©2005 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

10-16-05

The Sword Of The Spirit Pt. 2

10/16/05 The Sword Of The Spirit Pt. 2

I’d like to begin this morning

by letting you know

how grateful I am for the encouragement I have received

from a number of you this past week.

What we share together here in our church fellowship

is in some ways more unusual

than some of you may realize.

One of the great tragedies

brought about by the corrupting power of religion in our world

is that all too often

rather than being safe places of healing and refuge in our society

local churches can sometimes be among the most brutal places there are.

Pastors verbally beat up their congregations from the pulpit

and the people then beat up the pastor

either in person or between one another.

I shared a conversation this past week

with very kind, gentle man

who was involved in pastoring a local fellowship for several years.

In the process

he discovered the destructive power of church politics

and the driving desire for control

that can so easily develop in a church group.

He shared with me

how unprepared he was for what he encountered

and the kind of pain it causeed both him and his family.

And not only is his story not the exception,

but in truth it is the normal course of human flesh

tracing its roots all the way back to that first band of 12 men surrounding our Lord.

MAR 9:33-34 They came to Capernaum; and when He was in the house, He began to question them, "What were you discussing on the way?" But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest.

And apart from the active working of the Spirit of God within a church

that is where we so often end up.

But one of the great joys of my life

is the degree to which I have seen

a genuine desire within our church family

to encourage one another.

I saw more than a little of that directed toward me this past week

and I am so very grateful for it.

And this really is no small thing, either.

In fact,

it is at the very heart

of all that our Lord is seeking to do both in and through us.

I still marvel

at the degree to which what should have been so clear

has become so incredibly complicated in the church world.

JOH 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

JOH 15:12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”

We within the Christian world

are flooded with an endless flow of knowledge

and teaching about every topic imaginable.

Would you like a simple

but remarkably accurate little test

for evaluating the truth and validity of what you hear?

Ask yourself how it affects your relationship with your marriage partner,

or with your children,

with your fellow Christians,

or with that very difficult person in your life.

Does what you’re hearing

make it a littler easier

to love your Lord,

or to act in love toward those around you?

If so,

then it’s probably good stuff.

But if what you’re hearing

simply arms you with added ammunition

with which to prove you’re right and someone else is wrong,

or if it causes stress, or tension, or division between you and another person,

or if it simply provides a nice religious hiding place

in which to hid from the sometimes difficult relationship issues in your life,

no matter how good it may sound,

or how many people may be singing its praises,

it is not of the Lord.

And I must say that being a part of a church fellowship

in which guarding,

and protecting,

and caring,

and encouraging

is far more important than attacking,

and conquering,

and winning

is a truly wonderful thing.

Well, I mentioned at the end of our time together last week

that I didn’t think we were quite done

with what I wanted to share with you

about the last item in Paul’s list of the armor of God.

If you are new with us this morning,

or haven’t been here for a while,

let me quickly catch you up with where we’ve been.

For the past several years now

we have been involved in a study of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.

It is a letter written by him

to reveal to us

a perspective on the Christian life

that is unlike anything

any of us could have anticipated

when we first called out to our God for forgiveness.

Through this remarkable letter

Paul reveals to us

the role God has given to His people here on this earth.

He describes how, in response to our cry to Him for help,

He stepped into our lives

when we had nothing but corruption and failure to offer Him,

how He then recreated us at the spirit level,

making us “alive together with Christ”.

Paul then goes on to describe how,

after uniting us with Himself,

God then united us with our fellow Christians,

forming us into what He describes as the physical body of Christ here on this earth.

This Body imagery is a truly remarkable picture

of what now exists between Christ and the Christian.

Paul tells us that,

just as all of the individual parts of our physical bodies

must work together in order for us to accomplish those things we want to do,

so we, as individual parts of the body of Christ,

can only accomplish our purposes

as we support, encourage, and uphold one another.

Our grandson, Matty,

entered this world with both low muscle tone and hyper-mobility,

two conditions I knew nothing about

until he entered our lives.

For nearly two years now

with the careful supervision of a skilled physical therapist

and the constant involvement of his parents,

his little body has been trying to figure out

how to get his muscles and joints to do what they’re suppose to do.

It wasn’t just a process that involved his feet and legs.

It has involved virtually every muscle in his body,

as well as his bones and joints,

all trying to figure out how to work properly

under the leadership of his mind.

This past week,

for the first time in his 20 months of life,

Matty Thacher stood up and walked.

Joni mentioned a few days later

that in her most recent trip to the park with Matty

there was some mother there whose nine month old child was walking,

and she was going around to each of the other mothers there asking,

“Now hold old was your child when he started walking?”

Joni overheard what she was doing,

and wisely walked away.

What it took Matty nearly a full year longer to accomplish

was in reality a far greater achievement

because of the forces working against his little body.

And that’s the way it is

with the Body of Christ.

If we look only at the work that Christ has accomplished within us

it would seem as if we could

and should accomplish our calling with ease.

Here we are,

each of us recreated in spirit by God Himself,

each of us literally indwelt by the Spirit of God,

each of us equipped by Him with unique gifts that qualify us for the work He has for us.

What could possibly hinder us

from fulfilling our calling here on this earth?

But that’s only half the picture.

For we also bring some other things into our new life in Christ.

We bring minds, reasoning processes, emotional responses,

and a whole life-time of memories

that fight against the truth of who our God is

and who we are in Christ.

Talk about low muscle tone!

Our mental and emotional muscles aren’t just weak,

they’re fighting against the very things

our spirits most want to accomplish.

And we also have

an Enemy

who does all he can

to wound us in ways that make it extremely difficult

for us to stand up and walk,

wounds that make God’s truth

and His life through us seem like an impossibility.

And so the Spirit of our God

seeks to do in and for us

what Matty’s therapist did for him.

Step by step,

bit by bit,

day by day He works within us,

feeding us truth

and then leading us through the real life process

of applying that truth to our lives.

And Paul then goes on to tell us that,

when this remarkable arrangement between us and our Lord

is working as God designed it to work,

“... the manifold wisdom of God (is) made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.” EPH 3:10

God reveals Himself to all of creation through us.

And just so that we’re prepared for it,

it may help if I let you know

that there are two equally destructive lies

used by Satan in his efforts to defeat us in this truth.

One of them is what I would call the lie of insignificance.

If we do not understand

the way in which God accomplishes His work through His people,

we can easily begin to feel as though our individual life,

and our Lord’s expression of Himself through us

simply doesn’t matter.

It’s an easy lie for us to fall victim to

because of the society in which we live.

In our society

there are certain clearly defined things

that give a person power,

influence,

significance.

You know them as well as I do.

Money is a big one.

Money brings power.

Fame or popularity is another.

Physical beauty is another.

Positions of authority is another.

IQ is yet another.

To the degree that we share in any of those,

to that degree our society gives us stature,

power,

influence.

And it isn’t just in the adult world

that these cultural rules apply.

Are you still in school?

If so, you know exactly who it is in that school society

who has power

and who does not.

And you know why.

And if we are not careful

we can take that same mental value system with us into our walk with the King,

use it to evaluate ourselves within His family,

and assume that because our lives don’t seem to matter all that much in flow of world events,

they really don’t matter much in the Kingdom of God either.

What a lie!

Let me remind you how it really is.

Each one of us

have been given by our God

the ability to express Him and His life through us

in ways that no other person can do.

It is our very uniqueness

that gives us such infinite value to our God.

And then He has also given each of us

our own perfectly matched sphere of influence.

Simply put,

He gives each of us

a few people that He then entrusts into our care.

Frequently they are people

that we alone can reach,

people that we alone can touch in a way that reveals to them the reality of God.

And the real work of Christ

that He accomplishes through His people here on this earth

is not through a system in which a few people reach thousands,

it is a carefully designed divine program in which many people

touch and change a few.

You think your life doesn’t matter?

You think your expression of the life of Christ through you is in any way insignificant?

One of the great gifts I received through a number of you this past week

was the powerful reminder

of one of the most fundamental truths

of God’s plan for bringing about real change in our lives.

Through you

I once again began to regain my own more healthy perspective on life.

And most of the time

most of God’s greatest works through His people

are not done in mass meetings

with music playing

and charismatic leadership up front.

Most of the time

most of God’s greatest works in our lives

are done with just one life

touching another life

in a way that brings lasting change.

Have there been influences in your own life

that have brought profound and lasting changes in you?

There are, of course, times

when the Spirit of God does such works

all by Himself.

But if He chose to use a human agent

I’ll bet with most of you

it was simply one other person

who cared enough

to find a way to reach into your life.

A father,

or a mother,

a close friend,

or an uncle or an aunt or a grandparent...

If it was a teacher,

I’ll bet it was because you became to them

not just a student

but an individual who truly mattered to them.

Do you wonder sometimes

whether your life really matters

or whether your actions have significance?

Look around you.

Look at those people God has placed next to you.

Look at those He has entrusted into your care.

That is your high calling,

one that no one else can accomplish.

Well, the first lie used by Satan

in his efforts to blind us

to the true nature of our being the Body of Christ on this earth

is his suggesting to us the idea that we don’t matter.

And the second is his suggesting to us that we can accomplish our purpose

through some form of religious activity

or the communication of some religious truth.

And I need to be careful how I say this

so that I am not misunderstood.

Maybe I can say this most easily

by simply pointing us back to the life of our Lord

and His relationship with His disciples.

You see, even though the teaching

and the ideas He introduced while He was here

were absolutely revolutionary to human thought,

it was not those ideas

that transformed the lives

of the men and women who were truly His.

What changed them

was their discovery

that He really loved them.

And my point here

is simply that we fulfill our calling

to be the Body of Christ on this earth

by reproducing that same pattern

in our relationships with the people He has given to us.

Do you want to bring about change in another person’s life?

Why?

Why do you want to bring about change?

Is it because the bug you?

Is it because they are so obviously messed up and in need of change?

Is it so that you can prove to them

that you’re right and they’re wrong?

If so,

then I strongly suggest

that you stay out of their life

and just leave them alone.

But if you want to bring about change in their life

because you love them

and because that love gives you a longing

for them to know the richness of the life our Lord offers us,

then you’re probably right where God wants you to be,

doing what He wants you to do.

And here is the truly amazing truth.

By far the most powerful thing you can ever do

to bring about change in their life

is simply to love them,

just as they are,

right where they are,

with no hoops they must jump through

before you will grant them full acceptance.

I’ve shared with you in the past

those words I placed into the mouth of Peter

as I allowed him to explain the remarkable process

through which the Lord brought about changes in his life,

but I’ll share them again now

because I believe they illustrate well

the pattern through which we fulfill our calling

to be the Body of Christ

in the lives of those around us.

Most of all this man became our friend, a friend who knew us fully and loved us completely just the way we were. Certainly his friendship produced profound changes in each of our lives. But they were not changes we attempted to paste on in order to be “good disciples of the great Teacher.” They were changes that gradually infiltrated our lives the more we relaxed in his unconditional love and acceptance.

I sometimes think the greatest gift the Master ever gave me was his permission to be myself. It was a gift he gave me most of all through all the things I never heard him say. I look back over an endless stream of stupid things I said and did during the months I spent with him. Yet not once did I ever hear him say, “Peter, you’re such a fool!” or “Peter, you blew it again!” or “Peter, just once would you try thinking before you speak!” or “Peter, I’ve had it with your endless egotistical stupidity—get out of here!” Amazingly, he seemed well content to have me forever blundering along at his side, knowing the only thing that would transform my life was the discovery that even my worst failures would never separate me from my Master’s love.

And it is the reproduction

of that same pattern in our relationship with those around us

that is at the very heart

of what it means for us to be the Body of Christ on this earth.

I don’t know why it has taken me so many years

to begin to grasp

what should have been so clear

and so simple.

I only know that,

having finally seen it,

and having seen a small measure

of the tremendous impact that comes

from just loving those entrusted into my care,

my life

and my calling as God’s child

finally makes sense as never before.

I didn’t even get through my introduction,

but I’ll try to pick it up again here next week.