Sermon Notes

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How do we harmonize praying curses with "love your enemy". How can we repay evil with good, yet pray that God's enemies "melt away like a slug on the sidewalk"?

Anathema

Anathema means "cursed" - but there's more than that. It carries a meaning of "laid before God."

Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said,

Luke 21:5

As with all the imprecations, this is not about us carrying out personal revenge. This is about laying the enemies of God at His feet, praying that the God of the Covenant will carry out HIS justice on behalf of His people.

Follow the Leaders and pray the curses

When we look for those praying curses on the enemies of God...and God's people, we find Paul, telling Timothy about Alexander, "May God repay him on that day."

We find the perfect saints of God who have been martyred, crying out

“O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

Rev. 6:10

If the perfected saints in heaven pray curses against those who murder God's people pray for His perfect justice, we should be free to follow their example.

But Love!

Jesus said to love our enemies. Paul said to overcome evil with good and to try to be at peace with all men.

However, what is in view here is not praying for God's justice. We are not to pray curses in order to further our own sinful and malicious maltreatment of those who have wronged us.

Taking our own personal revenge is always wrong (and that brings us to the end of this post...

Read the Rest of the Imprecation Series here.

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A "different norm"

In the Uighur Province of China, the communist government is running "reeducation camps", committing genocide against the population, including the Muslim minority in that province.

I'm leading off with this, so that you can keep it in mind as you read.

President Biden says,

"..I am not going to speak out against what he’s doing in Hong Kong, what he’s doing with the Uighurs in western mountains of China and Taiwan...Culturally there are different norms that each country and their leaders are expected to follow,”

New York Post

Yes, folks, our president sees the systematic rape, torture, and genocide as merely "different norms" and he does not intend to speak out against these heinous actions.

I am back to "how do we DO good and yet pray curses?"

For he did not remember to show kindness,
    but pursued the poor and needy
    and the brokenhearted, to put them to death.

from Psalm 109

Systematic torture and rape

Women are raped in these reeducation camps, not only by guards, but the men in the surrounding areas who pay the guards for the priviledge of raping young girls.

Tursunay Ziawudun, who fled Xinjiang after her release and is now in the US, said women were removed from the cells "every night" and raped by one or more masked Chinese men. She said she was tortured and later gang-raped on three occasions, each time by two or three men.

So, gang rape is simply a "different norm" so it's okay...according to President Biden.

People who do these things and politicians who publicly refuse to speak against these abuses of image bearers of God...are enemies of God.

Let curses come upon him!

He loved to curse; let curses come upon him!
    He did not delight in blessing; may it be far from him!

from Psalm 109

1,000,000 Uilghurs from the region have been "removed" and some reports say 3,000,000.

He clothed himself with cursing as his coat;
may it soak into his body like water,
like oil into his bones!
May it be like a garment that he wraps around him,
like a belt that he puts on every day!

From Psalm 109

May curses soak into his body like water

"The woman took me to the room next to where the other girl had been taken in. They had an electric stick, I didn't know what it was, and it was pushed inside my genital tract, torturing me with an electric shock."

There were "four kinds of electric shock", Sedik said - "the chair, the glove, the helmet, and anal rape with a stick".

O Lord, God of vengeance,
    O God of vengeance, shine forth!
Rise up, O judge of the earth;
    repay to the proud what they deserve!

The rest of the Imprecation Series is here.

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What the world has for Christians

Christians are being persecuted all over the world and here we are

In the last year

  • Over 340 million Christians living in places where they experience high levels of persecution and discrimination
  • 4,761 Christians killed for their faith
  • 4,488 churches and other Christian buildings attacked
  • 4,277 believers detained without trial, arrested, sentenced or imprisoned
  • (source: Open Doors USA)

The groundwork is being laid in the United States and here we are.

We've looked at the "Do No Harm Act" and the "Equality Act".

James Coates has been arrested for holding church services in Canada.

The current administration is once again funding Planned Parenthood in the USA and funding abortion in other countries.

Leftist agendas abound and Christians risk their jobs if they speak up.

Kroger, one of the country's largest supermarket chains, is being sued in federal court after two former employees claimed they were wrongfully terminated for refusing to wear an apron with a rainbow symbol.

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/kroger-sued-allegedly-firing-workers-who-refused-wear-rainbow-symbol-n1240252

so here we are.

Imprecations

Is the church of Christ restricted to "love our enemy" and "turn the other cheek"? In other words, is there a way to love our enemies, while crying out for justice?

Can we turn the other cheek, while praying

Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime,

Psalm 58:8

We must remember that the imprecations of Scripture are just as inspired as the rest of the words. There are 100 imprecations in the Psalms alone, plus other parts of the Old Testament, and many in the New Testament.

The Imprecatory Psalms are the "war psalms of the Prince of Peace"

God does not view evil in the abstract and the imprecations are the cries of God's people, begging Him to intervene against evil and evil-doers.

Our pastor said, "one of the reasons we are repulsed by these Psalms is because we are not repulsed by evil."

Notes on the Imprecations

  • These Psalms remind us that we are in a spiritual war and praying judgement on the enemies of God is one of our weapons of war.
  • We should pray these Psalms if we love holiness and Biblical justice and hate evil.
  • We cannot remain indifferent to evil - and to politicians who do and promote evil things.

Follow this link for the rest of the series

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Sermon Notes: Imprecations Intro-Part 1

Our pastor is preaching a series on imprecatory prayers and there's a lot unpack. The first point was "we are here" and the first point of the first point was "The Equality Act"

February 7, 2021 - we are here with the Equality Act

the "equality act" would add "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to the list of civil right protection. H.R.5 is expected to be reintroduced in 2021.

Implications of The Equality Act

...continue reading →

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What does it mean that our old man was crucified?

 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin; (Roman's 6:6 ASV)

From Sunday's (AM) sermon -

A lot of translations render the "old man" as "old self"

this leads to wrong thinking about what the verse is saying. Our pastor illustrated with the phrase "sphere of existence" - our "old man" = "in Adam" and our "new man" = "in Christ.

(below is my understanding, not from the sermon)

...continue reading →