Strengthening the Inner (Wo)man

Intro: Idea: Micro-expressions—things you do without realizing. These expressions cross all cultural boundaries. You could find a tribe of people in the middle of South America without contact from the outside world and these expressions would be evident there. A person that is blind from birth, will still make these facial expressions. It is ingrained in human nature. We don’t have to think about it, it just happens. Let’s see how many you can guess by these faces.

Google Slides Happiness Sadness Anger Disgust Contempt Fear Surprise

There are other things that we prepare for that will happen automatically without thought. Most of you know that we were in Nepal for 7 years. Before we ever arrived we were told that Nepal was expected to have a huge earthquake at any time. They had been saying that for 70 years. People talked about it all the time. The scientists and researchers talked about how devastating it would be if and when it happened. When we moved there we prepared for an earthquake. We made a survival kit to put outside. It was packed with a change of clotehs for everyone, a blanket, tarp, simple cooking items for a fire, non-perishable food and water. We stored it outside and eveyr 6 month changed out the food water and clothes if the kids had grown. We learned about the “triangle of life”. This is where in an earthquake you don’t want ot get under something for protection, you want to lay down next to something strong, that way if a beam fell it would create a triangle that you would hide under unti you were found int eh rubble. We talked to the kids about this and even did drills so that if one happened at the house they would know they needed to get down beside their bunk bed and lay down with a blanket if possible.

The day came and an earthquake happened. I was home alone with Emily because I had been sick. The others had gone to church. When the earthquake started I was int he living room, ran to my own bedroom where Emily was sleeping. I couldn’t think of what to do. I was terrified. The only thing that came to my mind was lay down by the bunkbed. TEaching the kdis had ingrained in me that that was the only safe place. I had plenty of places in my own room where I could have made the triangle of life, but in that emergency, I couldn’t think. I could only act on what had been in-grained and that was the bunkbed.

What is that “in-grained spot in your mind” called? What is that? And how can we put things in there for emergency use?

Ephesians 3:14–16 “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of 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 by his Spirit in the inner man;”

3. We all go through emergencies in our life—Car accidents, health problems—Evan, my mom, being stranded in airports—Nickalsons. The death of a loved one. It’s in those moments that it feels like we can be stretched more than we can bare. It’s easy to say that we are doing great and that it doens’t matter what will come our way, that we will have the strength to make it thorugh, that our faith will be strong enough. But when the rubber meets the road—how do we know?

I remember laying next to that bunkbed in Nepal. I cried out to God vocally over and over. I don’t take God’s name in vain ever. But in that moment I was so terrified that the only words that escaped my mouth were, “O God, O God” It’s all I could do and say. I was bothered for months after that. Why was it that I could do nothing else?

I remember thinking, I need to strengthen my inner man. What’s there now? How do I fill it?

So many times we think about the outside. We have fb picture-perfect lives. The outside looks great. But we hide all the stuff that we don’t want others to see. With a photo, we know what we are hiding. We know we moved all the trash or made the angle hide something we didn’t want to see.

Over recent years, there have been a lot of news articles about sink holes. Houses perfectly fine on Monday, and Tuesday buried. These two houses were just north of me in the Tampa area. The sinkhole opened slightly one morning about the size of a swimming pool, but within hours, two houses were swallowed up.

But what about our spiritual world? When I entered that earthquake, I didn’t know what was in my “inner” man. I began to see (afterwards) how shallow my relationship with God actually was. And then began a journey figure it all out.

Today’s lesson’s goal is the same as Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian church Ephesians 3:14–16 “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of 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 by his Spirit in the inner man;” WHY? That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith...

I call this inner man—your private world.

“to bring order to one’s personal life is to invite His control over every segment of one’s life.”

I like to think of your private world as a garden. “a place of potential peace and tranquility. This garden is a place where the Spirit of God comes to make self-discolsure, to share wisdom, to give affirmation or rebuke, to provide encouragement, and to give direction and guidance. When this garden is in proper order, it is a quiet place, and there is an absence of busyness, of defiling noise, or confusion. The inner garden is a delicate place, and if not properly maintained it will be quickly overrun by intrusive undergrowth. God does not often walk in disordered gardens. And that is why inner gardens that are ignored are said to be empty.”

Ask any gardener, how long does it take for weeds to get out of hand? They pop up in a night and can take over in two. You must tend to your garden DAILY.

My walk or my garden is not going to be what you need. It’s not going to work for everyone, but I will say it’s a great place to start. I’ll walk you through practically what I do, then maybe it will spur you to start a relationship with God that will strengthen your inner man—that Christ will dwell in your heart and not just stop in for a visit.

The first thing that we need to know about our private world is that it needs to be tended to daily and consistently.

In the past I would have great aspirations, but they were not reasonable. I’d tell myself, “Jamie, you need to study every word of an entire chapter every day. Pray for an hour, Go through this list every day.” I might keep up for 3 days, but then I fail. I’m discouraged. Give up on everything.

****Start small and be consistent. Use the time you ALREADY have.

*I get ready every day. Who doesn’t? I”m alone in the bathroom for at least 15 minutes. I turn on my bible reading in my app. It’s a plan I can follow. It requires no thought to remember where I am. It’s the click of a button. I love listening to the dramatized version of the Bible becuase the conversations make so much more sense in my head.

Once I was consistent here, I wanted to dig deeper into God’s Word, but I knew from experience, that if I chose something time-consuming, I’d never keep up with it. I decided one verse. You might be thinking pssfh. that’s nothing. I started small becuase I knew I could do it.

I took Psalm 119 and decided to write out one verse each day in a column, and then look up each word in the Strong’s Concordance. Then I would rewrite the verse in my own words as I understood it. Simple. 3 minutes most days. Here is an example of a fun one.

Psalm 119:47 “And I will delight myself in thy commandments, Which I have loved.” The surprising word in this verse is the word delight. One of the first definitions that is given is “to stroke, be smeared over, be blinded”. I was thinking about that and all I could picture in my mind that day was lotion. I want to lather myself in God’s Word, because I love it and need it. You know those days when your skin is dry and scratchy? Or you wake up in the night because your feet scratch the sheets? Then the relief you feel when you lather yourself in lotion. This is how we should treat God’s word. It’s a comfort that we lather and bathe ourselves in.

I didn’t quit. I kept going. If I missed a day, I didn’t beat myself up. I didn’t play “catch-up” and get discouraged because I needed to do 5 verses now. I just got up and did the next verse. I didn’t put pressure on myself, but to just keep going. One day at a time. I completed all 176 verses! My faith grew. I grew. I learned so much. I refreshed on things I already knew. I grew. My private world was strengthened.

I started journaling. Before when I would do this, it would be hard to decide what to do. I hated puting ink on paper because I was afraid of doing it wrong. I started a no-rules journal.

I started with just my Psalm 119 verses. Then afterwards I’d add in a short prayer that maybe went along with what I had learned or discovered that day. Then I would pray in my head. Sometimes, I might jot down people and situations as I prayed for them. This helped me focus on days I was distracted. Sometimes I wrote out long prayers. Sometimes it was one person’s name that had just been on my heart while I prayed for them.

I went through a lot mentally this spring and summer. Sometimes I wrote out the story of what happened to help me get through it. This practice of jotting things down semi-daily helped me be consistent in praying for people. It helped keep me focused when Zach was sitting next to me and their were some big distractions around. It helped me grow.

As I went through, sometimes it became mundane. It became old. That’s when I knew I needed to do something different. I always wanted to start my prayer by worshipping God and lifting up and remembering who he is. Sometimes I wrote out characteristics of God that I knew about him. Sometimes I wrote out blessings. I have tried to keep it fresh and exciting.

The point is, I tried almost every day to spend a few quiet moments with God and see what he wanted to teach me. It wasn’t always grand and exciting, but sometimes we just like it when our friends say, “How was your day?” And you just reply..nothing special—I just went grocery shopping.

But let me tell you, it’s in the “doing the mundane things” that exciting things happen that you’d miss if you didn’t just do it.

Let me walk you through a verse I learned in Psalms. That I think also sums up this lesson and teh importance of daily getting into God’s Word

Psalm 119:33“HE. Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes; And I shall keep it unto the end.”

Teach here isn’t referring to just any type of instruction, but one that is a skill that has to be practiced to be perfect. Shooting an arrow takes a lot of skill and practice. It’s also something that is lost if not practiced consistently. So this verse is telling saying that you want to learn to use God’s Word has a honed in skill. We need to be able to wield the sword of Lord with confidence and accuracy.

This conference theme is My Body: His Temple. Romans 12:2 “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, He wants to dwell in your temple and not just visit, but he doesn’t push himself in. He wants to be invited. Invite him into your life EVERY SINGLE DAY. Tend to your garden. Get rid of the weeds. Ask God to reveal the areas that you are struggling with and help you with them. It’s worth it. Then when trials come your way, when the unexpected happens, you’ll have a foundation that you can lean on.

We have two options 1…conforming to the world happens naturally. 2....being transformed and letting Christ Abide in us. This will only happen if we daily choose to be filled with the spirit. It’s worth the work. It’s worth the relationship.

A strong foundation will withold anything, but if the foundation is built on something that isn’t stable, it will crumble. Christ is the only solid foundation we can have.

Ephesians 3:17 “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,” Ephesians 3:18“May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;” Ephesians 3:19“And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”

When Christ dwells in our hearts, then we can comprehend and know the love of God. Be full of Him, complete, whole, filled.