Welcome to the River City Church podcast and a message by our
lead pastor, Jason Powers. Our prayer is that this message
would inspire and encourage you, build your faith and point you
to the life changing love of Jesus.
May you enjoy the goodness of God as you follow him today.
Hi, everybody. I'm glad that you're here.
Today, brave in the rain. Some of you are like a little
moist right now and that's OK That's good.
We begin each week with our confession.
I just want to give a second for you to just kind of pause and
worship and we just sing who else is worthy?
Only you, only you Jesus and we show up.
I want to acknowledge confess for you.
Maybe you're today. You know, some days you just
wake up heavy. Today's that day.
It's just it's hard. Just didn't feel it today,
right. The good news in that is Jesus
said, come to me, you who are weary and carry heavy burdens,
and I'll give you rest for your soul.
That's what this is about. That's what our confession
about. We believe that our confession
is true. And there are some days that I
wake up and I'm just grateful to know I, I sense I'm loved.
My father is good and he sees me and he loves me and his goodness
and mercy follow me and I feel that.
And then some days I don't and that's OK.
That's why our confession is important because it covers
both. It reminds us that he transcends
our feelings. He is bigger than what?
Then what we. Feel or or even what we sense.
And so it's important to say it out loud.
So together our confession is we are badly broken.
Yes, you are. Grace and peace to you.
We've been, We started our slow climb through the book of
Ephesians and you can tell like this is our 3rd week of the
series and we're going to finish chapter 1 today.
And so you can just write that out for the rest of the series.
You know, we'll be here till mid March.
It's going to be good. We're going to have a lot of
fun. We've been building a
foundation. We've been building.
We saw Paul. Wrote this letter.
We call it a book. It's the book of Ephesians.
But really it was a letter to a group of people that were born
that were living in Ephesus at the time.
Ephesus was an outpost in the Roman, and it wasn't an outpost.
It was one of the major cities. It would have been Chicago.
Not the first city, that would have been Rome.
Maybe not the second city. It's not LA, But it's like
Chicago was a big city, major port, major temple there to the
God Artemis. And so there was all kinds of
difficult things that went into being a Christian in the city of
Ephesus. And so the apostle Paul now a
good Jewish guy, good Jewish Paul, Rabbi Paul, he writes a
letter to the to these Ephesians Christians.
He's Ephesians believer. And what he's writing about is
an apocalypse. And we like we know the movie
Apocalypse Now. It's like a war movie, right?
And so we read about apocalypse and we think that it means like
like a big battle scene. The Greek word apocalypsis
literally means it's a revelation.
It is to have the. Covers pulled.
Back to have the. Scales removed from our eyes to
allow us to see. Reality as it truly is, and the
reality. That we saw.
Last week when we looked at verse 3 through 14, is this one
big long Greek sentence right? And the thing that Paul went and
you remember that he's kept saying we, we who were the first
we. Who saw we who have the?
Promises we who have the inheritance, and we recognize
the beginning. Our temptation is to read
ourselves into that. But Paul wasn't.
Talking about us. At that point Paul was talking
about Israel, the Jewish people, and he said God made promises.
To us, he said the. Jewish people, the people of
Israel, they were God's people. But then he said verse 13 of
chapter 1, he says, but you also now he's talking to the Gentiles
in the room. Now he's talking to the
Ephesians and he says that story, that family, it's not
just for one ethnic group or another, it's for everybody.
God's desires that everybody. Would not only exist, but would
know their place and the family of God and that that family as
we understand it is bigger than we could have fathomed, bigger
than we could have imagined. And we saw that summed up by he
said last week. He said all things in heaven and
earth summed up in Christ Jesus. And so that begs the question,
right, that leads us ask this question, what does all things
mean? Means all things.
It means the spirits, it means the powers, it means the flesh,
it means people, it means Jews and it means Gentiles.
It means tall people and short people.
It means all people. That's what God has been doing.
These things, these parts that were separate now come together
and unify the big picture. This big apocalypse that Paul
had, was that the. Family of God is bigger than we
imagined. In Christ we're all family.
Sure, we the Jewish people who were the first open Christ, but
you also now the Gentiles, those who don't have the promises,
they don't know. The history didn't come from
that. We are all now together in one.
So whatever it was that we thought that kept people
outside. Has vanished, has disappeared.
And what Paul is saying is the point that.
He leads us to is. That reality is going to be
visible someday. Someday you're going to be able
to look and see, Oh yes, these actually are my brothers and
sisters. These are actually my people.
Sure, we have different culture, We have different heritages, our
skin tone is different. We have different amounts of of
money and come from different places.
But in him in eternity, we are all one.
But in the meantime, we can acknowledge we don't really feel
that. Doing.
The. Biggest problem is.
People right? Not the people in this room.
Thank God You're the ones that showed up here.
Man, you should have seen first service.
It was awful. Terrible people, Right?
And so Paul pivots from discussing reality, right?
Like something could be real in our lives and not be reality,
right? Like my feeling of sorrow can be
real, but but the reality that caused it made, I mean, I could
be sad that you said that something mean to me, but
reality is you didn't say that thing.
I just heard it and I'm feeling bad, right?
And so Paul talks about reality. He shifts from talking about
reality, and he begins to talk about perception.
He begins to. Talk a way that we talk about
the way that we understand and perceive reality and he uses a
very important Bible study word if you want to learn how to
study your. Scripture better.
I'm going to give you a tip today, right?
And it's right there at the beginning.
You've got Ephesians chapter 1, and you look at verse 15, the
very first word there, the very first phrase.
Is is important and says this? For this reason, another word
that is important way to study your scriptures.
If you ever see the word therefore, if you see the word
therefore or for this reason or because of that, you need to
immediately stop what you're doing.
Don't just keep going. And you need to then turn the
page back or look at the previous verses and know what
was just said because what was just said is the reason for
what's about to be said. So Paul is making this thing.
He says all things in heaven and earth have been summed up that
have been glorified in Jesus who has resurrected it now and for
this reason. That's the reality.
The reality is all things coming together under Jesus.
And because of that reality, now it begins to.
Play out in our place. So you got to know what happened
first. You can't just pick this up.
Sometimes you get a devotional book and it'll just start right
in the middle and it'll start saying something.
That's fine, but you got to know where it.
Fits right so because of the way that Jesus is summing everything
up in verse 15 for this reason I also Paul says this having heard
of the faith in the Lord Jesus which exists among you and your
love for all the Saints stop right there you said we'll.
Never get through it. I know we will, I promise.
Do you remember? Last week, what we said, that
word translated as you do you remember what we said?
We're going to say it in this. Y'all or all y'all.
And you can, you can sling it however you like, right?
Like you can have whatever accent you think you need.
But the point is, Paul isn't writing to Nick from Ephesus.
This isn't a story to Bob. Hey, Bob, you got to figure this
out. He's writing.
This would have been a letter and it would have been read in
public out loud like this. They all would have known y'all,
all y'all. So here's what he says.
For this reason, I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord
Jesus, we know what faith is. It's believing, right?
He says, I've heard that you have faith and that's good.
I've heard that you believe and that it's working itself out in
your actions, and that's good. And your love for all the
Saints, your and all y'all's love for all the Saints.
And remember who were the Saints?
It's us for people, he says. I've heard.
That you believe in who God is and what God is doing and
because of that it's overflowing and love for others love for the
church. Verse 16 he says now he says I
do not giving thanks for you while making mention of you in
my prayers. What, Paul?
Is saying is. I've heard that you're doing it.
You're bearing fruit. You're loving each other, and
let's just acknowledge that's a hard thing to do, isn't it?
It's hard to love people, huh? Those.
People are the worst. People have opinions, they have
feelings, they have motives, They do things that you don't
like, they are things that you don't want them to be.
We just rub each other raw. But what Paul is saying to these
Ephesian Christians is like, I've heard about you.
I've heard that you believe Father enough to bear fruit.
And he says that's good. Like that's that's a good thing.
That's what it's supposed to be. And so let me, just as a pastor
for just a second, say I see. You, I see you taking Sundays
and the rain getting all wet, right?
Your hair is, you know, you, you did it and now it's undone and
it's all that. And you're sitting here and it's
kind of chilly and it's kind of cold.
I want you to hear me say, are you listening?
I see you. Thank you.
Keep following Jesus, but there's more to it than that,
right? It says like, like I've heard
about all that I've seen that he said, but don't give up.
I don't stop giving thanks for you and I'm.
Always, and I'm always praying for you.
He's like, hey, like I want you to to see.
Did I stop? Someone did I need to go?
Further, I read that you never can tell, right?
Don't see. Yeah, right.
So he's saying he's like, listen, I'm praying for you.
I've seen it. I've seen the fruit in your
life, but there's more. But wait, there's more, but more
like like, yes, you're loving each other and you're doing your
and you're doing your best, but you're having a hard time
finding out what is listen, ultimate, you're doing good, but
there's more, there's something bigger.
See the problem we kind of talked about a little bit last
week. Again, the problem with the
Ephesian Christians was they had believed in Jesus, but they
still lived in Rome. And so there's this pressure,
there's this idea called syncretism.
Okay, it's a good it's a good word.
Syncretism is about blending. It's about taking ideas that are
separate that don't really go together and it's about bringing
them together and trying to make them fit into trying to make
them workout and listen. It's everywhere.
He knew that the that the Roman Christians in Ephesus were
feeling this and listen, we feel it too.
The pressure syncretism is this. It's the fragmentation, right?
It's like we believe one thing, but we also believe another
thing. And so we try to live in that
middle. And what I want to say to you is
the anxiety that you've feel is from fragmentation.
It's you trying to be in two places at once.
It's from trying to get you to believe two things that don't go
together. We see it, right?
Like they lived in Ephesus and there was a big temple.
And so the idea and the time at the beginning was sure worship
Jesus, that's fine, but make sure you go to temple. 2.
And why listen? You can worship Jesus and but
listen, like the the trinkets that you buy, right, the little
idols that you go, you take to Artemis.
Those are important because that's what makes the economy
go. You want to live in a in a well
to do society, right? Like you want your city to have
money, right, to be wealthy. Well, just you.
Just got to go buy the, you know that it's not true.
You can worship Jesus and worship Artemis too, right?
Like you can have the best of both worlds.
We see this a lot in New Age philosophy today, right?
Like it can blend a little bit of like like Eastern mysticism
and a little kind of like a Western occultism.
Like listen, you can love Jesus, but make sure you check your
horoscope. Make sure that you don't write
like a retrograde. I don't I don't even know what
that means. But sure, like no, Jesus is
good, but just like make sure you like sage the thing, right?
Like, like I mean the holy. Spirit can't get the stuff out,
but that plant, like you got to light it on fire and then the
smoke with the stuff, right? It's syncretism.
It's syncretism, right? Like we blend and we bring these
things together. We see it in.
Their culture, right, They said you're welcome to worship Jesus,
but you got to worship Caesar too.
And I'm not saying like you don't even have to worship
Caesar the same way I don't have to get down on your knees and
worship Caesar. But you got to know if there
ever comes a place where what Caesar says and what Jesus says,
we're going to do what Caesar says, right, just for the good
of all of us, right, like for for everybody, right, Like and
we, we see this right when the state tries to Co opt the
church, get the church to do their bidding.
Hey, church, we're going to need you to not like these people.
Church, we're going to need you to speak out on these people.
Church, we're going to need you to say do these things.
And it's just it's for the good of good of all of us, right?
Like worship Jesus all you want, but make sure when it comes down
to it that you obey and your loyalty is to.
Caesar We believe in Jesus, but we're conflicted.
We believe it economically right?
We believe that Jesus is our provider, but we sure get
nervous when the economy goes in the tank, don't we?
We believe that Jesus is good, but we also believe that
economic prosperity is our ultimate goal and ultimate
wealth, and that it's that economic security that
ultimately makes us secure, not Jesus.
It was a crazy time to be an Ephesian Christian.
They had to figure all this out and they weren't born into it.
And we wrestle with the same thing.
And listen, I, I want you to know, like, today, I'm talking
to me, OK? I don't have anything.
I don't know what to say to you. I don't know you're siding.
I don't know you were. But I know me.
I know I love Jesus the best that I can.
I know I trust God the best that I can, and I know I'm prone to
crippling financial fear. How about you?
I know I'm worried that there's too much month at the end of the
money every time. I know I got a kid in college
and they'll just like send him home if I don't pay the bill,
right? I believe that.
Jesus. Is.
Powerful. I've seen Jesus's power in my
life. But I also get anxious that one
political party or one group of people can really ruin the whole
thing for everybody. I believe that one group of
people can. Get us across, get us cross ways
with. God and who he is and what he's
doing, that really that's going to cause the problem.
We trust. You're here in the rain.
You got out and you got wet, right?
Like we trust that God is in control.
We even trust in a measure and in a manner into a degree, we
trust that God loves us, but we still want to control things and
people and the world. And when we can't, it hurts us.
Use your life bears fruit. I want you to see your life
bears fruit. But I want to ask you, are you
still anxious? Do you still feel powerless?
Do you still feel overwhelmed? Do you ever wonder what that
reality has to do with this reality today?
Well, I think what we're going to read today based on what we
saw was how Paul would answer that question.
And I think Paul's idea is you're in the family, right?
Like that's what he saw. That's like, we're all the
family. Like those who are in Christ
Jesus are part of the family. You're in the family, but you're
not yet fully aware. You're not really sure what that
means, right? Like we see it in the story the
prodigal son. The prodigal son comes home and
what does he tell dad? He's like, Dad, just let me live
in the slave quarters, Dad, Like, I don't need to come in
the house. You don't need to make it Just
just like, just let me work for my living.
And we, we. Approach God that way.
And what Paul prays for the Ephesian Christians is for an
apocalypse, for a revelation. That idea shows up in popular
culture in the late 90s, Which is my generation.
Those are my people and my times, right?
There's a movie called The Matrix.
And. We're going to show you a scene
in The Matrix where one of the main characters, Morpheus, is
having a conversation with the main character Neo.
Let's take a look. He didn't promise that Neo was
going to finally get rich. He didn't promise Neo that
suddenly the hell his health was going to be great.
He didn't promise Neo prosperity and well doing.
He said Neo, you'll know the. Truth.
And the truth was that you've been a slave.
And we don't like that. I don't want to think about
that. I don't want to think about that
I've been a slave, that I've been lied to, that I've been
controlled and manipulated by economic factors and personal
factors and political factors. I don't want to believe that
there's more than what's going on.
But I know that too many times this doesn't work, does it?
That we've been a slave to this fragmentation.
That it's OK to believe in Jesus, but we have to believe
that there's something else bigger, there's something else
ultimate, something else nefarious that we can't see,
that we're afraid of. And what Neat.
What Morpheus offers is a red pill of apocalypse, an awakening
to see what's reality. And here's the thing.
If you. Haven't watched the movie?
By the way, you should go watch the movie.
It's a good movie, right? But let me just tell you what
happens when the scene goes off, right?
What does he wake up? And it's scary.
It's not at all what he thought. It doesn't look anything like he
thought it was. But what Morpheus said is.
It's true and it's real, and So what is this?
Apocalypse. What is this revelation?
What is this thing that Paul saw?
What was on the other side of? The red pill for Paul when he
begins to describe it in verse 17.
He says, I'm praying for you. I'm praying for this, this
apocalypse. He says verse 17 that the God of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give you now
listen a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of
him, the spirit of wisdom. He didn't say, I pray that God
would download a bunch of information in your head.
That's what you think I'm like, oh, God would just like help me
memorize the Bible. Then I would get, he says, no, I
pray that you would have a spirit of wisdom, Wisdom and
that word revelation. That's the Greek word
apocalypse, that you would have a spirit, not just a one time
download of information, not just a one time.
Oh, I look around and I see something.
But there would be a spirit within you that makes you wise
and to help you see the world around you as it really is.
And what he said is that this spirit of wisdom and revelation.
Would. Be in what?
The knowledge of him. When I tell you I want you to
read the Scripture, it's not just because I don't think you
have enough to do. It's because I believe when we
see Jesus in the way that Jesus walked in the world and the way
that Jesus treated people and the way that Jesus treated power
and money and authority and poor people and rich people, when we
see him, He is that spirit that shows us the Kingdom that's at
hand. He is.
Red pill and what? Paul tells us is a deep
knowledge of God bears visible fruit in every area of our life.
We have enough faith to believe. We have enough faith to know
maybe God is real, but I don't know all of that.
But what Paul says is keep leaning in and ask that God
would pull the blinders off so that you can see him as he
really is. And therefore all y'all as y'all
really are. And he says, right, He goes on
to, to, to explain it. I pray that the eyes of your
heart may be enlightened so that you will know what he's right.
He wants them to see this right so that you will know what the
hope of your calling. He says, I pray that the eyes
will be open. That you'll know.
The riches like that word, right?
The riches of His glory, of His inheritance in the Saints, And
what is the boundless greatness of His power towards us who
believe these are in according with the working.
Of the strength Paul prays in this moment.
He talks about what God has been doing and now he talks about
what God has been doing in you, what it looks like for you and
that knowledge of what he's doing and what he is bears fruit
in our lives. He says he prays that the
Ephesians would know their their calling what God had called them
to. God's calling enables us to wait
faithfully because this is really what it's about, right?
I can by heaven's good. Take me to heaven.
That's right, Right. The problem is I'm not there
yet. The question is, what does that
goodness? Have to do with.
Here right So what is Our Calling what is the goodness
that we're waiting for well look go back to verse 11 he tells us
in him we now remember when Paul says we.
It doesn't mean you. He's talking about the Jewish
people, right? In Him we, we Jews, we have also
obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to
the purpose of Him who works all things, and according to the
plan of His will. When he talks about an
inheritance to the Jewish people, he's talking about the
promised land. He says we've got a place.
God promised to give us a place, a real place where we could
live. But that's not for you yet,
right? He goes on to verse 13.
What does it say? This is the good news in him.
You also all y'all, the Jewish people, Israel, yes, also all
y'all. After listening to the message
of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed
you all were sealed in Him. With the holy.
Spirit of the promise, he says. Here's the.
Good news, it's more your call to something bigger than just
socio economic ethnic alignment. You're called to something more
than just people who look like me and sound like me and walk
like me and talk like me. You're called to a cosmos
filling reality. The world is dark, isn't it?
There's people taking advantage, aren't there?
There's disease and sickness and addiction and pain and loss and
fear, isn't there? And what Paul says is if you
could see the glory of what's coming, you could wait for it.
You can make it. Hebrews chapter 12 tells us that
it was for the joy that was set before Jesus, that he what
endured the cross, what Jesus saw.
Ahead of him. Which is what Paul's talking.
About a united cosmos, heavens and earth.
Everything in heaven and earth united in Him and glorifying His
name when he saw that it was enough to just go.
Oh yeah, no. This, this is going to last for
a couple hours. This is going to be bad, but
that that's worth it. And when we understand what God
has called us to, not just socio economic borders, not just a
place in the world, but an inheritance in eternity, a name
that is above it, we don't need to fight political battles.
We've got an eternal Kingdom waiting for us.
If we could just see. If we could just.
See what's ultimate and what's real and what's out there.
It helps us wait. Here's what I want you to know
today. Maybe you're heavy in your heart
today, and maybe you've been that way for a really long time.
Don't give up. Don't quit.
What this tells me is that there's something waiting for
you. And I wish, God, I wish.
I wish that it was over. I wish you were seeing it and
tasting every good thing that you've ever imagined.
But if your story's anything like mine, I know you're
probably not. Not fully, anyway.
But don't quit. You see, that's what makes us.
That's what makes this that what make all what makes all y'all
out there significant. Because people out there, man,
they stomp their feet when we don't get what we went.
Oh, how's it going? We freak out.
We wait. And if we are able to just
patiently go, yeah, I don't have what I'm looking for yet, Still
haven't found what I'm looking for.
But I'm here and I believe that good is coming so I can be
patient and I can wait. He prays that we would know.
Our Calling. Do you know that Jesus didn't
just come to offer you an empty life and eternity on the other
side of death? Jesus said the Kingdom of heaven
is at hand. He didn't promise that
everything was going to be easier that you know, he just
promised he'd be with you. He promised it would end and he
promised an eternity someday on the other side of that.
And that was enough for Jesus and it can help us wait.
Well, what else does he pray? Let's.
Talk about that. Riches thing, right?
Yeah, that's what I want, right? I pray that the eyes of your
heart may be enlightened so you know the hope of His calling and
the. Riches.
But read the whole sentence. The riches of the glory of his
inheritance. You're like, yeah, get to it in
the Saints. This is the part that we don't
like, all right. It's not his inheritance in
greenbacks, it's not his inheritance in stock options.
It's his inheritance in this. Look around.
No really, look around. So sorry looking lot isn't it?
This is what God chose to be his grace mechanism in the world.
What that means? Is this is how God gets?
Grace into your life and through your life.
Look at what the. Writer to the Hebrews says in
Hebrews chapter 10 he says it verse 24.
Let us consider how to encourage one another to love and good
deeds. Honest question, don't say out
loud, but do you ever just wonder why you can't just be
better? Like why can't I just do the
thing that I'm supposed to do? I know I should be.
I I should? Be loving and kind and gracious
and I should be joyful, but I'm not right.
What the writer of the Hebrew? Tells us is that's what this is
for, to encourage me to love. Into good works.
Here's the problem. When this was written in the
book of Ephesians was written in Corinthians and whatever the
church gathering didn't look like.
This do you know what it looked like?
A small group, a group of people meeting in homes reading the
letter that the apostle Paul had written.
And what Paul says is don't give up on that.
And he tells why verse I'd lost it.
Verse 25 says this. Without abandoning our own
meeting together, as is the habit of sun, but encouraging
one another. And all the more as you see the
day approaching. What Paul's talking about is
like the things that keep us from what we want to be, the
things that are the solution to those things is in here.
How much better would your life be if you were more patient?
I'm perfectly patient until I get behind the wheel of a car or
I encounter another human being in any form or fashion it seems
like, right? But what if that's the?
Point. What if the point isn't just to
make me to make me not have the lash out with somebody, but it
teach me how to be in the presence of someone and not lash
out at them? Do you know how God does that?
He makes it hurt.
He makes us chase. He'll say you should go to that
small group. And we go to that small group
thinking that every person in that group, every person that
gathering is going to be just as well adjusted and well balanced
and emotionally healthy as me. And when I get there, I realize
they're not, and they are so annoying people.
Are the words right? And you know what Jesus says as
you walk through that door? And that person just starts
going on and on and talking and talking and talking.
It's like you know what God whispers in your ear?
I'm listening to them like I listen to you.
Oh. Lord.
He says just smile. And what if overtime, as you
just subject yourself to that, you slowly find your heart being
able to 1st endure and then tolerate and finally love other
people who aren't like you, who aren't perfect, who maybe aren't
even good and. You know what's?
Interesting is I'm going to talk about that later, right?
Someday. All of this is going to be First
Corinthians chapter 13, right? It talks about love.
Love is patient. Love is kind.
Love doesn't boast. Love doesn't.
It's so good, right? It's a perfect marriage, perfect
wedding. Scripture says it's not even
remotely about weddings. It's about community.
It's about the church. It comes right after he talks
about spiritual gifts, he said. I'm going to tell you about
spiritual gifts, but I'm going to show you a better way.
You're worried about what your gifts are.
You worry about what you're talented at, what you're going
to. I want to show you what's better
than your gifts. What's better than your gifts?
Is love that's being patient and being kind.
It's not boasting, it's not bragging.
And if you keep going down 1st Corinthians 13, you find this
phrase that's weird. It says then we when we, when
we're in that place, it says we will fully know even as we are
fully known. There's going to.
We a day when we stand before the King and we all gather
together, when we're going to understand each other and we're
going to see each other as Jesus sees us.
But that day isn't today. That day is not today.
When you look at me, you see my weaknesses and my failures and
my bald head and my bad breath and whatever it is that makes it
difficult to be around. Someday that's going to go away.
But for right now? We get to practice and what?
Jesus says is I pray what Paul prays for is that our eyes would
be open to the power available to us in this look around you
look at and. Don't look at the person right
next to you because you chose to sit by them, right?
Like, you know, like they're doing.
I thought of the people on the other side of the room.
Jesus loves them just like he loves you, and he says if.
You will lean into that. I mean, if you will go there all
the way, he says. You'll discover.
A. Glorious inheritance or talk
about that in just a little bit. But the question is, Can you
believe that? And not just Can you believe
that? Can you walk in that can the?
Faith that you. Have that God is, even if it's
just this much, maybe it's just showing up and going to see.
He prays that he would know or calling He prays that we would
know. The rich is available to us and
the best one, my favorite 1 is this power, but we'd have the
power available that enables us to live victoriously.
The boundless greatness of his power, you feel.
Boundlessly powerful, you feel. Boundlessly able to overcome the
things that you struggle with, you'll be boundlessly able to
walk in the path in the way that Jesus called you to.
Nothing but good days for you, up and to the right every single
day. Better than the last day.
No, not me. What he's talking about in
Victorious Living, what he's talking about knowing his power
isn't the ability to never have a bad thing happen.
It's the ability to not get. Crushed.
By it. Because you know what I want?
I want a world where there are no bullets.
I want a world where nobody ever says anything bad at me, where
no one ever takes a shot at me, where no one ever says anything
about me, where they always assume the best about me, always
give me the benefit of the doubt.
And that world doesn't exist. And so I get up and I feel good
about myself. And then I go on Instagram like.
Aw. Man, right?
Jesus never promised the world without darkness.
He promised that He's the light. He never promised you would have
nothing but good days. He is the Son of God.
Surely if anybody was walking in his will, they stuck him on a
tree and killed him. And he overcame.
The picture isn't a world. The picture that he offers us
isn't the power to never experience anything bad.
It's never. It's not the ability to live in
a world without bullets yet, it's the ability to be
bulletproof. It's the the ability to stand
where you are, and no matter what anybody says or thinks or
does to you or around you or about you, you stand in him
unshaken and unshakeable. Bulletproof.
And you know what that power is? Do you know what?
That power looks like he describes at verse 20 the
working of His strength of His might, which he brought about in
Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated.
Him at his right hand in the heavenly places.
You know, when we get to Easter in March and April, you know,
one of the things that we talk about that's important to see in
the Easter story is nobody expected resurrection.
Nobody thought that Jesus was going to come back from the
grave because death gets the last word, right?
Like when something dies, it's dead.
And so when Jesus died, that was the end of the story for them.
Now maybe they had some weird kind of hope of something else,
but it wasn't about resurrection, but that now.
Shows up, we read that Jesus is shut up.
Then you know what that means. That thing in your life that you
thought was dead, that dream, that hope, that opportunity,
rest, peace, deliverance, that thing that you've given up hope
for is just dead. It's not.
Dead till he says it's dead. Now it may not be coming back,
it may not be yours, it may be nothing but destructive for you,
and that's fine. But it's not dead until he says
it's dead. And what it says is he's
resurrected and now he's seated at the right hand of the Father.
That's a statement of authority. That's a statement of position.
That's a statement of of. Rule.
Every time you see on the news, fear and anger and threat, we
hold this picture up. Jesus, are you seated at the
right hand of God? Yes.
Then what am I worried about? Nothing comes against that.
And he goes on and he explains it.
Far above all rule and authority.
And power and dominion, and every name that is named.
Not only in this age, but also in the age to come.
I want to talk about that real quick because that's going to
come up later on in our series. That's the thing about this
series, by the way, right? A lot of times you preach A
sermon series and each week is just like, and there's the bow.
It's all right, Go and do different.
This isn't like. That this is building.
Right. Like we're building a case where
we're building an idea, and the idea here that we're building is
in whatever you think and whatever place you look, Jesus
is ruling and Jesus is reigning, and Jesus is king and he is the
one and he's on the throne. He is resurrected.
He is. Alive he's king no one else
nothing else just him right and So what it says is oh the age to
come right so in prophetic and. Hebrew prophetic literature.
They would talk about the day of the Lord and that was the day
when God was going to come back. And what they believed is on
that day, on the day of the Lord, everything would set be
set right. Every injustice would be
righted, every wrong would be made right, and God would rule
in his Kingdom forever. And they thought that meant a
throne in Jerusalem with someone from the line of David.
What we see in Jesus now is the day of the Lord came on
Resurrection Sunday. So the age to come is now, but
also the old way is now now and not yet.
God is King, Jesus is ruled and resurrected, and yet we still
see fallenness all around us. But we hope and we believe.
And we press in these ages to come.
And what? Paul says is now, but also in
the future also the one to come, and he put all things in
subjection under his feet, the right and the left, the
economics, the fear that the. Toxic relationships, he put all
of those. Things under his feet and he
made him head. Over all things to the church,
which is body, the fullness of him.
The picture he uses is Jesus as the head.
This idea of headship is going to come up later, so I just want
to touch on it briefly right here, right?
Clearly in this. Picture when Paul talks about
headship, he's talking about leadership guidance, right?
It's like my head to my body. My head tells my hand what to
do, right? Do the thing, right.
The church is his body acting in his will.
But what it talks about is the head, the picture that it gives
us this. Head filling the body who's the
body? All y'all right, here's the
picture if you go down to land a park and you go.
Right by. Is it called Panther Springs?
Yeah. Panther.
What? Panther Canyon?
Right by Panther Canyon. If you'll go down a little bit
down in the rocks, there is the headwaters of the Comal River.
And what that means is that head bubbles up and it fills the
Komal River. Is it a picture of authority?
Does the, does the headwaters of the Komal River, does it have
authority over the Komal River River?
Yeah, sure. Like in a manner of speaking, I
can decide how much is in and out.
But the role and the purpose and the function of that head is to
fill that river and to make it full.
And that's what he says Jesus is for the church.
So here's a big idea. Jesus exercises his heavenly
authority. Jesus is on the throne.
Jesus is ruling and he is reigning right now.
Even now He exercises his heavenly authority on earth, and
the church is the body that makes his presence felt in all
things. The way that Jesus reigns on
earth is through the church. You know how Jesus gets great?
Because his Kingdom is a Kingdom of grace.
That's what he's like, right? Do you know how he gets his
forgiveness into the world? He says, you go forgive.
Do you know how he gets generosity into the world?
You go give. But Lord, I don't have enough.
But I'm afraid he's like, yes, you do.
You exist in a world where I am the creator of all things, where
every good and precious gift comes down from me.
Go be generous. Go be faithful.
Go be unafraid, go be kind. But they were mean to me and I
got to fight and I got to get them back, No.
Lord, I I want him to have a rash.
Yeah, I get it. If every time somebody hurts our
feelings, we pray that they would have a rash, the whole
world would be itchy. And that's not the Kingdom that
Jesus came to reign over and rule over.
There's no rash in the Kingdom that he talks about, right?
So Paul is offering us a red pill, an apocalypse, a
revelation of things as they really are right now, to see
hope. To see.
Connection as fruitful in life giving.
To notice the power of resurrection, He.
Prays God, I pray that you would open their eyes so.
How do we now wake up? How do we now have this?
The first thing that we have to do is pray for an awakening.
What if you just decided that every day when you wake up,
you're not going to but you know, or like, like that,
whatever. You just said, Lord, open my
eyes to see what it looks like for you to be in control here.
What's that thing you worried about?
You worried about your kids? I worry about my kids, Right?
It's hard to be a kid these days.
I worry about them, sort of. Oh.
Lord, keep them safe. What if I'd said, Lord, let them
see that you are seated on the throne?
Let them see that nothing that comes against them can destroy
your plan for them. Let them see that even with
darkness seems to reign rule the day right like here's the deal.
My kids come home with me. They know all the they know all
the failures and weakness and like let them know that even
when the powerful things in their world seem to crumble that
you don't crumble. Paul Paul he prayed this verse
17. He prayed that the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory and they give you a spirit
of wisdom and a revelation. We see it in James 1.
He said pray for wisdom. The God who gives fault without
finding fault, He'll give you all, all the wisdom that you
asked for. In Matthew chapter 16, Peter
says, Jesus, you're the Christ, the Son of the living God.
And you know what Jesus said? Good deduction, Peter.
You were paying attention. Way to use your context clues.
No, what he says is my father. Showed you that.
What if our only prayer as a church is pull back the covers,
pull back the blinds, drop the scales.
Lord, I want, I want the red pill.
I want to see and I want to know what's real.
Not just what's real, but I want to know what's ultimate.
And I don't want to be afraid of things that aren't ultimate.
So pray for an awakening. Second and 2nd participate.
In the body. Here's a good thing, right?
What did he say? Paul didn't say.
I pray that you would have good information.
I pray that you would read a book, he said.
I pray that the eyes of your heart would be open, that you
would know, that you would have wisdom.
It's the whole body, it's a whole physical thing.
And now? Who's the body of Christ all?
Y'all so how do we see somebody in here has this prophetic
leaning right? So the point is, we're all
supposed to be what we do. We're all supposed to walk the
way that we're that we're supposed to walk.
And it's supposed to like you go to somebody's house and you've
got a terrible day, right? And you've had a bad thing and
you're afraid and you're nervous and you're anxious, but you go
to your people's house, people that you know pray for you
people who you know, believe and they're annoying and they're too
right. But it's the body of Christ and
it's acting and it's moving and you show up and you just say
I've got a terrible a terrible thing.
And you know what a person person who walks in that
prophetic and the. Prophetic people are weird.
I'm this is me. I do.
It's like it's a little. Weird.
We just say weird things like like God wants to use.
This And you're just like, why are you yelling at me?
And you know what happens then? The shepherds and the teachers
will sit. Next to you.
And hug you. And we'll be like Pastor Jason's
just a little amped up right now.
And they'll sit and they will look at you and they will
lovingly point you and just go. I want you to know this isn't
the end of your story. That's what Jason was trying to
tell you. This isn't the end of your
story. There's more.
And then the teacher in the group goes, yeah, because it
says. Here in the Scripture, look this
and this and this, and you see what happens.
You sit here in this room and you hear me say one thing, and I
don't know your story and I don't know where you've come
from, and I don't know what the Lord is telling you.
And I'm just one guy holding up the Scripture.
But you don't just need to hear me talk about what the Scripture
is. You need to have the body of
Christ heal you. If you were alive in the 1st
century in Palestine and you went up and you were anxious or
you were sore or you had a broken arm, you would hope that
his body would touch you and physically heal you.
His body is all y'all. But the problem is too many
times we're standing back and trying to be right.
Predestination man. He chose somebody didn't some
Who cares? There's people that are lost,
that are alone, that are hurting, that are afraid.
Go love them. And then someday we'll stand
before the. Lord and we'll go.
You were right and I was wrong, man.
He saw us before the Foundation and did all that stuff.
But we would rather just be the teachers with the teachers.
We would rather just be the province with the province.
And people look at him and just go, that's a weird group.
So what you're supposed to do and what I'm supposed to do,
once we see, once those the blinds have been lifted, go be
part of the body and bring what you've got and you know what
that's going to do. That's going to make you
obnoxious sometimes. That's what we're working on.
That's what that's what the point is.
And somebody may have to come to you and just say you.
Talk about yourself a lot. A lot, a lot, a lot.
Every time. A lot.
So what if? We listen.
Now, you don't want to hear that, but it's good for you,
isn't it? And it's good for the community,
isn't it? And it's good for everybody,
isn't it? See, that's what the body is.
It affects everybody. And So what I want you to do is
find people who will continue to hand you the red pill, who will
continue to remind you that this isn't it.
And finally, practice fearlessness.
I didn't say feel fearless. You're afraid.
It's a scary world. I said practice fearlessness.
What if this were true? Listen, He raised Jesus from the
dead. Far above all rule.
And authority. What rule and authority are you
afraid of? You worried about your boss, you
worry about your manager. You worry about the neighbor.
You were about the HOA. What we're told is that Jesus is
above that. Jesus wins.
Jesus is better far above every rule and authority and power and
dominion and every name that is named.
Names like economy, names like disease, names like addiction,
not only in this age but in the age to come.
And he put all of those things in subjection under his feet,
and made him head. That's a reality.
That we're invited to live into. So the question for you is when
you wake up tomorrow, shoot, when you leave here and you go
back home today, will you meditate on our King who is
risen above all things, or will you meditate on your anxiety?
You know what? Meditate.
Is I just like to chew the cud? Will you continue to go over and
over and over all the bad things that have happened and all the
bad things that could happen? Or will you sit and you will say
whatever's happening around here?
I believe that my King is risen and he reigns and I will walk in
that. We practice fearlessness by
reminding ourselves that he is king.
So the danger, it's dangerous to end the way that I just did
because my concern is that you'll go out and just try to do
a bunch of red pill stuff. And that's, that's not what Paul
prayed for. Paul prayed that the eyes of
your heart would be enlightened. This isn't a self help seminar.
I'm not giving you 3 easy steps to live in a post apoc note.
I'm inviting you to retrain how you understand Christ's presence
in your life. I'm asking you to retrain how
you see Jesus in the context of your everyday.
Paul knew. At no point did Paul think that
what he saw that his apocalypse was some kind of new reality.
Paul knew that's the eternal reality.
That's the one that is always existed.
It didn't. It didn't change reality.
It just enabled him to see it differently.
And when you see Jesus on the throne, loving and filling his
people and his church, you can't Unsee it.
And it changes everything. So Jesus, I pray that you would
give us an apocalypse. I pray that we would be a Church
of your glorious apocalyptic reality.
And Lord, we see your grace. We know that we have been taught
well and ingrained about power, and syncretism runs deep and we
see it. So I just pray, Father, that
with grace and compassion you would lead us out.
I or we want the red pill, even if it's uncomfortable and
disconcerting. I pray that you would show us
reality as it is. We thank you for your love and
your grace. We thank you for this letter
that reminds us to look for you high and lifted up, lofty and
exalted. And we ask that that would be
our reality. Jesus, we love you and we thank
you and we praise you, and we ask all of these things in your
name. Amen.
Thank you for joining us today. River City Church is all about
experiencing and expressing God's love in our lives and
community, and we hope that you've been able to experience
that today. As grateful as I am that you've
spent this time listening in this morning, this podcast is no
substitute for full participation in a local church.
I love it when River City people listen to other pastors, but it
is those who show up week after week faithfully giving their
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Thanks so much for listening. May the Lord bless and keep you
in all grace and peace.