Sermon Leftovers: Barney Fife & Winston Churchill

Yesterday during worship our sermon was focused on Luke 11:14-28. There is a ton that happens in this passage: 

• Jesus casts out a demon (v14).
• Jesus responds to doubts about his source of power (15-22).
• Jesus asserts that he is indeed on a mission bringing about the Kingdom of God (v20).
• Jesus makes a "line in the sand" statement regarding allegiance (v23).
• Jesus teaches about the cyclical and ongoing battle against evil (v24-26).
• Jesus redirects a blessing about Mary into a call to listening and obeying God's word (V27-28). 

There were 3 big takeaways for us as a church as we looked at this passage with the question of "What is the future of our church" in mind. 

1. We, as a church, must know our commander in chief. This means to know Jesus as his work is previewed in the Old Testament and witnessed in the New Testament. In Luke 11 Jesus shows himself to be the "Strong Man" who is able to overcome evil. His mission is one that conquers evil and sets slaves to sin free to holiness in God. Since Jesus is the Strong Man who has broken into the world and begun defeating the powers of evil we can trust him when he makes big promises like "the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world." (1 John 4:4). For the Christian our faith is bolstered knowing that the Holy Spirit of God indwells us. Our commander in chief is the Strong Man who empowers us to engage and participate in his conquering war against evil. 

2. We, as a church, must listen to what our commander in chief says. Jesus taught the serious and cyclical nature of sin. That evil once driven out seeks to return. We know this experientially in our own lives as often times the sin we struggled with 10 years ago, 5 years ago, even 5 days ago continues to seek us out. Knowing that sin is eager to trip us up, we must daily engage in the spiritual warfare of resisting sin and pursuing the way of Jesus. This also extends to knowing God's Word. Bible study gatherings, prayer meetings, Sunday school, Youth Group, family worship time around the table, these are not trivial things for the uber religious. These are the fundamental supply lines for strengthening, maintaining, and growing in our faith. 

3. We, as a church, must obey the Word of God. There is a sort of "good intentioned" religiosity that doesn't seek to know the Word of God or obey the Word of God. This "good intentioned" religiosity justifies its disobedience by saying "well...my heart is in the right place, and God knows that!". We need to obey what God has called us to. 

Barney Fife is a terrific character embodying this sort of religion. This Mayberry police officer is ever anxious to please, protect, and serve the good people of Mayberry in the Andy Griffith show. The problem is Barney's heart is always in the right place, but his actions are continuously the catalyst for problems. He has his one bullet ever at the ready to load into his gun if a situation is dire. Often times he misunderstands a situation and is more often than not loading his gun when a simple conversation would suffice. His "good intentions" do not lead to good outcomes. Often Barney needs someone else to come in as a hero (mostly Andy) and correct the situation that his "good intentions" created or exacerbated. 

Good intentions, apart from earnest pursuit and submission to God's Word, leads to all sorts of problems in our faith. Rather than Barney Fife "good intentioned religion", lets think about a Winston Churchill type determination. Winston Churchill served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during World War 2. It was Churchill who delivered one of the greatest lasting statements from the era:

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.

There was a dedication to the ongoing fight that permeates through Churchill's quote. It was a dedication that would seek to fight in every sphere of combat wherever an enemy appeared. This is a wonderful word picture for Christians regarding our battle against sin. While none of us knows what specifics the future holds, we do know that we will fight against our sin until the day our Lord calls us home. We must seek to know God's Word and obey God's Word such that we never surrender ourselves to sin in our marriages, in our families, in our work, in our community and on our own. When we do trip and fall, and suffer wounds in this war against sin, we can have confidence that our heavenly commander in chief extends to us forgiveness and means for continued growth and power against temptation in future battles. 

Let the future of our church be marked by the intentional rooting out, seeking out, and prayerful hunting down of our sin. Let us lay siege to our sin, cut off it's supply lines, and seek to further listen and obey our  "Strong Man" commander in chief in his victorious war against the evil of this world, the powers of the air, and death itself.