WEBVTT
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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God the Father and from the
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Lord Jesus Christ.
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Amen.
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I was struck dumb.
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I'm not usually left speechless, but I was struck dumb.
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It was only my third year of teaching.
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I was actually teaching on this text, old Testament to high school
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freshmen.
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So I thought it would be a really good idea to get the students
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involved in the lesson.
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So I had them all get out a piece of paper and a pencil, and I gave
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them 1 minute, and they had to write on the question, if you were God
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and Adam and Eve had sinned, what would you have done?
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So after their minute, I called on a couple of their students, and
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their answers were incredibly boring, and so I don't remember them.
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And then I called on Carly.
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Carly was this very tiny freshman girl with striking red hair. And I
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knew she'd be up for her, making fun of her because I had taught her
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older brother.
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Her mom was a teacher at the school.
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And so when I called on Carly, her face turned as bright red as her
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hair, and she looked down at her desk and she said, if I were God and
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Adam and Eve had sinned, I would have dug a hole for each of them.
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It would have been just tall enough that they couldn't climb out, just
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low enough that they could see everything outside.
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I would cover the walls with cement.
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I would put them in forever, and I would never let them die.
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So I was struck dumb.
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I don't remember, actually, if I said anything to Carly, but I
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remember thinking something to the effect of, holy cow, we need to go
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check her backyard for the bodies of small woodland creatures, because
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I might be teaching a sociopath.
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And that thought was actually reinforced when I got in touch with
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Carly and I asked her if I could share this story with all of you.
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And she replied, yes, in all caps.
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Now, Carly is actually a really great kid, but she had articulated so
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clearly how people want to treat their enemies.
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I was at a youth event last summer, and there was a question and
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answer session.
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Some of the high school youth were asking these really great questions
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about their faith and life, their interaction with their friends and
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family and their interaction with the world.
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And at one of the pastors stopped them and said, these are great.
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These are great questions, but I want you to notice I want you to
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notice that every question is something like this what's the last sin
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someone can do?
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What's the last sin someone can commit before God finally gives up on
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them and treats them like an enemy?
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These high school students, and they're great questions revealed that
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they had this conception of God that was something like the divine
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Carly.
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A God who wanted to seek them out and dig a hole and stick them in it
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forever.
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Like a divine IRS agent doing an audit just looking to pinch you.
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They thought God wanted to be their enemy.
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But for his part, God refuses to have enemies.
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He refused to treat Adam and Eve like enemies.
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And sure, Adam and Eve for their part, acted like enemies of God but
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God didn't stick them in a hole forever.
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They had acted like enemies of God when they believed that one great
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lie of the serpent that God doesn't really love you that he's holding
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back from you that he's anything but pure gift and blessing that God
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actually wants to be your enemy.
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But for his part, God refused to treat them like enemies.
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And now I know that the curses are in this text and they are serious
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but God refused to treat Adam and Eve like enemies.
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He came down and he sought them in the cool of the day.
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He spoke with them.
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He provided for them and he promised them eternal salvation from the
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one real enemy.
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He didn't leave them in a hole forever.
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He promised them salvation from that ancient serpent.
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He promised them that he would send the seed of a woman to crush that
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serpent's head.
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And he did.
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He did.
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He sent his own son born of a woman because God refuses to have
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enemies.
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God so refuses to have enemies that he gave his one and only Son to be
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bruised by the serpent to suffer and to die and to be put in a hole
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in the ground.
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But in that dying, in that dying, in giving up himself, Jesus Christ,
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the Son of God, crushed the head of that lying snake and he bought
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forgiveness for each and every person who believed that serpent's
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lies.
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And He didn't stay in that hole in the ground.
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God didn't leave Him there.
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But God raised Him up from the dead.
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And now Jesus, having ascended as king over all creation lives and
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reigns, and hHe still refuses to have enemies.
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He refuses to treat you like an enemy.
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And so he sent someone to find you.
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He sent someone to preach to you, to speak to you, to provide for you.
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He sent someone to promise you eternal salvation from that serpent and
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to preach to you the truth that God does love you, that he doesn't
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hold back any blessing from you.
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And of course the serpent will still come and he will still try to
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convince you that God doesn't love you.
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But the truth is this that Jesus has come and by his Holy Spirit, he
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has made you into a friend of God.
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And actually better than a friend, he's made you a child of God.
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And so one great lie of the serpent is that God doesn't actually love
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you, that God wants to be your enemy.
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But there's another one.
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This other lie of the serpent is that you do have enemies.
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And those enemies are flesh and blood people, people all around you.
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And this isn't actually that hard of a job for the serpent.
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It's easy for us to believe that we have enemies.
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There are examples of it all over in the scriptures.
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Do you remember James and John and Luke
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chapter nine.
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Jesus had just been transfigured on the mountain.
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He had come down, He had done some healings, He had preached, He had
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taught.
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And He had sent disciples ahead of Him to some Samaritan villages so
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He could preach and teach there too.
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But they refused to have Him.
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For their part, they wanted to treat Jesus like an enemy.
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And so James and John got the wonderful idea to treat them like
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enemies too.
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And they come up to Jesus and go something like this. Can we push the
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big red button, Jesus?
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Can we nuke them and get rid of these enemies
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Of God?
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And of course Jesus says no because Jesus doesn't actually have any
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enemies, at least not on His part.
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And I know it's pretty stereotypical for us to talk about the
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Pharisees as the enemies of Jesus.
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But have you noticed have you noticed just how much time Jesus spent
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with the Pharisees in the Gospels and how he interacted with them?
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How he continued to teach them, how he continued to preach to them,
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how he continued to show them mercy to endure?
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How he continued to invite them to be children of God because Jesus
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refuses to have enemies.
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And of course, some people would demand they would demand to be
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enemies of Jesus.
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So they put Him on a cross and they put Him in a hole in the ground.
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But even there, even on the cross, Jesus begged for forgiveness for
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those people who crucified Him, who crucified Him because Jesus
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doesn't have any enemies.
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A couple of years ago, I was reading an online article about Nebraska
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football or something, and there was an ad that popped up.
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It went something to the effect of, join us.
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This is a battle for the soul of our nation.
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It was an invitation an invitation to join a side to join a side so that
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I could identify all of my enemies and so I could stick them in a hole
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in the ground.
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It's not the way of Jesus and it's not the way of His Father.
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And I know I know that it so often feels like and it seems like we
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have enemies. After all
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the world has changed so much.
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The Church has changed so much.
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And some of you have been crushed by people in the world.
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Some of you have been crushed by people in the Church.
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And maybe some of us deceived by the serpent's lies have done some of
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the crushing.
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But it's still the one enemy who is slithering.
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It is still the one great and ancient enemy who is trying to rip the
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Church of God apart by trying to convince it's you that you have
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enemies.
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And so he tries to rip apart God's people.
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He tries to rip apart marriages and friendships and classes and
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faculties and synods and seminaries trying to convince you that you
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have enemies and they are here.
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But he is the enemy.
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He is that ancient enemy because you don't have enemies.
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That ancient enemy isn't in your church.
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He isn't in your class, he's not in this faculty, he's not in this
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synod and he is sure as hell not in these pews.
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To believe, to believe that you have enemies and that they are here is
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to let the serpent win, to give in to that serpent's ancient lies.
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But you're a Christian.
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You're a Christian.
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So don't listen to the serpent's lies.
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Don't let the serpent win.
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Don't let the serpent rip us apart.
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You are, we are children of God.
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And that means that the victory over the serpent is already done.
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You don't have any more enemies to fight because Jesus Christ, the Son
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of God has come and He has crushed the ancient serpent with His death
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and His resurrection.
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And now He lives and reigns over all creation.
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And He will come again to banish that serpent to hell once and for
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all.
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And He has promised that you will participate in that eternal victory
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because by His spirit and his word, He has made you a child of God.
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And that hole in the ground is still empty and it's not meant to be
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filled again, not even with your enemies.
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Don't let the serpent win.
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Don't try to shove your enemies into the hole in the ground.
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Instead, by the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of Jesus,
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refuse to have enemies.
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There's a vicar I know who got a phone call his second week of
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vicarage.
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His senior pastor was busy that night and so he answered the phone to a
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sobbing woman.
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She had had a huge fight with somebody at her church, a close friend,
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and they had said these horrible, hurtful, mean things to each other.
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And so the vicar came up with a plan.
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He was going to reconcile these people together.
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He was going to listen to their feelings, talk about their emotions
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and their thoughts, help them identify idols so that he could
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reconcile them.
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So the next day, he went into his senior pastor's office and he told
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him his great plan.
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And the senior pastor went, that's great, you're not doing that.
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I'm the senior pastor, I'll take care of this.
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The vicar, a little relieved, left.
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And he came back the next day because he wanted to know, he wanted to
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know how reconciliation actually works in the church.
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And so he walked into a senior pastor's office and said, hey, as you
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go throughout this process of reconciliation, can I kind of shadow you
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and see what you do?
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The senior pastor looked at him kind of funny and then said, oh yeah,
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that's done.
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And the vicar was struck dumb because reconciliation is supposed to
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take such a long time, there's so many things to sort through.
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The vicar finally worked up the courage to say, how did you do that?
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The senior pastor said, well, I treated them like Christians.
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I called them each.
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And I said, I think the devil is really trying to win one here.
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Don't let the serpent win.
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Anything you can possibly think of to apologize for. Anything that you
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possibly think you could die to yourself, call each other and
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apologize.
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And they did.
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And so don't, don't let the serpent win.
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Don't let that slithering serpent win and rip us apart because you
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are, we are together, the children of God.
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We are filled with the Holy Spirit, the spirit of peace and of mercy
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and of long suffering and of forgiveness.
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The very spirit of God.
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So any way that you can think of to die to yourself, try it.
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Don't let the serpent win.
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Be the child that God has called you to be.
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A child who looks forward to that eternal victory, the resurrection of
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the dead and the life of the world to come.
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It is coming because that hole in the ground is empty.
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In the holy name of Jesus. Amen.