Message 5 - Tailor Made - Virtue Reality

Ephesians 6:14

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So I was sitting in my office this morning going over uh my message notes and worship team was practicing and I'm thinking, wow, we're gonna get blown away today. It just uh the only trouble is when they do that, they start me messed up right from the get. Some some good good songs that led us to the throne this morning. So I really appreciate that. Worship team. Uh boy, what a week. I don't know if you are paying attention, but uh I'm sure you you had to be uh pretty much I don't know wearing uh blinders this week not to not to see some of the events going on in the midst of uh just uh uh some the war and and all the the conversations around that, but then we the astronauts are out there and shooting these pictures back from uh uh to uh from space and what amazing pictures. I mean, I just un unbelievable. Uh I think what impressed me the most and uh is I don't know if you watched yesterday, but yesterday they had the kind of where they brought all the astronauts together and put them on stage and and all the NASA piece people were there and they just uh kind of interviewed them. But here's what impressed me is that here they were up there in space looking down at our beautiful planet, and uh they weren't as they got up and they interviewing them, they weren't uh they weren't uh advertising or promoting the science, which is an amazing feat. I mean, uh last Thursday, uh if you listen in space, they made uh they shot they uh hit the rockets and adjusted the the uh the the spacecraft around and at that moment then it was set where they were gonna land on uh Friday. At that moment they said we'll land outside of uh San Diego at 7.07 on Friday. And they could make a few minor adjustments, but it was set that that's gonna happen, and they landed 7.07 on Friday, uh 7.07 in the evening, uh Pacific time. So that's that's crazy. That's the science is crazy. And I for me, it's also evidence of the design of our creator. Uh but what I as they interviewed, what seemed to overwhelm them as they looked at this small, beautiful planet uh in the midst of everything else was uh just a passion for humanity. If you heard them talking, they just were kept kept saying it over and over again that uh excuse me, that we need to come together as humanity on earth. Now what we know is that uh that's not gonna happen for a while, but it will. It will when our Savior returns. Uh and he's gonna, you know, uh uh redo the make the new planet, and uh we will finally come together. But uh pretty amazing stuff uh this week and uh just uh seeing to seeing God's creation uh was was pretty wonderful. Uh so let's dig into the we're gonna go to Ephesians chapter six, your Bibles, your devices, and uh let me pray again before we before we dig in. Thank you, Father, for your word, for just uh evidence of you that we get to see all around us, for those beautiful pictures we got to see from space of our planet. And uh Lord, I do look we do long for that day when you return and and uh put the curse down and and bring uh your children together, and we no longer have to deal with our enemy that we deal with every day now. Uh so thank you for that hope. And now, Lord, as we spend some time in your word talking about the present, what we are dealing with now, just pray that you will give us uh ears that hear and and uh minds that understand and uh a desire to apply it to our lives. Pray these things in your son's name. Amen. On Sundays, uh you probably a lot of you know there's a show uh every afternoon called Americans Funniest Home Videos. I've recorded that show for years. Uh not because I watch it all the time, but I record it for where when our grandkids come over. And you know, when they're sometimes they'll come over and and uh not so much now that they're older, but when they were real little, they would play for a while, but eventually they'd get bored or they'd get tired and they'd need to kind of sit and chill, you know. And so when when it was time for them to do that, I would put on American Sunniest Home videos and we would laugh together at the stupid peep things that people do. Uh but uh so so I've done that for a long time. Right now you could go on my TV, and there's probably five or six of them on there ready, ready for us to watch together. Uh for the last few years, there's been a segment on uh that they've added which was um scenes where people are are watching with those virtual reality goggles, you know, and where they can see it. And and and the scenes are them doing, you know, hitting walls, falling over things, uh, you know, trying to balance scene and thinking they're you know, because they're in this virtual world, uh breaking TVs, it's it's uh pretty hilarious. And and I wanted to actually show a clip of that for this beginning of this message, uh, but uh I actually couldn't find one where the language wasn't and then remembered all those clips are all bleaked out. There's lots of you know, so so I couldn't do that, just uh, but I thought you know I would do that because if you notice the title of the message is not virtual reality, it's virtue reality, but I thought that'd be a good way to start. But but honestly, that might be a better uh in uh indicator of kind of why we need to hear a message like this and and walk through it together. Uh you'll remember the premise of what we're looking at is that the Apostle Paul, he's writing a letter to the Christians in Ephesus, and here's what he tells us it. He tells us we're in a struggle, but he says it, our our struggle is not against flesh and blood, uh, but it is against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm. He says that we are surrounded by this dark spiritual force, and at the at the head of this force is this individual called the devil, Satan, the Prince of the Power. Uh there's several titles for him in scripture. We talked about them early on. And he is uh, well, actually, he has two priorities. His first priority is is to keep us from ever, as human beings, from ever stepping into relationship with God. That relationship has been broken. It was it was the beginning of the break in that relationship started back when Adam ate of the one tree. God says, you can all this, all these trees, you can, this whole garden is for your pleasure and your enjoyment, except one tree. Stay away from that tree because it will bring a curse on you. Uh it will cause the beginning of death. And Adam ate of the tree. Uh and so that started the curse, and we've been battling the curse ever since. So Satan's first goal is to keep us. There is a way to begin to be uh uh to restore the relationship with God. And that's what the cross is all about. That's why Jesus came. He he paid the price, died in our place, so that if we accept the gift of forgiveness paid for by Christ on the cross, then in our we're restored in our relationship with God. And someday we'll be part of that new earth that's coming, and we will get to see that day when when wars and and sickness and all that stuff is is no longer a part of it. But when he fails at that, because hopefully everyone in this room has come to the point where they realize, okay, Jesus, he died for my sins, and they've accepted that gift, and so now they are in relationship with God. They're you're a child of God. Uh so after, so if he loses the battle of keeping us away from restored relationship, then he's going to do everything he can after we have the relationship to uh to take us down paths that will destroy our testimony, that will, even though we are a child of God, still hurt in our relationship with God because we know we're doing things that are contrary to his will for us. And so he doesn't give up. And so we're in that battle, and that's what Paul has been talking about and uh warning us against that we are in the middle of a battle. We have a very formidable enemy who is out to get us, out to destroy us. Uh that he's bent on our destruction, doing everything he can to make life miserable for us as Christians. And so what Paul is doing now is he's walking us through. He says, now, knowing that, and the truth of that, uh, what God has done is he's provided an armor for us. That if we will take advantage of this armor, it will protect us from the attacks of the enemy and keep him from being successful in what he would like to do in our life uh as a follower of God. And so we've been walking through, we're just in the beginnings, but we were walking through this armor. And so if in Ephesians 6, we're gonna go, we started off a couple weeks ago in verse 14, uh, where we read about the first piece of armor that he's mentioned, and that is stand firm then with the belt of truth buckled around your waist. And so we talked about the significance of this belt, that that it is the thing that holds everything else in place. Uh uh it holds the armor where it needs to be, and then you can imagine you're in the middle of hand-to-hand comment, and if this something isn't, you know, you have uh these different pieces, but if they're moving around, then suddenly some uh a spot on your on you is exposed, and now the the enemy can strike you there. And so this the armor sort of needs to hold into place, and the belt is the thing that kind of puts it, keeps it all where it needs to be. So we talked about, well, what is this? And I told you uh in the beginning that we're gonna you're gonna be amazed, at least I have been, at how practical uh and and kind of common sense as we walk through these, you're gonna, as we hear what they are. It's gonna be like, oh yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And so so we started with the belt of truth, and and what I told you this as I dug into the Greek, uh, the word and what was going on, I told you it could have been translated the the belt of integrity. That that Paul is writing to the Ephesus Church, the Christians there, that the the first piece of armor that God has given us and instructed us to put on is integrity, that that will protect us from the schemes and the and the desires of the enemy and the ways he wants to attack us. Uh integrity. Wikipedia defined integrity this way the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. That just makes a lot of sense, you know. Uh if I'm if I'm a person of integrity, it's kind of hard to attack me. And uh, you know, we've we've known individuals like that. Uh uh, I remember my my father, I used to mention him a lot, and uh he he's a man of integrity. And I've watched, I've watched a few period uh times in his in his ministry over the years where individuals tried tried to accuse him of things and uh his integrity shut him down. Uh they they they didn't get any traction. They tried to, but uh he was just he was just too much uh visibly as a man of integrity. They they couldn't get anywhere. And so we say that that makes a whole lot of sense. Uh on the other hand, if we're if we're an individual that uh even as a believer, we cut corners, we we feel it's accessible to tell little white lies that we might try to call them. Uh we we open ourselves up to uh to attack by the enemy, uh by others who might want to bring us harm because as they expose it and suddenly we they say, Well, wait a minute, you you said this, and that wasn't true. And and you might be, or I might be in uh in other areas of my life. I I may that may be a very something I seldom do, but the reality of fact, suddenly people are saying, Yeah, wait a minute. He did wasn't quite truthful there. He wasn't quite honest, and and uh so we we see integrity is a big deal. Uh and so being a person of integrity is a tremendous protection against the plans and the strategies of Satan. Okay? So now we move on to the second, the next piece of armor that is mentioned by Paul. And so still verse 14, he says, stand firm then with the belt, tooth of the belt of truth buckled around your waist. Then he goes into this, with the breastplate of righteousness in place. And you can in your image, and we show it in that opening video, this this is covering, and he says, okay, the belt's holding this breastplate of righteousness on. And once again, uh as I dug into this, I thought, well, this is so practical. It makes so much sense because this word could have been translated uh for your protection against Satan, put on virtue. Virtue. Uh and and uh so but then the thought came to my mind, well, uh virtue. Uh the Greek dictionary says, uh said it this way, it is a purity of life. Uh, or went on and said, a correctness of thinking, feeling, and acting. But then my question was, okay, what's the difference between integrity and virtue? Because God's not redundant, so he's not, it's not, it's justn't repetitious. What's the difference? What's going on? What is going on here? Uh, what's the difference between these two words, integrity and uh virtue? Uh in our relationships, in our business connections, uh the way we pay our bills, keep our word, those are the kind of things that people look at and they say, this is an individual of integrity. It's what what they see on the outside, okay? Uh you know, are you an honest person? Do people know you as someone that keeps their word? That's that's the public per perspective of you, not just public perspective, that's the way you live live. You are a person that people know by outward appearances, by the image they keep, that that uh you're trustworthy. Uh that's that's the idea of integrity. Virtue is more about the inward character. Think about the difference. Uh a person can be the Pharisees. Let me give you an example. And Pharisees nowadays we look at and they're at this uh, you know, it's it's automatically kind of a negative image. But Jesus said one time, he says, you guys are you're like these beautiful uh uh you know, I don't know if you you grew up for for for years uh when Mary Lou and I first got married, in fact before I was married, she she bought this uh really beautiful set of plates and cups and and all everything matched. And uh uh what was it called, Mary Lou? What's the China China so right? The word wasn't coming to me, uh, which were gonna be used for special occasion. Very few occasions ever got that special, and I think they're gone now, honestly. But but so Jesus says to the Pharisees, you're like one of these China cups. And man, you look good outside. But look inside the cup, and it's gross. And and so he's saying, you need to have that integrity. We need to look good outside. People should be looked be able to look at us as Christians and say, you know, I can trust that person. Uh I've done business with them. Uh you know, there uh but it's it's we are able to make that outside look really good and yet have some real problems inside. And that's where virtue uh comes to play. And and here's the point. Uh remember early on uh he says this he says, put on the whole armor of God. We don't pick and choose. Uh we, you know, uh there there are individuals that that uh are really good on the on the image part. They really have a good image, but when in reality inside in the virtue area they have some serious problems uh and concerns. Uh I've I've shared this before. I uh I I feel like as we as pastors really have to be careful about this area. Uh I've mentioned to you before, uh, because of the things that I, you know, and the circles I run and Facebook and things. Every week, every week I I read about a pastor who has fallen. Uh and some of these individuals are individuals that I have watched, followed, learned from, admired for years. By their outward imperance, everything looked like it was right on the ball. They had it together, but what I didn't realize was in the virtue area, there was erosion. They were allowing things into their life. They were slowly erosion, eroding that. And and eventually what will happen, and and they may make that to their whole life before it comes out. You know, a couple of years ago, uh one of my one of my uh uh uh favorite teachers, uh Robbie Zacharias, he lived his whole life, and every just about everybody thought that this guy was a man of I mean from our appearances, he had all together, and then he dies, and then we find out in the area of what's inside there was a darkness. Uh so he says, not only do we need to take very good care of our appearances, our our image, uh, that we're honest people, that pe and uh, but we really need to be guarding that inside character as well, that part, that private part of us that uh uh maybe nobody really knows about, uh or very few. And so so he says that and and that's a protection of uh so much of us. It revolves around our appetites and our desires. And uh, and he says, so so be really careful to guard what am I consuming? What am I allowing to be in my mind? And uh, you know, and it's simple things. Uh what do I read, what do I watch on TV, uh as to very destructive things like, you know, we the uh we talk about pornography for men. That's just uh one of those amazing things. I I actually there was an article this week, I think it was in the New York Times, uh, and it it was a woman author, and she was writing about what should be obvious, but she was writing about uh how the that our generation of uh men, but here's what was troubling about this, our generation of uh boys have been almost a lot of them totally destroyed by how freely accessible pornography is. All the way down, they actually did a part of her article was uh revolving around a nine-year-old boy who is already uh having uh serious counseling because he he got involved in pornography, and it's just the way that it has destroyed his thinking. And uh so we know that, but you know, I I think I probably may have shared this before, but I I know a woman, I've known her for years. Not you, none of you know her, she doesn't live in this area of the planet even. But uh for years since I've known her, since she was a young wife, uh she's been so involved every day. She she she's consumed by these romantic novels. You may think, well, that's kind of a harmless thing, you know. Uh well, maybe, but it in her situation, she says so she's reading these romantic novels on a daily basis. She's can eat all the time. She's this is her appetite. And and she's so she's reading about these these men that they're perfect, you know. They're all they do, they say all the exact right words uh that that every woman wants to hear. You know, they uh smell good, they got the muscles in all the right places, and uh, you know, that uh and and so she's consumed in that. But the problem is here, uh, in the innards of her heart, that the virtue area, because she's always got that image, her husband has never lived up to that. He can't measure to these uh these fictitious men that are in those novels. And and it has impacted their marriage, and they've been married for decades now. And I watched, and not only that, now I watched their kids grow up, and their adult children uh have never been successful in marriage. They're both they're all in their second and third marriage, and because they they never had an example, and and that was all the way that uh the things she allowed in their heart. So there are all kinds of things that we have to watch for, those things that taint our thinking, that skew uh uh a godly perspective of the world and the godly perspective of what we need to have in our life. And he says, so put that armor on. Uh years ago, when I was still in Bible college, uh, and we lived in student housing, I would uh I would go to classes in the morning at the college, and I would run home when Mary Lou and I'd sit down, we'd eat lunch together, and uh then I'd go to work for the rest of the day. And and uh, but usually, okay, so we come home, she'd have lunch ready, and uh we would grab lunch, put our put a plate on our table, we sit down in our chairs and we watched a soap opera. Remember those things? And so we watched the soap opera, and and uh, you know, and we're we're all involved in their lives, and and uh, you know, sometimes I'd had I maybe I had a class that would run late, so I would miss part of it, and I'd come home and say, What did I miss? You know, what what happened? And and you know, and so but here's what I discovered. I started living out that soap opera with my wife. I would, I would, you know, there are always tension, there's always something going on, argument or something, and it wasn't our argument, but it became in my, you know, and so all day I'm in the machine and I I worked in a factory and it was pretty mindless piecework, and so I'm turning on this all day, and and uh and then I'd come home and I'm irritated with my wife, and none of this has anything to do with us, except I'm allowing this stuff into my life that is messing with my virtue. And we finally realized that we needed to watch something else, and American Funniest Home Videos wasn't around then. So what could we do? But that's the kind of stuff that Paul is talking about here. He says, you need to you need to not only guard your outward appearance, and that's important, uh, for a number of reasons, uh, if not the least, of the fact that we're we have a world that watches us, and we want them to want to know our Lord. Uh so we need to guard that aspect of our lives, but we also need to be very careful of what we are allowing on the inside, uh, where the virtue is. Uh because eventually, no matter how good we look on the outside, if if what we're uh putting in there isn't the right stuff, it will eventually seep its way out into our lives. And that's exactly what the enemy wants is for us to keep feeding our inner self with things that openness up to his attacks. So the Paul says put on the breastplate of righteousness. Uh righteousness equals virtue, correctness of feeling, thinking, and acting protection from the enemy. So that's practical. Other thanks. Just again, I I'm blown away when I read these things in your word by just how uh how much you know me, first of all, uh, but how intensely practical this is. Uh maybe you've gone into this study thinking there's gonna be some deep spiritual thing that you're gonna expose us to it, and then you say, no, no, it's really about integrity, about doing things outwardly that are right and virtue of guarding what I allow into my life. Uh and and these are very practical things, and you've said we can put this on. Uh in fact, you tell us, put make sure you put the these pieces of armor on. And so, Lord, thank you for just uh laying this out for us in such a clear fashion. And and I pray, Lord, as we're talking and thinking through this this morning, that uh, you know, as we are examining our own life, which I hope we're all doing as we think through your truth, your word, that if you've identified some of those areas that maybe we're saying, uh, those are those aren't they're not beneficial for the virtue there. Boy, Lord, I realize that I've been I've been feeding on this thing and it's not gonna, it's not doing good side, good things to me uh inwardly, uh, that our response to that will well, first of all, just Lord, I'm sorry about that, and then Lord, uh help me do better in the days ahead. And thank you that you're a gracious God who will answer that prayer. Uh and just so appreciate that. And now, Lord, we're gonna share in communion, like you've asked us to in obedience. And Lord, I just pray that you will uh use that also as just an encouragement in our heart as we revisit what you've done for on our behalf. And I pray these things in your son's name.