Eric Ludy – An Exceedingly Great Army (Sermon)

so over the past weeks i have been dealing with i went through a series called the dangerous edge last week i had a message called living dangerously so you'd figure that i would try and stick the word danger somehow and i think in one of my sub slides i used the word dangerous but this message is going to be a little different but at the same time it's going to dovetail with last week i was dealing with first movements last week primary actions and so we were even talking about how you get out of bed in the morning is going to color and define your entire day and one of the great secrets you know all of us are going to have our little secrets in life of what is brought about success and most people want to know what made an athlete successful or what made a businessman successful not everyone knows to ask the question of what makes a strong christian successful but one of the things that has made me successful in my spiritual focus and sharpness is my disciplines of first things my first actions and so how i get out of bed in the morning is actually one of my secrets and getting out of bed in the morning usually you're a little off-kilter you're a little groggy and so you have a tendency to turn to self as a first turn instead of to christ as a first turn getting out of bed is a natural point of weakness in our day and so to turn to christ actually develops the right habit in your day and you're setting a pattern and emotion for the rest of your day it's easier to turn to christ in your weakness throughout the day if you start that way and so that's what i talked about yesterday however i want to go one layer deeper than that and that's why this message is going to be critical because i could give you a lot of great advice of how you could live and how you could make decision in your soul and yet there is like a spark plug needed for that there is a fuel that is needed even to do those things well and consistently and that is going to be you know if i'm going to bake it down we're going to just describe it as the holy spirit however the bible is going to use multiple ways of expressing that same concept and so you're going to have like the sap in the vine in john 15. you're going to have the idea of christ in you and the christ in you well what's that well that's the holy spirit the spirit of christ actually in you god almighty just like in the old testament temple is going to move inside of that building and live it's going to become his house and for all of us this is an important dimension of christianity it's not a theoretical concept it's a very real concept that we must become the house of god not just in theory and incorrect doctrine it's like oh yes uh dear brother i believe that to be true but is it true for you true christianity is not meant to be something that you just intellectually esteem and know it's something that you're supposed to walk in you're supposed to have you're supposed to access what what good would it be to hear about food all day long and esteem the value of food and starve to death and many of us as christians function in sort of that weird reality of knowing things and assuming that because we intellectually know them we have them and so what i want to press forward today is the idea that we can't just know them intellectually we must know them intimately so this is called an exceedingly great army i haven't have a subtitle for you guys the supernatural impetus behind spiritual success i like the word impetus it's just sort of one of those i like words if you haven't figured that out if you hang around eric i'm always going to have a word that i'm going to bring i like the word impetus okay so hopefully you'll fall in love with the word too but there is an impetus behind spiritual success so if you're going to succeed in your spiritual life it's because something is true about your life there is something in your life that is pushing you forward and ironically that something is not you isn't that an interesting statement because most of us think if i could just dig down deep i could be a better christian well you can dig down as deep as you want you're going to find a whole bunch of weakness and lack there is something that must come into your life and be that impetus that pushes that drives you that lifts you out of the dirt to live a life that you otherwise could not live so an exceedingly great army now some of you just know instinctively where that comes from because you've memorized ezekiel 37 maybe however it does come from ezekiel 37 it's a very i'd almost say a famous passage in scripture where many of us have grown up and we've heard multiple messages on it you know there's those obscure parts and scriptures that pastors always like to find because they like to show that they've been digging in weird spots ezekiel 37 is one of those spots you almost feel bad as a as a pastor speaking on it's like everyone's heard at least 10 sermons on this and yet make it 11. uh in other words this is critical and it's such an amazing picture of the body of christ in the new covenant relationship that we have and it's not to diminish the fact that it was written in old testament times and it was speaking of what was known as israel but what we see is that spiritual israel is going to become the church in the new testament and so as a result what is being relayed here to us is a vivid picture of our very life individually and corporately ezekiel 37 10 breath came into them and they lived and stood upon their feet an exceedingly great army uh that's a pretty nice pull-out quote i just got there out of ezekiel 37. so what makes an army great now this is almost embarrassing to ask because it's sort of rhetorical and because my options for you are almost ridiculous right what makes a great army the bones of the men it's like well they have good bones that doesn't make a good army just because you have good bones however i have to admit having good bones i'm sure helps if you had brittle bones in your army i'm sure it wouldn't be good right however just if you had a pile of bones that's not going to make a great army how about the muscle of the men well that i mean that's that's a contributing factor but that's not the great secret of a wonderful army the bodies of the men well we're getting closer because now we have the bones and the muscle at least together so i'm glad you're moving in the right direction eric but just a body doesn't make a great army this is an interesting one to add in the fighting skill of the men you see fighting skill is going to be extremely important for a good army right they need to be trained they need to be drilled they need to be in rank in an order they need to know how to work together yes they could have amazing fighting skill but that doesn't mean they're going to be a great army what if you had a whole bunch of men in here that were trained at the highest level special forces level and yet they had no desire to fight you know if you have no will to fight no hunger to fight you're not going to make a great army there is something that needs to be added there is a mustard that needs to be placed into that sandwich there is something that needs to spice it up and that something is going to take the bodies even the skilled bodies and make them animate into a great army so the passionate fight within the men is obviously going to be the key so ezekiel 37 is typically going to be called you know if you get the title for it the valley of dry bones and it's sort of a spooky uh thing if you ever take a step back when you hear it from a young age maybe you just get used to it that there's this valley of bones and as we read through the passage we find that it's the the bones of the slain so in other words these are men that were killed in the past and now their bones are what's called bleaching the hillside in other words the skeletal structures of all of their ligaments have uh have disappeared and deteriorated now it's just bones so it's not the most pleasant thought right but that's i'm not the one that came up with it i mean this is literally what ezekiel has seen he's just writing it down spirit of the lord is going to bring him into this place and he's going to show him something i'm going to give a different name for it instead of the valley of dry bones i'm going to look at it from a different angle you could focus on the bones and the dryness of the bones and the fact that that's weird there's a whole bunch of bones there or you could say there's something else happening in this valley and that is the valley of impetus something is going to be given in this valley that is going to bring life to that which is dead impetus see remember i'm trying to give you guys a good word here so that you get excited about this word you can start using it in your your your daily discussions with people and people will be impressed with you is like wow they they use the word impetus and then someone else will be over here going yeah they heard eric's message on sunday and then that becomes awkward right so the driver urge forward impetus that which presses something or someone onward eric why are you doing that what is your impetus for doing that what is driving you that which excites to action the impetus of a cannonball is the force of powder the impetus of a ship is the wind the impetus of the army in ezekiel 37 is what makes it exceedingly great you know that's how i sort of hit it you see there's an impetus behind this army in ezekiel 37 which is going to make it a great army and then the impetus of the christian is question mark question mark question mark question mark i'm not going to give my whole message away i mean just that easily we're going to sort of bait you along you see that's what i want to talk about i want to talk about the impetus of the christian so i'm leaving it with some question marks there just to move you to the edge of your seat to say i have to continue listening ezekiel 37 1-2 so we're going to walk through this story of the valley of dry bones or the valley of impetus as i'm calling it the hand of the lord came upon me and brought me out in the spirit of the lord and set me down in the midst of the valley and it was full of bones then he caused me to pass by them all around and behold there were many in the open valley and indeed they were very dry and he said to me son of man can these bones live can that which is dead live if you saw a pile of bones would you think that they could live i don't know what your immediate answer to that would be so i answered oh lord god you know that's a very good answer you have to admit that's a pretty good answer again he said to me prophesy to these bones and say to them oh dry bones hear the word of the lord thus says the lord god to these bones surely i will cause breath to enter into you and you shall live i will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live then you shall know that i am the lord so i prophesied as i was commanded and as i prophesied there was a noise and suddenly a rattling and the bones came together bone to bone indeed as i looked the sinews and the flesh came upon them and the skin covered them over but there was no breath in them yes it's somewhat of a spooky sort of scene okay if you made this into a movie i don't know what it would be raided okay this is a pretty grotesque and haunting type of scene but at the same time it's the opposite of deterioration it is coming to life it's something that was dead actually being revitalized resurrected which of course if you look to the new covenant you're going to understand this is the essence of the new covenant we are dead in our trespasses our sin but when we turn in faith to jesus christ this same thing there's a clattering and a rattling together of bones of that which once made us what we were intended to be is going to come together and we are going to be made fit to be a house of god indeed as i looked the sinews and the flesh came upon them and the skin covered them over but there was no breath in them so right now you have the army but without the impetus you have the i mean it's just amazing up to up to this point if you saw a whole bunch of bones rattled together and sinews and ligaments and skin cover it and you know even one of the soldiers smile you know you'd be like okay wow that's impressive however it's not yet fit to be described as an exceedingly great army there's still something missing and the same is true for all of us as we approach jesus christ there is a beginning movement of grace in us and then there is a continuing forward march that god wants to take in our life to make us fit and ready to take on the powers of earth and hell also he said to me prophesy to the breath prophesy son of man and say to the breath thus says the lord god come from the four winds o breath and breathe on these slain that they may live so i prophesied as he commanded me and breath came into them and they lived and stood upon their feet an exceedingly great army then he said to me son of man these bones are the whole house of israel they indeed say our bones are dry our hope is lost and we ourselves are cut off now whether or not that would be your quote right now of what's going on in the church i feel it even though i might articulate it a little differently i don't use the i don't talk about bones and i don't see that the body of christ is a pile of bones that are dry that's not my mental picture for it however i don't know that all of israel was looking at it as a pile of bones either this is a symbolic statement from the house of israel saying our bones are dry our hope is lost and we ourselves are cut off i don't know exactly if i could pin down what you have felt and what you have thought and what the devil has tried to convince you of over this past year there is no hope the church of jesus christ is dried up its glory days are in the past okay i've heard it over and over and over again i don't know what verse we're on in the chorus but it's many the devil is trying to convince us that there is no hope for the body of christ our glory days are in the past there is nothing more to anticipate and so many of us are in bunker mode where we're looking to sort of survive and hang on and so you start thinking of bomb shelters and hiding places and secret you know rooms that you can build into your house to sneak in when the gestapo show up you see this is the mentality that the enemy wants to cultivate instead of the exact opposite lord jesus we need something from you right now we need breath because we're ready to be an exceedingly great army not a bunch of cowards hiding in a closet this is the hour of the church of jesus christ i don't care if it looks like a bunch of dry bones out there we serve a god who is the god of the living he is one who loves to rattle together that which appears to be dead and to breathe life into it to make it an exceedingly great army therefore prophesy and say to them thus says the lord god behold o my people i will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves and bring you into the land of israel then you shall know that i am the lord when i have opened your graves o my people and brought you up from your graves i will put my spirit in you and you shall live and i will place you in your own land then you shall know that i the lord have spoken it and performed it says the lord so i've been calling this the valley of impetus or the now i have it the valley impetus now i even have a name for it it's called impetus the valley i guess it was supposed to be the valley of impetus but what is that impetus it's the empowering of holy wind which is by definition in the new testament the holy spirit ezekiel 37 14 i will put my spirit in you and you shall live so i'm not exactly sure if you've followed the the words of jesus before he is going to depart and he's preparing the disciples but that's a pretty good summation of what he's going to say to them i'm going to give you something so that you can live you guys remember peter peter is eager he's ready to serve but he's missing something you see at that last supper he is going to he is going to boldly proclaim to jesus and he is a little bravado he he wants all the other disciples probably to hear it too it's like i will die for you and jesus knows that he is sort of like some bones that have clattered together with some sinews and some skin over it but he's missing something and as a result jesus is going to say well peter you know i'm sure you mean well but before the crows you're going to deny me three times you see there is something missing in that man he needs what all of us need we can have bravado and we can say jesus i'm going to serve you i'm going to get up tomorrow morning and i'm going to rejoice first thing when i enter the living room sector of my life i'm going to come in and i'm going to make you the focus i'm going to seek you first and your kingdom and your righteousness so that all these other things could be added to me and when i come into the kitchen my appetites will not rule me i'm gonna let you rule me and it sounds really good on paper and by the way everything i'm saying is good however if you're gonna want to live boldly for jesus christ you need something to undergird that you need impetus you need something other than your own willpower and determination if you're going to live out this life for jesus and there it is on the screen right now ezekiel 37 14 i will put my spirit in you and you shall live i'm gonna put my spirit in you so that you can get out of bed in the morning with joy so you can face every trial throughout your day with a smile on on it so that you can actually sing songs in prison cells so that you can be spat upon and sing as a result you have something from god almighty but you need to reach out and grab it so the way that i've often times likened this at elderly imagery is very very important for me and i'm guessing because i've talked with many people over the years that it's important for other people too i don't know maybe there's someone who can just hear doctrine and totally understand how it works functionally in our life oftentimes i need to get it to like that imagery level that metaphorical level so i can see it you take a glove and a glove is a really interesting invention because it's designed in the image of a hand now if you were to make my hand invisible it just disappears you can't see it then you're going to miss all sorts of great movements that the hand is doing it's waving at you you just missed it because it's invisible what if it pointed at you you wouldn't even see it why because it's invisible what if it beckoned you you wouldn't see it why because it's invisible but what if you took that glove that was made in the image of this hand and slid it over that invisible hand now when it waved you would see it why because you're seeing the visible representation of the invisible movement when it points you would see it because you're seeing the glove which is animating something inside of it and if it beckoned you would see it because of the glove we are designed as gloves god almighty you could just say for this message the holy spirit is the invisible hand and with a glove without a hand in it you're not very impressed with it are you so if i had a glove here and i was just holding it with two fingers and i gave it a command and i said pull a weed o glove and then i let it go to work what would it do it would just flop to the ground why because a glove apart from the hand can do nothing the glove can mean well and say i want to pull the weed tomorrow i'm going to pull weeds however if that glove does not submit to the reason it was created it was created to be inhabited to be infilled to be animated by something without that hand that glove is worthless it can mean well but it can't do well introducing the master builder and so in the old testament in the book of ezekiel you're going to see god building an army he is going to clatter it together it's actually he's building a house i know that sounds strange an army is a house but that's the church of jesus christ is a house it's a dwelling place it's like a glove yes you know the metaphors you know to try and interweave them all is a little strange at times but god is building us into a temple it's a dwelling place of that which is invisible we can't see god's spirit but we do know when it's present so i'm going to say you know paul is going to call himself a master builder but i'm also going to say that paul is going to be a small m master and a lower case b builder he is a master builder but after a certain pattern whose pattern the master builder with a capital m and a capital b so jesus christ is the ultimate master builder he knows how to build his church paul is going to take all that he's learning from the master builder in heaven and he is going to build the church of jesus christ so he's going to refer to himself as a master builder according to the grace of god which was given to me as a wise master builder i have laid the foundation and another builds on it but let each one take heed how he builds on it for no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid which is jesus christ now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold silver precious stones wood hay straw each one each one's work will become clear for the day we'll declare it because it will be revealed by fire and the fire will test each one's work of what sort it is if anyone's work which he has built on it endures he will receive a reward if anyone's work is burned he will suffer lost but he himself will be saved yet so as through fire do you not know that you are the temple of god and that the spirit of god dwells in you if anyone defiles the temple of god god will destroy him for the temple of god is holy which temple you are see this is a shocker in the new testament for us we've grown up with it so we take it for granted at a certain level did you know that that temple in the old testament has actually been transferred to your body that you are actually the building of god you are just as that temple was constructed for the explicit purpose of being god's dwelling place amongst his people so you have been built by the spirit of god by the master builder to be the habitation to be the dwelling place to be the living place of god almighty that should lead you to a state of awe i don't know that it does that though isn't that funny we're so used to the truth that we're not stunned by it sometimes we just need to get stunned afresh by the truth you are not just a sack of bones flesh and human ability you are a dwelling place god didn't just clatter you together put ligaments on you and put skin to dress you and then say enough he actually built you so that he could move in god desires to move in to your body and live there and there's only room for one owner of the estate that doesn't mean you're kicked out you're just not the owner anymore he is he bought you with a price your bodies are no longer your own they are purchased isn't that an odd thought that you're handing over ownership papers to to jesus christ it's like here you go the keys he's like can i have the keys that means he can do with this house as he sees fit it's okay if you tremble at such a notion you've ever heard of demon possession i know you have but if i said okay possession what does the word possession mean we don't like the word possession because it makes you feel sort of the ebg bees however possession means ownership so demon possession demon ownership that's not good that's a bad thing but it's a counterfeit of god ownership god possession god designed you to be owned but not by you you see you're going to be controlled by something it's either going to be sin the devil the kingdom of darkness or jesus christ is going to come in and have his way with you but to have his way you need to let go of life as you know it and this is the version of the gospel that most of us want to sidestep in modern christianity because in america it cuts a little too deep we want to hear about how we can be comfortable here in this country we want to be built for the times in which we live we need the gospel without delusion and that is you belong to jesus christ let him have you let him take back what he purchased he has built you so that he could indwell you matthew 16 13-17 who do you say that i am simon peter answered and said you are the christ the son of the living god jesus answered and said to him blessed are you simon barjona for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you but my father who is in heaven so what we're going to see is that peter is going to be impacted by one known as the holy spirit to even see that jesus christ is the christ and so if any of you have ever had heard this argument like well i couldn't have even come to jesus without the holy spirit and so i already have the holy spirit you ever ever heard that whole statement it's like i don't need the holy spirit i already have the holy spirit otherwise i wouldn't even believed peter could say the same thing you see peter is seeing something he is being convinced by the holy spirit you know one of the old terms for uh conviction was convinced and so instead of just being convicted by the holy spirit we ever thought about the concept of being convinced by the holy spirit he is lord you see that jesus there he is your savior he's the only one and you become convinced that he is all that he says he is and he can do all that he says he can do for you and you believe you give yourself to him you see the holy spirit is necessary even to take the first steps however the fact that he has rattled together some bones doesn't necessarily mean that he has made you his dwelling place who is needed to recognize jesus as the christ the son of god you need the holy spirit to do that in other words i'm not going to argue the fact that the holy spirit is working on you the holy spirit is doing his job and he is convincing you and he's bringing together this thing known as the christian life he's the one that builds it he's the master builder and so he's constructing it matthew 26 73-75 then peter began to curse and swear saying i do not know the man immediately a rooster crowed and peter remembered the word of jesus who said to him before the rooster crows you will deny me three times so he went out and wept bitterly you felt like this where you've been clattered together by the holy spirit you've been built you know what is true and you're like i will die for you and you come up with a bold announcement of how you're going to live for god only to fall flat on your face you see it's very very important that we go through this this whole crowing experience for all of us where we realize our need and our extreme dependence and the fact that we are nothing more than a glove and we need that hand the fact that god has knitted us into a glove that is perfectly designed to fit i mean that's amazing but what do we need we need to make sure the hand is inside of us i mean what's the good of going through all of this if we lose sight of the end of it we need the breath i don't want to just be clattered together with sinews and my bones all put together and the skin all over me and a big smile on my face i want the breath oh lord jesus breathe upon this army we want to be what you intend us to be acts 1 through 4 or acts 1 4 and being assembled together with them jesus commanded them not to depart from jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the father which he said you have heard from me so that promise is going to be clearly enunciated in the book of acts and throughout the the new testament and before this in jesus last communications to the disciples this is the holy spirit this is what they are supposed to wait for now some of us can get confused on if the waiting do we have to wait for the holy spirit well in a certain sense like a small w uh lowercase w sense we wait all the time on god saying god i follow your lead but the holy spirit has already been given at pentecost it's not like we are calling for pentecost to just come again it's already come the holy spirit has been dispensed however how we appropriate this is very very important acts two one through four and when the day of pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place penta means 50. so this is 50th day and so the first 50th day or pentecost that was ever celebrated which is in the hebrew culture the wheat harvest is going to be actually the giving of the law at mount sinai and so you're going to have the giving of a teacher the giving of a helper in the old testament and then what is this going to parallel in the new testament you're going to see the giving of a capital t teacher the giving of a capital h helper the holy spirit far greater than law and when the day of pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the holy spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance that you know that word it says and there appeared unto them cloven tongues as a fire you know i i think of a tongue of fire you know i that's that's what i've always so i looked up the word tongues there and it's like a tongue so i'm not sure what it looked like maybe it just looked like one of those flames and that's just what they call it as a tongue of fire that could be but i my mental picture of a tongue uh of fire is quite something as i was uh thinking that through i don't i can't answer that i'm guessing it was probably just a tongue of fire that's probably what they call that but the first show of power the coward is now the bold confessor so you have peter who says i will die for you and then he has to recognize he is insufficient to the task he does not have in and of himself the impetus to do it he means well as do many of us i am tired of the church meaning well i desire us to do well to do well we need something from on high to indwell us to inhabit this frame we need the breath of god to animate us for action so the coward is now the bold confessor this same guy who uh what 50 days prior is going to deny christ three times before like people that don't have power to do much to him right now he's going to walk into the very city that christ was just crucified in you know what crucifixion is it's a statement to the culture saying you follow what this guy did and you'll get the same treatment that's why there's big bad guys criminals up there it's like hey does everyone see this this is what happens when you do what this man did so christ was crucified publicly it's a declaration you follow this guy's in this guy's footsteps you prepared for a cross yourself and the disciples have to wrestle through that am i prepared for a cross myself peter filled with the holy spirit is functioning very differently than he did 50 days earlier there is now an impetus there is something that has transformed this man a breath has entered into him and he is going to go in front of the multitudes and start proclaiming is he not thinking is he not considering the fact that he could end up on a cross as well which by the way he is going to eventually end up being crucified the momentum that is coming out of this is going to actually lead to his crucifixion peter will be crucified however he doesn't care in fact he is so moved by something going on inside of him that he is going to holler at the top of his lungs for many many years to come not just here the coward is now the bold confessor acts 2 33 therefore being exalted at the right hand of god and having received from the father the promise of the holy spirit he poured out this which you now see and hear that's what peter is saying in front of the multitude in jerusalem acts 4 13 now when they saw the boldness of peter and john and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men they marveled and they realized that they had been with jesus this is the same guy that was floundering before christ died i mean this this man is not something that we want to just look at pre-crucifixion pre-pentecost peter and say yeah that's the guy you want to be like no he's going to be the model of what we don't want to be like proud brazen's pompous has his human bravado going but is a failure ultimately you don't want to be like peter back then now you see a completely different peter where they're going to see his boldness and they're going to perceive it's like how does someone like this have so much stuff how does he do this all we know is he was with jesus debate the debate over the need for more this is a really tough one and this is i'm trying to walk through this and for those of you that know this topic well you know how delicate of a topic this is especially in a group like this at ellerslie because we're going to have those that are a little more charismatic in here we're going to have those that are the opposite of charismatic in here and as a result it's important that we know how to function together as the body my desire isn't to try and give a charismatic or a pentecostal message i want to give a biblical message i want to share who jesus is and what jesus gave us in the holy spirit because it's crucial to our functionality as the body of christ so if i get ashamed of the holy spirit because of how he's been mistreated out there i'm doing a disservice to everyone including myself and my family could you imagine how terrible it'd be if my kids were raised in a church where their dad was ashamed of the holy spirit who by the way is god he's the one that introduced me to jesus christ i owe him a great debt of gratitude he's the one that has won me over to my savior he's the one that has convinced me of his beauty his love his triumph at the cross his resurrection life and his seated position at the right hand of the father i see it because of the holy spirit and so as a result how do we handle this issue this debate over the need for more have you ever heard of a second blessing it's a it's a very common term that sort of came up in and through the pentecostal ranks which is saying okay well you have the holy spirit at conversion but you also need the holy spirit in a baptism and i'm not going to argue the one thing i want to do is i want to take away the term second blessing and toss it out because it really creates division here's what i want us to agree on we all need more in other words in life if you think that when you came to christ you receive every single thing that you need well you have access to everything you need but that doesn't mean you have it yet my kids are receiving an inheritance from the ludious state very impressive every every kid should want to be a looty kid uh you know i have what do i have i have a riding lawnmower that is on its last leg i don't know that it can work for another year but i have it right and guess who inherits that i have six kids that are gonna squabble over who gets that john deere riding lawnmower that's about 15 years old however guess what they don't have it in their possession right now but they have it right it's part of their inheritance but they have to prove maturity to be able to utilize it so when they're two i'm not going to give them access to the riding lawnmower even though they could brag to their buddy down the street and go i have a writing lawnmower it's a john deere yeah it's a you know when they're younger they could have said it's like five years old and that would have been a lot more impressive than it's 15 years old and it's a junker now my dad's trying to figure out where to how to dispose of it that's about the way it is right now terrible illustration for me to give however you earn the right how by showing faithfulness with what you are given you're given responsibility what are you going to do with it and so when you prove faithful you are going to be entrusted with more all of the ludious state is available to the looty kids but not all of it is theirs in actual function yet why because they have to prove faithful with the little that they've received welcome to the kingdom of heaven we confuse this in our ranks and think that well you're saying i don't have the holy spirit no i'm saying you're not really utilizing what you do have why don't you put that into practice and exercise what you do have you have grace for right now use it exercise and what you're going to see is an increase of grace in your life the debate over the need for more acts 4 29-31 so it's funny because we have this amazing scene of pentecost right and then yet in acts 4 you're going to see the same disciples begging god for more of the holy spirit isn't that an irony now lord look on their threats and grant your servants with all boldness that they may speak your word by stretching out your hand to heal and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant jesus and when they had prayed the place where they were assembled together was shaken and they were all filled with the holy spirit and they spoke the word of god with boldness so what we see is that with the acts 2 to acts 4 phenomenon of still the great need the sense of need that they don't disconnect from god saying i have it all now but they stay connected to god and they cultivate that dependence and when they have need god gives them greater strength so what we see in the book of ezekiel is we're going to see a river and it's going to flood out of a temple that was actually never built here on earth that's why it's oftentimes called the ezekiel temple or the heavenly temple and out of it is going to gush a river sort of strange to see a river gushing out of a house right and yet out of this house the temple of god is going to gush a river and it is an ever deepening river and so this angel of god is going to take ezekiel and they're going to measure a thousand cubits and they're going to walk and it's up to their ankles and they're going to measure another thousand cubits and it's going to be up to their knees they're going to measure another thousand cubitis and up to their waist and then they're going to measure another and it's too deep to to stand and so now they're swimming in it basically what you're seeing is the holy spirit that river is going to be likened to the holy spirit john's actually going to refer jesus is going to refer in the book of john that out of and those that believe in christ out of their innermost man or their bellies is going to flow rivers of living water temple gushing river and then he's going to say that's the holy spirit so what we see in the book of ezekiel is a picture of the holy spirit and what is it it's an ever deepening river the river's there it's all available however to access the depths of it what do you need to do you need to walk in obedience well you have a thousand cubits in front of you want to start walking why don't you take advantage of what you do have and it'll get ever deeper deeper as opposed to saying how come they have such grace in their life and i don't well what have you done with the little you do have are you exercising it are you proving faithful think about all the parables that jesus gives he's going to give like some minas some talents of gold and he's going to test him what are you going to do with that that's grace it's not money so many in the american culture want to say that that's money and how we handle our stewardship of money i'm not going to say it doesn't count towards that however it's the kingdom of heaven that's being likened we are given grace we are given the power of god we are given what we need to live this life what are we doing with it the manner of god revealed what are you doing with the little luke 16 10 he who is faithful and what is least is faithful also in much and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much and so when you are given the first trust of the grace of god in your life what do you do with it and that's one of the keys for all of us the heavenly principle of restraint when heaven won't give do you know there's times when heaven won't give like god resists the proud but gives grace to the humble pride is obviously one of the dead giveaways of what he won't give towards when one takes the little things lightly when you take little things lightly god doesn't seem to appreciate that when one trivializes and scoffs the small things of the soul that doesn't matter that thought that i'm convicted by that emotion that doesn't matter that wasn't big enough to make a deal over that is the problem when you don't handle the little things well the holy spirit is convicting you about that's where to start right now if you were going to turn over a new leaf and start afresh just start listening to the small things you're like i don't want to have to correct that it was just a slight lie it wasn't that big of a lie and then to have to come up to someone say i just want you to know that actually isn't fully true what i said here this is the truth oh it's hard to do that by the way but wow is it important for your soul to take the small things and to treat them seriously when one diminishes the small voice of conviction speaking to the soul these things hinder the growth of grace the growth of maturity in our life matthew 7 6 do not give what is holy to the dogs nor cast your pearls before swine lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you in pieces who's saying that that's jesus so jesus is telling us not to give that which is holy to the dogs what do you think about his holy spirit that which is holy and he's measuring us how are you handling that which you have been given first things first first the house then the inhabitants sort of hard to live just as a pile of people on a piece of land first you need the house first the wine skin then the wine first the channel then the river first the hearth then the fire first things god wants to establish something in us so that he can indwell us there's a clattering together a rattling together of bones there's sinew and there's flesh that covers it and then there's the moving in god is establishing us in a first movement of grace so that he can begin to indwell and then mature in us the building of the sacred house remember you are the sacred house so we're going to go in the old testament i just want you to listen to how the old testament temple was built this is solomon's temple and the king commanded and they brought great stones costly stones and huge stones to lay the foundation of the house and the house when it was built was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it was in building in the fourth year was the foundation of the house of the lord laid in the month as if and in the 11th year in the month bowl which is the eighth month was the house finished throughout all the parts thereof and according to all the fashion of it so was he so was he seven years in building it speaking of solomon so was ended all the work that king solomon made for the house of the lord and solomon brought in the things which david his father had dedicated even the silver the gold and the vessels did he put among the treasures of the house of the lord then solomon assembled the elders of israel and all the heads of the tribes the chief of the fathers of the children of israel unto the king unto king solomon in jerusalem that they might bring up the ark of covenant of the lord out of the city of david which is zion and all the men of israel assembled themselves unto king solomon at the feast in the month of ethan which is the seventh month and all the elders of israel came and the priests took up the ark and they brought up the ark of the lord and the tabernacle of the congregation all the holy vessels that were in the tabernacle even those did the priests and the levites bring up and it came to pass when the priests were come out of the holy place that the cloud filled the house of the lord so the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud for the glory of the lord had filled the house of the lord we have a foundation we have the structure of the house we have these different treasures that are being brought in and then we're going to see something very special happen an ark of covenant is going to enter in and i love that statement it came to pass when the priests were come out of the holy place that the cloud filled the house of the lord so the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud for the glory of the lord had filled the house of the lord listen to what solomon in his in his prayer in response this is just a clip from it this is what he says but will god indeed dwell on the earth i mean it's so fantastic it's hard for solomon to comprehend we have grown up in the church understand that god dwells with us in us but we don't have the awe associated with that but will god indeed dwell on the earth behold the heaven and heavens of heavens cannot contain thee how much less this house that i have built and this dwelling known as eric looty is so much smaller than that one that was 20 cubits by 20 cubits was like a square dwelling place well look at this little thing known as eric ludi i mean how could the god who fills the heavens of heavens they can't even contain them make this his dwelling place it should strike all inside of us how do we get the breath how do we get the cloud of glory so this is a very sensitive issue that i have in classic elderly style when you have a mixture of a lot of denominations how do you walk through this because if i asked individuals in here of how they were filled or was it a day in which this happened was a season it's it's a hard thing to pin down there's a book called they found the secret which goes through as like 20 different christians like major christians that you guys would know their names amy carmichael hudson taylor paul john bunt not paul bunyan john bunyan uh i mean great men and women of god and they all share it differently but they all say the same thing this is when my life started working this is when my ministry started working was when the holy spirit took over my life now what's interesting is they all express it differently almost like they have different vernacular different terms for it and i think that's important to recognize which is why i don't want to define it one specific way and say here's the new denomination called ellerslie for how we view how you access the holy spirit there are certain things we do know the holy spirit has been given and we are supposed to come in the name of jesus unto the father and ask for the holy spirit and we do know the holy spirit desires to to live within us but there are certain things which hinder that which we want to remove and so i'm going to go through that but let me first give a sort of a mental picture of it and i'm going to just say as a farmer prepares his fields for rain the father the farmer can't bring the rain the far farmer can't conjure rain the farmer can't force rain rain is a gift and we could say a promise it is something that god says this will come the holy spirit will indwell you our job is like a farmer a farmer is dependent it is a position of the massive dependence and need but a farmer has something to do which is to till the soil to prepare the soil to plant the seed to receive that and to allow god to do his part and if you position yourself as a farmer waiting for the rain i guarantee you it will rain in other words but if you are a farmer that's like god you bring the rain then i'll believe that rain comes and then i'll till the soil you are not going to receive that rain you see what you need to be is the farmer in faith tilling and preparing to receive to recognize that apart from god you can do nothing god i must have what you have jacob grabs a hold of god and wrestles through the night saying i cannot live without what you have to give so i'm going to call this the elevator whether or not this is a great illustration we'll find out you can criticize it later and we can have discussions over it but look at the bottom there's this gold block at the bottom with a red star and i should have put like a star of david it probably would have been a little more significant but you know in my pages document i didn't have a lot of symbols to draw from other than a square a circle a rectangle like a square and a rectangle was the same in pages and then i had a star so i picked a star i felt like that would be symbolic of what god wants to give us and you see that black that's us and you see when we go up in our life and think highly of ourselves we miss where all the treasure is the treasure is on the bottom floor see where that star is it's on the bottom floor so i say what lifts the elevator pride self-sufficiency independence confidence in our own ability many of us have even come to christ but we still have confidence in our own ability and as a result all that treasury that's down here all that god wants to give us we're missing it because of our self-sufficiency and our pride and as a result we need to actually come down to where god's treasury is and so what lowers the elevator humility dependence need faith obedience child likeness all the things that bring us down to the bottom level and god says when you come down to the bottom level you have access and i have access into you you have access into me and so many of us are like why don't i have well god is resisting the proud he gives grace see that yellow block that's grace by the way to the humble and so when we lower ourself and that's where we live you see when we live there watch this oh that was cool see if you're getting this via podcast you just missed my cool graphic the elevator just came down you guys said i'm gonna go back to that isn't that cool guys the elevator came down and now watch this you see the grace of god the presence of god the holy spirit is able to enter into us this is where we live with god now many of us can start here and then grow tall again in the elevator and guess what we cut off the grace flow in our life doesn't mean the grace isn't there the grace is there for you the holy spirit's there the whole time he's desirous to enter into our life it's not that you're calling him down from heaven he is here ready to enter into your life but to receive it you need to come down to the bottom level you need to be childlike you need to be humble you need to be dependent you need to acknowledge need now watch this you see that's how we live our life then we don't live upward we actually stay in that lower trough with god and walk with him it's called walking in the spirit so how do we walk in deeper waters as an athlete trains his muscle this is just another mental picture okay so you have muscle every single one of you just like you have the spirit you have access to it however how do you cultivate that muscle through exercise and so if i said if you said to me but eric how do you get big muscle like you have that was what i was hoping you'd you'd say right let me tell you how you get the big muscle like eric has that's a joke for any of you that are getting this via podcast and you don't recognize i actually don't have a tremendous amount of big muscle right so however to actually cultivate muscle what do you need to do you need to exercise what you do have consistently and that blood flow goes to it and works in it and strengthens that muscle and this is like the holy spirit if you want to grow strong and to be an exceedingly great army there are multiple facets that are taking place everything that is needed for life and godliness has been given to us but we need to come down to the lower level to receive it then we need to cultivate it then we need to exercise what we do have we need to prove faithful with little imagine god gives us a gym an exercise facility all the weights everything's there and we stay weak it's like i've given you everything you need so we could actually come to the lower level and still not exercise what god has given us galatians 3 3 are you so foolish having begun in the spirit are you now being made perfect by the flesh isn't it interesting that that's actually a possibility that you can begin you can start at that lower level enter into that life of grace and then actually become self-sufficient again and say i can do this for you god well that doesn't make any sense i use the illustration of the plane you know the way to fly is actually not to flap your own arms but to enter into something that can fly and so you trust in the plane you buckle in and you allow it to fly for you imagine halfway over the atlantic you get cocky and think that you can fly oh you know i've learned a lot from this plane i think it's high time that i show god what i can do and so you jump out of the plane and flap your arms what are you going to find walking in the flesh is not going to pull it off why would you have you've been given the grace of god go back to your own ability it doesn't make sense but that's what paul is saying to the church at galatia galatians 5 16 i say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh you want to live this life you want to be an exceedingly great army stay on that lower level walk in the grace of god don't turn back to your own ability don't be the glove that says okay god i think i've figured out all the movements now that you've lived inside of me for a while cultivate exercise that dependence galatians 5 25 if we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit we move forward throughout our day in that same place of dependence there isn't one zone of our life our devotional time in the morning where we're in the spirit and then the rest of the day we're doing it our way god is the impetus behind every facet of our life all right so here's another mental picture for you whether or not i hope one of these at least helps you out these these mental pictures this is the way that i chew on things the burning building the gushing river the rescue raft the deep canyon of difficulty and the eternal fortress uh okay so imagine that you are a burning building or you're in a burning building you are not as you ought to be there is a just condemnation a wrath that's hanging over your life and if you stay there you're going down now what's amazing and it's hard to imagine this i picture it sort of like a western themed uh movie here where there's this gushing river that breaks into your house and sort of like the rest of the house is like almost ready to topple but underneath it is this river that sort of starts coursing through it's like this rapid river that's gushing through and then you see it you see the raft and this house is about to come down i mean it's it's it's it's tenuous guys if you hang in there much longer the whole thing's gonna topple and you're going down with it but you see this raft and so you know that this is the rescue raft and if you jump in this raft the river is going to carry you out okay river holy spirit raft jesus you jump into the raft and you go shooting out of the burning house and it's it's collapsing even behind you i always picture you sort of going off a cliff and then landing in the river below it's like sort of a waterfall type of thing i don't know why i had to add that but it sounds cool and now you have to make a choice what did you start in the spirit you see jesus is the one that has rescued you but it's the holy spirit that has carried the raft to you that has even convinced you of the merits of the raft and now starting in the spirit you get out of the burning building and now you see these what am i calling them the deep canyon of difficulty so imagine this canyon on both sides it shoots up about a mile on both sides and so this is like a deep carving into the canyon and you see it you see a whole bunch of enemy up ahead because it's a narrow channel they're going to take out anyone that is in this channel so there's explosions up ahead there's all sorts of challenges in fact even above your head it says difficulty ahead i mean everything in you does not want to continue this way you need the raft but you can't do it this way right and so what you do is you pick up the raft and you start scaling the cliffs because you know that on the other side of these cliffs is the eternal fortress if you could just get there you'll have peace forever oh if you could just get there and so what you start in the spirit you actually finish in the flesh trying to carry this raft up the side of a cliff you know how hard that is however the the difficulties down there you don't want the challenges that come with following this river let me tell you the secret to getting to the eternal kingdom is not trying to climb the cliffs you're not going to make it it's to allow the spirit of god to take you and to put your trust in jesus i don't know if anyone's ever told you about this raft but it's the coolest raft it's like one of those high-tech rafts so that when they send fire arrows at you it's like the raccoon and shields you in it's like whoa look at this thing you can trust that raft to carry you from that burning building all the way to the eternal fortress but you have to stay in the water you have to allow it to carry you where the holy spirit that gushing river takes you yes rapids uh-huh uh-huh i mean that's why it's called the deep canyon of difficulty however everything that you need to walk through that difficulty will be supplied you it's called grace which is a synonym of the holy spirit it's the empowerment it's the impetus of god working on your behalf to carry you home you want to do this right there is only one way to do it yes you need to believe in jesus but you need all that jesus christ has given you at that cross and it's not just forgiveness it's himself and he is going to come to you via the holy spirit how you have jesus in you is the holy spirit the holy spirit is that river that is carrying that raft so as a result to agree with the holy spirit is of the utmost importance so as we conclude i want us to posture ourselves to ready ourselves to come down in the elevator and for those of us that have started well but are finding ourselves disconnected from god afresh as far as i'm concerned just return just return full force without hesitation right now our god is so grace-filled he desires just like that father in the prodigal remember he's like fogging up the windows staring out there just looking for the return i want you to anticipate what god desires to do when we humble ourselves return to that childlike position of trust and faith do not look at need as a negative in our lives but as an essential in our lives most of us spend most of our life trying to get rid of need when in actuality need is one of the things that keeps us on the lower level where the grace of god is the american culture wants to show you how to get away without the need of god it's a funny culture that started out with a judeo-christian backdrop and yet everything in it wants to convince you that you can live robustly without being on that lower level and yet god says crave the lower level stay in the canyon of difficulty don't try and do it any other way you need the power of god in order to do this you need the holy spirit do not fear the holy spirit trust the holy spirit unless we're talking about the fear of the lord sort of fear you could do that however trust the holy spirit he will care for you and he will lead you home lord we trust you and we ask that you would prove yourself faithful in our lives we love you so much it's in the precious name we pray amen

Channel: Ellerslie Discipleship Training

Views: 2,092

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Eric Ludy, The Gospel, Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Cross, Cross of Christ, Ellerslie Discipleship, Ellerslie Discipleship Training, Ellerslie, sermon, Bible, Bible study, sermon message, spiritual success, Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, power to live the Christian life, how to live the Christian life

Id: XtUXg67cwUc

Length: 63min 14sec (3794 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 30 2021