Where Did It All Go Right?

[HKHaugan]

Where Did It All Go Right?

Let's get to the point. The devil's plan is to reduce us in size. What his spirit of sin does is to reduce us in size, being and quality. The more we sin, by being self-centered and self-indulgent, the smaller we become, the more control the devil has over us. Then we become like him and fade into nothing and know it. That's what disappointment, disillusionment and discouragement show. This is when the younger replaces the older, the athletic body fades, the beauty turns into more makeup, the keen mind begins to slip, novelty becomes the norm and no one knocks on your door anymore.

The Lord God wants just the opposite. He wants us to expand like Jesus, “...in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man (Lk.2:52).” He has made us to grow internally in mind, heart and spirit. He wants us to grow spiritually, personally and relationally with as many as we can. He wants to expand His spiritual family. The picture of growth, expansion and maturity is Jesus being born a nobody among a nowhere people in a nowhere land. That was the world's assessment especially when you consider the standard set by Rome. The Jews were the least of the least, their nation a distant annoyance and its individuals subhuman at best. Turns out they bear Jesus, the greatest nobody by the world's standards, who becomes the world's Savior revered throughout the ages by millions. With Him we see life here as a preparation for eternal life so we engage one another even more. We are not preparing for death. We are preparing for life.

We need to be aware of the devil's subtle program operating against us to seduce and reduce us spiritually. It's the devil's reducing plan, sin. Look at how sin works. Sin shrinks us through pride, fear, anxiety, distrust, suspicion and greed. Sin's cohorts shrink us into aloneness, the goal of the devil's reducing plan for each of us. There's far more but looking at these will give us a start to understand the complexities it introduces.

The devil's purpose is to rule each of us by fear, the fear that shrinks us, the fear that puts protecting self first. He wants us to distrust one another, be suspicious, consider everyone has an angle to get their way at my expense. The devil's religion is separatism. His worship is pride. His liturgy is think of self first.

There is no question that sin works its major purposes through fear and pride. Fear is a spirit pride entertains as its mindless companion.

Pride is my self justifying mind reasoning I am in control and others are to be manipulated to fit into my world. It is my need to be recognized, accepted and ascend into prominence on some level. Pride activates the spirit of sin. When Paul tells us that the wages of sin is death, death is not just the physical body ending, it is the self-conscious realization of being alone and there is no exit, no way out, no relief, no possibility of being relational again.

Anxiety is finding yourself locked into circumstances over which you have absolutely no control. It is the instigator of worry. There is nothing more isolating than anxious worry. It makes us totally consumed with self. The old expression “wringing your hands” come to mind. Pacing back and forth like the expectant father in the waiting room. Add your own experiences.

Distrust cancels relational growth. “I would have given my life for him” we say only to discover the secret I shared is now all over the place. “Once burned...” keeps us wary with everyone from that point on. Or was it the way someone played you for a friend waiting for the moment to use you to step up to the promotion you worked so hard for? Or the really deep emotional ties that were broken by betrayal. “I'll never ever trust anyone again.”

Suspicion is usually the result of gossip, false assumption and a tendency to distrust. It can come by appearance, pre-judging someone, acting on second and third hand information. Sin makes us gullible to suggestion.

Greed is a hungry tyrant. Greed is never having enough of a want. It is the assumption that having material wealth, emotional satisfaction and relational power is what life is all about. Greed has a lonely end. You win the world but find the more you have the more someone else is using you to get their greed filled. Greed entertains all the above: distrust, fear, suspicion, anxiety. While they are not the only spirits working they certainly do exemplify the path to utter aloneness. All you have to do is ask any famous person, anyone who has sought notoriety and status. You will find a guarded self-consumed person full of regret. If not that, then a club or group with whom they can hide from what they got from the world. Even then it is a superficial gathering of relational pretense bound together by idols they have adopted.

Just what then is the Cross of Jesus all about? Why did he have to die? What Jesus did on the Cross was to be the target, the devil's target, to bear all the darts of sin; pride, fear, distrust, suspicion, greed, suspicion and all the rest of the devil's arsenal, to show God had a better plan for man. Think of all the other stuff we go through like hostility, abuse, false witness, jealousy, envy, lust, self doubt, depression. His whole life on earth was a target for the devil and his antics. He was tempted at every corner in every valley and mountain of mankind's travail. Jesus never gave in. His will was His Father's will, His consciousness of His presence and the desire to please Him. Who else has ever come close to the belief, trust and faith that He had and has inspired others to have in Him? Even if not in Him as their risen Lord, in the teachings and lifestyle He gave and lived. His sacrifice was spiritual, personal and relational every moment of His earthly life. His life was spiritual, personal and relational. He defined what it means to be an individual in the fullest sense. He defined what an image of God is, what a child of God is and what a witness for God is. He defined what it means to follow the Word of His Father and live His will within a family, a community and a nation. All these definitions were crucified on the Cross because they threatened the heart of every self-indulgent dynamic in the hearts of sinful leaders and their followers. He crushed sin and its dictator on the Cross and rose from the dead to show even death could not stop Him.

What sin does is to reduce us in size, being and quality. The more we sin, by being self-centered and self-indulgent, the smaller we become. Sin shrinks us through fear, anxiety, distrust, suspicion, pride, greed and all their accompanying spirits. Sin's cohorts shrink us into aloneness, the goal of the devil's plan for each of us.

The Lord Jesus reversed the devil's plan, defeated sin and guaranteed us doing the same through a relationship with Him. The Sermon on the Mount is designed to do just that. It reveals God's plan to expand us, to grow us, to fulfill us, to fill us full with His Spirit to increase our size moment by moment. This is what is revealed by Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount. Jesus, Savior and Lord, is where it all went right.