— Brother Phil Enlow: I don’t believe that I have had any particular agenda, or sense that, hey, we’re gonna preach this and then it’s gonna lead to this and this and this, and so forth, but it seems like the Lord has had one. And, it seems like I’ll think about…well, last Sunday was this and this is what’s on my mind today.
And then I’d realize there’s a connection, and there’s an unfolding of truth about what the Lord has for us, the relationship that He wants with us. And, one thing I noticed, several times over the last two or three weeks, we used a lot of Colossians, a lot of the teachings of Paul in Colossians, and I’ve stopped at a certain point. And I believe the Lord wants us to go beyond that point today, and deal with one thing in particular.
But, I’m gonna start in an unusual place, and it’s over in Psalm 133. How many of you use the chronological Bible for Bible reading? How many of you who do have wondered about the day, I think a couple of days ago, when the entire Bible reading was Psalm 133? You know, usually it’s two or three chapters, or something like that, and all of a sudden, one day, Psalm 133. I remember that every year. Oh yeah, this is the day I have three whole verses to read. But what significant verses they are! Praise God!
And I’m gonna go ahead today and do something a little different. I’m gonna use the NLT. You know, I think it’s a good way to, sometimes, get a slightly different, clearer sense, with a different translation.
You know, language is a funny thing. It is nigh impossible to take thoughts from one language to another, and really convey everything. So, it’s a real job. But I believe the Lord can help us to get what He wants out of it.
Anyway, this is a well-known scripture to us. “How wonderful and pleasant it is when brothers live together in harmony! For harmony is as precious as the anointing oil that was poured over Aaron’s head, that ran down his beard and onto the border of his robe. Harmony is as refreshing as the dew from Mount Hermon that falls on the mountains of Zion. And there the Lord has pronounced his blessing, even life everlasting.” (NLT).
And the thing that drew me to this scripture, even before I got to that Bible reading, in the last day or two, my mind went to this scripture as a lead-in. Because, I believe what the Lord desires us to realize is that, again, He has not called us to a lifestyle but to a life, not called us to a religion but to a relationship that is founded upon His character, that is an expression of literally of His life.
And He likens it, as we’ve so often said, to abiding in a vine, where there is a literal—literal connection, between us and Him where it is His life that flows into ours and because of that, fruit is produced. And if you and I try to produce fruit of being a Christian any other way, it’s not gonna be—not gonna be what He wants. It’s gonna be something, anyway, way short!
But anyway, let’s go back to Colossians and I want to go ahead and read what I didn’t read in past messages. And, then I’m gonna go back and try to put this in a deeper context. You know, we came to the middle of, or toward the end of chapter 3, talking about what it means to express the life of Christ. And, we’ll get back to that in a minute, but we came to a point where I stopped with, “And whatever…” verse 17, “…whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father.”
Then you get to some practical applications of this. “Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting for those who belong to the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly. Children, always obey your parents, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not aggravate your children, or they will become discouraged.”
And then it goes on and talks about slaves and masters, which isn’t directly relevant except that we also have employees and bosses. So, in that sense, it is. But what Paul is doing is kind of getting this down to a level where we’re gonna really find out what we have.
You know, the reality is we could come together and, basically, present a face to one another, and act and react toward one another in harmony with this. We’re not robbing banks, we’re not doing terrible things, we’re not having open fights and all that sort of stuff and it appears like everything is wonderful when we’re here together. But you know where it really…where the rubber really meets the road is in the home. You know, we say, oftentimes, what you really are is what you are when you’re totally by yourself, and that’s true. But I’ll tell you, where what we are comes out is really in the home.
( congregational amens ).
And you could look at that and at what I just read and it’s almost…it’s really an outline, because he enlarges on this over in the book of Ephesians, in particular. But, there’s so much more. As I was thinking about this, there’s so much…it’s so much deeper than what we do and what are the rules? I mean, how is…what is this lifestyle like? How are we supposed to behave toward one another? What are our roles? And if you look at it on that superficial level, I believe we miss what God is after. Now, think about what He says over in Psalm 133. What is the result of brethren…brothers walking together in harmony or in unity?
( congregational response ).
It’s blessing. What is that blessing?
( congregational response ).
It’s God’s presence! In other words, God wants a place in the middle of this sin-cursed, broken world where He feels completely at home and His presence can dwell. I mean, that’s the key to our meeting together. If we don’t have His presence, all we have is religion. And we’ve got plenty of that in the world! We don’t need any more! And we can sit here and fool ourselves. But I believe with all my heart that the Lord is wanting to take us and is taking us to a deeper place. But folks, if what we have doesn’t work in the home, it doesn’t work!
( congregational amens ).
Because, that’s where our relationships really tend to reveal themselves. And I believe that God longs to have our homes be a place where His presence is there, in such a way that when people walk in from the outside, they sense it.
You know, I’m thankful that we’ve had people come in here and say, yeah, I sense something here. I sense the love in the hearts of the people. I sense the Lord’s presence. Thank God for the degree to which that’s true. I believe God wants it to be more and more true.
But I want…I believe God longs to so change us, to so mold us and make us into His image, that when we’re not here, and when we’re sort of letting down and being ourselves…you know, think about what we’re saying when you talk about being ourselves. What is our self? You know, that’s not such a good thing if it’s human self, if it’s human nature in operation.
And I’ll tell you, God has an order in the home, but it’s not just an order of things as, dad’s the boss, mom’s supposed to submit, kids are supposed to obey, onto the next topic. God is so much deeper than that. Because, it’s just like the Body of Christ. God has called every member to a unique place. Much that was said this morning. Thank God for every bit of it. We need it, and we need the part about needing the Lord. I guess I’m looking for Steve but he’s in there…about needing the Lord and having a place where we can go when we discover things that are not right about ourselves. Boy, do I need that! Do you need that today?
( congregational amens ).
Yeah! And I’ll guarantee you, if we explore, in any degree, this subject and begin to say, Lord, make me the kind of husband, make me the kind of wife, make me the kind of kid that You want me to be, you’re gonna go on a journey of discovery and it ain’t all gonna be pretty! And we’re gonna come to places where we’re gonna have to make choices and come to the Lord as we are and say, oh God, fix me! Change me!
I can go to church and smile and everybody thinks everything is great, but when I go home I’m not the same person and I need to be authentic, in every part of my life. When I’m completely by myself, I don’t need to have a double life where I’m entertaining things, I’m giving the devil openings into my life by the way I’m thinking and the things that I’m doing.
But oh, God, I don’t want to bring that into the home and corrupt it, because a home is meant to be a place where His presence dwells. “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (KJV). Just stay out of my house, Lord. I’m the lord here, I’m in charge! Oh, God, does human nature reign.
I started to talk about how God calls people to the Body of Christ. And He calls us to that which is, in the natural, impossible. Everything Steve talked about, about us being unique members of the Body of Christ, able to actually contribute to the life of the Body, even if it’s not standing up here, you’re contributing, one way or another, to the life of the Body, it’s impossible unless it’s Christ in us doing that!
( congregational amens ).
There’s no way that can happen. And so, God has fitted every member for what He has called you to. And so, life becomes a matter of discovery of, Lord, not my will but Yours be done. Mold me, make me into what You’d have me to be. Lead me into a path of Your choosing. I want Your plan for my life, not mine. And Lord, I am depending on You to equip me to fulfill the call that You have for my life.
Now, is that only for the ‘Body of Christ,’ when you’re thinking in just the general terms of a spiritual family? Or is that supposed to get down to the household level? Now, notice the progression. We’ve talked about this before. It’s really super evident in both Ephesians and Colossians where Paul spends a lot of time laying the foundation. Boy, do we need one! Anybody here need a foundation?
( congregational response ).
Yeah! We need to see with uncompromising clarity the reality of what God has done for us, because He has done everything that is needed for us to have everything we need to serve Him! That was redundant all over again, but anyway, you get the point! We need…there’s no way we can be what He wants us to be! There’s no way any of these instructions have any meaning unless we first establish the reality that He has blotted away our sins! He has done away with us and the old nature if we can believe it and actually enter into it! He has defeated the devil!
( congregational amens ).
We don’t have to invite the devil into our lives and into our homes, although we do, more than we would like to admit. But He has laid a perfect foundation. Now the question is, how are we gonna build on it? And so, that’s how He…that’s how Paul…that’s the foundation the Lord, through Paul, lays in both of these books.
And he comes to a point and says, okay, now what? Now, live in harmony with what He’s done for you. That’s how he starts chapter 4 in Ephesians. You know, walk worthy of the calling that He’s given you. Over here, in the beginning of chapter 3, “Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God’s right hand. Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory.” (NLT).
Praise God! Is that a foundation? Yeah! You take that away, and we’re helpless to be anything of what he describes. And so, logically, now he goes to, okay, the kind of person that I am as an individual…my nature has, perhaps, driven me to do certain things. They may be acts of lust, acts of jealousy, acts of anger and bitterness, and maybe I was a thief, maybe I was immoral. Whatever it was, a thousand and one expressions of the old nature that want to rise up and the devil, I’ll tell you, will promote them, and when we give into them, he comes in and finds a home, where here’s the Lord wanting a home, but we give the devil one.
And so, the first thing is, since this is all true, since God has done this and you’ve come to Him, He’s brought you to Him, you have a new life, now let’s put that into operation. Let’s stop all this other stuff, because you can stop it because of what He’s done. You can’t stop it if it’s just you trying. But if it’s me believing in the Cross, believing that I was laid in that tomb, that I rose a new person, that we reckon on that to be an absolute fact, as we do that, step by step, God can give us victory to the point where we rule the roost. His new nature comes out instead of the old one being in charge. Okay?
So that’s the individual. That’s where I am as just an individual. But now, it isn’t just me and Jesus on the Jericho Road, as we’ve so often said. It does reflect my relationships with others. And so, now we get to the part of chapter 3 where he’s talking about how we relate one to another, being willing to forgive, allowing for one’s faults, having a spirit of mercy and kindness and gentleness and all those kinds of wonderful qualities that we need.
But isn’t it interesting, and I think significant, that after He deals with me as an individual, after He deals with me in this broad sense, now we’re gonna come down to where the rubber really meets the road? Because, as I say, it’s so easy to be one thing in here and another thing at home. And God wants us to be real there.
And I’ll tell you, if we have homes where Christ is at home, the presence of God is able to dwell there because we’re honoring Him and walking in the path that He has set out for us, man, we come in here, we’re not gonna have to work anything up! We’re gonna bring it with us. We’re gonna bring His presence with us.
But oh, I’ll tell you, the condition of a home is so critical to everything that God is seeking to do. It’s such a barometer. Let’s put it that way. It really tells us where we’re at, and that’s a sobering thing, isn’t it? It’s pretty sobering when you think about it.
And so, the first thing you look at it on this one level. Okay, there is an order. There is a divine order. The husband is the head of the home. Now, you take human nature and look at that principle and pretty soon it’s pretty easy for dad to be the boss and to make that a purely self-centered thing. I’m the boss, you’ve got to do what I say. Look what it says in the Bible. You’re disobeying God if you disobey me.
What kind of a spirit is that? Oh, my God! Think about Jesus and His nature. Did He come to be served? He didn’t, did He? He said it in so many words. I didn’t come to be served, I came to serve. I came to give my, “…life as a ransom for many.” I came for the benefit of those to whom I was sent.
Look it over in the Ephesians passage in chapter 5. See, Paul has gone through this exact, same progression of, here’s the foundation, here’s the kind of person you ought to be, you need to relate to one another this way and now let’s get to the real crux of the matter.
Verse 21, “And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.”
That sounds pretty rough if you’d think in terms of human nature and a husband ruled by human nature. Boy! But now what does that mean for the guys? “For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church.” Boy that sounds like a whole lot tougher deal to me than the other!
But here’s the thing. If you’re a man, and you’re called to be married, God has the equipment you need to be a godly husband, to be the leader of your home without being a dictator, to be a giver, a server without being self-centered, and making everybody in your household your servant and making everybody miserable when they don’t serve you.
God wants a people…and the thing is, if you look at this from the natural, people are born into broken situations. They come out of dysfunctional families, trying to form their own family and it’s a royal mess! The devil has attacked the family because he understands! This is the fundamental relationship in the unfolding of God’s pattern, God’s purpose! Yes, the assembly! But it gets right down into the home. If you get the home in the order that God has laid out, it’s not a set of laws and rules for us to follow, it is a prescription for how God wants to relate Himself to us and share His presence with us!
