Finding One's Identity

SERMON: 2016-10-23--ac16165--finding-one-s-identity-part-5 SOURCE DURATION: 00:57:02.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 0.95 APPROVED: false REASON: The entire provided transcript window represents a continuous sermon, including theological exposition, Scripture reading (Eph 2), prayer, and pastoral application/conclusion. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: none ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: none Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- We've been looking, as you know, in recent weeks at our identity in Christ and how the Holy Spirit's job is to help us experience that in our lives, and that's what we're coming back to once again this morning, and to set the stage for that we're going to read together from the book of Ephesians again, chapter 2, let's read the first 10 verses. The theme of the book of Ephesians, as I've said many times, is God's desire to unite all things in heaven and on earth in the person of Jesus, and he does that by the power of his cross through the work of the Holy Spirit. Ephesians chapter 2, beginning at verse 1, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you used to live, when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath, but because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. It is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves. It is the gift of God, not by work so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. And that's the verse that we're coming back to once again this morning. We are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do. This, as you know, is the word of the Lord. So before we get into that, let's pray together. Father, we're so grateful, so incredibly grateful that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And we're so grateful not only for the work of Jesus, but also for the work of your Holy Spirit who is our comforter, our periclete, the one who comes alongside and who helps us run the race. We pray this morning, Lord, that as we continue to look at how he brings us into our destiny, that you will give us ears to hear, hearts to comprehend, minds to comprehend, wills Lord that will bend to your will so that we may run the race. One day stand before you and hear those words, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over little. I will put you over much." Oh, Lord God, open our hearts, open our eyes, open our minds, fill us with your life and with your presence. We pray it together in Jesus' name, amen. So far, in our little mini-series of messages on finding our identity in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, we have looked effectively at three ways in which the Holy Spirit brings about in our experience what in Christ we are. For the sake of those who haven't been here for the messages that have gone on previously, allow me to just very quickly review it and describe it this way. The first thing that we've looked at together is that the Holy Spirit helps us understand our riches in Christ. The riches that we have in Christ, the Bible says in Ephesians chapter one, verse three, are spiritual blessings. And the problem with spiritual blessings is that the natural eye cannot see the spiritual realm. And so what we need is God's Holy Spirit to give us spiritual insight so that we can understand all that God has given us in the person of Jesus. You've often heard me quote these two verses from 1 Corinthians chapter two. They are so incredibly profound, I think. Paul says, quoting from the Old Testament, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him." Get the impact of that. You can't even get your head around it, says scripture. But then he goes on to say, "But God has revealed it to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches everything, even the deep things of God." Verse 12, he expands on it even more. "We have not received the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us." And so if you're here this morning, and the Bible is a closed book to you, and church bores you out of your socks, and your heart and mind are constantly involved simply in the here and now, and you can't understand why people want to pray, why people want to worship, then I suggest to you, you need to examine two things. Number one, are you in Christ? Because only in Christ are your eyes opened. And number two, why not ask for a new in-feeling of the Holy Spirit? Because only the Holy Spirit can help us to understand the incredible riches that God has given us in Christ. We can ask for it. It is a free gift that God will give to His children. It will change your life. Second thing that we've looked at together in the past is that the Holy Spirit helps us to experience our riches in Christ. Remember in Christ we're a new creation. In Christ God is our Father. In Christ our sins have been forgiven. In Christ I have been redeemed. None of that means very much as long as it remains intellectual. It needs to sink into our hearts. We need to experience God, and that is the job of the Holy Spirit who under the terms of the New Covenant comes to live within our hearts. Jesus says to His disciples in John chapter 16, "We will come and we will make our home with you." And when we make our home with you, He manifests Himself to us. Romans 5.5, "God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who He has given us." And so again, if you find yourself in a situation where God seems distant, a situation where your heart is cold, where you wonder, "Does He love me? Does He care for me? Does He have a plan and a purpose for me?" Just again, "Lord, fill me with your Spirit. Let me know what in Christ I really am." Those are prayers that Paul prays all the time and prayers that you and I need to be praying as well. And then we have seen together that the Holy Spirit helps us live out what in Christ we already are. As I said a moment ago, in Christ we're a new creation. In Christ, before the face of God, we are perfectly righteous. We are holy. We are without blemish. We're as good as we're ever going to be. But in the reality of our experience, there's still a lot of the old us. We don't always love God above all, do we? Don't always love our deeper as ourselves. We don't always walk uprightly and righteously. For a lot of us, it's a back and forth business. Yes, part of me loves God. Part of me wants what I want. Part of me loves my spouse and my kids and even my enemies maybe, but there's another part of me that has entirely different feelings. And so what the Holy Spirit does is He helps me to put off the old and He helps me to put on the new. Paul puts it this way, Ephesians 4, 22, 23, and 24. He says to you and me, and these are words addressed to believers, put off your old nature, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, put on the new nature created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. The Holy Spirit convicts us of those places where we are wrong. The Holy Spirit changes us from the inside out so that we don't just obey God externally, not just the letter of the law, but what it means to love God from within, and what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves. And we've said this many times, but it's a lifelong process. Nobody arrives at complete perfection, but there ought to be evidence in your life and in my life of an increased awareness of sin, an increased hatred of sin, and an increased desire to live righteously before God. That's the job of the Holy Spirit. And that brings us, then, this morning to a fourth thing that the Holy Spirit does in making real in our lives our inheritance in Christ, and that is He calls us forth. He calls us forth into our destiny. And again to the words of our text, we've quoted this many times in this place, but it is so profound. We are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. And when we've looked at that verse previously, we have seen together that in Christ, God has a place for us in the universe for which we have been uniquely called, uniquely prepared, and uniquely gifted. And when the Holy Spirit comes along, what the Holy Spirit does is He begins to draw us into that place that God has destined us for from before the foundation of the world, for His workmanship, for His craftsmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. How does the Holy Spirit draw us into that place in life? For our purposes this morning, I believe He does that in two ways. Number one, He does that by equipping us with spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts, as I'm sure you know, are spiritual enableings given to the Holy Spirit, to the Christian believer, to equip us to do the work of Jesus, the good works that God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. They're often a combination of our own natural giftings and desires and passions, but they're more than that. They are a Holy Spirit empowerment that not only enables us to understand what it is that God is after in the world and after in our lives, but that enables us to participate in the mission of Jesus, which is to help people come into a living relationship with the living God and in turn finding their place in the universe. Spiritual gifts are talked about in many different places in the scriptures. One place is 1 Corinthians chapter 12, listen to these verses as Paul talks about what is often called the "manifestational gifts" of the Holy Spirit. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. All these are the work of one and the same Spirit and he gives them to each one just as he determines. Leave that verse up for just a moment. Spiritual gifts are a spiritual enabling to help us understand the things of God not only, to experience them in our lives not only, but to help us do the work of God in the world. If you look at this last verse I want you to notice just very quickly three things about that verse and the first is that there is a variety of spiritual gifts. Now to each one, to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. In fact in the verses that immediately precede the verses that we have read Paul addresses that very clearly when he says in verse 4, 5, and 6 of 1 Corinthians 12 and this won't be on the screen, there are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men. So there are different manifestations of the Spirit. How you experience the Holy Spirit in your life is going to be unique to your situation because there are varieties of gifts. Second thing I want you to notice then in that verse is that he gives them to each one that is to say nobody goes without gifting. Now the chances are you and I, we sit here and we say well I can see so and so, or she's gifted by the Holy Spirit, but me, I'm just me so leave me alone. If you're in Christ you share in his anointing. Spiritual gifts are a sharing in the anointing of Jesus. And whatever that looks like in your life you have been assigned a spiritual gift and you have been assigned a spiritual gift by God himself just as he determines. A lot of us would like to put our list in with God as to what it is that we think we would like to do in the kingdom. Interestingly enough in the kingdom you don't just volunteer. In the kingdom God knows you from before the foundation of the world, hear me well. He knew you before you were born. He knitted you together in your mother's womb. He knew what kind of personality you would have. He knew what kind of genetic structure you would have. He knew what it was that he wanted you to do in the world, prepared you for that naturally through the parents you've had and the circumstances that you grew up with even in a fallen world. And then when you've come to Christ he baptizes you with the power of the Holy Spirit and he decides what spiritual gift you're going to have. He decides how he wants to use you and what part of the body you are whether a thumb or a hand or a foot or an eye or a mouth. Our job is to submit to that. Our job is to accept what it is that he has for us whether personally we like it or we don't like it. I know all kinds of people who have been called into significant places of spiritual leadership who find the journey very difficult. The grass is always greener on the other side. Have you ever noticed that? We need to recognize that God knows best where his workmanship and our job is to bend the knee and say not my will but your will be done. You'll never bloom until you own whatever it is that God has for you. Well somebody says, how do I know what my spiritual gifts are? And that can be a difficult thing to figure out and it can become very paralyzing for people if they become too self analytical and I say if you don't know what your gifts are don't worry about it just do what lies at hand and when you do what lies at hand you're going to discover three things that happen. Number one you find there is a place where you have passion and so ask yourself the question where does my passion lie? What turns my crank? What do I get excited about? What do I dream about? You see when God first created us he created us in his image and his likeness. God is a God of creativity. He gave us the mandate to subdue the earth and to develop the kingdom of God and so having been created in the image and likeness of God there is something inside a normal human being that dreams to build, that dreams to conquer, that dreams to overcome, that dreams to be somebody isn't that true? Now in a fallen world, hear me well, that gets twisted and it becomes not about serving God and it becomes not about serving other people, no it becomes about I want to be somebody, I want to be famous, I want to be ahead of the game but then you come to Christ and the Holy Spirit begins to redeem all of that. He doesn't make you a passionless person who is just sitting around waiting for God to do something, no he brings to life the God given passion that he placed in you that is necessary for you to move into the purposes of God to accomplish his purposes and when the Holy Spirit comes upon you he doesn't just replace all of those dreams and all of those hopes with something super spiritual, no he brings you to life so that you can dream the dreams that are necessary to accomplish the purposes that God has for you in your generation, am I making sense? Now listen carefully to how Peter puts it in his Pentecost sermon in Acts chapter two quoting from the prophet Joel, you know these verses well, in the last days God says I will pour out my spirit on all people, your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams, even on my servants both men and women I will pour out my spirit in those days and they will prophesy, we'll deal later with the whole subject of prophecy and what that means biblically but these two verses or three we know them well, two verses, we know them well but we easily miss the obvious, let's put them back up for a moment, in the last days God says I will pour out my spirit on all people, the word there is all flesh, remember in the Old Testament who got the Holy Spirit, prophets, priests and kings, only the leaders so that they could lead God's people into God's purposes, under the new covenant who gets the Holy Spirit, all flesh and then just to make sure that we understand that all means all, he goes on to spell out that this applies across the generations, across the genders and across social status, I will pour out my spirit on all people who will prophesy, your sons and your daughters, who will see visions and dream dreams, both your young men and your old men and who in addition will prophesy even my servants, Joel has handmaiden and servants, people of lower economic status, I will pour out my spirit in those days and so what Peter is saying quoting Joel is that when God pours out his Holy Spirit he comes on every individual who is joined to Jesus and out of that there will arise life in me, so ask yourself the question, what turns my crank, what makes me excited, what is there in the kingdom of God that I feel I can throw myself into, sometimes we become so spiritual that we think doing things we like to do in the kingdom have got to be sinful, well sometimes they are but not always, God calls us forth with passion and if you don't know what those passions are or where to begin, if you don't already have a copy of my book when dreams come true the story of Joseph we have some additional copies at the resource desk that you can pick up because this is where it starts, where does my passion lie and don't you older folks tell me that because you have lived your life now it belongs to just the younger generation because even old men and old women will dream dreams, you are not done until you are done, so you do what God calls you to do across the generations, what God wants to do is he wants to stir by his Holy Spirit what he puts in our hearts, I don't want to beat that horse to death but I want you to get it and I want you to embrace what lives inside and don't let the devil kill it and we will talk about that later on, so one question to ask is where do my passions lie, the next question to ask is where do I experience God's favor, I have discovered over the years one reason a lot of people have a difficult time identifying their gifting is because they think that everybody else can do what they are doing because you see when you are operating in your gifting things come naturally, you have creativity, you know what to do and you know how to step into it and so if God calls you to be good in business you think everybody can do what I am doing, it is a cinch and if God calls you to speak words of comfort or words of counsel or help the poor or whatever it is that you are engaged in you say to yourself well nothing special about that if I can do it you can do it, well it is not that simple, the reason you can do it is because you have been uniquely gifted in that way, the Holy Spirit is anointing you and because the Holy Spirit is anointing you there is something on the inside that your passion stirs and with the stirring of your passion comes the favor of God and you make decisions and you do things and it happens because God is in it, does that make sense, so where is the blessing, what is it that you do in life that not only makes you feel alive but that you know makes you fly on the wings of the Holy Spirit, one way in which you can tell that by the way is that when you are operating in your calling and in your gifting instead of it simply draining your energy it gives energy I spent a lot of my time with people who have had very broken and very difficult lives and I hear stories and I experience emotions that most people would not want to touch with a ten foot pole but I come away from those encounters and I know that I have been in the presence of God because when you operate in the places where God has called you to operate there is a life that comes with it doesn't mean you are not tired, doesn't mean that sometimes you don't ever want to see another person in your life but the reality is God's blessing flows and things happen, so still a third question to ask then is this, what do other people affirm in me? I think you will agree with me when I say this morning that very often it's easier to see in somebody else's life what they are good at than it is even in your own life and again one of the reasons for that is that because when people are moving in their gifting you know the reality of what is happening there and so it's very helpful in the context of community for us to be able to identify those kinds of places in each other's lives and to know that that is where God is moving. I previously told you the story, Jake Redyke who is brother to Peter, I knew him years ago long before I ever knew Peter in my college days was part of our group at one point or another and after an exchange in a Bible study group he turned to me and he said has it ever occurred to you that maybe the Lord has given you the gift of teaching and I had to honestly admit that I had never thought about it and for those of you who wonder can God ever make anything of me I hasten to remind you that the first Bible study they ever taught was an absolute disaster and if you had asked me then does this have a future I would have said no but you see he saw something that I did not yet see and identifying that is really important. Here's how Paul put it in the context of young Timothy his son in the Lord he said do not neglect your gift which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you. We need affirmation from others to know where God is at work and how God is calling us. So the first thing the Holy Spirit does is he equips us with spiritual gifts and we can identify those gifts by our passions by what God blesses and by what other people affirm in our lives. But there's a second step to it that I want to talk about with you and that is that he invites us he calls us to step out into our gifting. You can have all the gifts in the world but if you sit on them they're not going to go anywhere. Valerie talked about that last week you may recall with reference to the leaves that you were invited to hang on the tree and I have to tell you that I think the sermon that she preached to you last week was one of the best sermons I have ever heard her preach. It was powerfully anointed and part of the point of her message you will recall is that you can hang all the leaves on the tree that you want and you can say yes this is where I experienced God but the experience of God calls us to action and if God pours out his Holy Spirit in your life and he gives you a spiritual gift then he wants you to put that gift into action. Listen to how Paul puts it in Romans chapter 12 another one of those places in the New Testament where he talks about spiritual gifts this time these are generally called motivational gifts here's what he says we have different gifts there you have that emphasis again according to the grace given us if a man's gift is prophesying let him use it in proportion to his faith if it is in serving let him serve if it is teaching let him teach if it is encouraging let him encourage if it is in contributing to the needs of others let him give generously goes on in the passage if it's the gift of leadership then serve diligently and if it's with you know it's just that whole but the emphasis here is this let him do it now interestingly those words are not in the original Greek but they are clearly the intent of what he is talking about and that is having received spiritual gifts from the Lord we have an obligation to exercise them and to grow it or to grow them and typically that's where our problem lies particularly if we feel bypassed particularly if we feel that we have been shortchanged or if life has been difficult and we have experienced failure and the story that always comes to my mind on that particular topic is of course the parable of the talents in Matthew chapter 25 you know the story well I'm sure Jesus relates how this man is going on a journey a long journey of course that's a reference to his own return to heaven and as he prepares to leave on the journey he invites three of his servants in and he gives each of them a sum of money to manage on his behalf in his absence according to their ability so one guy gets five talents another guy gets two talents and the third guy gets one talent remember to be given more than what you can handle is just as bad as not receiving enough that you can handle so their responsibility is to invest it on his behalf years later he comes back what does he discover the man with five talents has invested them multiplied them by doubled them and presents them back to the master the guy with two talents he's done the same and he receives the master's commendation but what about the guy with the one talent well you know the story he buried his talent dug it up and gave it back to the master do you remember his line of reasoning why did he bury his talent because he said master I knew that you were a hard man harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed so I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground see here it is here is what belongs to you to remember the master's response you wicked lazy servant you knew that I harvest where I have not sown gather where I have not scattered seed well then you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest and he goes on to say take the talent from him and throw him into the outer darkness why is Jesus or the master in that story so upset I'll tell you why because the guy was more concerned about his own comfort than he was concerned about the master's investment and every time you and I worry more about looking good or feeling good or living comfortably than being obedient to God in acting out with what he has given us we short change the master and I've often said this but I will say it again it is better to try and fail in the kingdom of God than not try at all because you don't want to look stupid or feel foolish now put that to work in your own life put that to work in situations where you feel like you need to speak something to your neighbor but you don't say it because you don't want to look stupid or you don't want to step on somebody's toes think about that in situations where God has given you gifts or talents to invest and and it's too big of a risk and so you play it too safe but I'm not suggesting we be foolish and unwise the point is whose interests are we concerned about are we concerned about God's glory God's purposes God's heart being satisfied or is it all about my desires my passions my needs my desire to look good see it's not enough to have spiritual gifts or spiritual gifts to get cultivated we have to step out into those gifts and watch them flourish now very quickly before we draw this to a conclusion I want to give you three conditions that need to be satisfied in order for this to really work condition number one we need to have a supportive environment and by a supportive environment I mean we need a place where we are valued as individuals regardless of what we accomplish where I can be me where I'm allowed to be my own person use my gifts make mistakes and be forgiven and have successes which can be recognized and applauded I find it fascinating when you look at the ministry of Jesus in the Gospels he's got a big job which is to bring all of creation back to God the Father like that's a pretty major undertaking and a good portion of his ministry he spends ministering to the crowds teaching them the biblical values of the kingdom that's also really important but what strikes you the most when you read the gospel stories is the time Jesus finds for individual people have you ever noticed that the man born blind the woman with the issue of blood the person who is demonized and Jesus finds them or they find Jesus and he takes the time to look into their eyes and to call them forth into everything that God has for them do you realize how significant that is because in a fallen world people are only cogs in a big system and you feel used and abused and spit out when you're no longer functioning in the kingdom of God you matter your dreams matter your gifts matter your purposes matter and part of developing biblical community is to create a community where we weep with those who weep not only but we celebrate and we laugh with those who laugh and in a family as well as in a church and in society if you want people to prosper they need to have that balance between between correction and support and affirmation so that they can function in the places where God is calling them to step out into our gifts we need a supportive environment more than that we need mentoring we need somebody who can come alongside us and who can help us in the places where we run stuck why do so many people start out on this journey of discipleship with Jesus and they fall by the wayside as time goes on I'll tell you why because they reach the ceiling now when I talk about ceiling recognize we all have a God-given ceiling beyond which we cannot go there's a five talent there's a two talent there's a one talent God decides what the ceiling should be the problem with a lot of us is we fall far short of where that God-given ceiling is because we run into obstacles that knock us off our socks so we start a new job and proves to be too difficult so I get fired or I quit I start a new ministry or develop a new relationship and it goes really well for a little while and then all of a sudden I can't figure out what to do so I'm bailing it and the world is full of people who are casualties of life who don't come into the fullness of their calling or the fullness of their gifting because they haven't been able to push through the obstacles that come their way part of the key to that is we need somebody who knows us who loves us who has insights and skills to walk alongside us so that we can push through those barriers Jesus put it this way speaking to his disciples concerning the Holy Spirit in John 16 verse 7 I tell you the truth it's for your good that I'm going away unless I go away the counselor will not come to you but if I go I will send him to you the counselor there is the Holy Spirit the Greek word as you've heard me say before is paraclete and paraclete literally means somebody who comes alongside and the image here is of somebody who is running the race and he is tired can't go on any further and the paraclete comes alongside and says come on together we can do it and we can finish this marathon race together you and I can serve that function in other people's lives just read a story by Dr. Henry Cloud talking about a brother-in-law of his who was in the US special forces before he got killed in the battle in Afghanistan or in Iraq and he talked about the incredible training that they had to go through that brought them to the end of their physical and their emotional endurance and he tells the story of one man who was in one of these water competitions and if he didn't make it to the shore he would be disqualified from the program and he was just about there but there wasn't an ounce of strength left in him and he was about to go under and to give up and then as I caught a buddy of his standing on the shore a guy who had already made it and the guy saw that he was struggling and so what he did was he raised his fist to cheer him on and to encourage him that he could do it and against all logic the guy in the water was able to find that extra ounce of momentum that enabled him to complete the run and to qualify for the Navy Seal position how many times in your life how many times in my life hasn't there been somebody who saw where we were at when we were ready to bail out spoke words of encouragement spokes words of comfort provided a solution to a problem that we faced the problem disappeared and we got stronger and better the church to be a place where we can be that for each other regardless of where we find ourselves one more thing and then I'm done the third for us to be able to step out into our gifting and to flourish in our gifting we need protection if ever now listen to me well because this is dead serious if ever you have tried to live in a place where you have not lived before and by that I mean if you have ever stepped out into a place of calling whether that be starting a new job taking on a new task learning to get up front and speak or even in a small group sharing your heart when you have always hidden everything on the inside because it was never safe to be you then you will not have gone very far stepping out into new territory until you discovered all hell breaking loose it is so predictable I can write you chapter and verse and the closer this is rooted in who you really are the closer this is rooted in God's call on your life the worse it will be and I can give you three reasons why that is the flesh the world and the devil will expand on that in more detail some other time but your own flesh will cause you to sabotage yourself when fear overtakes you and everything inside you says I cannot live here who in the world did I think I was that I could live here when all of my life my life's experiences told me you are nothing you are nobody who do you think you are that you are a son of God gifted by the Holy Spirit able to do something significant for the cause of God or Christ your flesh I know so many people who shoot themselves in the foot long before anybody else can because the prospect of failure the prospect of pain is too great and so they give up and there is the world even if you push past your own fears and insecurities and you begin to flourish into things that God calls you to do you know what you are going to discover not everybody is going to cheer you on some people who love you will cheer you on some people who see your potential in Christ will cheer you on but for everybody around you that will cheer you on there will be somebody else who says who in the world do you think you are and you are never going to succeed because their own issues do you know what I am talking about their own issues will kick in and one of the greatest reasons people don't accomplish the things that God calls them to accomplish is because they don't want to stand out from the crowd they don't want to alienate their friends they don't want to alienate and they love the applause of men more than they love the applause of God but there is a third reason and Lord willing we will come back to that perhaps in more detail next week and that is the fact that we have an enemy and that enemy in the words of Peter in 1 Peter chapter 5 prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour resist him standing firm in faith there is one thing that I have learned about the devil over the years is that he hates people made alive in Christ because they are a threat to his kingdom and when you make up your mind that God has got you all that you are all in and you want to use what he has given you so that you can accomplish his purposes and in your generation and in your time you will discover the devil is real and he will do everything that he can in a thousand different ways to discourage you and if you are going to succeed and to end up standing at the end of the day you need to learn how to fight him and I find it fascinating that the book of Ephesians which talks about God's grand purpose in Christ to unite all things in him that tells us how we are privileged to have been chosen by God from before the foundation of the world how God has destined us to be his sons and his daughters to reign in his kingdom and how God has redeemed us in Christ so that we have access to all of God's grace how does the book of Ephesians end ends with a chapter on spiritual warfare and it tells us be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might so that having done all you can remain standing so what do we need if we are going to succeed in stepping out with the spiritual gifts that God has given us people around us that can encourage us people around us that can mentor us and we need people around us in the spirit of Jesus to protect us from the wiles of the enemy so that with the apostle Paul when we come to the end of our journey we can say I have run the race I have fought the fight there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness that God has reserved for those who love him because why do we do all of this because we are destined to rule the universe with Christ and while we can begin to comprehend what that all entails he that's faithful over little is going to be placed over much and if we will but give him our heart and give each other our hearts the work that he's begun in us we will bring to completion and I still believe the world hasn't seen what happens when the church is fully alive with the spirit of Jesus being about the business of the kingdom and watching God be glorified [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:56:57.780; remove through 00:57:02.000] among his people. Amen. Amen. [CUT] [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:57:02.000; resume after this marked segment]