Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Delighted to bring the word this morning. By the way, I upload the notes on the YouVersion Bible app. By the way, YouVersion just surpassed a billion downloads. That's not an exaggeration. Literally a billion people got the word of God now. And so I upload the notes there. You can follow our church and then you can get the notes, which is good because I never am able to cover all that is here. But even as you get that ready, do you know why they never played cards on Noah's Ark?
[00:00:41] Because he was standing on the deck the first service. Thought that was way funnier. That was more of a groan than a laugh. That just came right there.
[00:00:54] I invited our waitress to church.
[00:00:58] We had a staff thing, my wife and I. We were there and she wrote that on the receipt. And I'm like, listen, if you come to church on Sunday, I will tell your joke in front of the whole church. And her and her husband came to the first service. So I honored my word. I told the joke and now I've done it again. So.
[00:01:18] And all the dads, you can go tell your kids that and let them groan at you just like you did me. So why don't you stand as we honor the reading of God's word, I want you to turn in your Bible to the book of Ephesians, chapter four. And we're going to begin at verse one, continuing the series in missions month on.
[00:01:38] Really what I want to deal with today is walking worthy of the call. Walking worthy of the call. This is Ephesians 4:1. Follow along. I, therefore a prisoner, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling.
[00:01:55] Walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. With all lowliness and gentleness, with long suffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, one spirit, just as you are. You were called in one hope of your calling. You hearing this word, calling. That's what we preached about last week. Calling, calling, calling. Four times. It's listed here in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.
[00:02:36] And this Trinity church is God's word and we believe it to be true. You may be seated.
[00:02:46] I'm excited for the Word today.
[00:02:50] We, over the last number of weeks, have been growing in this awareness that we are called of God.
[00:03:00] Do you know you have the call of God on your life?
[00:03:03] If you don't know this, then we're going to be aware of it before the day is done. Pastor Tim, a couple weeks ago, was talking about Esther and she was made aware, it's the theme for our. For our Missions month that she was appointed. She was called for such a time as this. God had called her to intervene on behalf of a people that needed rescue in a particular time. And I believe in the very same way, you realize God could have dropped you at any time in human history, but he saw that there was a need today, a ministry today, a call today that you were called to fulfill today.
[00:03:46] I consider the fact that calling is not just for people that are called to preach professionally.
[00:03:55] That ministry is not just for missionaries to Spain and those who are going to work overseas. And the anointing is not just for healing evangelists and international prophets. The Bible says you have an anointing from the Holy One. Everybody say, I am anointed.
[00:04:16] The Bible says you have a call that you can walk worthy of. Everybody say, I am called.
[00:04:23] And the Bible also says that you have a ministry and a people to which God has a appointed you. I want you to say this. I have a ministry that's a truth for every single one of us. Even if you don't lead a Bible study or preach sermons or have a certificate that you went through Bible school, you have an anointing, you have a calling, and you have a ministry to which God has called you. And what I want to talk about today is how are we to walk worthy of the call that God has placed on our lives?
[00:04:56] How are we going to live up to what God has asked each and every one of us to do? Now, I'm going to give you kind of an overview of the book of Ephesians. You'll notice that in the first part of Ephesians, he actually lists. He talks about how we are to sit with Christ. And I'll talk about that. He deals with that in the first three chapters, you'll see the word sit over and over. Sit or seated.
[00:05:24] And then you'll see in the middle of the book, he deals with what it is to walk with the Lord or to walk worthy of your call. And in the latter part of the book, he deals with what it is to stand, to stand fast even in the midst of wickedness, stand fast when even the assault of the enemy. So I want you to say these three words. I'm giving you the outline right at the beginning. I want you to say, sit, walk, stand.
[00:05:51] Let's do it all again. Sit, walk, and stand.
[00:05:56] That's what we're going to learn to do today. So dealing. First of all, what is it that we want to explore about sitting? This is where we all begin. In fact, I didn't tell this story in the first service because my son wasn't sitting in the room and he was embarrassed for me to tell it. But now that he's sitting here, I'm going to tell it.
[00:06:14] Any parent can relate to the fact that one of the very first words that you will ever teach your child, maybe after no.
[00:06:24] Is sit down.
[00:06:27] Anybody know what I'm talking about? Sit down. Right, Gabriel. I don't know why he had this habit, but we would put him in his high chair when we'd sit down for dinner every night. And for some reason, he just wanted to stand up right at the table. He wanted to stand at the table. Gabriel, sit down. You're going to fall. Sit down, Gabriel. Right.
[00:06:47] He said the reason he doesn't like us is because all of his peers are now going to come up to him and tell him, sit down, Gabriel.
[00:06:52] So keep count how many times you're told this after the service today. But it's one of the very first things that you're taught before you teach your children how to run, before you teach them how to fight, before you teach them how to hunt, before you teach them how to play sports. One of the very first things that a child must learn how to do is sit down.
[00:07:12] Learn how to sit and I would submit to you. It's the very same thing with Christians. We want to walk worthy of the call. But one of the first things you must learn is where are you supposed to sit?
[00:07:24] See, the Bible says, Ephesians 1:17, that God, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, this is a prayer that he may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him. That the eyes of your understanding would be enlightened. This is a lot of theology language. But he's saying, I want your spiritual eyes to be open to the fact that God is great. I want you to have wisdom and revelation. That you would have the hope of his calling, that you would understand the riches of the glory of God's inheritance. That means that God's got resources for you. He has power for you.
[00:08:03] That what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe. Are there any believers in the house today?
[00:08:12] According to the working of his mighty power which he demonstrated, he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead. And watch this. Seated him at his right Hand in heavenly places. And it goes on in the latter part of the verse to say that Christ is seated above every demonic and natural power and every name that can be named. His name is above the name cancer.
[00:08:41] I'm telling. I got so mad when I was at the gym. I think it was yesterday. I was running and there was a demonic ad that came up on the screen. And you'll understand what I'm saying. It said, one out of three people will have cancer within their lifetime. And I wanted to like, bind that TV right there in the gym. I'm just like, I don't know what statistic that may or may not be true, but I declare on the authority of Scripture that will not be for the people of God.
[00:09:11] Come on. There's going to be a time where everybody with cancer that steps foot on this property, that cancer gets wiped out of you in the mighty name of Jesus.
[00:09:21] Why, that's a word that has been declared over this house.
[00:09:25] And so, I mean, Jesus went about doing good and healing all who are oppressed by the devil.
[00:09:31] What I want to know is if we are seated with him in heavenly places, he whose name is above cancer, how can we be hanging out with Jesus who every. I mean, cities got cleared of sickness, disease and demonic oppression.
[00:09:45] How in the world can we be hanging out with Jesus and see precious little supernatural?
[00:09:52] I think we need to contend for wisdom and revelation that we would understand who we are seated with and where he is seated. Above every principality, power, dominion, every authority and every name that can be named in heaven and on earth.
[00:10:09] I'm getting way more excited than you guys are agreeing with me this morning. But above every name, poverty, racism, Democrat, Republican, Satan. Come on. Jesus has a name over every other name.
[00:10:25] Now. Watch what it says. Now this is what will really blow your mind. Ephesians 2, 4.
[00:10:31] But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ by grace. You have been saved. And he has raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
[00:10:55] That's a big deal.
[00:10:57] If you can get this one point here, I'm telling you, it will change every. It'll change the way you pray. It will change the way you are postured. It'll change the way you live your entire life. Life.
[00:11:10] Think about this.
[00:11:11] In week one of this series, we heard about Esther.
[00:11:15] She was a concubine for Xerxes, wicked king.
[00:11:20] And you know God through his providence. Allowed her to be able to be married and to intervene on behalf of the Jewish people.
[00:11:30] But there was this moment where she had to come before his throne. And you know the story, he was a wicked king and. And unless he had invited you, you were not allowed to come.
[00:11:40] But there was an act. If he were to extend his scepter, as somebody came into his court, they knew that he was willing to hear them. So Queen Esther takes this wonderful step of faith. He extends the scepter and she's able to intervene on behalf of her people for such a time as this.
[00:11:59] And this is actually what put the seed of the idea for this message in my heart was when I was considering the throne of God, God Almighty.
[00:12:10] You read in the Old Testament, people, if you came into his presence in the wrong way, they would be killed. If they didn't honor the presence of God or they didn't go through the right procedures, they would. They would perish in the presence of God.
[00:12:23] But under the new covenant, through the blood of Jesus. Do you realize that Hebrews 4 says that you and I can come boldly before the throne of grace, where we can obtain mercy and we can receive help in our time of need? And In Hebrews chapter 10, it builds on this idea, the fact that you and I can come boldly. We have bold access to the most holy place in God. We have this access because of the veil we can enter in through which is the veil of Jesus Christ flesh. We have been cleansed by his blood. We have been made able to come, not timidly, not maybe I'm going to die if I approach God. But the Bible says boldly into the very throne room of God Almighty.
[00:13:12] And it doesn't stop there.
[00:13:15] We come boldly into his presence. In Ephesians, chapter one through three presents this case for the fact that you don't just get to hang out and the backside of the court of the. Of the courtyards of God or in the throne room, heaven.
[00:13:31] Jesus looks down at you and says, I want you to sit with me on this heavenly throne in heaven, above every principality, power, dominion and name that can be named.
[00:13:44] This is why in the first service, I have a lady come up to me.
[00:13:47] She says, my husband just got diagnosed with cancer. We found out four days ago.
[00:13:52] And I said, what's your husband's name? She tells me his name and we pray. And I don't pray like you know God, you know, if it's your will or God, would you put no. I say, right now we are taking your husband before the very throne of God. And we are laying him before you, Lord, where we know there is no cancer, there is no disease, there is no infirmity in your presence. And we command that this heavenly reality be made manifest in this man of God. In the name of Jesus, I curse cancer and I command it to get out of his body. In the name of Jesus. We have bold heavenly access.
[00:14:33] And Jesus is like, just come sit up here with me.
[00:14:37] My enemies have been made my footstool, and they're going to be made your footstool as well.
[00:14:42] That's a good word.
[00:14:44] That's a good word. If you'll learn to sit with Jesus, you'll stop begging for what you already have.
[00:14:53] Yeah. I sit with God every day.
[00:14:55] I open his word, I spend time in prayer. And I'll tell you, there's moments where, you know, I'm complaining or I'm full of fear, or I've got doubt, But I spend a couple minutes with the Lord and I hear the whisper of the Holy Spirit. It's like I'm sitting in Jesus lap, and he begins to lean over and begins to tell me, hey, this is what I need you to know about what you're facing right now.
[00:15:17] And all of a sudden, I get heaven's perspective. I get God's wisdom on what I'm going through right now. We must learn to sit with God.
[00:15:26] You're seated with him in heavenly places.
[00:15:31] There's a missionary to the islands of the Pacific. His name was Sam Sasser. I don't know if anybody's heard that name, but he was called. And he went to the island of Yap in Micronesia. It was a true story. And he was led on the island to minister to a remote village. The village was under the authority of a ruling chief named Chief Dupois.
[00:15:56] And Chief Dupois asked.
[00:15:58] I'm sorry, Sam asked permission from the chief. I want to tell your people about my God.
[00:16:06] And he said, if you can pass my tests, I'll let you present, I'll let you share about your God to the people.
[00:16:14] So he began a series of tests. It's a really neat story. I don't have time to. I mean, foot races, and most of it was competition based. He was a wrestler growing up and always wondered, like, God, why'd you give me a desire to wrestle? The final test that he had was he had all of these tribal men come out and he had to wrestle them physically show his dominance. And when he overcame them, he, you know, he had passed every test.
[00:16:38] Then Chief Du looks at him and says, okay, you've done wonderfully, but I have one more test for you.
[00:16:45] And as soon as he says this, this circle of men begin clapping and chanting.
[00:16:50] Then out of a hut, off on the side comes two women dancing. And they come into the center of the circle where all this chanting and all this clapping is going on. As they begin to chant to their gods, these two ladies begin to levitate under demonic power. They begin to float up about 10ft into the air.
[00:17:10] Now this missionary, he looks at the chief and says, this is pretty impressive.
[00:17:16] And the chief says to him, listen, can your God do this? Can your God levitate people like this? And his response was, I don't think my God is very interested in levitating people.
[00:17:28] However, I believe my God has the power to bring them down.
[00:17:34] He doesn't even pray.
[00:17:36] He walks outside of the circle into the adjoining field and he begins to do what we were doing just a moment ago.
[00:17:44] He lifts his hands and begins to thank the Lord and praise the Lord for how great and how mighty he is. And the Bible says that he is enthroned upon our praises. So you know what happened in that moment, that which was being chanted in these false gods and powers right there. All of a sudden, a greater authority was enthroned in that region and area. And as soon as he began to praise and worship God, those two ladies fell 10ft out of the air and hit the ground. One of them actually injured her leg. And. And Sam goes over, he lays hands on her, prays for her, and she's instantly supernaturally healed.
[00:18:24] The chief turns to the missionary and says, listen, you can tell my people whatever you want about your God.
[00:18:31] And he did. And it began a wonderful journey of missions there in all throughout the Pacific Rim. He's a very well known evangelist, powerful. You realize the same authority that Sam Sasser was operating in you and I can operate in.
[00:18:50] You realize you may have the devil hanging on your back all throughout the week, but the moment you come into the house of God and you lift your hands and begin to thank the Lord and praise the Lord and worship our God. Every other power, every other name that has tried to dominate your life throughout the week, all of a sudden must come down. In the mighty name of Jesus, we lift him high, we praise him, and he is enthroned upon our praises.
[00:19:16] We're seated with him.
[00:19:18] Everybody say sit.
[00:19:22] Secondly, the Bible says that we are to walk.
[00:19:27] Everybody say walk.
[00:19:29] Now, this is the verse that we opened with Ephesians 4, 1.
[00:19:33] I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called.
[00:19:41] Walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. Now, this is very important.
[00:19:49] If all we do is sit around and consume and we never get up and move and exercise, we're spiritual gluttony.
[00:20:01] And I fear this is where a lot. I mean, we have access to more teaching and resource than any other time in human history.
[00:20:08] And I'm not here to condemn us or say, but, you know, we're the worst this or that. I don't believe that God is moving around the world.
[00:20:16] We're watching schools and nations open up. You guys are going to get that building in Spain, I have no doubt about it. You lay hands, go slap that thing with oil. God's going to give it to you.
[00:20:26] Why? He's doing that sort of thing all around the world, everywhere we go. Why? Because there are people who are hearing the word of God, believing what it says, and beginning to take steps of faith. They're beginning to walk it out.
[00:20:40] This is what God has called me to. And God has called every one of you so begin to walk. Walk worthy. Now, what is it to walk worthy? Well, there's a couple things that Ephesians mentions, and I'm gonna go over them very quickly.
[00:20:53] First of all, we must walk with new mindsets.
[00:20:58] This is what he says in Ephesians 4 and verse 17. Do not walk as Gentiles, but renew your mind. He says, put off verse 22 concerning your former conduct, the old man. Everybody say, put off.
[00:21:13] I'm going to put off the old man. And he says, according to deceitful lust and be renewed in the spirit of your mind so you can put on the new man. Everybody say, put on.
[00:21:27] Put on the new man, which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.
[00:21:36] This is a timely word for the day and age we live in in a culture that is all about affirmation.
[00:21:44] Affirm my identity, affirm my sexuality, affirm my desires. Friend, there are certain areas of our life that we don't need to affirm. We need to crucify.
[00:21:59] It is contrary to God's word. You don't need self affirmation. Jesus said, you want to be a disciple of mine?
[00:22:06] You must not affirm yourself, you must deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow me. It's not always easy.
[00:22:15] In fact, I had a dream not too long ago and I. In this dream, I was shaking off every responsibility that I had in life. I don't know if you've ever had these moments. You're not working a job or I don't got to take care of a family, or I don't have this ministry. And in literally in the dream, I was like laying everything off of me. And I remember walking and thinking, I am so happy.
[00:22:37] No responsibilities. And in the dream, I come up to my wife and I say, leah, I am so happy.
[00:22:45] But then I heard the Lord speak to me and he said, I didn't ask you to be happy.
[00:22:51] I asked you to live for my pleasure and I will give you my joy.
[00:22:56] So I'm living out of a desire, knowing God, there's things that I want to do and there's things that I don't want to do. I don't want to carry this burden all the time. But if you have asked me to, then I will.
[00:23:09] Every one of us will face these moments. I understand you're going to get cut off in traffic and the spirit of slap is going to come upon you.
[00:23:18] You want to say things that you're not supposed to do. Put that off and put on the mind of Christ.
[00:23:25] You're going to have moments where, you know, I feel like flirting with that person. It's not going to hurt any of. Put that off.
[00:23:32] Put on Christ.
[00:23:34] Are you hearing me today? You're going to have these moments where you want to fly off. I want to get angry or I want to drown my sorrows in booze, or I want all of us have these moments.
[00:23:45] Put that off.
[00:23:47] Crucify that old man and put on Christ. Put on his mind.
[00:23:57] So we're going to walk this out. We're going to walk worthy.
[00:24:00] You can't walk worthy if you're still thinking worldly.
[00:24:08] Are you still okay?
[00:24:11] All right.
[00:24:12] The second part of walking worthy of the call you're gonna walk with. You had a call on your life. The second part is that we must walk in love.
[00:24:20] Everybody say love.
[00:24:23] Ephesians 5:2. Walk in love. As Christ loved us and has given himself for us as an offering, as a sacrifice to God. A sweet smelling aroma, My Jesus, if we could get that this is not just I'm going to love you the best way I know how. I'm going to love you the way that I was shown love.
[00:24:44] I'm going to love the way Jesus loves with self sacrifice, even to the point of death.
[00:24:53] That is a lot of love in the Bible. Ephesians talks about all the types of people that you're supposed to love. He talks about in chapter five how you husbands are supposed to love your wives.
[00:25:07] Husbands, look at your wife right now. If you're sitting next to your wife and tell them, I love you.
[00:25:16] I did not hear one person say it.
[00:25:20] Husbands, look at your wife right now and out loud so the whole room can hear. You're about to get in trouble if you don't listen to me.
[00:25:29] Not from me. You get in trouble from her. Turn to your wife and say, I love you.
[00:25:35] There you go. I love you.
[00:25:45] I just helped you avoid a fight right there. I hope you know.
[00:25:49] Chapter five talks about how you're to love your children.
[00:25:52] You're supposed to love your children and listen. That's not by the way. None of these have, like, precursors to them. It's not loving your children when they're doing everything right. When they got it all figured out. No. Even when they're being a knucklehead, even when they're doing stuff wrong, they disobey you. They're not going to bed when they're supposed to love them.
[00:26:11] When your wife's not treating you right. I love you. Hallelujah.
[00:26:16] The list goes on. And you're gonna see, this is gonna get harder. It talks about in chapter six how you are to love your boss.
[00:26:24] Yeah, that's right. A guy who didn't give you a raise, didn't recognize, didn't promote you. Yeah, Love. I love my boss. Thank God that I have a job.
[00:26:33] You're to love your workers. You got some employees under you, even if they showed up late, even if they're not doing it all right. You're to love your workers.
[00:26:42] Hallelujah. Chapter four is dealing with how we all ought to love the church. This is part of walking worthy. I love the church.
[00:26:51] I love the body of Christ. And no, it's not perfect, but God knew that it wasn't going to be perfect when he put this in Scripture. I love my pastor. I love the prophets. I love the teachers that he's drawn to this. I love the church. Come on. You ought to say that. I love my church.
[00:27:10] Oh, this one's really good. Chapter four also talks about how you ought to love different racial groups.
[00:27:16] Hallelujah.
[00:27:19] You should look at somebody of a different skin color and tell them, I love you.
[00:27:23] Come on. Find somebody brown or yellow or black.
[00:27:26] White.
[00:27:28] This is great.
[00:27:37] I feel the love.
[00:27:39] I feel the love.
[00:27:41] I'll tell you, if you grew up in a household, all these people are terrorists, all these people are poor, all these people are criminals. All these people. If you grew up here in that kind of trash.
[00:27:51] Put off that mindset and put on the mind of Christ. No. We're one new man in Christ Jesus. That's my brother, that's my sister, and I love you with the same love that Jesus did, a love that is willing to lay down my life.
[00:28:11] We're going to walk worthy. The third area that we're to walk worthy is we're to walk as children of the light.
[00:28:18] We're to walk as children of the light. Ephesians 5, 8 says, you were once in darkness, but now you are the. I'm sorry, not in darkness. You once were darkness, but now our light in the Lord.
[00:28:30] Walk as children of light.
[00:28:33] You are the light of the world, and you're called to go into dark places.
[00:28:40] Most of this comes down to evangelism.
[00:28:45] Being a witness, going after the Great Commission, you would do very well, my friend, to ask the Lord God, you gave this great Commission. Come on. Pastor Jim preached about five great commissions last week.
[00:29:00] Did you know there were five? And you ought to ask the Lord, what is my part in the Great Commission?
[00:29:07] What is the people that you have called me to impact?
[00:29:11] How is it that you would desire to use me in this work you're doing in the last day?
[00:29:18] Well, you might feel overwhelmed by this. Wow, Pastor, this is a lot. So I gotta love everybody.
[00:29:24] I have to go and witness to somebody. I. Okay. And I gotta walk this thing out. Here's what I would encourage you to. You don't. You may not know how to do all of these things right now, but just start walking.
[00:29:43] Just start walking.
[00:29:46] Just do something for the Lord.
[00:29:50] I was taught early on I didn't know what to do. God, what's your will? For my life? And I was told it's difficult to steer a vehicle that's sitting stationary. But the minute you begin moving, all of a sudden you can steer that where you desire. Start doing something. I don't know what to do. Be an usher. I don't know what to do. Go to 40s and 50s. I don't know what to. You don't have to sell everything and move to Spain tomorrow, but begin somewhere, do something for Jesus.
[00:30:19] See, the other day, I was teaching at Christ for the nations, and.
[00:30:25] And we took a time of Q and A. And there was a precious girl that asked me, my fiance is called to do something different than I'm called to do.
[00:30:37] What should I do? I feel called to be here. He wants to go overseas and do this. And my immediate response was, dump him.
[00:30:47] Now, my wife, she immediately Jake. I know if she gives me the Jake, I've said something that's over the line.
[00:30:55] And. But that's what she did. She's like, jake. Now, if you remember, you came to Christ for the nations telling everybody you were gonna be a great missionary evangelist. That's why I sought the mentors that I did. It's why I went on the trips that I did. It's why I did the course of study that I did. I thought I was gonna be an evangelist, traveling the world, different nations, missions, work.
[00:31:17] My wife, now wife, fiance at the time, was getting all these prophetic words. God's giving you a grace to be a pastor's wife.
[00:31:26] And there was a time we were very confused about this because it's like, now, wait a second. I mean, she about dumped me one time because she's like, this prophet just told me I'm supposed to be a pastor's wife. But you're an evangelist. What are we supposed to do, call that prophet? He's a false prophet.
[00:31:45] But, you know, within receiving that word. It wasn't even six months later that we were installed as pastors in the first church that was we took in Illinois.
[00:31:52] I've never been away able to get away from pastoral ministry. Even when I came on staff here at Trinity Church, I think it was 2012, was teaching evangelism, leading outreach out of Christ for the Nations. I remember Pastor Jim wanted me to come on staff, and so I looked at him and I said, listen, I am not your pastor.
[00:32:14] I am an evangelist. That's what I'm coming on this staff to do, not pastor. I don't want people calling me Pastor J. I'm an evangelist.
[00:32:22] That sounds great.
[00:32:24] It wasn't.
[00:32:27] You see the irony of this now? It was not even like three weeks later. Would you pastor the Saturday night service?
[00:32:35] Yes.
[00:32:36] I've never been away able to get away from this pastoral call. What am I? I'm walking it out. I didn't have it all figured out when I was first walking after Jesus. But as I have gone, as I've been obedient, he's revealing new nature.
[00:32:50] In fact, where this all feels like it was reconciled to me. It was about 10 years ago. I was standing right outside those doors in the annex, and I remember talking to Pastor Jim and him telling me, you know, I understand what you're saying. He tells me, I always felt like I was going to be a missionary.
[00:33:10] And I was confused at times why God called me to pastor a church like Trinity.
[00:33:17] Then we walk through these doors and seated in here are hundreds of missionaries that we had brought in for a special dinner. And all of a sudden, it clicked with me. I understand why you aren't one man who went overseas to do a great work.
[00:33:33] You are stewarding and sending hundreds of missionaries and hundreds of evangelists to the tunes of hundreds of thousands of dollars flowing out of Trinity all around the world. And all of a sudden, I began real. I mean, it was like he was sharing my heart out of his mouth. All of a sudden, I began to realize, I understand why you'd call me to a church like Trinity. I understand because I see the work that you're doing all around the world. I may not go to Spain. I'd like to.
[00:34:02] But the fact is that we get to launch people like this into the world. We get to send people to Israel, we get to send people to Egypt. We get to send people into the. Into the rough parts, poverty, downtown Dallas. I mean, we get to do so much. You're giving.
[00:34:20] Your giving does this, all right, we're going to receive an offering. No, we're not going to receive an offering. That'll come next week. But I'm telling you, it's important and it makes a difference.
[00:34:31] Everybody say, walk.
[00:34:33] We're going to walk this out. Just start doing something.
[00:34:36] Start doing something for Jesus.
[00:34:39] The last part.
[00:34:41] Bible says, we're to sit, we are to walk. But thirdly, it says that we are to stand.
[00:34:47] Ephesians 6:10.
[00:34:49] Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand.
[00:34:58] Everybody say, stand, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. And then it says it again in verse 13. Put on the whole armor of God that you may withstand in the evil day. And having done, all stand.
[00:35:14] This is a powerful idea, to withstand. It's not just, we're going to stand around, okay, like, we start doing stuff for Jesus, and now I get to stand around and just hang out. No, withstand is actually where we get the same root, root word for antihistamine.
[00:35:30] It means that, you know, people that have allergies, you'll take an antihistamine. And it literally means to stand against, to vigorously oppose, to bravely resist, standing face to face against the adversary, to stand your ground.
[00:35:49] Now, when you consider that this is talking about the devil and every evil in the world, you are too vigorously opposed. Bravely resist, standing face to face against the adversary. So standing your ground, that's a big deal. The same way Sam Sasser was able to worship and see demon power come down. I'm just telling you, you're seated in Christ and you're walking in his high and holy calling on your life. And you have the authority to submit to God. Resist the devil and he must flee.
[00:36:27] You can do that.
[00:36:30] Kids having nightmares at night. You can go in, anoint them with oil, plead the blood of Jesus and you say, devil, you that fear, get out of my house. In Jesus name.
[00:36:40] You sense that there's some attack against your health that's more than just a seasonal cold or something. No, this is a demonic assignment. I see what's going on this week.
[00:36:49] Satan, you get out of here in the name of Jesus. You adamantly withstand, you stand strong, you oppose vigorously opposed, bravely resist. Standing face to face against the adversary.
[00:37:05] This is what God's called you to do. Worship team. If you'll come, you'll notice that in the kingdom of God there's no retreat when it comes to opposing the kingdom of darkness.
[00:37:20] You'll notice the armor of God, there is nothing covering your backside. Study the armor in Ephesians 6.
[00:37:28] It's all advancing, it's all moving forward. In fact, a strange observation is you'll notice that the armor of God also has no pants.
[00:37:38] But I don't know that that has any significance for us today.
[00:37:47] Did you ever notice that?
[00:37:52] You're not going to stand around and do. You're going to stand.
[00:37:57] So, yeah, we'll show up to a public school board meeting and say we're not going to have pornographic material in the school.
[00:38:04] We're not going to do that.
[00:38:06] So I will stand and preach with authority. You can be set free from your addiction. That's not your identity.
[00:38:14] Met a guy who got baptized a couple weeks ago coming out of the gang world and, and I mean, I can't tell you from the pulpit all the things that he said, but he had a rap list that was pretty long. And he's like, I don't know if I belong in a church like this.
[00:38:31] I think I've done too much.
[00:38:33] I've sold drugs, I've hurt people. People have lost their lives because of what I've done.
[00:38:39] And I told them, you belong here, you belong here.
[00:38:44] Some of you sitting in this room right now, you are in the very same position you used to be that. That drug dealer. You used to be that immoral person. You've been in and out of prison.
[00:38:56] And God is wonderful.
[00:38:58] He's washed us, he's cleansed us, He Set us free. We're all in process. I'm not saying you got this all figured out. I don't got this all figured out. There's some people you got out of jail last week. Hallelujah. I'm glad that you're here. In the same work that God did in my life, he's going to do for your life as well. If the devil's been harassing you, guess what? If you have come into Christ, you have the authority to stand fast against the wiles of the devil and to withstand in this evil day.
[00:39:27] I'm quoting the Bible to you.
[00:39:29] All right, I'll close with a story and then we're going to pray.
[00:39:34] One of my great joys was going overseas to Egypt on a mission trip.
[00:39:41] John Michael helped lead that trip. Katie was on that trip. A number of people maybe here today were there.
[00:39:49] I remember kind of being aware I've gone to highly impoverished nations, built wells, orphanages, that kind of thing, done evangelistic work in Haiti.
[00:39:59] But I remember getting off the bus or getting, walking out of the airport, Egypt, in Cairo, and hearing the call to prayer, the Islamic call to prayer, going out through the entire city.
[00:40:14] And I look at our bus driver for this trip and he's kneeling down by the bus, praying towards Mecca to Allah.
[00:40:23] And I'm thinking, this is the guy who's gonna drive us around this persecuted nation to preach the gospel.
[00:40:29] Alright?
[00:40:31] So we did. We had soccer camps, did projects, did home visits, prayed with people.
[00:40:37] And towards the end of the trip, we started having church services, revival meetings.
[00:40:43] And I noticed that our bus driver on occasion would kind of come into our meetings just to see what we were doing.
[00:40:50] He'd observe, he'd watch what we were doing and then he'd just slip out.
[00:40:54] But I never forget it was a Sunday morning, we were preaching a Sunday service and preach the gospel. The word of God came forward. And then we invited our missions team from this church to begin to pray and minister over people.
[00:41:10] And across the room I hear this shriek that if you've ever been around someone manifesting, you know it immediately. There's a scream that comes and, oh, someone's manifesting. And I don't know how you respond when something like that happens. Most people run away.
[00:41:25] I run two.
[00:41:26] I'm like, I'm, I'm about it, man. If someone's getting set free, if the power of God is present to make someone manifest, the power of God's here to set him free.
[00:41:34] And so I, I ran up to this lady, she was, she had Sung in the choir earlier in the service. You gotta watch out for the choir people.
[00:41:44] She'd been singing in the choir and. And she began to manifest. You remember this, Katie? She began to manifest demonstration.
[00:41:52] Scratch her face. I remember by the time I got to her, she had blood coming down like out her eyes. And it was a horrible scene. Demon power, all of this. And me and the missionary, who I can't name publicly, we went over there, and him and I began to minister over this precious girl.
[00:42:08] We saw the power of God released over her. And by the time we left that day, that. That precious choir member was completely set free, completely delivered of those harassing spirits.
[00:42:22] Now, what was so neat? I mean, as awesome as that part was, here's my favorite part I noticed. I looked back at the back of the room, and there I saw our bus driver.
[00:42:35] He'd watched the whole thing.
[00:42:37] He'd seen our camps. He'd seen the service that we had done.
[00:42:41] None of it moved him, not that I know of. Maybe. Maybe God was beginning something. But when he saw that demon power that was then overthrown by the power of Jesus Christ, something shifted in him. I remember we walk out of the meeting, we get onto the bus, and he doesn't drive us.
[00:43:02] He says, my daughter is at home. I believe she was from Luxor. He had driven a number of hours to be with us in that meeting. My daughter is back at home and she has sickness even to the point that she may die.
[00:43:18] I saw what your God did in that service.
[00:43:21] And I was wondering if we could pray one of those special prayers to Jesus for my daughter.
[00:43:30] And then he says, and if it would be okay, could I get one of those Bibles now? If you guys understand the Islamic faith and what he was asking for, prayer in the name of Jesus and the Holy Bible.
[00:43:48] I'm telling you, in the wrong circle, that's a death sentence. Which is why I'm not saying the names or the places of any of this stuff. I'm looking at this and I'll never forget.
[00:43:59] Our missionary friend took a Bible and handed our bus driver.
[00:44:05] This Muslim man who's now calling out to Jesus, handed him a Bible and he took this Bible. And I remember I've never seen somebody so thankful to receive a Bible. He took that Bible, he kissed the Bible and held it up as he was thanking God for his holy word.
[00:44:25] He hugged that Bible.
[00:44:27] And then we prayed in the name of Jesus for something that Jesus cares very much about. The health of his daughter.
[00:44:36] I don't know. He went home and I'm sure I'd like to say that she got healed. I don't know. I don't know how the story, and I'm not going to make up something, but when we withstand and resist the powers of darkness, I'm telling you, it's not only impactful to the people that we're praying for, but it's literally a witness to the entire world.
[00:44:59] Our God is alive and he's willing and able to move on our behalf.
