Hello and welcome back to the Potter's House
Seminar Podcast. This is a special series from
our Prescott Conference that just recently occurred.
The theme of the conference was Into the Unknown
and the scripture for the theme was Romans 15,
20 -21. I have made it my aim to preach the gospel
to whom he was not announced. So this is a powerful
series of... sermons from leaders in our fellowship
to include Greg Mitchell, Joe Campbell, Richard
Ruby, Sergei Golubev, and others along with that.
So please enjoy and listen along to these powerful
sermons from leaders in our fellowship. What
an honor, privilege to be here this morning.
The grace of God, we serve an incredible God.
I was thinking it's a shame that there wasn't
altar calls after each of those morning sessions.
In all seriousness, you don't want to lose what
was preached. That first session, second session,
whether that sense of entitlement, you say, God,
when we have an altar call after this message,
make sure that you include. your prayers, because
if you let God help you, it'll change your whole
life. Pastor Heimberg, the inspiration to be
a missionary, the weight of that, the potential
of that, you don't want to let that just hear
it and get lost. So this altar call, I would
include that in your prayers. Ephesians chapter
3, verse 14. To 19 is what I want to preach from.
I have a niece whose body has betrayed her. She
had a stroke at a very young age. She's a real
trooper. She's now a young lady, a budding artist,
but has to deal often with pain. She has many
physical challenges, has gone from operation
to operation, some good, some botched. She was
talking to Carol just the other day. I was in
the car. There's a little bit of an echo here,
brother. I was in the car and Carol was talking
to her and I asked to pray for her and I prayed
the words that I had read that morning that she
would be strengthened in her inner man. That
while her body was working against her, frustrating,
impeding, that her inner being would become massive,
victorious, strong, resolute, free, unstoppable,
filled with life and revelation that she would
be full of God. The Apostle Paul has prayed the
same prayer for you, for me. For every minister,
every pastor, every child of God, he is so passionate
about this prayer, we find him bowing, the once
proud Jew, kneeling, understanding that if we,
that you, me, if we're to carry out what God
has for us, your ministry, your marriage, your
life, your home, your future, you must, be strengthened
in your inner man. Now this passage, when I was
drawn to it, began to, it's deeper than I first
thought. It has blessed me, this message, putting
it together has done a work in me and I hope
that as I, well not I hope, I know that as I
minister it, God would minister to you because
our text says, that you will be strengthened
in your inner man, that Christ may dwell, that
you may be filled with the fullness of God. That's
absolutely transforming of anything that we would
do or touch or be. Ephesians chapter three, let's
read the apostles' prayer together. Verse 14,
for this reason I bow my knees to the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. from whom the whole
family in heaven and earth is named, that he
would grant you, according to the riches of his
glory, to be strengthened with might through
his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may
dwell in your hearts through faith, that you,
being rooted and grounded in love, may be able
to comprehend with all the saints what is the
width, the length, the depth, the height, to
know the love of Christ, which passes all knowledge.
which passes knowledge that you may be filled
with all the fullness of God. Let's consider
the inner man firstly this morning. Now we understand
our makeup. We know this from 1 Thessalonians
5 .23. May the God of peace himself sanctify
you completely and may your whole spirit, soul,
and body be preserved blameless. in our text
is focusing in on your soul, you, your inner
being. I delight in the law of God according
to the inward man, Romans 7 .22, 2 Corinthians
4 .16. We do not lose heart even though our outward
man is perishing, yet the inward man is being
renewed day by day. We're focusing this morning
on the hidden person of your heart. Our inner
self. And Paul is suggesting that it needs to
be strengthened in order that Christ could dwell
and ultimately we would be filled with the fullness
of God. That you may be filled with the fullness
of God. What a thought. What an incredible thought,
if only. How different life is. would be to be
filled with his strength, to see how he sees,
to know the power of your words, to bring change
like his words, his wisdom, direction to know
what to do in situations, situations, people,
to have a right heart. A good attitude. We're
talking about reacting to the world around you,
to people around you, life around you, like Christ
would. What a thought. That it is possible to
be filled with the fullness of God and you respond
to life. To say our inner man needs strengthening
is therefore to imply in its natural state, it's
weak. Now the root word there of strengthening
is the word kratos. It literally means braced.
So when it's talking about being strengthened,
it's not talking about being made stronger like
physical training perhaps, but to be reinforced,
to be fortified. Now my, Carol and myself, we're
having our house. We're doing renovations in
our house. It's quite a big job. We're putting
on a bit of an extension on the back of our house.
And so we've actually moved out. We've been living
with my daughter and my son -in -law. They've
been very gracious and will shout out to you.
Thank you very much for your Christianity and
your mercy. But we moved out. We've been living
with them for a little while because it's a reasonably
big job. Now, what they did is they... Houses
in England, our house at least, is built probably
the early 1900s, 1920. And so when the builder
came in and he took down the wall to then obviously
clear out the inside and then build the extension...
I can't remember if I got a call or what it was,
a picture, but he was absolutely, he freaked
out because they obviously removed the bricks
and holding up the upper part of my house, whereas
if we were there, we would have been living,
was on a wooden beam that was on this tiny little,
I don't know what the building term is, little
bits of concrete, and this wooden beam is perched
on it, holding up the top of the house, and it's
bending. And so they've removed the bricks. Obviously,
we would never have known because it's all underneath.
So we removed the bricks and all of a sudden,
it's like, it's my house. And he was absolutely
freaked out and they got, I don't know what the
technical term in building is, and I should have
brought a picture, but they jacked it up. They
put underneath. and put up these things that
held up the wooden beam, these metal posts to
put it up there until they could eventually put
a steel beam in it and we could move on. That's
strengthening. That's bracing. That's reinforcing.
The context of our text is for Christ to move
in. that he may dwell. Now, I know he's already
in you because you have first believed, but there
are, the Apostle Paul is alluding, there are
rooms in your heart that are unsafe to enter
into. They're unlivable. They're not the place
for a king. Now, it's not about cleansing. It's
not about our souls need to be clean enough for
him to move in and that's perhaps another message.
But Paul is talking about there are parts of
your inner man that need bracing up, that need
strengthening. There are beams, if you like,
in your soul that are bending because of the
weights that you're carrying. You are carrying
things you should not be carrying in your inner
man. And your heart, there are places in your
heart that are unlivable. The apostle Paul is
saying the stronger your inner man. The more
rooms, if you like, of your soul that are braced
and strengthened with might, the more access
Jesus has, the more he fills the house with his
presence. What potential, what hope? Alistair
McLaren in his commentator said this, and he
will come into that feeble, vacillating, wayward
will of yours. that is only obstinate in its
adherence to evil. And he will make it strong
to do good. He will come into that troubled,
anxious, agitated heart of yours and will bring
his own peace, which will hush it into a calm
and establish it upon the foundation. of his
own steadfastness. He will come into the innermost
spirit of your spirit and there in the depth
of your being will wield his mighty influence
so this divine spirit will go searching every
corner of the inner man, illuminating and invigorating
it all. I want to tell you it is so easy. to
be caught up in the outward. It is so easy to
be concerned with life on the outward. There's
an old book that most of us have read, Ordering
Your Private World. Gordon MacDonald, a young
pastor, read that the other day, called me. He
said, Pastor, I have no idea, just getting caught
up in life, how much I've stopped focusing on
my inner man. Paul wants to... wants to give
you words to transform your life. You want to
transform your life? I mean, seriously, you want
to transform your walk, your marriage, your ministry?
Then Paul says you need to ask God to strengthen
the inward. We're talking about God's influence.
Our text says, secondly, it is through his spirit.
This building project of our soul. is gonna be
done through his spirit. Now to understand what
we're looking at, we've gotta go to the beginning
when God created man. The Bible says, and the
Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life, Genesis 2, 7, and man became a living being.
God created us in his image, mankind in his image,
a spiritual being. We're not a body with a spirit.
We are a spirit with a body. He breathed the
spirit of life. Thus our spirit, Adam's spirit,
came from God. And as the spirit quickened the
body, filled the body, the Bible says man was
now made a living soul. Now he became conscious
of himself. Now he has the power of self -determination,
choosing or refusing. He now has the ability
to relate to what it is around him, to interact
with the world that he lives, his thought processes,
his emotions, his will, the soul. Man became
a living soul is the central power and yet with
the intent of creation, His soul was to be governed,
you can use the word led, by the Spirit of God.
God, through man's spirit, was going to fill
his spirit. Man is a spiritual being, contact
with God, spiritual, a spiritual being. Through
his spirit, God was going to influence, fellowship
with, inspire. direct control. He was going to
move on him and influence how he related to the
world through his body. His decisions, his attitude,
his actions, his thinking. We're talking about
man walking in perfect interaction with the world
around him, his soul. mind, emotions, will, his
inner being, God filling his spirit, influencing
now through his body, interacting with the world
and making decisions. When man sinned by eating
the fruit, they came upon him the knowledge of
good and evil. He was now going to decide for
himself right and wrong. And he died. God was
no longer in his spirit. His spirit is dead,
fallen. He's now become a mortal being. His soul,
his inner man is now influenced by a base nature,
a fallen nature, his natural senses. This is
now going to be his way of relating to the world.
His urges often based dark against God, decisions
influenced by what he's seeing and feeling, conclusions
embraced, emotions inflamed. And Paul is writing
and he's saying to the Christian, God wants to
have influence again. Think about who Adam was
before the fall. What incredible, what an incredible
soul he had. What incredible man, what incredible
power. He was given a task to have dominion,
to subdue the whole earth, to name all of creation.
What capacity. He's naming animals and insects,
he's naming birds and remembering them. Some
of us can hardly remember our own children. What
a mind. What ability. God, Adam. Walking in dominion.
His spirit filled with God's spirit. Adam, this
way. His soul empowered by God. And now I'm thinking
of our tasks. I'm thinking about our ministry.
I'm thinking about how easily we face life and
we're so easily overwhelmed. Financial problems,
people problems, crises. We question ourselves
on the ability to disciple men decisions. But
yet Paul is saying it is possible that your spirit
again can be filled with God and with that nothing
will be impossible. What God has called you to
do. My brother, my sister, God. And I understand
when Adam was to rule the world, his soul was
not having to deal with the fall of flesh. And
I understand whilst we will always have this
battle. Oh, wretched man that I am, Paul said
in Romans 7, who will deliver me from this body
of death. I thank God through Jesus Christ, our
Lord. So then with the mind, I myself serve the
law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin.
He said, I understand there's always gonna be
a battle, but listen, I'm talking about Paul's
optimism here. I'm talking about Paul bowing,
so moved because he prays that you would be so
strengthened, Christ would move in. I don't know,
I thought that was quite good. That's all right.
Amen, that's all right. That Christ would move
in. Amen. That's powerful. That's life changing.
You know, there was a kid that fell into a big
barrel of chocolate. Huge barrel. He began to
pray. He said, oh Lord. make my capacity equal
to this opportunity? That's what we're praying.
Oh God, oh God, strengthen my inner man. Enter
into the rooms of my heart that are unsafe, that
have been weakened over time or circumstance.
or life. Strengthen my soul, Lord. There's a
book I just read, a very small book, Why God
Used D .L. Moody by R .A. Torrey, and I was drawn
to a quote that describes Moody, one of the greatest
preachers of all time, walking down Wall Street
in New York City when he was suddenly overwhelmed
by the presence of God. He was so overwhelmed,
he had to hurry to a friend's house. and ask
for a private room where he describes it as,
the Holy Spirit came upon me, filling my soul
with such joy that at last I had to ask God to
withhold his hand lest I die on the spot from
very joy. Paul said, oh, that Christ may dwell.
In your hearts through faith. The subject of
the prayer is not, is he in you? Because he's
in you if you're born again. But is he at home?
A worst paraphrase says that Christ may finally
settle down and feel completely at home in your
hearts. Now, I don't know about you. How do you
feel about that? Christ, would you feel at home
in my heart? I don't know about you, but perhaps
that makes us, me, you, you, because I'm preaching
to you, just a little uneasy. I suspect that
if this is done properly, it's a little harder.
I'm aware of certain things. I'm probably unaware
of much that he might walk into. So why am I
uneasy? Why are you uneasy if you really grasp
the thought of Christ filling your heart? Because
perhaps 1 John 4, 18, we're not yet made perfect
in love. You know, we've all been to various
homes. You walk into a home and you can feel
in some homes it's warm. There's a joy. It's
easy to be there. There's others you walk in
and there's an undercurrent of tension. And now
we're coming to the crutch, whatever the word
is. I knew I was going to muck that up. Now we're
coming to the real issue of the matter. This
is what Paul's talking about. He's talking about
love. We were created to love and be loved. So
these rooms in your soul, we're talking the damaged
ones that we're looking at. We're asking you
the question, how are you in your inner being
with love? How do you relate to love? How do
you give it? How do you receive? Are you uneasy
with it? Is there a tension when it comes to
relationships? Conflict? Sister, are you always
in conflict? Arms length? You just keep people
at arm's length. You're not a bad man. You're
not a wicked. You're just uncomfortable. You've
got some smashed up rooms in there. You've got
some punch holes in the wall. where you've been
hurt and you've been frustrated. There's a lot
of anger in some places, bitterness, pride, smoldering
fear. You have a fear of people, fear of getting
hurt again. How is your inner man with love?
How is your inner being? That's what Paul's talking
about. I'm closing because what God's intent
is, is that we would become comfortable with
love. I'll tell you, that's not easy. It's not
an accident that the Apostle Paul begins this
text bowing to the Father. From whom the whole
family is named. The context of everything that
we've just read starts off with God being a father
to a family. The setting of our text is a father
to a family. We know the challenge. How can you
love God and not your brethren? We understand
the challenge. We understand that actually love
is expressed in reality. Oh, Pastor, I love people.
Okay, well, that's good. But in reality, it plays
out in our churches. It plays out in the nursery.
It plays out in the ministry team. It plays out
in your relationship with your pastor. It plays
out with pastor's wife, with other pastor's wives.
It plays out with brothers and sisters, in your
marriage to your children. And Paul the Apostle
is starting off with a father's sacrificial love
is being expressed. I was talking to a pastor
in the UK and Michael Murphy, and he was speaking
to me. And he said to me, he said, Pastor, he
said, well, I came to church. I know this is
not uncommon, but he said, I had no idea what
a father's love looked like. I didn't know what
a father's love even looked like. had it. I'd
never felt it. I didn't know what it meant. When
he was smaller, his mum would send him to the
shop with a small amount of money and with a
long list and he was expected to steal what he
couldn't pay for. He was raised in dysfunction.
He said, we were having dinner together, he said,
I remember, Pastor, the first thing, you just
put your arm around me. And he said, I froze.
I didn't know what to do. He had no file in his
head for a father's affection. And it's not just
the fatherless. Many have been affected. Grown
up with a lack of touch. Not embraced as a child.
We grew up too quick. Grew up with harshness.
I was in an airport. A little while ago in Jamaica
and I'm sitting there and I'm watching a father
and he's got his young boy there and they're
getting some chicken and so forth and so on.
And just the way he spoke to his son, I said,
I've heard that before. If you ask the father,
do you love your son? I'm sure he'd say, of course
I do. But had no idea how to express it apart
from being harsh. Apart from words that just
cut. It makes someone feel stupid. There are
others that have grown up with huge expectations
upon you as a young child to be a carer for someone
that was sick, to carry a family with education.
You were sent to be educated so you would carry
the financial burden and load of your extended
family. There are huge wounds to the soul. That
many live with a feeling and a sense of failure,
often bitterness. There are rooms in your soul
that are messed up. You've got beams that are
hanging down. And it's all to do, and it's possible,
to not have an easy relationship with love. You
ever seen a young lady struggle with motherhood?
Something that should be so natural, but yet
to her it's not. Oh, she wants it, she knows
it, she just can't feel it. This bond, a deep
affection, a connection. Somewhere the room is
closed down. Somewhere there's a beam hanging.
Can't function here. Ever seen a husband? He's
a good man. He sacrifices for his family. He's
a good man. But yet when you watch him with his
wife, there is no warmth. He leads. He leads
by the head. He leads with authority, maybe even
a bit of harshness. But it's like he's detached.
It's like he can't feel empathy, kindness, gentleness.
He's struggling with love. Pastors, God has raised
us up. We're not evil. We're doing our best.
But at home, the children are never good enough.
The wife is left alone. When we disciple men
and work with men, we're kind of distant. Everything
is about business. Everything's a little awkward.
It's easier to correct and instruct than enjoy.
It's easier to teach than to laugh with. Put
an arm around a shoulder. It's a weakened area
in our soul. You know, England needs your prayers.
The UK needs your prayers. We are going to have
a revival. where God raised up men, women, centuries
ago that touched the world. God, we need you
to remember that and have mercy upon our nation.
We have a prime minister, not good, and recently
one of our bases, the RAF base, was breached
by protesters, a group called Palestine Action.
I mean, they jumped over a little wooden fence.
My goodness, Lord have mercy. Sprayed and ruined
a few of the planes there. But it brought up
the fact that Keir Starmer, our Prime Minister
years ago, used to be a lawyer and a solicitor,
and he defended a man who had sabotaged US bombers
in a protest. Now, his defence, and Keir Starmer
defended him, was that he was stopping planes
from committing war crimes. Now, the article
that I read went on to say this, because you
don't judge a surgeon. So in other words, they're
defending Keir Starmer. Listen, okay, he defended
this guy for what he did, but you don't judge
a surgeon by their patience. You don't judge
a journalist by who they interview or a lawyer
by their clients. In other words, it's not Keir
Starmer's fault that he defended such a man.
And I think that is true. We lift our churches
up. We lift our successes up to validate our
lives. But as one man said, God does not look
at the greatness of our works, but at the love
with which they were done. You cannot separate
the great commission from the great commandment.
In my Bible, I've written a quote from an author.
I was driven by my fear of failure and by cruel
ambition that left no room for compassion for
anyone. Paul the Apostle is giving us, he's giving
us an understanding, an aim, a progression that
is so powerful, so transforming that your life
and your ministry may never be the same. Your
family, your marriage, your church, our fellowship.
He says to be strengthened. We've looked at that.
with might through his spirit in the inner man,
that you would be strengthened, that Christ may
dwell in your hearts through faith, that you,
now Christ is in, the aim of Christ in is that
you being rooted and grounded in love, like a
tree with deep roots in a storm, like a house
with a proper foundation. Christ will come into
your heart to make you secure in love. Christ
wants to brace your soul. He wants to enter into
those rooms. He wants to heal them, fix them,
repair them, strengthen them so that you would
be comfortable with intimacy. You would be comfortable.
in relationships. You'd be comfortable with closeness,
empathy, patience. That the aim of your life
would be to love others, friends, family, church,
pastors, others, the lost. And as we give of
ourselves, realizing that there are wounds and
there are things that are broken within us, and
we will say, no, Lord, I'm not going to run from
love. I'm not going to cover over it with business.
I'm not going to excuse myself, my attitude.
I'm going to learn it. I'm going to improve it.
I'm going to let you, Christ, I want to make
love the great foundation of my life. Then it
says, if you do that, that Christ may dwell.
In your hearts through faith that you being rooted
and grounded in love may be able to comprehend
with all the saints what is the width and the
length and the depth and the height to know the
love of Christ which passes knowledge. Listen,
as you let Christ enter into your soul, you go
to those areas and you say, Lord Jesus, fix it,
heal it. Brace it, strengthen it. He says he
will begin to dwell and fill those traumas and
begin to fill. And then he says it is possible
once you're comfortable with love to begin to
experience and learn of and grow in a love so
powerful that when it fills your soul. You ever
had those moments when God does fill you with
his love? Isn't it unbelievable? You just love
everybody. I mean, you want to hug everybody.
People that you, normally you just see problems.
Now you just see, normally you just see issues
and this and that. I want to tell you, when you
get filled with God's love, when you have those
moments, you love everybody. The church man is
the great, you just, and it doesn't end there.
He says that you. that you would be filled to
know the love of Christ, which passes all knowledge,
that you may be filled with the fullness of God.
All that he is working within you. No wonder
greater is he who is in you than is in the world.
You feel overwhelmed by ministry, brother. You've
lost your heart for ministry, sister. Amen. You're
overwhelmed. Adam was to conquer the world. What
is your calling? Pastor, ministry, pillar. It
seems so big. And yet the nature of the power,
one man said, I'm convinced is love. It's unconquerable.
One man said this, I tried to learn how to love,
but love can't flow by the letter. Love is to
flow forth from our spirit. I'm talking about
this. Another word for that word strengthen,
I'm closing now, is the word fortify. Christians
in love are like a fort. You're strong on the
inside. You're impregnable. Pastor Mitchell used
to say, you can have as much of God as you want.
And it starts with strengthen my inner man. I'm
not going to make excuses for my bad attitude
anymore, God. Why I'm always fighting. Why I'm
always sharp with my words. Why I'm always quick
to... cut someone down, why I'm always filled
with everyone else's negativity. I'm not going
to just say this is the way I am. I don't know
how to be close to people without fear. It's
the way I've always been. I'm not going to live
like this anymore, God. I'm going to make it
my aim to have you come in, Lord. and strengthen
my inner man and dwell within me, that I would
learn to become secure in love, that I would
grow then in a revelation of the love of God
and thus be filled with the Spirit of God. It'll
change our ministry. It'll change our lives.
It'll empower you to do the will of God. The
secret of the Lord is with those who fear him,
and he will show them his covenant. God wants
you to be secure in him. Let's bow our heads
together. Heads are bowed, our eyes are closed,
waiting in the presence of God. I pray, Holy
Spirit, confirm the word. I said in the very
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