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Insight's to the Word with Pastor Teague!
Who Are You?
There is an event recorded in Acts 19.13-17 that if read on the right day – brings a sense of humor to my mind. The whole chapter is cool but when you capture the event of the Seven Sons of Sceva attempting to cast out demons – and the demons turn on the boys, strip them naked as a Jaybird and sends them running to the streets without their bath robe on – you have to righteously giggle. I mean, really? Seven brothers running in the streets of Ephesus stark naked? Did their exposure to the demonic bring them to a point of “over exposure”?
Ephesus was a deeply dark spiritual city. It was full of demonically influenced and possessed wizards, witches, astrologers and people who marketed the demonic and became wealthy doing so. The city was evil. It was overwhelmed with black magic. The occult was alive and well in Ephesus in Paul’s day. Is it any wonder that Paul penned the most comprehensive instruction on spiritual warfare to the church at Ephesus?
I wish not to debate demon possession here because it would be a waste of your time to convince me demons aren’t real. Trust me, they are! Here in Acts 19 Paul the demons dealt with actually become extremely active and attempt to engage in conversation. Go figure!
Two things we can learn here about these seven Jewish brothers. First of all you can just throw around the authority of Jesus because you been hanging with Jesus people. That’s where these boys made their first mistake. They spoke to the demons in the name of Jesus who Paul had a relationship with. No relationship on their part – only Paul’s. Now I like the fact that Paul had such a reputation in Ephesus (demonic city) that someone wanted to use his relationship with Jesus to deal with their relationship with evil. Bad choice. How many people today are doing the same thing? Attempting to speak in the name of Jesus who their spouse serves? Attempting to use the name of Jesus who their children honor? The list could go on and on. What I see here is someone who has a physical and material relationship with someone who really does know Jesus as their Savior. The first “someone” wants the blessings of the second “someone” who knows Jesus intimately. They see the second someone’s life wreak with the favor and blessing of God. The first someone figures he can use the Lord’s name without knowing the Lord and get the same results as the guy who really does know Jesus. His bad. Can’t do it. Won’t happen. You my friend have to have a relationship with Jesus Christ. You can live out your life by hanging on the tail of someone else’s relationship with Jesus. You have to have your own relationship with Jesus. Being around Jesus people doesn’t make you a Jesus person.
Second, I see the fact that some people have their mug on a wanted poster in hell. The demon said, “Jesus I know, Paul I know…but…who are you?” In other words these seven boys didn’t have a righteous relationship with Christ. Wham! Bam! Slam! And to the mat these Jewish brothers went! Down for the count. Their lesson was two-fold: first, you can’t fight demons you don’t have authority over. Gonna get a lesson in naked running 101 that you will never forget.
Second thing here is that fact that these brothers did not have a testimony of their faith. The demons recognized Jesus and knew about Paul but didn’t know these seven boys. This demon was not threatened by these exorcist wanna’ be’s. I have no idea why they would even attempt to cast out demons in the first place. The streets were full of demonic activity. They saw what Paul was doing and probably wanted some similar recognition. Who knows? We can move away from speculation here and make one more conclusion. Paul had a reputation in Ephesus. Paul was known by demons! How cool is that dude? I wonder if we have established a reputation? What do people know about you? What do they say about you? What do they think about you? Better yet, does hell know you exist? Are you a threat to the kingdom of darkness or are you not?
Seven sons a streaking!!! You get my point. The foolish will become fools. Ignorance knows grace and fraud knows all too well the truth about exposure. Does that make sense? That’s that naked truth about nakedness. These seven sons of a Jewish priest thought they could act in the supernatural by claiming someone else’s faith. Dumb. Real dumb. Their bad.
Pastortimteague's Blog 
Isn’t this also called “osmosis”? Decidedly more ignorant than citing “blessing” by osmosis, are those that make the mistake of lying to themselves about their OWN relationship. You can name many that have come and gone, falling to wayside, citing a relationship with God to other people, and knowing they have none.