Angels and Demons - All About Angels
Pastor Robbie opens a new series, Angels & Demons with approaching Angels.
This past Sunday we started a brand new series surrounding the incredibly fascinating subjects of Angels and Demons! Pastor Robbie opens our series by exploring who angels are and what are their roles in Scripture. We hope you enjoyed the one-off message ‘Good Vibes Only’ a comment on Christian subcultures - we learned about so many valuable half-truths in Christian culture and how to address them! If you were not able to make it to our Gathering this past Sunday, know that we missed you!
Most people, whether or not they have spent much time in the Church, have heard of both angels and demons but our culture has a very different perspective to them than Scripture. Honestly, if all of us were honest with ourselves, we struggle to realize the impact of the spiritual realm altogether in our culture. Even though we have verses like 2 Corinthians 4:28 to deal with, “…as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” Pastor Robbie stated, There is this supernatural world, this unseen spiritual dynamic that we consider from time to time…but we are getting desensitized to a very real battle that waging in our minds and souls all around us! We know that there is a spiritual realm existing within our physical realm, but we may not have considered that Scripture has a lot to say about this matter.
So. who exactly are angels? Angels are beings created by God to serve him in a variety of ways, as He wills. We see angelic activity in both the Old & New Testaments in a wide variety of functions but all of them are by nature God’s servants. Angels can be invisible, or they can also manifest themselves in human form! Angels are immortal - they don’t die (Luke 20:36). Angels are incredibly intelligent (2 Samuel 14:20). Angels are holy and innumerable (Mark 8:38; Hebrews 12:22). Pastor Robbie put it well saying, “I want to forever dispel the myth that angels are fat harp-playing babies sitting on clouds. My angel is 10 feet tall and works out, ok? That might be your angel but I’m just telling you right now, my angel is buff and you don’t want to mess with my angel.” There is this idea, especially from artists’ visual descriptions that angels are passive and wholistically attractive beings - this is not what Scripture tells us Church!
In Scripture, there are so many stories involving angels, but we begin to see a pattern develop when we pay attention to what they’re doing when they are talked about. There are three main roles that angels take on in Scripture (while in actuality, there could be innumerable roles that they take on - Scripture is not explicitly clear on this). The first role that angels take on could be a Worshipper - Wherever you find God, you will always find angels worshipping Him (Hebrews 1:6; Revelation 5:11-13). Similarly to mankind, as God’s Image Bearers, angels can take on the role of eternally honoring and glorifying God! The second role that we see angels take on is that of Warriors of God, they are able and willing to carry out whatever sort of physical or violent task that the Lord requires of them (Daniel 10; 1 Chronicles 21; 2 Kings 19:35). Angels were created for God, by God - they are worshippers and they are warriors. The third role that we find angels taking on in Scripture is a Messenger - when the Lord needs information conveyed to someone specific for a specific reason, we see Messanger angels sent out (Judges 6:12; Luke 1:30-31)
Angels and everything surrounding angels is a fascinating subject to us, because, I imagine that not many of us (if any) have ever known of an encounter with an angel - what we need to understand is Church, you very well could have and not known! There is so much more about angels and even in the message from this past Sunday’s Gathering - we encourage you to go and listen to the full version!
SOME KEY TAKE-AWAYS
Angels & Demons - All About Angels: Angels are a fascinating subject, and are much more apart of our world than most people believe.
Who Are Angels and What is Their Purpose: Above all, Angels are God’s servants, charged to whatever He desires for them to do.
How Should I Think About Angels?: Angels are beings that are created for God and by God - they operate in our world in a variety of ways; we not consciously aware of them, but they are active!
There is so much more to explore!: Given that there are about 273 verses in Scripture that talk about angelic activity - there is so much more to know about their role(s) in the world than what we were able to cover!
If this topic piques your interest or if you would enjoy listening to this sermon in more depth, check out Legacy City’s Podcast, available here, or on Spotify and Itunes
To keep up to date with Legacy City Church and everything that God is doing in our community, please follow us on social media:
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Join us next Sunday as Pastor Robbie continues in our Angels & Demons series when we explore the subject of Demons!
We’re saving you a seat, and know that You Are Loved!
Good Vibes Only - Addressing Partial Truths
Pastor Robbie comments on some possible issues in Christian sub-culture.
This past Sunday we shifted gears into a message that Pastor Robbie really felt like he needed to preach on addressing the Christian sense of the common phrase ‘Good Vibes Only’. We hope you enjoyed our At The Movies Series, but some good things must come to an end! Now that we don’t have any pressing copyright concerns, the Podcast(s) for future Sermons will be available unless otherwise noted. If you were not able to make it to our Gathering this past Sunday, know that we missed you!
In our American culture today, the phrase ‘Good Vibes Only’ or some version of this can be seen almost everywhere you look, especially on social media. Scrolling through Instagram, you will see many people happy and thrilled with what is going on in their lives so they throw #goodvibes or #goodvibesonly in their caption to declare that they never want the feeling and experience they have captured to go away. Now there may not be anything explicitly wrong with this sentiment, but there different subtle versions of this idea that has seeped into Christian culture in ways that are not altogether wrong, but they are not altogether right either. When we look at what Scripture says of our lives, we see that this life is filled with blessings but it is also filled with trials. We are going to explore some of the ‘Partial Truth’s’ floating around in our Christian culture today and address them honestly and fairly.
The first Partial-Truth that was addressed is the Prosperity Gospel. You may or may not have heard of this, but basically what this idea suggests is that God, at the end of the day, wants you to be happy, healthy, and wealthy. Ps. Robbie stated ‘It's not like he is radically opposed to that, but it is not the entire truth because it sells itself short in saying, "At the end of the day, do you know what God wants for you? He wants you to be wealthy; he wants you to be healthy. If you follow God, this is what is in store for you." And that just doesn't align with the Bible. Jeremiah 29:11 is often wielded as evidence for this idea concerning God’s will for our lives “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” The context of this verse does not allow for the Prosperity Gospel; the people of Israel are being conquered by a foreign nation and there isn’t anything they can do about it! Hey, people are saying you're coming home. You're not coming home. Get comfortable. Seek the welfare of the city that you're in, but put down roots. You are not coming home. In fact, some of you guys are not even going to live for 70 years! Ultimately, the prosperity gospel creates this weird relationship where you don't actually worship God. You worship what he can give you.
The second Partial-Truth Pastor Robbie addressed is the Positivity Gospel. This movement towards self-help and overwhelming declarations towards positivity in one’s life has its benefits, that are Scripturally based, but sometimes it is taken way too far. God promises blessings in our lives, as we come alongside what He desires for our lives - but where it gets distorted is it begins to make promises that God never made. God does not promise you a promotion at work, the right relationship, or that you will be free from pain and suffering of any kind. Philippians 4:13 is probably one of the most well-known verses in Scripture because of this misunderstanding, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me”. Paul writes this from a prison cell to the church in Phillipi not to suggest to us that we can conquer the world - it suggests that no matter what happens, if I win or if I lose, if I'm rich or if I'm poor, that no matter what I face I can handle it all because of Jesus. He is enough. Positivity is one thing, but the peace that passes all understanding in Jesus Christ is truly transforming; positivity can bring you happiness, but Jesus brings you peace and joy!
The last Partial-Truth that was addressed this past Sunday is Promised Upgrades. This one that we probably hear often, ‘Oh you’re boy/girl-friend broke up with you? That’s because God has someone out there that s better for.’ This partial-truth basically tells people that bad things are only happening in your life because God has something better in store for you in the future - this feeds off of the idea of both the Prosperity and Positivity gospel points mentioned before. If God only desires good for our lives, well this bad thing that I’m going through isn’t actually bad, its actually good and I should lean into that. Romans 8:28 is often used to fuel this idea, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose”. We must get away from this idea that God’s goodness in our lives is always about making us more like Jesus, Ps. Robbie said it well in that “The specific good that God is at work. What’s this good? It's that in every situation that you face, God is going to bring about the good goal of using it to make you more like Jesus. That's the specific good in every situation.”
Consider what Partial-Truth’s you may believe in your life - dive into Scripture and pray that the Holy Spirit continues to illumine your mind and heart towards God’s will for your life. God’s Word and what He wants us to understand is the whole truth, while the subjects discussed this past Sunday have partial-truth, we are called to understanding whole truth and living our lives as such.
SOME KEY TAKE-AWAYS
Good Vibes Only - These partial truths, when misapplied can be damaging to our lives.
Main Scripture Passages: Philippians 4; Jeremiah 29:8-11; Romans 8:28
The Prosperity Gospel: God does not will that you should always be happy, healthy, and wealthy.
The Positivity Gospel: God does not will that we place our source of peace and joy on anything other than our relationship with Him through Jesus.
Promised Upgrades: Every unfortunate situation in our lives is not something better waiting to happen - take the good with the bad, all by leaning on the work that Jesus has done in your life.
If this topic piques your interest or if you would enjoy listening to this sermon in more depth, please head over to Legacy City’s Podcast here.
To keep up to date with Legacy City Church and everything that God is doing in our community, please follow us on social media:
Facebook: LegacyCityGWD
Instagram: LegacyCityGWD
Twitter: LegacyCityGWD
Join us next Sunday as Pastor Robbie begins an exciting and mysterious new series: Angels & Demons!
We’re saving you a seat, and know that You Are Loved!