This Sunday we will finish up a worship series called "The Line Between Good & Evil". We have spent weeks working our way through Scriptures dealing with good and evil. We have spent weeks remembering horrible evil atrocities that have occurred in our world, and the evil that we see right in our own communities. We have spent weeks coming back to the fact that evil and good are not just in other people, but as Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, "the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being". We have, at our core, an inclination to do some good, and a great propensity to do evil. And we have spent weeks on this battle between good and evil that is at war within all of us.
George Bernard Shaw told the story of a Native American who was talking to his grandson about this internal struggle. "There are two wolves inside of us," he said, "one good wolf and one evil wolf. They are constantly fighting each other." The grandson asked, "which wolf wins?"
"The wolf that you feed" was the answer.
The apostle Paul said it this way, "when I want to do what is good, evil is right there with me. I gladly agree with the Law on the inside, but I see a different law at work with my body. It wages a war against the law of my mind and takes me prisoner with the law of sin that is within my body. I'm a miserable human being." (Romans 7:21b-24a).
Then Paul asks the question that each of us must ask and that each of us must answer..."Who will save me?"
The answer, of course, is Jesus. That is what Paul goes on to explain in the letter of Romans. But how does Jesus save you and me in our day to day lives in this battle of good and evil, sin and holiness that is within us and surrounding us?
This Sunday, Feb 7, we finish this series by looking at "Evil's Ultimate Defeat".
Read this to get ready for Sunday: Revelation 19; 20:1-2; and 21:1-6
This is a future picture of the defeat of the evil. But we still face evil...so what do we do in the meantime?
We overcome evil with good.
We do this together as Christ's holy church.
So, join us Sunday as we seek to light up the world a little more, as we seek to push back the darkness a little farther, as we come to a table prepared just for us...all of us...every single one of us...and we share together in Holy Communion.
If you want to catch up on any of the messages in this series so far, you can watch them here:https://www.youtube.com/user/telfordumc
Have a blessed week, stay strong in the Lord!
Pastor Michael
