Apocalypse Now: Part 3- Apocalypse Now

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

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

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

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

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.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

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?

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

1 Corinthians 13 · chapter mention

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

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

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.