Eph. 2, in your heart say praise God I’m thankful I came to church today. Anyone need a healing? Put your hand up for a moment. Just by faith. I need an answer to prayer. Anyone need a financial miracle? Family miracle? Marriages, child, healing, sick people, mother, and dad. Halleluiah, Halleluiah. Praise God.

Dr. Chung is here with Natalie from Japan. He’s a U.S. Navel surgeon working for the Navy in Tokyo, Japan and a missionary from this church living in Japan and serving. Are we ready to go?

I forgot in the last service to the end I’ll let you know I’m flying tonight to Budapest, Hungary for a few days. I used to live there and pastor there. I’m going to visit for a few days and have some meetings together and then to Paris where we have a 25-year anniversary of our Paris church there. The GG folks from France and Switzerland and the UK are meeting. It’s a one week going. I want you to realize that we do this in the church. A lot of people coming and going but prayerfully but with vision and purpose in our heart.

We are going to talk about the word “amen.” `

We’ll look at Eph. 2 and teach from there.

vs. 1. Anyone remember when you were dead in your sins?

Eph. 2:11, at that time you were without Christ. Remember that time you were without Christ? Do you remember when you were without Christ? I don’t remember my sins because those are gone but I remember I was lost without hope, without a message, without a gospel. I lived in upstate NY grew up as Catholics and went to mass every Sunday. It was our tradition. Strangely, my ears were deaf and didn’t hear the gospel. I heard words, words. I heard the words God and J.C. but I didn’t hear the gospel. I was dead in my sin. In high school, I was on the football team and we would do rowdy things. We’d get in trouble and get drunk and I remember going home one night walking home hitchhiking and a car picked me up. The man driving was drunk. We were swerving on the road. We ended up off the road flying through someone’s back yard missing a tree, passing on and getting on the road over there and should have been on the road over there! Jack Hadley is a state trooper and deals with drunken drivers. Why? Why? Because people are dead in their sin. They are very much alive.

vs. 2. You walked according to the course of the route, the road of this world. We went in large numbers to rock and roll concerts and went to school but something missing in my life. I didn’t know it existed. I remember walking and crying out to the God I did not know. I remember those feelings and the emptiness. I also remember what Ecclesiastes called HEBEL in the Hebrew. What is visual or recognizable but unsubstantial, momentary profitless, futile spurious, illusionary, fraudulent. It’s translated in the English “vanity.” Ecclesiastes is a favorite book of mine in the Bible. It says life is this way. HEBEL HEBELIM, vanity of vanities. It means even if you go to the party and have a good time, there is something missing. It’s fraudulent. Even if you get a degree and accomplish a great accomplishment, and have gone to the top, you haven’t found much there. Life is spurious but not substantial. I see the diploma and appreciate it but there is something missing there. The human heart is made in such a way. God has put eternity in our heart.

Ec. 3:11 a hunger, a design made, a capacity for the substantial. I can’t find the substantial. Even as a believer. I love my life but my life is going to end. I love my wife but every day we must realize maybe our loved ones will pass away in a day. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. And our children and homes and government and country. We are hungry for the stability but God is telling us there is not the stability you are made for except in me. Because this word “HEBEL,” vanity is in distinction to the word I want to share with you today, “amen.” We know the word AMEN. We say it in our religion, in our church, and in our prayers. We should take a moment and learn about the meaning of the word. It’s the very thing you’re looking for. It has the meaning, it means firmness, solidity, and solid. It is the large YES of God.

Christ is called in Rev 3:14 I AM, the Amen. What Lord? What are you saying? Everything in this world will pass way though it is good and I made it good. I want you to enjoy your life. Everything you enjoy is pointing to me as a good, good God. I am the solid. I am not fleeting or passing away or fraudulent or empty. I am the solid one. It was one of Jesus’ favorite words that established him as an authority. Jesus spoke Aramaic on the street, Hebrew in the synagogue, and the N.T. was written in the Greek language. It’s translated verily, verily or truly, truly or if it was written in the Hebrew it could be written Amen, amen. Nothing changing about it. Nothing empty about it. Verily, verily I say unto you. Unless a man is born again he cannot enter the kingdom. We speak and testify and you receive not our witness.

Jn. 3:11, I have a couple papers here of the verily, verily of Jesus. I don’t want to lose what I want to say about it. I was dead and followed and embraced that which was not solid. Ever met someone and they say “I’m good.” Could I talk to you? No, I’m good. I’m okay or maybe this will work out. I hope so. What’s missing in these sentences? What’s missing? What’s missing is what we are receiving by the H.S. as content in our life. We are saying something God is saying. He is the Amen and given promises to us that are yeah and amen.

2 Cor. 1:18 yes and no. Paul is saying something about his visit to the Corinthians. He’s saying when I say I’ll come and see you, I’ll come. I’m not saying yes I’m coming and not I’m not coming. We know with people our promises are yes and no. Yes, I will come on Saturday but then as it is with people, I can’t make it.

It says in vs. 20 all the promises of God in him are yes and amen unto the glory of God by us. This is what is needed in life. I need more of these amens in my heart. We receive from God and we are getting the rock of our salvation. We are getting a mental orientation so our lives are established firmly. We have said sometimes we are moved like an antenna on a car. Remember the stainless steel antenna fastened on the fender and it would be whipping around. Up here moving but down here firm. There are things we must be sure about that are not fleeting and passing. I need a sure word of prophecy, a promise that my heart can be anchored in that which is not moved so when I am moved by cancer, or an accident or an argument with my friend or disappointment with my wife or children – whatever can happen that I can be moved, we are not greatly moved. We have a habit in a spiritual way of saying amen. We are sure. We have the H.S. bearing witness to us so we can have this assurance. Amen means what is nailed down, sure affirmation.

Ecclesiastes is actually a book to show us about things that are moving and not dependable. Things that can pass away. The happiness comes and is gone. The work I do and money I make disappears. The friend I have is gone tomorrow. Ecclesiastes is written so I would see life is not that sure. It has a washing effect on our heart and mind. I’d like to know now what I should be trusting in. I want to know God in this way that the H.S. would give me as a way of life the big yes or amen. This was not our case before we were believers. We were living in a world of shadows, light and darkness mixed together. Philosophically speculating. We were building our house in this world.

Psalmist said in 87 I love the gates of Zion more than the tents of Jacob. The tents move around. In this world, where is my foundation, my rock? I just live in a tent. The tent is above the ground not grounded in the ground. Christ builds a house and the builder and maker is God. This house has foundations. It’s Christ. No man can lay that foundation. You can’t find it anywhere. This is the Christ that came into enemy territory. He came into a world hijacked by Satan.

Jn 1 world in darkness but God is light. Light came into darkness and was shining to lighten every man.

We also know man loves darkens in Jn. 3:19. He crucified Christ to get rid of the light. It was religion. The firm establishment of religious ideas and mentality that was challenged by the Son of God. We have to get rid of them. If they were students of Ecclesiastes, they would realize this religious part we are part of – I can say this about Greater Grace or any church. We accumulate religious ideas that can be testified by Ecclesiastes. Through him we have a behavior rooted in love. If I don’t have love, though I speak in tongues it is nothing. Though I move a mountain in faith and have not love, it profits me nothing. It’s a litmus paper test and words of strength and evaluation of my heart. The real evidence of us being rooted and grounded in love is that we love one another. This is how we know we have passed from death to life is we lay down our life for the brethren.

1 Jn 3:16 it’s possible to be filled with H.S. love for each other and see the H.S. live and work. We haven’t believed a lie but are grounded and not perfect people but thinking with God and understanding who he is and what he is saying. We say amen. We hear from God and have assurance in our heart and say amen. Three amens in O.T.

1 Kings 1:36, Benaiah was given direction from David on his death bed about Solomon becoming king and how to do it. He answered the king, amen. You give me that instruction. I believe you. It’s in my heart. Amen. In regard to our lives, we should have an “amen” about ourselves. This is what God wants me to do. I agree with God. When you come on a Sunday morning as we have done, you learn as a habit and its part of your life. There is an amen in your heart about it. Amen. I believe in that. When we send out missionaries, there is an “amen.” When we have a prayer meeting it’s an amen. When we have a Bible college and church planting like Fed Hill and Havre de Grace and Silver Spring, there is an “amen.”

Jer. 11:5 is a private amen, an inward amen. God spoke to Jeremiah. “So be it, Lord.” That is Hebrew AMEN. Yes, Lord. You’re going to give us the land of milk and honey. Jeremiah said, so be it. Amen. We once were in Maine and Dr. Stevens said we prayed and moved to Lenox and then we got in some trouble, some difficulties and pastor said I think we will go down to Baltimore and we moved down here. 800 families. I don’t know where that has ever happened before. It may have but it’s unusual. As we drove down here, it was so be it Lord. A lot of people follow the HEBEL, the thing that is not substantial but they follow it. And hope they find what we are talking about today. God I am disappointed about it. Give me an amen in my heart. That I would embrace it and know it and see it. I’m sure it happened to the disciples. When he ascended into heaven, he said stay in Jerusalem and wait for the promise of my Father. You’ll receive the Holy Spirit and be witnesses of me. Ten days later, the Holy Spirit fell on 120 people and they had a large amen in their life. Nobody is going to stop us. Something is going on from God the Holy Spirit. We make these understandings by the grace of God and realize the amen is lacking in the hearts of people. They say maybe I’ll move over there and all this movement and activity and searching and a search for the solid thing but can’t find it. It must be found through J.C., by faith in him, by hearing what God has to say to us personally.

1 Chron 16:36 is the third amen. This is public amen and praise the Lord. Publicly we say amen. We hear a message and we say amen. We see the work of God and say amen. This is important because as we said in the pastor’s meeting, we had a breakfast together and we talked about the future and one thing I said was we are in enemy territory that this world is against God and against Christ. We are here. We are here like spies, ambassadors, messengers in enemy territory. In warfare, just imagine if you parachuted into Czechoslovakia and wrapped your parachute and buried it and mingled in with the crowd and you’re a spy, an agent. In some way, I was dead to God and alive to the world and this world had me going the broad way with everyone else.

By God’s grace in Eph 2:4, even when we were dead in sins he has made us alive together with Christ. I love it when we have a big amen. We don’t even know each other. We are saying amen to the same voice. The Father sent me. I send you. We are sent into this world with another message, faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit with another direction not destruction and pain and heartache but the Comforter of the H.S. The way of God, the purpose of God, the mind of God. This is what we are doing here. Remember World War II when the Allied Forces parachuted in behind enemy lines and had these clickers to connect with each other. The Germans didn’t know what they were but they knew what they were. Is he friend or foe? Then they would do the clicking. He’s with us. When we are living in this world, we have these little clickers and we connect with each other and on the same team. We don’t expect someone to join the enemies’ side but expect God to give us an amen. It’s what we grow in and believe in and what this world is looking for. They are not looking for religion but the amen. They are looking for someone who has a message of grace and love and life and faith. They are looking for God. Is God alive? Has anyone seen him lately? Someone said to me no one came back from the dead. Christ came back from the dead. The most important one is Christ. He is the amen. I am the way, the truth, and the life. Verily, verily, I say unto you the servant is not greater than his Lord neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. He that receives whomsoever I sent, receives me and he receives me receives him that sent me… Words, truth, believing it, eating it.

I remember when things would not turn out so well and I didn’t know what to hold on to. I came to this church. I was in another one that helped me a lot. I learned about the filling of the Spirit and prayer. I came to this one and found the Bible speaking to me. I started to learn by the amen. More authority in the amen. More confidence about life. More need fulfilled in my own heart.

We are able to say to this with some level of confidence, not pride or arrogant, superficial self-righteousness but in our weakness just to say when the devil is saying in heaven and fighting with God. He’s saying I am God. I ascend. I am God. He’s doing his thing. He’s looking for a fight with God. And God is saying in principle I’ll fight with you one hand tied behind my back. No, both hands tied behind my back. You can beat on me but I will win because you don’t know who I am. You don’t know what humility is. I can hang on a cross and be humble and be nothing though I am God. I am God but not a proud God. I am a humble God. A servant God. A loving God. You don’t know that. You’re one of these big strong, muscular, smart, beautiful people. I have all of that but don’t need that to be me. I can be weak, foolish, anybody, but I’ll always be who I am. I’ll always win you. Pride contradicts the nature of reality. Beauty can be superficial. You don’t have the real wisdom. You have intelligence but don’t know how to use it because you don’t have me. If you had me, you know. You’d be on my side if you knew me. Because I’m the God that loves and honors all of my creatures, you have a choice. The human race had the same. We decided and sinned and we are lost. God is saying I will win some. I will die and we have decided then we will have in our heart a great amen in our hearts. He has it in his heart and there is no way you could ever beat me. I am love and love never fails. When we have that in our hearts, we feel the same thing. This love is powerful and linked with the great I AM. That great I AM is in you and me. It wasn’t before, but now it is.

Amen.

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