Your Story has a Villain

October 5, 2025

We’re starting a new sermon series, learning from some books by Christian authors. Next week, the message is on a book by Lysa Terkheurst on how do you trust God? The following week, it’s on a book by Earl McClellan about getting back up when you’re down. Today we’re looking at a book by Jonathan Pokluda, Your Story has a Villain.

You’ve probably seen shows or movies where there’s a town or city is experiencing more than their share of murders, but the people who live there don’t think there’s a big problem! Maybe murder is part of the plotline, so they happen all the time. The townpeople live in a murder capital, but to them frequent murders don’t seem unusual or something to be concerned about!

In our lives, maybe it’s not murders that we get used to. But difficulties can pile up in ourlives: family issues, conflicts at work, financial problems, health worries, disappointments weigh us down to the point that we’re just surviving. And maybe we don’t realize how bad things are. Maybe we don’t reach out for help, we say, “I’m fine.” “I can handle it.” We don’t reach out to God or to anyone else because we figure we’ll just tough it out.

What I want to tell you today is, your story has a villain. In your life story, there’s a villain. You can call this villain the devil. Or you can call it temptation. Whatever you call it, at a time of difficulty in your life, a villain will enter your story. The villain will try to discourage you and leave you feeling hopeless. The villain will test you and tempt you to go down a path you normally would not.

If you’re aware that you’re only human, and that sometimes you’ll be in a vulnerable season of life, that villain will have a smaller role in your story! If you know that when you’re knocked down, God is always ready to help get you back up; and if you know there are heroes: friends, family, church people around to help you, your story can be one of hope and victory!

For six years I’ve been on the ethics committee for our UCC conference. When there’s a complaint that a minister is acting unethically, it often goes to our ethics committee. We have a process to interview and find out from people involved what happened. Then we talk with the minister. The outcome might be we find the minister did nothing wrong. And that’s it. Or, we can find, a minister did something wrong, but they are sorry and willing to make amends and go through a growth program. But it could be something like a married pastor had an affair with a a person who is married to someone else. And the minister is unrepentant, he’s not sorry. He plans on continuing as if nothing’s wrong.

So the Ethics committee is a kind of depressing committee to be on. We don’t want to, but sometimes we tell a minister you no longer have standing as a minister in our denomination. That’s really tough. You walk around for a while feeling  down about the whole situation.

Bill Worley, our conference minister thought, what if you can prevent ministers from getting in trouble? So, in February our committee offered a training to ministers to say, this is the process if you get reported to the ethics committee. And this is how to NOT get reported to the ethics committee.

During the training, we told the ministers that the biggest thing that gets ministers in trouble, is if they are isolated. They can get Isolated from God. There’s a song, “What a friend we have in Jesus,” that says, “Oh what peace we often forfeit, or what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.” People get isolated from God, don’t call to Him and don’t receive the peace and comfort God wants to give them. Ministers also get in trouble when they’re isolated from other ministers. They don’t go to monthly minister gatherings. They’re isolated from the conference. They don’t have someone they can come to with a problem. They won’t go to a counselor. They feel like, my family situation is difficult. And nobody understands me. I deserve to be happy, and so I can do whatever I feel like.

The trouble is when you don’t reach out to God and you don’t have someone you can talk to, and you feel alone, the villain enters your story and strikes! He takes you down the wrong path! And it’s heartbreaking! Bad things can happen when you are unaware that there is a villain waiting to enter your story.

Your story has a villain, so make sure you stay close to God and your people! You need God! You need to spend time with him and pour your heart out to him so God can give you peace and comfort! You need friends and family that you get together with regularly. You need church people to check in on how you’re doing. You need someone you can talk to about anything! Your story has a villain, so you need some heroes!

Ephesians 6 Vs. 11 says, “Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” It’s talking about going on defense, having armor, like a breastplate of righteousness, a shield of faith and a helmet of salvation. The only weapon in Ephesians 6 is the sword that represents the word of God. When Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness, he spoke verses from the Bible in defense against what the devil tempted him to do. Jesus hadn’t eaten for forty days, and the devil tempted him to turn stones into bread. Jesus took out the sword (not a physical sword) of the word of God: he replied to the devil with a verse from Scripture, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Ephesians 6 verses 11-14 emphasize several times this idea, get yourself ready in the Lord and stand against the devil. Ephesians 6:18 says ^“And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.” It says, pray all the time, in every way. Be ready!

God is the one who helps us stand against the villain in our story! We don’t do it on our own power. Our job is to be aware and prepared. Ephesians 6 teaches us, to be ready, go on defense, because the villain will come! Your story has a villain, so you need to stay connected to God and your people!

I want to show you my WE T-shirt! There is so much power in WE! Not me by myself, but me with the help of God and my people! On the back there’s a verse from 2 Corinthians 4:1. It goes “Therefore since through God’s mercy, we have this ministry, we do not lose heart!”

My challenge for you is to think about who the supportive people are in your life, who can you talk to when you’re lonely or going through difficulties?

There’s a villain in your story! He’s looking for the moment you feel alone or in trouble. Be aware and don’t try to do life alone. Pray to God and rely on him and his strength. Stay close to the people who care about you. Live your life, not alone, but part of We! And we do not lose heart! Amen.