TRANSCRIPTION | Sunday, April 18, 2021 | Running On Full

 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

When I was a kid, I had just started driving, I was trying to save money. And I wanted to kind of get life off on a good start. And I have always been somewhat frugal. And I just had this problem with buying fuel. It just felt like it took all of my resources, it took all of my money. And so I got into this habit like I put like $5 in. And I would just stretch that $5 as far as I could, anybody know what I'm talking about? Yeah, somebody else still doing that? That's right, praise God. $5 don't get you as far as it got to 21 years ago, I can tell you that right now. But I would just stretch that fuel as far as I could. And I really don't ever remember a time between like 16 and 18 that I wasn't running on E. Just constantly borderline empty. In fact, it reached a point where I way too often actually ran out of fuel. And so I had this one uncle in particular, that he got so accustomed to me calling him telling him that I had run out of fuel and him having to come and bring me gas, that he bought a little gallon gas tank and he wrote my name on it. And every time I would call him, he’d say where are you at now? Where are you at this time? 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You ever just feel like you're running on E? Some of you wonder if God's got a little gas tank with your name written on it. He's so used to having to come to the side of the road and bail you out from how often and how much you run on E. It's not that you don't want to be spiritually successful, it just seems like you're having to constantly like stretch that time with God. Stretch between those moments where you get to have a worship experience. Stretch between really having a successful prayer time with the Lord, or really enjoying God's word. And you just constantly feel like you're on E. Some of you felt like that coming to church this morning. Like it took everything you had to just be in this building right now. You've made statements like I'm fatigued, exhausted, I'm worn out. Some of you have even literally said, I feel like I am running on empty. What I want you to know is that that is not God's plan for your life. And when I say that, you need some context. Because the book of Ephesians two, the pin of Paul says this God desires to do exceedingly, abundantly above all you can ask or think according to the power that he's deposited in you. Old Testament, God says, according to the words of Jeremiah, that he has plans for your life, and they are plans to give you a hope, and their plans to prosper you. But if you don't believe the Old Testament or the New Testament, you don't believe Jeremiah or Paul, you don't want to take their word for it, let me take you directly to the words of Jesus. And in John 10:10, Jesus said this “The thief comes to steal, to kill and to destroy.” The enemy has a three-fold attack plan against your life. He intends to steal something, then he intends to kill something because ultimately he wants to destroy your spiritual existence. However, Jesus said, I have come that you might have life and you might have life more abundantly. But here's the thing, you don't have to wait until you get to heaven in order to begin to experience that abundant life. The definition of that word abundant, it means to be extremely plentiful. Some would say that it means overflowing. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

And, so what God wants to bring into your life, an element that is extremely plentiful and is overflowing. And it's not just in regards to the physical things, which we'll talk a little bit about this morning. But I believe it's most importantly about the spiritual things that God wants you in your spirit man, in your spirit woman, to be overflowing with life. Not where that you're constantly running on empty, but where you can feel like you're running on full. So, when you begin to think about that, it seems so far away from some of us that we can't even hardly process that that could be a thing. Our faith is damaged, our hearts are wounded towards the concept that we could even really approach a life in a way that feels like man, I am living on full. I'm running on full. Jesus had a life that was full of abundance. It was extremely plentiful, it was overflowing. He was overflowing with healing. He was overflowing with miracles. He was overflowing with life. The disciples, not so much. In fact, there are moments where that Jesus would go, and he would drive out an entire legion of demons with one word. The disciples, on the other hand, would go and try to take on a demon, it was in one kid, absolutely get their tails handed to them, returned back to Jesus and be like, I don't know what we did wrong, man, but it didn't go so well. Jesus overflowing with abundance, them seeming to be struggling, Jesus able to go and preach, and 1000s of people gather on hillsides to the point that they were hungry, and they were fighting off the hunger so that they could keep hearing what he had to say, the disciples sometimes having to go to a place to shake that's off their feet, because it wasn't working out so well. One side, abundance, on the other side, struggling. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I believe the disciples began to put together, there is something about the abundance that Jesus walks in that is directly connected to his prayer life. And you can sense them trying to get a ringside seat for these moments when Jesus would pray. Jesus had a tendency to go off by himself and pray. In fact, in Luke chapter 11, what we learn is that Jesus would go to a certain place, and he would pray. In this particular instance, you kind of get the imagery that maybe the disciples are one of them's hiding behind the lattice, and the other is hiding behind the bushes, and the other is just kind of standing over to the side, and they're listening and they're peeking in and they're trying to process this reality that Jesus is praying, and he's getting this download of abundance, and they feel inferior to it. There's an insecurity about them when they compare the way they pray to the way Jesus prays. And so when Jesus stops praying, we pick up the story, Luke chapter 11, verse number 1, “Now it came to pass as he was praying in a certain place, that when he stopped praying, his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us how to pray.” Like teach us how to walk in this level of abundance that you walk in. Teach us how to do what you do, and to experience what you experienced. Like Jesus, we figured out that this is connected to the whole prayer life thing, so could you just teach us how to do that? And what Jesus says in verse two is he said to them, “When you pray, say, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven, and give us day by day our daily bread and forgive our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, for thine is the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.” That’s what we know is the Lord's Prayer. And when we hear this being given to the disciples, we cannot misinterpret. I do not think that Jesus was giving them a prayer that they should recite when they felt like they needed to pray. One of the main reasons that I feel like that is because in Matthew chapter six, Jesus actually rebuked repetitious prayer. He said, when you pray, don't just stay in to say the same thing over and over again, vain repetitions are not effective. So what I believe Luke chapter 11, was all about was an outline. And I believe that Jesus was trying to show them how to approach prayer in a successful way. So it should start full of praise. Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. That when you pray, it's just not all about pointing out what's wrong about your life and pointing out everything you want God to fix, but it starts out with thanking him for what he's already fixed and praising him for the fact that he's still on the throne, and that he's got the devil under his feet, and that you got breath in your lungs, you got a roof over your head, you've got clothes on your back, you're just praising him and blessing him. And that's important because the Bible says that God inhabits the praises of his people. So when you start praising God, you're literally bringing the presence of God near to your prayer life. If your prayer life isn't effective it might be because you've not embraced a life full of praise. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

But the next thing we see is, let your kingdom come. Listen, where the kingdom goes, the king goes with it. And when you think about the king, you think about him being full of resurrection power, that death, hell, and the grave had no answer for God's kingdom. So you walk full of power. But not only that, we're taught to pray that it's not our will that gets done, but that it's God's will that gets done, and that the kingdom of heaven be manifest as it is an Earth, therefore establishing God's will on earth. And what we come to learn is that we should live life on purpose. We talked about all of that last week. But that's not where the prayer ends. There's more to the outline, there's three more things that Jesus talks to them about. And the next one is found in Luke chapter 11, verse number four, he said, when you pray, you need to be thinking about it in this way, give us day by day our daily bread, give us day by day our daily bread. And so what we learned is that there should be a daily anticipation and even request for God's provision. I think what it tells us is that we should live a life full of provision. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You do understand that our God is a provider. He has been a provider from the very beginning that when he made Adam and Eve, the first thing he did was provide a garden for them. So that they would be able to sustain themselves and to survive on a daily basis. But here's the thing, we are so well provided for, we live in such temporal paradises that most of us don't even think about having a daily need when it comes to physical want. Our pantries are so full, our cabinets are so overflowing, that we're not looking for where the next meal is going to come from. That is why we can haphazardly lackadaisically, sit down at a table and not even give a thought to blessing a meal. Because we're so used to it being there, we're so used to it showing up that we don't even think about being thankful for the fact that that food has been placed in front of us. And it may sound really simple, and it may sound old fashioned, but I need to tell somebody, listen, there would not be anything in your pantry, there would not be anything in your cabinets and there would not be anything on your table, were it not for the provision of God. He either allowed it or permitted it, that's how it got there.  So there's a thankfulness that comes when we begin to realize that we live a life full of provision. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

You know, God takes us so serious. He himself is such a provider. And you are made in his image, he expects you also to be a provider. There's a verse that I decided to have him put it on the screen today because I thought if I quoted it, you would not believe it's there. It's 1 Peter, chapter five, verse eight, “But if anyone does not provide for his own family, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” That’s a potent, powerful passage of text. Think about that for a moment. That God is saying that he expects every single one of us to be a provider for those who are expecting provision from us. And that if we do not fulfill that, then it is a sign that we have lost the faith and are worse than an unbeliever. We are expected to be a provider. And so it's good news for me and you that if we're struggling to be that provider, we can turn to the Great Provider and he can give us instruction. He can give us insight. He can give us purpose. He can give us empowerment. He can help us to be able to fulfill that provision. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Here's the thing. Don't just think about this in physical terms. I want you to also think about it in spiritual terms. Because when we go back and we begin to look at this, give us day by day our daily bread. Jesus made a statement he said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. Jesus spiritualized it. Jesus taught us that when it comes to receiving daily bread, it's something more than just the bread that's on your table. But there is also meant to be a daily bread that feeds your spirit man. And that if you feel like you're alive on the outside, but you're dying on the inside, it's probably because you've got the physical bread but you don't have the spiritual bread. And here's the thing we learn, our God is a provider, and we look at the imagery of the Hebrew people coming out of Egyptian bondage. They came out of slavery, they're over in the wilderness, they didn't have anything to drink, so he provided water out of a rock. They didn't have anything to eat, so he sent the angels into the bakery of heaven and said drop a little sun for those folks every morning. But when it dropped, it dropped outside the tent. It did not fall on their plate, it did not fall on their table and it was not already in the pantry. They had to get up, go outside the tent, and gather that stuff, gather that food, and then take it over to the cast iron skillet, put some lard on it and fix it. Like it was not a snap your finger and God's gonna make it happen for me. So in the same way that the Bible says a man that will not work should not eat, it’s Bible, I’m preaching better then I'm getting help this morning. But the same way the Bible says that in a physical sense, there's a spiritual aspect that you got to get yourself up, go outside the comfort of your tent and say God today I invite you to speak to me through your word. I invite you to give me daily bread for my life. That God I know about five o'clock this evening, whether I'm ready or not, I'm gonna run in aisle four in the Beulah and Freddie and I know I ain't ready for what they're gonna be tossing in my direction. So I need a word, God, to be able to deal with that situation. I need you to show me a way through, Father God, because I know they're going to block the aisle, and they go start in, and here they don't come with their gossip, and here, they don't come with their backbiting and here they gonna come with their seeds of discord, God, I need a word. Okay, nobody ever met Beulah and Freddy. So I'll just move over here. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Like right about now, I'm trying to raise a 13 year old and a 15 year old. I need a daily word. Lest I feel like an absolute failure as a father, I need a word, and I need it daily. My wife and I, we've been married 21 years, going on 21 years, I assume the new is wearing off on me. I need a word, gotta keep that woman loving me. Oh right there it is, bodily exercise profiteth the little. You notice I did not get an amen from the front row. Anybody need a word? Like you go through seasons in your life and you just need a word. You're not sure what the next step is. You're not sure what the next thing is. You're not exactly for certain of how it's supposed to flow, how it's supposed to all play out. And so that's why you have to have a daily relationship with the Word of God. I don't care if you do it on your phone. I don't care if you go old school and get you a Bible that you can flip, you find you some kind of way that you can get into the Word of God and say, God give me day by day daily bread, for our heart, for my soul, for my life. It's one of the things that I actually require on my family. My kids, especially every single morning, in our daily Bible reading plan, they have to tell me what their word for the day is. And if you don't have one, stay there till you get it. Because he'll give it. What has Scripture spoke to you today? What's stuck out to you that this is what God wants you to take throughout the remainder of your day? Give me daily bread. Live life full of provision, not just physically but spiritually. Am I making sense to anybody? Luke, chapter 11 verse 4, you want to live a life that's running on full instead of running on empty, here's

a great one for you. Jesus taught them to pray, and forgive us our sins, as we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Notice the way that that's worded. Father, forgive me of my sins. And watch, now there's a pledge, God, I will forgive everyone that sinned against me. So in other words, God, I do not expect you to bring to me

what I'm not willing to bring through me. So God, I'm not going to ask you to forgive me.

without pledging to you that I know you can give me the grace to forgive others. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I think what God would want us to know is that we need to live life full of pardons. Pardons is the act of forgiving, or to forgive. Like When's the last time you pardoned somebody? When's the last time you pardoned someone that offended you? Instead of holding the grudge and becoming vindictive, and this is the way I'm going to get them back. That you actually decide I'm going to live a life full of pardons. If you're not making that kind of decision, it may be a reason why you are not experiencing fullness in God, and while you're living a life that's unfulfilled, because in Mark chapter 11, Jesus talks about a man who is standing before a mountain and he wants that mountain to be removed. And Jesus says, if he has faith that mountain can go. He said, however, if he has unforgiveness in his heart, it will not move. Jesus said, If when you stand praying, you do not forgive as you have been forgiven, basically gives us the understanding, it'll put a chokehold on the abundance that God has intended for your life. It's very important that you not only receive the pardon, and you escape hell, and you gain heaven, but that you also be willing to give the pardon. And I think right now, what's going on in our world with all this cancel culture nonsense, has a lot to do with the enemy not wanting us to be people of the pardon. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I mean, if ever, there was a moment for the Gospel, the shine bright, it's right about now. Because our world has ceased to believe in a second chance, much less a third one. But the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that where sin doth abound grace, doth much more abound, and our God has the capacity and the ability to make old things pass away and everything become new again, as you become a new creature in Christ Jesus. Marvel not that ye must be born again. Because it's how the new creation aspect takes place in our life. And I just feel like maybe some of us need to be reminded that you cannot be a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, and be constantly focused on who you're going to cancel next. In fact, the Bible says if you have an enemy, you should love them. And if someone despitefully uses you, you should bless them. And maybe the reason that we're not experiencing a life of abundance is because we're making a list of who we're going to cancel next, instead of blessing and loving and praying for and believing in the God of the pardon, who says nobody deserves it. But if you'll simply call out on the name of the Lord, you can receive it. You know, I ain't gotten much help every time I've preached it yet this morning. I think we like canceling people. I think we dig it. Oh, not everybody. But there's some of us, we like the power that comes with that. We like to play God. We like to sit on our throne and see who we're going to get rid of next. Here's the deal, if you judge, and you can, but if you do it with the same measure that you dish it out, it will be brought back to you, pressed down, shaken together, running over shall men give into your bosom. Everybody wants to take Luke 6:38 and quote it about giving financially and I'd say it works that way because it seems to be a law, but the thing that that verse is written in is the context of judgment. And one of the best things that the church could do is come to an understanding that in such a moment is this, in such a time as this, we could model grace. We could model forgiveness. We could model what it is to give somebody a do over. A disciple came to Jesus, and he's like, hey, man, I'm tired of putting up with this guy. How long do I have to deal with this? And Jesus said, forgive him 70 times seven. The point Jesus was making is live the life full of pardon. Live life full of pardons. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I’ll give you one final thing out of lord's prayer that I think leads us to abundance if we'll pray for it. Luke chapter 11 verse 4, “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.” It seems to imply the subject of a path that apparently there's a path that leads to life and there's a path that leads to destruction. There's a path that leads to Jesus in his Lordship, and there's a path that leads to the evil one. I think we have to live life on the right path. Because at the best we can do. The enemy is gonna set traps; can I get a witness from somebody? I mean, he's gonna set traps. No man should ever say that, according to James 1, that he is tempted by God. For every man is tempted of his own lust and enticed. What that's telling us is that every single person is going to be tempted by the enemy, and he's going to try to draw us off the right path and get us on the wrong path. Because if he gets us on that wrong path, he can find a way to steal. He can better set us up to kill something. Ultimately, some of those paths just lead to an end in utter destruction. You gotta be careful with your paths. Samson was the most powerful man in the entire world, and he got to wearing out the wrong path. Could not stay away from Delilah's house. And by the time it was said and done and over with, he was powerless and had lost everything and became little more than a slave, a prisoner and a circus clown. You gotta be careful with your path. David, he took the head off of a giant. People sang songs about his ability in warfare. He wasn't just a warrior, he was a worshiper. In fact, the largest book in the entire Bible is nothing more than a collection of the songs that David wrote about God. And he got to wearing out the wrong path. Could not, could not stay off that balcony. He knew he was supposed to be at war, he knew he was supposed to be fighting, but he just could not stop catching a peek. And he played with the wrong path until the enemy killed some and nearly destroyed his entire kingdom. You got to be careful with your path.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

All throughout Scripture, the list goes on and on of the dangers of the path. You see at the best you can do, you're going to struggle with being drawn away. That's the nature of this flesh that we live in. But there's something else you need to know. First five books of the Bible primarily made up of what's known as the law of Moses or the law of God. We think of the word law, we think of legalities, we think of legal proceedings, we think of law enforcement. But the Hebrew word that most directly translates as law is actually the word path. And the reason that God gave them five books of law, do this, don't do that, is because he was trying to show them a path. That's why when Jesus showed up, he said this, to the people who knew the law inside and out, they could quote it forward making quota backwards, he looked at them, he said, the mistake you've made is you have misunderstood that it is only the narrow path that leads to life and few there are that find it. It's the broad path that leads to destruction. And what Jesus was saying to them is that you in your desire for self-sufficiency, have taken the law, have taken the path and you've made it broader, and you've made it broader, and you've made it broader until you think that you're actually living this effectively. And you don't even understand how much destruction is lurking for you because of this broad path. Here's how it worked. The law said a man shall not commit adultery. And so they thought as long as they did not go and commit a sexual act with someone else's spouse, they were fine. Jesus shows up and he says the mistake you've made is that if a man lust in his heart, he's as guilty as the one who committed the act. They thought as long as they didn't take their sword and murder somebody they were fine. And Jesus said, If you hate somebody in your heart, you're as guilty as the murderer. And what Jesus was showing them is that it was never simply about the axe It was about the heart. Because what's this only the pure in heart shall see God. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

When Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount, when he spoke about the Beatitudes, when he delivered Matthew chapter five through chapter seven, the whole thing was about confronting the fact that they had messed up the path. He told them, he said, you don't believe what you're preaching, if you did you would have plucked one eye out, you would have cut a hand off. You don't believe it, you've made it broad. Jesus showed up to let them know that they were going to have to find the narrow path. And that narrow path, nobody could walk it on their own. Nobody would ever be able to do it by themselves. The only way it could happen is that somebody was going to have to come to the gate, who is Jesus Christ Himself, and pass through the birth canal of his salvation experience, and cause all the bad stuff, all the sin, all the failure, all the mistakes to be left behind, and then you would be able to walk that narrow path with the ultimate tour guide, the one who would become a light unto your path and a lamp into your feet. Aren't you glad to know that Jesus Christ can become the one who shows you the path and help set you free from the snare of the fowler, and even Psalm 91 says “He'll break the traps that the enemy sets for you.” You got to get on the right path. And once you get on that right path, you're going to have to stay connected to Jesus Christ, and make sure that every time your feet start to slip, you are reaching for the Lord, the Savior, the one who owns the path, and is in control of the path, and can keep you from the mess of falling off that path. Can I get a witness from somebody on a Sunday morning? Come on, help me just a minute. Thank God for the path. Thank God for the path. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Listen, they're going to come, and they're gonna begin to play some music softly, and as they do so, I'm going to ask every single head to be bowed, every eye to be closed. I want everybody just for a minute just to lean into your own life for a second. And I want you to do a little bit of looking around. And I want you to begin to evaluate, are there places where that you've not relied on God for his provision? I'm not just talking physically, I'm talking spiritually. And both of those may resonate with you this morning. But if you're honest, and you're real, like you know without a shadow of a doubt, that there's a part of your life where that you've just not really been full of God's provision. It's maybe why you're so confused. It's why you're so exhausted. It's why you're so fatigued. It's why you're experiencing what you're experiencing. Somebody else, it's you have struggled to live a life full of pardons. You're just kind of naturally geared to keep score. And you don't forget easily. And it's just the way you are, and sometimes you're so much that way that you've kind of made it feel like it's okay. That, okay, I forgave this person, and I forgave that person, but I'm really not gonna forgive this other one right now, because I still need to work through this a little more. I got news for you, you do not get to parent theoretically insert who you will forgive and who you will not. Because Jesus has set the standard. He died so that everybody can have life. So don't stand back and just contemplate the victims mentality and contemplate all the reasons why you're justified in not giving them a pardon.

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

I was preparing this message, I was thinking about presidents and governors and how they give pardons, and they typically do it all at the end of their tenure. And one of the reasons for that is because it's usually controversial, and people don't agree with their pardons. And this morning, not so much about whether you agree with the pardons of political parties or not, but the point that you probably shouldn't wait till the end, to make the decision to pardon. It can cut off the abundance in Christ that you're meant to experience. Because you're delaying and you're delaying and you're delaying that willingness to let God help you to forgive. You see Jesus on that cross, and they're, they're nailing him, they're beating him. Some of you, it's what you feel like. You’re like man, every time that person goes on social media, they just nail me again. Every time they send me a text message, they just nail me again. Every time they get around my family, they just nail me again, hear Jesus, to the very executioner's that were nailing him, cry out on their behalf father, pardon them. Father, forgive them. They don't even know what they're doing. They don't understand the gravity of what they're messing with. 

 

Pastor Eric Gilbert

Maybe it's your moment today to just say Lord help me to pardon some people that have been holding offense and a grudge and bitterness against. There's others of us that we just know it. Like we're on the wrong path, and a preacher probably didn't have to tell us that today we knew it. We're just not on the right path, but you can be. Because the cross of Jesus Christ becomes a bridge from the wrong path to the right path. It becomes a bridge from the broad path to the narrow path. It becomes a bridge from death to life. And today, if you need God to just help transition you to the right path, why don't you be bold enough to just throw a hand up in the air and say, God, I surrender. Like I'm done trying to do this my own way. I'm done chasing my own path. I'm done trying to figure out the next steps all by myself like God, I even realized right now I don't get good to get you, I get you to get good. God, have your way in my life. God to help me to find the right path. Lord, I thank you that your blood makes it possible for me to get a fresh start. I thank you that your name and calling on your name gives me the chance to have new life in Jesus. Father, I pray with people who are under the sound of my voice that they need a fresh start. Like today, they're deeply troubled about the fact that they're on the wrong path. They realize God that tomorrow is promised to no man and there's just not enough time on the clock to play around with the wrong path. God thank you that your Gospel creates a pathway for us to have newness of life and for us to get a fresh start and for us to get a do over and for God, for us to find a life and Lord we receive that, and we pray that it would come in an abundant capacity. God pour grace all over us. flood us with grace, and begin to build our life in such a way, Lord, that we would live full of praise, that we would live full of power, that we would live life on purpose and that Father God, we would be the kind of people that know what it is to have your provision, to give others pardons, and to walk out the right path. Lord, let it be done in the name of Jesus, and this church said, amen.