Message 3 - Tailor Made - The Big "I"

Ephesians 6:14

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Good morning, family. Good to see you. A couple of things this morning before we actually dig into the scripture, which we're going to go to Ephesians 6. And so if you want to go ahead and get there on in your Bibles, you can. I want to talk a little bit about the service on Friday that we're going to have at uh 7 o'clock. And and uh just uh uh it's special time to remember. Uh our God, our Lord, went to the cross on our behalf. And as part of that service, we're gonna do a couple things. Uh, I'm gonna read you a section from uh uh a book that uh has come to mean a lot to me regarding uh Friday, Good Friday service. But one of the things we're gonna do is uh have a testimony time. Uh just and and I want to I'm telling you now so you can be thinking and praying about it. Uh I want uh first of all, no, I'm not gonna put anyone on the spot, uh, but uh uh just praying, be praying. Uh the focus is uh on what things that that God has done for you recently, or or things that you've seen where it was obvious that that it was God's movement in your life. Uh or if you want to, you could share briefly about uh how you came into that relationship with Jesus. Uh and uh we'll try to keep it, everybody kind of be respectful of each other and and uh keep it to like three to five minutes. Uh and uh I know you can do that. I I don't know if I shared this, but uh with my my uh we had my mom's uh memorial service back in December, and five pastors preached at that service. Five, and we did it all within an hour. So in fact, the the pastor of my mom's church was the last one, and and he got up and he said, History has been made this morning, because five pastors spoke and we're gonna be done in it, but uh so we can do that, but but we I want to hear because I that is so encouraging to I think to each other when when we get to hear from each other uh how God, how we see God working in our life, and or uh how testimonies of how we came to know Jesus. And so be praying about that, because that'd be part of it. And then we're gonna end the service with a with a time of sharing in communion, breaking the bread and and drinking the cup. Uh so secondly, uh, this is Palm Sunday. Uh you heard us mentioned it several times, even before we to this point. Um, and if you were brought up, uh some of you probably were brought up in a religious environment where, you know, as you came into church on Palm Sunday, you were handed a palm, or maybe as you left church, uh you were handed a palm branch. And in honor of this Sunday, uh Palm Sunday was five days before the cross, uh, before Jesus hung on the cross on our behalf, and all that went with that, the cramped muscles, the raw back from his beating, uh certainly writhing in pain. Uh Palm Sunday is seven days before an empty tomb, before the resurrection, and uh uh and and uh certainly a reason to celebrate. But this is what I find interesting about the Sunday, and and I've probably I know I've made note of this before, but I think it's a good good thing to remember and think back through again. Uh when it comes to the events, and especially for the Palm Sunday, it's in reason. We have the Gospels. We have four Gospels, those are five four eyewitness accounts of Jesus' life. Four of his disciples, uh well, three three uh disciples, uh clearly uh one that became apostles, and then Mark, but Mark was was most likely, we believe, was actually uh writing down as Peter witnessed to him and told him to write these things down to share with us. So he so have these four eyewitness accounts, and and uh in my library have this thing called uh the harmony of the gospels, and because there's four men, and so different things stuck out to them. And so if you read the gospels, uh you you know you there's some things Mark will mention and some things John will mention. But when it came to Palm Sunday, all four gospels mentioned it. It was a significant moment, uh certainly for for them. Uh and in in my uh most of the Bibles, uh, the translation I have in IV, you will read at the top of this section of scripture the triumphal entry. Uh that's what's been designated. Now remember, we've talked about this before. Uh those titles uh were not in the original manuscripts. Uh they're what when translators later would translate the scripture, they would do that as kind of a help to us. Just like the just like the verses weren't numbered in the original translations uh and in the original manuscripts. They were added in later to help us know where to get to. So pastors can say, let's go to, you know, uh Ephesians chapter 6. And uh so that wasn't in the original, but the translators looked at this section of scripture and uh and they said, well, obviously this is a very triumphal entry. Uh but I think they missed it. I think they missed what was really going on there, at least from the perspective of uh the heart of God and of Jesus. Now, why do why do I say that? Because it certainly looks like a moment of triumph. Uh people are cheering. Jesus is is uh heading towards Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, and and everybody is so excited, and and they've been and people have been following, and even people in the people who haven't been following, but it's by now everybody knows about Jesus. He's that he heals people. Uh he's been uh said to when he teaches, it's like no one else. Uh he teaches, like he really understands and and knows God. And and so there's a lot of things that people have have come to celebrate about him. He obviously has power that is beyond the power of any human. That is, even Nicodemus, the Pharisee, when he came to talk to him during the night, said, We know you're from God. And he's speaking on behalf of the Pharisee. He says, We know you're from God, because no one could do the kind of things you're doing if God were not with him. And all this has led to this scene uh as Jesus moves into Jerusalem, and the people come together and they're celebrating and they're excited, and they're taking their coats off, and they're throwing them on the ground and pulling branches off of trees and throwing them so that even the donkey he rides on doesn't touch the dirt. And this is all a celebration. And in their mind, uh what they're celebrating is here is finally the individual who has enough power to change everything about their lives. This this for centuries now, they've been on the under the thumb of other governments, and now at this particular time they're under the Romans, and and things have been hard for them, and they're just barely eking out, eking out of life, and everything has been difficult. And and now that finally the Messiah they've been looking for has shown up on the scene, who has the power to organize the army and leading them to conquer their enemies, and so it just seems like oh wow, what what a day. But here's why I say there's something missing. Because in Luke's gospel, he noticed something. And remember, he's a physician. There are a lot of things in Luke's gospel where he picks up on details that others have missed, or at least don't feel necessary to write about. And so Luke writes as he Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, if you, even you had only known on this day what would bring you peace, but now it's hidden from your eyes. Uh were were all about what Jesus was going to do for them in their mind. Uh how he's gonna might change their circumstance, make things better for them financially, uh, uh help them defeat the enemy that uh uh the Romans and and uh get out from under their thaw thumb. Uh how uh he, you know, they've been tired of having someone else dictate uh their lives. Uh and so they've decided that Jesus has come and he's gonna change all of that for them. But the truth is, he had come to do even something bigger, bigger than any of that. Uh he'd come to make it possible for them to have a relationship with his father. He had come to bring peace, but not the kind of peace they were talking about, where physical enemies and and he'd become come to bring them the a peace that would change everything for this life and forever, for eternity. He had come to change their relationship with God, uh, not just their present circumstances. So I think the question that we need to ask on this Sunday as we remember this uh important event is uh what does this Sunday represent for me and for you? What are you looking for from God? Is it all wrapped up in the here and the now, the clothes on your back, the funds in our bank accounts, our personal health? I often hear people say things like, as long as I have my health, then I'm good. Really? Are you really sure that that's all there is to it? Or they'll say something like, as long as I have a good nest egg put away, then I'm I I feel secure, I feel safe. Uh as long as I know that uh my kids are doing well, then I'm I'm happy, I'm satisfied. But you know the thing about all those is that none of them is guaranteed. Not one of those. But there is one guarantee that I can give you. If you accept the new life that God is offering, a life that uh is all about what Jesus did on that cross, and and the reason he was on that cross, which is not just to die a martyr's death, it was in fact to die as a payment for our sins so that we could be forgiven. So if you're willing to accept that, accept that gift that's being offered to you, if you never have before, uh, to accept the forgiveness and accept the restored relationship with God, who now is not just God, he is your heavenly father because you're his child when you make that decision. Uh and and it changes your entire future, starting now, certainly, but on into eternity, if you're willing to accept that, that's what Jesus was all about. That's why he wept that day because he knew they'd missed it, and he didn't want them to miss it, and he doesn't want you to miss it, and he doesn't want me to miss it. So as we think about that moment, that day, that's that uh celebration that was going on that was very incomplete at the moment at that time, if you want God to really celebrate, and I say that on based on scripture, scripture says that even if one person decides to accept that gift of forgiveness that Jesus paid for, even just one, that there is a celebration in heaven. Uh so you want to make a celebration happen in heaven, if you've never made this decision, if you've never accepted the gift, do it today. That's right. Father, thanks. Thanks for uh recording this event for us. Thanks for uh Dr. Luke, who picked up on something that uh maybe no one else noticed, but the fact that uh the people's acceleration was was off track. Uh they they thought you had come for one reason, and in fact you had come for something totally different but much better. And Lord, I pray that there is someone in this room today that doesn't know you, that has never accepted that offer of forgiveness and that restored relationship with the Heavenly Father. I pray that today's the day that they do, that they don't leave this room today without making sure that things are right between you and them. Uh and just thank you for making that possible. Pray these things in your son's name. Amen. Okay, now we're gonna get in our message for you who thought, oh wow, this is gonna be a quick one today. We're out of here. No, I tried to warn you. Ephesians 6, let's go there. Uh, and uh we're gonna uh spend a few more minutes walking through. I told you what we would get to, so at least some of the armor of God today because I've been moving gearing this up for it, and so we are going to do that. Uh and just kind of a just a little bit of review before we dig into uh one of the pieces of of the armor that uh we've been talking about is uh just reminder that we are in the middle of a battle. Scripture has made that clear. This passage has made that clear. Uh it's we we don't have a choice. Uh you can't choose, you can't say, well, I really I don't want to be an enemy with Satan, so I'm just gonna kind of you know keep my head down and keep out, it doesn't matter. He he is out for you. Uh he hates you. His purpose in life, his purpose for his existence, honestly, is your destruction. That's what he lives for, that's what he wants to make happen. Uh he wants to take as many people to hell as he can with him, a place that was not created for us. It was created for Satan and the fallen angels. But if he can keep us away from that gift we just talked about and from accepting that gift, then we will end up with the fallen angels and with Satan. And so he's gonna do everything he can to make that happen. Uh, he is out to get us and destroy us. And so we've been talking uh about this special armor that Paul's writing about that he says that God has given us to help protect us from that that enemy. And as we we noted some things, as we noted last week, for one thing, is uh we shouldn't pick and choose when we come to this armor, we could shouldn't pick and choose which piece we want for which given day. You know, it's like I think I'll think I'll put a sword on today. No, it's not that kind of a thing. He says we need to put the full armor on every day. And I and if you notice in the video clip that we have right before the to the uh we start into the message, uh talks uh it talks about this uh reminder that this you put this armor on. Uh and and so I think what that means by that is that you know mentally we we we really think through, okay, God, here's what you've given me to protect me. And so I want to keep this in mind today as I walk through this day because I I do have an enemy. So so we need to put, we need all the armor, the full armor, uh, not just pieces of the armor. Uh another thing that's that's interesting about this armor is as you look down through it, and as we talk down through it, there's only one part of the armor that's meant for offense. If you notice, all the rest of it is defense. Uh it's it's all uh protection, and although protection, but only one is meant for offense, and we'll talk about what that means when we get when we get down to us. And then last week uh someone came up to me afterwards and they said, Well, I've been I've been studying this, and I've noted that there's uh no protection for the back. And I said, good observation. Uh this, you know, we there you're not pr we can't run from this enemy. He's all around us anyway. So uh it's it's it's not something we run from. There are there are things in scripture, there are points where God has, in his word, said, flee this. Uh immorality is one of those where because immorality is so dangerous and it seems to just suck us down this hole. And so he admitted says, Man, don't even eat, don't even get close to anything that's it that could be tied in with immorality. Run from it because it's so destructive. But but for the most part, we we don't run from this enemy. Uh it wouldn't do us any good anyway. We couldn't get away from him. He's all around us. And so so the battle is uh uh all in as far as that protection, and we wear it on our on us, and and uh we don't we shouldn't try running from this enemy because he'll he'll just catch us. Uh so that gives brings us down to verse 14 and uh talking about the the first part of this armor uh as we've been working up to it. And we read there, stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. Okay, uh as we begin here, let me just talk a little bit about the belt in this armor uh so that we have an understanding of what's going on. Uh this is a very important part of the whole armor. And you know, you might think of that, have a tendency to think, wait a minute, we're talking about a belt here. Uh I'm wearing the belt today. I have in my closet two belts, at least two that fit me. I'll admit to that. I have a black one and a brown one. And it's not a big deal. Uh, if I'm wearing pants that look better with the brown one, I put the brown one on, and today I have a black one on because I think these are great. Uh uh Christoph was mentioning that he gets dressed in in the dark, so he's not sure what shows up when he comes to church. I get dressed in the light, and I'm still not sure what shows up. But so so sometimes we kind of think, well, belt, you know, we almost maybe have a tendency to skip that. This, you know, it's just a belt. But this belt, and and looking and based on history uh of the armor, as we have this picture of this Roman armor, uh, the belt was extremely important. Uh it for one thing, it held everything in place. Why is that a big deal? Well, you one thing it held the sword on, so you had that at easy reach and quick reach. But but held when you get into the middle of uh uh hand-to-hand combat, which was a lot of what their battles were in those days, that that belt would hold, you have the breastplate, you have all these pieces of armor, and it held them all in the right spot. So you can imagine you're moving around and you're fighting, and suddenly your your breastplate uh starts to slip down and your heart is exposed. And now the enemy has an opportunity to go at that that exposed part because the belt wasn't working right. It was it was extremely important in it helped hold all the other pieces of armor in their right place. Uh, and so this is a big deal. This belt is is uh one of those primary pieces that that I we would say are very important to make sure we have on and on a day to day basis. Uh so that's important to understand. But what I mentioned this, in fact, I mentioned this the last couple weeks. One of the things that as I've been studying this that have been has been really amazing to me is uh that these pieces of the armor that we're gonna walk through are so practical. When when we when you hear in a moment what what I'm what I'm feeling confident that the belt of truth is talking about, it's gonna be like, oh, yeah, that that makes sense. Uh you know, I've I with some that have studied as the the belt of truth uh have is they said well it's kind of they spiritualize it. And so like with the belt of they'll say belt of truth. Well, the Bible says that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and so it's talking about Jesus, because it's everything talks about Jesus, right? Uh but but uh I don't think that's what's going on here uh in in regard to this. Uh the when it talks about the belt of truth, the Greek word that's used there actually means integrity. Integrity is the piece of the armor that all of us need to have on that holds everything else in place. This is a this is a huge thing when we talk about integrity. Strong's uh Greek lexicon says that the word means what is true regarding any matter under consideration. Uh in in Matthew 22, they're talking about Jesus, and they say to him, same Greek word, teacher, they said, We know you are a man. Integrity. So as we're beginning and looking at the armor of God and we go through all these other pieces in the days ahead, Lord willing, this issue of integrity holds everything else in place. And if we don't have this, we're not protected. We are in the middle of a battle. We have an enemy who is obsessed with our downfall and our destruction. And the first piece of our armor for our protection, in fact, the one that holds everything together is are we people of integrity? Our yeses mean yes. Our no's mean no? Are we people that can be trusted? Our word can be trusted. Yes, sir, asked yourself, and maybe have you ever thought of in this context of uh and and I have myself of what's my integrity worth? Is my integrity worth uh uh lying on a comet and the refund for an Amazon product? Uh is my integrity worth a couple of bucks that the cashier gave me that that was wrong in their count, and I'm at the car now, and yeah, it's a long ways back to the store to give it back. What is my integrity worth? Because God says it is a primary piece of importance if I'm gonna be protected from my enemy and his designs on you and me. Uh so it's the one that holds everything together. Uh years ago I read about a pastor, I believe it was a true story, uh, and he was a pastor in a large city, uh, and he had been preaching a series of messages on this very thing, on integrity, uh, on honesty uh as believers and how important that is to a watching world uh and and and in fighting against our enemy. And so he'd been preaching on a number of Sundays in this particular pastor because he lived in the city. He had a car, but usually when he would go to the office on Sunday, he would ride the bus because it was cheaper and it was only a few blocks away from where he lived, and so he would just ride the bus. And one one day he got on the bus, uh uh actually a Monday after he preached a certain one of these sermons, and uh, you know, he paid the bus driver and the bus server gave him change and he went back and sat back in his usual spot, and uh he sat in there and went to put the change in the pocket, and it felt wrong, so he kind of looked at it and he counted it out and he thought, oh, he gave me too much back, you know, only 30 cents, but it was too much back. And uh, but he thought 30 cents, that's not, you know. So he started sticking in his pocket, and he thought, now 30 cents is 30 cents. So I need to give it back to the bus driver. So when he got to a spot, he walked back up front, and as he's getting the door opens, he's getting to go off. But before he does, he turns to the bus driver and he says, Hey, buddy, uh, when I paid you, you gave me too much change back. Uh, here's the 30 cents. And the bus driver said, I know. He said, What do you mean you know? He says, I know. I've been going to your church the last few Sundays, and I heard you talking about integrity, and I just wanted to see what your integrity was worth. Never know. Never know. First belt, first article of our armor, very important. Are we people of integrity? And if not, how much is my integrity worth? Let's pray together. Thank you, Father, for this reminder. Pretty simple. I I said so many of these are just amazingly practical. Not even some, in fact, we would at times maybe say, well, that's not that big of a deal, but you're telling us it is, and especially as followers of you, and then on top of that, as the with add to the fact that we have an enemy that wants to destroy us. He wants to destroy our reputation. He wants us to get in a posture where our word means nothing, where people can laugh and mock us because we don't even believe and we don't even say, and we sometimes we cheat where we sh where we shouldn't. And Lord, we we give up our integrity for sometimes such a little amount. I pray that that will not be the case for the people sitting in this room, including myself. Help us to put on the belt of integrity because we recognize it is so important for our protection. Pray these things, Lord, in your son's name. Amen. Well, church, let's stay in. Let's sing one last chorus together.