God Has Won, In Short Order

C. Hayden 10-10-17

It seems like every time we turn around, a tragedy appears all over the news outlets. Whether it is nature

ravaging whole communities as seen with serial hurricanes, fires igniting and consuming neighborhoods out west

or terror induced violence like the recent shooting in Las Vegas, we are constantly bombarded with an uneasy

feeling that our lives are under siege. Add on to these events our national disunity over differing political and

moral values and the ongoing tension with other nuclear and near nuclear armed nations such as North Korea and

Iran, it is no wonder that many feel the planet is on fire and doomsday date setters exist a plenty.

We live in a nation that is in real turmoil and Matthew 24 is becoming more and more relevant, even for

those seemingly untouched directly by these events. In the book of 1

st

Peter, chapter 5:8-9 we read, “

Be sober, be

vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

9

Resist

him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”

Scripture is clear that we have an adversary who wants to destroy the lives of people. Satan does this primarily

through deception. Deception leading to our disunity as a people, our disjointed attempts to live in harmony with

others, our dysfunctional relationship as a human community and the world’s dislocated relationship with the God

of the Bible. But there is “Good News.” Jesus told us that He has come that we might have life and to have that life

more abundantly (John 10:10) and that we are not to fear because He has overcome the world (John 16:33). He

came to bring His creation back from the brink and He uses us to deliver that message to the world.

Here is some more good news. He is going to lock up the enemy of our souls, the devil, in short order.

Revelation 20:2-3 says this, “He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is

the

Devil and Satan, and bound

him for a thousand years;

3

and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that

he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished.” Now it does say that God will loose

the devil at the end of the millennium for a short time (to fulfill God’s purpose), but will then cast Satan away

forever in the Lake of Fire. We will no longer have to experience the torment of the deceiver any longer. This is

God’s promise and we can take His Word to the bank! Be encouraged, we win because God has already won! Joy

comes in the morning!

Be blessed even more!!

Pastor Chris