Battle Ready: "Boldness Through Pain": Ephesians 3:12-13 Pastor Daniel Reese

If you have your Bibles, we'll be in Ephesians chapter three.

I missed you all last week.

Thank you for your prayers, for allowing us to go back to Texas for a few days for a

funeral and grateful for our staff.

James who kind of filled in while I was gone and kind of dropped that on them last minute

and Drew had a great message and James I'm sure did a great job as well.

I hope to not go back there for a while, especially for another funeral.

All right.

If you have your Bibles Ephesians three.

We're going to do two verses today as opposed to the one that we initially had planned.

But we'll start here in verse 12 here in just a minute.

When I was in college, I was part of a ministry called BSM that was on campus.

And one year they asked me to be a part of a service project they wanted to do.

And so they asked me to take the lead on that.

And once I did, I wanted to make sure that I, as I started to outline a plan, I realized

that I wanted the school to be involved in order to help us.

So I tried to schedule a meeting with the Dean.

Now I understand that people are busy, but I kept getting put off.

I kept getting rescheduled.

In my opinion, it shouldn't be that hard to get 20 minutes of somebody's time.

But nonetheless, weeks went by and I kept getting rescheduled over and over.

So I had to take matters into my own hands.

It was homecoming week and our university had just purchased a whole bunch of flags

to hang around campus, similar to what North Scott does on game days.

Now I don't want to condone or encourage my next steps, but understand that I felt like

this was my only option.

So me and a friend of mine waited until it was dark.

And we drove around campus and stole well over 50 flags that were hanging around campus.

It was quite a feat because they were not just, you know, we had to pull up a pickup

and put a ladder in the pickup to be able to get up that high.

Anyway, a couple of days later when we realized that no one knew where the flags went, I sent

an email to the Dean telling her that I had information regarding the flags.

Guess what?

I got a meeting with her that day and then I proceeded to ask her for help for our service

project.

Now, of course, she wasn't happy about this, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

All right, don't forget that.

If you were to go to Hardin Simmons now during homecoming week, you would see the flags that

were in my possession for a short time, but you will also see that they now have locks

on them where you cannot get them off.

It's one of those lasting impressions I had.

Anyway, I think at times when we think about God, we don't understand that we don't have

to make an appointment with Him.

We don't have to wait until we mess up before we approach Him.

Ephesians 312 reads, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith

in Him.

I want you to think of that boldness as a little kid walking into your bathroom unannounced.

That is a boldness.

They will walk in there with boldness and confidence, don't they?

They don't need to knock.

They don't care what you're doing.

It doesn't matter how many times you fall to the ground and the hide while you're changing.

They're walking into that room with some authority, but as they get older, they learn to knock,

don't they?

They learn that it's not appropriate to stick their fingers underneath the door.

They know when not to bother you, and so that boldness kind of goes away.

Now they knock or they just flat out don't bother you.

As my kids have gotten older, we have to go out and find them because they've locked themselves

in their room.

As we get older and as we begin to understand the Lord more, we should be more bold and

more confident as we approach God.

We don't need to knock.

There isn't certain times that He doesn't want to be bothered.

I have known people who will hide from God in a sense until He gives them a sign, until

He comes and knocks on their door.

That isn't how it should work because of Jesus, you just knock the door down.

And our passage here in Ephesians, that word translated boldness, is a word that indicates

a formal introduction, a formal introduction into the presence of a king in much the same

way that not just anyone can approach the President of the United States.

In the ancient world, no one could enter into the presence of the king unless they had been

summoned and were brought into the presence of the king by one of his court officials.

Perhaps you remember the story of Esther in the Old Testament.

After she had learned of Haman's plot to kill the Jews, she couldn't just go into the king,

into his presence and tell him the plan, even though she was the queen.

She either had to wait until she was summoned by the king or hope that if she chose to enter

without being summoned, that the king would hold out his golden scepter.

Because if he didn't hold out his golden scepter, she would be killed.

Now, fortunately, because of God's providence, the king did hold out his golden scepter when

Esther took the risk of entering into his presence without being summoned.

For those of us who are God's children, Jesus serves as our introducer who escorts us into

the presence of the king.

And he's the only one who has authority to do that.

And just to make sure that we don't miss this principle, Paul ends verse 12 with one more

reference to the fact that Jesus is the one who has gained access on our behalf.

We have boldness, not because we're awesome, but because Jesus has made the introduction.

And our faith in Jesus is all that we need.

The golden scepter is constantly held out for us because Jesus made the introduction

when you put your faith in him.

Paul mentions where our confidence should come from in his letter to the church in Corinth.

He says, such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything is coming from us, but our

sufficiency is from God.

When was the last time that you busted down the door to get to the Lord?

Confidence changes the situation, doesn't it?

If you act like you know what you're doing, no one seems to stop you if you're confident

enough.

Am I right?

Back in college, I took a trip with some friends of mine to California, one of my friends,

his family had a beach house in Malibu, and so we went to go spend a week there.

While we were there, somehow we were able to acquire some tickets to American Idol.

Now I don't remember what number of season it was, but it was the one where Fantasia

was the winner, whatever season that was.

The reason I remember was because after the filming of the show, they have everyone escorted

out by row.

Where we were seated in the auditorium allowed us the opportunity, gave me an opportunity

that I wasn't going to let slide by.

So a couple of us stayed behind and we went the opposite direction of where everyone else

does.

I just told my friends, I was like, just act like you're doing, nobody's going to stop

us.

Just, just, anyway.

So we made our way to the front of the stage, we made our way onto the stage, and then we

found cables just like we have here, and we just started rolling those things up.

Just started rolling them up, and once we had some cables and they were all done, we

actually started looking around to see somebody who actually worked there, who actually knew

what they were doing, and we went up to them and be like, okay, where do these go?

And he said, well, just go in the back, behind the stage, there's a container there, just

put them in there.

So now we're backstage.

So we go put the cables there, and we grab some other equipment, and then we go down

the hallway.

And we're just carrying stuff that has no idea of what we're doing.

Long story short, we meet Fantasia, we meet Ryan Seacrest, who happens to be talking to

Randy Jackson.

Now there's some pictures out there somewhere of this little endeavor, but this was before

smart phones.

And so they're printed somewhere, I'm not exactly sure where, but walking in confidence

gave us an experience that nobody else in that auditorium got.

Walking in confidence gave us an experience that nobody else got.

When it comes to the creator of the universe, Jesus gives us that confidence.

We can boldly approach His throne.

Hebrews chapter four tells us to boldly approach the throne of grace with confidence.

When you do, when you approach it with confidence, you get to experience what a lot of people

don't.

He is approachable.

He is gentle.

He is always accepting, because when He sees you, He sees His Son.

Be bold and confident in your relationship with the Lord.

Next, once you are in God's presence, be yourself.

Once you are in His presence, be yourself.

When God first created Adam and Eve, they had access into the presence of God.

And even though we don't get a lot of details from the accounts and Genesis, there is every

indication that they felt free to be themselves in the presence of God.

For instance, the Bible records that they were both naked and felt no shame.

But when they sinned, everything changed because of their guilt.

Adam and Eve ran.

They hid from God.

And from that moment forward, man's relationship with God was forever changed.

Before Jesus, no one had continuous access to God.

From time to time, God would choose to appear to leaders like Moses or the prophets.

That God decided when and where and how to do that.

But even though no one had unrestricted access to God, God wanted to manifest Himself and

manifest His presence amongst the people.

He chose to do that in the tabernacle.

Later on, He chose to do that in the temple.

But the reality is that isn't the case anymore.

The word translated here in Ephesians chapter 3 is a word that originally conveyed the idea

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

of freedom of speech.

What I think Paul means here is that we can approach God with confidence and we can also

have the freedom to speak openly with Him.

Occasionally, I am found in a situation where I don't feel the freedom to be myself.

Have you ever seen the videos or maybe you've done it where the people are greeted by the

Queen of England or I guess now the King of England?

They have to bow or curtsy.

There's all these rules that they have to follow in order to not be offensive to the

King or Queen.

Now if you see the same people later on that day who just bowed and curtsy to the Queen,

I guarantee you that they are not bowing to their friends when they greet one another.

I doubt the wife will curtsy when her husband gets home from work.

At least my wife doesn't.

We have to put on a different persona when we meet certain people.

My sweet wife is constantly, not constantly, frequently, giving me the look and telling

me, you can't say that.

People might hear you.

Daniel, you need to stop talking.

Like she's pretty frequently.

The other day we're sitting at a baseball game, which is what we do now all the time.

And there was a five or six year old little boy that would not sit down and kept getting

in my line of sight as I'm trying to watch the game.

Now I fully understand how difficult it is for a five or six year old little boy to sit

still for a long period of time.

I understand because I have one and I get it.

So I wasn't mad at anything.

I wasn't frustrated.

I was just simply stating the fact that I could not see because this kid kept getting

up and down and moving all around.

It's like just go stand somewhere else.

That's what I'm saying.

Sina kept telling me to stop mentioning it because his parents might get offended because

they might hear you.

Now I wasn't saying anything offensive, but Sina knows that in our culture it is possible

that they could get mad and take offense that I couldn't see.

And so just one of those times I just had to keep my mouth shut.

With God, with God I can be myself.

I don't have to hide my feelings.

I don't have to watch what I say in regards to offending Him.

When I'm angry at Him, I let Him know that.

When I'm sad or joyful or frustrated, I don't hold any punches.

When I'm at a funeral for a 35 year old and I see her five year old daughter sobbing in

her daddy's arms and I have all these kinds of questions to God is why would you allow

this to happen?

He already knows them.

He already knows my thoughts.

So I just give them to Him because I know that He can handle it.

Be yourselves before God.

You don't have to clean yourself up.

You don't have to put on a fancy dress or suits.

Just be yourself in your stained sweatpants and your team building exercise 1999 t-shirt.

There's so much freedom in that.

So much peace.

Be yourself.

Now maybe other people can't handle it.

Maybe other people can't handle who you are.

But God can.

Be yourself.

Finally we learn from verse 13 that God will use your suffering.

He will use your suffering.

The word translated sufferings indicates something that is under extreme pressure.

So Paul is not describing some minor problems here.

He is writing about the kinds of troubles that press against us, that weigh on us.

This morning many of you potentially may be experiencing that kind of suffering in your

life right now.

For some of you it may be some physical affliction where you're in constant pain.

You're not able to do the things you once did.

For some of you it might be the crushing emotional stress of a broken relationship or the unending

pressure of a stressful job.

I know that I can't even begin to describe this morning all the different types of crushing

suffering that you might be going through right now.

But suffering reveals what's inside of us.

When you put metal under immense heat where it melts all the impurities come to the surface.

They're easily scraped off.

When you are under intense pressure what comes out a lot of times is what needs to be removed

from your life.

Every time I think I've grown in patience where I feel like I'm nailing patience I am

reminded that I still have a long way to go once I'm put in a stressful situation.

That still comes up in me at times and the Lord has to deal with it.

So take your suffering or take your times of extreme pressure to realize that God is

trying to remove some of the impurities in your life.

He's trying to sanctify you.

Take that as an opportunity to confess, to get help from somebody, to draw near to his

throne so that you can find healing.

Paul saw his suffering as a way that God works.

He says in Philippians chapter 1, starting in verse 12, he says, I want you to know brothers

Philippians 1 · chapter mention

that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it has become

known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is

for in Christ.

And most of the brothers having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment are much more

bold to speak the word without fear.

How cool is that?

Maybe a good question to ask yourself, to ask God, is what is God trying to do through

my suffering?

Oftentimes we suffer for the benefit of others.

My friend, Alyssa, passed away last week and I don't know why her little girl and her husband

have to suffer right now.

But I do know that at her service the gospel was preached.

I do know that Ryan is standing firm in his faith as a testimony of the goodness of God.

I do know Alyssa well enough to know that if one person came to faith because of her

accident, she would say it was worth it.

Our friend Pam, who many of you met a couple weeks ago, lost her 16-year-old son in a car

accident a few years ago.

Pam and her husband Quinton are such a testimony to the goodness of God that there is no doubt

in my mind that through their suffering there have been lives changed.

We were talking in our living room last week or whatever about the joy that she feels knowing

that we will see, that she will see people in heaven that are there because of the death

of her son.

That is an eternal perspective.

Paul says in Romans chapter 8 that our present sufferings are not worthy to be compared to

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our future glory.

There's a clear connection here that between God's glory and the future glory that will

be experienced by all of God's children.

Paul writes that it is God's glory that will one day be revealed in us.

That sufferings we go through are just a part of the process.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 3, Paul writes that our unveiled faces reflect the Lord's glory.

2 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

We are able to reflect the glory of the Lord because we have unrestricted access into His

presence through Jesus.

Right now we are being transformed.

The stage that all of us are in is we are being transformed into the likeness with ever

increasing glory.

It's the process of sanctification.

And that process is leading to the day when we will experience the glory of God in full.

That will be glorification.

Because it is in the sanctification where suffering happens and high stressful things

happen and immense weight happens.

A lot of times we wish we could skip that part.

We wish we could just get to the glorification part, right?

But that's not how God has chosen to work.

Last week while we were gone in Texas, there was a storm here, right?

And there is, I saw numerous pictures of a double rainbow that followed that storm.

That rainbow though, as beautiful as it was, came with a prize, didn't it?

There was some hail damage.

There was some more flooding.

There was trees falling down.

The key to enjoying the rain is to look at it as part of the process of producing that

rainbow.

Most of us really don't like to suffer either.

But the key to suffering, the key to dealing with your suffering is to view it as part

of God's eternal plan.

We need to view our troubles as God's work in our lives and in the lives of others so

that we can share in His glory.

Moms, you have a hard job, a thankless job, a lot of times.

Times where you are suffering and doubting if you are doing things right.

The rainbow is coming if you will continually and boldly approach the throne of grace.

When you were frustrated, when you were at the end of your rope, when you were broken

boldly and confidently knocked down the door just like your five-year-old does when he

is looking for you.

That's how we approach the Lord.

If there has been anything that has caused me to seek after the Lord more, it would

be having children.

There are so many unknowns.

So many times that I begin to doubt that are we doing the right things?

I am so grateful that we have God who will guide us and lead us.

The rainbow is coming.

The rainbow is coming.

So if you are in the midst of intense pressure right now, if you are in the midst of some

sort of suffering, whether it be physical or emotional, my encouragement to you is to

boldly approach the throne of grace.

Confidently understand that He hears you and He is near because that is where you will

find peace.

I am going to pray for us and then we will sing one more song.

Father God, thank You for this day.

Thank You for Your presence in this place.

I pray, God, that as we sing, I pray that You will just minister to our hearts.

I pray that Your Spirit will just dwell right here at this altar.

I pray, God, that You give us a confidence to approach You.

Help us understand that You accept us just as we are.

It's not some future version of us, but You accept us just as we are.

And so, God, we thank You for Jesus.

We thank You that He has made the way for us to be able to even be in Your presence.

And so, Father, this morning I pray that You will give us all a boldness, that You will

give us a confidence to just storm into Your presence right now.

And I pray, God, that You will minister to our hearts.

I pray, God, that You speak.

I ask all these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

I'm going to encourage You this morning.

I'm going to encourage You to come boldly into His presence.

It doesn't say to be timid about it.

Boldly, humbly.

And so, I'm going to ask You, however You need to respond.

That's getting on Your knees at Your seat.

If that's coming to this altar, let's boldly come into His presence and see what He does

because there's peace there and healing there.

All right?

That's all you.

P shaking.