Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / August 28, 2016 | Route 66 - Ephesians

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August 28, 2016 | Route 66 - Ephesians · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Welcome, how are you doing this morning?
0:03
SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to Route 66.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: It's a plot twist that I like when I come across it in uh fairy tales or novels.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: You could call it the uh plot twist of discovering royalty.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: Discovering that you are truly a prince or princess, or that you are a king or a queen.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: Some of you are familiar with this because years ago you read the golden book called The Sword in the Stone.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: Remember any?
0:34
SPEAKER_00: Anybody remember this story?
0:36
SPEAKER_00: Any of you remember golden books?
0:38
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: So it's a story of a little boy, and his name is Wart.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's called anyway, real name Art, but everybody calls him Wart, W-A-R-T.
0:47
SPEAKER_00: He lives in a castle.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: His dad and mom are dead.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: He uh is an orphan.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: He was taken in by Sir Hector, E-C-T-O-R, and he plays his buddy as Sir Hector's son, Kay, who is going to eventually become a knight himself and become Sir Kay, but but as they grow up, uh uh Sir Kay, of course, is is doesn't have to do all the hard work, but Wart does, and Wart uh grows up sort of like Cinderella in the old days, and so he's lugging stuff and he's he's learning stuff and so forth.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: So anyway, eventually the story goes that they go off to London as they get a little older.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: It's time for Kay to be knighted, and there's a great tournament in London, and so he takes along Wart as, even though they've been buddies, he takes him along as his sort of squire and servant.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: So they get there to the tournament, and Kay looks around and said, Oh, I forgot my sword.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: Would you go back to the motel inn?
1:42
SPEAKER_00: Would you go back and pick it and get it?
1:44
SPEAKER_00: So Wart goes back to the inn, but which is locked.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's away at the at the sit at the uh at the fun at the tournament.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: And he's desperate on his way back.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: He goes past a churchyard, looks and sees an anvil with a sword sticking in it.
2:02
SPEAKER_00: Does not know that this is magic, that this appeared magically in that courtyard after the last king, they have no king now, the last king of England, the great King Uther Pindragon died.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: And there's a he doesn't see the carving on the stone saying, whoever draws this out of the anvil is the rightful heir.
2:25
SPEAKER_00: He is the lost son of King Pindragon and the next king of England.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't see that, but he's desperate, goes for the sword, gets up there, and he tugs, tugs, tugs.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: After looking around to make sure nobody is looking, he tugs and he is able to tug the sword of the stone.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: And that, and as he carries the sword then to the tournament, Kay says, Wow, this isn't my sword.
2:46
SPEAKER_00: It's got a lot of jewels on it.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: Sir Ector sees it, nearly passes out.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: He knows that sword, famous sword.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: And so all every the tournament stops, and they all, everybody goes back to the church courtyard.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: And so they have Wart put it back in the stone.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: They can't.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: Then they all try to pull it out.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: They can't.
3:04
SPEAKER_00: He pulls it out easily.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: They fall on their knees, and that's when Wart discovers he has royal blood.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: He is the son, the lost son of King Uther Pendragon, and that's the story, isn't it?
3:17
SPEAKER_00: Of King Arthur.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: It's a great story.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: I love that story.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: Now you'll see that story of sort of lost and discovered royalty, you'll find in a number of places.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: A little bit in Oedipus and one of the Narnia tales.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: It's also in movies.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: A comedy that didn't get high ratings that Melody and I enjoyed about 15 years ago was Walt Disney's The Princess Diaries, which is a story about a teenage girl who's 15.
3:46
SPEAKER_00: Her name is Mia, and she's just an ordinary girl.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: She and her mother and her cat live in a little uh apartment in San Francisco.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: And she's in high school and she has a crush on the popular boy in school.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: His name is Josh, but Josh and his cheerleader girlfriend and their buddies, they laugh and make fun of Mia.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: And then one day, Mia gets a phone call that her grandmother, her dad has passed away, but her dad's mother is coming to visit her from Europe.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: She doesn't know much about her grandmother, other than that she lives in a little kingdom called Genovia, and that her grandmother Clarice wants to meet with her.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: And so she goes down to meet with her grandmother.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: Turns out it's at the uh consulate of Genovia, and that's when she discovers Clarice tells her that she's actually the queen.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: Clarice is Queen Clarice of Genovia.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: And it's time for her to step down, and there is no other heir than Mia, that Mia has royal blood, and and and she challenges her to be the next queen of Genovia, which Mia is really reluctant to do, but having royal blood and the whole rest of the movie is very funny, and she learns how to live like and and and carry herself like a queen.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and you know, the wonderful end of the story, of course, is that Anne Hathaway, not Anne Hathaway, but Mia becomes the perfect queen.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: I don't you love Anne and now here's what I want to ask you.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever, haven't you ever, when you read stories like that, sort of down in a little hidden corner of your heart, said, I kind of wish that would happen to me.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: I kind of now I know most of you are way too spiritual for that, but I've wished that.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: You know, I thought, wouldn't it be great to suddenly discover that you have royal blood, that you're actually a king or queen, that you're an heir, and that you, and that your and your life absolutely and totally changes.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: Now, listen, that's why one of the reasons why I love the book of Ephesians so much, because that really is the perspective that you need to have as you open the tenth book of the New Testament.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: That is the book of Ephesians.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: Grab your Bible, open up these six chapters, grab your study sheet, one of my favorite books, and the second greatest epistle behind Romans in the New Testament, just as the city of Ephesus was the second greatest city of the Roman Empire behind Rome.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: Ephesus uh is uh on the western coast of Turkey today.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: It was on the western coast of Asia.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: It was the largest city in Asia, the second largest city, 300,000 people in Ephesus and surroundings.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: It was a city of the rich and famous, so it was the perfect city for a letter like this, which is going to tell us that we are, if we didn't know about it, rich and famous.
6:57
SPEAKER_00: All right?
6:59
SPEAKER_00: So even today the ruins are absolutely stunning at this place.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: That uh tall building is the library, the library of Celsus, first century Roman library.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: The remains are beautiful, and you constantly see thousands people walking through the ruins.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: And you can imagine they've tried to reconstruct what it must have looked like back in the day, back when uh Ephesus was such a great city.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: It had an Olympic Games, it had one of the seven wonders of the world, the temple of Diana of the Ephesians, with hundreds of columns decorated by all the countries of the world.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: It had the Bank of Asia in it, the great Roman bank.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: And it had a special place, Ephesus did and his church, in Paul's heart, because Paul spent more time in Ephesus than in any other city, a year and a half.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: He had built a Bible school there, and some of his greatest victories were won in Ephesus, and so now he writes the great letter of Ephesians that we call Ephesians to Ephesus.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: And what he says in this letter is he divides the book, as I've said to you on the study sheet, into two simple parts, chapters one through three and four through six, where the outline, you see it at the bottom of page one, is in chapters one through three, he asks, Do you know who you are?
8:30
SPEAKER_00: It's a doctrinal section of the book.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: This is belief, and then he moves in the last half of the book, four through six, to behavior, and where he says, live like it.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: It's the practical.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: Now stop for a second and remember back, there's a little Bible education here for just a second, little seminary stuff.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: You know, a number of Paul's letters are like this, aren't they?
8:50
SPEAKER_00: We had Romans about a month and a half, two months ago.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: First half of Romans, chapters one through eight, are doctrinal, not a command in there, just here's the way things are, here's who you are.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: Suddenly move to chapter 9 through 16, suddenly we have what you must do from doctrine to duty, from orthodoxy to orthopraxy.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: Same was same with Colossians.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: Uh I guess Ephesians flip it.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: So that's coming up in a couple of weeks.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: Colossians, four chapters.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: First two chapters, doctrine, second two chapters three and four, our duty, what we need to do.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: And and now we have we have Ephesians, first three chapters.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: Now, and now let me stop for a second and apply that.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: I hate to say this, but I think that too often even good Christians, that's us, right?
9:37
SPEAKER_00: We're good Christians, good Christians have sort of a band-aid uh mentality to the living of daily life.
9:45
SPEAKER_00: A crisis comes, financial, marital, children, you know, family, whatever the crisis is.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: And what we do is we run to the last half of Romans or the last second half of Ephesians or God.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: We run to these passages of a verse like Ephesians 4 through B E kind, forgiving one another.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: And we apply the band-aid to that problem, right?
10:06
SPEAKER_00: We try to solve the conflict by applying the practical verse.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: We look up those, we love those practical verses, and then we don't understand why after a week or a month the band-aid falls off.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: It's because the band-aid approach to living the daily Christian life simply does not work.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: It's not long-lasting.
10:29
SPEAKER_00: Because we've neglected the real issue, which is the doctrinal, what the theological side, because how do you really forgive someone if you've never internalized Ephesians chapter one, which is that everything is based on God forgiving me first, right?
10:49
SPEAKER_00: So I just want to say, I'm gonna st I'm gonna spend half of this message on chapters one through three, and it's vitally important when you read the Bible, dear friends, don't just do the band-aid thing.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: Don't go to the second half of all the books, the ones with the fun, with the fun verses, okay?
11:04
SPEAKER_00: Go to the first half, the doctrinal side.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: Now, um, you but maybe you say, well, we've already asked and answered this question before in Romans and in Galatians.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: Paul's already asked us, do you know who you are?
11:18
SPEAKER_00: I remember that.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: And if you remember that, congratulations, you're right.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: Well, I was thinking last uh this weekend, yeah, it's true that Paul asks and answers that question, but he answers it in slightly different ways.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: And it's important that you know all of the ways he answers it.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: Take the book of Romans, for instance.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: He gets up to chapter six.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: And and Paul says, Do you know who you are?
11:41
SPEAKER_00: And he says, you know what?
11:43
SPEAKER_00: You're a brand new person.
11:45
SPEAKER_00: The reason you don't have to live the way you used to live, if you're a Christian, is that you're no longer the person you used to be.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: That person died with Christ and was buried, was raised to become a brand new person.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: So you you don't have to act the way you always acted because you're no longer the actor or the person that you that you were before.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: You're a brand new person.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: So that's the book of Romans, Romans chapter 6.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: Then you move to Galatians two weeks ago.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you remember, but but uh we we said maybe the greatest spiritual life verse in the Bible is Galatians 2.20, in which Paul says, you know who you are?
12:30
SPEAKER_00: You're a Christ person, a Jesus person now.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: He says, I've been crucified with Christ.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: And so I don't live any longer, but say these four words with me Christ lives in me.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that?
12:44
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that now Christ lives in you?
12:47
SPEAKER_00: So that you should be a little Christ person walking around during the week, able to respond to everyone.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: Yes, even when they cut you off in traffic, with the same attitude that Christ would have.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: And so his point in Romans is that you're a new person.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: His point in Galatians is that you are a Christ person.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: Now he he adds something to that story.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: In Ephesians, what he says from start to finish, do you know who you are?
13:17
SPEAKER_00: You are an honored, a privileged person in a variety of ways.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: And and maybe you've seen the poster that lists all of the amazing realities, but Ephesians is full of them.
13:31
SPEAKER_00: He says, Do you realize that you're a saint?
13:34
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you go in those churches where they have saints.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: Do you realize, says this half a dozen times in this book, that you actually in heaven's sight are a saint?
13:42
SPEAKER_00: Do you realize, he says, that you've been chosen by God the Father?
13:47
SPEAKER_00: That you've been bought by God the Son and sealed by God the Spirit.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: If you've looked at the texts next to those, you'll see that's chapter 1, 4 through 6, 7 through 12, 13, and 14.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: That's all one sentence.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: It's the longest sentence in the whole Bible.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: What happens is that Paul starts actually in verse 3, we've been blessed by every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, in that we've been chosen, predestined by God before the foundation of the world.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: And he starts talking, and he can't stop, and he keeps gushing, and he won't even take a breath, and then he moves into again, and then he sent Jesus, and Jesus died for us and redeemed us, and then the Spirit sealed us, and once shaved, always shaved, and all that stuff.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: And it's just awesome.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: Because he's so eager to let us know that we're incredibly privileged and we live as, I mean, it's like this terrible, the terrible old preacher's joke.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's in all of the old preacher's books.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna spice it up a little bit.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: About the about the hillbilly grandma who went to the big city for like the first time, staying in a big city hotel, and she was giving the bellhop a bad time, and the bellhop is trying his best to please her.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: But she was going, now, look ye here, sonny.
15:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, you may think that since I come from the hills that that I've I've I've never stayed in a place like this before.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: And you'd be right, I haven't, but still, I I know better.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: I know that my room here is too small, it has no windows, way too small, it has no bed, and I want you to go get the manager, and I'm gonna deal with this right now.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, but ma'am, he says, that that that isn't your room.
15:24
SPEAKER_00: That's the elevator.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: So I told you it's not funny, it's an old preacher's joke.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: So so but God would say, now listen, how many Christians are living in a dark elevator when the truth is I've given you a grand suite to live in, and that's what Rephesians is about.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: I want you to let you know the blessings, the incredible privileges that you have in Christ.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: And it all starts off with the fact that you are chosen by God the Father, bought by God the Son, and sealed by God the Spirit.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: And not only that, that makes you an heir, three times just in chapter one.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: You've got this inheritance, this privilege that's coming to you, and you're a new creation.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: I know I said that, Paul says in Romans, I'm gonna say it again.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: And not only that, you're a beloved child of God in God's household, and you're a child of light.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: And and most of all, you're a part in this book, you're a part of a whole new humanity.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: It's neither Jew nor Gentile.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: It's sort of a third nation that God's formed of Christians, that he calls the church and the bride of Christ and the body of Christ, and on and on.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: By the way, all nine times that Paul uses the word ecclesia for church in this book, he's not talking about Topeka Bible church, because this is a cosmic book.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: He's talking about the church universal, composed of all people, Old and New Testament, who have ever believed in God, his son Jesus Christ, for salvation.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: That's good, in it's page one of your little study sheet.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: This is a cosmic book.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: It's bigger than you and I can imagine.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: Because Paul wants us to see that God has this great plan, and you and I have gotten the privilege of being key players in his plan.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: We are actors on stage in God's great cosmic, dramatic production in which he's decided to bring peace and order to the entire chaotic universe by one day wrapping it all up and handing it to his beloved son, Jesus Christ, at the same moment that he puts Jesus Christ on the throne in Jerusalem on the new earth, right here.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: That's God's plan.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: And you and I, he says, if we believed in that son, we are from now on actors and participants in that cosmic drama.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: And so he begins in verse 3 of chapter 1 saying, Blessed be God and Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, who's blessed us with every spiritual blessing already.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: Where?
18:01
SPEAKER_00: In the heavenly places in Christ.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: Where is that?
18:04
SPEAKER_00: Do you have a King James or New King James?
18:06
SPEAKER_00: It reads, in the heavenlies in Christ, which is even worse.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: Where is that?
18:11
SPEAKER_00: And it's not the only time he says it.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: A few verses later, God, when God raised Christ, he seated him at his right hand in the heavenlies.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: Just one word in Greek, but translated with heavenly places or heavenly realms.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: And a few verses later, God raised us up when you trusted him as Savior with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: I don't feel like I'm sitting with him in the heavenly realms.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm sitting in a chair right now.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: On Mulvaine or College Avenue, I feel like I don't, am I in the heavenly realms?
18:44
SPEAKER_00: Well, what does this mean?
18:45
SPEAKER_00: And I am just thrilled to let you know this is this is maybe one of Ephesians' major contributions to the whole Bible, very unique contribution.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: Because Ephesians has this idea that there is a parallel but invisible realm surrounding us all, where Christians live in contact with God and the angels, and in conflict with Satan and the demons.
19:15
SPEAKER_00: So the heavenlies is that, say this with me, that parallel but invisible realm.
19:22
SPEAKER_00: Let's start over.
19:23
SPEAKER_00: That parallel but invisible realm where Christians live in contact with God and in conflict with Satan.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: And once in a while you'll see this spelled out in the Bible, like in the Old Testament.
19:38
SPEAKER_00: There's this story of Elisha and his servant, and there, and the Assyrians are mad at him, and they come and surround the house, and the servant is freaking out, and Elisha's just drinking a cup of lemonade or whatever casually, and the servant says, How come you're not freaking out?
19:55
SPEAKER_00: And Elisha goes to prayer.
19:57
SPEAKER_00: He says, God, would you open my servant Gehazi's eyes so he can see the reality?
20:04
SPEAKER_00: And God opens his eyes and he suddenly sees that actually in the parallel but invisible realm surrounding their cottage, there are a hundred thousand angelic warriors.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: They are as safe as they could be.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the things that Ephesians wants us to see, that our warfare is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, and we have the angelic hosts on our side.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: And this is in this parallel but invisible realm.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: And if you and I could have our eyes opened in this moment, we would see our guardian angel.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we have more than one.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: There's an argument about that, but we all have at least one if we're believers.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: I love the picture of the two little children crossing a dangerous bridge and their guardian angel who unfortunately has wings.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: Angels, as far as I know, don't really have wings, watching over them.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: But that's this parallel realm.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: It's this, it's this thing that God says, you know what, you already, you already have this property all around you.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: It's what you seem to be longing for, but you've already got it.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: You know, we're a lot of us are like that.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: The guy who decided to sell his small estate.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: So he went to the realtor.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: He said, Would you come out and visit my place, walk around and write an advertisement?
21:27
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to sell it and I'd like to move to, I don't know where, but I want to, I want to, it's time for me to build my dream house.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: The realtor did that and and he called the man and said, Come on in, I'll read it to you, and you tell me what you think.
21:40
SPEAKER_00: So the man came in and he read the description of his estate, the advertisement, and he sat there.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: He said, Would you read it again?
21:47
SPEAKER_00: The realtor read it again.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: He said, I don't think I want to sell after all.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: That's exactly the kind of place I've wanted my whole life.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: And that's what God would say to us you know, the kind of a life.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: That you've wanted forever, that's the kind of life that I've already given you.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: You say, really?
22:09
SPEAKER_00: Does that exist, this parallel invisible realm?
22:12
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever heard of A.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: W.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: Tozer?
22:15
SPEAKER_00: The Pursuit of God?
22:17
SPEAKER_00: This would be a book for you to read, for some of you to read.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: Because just to excerpt a couple of sentences out of this, A.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: W.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: Tozer put it this way: a spiritual kingdom lies all about us, enclosing us, embracing us altogether, within reach of our inner selves, waiting for us to recognize it.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: This eternal world will come alive to us the moment we begin to reckon upon its reality.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: In other words, truly believe that it exists.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: We must shift our interest from the seen to the unseen.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: Our trouble is we have, he said, of bad habits of thinking.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: We habitually think of the visible world as real, and we doubt the reality of any other.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: And Paul's burden in chapters one through three is to keep on ringing the bell about your and my honor and privilege in our invisible estate right next to us.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: So for instance, in verse 7 of chapter 1, in him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: In verse 18, and I'm praying, he says, that you'll know what you've got.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: I pray that your heart, the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for those of us who believe.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: Remember, some of you will remember that we always sing this song, open the eyes of our hearts.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: What we were singing was, Lord, open the eyes of our hearts so we would see what we already possess, but perhaps have not claimed because of lack of faith.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter 2, Paul continues, God's rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were walking dead people, dead in our sins, he made us alive together with Christ.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: By grace you've been saved, and raised us up and made us sit together in the heavenly places.
24:29
SPEAKER_00: There it is, in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: One day when that kingdom sort of suddenly becomes visible to everyone, and when Christ is on the throne and you and I step into it, then we'll finally see physically what we have taken by faith up till then.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: That is that we are the most incredibly fortunate and blessed and honored and privileged people who have ever had the good fortune to live in the universe because God has chosen us, He's bought us, He's laid up for us an inheritance.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: We are royalty.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: And that's why He says all Ephesians 2.8 and 9, your favorite verse, he puts them in this context.
25:15
SPEAKER_00: That this is not by works.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: It's not something you have to earn, it's by grace you've been saved through faith, not from yourselves, gift of God, not by works, so nobody can boast.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: This is already your stuff.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: It's not something that you have to perform to receive.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: For now in Christ Jesus, chapter 2, verse 13, you who formerly were far off, that's me, that's you, have been brought near by the blood of Christ, so you're no longer aliens, no, but you're now fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's own household.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that incredible?
25:52
SPEAKER_00: You, Wart, Mia, all of us, we have royal blood.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: We have this incredible privilege.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: Do you realize it?
26:01
SPEAKER_00: And that's when he moves to chapter four.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: He says, okay, if possibly you'll take this by faith, then will you please live like it?
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not automatic.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: It's not automatic.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: Some people may tell you that if you're a true Christian, you'll automatically live this way, but that's not the way it is.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: I can't help, I can't help thinking of the first words that Casey Stingle or maybe Billy Martin would say to the New York Yankees in spring training.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: He famously would say, You now wear the most honored uniform in the game.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: Maybe Ken Berry will remember this when he was a coach of the Yankees.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: But but uh but he'd say, you wear the Yankee pinstribes.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to play like a Yankee.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: I want you to play proud.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: I want you to play like a world champion.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: And Paul in chapters four through six says something like that.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: You have this amazing privilege.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: Look who you are.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: Won't you please live like it?
26:56
SPEAKER_00: Anyone recognize the story of my fair lady?
27:02
SPEAKER_00: Remember the story of where the professor finds uh Eliza, I think, doolittle, and she's just a street woman, bad accent, and decides that he is going to privilege her, to honor her, to bring her to a place, you know, almost royalty in London.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: And so he begins to train her.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the story, with hard work, with hard work, she becomes this sort of princess.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: It's just a wonderful, wonderful story.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: And that's similar to chapters four through six, which Paul begins with the words, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: That is this blessing, all this giftedness that you have received.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: Would you please live like it?
27:44
SPEAKER_00: He says.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: Now, this last half of the book, loads of verses.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: We oftentimes use them as band-aids, uh, which is insufficient, but they are wonderful, aren't they?
28:32
SPEAKER_00: Like this one.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: Say it with me.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: Be kind and compassionate to each other, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 4 32.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: What a great verse.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't happen automatically, does it?
28:50
SPEAKER_00: We learned that when we were raising kids, we had two children.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: Adriel was two years old, Mark was one year old, and and they were little, and Adriel was a perfect child, uh, all except for the night that I am about to relate to you.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: She was absolutely impeccable, never sinned, but except for this one night.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: What happened is that our in our home, we always had family devotions, even the kids were a little little, and we would read, uh, when they were that age, we'd read a Bible story book and read a Bible story, and then the requirement was, and he even started it young, is that each of the kids, starting with the youngest of the oldest, would go up and stand by the piano and they'd sing a song.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: You'd have to sing a uh a song.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: Uh Marky was uh one, he was too little to sing, and so we would sing for him.
29:31
SPEAKER_00: It was a way to get him used to singing.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: We'd sing, so the four of us sang, and then at the end we always clapped like we're gonna do tonight at baptism when you come out of the water, you know.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: So he'd always clap.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: And Mark, at age one, was basking in the glory, wanted more clapping.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: The clapping had stopped.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: It was Adriel's turn.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: And two-year-old Adriel walked up, and and she was uh she was excited because she had learned this new song in Sunday school.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: Song went like this Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: And she would sing it, hath forgiven in you.
30:11
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 4 and 32.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: That's how she would sing it, but she was so excited about singing her song.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: She walked up, and Mark is just plopped there.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: He's standing there.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want to leave.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: It's been a glory moment for him.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: And so she takes not one but both hands and she gives him a mighty shove.
30:28
SPEAKER_00: He flies across him, he hits his head on the couch, and before he's even gotten up, she starts singing, be ye kind one to another.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't happen automatically.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: And again, that was the only sin that I know of she ever committed as a child.
30:47
SPEAKER_00: But it doesn't come automatically, does it?
30:51
SPEAKER_00: It's something that does take effort, that is forgiveness.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: And there are these other verses right there in that paragraph that are just so like that one, don't let the sun go down on your anger, right?
31:02
SPEAKER_00: Which we sort of manipulate and use, like don't be telling me to calm down.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: I've got another good six minutes before sundown.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: Don't let the sun go down on your anger.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: And then great verses like in the next chapter, be filled with the spirit, which is continuous presence.
31:20
SPEAKER_00: Be continuously full or full of the spirit.
31:24
SPEAKER_00: Now, how do you get that done?
31:25
SPEAKER_00: Well, there is this parallel but invisible world where the Holy Spirit dwells, and you and I, having one foot, really half our body, know the whole body in some senses, in that realm, we stay close to the Spirit, and He continually fills us up.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: And so we live our life continually filled with the Spirit, constantly, every, let's say, half hour, coming when you come up for air out of your activity, for we are all activists, you are constantly breathing out flair prayers to God, stepping into that parallel but indivisible realm where you relate to these blessings you've received, thanking God for them, speaking with the Father, walking in step with the Holy Spirit.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: And so you remain filled.
32:12
SPEAKER_00: Or if you, for instance, those familiar, very famous verses, the book Love and Respect comes out of the last half of chapter five.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: Very practical.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: Watch out.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: Don't just use this as a band-aid.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: Know the first three chapters.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: Husbands, husbands, pay more attention to the wives, submit to your husband passage.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: I love the cartoon.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: Taking Ephesians 5, 22 out of context was bad enough, but using a bell to summon his wife was both stupid and dangerous.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: Oh, more chips and salsa pronto, submit, submit.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: So um, and then verses every parent knows and loves.
33:01
SPEAKER_00: 6.1 children, obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: Every parent says, Amen.
33:07
SPEAKER_00: Verse 4, fathers, don't provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: Fortunately, some of you will have noticed the loophole there.
33:18
SPEAKER_00: It's only fathers, fathers that have to do this.
33:22
SPEAKER_00: Mothers, however, doesn't say anything about moms, so they can let the kids have it with both barrels.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: And no problem.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: You heard it here first, Topeka Bible.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: We take the Bible literally.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: Only fathers have to be careful.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: Mothers can nail the kids.
33:38
SPEAKER_00: So, and then there's 611.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: 611.
33:43
SPEAKER_00: Because you have this parallel and visible world where we're in contact with God, but in conflict with Satan and his minions, we need to put on the full armor of God so that we'll be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
34:00
SPEAKER_00: So that's who we are, and will we please live like it?
34:06
SPEAKER_00: And that's really what I wanted to say today, but I have this sense that you and I, many of us, need this desperately because uh I think of the words of a Quaker mystic named Thomas Kelly, 50, 60, 70 years ago, who wrote, We are unhappy, amen, uneasy, strained, oppressed, and fearful.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: He's speaking about us as Christians.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: And then he says, Over the margins of life comes a whisper, a faint call, a premonition of richer living, which we know we are passing by, a way of life vastly richer and deeper than all of this hurried existence, a life of unhurried serenity and peace and power.
34:50
SPEAKER_00: And we think if only we could slip over into that center.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: Do you know where you're hearing that whisper from?
34:58
SPEAKER_00: You're hearing that whisper from the parallel but invisible realm, the heavenlys right next to you, calling you over into communion with God, into walking with the Son, into keeping in step with the Spirit.
35:15
SPEAKER_00: You're hearing that whisper, that premonition of a better, richer life from a God who says, You are unbelievably rich, for I've blessed you with every spiritual blessing.
35:29
SPEAKER_00: You are royalty.
35:31
SPEAKER_00: One day you'll see it all.
35:32
SPEAKER_00: Won't you now believe it?
35:34
SPEAKER_00: Won't you now live like it?
35:38
SPEAKER_00: It happened a year ago this month.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: Fairy tale and fantasy became reality.
35:45
SPEAKER_00: When David Howe and his wife Pam and their daughter Grace, David announced publicly that he was leaving his job as an auto mechanic there in Maryland and was taking his family 3,000 miles to inherit and take over the throne of a kingdom in Britain, the Isle of Man, because he'd been doing genealogical study and he'd found that he was the rightful heir to the throne.
36:16
SPEAKER_00: He'd communicated with uh ancestry experts over in England and found it was really true.
36:22
SPEAKER_00: And that became the hugest headline one year ago in August in People magazine and so forth.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: Headlines, he cried out, from blue-collar to blue-blooded.
36:33
SPEAKER_00: Mechanic discovers he is heir to the throne of the Isle of Man after researching his ancestry online and travels 3,000 miles to claim his title, a television show in England called Suddenly Royal.
36:48
SPEAKER_00: Uh circled that story as he inherited this beautiful 32-square mile island with castle and lighthouse and so forth.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: And everyone said, Oh, I wish that was me.
37:03
SPEAKER_00: But you know what I noticed?
37:05
SPEAKER_00: I was shocked to realize that he had known about this for eight years and not claimed it.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: For it was back in 2007 that David Howe had been doing his ancestry study and had been contacted by someone and researched and more and found out that yes, he was the rightful heir to the throne there, and yet he had sat on it for eight years, and you and I say, Are you kidding me?
37:34
SPEAKER_00: How could you just not do anything about it?
37:37
SPEAKER_00: How could you not claim your rightful possession?
37:42
SPEAKER_00: And I say, maybe you and I should be slower to criticize, right?
37:47
SPEAKER_00: Because perhaps have you known something about the privilege that you have in Jesus Christ and sat on it and not lived like it, not claimed it this morning.
37:58
SPEAKER_00: God says, Do you know who you are?
38:03
SPEAKER_00: And if so, won't you please live like it?
38:09
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: What a privilege, Heavenly Father.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: What an honor that you would take the time, that you would make the effort to speak to us in your word, to let us know how much you love us and what you've done for us and what you want to do for us, and how much you've provided for us, and it's so close to us, it's just right next to us.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: Once in a while we hear whispers, we feel premonitions, we sense that there is more to this life in heaven.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: You cry out, oh yes, there is, of course there is.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: Won't you believe it?
38:50
SPEAKER_00: I've told you about it.
38:52
SPEAKER_00: Won't you live like it?
38:53
SPEAKER_00: Why struggle the way you do?
38:57
SPEAKER_00: Father, this morning.
38:59
SPEAKER_00: We believe, we accept, we trust, we claim what it is you've given us.
39:08
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for who we are.
39:12
SPEAKER_00: And who you are.