The Church of Eleven22 - Fighting with No Power - In The Arena: Wk 2

Episode Date: June 15, 2025

In week two of In the Arena, Pastor Joby dives into Acts 19 to show us how the same gospel power that dismantled Ephesus’s demonic stronghold still fights for us today. Paul didn’t bring gimmicks or self-help hacks—he wielded the Spirit to rend magic books worth a fortune, ignite genuine repentance, and spark revival through worship, confession, fellowship, and generosity. But decades later, Ephesus had abandoned its first love. Jesus’s tender rebuke—“Do you love me?”—reminds us that our authority flows not from programs or performance, but from a heart rooted in Christ. If you’re weary of fighting in your own strength, longing to rekindle passion for Jesus, or ready to wield gospel-fueled weapons against every chain, this sermon will equip you to step into the arena and watch Him move. 📌 Supplemental Sermon Resources: Peace in the Battle with ALS - Nicole's Story This Week's Podcast Episode In The Arena Sermon Series About The Church of Eleven22 The Church of Eleven22® is a movement for all people to discover and deepen a relationship with Jesus Christ. Eleven22 is led by Pastor Joby Martin and based in Jacksonville, Florida, with multiple campuses throughout Jacksonville and the surrounding areas. To support this ministry and help us continue to reach people all around the world click here: http://coe22.com/donate 

Amen and amen. Amen. If you got your Bibles, I hope you do, meet me in Acts chapter 19. That's where we're going to be, Acts chapter 19. This is week two of a series called In the Arena. Because as Pastor Britt made abundantly clear last week, we are in a fight. And this message could save your life.

Physically, emotionally, spiritually, this message could save your life because we are at war. Life is war. That's not all it is, but it is always that. That's a John Piper quote. And I need to say this, happy Father's Day. That's all you get.

What you want. I hope other people listen to this, but dads, if you get this thing right, it will change your family tree for generations to come. What we've been about to talk about? You've been in a fight lately? I've been in more than you would be comfortable with me describing to you. I mean, physical altercations, okay? Not in the past few weeks or so, but I've been in a few fights. But what we're talking about here, what I want you to see in these bumper videos.

those, when you think fighter, you think about the dude that was in with a neck tattoo, bro, you go neck, you've made a, you've made a decoration, all right? Three crosses on the neck, I'm into it, man, I'm into it. I might show up with it one day, you don't know, but, but we're all in a fight. And what you have to have to win a fight is you have to have power. You ever lose power? Like when the hurricanes come, okay? They seem to miss us, praise God, because God loves Jacksonville, so he swipes them up somewhere else.

praise God, we're going to keep praying for that. But what's the worst part other than, like, you know, utter destruction? But when you're on the periphery of it, when you lose power, you're like, oh, no. I got a thousand pounds of wild game in my freezer. What's going to happen to it? I've got to sleep with air condition. Really good air condition. When you lose power, do you feel helpless?

I was on a boat miles out one time fishing. We lost power. Uh-oh. You ever been in your car and lose power? It doesn't work. Uh-oh. well, there's a lot of people that try to fight and they're powerless and you feel helpless.

Now, last week, Pastor Britt, once again, did a marvelous job helping us understand that the ultimate battle is against death, but he said, and I quote, but I've got good news. Somebody picked a fight with sin and death and he won, and his name is Jesus. Amen. Well, so that is true,

but do you feel like you're winning all the time? I don't. So how do we then live in that kind of victory that Jesus has purchased for us. We have an enemy, okay? We have an enemy. And the person that doesn't know that you have an enemy, you're going to lose the fight.

Last week, they did a little ding-ding during the sermon. Remember that? You know, that's to alert the boxers, hey, it's about to start, get ready. That's what it's for. And yet, I don't know that we wake up in the morning for the ding-ding. And yet every single morning, we wake up, in a war and I want you to be able to win that war and I want you to be able to fight with the power that Christ has for you.

So we're going to find one of my favorite scriptures in all the Bible. I feel like I say it every week, but you can have a lot of favorites in the Bible, okay? And the reason I like this one, it involves violence, it involves nudity. I love it. All right, it's right here in the Bible. So if you don't read your Bible, that's your fault. You should read it. It's the best stuff, best literature ever, okay? The first bunch of verses, we got to do a little background. Paul is on its missionary journey. He's planted churches all over the place. And all he would do is he would hunker down somewhere and priest to gospel, priest of gospel, a few people would get saved.

He would equip them. He would say, all right, now you're in charge. And he would go do it again. So he finds himself in a place called Ephesus, super famous church. As you probably know, there's a whole book in the Bible called Ephesians. This is that church. We studied 1 Timothy. He was the pastor of that church.

The apostle John was one of the elders of this church. This is a really, really cool church. And so the first seven or verses or so, Paul goes through Ephesus, he meets a few guys that have been baptized under John's ministry. And so Jesus is like, okay, cool, you guys have been baptized. Do you have the Holy Spirit? And they go, what's that? They don't even know.

And he's like, wait, what happened? Well, they had heard the message from John, and they don't know anything about Jesus yet. And so Paul then shares the full gospel that Jesus has come, to live, die, for our sins, be resurrected from the grave, and they surrendered their life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And so he dunks them again. when he dunks them and they receive Jesus, they are filled with the Holy Spirit. These are like his first converts there. And then in verse 8 of Acts 19, it says, and Paul entered the synagogue, and for three months

he spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. He's just preaching for three months straight. Well, he had a few detractors. They were kind of getting mad at him. But he sticks it out for two whole years, and he kind of takes his group of believers and begins the church that is in Ephesus. And so it's going really, really good. By the time you pick it up in verse 11, here's what's going on in the city of Ephesus.

Ready? And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul. Now, leave that verse up so we can all look here, because some of you didn't open your Bibles, because you're sinners. Who was doing miracles? God was doing miracles. Through the hands of Paul. there's a couple of things here that you've got to really pay attention to first of all some of you think you're disqualified for god to use you well you have no idea who paul used to be paul was a religious terrorist paul was the worst of the worst no matter how bad you think you are paul was worse than you and yet god used that man surrendered unto him to do things that were extraordinary and paul gets zero credit because god was doing extraordinary miracles not paul he was doing it through the hands of paul

Listen, you and I are a part of something extraordinary by what's going on through here. I mean, we baptized 1,958 people at one time. We're about to baptize about 50 people in Marion and at a bunch of prisons. I mean, what's happening here is extraordinary. That word extraordinary in Greek actually means unique or one of a kind. So the kind of miracles that Paul was doing, they were extraordinary even for Paul. And yet, there is one name that gets to credit. And Paul's name, it's not our dumb church name.

You got to admit, we've got the dumbest name of all church names. I love that so much, okay? Because there's one name under heaven that gets the glory and gets the credit. And that name is Jesus Christ, and he's the one doing the work. So here's the extraordinary miracle. Check this out. So that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched Paul's skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.

So if you don't like mobile church, You would have hated Paul's ministry. Some people were like, I can't do it on the video. That drugger didn't even have a video. He had a handkerchief that he sneezed in. That man's out there cooking on the grill. Blows his nose. Somebody takes this.

That's where holy snout comes around. He wipes it on somebody. And then Nana gets up. She's healed. Gets done grilling. This bacon rat filet that he can eat in the new covenant by God takes his apron off. People just get the apron and touch people. And the miracles are happening.

I mean, this brother is walking in a different kind of power. Listen, I pray for miracles, man. I pray for miracles. But ain't nobody getting my shirt and ripen it on somebody and somebody's being healed. Sometimes I pray for people. And I wish this the Spirit of God would fall on them. And every time I prayed for people, people would be healed. And sometimes it happens.

The elders now gather around Elizabeth. She had cancer. She's healed. Ben Williams healed. Joy healed. Amy healed. I mean, I got some names. But most of the time, the normative thing for me is people come and I lay

hands on them and I pray with everything I'm made of. And they say, thank you, pastor. And then they just walk away. They say what's happening in Ephesus, man. People getting healed, demons are fleeing. That's what's going out. One time I did pray for a guy one time. We were doing a prayer and an anointing service. And I prayed for him and he went down, dude. I came to my staff meeting. I said, well, I'm charismatic. I got it. All right. I think he had to do more with him than me. but I don't know. I wasn't going to let go. I took him all the way to the floor. But what Paul's doing is extraordinary. God's flexing at Ephesus. Now check this out.

Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcist. I didn't even know that was a job. That's a job. Like on their W-2, that's what they filled in. We're itinerate Jewish exorcists. That's what they do. They traveled around and they were Jewish and they cast. out demons. That's what they did for living. That's great. And they see what Paul is doing. And they want to be a part of some of that. So then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits. Now here's the problem. Here's what you're going to see. You see, they were adjacent to the power

of Jesus. They had even heard stories of what the name of Jesus could do, but they did not have the spirit of God in them. They wanted the blessing without knowing the blesser. They wanted the gifts of God without knowing the gift giver. They wanted the miracles that they could see without knowing the maker of miracles. It's a very dangerous thing. And so here's what happens. And so they find somebody, it's not hard to find a demon-possessed person. You know what I mean? Go to a Jags game. They're all over the place. And so they find one and they're like, all right, we got a new strategy. you here. You ready for this? Here's that it to do. So they find this person. They undertake to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits. And here's what they say.

So there's a demon's possessed guy. And they say, I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims. That's what they do. Now, by the way, let me just tell you, just because they were sons of a Jewish high priest, you don't get any credit for your last name. God only says first names. There's no group line to get into heaven. It's a single file line. And so not only, maybe they're leaning into their heritage because of who their dad is, we're going to find out a little while. Their dad was a big deal in the synagogue. Or maybe they've heard the stories about what Paul has done, but they don't have a firsthand experience of it.

And here's what happened. So they say, I adjure you by the Jesus who Paul proclaims. Then the seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Skiva were doing this. And then here's what happens. But the evil spirit answered them. I love this. The demons are going to talk to them to jump. Jesus?

I know. Paul, I recognize. But who are you? Ooh. Hey, listen, man, I don't have a lot of experience casting out demons. I've told you I've never exercised the demons as close as ever come. I'm sitting in a seventh grader home from camp one time. I'm going to tell you a couple things.

If you start casting out demons and they talk about you and say, who are you? You better buckle up. You end for the fight of your life. Now, one of the things I do want you to know is that the group of entities in the scripture that always recognized Jesus first and most, it was the demonic. Because they knew exactly who he was. They knew their time was up. They knew he was going to win and they didn't have any questions about who he was.

The sad thing is, is the group of people that were last to recognize. Jesus were the most religious people because he did not fit in their religious box. Now, by the way, I love this part too. They'll be like, yeah, we've heard of Paul. Now, listen, man, I'm a nobody willing to tell anybody about somebody that won't save everybody. That's just me. But I'm going to tell you what, when I die, I hope the demons throw a party.

I thought they're like, praise God, we ain't going to say that. But I hope they say like, we ain't got to mess with that dude anymore. Like somebody, you know what, junior screw tape, you get to take the day off because that brother's in heaven and we can't mess around with him anymore. I mean, what about you? Don't you hope that God uses you in such a way, whether it's big or small, but it's powerful to push back the kingdom of darkness so that the enemy is like, oh, I've heard of him. I've heard about that disciple group.

I heard about that mission trip. I heard about that person praying on their knees in the quiet place for the salvation or their one more. Oh, we've heard about that one. That's what I want. I want to have that kind of reputation in hell where they go, oh, hell no, here comes Jobi. That's what I want. Jesus, I know.

Paul, I recognize. By the way, this is why we call this in the arena. The demons aren't going to recognize the critic that sits in the crowd and just points out how everybody else did something wrong. The enemy is going to be nervous when you and I step into the arena and we get into the fight. But they look at these guys that don't know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They just know that Paul does and they're trying to get credit for, you know, like one step removed. But who are you? See, there's a difference between knowing about and knowing.

And I ask this all the time, church, do you know him? I mean, do you know him? Not just know about him, but do you know him? Because there's some verses in the Bible that should scare you. They scare me. Not about my salvation, but seriously about yours. Because I'm telling you, you look saved. You sound real saved.

When you sing, we sing loud, man. made for more. That's like the anthem around here. I love it. Good job. Way to go. I love it. You do the thing. You look great. Here you are. People got your Bibles. Awake, most of you. But I'm really afraid there's a bunch of people this weekend all over churches, especially in the South. And you are adjacent to what Jesus is doing, but you don't know him. You know about him, but you don't know him. Jesus warns about this in the sermon on the Mount. He closes up the sermon on the Mount with a big old warning. In Matthew chapter 7, he goes, hey, listen, just so everybody knows, many will say to me, Lord, Lord.

And I'm going to say, I don't know you. Not all who claim Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. That's what he says, many. You see, a lot of times at church, they're worried about the atheists, or worried about some liberal politician. I'm worried about you. And you'd be like, yeah, but I went to church. This is immediately what the dudes in Matthew 7 say. Jesus says, many who say to me, Lord, Lord, will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

They will say, but Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not cast out demons in your name? You would think if you're on the exorcism committee, you're probably going to heaven. Did we not do many works in your name? And Jesus is going to say, depart from me, I never knew you. You see, if you thought you could earn a spot in heaven by what you do, it's evidence that you don't know my grace and what I've done for you on the cross. This is what these guys are doing. So he says, depart from me forever, I never knew you.

So here they are, the seven sons of Sceiva, feeling awesome. He says, I adjure you. In the name of Jesus, Paul's guy to come out. And the demon says, all right, Jesus got him. Paul heard of him. And who are you? Looks what happens next. Verse 16.

And the man in whom was the evil spirit leapt on them, mastered all of them, overpowered them, so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. Now there's wounded, then there's wounded. You know what I'm saying? Listen, my dear friend Matt Chandler famously says, if you start a fight with pants and you end a fight with no pants,

you don't have to go to the judge's card, man. Like I'm telling you, like I said, throughout my years, I've been in plenty of fights. I've been on both ends of the exchange. I've won some. I've lost some. Some of them maybe were a draw, understand. But never have I punched somebody or never have been punched so hard.

I go, where are my pants go? Like, that's never happened, man. These brothers, they beat them naked. Seven of them. I don't know how it works in heaven, but if you can, like, DVR some stuff, I want to see this one. You know what I'm saying? All right. Now, now here's...

I am not trying to Jesus juke you too bad here. It is funny. This is funny. It's funny. It's funny. It's funny to get whipped until it's you. It's funny that they get beaten, naked, and wounded until it's you. And you try to fight the enemy in your own power, and you're sort of adjacent to Jesus.

And you've picked up a couple of tips and tricks for going to church for a little while. But the enemy who's here to kill, stealing destroy, he's eating your lunch. And you don't know what to do about it. Here's what I'm talking about. Like if you have relational battles, like your marriage, man, is on the ropes. And you think a little love language book is going to fix it or a communications book is going to fix it.

And those books can be very helpful. They're just don't have the source of power. My Bible says that we're supposed to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. So if you don't have the power of Christ in you, I don't know how to tell you to be married. Husbands, how are you going to love your awareness? wife like Christ loved the church if you have not received the love of Christ and some of you're like

pastor you don't know my wife man she's crazy I'm not saying you didn't poor choose poorly you're like no you don't understand she's so mean when she gets in the presence of puppies they catch on fire and die okay well how about this who's the crazy one with Jesus and his bride right right who's the frustrating one who's who's the who's the who's the one that Christ married that doesn't give him what he wants all the time. And what did he do? Or wives, submit to your husband as unto the Lord? Not because he's submittable to. Listen, I get it, man. He's hairy and nasty and he makes smelly noises and he didn't emotionally graduate from the seventh grade and barely qualifies to live indoors. I understand. I am one. He's not

submittable to. He's unworthy of being submitted to, except Jesus chose him for you and you submit him as unto the Lord. If you're fighting a marriage battle, I promise you it can win because if God can breathe new life into his dead son, he can breathe new life into your dead marriage. I've only seen it happen about a million times around here, but you've got to get Jesus in the middle and you've got to act like it. Or if you've got a family battle, if you don't know the forgiveness of Jesus Christ in a way that you can taste, you'll never be able to forgive your dad for abusing you. But if you know Christ and the forgiveness that he offered you at the Christ,

you won't have any choice but offer unilateral forgiveness, especially to those who don't deserve it. Reconciliation, maybe that has to do with the other party. if they repent, if they are remorseful, if they surrender, then maybe. But forgiveness is an absolute. You see, we come to these battles in our own power. You want to try to raise kids just on good moral standards? Good luck.

Good luck. Is that what you're doing? Are you more concerned about where they're going to spend four years in college than where they're going to spend eternity? Are you just trying to raise good little citizens that you can be proud of? Are you trying to raise disciples of Jesus Christ? I don't know how you raise a kid without the power of Jesus. You realize we have an enemy that's trying to steal, kill, and destroy your child.

And you're going to crazy over the things that are just your own subjective preferences. I don't know how you raise one without being deeply rooted in the spirit of God. That's why it feels futile. Some of you got soul battles. These are the hardest ones to fight sometimes, right? See, first and foremost, you have to be aware that we have an enemy. You have to be aware that we have an enemy. The person that is unaware that they're about to fight will always lose.

You know what a sucker punch is? That's the person that gets punched because they didn't know punching was going to happen. In spiritual warfare, the average American Christian, is the sucker. So guess what? Every morning, ding, ding, here it comes. And the enemy will try to lull us to sleep with apathy. You realize that's a spiritual warfare.

Or have some kind of secret sin that you have hidden away because you think, I got this. You ain't got this, man. You fight the devil in the dark. He'll always kick your butt. That's just what happens. Are you trying to fight your addiction with only some steps and not the power of the spirit of God in you.

And I'm pro steps, man, as long as they're powered by the spirit of God that gives you the power to see yourself the way Christ sees you and where perfect love is, it drives out the demonic. You can't do this on your own. You're powerless to do it. Or fear? Some of you are so gripped by fear.

Okay? And the Bible says that God didn't give it. you a spirit of fear. You realize fear is not a feeling? Fear is not a personality type. I mean, some of you feel out of, you know, my Myers-Briggs is F-E-A-R. No, it's not, dude. You can be cautious and all that's fine, but when you're gripped by fear, that's a spirit that doesn't come from God. But God gives us a spirit of power and of love and of self-control or a sound mind. And you try to fight this thing on your own, you'll lose. If lust is coming after you, I'm telling you, simply having accountability software won't be enough. That's a good

tool if you realize that Christ is more than enough and everything you're looking for in the lust of the flesh can actually be found in him. This is how we have to battle these things. They're all demonic strong couples. If you have battles in the mind, you have to ask yourself, am I conformed to the pattern of this world or have I been transformed by the renewal of my mind? You see, we live in a world that tries to bait us down a road when it comes to, like, sex and money and power and say, this is how we are to do it. And if you don't watch yourself, if you don't constantly identify the lies of the enemy, the strategies, the methodia of the enemy, then the flaming darks will eat you alive. But that we've got to identify the lies of the enemy. We've got to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, that we fill our minds up with the word of God so that the power of the power of,

God can reside in us so that we can take every thought captive when the enemy comes in our minds. When you look in the mirror and you hate who's looking back at you, you got to have the word of God screaming in your ear. Don't you realize you were not your own? You were bought at a price. You got to have the word of God screaming in your ear louder than the advertisements that you see online that let you know that you are fearfully and wonderfully made, that God's works are wonderful, and you better know that full well. This is how you go to war with the power of the Spirit of God. When you begin to have suicidal thoughts,

you immediately have to know that is not the Father in heaven telling you that. No, no, no. He came up with the idea of you, and he don't make junk. He don't make mistakes. And if you could just see you the way he would see you, then you could feel the love that he has lavished upon you.

Somebody had physical battles, cancer. You better have Jesus. Jesus, all up in the middle of that. Whether he decides to heal you on this side of heaven or that side of heaven, one of the things that he does promise is a peace that transcends all understanding. That means you'll be able to walk through life of the peace and somebody's like, how the heck are you making it, man? And you're like, I don't know how to explain it.

Right, because it transcends human understanding. You've got to go to war with power. You got financial battles. Okay. read a Dave Ramsey book. It's great. But if you think a budget is going to fix it, you realize until you deal with the idol

that's sitting on the throne of your life, which is greed, you'll never have victory over this thing because you try to grab onto some stuff and it grabbed on to you, and now you're a slave to it. This is what it's like to fight without power. You fight without power, the power of Christ? You're going to leave naked and wounded. And the power is in the gospel of Christ.

Paul says in Romans 116, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation. And so with the power of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ can save you out of hell and take you to heaven, even though we deserve hell, then don't you think he can get involved in your finances? Don't you think he can get involved in your family relationships? Don't you think he has the power to save your marriage to bring your prodigal kid home? So they get beat down, naked, and wounded. And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus. Well, that's embarrassing for the rest of their life. They're standing in line at Chick-fil-A.

And the guys are like, your last name is Skeva. Yeah. And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And now, I'm going to skip apart just for a second to tell you what, happens, okay? So the gospel begins to take hold. And the word begins to spread. And people don't just get safe. People don't just raise their hands at church and it not changed their life forever. But the Christians in Ephesus were run over by the grace trade. It changed everything about everything about everything about everything. It changed the socioeconomic ethos of the city of Ephesus.

Ephesus isn't some poor little podunk place. You know, it's not Dylan. It's a big deal. It's a port town. They had this temple there to this goddess called Artemis, and they would make these silver shrines, these silver idols. And what began to happen is it was one of the primary money makers of the whole city. The industry of Ephesus was built around this temple, and all the people, all the workers, began to lose money because there were so many Christians in Ephesus acting like disciples of Jesus. They begin to say, we don't believe that gods can be made by hand, so we don't want that. anymore and it got so bad that there was a riot in Ephesus I mean this is incredible you want to talk about a strong start for a church I mean again we think things are going great here because we transformed to Walmart you know this

used to be layaway and now it's the pulpit praise God they transformed a city you understand what I'm saying I mean imagine real quick imagine in the city of Jacksonville if the reason that all the drug dealers went out of business is because there was nobody to buy drugs anymore. Imagine if every strip club shut down because there was nobody to go visit them anymore. Imagine if all the domestic violence ceased because men actually stood up and acted like men

and they began to love. This is the kind of thing that began to happen in this city. So you think it's going awesome, right? What a strong start. Well, years later, about 45 years later, Jesus himself writes a letter to the church at Ephesus. And you got to go to the end of the book. You've got to go to the book of Revelation to find the letter.

And it says this. And I want you to think about power as you read this, as I read this. Revelation 2 says this, to the angel that the Church of Ephesus write, the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lamp sins. I know your works, check. Your toil and your patient endurance, check. And how you cannot bear with those who are evil, check.

Sounds good so far, right? but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not and found them to be fake I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake and you have not grown weary so far so good orthopraxy you're doing good orthodoxy you're doing you're doing orthodoxy you believe good orthopsy you're doing good okay verse four but Jesus says it's got this one thing against you you have abandoned the love you had it first. You see, essentially what happened is the whole church at Ephesus became like the sons of Skiva. You see, the power of the gospel is that you love Jesus because he

first loves you. You know what's hit me like a ton of bricks this year, just studying God's word? I mean, I read it a lot. I have degrees in this stuff. And in John chapter 21, when Jesus is reinstating Peter. Remember Peter denies Jesus three times. I don't know. him. I don't know him the last time he curses. I don't know him. And then Jesus recreates that same type of fire, a charcoal fire. They eat breakfast. He's resurrected at this point. He's going to reinstate Peter. Why? Because there's more grace than Jesus than sin in Peter. Peter thinks he's done. Jesus is like, I ain't done with you. And when he sits him down at the fire, here's the question that he asks. He doesn't ask, are you going to do better? He doesn't open up some verse in Isaiah.

be like, do you believe this? The question that he has, do you love me? Do you love me? I'm telling you, it's extremely challenging for me as a dad and a leader, a boss. Because when people do the wrong thing around me, I typically go to the activity instead of the heart. Jesus goes right to the heart. Peter, the whole core of this thing comes down to one thing, do you love me? Because I have first loved you. And when you receive that love by loving me back, I fill you up with the most powerful thing in all of eternity. You're the same thing, Peter, that caused me to walk out of the grave and sit here and eat a fish sandwich with you for breakfast is the same spirit of God, the power that lives in you. But the only way you can access that is if you love me. Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?

So you know that I love you. He's all right. So because you love me, I got an assignment for you. It didn't go the other way around. He didn't say if you do the thing I assign you, then I'll love you back. It's not how it works. His love comes first. His identity precedes his activity. The church at Ephesus. They did church, man.

They did church. They didn't let false teachers teach and they worked hard and they did all the things. There's just one problem. They don't love Jesus. They had abandoned the love they had it first. And then he says, remember, therefore, from where you have fallen. Like you used to. So what happened?

You grew cold. You've gotten apathetic. That the enemy has baited you down a road and you just begin to assume upon things instead of pursue this relationship. This is like part two of my sermon from two weeks ago. You quit abiding in me. You quit tending the garden

so that you, the branch, would be connected to the vine because apart from me, you can do nothing. And if they go, all right, boss, so what do we do? He goes, I got really good news. repent. It just means turn back around. You're going in the wrong direction. And listen, man, one of the worst things you do, you're going in the wrong direction, so you just go faster. What are we doing? I don't know where we're going, but we're making great time. You dummy.

The most efficient thing is to stop going in the wrong direction. And then he says, listen, this is so great. Repet and do the works. You did it first. In other words, this is like John 15, abide in me, I'll abide in you. There's some branches got to get cut off. There's some branches that got to be pruned. No garden grows on accident. It takes a lot of gospel-driven work to do the things that fan the flame in your heart

so that you can return God's love back to him rightfully. And when you do that, you're walking the kind of power that you used to walk in when the church first got started. That's what he'd say. He said, if not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. Here's what's so cool about the Bible, is that you can see in the Bible what they did at first.

You want to walk in power first and foremost, you better know Jesus. And then here are the things that people surrender to the Lordship of Christ do to continuously stoke the flame of fire of love for Christ and walk in the kind of power that he has for us so that when the enemy steps in front of us, we can stare him down because we know greater is he who lives than me than this snake I'm looking at in front of me. And so this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greek, and look what began to happen. And fear fell upon them all. Church of 1122, may we never lose our reverence for the Almighty God. I mean, listen, grace does not diminish the greatness of God.

Grace gives us eyes to see that he's even bigger and greater. and more holy and more just than I ever dreamed. And I am more unworthy and more sinful and more depraved than I ever dreamed. And grace is so big that it's the only thing in eternity that could bridge the gap from here to there. And for the joy set before him, Christ was willing to come and die on a cross to bring me from here to there. That's what grace is. But may we never lose the fear of God, the reverent service. of God, the majesty of God, the holiness of God. And when you begin to understand how holy and just

and righteous he is, then you'll taste and see how sweet and merciful and gracious he is that he would save a wretch like me and you. And so fear fell upon them all. And here's what they did. The first thing they did, they worshipped in the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. I tell you, one of the first signs of a heart growing cold to Jesus is you quit worshiping. We worship around here. If you were standing next somebody and you're looking at him,

you're like, well, that was weird. That guy's got the hands up and he's crying. He's into it, man. The only way I know to explain it is sometimes when I'm along with Gretchen and I get like eyeball to eyeball with her, sometimes I start telling her

how much I love her and I get all like, I do, man, I get all choked up. It's only a couple things that get me good and that one gives me, man. And if you were to just walk in on this moment and I'm there like, well, she'd be like,

Well, this is awkward. It's because you just walked into an intimate moment. Well, that's what happens. If you see somebody worshiping the face off, tears rolling down their eyes and hands through the roof, you're like, what's that guy into? He's into returning God's love back to him through the act of worship. Listen, worship is war. Does you realize every time we worship, what we're saying is, Satan, we ain't worshiping you.

And you're also saying, self, I ain't worshipping me. I'm worshiping you, the God of the universe. And here's where I think this quote, the in the arena quote that we're using, I think this is where it is. Listen to this. For those of you that choose to worship with your mouth closed and your hands in your pockets and you look like a mannequin, and especially all of you online keyboard warriors and critics, it is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles

or whether doer of deeds could have done better. It's not the podcaster or the keyboard chat room warrior that criticizes worship or refuses to open his mouth or lift his hands to the one who spoke you into existence and spread his arm out on a cross. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena. When we worship, get in the arena, man. You want to experience the power of God?

Extol the name of Jesus. And you're like, well, I don't like that song. We're singing to you. I mean, can you imagine the Israelites? heading to the temple with the song of ascension. And they'd be like, hey, Levi, how come he ain't singing? I don't like this one. I'm only singing Psalm 28.

You know what I mean? But sing, boy. It's war. You stole the name of Jesus. And if you're not into it, get into it. Like, I dare you. Lift up your hands. See what happens to the rest of you.

Open your mouth. Sing loud. This is what they did. In the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. And also many of those who are now believers, they came. That means they came together. Hey, man, for those, something like a thousand of you just joined a disciple group in the follow me series. Way to go, man.

Way to go. God's going to bless that. I'm telling you. You can't do this thing on your own. My friend Kyle Thomas says, I call him Matt Carriers. He says, you need some foxhole brothers. He says there's a difference between 6 p.m. friends and 3 a.m. friends. right? You know what I'm talking about? Some people you call it 6 p.m. They're good. You need some people

you can call it 3 a.m. Some people will help you move. Some people will help you move a body. That's what I'm talking about. You can't do this thing alone. And they didn't just get together and play golf. Now that might be a way that you build the Foxhole brothers. There's no problem there. But look what they did when they got together. So the first thing that did was worship. The second they did is they were in fellowship together. The third thing they did is they were actually honest. And many of those who were now believers came together confessing and divulging their practices. Church is the worst place to be fake. And people do it more than anywhere else.

You get a bad case of the finitis at church, you know what I'm saying? Just everybody looks good, dressed up, come to church. How y'all doing? We just blessed and highly favored. Really? Because your life looks like the end of a Denzel movie. Like you're just walking away in slow mo and everything. everything's on fire. But here we are. Now, I'm not saying you got to tell every detail with every,

you know, greeter. How are you doing? Well, I've had some serious, you know, explosive diarrhea this week. Don't mean that guy either. But with a small group of people that you love and trust, listen, you want to be free? You better learn to be honest. They're divulging, practices that they're embarrassed of, man, that the enemy wants to try to shame them over. Gross things grow in the dark. You know how much freedom there is? When you just admit out loud, I'm really struggling.

I've told you a million times before. Okay, I'm 51 years old. I got saved in high school. I thought I would be much further along in my sanctification process than I am right now. and because of God's grace and your generosity, I do this professionally 70 hours a week or so. Just read and study my Bible and lead people

and I'm surrounded by Christians. And the same things that tempted me when I was 15 tipped me at 51. And you're like, is he talking about? That's exactly what I'm talking about. That seems crazy, right? Well, the worst thing you can do is try to hide that thing and then the enemy's like,

ha ha, ha, yeah, you keep hiding it. You keep hiding it. Because that little lizard that you're trying to hide under your bed is going to turn into a dragon one day and he's going to eat your lunch. The greatest thing you can do when the enemy accuses you

is just agree with him. That's what I do. When the enemy is like, who do you think you are, stay in front of all these people and talk about these things? And I'm like, I know, right? There's no qualification that I have

except Christ chose me. So you want to take it up with him? Then be my guess. And you've only seen the tape. I know the crazy play is going on in my head. Yeah, man, you want to be free? You've got to be honest. They were confessing and divulging their practices.

And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. They didn't play around with sin. They didn't play around with sin. All their tarot cards and their Ouija boards and their magic books and their horoscopes and their whatever, man. They took the things that were of the world

that they had been a part of and they brought them publicly and they burned the books. I'm not into book burning per se, but I am into eye gouging and hand cutting and doing whatever it takes to kill the sending your life before it kills you. They were serious about it. Listen, this beach baptism,

based on my understanding of what happened in the first century, early church baptisms, we added a little discussion out there in the water. That's gonna be a part of it from now on. And from now on, as we baptize people, we don't only ask them who is Jesus, but in the first century, they would ask a version of this question. Do you renounce the sins of your past, the ways of this world, and any connection with things that are dark and demonic, and pledge your allegiance to Christ

and Christ alone? That it was a cutting off of any of those kind of ties that you have to the flesh, this world, and the demonic, and saying that Jesus rules and reigns in my life. This is what they're doing. Have you done that? You see there's some things. Let me give you one really practical. Some of you're married right now and your marriage is going okay. But the bedroom's not. And a part of the reason is because you didn't do it God's way when you were dating and you thought it would just get fixed when you got married. And what you needed to do husbands and say, that's my bad. That's my bad. I didn't love you the way Christ loves me because love is patient and I was impatient. And I know that we're married now, but I need to lead us to the altar and

knees and say, Father, would you forgive me for my past sins and I renounce my selfishness back then? And I can't do anything about my past, but learn from it and be forgiven of it. But would the blood of Christ cleanse us right now? And I'm telling you, there's a breaking of some demonic stuff that was back there that you've drugged into here and it's dragging down your right now. This is the freedom that the power of the resurrected Christ gives us. This is the kind of thing we're talking about.

They were honest, they divulged their practices, they take these demonic books and they burn them and then check this out. And they counted the value of them, they found it came to 50,000 pieces of silver. This is about $7 million. A part of the thing that stirred the heart of the early church in Ephesus is that they weren't owned by the things that they owned. They loved Jesus more than the monetary value of the things that they had. they were more interested of being generous towards the kingdom of God to push back darkness than they were the temporary things of this world it drove them to be wide open and saying here lord take take it all take it all take it all and so the word of the Lord continued to increase

and prevail mightily and they were tethered to the word of God and as they dove into the Word of God, the Word of God poured into them, but not just into them, but through them. Listen, you want to know the Word of God? You get real serious about trying to teach somebody else the Word of God. Then all of a sudden, those words you skip over because you don't know what they mean. You try to teach it to somebody else, and all of a sudden you're going to know it different. You understand what I'm saying. And they were tethered to the Word of God. And in the beginning, that's what they did. So let me ask you, the fights that you're in, whatever it is. Financial, relational, mental.

Are you getting your butt kicked? Are you like the seven sons of Sceiva that are just trying some tips and tricks? And you think if you come to church of a couple of times, that's going to do it? Well, I'm saying there is power for you to walk in victory through the spirit of God that lives in you if you're a believer in Christ. And we were made for more, man. We weren't made to be tended to grave. We were made to walk in the grace that Christ has for us. And nothing's ever going to change if you sit in the side of the world.

lines and you'll get in the arena and fight. So listen, what they did in Ephesus, they extolled Jesus, they came together, they confessed, they repented, they prayed, they gave. Does that sound familiar? You think the way we end these services is my idea? You think it's some kind of strategy to grow a church? No, man, that's the prescription of the new. Testament on what the believer does. Every single week, the way we close our services, and I know some of you try to scoot out of here early, you're missing it. I'm just telling you, I'm not trying to guilt you, I'm trying to shepherd you, okay?

The thing that we're about to do is what Jesus told the church at Ephesus to return to is we're going to extol the name of Jesus. We're going to sing a song that starts out. There's power in the name of Jesus to break every chain. So if you don't need chains broken or you don't love anybody that needs chains broken, yeah, just scoot on out, man. The talk's about to be over in one minute and 40 seconds or so. But if you want the power of God, maybe not just for your sake.

Maybe if everything's going okay in your life right now, maybe you could join the rest of us in praying for some folks that need chains broken. Because when we gather together in the name of Jesus, the princess of God is here, so we're going to extol the name and we're going to pray. And not just say our prayers. You know the difference, right? I'm talking about go to war on behalf of some people that are losing the fight. And if you're in the fight, maybe you would come and you would kneel.

You know what's keeping you from doing that? It's probably pride. I'm probably more concerned about what other people are going to think about you if you come down here. Honestly, only everybody's going to think is, oh, good, there's a human that needs Jesus. Me too. Me too. And I would highly encourage you. Don't come alone, man.

Why don't you bring a friend and say, would you please pray for me? Devulge some practices. Ask for the power of God to move in you. Confess, I don't want to be like the sons of Sceva that it's just trying tips and tricks from Christian culture. for this fight. I need the power of God in my life. And be generous. We bring to God our first and our best. We will not be defined by what this world says is successful with how much stuff you die with. No, no, no, no, no. But where our treasure is, our heart will be also. And we will bring our first and best to the Lord because he is first and he is best. And where our treasure goes, our heart goes. And we want to say, God, we want you to rule and reign in our life.

And this is war against the enemy. There is power in the name of Jesus to break every chain. The chains of greed, the chains of self-hatred, the chains of addiction, the chains of unforgiveness, the chains of shame, the chains of abuse, the chains of condemnation that the enemy whispers over and over and over. And Jesus's invitation is simply this, do you love me? And if you say, yes, Lord, I love you. Then I want you to walk in the kind of power to worship him. He stole his name.

Be real about what's going on, because the real Jesus is done on the real cross for the real you. Be radically generous so that the world can't grab on to the greedy, selfish handles that we all have when we're enamored by the shiny things of this world. and walk in that kind of freedom. And join me for praying for all kind of people that today chains would be broken. Lives would be changed. Marriages would be restored.

Prodigals would come home. Depression and fear would flee that people would mark this day as the day that changed everything to the glory of God. Would you please stand? pray. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you because you first loved us. Lord, I thank you that in order for us to be 100% sure of your love, we don't look at our

circumstances. We look through the cross that God, you have already demonstrated your love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, that you sent your son Jesus to die on the cross and not so that we can be satisfied with simply being saved. But God, the moment you rescue, us. You called us to be a part of the rescue team. And Lord, you know, you know every fight that every man, woman, and student is going through right now. And yet, God, you are sovereign and you rule and reign. And God, we are not to be the victims. We are to be victorious because we walk in the power of the blood of Jesus. There is power, power, wonderworking power in the blood of Jesus. So God, may we not be powerless, Christless church attenders,

but may we be powerful, we love you, followers of you. And Lord, we want you to move, and we need you to move. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. So we're going to respond. We're going to extol the name of Jesus with everything we're made of. We are declaring war on the enemy. He can't have anybody here, any out of our campuses, anybody listening.

and anywhere. He can't have our kids. He can't have our loved ones. He can't, man. He don't get it. And we're going to pray. I dare you to come together and repent and divulge and say, something's got to be different. And bring, first and best. Say, Lord, like the kid with a little bit, I'm going to give you what I got and I trust you to do extraordinary miracles that your name would be heard everywhere, everywhere, everywhere. Let's sing, let's bring, let's pray. Let's respond. Thank you.