This alien force is contrary to life as God created it on this planet and yet it seems powerful... even unstoppable in its ability to captivate persons lives and destroy.
No, I am not talking about the summer's blockbuster movie "Independence Day."
This alien force has a clear name. It is sin. And Paul clearly defines its characteristics in the Book of Romans.
In Chapter 7, he openly admits his own struggle with sin's enslaving power. He knows what is right and wrong but seems unable to do that which is right because even in his life, sin had taken such a strong influence.
In Chapter 8 he returns to the contrast between the person who lives according to their sinful selfish desires and the person who lives to please Christ.
Sin is one of those topics that people really don't like to hear about in a sermon. We don't like to be reminded that we have been captured and taken prisoner by this alien force.
It is bad news. It is depressing and it is unpleasant. But there is hope and there is good news because this power can be and has been vanquished.
In the movie Independence Day IV, scientists and military leaders figure out the one vulnerable weakness of the alien's mother ship to infiltrate and destroy its power over earth. When the program is broken which keeps up the protective shields around that satellite ships leaving them vulnerable to defeat.
A stirring speech by the president of the United States calls the fighter pilots to action when he says this is not just for the Independence of the US, this is Independence Day for the World. "Let us not go quietly into the dark night."
Today I declare to you Independence from this alien force of sin. It is vulnerable and weak. It has been infiltrated and its power destroyed by the death resurrection of Jesus Christ. And by the work of the Holy Spirit in your life, there is a liberating power available to us which does a number of things to help us be free from sin.
We need gods power to stop worrying so much about other peoples sins and with his help begin to change those things in our life which are displeasing to God. I think that there has bee a good example of this that occurred at this year's General Assembly in Albuquerque (even if it was not the main intent). Most thought that the agenda of this Assembly would be to clarify language which would prohibit the ordination of avowed, practicing homosexuals. That it did. But GA didn't just affirm its stand that unrepentant homosexual practice is wrong, it also recognized that any act the Bible and the Confessions say is sin precludes a person from ordination. In essence, the GA acted to remove a double standard not by easing standards but by applying the same principles across the board.
Whenever there is talk about sin, it is too easy to say no to the sins that others may struggle with and be blind to the things which so easily tempt and capture us. We need the power of God's Spirit to say no.
Why Jesus said, Don't worry about the speck in Brothers eye, worry about the log in your own eye. People, myself included find it very easy to see others faults and judge them but often refuse to see the areas of their own life which need to be examined and corrected.
We categorize sins and say "this one is bad, but this one isn't."
E.G. I heard about a couple that went to fast food restaurant to get lunch so they could go to a park and have a picnic. Just before they arrived, the manager had taken a large number of bills and bound them, put them in a bag and was getting ready to take the deposit to the bank.
An unwitting cashier mistakenly took the bag of money and gave it to the couple at the drive thorough window. Soon, the mistake was discovered and the police were called. At the same time, the couple had arrived at the park, opened the bag and discovered the money which they promptly took back to the restaurant.
The manager was so glad that he wanted to get their names, see that they got a reward, were honored by the company for their honesty and were written up in the local paper.
They vigorously declined such attention for their act of honesty for you see they were married all right but not too each other and they were involved in an illicit affair.
One act may be unthinkable to us. And yet how blind are we or how unwilling are we to recognize our own sin.
God's spirit is available to help us overcome and be free from the sinful desires in our own lives.
He said I am not tempted to include gratuitous sex or violence in my books for I don't want to write anything that I would feel ashamed for my children to read....and besides, my mother would kill me.
Being a child of earthly parents carries with it privileges and responsibilities.
So it is in the Christian life. We are God's children and as such, we bear a responsibility to live as such just as much as we deserve to inherit all things with Christ by whom we have been adopted into this family.
God's spirit is a reminder to us that we belong to this family. That God is our heavenly parent and the we are brothers and sisters with each other.
In this family, there is no fear of condemnation; no fear of wrath or abuse. Instead there is the spirit of adoption given to us whereby we cry Abba Father or Daddy
And that reminder of our family tree helps us to live freed from the power of sin and more like the Children of God.
Similarly, I also think about how I tend to focus on my problems and how great all my trials and tribulations are.
And yet the Scripture here affirms that our momentary sufferings cannot be compared to the glory of heaven.
Even one's lifetime of suffering is but a flash in comparison to eternity.
Does this mean that we are to ignore pain. Are we simply to give platitudes to those whose pain is real and whose grief is immense. Are we to say to the families who lost loved ones on TWA 800, "Well it doesn't matter - just remember heaven. Your son, your daughter is in a better place now."
No. But that truth does help us keep this life and all its joys and pleasures and sorrows and difficulties in perspective. I believe God cares about what we go through in this life. If God didn't, God wouldn't have sent Jesus into the world to be our brother in suffering.
Nor would God have sent the Holy Spirit to Indwell every believer as a first fruits or down payment of the glory that will await us in heaven.
Our present sufferings of this world are simply not comparable to that Glory. With that perspective, it is possible then to keep going; Verse 17 says that if we suffer with him we will also be glorified with him. There is the promise of reward for those who persevere; for those who endure suffering and for those who keep the faith even when it is hard.
But Christ also has sent the Holy Spirit to make that independence a reality and to protect us from further invasion.