Wise - Ephesians | Jennifer Toledo | Expression58

um we if you are visiting or newer we have been in a series here on sunday mornings where we're talking about the book of ephesians and so we're going to jump into ephesians 5. in a moment if you have your bibles you can turn there so ephesians is a a book that the apostle paul wrote to the church in ephesus and um it's such an incredible letter he wrote it um from prison where he was being imprisoned and he he's riding to encourage and challenge the church in ephesus and um the first three chapters are very doctrinal and he's really talking a lot about um playing good theological you know basis for understanding that we are chosen that we are adopted that we are sons that we are daughters that we are empowered that were citizens in the kingdom and then the next three chapters which we you know saw started last week um the last three chapters are very practical so since you have this high and holy calling since you are royalty since you are a citizen of heaven here's how you should live and it gets really gritty and practical and last week was um all about you know maturity and how god longs for us to to grow up in our faith and to to be mature and and this week we're going to talk about wisdom and how god is inviting us to walk in his wisdom and that we are called to be wise and to live live in a wise way and i love that that's so um obviously so needed right in this season um so we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna jump in at the top ephesians chapter five if you wanna follow along imitate god therefore in everything you do because you are his dear children live a life filled with love following the example of christ he loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us a pleasing aroma to god let there be no sexual immorality impurity or greed among you such sins have no place among god's people obscene stories foolish talk and coarse jokes they're not for you instead let there be thankfulness to god you can be sure that no immoral impure or greedy person will inherit the kingdom of christ and of god for a greedy person is an idolater worshiping the things of this world don't be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins for the anger of god will fall on all who disobey him don't participate in things these people do for once you were full of darkness but now you have light from the lord so live as people of light for this light within you produces only what is good and right and true carefully determine what pleases the lord take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness instead expose them it's shameful even to talk about the things that ungodly people do in secret but their evil intentions will be exposed when the light shines on them for the light makes everything visible this is why it said a waco sleeper rise from the dead and christ will give you light so be careful how you live don't live like fools but like those who are wise make the most of every opportunity in these evil days don't act thoughtlessly but understand what the lord wants you to do don't be drunk with wine because that will ruin your life instead be filled with the holy spirit singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs amongst yourselves and making music to the lord in your hearts and give thanks for everything to god the father in the name of our lord jesus christ i'm going to stop there god i pray that this word would go deep in us lord i pray that this truth would awaken us lord what does it look like to be imitators of you what does it look like god to to live in a wise way making the most of every day you've given us every opportunity before us i pray god that your truth would awaken our hearts this morning and strengthen and encourage each one of us in your name we pray amen so ephesians 5 begins with this beautiful encouragement to imitate god in everything we do imitate god and that's an interesting thought i don't know that i wake up and and as i'm making coffee or something thinking how would god make coffee i mean i don't know like but to just start thinking about that how would god respond to this i mean maybe in the bigger things but not in the everything i do right but it's this invitation of hey imitate god in every area and um i like that word imitate and i have this memory of um malaika when she was little and she was around a lot of holy spirit meetings at that time and she loved to imitate the holy spirit johnny you probably remember this but she i mean she would like stand on her bed and be like pray the fire of god i mean we'd be like fire god and she'd like fall back on her bed like she just loved to imitate the holy spirit if anybody at church was like manifesting she would like like imitate it it was really funny and um and then somebody asked me like doesn't that bother you [Music] and i was like i'd rather her imitate the holy spirit than mickey mouse or whatever she's watching you know like you know yes there's a line at some point let's hold that line um some reverence um but there's something that was really precious about it too and many times actually as she was this happened several times where she would be like it would start as a joke for her and she'd be like hey guys fire ton or whatever like and she'd be like totally faking like she's like three i don't know she is like totally faking and all of a sudden she just would get hit with god she'd be kind of almost not even making fun of but just just imitating what she saw and then all of a sudden were like why is my three-year-old weeping and she's like i just really feel good you know and she would get hit with the presence of god and so i wonder if there's this place in us not that we're like trying to pretend or whatever but there's something powerful about imitating christ right until it truly becomes natural in us and um i love that ephesians 5 begins with that imitate god in everything and to live a live lives that are filled with love filled with love man i want my neighbors my barista the other soccer moms whoever i run into my co-workers i would love this to be said of me man she's just filled with love i don't know if that's what people would say of me but i would love that to be what people say of me right like i don't want them to know oh she's a christian because that might mean whatever to them i want them to like i want their takeaway to be like i just feel so loved around her she's so loving wow i love that right have lives be that are filled with love um letting love be the primary thing that defines us and it says to you know have jesus as our example which i love that um and then paul goes into first that if we're gonna really live lives that are full of love if we're gonna really live lives um that look like jesus we have to first cast off some things we have to rid ourselves of a few things that actually hinder love and he he highlights three particular sins um of course i'm sure this is not obviously an extensive list because there's a lot of things that hinder love but he's highlighting three particular things once again he's speaking to the church in ephesus and i want to remind you of this these are specific to this church now if you remember ephesus was an urban environment ephesus was not like you know the small town over here these guys were movers shakers they you know this was a huge diverse area there was a lot of trade there was also a lot of pagan worship and kind of mixture and i was explaining how it's interesting because there's something about ephesus that kind of reminds me of la like you know everybody was doing something great for god but there was also just a lot of just kind of i don't know similar dynamics i think in a lot of ways so the specific it's interesting that paul highlights these three particular sins that he's warning the church of ephesus to be careful of because they they stand in the way of love okay and the first one he highlights is sexual immorality and um the the word here the greek word here is actually word porneia which is where pornography comes from and this word you know most of us don't use this word or wouldn't even be acquainted with this word anymore but it's often gets translated as fornication i actually in our early years here at expression did an entire sunday morning on what is fornication because clearly the people did not know so did an entire series on it because it was like you hear a word like or a message on it you hear a word like that and you think ew that's like something really like weird and obscure and twisted way out there and it's like actually you know when you start really looking at scripture um really understanding that it's just selling off of purity it's a surrendering of purity it's um it's very encompassing it you know it's sexual relationships out of out of the context of covenant and marriage so adultery primarily looking at all this and you go start building uh looking at it scripture and you go okay this is a little bit bigger than maybe um what we think about that word but paul begins to challenge them let there be no sexual immorality in your midst right um because marriage is meant to reflect the relationship between christ and his church right marriage is meant to reflect to the world covenant is meant to reflect to the world that the power and the beauty of of christ with his church and and christ doesn't just use his church without having long-lasting covenant and commitment and loyalty to her right and so there's this call of if we're going to live lives that really reflect love let's not cheapen the definition of love let's not water it down right because if we're going to really reflect a powerful love to the world around us um let's make sure that the the things are you know that the sins that that maybe are distorting that that are dealt with so he addresses sexual immorality then he continues to address impurity which is an interesting one of all the sins he could have picked for the church in ephesus he thought it necessary to address impurity unclean mixed inappropriate baseless vulgar he says things like obscene stories foolish talk coarse jokes i'm like oh yeah okay um but once again if love is going to rule your life we have to con confront the impurity the mixture in us right um how are we going to love others well if we're give ourselves license to speak so awful about people or to poke fun of them or dehumanize them or mock them or fill in the blank it sucks the love out of the room right and so he addresses that and then he addresses the sin of greed covet covetousness can't say that word and the definition for greed is interesting i don't know about you but i when i think about greed i kind of think about like a cartoon character that's like ha you know like i don't know swiper likes i don't know i don't know like swiper no dora okay um i don't know like i kind of just think of this like i don't know like really nefarious like little character versus how much it the greed actually plays out in our own life because when you look at the definition of greed it says craving possessions and power avarice extreme listen to this extreme desire to gain and withhold wealth and material gain or this how about this definition desire for the advantage aggression unwilling to share power and privilege dang and paul's not having it okay he of all these sins this is the one he says that's idolatry that is idolatry that can have no place if you're gonna live a life of love you can't have undealt with greed a desire to to withhold a desire for the advantage over others wow right because how can christian love flourish in our life when that's present now you hear these three once again i don't know why he focused on these three but he says let none let there be none of this in your lives and don't even give anybody a reason to suspect any of this is in your life which is interesting because now for some of us you know just human nature um maybe there's there's some of those that bother us more and some of those that we tolerate more so rather than focusing on maybe which one you're more bothered by that people do focus on the one you tolerate more in your own life right and then be like god root this out of me because where have i bought a lie about this that this is okay because it's culturally acceptable or whatever paul's he's going for it as you see in all of ephesians he he's like i don't care i'm an old man in prison i'm about to tell you what i think right like he is just he's he's done playing games right he is he's shooting it to you straight and it's good because we need it and so i love that he begins this whole ephesians 5 with this of like guys if we're gonna now once again this whole chapter we're about to get into this but this whole chapter is about wisdom but you can't live a wise life if you don't have a loving life now obviously this has been the theme all throughout ephesians love is the core of maturity love is how we're empowered love is you know the basis on our citizenship you know we're adopted because of love you see this theme of love chapter to chapter in ephesians but i love that he's bringing this concept of wisdom of if you're gonna be wise before god and if you're going to walk in the wisdom that god has for you you first have to truly be about love which means you have to deal with the things that stand in the way of love in your life not just what you think stands in the way of love what god thinks stands in the way of love in your life right so we're all we're all taken to the woodshed if you will on that one um don't let anybody even suspect that that's in you right um and verse six told us right don't be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins by those who build a whole theology different than what you've learned right i mean it's intense don't participate in these things that people do because now you're children of the light so live as children of light i love how verse 10 begins carefully determine what pleases the lord carefully determine what pleases the lord not carefully determine what you want or how you want to interpret things or what's convenient or what you think you have license for carefully determine what pleases the lord how do you do that you know well first to do that you have to just know the kinds of things god likes which means you have to get into the word you have to get into the word you have to get into the bible you have to know the kinds of things god cares about and go into the bible knowing that you are reading it with your own bias and lens so asking the holy spirit to help you set that down and to lead you into understanding even if it makes you uncomfortable right so looking at that having conversations with the lord you know if i'm going to really carefully determine what pleases you god like it seems maybe a little silly or a little um i don't know immature not immature i don't the word is but maybe just a little silly but to just be like god does listening to this podcast pete please you i like it but is this bless is this growing me is this blessed do i need this is this pleasing to you and you might just be like actually no it's not it's really it's only actually at the end of the day making you a little more bitter and suspicious or whatever maybe not you know like in the everyday things like really like looking at what pleases the lord um and that really is a key for being a wise person because we're not wise in our own i don't want to just be wise to people around me i want to be wise with kingdom wisdom i want to walk with heaven's wisdom and so i need to know what pleases the lord and i think really having a passion for god i want to know what pleases you even if it makes me uncomfortable and that's really the beginning of wisdom um verse 15 and this is where i want to focus we read this but it says and be careful how you live don't live like fools but like those who are wise make the most of every opportunity in these evil days don't act thoughtlessly but understand what the lord wants you to do don't live like fools but like those that are wise other translation says you say be wise make the most of every opportunity god calls us to be wise people the invitation is for us to be wise actually the expectation is for us to be wise wisdom is available right like if you been brought into the kingdom and you lack nothing why would we walk around and not access what we have access to like why live your life without peace when peace is available right why live your life without joy when joy is available why live your life without wisdom when wisdom is available i heard it once said life is hard it's even harder when you're stupid and i was like there's a lot of truth in that there is a lot of truth in that right what does it mean to be a fool well the word that's used here in the greek for somebody who's lacking in judgment in sense or an understanding or somebody who behaves without thinking that means you're just impulsive you just do what you feel like doing that's actually considered being a fool interesting or lacking in judgment or sense or understanding which is why last week we talked about one of the you know classic signs of of immaturity is to be set in your ways right and a sign of maturity is to be a learner to be a humble learner always seeking to learn and grow that's actually a marker of how you're going to walk in wisdom you have to have a hunger to learn and the word here here in the greek that's used for wise means learned cultivated skilled or clever and when you kind of think about those definitions and you go back and you go hey don't live like fools don't live like just you know without understanding don't live don't just act out you know in your own feelings but live like those who are learned cultivated skilled clever and another letter that the apostle paul wrote around the same time to the church in corinth he said these words first corinthians 3 18-20 i'm gonna read it the message because i just laughed when i read it in the message i don't know i thought it was pretty great um it says don't fool yourself don't think that you can be wise merely by being relevant be god's fool that's the path to true wisdom what the world calls smart god calls stupid it's written in scripture this is where i left it's written in scripture he exposes the hype of the hipsters i don't know why that's so funny the master sees through the smoke screens of the know-it-alls it is written in scripture um i thought you would appreciate that with me um but i i love i love this verse and whatever translation you read it in um because it's pointing to this idea that god's wisdom is not like man's wisdom and if you're just looking to be wise according to this world chances are you're going to miss it and actually the only way to have god's wisdom is to to be willing to look really foolish to the world now what this is not saying so hear me what this is not saying is that you get to check your brain at the door and just go be dumb and call it god absolutely not there's a lot of people that do that that's not what scripture is saying because when we look you look at the entirety of scripture and you look at how god so often uses the josephs the daniels the solomon he uses the fact that they were learned that they were excellent that they had you know had really been cultivated they'd cultivated their mind they'd studied culture they knew you know they were aware they were excellent they weren't just like thinking oh i don't have to do any of this work i'll just get the wisdom of god well you know so keep it in context with the whole of scripture right but what we do you know hear paul challenging here is it's not about being relevant there's a whole lot of wisdom human wisdom floating around people that are always there's always some people that are smarter than you there's always going to be people who have a better pulse on culture and relevancy than you are you do always and that's not where we're that's on our metrics our metrics are before the lord what pleases him being humble before him getting ourself our sin our agenda our greed our our lustfulness all of it out of the way so that we can truly live lives of love so that we can truly be wise before god you with me and the bible has a lot of promises for the wise and i would encourage you maybe do that this week in your quiet times with the lord just do a study on on wisdom in scripture there are so many amazing promises for the wise so many things that god has um i want to talk about james 3 17 for a second because this defines what kingdom wisdom looks like but the wisdom from above is always pure it's filled with peace it's considerate and teachable it's filled with love and it never displays prejudice or hypocrisy in any form and it always bears the beautiful harvest of righteousness i love this verse i love this verse let's look at those for a moment the wisdom that comes from god is pure it's pure there's no hidden agenda it's not twisted it's not complicated it's trustworthy it's whole it's pure god's wisdom is filled with peace that means god isn't gonna you know god is not out here trying to induce anxiety in your life he's not tricky and confusing he's filled with peace and the wisdom he's he brings i don't know if you've ever experienced this where you're like maybe you don't have language for it but it's like i i need to make that decision because that's where i feel peace like peace is leading me here and it's like that's the wisdom of god because his wisdom comes packing peace right it's filled with peace there's not strife um it's peace his wisdom is always considerate interesting i wonder how many times we've been inconsiderate of others and we thought we were being wise that is not with god we come in swinging and god's like actually my wisdom is considerate it's thoughtful it's kind thinks about the other right which brings us back to what we talked about last week even like it doesn't matter if you're speaking truth if you don't have love you miss it entirely right the wisdom of god is considerate and actually this word that's used here in the greek means non-combative gentle not quarrelsome and not easily annoyed wow so when we're acting in those ways we're not actually walking in wisdom dang it god's wisdom is teachable this is mind-blowing to me that this word is included in this list teachable god's wisdom god's wisdom the god of the universe who knows everything says wisdom that comes from me is teachable meaning i can be influenced humble that you go into a room seeking to learn not just state your case not just win your case not just argue your point real wisdom is teachable wow you don't have to have all the answers to be wise right rather as we come open and interested and and influenceable um that's actually where wisdom is in fact human wisdom is arrogant and insists it's always right can we disagree agreeably can we discuss our deep convictions without losing our temper or writing people off can we listen kindly when somebody holds another position with great curiosity not just like i'm gonna sit here and smile and nah but like like truly willing to step into somebody else's shoes and hear you might not change your opinion but like are we teachable are we open that's what wisdom looks like it says wisdom is filled with love right it's never going to be wise to say or do something that's not filled with love because love is the marker of wisdom when we're walking in wisdom not only do we feel loved but other people around us feel loved if we think we're wise in god's eyes but your friends and your neighbors think you're a jerk then god's like that's not my wisdom right wisdom drips love people feel loved and it's not i think it's important we're talking about love it's not just like oh i love them no do people feel loved right do p are people actually experiencing you as lovings that's very different than i love them but they're all like can't stand you right um true wisdom never displays prejudice or hypocrisy in any form wow god's wisdom doesn't favor those you know that we're prone to favor god's wisdom doesn't cater to our desire over our brothers it means you tell the truth the first time you don't change your story depending on the audience you're not a different person in different rooms you don't treat one group better than the other group you're the same in public and in private i love this true wisdom doesn't hold prejudice or hypocrisy which is once again you notice these chapters make sense then why chapter five comes after chapter four because we hit on this in chapter four where it talks about spiritual maturity means you have to deal with the places in your life where you ha you've agreed with falsehoods where you're happy to hold half truths and you're happy to to to slide into some hypocrisy right and so if we're going to really walk in wisdom we have to address those things in us so that we can truly be wise and i love this last one bears the beautiful harvest of righteousness god's wisdom brings real fruit in our lives i don't know about you but hearing that it makes me hungry for god's wisdom and i'm glad i don't have to know everything and have all the right answers and be the smartest um but i want to be these things i want to be pure i want to be you know filled with peace i want to be considerate and teachable i want to be filled with love i don't want to display prejudice or hypocrisy i want to i want to benefit i want to watch the harvest of righteousness i want a life that's marked by true wisdom and i love one of my very favorite verses in the bible james 1 5. and if anyone longs to be wise ask god for wisdom and he will give it he won't see your lack of wisdom as an opportunity to scold you over your failures but he uh but he will overwhelm your failures with his generous grace he said he's so good i love him we don't have to be ashamed to come before god and say god i need wisdom will you help me he's so generous to give us wisdom if we ask wisdom comes from him and guys we need wisdom we need wisdom human wisdom has run out have you noticed human wisdom and the best of the best in every field has run out it is limited we need god's wisdom i want to give you two two quick examples of just really simple things in my own life where i applied this verse and and saw a breakthrough one was in a parenting situation um rua our youngest uh the beginning of the pandemic or somewhere in around that time um suddenly developed what seemed like an out of nowhere allergy to fruit never had a problem with fruit before and then all of a sudden you know he ate a peach he ate a plum and his throat's closing up he's like like just constantly it was like what is happening um i can hear my kids screaming it's literally my child um leading the the party in there and um so you know like okay this is interesting he sees doctors whatever he now has to carry an epipen because it just continues to grow and then it's like he can't touch any fruit he can't be around any fruit it's triggering this some kind of crazy you know thing that you know it's his throat's kind of swelling and closing we're like what in the world is going on and it's like escalating and escalating and now it's you know a year into this and guys just without going into too much of my personality here i have like over um i can't tune things out it's a problem and this child literally was throat clearing all day long my god like what is happening and um he is on every kind of allergy pill like what is going on and it would not stop and i just was losing my mind and of course this is pandemic so there's like hard to even get into a doctor all the things and um so frustrated and we tried everything and you know all these things and i was so fresh i was like what is going on with this kid's throat and we just kept you know talking to everybody you know ears nose and throat specialist and nobody can figure out what's going on with his throat and um i was so desperate and i would wait for him just to fall asleep because it was finally when he would just be at peace he was so just frustrated and um he'd fallen asleep one night and he's cuddled up with me and and um he'd had like the max amount of benadryl you could take i mean it was awful and i was like god we we need a breakthrough like i need your wisdom because all these doctors have tapped out like we don't know what is going on god give me wisdom and i was laying there praying for him and i felt the lord say this has nothing to do with his throat it's his stomach and i was like dude these kids eat talkies all day long like what what are you talking about this is stomach of steel like what are you talking about and i felt like the lord say look up stomach and throat clearing and i was like you know and lo and behold there's a particular type of of reflux that you don't feel it it doesn't feel like reflux it's generated from the gut but it it erodes the esophagus and causes swelling and all these major problems and one of the signs is throat clearing and i'm like interesting and i felt like the lord say um you know put him on a remove acidic things from his diet for 48 hours and see what happens out went the talkies and um and instantly it stops and i was like oh my gosh and thankfully you know it just needed a minute to calm down and now he's back to his normal and he's fine um but it was one of those things where it was just like a simple parenting moment but it was like i needed the wisdom of god because i didn't make sense in my natural understanding does that make sense and it was like instantly taken care of let me give you another example this may be a little more complex than just like a parenting situation um without going into a lot of detail um there was a season about a decade ago where um i was in a contract with a company um that was really massively lacking integrity and um they had not held up their end of their contract and they owed me thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars and um unfortunately it was a christian company and it was all these problems and um everything in me wanted just to be like coming in you know hardcore and being like what the heck and god was like don't and i prayed and i said god give me wisdom how to handle this because there was another thing um that i needed from them they had actually owned the rights to something i had and had purposely taken my message and buried it so that i could not speak about legally i could not speak about justice which is like my heart message and it was so messy and so complicated and i um asked the lord for wisdom and i felt like the lord say i want you to fast so i fasted and then he said i want you to be kind in every interaction with him and i'm like okay so i was kind in every interaction and he said i you know i want you to to wait about six months and don't say anything about the money they owe you and i'm like oh my god you know do that just try to obey and then at about six months he says um now i want you to send this message and it was so cle and i would not have thought of this but he said i want you to now play hardball kindly but play hardball and be like so here's the vast amount of money you owe me and here's the choice i could take this to court and i could sue you um you know and i was kind but i was direct and i said but um or in exchange you can release the rights to my message and i'll let this go and i was like god i want both and he's like that's not my wisdom and i had already literally for years been in fights about the rights to this and gotten absolutely nowhere and the second i did that i got a response from the the company that said um we've released the rights of your message i would not have ever thought to choose that path but it was the wisdom of god and i look back now and it absolutely was the wisdom of god right and so i wanted to share those stories because i think we all have circumstances like that in our life we need god's wisdom i mean just to get up and breathe and exist and still be a christian at five o'clock you need the wisdom of god you need the wisdom of god in your life right um so if we ask he will generously give now before we wrap up we're getting ready to close i want to just um talk about this because i love it says there um when he's talking about wisdom to make the most of every opportunity make the most of every opportunity in fact paul's basically reiterating um what he says another one of his letters in colossians four he says conduct yourself with wisdom in your interactions with outsiders with non-believers make the most of each opportunity treating it as something precious i love that conduct yourself with wisdom right with pure with considerate filled with love non-prejudice wisdom when you're around non-believers it's like he you know challenge us to become these spiritual opportunists not in the negative like exploiting people way but in an alert way where every time we're around unbelievers we see it as a precious gift listen unbelievers are not the extras in your big god story you're starring in they're not the extras they're not the background people and i feel like so often we go through life with our big god story and all these background folks and that's not it at all in fact it says to see people especially people who don't know that just like you they're chosen and just like you jesus longs to pull them in that they're adopted that just like you god longs to empower them and make them citizens just like you all of this is available to them that they are loved and it says to treat every interaction with unbelievers as precious i wonder if we have that mindset or are we kind of just tolerating unbelievers or are they a project but true wisdom looks like radical love looks like seeing people truly seeing them inviting them in being friends with them like actually having them to your house knowing what's going on with their mom with their aunt with their kid right like engaging with them seeing it as president says taking every opportunity taking every opportunity i don't know about you but um i find that hard sometimes sometimes i'm in the okay i'm gonna look for god opportunities but sometimes i mean that i am too tired don't even talk to me nobody else right sometimes we're just like i can't i can't like we're just and then i always grieve those moments where i'm like man you hear something you're like oh my gosh like that person took their life that person had this horrible thing happen like i literally saw them so many times and i never engaged with them because i was just too tired or too distracted or too insecure or too whatever what would it look like to begin to truly take every opportunity that god is putting in our path every opportunity i remember this one time i lived between canada and africa for a few years and i was in canada one one week and some girlfriends and we were gonna drive to vancouver um and go shopping for the weekend and it's a fun girls weekend we're all gonna go and i'm driving my jeep cherokee and it's supposed to be good weather but as we're past going over this mountainous past there's this like freak crazy snowstorm it was awful we actually hit ice or my my jeep spun crazy it was awful awful car accident like horrible but by the grace of god we're fine but we get out we're like stranded on the top of this snowing blizzard mountain in canada like nowhere and we're like oh my gosh all i wanted was a girl shopping weekend you know like you kidding me and that was my attitude and my friend was like let's make the most of this i'm like you're so spiritual and um it's true man let me tell you that toe drug truck driver didn't stand a chance i mean five girls prophesying over him like if we're like if we're gonna have this happen we better make it worth it you know that guy came to jesus and then it was like you know it just felt like oh my gosh this is even worse because like we wanted a shot but he dropped us at eclairs was the only store that was like heat sweet jesus claire's little that's enough okay claire's and while the car is getting fixed for a couple hours and we're like oh my gosh you know and my friend's like no let's make it worth it and literally we just like i mean we watch god do crazy things i mean i have this one vivid picture of us like sitting in the corner of eclairs with this precious kid this trans kid just weeping just getting rocked by the love of god feeling so seen and loved and valued and it was just like man we could have missed these opportunities because we're so focused on this isn't working how i want it or i don't want to be here i'm tired or i'm an introvert or fill in the blank right are we taking the most of every opportunity before us what's the opportunities god's placing in front of you because my hunch is that god is strategically placing you in some positions maybe you don't even want to be in maybe you feel like you've just been in that accident and you're on some snowy mountain top like what the heck am i doing i wanted to be drinking mimosas at a spa somewhere and here i am right are you are you noticing the opportunities god has placed before you and are we hungry are we hungry to walk in real wisdom in those you know i've shared this before but at the beginning of the year the lord challenged me and he said you've spent so much time worrying about the full trying to keep the full at the table trying to appease the fool trying to convince the full to be hungry and i've called you to feed the hungry and i thought man i've spent a lot of time talking about the wrong things worrying about the wrong things trying to convince people christians to to act a certain way and god's like what are you even doing there's a world full of hungry people there's a world full of hurting and hungry people that need to see lives filled with love that need to see people walking in true kingdom wisdom that look different than others will we be those because church we are chosen and we are adopted and we are royalty and we are empowered and we are citizens and he's marking us with maturity and wisdom this is the invitation this is who we are and the world is hungry for it will we be those who truly see the opportunities god's putting in front of us and their people it's not about promotion he'll promote you it's the people the precious ones will we be those that are marked with wisdom this is the invitation we just ask god for it and he'll give it you

Channel: Expression 58

Views: 218

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: shawn bolz, bolz, cherie bolz, expression 58, expression58, e58, church, los angeles church, revival, jen toledo, jennifer toledo, jona toledo, bolz ministries

Id: h26zQtDFMwM

Length: 46min 36sec (2796 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 07 2021