2 Thessalonians 3.3 3 But the Lord is faithful. He will
establish you and guard you against the evil one. (ESV)
This morning I get the privilege of speaking at one of
our sister churches here in Baker City, what a treat! For the subject matter I’m
going to use a couple clips from the movie: The
Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey to underscore a couple themes from Scripture.
It ought to be fun.
In the book The
Hobbit, Or There and Back Again the main character is a lowly creature
named Bilbo Baggins who appears to be somewhat well-to-do and loves to live in
his polished little Hobbit home built into the side of a hill with a round door
and round windows. The hallways are round tubular affairs but are lined with
expensive stained and polished wood and the floors are covered with tile, woods
and very nice quality rugs. The place is rather posh we might say.
Bilbo is enticed by a good wizard to join a company of
dwarves who are journeying back to their home: the Lonely Mountain, where their
past and vast fortunes have been captured and spoiled by a vicious, hideous
dragon. There is no mention of God in the story – only a wise wizard, a band of
dwarves, some elves, and an unlikely Hobbit, and evil beyond imagination.
In real life, not fantasy stories, there is an evil one – the Bible tells us so. The
Bible calls him a serpent and a dragon. Our lives are not filled with
dwarves, and wizards and elves; our lives are filled with the comings and
goings of men who live in selfishness, greed, and all manner of evil. And the
finger of blame points to a dragon of unspeakable evil that chooses to make the
lives of men as miserable as he can.
The Good News is in real
life there is also God. The mystery is: God is good and never does anything
wrong, and is filled with love, and goodness, and hates evil. But God allows
evil to grow right alongside good. Interestingly, in real life, God promises to
protect and help real people avoid the real evil that is around them if they
will but keep their eyes focused upon and their lives aligned with Him: the Lord is faithful; He will establish you
and guard you against the evil one. So, in real life as in fantasy stories,
there is a way to navigate through life and avoid the evil that is so prevalent
around us and in our hearts. It’s based upon a truth, a promise, the Lord is faithful.
The Lord is faithful and for those who choose to believe
in Him they are called the faithful: faith begets faith. The child of faith is
born to the father of faith. Our only hope in real life is to have faith in Him
who is faithful and will establish and guard us against the real dragon.
I need help against the real evils in real life and I must
stay stuck to the real God who faithfully promises to establish me in truth and
guard me against the real evil one who just happens to really be called a
dragon.
Father God, thank You for Your faithfulness and for the
gift of faith against real evils and a real evil one… amen.
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