Our Enemies and Our Hero
Transcript
You want to be happy. Now I know you weren't ready for us to start this whole new series off with such a brain bomb. You weren't prepared for that. No, you want to be happy. Like it's innate in us. It's hardwired in us, this desire, this longing for happiness.
We've bought into it. We believe in it. There's something in us that consistently thinks about it, worries about it, has it in mind when we're making decisions, when we're deciding where to live and where to work and even what we want to do today. There's this undercurrent of our own personal happiness. What do I like? What do I enjoy?
And even we'll make decisions about things that we aren't going to enjoy because we ultimately believe that it will lead to future, better, more long-lasting happiness. It's the reason some of you went to school. It's the reason you didn't enjoy that, but you knew this ultimately leads to happiness. But there's something in us that longs for, believes in, and desires and pursues our own personal happiness. There's a French mathematician and philosopher named Blaise Pascal. You maybe have heard about Pascal's triangle.
It's just a convenient tabular representation of binomial coefficients. I just memorized that. I don't know what those words mean. I just wanted three seconds of sounding really smart. But he says this.
He's a French philosopher. He says this about happiness. He says, All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war and of others avoiding it is the same desire in both, attended to different views.
The will, meaning your inward desires, the will never takes a least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action, of every man, even those who hang themselves. See, Blaise Pascal says everybody is pursuing happiness. The U.S. bought into this. We encoded it in the Declaration of Independence that it's an inalienable right of a human to pursue happiness. We even got Will Smith to make a movie about it, so it's real, you guys.
We pursue happiness. And I hear Pascal say that, and there's just something in me that goes, Yeah, no, I get that. Like, I believe that. I don't want to argue with him. There's something that makes me go, Yeah, no, I understand that. I see that at work in me.
I see that at work in other people. Like, there's something in my life when I'm sad, the times that I've felt physical pain or emotional pain or the times I've cried, there's been this, like, this isn't how this is supposed to be. This isn't, this is broken. This is not how I'm supposed to exist. And on the flip side of that, every time I've been happy, there's just part of me that goes, This is what life was supposed to be like. This is how I'm supposed to exist.
It fits. There's something about it that fits us. And here's the truth biblically. We had deep, abiding happiness when we were created. Humanity was designed to exist in a joy and happiness in relation to their creator. And we lost it.
We rebelled against God and that happiness was broken. And so sorrow and pain and hurt entered the world. And all of us since then have been chasing after the happiness. Chasing after what we think will fill us up, will make us happy. And here's the issue. God is ultimately the only thing that can fill that up in us.
You see, God actually wants joy for us. He desires joy for you. That's the end that he desires for you. Now, joy is the deep, abiding, real version of happiness. Happiness, short-lived, circumstantial. So God's desire for humanity is to have a deep, abiding joy in the midst of sorrow and pain.
That is set above the horizon. That is beyond circumstances. The reason we pursue happiness is because it's the cheap, knockoff version of what we were meant for. There's something meant for joy in our souls because we were meant to find that only in God. And once, everything else was supposed to be just a signpost to how good he was. You were supposed to eat a delicious meal and not have your enjoyment terminate on the meal, but actually roll up in praise to the God who invented flavor, who made bacon.
Like you were supposed to roll up in praise to him. You were supposed to ride a roller coaster or go enjoy scenery somewhere, stand breathless at the edge of the Grand Canyon and not have your enjoyment terminate on the Grand Canyon, but actually roll up in praise to the God who carved it out. But once our relationship with God was broken, we began to pursue by any means necessary, whatever we believed would fill us up and make us happy. And ultimately, they all are dead ends because none of them were meant to be an end in themselves, but all were meant to point to the one place we could actually find joy.
But repeatedly in the Bible, God is calling us to joy, wants joy for you, desires joy for you, because anytime he calls for joy in you, what he's saying is, I want me for you. Because ultimately, joy and pleasure are with me. I want that for you. So he fights actively for our joy. Jesus goes to the cross for our joy, to bring us to God, to return us to the state we were meant to be in, and to actually remove all that would keep us from him. And so every time the Bible says praise or rejoice, it's calling us to God, that we were meant for it.
I want to continue to explain this and show you a few things here. So the Bible is bathed in commands. It's covered in commands to praise, to rejoice. And since we use the ESV, they use the word exult a lot. And I read the ESV on a regular basis. So I want to explain those terms to us because we don't really use those words a lot.
We use the word praise. And there's really only like two times or two types of praise. And really one of them is not even actually praise. So there are two times that we praise something. Praise just means to speak highly of, to say this is nice or this is good. And the first kind of type is not actually genuine.
So you could praise something to not hurt someone's feelings. Somebody bakes you a cake and it's really dry and not good. And you eat it and it sucks all the moisture out of your mouth. And they're standing there looking at you like, well, what do you think? And you're going, hmm, this cake of all the cakes, this cake is cake. Some of the cake is cake.
This, hmm, is this icing frosting on top? Yeah. Like you're doing your best to try to say, no, this is good. Like they're waiting for you to say, and you finally just, you give in and look at their face in line. You should repent that you say, no, this is good. I like this.
Maybe next time for my birthday, just give me a gift card. But this is great. Like you, there's, there's praise that's to avoid hurting someone's feelings. There's also a praise that's manipulative. The purpose is to get something out of a person. So that's flattery.
It's ultimately not genuine praise, but you're just saying nice things because maybe they'll give you something or they'll respond in kind. Like that's, so I don't think that's what the Bible is talking about when it commands us to praise God. I don't think the Bible is like, Hey, say nice stuff to God or his feelings are going to get hurt. I don't think that's the point. I don't think it's like, you better, like he's really sensitive. You guys, he's going to need you to say nice stuff.
I don't, I don't think that's it. Like just at some point, just tell him trees are good. He made them. Tell him they're good. I don't think it's flattery. I don't think the point of the Bible is, Hey, you really got to get God on your good side.
And one way to do that is to facetiously and sarcastically and lyingly tell him you like him. I think, I mean, I can pick up on flattery at times. I can tell somebody is not genuinely praising something. I'm pretty sure God who can, you know, read your thoughts and look into your heart can tell. And I don't think he's moved by it. It's actually when the Bible says praise, what it means is genuine praise.
And here's how genuine praise works. And here's why this is actually beautiful that God calls us to this. You only genuinely pray something when you actually enjoy it. Genuine praise comes out of the actual enjoyment of something. Genuine praise actually shows up when we're really enjoying. This is why when you have a boyfriend or girlfriend or fiance or something, you just naturally just say nice things about them because there's enjoyment there.
It just bubbles over. This is why when your mom cooked a meal, she'd let you chew for about 30 seconds. And then she'd be like, ain't nobody going to say anything about the food? Because she knew if you actually enjoyed the food, it would, you would automatically just be like, this biscuit is amazing. And then stick it like you. It naturally happens.
I was at the zoo the other day. I was thinking about this and there was about four, I think probably, they were in college. So 18 to 22 or something like that. They were at the new sea lion exhibit thing and they're looking in the glass and it's gotten murky because I think of all the rain. I was kind of green in there. Zoo really needs to step it up and clean that thing out, but whatever.
And they're trying to see like a sea lion. And while they're doing that, there had been one just hanging out at the top of the water and it was hanging out upside down, just laying in water. I didn't know they could do that. And it just floated down and was like looking at them upside down. So they're trying to see it and all of a sudden it floated down.
It was like, what's up you guys? Like that's really, and immediately one of the guys goes, this is awesome. Because that's the natural thing that happens when you're enjoying something. So you've seen a car before and been like, this car is beautiful. Or you've stood next to the Grand Canyon or seen a sunset and your natural response is to hit the person next to you and be like, look at that. Isn't that beautiful?
Isn't that amazing? So when God says praise repeatedly in the Bible, what he's saying is notice me so much, enjoy me so much that the natural overflow response is that you'll, you'll point it out. You'll talk about it. That's part of how we actually enjoy it. There's something about looking at something and enjoying it with someone else that if you don't say anything about it, it kind of cuts down on it. There's actually, it makes it complete for you to point it out.
So he says praise. It also says rejoice and exult a lot. Now exult is not like, we don't really use the word rejoice. Maybe every once in a while we just sing a song with it, but it's a Bible word. So church people use it more often, but we don't use it in normal life.
Exult, like if you said exult around me, I would just think you were weird. And I recently up until like, I don't know, a couple of months ago, didn't even know what exult meant. It's spelled E-X-U-L-T. I just assumed because it was one letter different from the word exult that they meant similar things. So exult is E-X-A-L-T.
And I just thought they're probably the same thing. And then as I kept reading, I thought that's actually kind of dumb. Why would they have two words that meant the same thing with just one letter difference? I might should actually look this up. So I looked up exult and it doesn't mean what exult means.
Exult means to lift high, to praise, to lift up. Exult actually means show or feel elation or jubilation. Also two words we don't use. There's something about us dumbing our language down that lets us miss out on some depth here. It says, especially as a result of a success, it just means to be overwhelmed with joy to the point of celebrating. Rejoice is similar.
Rejoice says feel or show great joy or delight. But we don't use these words. So yesterday, I just assumed because South Carolina had a bye week that I would have a Saturday where I didn't get all worked up about football and sad in my heart. And I was looking forward to that because I have a problem and South Carolina is not good. So they're not really feeding my idolatry and letting me feel good about myself vicariously through them.
So I have to watch them and then I get depressed and there's all these issues. I'm working through it, you guys. But I thought, South Carolina's not playing, I'll be fine. And then I accidentally started watching the Clemson-NC State game in the fourth quarter. So Clemson and NC State are playing and it is tied.
Clemson is ranked number three in the nation. NC State is not ranked in the top 25. So if they win, bye-bye all hopes and dreams, Clemson fans. And I was so excited. So it's fourth quarter.
NC State's playing really well. I ran into the other room. I said, Anna, come, come, rejoice with me. Join me, my bride, as we exult over NC State. Like, I was like, you've got to take part in this and we're watching. And I mean, Clemson Booster Club better send NC State's kicker a gift basket because that cat, they would have won the game.
It comes down two seconds left. All he's got to do is kick a field goal and he misses far right. And it's a Clemson home game and the stands burst forth in exultation. That's what those words mean. We don't use those words. That's what they mean.
The people hugging and crying and kissing strangers and you can't tell what's sweat and what's tears. Like that group of people in the stands, that's exultation. And the Bible consistently says this is the response of Christians to the glory of the cross and to the glory of our King. That we should be overwhelmed, subjectively, experientially enjoying Jesus. That's a normal pattern of life for Christians, that we would experience and enjoy Jesus. Now, it's joy, which means it's in the midst of sorrow and pain.
This is why Paul and Silas can be singing in a prison. This is why Christians in the midst of a cancer ward can have joy because it's beyond the horizon. It's beyond our circumstances, but the normal experience for Christians should be in a subjective, experiential joy in the presence of God and in the glory of the cross. See, I always just kind of thought it was supposed to be objective. God's glorious. He's big.
He's good. And we're supposed to objectively notice that and objectively praise. So that when we came here this morning and we're singing a song, we're supposed to sing because God is good and deserves to be sung to. But we don't have to feel it. We don't have to really participate in it. It's mostly just we've got to go through the act and because he's objectively good, we should partake in that.
And here's the issue with that. I know that taxes are objectively good. I know that. I will argue with you if you're like, no, we shouldn't have taxes. I would start off with something like, no, stupid. We should.
Do you appreciate roads? Being able to read. School was helpful, right? Like, do you like ambulances showing up at your house when you set yourself on fire? Like, yeah. Taxes.
Now, we could discuss how much taxes and where they go, but taxes are objectively good. I know this. I have never subjectively enjoyed taxes. I've never experientially been excited when I saw my paycheck and looked at little FICA down there. Been like, yeah, taxes. Take some more.
Like, I never did that. I've never walked into an H&R block, lifted a lady wearing way too much lipstick and been like, Tammy, let's do this. You ready to exalt over some forms? 1099? Like, you ready to do that? Like, never done that.
Never happened. And I felt like that's maybe what we were supposed to do with God. We were supposed to objectively notice he was good, but it wasn't supposed to sweep us up. It wasn't supposed to overwhelm us. It wasn't supposed to engulf us. But that's not the truth.
The Bible calls repeatedly for Christians to be overwhelmed, engulfed by God's glory and his goodness to the point of an experiential joy. So here's what we're about to do. I got a couple of pages of Bible verses that I'm going to read through quickly to show us, to illustrate to us, how much the Bible talks about this. How much it calls us to joy, to exaltation. We'll see that word a lot, exalt. How much it calls us to rejoice.
Now, sometimes on Sundays, and just in Bible study in general, you treat Bible study like a wine tasting. We get together. We're going to look at a verse. We're going to look at two verses. We're going to just barely pour them out. We're going to swish them around, stare at them, see what they do to the glass.
We're going to smell them. Taking every little bit of syntax and word and verb structure and what's being said here. And look at the commas and see where it says, therefore, we're going to do that. We're going to zoom in and really take it all in. We're going to swish it around. We're going to spit it out.
We're going to drink a little bit. Like we're going to, it's a wine tasting of scripture. We do that sometimes. That is not what this is. If you try to do that, this will be bad for you. This is jumping in a cold lake on a hot day.
We're just going to be overwhelmed by one thing. This is really cold. We're going to be overwhelmed by, the Bible talks about joy. Okay? That's the point. I'm going to run through this really quickly.
If you really want this list later, I can give it to you. At some point, I may not even be giving references anymore, but it comes from the Bible. So I'll try to stay focused and move here. All right. Are we ready? Cold lake, hot day?
Okay. First Chronicles 16, 27. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and joy are in his place. So there are Bible verses that talk specifically about joy exists with God.
Like it is part of who he is, where he is. So this is the character of God has joy. So splendor and joy, strength and joy are in his place. Psalm 4. You have put more joy in my heart than when their grain and wine abound. He's saying circumstantially, they have to have stuff to have joy.
I get more joy just from you. Psalm 9. I will be glad and exult in you. I will sing praise to you, your name, O Most High. Psalm 5. But let all who take refuge in you rejoice.
Let them ever sing for joy and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in you. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. The Bible consistently in the Old Testament also talks about that there will be joy in the future salvation of God. So they're pointing forward to the cross.
The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. That's Isaiah 29. He says fresh joy. Not that old joy. Not joy you had last week. Not stale joy.
Joy that's fresh because the gospel is true that Jesus is going to show up and give the meek fresh joy in the Lord. Isaiah 49. Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth. Break forth, O mountains, into singing. For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted. Isaiah 61.
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and a bride adorns herself with her jewels. He says I'm giddy like a bride on her wedding day because of the glory of God and the joy that's with him. Zephaniah 3.
Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O Israel. Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord has taken away the judgments against you. He's cleared away your enemies. He says the judgments against you are gone.
It's like you went to trial and you probably should have been convicted, but then you get to walk out free. And that first breath of air that fills your lungs and you know it's over. I'm not going to jail. He says the judgments against you are cleared. That's the joy that we have with the Lord. Psalm 68.
But the righteous shall be glad. They shall exult before God. They shall be jubilant with joy. Isaiah 35. And the ransomed of the Lord. That means those bought out of slavery shall return and come to Zion with singing.
Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads and they shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. He said it's like when you got released from prison. That first moment of freedom and knowing that you paid your time, that you were set free from slavery. That's the joy that we have in the Lord. And then in the New Testament, they talk about we have joy because of Jesus and the work he's already done. For the kingdom of God, this is Romans 14, is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope. That's Romans 15. 2 Corinthians 13. Finally, brothers, rejoice. He just says, I'm ending my letter.
Rejoice. Be happy. Celebrate. Because of the gospel. First Thessalonians. Rejoice always.
Philippians 2. Be glad and rejoice with me. Philippians 3. Rejoice in the Lord. Philippians 4. Rejoice in the Lord always.
And again, I will say rejoice. This is the posture of a Christian. This is the normal response that we would have. Joy. John 16. Jesus says this.
So you have sorrow now, but I'll see you again. And your hearts will rejoice and no one will take your joy from you. Because the joy that Christians have is anchored in the resurrection of Jesus. It can't be taken from us. Revelation 19. This is the last one.
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory. For the marriage of the Lamb has come and his bride, that's the church, has made herself ready. It was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure. You see, we're commanded as Christians to have joy. We're designed to celebrate the cross subjectively. To have it experientially in our lives.
That we would be overwhelmed with it at times. So here's the point of our series. And why we've named it Killjoy. We as Christians, if you've placed your faith in Jesus, you have subjective joy because of an objective reality. We get to experience joy because Jesus went to the cross on our behalf for our sins so that we can have freedom in life. That's the life of a Christian.
So, that's how we ought to live. What we're going to read here in a minute in Ephesians 2, and Jordan already read it to us this morning, is Paul's writing to the church and he's saying, this is what your life used to look like. This is who you used to be prior to Jesus. And then he, in the middle, says, but God. And he says, here's what's true for you now. Here's who you are now.
And see, for a lot of us, we have been, because of Jesus, made to live here. We've been set free from who we used to be. Set free from sin. Set free from this sorrow and this pain that comes along with our rebellion. And brought over to be with God and to experience a deep, abiding joy that's beyond circumstance. But for many of us in the church, we've gotten used to certain sins, certain struggles, and we're trying to act like, no, this is normal.
No, this is regular. This is what this looks like. And what Paul's saying is, no, that's what used to be true. No, this is your new normal. Freedom and joy and hope and rest in the gospel are your new normal because of Jesus, because of an objective reality of Jesus going to the cross and saving you. So we're going to walk through, and what we're going to do as we walk through this section is look at what our enemies are.
In Ephesians 2, what he's saying used to be true for us, what used to have dominion over us, and then we'll talk about how, as a series, we're going to get to spend time in freedom. So turn to Ephesians 2. It'll be on page 634 if you're in a blue and white Bible. Now, in this series, what our goal is is just to pastor through some issues in the church, some issues for Christians that we've gotten used to, that we started acting like they're acceptable. Here's what I mean. If you text your community group this week on your group me, or maybe y'all have a Facebook group, or you just got all their Numbers, so you text them and you say, hey guys, really struggling this week.
I just blew all of my savings on cocaine and prostitutes. Your phone's going to blow up. People are going to show up at your house. Like, your group will rally around you. They will be there. They'll be like, hey, let's walk through this.
Like, we need to help you. And they should. That should be the response. But you could text in week after week, hey guys, really struggling with anger. And you're going to get back praying for you. Yeah, me too.
Maybe somebody will give you a little bit of like, here's how the gospel applies to anger. Hopefully so. That's one of the things we're shooting for as a church. But there's not going to be the same type of reaction. You could text and say, guys, still struggling with guilt and shame. Still struggling with lust.
And you're going to get some, yeah, praying for you. Yeah, me too. And so as pastors, we've on a regular basis in our church family got to sit down with people. In our homes, grabbing a cup of coffee. And just talk through some of the issues we're going to talk through in the next couple of weeks. And honestly, wish we could do that with everybody.
Wish we could just, that this could be done in a setting where we're sitting across from a table from each other. But we just got to realizing, man, these are some issues that our church family just needs us to talk about. We just need to walk through a little bit and begin to realize how Jesus has been at work in this. To set us free from this. To give us hope in this. And so for the next several weeks, we're going to spend time walking through that.
And we'll talk more about how we're going to go about that in a minute. So Ephesians 2, we're going to look at our three enemies. Because as we walk through talking about anger, lust, guilt and shame, self-loathing. As we spend time for the next six weeks talking about these specific issues. All three of these are going to be at play. All three of these enemies are going to be at work.
And we're going to, as we address anger, we're going to address it on these three fronts. As we address lust, we're going to address it on these three fronts as Paul's talking in here. So that's what we'll spend our time doing today. All right. And you were dead in the trespasses of sins and sins in which you once walked. That's chapter 2, verse 1.
Following the course of this world. Following the prince and the power of the air. The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh. Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. And we're by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
Okay. So the first enemy we have as Christians is the flesh. Paul talks about it when he says, In which you once walked. At the beginning of verse 2. And then verse 3 where he says, Among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh. Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind.
What he's saying is, You have inside of you a desire for sin. When the fall happened. When Adam and Eve originally rebelled. We just lined up behind and joined in. And there's something in us. Innately hardwired in us.
To sin. To rebel against God. To chase after whatever we think will make us happy. Regardless of the consequences. That we carry out the desires of the body and the mind. Meaning you actively choose to sin.
That's why Paul in Romans 7 says, I don't understand myself. The things I know are good. That God wants. That I actually want to do. I don't do. And the things I know that are bad.
That are rebellious. I end up doing those. And I feel like there's a war going on inside of me. So as we walk through this series. We're going to specifically address. You.
You're a sinner. You're consistently talking yourself into stupid things. Did you know that? Jeremiah says, Your heart is desperately sick. It's a. It.
It's. It lies to you. That more often than not. When you've pursued something. That ended up being terrible. You know who tricked you into it?
You. You should be really mad at yourself. Right now. Like. There's something in us. That wants to sin.
There's this. Fleshly desire for sin. And so as we walk through this series. As we talk about anger. As we talk about lust. As we talk about self-loathing.
We're going to talk about. How are you involved in this? How are you actively choosing to sin? How do we need to repent? The second enemy that we have. We'll spend most of our time on the flesh.
Because you're your biggest enemy. Luckily. All of what Paul is saying here. Is that this used to be true for you. So Jesus has set us free.
But we're kind of going back to this. We end up living like this is our normal. And it's not. The second enemy you have is the world. So he says.
Verse 2. In which you once walked. Following the course of this world. You have. Your second enemy as a Christian is the world. And that doesn't mean all the people that exist in the world.
The Bible uses the world in two different senses. One is. All the humans. So that's where it says. For God so loved the world. That he gave his only son.
That whoever believes in him. Might not perish. But have everlasting life. That world is all the humans in it. But it also uses the world as.
The systems at place in the world. That help you sin. Because sinful people. Help design these systems. And so we have systems at place. That help you sin.
So. You. You. Desire to look at pornography. You. Fleshly desire.
Desire of the body. To lust. And guess what? The internet exists. And there are people actively at work. To develop more pornography.
To help you sin. There's a worldly system that helps you sin. And not only does the internet exist with pornography. But then there are TV shows. That just glorify it. So that.
We act like our culture just Acts like it's normal. We have shows like Hardcore Pawn. porn. And Pawn Stars. And food porn. Because we've normalized this. You watch television shows.
And they just act like of course you're watching porn. Of course that's normal. That's okay. Even though statistically we know that. Pornography use is one of the leading causes of divorce. Every sitcom you watch is going to act like.
Yeah of course the husband watches porn. Of course the wife partakes some. That's the world lying to you. This is also the systems of belief in the world that we have. That come alongside you and just help feed what you're thinking. So.
When the Bible disagrees with you. And tells you you need to repent. And then our culture says whoa. The Bible doesn't get to tell you what to do. You look inside of you. Look in your heart.
And whatever you find in there. That's the real you. That's what needs to be cultivated. That's what needs to be brought out. Whatever you find inside of you is the real you. And you have to be true to yourself.
Now doesn't that sound beautiful? The Bible says that's nonsense. That being true to yourself leads to destruction. That God loves you enough. That when he is after your joy. That means sometimes he's not after your happiness.
Because we'll say things like. I know God just wants me to be happy. Which means God just wants me to do. Whatever the heck I think would be best in this moment. No he doesn't. He wants you to be actually happy.
I've got a two year old. He's not two yet. He'll be two at some point. I want him to be actually happy. I want him to be actually happy. Like I care about his joy.
Which means that yesterday. I took a knife from him. I was cleaning out the dishes. And he grabbed a knife. And tried to take off running. Because he knew he wasn't supposed to have it.
And so he figured. I better escape with this. I did not know. That before my son was two years old. I was going to have to disarm him at some point. I haven't taken that class.
So I just kicked him. No I didn't. But I had to quickly get a knife from him. He's losing his mind. Because I've just stolen the best toy he's ever had from him. And then when I pick him up.
He hits me. I don't know why I have an aggressive son. I don't know where that came from. I have probably his mama. He hits me. So I have to spank him.
I have to hold him while he's trying to fight with me. He ends up getting spanked again. Like there's this whole big long process. Because I actually care about his real happiness. Which does not involve him running around with a knife. At some point he'll be really mad at me.
Because he can't eat candy. And stay up till two o'clock in the morning. Because I care more about his real happiness. So when we say things like. And our culture says. Well God just wants you to be happy.
Yeah. He actually wants you to be happy. Real long term. Abiding joy happiness. So much so that he went to the cross for you.
But a lot of times that means he steps in. Takes something out of your hand. And says that's really dumb. You need to move on. So we're going to talk specifically as we walk through this series.
The world. What it is that the culture is telling us. What it is that lies that we believe. What it is that's helping tempt us. And figuring out how to. How do we avoid that.
How do we replace that with truth. How do we set up something to help guard us against temptation. We'll spend some time talking about the world. Not a whole lot of time. We'll mostly talk about you. But we'll spend some time talking about the world.
The third one. Your third enemy. Is right after the world. So he says. Following the course of this world. This is verse two.
Following the prince of the power of the air. The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. He's referring to the devil. To Satan. And our third enemy is the devil. So we as Christians believe that God is a good God who created everything.
And that he created spiritual beings. Angels. And that some of those angels rebelled. And that they are at work. The Bible refers to them as demons. They are at work led by Satan or the devil.
To disrupt God's good design for creation. And God's good design for humanity. And rob us of joy. And keep us from him. The best way they can harm God is to attack people. We believe that.
We believe the Bible is pretty clear on that. I know that that's weird for us as Westerners. But we believe that that is true. And that Satan is actually active. And at work. In the lives of people.
Even in the United States. I know. It's crazy. He doesn't have to go through border patrol. I think that as we talk about this through this series. Because we will spend time each week talking about how can the enemy be involved.
How can Satan be involved. I think for some of us it will be weird but helpful. Good for you to continually get to see that he is at work. And just kind of uncomfortable. We can talk more about what the Bible says. The Bible doesn't give us all the answers we want.
But it does give us enough. I think for some of you it will be massively helpful. Because you may actually have been being affected by demonic things. And just didn't have a category for it. So you weren't paying any attention to it.
The devil does. The Bible calls him a murderer. It says he's been a murderer since the beginning. He's actively seeking to destroy and to harm and to kill. And I think he does that in four primary ways. He does it in a lot of ways.
But we're just going to kind of categorize him this morning for us. Four primary ways that we'll spend some time talking about. One is the Bible calls him an accuser. I found the reference for that. Revelation 12 refers to him as the accuser. Which means that he comes along and he accuses.
He says you're terrible. You're the worst. You're going to ruin your marriage. You're garbage. You're sinful. God can't love you.
God couldn't save you. Jesus loves everybody else but you. Jesus only loves you on a technicality. He actually cares about other people. But he accuses.
He says you did this in your past. You could never be okay. You did this to your children so you'll never be savable. Like he accuses. John 8. Jesus calls him a liar and says he's the father of lies.
One of the ways that he works is by lying. He says something that's remotely believable. And if you believe it, even as a Christian when he has no authority over you, if you believe lies, it affects how you live. For example, if I came running in here and I said there's a winged tiger in the other room, the only person running out of this room is the person who believed me. Probably no one. If I brought it down a little bit and said there's a tiger in the other room, still probably no one.
If I pulled the fire alarm and said there's a fire down there, there's a good chance everybody's walking out of the building. Because I said a believable lie. Now, is there a fire? No. But did y'all live like there was one?
Yes. Y'all walk out of the building. Now, at some point when you figure out it was a lie, you can return to your normal life. I have authority over you as long as you're believing my lie. Satan has the same situation going for him. If he lies to you and you believe it, he has authority just as long as you believe it.
So we're going to spend some time talking about what are the lies we're believing, how is that at work here, how can we repent of that, how can we replace that with truth. 1 Peter 5 says this, that he prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. And I think he does both of us. I think he prowls and he roars. For most of us, we do not think about Satan much. Probably good.
If you thought about Satan a lot, that'd be weird, I guess. We'd talk about it. But for a lot of us, there is no place. Maybe if you're a Christian, you're saying, yeah, I realize Satan's real. I realize the Bible says he's real. But then it's like, okay, does he actively mess with people?
No, not really. Very rarely. And if he ever does, it's well away from me. I think that's Satan in his prowling stance, which is just, you don't run from lions if you don't see him. And as long as he can be at work and you not know he's there, that's fine. But for the people who do think about Satan, notice Satan, I think the next stage is roaring, which is just to be as scary as possible.
If he can have you very afraid of him, he has more authority and control. He doesn't actually have authority and control. Jesus has set you free from him if you're a Christian. But if he can scare you, keep you up at night, make you very afraid of him, I think he can be at work. That may be all weird. I'd love to talk to you more about it when we get done this morning.
But we will spend some time talking about all three of our enemies as we go through this series. In Matthew 6, Jesus teaches them the model prayer. Most of us have this memorized or we've heard it a lot, probably on Friday Night Lights or something, where we say, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, because we all learned it in the King James. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. So it's a daily prayer.
Forgive us our sins. That's the flesh. Jesus says on a daily basis, you need to be praying about your flesh. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us not into temptation. That's the world.
He says on a daily basis, you need to be praying about not being led into temptation, not believing all this stuff, the propaganda that's out there. And the third one, deliver us from evil or deliver us from the evil one. It is a normal thing for Christians to be aware that you have three enemies, to approach life that way, to pray that way, and we want to normalize that in our church family. So as we're addressing situations, we're addressing you as a whole person who is an active sinner, who needs grace from Jesus, who lives in a culture that is affecting how you think, and that has an actual spiritual enemy that is at work to cause problems.
We believe Jesus when he said, this is how we ought to pray. So that's how we're going to approach this series. Okay. Let's say you're hanging out with me at my house, and we're sitting in my backyard near my fire pit, because I love my fire pit, and we're drinking some coffee, because I love coffee, and let's say the wind starts to blow, and those stupid purple berries off of that ridiculous tree that is in my backyard, I don't know, some sort of cherry tree, it's nonsense, start blowing off and hitting us, because of course, why wouldn't they? And then start making everything purple, because of course, why wouldn't they?
And so let's say that, as calm and rational as I am, let's say I snap, and so we're talking, and these berries hit me in the face, and I just go, you know what? Just hold on a second. And then I run, and I get a baseball bat, and I come back, and you watch a grown man have a complete psychotic fit for about 30 minutes, where I beat as best I can that stupid tree, and I hit every limb, and you hear a lot of swear words you didn't know I knew, and really colorful ways to use them, and I sit there, and I beat this tree for 30 minutes, and I'm just losing my mind, and you're doing, you're thinking like, should I leave? Should I help him?
Someone should help him. Like you're thinking through all these things, do I call somebody? And I'm just losing, and I get all, finally, there's no, I mean some limbs have fallen and stuff, there's no more berries on that tree, I throw my bat down, I walk over, I'm sweating profusely, because that happens, I sit down next to you, I'm panting, I'm sweating to the point that you're uncomfortable, and I then look at you and say, finally, that tree will never cause me any problems again. So you were saying about the stock market, like, and you, now you're no tree scientist, you might bravely pluck up the courage enough to venture to say, hey buddy, I just want to time you out, I don't mean to, to mess you up, you do realize, next year, those berries are coming back, right?
Like, you know how fruit works, right? I mean, I can leave, I don't, stay away from your bat, but like, you might point that out to me, you might say to me something along the lines of, you're actually going to need to cut that tree down, if you don't want your backyard to be purple, and even then, it's going to be a little while, but that'll start springing back up into new trees, unless you grind that stump out, and get rid of those roots. We, we have a book that we have made for this series, they're all on the counter out there, we want you to take them with you, because our goal in this series, is not to modify your behavior. Our goal is to not beat the fool out of some fruit, so that you look a little better, and it comes back somewhere else, or it comes back in six months.
Our goal is to, as best we can, look inside and see where the roots are, so that we can actually uproot, and dig out, and grind away some stumps, and get rid of these areas in our life, that maybe have been digging roots for a really long time, but because of Jesus, don't have to be normal for us anymore. That's the goal. Ephesians 2, let's see how he finishes it up. We'll start, in verse, we'll just read the whole thing again. First one. And you were dead in the trespasses and sins, in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work, and the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived, in the passion of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body, and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind, but God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him, and seated us with him, in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.
He says, God loved you so much, that in the midst of this being your normal, in the midst of being dead, in the midst of your brokenness and sin, Jesus came, and died on a cross, and when he died, and went into the grave, your sin went with him, and he raised us up with him. When Jesus walked out of the grave, we now, as Christians, can be made alive. We can have a new hope, and a new life, and a new normal, because of Jesus. Because God is rich in mercy, and he loves us with a great love. Verse 7. He did this so that, in the coming ages, he might show, the immeasurable riches of his grace, in kindness toward us, in Christ Jesus.
Jesus stepped into our situation, when we deserved nothing but destruction, nothing but wrath, and rescued us, and died for us, so that he could show us, his immeasurable greatness, and we could enjoy it. We could be engulfed by, and overwhelmed by, God's greatness. That's the hope we have in Jesus. That's the call we have in Jesus, that he saved you, to show you, how magnificent he is, and to bring you to himself. That's what we get together, to celebrate on Sundays. That's why we're doing this series.
If the best we could hope for, was some ways to count to 10, and some nice little phrases, to repeat to yourself, if we didn't have an objective truth, that Jesus saves and redeems, and is at work in us, and his Holy Spirit, this would be the saddest series, we've ever embarked on. But what we're about to do, is get to dig deeply, into the mess of our hearts, because Jesus has rescued us. We get to die to that, and rise again to a new life. That's the hope we have. In your books, there are charts, that go along with each week. There are diagnostics, we've borrowed stuff, from a recovery program, at Midtown Fellowship, which is a church, that we partner with.
The more you put into this series, the more you'll get out of it. There'll be things, that you didn't realize, you had an issue with, that these charts, will help you figure out, oh I've got this going on, I didn't think about it. There'll be some things, that you know, you have an issue with, so when you look at the chart, you go, I don't want to fill this out. It'll be helpful. Fill it out. Be prepared to hang out, with your community group, and talk openly, about what you've got going on, and walk in family together, as we pursue Jesus, and the hope that we have in him.
If you are not in a community group, today is a great day, to get into a community group. Grab one of those books, you know where we're going, you get to walk through this, together with other humans, struggling to follow Jesus, you want to get in a group. And if you're like, I'm not sure about groups, and I think y'all are kind of weird, here's my suggestion to you. Join a group for five weeks. If at the end of five weeks, you've processed through some mess, and you think, okay, I'm good, I'm not really going to be a sinner, in the future anymore, and I can go do this on my own, that's great.
Blessings to you, we're excited for you. If at the end of five weeks, you're getting to go, okay, no, it's good to walk through some mess with people, I would just encourage you, to hop in for this series, walk with a group, be in life with some people, and actually process through some of this, as we celebrate the fact, that we have freedom and joy in Jesus. Let's pray. God, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you that it is an objective truth, that you have saved us, and that we get to have a new normal. That we don't have to live lives, defeated by sin, by our flesh, by the world, by Satan.
That God, you are the conquering king, and we've been freed, from all that would have destroyed us. I pray, Lord, that through your Holy Spirit, you'd be at work in this series, to bring back some joy, to set us free from sin, to let us walk together as family, celebrating that the gospel, is good news, for life, right now. In Jesus name, Amen.
Oct 16