Presented to The Salvation Army Swift Current Corps 31 Oct 2010; 614 Regent Park, 01 Nov 2015; Alberni Valley Ministries, 30 October 2021; White Rock Luncheon, 29 October 2026, by Captain (Major) Michael Ramsay
This is the (much shorter) 2026 White Rock Version.
To view a 2021 video version of the message, click here: https://youtu.be/zkKz9y_uBoQ
See links to the other versions under the message...
21 “Imagine
a strong man, armed to the teeth, guarding his palace. Everything he owns is
safe and sound. 22 But supposing someone stronger comes
and overpowers him, and takes away the armor he was trusting in—then he can
help himself and start dividing up the plunder! 23 If
you’re not with me, you’re against me. If you’re not gathering with me, you’re
scattering.
24 “When
the unclean spirit goes out of a person, it roams through desert landscapes
looking for a place to rest. When it doesn’t find anywhere, it says to itself,
‘I shall go back to the house I left behind.’ 25 And it
finds the place neat and tidy. 26 So it sets off and
brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and goes back to live
there. [The haunted house] That person will end up worse off than he began.”
“Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand?” (Lk 11:23, Mt 12:30) Jesus says, “He who is not with me is against me.” Jesus has been accused of exorcising demons by demonic power (Lk 11:15, Mt 12:24, Mk 3:22). Jesus answers this charge by saying that not only is He innocent but also it is impossible to drive out evil with evil as is charged. Only good can drive out evil. Therefore since Jesus can drive out evil, He is good; thus if you oppose Him than you, by definition, are evil. “He who is not with me is against me.”
Today are we with him or against him? Jesus casts out demons while telling this parable of the haunted house. Sin, in this parable, has many parallels with addiction. Any of us who have ever struggled with addiction know that each time one becomes clean and then slips up, it becomes more difficult to become clean again and remain that way. Like the metaphorical demons of addiction, literal demons and sin return stronger (with more friends) each time. This doesn’t need to be that way. Jesus can clean our houses and when Jesus cleans our house we can let Him keep it clean too (TSA d.6, d.10)!
This is the choice set before us today. We can ask Jesus to sweep our life clean. Any of us can ask our Lord Jesus to clean our haunted houses. Even if He has already cleaned it once or one hundred times and we have messed it up again. While we still have breath in our body, we can invite Him back into our lives to clean us up, sort us out and we can continue receiving the Lord’s blessing of eternal life, Luke 11:28, “blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.” As we do this, we will continue in the blessing of the Holy Spirit. This is holiness and this holiness is available to all but we must make a choice (TSA d.10).
Today the choice is ours: Do we want to live in an haunted and dirty house or would we like to let Jesus clean it for us?
---
The view the original Swift Current 2010 version, click here:
https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2015/10/luke-1114-28-haunted-house.html
To view the 2015 version of this sermon that was presented to Corps 614 Regent Park in Toronto, click here:
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2015/10/luke-1114-28-haunted-house.html
To view the 2021 version that was presented to Alberni Valley Ministries in BC. click here:
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2021/10/luke-1114-28-parable-of-haunted-house.html
Posts
