Marks Of A Caring Community III

I believe in unity enough to carve out three hours of my day to get with the other Christians it'll be gathering. It's all explained there, doesn't cost you anything but your time. And the purpose, there's a purpose to it, and that is to pray for Pittsburgh, as they're praying for 120 other cities. And I, I know it's also happening internationally. There's going to be a March for Jesus in Switzerland, Germany, other places in Eastern Europe. So God is stirring some things up, and you may want to consider that. If you need to be involved in a more specific way, or you'd like to be, Rosa Colucci's number is on there. Call Rosa and say, I'd like, like to be there. But you can just show up, that'd be fine too. I know it's Memorial Day weekend, but how many picnics can you have? Five or six probably. So invest some time. Let's turn our Bibles to Ephesians 1 please. And I'm going to read this entire portion, so if you don't have a Bible this morning, listen carefully, Ephesians 1 15 through 23. I want to keep encouraging you, when you get up in the morning, it's easy to forget your Bible. Put it in your car, so it's there when you come. Let's look at it. For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. And I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, in order that you may know the hope to which He's called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be the head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way. Now the last few weekends, as has already been mentioned, have been very exciting around here, but a little unorthodox. And I was a little concerned this week that maybe we've lost some sense of continuity about where the Lord's been taking us. We began the Sunday after Easter in a new series that we called Marks of a Caring Community. And folks, the community will only be as caring, only as godly as you are, you and I, individuals. And so these marks are not just for the church, but they're also for each person who names the name of Jesus. And we've been looking at what's going to cause these qualities to emerge in our hearts and lives. It's one thing to know it, it's another thing to live it, isn't it? I mean, some of us have a great storehouse of knowledge. We've been Christians a long time, some not that long. But we have this storehouse. I've discovered, some months ago I was given a gift membership to a health club, which I thank the person for, but set it on my shelf for a while. And then, when my back started really being able to respond better to things like that, I joined this club. And I found out that they have over 3,000 members in the club. That's a lot of people, but only about 500 attend regularly. It's about what you figure, isn't it? You know what? It doesn't matter what your membership's like, it doesn't matter what you call yourself, if you're not involved. The church is the same way. If you're not integrating what God's saying daily, you're not making it. It's not going to happen for you. So, let's just review where we've been, so you don't feel left out of this. Can we put this up, please? The review, please, Leroy? The first thing, week number one. Week number one, we talked about marks of the caring community that had to do with praise. Remember that? Ephesians 1, living to the praise of God's glory. And we talked there about how God wanted us to become a people who praise. Everyone say praise. All right, that was the first week, week one. Then, second week, Gary Beasley was here. I remember Gary. Anyone here been playing baseball with the gospel? Remember that? Have a home run, Jeff? No? No home runs yet? Wake up. Wake up. Any home runs? A couple. A couple people led someone to the Lord. Excellent. We had our missions, bake sale. It was happening yesterday at Giant Eagle. Listen to this. People are selling cupcakes and cookies to raise some funds to go to Mexico. And last night, they came up and said, one man came back four times for stuff to eat, and they realized he was really coming back to find out what this was all about, and they led him to the Lord, right in Giant Eagle. So, I mean, it happens, okay? Someone hit a home run last night. So, there you are. So, that was week two, and that was proclamation. A mark of a caring person, a caring community, is proclamation of the gospel. And third week, that's this week. We had Mother's Day thrown in there. I just had to do Mother's Day. But then, this week, we're going to talk about, Ephesians 1 again, power. Power to live the Christian life the way God intended for us. And I would have to say, of anything that you would want to have integrated in your life, how many of you know that you need power? I mean, you've got to have the power, or it doesn't matter. You don't make it. Things in this life will overcome you without the power to live. Powerlessness is the greatest source of frustration that most of us experience. It disappoints us so many times, because we don't have the power to overcome the temptation. We don't have the power to control that rage in us. We don't have the power to help a person in need. We don't have the power to break through and receive the healing. We don't want it. Where's the power, God? I mean, I read about it in here, but why come I don't have it? Experts have been saying the primary reason for the L.A. riots, the primary reason was the sense of powerlessness in the inner city community to change their circumstance. I mean, it was just born out of deep frustration. Doesn't justify it, but that's what happened. Powerlessness. How many of us this morning want power in our lives, but we're not sure how to get there? Jesus said through Luke in the Gospel, or the book of Acts, you shall receive what? Power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you'll be my witnesses. Not power to harm or control others, or to accumulate stuff for myself, but power to love, heal, deliver, release, and bind up. And this should be a mark of every life in this community, the mark of power. I have to ask myself, Lord, why don't we see more power? Why do I stumble over the same things? Why do I keep falling down? We have a pretty good theology going in our minds to kind of justify why we don't see the power, don't we? We have, you know, we figured out evangelical Christians have figured out, well, you know, maybe the power stopped when Jesus left the earth. How many believe that's true? If you do, you're on your own. But am I alone in asking those questions, or have you wrestled with that? Why don't I see more power, God? We may have designed theologies to wish it away. We lay it at the foot of the doctrine of sovereignty. Well, God's sovereignly in control, and He'll give me power when I need it, but that's up to Him. Or I've heard people say, well, in America there's no power, because we've rationalized the power away. Because, well, you know, we understand things better than the third world countries around there. And over time, we learn to live without it, or we substitute our own natural powers. We have medication powers that, well, if I'm not gonna get healed, then I'm just gonna take medicine. And we kind of say, well, that's all I really need anyhow. Or we have the power of going to a counselor who can help support us through a process. But rather than getting free, we just say, well, you know, maybe I'll just kind of endure this thing. I don't know. Nothing wrong with that. But folks, God has called us to live in a flow of power. It's not satisfying enough in my life to think I'm just gonna hang on here and endure till the end of it all. It doesn't satisfy the absolute confidence I have that God's strength, His power in me, is greater than my weakness. And I know that's true. And also, folks, I don't know about you, but one reason why our evangelism, our sharing of the gospel, seems to be so frustrated so many times is we don't have any power to show anybody else. And they're out there thinking, well, what's any different about you? What's any different about what you believe? Power is necessary. Paul said, the kingdom of God does not consist of talk. We've got a ton of talk. It consists of power. Paul said, I didn't come among you. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. I didn't come among you with persuasive words, but with a demonstration of power. This last Wednesday morning, I was invited to a Fuller Seminary alumni breakfast. Big deal, you know. I haven't seen any of these people in years and years. But it was over by the airport. See Peter Wagner. Peter Wagner, if you're at all familiar with Christian leaders in our nation, is probably, and I'm not saying this just to pump the story up, but probably the foremost authority in missions and church growth in America and perhaps the world. Incredibly, incredibly dynamic man in his 60s now. And he was telling how one of the greatest sources of frustration in missions these days has been the Muslim world. Do you understand how Muslims basically are resistant to the gospel? They believe that the same God of Abraham and Jesus is their God, and they call Him Allah. And they believe that Jesus certainly was a good man and did good things, but he wasn't the final word. Who was the final word? Muhammad. Muhammad was. He was the prophet. And so they figure, they've got us figured out, but they're one step beyond. How many of you know it's tough to talk to someone who's one step beyond? Now, don't raise your hand, but I doubt if any of us here, or very few of us, know one single Muslim. But it's the fastest growing religion in the world. It's outpacing Christianity right now in terms of growth. And Muslims have been historically resistant to the gospel. They just say, well, I don't need that. We have in our congregation several families right now in Turkey, and one going to North Africa, who live among the Muslim people. David Hunter has told us on numerous occasions that to his knowledge there's maybe a hundred evangelical gospel-believing Christians in all of Turkey. Fifty million people. That's how resistant they are. Now listen to this. Peter Wagner told me on Wednesday, and told our little group of about 25 people, he said, we have discovered that the only thing that breaks the veil over the Muslim's eye is the power of God. And he personally has documented a story. This past summer, a Muslim man who was not a very practicing devoted man as much, lost his mother. She died. And he was desperate. She wasn't that old, didn't expect her to die. And so he called on the name of the Lord Jesus to do something. And he said, Jesus, if you do something, I'll believe you. To his amazement, and certainly everyone else, his mother was raised from the dead. Lifted right up. Peter Wagner's telling me, and believe me, here's a man who's a researcher. He doesn't believe myths and fairy tales. So what does he do? This man goes out and tells people, here's my mother. And of course, the people in the community had known that she died. Well, to make a long story short, last August, 526 Muslim people were baptized in the Black Sea in the name of Jesus Christ. That's more people at one swoop that have existed as an entire nation of Turkey for the last hundred years. He's saying, Jay, when a Muslim sees the power of God, they respond. I want to say to you, of course, if we could go out and raise people, how many know that would kind of shake up your average funeral, you know? I'm not here today to say that, you know, we're gonna walk out and raise the dead. I am here to say, if the power of God starts moving through us, folks will notice it. And lives will be changed. And here in America, I don't think it's a whole lot different. We need to see that power. We need to see it released. Power for positive living. Power to be a good parent. Power to love a cantankerous neighbor or co-worker. Power to receive healing and deliverance in our lives. Now, let's look and see what Paul says. How do we touch that power? We're gonna do it today. How do we touch? Let's look, first of all, on our overhead. The first thing we've got to do is, in verse 16, Paul says, I've never stopped giving thanks for you. I have a conviction that one of the primary reasons why God has allowed powerlessness in the church in America at large, and Peter Wagner, by the way, said, in America, it seems to be the last place where we see the power of God. Know why it is? I believe more than anything else. We are a thankless, thankless people. We've stopped giving thanks. We started, rather, to give complaints to God. We started just to read off a litany of, this, I don't like this, God, and I'm tired of that, God, and I wish this were different, God. And on and on we go. And dear ones, your Bible, if you read it carefully, especially in the Old Testament, God is very specific about one thing. He hates complaining. Oops. He hates it. Do we have that overhead on numbers? Do you have that one? Look at this. The Lord said to Moses and Aaron, how long will this wicked community grumble let's say that word, grumble, yeah, against me? I've heard the complaints of these grumbling Israelites. So tell them, as surely as I live, declares the Lord, I will do to you the very things I heard you say. In this desert your bodies will fall, every one of you, twenty years old or more, who was counted in the census and who has grumbled against me. That's why the Israelites died in the desert and didn't take the Promised Land, because they were complainers, grumblers, murmurers. Bottom line, you see, grumbling is a defense toward God. It's a demonstration of distrust. It's our way of saying, God, I don't really think you've got it under control. So I'm gonna mumble about it. I learned this kind of personally and vividly a while back. I was flying from Pittsburgh out west on an over 2,000 mile flight and one of the people in our congregation graciously arranged for me to sit in first class. I gotta say, on a long trip, that's a nice way to go. Those of you who travel a lot know what I mean. And I was sitting in the plane waiting for it to go, to take off, and the captain came on the PA system and said, folks, we're sorry, there's gonna be about a 10 or 15 minute delay because of air traffic problems. Well, this person in the row across from me, or the seat across the row from me, I should say, just started to carry out, I mean, he just said this, and he, some expletives about the airline. He's always late. And this always happens. And then he started on the flight crew and he said, and I've been here for five minutes and didn't get my drink. And, you know, he was just going on and on. I'm there like, oh man, you know, just shaking my head. Like, what a what a loser this guy is, you know. And I hear the Lord. I mean, he had a first class seat, too. He whispered over me and he said, that's what you're like. I said, come on, Lord. He said, you grumble about little things. You're impatient. You're too often critical and negative. And I've given you a first-class life. I'll tell you what, when the Lord speaks something like that to you, you wake up. You really do. I wonder, Church, is it possible that we, as a people, have slipped kind of into that mode somewhat? Is it true that we're in a first-class journey with the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it true that he's given us a destination that we're heading to that's unlike anything you could ever imagine or describe? Is it true that he's given us fellowship and friendship and the covenant and the spiritual gifts to get us there? Is it true that he's provided grace along the way to overcome every obstacle? And yet, I have to say it, it's so easy just to sort of kick back and grumble. I didn't like the music today. That noisy song, I mean, it's 8 o'clock. You know, my seat there, it's gone again. That person. Did you smell that manure going in that place? Gosh, I mean, don't they know what they're doing up there? I know why you're laughing. That's what you were thinking. You see, and yet we tend to ignore the fact that God has promised us, that he's moving among us. He's going to take us along. And we, like Paul, should not stop giving thanks. Thankfulness should be on our lips. I want to just say a word to the leadership of our church, those of you who are serving in positions of responsibility. You set the example, elders and deacons and home group leaders and teachers. And if you sense that, you hear the drivel starting to come out of someone's mouth, just tell them to clean up their act a little bit. God's at work. And he'll take care of whatever the problem is. You see, complaining introduces into our situation a non-eternal dynamic. I'm thinking about heaven one day. I don't want anything on earth that's not going to be in heaven. What does that sound like? Let the kingdom of God come on earth as it is in heaven. So God is saying, I don't want anything on earth that's not already in heaven. How many of you believe there's a lot of complaining going on in heaven today? I don't think you'll hear anyone say, you know, I feel ripped off up here. It didn't happen the way I thought. I didn't get a big enough mansion. We're not going to hear that, are we? So why introduce a non-eternal dynamic right now? Let's introduce what's going to be happening in heaven, which is praise and glory and thanksgiving and honor and blessing. And you say, well, Jay, you know, I just can't pretend that everything's okay. I mean, do you really know? I mean, dear ones, there's always going to be something wrong. I mean, no matter who you are today, no matter what you do, there's always going to be something wrong. There are people here who make a ton of money, more than most of us could ever dream of making. They've got things wrong. There are people here today with kids. They've got things wrong. There are people here today who don't have kids. They've got things wrong. I mean, there's always going to be something wrong. Anyone here have everything right? So what do you choose to do? Do you choose to focus on what's wrong or can you give thanks? You know what I found? The more thanks you give, the less the wrong things bother you. You want to touch the power of God? Become a person who starts to give thanks to the Lord. Give thanks to the Lord. Don't stop giving thanks. When something negative comes, giving thanks anyhow. Paul said, Rejoice always, pray constantly, say it. Give thanks in all... You don't know 1 Thessalonians 5? Say it again. Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances, even if you put your foot in the manure. Give thanks in all circumstances. And let me just issue, as we were reading this, I hope you caught something very important here this morning. Paul is saying, look what he's saying here. I've not stopped giving thanks for you remembering my prayers. Ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, and I want to say this, thanksgiving not only focuses you on the Lord and his provision, but it also enables you to love the people around you that you don't necessarily think are all that cool. We need to learn to love the people that are different, and we've got a lot of different people around here. But God loves them very, very much, and one mark of maturity, if you think the only mark is your power of faith maybe, or you know, your wisdom in God, let me tell you something, there's no maturity without the ability to love another person. And I want to say a word to many of us today. If your circle of friendship is also your circle of fellowship. In fact, if your circle of friendship is limited, limits your circle of fellowship, you're in trouble. Every one of us should fellowship. Do you hear what I'm saying? To keep broadening ourselves to be like Christ. Very quickly, number two, the second thing that I see here to touch the power of God is this. You give thanks, but you also ask the Lord, you ask him to give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him. Paul says, I give thanks, but I also pray, or I keep on praying. In the Greek present tense, when he says, I pray, I keep asking, verse 17, I keep asking. In the Greek, that means continual, nonstop action. Ask and ask and ask and ask again and again and again. Now, what spirit is he saying? Right there he says, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation. How many have a capital S? In your scripture right there. Take a look at it. Verse 17, how many of you have a capital S? All right, so what spirit would that be? The Holy Spirit. How many of you have a little s? Okay, which spirit would that be? The human spirit probably, right? So which one is it? Well, my conviction is, it's the same spirit that we see up in verse 13, the spirit who was given to us as a guarantee or a seal of a promised inheritance. I believe it's the Holy Spirit. But you can interpret it to say, Lord, let my human spirit be open to receiving wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him. But let's believe God that he wants to give us wisdom, a spirit of wisdom. Wisdom is simply knowledge applied to daily living. How many people want to be wise? Folks, wisdom, Solomon said, give me wisdom more than anything else, more than gold or silver or precious stones. Give me wisdom because then I'll be able to navigate through life. Also, Paul says, I want you to have a spirit of revelation and the knowledge of him. That word revelation, the word apocalypsis, from which we get the apocalypse in the book of Revelation, means simply this. You see this rather imposing looking puppet stand back here? If I were to draw open the curtain right back there, you'd see, it's not finished yet, this is a temporary thing. You'd see a lot of two by fours and a lot of woodworking back underneath there and wiring and everything. If I would pull it open, I would unveil it and you'd see underneath there. That is what the word revelation means. Revelation means to unveil or to see something that had been unseen prior to that. If you want to touch the power of God, you've got to see something that you haven't seen before. You've got to say, God, open my eyes to see what's maybe always been there, but I've never seen it before. How many of you grew up in a church? Let me just see your hand. You grew up religiously. How many of you who just raised your hand would say there came a point when suddenly you saw it, what you hadn't seen before about knowing Christ? That's a revelation. Now, revelation doesn't stop the moment you have that. Revelation should keep happening in our life. It should be happening all the time in us. A revelation in the Bible says here, to know Jesus, look at it, to know Him better, the end of verse 17, so that you may know Him better. Is it possible that you could know the Lord better today and tomorrow than you did last week, last month, last year? I have to say, folks, I think some of us are prone to drifting into a non-revelationary life. We kind of think we know it. I'm talking now to people who've walked with the Lord for 5 or 10 or 15 or more years. When was the last revelation you had? That was God. Last Monday, I was invited to take a ride in a small private plane. Carol and I went up with a couple in our church. They're recreational pilots. We flew over this property and our new property, and we were just kind of taking it all in. Then we flew out over our house, which is up toward Gibsonia. As we flew over there, I looked down and, of course, the pilot was angling to the right so I could take photographs. I've learned something you really shouldn't do a whole lot when you're in a small private plane. That's to angle to the right to take photographs. It wasn't long before I was starting to do some barrel rolls inside, but I looked down over our house, and I don't even know if my neighbors know this, but there's a small lake out in the woods back behind our house that I never knew was there. I've lived there 4 1⁄2 years, never seen it before, never recognized it, and there's a little stream that feeds into it. I looked down and said, wow, I never knew this was there. 4 1⁄2 years. I had a revelation. It didn't change my life. I just learned something. Any chance, dear one, that there is a stream of blessing out there that you haven't seen yet? Any chance that there's a pool of depth of the knowledge of God that you haven't come into yet? You say, well, I want to touch that, Jay. What do I do? You keep on asking God for a spirit of wisdom and revelation. Dear ones, those words are a daily prayer in my life. I hope you're doing the same thing because I don't want to get to be 50, 60, 70, 80 years old and just kind of crank out and say, well, I can't learn anymore. I've had people tell me, nothing new has happened in my life. My response is, are you asking God for a spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of Christ? If you want to touch His power, that's where it's got to come from. You have to begin by seeing something. One more thing about Peter Wagner. It was such a great morning. Here's a man in his 60s. Four years ago, the Lord spoke to him, gave him a revelation. He is not, by the way, a charismatic believer, doesn't believe necessarily the same as you and I might about the Holy Spirit and those things, but he's very open to the things of God, very open. He said, when he reached 60, the Holy Spirit said, now I'm going to teach you about prayer. He said, you know, Lord, what a boring, I didn't say this out loud, but what a boring, I mean, I know how to pray, but if you think that's what I need. He said the last four years of his life, this is 1987, have been the most exciting, dynamic, life-changing years in all of his 40 years of knowing Christ. And I just say, praise God for a person who reached 60 and said, Lord, I need a spirit of wisdom and revelation. I want to keep growing. I want to be able to know Jesus better and I want to be able, look what it says, to have the eyes of my heart enlightened, verse 18, enlightened in order that I may know the hope to which He's called me and the incomparably great power that He has for us to believe. Let me just kind of bring things to a conclusion here. The third thing you need to pray for is an enlightenment of the eyes of your heart. The word enlightened is the word fatizo. We get the word photomat from that. Okay. Enlightened, photography, enlightened. Turn the lights on, Lord. Let me see the power that you have for me. What kind of power is it? Well, look what it says. Read it with me. The end of verse 19. This power is like the working of His mighty strength which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms. What kind of power is it? It's the power that God used to go down and to crush the demon legions that held Jesus captive to death for just a few days to break off those chains of death and bondage and to rescue Him from the depths of hell. That's the power that God has loosed in us. And Hebrews chapter 2 says it was not possible for death to hold Him. Why? Because the power of God was at work. And dear ones, whatever hope God has for you, whatever hope He has, and I don't think God hopes in some, oh, you know, I just, I hope it works. I think God hopes in some, oh, you know, I just, I hope it works. I think God hopes in some, oh, you know, I just, I hope it works. I think God hopes in some, oh, you know, I just, I hope it works. I think God hopes in some, oh, you know, I just, I hope it works. I think God hopes in some, oh, you know, I just, I hope it works. I think God hopes in some, oh, you know God has a hope in the sense of having a vision for our lives, individually and corporately. I believe God's hope for us, the hope for this church to become a church that's going to impact not just the little neighborhoods, but the whole city and beyond. The hope that He has for your lives, each one of you, to be not just a success, but someone of significance in eternal things. That kind of hope will only happen when the power of God is at work The same power that raised Jesus from the dead and enabled him to sit at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. And I say, God, I don't know if I understand all this. I don't need to understand it. How many of you know when it's not happening? What does it feel like when you're trying to live the Christian life, trying to witness, trying to bring healing on your own strength? How far do you get? I mean, folks, I'm a total failure. I am. When I'm trying to do anything without the power of God. But I say with Paul, when the power of God is in my life, I can do, say it, all things through Christ who strengthens me. And that's the power that God says is at work in us today. Now, you say, well, I don't have it. You can. You can experience it even this morning. You can touch it today. And let's just end with these four quick bullets here. What can you do? It's the next overhead. Four things you can do. Be thankful. We've already touched on it. Be thankful to the Lord. Then number two. Be prayerful about it. Keep on asking. Start today. Ask Him all through the day. Ask Him tomorrow. Lord, give me a spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of you. And let the eyes of my heart be enlightened to your power. Number three. Be purposeful. In other words, dear ones, listen. Listen very carefully. I don't think you'll see the power of God if you simply want to see it so that you can improve your stock asset ratios, your personal bank balance, your own standard of living. But if you ask God for the power of God to live for the kingdom of God, I promise you, by the word of God, you're going to receive power. Be purposeful. And finally, number four. Be plugged in. You see, at the end of this passage it says, God placed all things under Jesus' feet and appointed Him to be head over everything. Look at it. For the church. It's for the church. And I know I run the risk today. Probably not in this service because most all of you are believers here. But some will misunderstand and you'll think, Well, He just wants something for the church because that's what He does. I want you to know there's only one eternal thing in all the world that's going to stay on forever, and that's the church. And Jesus said, I'm going to give you power for the church so the church can be what I've purposed for it to be. Because Jesus isn't coming back for some beaten up, old, dog-eared, you know, kicked back, passive group of people. He's coming back for a victorious bride that He loves. One that He's beautified by His own blood and made whole. And that's what He wants us to be part of. You can touch the power today. Be thankful. Be prayerful. Be purposeful and be plugged in. Get in! Take the step of faith. Make the effort. Put your name down on the card and say, I want to be plugged in. Help me be plugged in. And God will do the rest as you trust Him. Amen. On the next moments, we're going to share in what's called the Eucharist. The word Eucharist means Thanksgiving. We're going to share the Thanksgiving meal. So let's stand, shall we, and let's sing together, His strength is perfect when my strength is gone. Let's sing it as an invitation to the Holy Spirit. His strength is perfect when my strength is gone. He'll carry us when we can't carry more. Within His power.