Preaching/Teaching on Ephesians 3:16 (Body, Soul and Spirit - Strenthening the Inner Man)

Introduction

Good morning One Church family!! Today is the day that the Lord hath made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. It feels good to be standing in front of you all this morning. I’m thankful for the opportunity to share the word of the Lord with you this morning. Thank you to Pastor Bell and Pastor Green, Lady Dez and Lady Tonya for this opportunity. I don’t take it lightly to have been entrusted with this sacred duty of bringing God’s word to his people. And I am excited this morning because I truly believe that God has a word for His people today.

If you have your Bibles this morning our key passage of scripture will be Ephesians 3:14-19. Follow me there if you will. I’m sure some of you have your paper Bibles today. As Lady Dez says she prefers the paper Bible, but most of you probably have your Bibles on your tablets or on your smart phones, so pull them out and find Ephesians 3:14-19. I will be reading from the New King James Version.

And so before we read, this is the end of our Man Up series. We’ve been focusing on manning up. And what an exciting series it has been.

And at the beginning of this month Pastor Bell kicked us off and shared with us _________________. Then that was followed up by Pastor Rod as he spoke on _________________. Then last week Minster Corey, Minister JT, Dwain, Pastor Bell and Pastor Green blessed our hearts with a fantastic panel about _________________.

And so today we are wrapping up the series. And I feel blessed to be the anchor.

So before we jump in let me talk to the men for just a second because men I believe that it's good to be a man. Fellas do you agree? And I'm sure the ladies feel the same about being women.

But there are a lot of reasons, I believe, that it's good to be a man. Let me give you just a few. I’m going to give you a few reason why it’s good to be a man:

1. Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat. Yeah, that’s right men, we get on and we get off.

2. A five day vacation requires only one suitcase. You only need one. Packing is easy.

3. This one might get me in trouble, but here you go. Flowers fix everything. Yeah you know when you messed up or even if you didn’t, you better get some flowers. Trust me on this.

4. And last but not least, four letters - ESPN!!

Oh yeah it’s good to be a man.

And as a man we have certain responsibilities. There are things that we are expected to do. We are suppose to be the protectors in our homes and in our communities. For my fathers and for my husbands your role is to be the prophet and priest of your home. There are certain actions and activities that you are expected to do. And when we talk about action, men typically want to act. We talk a lot about action. The men that I know and the men that I talk to, they don't just want to talk about stuff. When something happens and a response is needed, they want to act. I hear it all the time, “we’ve got to be men of action.” Men like to get stuff done. Have you ever heard the saying, “Don't talk about be about it”? When dealing with men a lot of times this is what I see. They want to be about it. They want to act on it and get stuff done. And there is nothing wrong with that. We should act. We should get stuff done. God created us, men and women to act, to move, to accomplish things. But the question is, what is our response? How do we show up? What actions do we take in certain situations? The problem is not the acting. The problem is the response. So here is the truth. The things that we do, the actions that we take, our behaviors are connected to our identity. Our behaviors, our actions, the things we do are connected to our identity. That is rather that the actions that we take are a direct correlation of who we are. At our old church we used to have saying and some of you may remember it. It went like this, “I do because I am.” Let me say that again, “I do because I am.” This simply means that the things that I do are connected to who I am.

And as we examine this further, we see this play out all throughout nature. We can look at nature and see this concept in motion. Take birds for example. Birds have certain behaviors that are connected to its identity. So when we see birds fly, that behavior is connected to its identity. Or the way birds get worms for food for their young. Or when you hear a bird chirp, or the mating calls they do. These behaviors are part of its identity. And we can look at other things. We can look at plant life or fish life. They all have behaviors that are connected to its identity. You don't expect to see fish fly and you don't expect to see birds swim because those behaviors are not part of its identity. Whatever they are, they do. Whatever they are they do.

And so the question for you and for me this morning is who are you? When you act, how do you get stuff done? What is motivating you? What is driving you? And what we typically see is the things that we do, the actions that we take radiate from the core of who we are.

And so I want to talk about that this morning. I want to talk about what is at the core of you and I and then how do we strengthen that part of us? How do we improve it? Alright.

So you have your bibles open and we are reading from Ephesians 3:14-19. And it reads:

So what is this inner man?

In order to understand the inner man, we have to understand how God created us. Who did God create us to be? How did He design you?

And so what I’m going to do today is endevour to teach you about our true selves. Our true identities. And some of you may have seen or experienced this teaching before, and so for you I believe refreshers are good, and some of you may have never heard this before. But for me as I began to understood our true nature it changed my life because it helped me to understand the realities of our existence. Why sometimes as I try to connect with God, I’m unable to. Have you ever felt that way? You really want to push through and connect with God, so you put your antennas and your feelers out but you get nothing. This teaching helped me to understand why my spiritual life wasn’t progressing the way that I wanted it to. And so I want to spend a little time teaching you today because it’s important that we understand our Spiritual Man.

And so while this is called Man Up and we are going to focus on the men, ladies there is something here for you as well.

And our key passage is Ephesians 3:14-19, but we may jump around a bit.

Original Design

So how did God design us?

The Bible says that we are created in God’s image. We bear the imago dei. That’s just a fancy way of saying, we bear the image of God. The image of God image is imprinted on us and in us. And this is manifested in a few ways, but I’m just going to focus on one that connects to what we are talking about today and that is this. We believe and we know that God is one. There is only one God, but in God, there is without doubt, three persons. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. And we believe this to be true and each one is distinct and separate yet unified into one being, the only true and eternal God.

And so God in his design He gave us the same characteristics. Just like Him, we are one whole individual, unique in our design. When I see you I see one whole person. When you see me, you see one whole person. Yet behind the scenes, beneath the exterior, like God, we are made up of 3 distinct parts that make up the whole. Turn quickly with me to Genesis 2:7. Reading here from the KJV:

King James Version Chapter 2

7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

And so here we see as God is creating man. This is the creation story. As he is designing man, it says here, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground.” So when God created us he gave us a body. Now I know that’s not ground breaking. Everybody knows we have a body. If you are sitting here today, you know you have a body. And as a matter of fact, some of us, I dare to say, have a more body than others, and before I get a whole lot of dirty looks, let me raise my hand, me included. And let me tell you this, it’s funny, but every time my boys, my sons at home, when they pass by me they poke my belly like the Pillsbury dough boy and say puffy. And I’m like really, because I don’t think my belly is that big, but kids see and react to everything. Zero tact. So there you go. And so my kids remind me and I know that I have a body. We have a physical body that God fashioned for us out of the dust of the ground. And this body, you can feel it, you can touch it. It is material. So we have a body.

Then it says, “and then he breath into his nostrils the breath of life.” The Hebrew word used here for breath can be rendered as spirit and so God gave man a spirit. So we can say, “and then he breath into his nostrils the spirit of life.” And so now we see that man has a body and man has a spirit that God breath into him. Man has a body and man has a spirit.

And then the last part of this verse says, “and man became a living soul. So, God formed man’s body and then breathe spirit into him and as soon as the spirit interacted with the body man’s soul was produced. “And man became a living soul.” And this soul is within us. It’s part of us. When the body was quickened by the spirit, it brought into being a living and self-conscious man.

So, when God created us, He created us with three distinct parts that make up the whole of our person. We are Body, Soul and Spirit. We are a spirit, we have a soul and we live in a body. Another way of saying this is that we are tripartite beings. Three parts that make up a whole.

Body, Soul and Spirit

Let me show you this another way really quickly. And I’m going fast because I have a lot to cover, but I also want to make sure you get it.

So turn with me to 1 Thessalonians 5:23. And we are back in the New King James Version.

The New King James Version Chapter 5

23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So what we see here as Paul writes this prayer to end his letter to the church of Thessalonians, he makes mention of three aspects of our nature. He says, “may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless.” So here we see all three parts. So we are a spirit, we have a soul and we live in a body.

Now there is another part of our nature that we don't see mentioned here in this passage. That's because this passage is talking about the parts of us that can be redeemed. So when it says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely.” It's talking about your body, soul and spirit. Santification is a part of the redemptive process. And redemption is simply a fancy theological term that refers to undoing the effects of sin. When God created us remember he created us perfect and then sin crept in and corrupted our nature. And so because of that we now must be redeemed. The effects of sin in our lives has to be undone. And so what happened was your spirit was redeemed the minute you got saved. Your souls has to be renewed. And your body is to be redeemed when Christ returns.

Now there's another part of you that is just as much a part of your nature. But this part will not be redeemed. And that is your flesh.

And so your spirit it was redeemed the minute you got saved.

And all of this is going to be important as we begin to focus in on what is the inner man? So just stay with me. I’m going somewhere.

Because the key here is to understand the spiritual life. It’s hard to understand the spiritual life if we don’t understand the extent of the spiritual.

So many of you may know this already. We have three parts to our nature. Some of you may not have know this, so it's a teaching moment.

So as we look at this scripture a little more

Now in addition to these three parts there is a fourth part of our nature that's not covered here in this passage and that's the flesh.

So quickly I want to break down these three parts.

and the fles is at war with the spirit. So you have the flesh on this side and the spirit on this side and they are batteling for your soul.

Body