burden.

It is the healthy, working-aged folks, that get the best benefits.

And that is just one minor example in the grand scheme of things.

What This Means for You

What this means is that tyou all need to be diligent in keeping our eyes and hearts on God.

Just because you belong to a church does not necessarily mean you worship God.

Remember the church is not a building…but the people of Jesus Christ.

You cannot take your Salvation for granted…nor can you take your Savior for granted...

Otherwise you will end up like Judas Iscariot, or in THE MATRIX…you will end up like Cypher...

A guy who had the best of intentions…but those intentions were less than divine and selfishly motivated...

You see how the best of intentions work...

And he ended up choosing to betray his friends for some money, a nice life, and a one-way ticket back into THE MATRIX

to live in ignorance…memory wiped of any wrong-doing...

Ignorance is bliss…OR IS IT?

What This Means for Us

Friends, as the church we must rise up and become the AMBASSADORS Christ has called us to be...

We must be agents of Christ lest we fall into being agents of the world.

Christ has invited us to leave THE MATRIX behind…to abandon the ways of the world...

and work as his agents of HOPE, HEALING and WHOLENESS into this world.

We can do this with Christ helping us…but it takes PLACING OUR FAITH in THE ONE…who has POWER OVER THE MATRIX...

We have to take that Leap of Faith and put our full trust in God.

So, as a people of God, will we succumb to the fear of our circumstances, or whatever causes us to abandon our faith in Christ?

Or will we close our eyes and faithfully respond, “Here I Am, Lord Jesus. Send me.

Remember, this takes discipline and practice...

We ought to be worshiping regularly, reading Scripture, praying, serving, attending to the ordinance of God, such as Holy Communion.

So far, we have responded in FAITH and good on us...

Let us continue to double and even triple down on that FAITH and watch the foundation of THE WORLD ORDER be shaken around us,