A PASTORS LAMENT FROM
THE DARKNESS OF VERMONT
MIKE CUNNINGHAM
MARCH 22, 2009
As I was driving home from church a couple of
Sunday’s ago; I asked the Lord to show me whether or not He approved of my
sermon by leaving at least one encouraging unmistakable entry in my web page
guest book. In one way or another I get lots of encouragement and I have never
made such as request before, but I’m glad I did this time. I knew that sermon
would offend non-Christians and perhaps many who are, but I wanted to know
if it pleased the One to whom I had been prayerfully pleading with for help
in crafting it. In other words, I didn’t want to deceive myself and perhaps
lead others astray.
I get hammered every day by those invisible demonic
fiery darts the Apostle Paul warns about, (Ephesians 6:16). They bombard my
mind from all directions just as they do yours, but with me it’s especially
when I’m prayerfully struggling with my sermon. And you can’t imagine how
much this demonic activity is always intensified whenever the primary subject
of my message is Satan and his cohorts. For instance, from the moment I awakened
on the Saturday before last I experienced a fierce relentless barrage of those
fiery darts. They had been fired at me in hopes of penetrating and becoming
imbedded in my mind and left there to fester. All sorts of temptations and
distractions ranging from imagining the possibility of evil lurking close
to the folks I love and care about the most; folks such as my family and each
of you and those at Harvest Time and other special people through whom He
has blessed me; to that of receiving abnormal results from recent my lab work,
or both of my hearing aids suddenly whistling simultaneously for no apparent
reason. If I hadn’t learned how to use my shield of faith as Paul directed,
I could easily have done a number on myself and kissed today’s sermon goodbye.
After a while I became so annoyed by being subjected to this kind of stuff
that I went to the Lord in fervent prayer and told Him I was tired of being
on the defensive so much. Then I pleaded with Him to help me to become a powerful
spiritual warrior. I asked Him to first show me how to go about becoming one,
and then to please give me the courage and strength to go on the offensive
and fight as vigorously as He enables me to in His war against the kingdom
of darkness. From that moment forward all sorts of terrific suggestions came
gushing into my mind for today’s message. A little later I checked my e-mail
and received the following from one of my closest friends who couldn’t possibly
have had any idea of what I had been wrestling with on that particular Saturday
morning.
In my message Guy referred to I said that: “you
and I would one day find “ourselves living during an era in which, figuratively speaking, we would each shine
like tiny specks of light sprinkled throughout the Green Mountains of Vermont;
the least churched state in the nation, a state which is almost engulfed in
spiritual darkness.” I went on to mention the fact that “pure unadulterated
evil lurks throughout our dark sin-infested world including within the beautiful
state of Vermont. It’s manifested whenever its secret activates come to light.
For instance, a prime example is the fact our State legislators are currently
considering making a law which, if it’s enacted, will be a contemptuous slap
across our Creators face.”[1] You could easily get the impression that Satan
is alive and well in our world, but it only seems that way because in my opinion
all too many Christians are spiritually feeble. Allow me to explain by means
of a personal prayer in which I express some of my heartfelt concerns about
the Christian Church and evil in Vermont, America and the rest of the world.
A PASTORS LAMENT FROM THE DARKNESS OF VERMONT
Father, I enter into your presence with a heart
full of thanksgiving and praise. To think that back in eternity past you planned,
ordained and then by speaking your world into existence, predestined me to
become one of your adopted children is so awesome that I can’t even begin
to comprehend the magnitude of such love, nor find words to adequately express
my appreciation. I humbly stand before you as a deeply grateful man who was
once alienated from you and was a former enemy of yours in my mind because
of my evil behavior, but also as a person who has been reconciled to you through
the death of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ’s physical body, in order to
present me before you at all times including this very moment as being holy
and blameless and above reproach in Your sight (Col. 1:21-22). It is in Him
and through faith in Him that I approach you this morning with confidence
and boldness (Eph. 3:12; Heb. 10:19). I acknowledge my creature-hood and that
it is in Him that I live and move and have my very being and apart from Him
I can do nothing, (Acts 17:28; John 15:5). I’m awed whenever I meditate upon
the fact that it was He “who created
the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that
comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk
on it,” Isaiah 42:5 (NIV). By faith I understand that the universe
was formed at Christ's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what
was visible, (Hebrews 11:3).
"Worthy are you, my Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created,"
(Revelation 4:11). The
heavens declare your glory; the skies proclaim the work of your hands, (Psalms 19:1). Through your Son all
things were made, and without him nothing was made that has been made, John 1:3 (NIV). For by him all things
were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether
thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him
and for him, Colossians 1:16 (NIV).
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon
and the stars, which you have set in place, I have to ask, what is man that
you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? (Psalms 8:3-4).
I thank you Father for reveling the fact that on the sixth day of creation,
you created man in your image, (Genesis 1:27). You placed the man in the Garden
of Eden and told him everything in it was his to enjoy with one exception:
eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Later you said:
“It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit
for him,” (Genesis 2:18). And you did, and you brought her to him,
(vs.22) and joined them together in marriage saying: (vs24) therefore
a
man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will
become one flesh,
(vs. 24) a command which would be echoed by Jesus thousands of years later
(Matt. 19:6).The
man’s wife was tempted by Satan and she took the bait and ate a piece of the
forbidden fruit and gave some to her husband who did the same, (Genesis 3:11)
and our world and its inhabitants have never been the same ever since. King
David acknowledged the awful consequences of this tragic fact the time he
wrote: “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother
conceived me, Psalms 51:5 (NIV).
Thank you for the Scriptures, Father.
They help me make sense out the wretched condition of the world I’m traveling
through on my way home. A world in which the Bible tells your children
that: “The wickedness of man
was great in the earth, and every intention of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually. (Genesis
6:5). The intention of man's heart is evil from his youth, (Genesis 8:21). And Father, I have to acknowledge the truthfulness
of those divinely inspired words because they accurately describe my former
self. I’m so grateful that “when the fullness of time had
come, you sent forth your Son, born of woman, born under the law, Galatians 4:4 (ESV). “For you
so loved the world, that you gave your only Son, that whoever believes in
him should not perish but have eternal life, (John 3:16). I can almost hear your beloved Son consoling a grieving
woman with these comforting words that are full of encouragement and hope:
"I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though
he die, yet shall he live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die."
John 11:25-26 (ESV) It thrills me Father
whenever I take the time to ponder your Sons promises such as when He said
“truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who
sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed
from death to life. 25
"Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now
here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who
hear will live. John 5:24-25
(ESV). I now know without a doubt that I was born into this world spiritually
dead. I’m reminded of another time when 3 Jesus answered a certain religious leader
of His day when He said, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is
born again he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3 (ESV) 5 Jesus answered, "Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot
enter the kingdom of God. John 3:5 (ESV) 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish,
and no one will snatch them out of my hand. John 10:28 (ESV) 6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and
the life. No one comes to the Father
except through me. John 14:6 (ESV) Father, I can imagine myself being among those first
Christians when they heard Paul’s letters read to them. Wonderful revelations
such as: the Lord has commanding them and us through them us when He
said, "'I have made you a light
for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth,'
" Acts 13:47; Isaiah 49:6
(ESV) 15
that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without
blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, Philippians
2:15 (ESV) 5
For you are all children
of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the
darkness, 1 Thessalonians 5:5
(ESV) 8
for at one time you
were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
Ephesians 5:8 (ESV)
Father, you
know how sorry and deeply ashamed I am of myself because of those all too
many times I don’t walk as a child of light and return to the darkness
whenever I sin.
Help me to remember the Apostle Paul’s constant warning to those early Christians
such as when he told them “to get rid of the deeds of darkness and instead
put on the armor of light.12 The night is far gone; the day is at
hand. So then let us cast off the
works of darkness and put on the armor of light, (Romans 13:12)because “… the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory
of Christ, who is the image of God. 2 Corinthians 4:4 (ESV) 18 They
are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God
because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart.
Ephesians 4:18 (ESV) Jesus also graphically
described the magnitude of this spiritual darkness when he declared,
If your eye is bad, your whole body will be
full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! Matthew 6:23 (ESV) 19 And this is the
judgment: the light has come
into the world, and people loved the
darkness rather than the
light because their deeds were evil. John 3:19 (ESV) The Apostle John opened his Gospel by calling attention
to this horrible fact of our world being engulfed in spiritual darkness ever
since Adam and Eve disobeyed our Creator 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the
darkness has not overcome it. John 1:5 (ESV) I’m reminded of the horrible fact of spiritual darkness whenever
I read the following passages referring to Old Testament unbelievers.5 They have neither
knowledge nor understanding, they
walk about in darkness; Psalms
82:5 (ESV) 19
The way of the wicked is like deep
darkness; they do not know over what they stumble, Proverbs 4:19 (ESV) .
Father, many Vermont Christians I know
are deeply distressed by the global evil in our world and the pathetic condition
of the Christian Church in America. Some elderly and chronically ill Christians
feel so helpless about the situation. So much so, that they yearn to go home
and be with the Lord. I can understand how they feel. Father, the church your
Son paid such an agonizing price to purchase is under a relentless attack
by your enemies. It isn’t only from those who despise it, but from one another.
It’s not uncommon for brothers and sisters in Christ to do and say all sorts
of awful things to one another. Gossip, bad-mouthing, envy, sexual immorality,
gluttony, throwing temper-tantrums and such, seem to be as prevalent within
Christ’s church as they are outside. So much so, that many professed Christians
are indistinguishable from those who aren’t.
Some of Christ’s churches have succumbed to a
market driven mentality. It isn’t unusual to hear your Word come out of the
mouth of a man acting like a clown or comedian. All too many of your children
are living beyond their means, and are enslaved by the pursuit of acquiring
more and more money. They lavish upon themselves unnecessary things instead
of sharing their abundance with the poor, the ones your Son has a soft spot
in His heart for. Others are overly preoccupied with worldly pleasures that
they spend very little of their time thinking about you and meditating on
your Word, or going to you in prayer except when they want something from
you. Father, please wake us Christians up. Wean us from all this disgraceful
behavior by subjecting us to as much unpleasant circumstances as are necessary
to bring us to a point where we will habitually desire to put you first and
foremost in our lives; to sincerely want to first seek your kingdom and your
righteousness; to seriously want to delight ourselves in you and to want to
really struggle to become holy just as you are holy.
Father, by whatever means you desire, please
drive out the false teachers who have infiltrated Christ’s churches as well
as those who by their conduct greatly upset your children. So much so that
they dread attending a church these despicable people are in. They want to
avoid them as much as they would a plague. Those professed Christians are
like a cancer attacking a body of otherwise spiritually healthy believers.
Please rebuke them, Father, and if they won’t listen get rid of them, because
whether or not they realize it, they are attempting to destroy your Son’s
church. While you’re at it, don’t forget those phony representatives of yours
on TV and the radio who become wealthy by fleecing your gullible sheep and
make followers of Christ look like a bunch of morons. Please shake up those
business people who operate so-called Christian Bookstores which are stocked
with spiritual trash, even if you have to put them out of business. Let your
holy righteous wrath be poured out all those religious leaders who claim to
be Christians and teach that Christ isn’t the only way to gain entrance into
your presence. And severely admonish all those true Christians who support
these Christ dishonoring churches by their attendance, money, time and lack
of relentlessly protesting against this kind of demonically influenced teaching.
Father, I ask you to wake up those poor deceived
people in Vermont who are promoting the passage of legislation which is an
abomination to you. Deep down in the conscience you gave each of them they
know homosexual behavior is a perversion of human sexuality. Father, please
bring these poor satanically deceived homosexual women and men to their senses.
Please don’t let any more of them perish eternally. Draw them to your Son
by whatever means you deem necessary. Finally Father, you know how greatly
distressed I am by the horrible acts committed by hideously evil men in the
world; men such as terrorists, kidnappers, murderers, rapists, sexual predators
and pedophiles. Please strongly incline them to accept your Sons loving forgiveness
while there is still time and don’t let any more of them perish eternally.
Father, I realize the fact that you alone know the future as to whether or
not they will turn to your Son before each of them draws their last breath.
If they do I will rejoice in your mercy when I come home. But if they won’t,
then I ask you to please make that inevitable event become a reality much
sooner than later. Thank you for allowing me to share my lament with you,
Father. I take comfort in knowing you will deal with it in perfect love and
infinite wisdom.
And may it please Him to make this message a
blessing to you folks who just heard it and all those who may read it later.
Lord willing, next week…
[1] My sermon: THE WAR
BETWEEN THE KINGDOMS.
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