Destroying the Works of Satan

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak at a youth rally and my topic was the purpose of the church. I talked about how the church is God’s vehicle for saving the world today (through the preaching of the gospel), for influencing the world and trying to make it a better place (through service), and equipping Christians for those first two tasks (through education and discipleship).

And those are all pretty standard ideas—we hear about those things a lot when we talk about what the church should do. But the church has another important purpose that is often neglected in such discussions: the mission of the church is to oppose and destroy the works of Satan.

In 1 John 3.8, John said that Jesus came to earth so that “He might destroy the works of the devil.” In Ephesians 6.12, Paul says that our struggle as Christians is not against flesh and blood, but against the forces of darkness. 

These verses make it clear that as the church, we are a part of a spiritual battle against Satan and his influence. Moral corruption and sin are the works of the Devil (and we focus on things like that a lot),  but so are things like disease, starvation, poverty, terrorism, and racism. 

When you look at all the sad and messed up stuff that happens in our world—do you think God likes that stuff? Of course not! Children starving to death in the developing world, or innocent people being killed because of racial wars, or bombs going off at marathon finish lines—those are works of Satan, and when we take part in efforts to fight against those things, we are fulfilling the purpose of the church in opposing and destroying the works of the Devil. 

To me, realizing that when we fight against evil, we’re part of a cosmic struggle and are fighting against Satan himself gives us a whole new level of motivation for doing it. The decisions we make each and every day are important because we have the opportunity to stand up against evil. 

A cosmic struggle against evil: think about that the next time one of your friends tells a racist joke—are you going to sit there and laugh at the works of Satan, or realizing that God loves all people regardless of race and that racism comes from Satan, are you going to speak up and put a stop to it? 

Or the next time you have an opportunity to give to people, maybe people living on the other side of the world who have less than you do—are you going to be willing to use what you have to fight against the works of Satan like poverty and starvation, or are you going to hold onto those things so you can continue to pursue the idolatry of the “American dream”?

Studies show that a whole bunch of teens leave the church after high school, and I think a big reason for that is because it just doesn’t seem like the work of the church is all that important. After all, if we narrow down what church is to only a couple hours of activity a week, of course its importance is going to be diminished. But when we realize the cosmic nature of the struggle we are involved in—saving the world, serving the world, training Christians to do those things, and opposing the works of Satan—we see that the church is absolutely a cause worth giving our lives to.

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75 Servants, 75 Guests, 75 Years: A Recap

This past weekend at the Farmington Church of Christ, in honor of our 75th anniversary, we had a special event called 75 Servants, 75 Guests, 75 Years.

Basically, the first part of the plan was to meet together as a church family on Saturday and serve our community through a variety of projects:

• Mowing lawns
• Free Car Wash
• Bagging and carrying groceries at IGA
• Washing windshields at gas stations
• Providing clothing and food free of charge
• Making lap quilts to take to widows
• Hauling brush
• Picking up trash from the side of the road
• Helping move furniture

Our goal was to have a minimum of 75 people from our church show up to work (hence, the “75 Servants”), and that goal was met—I counted almost 90 names on the sign-in sheet, and I know some people who were there neglected to sign in. The things we did weren’t exactly earth-shattering, but we hoped to have a positive impact on our community through service, and to show God’s love to those we came in contact with.

I know that our lawn-mowing crews made a particular impact. One lady who had been unable to take care of her lawn due to health issues was so appreciative that she described the men who came to cut her grass as “angels.” Another woman and her husband who had just had a new baby and gotten behind on yard work were so thankful to have that taken off their to-do list.

I had the privilege of working at our car wash (with a bunch of middle schoolers…let me tell you about that someday!), and enjoyed the puzzled looks on people’s faces as I tried to explain that we weren’t accepting donations—we just wanted to serve them. One man had come to get his car washed after running into some of our folks at a gas station. He asked what other kinds of projects we were doing and when I told him, he said, “That’s really cool.”

After we finished our service projects, we headed back to the church building to get everything cleaned and set up for our Friends & Family Day on Sunday, which was the second part of our big weekend. Keeping with the same theme, our goal was to have 75 Guests for worship Sunday morning, and toward that end, our members had been inviting friends, family members, and neighbors for weeks (and also some people that we met on Saturday).

I was overwhelmed by the response on Sunday. We ended up with 85 guests, and a total of over 300 in attendance (which is a big number for a church of 170-180!). We then had the privilege of witnessing one of our guests give his life to Christ in baptism, and afterwards we invited all of our guests to share a meal with us. I don’t know how many stayed for the meal, but I know our fellowship hall was packed.

It was a great weekend. I was humbled by the work done by our church family at work on Saturday, and to see the results of their willingness to invite others on Sunday. And perhaps I was most pleased that a bunch of people who are trying to follow Jesus were able to spend a weekend “going about and doing good” like He did. 

What an encouragement!