Who Do We Think We Are, Ephesians VII

Just before I launch into the message I just want to say I want to thank you for the feedback we've gotten that getting into the word in a consistent basis and a sort of an expositional style has been very meaningful and I thought the guys have done a great job this summer don't you just sort of carry us through that and keep that consistency so we appreciate that the gift of teaching and and the hard work that these guys invest in bringing the word and trust me they take it very seriously and it's it's just a we are blessed more than we realize as a church. I get around some you know in some churches that the senior pastors are not preaching a third of the people don't show up and here doesn't matter who's up here people come because they know the words going to be shared and I think that's just the way it's going to be as we move forward into multi campuses all over the city so I'm excited about that and one last thing anybody that's seated in the front section right here has free dinner on Outback Steakhouse on me tonight. Go ahead Doug you can slide over yeah what's with that I mean are the rest of you Episcopalian and Presbyterian is that why you're back there? These are the best seats in the house and you're all in the back so next week there may be a surprise under each of those seats so let me pray and we'll get started. Father it's just a blessing to come into this place and though our minds may be carrying lots of different things we pray that for the next 30 minutes or so we would be able to concentrate on what you would say about a very serious topic that affects us more than perhaps we realize. Give me the words Lord Jesus that will cut through the confusion and the fears that we have about this topic and also empower us to be bold as we move forward to seize what it is that you have purpose for us as a destiny as a individual people and as a church I ask it in Jesus name amen. If you haven't taken out your outline do so now and I want to begin with a quote that C.S. Lewis made in his book The Screwtape Letters. There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race, that would be the human race, can fall about the devil. One is to disbelieve in his existence and the other is to believe and feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in him. I'd like to submit to you there might be a third position as well and that is those who believe that there is a devil and he is real but they basically choose to marginalize or ignore him. For all intents and purposes they are functionally agnostic when it comes to the devil. I mean we feel uncomfortable talking about him. We don't think you know that other people would really understand it if we even brought it up. It's not culturally cool and so we just sort of minimize it. We don't talk about the reality of the devil, of an opponent, of an adversary and yet as we'll see friends if we're to take these great themes that were sort of highlighted in that video clip, the themes of the sovereignty of God and being citizens of the kingdom and faith and hope and being imitators of Christ and unity of the spirit and being one together. If we want all of that we need to take just as seriously what Paul brings us to here at the close of this book and realize that he didn't tag this on just as a throwaway but it's something that if we don't see it we may miss out on the blessing that he purposed for us to understand in the previous chapters. We can't afford to ignore this particular theme and I just want to summarize it for you in one phrase and that's this. Whether or not we want to acknowledge it we are in the battle of our lives and that is if you're going to fill in the blanks that's the first two blanks. We're in the battle of our lives and I will admit to you because we don't talk about it very much because we don't make a big deal about it I would venture to say that most of us are probably not feeling that. But let me just move from my words to the inspired words of Scripture and we're going to put these up on the screen. If you have your Bible it's always better to read from your own Bible and you can mark it and underline it. This is from Ephesians chapter 6 and these are Paul's words to the church. Let's start at verse 10. It says, Then he goes on to talk about the armor of God and so on and we'll touch on that in just a bit. Friends, this is a key part of what it means to be a mature follower of Christ and without this so much of what God intends for you isn't going to happen. If you put this in sort of the back burner as something it's just for the you know the spiritually elite or maybe just you know for those who might be off a little bit into some sort of emphasis you're missing it. I was thinking of an analogy here a metaphor that we could use and how many of you have a computer login account that requires a password? I mean email, Facebook, whatever. If you you have a computer and if you want to get into a certain thing and maybe it's your online banking, well it's essential that you have that. If you don't have it doesn't work right? I don't know it's getting on close to two years ago I got this little laptop computer and my son John and I went out and picked it up and and he was all excited about it getting going it was it was kind of new and we came back and to set it up and get all the systems working there's a there's a what like a master key password and so he said well think of one and I did and he put that in he said and then you put in a little reminder word a little clue in case you forget what your password is and I I wrote that down and while I was away on my little vacation I needed to change some of the settings on the master board and so this drop-down thing comes and it says my name and then put in your password thing and I how many of you have just one password for all of your different accounts see that's a bad thing all the techies would tell you that's a bad thing how many of you have multiple passwords and they're all in your head uh-huh yeah that's my problem too so here I am and honestly I mean the clue didn't know the clue was too vague I reckon I spent two days I mean two parts of two different days trying every conceivable kind of combination and I don't know the password to get in to fix the settings in this machine so I'm gonna no it's just so all that computing power is marginalized my point is all that you know that can be done like that I can't get to it and that's him I mean in one sense it's it's a passive it's a restraint it's a security feature but in the same sense if you don't understand what we're gonna talk about this today and this whole thing about the the evil one then you're not able to access and to move in the power that God has purpose for you the things we've been teaching about for these last weeks with such passion and that clearly Paul felt so strongly about you've got to know that this stuff is is real it's not just for just a few oddball people who are seeing little demons behind every bush I think that's just the way that some of us get around facing some of the realities that are in this many believers have lost the power to walk in the blessings of God to know the will of God to live in that place of communion that was talked about through this series we've chosen to just sort of be comfortable ignoring the evil one so on your outline let's take a look together talk first of all what are we fighting for what's this battle about what are we fighting for now Paul uses very clear imagery here the language that he uses and it's just like a picture it's like he talks about warfare he says wrestling it's like hand-to-hand combat it's up close and personal this isn't something that's way out there in the sort of you know the altar world that we can't figure out he makes it sound like this is something that's day-to-day hands-on engagement that's what it's about now there's got to be at least a few of you are thinking oh hi you know I really don't have any idea what you're talking about there Pastor Jay I mean I don't feel any warfare I don't feel any battle my life's not you know I came in here just wanted to go to church I feel pretty good I mean my marriage is okay my kids are doing okay my jobs all right maybe if you're a single person you know I got a lot of friends and things are going okay and you know I my house all right and you're talking about this warfare stuff and I'm not I'm not feeling that at all the friends you see that's just the that's just the external part of your life what Paul's talking about here the reality he wants us to come to terms with is that we will miss the essence of why God put us here on the planet we'll miss our purpose our destiny our will to please God that we've been talking about in the previous five chapters and candidly if you're not aware of this at all if you've come in here and this is all just going like right over your head may I say to you and I say this with love in my spirit the devil has you right where he wants you you are absolutely no threat to him if you're not aware of it because he's just having his way and you're oblivious to it and I don't mean that as a put down Paul writes in 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 verse 11 if we can put that up please on the screen here it is he says Stephen Covey said this the deepest need of the human soul is to be understood affirmed validated and appreciated and friends it begins when you're willing to say Lord show me my part of this show me how I can change and by the way communication when I'm saying what it's not just words did you know that words really only make up about 10% of communication the reason I know that's true is what I what's happening right now is is communications going on right now some of you let's put this graph up guys it's a colorful graph and it's helpful this is how communication really gets done believe it or not almost 50% of how we communicate is body language some of you right now are communicating complete total engagement others of you are communicating oh my gosh I'll never make dinner some of you're communicating I don't know where he's going with this and so on tone of voice if there's language it's interesting only about 10% of true communication come from the words that are being spoken now that when I read that and I've read that through several different sources kind of astounded me because it's not what we I mean we normally just think about people say what they really mean but they also show you what they mean and they also somehow communicate emotionally what they mean it's just a good thing we take out but this is a good thing to remember when you're engaged in dialogue with someone you care about what's their body language saying what's the tone of voice how they presenting themselves and then their words all of it fitting together to tell you a very important story one of my favorite scriptures want something I've asked God to teach me is in James 119 and this was sort of a last-minute ad I don't even know if we have we have James 119 this is this was something that when I read this God said you know this is something you need to make part of your life let me read it for you this is what James says about listening and and you do very well to put this in your memory bank this is this my dear brothers take note of this everyone should be quick to listen and slow to speak what does that mean well normally it's the opposite most of us are quick to speak and slow to listen I love that because it tells me hey before I should start opening my mouth maybe the first thing I should do is ask a question maybe the first thing I should do is find out what's going on in the life of the person maybe the first thing I should do is listen a little bit and then speak and if that's something that maybe God intended for you to hear tonight you'll know the key is what's going on behind the words what's going on behind the body language what's going on behind the tone and the inflection and maybe the most beautiful story of this that I could come off with I found in Luke 7 so here's what we're going to do it's on the back of your notes and I think we'll probably have it on the screen and the reason I chose this story is because it's powerful intimate communication without using words let's look at it together Luke 7 and verse 36 now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him and so he went to the Pharisees house and reclined at the table and when a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town by the way it says this in a couple different versions she was a woman of the streets she was a prostitute learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisees house and I gather there's some kind of a dinner party because she she just showed up uninvited apparently she brought an alabaster jar of perfume which indicated was very expensive perfume and she stood behind him at his feet weeping I want to pause there for a second just think you need to paint a mental picture of this so here's this dinner party and back then they didn't sit down on chairs like we would you know if you go over and have dinner out somewhere it's likely you'll go in a chair unless you might find a Japanese restaurant or something where you would maybe sit on the floor or something but in the Middle East that's literally what they did they sat they reclined on on the floor and some kind of cushions they didn't have chairs and she came and began to weep in Jesus presence and her tears were so profuse that they wet his feet I want you to just can you imagine now that the dinner guests are watching this happen and my hunch is that the conversation whatever was going on conversationally started to just slowly stop because this woman who everyone knew was a prostitute a sinful woman was hanging around Jesus and weeping what was she weeping about probably regret maybe hurt maybe the pain of a life that had been so misspent maybe the being in the presence of holiness she's weeping and then picture her and I gather she must have had long flowing hair and she takes her hair and she begins to clean Jesus feet using the moisture from her tears and back then as you've heard many times because the roads were so dusty normally when people traveled their feet got very dirty and so she's cleaning his feet her feet I'm sorry his feet with her hair just I mean what a moment that was and then sort of like unexpectedly she she opens this bottle of perfume and she pours it over his feet so this powerful beautiful fragrance fills the room and that moment friends I have to say I believe that the entire who was ever whoever was there we certainly know a Pharisee named Simon was there and there were probably other guests we're all wondering what what is Jesus doing doesn't he know in fact it goes on to say they began to condemn him for this when the Pharisee who invited him his name is Simon saw this he said to himself notice that he didn't say out loud he said to himself okay if this man were a prophet he would know who's touching him and what kind of woman she is that she's a sinner Jesus answered him I love this how would you like to know that when you're in the presence of a person he knew what you were thinking Jesus answered Simon's thoughts not his words and he did it by telling him a word picture a little story Jesus answered him Simon I have something to tell you go ahead tell me teacher he said two men owed money to a certain moneylender one owed him five hundred denarii denarii was a day's wages so it's I don't know I just picked a number $50,000 okay $100 a day $50,000 and the other 50 denarii ten times more than the other neither of them had the money to pay him back so he canceled the debts of both now which of them will love him more now Simon's this Pharisee and by the way we've said many times from the platform the Pharisees were a sect of Jews who were very well educated very smart highly respected by the people and so this was not difficult for him he knew the answer Simon replied verse 43 I think it is he says I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled and Jesus answered you got it you judged correctly then he turned toward the woman now friends remember not a word has been spoken and he said to Simon the Pharisee do you see this woman I came into your house you did not give me any water for my feet so he didn't even do the customary thing of cleaning Jesus feet but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair you did not give me a kiss but this woman from the time I entered has not stopped kissing my feet you did not put oil on my head but she has poured perfume on my feet therefore I tell you her many sins have been forgiven for she loved much but he who has been forgiven little loves little I want to pause right now and just put out a couple things about this powerful story Jesus is not basically winking at the reality of this woman has wasted her life in prostitution but he is showing us something very powerful isn't he that the demonstration and this is a word I want you to see that when you learn to really feel what somebody's feeling in their heart you demonstrate this is the second point you demonstrate that you care and when Jesus saw this woman showing the love the humility the deep passion for forgiveness I love the fact that he turned to her and said your sins though they be many are forgiven now quick question was he letting Simon off the hook was he saying you know what Simon it's no big deal you haven't sinned that much so it doesn't matter not at all in fact if you've read the New Testament you know that Jesus had his harshest words for the pride and the sinfulness of the Pharisees but what he was pointing out was that listen watch that Simon was not really even aware of the level of his sin and friends I just want to pause and say this is not my notes I just want to say it the biggest issue we face right here in Pittsburgh is that most people are not aware of their true spiritual condition most people think they're like Simon most people think they're just fine because they've kept their religious duties and done their religious thing when in fact the reality of their heart is like the woman who was the great sinner who'd lived their life in themselves misspent the one and only life that God entrusted to them and if you want to learn to hear people's hearts you've got to learn to demonstrate that you're hearing not just their words you're hearing what's going on inside at the feeling level and I love that Jesus saw that and I love the way he ends this exchange because this is what he says to us today as well he said your sins are forgiven and the other guests began to say among themselves who is this that even forgives sins are again questioning his his divinity and so on as being Messiah and Jesus said to the woman your faith has saved you go in peace you see loved ones listen being saved is more than just saying some words it has to do with demonstrating in your heart that you really understand that you need a Savior being saved means that you're not afraid to demonstrate before God and others that you'll humble yourself and say Lord I need you to forgive me and I don't deserve it demonstrating love is one of the hardest things that we do it but it's one of the most needed things that we do in our lives you know I am I'm still processing one of the most courageous acts that I've seen in many years one of our members and some of you might remember him he is shared from this pulpit in this platform rather than not that long ago Ed Verbeck was up here Ed you would recognize because he's the guy that has two little walking canes and is literally what a little over four feet tall remember Ed? Ed is a wonderful guy highly educated he was the chaplain at one of the local nursing homes he has his master's degree from one of the accredited seminaries in the area and he left that position to join our church because he felt the call of God to do so when he was here he was coming to Thursday night service and he met a young man by the name of Sean and Ed's the kind of guy that if you need something Ed will just say hey I'll help out I'll do it despite the enormous limitations he has what's called brittle bone disease so that every time that he would fall as a child and break instead of just you know turning an ankle whatever his legs would fracture and when they would heal up you know he just didn't grow to be very tall the top part of this torso is pretty normal but his legs are really short and Ed met Sean who was having kidney failure and Sean was on dialysis and Sean was having a difficult time finding a kidney donor and Ed Verbeck said you know what Sean I'll do it I think you're a great guy and I want you to know that Jesus loves you and I believe that he's got someone for you that's gonna supply that kidney because I don't believe you're meant to go through dialysis for the rest of your life and Sean by the way is a brand-new Christian now Ed went got tested and lo and behold nobody in Sean's family had a blood match Ed had a perfect blood match and Ed Verbeck who has so many obstacles to overcome on top of the fact that he left his job to come and join our church and really right now is kind of in between employment went into the hospital a few weeks ago and gave a kidney to another person knowing by the way that when he did it was likely that he would suffer more than most because when apparently in that procedure part of your ribcage has to be moved around ours has some flexibility he doesn't so he broke a rib when his rib broke it punctured a lung and went through some complications I'm happy to tell you that he's recovering well I was in to see him and you know I walked in his room and what moved me the most he was sitting in a chair and there was four or five other young men all men that he's discipling there around the room just cheering him on and he was telling me the story of how I went through all this and he said I just want Sean to know it wasn't me that gave him that kidney it was God God just used me to provide demonstrated love I gotta tell you and I share this with Scott and he looked at me and told me the same thing I just don't know many people with that kind of courage most people with his condition would just sort of say hey look I've suffered enough in life not Ed Ed was funny he said when I woke up from the anesthesia said he said I knew I hurt where I was supposed to but I think I was supposed to hurt that much and then by the time I got to see him he was on the road to recovery and I think he's now back home we're pretty close to it here he's here tonight where's Ed I just embarrass you stand up Ed or wave anyhow just wave there he is he's right in the back God bless you brother I forgot to tell you that Ed hates to miss church and I didn't know he'd be here tonight and I didn't I knew you here on the tape and he couldn't do anything about it then because he wouldn't want me to tell you this story that's the truth but I wasn't gonna let him get away with it but he caught me so forgive me brother for telling the truth about you but the reality is Ed demonstrates love loved ones finally in communication let me just say this it isn't easy you can resolve tonight and I hope you will to say you know what I do want to find out where I am and and I do want to be I do want to be really clear about the fact that I'm demonstrating care and love but I want to tell you that it's going to take time it's going to take energy to get where you need to go I've been married quite a while and Caroline is still working on this and it was just it was like one of those funny God moments when this afternoon in preparation for coming over here we had one of those like misunderstandings you know it's just it was like this is I said can I use this tonight this is a perfect illustration of being dense you know so on my part and the reality is that it's a lifelong process but here's the thing friends what I found is if you lean into it God is so desirous he so wants you to know the joy of being understood and understanding and what what you'll find is this I found that people I'm really close to many times will come and let me share an illustration I did ask permission to share with you that happened with JR not that long ago a few months back and JR and I were just having a normal touch point meeting that we have during the week and he started down this path and for 40 minutes JR said some very non JR like kind of things that I won't repeat I mean just things that I've not heard him say and I after 40 minutes of listening being quick to listen and slow to speak I said wait a minute JR here's what I hear you saying is that what you mean or do you mean this and I shared what I thought he was really trying to do and it was a moment it was like a moment of silence and he said you know brother you're absolutely right he was actually creating sort of an outcome of a road we were going down that wasn't gonna happen I mean nothing weird anything it was just like we were talking about ministry objectives and he had this thing that was just really not him and it wasn't close to where we were gonna go and but but something had happened that had created some uncertainty and some fear in him and he was talking on characteristically and I when I said no that's not it at all isn't it's this and he said you're right and he just he just completely turned emotionally and he said you really heard what was going on inside of me and you just called out and he said I needed someone to put their finger on that fear and you put your thing and see that all I did was just say what I heard his heart saying friends that's the point hear the heart and the best way maybe demonstrate that is funny we were putting this message together said what's a simple way to help people remember hear what the heart is saying and look at the words how the words work listen from the heart and looks what's right in the middle of the heart hear the heart of the person that you're listening to and you will become loved like you've never known love before like you to stay with me for a moment and everyone look this way just for a second here's a very important question for you as I was reading that story about the woman and reading about her willingness to publicly demonstrate that she needed Jesus the thought occurred to me as I was preparing that I wonder how many people have an honest understanding of where they are in their journey with God you know having the car cruise gives me an opportunity to have scores of conversations with different folks I had one this was last night this Friday with a couple and they might be here too and I wouldn't know it but I'm not going to call them out or anything like that but I want to tell you the essence of the conversation was this they understand God relating to them as a religious thing that is to say they think that they're going to be accepted by God based on how they've done overall they think at the end God's going to sort of weigh the bad things in their life which they admit they had a few living together outside of being married and doing some other things that were pretty indulgent just one of them but they also said you know we've done some pretty good things too we've been you know we're not terrible people going down this list and we've even you know sent some money to feed the kids in Africa that kind of thing great I said wait a minute what you're describing for me is religion religion is man's attempt to gain God's approval and loved ones if you're hearing me tonight please listen the greatest confusion the greatest lie that's out there right now the greatest lie that's over our city and the people of our city right now is that if you're just a good religious boy or girl if you just go to church and kind of do your religious duty that in the end God's going to say well you know what your goods outweigh your bads and in the end I'm just going to say you're cool come and spend eternity with me and the reality is that it's all about a relationship of knowing Jesus Christ it's about having the heart of that woman that says Lord I am not worthy to be in the same room with you and when I'm in that room my heart weeps because I realize that I have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and I'm here tonight I just want to ask you a question do you desire to know Jesus in a way that transcends religion so that you can know that no matter how much you fail how often you do just like me I'm a sinner just like you that's been forgiven and even today when I sinned again I turned to the Lord in that moment Lord I said Lord please forgive me for that and I knew because not because I deserve it but because of His blood shed on the cross that He forgave me and I could be restored and communed with Him friends you can know that today and I'm going to ask any one of you tonight who would say you know what I don't want to live a religious life I want to have a relationship with the one true God say how do I do that well I want to lead you in a prayer in just a moment when I pray this prayer I want you to just pray from your heart and what you'll find is well Jesus said it this way in Revelation 3 I'm going to read it right out of the scripture for you in verse 20 He says this here I am I stand at the door that's the door of your heart and I knock and if anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come in and be with him and he with me would you like Christ to take up his presence in your heart if so he's knocking tonight bow your head and pray with me please all throughout the auditorium in Oakland let's bow let's pray Lord we thank you for this moment we thank you for the time that we can step back from life and the pace of life and look at our hearts honestly and many people right now Lord are weighing out that issue where are they with you and friend if you tonight want to know if today in your heart you're feeling like I want to know that I know this God I want to know Jesus pray this prayer with me say these words to him Lord Jesus Lord Jesus I know that I have sinned I asked you to forgive me and to restore me into a relationship with you Lord I give up trying to do it on my own and I received the free gift of eternal life through the cross you suffered and died thank you for loving me thank you for hearing my need thank you for hearing my heart in your name I pray okay let's all just go on home that is the message actually of the gospel only God could do what he did which is to break sin's power thanks Rich and team it was awesome by the way all summer long don't get lazy and sloppy but coming to worship and in fact one cool thing is if you have to be away on a weekend come Thursday night and so it's always a little bit different but the message is the same the direction is the same and it's just a good way to stay you know plugged in because the church is the living body of Christ and exciting things happen and I'm not sure if David mentioned a couple of things I want to just revisit real quick as I prepare for this study break time for the last 15 years folks have been turning in prayer requests this is my moment to pray for you personally by name before the Lord sometimes I respond back if I if I feel led to do so you can do this online or use the sheet that's in there and I'd ask you to pray just for me the one thing it's been really a nuisance for the last couple months for me it's been my back and not to make a big long story of it but you know after a lot of years of being pretty pretty solid since my surgery I've had a couple of months of a lot of back pain so praying that God will take care of that while I'm gone and I appreciate if you put that on your prayer list for me I want to encourage you as well church because as the summer progresses you may not hear this since you might be in and out but here's a couple of really cool things happen as a consequence of your commitment to church to serve we've already had about 40 adults go to the campus in Homewood at the Helen Fajian school so 40 people have already been tutoring mentoring building relationships and in a week they're starting a summer camp they've never had this before imagine these inner-city kids are saying what do we do for four weeks they're gonna be getting together during the mornings and and hearing stories and doing crafts and playing sports and and we have I think Brian told me 50 people heading down there for one month so that's an awesome thing second thing in response to this that's great I mean it's it's I think it'