The Battle Within
You have to be before you do.
Acts 10:38 NIV
38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
3 Temptations from Matthew 4:
1. Pleasure
2. Popularity
3. Power
If you don't know the God of the Bible, you can't understand the Gospel.
John 10:10 NIV
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
Romans 7:14-25 NIV
14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 21 So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23 but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
I. Before Christ, You Are Spiritually Dead
covet - desire something more than you desire God's love and salvation
Ecclesiastes 1:8 NIV
8 All things are wearisome, more than one can say.The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
II. Christ Changes You Into A New Person
Galatians 2:20 NIV
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Recipe for Evil:
1. Stress
2. Fear
3. Exhaustion
4. Failure
Galatians 5:24 NIV
24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
1 Corinthians 10:13 NIV
13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
lead - what you plan and how serious you are to carry it out
lag - the results of the choices you make now
Tired decision-makers make bad decisions.
Galatians 6:8-9 NIV
8 Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. 9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
III. Come To The Table
3 Levels:
1. Distractions
2. Dailies
3. Depths
We have gathered from different locations, backgrounds and have taken very different journeys in every respect to be here. Still, all have arrived at this place. This refuge. This table. It is no small thing.
Around this table we choose to take time to be together. Here we voluntarily and collectively unburden ourselves bit by bit. We understand it takes time for a man to break free from the urgent, unimportant things in his life. It always takes time.
We laugh loud together at this table. We feast like kings here. We take chances here. We win and lose here. We choose trust here. Each of us is better in some way because we are here.
This is no ordinary table. It is bigger than the room it occupies. Its corners are growing. It is a table of influence that has been built for leaders. Built for kings.
It is like King Solomon’s table. Solomon would influence the known world in his day as kings and queens of the earth would sit at his table to break bread with him and to inquire of his wisdom and of his God.
It is like the table dreamt of by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This dream was conceived in the mind of a man who was a King by virtue of both his name and his conduct rather than his position or office. Still, this King would impact the course of history. His legacy still does. Reverend King spoke of his dream one sunny, dry day on August 28, 1963, on the mall in Washington DC when he prophesied, “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit together at the table of brotherhood.”
This is no ordinary table.
It is like King David’s table. This ancient leader. This Poet-Warrior, Shepherd-King would capture the essential character of his God by writing the words, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.“
Just as God prepared tables for King David, King Solomon, Dr. King and other great kings who have gone before us, He has done the same for this still-forming band of brothers. God prepared this table, this refuge and this moment for a motley crew, an unlikely, blended family made up of warriors, shepherds, romantics, poets, kings, and sages.
It is no small thing to gather around this table.
God has prepared it only for those whose lives will in some way impact the course of history.
God has prepared this table for you.