This is the Truth Network. Welcome to Ignite the Light Ministries radio and podcast. It is our mission to help listeners develop a deeper relationship with Jesus by sharing what the Bible says and what it means. We aim to encourage and equip you to serve others, share the gospel, and reflect Christ in every aspect of your life. I'm Pastor Wyatt Cudd.
Thank you for tuning in.
So We're gonna start here and I wanna tell you guys tell you guys a story. Uh so it starts with our uh young hero Mr. Billy Bigsby.
So Billy was surprised one day When he woke up and he found that there was a dragon in his room. It was a small dragon. It was about the size of a kitten. Uh it would wag its tail happily when Billy patted it on the head.
Now Billy went downstairs to tell his mom. Smart kids, probably the right thing to do if you find a dragon in your room. But his mom says, Billy, there's no such thing as a dragon. And she said it like she meant it.
So Billy goes back to his room and he begins to get himself dressed for the day. And the dragon comes close right to Billy, wags his tail at him again. But this time Billy did not pat it on the head. If there's no such thing as something, then it's silly to pat it on the head, right?
So Billy washes his face, he washes his hands, and then he goes down for breakfast. And the dragon comes along with him. But It was bigger now. It was almost the size of a dog.
So the dragon in this story, it's a problem. And as it's ignored, we see it grow in size. The mom doesn't recognize that it's a problem, and she's got Billy to buy into this, that there is no such thing as dragons.
So Billy carries on He sits down at the table. And this dragon sits on top of the table.
Now that sort of thing wasn't usually permitted in the Bigsby household, but there's not much Billy's mother could do about it. She already said there's no such thing as dragons. And if there's no such thing as a dragon, you can't tell it to get off the table.
So now this growing problem is increasingly interrupting the family's habits. The mother has just chosen to avoid dealing with this problem in the family. That's something that we don't talk about, and she's got buy-in from the kid as well.
So, the mother makes pancakes for Billy. It's a good mother, it's a good breakfast. Uh but the dragon ate all of the pancakes.
So to compensate she just makes more pancakes, but the dragon eats those too and eventually she runs out of batter and Billy only gets to eat like one pancake.
So he just says Alright, well That's all I really wanted anyway. I wasn't that hungry this morning.
So now this growing problem is consuming all of their food, their resources. The mother has to lie to herself. Oh, that problem's not really a problem. It just had me working in the kitchen all morning, but that's okay. That's how long breakfast usually takes.
Billy's a growing boy. He needs all the pancakes he can eat. And this problem has Billy lying to himself too.
Well, I guess I wasn't that hungry. That's the only way that the problem they don't talk about can remain not a problem, because they have to compensate for it and they have to lie to themselves.
So Billy goes upstairs to brush his teeth, carry on with his day. The mom is cleaning the table, but the dragon has grown as big as the mother at this point.
Now the dragon used to be no bigger than a kitten. If Billy had handled it earlier, if his mother had handled it earlier, it would have been no match for Billy, but now it's big enough to give the mom a run for her money. And the more a problem is ignored, The bigger the problem grows. As this continues, The dragon keeps on growing. The mom is trying to clean the house, and she has to go around the dragon.
She's having to go out of windows and in another window to just get around the thing in order to clean the house, and it takes her all day. When we have a problem, we are avoiding what lengths we will go to keep up the facade that everything's okay, there's not a problem here. Assume this dragon's head is spilling out of the front door of their house. And its tail is stretching out the back door over the neighbor's fence. The problem is no longer something the Bigsby household can hide.
It doesn't matter if they lie to themselves now, the neighbors. can see it. A bakery truck goes by. And this dragon, doing what dragons do, sees the bakery truck and it's like, I'm gonna eat that thing.
So it stands up and the house is on its back like a turtle shell and it chases this bakery truck down the street. And the father comes home And he's like, where's my house? Where's it gone? He has to go and ask the neighbors what happened.
So he gets in his car, he drives down the road until he sees a familiar-looking house. Billy and his mother are waving at him from the upstairs window.
Now of course it's on the back of a giant dragon, but even Mr. Bigsby, he's ignoring it. He just climbs on top of his head like it's a step. and goes up to the window that they're at and asks his family, what happened? How did this happen?
As if it's not obvious. It was a dragon, said Billy. Finally addressing the problem. There's no such thing, the mother started to say. It is a dragon, Billy insisted.
It's a very big dragon. And so he pats it on its head, recognizing it for what it is, and the moment the family recognizes the dragon is what it is, it begins to shrink. Back to the size of a kitten.
Now the mom says, I don't mind dragons this size, but why did it have to grow so big? And Billy says, I think it just wanted to be Noticed. Um I love this story. It's a cute little children's story, and the moral is quite easy. If you have a dragon in your house, A problem of any kind.
Deal with it and don't ignore it, otherwise, it's going to run off with your house. Proverbs 27, 12 says, The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty. And we see the mother in this story goes to great lengths to not acknowledge the dragon. She thinks it's easier to pretend it's just not there. And maybe it is at first.
But eventually it grows to be a bigger problem than even she can handle. It's better to deal with these things head on. For what they are. A person who is Steeped in sip. Will go to great lengths to justify themselves.
They might say there's no such thing as sin. all the while it wrecks their life. It's not sin, it's something else that ruined my relationships. It's not sin, it's something else that has spent all my money. It's not a dragon, it's something else that must have run off with my house.
We have to acknowledge sin in our lives. For what it is, it is sinful, it is not good, it is not something else. If I ignore my sin problem, it will only grow. We are either growing closer to God or further away from God. If I ignore the sin problem in my life, It will only grow and become harder to deal with.
A smaller dragon. one the size of a kitten, it's a lot easier to deal with. than a large dragon that you've made peace with. For years.
Now Paul tells us, Galatians 5, 16, to walk by the Spirit.
so that we do not gratify the desires of the flesh. 1 John 1.9, it says, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. There is forgiveness. Jesus offers it freely. But we can't be forgiven.
If we make ourselves blind to the sin in our lives, if we ignore it, if we sweep it under the rug, that it only grows in magnitude.
Now, the Holy Spirit helps us with this. He will ping your heart. He will make it clear to us. What is right, what is wrong, but it's us up to us. to acknowledge sin, call it what it is, and confess it to God.
If we don't, it can become a stronghold in our lives. It can become a foothold that Satan can leverage against us. To be forgiven, it requires acknowledgement. of what the problem is of sin and confessing it. Only then can we begin removing it from our lives.
Yeah.
Now Jesus tells us Matthew 5. 29 through 30. I tell you. If anyone who looks at a woman lustfully uh has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it into the fire.
For it's better for you to lose one part of your body than the whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. Better for you to lose one part than for your whole to go into hell.
So, this is great. Where does sin begin? Where is this dragon its smallest? Sin begins And the heart. not in the action.
So if we want to have victory over sin, the battle must be starting in our hearts. Not in Behavior modification or avoiding this set of actions, and instead having our sinful hearts pursue another wrong set of action, we have to deal with the heart issue.
So for an example If I'm trying to watch what I'm eating, It's a lot easier for me to resist the sin of a Krispy Kreme donut. It's a lot easier for me to resist. If the moment I see the Krispy Kreme hot and ready sign, the moment I see it, if I bounce my eyes away from it, if I win that battle right there. It's a lot easier to resist temptation.
Now it's a lot harder when I'm already circling the parking lot for 30 minutes. It's a lot harder then. I've already toyed with the idea. It's already taken root. I'm salivating in anticipation for a donut.
The dragon has already grown, see? Everything in me is working against me at that point. It's the same thing with lust. If I see something Tempting. I bounce my eyes away from it.
I win that early battle. I don't give temptation a second to breathe. I gotta recognize and slay the dragon early on, and the dragon of sin, it begins in our heart, and if we let it grow, it will spill out into our actions. The battle is lost, the dragon has grown. The dragon of sin begins in our heart, and if we are diligent, we know where we are weak.
We can slay the dragon early. in our heart and in our thoughts. That's where the battle's going to be won easiest. 2 Corinthians 10, 5, it says, take every thought captive. and make it obedient.
to Christ. See problems that they don't just vanish. If we ignore them, they grow. Our sin functions the same way. It begins small.
Hidden. easier for us to rationalize And then it grows. and grows and grows. James 1, 14 through 15, it says, Each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth.
To death. The longer we ignore sin in our lives, the more destructive. it becomes Dragons are frequently used as symbols of chaos, of challenge, and deception. And we see in Genesis, Satan is represented as a crafty serpent that deceives Eve into eating the fruit of the knowledge. And instead of Adam and Eve addressing the lie with God.
The woman eats the fruit, the man abandons his role to partake as well. Humanity Could have avoided all of this with the first small deception when the problem was small, but we didn't. And the effects of sin and the fall, it permeates all the world.
So, Satan is represented as a subtle serpent in Genesis, in Revelation. 129 Satan is referred to as the great dragon. An ancient serpent who leads the whole world astray.
So we've gone from a subtle serpent to a world devouring dragon. Again, practically, your problems, your sin, it only grows until it completely overwhelms us when it's left unchecked. Frankly, I think Many of us start our Christian journey Uh Sinful tendencies, sometimes we've already journeyed deep into sin and have made mistakes. The dragon, it's already carried our house off, and all we can do is call to Jesus. He's the hero of our story.
We see Genesis 3.15, Jesus is the one who crushes the head of the serpent. Revelation 22 in the final days, Jesus is the one who seizes the great dragon, binds him up for a thousand years, and then casts him into the lake of fire to make all things new. Jesus is the hero of this story.
So if there is a dragon in our lives, Overwhelming us, spilling out of our home, threatening to devour everything. We bring it. To Jesus. We can't defeat sin on our own. Jesus came to save us and to set all things.
New. He can do that for you too. Yeah.
He hung on the cross. And that was the antidote. The cure to our sin. We've been talking about dragons, we've been talking about symbolism today. Let me talk about some of the symbolism we see and the cross.
John 3, 14 through 15. And that's just before John 3, 16. Jesus is speaking to Nicodemus under the cover of darkness. Nick at night, if you will. And Jesus says to him in verse 14, Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone b who believes may have eternal life in him.
What is Jesus talking about there? Moses lifting a snake up on a pole. What is he talking about? Numbers 21 God sent Moses to Egypt to rescue the Israelites. He did just that.
They received the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai and then entered into this covenant with God. They take a census to number all the people, and they had this pillar of smoke. And as it moved, it represented the presence of God moving. And so when God moves, they pack up their tents and they follow God. The Levites, the priestly class, are in the front carrying the ark, and each tribe is following behind them.
We get this picture that God's presence goes and leads us through the wilderness, through chaos, through the unknown. God goes forth. first before us and we follow his lead.
Now the Israelites Complain and they complain and they complain the entire way. And God goes back and forth between punishing them. And then offering provision and forgiveness. But they finally mutiny. Full-out mutiny against God, against Moses, in Numbers 14.
They don't want to go into the promised land. After all God has done for them, they think He is leading them to their deaths. God has shown up for them again and again and again. And they still do not believe.
So, what does God do? God honors what they want. They die in the wilderness. and do not get to see the promised land, only their kids enter.
Now numbers 21 They have a tremendous victory against the Canaanites purely by God's hand. And then immediately go back to complaining. Why have you brought us out of Egypt just to die in the wilderness? There's no food, there's no water, there's only this miserable manna that God has given us.
So God is providing. But they're cla uh but they're still complaining. It's that they're ungrateful. Uh they're willfully b blind to how God is just giving them layup after layup, providing for their every need. Willfully blind that they will die in the desert.
by their own choice.
So God sends judgment. Numbers 21, the Lord sends venomous snakes among the people. They bite the people, and many of them die. And then they immediately go to Moses. We have sinned because we've spoken against the Lord, and you please intercede for us that He removes the serpents from us.
Now Moses and Jesus They have a lot in common. One of which is we see Moses intercede to God for his people, same way Jesus intercedes for us.
So the people sin, God brings down judgment, the people repent, and God immediately forgives and provides a way forward. And we see that again and again throughout the Bible.
So the Lord tells Moses, making a provision, make a bronze snake and hang it up on a pole. Anyone who is bitten can merely look at it. and live. And that's exactly what Moses does, and the people are spared from judgment.
So we got a lot of symbolism happening here. Why a bronze serpent? Why did God pick that? Why not something else? Why not like a white dove?
Or like a cute brown puppy dog? Look at this puppy dog. Look at how cute it is. You're healed. He doesn't do that.
I don't want to look at a big, ugly snake. That's the point. That's the point. God is having Moses put an image up of that which is afflicting the Israelite people, a snake. Look upon that which afflicts you And be healed.
Confront the very thing that kills you. and you will overcome it. Acknowledge the dragon for what it is if you want to have any hope of defeating it. And this is true. We see this in psychology.
Uh the only way for people to overcome Things that they're afraid of, say phobias, like snakes, like spiders, fear of failure, public speaking. The only way to overcome fear is by progressive and voluntary confrontation of that which scares you. The most. That was developed in the 1950s. It's used to treat phobias, anxiety disorders, PTSD.
It works. Confront that which afflicts you. What I'm pointing out here is that Though we use this in psychology, God said it. First. God provides the means, but to overcome you must confront the dragon.
You must confront the venomous snake, that which afflicts you, to be healed. That's the antidote to the poison. The moral of the story about the dragon, God said it first. Confront that which afflicts you. Now Jesus says to Nicodemus, go back to Jesus here, Jesus says to Nicodemus, he must be lifted up like the snake in the wilderness, so that we can be lifted up to have eternal life.
So, we've got a similar deal here. We have a problem. And we have God providing the answer, the solution, the antidote. The problem is not poisonous snakes. It's deeper than that.
The problem is the poison of sin in our lives. Jesus came. to cure us.
So like the snake, Jesus is hung up on the cross for all to see. We can be cured from our sin, but you have to look upon the cross. You have to confront that which afflicts you. Look at the consequences. of our sin.
A perfectly innocent man murdered for crimes he did not commit in the most heinous, painful deaths anyone could ever endure. Look at what sin did. Be forgiven. Go and sin. No more.
Now another piece of symbolism we see with Moses lifting up a bronze serpent is, well, we look at Genesis. Satan is represented as a serpent.
So what we see here is an image of Satan hung up for all to see. All his work. All his poison. Completely undone. By looking upon it, believing in the power of God to defeat evil, Israel is healed.
Christ Jesus crucified, hung up for all to see. It symbolizes a complete and total victory over sin, all of the power of our sin over us completely undone on that cross. By looking upon our crucified Savior, believing in the power of God to forgive us. All humanity. can be healed.
Just as Moses lifts up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. The bronze serpent brought Healing. The crucified Christ is the ultimate cure. to our deepest problems.
Now Revelation describes Satan as a great and mighty dragon. But he is hurled down from heaven. Triumph was done over him because, Revelation 20, 11, the blood of the Lamb. By Christ being raised up on the cross, it tells us that Satan is filled with fury because he knows his time is short. The battle is won.
Jesus defeated our greatest adversary. on that cross. Hey there, I hope this sermon has enriched your day. If you like this message, I want to personally invite you to join us for Sunday worship. We have two locations in Virginia, Trinity Methodist Church in Concord and Mount Comfort Methodist Church in Appomattox.
Come join us Sunday morning at 9.45 and we will help you get connected. As always, I'm Pastor Wyatt Hudd. Thank you for tuning in.
