2001 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

©2005 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

07-03-05

Strong In The Lord

7/3/05 Strong In The Lord

We are going to return to our study of the book of Ephesians this morning,

picking up our study in the last chapter,

with Paul’s final comments in this remarkable letter.

Though we have been in and out of this letter

for a considerable length of time,

the basic message Paul is seeking to communicate is really quite simple.

Writing exclusively to Christians,

in the first half of the letter

he tells us who we really are - who we have become through Christ,

and then, in the second half of the letter,

he tells us how we can live in a way

that is consistent with who we really are,

or in the words he uses,

how we can “walk in a manner worthy of our calling”.

What he tells us in the first half about who we are

is nothing short of remarkable.

He describes for us

a recreative work of God accomplished by Him within each Christian

in which God places His Spirit within us,

equips each of us with our own unique ability to proclaim the life of Christ through us,

tells us that we are now the physical Body of Jesus Christ here on this earth,

and then tells us that we are now the primary means

through which the manifold wisdom of God is now made known to all of creation.

To each believer He is saying,

“Do you understand the true nature of this remarkable relationship

that God has established between you and Himself?

You now literally live each day of your life

with the presence of the Spirit of God within you,

and He has chosen you as the means through which He now reveals Himself to the world.”

And then,

in the second half of the letter

in broad strokes Paul offers us

the approach to life

that will enable the Spirit of God to express Himself through us

in the most effective ways possible.

The first half of the letter reveals to us our calling,

and the second reveals to us

the choices we can make

that will then enable that calling to become a living daily reality in our lives.

And I need to remind you that the “how to” section

doesn’t look anything like what we would expect

if we have been listening to so much of what we hear being said

throughout the religious world around us.

There is nothing here about our attempting to establish great world-wide “ministries”.

There isn’t even anything about church programs

or public presentations of the Gospel,

or writing books,

or conducting seminars,

or organizing rallies.

What there is, however,

is a detailed description

of the way in which we choose to relate to the people around us.

And so Paul talks with us

about the multitude of choices we make in our lives each day -

about the way we talk with one another,

and the way we talk about one another,

about our relationship to our emotions,

about our sexual relationships,

about our relationship to our possessions

and the possessions of others,

about our relationship to alcohol,

about a husband’s relationship with his wife,

and wife’s relationship with her husband,

about a father’s relationship with his children,

and about a child’s relationship with his or her parents,

about an employer’s relationship with his or her employees,

and an employee’s relationship with his or her employer.

And through it all

he carefully builds for us

that protective moral framework

that enables us to understand

how to conduct our lives within those boundaries

that will allow the Spirit of God to express Himself through us with absolute freedom.

And before we move into this last section of the letter,

I do want to be sure

we hear clearly what’s being said to us.

The message Paul is giving us here

is nothing short of remarkable.

Having first told us

that Christ is in the process of living out His life through us,

Paul then tells us

that we enable Him to do that effectively

through keeping our own lives within the protective moral framework given to us by our Lord,

and through loving the people He has entrusted into our care.

That’s it!

No neon lights flashing “Jesus Saves” to the world.

No prime time TV programing.

No mighty cathedrals or world-wide ministry outreaches.

Just Jesus Christ rebuilding one life at a time,

and then, allowing each rebuilt life

to contribute to His rebuilding process in others

as we reach out in love to them.

And for nearly 2000 years now,

even in the face of all the damage we have done to the truth

through our man-made religious systems

that are all competing with one another

and at times fighting with one another under the banner of Christianity,

still God’s basic program of changing the world one person at a time

is doing very well indeed.

Do you really think that your life doesn’t matter?

Do you think you have little or no ability

to alter the course of history for good or evil?

There is right now

at least one person in your life

who is watching you, listening to the sound of your voice

for hope,

or for encouragement,

or for affirmation,

or for the strength to keep going.

In truth, most of us have several such people.

And every single day

the choices we make in those relationships,

and especially the things we choose to say

or choose not to say

literally alters the course of their lives.

Nearly every day of my life

I witness the tragic evil of words being used to inflict tremendous unnecessary pain,

and the redemptive power of words being used

to promote healing and reconciliation.

Our relationships with those God has placed around us

are our great calling in life.

They are the center of everything

that Christ is seeking to do both in us and through us.

And as such

they are also what will bring us

either our greatest sense of purpose and fulfillment

or our greatest source of regret.

I did something this past week I’ve never done before,

in fact never even thought about doing.

I looked back over the past 40 years of my Christian life,

and apart from Sandee, Joni, Matt, and Matty who are forever at the center of my life,

I started jotting down the names

of those people over the years

that I felt had been entrusted into my care by God in a special way.

Of course I know

that many, perhaps most of you listening to me right now

have found my teaching to be of value to you in your Christian life.

Why else would you listen?

I’m not talking about that.

I’m talking about those situations

in which God has at some level

entrusted another person into my care

with the understanding that I would love them,

and take responsibility for them,

and seek to reproduce myself in them.

Do you know how many names were on that list when I finished?

Thirty-five.

Forty years,

and thirty-five names.

That’s not even one a year.

But then I noticed something else as I looked at that list.

Many,

in fact most of those on that list

have taken what God was able to give them through me

and are now passing it on to others.

They are doing for others,

and in others,

what I was able to do in and for them.

And in fact, in their own ways,

many of them are far better at it than I ever was,

touching lives that I could have never even gotten near.

And as I looked at that list

I realized that those 35 lives

are far and away my most significant contribution to this world I will ever make -

infinitely more significant

than all the teaching

and all the writing I’ve ever done

or ever will do.

Because that’s the way God set it up - just one life at a time,

and one day at a time,

with no one watching,

and no one noticing,

and no one waving banners or organizing movements.

And I’m not suggesting here

that we should take this pattern

and attempt to turn it into a “ministry”.

Don’t go looking for someone to “disciple”.

If we just start with the one or two or three He’s already given us

most of us will be pushed to our limits.

And if He wants to entrust others to us,

He’ll do it in the natural course of our lives.

Do you think it doesn’t make a difference?

I hesitate to do this

because I have seen the numbers game

so abused within the world of religion,

but I do find it interesting.

You see, if each of those 35 lives I’ve been involved in

then impact just 10 others in the same way over the course of their lives,

that’s 350.

And if the same pattern is repeated in just one more generation

that’s 3500 lives.

In the first 40 years 35 lives have been affected,

in the next 40 years that 35 turns into 3500.

And it is that calling, that approach that I see at the heart

of what Paul offers us in this letter to the Ephesians.

It’s us allowing our God to bring a measure of healing into our own lives,

and then His using that healing

to bring about healing in others, one life at a time.

But then Paul ends this letter

with a powerful reminder

of the kind of resistance we will always encounter

whenever we accept the calling and life priorities given to us by our Lord.

He says,

EPH 6:10 Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.

EPH 6:11 Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

EPH 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

And with his final words

Paul reminds us once again

that entrance into the family of God

is entrance into warfare.

It’s all well and good

for me to talk about reaching out in love

to the people God has entrusted into our care,

but the truth is

ordering our lives in such a way

that makes that a reality

does not happen without our conscious choices to make it happen

in the face of very real forces that fight against it.

But even here Paul is careful to protect our minds from the lies.

This is no call for us to get out there and “do it for the Lord”.

It’s not even a call for us to get out there and do it for ourselves,

or for others.

Look at that opening phrase.

Finally, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.

What have we heard him saying to us all the way through the letter?

The only way this thing will ever work

is through Christ placing His Spirit within us,

and then living His life out through us.

And here again,

as Paul offers his final words of challenge and encouragement,

he tells us that it is never our strength for God,

but rather Christ’s strength within us

that makes this whole arrangement between us and Him workable.

Of course, Paul knows he cannot make a statement like that

without then sharing with us

how we go about doing that.

In practical terms,

how does a human being

allow the strength of God Himself

to be the source of his own strength?

And he does answer that question for us.

He introduces his answer

through a vivid mental image.

Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

Great stuff, huh?

He tells us

that he is going to explain

how we can “put on the full armor of God”,

an armor that will then enable us to stand firm against Satan himself.

But before He does,

he wants to be sure we understand

what we’re really up against

and why the life of Christ within us

is the only thing that makes the Christian life workable.

He says,

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Are you under stress right now?

During the past 20 minutes

as my voice has droned on in the background,

have you found your mind returning again and again

to that churning point you brought with you into this room this morning?

What is it?

Is it money?

If you just had a little more...or a lot,

your problems would be solved?

Or is it that person -

the one you love whose life is in chaos,

or the one who, for reasons you still don’t really understand,

seems to have declared war on you,

turning your life into a daily agony.

Maybe it’s your future.

Maybe, when you try to look into the future,

you simply cannot see any reason why this pain within you will ever end,

or how these needs within you will ever be met.

Maybe it’s that addiction that’s causing your turmoil,

that physical or emotional sink-hole

you keep getting pulled back into over and over and over again.

Maybe it’s your physical health that’s causing the stress.

But whatever it is,

in your mind it probably has a reasonable physical explanation,

something that makes perfect sense

within the context of this physical world.

Things have happened

or not happened

that have caused the problem.

And if other things would happen

or not happen

the problem would go away.

I don’t know how to say this

except simply to say it.

The war that you are fighting

is not the war that’s really going on.

And the enemies you think you face

are not the ones you’re really fighting,

or the ones who are really fighting against you.

I know that what I am about to say right now

will cause some of you to tune me out

because it will not fit with your perception of reality,

and because it’s the type of thing you think preachers are paid say.

But I will say it anyway

because it would be no act of kindness on my part

for me not to say it.

Right now many of you honestly believe

that there are a wide range of issues in your life,

all of which are roughly equal in significance and importance.

There is your financial situation and all the choices that involves.

There are your significant relationships with family members and with a number of others.

There are your work obligations, your daily duties and responsibilities.

There is your relationship with God and your understanding of what that means.

There are your plans for the future,

and your relationship to the past events in your life.

There is your relationship to your physical body and the health issues that involves.

And there are a number of other things we could put on that list as well,

things like your political involvement

and your involvement in social and community issues and on and on.

And if we listen to the conventional wisdom of our society,

the key word with all of this is BALANCE.

Seek out and maintain the proper BALANCE between all of these diverse elements of life.

How’s it going?

Do you feel balanced yet?

If so,

then why are you still so stressed?

It is not balance that will bring harmony to life.

It is not balance

that can bring a correct understanding

of all of the diverse elements of our lives.

That understanding can only come

from discovering the central purpose in life,

the purpose from which all other things then take their proper meaning.

And what is that central purpose?

It is our daily rediscovery

of the true nature of the love of Christ for us.

We are created beings.

We exist for relationship with Him.

And until that relationship becomes the central issue

in our relationship with every other aspect of our lives

nothing else will make sense.

You think your stress right now

is being caused because of the financial pressure you’re under.

But there is a far greater issue involved.

Who is your God in the midst of all of this

and how does He relate to you?

Does your God really love you enough

to provide for your physical needs?

And will you trust that love enough

to listen to Him

when He talks with you about your relationship to your money?

You think your stress right now

is being caused by that relationship that’s driving you crazy.

But do you realize

that God has allowed that relationship in your life

because He knows it will create within you

a desperate need for the love,

and leadership,

and healing of your Creator

as you try to understand your proper role in that relationship?

Do you really want to try to fix it yourself?

Are you determined to allow your bitterness to consume you,

your anger to drive you?

Do you want to continue to try to control and manipulate?

Can I suggest an alternative?

Why not come back to the Center of all things.

“Oh Lord God, show me now

the steps you want me to take

that will promote healing.

I cannot, I will not carry this any longer.”

You see, with every issue in life,

our calling is not to find balance,

it is to discover how to find that issue’s proper relationship

to the Center of all things - Jesus Christ and our ongoing discovery

of the true nature of His love for us.

Which brings me back to this warfare we are involved in.

For, what Paul is telling us here in this statement

is that, with every issue in our lives,

just as our calling is to discover the love of our God for us in the context of that issue,

so there will be demonic forces

actively seeking to blind us to that love.

And then, from there,

he goes on to explain to us

the steps we can take

to defend ourselves against those attacks.

Now, we need to do some more with this whole thing,

but we’ve run out of time

so we’ll pick up our study here next week.