For anyone who was here last time I read Scripture, I'll be
reading it slower. I don't know if anyone did you
remember when Julian? Julian did it in his preach and
I did something entirely unpredictable and tried to read
the whole whole chapter in a minute or 30 seconds, whatever
it was. OK, so 2 Corinthians 112 to 211.
Now this is our boast. Our conscience testifies that we
have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in our
relations with you, with integrity and godly sincerity.
We have done so relying not on worldly wisdom but on God's
grace. For we do not write you anything
you cannot read or understand, and I hope that you have
understood us in part. You will come to understand
fully that you can boast of us, just as we will boast of you in
the day of the Lord Jesus. Because I was confident of this,
I wanted to visit you first that you might benefit twice.
I wanted to visit you on my way back, on my way to Macedonia,
and to come back to you from Macedonia and then to have you
send me on my way to Judah. Was I fickle when I intended to
do this, or do I make plans in a worldly manner so that in the
same breath I say both yes, yes and no?
No, but as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is
not yes and no. For the Son of God, Jesus
Christ, who was preached among you, who was preached among you
by us, by me and Silas and Timothy, was not yes and no, but
in him, in him it has always been yes.
For no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes and
Amen. Oh, they are yes.
In Christ. I was ahead of myself.
And so through him the Amen is spoken by us to the glory of
God. Now it is God who makes both us
and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set His seal of
ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a
deposit guaranteeing what is to come.
I call God as my witness and I state my life on it.
That it was in order to spare you that I did not return to
Corinth. Not that we Lord it over your
faith, but we work with you for your joy because it is by faith
you stand firm. So I made-up my mind that I
would not make another painful visit to you.
For if I grieve you, who is left to make me glad but you whom I
have grieved? I wrote as I did, so that when I
came I would not be distressed by those who would who should
have me rejoice. I had confidence in all of you
that you would share my joy, for I wrote you out of great
distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to
grieve you, but to let you know the depth of my love for you.
If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he
has grieved all of you to some extent.
Not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him
by the majority is is sufficient now.
Instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him so that he will
not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.
I urge you therefore, therefore to reaffirm your love for him.
Another reason I wrote to you was to see if you would stand
the test and be obedient in everything.
Anyone you forgive, I also forgive.
And what I have forgiven, if there was anything to forgive, I
have forgiven in the sight of Christ, for your sake, in order
that Satan might not outwit us, for we are not unaware of his
schemes. Thank you very much.
Let's pray, Lord Jesus, we thank you for your word and God, and
we pray that as we discussed this this morning, that you
would change and mould us God, that you would make us more like
you. I pray, Lord God, that we're
you've already challenged some of us already through our entire
worship, that you would continue to challenge us and that we
would leave here not the same, but more like you.
Amen, Amen. So we started last week this
journey through the book of two Corinthians.
And this is this is our second instalment in it.
And last week I alluded to to the fact that this wasn't Paul's
second letter to the Church of Corinth.
There actually were other letters and in this passage that
we have just read, Paul actually alludes to other visits and
other letters that he has written.
And what we can get by what he is saying here is, I mean, if
any of you have read the book of Galatians, Paul gets really mad
in the book of Galatians. But we can, we can kind of guess
that from what he says here that the book that we don't have, the
letter that we don't have was slightly less inspired, slightly
less inspired than than one in two Corinthians.
Paul probably got really, really, really mad and probably
said some things that probably God wasn't quite OK with.
So, So what we've got here is that actually that Paul part of
his writing here to the to the Corinthians in this, this letter
is that he wants to make sure that there is no division.
He wants to make sure that there is love between them and him.
That they know that he loves them and that he knows that they
love him. Because he is all too aware, as
he says at the end, that we have an enemy who loves to divide.
We have an enemy who loves to lie.
We have an enemy who loves to sow lies and division between
his church. You see, when God, I mean, it
was brilliant when Michael was, was here because actually, I
don't don't know if you picked up if you were here.
He was talking about church planting and church planting,
especially into places like Benin.
And it kind of blows our mind as Westerners really.
But he's talking about church planting into a nation.
And he said one of the first hurdles that they have to get
over is cult worship of other gods.
Actually, they have a, there's a, there's three national days
to other gods of the land. And we, we, that kind of blows
our mind as, as Westerners. But the reality is the Bible
talks about that there is a physical world and there is a
spiritual world. And that as human beings, we are
made both physical and spiritual, that we are made-up
of, you know, carbon and, and magnesium and potassium and kind
of all this kind of stuff that's this, this physical and you can
see it. But we are also made-up of
spirit, which you cannot see. And it says actually in the book
of Genesis, it says that God created the land, He created the
sea, He created the air, He created everything that we can
see the trees, and he filled it with animals like birds and
cattle and, and fish. And he created the end.
He creates mankind, you and I, to subdue it, to rule over it,
to have dominion over the physical world.
But actually the Bible also talks about that.
He made a spiritual world and actually He made what the Bible
calls holy ones to have dominion over that that spiritual world.
I'll just read Genesis 116 to 18.
You may not see it straight away but I'll explain what it what it
means. But it says Genesis 116 to 18
says God made 2 great lights, the greater light to govern the
day and the lesser light to govern the night.
He also made stars and God set in the vaults of the sky to give
set them in the vault of the sky to give them light on the earth
to govern the day and the night. Same word as mankind people to
govern the the land he gave. He gave stars to govern the day
and the night and separated the light from darkness and God saw
that it was good. I mean, to go into this a bit
deeper, the Bible Project, if you've heard about them, they do
a great series on one's called the the Second Born and the
other one is about spiritual beings.
And they they used this, this verse.
And what this verse is saying, even though we may not see it
straight away, is that in the ancient mindset, the stars, yes,
they were twinkly lights in the sky, but they they represented
the spiritual world, especially the planets.
They represented spiritual beings.
And so when the Bible talks about stars, yes, it's talking
about twinkling, but it's also talking about spiritual beings.
And see, see if you were to go, if you were to look up in the
sky and maybe with your phone app or whatever, and you'd be,
you'd point out, you know, there's, there's Jupiter.
Actually, you know, that in itself we name after the Roman
God Jupiter. But if you were Greek, you would
have looked up and you've gone. Oh, that Zeus, if you were, if
you were Babylonian, you were looked up and you'd gone.
Oh, that there's Marduk. And what scripture tells us is
that these holy ones, that he created, some of them through
lust for power, some of them through lust and jealousy of
mankind, rebelled against gods. They rebelled against his holy
order and they set themselves up as gods against the real true
one and only gods. These are the, these are the the
sons of God in Genesis 6. These are the, the watchers in,
in the book of Daniel. These are the principalities and
powers that Paul writes about. And Ezekiel the prophet, he
writes in Ezekiel 28. He tells a story as he's as
he's, as he's prophesying against the king of Tyre.
He tells a story of how one of these holy ones fell from grace.
I'm just going to read it. It says it in Oh, sorry, let's
start this. So some of you would have seen
before. I've used this, this kind of Cos
this is how the ancient world saw how the world works, how
cosmology was. And So what you see is we have
we talked about before that the air that we breathe, they called
the 1st heaven where the stars and the sun were in the that was
the 2nd heaven and that's the spiritual realm.
And then above that was the 3rd heaven, which is where God's
throne room was. And so God gave us dominion over
this first realm, the land, the earth, but he gave spiritual
beings this, the realm to rule over the the 2nd heaven.
And like I said, some of them rebelled.
And in Ezekiel it tells us a story of how one of those
rebellions took place. It says in Ezekiel 28, you were
the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
You were in Eden, the garden of gods.
Every precious stone adorned you.
And it talks about a load of stones and stuff which I get
wrong every time I read them. So I'm going to miss that bit
out. It says you were an anoint.
You were anointed as a guardian cherub.
That's cherub. Think of the the amazing
creatures on top of the the ark, these golden images.
You were anointed cherub, which was a throne guardian for so I
ordained you. You were on the holy mountain of
gods. You walked among the fiery
stones. Think of a think of Isaiah and
as Isaiah's in the throne room of gods, it's holy.
It's it's it's coals, burning coals that come and touch him
that Seraphim brings to touch him.
You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created
till wickedness was formed in you through your widespread
trade. You were filled with violence
and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from
the mountain of God, and I expelled you, guardian cherub,
from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud in in
verse 2 of this very same chapter, it said you became
proud, you said and you set yourself up as God.
It says that you became you became proud on the account of
your beauty and you you corrupted your wisdom because of
your splendour. So I threw you to earth.
I made you a spectacle of you before kings by your many sins
and dishonest trade, you have desecrated your sanctuaries.
You see what this is telling us is that these rebellious
spiritual beings, God threw them out of his presence, they fell.
These are like I said, these are the sons of God, the holy ones.
This is the the Satan. And in pride they set themselves
up as gods. And you may not realise this,
but the moment you became a Christian, you became an enemy
of them. They hate you.
This is why you know next week when we baptise two people that
that Satan hates it. Satan hates it because what he
wants, he wants everyone to perish.
He wants everyone to to turn on gods.
But if you choose to follow him, he wants you to keep that
private. He wants you to keep that to
yourself, but he hates. This is why if you become a
Christian in a Muslim culture or or Hindu culture or things like
that, that that your life becomes in great danger if you
become baptised because the enemy hates it so much.
You see, when we become a Christian, we become his enemy.
See the serpent, the the dragon, the Satan, the devil.
He never really liked you. He might have pretended to like
you, but he never really liked you.
But once you raised your flag of allegiance to Christ, he sets
out war against you. And his plan, scripture tells
us, is loss. His plan is death, and his plan
is destruction for you. He is a schemer.
He schemes thinking of ways to try and fool you, to try and
trick you, to try and bring you out of community, to try and
trick you into not following the one true gods.
I mean, do we have any schemers here?
No one's putting their hand up. Anyone been called a schemer as
a little girl and an adult? OK, but yet when I think of
schemers that I think of, I think of, you know, you think of
children, they, they, they're planning, plotting.
We had a funny instant when we were on holiday of, of, of of
family. We were visiting and, and their,
their sons scheming to tie up the girls.
And I'm not, he's going to remain completely nameless just
in case I get in trouble. But that's what I think of when
you think of when you're, you know, grown-ups, if you've got
children, especially little children.
It's like they're crying, they're screaming, they're
wanting your attention all the time.
And then they go quiet and you think that's nice until you
realise what are they scheming? What are they plotting?
What are they planning to do? I mean, for those of you who are
old enough to remember the the Hannah Obera cartoons, Dick
Dastardly cartoons, that he was a schemer.
He was a schemer. He, you know, the wacky races,
he would, he would always get himself ahead to plot and plan
to try and bring destruction on the other races, which would
always backfire, always go wrong.
And I never really understood it because if he managed to get so
far ahead, why didn't he just win the race?
That was the whole point. And then the other one, you
know, you had this, this little pigeon that had a that carry a
pigeon that had a note to bring to, to headquarters.
And he would have his motley crew to stop that pigeon.
That's what it's called stop pigeon.
And and he, he would, he would come up with all these schemes
to stop the pigeon and it would always go wrong.
Either he'd do something, his men would do something or Mutley
would do something. But however it ended, Mutley
would always desire a a medal. Well done.
Thank you, Ian. You've seen it.
So he was a these are schemers plotting, planning to do wrong.
And like I said last week, we have a God who, yes, lets us go
through trials, lets us go through storms to build us up,
to encourage us to let us know more of him.
But he does not scheme. He is not planning on ways to
bring you down. You see the enemy?
He's described as a roaring lion prowling rounds waiting to pick
us off. He's described as a sea dragon
with venomous, spitting venom. He's described as fiery arrows.
And his desire is to deceive and to divide.
That's what he longs to do. Jesus said Satan is the father
of lies. That's how he knows how to
speak. He can't do anything else.
And it is it is. It is his native tongue, this
spiritual being. As he enters the scene of
Scripture in Genesis 3, he comes up to Eve and he says his first
thing is, did God really say trying to sow doubt?
No, God didn't mean you die. You will not die.
You will be more like him. He comes to deceive, to bring
doubt, to separate us. That's why Paul in the scripture
we've just written, we've just reads, reads, writes this for
the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by,
by us, by me, Silas and Timothy was not yes and no, not
sometimes God will be yes. And sometimes it will be no.
Like, like God will say something and sometimes he'll
say, yes, that's what I meant. And sometimes I'll go, yeah, I
meant that, but not this time or yeah, yeah, I am like this, but
not now. No, he's, he says he's always,
but in him it is always been yes.
For no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in
Christ. And so through him the Amen is
spoken by by us to glory, to the glory of God.
Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ.
He has anointed us, set a seal of ownership on us, and put His
Spirit in our hearts as a deposit guaranteeing what is to
come. See, God has spoken promises
over you. God has spoken promises over his
church. Now I hope and I pray that some
of you can remember some of these promises and you call them
to mind. I was reading a book by a, a, a
pastor called Bill Hybels and he, he is saying that every time
he goes on a trip, he's got a list of kind of post it notes
with the promises of gods. And he just, he just memorises
them over and over and over again.
It's so good to remember the promises of God, but but here's
some here's some of God's promises.
I just wanted to read some out to you rather than just it being
very fairy or God's promises. But here we go.
He will never leave you or forsake you.
He will never. That means that if you are in
Christ, no matter how alone you feel, you're never alone.
He is never, ever going to leave you or forsake you, Jesus said.
I've cut, I've overcome the world.
Everything that you come against, Jesus is more powerful
than it. There is nothing more powerful
than Jesus, he says. Come to me, all who are weary
and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Sleeps great. Many of us, we love to rest by
bingeing programmes on Netflix. Jesus says I am rest, you find
rest in me. My grace is sufficient for you.
Whatever you are going through, whatever you've done, whatever
you said, whatever trials you're through, Jesus says come to me
and my grace will be enough for you.
Since for I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper
you and not to do you harm, plans to give you hope and a
future. This was said by Jeremiah to a
people going to exile. So this doesn't mean that every
day is going to be amazing and rosy, but what it means is God
has a plan for you. He has thought your life
through. He has a purpose for you, as
we've read earlier this morning. If my people, called by My name,
will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from
their wicked ways, then I will not, might not today or
tomorrow, but I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their
sin and will heal their lands. He says if we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just and forgive our sins and purify us
from all unrighteousness. It doesn't matter whether you're
a Christian here or not. Today, if you come to Jesus and
you say please forgive me, I want to follow you, He will not
turn you away. He says He will forgive you
because of Christ's death on the cross.
Your sins are forgiven if we come to Him.
It says for for God so loved the world that he gave his one and
only Son, that whoever, anyone, the person furthest from God,
that you can possibly imagine, if they come to gods, if they
believe, they shall not perish but have eternal life.
All of these and many more. I could have gone on all day
with just these, but all of these and many more promises.
God has spoken over you. He has spoken over your church.
And they are not sometimes yes, in Christ Jesus, they are always
yes and Amen. See, without Christ, without his
death on the cross, they are a hope, a dream, A wish, but
through Him they are all yes and Amen.
See, we are in a war church, but we have a God who has equipped
us to overcome the enemy. You do not need to be fearful.
You do not need to cower because we have a God who has equipped
us to overcome the enemy. And I believe He's given us
three key ways in this Scripture, especially of how we
can overcome the enemy. The 1st is truth.
So He has given us His truth. He has given us His scripture.
Satan comes to Eve and the problem was she didn't know what
was true. She didn't know what was true
and what was false. And so how easy is it for the
enemy to deceive us if we do not know what is truth?
And let me tell you, you do not need to study all the ways that
the enemy might try and fool you, all the false gospels that
are out there, because there are more false gospels everyday.
You don't need to do that. As bank tellers, they don't need
to know every single way of making false currency.
They just need to know how real currency feels, what it looks
like, the watermarks, the metal link in it.
They just need to know what it really looks like and therefore
when they see something that's not real, they know it's fake,
it's not real cover and see it's the same is with Christ's truth.
See Paul says from the truth of God, it's like a it's like a
belt buckled round our waist that holds everything together.
It is like the gospel is like shoes on our feet that ready us
to take us over any terrain into battle.
Secondly, so we must know God's truth.
Secondly, we must be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Paul says, using the analogy again of, of a, of a, of a
soldier. Paul says the Holy Spirit is our
sword. It is how we can attack the
enemy. It is our sword is the sword of
the Spirit. And he says that he dwells in
us. If you're a Christian, the
Spirit dwells in you. And as Paul writes, he will say
that that spirit in US is a guarantee of our salvation
because that Spirit in US longs for Gods, longs him, calls him
Father. And it's because of that longing
in us we know that we are saved. It is a down payment of what is
to come in the future. So we must know truth.
We must be filled in the Holy Spirit.
And thirdly, we must keep in community.
See, I've used this analogy before, but soldiers, they can
have all the best armour, they can have all the the right belt,
the right shield, the right breastplate and a helmet and
shoes. But on their own, you know, they
are no John Wick. There are no real John Wicks.
OK, Jesus is the only John Wick who can kill anyone and take
anyone else. No, in reality, there are no
lone soldiers. There are no John Wicks.
OK, we are a soldier, a Roman soldier.
If they had all the right stuff. But we're on their own.
They were a dead man. You need.
We need our brothers and sisters left and right behind us, in
front of us. We need each other.
As I said last week, you need me and I need you to speak truth,
to encourage, to uphold one another.
Think of Moses, so the greatest prophet of them all.
He needed Aaron and her. And you read the stories.
Neither of them are that impressive, but he still needed
them. He needed them in his life to
uphold him, to support him. We need one another to pray for
each other, to be prayed for. And you may be saying, yeah, but
I can. I can receive truth.
I can be filled with the Holy Spirit at home.
You know, I can listen to podcasts and I can listen to
online sermons and I can read books.
I can receive God's truth. And yes, you can.
Should you? Yes, you should.
Is that God's best? If it's the only way you're
receiving truth, No, You say, well, I can, I can be filled
with the spirit. I can sing songs, I can play my
instruments or, or I can listen to, to, to worship music on, on
Spotify or on YouTube or whatever.
Should you? Yeah.
Is it good to? Yes.
Is that the if that's the only way you're receiving the
presence of God, is it right? No, no.
God has designed us to be in community, to be a family that
we hear the public reading of scripture.
You read the Bible. Actually there is there's very
little reading the Bible on their own.
It does happen, but it's much more the public reading of
Scripture and the whole body. Here's the scripture.
So so here for us, we hear the public reading of Scripture and
then we talk about it and we don't always talk about on a
Sunday, but that's what we do in home groups.
So we do a women's group on men's group.
So I'm I encourage you get involved in those things because
that's where where truth doesn't just fly over our heads, but it
gets rooted in US. Same for for being filled the
Holy Spirit. Yet we should be praying in
tongues and and and asking God to fill us every single day.
But actually also there's a real specialness that God has created
us, that as we come together as the body, one person brings a
tongue, one person brings a prophetic word, someone brings a
prayer. And that lifts my spirit like
nothing can when I'm on my own. The Bible speaks about over and
over again about laying hands on that putting your hands on
someone and praying for them to be filled in the spirit.
I can't lay hands on anyone if I spend my whole day on my own and
no one can lay hands on me either.
But there is a power by having by people touching one another
by by in a good way. Let's let's make it by by
hugging one another by, you know, a hand on the shoulder in
prayer. Let's just make this perfectly
clear, OK? But none of that was in my
notes, by the way. When we come together, we are
to. When we come together, God does
something special amongst us, something greater amongst us.
That's why one of Satan's biggest desires is to get you on
your own. And like I said last week, God
uses you to grow each other. He uses me to grow.
He uses you to grow me. And he even does it through the
weak and the brokenness of our lives.
You know, I love it when we come together and, and someone has a
prayer or someone has a prophetic word.
Prophetic words aren't about telling the future, by the way.
Prophetic words are about we have this kind of smog that
we're seeing life through our own lenses, and then a prophetic
word lifts our eyes above so we can see what God is truly doing
in that moment. That's what prophetic words are
for. And I love it when God brings
prophetic words amongst us. What God calls us to do is when
prophetic words are brought, He calls us to weigh them.
That's why we say if you've got a prophetic word, if you feel
like God's speaking to you, come to the front, share it with one
of us, and we'll weigh it and we'll determine.
Is that? Is that?
Is that from God? Is that right?
Is it right for now? Actually, it might not be.
It might be right, but it might not be right for now.
You see, so often you get people who they hear from God.
But because we see life through our own lens, we sometimes
struggle to interpret what we hear.
You say, well, why would God speak to us if we can't always
interpret it? That's why he has the church, so
that one can bring a word and one can discern.
That's why we need one another. You know, sometimes people hear
stuff and I've, I've got countless examples of people
hear it saying they've heard from God, but their response to
it goes against Scripture. It's unbiblical.
And let me tell you, if God speaks to you, he will not speak
against his Scripture. He will not counter it.
But also, you know, sometimes God may not be speaking to us at
all. It could just be us, could just
be our own thoughts. You know, actually, the Bible
talks about more seriously, the Bible talks about deceiving
spirits. And that's why in the church he
gives those with the gift of discernment.
You know, when when were it devoted?
You know, there was there's so many people with words and with
things they wanted to bring. And that's why they what people
would go to the front and they would share it with a few people
and they would discern is this from God.
And for almost all the time they'd be going, yes, that's
from Gods, but we haven't got time or that's just for you.
You know, it was, there was, but there was a real encouragement
there to share and to hear from God and have it weighed.
You see, we do that. We do that at the front of
church. But actually, if you feel God
speaking to you, you should also have that wait, share what God
speaks to you, to others, and let them help weigh it.
There is safety in numbers, but God loves to get, no, not God.
Satan loves to get us alone. He loves to get us alone and
where he can easily deceive us. You know, the gift of a prophet,
the gift of evangelist, the gift of an apostle, they are amazing
gifts. But a solo prophet or a solo
evangelist, they are dangerous. We have to be in the church and
accountable to one another. We can all get things wrong and
so when we have something, we should bring it in a sense of I
feel God is bringing this, what do you feel?
What do you think I'm willing to be wrong.
It's like I said, Satan loves it when we're on our own.
So how does he get us alone? He says in Two Corinthians
chapter 2 verse 9, he says anyone you forgive, I also
forgive. And what I have forgiven, if
there is anything to forgive, I have forgiven in the sight of
Christ for your sake, so that Satan might not outwit us, for
we are not unaware of his schemes.
How's he get us alone? One of the biggest reasons is
unforgiveness. Unforgiveness.
I mean, think Jesus tells the story, doesn't he, of the
unforgiving servant? And we've got this, this this
servant who's called into the master's house.
And the master says you owe me what?
And today's money would be billions of pounds.
He says, I'm going to throw you into prison where you are going
to rot. And the servant gets down on his
knees and he begs and he says I'll pay you back.
I don't know how, but I'll work out a way and I'll pay you back.
And the master says I forgive you.
I'm writing it off. He's been forgiven.
That's how great God's begin this is.
But that servant then goes into the world and another and a
friend comes to him and he owes him the equivalent of £100 and
he goes, you pay that back to me this instant.
He says I can't, please forgive me.
He's like, no, and he has no forgiveness on him.
So. So Jesus says that the original
servant is then thrown into prison where there is gnashing
of teeth because his the forgiveness he received was not
truly transforming. See, some what?
Some of us, actually, no, not some of us, all of us are easily
offended. We are.
We're easily offended and we can find it difficult to forgive,
and Satan loves that. But forgiveness, true
forgiveness, is a sign of what it means to be saved by Christ,
what it means to be chosen by Him.
And for those of us who practise forgiveness, we will not be
picked off easily by the enemy. You may be saying, but I know
I've done wrong. I know I'm a mess up, but how do
I make it right? There's this guy that Jesus
meets called Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus is a chief tax
collector, which basically means he's hated by everyone.
I mean even more than he would be now.
He's hated by everyone and he wants to see Jesus, but no one's
letting him see Jesus. So he climbs up a tree just to
get a glimpse of Jesus, and Jesus sees him up the tree and
says, Zacchaeus, I'm coming to your house.
And Jesus saves him. He meets with the with Jesus
Christ and in saving him, Zacchaeus says if I have wronged
correction, he has wronged everyone in his community.
If I've wronged anyone, I will pay them back four folds.
Now, the story doesn't let us know what happened to Zacchaeus.
He doesn't doesn't let us know whether he gets welcomed back
into the community, whether he gets friends or not.
But in the words of the book of Romans, he did.
As far as it was for him, he did all that he could to make it
right. And that's all that you can.
We can ask if you know that you've wronged someone, do all
that you can as far as it depends on you to make it right.
If they choose not to forgive you, that's on them.
But we are called to be forgivers, so we cannot make
others forgive us, but we are called to do all that we can to
make things right. Not everyone will forgive us,
but when we do all that we can to make things right, we make
sure there's not an in for the enemy to gain a foothold.
You see, to end with that, let's just end with this.
Jesus says that if we do these things, if we abide in His
truth, if we are filled with the Holy Spirit, if we live in
community, we will not just overcome the enemy.
But Romans 8 says we will be more than conquerors.
More than Congress, that means that we will excessively be
overwhelming in our victory. It means that we won't just
defeat the enemy, but actually, just like Jesus does, we will
turn the enemy schemes on their heads and be a weapon against
him themselves. How many times Genesis ends with
doesn't it? For what you meant for evil, God
used for good. That's what God has for you,
that the enemy schemes that are there to do you harm, to do
evil. Jesus will turn them on their
head and he will do good, you see.
And one day Jesus says that not only we will reign, we will rule
over this physical world, but actually heaven and earth will
become one. And those rebellious angels,
they will be cast into the pit of fire, they will be destroyed.
And Scripture teaches us that we will replace them and we will
reign over heaven and earth with Christ.
We that is your destiny, to rule and reign over heaven and earth
with Christ our brother. So we must conquer with truth,
empowered by the spirits and in community.
So as we go, I just want to ask you these questions.
Are you reading scripture? Are you in your Bible?
How often are you, are you making a priority really, of
coming to a Sunday service, to being fed, to being a men's
group, being a women's group, being at Home group, of hearing
the public preaching of scripture and discussing it?
Are you being filled daily with the Holy Spirit?
Are you coming to a place like this and being willing to be
prayed for but also being prepared to pray for others?
And are you actively seeking fellowship?
Is this just a Sunday morning club for you or are you actively
seeking fellowship? It may be for some of us.
Who do we need to forgive and who do we need to ask for
forgiveness from? I'm just going to pray and I'm
going to ask God just to search our hearts right now.
So Jesus, you know, you know that we have an enemy who wants
to do us harm, who desires to steal, kill and destroy, who
desires to separate us and so lies and deceit, who desires for
loss and death and destruction. But thank you, Jesus, that your
plan for us is family. Your plan for us is abundance.
Your plan for us is life. Lord God, I pray that every
single one of us who hears this will be rooted in your truth.
Would would prioritise being filled with your spirit,
empowered by you Gods, and make changes in their life to be
fully engaged in community. God, if we need to forgive, show
us where we need to forgive. If we need to ask forgiveness,
let us be humble and go and ask for forgiveness.
Lord Jesus, we pray that there'll be no root, no crack
that the enemy is able to exploit in here.
God, I pray for your overwhelming protection over
every single person here. God, we ask for your Holy Spirit
to fill us now. May we not leave this place
without doing business with you. Amen.