What is creating your reality?  I am hoping that it is the truth of God, working through the Spirit of God, in accordance with the Word of God.  If that’s you then in the long run, you will be ok. 

 

Have you ever heard, “You are free to choose but you are not free from the consequences?”  Well what if all of your choices are good ones!?  Now you don’t have to be worried about getting freedom from consequences…now your consequence is freedom! 

 

In the things of the Lord, I have found, there are runners and there are wrestlers.  Those that seem to always be, (or for the most part be), just running and winning.  Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witness, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith!”  I know people like that, I want to be people like that…but sometimes I find myself wrestling, not running.  And man sometimes, being in ministry, I see folks that don’t run at all…but wrestle and that’s their life, their reality.

 

Genesis 32:24-26 says, “Jacob wrestled with Him until the breaking of day and he did not prevail against Him but said to Him, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”  That’s quite a different experience than what we read in Hebrews 12 and I have seen them both…I’ve been them both…and the thing is…they’re both alive…both with the Lord…but very different Christian experiences. 

 

Set aside the victim mentality of the proverbial “hand that you’ve been dealt” for a moment.  I need you to set that aside to receive a bit of truth this morning.  Truth sets free (John 8:32) but only if you can know it (John 8:32) so you have to be willing to receive. 

 

Paul, worst of circumstances, without freedom or clothing and even daily provision wrote in Philippians (Chapter 4 Verses 11–13), “I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  What’s this all about Paul?  I know troubles of life will come, Jesus promised that, but He also promised that we would overcome…what’s the deal?  Here’s what I’ve learned and seen played out in countless lives…it’s not rocket science!

 

Galatians 6:7-8.  In the past I have applied this almost entirely to the physical…but that’s not the case at all…Paul just finished talking about the fruit of the Spirit…and now he talks about sowing…but in the Spirit.  Here’s the gist…it’s a fundamental that many miss…in terms of maturity, strength, capacity, grit in the Spirit…to run and not grow weary, to grow up in the things of the Lord, you reap what you sow.  That’s just it…

 

If you want to be filled with the Spirit, pursue the things of God. (Hebrews 11:6) If you want to find strength of faith, apply His Word.  (Romans 10:17) If you want hope through a trial, abandon sight and trust the Lord…He will see you through (Psalm 55:22).  The list goes on and on…in the things of the Spirit, you will reap what you sow.  You will get out of it what you put into it…why is that so odd for us to receive?  One reason is that it’s not so with the things of the world.  You don’t always get out of something what you put into it…

You could be the best worker but have a bad boss.  You could make the best investments, but then the market turns bad.  You could be the best husband, but have a bad spouse. And so, there’s this thing in us that just says, “Well se la vie…what will be will be…hope it turns out well…” but that is not a good approach to your life in the Spirit.  Why?  Because with the Lord it is totally different…You will always reap what you sow when it comes to the things of the spirit.

 

I want to challenge you to become a worker, a farmer, a soldier, a disciple in the things of the spirit…learn to run…overcome this world…not because God is angry with you if you’re not or you don’t…you have unconditional acceptance, love and salvation if you’re a born again believer….but so that you don’t wrestle your way through your entire life but rather by the power of the Spirit of God, come trial, come challenge, come test, come success, you find yourself supernaturally and effectively running and not growing weary…

 

Exhortation transmitted.  Now the instructions……

 

Be being filled with the Holy Spirit!  With the world, you start from zero.  Work hard, go to school, put your time in on the job, on and on…and there may or may not come success…but in the things of the Lord, you have to know this, you always start ahead.  If you are sowing to the Spirit, striving and pressing forward with discipline in your walk with the Lord, then get this, the Spirit does and wills in the heart of man.  And that fruit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control…AND…capacity, wisdom, understanding, purpose, love, power and a sound mind!  How did you get all that?  Earned it?  NOPE!  But now that you have it…do something with it!!

Let the truth of God, working through the Spirit of God, in accordance with the word of God….be your reality!  Trusting the Lord over circumstance and emotion, that is faith…that is sowing to the Spirit and then the consequence will be freedom.  Let me show you something quickly in the text…

 

Look at Ephesians 5:8-11 and now skip down to verses 15-21.  What’s the key?  What’s the lynchpin?  It’s there in verse 18…, “Be filled with the Holy Spirit!”  Literally “be BEING filled with the Holy Spirit!!!”  How can I get off my addiction to anger, my addiction to hate, my sick addiction to fear…my addiction to wrestling with God….my addiction to failure man…Paul makes it clear…be continually filled with the Spirit of God.  Notice one clear manifestation…verse 19.  “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” 

 

And that verse is the bread crumb.  Telling you or telling me or telling anyone to be filled with the Holy Spirit…like I just did…well DUH!  That’s what I’m trying to be!  You haven’t helped me much!  It’s not very clear and simple yet…ah but verse 19…that’s the key.  Turn over to Colossians Chapter 3.  Pick it up with me at verse 12 and we’ll read to verse 17.

 

Paul says the exact same thing basically!  Ephesians 5:19, “Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.”  Colossians 3:16, “Admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”  But bombshell, in the letter to the Ephesians, “Be filled with the Holy Spirit…the Spirit of power, the Spirit of truth, the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of champion,” and yet in the letter to the Colossians, “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly!”

 

And so, the revelation!  There it is.  How do we do it man?  How do we enable the empowerment?  How do we get out of the way and let God accomplish His will in and through us!  How do we receive the be being filled with the Holy Spirit to the point of eruption and revolution?  The key, right here, revealed to us…the secret as it were, is the Word of Christ, the Word of God dwelling richly, plousios in the Greek…meaning showing up all the time!  Means rooted man, to the point that the branches wreak, the fruit wreaks of the wisdom of God…not the stupidity of the flesh!

 

Abraham how’d you do it?  How’d you come out of the funk of your fathers, the idolatry and the lack of prosperity and come into being a father to all nations, used mightily by God?  The Word of God.  Moses how’d you do it?  How’d you defeat the strongest nation on the earth and work miracles undeniable?  How’d you put up with all those complainers and haters for 40 long years to be used mightily by God?  The Word of God…following the Word of the Lord.  David how’d you do it?  How’d you go from a day dreaming sheep keeper to the greatest king of the greatest nation and the great grandfather to the King of kings?  He writes in Psalm 119, “Your word I have hidden in my heart…”  The Word of God!!

 

Gideon how’d you do it?  Nehemiah how’d you do it?  Joshua, Daniel, Jacob, Mordecai, Matthew!  How’d you get up from that life you hated of collecting taxes and taking advantage of your own people?  Where’d you get the courage, the strength, the intestinal fortitude to turn the coward switch off in your heart and get into something greater than yourself!?  God spoke, I listened…the Word of God.

 

The truth of God, working through the Spirit of God, in accordance with the Word of God.  That is my reality now…

 

It’s time for us to get used to peace, man.  It’s time for us to get used to power and wisdom and purity and prominence.  It’s time for us to get used to righteousness and holiness and eternal achievement, man…a life lived with purpose that honors Jesus’ sacrifice, that responds and reciprocates and validates the Father’s amazing grace!  And a life that spreads freedom.  Learn to run.  Oh that I would be surrounded by Men like this…Open every wound, every circumstance, every issue, every problem, every soulful sore or sour situation, open it all up and apply the Word of God.  Get the consequence of freedom! Get the future and hope!  Sow to the Spirit…reap everlasting life!!  You will be what you have invested.

 

Before we break, I just want to take you to grad school for a moment. Because what I just shared is about you and the Lord, but as men, to be used mightily by God, the Lord wants your life to be about more than just you. You are called to serve and to lead and many of you desire or will desire in the future to hold a place of authority in the economy of God, in the church.

 

1 Timothy 3:1-10. Let me translate into right-now practical statements that you may know what it is, what it takes, what must be present, for you to be in leadership. And this will also school you as to why those that are pastors and deacons and ministry leaders are in leadership. First of all you need to know this…God put them there AND I put them there. In this church, I see, perceive, am looking for and watching for these things and when I see them, I know that God has green-lighted the testing…that’s my part, verse 10…and once those tests have been passed, you’re ready for leadership. 

 

• Are you aware and do you care about the big picture? Not just the coming and going but all that is happening here. Do you pitch in when not asked? Do you see the things that need to be done and do them? Is there a heart to serve?
• Are you committed to the mission of the church? Do you build the brand of Jesus and the brand of C4?
• Are you consistent, present and do you make yourself accountable? If you’re not here, are you reporting in…even though no one has asked that of you? (Why would you do that? Because what you usually do now someone else has to do)
• Are you disciplined and does that continually show through your appropriate behavior and God honoring reactions?
• Have you and are you continually earning the respect of others?
• Are you a man that influences others around them towards Jesus? Do you make others better? Do you bring out the best in people?
• Are you a man that brings unity? Unites the people around you?
• Are you teaching others but at the same time continuing to learn yourself?
• Are you a problem solver or a problem creator? A lot of that has to do with simply attitude.
• Finally, do you love not just the people but the leadership? Can I trust you with my family? Only if you love me enough to respect my love for them…

 

Why share this with you? First, because no one ever does and that is wrong. To withhold information is to lord power and that is not what we do here. Second, imagine a church where all or the vast majority of the men were all of these things. I want to go to that church! All generals, all admirals…what kind of church would that produce?

 

That’s what I’m after because that is what God’s desire is…there is no method, not process, no training, no system…you must simply be a man of faith…just like the disciples whom today we still benefit from…thousands of years later. They had authority and power and obvious success and capability…here we are still shaping our lives by their Spirit-filled wisdom…where did the authority come from? From being with Jesus. That’s it…LEARN TO RUN!  How do we do that today? Be not only hearers…but doers. Learn to turn the self-serving cowardice switch off in your heart and character and be used mightily by God. Align your reality with God’s will.

 

The truth of God, working through the Spirit of God, in accordance with the Word of God.  That is my reality now…