The battle is already won. So why are you still fighting for victory? /// Heaven & Earth: Part 6

We're so glad you've chosen to listen to our online experience! Here at Plum Creek, we’re all about changed lives, changing lives; and what that simply means is that what Christ has done in us is not just for us, but it’s for us to share with others in our community and around the world.

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If you're using this teaching for a Home Groups setting, we've included discussion prompts to help guide your conversation:

1. Eric described Paul’s conflict in Ephesus as “the visible edge of an invisible war.” Where are you most tempted to see people as the enemy instead of recognizing a deeper spiritual battle?

2. Look up Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 through 18, and talk about which piece of the armor of God feels most needed in your current season.

3. The teaching said some of us believe in God on paper but schedule our lives as if he is not a factor. What part of your life most exposes that tension?

4. Think about the “trinkets” people cling to for comfort, like money, image, control, substances, or distraction. What do people today often hold onto instead of trusting Jesus as Lord?

5. Eric said, “Don’t give authority to your limitations.” What limitation in your life has started sounding louder than God’s strength?

6. The church in Ephesus could not outshout the mob, but they could stand. What would it look like for you to stand faithfully this week without trying to control the outcome?

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to the Plum Creek Church Podcast. We're so thankful that you're listening along with us in this way. If you're a returning listener, welcome back. But if you're new or newish, we'd love to become part of your listening rotation. So be sure to subscribe and follow to be notified when new episodes are available. Now, before we get into the message, we want to remind you of one thing. We really believe that if Jesus is right about God, about life, about the soul, then it only makes sense to rearrange our lives around what he says is true. Because when you choose to follow Jesus like that, it really does change everything, including the lives around you. Okay. Let's posture our hearts for what God has in store. This message.

Message Start

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Ephesians chapter 6. Here's what we've been doing. Each week, I've been walking through a book here in Ephesians, that letter to the Church of Ephesus, and I wrap it up in this series now. If you haven't listened to any of the series, you really could go back in the podcasting platform, go to YouTube and watch it. But in order for you to understand Ephesians chapter 6, we actually got to go somewhere else. We need to go back to the book of Acts for a minute. Now, let me tell you a little background, because as we unpack Ephesians chapter 6, it's all going to make sense in the end, I promise. Okay, so um about six years previous to the writing of this letter, the Apostle Paul spent three years in Ephesus, okay? That was probably 52, 53, 54 AD. And um when he was here, uh, this city, what you need to know about it, it is the magic capital. It was the magic capital of the world. Now I don't mean like David Copperfield magic. I mean like people came here to buy spiritual incantations and trinkets and all the gizmos. This is one of the largest cities, fourth largest city in the Roman Empire. This place is a port city. So people um came from everywhere. And and in this city in Ephesus, there was a temple. It actually was particularly famous. It was called the Temple of Artemis. Now, there are just renderings of the Temple of Artemis. It was um one of the seven wonders of the world. Uh, but uh uh I've I've been to Italy and seen some of the Roman ruins, and I will tell you, like, it is um pretty impressive what was built 2,000 years ago. But this temple was four times the size of the Parthenon. It was absolutely massive, okay? And so this is where Paul spent three years. Two of those years he was preaching continuously, every single day, at the hall of Tyrenius. Okay. Now, people came from everywhere. They would come, they'd buy their little trinkets, buy all their things. If you were sick, if you were scared, if you needed luck, you headed to this city, to this temple. That's what you did. This whole city was people striving and reaching to get some sort of spiritual cooperation. That was it, right? Like lucky rabbits' feet everywhere. Now, they were proud of it. This was part of their identity. And you see this in Acts chapter 19. This is how it reads in verse 35. It says, Men of Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great Artemis? That's them saying, Hey, this is what we do. We take care of this, it is our whole identity. And and into this city, it is that city that the Apostle Paul walked into. Now, when he got to Ephesus, he had no army, no trinkets, no amulets, no spells. He came with one thing the message of Jesus. That is it. So Paul shows up and he begins to preach the name of Jesus. And something starts to happen in Ephesus, so much so that in verse 23 it says this about that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the way. Now, remember, first century Christians were often known as followers of the way. So you'll see this oftentimes. It would be synonymous with saying you were a Christian or a Christ follower. So something is happening in Ephesus. And in verse 24, it says this. Here's why. So a man named Demetrius, he was a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsman. In other words, like they had built an entire economy around this. Have you ever been like um to like a really touristy city? Like Times Square. Anybody been to Times Square? Have you ever wondered to yourself, how in the world do all of these trinket stores exist? Have you ever wondered that? Like, literally, you walk down Times Square and there's like a hundred, what seems like trinket stores where you can buy little statues of liberty. I don't own one of those. Anyone else? I mean, like you can buy all these little trinkety things, but but somehow someone is going in there and buying all this stuff. It's the same thing in Ephesus. They have built an entire economy on these little trinkets, these little statues of Artemis. And so you come and you buy that statue and you hang it around your neck, or you put it in your pocket, or you put it on the dashboard of your car, right? So this is the entire economy. So as Paul comes there, he starts to mess all that up. And and all of the people who have built their livelihood on this take notice. Now, this, listen, you can get in the way of a man's ideas, you can get in the way of a man's politics, but do not get in the way of a man and his paycheck. You get in between a man and his paycheck. I'm telling you, bad stuff happens. And so here is this here's the situation. You cannot go anywhere in this city where these shrines aren't being built. It is a major part of their economy. People are showing stuff and here and selling stuff, and Paul shows up and he starts preaching Jesus, and and as you can imagine, things start changing. In fact, at one point, there are people who are following Jesus now who are bringing all their silver trinkets and setting them on fire. They're like, well, we don't believe this stuff anymore. And so it is into that. It is into that. And in verse uh 26, look at look at how it reads. This is so great. Okay, so I'm back up just a little bit. Acts chapter 19, verse 26 says, Men, this is Demetrius talking to all of the guys who make all this stuff, right? He says, Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth, right? He's reminding them, guys, we make all of our money from this stuff. So in verse 26, he says, and you see and you hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. In other words, none of this stuff worked, right? That's what Paul's saying. So he goes on in verse 27, and there is danger, not only that this trait of ours may come into disrepute, but also that the temple, this great goddess, Artemis, may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence. She, whom all Asia and the world worship. And in verse 28, when they heard this, they were enraged. Not because they believed in Artemis, but because Paul was getting in between them and their pocketbook. So they get the city in a huge uproar. For real. Like they get this whole city worked up. So Demetrius is going, dude, we can't have this. Paul, dude, coming into our city and messing up our life. So they start getting everybody into a huge mob. And there's a theater in Ephesus. Now, the renderings don't do it justice, um, but it's like one of those big amphitheaters, right? You've seen amphitheaters in the ancient world, but this one seats 25,000 people. Well, that's way more than Ball Arena, where the nuggets and the avalanche play. More than that. But let's use that as a point of reference. Demetrius fills all of Ball Arena with a bunch of people who are really upset at Paul. Like they're they're fired up. And they're in there and they're chanting, and and um, it's it's Paul has a couple of companions with him, and the two companions get grabbed. And in verse 34, it says they recognized that he was a Jew. For about two hours, they cried with one voice. Great is Artemis of the Ephesians. They took these two dudes, they put them in the middle of ball arena, right in the middle of the basketball court, and they are chanting at them. Hey, they're basically saying, guys, you have got to stop preaching the gospel. You are messing up our livelihood, right? In verse 32, which actually cracks me up. Now, some cried out one thing, some the other, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them didn't even know why they had come together. Does that sound like people? This is people turning around going, I don't know what I'm mad about, but I'm mad as can be. What are we mad? I don't know. Yeah. So they don't know what they're mad at, but they get these guys out, they start chanting. And in verse 30, this is why Paul's so cool. In verse 30, it tells us Paul wants to go into Ballerina and talk to everybody. They want his head on a platter, and I don't mean figuratively. And Paul's like, Well, I think I should probably go in there and talk to all these people. And of course, the Bible tells us that the disciples grab him and say, You can't go in there, you can't go in there. Now, this is the truth about this situation. This was very much flesh and blood, wasn't it? I mean, for real, flesh and blood. Like it's real people, really mad. Flesh and blood, real flesh and blood stuff happening. When he's standing on the edge of that arena and he's ready to go in. Like his disciples are saying, Are you crazy? Why would you go in there? These people are gonna tear you apart. This is flesh and blood. But Paul understood something else was going on. That this mob was only the visible edge of an invisible war. And how do I know that? Skip four, five, six years ahead. Because now Paul is writing to those same people. And that's the letter of Ephesians. He's writing to this church. They would have known. They would have known. All of them would have known the story five years ago about what Paul did and how he got everybody riled up, and that he almost got himself killed because he wanted to go into the stadium. So the Apostle Paul is writing. Now he is in prison. He's chained to a guard when he writes all of Ephesians, and he reaches the very end of the letter. And this is where I'm going to preach to you a few verses out of chapter six that I think is so important, and I think you'll be able to put the context together. In Ephesians chapter six, starting in verse 10, he says this finally, he's talking to this church. Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. And then listen to what he says in verse 12. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. He says, Church of Ephesus, I know you saw something that looked like flesh and blood. But we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. You thought it was me against Demetrius. You thought it was a handful of us against a screaming mob. It was never flesh and blood. Ever. When you look at when you look at this whole idea of the spiritual world, when you look at the Church of Ephesus, I mean the reality is that the Church of Ephesus was probably way too spiritual, right? They believed everything was spiritual, the trinkets were spiritual, and gizmos were spiritual and incantations and prayers. But I thought about in our day and age, I think the pendulum may have swung the other way for us. Because truth be told, I I think we've in our day and age quietly edited out the spiritual world. Truthfully. I think we are fluent in the things that we can see, right? Like we trust the stuff we can touch. And I'm guilty as anyone. I have a famous saying, as many of you know, I'm an accountant by trade. That's my degree. And oftentimes when I'm in the office, Doug just gets cracked up because when I'm trying to just help people understand how simple it is, I just say, guys, it's just math. It is just math. Most of human behavior is just math. Just do the math, right? And I think for many of us, this is where we live. But it's it's funny because Pew Research just did a poll where they asked Americans if they believed that there was something more than this physical world. And did you know that eight out of ten Americans believe there is something more than this physical world? Eight out of ten. They believe that there's more than this spiritual world on paper. And even for some of us on Sunday. Right? But on Tuesday, on Monday, and Tuesday, and Wednesday, and Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, the visible world is actually the place that's calling all the shots in many of our worlds. And if we're being honest, some of us have become practical atheists. We believe in God, but we've scheduled our entire lives as if He's not even a factor in it. The material world is all that we have. And I I think this is such an important, important thing to talk about as followers of Jesus. Because here's the truth. If you really believe it is all on you, then guess what? It's all on you, right? If you really believe, like, hey, I know there's a God, I think somewhere up there doing something, but as far as this goes, I gotta get this thing done. I gotta do this thing. And here's the reality: it doesn't take long for us to realize there is a capacity that all of us have, right? And that that's the ceiling. Um you may have noticed I started wearing this crazy thing. This is like one of those fitness tracker bands. I'm not sure if I like it because it tells me all kinds of things about my health I don't want to know. Um, you know, it tracks everything. It's like tracking all your uh your oxygen levels and it's tracking your heart rate when you're sleeping, if your sleep was good, if it was bad, if your stress is high. I don't know if I need it to tell me if my stress is high. But like we are we live in a culture where we are are the most informed, potentially optimized generation that has ever lived, right? Like we have reports and stuff all around us, data points everywhere. And yet, you know this. Right now, we're one of the most anxious that has ever lived. More than four in ten adults say that they feel more anxious than they did a year ago. Four in ten. And that number has climbed three years running. More anxious, more anxiety. Adults under the age of 30, the rate of depression has doubled in the last decade. And why? Because if tools, if we could just optimize our way, like lift our own ceiling, we would be the calmest people that have ever lived. See, managing the visible world isn't all that there is, and that's what Paul is saying. This is where he starts, well, really ends this letter. He says, be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might. Not yours, his. He says, Look, there's this armor, but it's his armor. There's strength, but it's his strength. And you know, so the apostle Paul doesn't say, Listen, I know you got a bunch of problems down there in Ephesus. Just try harder, just try harder, just work harder. But the funny thing is, isn't that most of our answers to how we get through this life? We just gotta try harder. And I get it, listen. We all grew up in the same culture. You pull yourself up by your bootstraps, and this is your problem and your problem alone to fix. And I am not suggesting that we shouldn't work hard, okay? What I am suggesting is there is more to this life than just this stuff that you see, the stuff that you can manage. Right? I mean, look back at this little tiny church in that amphitheater in the ball arena. It was small and scattered, it was outnumbered, thousands to one, dragged into this arena by a whole city who wanted them to all be gone. And by every human measurement, by every number that you could put on a spreadsheet, they had already lost. It was over, right? But they did not hand their limitations the final word. Right? You stand outside that arena and you hear it was funny because the other day, I saw some of you out at that thing over at Festival Park, you know, and it was packed, there were people everywhere. And um, at the very end of the concert, this free concert that happens on Fridays, First Fridays, for those of you that don't know, they do these concerts, and at the very end, you know, it's like July 3rd, and so everybody got all fired up and started chanting USA, USA, for 30 seconds. And then everybody sort of like was like, Yeah, I'm tired of doing that. And then we all went to our cars, right? These people are chanting for two hours. Like if you're facing that, it feels impossible. 25,000 people raging mad because you're getting the way of their paycheck and they're chanting, they're letting you know it feels impossible. Impossible. We cannot win this. And look what look what in this letter. I go back just a few books where he says, a few chapters where he says, now, now, Church of Ephesus, remember to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all you asked for, and all that you can even think. Think about that. How many times have you got yourself in a pickle? Right? You said something you wish you didn't, or you did something you wish you didn't, or you looked at your bank account, and there's just not enough zeros on that, right? You're in a pickle and you can't think your way out of it. You're like, I don't know how we're gonna get out of this. I I I I don't know how we're gonna manage this. Anybody ever been there where you're like, I don't know how to fix this? The apostle Paul says, okay, good news. There is a God who can do far more abundantly than you can ask or you can even think. Like he's thinking up all kinds of things that you can't even think of. And according to the power, that work, it is within us. Don't give authority to your limitations. Don't give authority to your limitations. How many situations have you given authority to? You said, I don't know how we're gonna get out. I don't know how I'm gonna save this marriage. I don't know how I'm gonna fix this. I don't know how I'm gonna do it. Stop giving authority to your limitations. Of course. You probably don't know how to fix it, how to get out of it, how to make it right. It probably is beyond your skill set or your thought process, but there is a God who can think broader, more beautifully than you can. Ever imagine. And it is in that strength, not yours, that we rest. So, what does Paul say we do? He says, Listen, listen. In this world, Jesus says, We will have trouble. You know, as Eric Park says, you will get yourself in a pickle. It's going to happen. So the apostle Paul gives us some things to do. He says, Listen, this is his strength, not yours. You are wrestling against things that are always physical. You can't see all of this world in which you live in. There is stuff going on all around you that you are not aware of. And so here's what I'm telling you to do. In verse 14, stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth. So what does that mean? Spend time in here. Know what it says about you. Know what it says about your situation. Know what it says about your life. Put on the belt of truth. He says, once you now, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, what's that? We'll just do the right thing today. Let's just walk in the things that Jesus said we should do. And as the shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace, this one's huge for me. Have any um future-oriented people in the room? Anyone think about the future? Anybody? Just me? Well, let me talk to me then. Um oftentimes um I cannot live where my feet are planted. I want to think about what's coming next and where I'm going and where I'm headed. And here's the problem: if where my feet are planted isn't particularly great, I will then project that onto all that is coming. Have you ever, you know, it's like, well, then it's always going to be bad. My life, our pets' heads are falling off. It's always gonna be bad. It's gonna be terrible always. Why? Because right now it's terrible. And and when I read this, I'm reminded, hey, hey, hey, wherever your feet are, wherever your feet are, be planted in this moment. And in this moment, know who reigns. Sit in this moment. Don't worry about the future. Quit referring to the past, be here right now. That's like we're that's what that's what Paul is talking about. In all circumstances, he says, take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. And take on the helmet of salvation. Put in your brain who you are, what you've been saved from, what you've been saved for. The sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. Carry this thing. And then he he he I love this because what Apostle Paul is doing is he's just laying out this whole book, a lot of actually Ephesians, right? The belt of truth was chapter four, the shoes of peace was chapter two, salvation by grace, chapter four, like he's just laying it all, he's summarizing it. And this isn't new gear. This is like this whole letter, this whole book. Gathered up, strapped on to us. And then he says this, and I think it's really beautiful. And then he says in verse 18, praying at all times in the spirit with all prayer and supplication, to that end, alert, with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. I think, I think we just don't spend enough time being aware of what God is up to all around us. You know, the spirit is at work all around you all the time. At work all the time. We just don't see it. We don't spend enough time looking for it. And and I get it, because when I got something really on my mind that's weighing heavy on me, I think about that heavy, I think about that thing. That's what I think about. And it sits with me, and I carry it. And yet Paul says, Listen, through prayer and supplication, like just always taking this before the Lord, constantly talking to God about all these things, does something to lift my eyes. Does something. When I'm always praying and I'm seeing what God is up to. Pastor Doug did this analogy some years ago. He said, you know, the more you practice prayer and supplication, putting our eyes toward the Father, the more we practice all these things, the more we'll see God at work all around us in the spiritual world. We'll start to see it. We'll start to see it. It's almost like um uh he he reminded us of the Worse Waldo book. You know those books? I hate those books. Um I've got little grandbabies, and they can open up a book and find Waldo like so fast. And you know why? Because they look at them all the time. And the more you look at them, the more you can find the Waldo. Well, I mean, it's like that. The more we're aware of the spiritual realm, the spirit moving around us, the more we are able to identify it more quickly. Yeah, I'm not trying to pretend that the thing that I'm in isn't hard, it's just there's just other stuff going on. This is what I want to say. Some of us, man, we're going through the best times of our life, and I praise God for that. But there are others of us that are holding on to some heavy stuff, and you know, we hear about places like Ephesus who they have trinkets and things they hold on to, and in our day and age, we go, well, that's just superstitious. I mean holding on to things for comfort, right? Holding on to things to bring you some joy and peace. Well, how silly. Except we do it too. We bring things into our lives to make us feel safe, right? For all of us, it's different. Some of us, we bring these things, you know, it's it's money. Because if I have enough in the account, then I'll I'll feel in control and I can quiet the fear. For some of us, it's image. We manage this version of who we are in hopes that it would be finally enough. For some of us, it's the endless, exhausting work of keeping our own anxiety at bay. It's, I mean, you we hold on to substance and we watch things I'm out. There's all kinds of things we do. We don't call them spiritual in nature, but they're the same thing as a trinket hanging around your neck in 55 AD. And Paul looks at all of it and he says, Hey, put those things aside. Take those things off. There's a better way. Next chapter 19, man, you get 25,000 people, man. They were chanting, great is Artemis of Ephesus. Like the whole city is just ringing. And some of you, man, you have walked in this morning. And it feels like you are walking into an amphitheater that is ready to drown you. It's not hypothetical. You are facing the biggest war of your life, maybe it's a marriage that has gone quiet and you don't know how to fix it. Or for some of you, it's a kid that you cannot reach, and you're up. Week after week, month after month at 2 a.m. worrying about this kid. And for some, it's a diagnosis you just got, or that you've been living with. A number in your bank account that just won't move, a habit that you have promised to quit more times than you can count, a grief that you've been carrying. Whatever it is, all of us walk in and have moments in our life where we look like we are facing a stadium of 25,000 people, and there is no hope. There is no way. I cannot do this. Well, Plum Creek, you are not the army, and you don't have to be. That little church, man, wasn't an army either. It was small and it was dragged and scattered. This handful, man. They they could not answer the anthem of that problem by shouting louder. They couldn't. All they could do was stand. They could only stand. And with their whole lives, the most dangerous thing they could do in that town is just say, Jesus is Lord. He just is. He's Lord over that. He's Lord over this. He's Lord over my marriage, my kids, my bank account. He's just Lord. And I don't know how to get to where we need to go. But I'm not Lord over it. He is. And that's what standing looks like. And so maybe this week, maybe this week. I invite you to do a couple things with this one little verse. One. If you've been holding on to something for comfort, maybe this week you just let that one thing go. Just this week. Whatever that thing is that you've held on to to bring you a little bit of peace, you just let that thing go. And the second thing I invite you to put into is then put on one thing. What's the one thing you need to put on from verse 12? What is it? The helmet of salvation? You need to remind yourself of who you are? Do you need to be a little bit more in this sort of truth? Do you need like to plant your feet in some peace and remind yourself that he's got this and you don't have to? I don't know, but this week maybe you just remind yourself the salvation is already yours. You just preach to yourself. You put on one thing, and then lastly, don't do it alone. That's the beauty of the church. You know what's the beauty of this story? If you sort of miss it, Paul wasn't there alone. There were two guys that got drug in, which is a super bummer if you're those two guys, right? Because you're like, wait a minute, I was just walking around with this guy. I don't know, right? And then there was a group of disciples that grabbed Paul. He wasn't there alone. I mean, that's terrifying. And yet, there was a group of believers that said, okay, if you're going up there, we'll go up there, we'll just go together. We believe this thing together. Well, maybe this week you you find somebody in this place that you can tell what you've been walking in, what you've been standing in, what you're gonna stand for. And I remind you this. So the Apostle Paul says, and it changes everything. This this war that you cannot see, it's already been won. Right? Listen, we've spend far too much of our lives thinking that we are permanent physical beings having a temporary spiritual experience. It is not true. You are a permanent spiritual being having a temporary physical experience. That's what Paul says. That's the truth. And in this spiritual world, the battle's already been won. He's already done it, the work is done, he's already won it all. That's the truth. And so you're not fighting for a victory, you're fighting from a victory. Amen. Will you stand with me? And so we're gonna worship. Because sometimes the best way to just proclaim that Jesus is Lord is to sing it. I don't know why, but it sometimes puts words in our mouth that we cannot formulate. But I do not say this as hyperbole or as words on a t-shirt shirt. This week, the chant that you I invite you into is Jesus is Lord. He's Lord. That means he's ruler, he's got it all. All of it. And so may this song, may you absolutely belt out that reality that he is Lord. Will you join me as we we pray? God, I pray for my friends. As we walk in, we're so many of us carrying things that feel beyond our capacity. That's okay. You've got this. You are Lord. May you help us this week put off whatever we've clung to in order to put on something, put on something that reminds us of the truth. You are Lord over everything forever and ever. Amen. Thanks again for listening. Our prayer is that this message encouraged and challenged you on your journey to follow Jesus. If you'd like to learn more about our church, please check us out online at plumcreek.church or if you find yourself within driving distance of Castle Rock, Colorado, we would be honored to see you in person on a weekend. So until next time, race and peace in the name of Jesus.