Sermon Notes, December 28, 2014
Rev.
Jim Thurber
Since
Rev. Dan was sick Sunday, his son-in-law, Jim Thurber from Charlottesville,
filled our pulpit. Rev. Jim has completed
his ministerial studies and hopes to be ordained at the next District
Assembly. His message of encouragement
was based on Matthew 4:12-17, where Matthew tells of Isaiah’s prophecy (Is.
9:1-2) being fulfilled there in Capernaum, near Zebulon and Naphtali. “…The people who sat in darkness have seen a
great light…”
In
preparation for his message, Pastor Jim gave some of his background. His father was a Free Mason, his mother
Christian Science. He studied
philosophy and religion in college along with electrical engineering, and was
an atheist. In 1998, as he was comparing
Christian Science P.R. with the Greek grammar of the same scripture passage, he
found that the Greek said Jesus is God; he made a logical choice and gave his
life to Jesus.
He
began to study the occult from a Christian perspective. There is a belt of darkness that spreads from
Culpeper to Buckingham, a stronghold of demonic activity. There’s a spirit of “don’t touch me,” of
pride, of paranoia. There are dark
forces that don’t want light. In most of Virginia, half the population
identifies with a church; in Culpeper only 31% say they’re part of a
church. Our ministry is to do battle
with spirits.
Ephesians
6:10-12 reminds us that our strength comes from God. Remember, Ephesus was a place with lots of
demonic activity. The sorcerer who
earned money from the demon-possessed fortune-teller spread contention when
Paul cast out the woman’s demon and stopped his source of income. According to Ephesians 6:12, we aren’t
fighting against people made of flesh and blood but against persons without
bodies—the evil rulers of the unseen world, those mighty satanic beings and
great evil princes of darkness who rule this world; and against huge numbers of
wicked spirits in the spirit world.
Our
ministry is to do battle with these spirits.
You can’t medicate or debate evil spirits. The powers over Culpeper are nasty; we need
the shield of faith. (Other armor is
mentioned in Ephesians 6:13-18.) Prayer
will get demonic spirits off, and light will come in. Luke 2 says that the shepherds saw the
light. Angels, the armies of heaven, were
praising God. They ran to Bethlehem to
see Him. We are not alone as we battle spirits. “Greater is He that is in you than he that is
in the world.” (1 John 4:4)
Zebulon
and Naphtali were similar to Culpeper—borderline, near seats of political power,
but rather obscure. Jesus came to a “nowhere”
place to set up His headquarters. Take
to heart what God has wrought in our battle with spirits. Jesus has won the war: we're fighting the insurgency. Intercede.
Pray and fast. Our ministry is
just started.
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