A Life "Swept and Put in Order" Without Christ is a Life to be Dominated by Spiritual Attacks

Hello Church:  Do you struggle with a bad habit that does not please the Lord and impacts your life and relationships?  Have you ever been dominated by an active, habitual, life-dominating sin?  Do you want to escape these habits and sins?  Our culture provides and encourages many opportunities for us to engage in to escape the pain and destruction of those habits.  There are support groups, therapies, new friendships, clubs, sports, self-help books, classes at church and countless other opportunities to help overcome bad habits, bad thinking and other life-dominating sins.  And yes, many of these opportunities work for millions of people.  But are they all the same?  Jesus Himself reminds us that if we neglect the root problem of these destructive sin habits we will end up worse off than before our lives were swept and put in order.

Jesus, confronts the Pharisees in Luke 11:19 with this truth when they accused Him of casting out a demon by the power of Beelzebub.  Remember, the Pharisees lived in denial that Jesus was the Son of God.  Which meant that the Pharisees had to give some other explanation for Jesus’ power to cast out demons, so they gave credit to Beelzebub, Satan himself.  Jesus quickly catches them in their contradiction.  “If I cast out demons by Beelzebub then by what power do your sons cast them out?”  Jesus responds with authoritative clarity.  He acknowledges that there are many ways to get rid of an unclean spirit, or a bad habit, or a spirit of depression, or the breaking out of an addiction, etc.  Jesus says you can see this by the Pharisees themselves casting out demons without the “finger of God.”
 
Then Jesus says, but look at the implications of being delivered from these sinful habits without Me being the remedy!  Jesus wants us to understand that there are many ways to bring about change in our lives but if we use any way to bring about change besides Jesus Christ we will be worse off than before.  Treating symptoms of a life dominating problem will relieve the pain but it will never cure the root problem.  This is what our culture usually seeks to do instead of finding a remedy for the root problem.  Instead of asking, "what do I need to do to overcome my root problem of spiritual sickness and need for a Savior that rules my life,"we ask how do I get rid of the pain?"  Jesus wants to treat and redeem both, the root problem and the pain that comes from the problem.

Jesus illustrates this truth with a short parable.  A parable of a person who cleans up their life.  This person's life has been swept and put in order (Luke 11:25) but Jesus has not been made King on the throne of their life, our root problem.  The person has not submitted to Jesus setting up His Kingly rule and perfect protection from unclean spirits and unclean habits.  So, look what happens.  The unclean spirit that was cast out by various Christ-less means comes back with seven more spirits more evil than itself making life infinitely worse than before.  These multiple spirits can even make life look very mundane and clean as the person surrounds themselves with social, physical, mental and volitional goodness.  Yet, their trust is not in Christ but in these other things that have relieved pain which results in coming up short of remedying the root problem of surrendering their life to Christ’s Kingdom.

Jesus says, I am the only one who can bind the strong man, Satan (Luke 11:22).  Jesus wants us to know that He is the only One who can fix our root problem, our need for a Savior from our sin, disarming any attack from any unclean spirit or demonic entity, breaking sinful, life-dominating, destructive habits.  And as He does this He takes away any pain that comes from living in this sinful world.  Church, always seek Christ’s Kingdom as the remedy of any sinful habit that you need freedom from.  He will deliver you and your life will glorify Him.

Luke 11:23 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.  - Jesus

This Sunday we will be meeting in person at the church building if you would like to join us in person at 10am.  And for those who will be staying at home, we will  be live-streaming on our Grace Community Church Topsail YouTube Channel. Push the blue link.  We can also be found at https://www.gracetopsail.com/

I look forward to worshipping with you Sunday, forgiven. - Steve