Where Are the Called is a new sermon series that Pastor Brandon Korter will be preaching over the next few Sabbaths.
A Long, Long Time Ago
When the first Star Wars Movie came out in 1977, the first statement made was: “A Long, Long Time Ago”. When Roots ( television series ) came out people spent much time researching their genealogy. We as Christians should also look at our roots.
Ezekiel 28:14-18
The Story of Lucifer
14 “ You were the anointed cherub who covers;
I established you;
You were on the holy mountain of God;
You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.
15 You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created,
Till iniquity was found in you.
16 “ By the abundance of your trading
You became filled with violence within,
And you sinned;
Therefore I cast you as a profane thing
Out of the mountain of God;
And I destroyed you, O covering cherub,
From the midst of the fiery stones.
17 “ Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty;
You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor;
I cast you to the ground,
I laid you before kings,
That they might gaze at you.
18 “ You defiled your sanctuaries
By the multitude of your iniquities,
By the iniquity of your trading;
Therefore I brought fire from your midst;
It devoured you,
And I turned you to ashes upon the earth
In the sight of all who saw you.
This is the story of light versus darkness, good versus evil, followers of Christ versus followers of the Devil. Christ has always had faithful followers. God has always had a people on this earth.
Imagine a time when this earth had no sin and no evil. God was sitting on His Throne looking over His creation. He gave created beings a choice:
Ability to Love and Obey the Creator
Chose to Go Against God
By giving us human beings a choice, God took a risk. It is a high form of True Love – Giving the Right to say yes or no to God. That is True Love.
God’s highest angel was Lucifer ( means the shining one ). In Ezekiel 28:12,14 the Bible shows that Lucifer was most perfect and closest to God. Lucifer felt he should be elevated. There are only two other beings that stood with God in Heaven: Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Lucifer’s promotion never came.
In Ezekiel 28:17, Lucifer becomes filled with pride and jealousy. Lucifer wasn’t thinking straight. Lucifer had a false picture of himself: ( best, biggest, pride, exaggerated sense of one’s own importance ). This set Lucifer up for sin.
The middle initial of sin is ‘I’. Lucifer concluded that either the problem was with God or himself. Because Lucifer was not thinking right, he said that God is not truthful. Lucifer worked to convince one third of the angels of heaven that God was not right.
Revelation 12:17
And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
The war in heaven was like Star Wars. The battle between Christ and Satan ( Lucifer ) had begun. Do you want Christ to come again?
A tragic day came that changed the history of earth forever. Eve did not want to wander away. The world was without sin. The Bible tells us that the Devil went to all the other worlds to tempt them and they did not fall into sin. The Devil came back to the earth and tempted Eve with the forbidden fruit of the Garden of Eden.
Eve fell to temptation. Then Adam ate of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. Most of us today have a way to go ourselves to fill at ease with God. How does this apply to us?
God wants us to see this today. God wants us to see how sin causes us to break away from Him. Do you have anger, fear or are uneasy about God?
The separation of sin is keeping us from seeing Jesus as He really is. The greatest separator is sin. When Jesus hung on the cross He said: “My God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus carried the load of all the earth’s sin-an immense burden-and was in agony.
The whole purpose of sin is to keep us away from God. We begin to blame God for the pain our own sin brings to us. We treat Him like a frowning father – an outright enemy. When we get in trouble, have a tragedy, or suffer grief, Satan presses us to put the blame on God. If you are such a God of Love, why am I going through this?
Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.
This is the first Bible promise that Jesus would save us. The word seed refers to Satan’s seed and Eve’s seed. Eve’s seed comes from Jesus. Jesus head was bruised. The Devil tried to destroy Jesus but he could not. Jesus went to the cross and took the full penalty of our sin. We cannot comprehend how much love that took and will learn more about God’s love when Jesus comes to take us to heaven.
The same pleads and cries that God made to Lucifer to repent and turn around is no different than what Jesus is doing today. God went after Lucifer. God pleaded that Lucifer would come back and be restored but Lucifer said: No, I don’t want to have anything to do with you. The war in heaven in Revelation 12:17 went on for a very long time.
Jesus is now pleading with you today just like He did with Lucifer. God says: “I created you, love you and want you next to me. I will elevate you to be higher than the angels when Jesus comes.
It is easier to be saved than to be lost. Some people think salvation is so difficult. God never intended for one human to be exposed to hell fire at the coming Judgement Day. Some people keep responding: No, No, leave me alone to Jesus. How could we ever say no to a God that loves us so much? A God so loving that He pleaded with Lucifer for a very long time and sent Jesus into the world to save all of us.
Jesus knows your heart. The wonderful news is that one day soon, this war will be over. God has had, has now and will always have a loyal people that follow Him. Faithful followers. Jesus is asking you today: “Do you want to be a faithful follower?” Will you make a full and complete surrender to Jesus today? Will you accept Him? Just ask as He is waiting for you!