MACP: Friday Morning General Session

October 21, 2011 – 9:30 am

The speaker for this morning’s general session is DBTS grad Mark Brock, pastor of Crossway Baptist Church in Bakersfield, CA. He helped launch the church in the fall of 2006.

Text: Eph 6:10-20

Intro:

• If you were to ask yourself what the single most important ingredient in church planting is, what would you say? In church renewal? In your marriage? The only thing that could be this significant is God’s grace. This is also the most important element in our spiritual lives. Our success does not depend on us, but on God’s grace.
• In our day, we tend to look at means and measures and believe we can accomplish the task through using the right tools. The tools may be effective, but they can never replace the power of God.
• Sometimes we can give people the impression that the church plant depends on the pastor instead of God. Sometimes we emphasize that a building will bring success. Then, when our preaching, personality, or building does not bring success we get discouraged.
• We must embrace the power of God in our ministries or we will fail.
• In Ephesians 6, Paul is calling people to be alert and aware because of the enemy they face.
  • The primary battle is not finances or facilities. It is Satan and all his forces, who push against God’s plan to build His church.

How do we stand? We must stand in God’s power.

• Since the enemy is not flesh and blood, we cannot see their attacks or know when they are coming.
• One of Satan’s main tactics is to attack one’s thinking-to deceive us into thinking as he thinks.
  • In the 1800’s, before we knew about germs, a doctor discovered that more women were dying in the birthing ward of his hospital than in their own homes with midwives. He discovered the reason is that the young doctors were moving from the mortuary to the birthing ward to check on the young mothers. He instructed the doctors to begin washing their hands before they worked on the young mothers and the deaths dropped. However, he was then fired from the hospital because he was thought to be strange-he believed that invisible things were harming the mothers. In modernity today, we often think the same way-If I can’t see it, it’s not real.
• Since there is no warning bell when Satan is at work, we must be continually embracing the truths of the gospel.

How do we stand in God’s power? By standing in the Gospel

• God’s strengthens us as we take on his armor.
• Truth
  • Our ethic and behavior must be patterned and guided by truth. We must live in light of God’s truth
  • How do we fail in this? For example, when we complain, we are undermining the character of God. We act as if God is not really in control. Our complaint suggests that He either made a mistake or is incompetent.
• Righteousness
  • It is not the righteousness that God gives us but the one He works in us. It is a call to live righteously
  • These are things that we do. As we embrace God’s power and live it out God strengthens us (cf. Phil 2:13)
• Gospel of Peace
  • The victory has been accomplished because God reigns. Jesus brokered peace through his own life.
  • This is then a call for us to live out peace in our lives. Much of Ephesians is focused on relational issues (cf. Eph 4:4, 16, 25-32; 5:16-6:9)
• Faith
  • Satan attacks the veracity and character of God, beginning with Eve.
  • How many times has God watched in grief as His shepherds doubted God’s Word-as they doubted His goodness and His truthfulness as they looked for satisfaction in some other place?
  • When Jesus was tempted by Satan, He responded with a believing commitment to do everything in God’s Word.
• Salvation; Word of God
  • Rather than a more passive “having” we are to “take” these. We are to possess them and take ownership.
  • These enable us to embrace the power of God. We don’t simply get it by wanting it more or by simply praying (though that is important). We must take action.
• Prayer and Watchfulness
  • This is also governed by the command to stand.
  • When did you think this last week that Satan might be trying to deceive you? When did you consider that Satan is seeking to get you to think about issues wrongly? If you are alert, then you should be considering this reality.
  • Satan is subtle and pernicious, and if we do not embrace God’s Word we are simply waiting for disaster.
  • Notice the repetition of “all” in the passage. It shows that our prayer life should be constant, repetitive, and encompassing things both big and small.
  • Paul, the one person we would think would have boldness and right content naturally, recognizes his need for God’s power to give boldness and the right words.

Conclusion

• God did not give us this passage so that we would hunker down in fear. We are to have confidence in the ultimate safety we have in Christ.
• Christ has already conquered the very things we wrestle against (cf. Eph 1:21). God offers us access to that same strength.
• God protects us from Satan as we embrace the means of his grace-the gospel and prayer.