Male and Female

Male and Female

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Well, good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. I have two brothers, and we're all married, and our wives were all pregnant this year, so that we were going to have, there was going to be a baby born in January, in March, and in May. And my younger brother, and their family was going to have a little boy. Our family was going to have a little boy, and my older brother was going to have a little girl.

And I grew up in a family with three brothers. My dad's a real intense guy, and honestly, when we first went to have children, people were always like, we just really want a healthy baby. And I'm like, yes, absolutely, we're in the zone right now in our church family where a lot of people are having children, and that is what we pray for. And the Lord willing, that works out, and sometimes it doesn't. And that was absolutely a prayer, but I also was like, I'll just be honest with y'all, like I wanted a boy. Like I just, I'm praying healthy, but I want boys.

And the truth was that Phillips is, we don't know anything about girls. Like we always liked them, but we didn't know anything about them. Like grew up in a situation where it was just like, I didn't know, so we started having a son. I was like, cool, I feel like I got this. Like be mean to him, he'll turn out okay. Like that was my thing.

My wife's been correcting that. But, but, so my brother goes, they're having a little girl, and they just had her, she's a precious little girl. And I went to him, and I was like, yeah, I said, you know, like you've got to develop like a healthy, biblical, godly picture of womanhood in your head so that you can help your daughter grow up. And he looked at me and said, why on earth would you say that to me right now? He's like, is this their first child? He's like, I'm just trying to figure this stuff out.

Why would you, he's like, I'm not like laying awake thinking about that tonight. Like I, you know, and it was just like a, it's the truth that right now we both have little babies and they, they, you know, you expect, I expect, we expect very little out of them right now. It's like, we want you to eat. We want you to sleep. We want you to poop. That's about it.

Like it had been a couple of days and our son hadn't pooped yesterday. We said, Hey man, we set some goals for you. You need to poop today. Like that's, like, that's a goal we have for you. And he crushed it by the way. Uh, and, uh, but that's the truth is that right now what's expected out of little infants is, is the same.

But at some point, as we continue to help them grow with our, my sons, I'm going to have to begin to point them into here's what biblical masculinity is. Here's what healthy biblical manhood looks like. And at some point it's going to diverge from my brothers who both have daughters and they're trying to train them. Here's what you ought to look like in biblical femininity and womanhood. And there's, there's been some pushback on this, that all of this is just cultural, that the idea between femininity and masculinity and manhood and womanhood is just, we're just, we're all the same, but we've just been sold on this.

And I read a study on the BBC. I thought this was really interesting that when they polled men and women to, uh, understand kind of how they view themselves, how they think about themselves, what, what's true about them. Um, and had them, everybody fill this stuff out that, uh, men and women vastly understand themselves very differently that they, when they would answer these questions, it was like, okay, there's a huge gap between, uh, men and women in, in all these areas. And then they did it across the globe. And what they found was that in more traditional societies in Africa and Asia, where they have a more traditional home structure, where they have a less egalitarian society, that women have less freedom, they found that the differences between men and women were actually less that in places where there's a more egalitarian society, where there's more freedom, where women are allowed to have more roles that they actually diverge more so that rather than having a more, a more progressive society.

And we suddenly realize, oh no, men and women are the same. What we've begun to realize is that the more progressive the society, the more we, uh, display the differences between men and women. Now that matters immensely to what we're going to look at today. Grab your Bibles, go to Ephesians chapter five. We're spending a decent amount of time in this one passage because it has a lot to say and it has a lot that we need to hear. Um, and I'll explain why we're going to approach this the way we're going to, um, after we read it.

So let's read it together. It's Ephesians chapter five. It'll be on page 569 in this blue Bible. If you don't own a Bible, take this one with you. Um, the, the Bible is the most stolen book in the world, but if you take one with you, it won't be stolen. It's our gift to you.

Take it with you. Um, if you don't own a Bible, we want you to have one. Ephesians chapter five, verse 22 wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife. Even as Christ is the head of the church, his body and is himself its savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the words so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish.

Well, we'll stop there. I, what, what we could do as we come to this text is it begins with wives submit to your husbands and then it goes to husbands and it gives a very distinct different commands based off of are you male or female? It just draws a line in gender in, in a marriage relationship and says, okay, men, husbands do this. Women, wives do this. And it's just drawn down a biological line. It doesn't say, all right, when y'all get together, figure out who's best at.

It doesn't say take an IQ test, figure out who's smartest. It doesn't say, uh, you know, check out, check out your bench press max and see who can do that. And now y'all can decide, like, it doesn't do that. It just says, uh, you male, all right, you do this or you, okay, do that. And what we could do as we approach this text is we could just read it, say, this is what it says. Let's obey it.

That's fair. That's a perfectly appropriate way to approach the Bible. That's the way my wife approaches the Bible. She's just like, says it. I'm good. I just got to figure out how to do it.

And I love that about her. That's not how I approach the Bible. I approach the Bible and I'm like, it says it and I know I ought to figure out how to do it. But what, but why does it say that though? Like I have this, there's this tension where it's like, I know I ought to follow it, but I got, I got more follow-up questions to try to understand this. It helps me if I understand where it's coming from to follow in a more, uh, to like following a little better.

Now I know I ought to obey and there's sometimes I don't get all the answers I want, but, but I approach it that way. And so rather than just jumping right in and saying, all right, wives, let's talk about how to submit. And then the next week, all right, husbands, let's talk about how to, how to love like Christ loves the church. What we decided was it might be better for us to just investigate this idea of headship in marriage. So it says, verse 23 for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body and is himself its savior.

This is a concept that was brought up earlier in Ephesians where it says that Christ is the head of the church and the church has been presented to him. Um, and so this idea of headship in marriage drawn on gender lines is something that I think it'd be helpful for us to understand before we try to try to apply it. So what we're going to do today is we're going to try to trace this through the scriptures. We're going to try to understand where headship comes from, why it's drawn on gender lines as best we can. Next week, we're going to talk specifically to wives and, and understanding how to practically, what does it mean?

Submit. What does it mean when it says everything? Does it mean everything? We're going to talk about that. Uh, then the following, we're going to talk directly to husbands and we're going to spend a little bit time doing Q and a and, um, talking to about singleness, uh, and the, and the scriptures. And so if you have questions and hopefully we will, um, and honestly, I don't think I'll answer all of them.

So if you get frustrated, you feel like something was said poorly, uh, give me some grace, but ask some questions. Um, not now don't raise your hand. I won't call on you. I've done that before in a sermon, but we're not doing that anymore. Uh, you can send them in and there's the information will be, uh, we can see it later, uh, where you can send them in and go through our website. Okay.

That got rambly. Let's go. Um, when it, when the Bible talks about headship, it talks about in a couple of different ways. It talks about a preexisting pre-creation headship, a creation ordinance headship. And then it talks about the fall and a redeemed picture of headship. And right now what we see in Ephesians is pointing to the redeemed picture where it says that, that this is supposed to model Christ and the church.

This idea that Jesus loves and redeems the church, how he pursues the church, how the church relates to Christ. And it's pointing to the redeemed picture of headship, but it also talks about a preexistent one and a creation one. So we're going to look at those as well to try to trace this through the scripture. So, um, Corinthians, we're just gonna have it on screen cause it's short Corinthians. Uh, he refers to kind of the creation one and the preexistent one. So he says, but I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ.

The head of a wife is her husband and the head of Christ is God. And so what he's saying is like, you need to understand that some of this comes from how the world works and he ends with the head of Christ is God. So he's saying that God, the father is head of Christ. And I think this is very encouraging and helpful when we try to understand what it means for husbands to be the head of their wife. Okay. Theology quiz time.

Is Jesus better than the father? Has more value than the father? No. Does the father have more value? Is he better than Jesus? Is he greater than Jesus?

No. Philippians tells us that although Christ had equality with God, he didn't see equality as a thing to be grasped, but he submitted himself to God, the father so that Christ lives out a submission to the father's will, not because his value is less, but because he has a, he shows deference to the father and he has a different role. So that when it says that Christ, the head of Christ is God, what it's saying is that this is his existed. This idea, this concept, the way this works in the world has existed in eternity past within the Trinity between God, the father, God, the son, Holy spirit, but that Christ submits to the will of the father.

And then we see in the scriptures that the father uses that to, to lead and then to elevate Christ to a place above everything that Christ is elevated with a name above all names. And so that it's a preexistent picture, but it's also a creation picture. So if you'll see, uh, as he keeps going in this in verses eight and nine, we'll read 11 and 12 as well. Um, verse eight and nine for man was not made from woman. And we're going to read this in Genesis in a second, but woman from man, neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. And that makes sense.

Because if you were going to help a man out, you would create a woman, but if you're going to help a woman out, it just doesn't make sense the other way. All right. Nevertheless, in the Lord, woman is not independent of man nor man of woman for as woman was made from man. So man is now born of woman and all things are from God. And so he tempers it. He says that this is the way it was created.

This is the way God designed it in creation. This is the way he, he set it up when he made things. And then he says, but it's not like, don't get cocky. This is, he also set it up to where we're consistently dependent and we're all dependent on God. So he tempers it.

But he does say that headship, this idea comes from creation. So grab your Bibles, go to page one. It'll be Genesis chapter one. We're going to spend a little bit of time in Genesis one, two, and three, and just kind of trace this out. It'll give us some understanding about gender in general. And then we'll apply it to marriage in specific.

So when you read about Adam and Eve, the first man and the first woman, they were both first man, first woman, as well as first husband, first wife. And so we learn things about marriage and gender from them. Um, and so we, we have to draw some, some conclusions out of their relationship to understand what's applicable where. So we're going to look at, uh, some things about gender in general and some things about, um, marriage in specific. So chapter one, I just want us to look at verse 27 and 28.

Um, chapter one, Genesis chapter one, he kind of, the, the author gives us like an overview of creation. It's a, it's a flyby kind of an understanding of here's how everything was created. And then in Genesis chapter two, it zooms in and gives a more, um, a more intricate picture of how that actually worked. So rather than just kind of saying, here's how it works, it zooms in a little bit. But Genesis chapter one says this.

So God created man, uh, and that word includes, um, both male and female. So it could be humanity. It's the way we use man. Sometimes we're talking about like mankind. So God created man in his own image and the image of God.

He created him male and female. He created them. So what it's telling us in Genesis one is that God, a kind of the sixth day of creation creates male and female. And it says, and God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. So God takes man and woman.

He creates them. And then he says, y'all have a co reign over the earth that both male and female were made in God's image that anybody would try to take the Bible and say that somehow man is better than woman or somehow woman is better than man that gets its legs cut out from under it in chapter one of Genesis, that they were made both in the image of God and both called to have dominion over the earth, to co reign together, to subdue the earth. And then chapter two gives us a zoomed in picture of this. So if you look at chapter two, we're going to start in 13. And as we go, we'll pull out some pictures, some understanding of some things about masculinity, some things about femininity, but again, trying to understand this idea of headship and a little bit of why it's drawn on gender lines.

So the Lord God took the man. So he made the man first, took the man, put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat. For in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. Now, as far as we know in the text, that's the only time God says that. So he says it specifically to the man.

And then when later, when Eve comes on the scene, we're to assume the man was supposed to have explained that and to lead in that well. But he takes the man, he puts him in a garden. And so he has a garden in Eden. And then he's kind of commanded that humanity together is to make the rest of the world look like the garden, to subdue it, to conquer, to slowly grow and to make the rest of the world beautiful. And he says that the man is to work and to keep it. And that's a small, helpful understanding of some of the call on masculinity.

Men are supposed to work. They're supposed to defend, to keep, to shield, to guard, to protect, and they're supposed to cultivate. So he's putting a garden and he's supposed to make it better. But that's a call on masculinity. To work, to defend, to keep, and to cultivate. If you're trying to understand a biblical picture of masculinity, it does not give us a lot of specific things.

It gives us general pictures. I think one of the ways, if you're a guy and you're trying to understand this, I think 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1 are good examples of what the call on masculinity is because that's the call to eldership, which is a male office in the church. And it says, here's how to do that. Here's how to walk in that. And that's a helpful because it includes things like gentleness, which if I was writing out things about manhood, that wouldn't have made my list. Like I put aggressiveness on a list of manhood, but I wouldn't put gentleness.

And then the Bible corrects me. It says no gentleness and don't be argumentative and don't be fighting for fighting sake. And you can't be, uh, the Bible says not a striker, which means don't punch people. And it's like, okay, I'll take the correction. Like help me out here in trying to understand. But like, one of the things I'm doing with my son is trying to figure out what are things that are true about Jesus?

What are things that are true about God? Then they need to be like, I can say you ought to be kind. You ought to be gentle. One of the things I have to say to my son is I don't just say, don't cry or stop crying on my good days. Some days I do. Stop it.

One of the things I try to say to him is, hey, there are good things to cry about. This isn't one of them. There are things that are perfectly fine for you to cry about. Um, when we were going to go see Black Panther together and it was sold out, I just let him cry a little bit. I was like, that's sad, man. That's sad.

When, when we're at the house and I tell him to turn the TV off and he wants to cry, it's like, bro, you can't be crying about that. Like there are things to cry about. The TV turning off isn't one of them. Like understanding that there are, there's a biblical picture for masculinity, but it's general. It doesn't tell us things like, um, should know how to, I was watching the middle the other day and he was talking to his son. He said, there's six things every man needs to know how to do.

You know how to kick down the door. You need to know how to open a bottle without a bottle opener. Like he, he had this list. You need to learn how to whistle with your fingers. That list isn't in the Bible. Like there's not six things.

Well, that's going to be a bad if it gets away from me here. It's not six things, uh, that are specific to manhood as much as a general picture of the call. Then it says this, then the Lord God said, this is verse 18. Then the Lord God said, it is not good that the man should be alone. I will make a helper fit for him. We're going to define that in a second.

Now out of the ground, the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. And in Hebrew understanding that helps show the man's authority over creation. The man gave names to all the livestock and all the birds of the heavens and every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him.

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man. And while he slept, he took one of his ribs, closed up the place from the flesh and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man, he made into a woman and he brought her to the man. Okay. So he says, I need to make a helper fit for him. And then it just pauses. And he says, all right, let's name all the animals.

So he says, it's not good that you're alone. And just guys understand that was the first thing that was said about masculinity. Like this is mint conditioned manhood. He's as rugged and as manly and as designed. I mean, God formed him with his hands. And then God looks at him, sets him in the garden, gives him some instructions, watches him and says, nope.

This isn't going to work. And that's not just a comment on men in specific, like every man has to have a wife. That's a comment on masculinity and the call to, to subdue and lead the earth that masculinity needs femininity for the world to work properly. So then he says, I've got to make something that works. I've got to make something that helps him. And it's not the word helper is the, is the Bible word Ezer.

It is most often used to talk about God. So Psalm 33, 20 says, our soul waits for the Lord. He is our help and our shield. Psalm 75 says, I am poor and needy. Hasten to me, O God. You are my help and my deliverer.

O Lord, do not delay. Yesterday I was working on my car and Archer was being my little helper. And I gave him like a flashlight to hold and point where in the middle of the day, I just needed him to have something in his hands so that he would quit. Like he got a hammer and just started hitting stuff. And it was like, no, no, like here, hold this. And he's like, I need a better flashlight because he's sharp and could tell this wasn't shining on anything.

That's not what it means. He didn't look at man and go, you know what you need? It's a cute little helper. Someone make your sandwiches while you're doing stuff. Like that's not what he's doing. That's not what the word means.

It means a ferocious help. The help is a fine word. We've made it a little bit diminutive. We've made it a little bit short, but it's a ferocious help. It's like reinforcements. It's used that way in the Bible that these people were about to lose the battle and God and like they sent in reinforcements and then they won.

It's used of God. Now that's helpful for us to understand because the primary call is given to man. He's placed there first. He's given the call. He's told to do these things. And then God said this, you will be insufficient, but there is an amount of headship of leadership given to the man in this relationship.

And then he says, no, but this is incomplete and it won't work properly. The word fit. Some of you, uh, maybe it says I'll make your helper meet for him. If you have an older translation, um, the word actually translates into like opposite. I'll make something that's like him, but that's opposite him. And that's actually like God designed men and women to be different.

It would make zero sense if he just meant there needs to be four hands on this. No, he meant I need something different from this. He can only see a certain way. He's only going to approach this a certain way. I need something different. Uh, there's, um, I got a few quotes.

I thought were interesting. This is from the Stanford, uh, medicine. Let me read this first. This was a, it was a, uh, a feminist. Um, her name is Carol Gilligan. And she was one of the first people that began to kind of push back on the all men and women are the same stuff.

She was like, no. And, and isn't that helpful for feminists to step in that they wrongly say, no, they rightly say we're different. And then they wrongly say in women are better. And it's like, well, no, maybe at some things, sure. Not at all things. That's not how it's designed to work.

We're supposed to be different and we're supposed to be distinct from one another. It makes sense that God would not make them at the exact same. He made them distinct so that they can compliment one another. But she comes along in her book and a different voice. She says, one of the things that you see from very early on is that men think they are growing. They understand growth as becoming independent, separating attachment.

He says that most women, and this is all generalization, but most women consider themselves growing when they become attached. The more attachments they make, the more that connections they make, the more dependent they become and more people become dependent on them, the more they feel like they've grown. She says this starts very early on. There was an article from Stanford Medicine. I'm going to read a quote and then there's a quote inside of that. It says, social psychologists and sociologists poo-pooed the notion of any fundamental cognitive differences between male and female humans.

Halpern, a professor of psychology at Claremont McKenna College, in her preface to her first edition, Halpern wrote, at the time it seemed clear to me that any between-sex differences in thinking abilities were due to socialization practices, artifacts and mistakes in the research and bias and prejudice. She's saying, I approached this and was like, the only reason anybody says women are like this, men are like this, is because they've got bad research or they've been socialized to believe that. After reviewing a pile of journal articles that stood several feet high and numerous books and chapters that dwarfed the stack of journal articles, I changed my mind. She says, the more research I did, the more I realized, no, they're made different.

And we get that from Genesis 2. That God designed femininity, womanhood, to be distinct from manhood. That he had a plan. There's a lot of, she had a list. I want to read this quickly. I thought this was helpful.

She said, these findings have all been replicated. Women excel in several measures of verbal ability. Pretty much all of them. Except for verbal analogies. Women's reading comprehension and writing ability consistently exceed that of men. On average.

They outperform men in tests of fine motor coordination and perceptual speed. They're more adept at retrieving information from long-term memory. Some of you are like, that sounds really true. Men, on average, can more easily juggle items in working memory. They have superior visuospatial skills. They're better at visualizing what happens when a complicated two or three dimensional shape is rotated in space.

They're good at correctly determining angles from the horizontal and at tracking moving objects and at aiming projectiles. I got to the end and I was like, yeah! Like, I see an airplane, I can shoot it with a missile. All right. I don't get to do that, but that'd be awesome. But there's all kinds of stuff.

They started realizing these differences between masculinity and femininity, between males and females, happened like they gave monkeys toys. And they realized that baby monkeys and monkeys do the same thing that baby humans do. Females, for the most part, like soft toys. Both monkeys and humans. Males like toys with wheels. Like, they would automatically separate and start doing stuff differently.

They found out there was a difference in the way infants react to things. That males most likely like moving things and females are most drawn to faces. And then she was like, and this continues, that males like objects and moving things. That distracts them. And females pay attention to faces. One of the things in here I thought was really interesting, they did brain scans on males and females and they made them remember something that was an emotional experience.

And they looked at their brains and the men's memory section lit up. And the emotion section didn't do much. And when they had females remember the same thing, their memory section and their emotion section lit back up. They felt the same stuff. Guys, if you've ever been in an argument with a female and she got re-mad over something that happened 12 years ago. The other thing they found was that when they had males and females sit and listen to noises and they listened to music and they saw how they reacted and then listened to white noise and they saw how they reacted, females responded the same to music as they did to white noise.

Males heard the music and pretty quickly ceased to hear the white noise. There's something about the male brain, they said, that is able to turn off unwanted acoustic stimuli. This is why I'll be sitting at my house and my wife will go, check. And I'll go, what? And she'll go, answer your son. And I'll realize he's been standing at my feet going, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy.

He became unwanted acoustic stimuli. God designed men and women differently on purpose in order to complement one another. It's in us. Every single one of your cells. You can take a cell from any part of the body and it's stamped with either two X chromosomes or an X and a Y chromosome. That my wife's heart is a female heart.

It's XX on everything. And my heart is a male heart. XY on everything. Does it do the same thing? Yes. But God has placed it in us down to our courts.

Not that he just swapped out reproductive organs. It's that we are distinct on purpose. And so God designing this the way he did. Realizing that masculinity on its own. And this is creation wide. Not just in marriage, but creation wide.

Masculinity on its own would be incomplete. And designed femininity on purpose to complement that well. And then cut them loose to subdue and rule in the world. And this was beautiful. And it worked amazingly for like this much of the Bible. Oh, sorry.

I did that too big. This much of the Bible. Chapter 3. We have the fall. And that's where humanity rebels against God. And this gets broken.

This beautiful complementary design gets broken. And it's simple. The idea of complementary just means they go well together. They pair well together. It's like, you ever have a great pizza with a wonderful glass of chocolate milk? No.

You know how gross that was? Just to hear? Like my son drinks milk with everything. And I'm like, I'm not trying to talk you out of it. Milk's good. But bro, that's gross.

Like you just aren't doing this right. Like the idea that they go well together. They're meant to complement one another. And that's the way he designed this. And then this gets broken. It goes from being the appropriate things to drink with Italian food.

And this is a church. I'm not going to talk about it a whole lot. But just the appropriate things to drink with Italian food. And now we're all drinking chocolate milk with our Italian food. That's all I'm saying. It messes it up.

So here's what happens. A serpent comes in and she... The serpent begins to talk to Eve. And he tricks her, deceives her into rebelling against God. There was one tree that Adam and Eve weren't supposed to mess with. Adam's told this.

It was to assume he should have coached Eve up, led well in this. If God told her specifically, we don't see that in the text. And she eats the fruit. And she... Then it says she handed the fruit to her husband who was with her.

And so immediately all of us should have been like, what? Like he was just here. She's talking to a snake. He didn't... Like there's no teamwork here. He just was waiting to see how it shook out.

Then God shows up. When they do this, this is sin. Because God told them not to. And so now, rather than following his good lead, they decided we know what's best. They rebel against him. This is how all sin enters the world.

God shows up. He calls out to Adam. Again, we would see that there's a little bit of weight placed on the leadership of Adam. The headship of Adam. That this is already written into creation. That he's placing the weight there.

And he calls out to him. And he says, what happened? And Adam says, the woman that you gave me. She gave me the fruit of the tree. And I ate it. So Adam does what men begin to do immediately after the fall.

God, I'm pretty sure this is your fault and her fault. I was just there. It was her. And I don't want to say anything. Because I thought she was great when I first met her. She seems kind of defective.

Like you didn't do this right. Because you made her. I didn't... I was just pulling that out. So God curses the serpent.

He curses the woman. And he curses the man. He basically says, here's what's going to happen now. Because of this. To the woman he said. Verse 16.

I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing. In pain you shall bring forth children. This is true. Like I said, my wife and I, she just gave birth. But he's about two months old.

We were in there. And she would say stuff like, I'm in a lot of pain. And the nurse would go, great. That's what's supposed to happen. She would say, I feel like I'm going to throw up. And she'd be like, oh, it's wonderful.

That means we're progressing. She was like, I'm starting to shake. My hands aren't working. She's like, great. The new mom shakes. And it was like, what can she say that's wrong here?

Like, you just are excited. And she actually looked at us at one point and said, this is the only place. Where nausea and blood and pain and shake. Like all the bad things are good here. And I was like, man, that curse wasn't playing around. And it doesn't matter how you go about having a baby.

And it doesn't matter if you have children or don't have children. And it doesn't matter. It's this for women is a pain area. Children as they grow. Children if you decided not to have children. If you can't have children.

Like this is a pain area. This is took something that was going to be beautiful and it's cursed. Then he says, your desire shall be contrary to your husband. But he shall rule over you. Some of your versions are going to say your desire shall be against your husband. Some of your versions are going to say your desire shall be for your husband.

It's kind of complex in how you read it in the Hebrew. And translators have to make different decisions. But one of the things that helps us understand what he's saying here is chapter 4, verse 7. Where God is talking to Cain. And he says, sin's desire is for you. Or sin's desire is contrary to you.

And you must rule over it. So it's the exact same, I mean, stroke by stroke phrase in the Hebrew. And so what he's saying is that sin wants to own you, rule you, harm you, destroy you. And you have to fight it. You have to have dominion over it. And so this good, beautiful, complimentary relationship that was going to happen in marriage and in humanity, he says, no, it's broken now.

That your desire is going to be contrary to your husband and he shall rule over you. And this happens between the sexes in life and it happens between husband and wife. And then to Adam, he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife. And there he doesn't mean don't listen to your wife. Like I can't quote this to Anna and be like, I'm not going to be like Adam. I ain't trying to listen to you.

Like it, it's not what he means. Because you've listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten the tree of which I commanded you. What he's saying is you didn't listen to me. You didn't follow me. You followed her. And you didn't lead.

You just, you just, you were just there. And you just tagged along. And you just completely abdicated what you were supposed to do. And rather than following me, you followed her. And rather than leading. And that's what he's saying when he starts off.

Because you listen to the voice of your wife. Cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you. And you shall eat the plants of the field by the sweat of your face. And you shall eat bread till you return to the ground.

For out of it you were taken. I read that with a weird. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread. Till you return to the ground. For out of it you were taken. For you are dust.

And to dust you shall return. So death enters and work becomes toil. What was going to be good. He put him in the garden to work. And it was good work. It was like you know how work can be good.

Where things just work out. And they're nice. And you can look and say look at how good. That's the way work was going to be. And he says now you're just going to sweat. And it's going to be awful.

The ground is going to fight you. And men have you seen that? When you finally are like I'm going to do what God wants me to do. And I'm going to work. And I'm going to get up early. And I'm going to read my Bible.

And I'm going to leave my family. And I'm going to. It fights you. It is not easy. It will be done by the sweat of your face. Okay.

We have the pre-existent version. That beautifully happens between the father and the son. We have that woven into creation. When God says I want them to be different. And to show deference to one another. Equal in value.

Equal in worth. Both made in my image. Both needed to display what I'm like to the world. But I want there to be deference here. So he makes the man first.

He brings the woman from him. Paul tells us later that that helps us see. Why there's a weight placed on the man. And a level of headship in marriage. Now. In marriage.

Single people. That's not men to women. There is a distinct call on masculinity. And there's a distinct call on femininity. But masculine manhood does not include headship to womanhood.

Headship is only brought into marriage. So it's not like you're in your group discussing something. And you and some guy disagree. And he looks at you and says. Hey. I think you did just submit to me.

I'm a man. Get your Bible out. Pop him in the face with it. So let's go text bro. Like. That's not.

It's not man to woman. And. If you are single. Men. This does not. You're not incomplete.

Without a woman. This is masculinity and femininity on a grand scale. It's perfectly fine to want to get married. But get your stuff together. Get a job. Start carrying weight.

Men were designed to carry weight. One of the. My favorite sayings. I heard somebody say one time. Is that men are like trucks. They drive straighter with a load.

That you're designed to carry weight. Women. Single women. You're not waiting around all shucks. For a man to show up. So you have something to do.

You've been given. A call. To co-rule. And subdue. The earth. And there's one thing that's.

Designed. Innate in femininity. It's to see where things are broken. And begin to help. To see. This is why women lead so many organizations.

Where they just come along. And they go. Uh. The. There's a whole gap here. Where nobody's paying attention.

And nobody's making this better. And nobody's at work here. And they just go to work. And it's beautiful. It's a ferocious work. Also.

Learn your Bibles. Learn theology. I heard a pastor say. That's one of the best ways. To spray on boy repellent. You don't want boys hanging around.

Know your Bible. It'll scare them. Men will like it. Boys will run. Maybe they'll grow up. Come back knowing their Bible.

After you popped them in the face of yours. This was supposed to work. And be beautiful. And in some ways. This still shows up. That I feel like this shows up in my life.

Where God looked and said. No. Like. Chet needs Anna. For this to work out well. He needs her at work.

For him to. To. To help this. For him to receive. And to follow the way he's supposed to. That we're designed to work together.

There's so many places. Where she has just kind of posted up. And been like. This isn't okay. You're not thinking about that right. That's not biblical.

And just helped me grow. And just. I mean. Ferociously. Been a part of. Our family being healthy.

In so many beautiful ways. But it is broken. That this. Way this was supposed to work. Where. Men were supposed to lovingly.

Sacrificially lead. Carry weight. And women were supposed to be. A ferocious help. But we're told.

In scripture now. With a spirit of submission. In marriage. This is. We're talking specifically. To husbands.

Wives. There's a spirit of submission. With a ferocious. Labor. And men were supposed to lovingly. Sacrificially.

Head. Their families. Lead. Their families. That it's broken. That we were designed.

Men. Husbands. We were designed. To think of our wives first. The other day. My wife's mom was with us.

She had just had surgery. My wife was running out. To get her a sandwich. She was going to pick up sandwiches. Like you want a sandwich? I said no.

I don't want a sandwich. And then I thought. Well the sandwich shop. Is right next to. The pizza place. So I just called.

And ordered myself a pizza. And I called my wife. And said hey. I ordered a pizza. Will you go pick it up? And she said oh good.

In that moment. I realized. She wanted pizza. Pizza over a sandwich. But I completely.

Just ordered what I wanted. Not what she would have wanted. I didn't even. Like she didn't even exist. Other than the person. To pick up my pizza.

Y'all. Like this was. And I just was like. She said what? I was like. Well you're not really going to like that pizza.

I already paid for it. So. So ordered two pizzas. That's not how it's supposed to work. But there's something broken.

That I don't think of her first. That I don't just elevate her. That I don't sacrifice. That so many times. It just doesn't work the way it's supposed to. Let me tell you.

So if men were supposed to. As we take the two pictures. From Ephesians. And Genesis. If men were supposed to carry weight. To work.

To labor. To tend. To protect. To lead. With. Sacrificial.

Love. That's what we're told. In Ephesians chapter 5. Flip back to Ephesians. We'll spend the rest of our time there. With sacrificial.

Love. That Jesus begins to redeem this picture for us. So that Ephesians chapter 5. 25. Says husbands. Love your wives.

As Christ loved the church. And gave himself up for her. If that's what men were supposed to do. Let me show you how this goes wrong. In both directions. You will have men.

That just move into the. Complete. Curse of the fall. They carry weight. They work. And they rule.

They don't lead. They have dominion. They dominate. They oppress. They maybe use their stature. Both in the world.

Financially. Or their stature. Physically. To completely dominate. There's no love. There's no sacrifice.

It's just machismo. They just flex. Because it's broken. Or. You have men. Who completely.

Take on the sin of Adam. And abdicate. Maybe they're loving. And maybe they hide behind the idea of sacrifice. But they're not working.

They're not serving. Let me show you some ways. This is the guy who won't get a job. Lives in his parents basement. Can't find the right Job. Just.

It's easier just to not. You know. That didn't really work. He's not carrying weight. This is the husband. Who consistently just says to his wife.

Well if you care about it. You do it. You make that decision. He just punts on everything. She can just hold the bag for everything. If.

If that was a bad decision. She can deal with it. That'll be on her. When they disagree. If she disagrees. Rather than saying.

This is what I think is best. And leading. Even though it's more difficult. He just says. Well you just do it. Just whatever.

And they'll say stuff like. I just can't wait till this falls apart. So she can see I was right. It's like. Bro. That's abdication.

It's not sacrifice. You're holding her out. So that she can take a beating. So that you can then show that you. They were called to both. A sacrificial leadership.

We're going to spend. Oh. In two weeks. We're going to spend time. I'm just talking about. How does that look?

How do we do that? Women. If there's supposed to be. A ferocious labor. A ferocious help. Seeing what's broken.

And going to work. And complete complimenting. Where it's falling apart. And this will look different. All over the spectrum. But if there's supposed to be that.

With a spirit of gentleness. A spirit of submissiveness. Because there's headship. And you're deferring. Not weaker than. Not smaller.

Not lesser in value. But deferring. Let me show you how this goes wrong. You'll see women. Completely shift into. Submissiveness.

They're not going to say anything. They're not going to do anything. Just going to hang out. Let the man do his thing. You'll see them know. That their husband.

Or their boyfriend. Or whoever is making a huge mistake. They don't help. See my wife helps me. By saying. You know that's dumb.

Right? She doesn't say. You know you're dumb. That's helpful too. She says. You know.

That's dumb. Right? Y'all aren't doing. Like you. Yeah. Have you thought about.

Like. Hmm. She asks questions. She's gracious. On her good days. Hey.

I just was thinking. Maybe you hadn't. Like. Have you thought about this thing? Because what you about to do stupid. She doesn't just blow in.

And try to blow me up. She. But they just don't help. Just complete. Rob. Rob the world.

Rob their friends. Rob their company. Rob their husband. Of all that God poured in them. To be complimentary. And ferocious.

Or. It's just the curse. You're just contrary. Everything within your power. To undercut. To control.

To manipulate. You got different tools. At your. At your. Expense. Like there's.

Earlier it said. That women. Excel. In everything verbal. Except for analogies. So maybe when you're.

Just completely destroying. A man verbally. You're really hard to say. And you're also. Your face is like a dog. It's like I don't know.

Maybe you have a hard time. With that part. But everything else works. You will see. Women do this. In conversation.

Their husband will start to talk. And they'll lean. Look at them. And then give the verbal equivalent. If my wife began to speak. And I walked right over.

And just popped her on the face. And said be quiet. It's the verbal equivalent of that. You'll see men shrivel. My wife has more ability. To suck the life out of me.

Than anybody ever. And she has more ability. To put wind in my sail. And make me think. I could go tackle. A freight train.

Than anybody ever. My wife pumps me up. Primes me up in the morning. I could walk out. And I just will. What world.

You want something. And if she follows me around. Just cutting. And taking away. I'll shrink. And you'll see women.

That do everything. In their power. And maybe some of them are bigger. Maybe some of them are dominating. Maybe some of them. I got an aunt.

She can flex on you. She can put you down. A lot of them can't. But my wife weighs 100 pounds. And she can cut me down like that. But by God's grace.

She doesn't. You're meant to be here. With a spirit of gentleness. And an unwillingness. To not help. I'm in this.

I'm a part of this. This is going to be better. Because I'm here. And because God's gifted me. And because God's poured. His work in me.

Now. Real quick. Why? The Bible doesn't tell us. The Bible doesn't give us a real clear. Here's why men.

Here's why women. That's why it gets so convoluted. Where people are like. You know. Guys want to be like. Well I guess because men are better.

It's like. Bro. That's not in the text. But why? We don't know. But what we do know.

What I do know. Is that I need the Holy Spirit. At work in me. That's where Paul starts. This in Ephesians. Where he says.

Walk in the spirit. And he walks through this. I need the Holy Spirit. At work in me. To actually be able to do this. I can.

I can dominate. Without the spirit. And I can abdicate. Without the spirit. But I can't sacrificially lead.

Without Jesus. At work in me. And I'm assuming. I've never been a woman. But I'm assuming.

That's how that works over here. That you can just sit. Throw your hands up. And watch men do stupid stuff. Or you can manipulate. And control.

And do everything you possibly can. To reign. But. To submit. And help. To serve with gentleness.

And to be in it. You need the Holy Spirit at work. Last thing is this. When we do this. Men carry a weight. That is necessary.

For their growth. And females have a freedom. That helps them flourish. And it's beautiful. When you see this work. In a marriage relationship.

Where husbands and wives. Walk this out. And it displays. Ephesians 5 tells us. Christ. And the church.

That people see Jesus. In a way they couldn't otherwise. My wife and I. Do not know how to dance. We can middle school dance. We're married.

We can get a little closer. You know. We made up a random dance. That was just like. We just memorized some stupid moves. So that we could do something dumb.

And then get off the. Off the floor. But like. I don't know how to like. Do all this mess. And like the steps.

And I. You know. When we try to dance. I step on her. But have you ever seen people.

Who know how to dance. Dance. It's captivating. I think this is actually one of the things. That TV's messed us up on. People used to get together and dance.

And they had to learn stuff. All we do is like the cha-cha slide. And the electric slide. Which is just line dancing. Because they're like. Stomp.

Spin around. Wave your hands. We're all like. We're dancing. It's like you're following instructions. And some of y'all.

Not really. That's me. I can't even follow the instructions. That's like. Watch Matt. We go to weddings.

I got to watch. See what Matt Freeman's doing. And I do that. And when I spin around. If I'm on the end. It's over with y'all.

If there's nobody here. I don't even know what to do. I don't know what the cha-cha is. But if you've ever seen people. Who know how to dance. Dance.

It's beautiful. Somebody leads. Somebody follows. But you can't even really tell. It just works. And that's what this is supposed to look like.

There's supposed to be leadership. There's supposed to be submission. But when it works right. It's just beautiful. And everything's put on display. And what we're told is that Jesus shines through it.

The band's going to come back up. Our goal over the next couple weeks. Is just to try to figure out how to do that. How to dance well. How to dance well when your partner's defective. How to put Christ on display when it's difficult.

How to put Christ on display as you work together to do that. That's our goal in the next couple weeks. Send in as many questions as you have. We're going to try to study this text. And see how we can learn to walk in obedience. In a way that displays Jesus.

And displays his love for the church. To a watching world. With something that they don't have. Let's pray. God we ask that you would empower. The single females in our church.

To not abdicate their role. To make everything around them better. We pray that none of us would undercut their position. Or somehow communicate that they have less value. We pray that single men in our church. Would begin to carry weight.

Wouldn't just be male. But would be men. That honor and display. The glory that you've placed in them. As you've made them image bearers. We pray that we'd work well together on that.

We pray that you'd bless the marriages in our church. That we might dance in a way. That displays the glory of the cross. Help us grow in this. Be repentant. And open to following you.

In Jesus name. Amen.

Marriage and The Gospel

Marriage and The Gospel

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Imagine with me, if you will, for just a second that you are married. You've been married for six months to like a year, year and a half. And, you know, going into getting married, you just you just you're just so excited.

And it was just so special. And there was just so many butterflies and unicorns and rainbows and everything was sprinkles and skittles. And it was just going to be amazing. Let's say six months, year and a half. It turns out it wasn't exactly how you had pictured in your head. And and not that it was bad, just that it was just that sometimes it was and that it was a lot harder than you thought it was going to be.

And that like your night and shining armor, his armor wasn't as shiny. And it turns out there were whole sections of it that were just cardboard that had been spray painted like it wasn't even like that. And maybe she wasn't quite exactly, you know, just like you like you liked how like how she could carry a conversation. You just didn't know that she could always carry a conversation 24 seven and always wanted to. Like there were just some things, just some some stuff that made it hard, started being difficult. And it started being.

And here's what happens in that in that season, six months, year and a half that kind of continues. And it just is not exactly how you picture it. It's not exactly what you thought it would be. And it and there are seasons that are just excruciating and some that are good. And what happens is you start to have to answer the question. You start asking the question whether you know it or not.

And you start having to answer the question whether you're intending to or not. But you start asking and answering the question. What is the point of marriage? And the harder it gets and the more difficult it is and the more painful it is and the the more excruciating the season, the more you have to answer that question, whether you're intention tending to ask it or not. I don't think many of us would go sit in a room and get a journal out and say, OK. And right at the top of it, what's the point of marriage?

I'm just going to try to reflect on this. But you you you begin to ask that you begin to kind of wonder what what's another way to say that is you start asking the question. What is a good marriage? What what makes a marriage good? What makes a marriage successful? You start having to kind of answer that question, questions you didn't really think about before.

Maybe maybe offhandedly, but you just kind of you just had never really had a season. What what's the point? What makes it good? You see, you start talking to your your community group during this time when things are when things are frustrating, things are hard and they listen. They're sympathetic. They listen to you.

Mostly, sometimes they hop in and they're all like, have you thought about your own sin? You're like, shut up, Carol. I'm in the middle of talking. Did you not just hear what I said about him? But mostly they're sympathetic, but there's a whole this kind of their general gist.

Their tone is like, yeah, that's what marriage is like. You're going to be OK. And they kind of just gather around you, just kind of almost feel like, you know, when middle schoolers would fight and they'd form a ring and they just kept pushing you back in there. That's a little bit what your group feels like. You start talking to maybe some friends from high school you've been friends with for a really long time and their tone's a little different. They're sympathetic as well.

But maybe their attitude in general is. If it works for you, good. And if it's not working. You're not stuck. Life's short. Get out.

Both of them would say they're on your team and they're for you. But you're having to answer this question of what's the point of marriage? What makes it good? I want to ask you that for just a second. Just think about that. What makes a good marriage?

I think some people would answer. It lasts. That's that's an answer. That a good marriage is one that hits 50 years, 60 years. Maybe that's what our what your grandmother would say. So when you stick with.

OK, so the follow up question is, OK, if is it a good marriage if it lasts, but you're miserable. Is a good marriage just one where you're happy? Is it is it where both people are happy or just where you're happy? What what makes it successful? If if you would say that any marriage that ends in a divorce. Isn't successful.

But you you might would also say that a marriage where they're unhappy. Isn't isn't a good one. Isn't it successful marriage? Now you've got a tension that you've set up that maybe you don't realize you have two different answers to the same question. You see, for for us, we're entering into a season where we're going to study Ephesians chapter five. If you want to grab your Bibles and turn there.

We're going to be talking about marriage. We're talking about what the Bible says about marriage. Specifically what Paul says in his letter to the church in Ephesus about marriage. About what husbands are supposed to do, what wives are supposed to do, what marriage is supposed to look like. And we've got to begin by asking this big picture question. What's the point of marriage?

How do you know it's good? What makes it good? Collectively as a culture, we're asking and answering this question right now. According to the CDC, they keep up with statistics on these kind of things because they're always kind of gauging health in different areas. According to the CDC, we have the lowest marriage rate since they started keeping up with this in 1870. The statistics that we have in 1870, we have the lowest marriage rate.

Now, we still have a lot of marriages because we have more people than we had in 1870. But we have the lowest rate, meaning percentage of the population, more and more people are just saying, what's the point? Why would we even do this? You have the idea now that marriage is outdated, that it doesn't work for women or it doesn't work for men, that monogamy is outdated. Or that if we do marriage, if we're going to get married, then it just needs to be what works for you, what makes you happy. And then we can, if it's not working, you know, divorce should be easy, accessible, cheap.

Tim Keller in his book on marriage says that there are kind of two currently two competing views in our culture about what marriage is about, what the point is and how to view it. And he said one of them is kind of the traditional view. And it's been mostly pushed by Catholics and Protestants with a little bit different flavor on it. But he says the traditional view is basically this. Marriage is a social good. It benefits society.

It's good for men. It's good for women. It's good for children. It's good for the economy, which statistically that holds true. It's good for health. It's good for men and women's health.

It's good for economic structure and stability. It's good for children. Like in any kind of thing that we can, he says that's kind of the traditional view is that it's good, that marriage is a good, but it's not just beneficial to society, but that it actually is good in and of itself. It exists as an institution. It is good. And so that marriage exists above us to that we submit ourselves to it.

So he says the purpose of marriage was to create a framework for lifelong devotion and love between a husband and a wife. It was a solemn bond designed to help each party subordinate individual impulses and interests in favor of the relationship. To be a sacrament of God's love, that was a Catholic emphasis, or to serve the common good, that was the Protestant emphasis. But it worked to build a binding partnership. But marriage exists above us so that if it's not working for us, we stick with it.

That we subvert, we submit our own good to it. That's kind of the traditional view. He says that the new version is kind of the understanding that marriage is good. It exists below us. It's good if I like it. It's good if it's working well for me.

He quotes Tara Parker Pope, who's a New York Times columnist, and her column, her article was, The happy marriage is the me marriage. It says, The notion that the best marriages are those that bring satisfaction to the individual may seem counterintuitive. After all, isn't marriage supposed to be about pursuing the relationship first? Not anymore. For centuries, marriage was viewed as an economic and social institution, and the emotional and intellectual needs of the spouses were secondary to the survival of the marriage itself. But in modern relationships, people are looking for a partnership, and they want partners who make their lives more interesting, who help each of them attain their value goals.

So the new understanding, the new push is that, no, it's a me. Like, if it works for me, then it works. Then it's good. But if it doesn't, it's kind of marriage is below. It's a tool that's helpful, and if it works, and that's where you have the idea. People will say, like, we had a good marriage.

It was a good marriage. We're not married anymore. But it was a good one. It was good while we had it. It was good while it lasted, but no longer. And they won't argue that they had failed or that it was unsuccessful or that it wasn't good.

It just doesn't exist anymore. They've stepped away. They've moved on. They went in different directions. But in order for us to be able to study this, for us to be able to understand marriage, and for us to be able to view it correctly, we kind of have to answer the question of what's the point?

Why do we have it? Why does the Bible teach it? Why does the Bible have it? Why does God stand behind it and say this is how this ought to work? We've got to ask kind of the big picture question. And I want to let you know that this is important for you regardless of your current marital situation.

We'll start with married people because they seem to be the easiest people to address when you're talking about marriage. You need help. Okay? Did y'all get that? All right.

If you're married, you need some help. We need to think about this well. We need to view this well. We need to understand how this works. And we need to have a framework to move from. And to have a foundation to understand how we ought to respond, how we ought to act, how we ought to treat our marriage.

He's going to give specific coaching, which will be helpful. But we need to have a framework to start from. If you are single, there are a couple of reasons that this is beneficial. If you're single but you used to be married and for whatever reason at this point you're single, hopefully during this series as we spend the next little bit studying this one section, hopefully the Lord will use it to bring some healing, some clarity, some helpfulness in kind of walking through what it was meant to be and how it was supposed to work and what it could have looked like. So if you're single, regardless of the reason for being single, this is helpful for several reasons.

One is just practically the way we kind of form ourselves in community groups is that we don't just do married groups and single groups, but we have single people with married people. And single people, you need to understand the point of marriage for two reasons. One is, well, it's one, just listen, I've messed that up, but it's okay. It's one reason with two things behind it. So that you can be helpful to the married people in your group.

You can serve them well, you can love them well by saying helpful things. Not saying stupid things, which single people do. Many people say stupid things too, but single people, a lot of times, they'll just say stupid things to married people. Not saying stupid, unhelpful things. Also, not just thinking, well, I'm not married, so I can't say anything. Because that's not true.

That's not the biblical model that we have. We have truth. Paul's unmarried, but he gives really helpful things here. Jesus is unmarried, but he has really helpful things to say so that we might all understand what it ought to look like, so that we might all point towards the ideal together. Married people, trust the Holy Spirit in single people and listen to them. Don't believe the false American idea that if you aren't in the situation I'm in, you can't talk to me.

Because that's not true, and it's not helpful, and you miss out on a lot of good, helpful encouragement and correction. And if they say ridiculous things, correct them in return, and they'll grow, and it'll be helpful. Don't just nod and go, hmm, and move on. Hopefully, so here's kind of how this is going to work. We're going to talk about the big main point today. Next week, we're going to talk about gender, because we have to understand how the Bible treats gender before we get into specific things that the Bible says to men and women, because culturally, it's really hard for us to hear some of the stuff it's about to say.

And then we're going to talk about wives. Then we're going to talk about husbands. Then we're going to talk about singleness. And we're going to do Q and A. So throughout this whole series, if you have any questions, we have all set up online on our website, millcitycolumbia.com, slash questions.

Or if you go to the home page, there's just a little button that says submit a question. You can put your name on it, or you can submit it anonymously. But we're going to do some Q and A, either the last week of the series or the last two weeks of the series, just depending on how many questions we get, and try to really kind of discuss what the Bible says. Because we're only going to be studying Ephesians here. So if there are other questions that you have, we would love to be able to give a more well-rounded view of things.

I'm going to pray, and then we're going to start reading Ephesians. God, we thank you that you train us, that you correct us, that you help us. And we pray that through this next few weeks as we study this section, that you would grow us to understand the beauty of marriage, and that you would practically help equip us to serve married couples well, and to be married well. Today, I pray that you'd help us to see the beauty of the gospel in relation to marriage. In Jesus' name, amen. So what I think we're going to see as we study today is that the point of marriage, the goal behind marriage, the purpose of marriage is actually bigger than just marriage exists and is good, so submit yourself to it.

And it's bigger than marriage is helpful if it makes you happy, but if it doesn't, you can be done with it. It's actually bigger and more beautiful, and that the answer gives a better good. That as we actually study this, we get to reach a better version of good and what a good marriage is. Now, as we read this next section, in Ephesians chapter 5, he's going to say some things that I think are hard for us to hear, and we'll see. We're kind of asking what's the point of marriage, and so he's going to give specific practical coaching, explanations of what wives do, of roles, what men do, what women do.

And I think in a lot of this, this is one of the passages that people quote when they want to say, look at how crazy the Bible is. Look at how outdated it is. So I'm just going to give emphasis to the offensive parts as we read through this, in case you can't pick up on it. Verse 22. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.

Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. How'd that sound? Harsh? Painful? Husbands were like, oh, that didn't sound terrible. Husbands, love your wives.

At first glance, that's like, that sounds good. Like, that doesn't sound too difficult. As Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. It got harder, you guys. That he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.

He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. Look back at verse 31.

And this is where we'll spend, 31 and 32 is where we'll spend the bulk of our time today, because it's where Paul kind of gives us the key of what he's talking about here. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery, the word there in the Greek is mystery. It's also secret, like it's used back and forth, and so it kind of goes together. It's the mystery, but it's also the explanation of it. So it's this secret, this mystery is profound, and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and to the church.

Okay, so what Paul just did there was kind of crazy. He went all the way back to Genesis. He took the original statement that's given when God brings Adam and Eve together. He took the original statement that for this reason a man will leave his father and mother, and he'll hold fast to his wife, and the two will become flesh. He took that original marriage and said from that moment on into the future, all of that was meant to point to Christ and the church. What he said was that this was just a picture of that marriage as it exists in the world is just a picture of.

It just refers to, if you look at any marriage, it has a little number next to it. Any marriage has a little one in the corner, a little two in the corner, a little three, a little 35, a little 72. And if you go to the bottom, it will refer to the whole work. It will refer to the whole book, and that is Christ and his pursuit and love for the church, that each marriage has been footnoted as a pointing to. It's just referring to Christ and the church. Now, we understand this in other things, so let me give you a few examples.

Humans are made in the image of God. We think things are funny because God thinks things are funny. We get angry because God gets angry. Now, we don't do it all in the right places. We think some things are funny that God doesn't think are funny, and we get angry about things that God doesn't get angry about. And there are things that we should get angry about that we don't get angry about.

We've got all kinds of problems, but we have personality because God does. We reason and think and have logic because God does. We're made in his image. He existed first, and everything that we have comes out of that. And what he's saying is that this marriage is a cosmic reality between Jesus and all those whom he would redeem, and that every other marriage just refers back to it. It's tapping into this cosmic reality.

And every other marriage is just pointing to what God was ultimately going to do. Because here's what happened. In the beginning, prior to us sinning and falling, God preplanned that he would rescue and redeem a people for himself. And then he does, and the Bible begins with a little picture of a marriage between Adam and Eve, and it ends with the bride being brought to her husband, where God in Christ claims the church for himself. So that this marriage, this cataclysmic cosmic marriage, runs through the whole story of the Bible, and it's woven through history in that when we get married, it's just a small picture pointing to the gospel.

So the point of marriage is to point to, to refer to, Jesus and his love for the church. And that makes an immense difference. I have, ever since I was little, liked doing impersonations. Most of them are not very good. Some of them are worse. But I enjoy them.

I like doing impersonations. So I, like I do Arnold Schwarzenegger. Get to the chopper! We've got to get these people in! I love, in one of those movies, people grab him, in the middle of, like, he's walking underneath this thing. He's attacked by, like, four men, and he doesn't just fight back.

He says, what did I do wrong? Like, obviously, these people are taking him to the principal's office. Like, it doesn't make any sense. But I, like, I do Sean Connery. So, give me a second. I'm Sean Connery.

And I only ever do movies with women half my age. And I was so excited when the new Batman came out. Because Bane is just a Sean Connery impersonation. With, like, an echo and weird noises. So all you have to do is, like, cup your mouth and be Sean Connery.

So all you have to say is, They expect one of us on the plane, brother. And then you just go, For no reason at different times. The one I've done the most, And that has been most requested. But it looks, It's a better impersonation when I'm clean shaven and about 20 pounds lighter. But I'm going to go ahead and do it today.

It's Carl Childers from Sling Blade. So. What you got in there? Just good to eat. Today we're going to be talking about marriage. Some folks calls it a contract.

Bible calls it a covenant. Now. Here's the thing about that impersonation. If you have never seen Sling Blade, That was super weird. And that's the way marriage works for Christians. If you don't know the gospel, What we believe about marriage is super weird.

I had a friend ask me one time at Sears. He said, Hey man, You got, I'm about to get married. Do you have any marriage advice? And I said, Yes. Tons of it. A little bit too much.

But, I'm going to have to tell you about Jesus first. Otherwise, You're going to think I'm crazy. If I can't tell you about Jesus, If I can't explain how he loves the church, If I can't talk to you about how the church relates to Christ, If I can't explain that, If I can't point to this bigger, More beautiful picture, All the things I'm going to say about marriage sound crazy. It'll look like a Sling Blade impersonation If you've never seen the movie Sling Blade. So that one's actually pretty good.

But I always have to be like, Have you seen this first? And they're like, No. It's like, Well, I'm not doing it. Because you're just going to, This will be completely, This just won't work. And that's what we have to do here. We have to say, No, We've got to look at this first.

We've got to have this bigger picture. We've got to know what we're basing it off of In order for us to be able to understand What it ought to look like. We need a bigger picture. The truth is, Everybody has a picture of what marriage should look like. You don't know this, But you have it. You have a picture of what a husband should do And what a wife should do.

We always, In premarital counseling, We always try to get people to say, I'll ask a bunch of questions. I just ask questions like, Who does dishes? Who cooks? If the car's broken, What happens? Because everybody already has this picture They've developed in their mind Based off of the relationships they've seen on TV Or the ones that they're close to About what should happen in a marriage. And you realize, Six months in, Because here's what happens.

A guy grows up, His dad gets up in the morning, Early, Goes to work, Works like crazy, Comes home, Walks in, Kicks muddy boots off, Sits on the couch, Watches television, And crushed it as a husband. That was what he was supposed to do. Mom stayed home, She cooked, She cleaned, She kept the house right, When he walked in, Food was ready, And they loved each other, It was a good marriage. This guy grows up, He sees this, And he goes, Okay, I know what a husband does. He gets married to a lovely young lady, Whose family didn't look like that at all. Both parents worked, It's like the Huxtables, One was a doctor, One was a lawyer, They would do take out, Someone would bring food home, They swapped off on chores, They were a team, Somebody cleaned the house every two weeks, They paid to come in.

Lovely marriage, They loved each other, It worked out really well. This young man, Goes to work, Works like a dog, Comes home, Walks in the house, Kicks his boots off, Walks over, Kicks his recliner back, Pops a drink open, Turns the television on, And his wife, Who has not prepared supper yet, Because why would she do that? She also worked to this day, Is suddenly like, What are you doing? And he's like, Crushing it, What the heck are you doing? I went to work, I scored like, 1400 points for the marriage today, I was going to let you catch up, You work part time, So you got like, 700 points, You got 700 to make up, Before you go to bed, Like go cook something, Like this is what happens, And they don't realize it, They get in this huge argument, And they don't realize it, But what she's saying is, Why are you husbanding wrong?

And he's saying, Why are you wifing wrong? And the truth is, We all need a bigger, Better picture to look at, So that we can know, What this should look like. Before we get into, All these little particulars, Before we start talking about, How this plays out, We got to see the big, Beautiful picture, And then we can work from there, So what Paul says is, Marriage, All marriages, Whether you like it or not, Because marriage is written, Into something that's eternal, Marriage, Is based off of, How.

Jesus, Loves, Pursues, Sacrifices, Saves, His bride, And presents her, Beautiful, To the world, To himself, And how the church, Lovingly, Responds, That's what marriage, Is based off of, It's based off of, Christ, And his relationship, To the church, So as we finish up today, Because that's true, What I want to do, Is we're going to read back through, And we're going to focus on, The beautiful parts, Of what Jesus does for the church, We're going to go through, Kind of quickly.

And then we're just going to talk about, Some implications of this, That if this is true, If marriage is really, Based off of the gospel, What does that mean, For marriage and for us, We're going to talk about, Some implications, And then over the next few weeks, We'll get, We'll dive in, And get more and more, Into particulars, Wives, Submit to your own husbands, As to the Lord, For the husband is head of the wife, Even as Christ, Is head of the church, What we said, What we saw earlier in Ephesians, With that the church, Was presented to Christ, That he's the head, He presents himself, Back to the church, That they would belong together.

That they would be united together, That when it says, That he's the head of the church, It's this beautiful, Loving, Connected picture, He's the head of the church, His body, And is himself, Its savior, Now as the church, Submits to Christ, So also wives, Should submit in everything, To their husbands, Husbands, Love your wives, As Christ, Loved the church, And gave himself up for her, This sacrificial, Humble, Devotion, To claim the church, And to make the church beautiful, That he might sanctify her, Having cleansed her, By washing of the water, With the word.

So that he might present, The church to himself, In splendor, Without spot, Or wrinkle, Or any such thing, That she might be holy, And without blemish, In the same way, Husbands should love their wives, As their own bodies, He who loves his wife, Loves himself, This is referring back, To where it says, That the church is Christ's body, So when he says, Love him the way you love your own body, He's saying, Because that's how it works, He who loves his wife, Loves himself.

For no one ever hated his own flesh, But nourishes it, And cherishes it, Just as Christ, Does the church, You see that picture, Of what Jesus does with the church, That he nourishes, And cherishes, And he fills us up, He takes care of us, And then he just, Enjoys us, Because we're members of his body, Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, And hold fast to his wife, And the two shall become one flesh, That picture is both, It's a sexual picture, As.

Well as like a covenantal picture, That they would completely belong to one another, They would completely devote everything to one another, That they would forsake all others, And then he says, This mystery is profound, And I'm saying, That it refers to Christ, And the church, So that marriage, All marriages, First and foremost, Point to Jesus, And his loving sacrifice, On behalf of his bride, And the church's loving response, So, I want to just walk through, What are implications of this, There are seven, We'll move quickly, And they won't have all the same amount of time.

But I just, Seven implications that I think are helpful for us to think about, As we go into, Marriage being about Christ and the church, That we would understand some of the implications, What that means for us, Number one is that the foundation, Of your marriage is secure, That if marriage is about Christ and the church, Then it's not just based off the fact, That it's a good institution, It's not just based off the fact, That we're enjoying it, Or that it's good.

For us, But that it's pointing to something eternal, So that in the middle of it being really hard, Or in the middle of a season, Where it's very difficult, Or when you have a lot of doubt and frustration, That the foundation hasn't shifted, Because it was always pointing to Christ, It was always based off of how he loves, And pursues his church, And how the church responds, That one of the things, That we have a slight picture of this in, Is parenting, That.

When you're a parent, It's not based off of what you get out of it, We kind of collectively as a society, Agree to that, The parenting isn't like a 50-50 agreement, That it's your job to sacrifice, And serve your child, That it's not based off of what you get out of it, I was talking to a friend recently, Who moved from one house to another, And changed roommates, And we were asking him how his roommates were, And he was just talking about how that was going, And I told him I had a new roommate, I've got a two month old, And I was like, My new roommate's awful, He's either asleep, Or he's got a.

Bottle in his hand, He yells at everybody, Stinks up the whole house, He has a terrible attitude, Won't make eye contact when I'm talking, Wakes us up in the middle of the night, He's just a terrible roommate, Now that's a crazy thing to say about a two month old, Because that's not how that works, Like he, We just owe him all this stuff, And he owes us nothing, And it's a terrible agreement that we made with him, The day he was born.

But that's how it works, And so marriage, Works in a similar fashion, Where it's, It's you're in it, Because it ultimately points to something bigger, And better, And it's not based off of, The goodness of it right now, Isn't based off of, How good is it right now? The value of it, Isn't based off of, How's it working?

Isn't based off of, How's it working? What am I getting out of it? It's secure, It's based, In something bigger, And more beautiful, Secondly, Because marriage is to reflect, Christ's relationship to the church, The picture of marriage is fixed, It's set, It does not change, It does not change, It does not change, It does not change, It does not change, This is why Christians, Hold to a very rigid, Definition, Of marriage, That it's, It's the picture that God gave us, It's one man,

One woman, Covenanting for life, Together, And that's it, That's what we hold to, You can't, It's about Christ, Who is distinct, And separate from the church, Joining the church, And making something beautiful, Together with the church, So that we argue that it's, No, It's, Anything outside of this realm, Is, It's because we're, It's a paint by Numbers, We have one set thing, That we're going off of, So that cohabitating isn't the same, Because there's no commitment, There's no covenant,

There's no, It's too easily, Stepped out of, That a same sex marriage, Is not, Is not the same, It does not qualify, Because God is separate from us, Christ is separate and distinct from us, That there's just a fixed picture, That we're working for, That it's a lifelong commitment, This is one of the reasons, Why divorce, Whether you believe this or not, This truth about marriage, Being given to us from God, To reflect Christ in the church, It's one of the reasons, Why divorce is so painful, And so scarring, So emotionally difficult, Is because when we get married, We are tapping into,

Something that is eternal, And we are, When we are divorced, We are rending that picture, Because we believe, That no matter what, It's based off of this, Good marriage, Between Christ and his people, Thirdly, If marriage is to reflect, Christ's relationship to the church, It means that, Marriage is good, But it is not essential, To a good life, This means that you can go, Your whole life, And never be married, Or that you can have been married, At one point, And no longer be married, And you're okay, That Christ redeems,

That he fixes, That he works, In the midst of that brokenness, And, That you don't miss out, On the best part, Which is the thing, That all other marriages, Are pointing to, Marriage is an appetizer, It's good, Like when you go somewhere, Like a blooming onion is good, Get the steak though, Like if you, This is, This is Christians, Married, Married people in the room, Quit acting like, Everyone single around you, Has to get married, That is not true, That's not helpful to them,

They're not incomplete, If they have Jesus, They are fine, Act like your, Non-Christian friends, Are way more incomplete, Than you act like, Your unmarried friends are, Swap that in your brain, Start working on that, That relationship, With somebody, Because they're not, You can go your whole life, And never be married, And be fine, And it's good to desire marriage, It's fine, But if, If we both worked on a ship together, It was one of those beautiful ones, With all the rigging, And all the cool stuff, And you had to know how to tie,

Like 37 different knots, And when I went home at night, I also had, Little model ships, That I put in a jar, Cool ones, With the little rigging, And all the little tiny knots, And like I figured out how to put it in there, And then set it all up, If I had those, And I really liked them, That's great, But they remind me, Of the big ship that I work on, And all the cool things, That have happened there, And they remind me of, Being out in all the, The really good thing, But if you work on that ship with me, I don't need to try to convince you, That you have to have ships in a bottle, At your house,

You got the big one, You're good, So marriage is good, But it's a small picture, Of the ultimately good thing, So if you are unmarried, You're okay, You haven't missed out, And Jesus is better, Fourthly, Sex is a reflection, Of the joy, Found in the gospel, So Paul says, This picture, That is a sexual picture, He says, It's not just a sexual picture, It's a covenantal picture, But it's also a sexual picture, And he says, That they too, Would become one flesh, And then he says,

This is about Christ, And the church, And the Bible repeatedly, Collectively, Continually says, That sex is designed, To exist inside of, A covenantal marriage relationship, And it is a covenantal good, Meaning that it represents, The good, Joyous, Beautiful things, That you get, Out of a real relationship, With Jesus, That it's a small picture, Of the ultimate joy, That we would have, This is another reason, Why Christians are real rigid, On their definition, Of where this is okay, Simple,

But we're rigid, Inside of marriage, You go for it, Outside of marriage, Nope, That's it, That's Christians approach, To that, Because we believe, That it points to, The ultimate good joy, That's found, In God, In Christ's relationship, With the church, That's a celebration, Of that, So here's a few things, That that means, Shouldn't be taken lightly, Shouldn't be taken out of context, In a marriage relationship, It is not to be bartered, Or earned,

Used as a tool, To get what you want, It's not the reward, At the end of it, It's none of that, Because it's, It's about the joyous relationship, Between Christ and the church, And once Christ claims his bride, They belong to one another, And it's celebratory, It's kind of like, We treat sex oddly, In our culture, We kind of act like, You should have all the sex, Before you get married, Because once you get married, You won't anymore, And that's such a broken picture, Of what that's supposed to be, And it's a little bit like, When people say, I want to drink and party,

And celebrate now, And then I'll become a Christian later, Because I know, Once I go to heaven, I'll be super bored, It's like, You have the most messed up, Picture of heaven, You know it's really good, Right? You know they have wine, But none of the, Like they have all the good stuff, But none of the effects of sin, So there's like, There's like alcohol, But no abuse of it, There's like carbohydrates, But no calories, Like I don't know how it works, But it's going to be really good, And that's similar, To what this is supposed to be, That sex is supposed to be,

A covenantal good, That is celebrated, And enjoyed, Because it's based off, Of this beautiful picture, That we have, In Christ, And his love for the church, Fifthly, Jesus, Is the power, For a healthy marriage, Because it's ultimately, Based off of the gospel, That in order for you, To have a healthy marriage, A good, Joyous, Long lasting one, In the midst of difficulty, And pain, In the midst of harm, In the midst of trouble, Is that you would relate,

To Jesus first, I am not saying, That people who are not Christians, Can't have a good marriage, I don't believe that's true, I believe that marriage, Was given to all of creation, That people who aren't Christians, Should get married, Do get married, Do have good marriages, I just believe, That for it to ultimately, Look the way it's supposed to, Jesus is who empowers us, To live this the way, It ought to be lived, That when it's exhausting, And when it's hard, That we get to be filled up, By Jesus, If my wife, Needs to have all of her, Relationship approval,

Come from me, If she needs me, To rescue her, And redeem her, And build her up, And make her whole, She's going to be, Very disappointed, And being married to me, Is going to be really hard, Being married to her, Is going to be very difficult, Because I won't be able to sin, I won't be able to confess, I won't be able to fail, But if she loves Jesus, Relates to him, Stilled up by him, And I just get to be the sinner, That she's married to, Which gives her a lot of freedom, And it gives me a lot of freedom, And that Jesus is ultimately, The power for your marriage,

To look the way it ought to, Six, If, If marriage is based off, Of Christ's relationship, To the church, If it refers to that, If it points to that, If it comes from that, Then it can be beautiful, Even when it's ugly, If marriage is simply, To exist, For our own enjoyment, And good, Then as soon as it turns bad, As soon as it is hard, As soon as we're hurting, It's over, There's no more good, It's failed, It's broken, We can't have any good out of it, But if it's meant to point to Christ,

And his love for the church, And the church's response to him, Then you can be in the middle, Of a very painful marriage, And doesn't make it not very painful, But you can be in the middle, Of a very painful marriage, And still reflect the gospel, In a beautiful way, Because what we believe about the gospel, Is that Jesus, Did his beautiful work for the church, On a cross, That God took what was most scarring, Most damaging, Most painful, Most hideous, And flipped it, To redeem us, And bring about beauty, And good, And salvation, And hope, And that in the middle of a marriage,

That's very, Very difficult, Sometimes hard to even wake up in the morning, And hard to fall asleep at night, That you get to represent the gospel, In such a glorious way, Through sacrifice, Through love, Through showing that you get what is good, From Christ, And not from everything else, That you get what is good from Christ, And not just in your circumstances, That you get to display him, In a way, That you would not be able to otherwise display him, And lastly, You can have a good marriage, Empowered by the spirit, That if marriage is ultimately about Christ, And if we know him first, And we see that picture first, And we base everything off of that, Then we can,

Empowered by the holy spirit, Actually have a really good marriage, You can have a good marriage, Empowered by the spirit, Where wives humbly, Graciously submit, To the loving, Sacrificial leadership, Of their husbands, And anywhere and everywhere, That this happens, It's beautiful, I'm going to say that again, You can have a good marriage, Empowered by the spirit, While wives humbly, Graciously submit, To the loving, Sacrificial leadership, Of their husbands, Now for some of us, Even as we, As I said that, And as we read that,

We bristled a little bit, It's hard to hear, You've seen it done poorly, It's one of the things, That make us want to say, Yeah I can tell the bible, Was written 2000 years ago, And I would just invite you, If that's the case, To spend the next couple weeks, With us, Studying this together, And trusting that God, Did author this book, That it is for our good, And that there's a lot of hope, And joy to be found, In what it teaches about marriage, And for everybody in this room today, Where marriage is good, Where it's difficult, Where it's a painful subject, Where you have a lot of baggage, A lot of pain,

A lot of hurt, We have a lot of hope, Or a lot of dashed hopes, I pray that you would find, That everything you've ever placed on marriage, And everything that's ever been broken, Has been set right in the gospel, That there is a better husband, And there is a better bride, And there is a more beautiful thing, That we're invited into, A more beautiful covenant, A more beautiful marriage, That is offered to us through Christ, And his sacrifice for us, A man's going to come back up, Matt and Raz are, We're going to finish up today, By taking communion together, Which is where we celebrate, That Jesus, His body was broken for us, So we take bread, And we break it,

And we partake in it, And that his blood was shed for us, So that we take wine or juice, And we dip the bread in, And take it, And we're going to celebrate that together, And as we do it, I would invite you to take the next few minutes, As Matt's going to play the piano for us, For us to just think about, Christ's love for us, His sacrifice for us, The hope that we have in the gospel, That we might repent, Of our sin where we need to, And that we might celebrate well, That our hope for marriage, Our hope for life, Our hope for goodness, And joy is found in Jesus, And Jesus alone, And His work done on the cross, And everything else comes after that, So he's going to play for a minute,

We can sit, We can pray, Would encourage you, If you need to be reminded, About how much Jesus loves you, And how good He is, To read back through that section, We read today, To remind yourself, That you're a part of the bride, If you belong to Jesus, And that He loves you that way, That He sacrificed for you that way, That He nourishes and cherishes you, That way, And if you're not a Christian, We would ask that you refrain, From taking communion, As we take it together, Collectively in a moment, That you would just stay where you are, You won't offend us, By staying seated, And we believe that communion,

Is for Christians, Those who have placed faith in Christ, If you are not a Christian, But want to be, You can place faith in Christ right now, Trust Him with your sin, Because He does love, And welcome all those, Who would repent and come to Him, Let's pray, God we thank you, That the gospel is good news, For all of life, And specifically as we talked about marriage today, We pray that in these next moments, That we would see more clearly, Your beautiful sacrificial love, For your church, And that we would honor and celebrate you well, As we take communion together, In Jesus name, Amen, Amen. Amen.

Easter

Baptism Gathering

Chet Phillips

Cross

Cross

Spencer Cary

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Transcript

Good morning. I had a teacher in high school who once said that transfer of the blame is like America's favorite pastime, which is ironic because he's my baseball coach as well. And he was right. That's just what we do. It's our nature to just want to blame someone else. There's this thing going on with my wife and I right now where I come home and I have something to tell her.

Maybe it's like we're trying to schedule a date night or there's something on the calendar we need to talk about. And I have a conversation with her and tell her kind of what's up. And then a week later I'm like, honey, do you remember the thing that I told you about? And she goes, no, that did not happen. And I vividly remember I was in the kitchen and you were sitting down and I walked you through it. And she goes, no, you may have had that conversation in your head, but that actually did not happen.

And this has happened multiple times recently. And I'm just like, honey, I get it. Like, you've been crushing it lately. We've had two kids in the past three years. And we know that science says when you have children, you lose brain cells. So you've got me to remember.

And that's why I'm here. And she's thankful for that. We do. It's just like our gut instinct. We just want to blame one another. I remember growing up when I was a kid, my brother and I, he's 18 months older than I am.

And, man, we just would blame each other. If anything would happen, we'd point fingers. And there was this one time that he really got me good. He was pretty sneaky and conniving. He saw how I was in elementary school and I was learning how to sign my name. And I had like a specific way that I had practiced signing it.

And he watched and he's like, I think I can copy that. So he took a black Sharpie marker. My parents have this white brick fireplace. And he went up to the white brick fireplace in Sharpie and signed my name. My parents came to me and they were like, they were upset. I was like, I didn't do it.

I didn't know who did it. I was like, I didn't do it. And something happened in that moment in the years to come. I guess I like believe that I did it. I actually remember me actually doing this. Like I have like an invented memory in my head.

And then about a year ago, my brother said, hey, remember that time that I forged your name on the fireplace? And I was like, what? No, I wrote that. He goes, no, you didn't. He's like, I did. I set you up, man.

I got you good. And I was like, man, like I'm questioning reality now. That may explain the conversations I have with my wife. And we do that. That's our gut instinct is to blame someone else and let them be the fall guy. Like we don't want to sacrifice.

That's just not in our nature. And this time every year we slow down and we remember the one who took the fall for us. And we are in week two of our three-week series in Easter. And we are focusing on the death of Christ this morning. And specifically we're going to look at one scene from the death of Christ. When Jesus is crucified and a man who is supposed to get that penalty is released.

When a murderer is set free. We're going to look at the story of how Barabbas was set free and Jesus is sent to the cross. It's in Luke 23, verses 13 through 25, which is on page 515 in your blue Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, please take one of those Bibles home. That is our gift to you. I'm going to pray for us this morning.

And then we're going to dive in. God, thank you so much for this week. That we get to prepare for Good Friday. That we get to prepare for what you have done for us. God, I pray that you would help us be present this morning. As we look upon one of the more painful and beautiful scenes we have in the Bible.

We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, so last week we talked about the Last Supper. Which was the Thursday night before Jesus was betrayed. And if you didn't get a chance to listen to that sermon, I encourage you to go back and listen to it. It's helpful as we practice the Lord's Supper, as we practice communion.

It's helpful to prepare us for that. But during that Last Supper, Jesus calls out Judas, the disciple who was going to betray him. And at this point, Judas has decided in his heart that he's going to betray Jesus. So Judas leaves the meal. Jesus takes his disciples. They go up to the Mount of Olives, which is the hill right above the city.

And in that hill is a garden called the Garden of Gethsemane. And Jesus gets away to pray. And this is one of the more powerful scenes we have of the humanity of Christ. He prays so intensely that he starts to sweat blood. Which is an actual medical condition for someone who is under extreme duress. And the reason why he's under such extreme duress is not just because of what's about to happen.

That he's about to have a painful death on the cross. It's also the spiritual overtone of what's happening here. Is that God the Father, the Father whom he has enjoyed eternal fellowship and joy with, is about to pour out the full cup of his wrath on him and turn his back on him. So he's preparing for this. And then eventually Judas comes with the chief priests, their guards. And he comes and he arrests Jesus.

And they take him to the chief priests. At this point, nine of the other disciples, they just bounce in fear. They leave. We know that two followed. One of them was Peter. So as Jesus is being tried, and it's a kangaroo court trial.

He's being tried by a group called the Sanhedrin. This is the council of the religious leaders who helped rule the nation of Jerusalem. It's a joke of a trial. They've already decided they want to put him to death. They're just looking for some reason they can take him to have him put to death. And as this is going on, Peter is in the courtyard outside.

And Peter is asked three times if he is a follower of Jesus. And all three times he denies him. And the third time, there's a powerful scene when Jesus looks out into the courtyard, makes eye contact, and a rooster crows, just as Jesus had predicted. And then Peter weeps and he leaves. We only know there's one disciple who actually was there. We don't know how much of it he was there.

We do know that John was there at the foot of the cross when Jesus died. But at this point, he's been abandoned. And he's before the Sanhedrin, before the religious leaders. And they finally find cause that he says he's the son of God. And that's what they needed. So they go.

They can't actually... In Jerusalem, they don't really have the authority to put him to death. Nor do they really want to because Jesus is a popular figure amongst the people. So they go and they take him to two people who can do the dirty work for him. They first take him to Pontius Pilate. Pontius is the governor.

He's the Roman governor of the region. He's the one that's really in control of the region of Jerusalem and Judea and Galilee. And they take him to him. And he doesn't really know what to do with this. And he's like, why don't you take him to your Jewish king? Why don't you take him to Herod?

So then Jesus is taken to Herod. And King Herod basically says, I don't want anything to do with this. Take him back to Pontius Pilate. And it's at this point we pick up in the text in verse 13. It says, Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people and said to them, You brought me this man as one who is misleading the people. And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him.

Neither did Herod, for he sent him back to us. Look, nothing deserving death has been done by him. I will therefore punish and release him. And it's at this point that they are going to torture Jesus. This is something that the Romans were really, really good at. They're going to scourge him.

And if you've ever seen The Passion of the Christ, this scene is actually depicted fairly accurately. And if you haven't seen The Passion of the Christ, honestly, it would be a great week to watch as we prepare for Good Friday. And in the scene that shows this, they tie Jesus up to a post. And they take what is called a cat of nine tails. It's a special whip that has, at the end of it, shards of bone and rock. And the whole point was that it would latch in to your back and rip out chunks of flesh.

And Jesus is scourged in this manner, and it is painful, and his back is mutilated. And at this point, Pilate's plan is that I can torture him. If they can see to almost the point of death how bad he's been tortured, maybe they'll give up. And then you get from 16, and then if you read in your Bible, it skips down to 18. So you might be wondering, where's verse 17?

What happened? To get a little bit nerdy for a second, because this will be helpful going forward. This only happens a few times in the Bible. But if you look at the footnote, which is the little, tiny, little letter A that follows verse 16, that is going to tell us what's going on. And if you're not a fan of footnotes, like I'm not a huge fan of footnotes. I know some of you have research backgrounds, and you're like, I love footnotes.

There's something wrong with you. I had a friend in seminary that we took a class together, and we were reading this book together. And I was like, dude, do you see this book? It's got three lines, and every page has tons of footnotes. This is awful. And he's like, no, I love it.

That's where the meat is at. I'm like, okay, fine. But footnotes are helpful. And in the ESV, in the version that we use, there's a few footnotes that tell us what's going on. And this specific footnote, it tells us that this verse 17 was not a part of the earliest manuscripts. And what that means is there's a field called textual criticism, and the people who have organized the ESV have looked and seen that verse 17 wasn't a part of the earliest manuscripts.

The numbering system we have came around the time that the King James Version came around. And the King James Version, which doesn't really base most of its stuff off of the earliest manuscripts, it had verse 17. And it's not saying that 17 isn't true. It's just saying it's not inspired scripture. Verse 17 says, Now he was obliged to release one man to them at the festival. Now we know that's true because that's pretty much what Mark 15.6 says about this.

Mark 15.6 says, Now at the feast, he, Pilate, used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. So Pilate had a practice, a practice of releasing prisoners during this time, specifically at big festivals like Passover. It was kind of his way of saying, I'll give you one of your people back, one of your prisoners. I'll give them back to you. You just need to calm down. No riots, no rebellions.

Here's the trade-off. You all just remain calm. And if you look at history and you look at how the Romans did stuff, this is not normally what they did. Like they didn't have prison release programs. They ruled with an iron fist. Like this doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

So to understand what's going on here, you need a little background to what is happening in this scene. The Roman government ruled over this land and the Jews hated it. They couldn't stand it. And there was rebellion after rebellion to try to take back the land. And a lot of these rebellions would happen at major festivals like Passover. Because this is when all the Jews from around the world would come together at once.

And that's when if you want to do a rebellion, you had the Numbers and you could take them out. So there was a lot of tension in this moment as Passover is happening. And Pilate is feeling the tension. In fact, Pontius Pilate is pretty close to losing his job as governor. He loses it a few years later because he can't control the people. So he needs to have this release program to kind of ease the tension.

But he also needs the Sanhedrin. He needs the religious rulers. Because this is a theocratic state, meaning this is a state that is ruled by God. And the religious rulers are the ones who help rule it. And he needs them to keep the people in line. So he's got this group of people coming up to him.

And they want Jesus dead. And Jesus is a celebrity at this point. He is. He's one of the most popular people in the land. This is the traveling miracle worker. This is the preacher.

This is the one the people love. He feeds the people. This is the traveling sage, the wise man. He has a big following. And this group of people that Pilate needs to keep the people in check has brought someone the people love. And it's a messy, messy situation.

And that's why Pilate's first move is if I can just torture them and they'll see what I've done to them. Maybe they'll calm down. And then I can use my release program to release them back to the people and we'll get by. And that is not at all what they want. Verse 18 picks up. It says, But they all cried out together, Away with this man and release to us Barabbas, a man who has been thrown into prison for an insurrection, started in the city, and for murder.

So having Jesus tortured is not enough. Now they want Barabbas, who we'll get to in a minute, but he's a notorious criminal and they want him. And as you look at this scene, like if you look at the political maneuvering, you take a step back. This whole scene is jacked up. They're using Jesus, the God of the universe, as a chess piece, as a pawn. And they, I mean, it's, it's, the very God who ordained that these leaders be there in the first place.

They're, they're using him like a chess piece. It is, it is sick to watch as these vile cast of characters have come around Jesus. It kind of feels like, like, like one of the biggest scenes from Harry Potter, when Dumbledore dies. Like I know, I mentioned Harry Potter. And some of you are like, man, this is awesome. You just talked about textual criticism and history, and I'm dying inside.

All right, like this, I'm back on board. And then some of you are like, are you serious? Did your generation read another book? Like, are there any other movies that you watch? Listen, I gave you Terminator last week, and I heard crickets. It's, so sorry, Gen Xers, we're back at Harry Potter.

It's like one of the craziest scenes from Harry Potter, the most climactic scene when Dumbledore dies. And Dumbledore is, is the, is the greatest wizard, one of the greatest wizards of all time. And he's a good wizard. He's helped raise Harry. And, and there's a scene when he's getting ready to die, and he knows it's coming. And he has Harry Potter with him, and he tells him to hide.

Like, hide, get away. Don't say a word. You're going to see this, but I don't want you to come out at all. And, uh, Voldemort, who's the evil wizard, the one who must not be named, he has a group of, a band of thugs called the Death Eaters, and he has sent them to come and kill Dumbledore. And they come, and they surround Dumbledore, and they're the vilest characters in the entire series. And Dumbledore just stands there.

He offers no defense. I mean, he's Dumbledore. Like, if he wanted to just abracadab his way out of this thing, just kill them all, and just fly off in a blaze of glory, he could. He has the power to do that, but he doesn't. He stands there, offers no defense, and lets them kill him, because there is a greater plan in place to save the wizard world, and is going to require his death. But as you're watching it, you're just watching it, furious, watching it, frustrated.

In the same way, like, we're watching as the king of the universe is in front of these people that are so vile, and he stands silent, does not offer a defense. And then Barabbas enters the scene. Now, we don't know much about Barabbas. We know that he's notorious enough that they asked for him as a criminal to be released. We know that he was in prison for insurrection. He was in prison for trying to overthrow the Roman government, which was what, that was the biggest enemy of the Romans, was people like Barabbas.

We know that he's a murderer, and we don't really know the circumstances of it. We just know he's guilty of murder, and he's guilty of the punishment that is coming. So Pilate gives them an option. You pick up in verse 20. It says, Pilate addressed them once more, desiring to release Jesus, but they kept shouting, Crucify! Crucify him!

The third time he said to them, Why? What evil has he done? I found in him no guilt deserving death. I will therefore punish him, release him. But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified.

And their voices prevailed. So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted. Now we know from Mark's Gospel, that in this scene, the chief priests are in the crowd, stirring up the people, chanting Barabbas, and chanting for him to be crucified. Which is one of the most brutal ways that the Romans would kill people that rebelled against the government. And it was reserved mostly for people that would rebel against the government. reserved for insurrection, it's just like Barabbas. There's a book called Out of Egypt.

It's called Out of Egypt. It's written by Anne Rice. Anne Rice is an author. She writes fiction. She wrote Interview with a Vampire, Queen of the Vampire, Interview with a Vampire, was a 90s movie with Tom Cruise and I think Brad Pitt. And she's a good writer.

It's good vampire fiction. Not like really bad vampire fiction. I don't have a dog in that fight. I just wanted to mess with Twilight fans. But she wrote this book called Out of Egypt because she's Catholic.

And it's a fictional retelling of Jesus' return from Egypt back to Galilee, back to his hometown. And it's fiction, but she uses historical events. And it's actually, when you read it, it gives you a picture of what the land, what it would have been like back then. So Jesus, his family, they leave Egypt and they go to Jerusalem first because in Jerusalem, there's a major festival that they want to take part in. And when they get there, a rebellion breaks out. An actual historical rebellion that you can look back in history and study.

And during this rebellion, they take back some of the land. They take back some buildings. But the Roman government comes in and absolutely destroys it. And there's a scene when Jesus and his family are walking down this country road. And there is a line of crosses, crucifixion after crucifixion after crucifixion, lining the entire road, lined with all of these rebels. And they are naked.

They are dying slowly. You would suffocate to death. That was how crucifixion worked. And each one of them is a picture of what the Roman government does when you mess with them. If you're going to rebel against us, you will get the most brutal, shameful, humiliating way to die. And it's a helpful picture of what kind of punishment was awaiting someone like Barabbas.

And instead, it is reserved for Jesus. And they want crucifixion. At this point, like Pilate, I mean, he's got to be, what are they doing here? They want the traveling miracle worker, the preacher, the one who like almost a week ago they were shouting, Hosanna, Hosanna, as he came to the city. They want him crucified. That's what we do to insurrectionists.

That doesn't make any sense. And if you read Matthew's account of this, Matthew adds a part that says that his wife is disturbed by this. She's having nightmares. And she comes to Pontius Pilate and says, you've got to let him go. Like this, you don't want to be a part of this. But the chief priests, they know exactly what they're doing.

They don't just want Jesus dead. They want him cursed. That's why they want crucifixion. You look at Deuteronomy from the Old Testament, the Old Testament law. There's a section on capital punishment. And in Deuteronomy 21, 23, it says this, His body shall not remain all night on a tree, but you shall bury him the same day.

For a hanged man is cursed by God. Or as other versions say, cursed is a man who's hung on a tree. So they think that if we have the Romans do our dirty work, all right, and we have them put them on a tree and have them cursed will kill his rebellion or will kill his movement. And if you look at this, it is so insidious and evil. They don't want just Jesus dead. They want him cursed.

They want him damned. I mean, it is an awful scene. And Pilate, he gives in. And he frees Barabbas. And I want you to picture with me what that would have looked like, Barabbas being freed. He's spared.

And the cross that was meant for him is now passed over to Jesus. And he's probably sitting in his cell awaiting. He's on death row. So like any movie or any television show, you've seen someone on death row. He's on death row awaiting a brutal form of death. And the guards start coming down the hallway.

And they take him out. At this point, he's probably breathing heavier. His heart's pounding faster, preparing for what's about to happen. And they step out and they take his chains off. And they say, you're free to go. I mean, what would he have felt like?

What was that scene? What would it look like? Like, you're going to let me go? Yeah, yeah, you've been released. You're the prisoner that's being released for Passover. There was this movement to get Jesus.

You remember Jesus, the miracle worker has been traveling around for a few years? There was a movement to get him released, but they're actually going to have him take her cross. So you're free to go. And then Barabbas walks away as Jesus walks up the hill to be crucified. And it is at this point that you are supposed to feel the overwhelming sense of irony of what's happening here. That the chief priest, they knew the Old Testament law better than most people.

They had the whole Old Testament memorized. They can't see what's going on here. They can't see that what this picture of Barabbas being set free and Jesus being sacrificed, they can't see what's happening is a visual fulfillment of one of the biggest festivals that they would take part in, Yom Kippur, which means Day of Atonement. So Passover is the feast that's happening now. And a few months after this is going to be the second biggest feast, which is the Day of Atonement. And at the Day of Atonement, it was a festival that the chief priests would organize and do.

And it was a way for them to, they had sacrifices throughout the year that would cover sins, but this was the one event, the Day of Atonement, when everyone would come together as a nation and all the sins that they may not have covered could be covered right now. And at the pinnacle moment of Yom Kippur, they would take two goats and one goat, they would cast lots and they would take one goat and it would be set aside and this goat would be sacrificed. The second one, which they called the scapegoat, that goat would be set free and it would be taken away and it would go into the wilderness and it was free to go. And that is a picture of what's happening here as Barabbas is set free and Jesus is taken away to be sacrificed.

And Hebrews 9 teaches us that Jesus perfectly fulfilled the Day of Atonement. He perfectly fulfilled the sacrificial system. This is all playing out right in front of their very eyes and they can't see it. This visual fulfillment of Jesus fulfilling the Day of Atonement on this Day of Atonement, that is our story. That is the story of what Jesus does for His church. That we were sitting on death row but Jesus came and swapped places with us.

That we, that we were sitting in the cell and we're set free and Jesus goes and takes the cross. that Jesus was nailed to a tree that we are set free. That we get His goodness and His grace and His mercy and Jesus takes our punishment that we deserve. And for those of us that have trusted in Jesus as our only hope, this is the picture that we have. This is the picture that Paul plays off in 2 Corinthians 5.21 when he says, for our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. This is the picture that we get. That not only that Jesus becomes our substitute and He takes our place, that we get the riches of Christ that come with it.

His righteousness. And we might read stories and see movies that capture parts of this. Like you can think of stories of substitution like the Hunger Games when Katniss steps in for a sister. Her sister gets called into the Hunger Games where she is going to die and Katniss comes in and takes her place to sacrifice herself for her. We get glimpses of that but we don't get the other part. There are other stories like you can look at Les Mis where Jean Valjean has been in prison for 20 plus years and he's set free, he's on parole and he quickly breaks his parole when he goes to a priest's house and he's treated like a human and he's given a meal and then when they all go to sleep he goes and he takes the silver and he runs.

He steals. And he's caught and he's brought back and as he's brought back he knows at this point he will go to prison for the rest of his life and the priest steps in and says, oh no, no this is a gift. In fact, you missed the finest silver. You can take this with you and make for yourself a better life. Make for yourself a better man. Like we get pictures of that, the riches, we get pictures of the substitute but we don't get it all together like we get in the gospel.

That's the hope of the gospel that we have. And the chief priest, man, they can't see it. All they can focus on is we're going to curse them. We're going to curse them and they can't even see that the very God who inspired Deuteronomy, the very God who inspired this text is fulfilling it. Paul says in Galatians 3.13, he says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.

So the religious leaders, yeah, their plan worked. They had Jesus cursed. But they didn't realize that they were a tool. They were clay in the hands of a potter. And what they meant for evil, God meant for good. And Jesus takes on our curse on the cross, the curse that we deserve.

That's the picture of what's happening here. And in verse 24, it picks up. It says, So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and for murder and for whom they had asked. But he delivered Jesus over to their will.

And we can piece together the story of what happens after this from the other Gospels and from Luke. At this point, Jesus, he's mocked. They take a purple robe which signified royalty and they put it on and they mock him and they take a crown of thorns. Not like rose thorns. Like think desert long thorns and they force it into his skull. And after he's been tortured and after he's been mocked, they put a cross on his already mutilated back.

And he goes as far as he can and he collapses. Maybe the cross falls on him. Maybe it falls on the crown of thorns. We don't know. But he collapses.

And he can't even make it any farther. His body is starting to fall apart. So they bring in a man named Simon, a guy who's just passing by and watching. And he helps them carry it up the hill of Colgolgotha. And they take his hands and they stretch them out and they take nails, stakes, and they drive it through his hands into the cross. And some people get hung up.

Was it his hands? Was it his wrist? I mean, the ancient concept for hand is the wrist and the hand. Does it matter? They take nails and they drive it through his hands and they take his feet. They overlap it and they drive a stake through his feet into the cross and they raise him up and he starts to slowly suffocate.

He would have to force himself up to take deep breaths, which means he's forcing his feet up through the nail. And he's slowly bleeding out and he's slowly suffocating until finally he gives up his life. And a soldier comes with a spear and cuts him open and the water and the blood comes pouring out. And when you read this, when you read this story, like there's a part of us that just screams, like this isn't fair. It's not fair that Jesus goes to the cross and a murderer is set free. Like that, that's not even a choice.

Like the God who created beauty and babies and love and goodness is humiliated to death on a cross and this guy gets to go? Who's shouting Barabbas at this point? This isn't even a choice. And oftentimes, I feel like I'm reading this as an outsider. I feel like we do this. We read this as an outsider.

And sometimes, we've got to press in and read this from a different perspective. And we've got to read this from the perspective of Barabbas. Barabbas has been set free. He's walking away, dumbfounded, not understanding what just happened as Jesus goes and takes the cross that he deserved. Because we are captives. We who came into this world as captives to sin.

And Jesus came to release us from our sin and to give us freedom. It's not fair. Fair is getting the punishment that we deserve for rebelling against God. But the good news of the gospel that Jesus loved us so much that he stepped in for us. He stepped in for us and he said, release Spencer and crucify me. That's the hope of the gospel that we get to celebrate.

And that's the hope of the gospel that we get to celebrate next week on Easter Sunday as we hear baptism stories. We have five baptism stories. And they're going to be stories that echo what happened at the cross. And each story is going to be a picture of that. Of Jesus saying, release Dakota and crucify me. Release Sarah and crucify me.

Release Kale and release Cambria and release Kaelin and crucify me. And we're going to get to celebrate next Sunday the hope of the gospel that sinners are set free because of what happened on Good Friday.

The Lord's Supper

The Lord's Supper

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm a pastor in training here with Mill City Church. We are taking a three-week break from Ephesians. We've been in Ephesians for a few months now, and we want to take a three-week break and prepare ourselves for Easter. And the reason we want to do this is I feel like Easter gets a backseat to Christmas.

Christmas in the American economy is a cash cow. But in the Christian calendar, traditionally, Easter is it. It is the biggest thing on our calendar. It's the biggest moment of redemption in our church, so it should be celebrated and prepared for. And I feel like every time around this year, Easter just sneaks up on us. And so we're going to take three weeks to really prepare for this.

Today we're going to be walking through the Lord's Supper, which was the Thursday before Jesus was betrayed. And we're going to walk through the Lord's Supper, the event of the Last Supper, and how we practice the Lord's Supper out of that. Next week we're going to follow the death of Christ, and we will close on Easter with the resurrection and a baptism party. So we're going to be in Luke 22, his account of the Last Supper on page 514 in your blue Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, you can take that home with you. That is our gift to you.

In college, I went to Presbyterian College, and one of the biggest parts of Presbyterian College, of PC, is graduation. Like, it's a really big deal. So Chet and Matt, a few other pastors here, went to PC with me. And it is just, graduation is a really big deal for a few different reasons. Like, it was, on the day that you graduate, you line up in a building called Neville. And when you get Neville, the doors open, and you come out, and there's a beautiful green lawn with historic buildings on both sides.

And what really makes graduation at PC awesome is the bagpipes. PC is a Scottish Presbyterian College, so we do bagpipes. And bagpipes elevate anything. It's kind of like the slow-mo of music. I mean, slow-mo makes me, I could eat a hamburger, and if it's in slow-mo, it looks awesome. And that's what bagpipes do.

I could be changing my son's diaper, and if I've got bagpipes in the background, it elevates the occasion. All right? And bagpipes elevate already a big occasion of graduation. It just made it awesome. And it's a joyous time. I mean, if you're lucky enough, you get to hear amazing speeches at graduation.

The year before I graduated, Mr. PC was our very own Matt Freeman. He was the most outstanding senior of Presbyterian College, and he got to give a speech, and I heard it was great. And it's just an exciting time. It's just a joyous time. For me personally, it was great, because my wife and I, we were getting ready to get married a couple weeks after graduation.

And it was a new chapter, and it was really exciting. But also, there's mixed emotions, because graduation is kind of bittersweet. It's a time where you've spent the last three or four years getting to know people that you're really close with, and you've already been through one graduation before, and you kind of realize after you graduate from high school, like you're going to lose contact with people. There are people that you see at graduation that you might never see again. And the years will go by, and you realize that you're going to go in separate ways, and you're starting a new chapter.

It was also a little bit sad, because I graduated in 2011, which was really the bottom of the U.S. economy. And all of us had four-year degrees from expensive liberal arts colleges. Well, we didn't have a lot of jobs. I worked at a coffee shop as soon as I got out. So it was just kind of a sad time, because of what we were getting ready to step into.

And there's all kinds of mixed emotions and moments like that. And sometimes you don't even see them coming. Moments like this, they carry mixed emotions, because they're packed with meaning and significance. And there's a weightiness in those moments that sometimes you just don't see coming. And the same way, the Lord's Supper is just like this. It is a weighty moment at the Last Supper.

And the more that we understand the significance of what's going on there, the more that we understand what's going on behind the scenes, we'll better be able to appreciate what's happening at the event of the Last Supper. So we're going to be in Luke 22, verses 14 through 20. And we're going to sit in these verses. And there's three things that we'll see in the Last Supper. We'll first see that the Last Supper is of past remembrance. It is pointing back to something.

And then we'll see that it's pointing forward to something. That it is a future taste of something to come. And then lastly, we see that it is for the present communion of the church. So that when we practice the Lord's Supper regularly in the church, we'll do the same thing. It'll be a past remembrance. It'll give us a future taste of what is to come.

But it'll be for our present communion as a church. All right, so we're in Luke 22, verses 14. It starts out, And when the hour came, he reclined at the table and the apostles with him. And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it until it's fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took a cup.

And when he had given thanks, he said, Take this and divide it amongst yourselves. For I tell you, that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes. And he took the bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it. And he gave it to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.

And likewise, the cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. I'll pray and we'll dive in. God, thank you so much that you've given us this beautiful sign and this weighty ceremony that you did 2,000 years ago. God, I pray that you would help us see the beauty of the Last Supper as we practice the Lord's Supper. God, I pray you would speak to us, that you would help us be present, that you would block out any distractions so that we can hear your word in Jesus' name. Amen.

All right, so he starts out in verse 14. He says, And when the hour came, he reclined at the table and the apostles with him. 15. And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. So you can't fully understand what's happening at the Last Supper without understanding the significance of Passover.

Passover is the back story to the Last Supper. When I was a kid, the first Terminator movie that I watched was Terminator 2. And I remember watching it, and it starts out with John Connor, who's a kid, and the Terminator, which is Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Arnie is protecting him from another bad, futuristic Terminator who's been sent back. And they're piling around, and they're dodging this guy, and their plan is to go break out his mother from a mental institution. So they get there, and they're getting ready to break her out, and she sees Arnold Schwarzenegger, and she's terrified, and starts running the other way.

And I remember thinking, what is she doing? Like, he's met there to save her, to protect her, to protect her. She should be happy. It did not dawn on me that in the first movie, and if you've seen the original Terminator, he's trying to kill her the entire movie. Like, that's the whole point of the first Terminator, is he has come back to kill Sarah Connor. Like, if you haven't seen the first Terminator, if you don't know the back story, you kind of get a little bit lost.

You don't know what's going on behind the scenes. I can tell that not many of you are Terminator fans, because none of you had any response to that. How about this? How about this? If you're a superhero nerd, like, if you got really, really geeked up about Black Panther, and said, I am so excited, I can't wait until Infinity Wars get here, I've already got my tickets locked and loaded Thursday at 7 o'clock, if that's you, this is the origin story. You're welcome.

This is the origin story. This is the backdrop to the Lord's Supper. So, for order us to understand what's going on here, we have to know the story of Passover. So, a quick refresher on Passover. Passover is the tenth plague out of the ten plagues that happen in the story of Exodus. So, the story of Exodus is that the people of God, the Israelites, are enslaved to the Egyptians, and that God, after hundreds of years, he raises up Moses to free his people from the Egyptians, from slavery.

And one by one, Moses comes before Pharaoh, and he says, let my people go. And he says no. And then plagues start happening. One by one, starting to break the power of Pharaoh. And then when we get to the tenth plague, Moses comes to Pharaoh and says, if you do not let my people go, the firstborn son in every household in Egypt will die. And Pharaoh says no.

So, Moses goes to the Israelites, and he says, this is what you must do. You must take a lamb, and you must slaughter it. And you must take the blood. And Exodus 12, 13 says, the blood shall be a sign for you. On the houses where you are, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. So, you must take the blood, and smear it on your doorposts.

And when the Lord comes through to take the firstborn son out of every household in Egypt, he will pass over your household. So, that's what the people of God do. They put, they took the blood of the lamb, they put it on the doorposts, and the Lord comes through, and he takes the firstborn son out of every household in Egypt, and he spares the Israelites. And this moment is the biggest moment in the history of Israel. I mean, that's why in Exodus 12, as Moses is explaining this, he's saying, you're going to remember this time. This is going to be in the first month of your calendars.

This is kind of like a little bit of the festival they do that celebrates the ushering in of a new year. I mean, this is at the forefront of your calendars because it's the biggest moment in your history. That God claimed you as a covenant people. He redeemed you from slavery. He redeemed you and brought you into the promised land. That is why in Exodus 12, 14, it says, this day shall be a memorial day.

And that memorial word is key. We'll come back to that. And you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations as a statute forever. You shall keep it as a feast. And from this moment, even into today, every year around this time, there is a feast that happens. It's called the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

It is the celebration of Passover. And every time around this, every year around this time of year, Jews get together and they celebrate Passover and what is traditionally called a Seder meal. Now, I didn't know what a Seder meal was because I grew up in Lexington. And it was 10 years ago. I mean, it's changed a little bit, but there's just not a lot of Jewish people in Lexington. It's just the reality.

I'd never met a Jewish person until I got to college. And when I got to college and I studied abroad, I actually had to leave PC to meet a Jewish person. When I studied abroad in our study abroad program, I finally met these people from L.A. and New York and there was Jewish students. And around this time, they got together and they did a Passover meal. They did a Seder meal where they would eat specific foods and they would say specific prayers and have readings and tell stories. And they do this every single year.

One of the traditional liturgies that's read during the Seder meal is called the Halakma Anya, which is Aramaic for the bread of affliction. And this is what this reading says. It says, This is the bread of affliction, the poor bread, which our ancestors ate in the land of Egypt. Let all who are hungry come and eat. Let all who are in want share the hope of Passover. As we celebrate here, we join with our people everywhere.

This year we celebrate here, next year in the land of Israel. Now we are still in bonds. Next year we may all be free. Now we can tell from the back end of that that this is probably written around 6th century B.C. because it's got exile language. They want to go back to the land. And that means that for the years, the centuries that would follow, the Jewish people would read liturgies like this.

They would say prayers together, preparing themselves for Passover. All of that history, all of it is packed into right here in Luke 22. When Jesus says, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. All of that history is in mind. I mean, the disciples, when they hear that, would be ready, would be prepared to read readings like this, to say prayers together, to prepare for the Passover. But Jesus starts to make this Passover look differently.

And one of the first things he does in making it look differently is he chooses to celebrate it on the wrong day. He chooses to celebrate it on a Thursday. And historians and theologians look back and say it would not have happened on a Thursday, it would have happened later. So he's already chosen to celebrate the Passover early. And then he really starts to change the details. He eventually even makes it about himself.

And all these little moves have got to have the disciples clued in a little bit to what's going on. Like what, wondering what Jesus is actually doing here. I mean, if you at Thanksgiving had the details switched up on you, and Thanksgiving is probably the closest thing we have to Passover. It's the meal that we celebrate when our ancestors came over and we were formed as a people. It's kind of a little bit similar. And every year we eat food and we watch football and it's awesome.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. But if most of us have a general understanding of how it goes and if someone starts messing with the details of it, like all of a sudden if you've got like a table that everyone sits at and everyone sits in the same spot every year and all of a sudden your mother comes and says, actually, you know, your brother's going to be in the back this year. You're going to start to wonder, what has he done? Right? Maybe, maybe you have the same family members that come every year and then all of a sudden your cousins and your aunt and uncle don't show up. And you talk to your dad and you're like, what's going on?

And it's like, they're not invited. And it's like, oh, did I miss something? Did something happen? Maybe you've shown up to Thanksgiving before and you saw the saddest looking turkey in the world and you said, honey, what is this? Well, actually, this is a tofurkey because your sister is now a vegan and you immediately curse her existence for ruining Thanksgiving. If someone starts to mess with the details, you're going to start to wonder why and the disciples at this point are starting to wonder why.

I mean, Jesus comes all the way and says he co-ops the holiday and makes it about himself. I mean, you try doing that. Co-op Christmas and see how that goes. This year at Christmas, you will give gifts, electronic devices, and money. You can lay them on my feet and we will celebrate me. Like that, that doesn't go well.

So Jesus, he starts to mess with the details here and the disciples really start to wonder what is he doing? What Jesus is doing here is he's taking their memorial meal, the way that they celebrate their redemption and he's using it as the basis for his memorial meal which will be the Lord's Supper and how he will be remembered. And he chooses Thursday to celebrate it because on Friday he will become the Passover lamb. Jesus co-ops Passover because from this point on he's saying from now on my blood is going to cover you. Like the eternal power of death, it will pass over. I will be the one that redeems you.

It will be his blood that sets the captives, sets the slaves to this world free. And just as the Jews look back to this moment in history, Jesus is fulfilling the moment of Passover. He's fulfilling Exodus and we get to look back to the cross. We get to look back to the cross as our history of salvation. So it is one for us as we practice the Lord's Supper.

It is a Passover remembrance for us too. So when we approach the table, we get to look back at the cross. And this is how this plays out. Maybe you come in on a Sunday and you are feeling the guilt of sin in an unhealthy way that's not leading to repentance and you are starting to question your identity in Christ.

Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs

Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. And today's going to be a little bit different than normal. So if you want to grab your Bibles and go to Ephesians, we are jumping right into studying the Scriptures together.

If this is your first time hanging out with us, this is not what we usually do. But we have a reason why we are going about it this way. And if you're part of our church family and this is the first time you ever showed up on time, this is not what we usually do. But we're going about it different for a reason today. We do want to take a second just to welcome you and to tell you that if this is your first time that we gather on Sundays here, we study the Scriptures together, we sing songs, which is a good bit of what we'll talk about today. And we scatter throughout the week into community groups where we try to walk in everyday life as Christians in relationship with one another.

Seeing what it looks like to follow Jesus with all of our normal everyday life. What it looks like to be a Christian at work. What it looks like to be a Christian in your neighborhood association. What it looks like to be a Christian who coaches t-ball. That we walk in life together. And so we do that because we believe that Jesus is better than everything else.

And that he's commissioned his church, sent his church into the world to display that to the world. And so we try to walk actively in repentance and in openness and in sharing the gospel with others so that they might see that Jesus is better than everything else. With our hope being that your neighbor that is not a Christian right now will one day be a Christian. That you'll be a part in baptizing them. That we'll get to lay hands on them and commission them as group leaders. That our hope being that your husband or wife that currently wants nothing to do with Jesus will one day co-lead a group with you.

Or will one day be baptized by you as they place faith in Jesus. And so that's why we go out of our way to do all the things that we're doing. A couple of bonuses for today that are just going to be fun is that since it's daylight saving time, we're just really throwing everybody off. Because people are going to be showing up late anyway and really confused about what time it is. And so we'll be in the middle of a sermon early. And that'll be fun.

Luckily for y'all, I will see them come in and I'm not easily distracted. So here's what we're going to do. If you've got your Bibles, be in Ephesians 5. Today's going to look different. This is why. We're going to study the passage first.

We're going to study the text first. And then we're going to sing second. So usually we sing first. And then we study the Word. And the reason why we do that is it's practical and it's theological. That there's history behind why we, when we gather, we're going to sing first.

We're going to pray first. We're going to kind of prepare our hearts for studying God's Word. That we believe that He speaks to us and that we respond to what He says. And that's why if you go to any church, 95, 98% of the time, they're going to follow a similar approach. There's going to be some songs. There's going to be some liturgy.

Some Bible reading. Some churches will light candles. But there's this kind of a buildup to the proclamation of the Word. And then there's a response through song or through communion. And today we flip that because what we're studying is some of the reason behind and some of the power behind singing. Some of the reason behind and some of the power behind us reading the Scriptures together.

And so we want to begin here and then go into actively practicing singing together, reading together, and doing some of the things that we normally do. So what will happen is we'll study through this a little bit. The band will come back up. I will walk down. We'll sing a little bit. Then I'll walk back up and explain something else.

Then we'll sing some more. Then I'll go and it'll be back and forth for a little while for the rest of the day. So if you've got your Bibles, Ephesians 5, starting in verse 15. Picking up where we left off last week. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery. But be filled with the Spirit. Addressing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Let's pray. God, we ask that as we study your word today and as we respond to your word in singing, in reading scripture aloud together, that your spirit would fill us. And that we would know what it feels like to walk in the spirit and that we would grow collectively together as a church to do that. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So, verse 15.

Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. So Paul says, look carefully how you walk. And multiple times throughout Ephesians he said, walk this way. Walk in unity, walk in holiness, walk in a life that displays the gospel. He's called us to walk and he just said, walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.

And now he says, look carefully how you walk. And I like that he uses the term walk because it's helpful in thinking about how life works. Because when you're walking, you don't really feel like you're getting anywhere. There's a children's book I read with my son who's three and it talks about these little animals. It's a Dr. Seuss book and I don't remember what they're called because they're all called made up things.

And it's like these things go from left to right. Day and night they go from left to right. And then it says something like, they walk from near to far. I would never walk. I would take a car. And like I resonate with that part of the children's book.

Because it's like, yes, why would you walk anywhere when you have access to a car? But that's kind of our attitude which is like I have places to be, stuff to do. I want to get there quickly. And the truth is walking is a good example of life. That's even why we'll talk about people from all walks of life. But there's this idea that you don't really seem like you're moving.

But over time you absolutely get somewhere. There was a documentary filmmaker named Arthur Hitchcock who in 2011 walked from Long Beach, California to Augusta, Maine. And it took him 175 days. Now you can fly that distance in a handful of hours. But he walked it in 175 days.

And the truth is that's how life works. You won't look that much different tomorrow than you do today. You won't look that much different in a week. Your attitudes, your relationships. But a year from now, you will.

Two years from now, you will. Three years from now, four years from now. That we're always moving in some form, some direction. We're always changing in some way. And some of you even think like, no, there were times where I didn't change at all. It's like, okay, sure.

You in middle school didn't grow from sixth grade to eighth grade. But by eighth grade you were shorter. Because everyone else grew. That's kind of how it works. That we have this idea that I can stay the same. But the truth is we can't.

That we actually, there's no way to, we're always moving in some direction or other. And that's why he says, look carefully how you walk. Pay attention to your life, is what he's saying. Pay attention to what you're doing with your time. He says, look carefully then how you walk. Not as unwise, but as wise.

Making the best use of the time. Because the days are evil. I read an article a while back. And I couldn't find it this morning to actually tell you what the name of the article is. But it talked about if you knew the real cost of a click.

So when someone sends you a link to like a YouTube video. And they're like, check this out. If you knew right before you press the button to watch a two minute video. That you would then watch YouTube videos for 45 minutes. Like if there was a thing that popped up and said. Because you're like, oh yeah, I got two minutes.

And if it popped up and said, are you willing to donate 45 minutes to YouTube? You'd be like, no. But we do this all the time. That if you and you went to check just one thing on Facebook. If right before you clicked it just popped up and said, are you willing to spend the next hour and a half on Facebook? He'd be like, I'm not going to know.

Why would I do that? And he said, if you just knew when you clicked on an article. When you clicked into something. How long it would take. And the truth is life's like that. It's not just our time on the internet.

Although that's a good example. But that for so much of our time. So much of our energy is spent in unwise endeavors. Where we've just wasted time. And the older we get. The more we pay attention to that.

And the more you begin to ask questions like. What am I going to do with the rest of my time? What's the rest of my life going to look like? As people go into retirement. A lot of times they start asking this question of like. What have I done?

Who am I? And then as they get older and older. They start asking. What kind of legacy have I left? What's going to be remembered of how I spent my time? The only time you think about time like that.

Is when you're young. And it's the end of summer. And you're like. Where did it go? I wasted my whole summer. But the older you get.

The more you start looking at your whole life that way. And sometimes it feels like we've just clicked. And clicked. And clicked. Until we've wasted our time. And poured our time into things that don't matter.

And Paul says. Look carefully. Pay attention. To how you're walking. Making the best use of the time. Because the days are evil.

And I like that he says. Because the days are evil. And I think we're helped today. Because we started daylight saving time. And y'all all agree. Today felt evil.

Like it fought you this morning. You woke up. And the day was like. Back in bed son. Like you. It was just a hard.

Like it felt like that. And it's a good example of what life is like. Because the truth is. You don't accidentally do healthy things. Very. Very.

Rarely. Have you ever just been eating. And been like. Wait. This is kale. I like kale.

That's never happened. You've accidentally eaten four quesadillas from Taco Bell. But you've never accidentally had kale chips. Like you. There's no. We don't accidentally exercise.

We don't accidentally set our schedule well. We don't. We can only really accidentally fall into unhealthiness. We can only really accidentally fall into wasting our time. You never are like. You know what.

I wasn't paying attention. But this year. I read four theology books. It's like. No. You watched through all the seasons of Parks and Rec twice.

That's what you accidentally did. Like. So. Our schedules fight us. The days are evil. And we have to work hard to walk in wisdom.

We have to actually pay attention to what we're doing. And so Paul's going to give us two direct ways to do this. He's going to give us two ways to think about this. To be helpful in this command. In walking wisely. And paying attention to your schedule.

Seventeen. Therefore. Do not be foolish. So he's just said. Don't be unwise. Be wise.

And so the opposite of wisdom is. Is foolishness. And so he says. Don't be foolish. But. Understand.

What the will of the Lord. Is. So the first step. To walking in wisdom. Is walking with. The Lord.

First step. To walking in wisdom. To paying careful attention to our time. To making the best use of our time. Is knowing the Lord. And knowing his will.

That's the only way you know his will. Is you know him. He's revealed himself in his scriptures. And in his son. Christ. And Christ is revealed to us.

Through the scriptures. And so we. Learn his will. Through his word. And it takes time. And it takes effort.

And it takes energy. But that's the first step. To walking in wisdom. To ceasing to be a fool. Is to knowing. And learning.

God's will. It's not what we would think his will would be. That makes us God. But it's actually what his will is. We allow it. To come in.

As an outside force. And change our lives. I've. Been married. For going on. We've been nine years.

This May. We dated for a while. We met in high school. Started dating. Dated through college. And got married.

And I know. My wife. Took me a while. But I know things about her. I know her will. I know the things she likes.

And doesn't like. It takes a lot of time though. There are some times. Where like. We'll be in a situation. And someone will say something.

And I know my wife will think it's funny. So I don't even pay. I just look at my wife. To watch her react. Even more fun. Is when they say something.

That I know she'll think is absolutely crazy. And I just kind of cut my eyes at her. Like. You going to make a face? You going to keep it together? Like I just.

But it takes a while. It takes. That's what walking with the Lord is like. Like. It took. Up until last year.

Last year. I stopped asking my wife. If she wants ketchup. The answer is no. She does not want ketchup. I like ketchup.

She does not like ketchup. Now to throw her off. I started doing it more blatantly. Loudly and sarcastically. To make it seem like. Maybe that's what I've been doing the whole time.

That it didn't actually take me nine years. To figure out she didn't like ketchup. So I would start getting up from the table. And I'd go. Ketchup. Just to try to throw off on.

I had just now learned this. But now. I don't. I don't need to ask. I know. Her will.

When it comes to ketchup. I know her will. When it comes to other things. I know that sometimes. When I start talking to my son. I have to cut my eyes to her real quick.

Which just means. Let me do this. Don't charge in. Like a mother bear protecting her cub. He needs to be disciplined. Like I know what's happening in her heart.

That we've walked together. And we understand. Each other. And that's what we're supposed to do with the Lord. That we're supposed to understand him. In order to live a life.

Making wise decisions. And using our time. Well. I had a. A man I knew. We were.

We were friendly. I wouldn't necessarily say we were friends. We. We got along well. His. His name was Steve Von Fang.

He was a. Very well. Organized. Man. He was in his late. Sixties.

He passed away last year. Um. And he was very intentional. He spent his time. Wisely. Now I know some people think.

Oh I know people who spend their time wisely. Because they're always busy. And the. The truth is. Most people who spend their time wisely. Aren't.

Always that busy. People who spend their time wisely. Life seems like it moves. Kind of smoothly for them. They have seasons of busyness. But they're not always chaotic.

He. Um. He loves spreadsheets. He's a very organized person. He's very intentional with his time. And he.

He was very intentional with his time. So that he could be very intentional with people. Um. My wife and I were in a community group with him. When we were. Or a life group over at Midtown.

When we were. Over there doing some training. And kind of being an apprentice. As a church planter. And. Uh.

Every time you got in a conversation with him. You just felt like he was working it towards a goal. He was just so intentional. And so every once in a while. You get in this conversation. And it was like.

He was just walking you through a maze of conversation. To get to this conclusion. We'd get in the car. And one of us would look at the other one. And go. I got Von Fanged again.

But he was so gracious. And he made so much time for people. That I remember being. In an auditorium that held. 750 to a thousand people. And it just being packed.

Out. At his funeral last year. With people lined around the walls. And people getting up. Person after person. Getting up and just saying.

Here's how much time he took. To talk to me. To speak to me. To spend time with me. To answer my questions. And the truth is.

When we know the will of the Lord. Two of the things that we learn first. That Jesus says. Are primary in God's will. Is to love God. And to love others.

We talk in the office. Our leadership team. Often talk about our best spent time. And what we usually mean by that. Is there's certain things. That Matt Freeman can do.

That I can't do. There's certain things. That Spencer Carey can do. That I can't do. That Raz can do. That Spencer can't do.

And so we just sometimes. Will talk about like. Where's your best spent time? What's the thing you need to be working on? That if any of the other of us. Tried to do that.

It would just be bad. And we usually mean that. And when you read like. Leadership books. Or business books. They usually mean that in like.

What's your core competency? What's the thing you're best at? What's your. What's your skill level here? What's your skill level here? And I think actually.

If we look at Jesus. Some of our best spent time. Is relational time. That if we're not wasting time. We have a lot of time for people. That's why when I sit at home.

And I'm a couch away from my wife. And I'm reading things on my phone. I'm wasting time. Rather than engaging her. As only I can. Because I'm her husband.

Doing the same with my kids. And my community group. The same for you. And your roommate. Your co-worker. That we've been designed.

To use our time wisely. And that begins. By knowing the will of the Lord. Which begins. By understanding Christ. And understanding his word.

Secondly. So. First thing he says. Is to know the will of the Lord. Don't be foolish. But understand what the will of the Lord is.

Which means study. And read. And soak in it. And make time for it. So that you know what he's like.

And what he appreciates. And calls us to. Verse 18. And. This is going to feel a little bit like. It's out.

From out of nowhere. And I think it's. Helpfully jarring. So he says. Therefore do not be foolish. But understand what the will of the Lord is.

And do not get drunk with wine. For that is debauchery. But be filled with the spirit. It doesn't really fit in the rest of this. The next thing he starts talking about. Is singing.

And it just feels like. You just really don't like wine. Like you're just taking a shot here. What are we doing? Is that like the major issue. That you would just stick it in the middle of.

Walking wisely. And I think. What's helpful to see. Is that he's contrasting it. With walking in the spirit. That being drunk with wine.

Is somehow in contrast to. Being filled with the spirit. That we. Are. When we drink. We give ourselves over.

To. We allow alcohol to have more control. Than it ought to. So. For the record. Just because we're here.

And this is helpful for us to discuss. The Bible does not say. It is wrong to drink wine. Or to drink alcoholic beverages. It does say. Here and other places.

Not to get drunk. For them to not have control. And it's not just wine. Some of y'all are like. Oh I don't get drunk on wine. I'm a Bud Light man.

That's not. That's not how that works. Wine was the primary one. The Bible does also mention. Beer and strong drink. And mixed drinks.

So. All of it. And this would also include. Like narcotics. And anything that we're giving control over. Anything that we're submitting ourselves to.

That it. It has control over. That's. That's what he's. What's in mind here. So he says.

Don't give yourself over to that. And the truth is. When we drink. When someone's drink. We give a lot of credit. To the alcohol.

We give a lot of credit. When it comes to actions. Like we lose. And this is why. Subfilled sobriety tests work. You lose the ability to control your body.

You lose the ability to control. Like we. So suddenly. We lose. Self. Control.

And self. Awareness. It's one of the things that alcohol does. That's why. Karaoke. Is done in bars.

Because you lose. This. Self. Inhibition. Like you lose this. Concern.

For yourself. And you lose this control. Of yourself. And the alcohol gets a lot of credit. For what happens. Some of you have had to go around.

The day after things. Some of you maybe got in a program. And had to go around. Years after things. And apologize. For your actions.

While under the influence. Of something else. To apologize for your actions. Your words. While out of control. And see.

He distinctly. Lines that up. In contrast. To the spirit. Because I think in some ways. The spirit.

Does the same thing. It's just the good version. That the spirit. Gets credit. For things that we would not have done. On our own.

That the spirit. Helps us with a self. Forgetfulness. That is unparalleled. Outside of. Being inhibited.

By something. That we're not to get. Drunk here. We're not to be filled up here. We're to be filled up. Here.

In the spirit. That we're to be. Cut loose. And set free. In the spirit. That as we walk in the spirit.

You should. You know. People go to a bar. And they need a few drinks. Before they become friendly. We ought to rock up friendly.

On Sundays. Walking in the spirit. Going out of our way. To meet people. Now. Maybe you shouldn't say.

Hey. Come here often. But there should be like. A way to greet each other. That's like. Helpful and good.

Like. That we should. Be freed. By the spirit. And that the spirit. Should get control.

This is actually why. The first time. That we see the holy spirit. Fall on. And fill people. In the book.

Of Acts. What's the first thing. Peter has to start. His sermon with. His opening line is. These men are not drunk.

As you suppose. We're filled with the spirit. Because people hadn't seen. People act that way. Have that freedom. Have that tone.

Carry themselves that way. Outside of. Of something coming in. And messing them up. And the only thing they had. Was the whole.

Was wine. Was alcohol. They were actually. Also. It was Pentecost. So it was like.

A wheat and barley festival. So that made sense. That people would be drinking. That early in the morning. But. He says no.

And Peter even says. We're not drunk. It's nine in the morning. We don't wake up that early. This is the holy spirit. And honestly.

Y'all need. We need to be listening. To this as a church. Because we need to grow here. Because nobody's ever. Showing up on a Sunday.

And left and thought. I think some of those people. Were drunk. Hadn't happened. Y'all. I stand right here.

And sing. And this is my. Super into worship singing. I might close my eyes. If I know the words. I stick my hands.

In my pockets a lot. You won't see this. For a couple of reasons. First one is. That this makes me. Insanely uncomfortable.

Now. If I drink a little bit. Before I show up. Maybe. But actually.

The holy spirit. Should set me free. From thinking about that. From feeling this. I can't. I can't.

I got. A group in a church. Where they. I was told recently. That somebody went in. Raised their hands.

And someone after. Went over to them. And said. Hey. We don't do that here. Yeah.

And the truth is. We wouldn't say that. But hey. We don't do that here. We're not correcting you. But you'll figure it out.

We're not going to call you on it. But you'll learn. Show up 15 minutes late. Like we just. That's our thing. Like we got some stuff.

That we do. And so. It's like. No. That we would be filled. With the spirit.

That we would be set free. That we would walk in a way. That has an unparalleled freedom. And then. It makes sense. Where he goes next.

Oh. I do want to point this out. Because I think it's helpful for us. This is a command. Be filled. With the spirit.

There are other things. That the Holy Spirit does. That you have no control over. That when he. Regenerates you. When you place faith.

That he seals you. That he did earlier. In Ephesians. Where he talks about. That we were sealed. That we're sealed.

For our inheritance. There are things. That the Holy Spirit does. That you have no control over. This one. You do.

It's a command. Meaning that we can disregard it. That you can fight it. That you cannot walk in the spirit. The Holy Spirit can call you to do something. And you can say not today.

And so we need to. In the same way. That you would actively go out of your way. To give yourself over to alcohol. We need to actively go out of our way. To give ourselves over to the Holy Spirit.

To pray that he would fill us. To pray that we would have the courage. And boldness to do what he asked us to. And to get into some situations. That we never would have gotten into. And to do and say some things.

That we never would have done or said. Outside of the Holy Spirit being at work in us. And that way the Holy Spirit gets a whole lot of credit. That's what makes so much sense. About where he goes next. So he says.

Addressing one another. In Psalms and hymns. And spiritual songs. Singing. And making melody to the Lord. With your heart.

Alcohol and singing have gone together. They're friends. They've been going steady for a while. That there's something about alcohol. That makes a merry heart. That makes people sing.

That causes. Like if you've ever been in a situation. Where you just sang with strangers. You were either at a concert. Or you had been drinking. Or both.

But usually this isn't a thing that we do. We don't just sing. This doesn't just bubble out of us. To the point that even if someone came in singing. And you saw them singing. If they just walked in singing.

Like you would have questions. Like if you just came walking into the office. And you were like. I believe in miracles. People would be like. I don't know.

My first thing would be like. What? Like what happened? Like what? What's the cool thing that's going on? And if you were just like.

I'm a happy person. I'd be like. We're not going to be friends. Like. Like you're making me uncomfortable. Like I don't.

Like that's. Like that's how this works. Like you don't just do this. You don't just sing. You don't just like. It's stuck in a certain category.

And what he says is. Be so filled with the spirit. Be so free. That this is how we respond. This is what we do together. That there's freedom.

Self forgetfulness. And joy. That's found. As we come together. So I want to point a few things out.

And then. We're going to actively practice. Some of this. You see. What happens. When we drink.

And that's why he holds this up. What happens when we drink. As we reach a level of joy and freedom. That sometimes people say. Well I can't find it elsewhere. That's one of the things.

That you'll talk to people. Like I need this to feel good. I need this to feel normal. And people will put anything here. Narcotics. Marijuana.

Whatever. Just like I need this to feel okay. And he's saying. No the Holy Spirit should be. Pouring that joy into our hearts. That's why he says.

Singing. Making melody to the Lord. With your heart. That there'd be a song. In you. So what do you use.

To set you free. And what do you use. To bring you joy. What do you use. To make you feel good. And if you're a Christian.

Do you realize. The Holy Spirit. Does a much better Job. Than that. So. I want to point a few things out.

That he says here. He says. We're addressing one another. In Psalms. And hymns. And spiritual songs.

And when the Holy Spirit. Fills us. And we do spirit filled. That's kind of what it says. When it says. Be filled with the spirit.

Comma. And then he says. Addressing. Singing. Making melody. Like all of that's in the spirit.

They follow being in the spirit. And being filled by the spirit. So we address one another. So that when the Holy Spirit. Is filling us. We're communal.

We're relational. That when we gather on Sundays. And we sing together. Or we read Psalms together. Or we do some of these things together. That it's not.

Just you. Singing with voices to God. But it's you. Singing to everybody else in the room. You're addressing them. You're reminding them.

You're telling them. You're agreeing with them. You're pointing them back. To the truth. And then he says. At the end.

He says. Making melody to the Lord with your heart. Meaning that it's not only relational. But it's also real. It's not only communal. But it's personal.

That in your singing. You are. Your heart. Is singing to God. While your voice. Sings to everybody else.

And it also gives us. A better content. For how we address one another. That when we're walking in the spirit. The way we address one another. Is filled with depth.

And richness. That it doesn't have otherwise. Okay. I want us to take just a second. Where we are. I think for many of us.

I know this is true for me. I think I've spent a lot of time. Actively. Fighting against the Holy Spirit's. Leading in my life. There's some things.

Where I yield. And there are other places. Where I just kind of say. Makes me feel uncomfortable. I'm not going to do that. So I want to.

Just take a second. If you're a believer. And just ask. Holy Spirit. Fill me. Help me know what that feels like.

Help me walk in that. Because we're about to practice. Some of the things that he says. Addressing one another. In Psalms. And hymns.

And spiritual songs. And we want. The Holy Spirit's help. So that's beautiful. And glorious. And it's what it's meant.

To be. So just take a second. Where you are. And just ask for the Holy Spirit's. Help. For the Holy Spirit's.

Filling. Amen. Matt and Bianca are going to come up here. Here's what we're going to do first. In just a second. We're going to stand.

And we're going to read. A Psalm together. We started doing this more on Sundays. It was really weird for me. But it's helpful.

And it's biblical. That we would read. Collectively together. That's one of the things. When it says. Addressing one another in Psalms.

That's what we're doing. So that when we read collectively. When we do a responsive reading. Where we have it up here. And there's a part. That someone up here reads.

And there's a part. That we all read. That's underlined. That some of what we're doing. Is we're collectively. Joining voices.

And we're collectively. Speaking to each other. And saying. We all believe this. This is real. One of the favorite things.

That we do. Is for me. Is when we've started doing this. And we stand. And we all just say. I'm a terrible sinner.

That's my favorite thing. Because I'm just like. I know. I know you're the worst. So am I.

Jesus is good. Like when we collectively. Stand up and say. I hate. I hate the light. I love the darkness.

I need Jesus. It's like. Yes. That's right. That's right and good. For us to remind ourselves.

That without him. We're in trouble. And so we. We stand. And we repeat these things. Because we're called to.

So just a second. We're going to do a responsive reading. And then. We're going to sing. And this is our first step. In this morning.

Practicing. Being spirit filled. Addressing one another. With Psalms. We're just going to take Psalms. From the Old Testament.

And we're going to. Address one another. And hopefully. As the day goes on. Our hearts will start making melody. To the Lord.

They'll start singing along. With our voices. So in verse 19. Paul says. Addressing one another. In Psalms.

And hymns. And spiritual songs. Now. Those are all connected. The ideas are all connected. That we would be singing.

And that's one of the things. That we do collectively. As the Holy Spirit. Fills us. But Psalms.

Are specific to the Old Testament. They are. The book of Psalms. Is something that we have. Handed to us. From.

David. And from other Psalm writers. And then. Hymns. Become a thing. Mostly.

In the New Testament. Where they began. To take truths about Jesus. And they would make. Theological poems. That were easily memorized.

And they would. Say them together. They would recite them together. They would say them out loud. They would sing them to a tune. They would repeat them.

Over and. And over. We have a few examples. Of kind of where those show up. In the text. There's other places.

That we think are hymns. Or at least have their root in hymns. Where Paul's kind of drawing from them. To say. Like you know this. And.

Repeating it. But there are a few. That it seems. Very clearly are. First Timothy 3 16. He says.

Great indeed. We confess. Is the mystery of godliness. And then he kind of quotes this. He was manifested in the flesh. Vindicated by the spirit.

Seen by angels. Proclaimed among the nations. Believed on in the world. Taken up in glory. So it's this short bit.

Of theological truth. That they would get together. And repeat. And say to one another. Second Timothy. Eleven through thirteen.

He does a similar thing. Where he says. If we have died with him. We will also live with him. If we endure. We will also reign with him.

If we deny him. He will also deny us. If we are faithless. He remains faithful. For he cannot deny himself. And so there's these.

Phrases and verses. That they would kind of repeat together. They would say together. There's actually. We have. A letter.

That was written from. Pliny the younger. To the emperor Trajan. At about 112 AD. So. Sixty.

Seventy years. Removed from the death of Jesus. And the beginnings of the church. And this is an area. In modern day Turkey. Up above Galatia.

And he's writing. Saying. Hey we've got all these Christians. And I don't really know what to do with them. His letter starts off by saying. Most of the ones I found and talked to.

I went ahead and killed. But I just wanted to know. Like. Is that what I should be doing? Should I be actively trying to round them up? He said.

All the ones that just kind of rejected Jesus. When I brought it up. I let them go. But if they kept saying. They were going to worship Jesus. And not the emperor.

That seemed bad. So I killed those. But I thought I'd write to you. Emperor. And find out. He said.

I did talk to one. And found out. That really all they were doing. Was on a certain day of the week. They would get together. Right around sunrise.

And they would say a hymn together. To Christ. And then they would take a pledge. Not to do anything bad. But to not steal.

And to not cheat. And to pay people back. That they owed. And to love one another. And then they would go to work. And he was like.

So I just kind of wanted to see. What you've been doing with them. But he says. Even at that point. That this was a normal thing. That Christians would gather together.

And say hymns. And sing hymns. Together. And so. Some of the ones that we do on Sundays. That fit kind of in this category.

Songs like. Come thou fount. It is well. How deep the father's love. Where it's like a. A more dense.

Kind of theological thing. That we say. Sing together. Repeat. I also think that you see this a lot. In gospel music.

Black gospel music. Not white gospel music. But black gospel music. Where they repeat. The same phrases over and over again. It's this.

This kind of a theological point. That they're just going to say. Over and over again. Until you soak. In it. White gospel music.

With like the four quartet thing. They sing all kinds of stuff. About like. A man was walking. And he met a dude in Tennessee. And they do all kinds of stuff.

And it's not this bad. But that's not what I'm talking about. And so. We. We collectively. Right now.

Are going to do that. We're going to sing. A hymn together. Where we're going to. Stand again. And remind one another.

And speak to one another. Hopefully. As the Holy Spirit leads us. Speaking in our hearts. To God. Making melody to him.

As we sing together. So he says. Psalms. Hymns. And spiritual songs. And spiritual songs.

Just kind of is a. Is a. Catch all at the end. That just. Grabs it all together. And says.

Really. Kind of. Brings in the idea of. If you're singing. In the spirit. To the Lord.

And even about. Those types of things. That subject matter. Then. Then go for it.

Then this is something. That we would do. That we would sing together. That we would make melody. In our hearts. To God.

And that we would sing. Spiritual songs. So this includes. And it kind of gives us. A lot of freedom on. What type of music.

Do you like? What kind of things. Help you. Trust Jesus. What type of things. Help you.

Grow in him. So this is. So for some of you. That may be Striper. Or Lecrae. Or Toby Mac.

Or everything on K-Love. Like it's this. It's spiritual. It's singing about God. We're not quoting scripture. It's not super deep.

Theologically. But it helps me remember. That he loves me. That it helps me remember. That this is true. And we sing these type of songs.

On Sundays as well. And it opens a lot of room. The Bible doesn't give us. Direct. Here's the type of music. Here's the tempo.

Or here are the instruments to use. We've come along. A lot. And said. These things are okay. These things aren't okay.

I remember my brother started going to Bob Jones University. And I think they're. They have a lot of things. That they do really well. But one of the rules they had.

Was you weren't allowed to up strum a guitar. That's a real rule. At least it was. And that had. That controlled tempo. Because if you can only down strum.

You can only go like this so fast. But up strumming. Chika chika chika chika. Like that's. That's not real. And it's like.

No. That's not. We have a lot of freedom. So like when I went to Liberty University. And the first time I went to a chapel service. And it was two.

Really thin. Gelled haired. Super tight pants guys. With acoustic guitars. And I sat down. I was like.

Okay. And then in a little bit. I was singing. I was like. Oh. I had to repent.

I was like. Lord. This is good. I shouldn't have paid attention to their pants. I should have just cared about the fact that. Like.

I'm sorry. This is when I went. While I was also at Liberty. Went with a friend to his church. It was a predominantly African American church. And they actually.

A guy led. From a drum set. Now. It was great. We wouldn't know what to do with that. Yeah.

You see your response right now. You don't. We don't even respond to things. We couldn't handle a drum set. You guys. They just started playing a drum set.

And singing. And it was. It was really good. And then we had brought. A little. Jared.

Gelled haired white guy. Who played an acoustic guitar. And he was playing by himself. And they all started. Keeping a beat for him. And it was.

Great. But it also is like. You get the. The room. To say. What helps my spirit.

Follow Jesus. What helps me. Sing to him. And make melody to him. And we have a lot of space. In Christianity.

For. If it helps. And if it's godly. And if it's God fearing. If the holy spirit's at work in it. Let's do that.

Let's make room for that. One of the things we want to grow. Collectively in as a church. Is having more room. For that. More room.

And openness for. Not all the music that's played. Is something you agree with. That actually helps us grow. And being. Culturally sensitive.

And culturally inclusive. So that. There are some songs. That you're like. Man I was. I was in that one.

And then the next one. I just had to think about the words. And I had to think about Jesus. Because that's not my. My normal tempo. And the normal type.

Of volume. Or music. That I like. But we have a lot of room. To gather together. And to make.

To sing. In the spirit. Songs to the Lord. And so we're going to sing. A few. Together now.

That kind of fit. In that category. Verse 20. And 21. Last ones. We'll look at today.

As he talks about. The Holy Spirit. And how he. Fills us. And the appropriate response. And what it looks like.

As we walk. In the spirit. He goes into. That we would sing. That we would address. One another.

That we would have a song. In our heart. Could you imagine. If that's how people. Described you. This melody.

In her heart. There's melody. In his heart. That there's. There's a deep. Resounding.

Uncontrollable. Unreachable joy. That's given. By the spirit. Then he says this.

Giving thanks. Always. And for everything. To God the father. In the name. Of our Lord.

Jesus Christ. Submitting. To one another. Out of reverence. For Christ. I want to talk.

A second about. The thankfulness. That we get. I want to talk. A second about. What submitting.

To one another. Looks like. And then I want to look at. Why he says. It's in the name. Of our Lord.

Jesus Christ. And it's out of reverence. To Christ. He says. Giving thanks. Always.

And for everything. We. Are bad at this. We live in a very. Cynical time. In the 50s.

If you go back. And actually look at. Some of the advertisements. They used to have. There was just so much. Hope.

About the future. How beautiful. It was going to be. Like all the future things. When they would talk about. Any movies.

From a while back. When they would. Show the future. It was bright. And clean. And people were happy.

They would have these advertisements. About like in the future. When your house gets dirty. There will be a drain in the bottom. And you will just. Spray your whole house.

And it will just be clean. And they had all this crazy stuff. That makes zero sense. But they thought. Somehow in the future. This will be beautiful.

And good. And we don't have that anymore. You don't go to a movie. And watch. A beautiful future. It's grungy.

It's dark. Everyone hates everyone. The government comes out. And says. That's the future we get. Zombies.

And like a world. Where the rich people. Made their own little planet. Above people. And the only way to get up there. Is if you wear a robot.

And attack them. I didn't see that movie. But that's what I got. From the preview. Like there's this. This idea.

That everything's going to be worse. And we're good at cynicism. We're good at sarcasm. We're good at bitterness. And what he says. Is no.

When the Holy Spirit comes in. There's always thanks. And there's thanks. For everything. Do you know. How much joy.

And peace. Are found. If that's true for us. As the Holy Spirit's at work in us. That we're just grateful. Genuinely.

Grateful. Not. I'm an adult. And I know I should be thankful. Not. I can think about the fact.

That I live in the United States. And that makes me better off than other people. And I should be thankful. But genuine. Gratefulness. I have a.

A son who's about to turn three. And currently. He still has genuine thankfulness. On a really regular basis. For super simple things. Every once in a while.

He'll just go. Dad. Who painted my truck? And I'll say. I think the people at the. The.

You know. The store did. And he'll go. That was so nice of them. I'm like. It was nice.

Wait. His birthday party. When he turned two. Somebody gave him a card. It was just a birthday card. And he opened it up.

And I thought for a second. Like. Oh. It's just a card. Like. I'm.

You know. You're always worried. Your kids are just going to do super embarrassing things. And I'm like. Let's see how he reacts.

And he goes. You got me a book. And he just opened it. And then he hugged it. And I was just like. That's awesome.

I'm going to enjoy that right now. Because I don't think. A five year old getting the card. Is going to respond the same way. Like. I just.

I'm glad that he has this genuine. Gratefulness. And that's actually what the Holy Spirit. Authors in us. Is a genuine thankfulness. And I.

I'm not like that. I don't reach that. That often. Recently. I did. And it gave me a peek.

Into what it looks like. If the Holy Spirit. If you're walking with the Holy Spirit. How you actually get some. Deep. Genuine.

Thankfulness. And if this could be my pattern of life. That I was always thankful. And I was thankful for everything. But. Recently.

My wife. About a month ago. Gave birth to our. Our second son. And. It took.

You know. Twenty something hours. It was a long time. And we finally. We were getting to sleep. That next morning.

At like six in the morning. And I just remember that next day. Holding this baby. And being. You know. He's healthy.

She's healthy. That doesn't. That doesn't always happen. That's not how it always works out. And. Far too often.

That's not how it works out. And I just was sitting there. And I just. Was looking at him. And just thinking. Like.

I don't deserve this. And this doesn't make any sense. And the Lord's just good. And like. I'm sitting there thinking that. And I just start crying.

And my wife. Looks at me. She's like. You alright? And I'm like. I'm fine.

Like. I'm just. I'm too tired to be thinking. The things I'm thinking. Like. I had to quit.

Like. Every time at the hospital. I just would get thankful. I just was. And I was just like. I'm too.

This is too tired. Too tired to be grateful. Because I'm gonna cry. And that makes me really uncomfortable. But there's this.

Gen. Like. I had this genuine sense. And it was so. Freeing. And the truth is.

As the spirit is at work in us. That's us. Thankful always. For everything. You see. The world can make you thankful.

For cheap tricks. For. We could. The world can make you thankful. For chocolate and roller coasters. But the Holy Spirit can make you thankful.

For bread. And a conversation. Like. The Holy Spirit goes to work in us. To. To create a deep well.

Of gratefulness. I think that's actually one of the best indicators. For are we walking in the spirit. Is. How thankful are you? How critical are you?

How cynical are you? How grateful are you? See. The Holy Spirit offers thankfulness. Always. For everything.

And then it says. Submitting to one another. Out of reverence. For Christ. That this is the ambiance. This is the flavor.

Of God's people. Is that they're thankful. And they're submissive. Submissive. Submissive. Just.

Sounds like a bad word. We've just been taught. That that's a bad idea. You don't want to submit. You don't want to back down. You don't want to like.

I don't care if you. Like if you talk about. Submission. Submission in marriage. Or take it all the way over to like. The octagon.

We don't use it in a good context. The idea of submission. Submission. Comes across as bad. Or weakness. Or outdated.

Or evil. And what he says is no. The Christians submit to one another. Through the Spirit. Now he's specifically talking about.

Some of the stuff. He's going to go in. And say some of the relationships. Where that's how that works. He's about to talk about marriage. And children.

Parents to children. He's going to talk about. Bond servants. And masters. So he talks about that.

But it's also just the. The tone of God's people. And here's why. And here's why that's spirit filled. And spirit led. As I walk.

In this church family. In the Spirit. I begin to trust. The Holy Spirit. In you. And so that it makes sense.

That when you correct. I submit. When you call me out on something. I submit. That I would submit things. To my community group.

For their evaluation. For their looking at it. And trying to help me think through it. That that's. How we would work together. That we actually get a group of people in life.

Let me. Let me explain. Just so you know. Outside looking in. You're in a community group. And you bring to them.

I've been offered a job somewhere else. And I want y'all to weigh in on this. And they actually have some say. Outside looking in. That's one of two things. That's a cult.

It's what we're told to think. Or. That is extremely beautiful. And unparalleled. In what other people have in real relationships. Because you would actually trust.

That the Holy Spirit is at work. And a group of people. That know you. And know your family. And know your walk with Jesus. And know your sin.

Well enough. To actually be able to have some say. One of the. The greatest things that happens. In our elder meetings. Is when one of us disagrees.

Everything just shuts down. And we spend way too much time. Arguing. And talking through. And it's like. No.

But this is actually how this is supposed to work. Because we trust. If you don't feel right with this. Then the Spirit's not. We're not in unity yet. We can't move forward.

That's a terrible way to run a business. But it's how the church is supposed to look. That we're supposed to at times. You're supposed to bring to your group. And say. Hey.

I want to take this job. And they're supposed to say. Well what we know about your idolatry. What we know about your sin history. We got a lot of questions. That's beautiful and gracious.

As the Holy Spirit works in us. And it only happens. As the Holy Spirit empowers it. But that that becomes. What we look like. That we're going out of our way.

To see other people get their way. That we're going out of our way. To serve and love one another. And here's how this happens. And here's how all of this happens. And we just sing about it.

A bunch. He says. Giving thanks always and for everything. To God the Father. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And submitting to one another.

Out of reverence for Christ. That all of this is based in Christ. And what he has done for us. That we don't have any of it without Christ. That you don't have a song in your heart. You don't have melody.

You don't have Psalms to sing. You don't have joy. You don't have the ability to submit. And the freedom to walk in that. You don't have thankfulness at all times. If there is no Christ.

That what Jesus did. Was that he sacrificed himself for us. That we might be free. And then he fills us with his spirit. That we might live like we're free. Someone who can submit freely.

Someone who can walk in thankfulness and joy. And have a song in their heart. They're free. And they're in a place of trust and comfort. That's unparalleled. And he says for everything.

There are places in the Bible that says. Count it all joy when you suffer. That's what he's talking about. It includes when everything's terrible. He's not saying everything's going to work out perfectly. He's not saying everything's going to be beautiful.

He's saying that Christians sing in jail. And we see that in the book of Acts. Now either they're tapping into something. That we haven't seen before. That we don't know about. That the world can't copy.

Or they've been drinking before they got arrested. Those are the people who sing in jail. And what he's saying is that we walk in the spirit. As empowered and gifted to us. By a Christ who died for us. And so that all of this empowerment by the spirit.

And all of this freedom given to us by the spirit. Is through the sacrifice of Christ. And it's in his name. That it is something that we have to. It is a command that we fall into. But it's not something we can earn.

And it's not something we can accomplish. It's something that we can surrender to. Asking Jesus to lead us. And to fill us. And to give us all that he offers to the cross. That we'd be free from our sin.

And therefore free from ourselves. That our self-consciousness would fall away. As our Christ consciousness is exalted. And that it would be about him. And it would be about our fellow brothers and sisters. Getting more of him.

So I pray that we'd be a church. That wouldn't waste our time. And that we'd be a people. Who'd pay attention to what our day looks like. So that we can pay attention to what our week looks like.

So that we can pay attention to what our month looks like. So that we can pay attention to what our years look like. So that one day when we close our eyes. And take our last breath. And our eyes open. And we see the glory of Christ.

We spend a whole lot of time pouring it out. In love for him. In love for others. We've walked in wisdom. We've known what he's want. And the spirit's filled us.

And led us the whole time. So I ask that we'd cease to be foolish. And that we'd learn God's. Understand his will. And the spirit would fill us. And that we'd walk with him.

So that he might be glorified. And that we might be free. We might be a thankful, joyous people. With a song in our hearts. And some joy and some freedom. That's unmatched.

Unparalleled. Unfound in the world. The band's going to come back up. We're going to sing some songs. And just be thankful. That we're collectively as Christians today.

We're just going to be thankful to God. For what he's done. And how he's saved. And who he is. And his gloriousness. And his redemption.

And his love. And I want you to know. If you're not a Christian. If this is new to you. Or if it's not new to you. But you know you don't have this.

You can. In the name of Jesus. That you can say. I want him to cover me. I want his death to pay for my sin. I want the freedom and the life.

That's given by the spirit. And you can ask right now. God save me. Save me from myself. Save me from my self-consciousness. Save me from my self-awareness.

And give me Christ. And if you have questions on that. I'd love to speak with you about it. But collectively as a church. Let's sing.

Let's sing.

Wake Up

Wake Up

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

Good morning. Grab your Bibles. Go to Ephesians chapter 5. It's on page 569, if you have one of the blue Bibles in the row. We are walking verse by verse through the book of Ephesians. My name is Chet.

I'm one of the pastors here. And one of the primary complaints, I want us to think about this as we get started this morning, but one of the primary complaints that people levy against Christianity is that it takes everything beautiful and joyful and fun in the world, and then it says, don't do that. Don't enjoy that. It's like people believe that Christians believe that God created the world, and then he looked and he was talking to his angels and he said, it seems like humans really like that. And the angels are like, oh, they love it. It's one of their favorites.

And he's like, huh. And they enjoy this too. Yeah. Oh, they love that. Let's make a book and none of that can happen anymore.

Like, let's get rid of all the fun and all the joy and all the things that people chase after and like. We're just going to tell them none of that. That's kind of this idea that people have that this old, prideful, angry church lady picture of God where it's like this. Well, if you were smiling, if you were having fun, it's evil and God hates it. And that's that's this this picture that we have. And and honestly, what it what it comes from is that a deeply held belief that Christians actually have.

We do believe that God created the world, that he designed it, that it has purpose. And so there are ways to get it wrong and there are ways to get it right. Like there there's a design to your vehicle. My wife, when she first started driving, the first time she ever completely went from E to full on her car, she put diesel fuel in it. She made it across the street and it quit working. And they were like, are you out of gas?

She's like, no, I just filled it up. And they took took a while before they were like, where'd you fill it up? She's like right there. They were like right there. Where? And she's like right there at that green tank.

They were like, yeah, the green one's not the good one. And then later she went to a BP and all of them were green. And she got out and was like, no, like she had just taught herself, don't put green. It's like then she had to look and was like, oh, OK, I figured it out. Gas is fine. But there's rules.

There's certain things you can do and can't do. And we believe that that's how the world works. We actually think there's great evidence for this in the world. Like if you and I were walking through the woods and we found a wristwatch. And I picked it up and went, look at what nature made. And started looking at the trees.

You'd be like, fool, that's a wristwatch. A human made that. Trees don't make those. And we actually believe that there's great reason to look at creation, to look at the world and go, no, there's a whole lot of design here. There are a lot of things that are just rules that this is just how it works, that chaos didn't create this. That's what we're told to believe that swirling chaos just boom, exploded into order.

That's a cute story, but we've never actually seen that happen. Like there's never been a hurricane that just rolled through and built a city. It just doesn't happen. And I don't care if you do the infinite amount of hurricanes and infinite amount of universes. It's like, it's just that that's not how that works. It's not just like, boom, Sears Tower.

Like it just. They sold it. I don't know if it's called that anymore. But there's a. K-Mart Tower. It's just not how it works.

And so like they're one of the two of the bigger pictures of this, I think, that we can look at is math. Math is just math. It has rules. You can't be like, well, I mean, that math is for you, but this is what my math looks like. It's not how like when someone you're studying in class and they correct you and they say, no, that answer is wrong. You don't get to go, well, I don't see who you are to tell me I'm wrong with my math.

It's like they didn't even compute. It's like. Oh, you think you're like the in charge of math? You think you can just take your math and come over and tell my math what's right? It's like. Math is just the thing.

It's objective. Like it really matters. It really exists in the world. There was a ship that was made and it was this nation's and I can't remember somewhere in Europe. It was this nation's probably like it was going to be the chief ship of their armada. Like it was going to be.

It had more cannons, more like it was. It was beautiful. And they they sent it out and everybody stood and watched it make it about a half mile and then capsize and sink. And it was because they had used two different types of ruler, one on one side and one on the other side. They'd used an 11 inch ruler and a 12 inch ruler for what a foot was. And so it turns out that one side was heavier than the other and that doesn't work well in boats.

Because math exists. The ship sank. We believe math has a definitive design and we think that melody does that that music does it. There's an actual like if I was up here with Matt and Matt said, OK, I'm going to sing this part and I want you to sing the harmony. And I just started singing because I don't know what harmony is. And then he said, hey, stop.

That wasn't harmony. And I said, well, it was harmony to me. He'd be like, man, that's cute. Go sit down. I'm like, you just don't get to. That's not how this works.

Because music actually works like there's there's actual unless you're listening to jazz. There's like actual sounds that work together. And there's one music person that thought that was great. It all works together. The same sheet of music. Same thing with math.

And we actually believe that it's not just math and it's not just music, but it's also morality. That God designed the world. And so that there are actual things that it's like this is how the world is supposed to work. This is right. This is wrong. This is OK.

This isn't. And that it works and functions the same way because there is a good design behind it. And so that when people say Christianity takes all the fun things and says no, we actually say, well, maybe some of the things you would define as fun. Yeah. But that's not actually how Christianity works.

And that's not actually why God says no. And we're going to get to look at some of that this morning as we go to Ephesians chapter five. The reason we started that way this morning is because there are going to be some things that the world that the U.S. says this is the point. This is where joy is found. This is where love is found. This is where greatness is found.

This is where purpose is found. And the Bible just says no. Not not in that context. Not used in that way. Because there's a real, true design to God's world. Let's pray together.

And then we'll start reading in chapter five, verse one. God, we thank you for this time we have together this morning. And we pray that it would be fruitful, beneficial for our eternal souls. That you would go to work on our insides, on our hearts with your truth. That we might look more like you. And that we might more fully find the joy and the good that's in the world.

In Jesus name. Amen. Chapter five, verse one and two. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children. This is where we ended last week. As beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.

A fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. So Paul in Ephesians is used a couple of times to say walk. He kind of it's a big transitionary statement. So he says walk and live a life in manner worthy of the gospel. He says walk in love. He's saying this is how we ought to look.

This is how life ought to look for us. So he says walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. A fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. So that's the gospel. That's that Jesus Christ came and lived on earth. And that he died in our place for our sins.

That he was our sacrifice. That he atoned for us and that he loved us so much that he gave himself up for us. And that actually is Christian love. That's the concept of Christian love. That it's self-sacrifice for the sake of another. Or self-sacrifice for the sake of others.

And you've got to realize it's not just sacrifice. But it's actually for others' sake or for another's sake. Christians don't believe just in asceticism. That you would just say no to everything. That you would just sacrifice all the good things from your life. And that that somehow would make you holy.

That you should wear uncomfortable clothes and eat bland tasting food. And that makes you good. No. Maybe you should eat bland tasting food for the sake of generosity to another. Maybe you should say no to alcohol because somebody else struggles with it. Maybe you should give up meat so that you can give more money away.

There's a reason behind it. It's for others. It's not just for the sake of sacrifice. And so that's what we're told is that he gave himself up for us. That he loved us and gave himself up for us. And that's Christian love.

Self-sacrifice for the sake of others. For the sake of grace and generosity. Verse 3. But. And so now he's pivoting off. He's saying this is how we're supposed to walk.

But. And he's telling us the contrast. The difference. The opposite. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you.

As is proper among saints. I'm going to read that again. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you. As is proper among saints. What he's saying is that there shouldn't even be a hint of it. There shouldn't even be a whiff of it.

It shouldn't even show up anywhere. This has no place with Christians. That's what the word saints means. It's those who were sinners who were made saints by Jesus. It means all Christians. It's not the Catholic understanding.

So what he's saying is all Christians. This shouldn't have a place among any of us. And so what I want us to do. We need to take a second to understand what those three words mean. Because we're not supposed to even have a hint of them. They're not supposed to be around anywhere.

Like our tolerance level for it should be zero. So we need to understand what they are if we're going to have that amount of intensity towards it. Sexual immorality. We'll spend a little more time here this morning. Just because I think we have more pushback. And maybe it's a little harder to see.

And we have a little more questions. This is one of the areas. This word sexual morality in the Bible makes a lot of people want to become a Bible scholar. We should be talking to someone and they'll go, yeah, but what does that word really mean? And it's like, that's actually great. We should do that.

We should ask that of the text. If we only ever ask it of this one though, maybe we're already indicating where our heart is. But here's, before we get into sexual morality, you have to understand the biblical picture of sex. And some people think that Christians' position is that sex is dirty and gross and evil and disgusting. Save it for your spouse. That's the understanding of sex that Christians have.

And that's not the understanding that the Bible has. That's not what is taught about sex. That is actually good and beautiful and by God's design that it would be enjoyable and delightful. And then save it for your spouse. That's the biblical Christian understanding. So we see in Genesis 2.24 where it says a man will leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife or cleave to his wife.

And the two will become one flesh. Now that is specifically speaking of a distinct union. And it is a sexual union. They will become one flesh. And immediately, if you just kind of think about that picture, you're going, okay. Like I get the physical picture of two people becoming one flesh sexually.

But it actually means more than that. It has greater weight than that. And here's one of the ways that we know that clearly. It's taught throughout the Old Testament that you would have one husband, one wife, one man, one woman. And that that's the only avenue for sex and sexual activity is that category. And it was not held that you could do any other form of anything throughout the Old Testament.

In 1 Corinthians 6.16, Paul says, Do you not know that when you are united with a prostitute? Now, prostitute means the word prostitute. It's the same that we have now. But they did not have the song All the Single Ladies would not have been a hit in first century Rome. And because they didn't have All the Single Ladies. You lived with your dad.

And then you lived with your husband. There wasn't this category of adult single females. The category for adult single female was prostitute. So if you slept around, it was either someone's wife or was a prostitute. There wasn't this category of females who had their own house, had their own Job, unless they were widowed. Okay?

So when he says prostitute, he means prostitute because that was the category it was. But it also would mean more now because we have a different category of how life can work. You know, y'all get to go to college and have jobs and rent. You can sign stuff. You can own a house, you guys. Like all this stuff that a lot of it came out of Christianity where Christians started saying, I think women are people.

You don't know that, but that's what we said. So he says, Don't you know that whoever is united with a prostitute becomes one flesh with her? Now, if one flesh just meant is physically united, if it just meant the physical act, then what Paul would have said very profoundly was, Do you not know that anyone who is physically united with a prostitute is physically united with a prostitute? That's not what he's saying. He's saying, Don't you know that whoever is physically united with a prostitute is one fleshing, is becoming united in a deep spiritual way, is doing what ought to happen only in the confines of marriage.

Because God designed sex to be an all-giving, all-sacrificing activity. That it is a covenant ceremony. That it is a commitment ceremony. Tim Keller calls it a radical self-donation. That it is to say, All of me, and all that I have, and all that belongs to me, and everything I own, and everything that I have is to belong to you. And I'm donating it.

That that's what it's designed to be. That it is a union. So Paul says, Don't you know the weight of this? And then in Ephesians 5, which we're going to read here as soon as Easter is over, in 5.31, he says, Paul says that, I'll read it since it's right here, I don't have to flip to it. Because we are members of his body. Verse 31, Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

So he quotes Genesis. And then he says, This mystery is profound, and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church. Okay, so Paul goes another more explosive layer on this, where he says that the original intent behind sexual union and marriage, this covenanting, was a picture of Christ and his people. That he was going to become one with us. That he was going to join us in flesh, and that he was going to make us his. That this delight in sexual activity is meant to be a small picture of the delight that the church will enjoy with Christ for eternity.

So when people, whole religions will picture heaven, there's a few, I've seen two clear pictures of heaven when it comes to sex and sexuality. There's probably other ones, these are the ones I've seen. There's whole religions that say, when you get to heaven, all the sex. Like that's what it's about. There's just tons of ladies there for your sexing. Like that's it.

Like that's a talk. Like that's heaven. And it's like, okay, I think we've elevated sex to a weird spot, but all right. And then Christians come along and you're like, I mean, I remember being in like, uh, you know, an adolescent, non-married person who was trying not to have sex. And we would ask questions like, Hey, is there sex in heaven? And they'd be like, no, there's not.

And then we'd be like, okay. I remember distinctly having someone look at me and go, you know, like, I'm really excited for Jesus to come back, but I hope he comes back after I've had sex. Cause I just don't want to go to heaven and have that not have happened. And we just understand like our picture is that's either the point or it's not there. And we'll all be sad. Um, that actually is such a warped view of how delightful Jesus is and what the picture was supposed to be.

Anyway, sex is good. It is delightful. It's meant to image something that is far greater and far more beautiful and far more lovely. And that's why we've said multiple times and we'll say it again, but I'll go ahead and say today that you can live your entire life and never have sex and be a fully complete adult human. Jesus did. Like you can, you're fine because the ultimate picture of what it's supposed to point to is way better and we won't miss it.

So say all that to say the word sexual immorality means not that good picture. So if I asked you what is counterfeit money, you would respond something that looks like money, but isn't money. Like we just, we know what money is. And so anything else that's pretending isn't that. And so the picture of sex in the Bible is inside of a relationship between a man and a wife, husband and wife, man and woman in a covenant relationship with a self donating, uh, self covenanting sexuality. And everything outside of that is outside of that.

And it's sexual morality. The Greek word is pornea. It's used all over the place. It's used to describe prostitutes, both male and female. It's used multiple times to understand this word sexual immorality. It's used to describe someone as an illegitimate child.

They just call them a pornea, which just means, uh, they came from sex. That wasn't this. What that's really helpful for us, by the way, because if God just gave us a big list, that'd be a really long section of the Bible. It was just like, don't do this. Don't do this. Don't do this.

Don't do this. Don't do this. And then we'd find something that wasn't on the list and be like, home free. We can do this. And then, and what it says is, no, this is what it's supposed to look like. So everything outside of that is not that.

And it's sexual immorality. This also includes, Paul says the betrothed. So in first Corinthians seven, Paul keeps going from his, where he says in six 16, he also says, if you're betrothed and you're burning with desire, get married. He does not say, well, if you've made promises, that's fine. You don't have to burn with desire. You're free.

No, he says, if you're betrothed, get married. So this idea of, well, we're going to get married or it's like we're married or we're he, Paul actually comes in right in that little spot and says, no, sex is okay. Once you've made the full commitment, because it's a self donating, self-sacrifice on behalf of another. First Corinthians seven, two says, because of sexual, because of the temptation to sexual morality, as Paul using the same word, each man should have his own wife and each woman, her own husband. So what he says is, because you're tempted to do this, get married and it won't be that.

So he just says what we just said, which is sex is okay here. Sex is not okay there. I did that. And we took the time there this morning out of this list, because that's the one where we most go, um, but doesn't it mean, but wouldn't it be okay if, Hey, I was thinking my uncle told me like, no, Jesus actually draws the line at lust. So he says, don't look at a woman lustfully.

So he takes it just to your mind. So if you're like, how far is too far? Jesus is like, well, what were you thinking about? Oh, hold on a second. I just meant like, is it bad if we moved to the backseat? And you were saying, what were you like?

What did you think? What were you looking at? Jesus says, just turn around and go the other ways. This is the acceptable zone. And then if you're married, this is the acceptable zone. Now we'll do a little more of understanding why Christianity teaches that.

Cause the next response to, okay, if that's what the word says, fine, but I don't like that. Or I don't understand why God would say that. And here's part of one of the arguments people make is, well, sex is so natural. It's just an appetite. It's just a desire. It's, it's normal and natural and healthy.

Christianity's not saying that it's not. Yeah, it's natural. Yeah, it's normal. Yeah, it's healthy. You, John Piper says, you put a fence around a garden, not around weeds. Like you, you protect what's important.

Like if you broke in someone's house and you were a professional cat burglar and you went and moved a fancy painting and there was a safe and you put your little thing on and you started cracking it because you know you're awesome. And you pop it open. You would not find that that safe was their dirty clothes hamper. It wouldn't just be like old socks. Why? Because we don't protect what isn't important.

And so the reason the Bible draws a fence around this is because it's potent, powerful, meaningful, not because it's less. The Bible thinks more about sex than we do. Maybe not more often, but it thinks more highly of it. I didn't want you to get confused with what I was saying there. Some of you are like, I'm going to read my Bible more. Alright, let's regain our focus here.

Sexual morality and all impurity. So what he does with all impurity, that word just means, a lot of times when he talks about impurity, it means specifically sexual impurity, but when he says sexual morality and all impurity, he's just zooming out. He's just pinching it and widening it out. What he's saying is like, not just sexual morality, but all the impurity, all the things that we chase after and throw off, all of the, it's when we say there's no inhibitions, there's no rules, there's no, we can just chase after everything we want, and they usually go hand in hand. That's why they're put together a lot.

But what he's saying is, it's not just sexual morality, but it's all of the times that we just say, there are no rules, everything's free, I can do what I want, I can pursue decadence, and debauchery, and everything that makes me feel good. It's this pursuit of personal pleasure. And they do go together. So, I saw an article recently, it's in Newsweek, it's in Vanity Fair, talking about the same thing, where this person kind of started interviewing people in the Silicon Valley, kind of the cutting edge of technology, and what they found out was, this cutting edge, progressive people, who are kind of expanding our horizons when it comes to technology, have these drug induced sexual orgy parties, where everybody shows up, and it's just this kind of rampant thing, and when you, they were talking and interviewing some of these people, and they were like, yeah, we're progressive everywhere, including our sexuality.

And the person writing the article was like, um, this actually isn't progressive, this has been happening forever. This happened in the 1970s at the Playboy Mansion, this happened in the 1960s at Woodstock, this happened at Bacchus and Dionysus festivals in the first century AD, to sit and say, we're going to chase all of this pleasure, and we're going to include sexuality in it, isn't progressive. It's the same thing. I was reading some of this article, and I was like, I agree with the writer of Vanity Fair. That's not progressive at all. You're right.

It's sin, and it's the same thing. And so that's what Paul says, it's not just this, but it's when we suddenly say, well, you know what makes sex better is Molly. And ecstasy, and drug use, and celebration, and party, and whatever that ends up looking like, he's saying the pursuit of, and the throwing off of, restraint. One of the ways that we say this now is, what's right for you is right for you, does it hurt anybody? Those are our kind of two moral rules. Are you hurting someone?

And we just say, well, if it doesn't directly hurt them, then you're fine, do what you want. And Paul says no. Covetousness. All impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you. Covetousness can also be translated greediness. Later he says covetousness, which is idolatry, meaning that we've so focused in on something that it's become our life pursuit, that it means more to God, that it's what we worship, it's what we have to have.

To covet means to want something that's not yours. Maybe specifically to want something that's someone else's. But it's this devotion to things. That my life will be better if I could just have. That all I'm really working for is this. And now all of my time and all of my energy goes towards this.

So Paul says, sexual morality, all impurity or covetousness don't have a place among you. Now this is hard for us as Americans because we don't live in a prudish society that's anti-sex. We live in a place that has completely sold out to the idea that more and better sex will fix you. That there is no real rules as long as you're not hurting someone. And our whole consumer system is based off of covetousness. That you see something that someone else has and then you get one.

That's how that works. For us. See, it's the throwing off restraint in selfish pursuit of personal pleasure. Has no place among Christians. Throwing off restraint in the selfish pursuit of personal pleasure. I'm going to chase after my own desires and I'm going to be filled up.

Verse 4. Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. No filthiness, no foolish talk, nor crude joking. That crude joking term means crude joking. It can mean vulgar jokes. It can also mean like biting sarcasm.

Jokes that hurt people that have gone too far. So filthiness. So filthiness. Just being dirty, being vulgar, trying to find the crudest terms. Trying to be like, well, I'm an adult so I can use all these words. And it's like, yeah, this isn't helpful.

Is it edifying? Foolish talk. I think, honestly, a lot of times our foolish talk comes in is certainly whenever we're sinfully talking, when we're harming people, when we're being sarcastic in a biting harmful way, when we're talking poorly about people. It's all the stuff we talked about a few weeks ago where Paul says that let our words be building people up and not tearing them down. I think it's also when we get too focused on things that aren't that important. That's foolish.

So if I said, I really like Oreos, I'd be like, yeah, it's America's favorite cookie or milk's favorite cookie or both. I don't remember the slogan. And it's like, yeah, but if I said no, but I have to have a thing of Oreos in my house at all times, so I always have two just because sometimes I run out. You'd be like, okay. That sounds excessive, but Oreos are good. And if I said, I'm going to devote my whole life to Oreos and I'm going to start a podcast where we just talk about Oreos, you'd be like, that sounds dumb because it'd be foolish to take something that was fine and then make it so important.

Okay, so foolish talk. Go on Facebook. Find the thing that someone that was fine, but then they made it the category for how you know if you're an okay human. This is good. It's a good thing to do this with your spouse or your children or your money. Everyone who doesn't is a complete idiot and is probably going to Hades.

It's like, oh, it's probably foolish. Like, let's tone it down. It's good. You can't devote your whole life to it. This is sports are good, but now, I'm going to devote my whole life to knowing every single thing about 18 to 20 year olds. Or 18 to 24 year olds and who's getting recruited and where they're coming from and what their high school is like and who their mom is.

It's like, ah, I think we've moved. I think we've moved from an okay thing to a foolish thing. Then he says, filthy, crude joking. And here's, I have a problem with this. I have a problem with this. I never liked this verse because I think I understood what it meant and I didn't want.

You ever read a Bible verse and you're like, I think that's correcting me and so then you go, well, I don't really know what that means. Nobody else has done that? Just me? Where it's like, that seems obvious. Probably isn't what I thought it was because then I'd have to change. Or you just think, you know, there's other stuff in the Bible that I'm not really doing.

I should focus on those because this is the one you don't really want to mess with. That was that for me because I had in my mind wrapped up the idea that crude joking was part of manliness. That was a part of how men talked and how masculinity worked and how you spoke about things and how you talked and it was like, you know, boys can't say these words, men can. And so I didn't like the idea that I wasn't supposed to because it was like, yeah, but I don't want to sound like a boy. I talk like a man. It's like, well, my version of masculinity is really messed up because that's not godly maybe it is manliness if you mean by man sinfulness.

Sure. It's great manliness but it's not godliness. I also think when it comes to some of this, some of you who are practicing filthiness and foolish talk and crude joking made all of those decisions in middle school. Right around the time you were 12, 13 is when you decided this is cool and this is how you were going to talk and I would just suggest that you wouldn't let middle school you make any other lifelong decisions for you and you might want to reconsider. And if that's not when that happened, still reconsider because we're told to. Here's why this matters.

It's about to get really serious. So if it hadn't been so far, verse 5, for you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Paul said, you may be sure of this. The sexually immoral, the impure or the covetousness, that is an idolater, have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Now, does that mean has ever done this?

I don't think so. It's an identity thing. So he says, those who are actively practicing identified by sexual immorality, I mean, a murderer, a career thief can do a nice thing, but that's not the thing that categorizes them. It's not the thing that they've set their life around. So it's a category of practicing active sexual immorality, pursuing impurity, pursuing covetousness, living a life of greed.

He says, you can be sure of this. They have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Now, the way he's using inheritance is he says it in the earlier chapters of Ephesians that we've been given an inheritance by Christ's work on our behalf, that the Holy Spirit has sealed us, that keeps us for our inheritance. And so what he's saying is that if someone's actively practicing these things, they are not a Christian. You can be certain of it. If this is how they categorize their life, they don't belong to Jesus.

And then he says, let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. That those who would step in and say, well, it's really not that bad, no, this is okay. This is alright. Their words are empty and deceptive and they are not your friend. Now, why is this carrying this weight? Why does Paul say this is a clear indication that this is not a lifestyle change, that they don't belong to Jesus?

Let me tell you who will not be in the kingdom. That's what he says. Let me tell you who you won't meet in heaven. The sexually immoral, the impure, and the covetous. They don't belong to him. He started this chapter by saying, let's imitate God, be imitators of God, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.

Sexual immorality, pursuit of impurity, and covetousness are antithetical to the gospel. They're headed in the opposite direction because the gospel is this. Christ loved us and he gave himself up for us. So we trust in him and we believe that he is where everything good and holy and right is found. That he's where joy and pleasure are found. And then because we believe that he is all that is good and everything pleasurable and enjoyable is in him, then we belong to him, then we sacrifice for the sake of others.

That Christianity at its heart, at its root, is this self-sacrifice of Jesus that works its way into love and self-sacrifice on behalf of those who belong to Jesus. And sexual immorality is not self-sacrifice, it is selfishness. And a pursuit of impurity and personal pleasure is not self-sacrifice, it is selfishness. And covetousness and greed is not self-sacrifice, it is selfishness. And therefore, it stands in stark contrast with the gospel. I want to give two specific reasons why that's true.

One, it's not walking in love and giving ourself up for others. It's easier to see, I think, in covetousness and greed, like we can all rally around at times and at different points in society like we have where people had the robber barons and then you had the fat cats on Wall Street and now you've got the 1% who are greedy. You've got Kim Jong-un who's greedy, who for his own sake and for his own benefit he harms those around him. And everybody will stand around and say, it's so evil, it's so greedy to take from others and to hoard for yourself and to just worry about your own enjoyment and benefit.

And then at the same time, we'll step in and say, but the free sex movement and what I do in the privacy of my home and what happens in our relationship is different. And the Bible says, no, they're in the same category. And here's why. Sex was meant to be self-donation and self-sacrifice and without the commitment and without the covenant, it's selfish. It's self-enjoyment and self-pleasure. And you might respond, whoa, hold on a second.

It's mutual. Okay. You're both sinful. These people can respond. If they didn't want to get paid this wage, they can work somewhere else. If you really didn't want me to be this wealthy, you can buy other products.

If women wanted to get paid as much as men, fill in the sentence. And if you say, well, this is... And it's like, yeah, maybe the whole system's off. Maybe they think that's the way that relationships work or how they have to stay in this relationship or it was the only time you ever told them you loved them or the only time they ever felt love like this. It's the same thing. That actually, the Harvey Weinsteins and the Matt Lowers are just carrying this out to its logical conclusion because it is, at its root, selfishness.

It's not self-sacrifice on behalf of another. It's not giving ourselves up. Honestly, if you are ignorant, to the fact that sexual morality is sin and you're actively practicing it, you're harmful, but you're not malicious. But if you're not ignorant to what the Bible says about it, that because of it, wrath is coming on the sons of disobedience, you're cruel. It's actually cruelty to be in a relationship where you pressure and participate in sexual immorality at the sake of the other who's joining you in sin and headed for wrath. He says, sexual morality, impurity, and covetousness.

To say that my whole life is built around and pursuit of and this is what fills me up and this is what is good and I'm unwilling to repent. He says that, be certain. You don't belong to Jesus. The throwing off restraint and selfish pursuit of personal pleasure is antithetical to the gospel. The second reason is that it preaches a false gospel about where the good life is found. That we're supposed to be pictures of Christ who proclaim that He is all that is good and He is all that is holy and He is all that is right, but then if we say, well, when He says that I shouldn't have sex outside of marriage, I don't really listen to that one.

I've actually had people before say, okay, I may become a Christian but I'm not going to do the no sex thing and I've just said that's not how it works. That it actually, we proclaim with our lives that we think this is better, that this is more enjoyable, that this is good. That we proclaim with our lives when we spend our whole time, all of our money goes to ourselves and it all goes to our personal pleasure and it all goes to our personal satisfaction that we're telling the world this is where joy is found, this is where life is found, this is where good is found. That's a false gospel. Joy and good are found in Jesus.

So that's why the Christian response to covetousness is hard work and generosity because that's what Jesus did. That's why Paul earlier says, let thieves no longer steal but let them work hard and share. We respond by looking like the gospel. Hard work and generosity is a small picture of the gospel in the midst of covetousness. It's saying, no, we believe our good things are found elsewhere and that part of my labor is supposed to be self-sacrifice on behalf of others. And that's why the Christian response to sexual morality is chastity.

And that's a word we don't use. Abstinence is another one but chastity is a better one because chastity is like a good picture of a thing and abstinence just means don't. chastity means do this. Abstain for a good purpose because it displays God that it's sacrifice on behalf of another. You may be certain, do not be deceived. It's not winked at, it's not excused, and anyone who tells you it's okay is not your friend. God.

Now I pray to God that if those of us in here who would say, no, this is, this is a full part of my life, the practice of sexual morality or this is a full part of my life, the pursuit of impurity that I'm just saying in this area, Jesus isn't involved because I just want to pursue this thing that feels good. I don't know what that is. I don't know if that's alcohol or marijuana or your approach to food. I don't know. I don't know where, I don't know where we're saying, this is the thing, I just don't want him to tell me no. And I don't know if there's people in here saying no, my whole life right now is just I want stuff.

My devotion to it and I don't really have set aside to share and I just, all I think about is how I could move up and how my house could be bigger and how my land could be bigger and how my car could be nicer. I see someone dressed well and I just have to get that. And I pray that for us there's this moment of saying, okay, what do I do? Verse 7. Therefore, because this is true and because it's antithetical to the gospel and because it has no place among Christians, therefore, do not become partners with them for at one time you were darkness. So he's talking to Christians, you were darkness but now you are light in the world.

So what he said is be certain that those who practice these things don't belong to Jesus and then he goes right back to saying, but you do. So don't participate. You were darkness but now you're light in the world. Walk as children of light for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. The Christians would know that everything good and right and true belongs to us and that we would decide what pleases God not just what pleases me and that we would not participate. So I would just ask who are you partnered with and who are you imitating?

Does your approach to money look way more like the American approach to money or the Jesus approach to money? God's approach to money. Does your approach to impurity and sexuality look way more like the American approach? Are you partnered with Americans? Are you imitating Americans and therefore excusing well I look like everybody else it can't be that big a deal and I don't even care if you're just saying well other people in the church do this. You can be certain they don't belong to Jesus if that's their active practice in life.

So don't look at someone in your group and say they do it. God help them that they do that. And may He lead them to repentance. And may they find Jesus. 11. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness but instead expose them.

Here's our answer. and it's a glorious answer. Here's God's beautiful response in the midst of a coming wrath. Take no part expose it for it's shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret but when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible. For anything that becomes visible is light. Now that's not a true statement but it is here.

I can't say hey will you shine your flashlight at my shoe I want my shoe to become a flashlight. This is not how it works. My shoe shines it reflects light so we get a little bit of a picture of that but that's what He says though is everything that is exposed and brought into the light becomes light. That we would take no part in unfruitful works of darkness and that we would expose them. That's in ourselves that some of you have something that needs to be exposed. that needs to be brought out and laid out. And some of you have something that you need to go to someone else and say hey this is an unfruitful work of darkness and I need to help shine some light on it for you because you're walking in and I don't think it's going to help.

I don't think it leads to health or good or joy. I actually believe that there's a good God and there's a coming wrath. But I also believe back half of 14 therefore it says awake oh sleeper and arise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. I believe that there's a coming wrath and I believe that there's a Christ who took that wrath. I believe that there's a coming wrath on the sons of disobedience and I believe that there was an obedient son who became disobedience for us so that that wrath doesn't have to get us. I believe that wrath is coming on sons of disobedience but I also believe in an obedient son.

And I believe that he took God's wrath on our behalf and I believe that we get to wake up and not just wake up arise from the dead. Maybe some of you have felt so guilty and I hope so. But I hope you don't walk out those doors feeling guilty. I hope you walk out those doors feeling free because sometimes we want to say I think I'm so far gone I think I'm already too deep in it I think it's gone too far I think this is too much a mode of my heart and he says he raises the dead we believe in a God of resurrection. There's nothing more far gone than dead and our God says not even that is beyond my reach.

That Jesus Christ died as an obedient son so that we might not face the wrath that is coming for us that we absolutely deserve but that we can be those who arise with Christ and here's what he says that whatever you confess whatever you expose becomes light. that it actually Christ shines in it. Do you know who the most glorious person in heaven is? Do you know who displays Christ most beautifully is the person who least deserved to be there. Some people are like of course they're in heaven they're a good person and there are other people who are like no way that person got in. It's like but if they believed in Christ he shines in them.

Do you know the most beautiful part of Christ in your life is the part that looked the most far gone? It's Ali and Foreman where he's just getting pummeled round after round after round after round and then he just pops off the side of the ropes and wears Foreman out. The best game I was ever a part of as a football player we were down 24-0 at halftime. I played a lot of games where we just beat people. Those were fun. They weren't the ones I get to point back to and say that one was great.

And there are places in your life that are dark and hideous and filthy and disgusting and immoral and those are the places where when Christ shines when you expose them in confession Jesus displays his greatness in an unparalleled manner because morality and good behavior is what we're told save you in so many other religions and Christians say no. Jesus saves in the midst of everything that was dark and broken and hideous about me. and let me tell you all that was dark and broken and hideous so that you can see a good and glorious obedient son who's a savior and who took the wrath I deserved. Wake up. bring it into the light and have Jesus raise you from the dead so that Christ may shine. Bring it into the light expose it so that Christ will shine that he'll shine in the midst of our confession of our sin he'll shine as we confess our savior. the band's gonna come back up we're Christians we believe in resurrection we believe that we repent of sin and that we walk with Jesus and that in the midst of our repentance and our brokenness and our sinfulness that he is his glory is displayed because there is no religion that saves sinners like Jesus saves sinners that what qualifies you for salvation is your sin not your goodness and it's in the midst of our darkest worst most hideous evil that he most displays his goodness and grace on our behalf that his grace is bigger that his salvation is sufficient I'm gonna read a quote from a song and then we'll sing together this is called Felix Culpa it's by the band King's Kaleidoscope Felix Culpa is a Latin phrase that means a fortunate fall and it's talking about this idea that it's at our worst that he is the most glorified it says turn the lights on and look at what I have see the twisted trophies of a dead man countless stories tell of sin and pain but they sing the sweetness of my savior's grace I'm a torn man spirit fighting flesh there's a battle raging deep in my chest but all that haunts me and all that leaves a stain only sings the sweetness of my savior's grace a fortunate fall my sins are stories of grace to recall a fortunate fall I glory in my sins forgiven Jesus bought me and now I am his and dying with him in his death I now lived all my vices to which I was chained only speak the sweetness of my savior's grace if you need to expose sin do it if you need to repent do it so that Christ may shine on you and you can rise from the dead and you can be counted with the living who belong to Jesus only because he dies to sin and raises again in new life through it you of my and my and and I will and I will and and

Time to Change

Time to Change

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Good morning. How y'all doing? All right. I'm going to say a quiet prayer for all of y'all. Grab your Bibles and go to Ephesians chapter 4. We're walking through the book of Ephesians.

As Spencer said, we're kind of in this section right now where Paul has shifted from the first three chapters where he was giving some big theological truths. And now he's shifting into what it actually looks like in life as we obey, as we follow Jesus and what he does among a group of people. How they begin to change, how they begin to look. And so that's kind of what we're spending some time on. And so we'll be in Ephesians chapter 4. We'll be in verses 25 through chapter 5, verse 2.

And we've said this a couple of times, but the chapters and verses were added later. So this was just one big letter that Paul wrote. And then later on, chapters were added. And after that, sometime verse Numbers were added to try to help you be able to quickly reference things. It was to help the church, but those are just in there to be helpful. So it's not some of y'all, maybe it stresses you out that we would roll from chapter 4 into chapter 5.

But if it helps you to know that those were added later and we can do whatever we want as we read through this text. There you go. Have you ever tried to change something about yourself? You ever given any effort towards that? You ever tried to change your sleep pattern? Or tried to change an exercise pattern?

It's February. How are your New Year's resolutions going? You didn't think those would be brought up, did you? Shame. Shame on all of you and pride for like one of you who's like, I crushed it. Everybody else.

No, but like that's, have you ever tried to change a thing? Like the only people who ever think dieting is easy are people who've never really dieted. They never, they're like, well just change how you eat. And it's like, just shut up. There's, changing something's hard. And one of the things I notice is like, for ourselves, we've got a lot of room, a lot of grace.

There's a lot of space for like, change is difficult. You know, I'm, I'm introverted. That's just what I'm like. Or I'm extroverted. I'm just loud and in your face. And that's just who I am.

And if that scares you, well I'm sorry. Like that, you know, like, you know what I'm talking about? Like I'm introverted, so I don't actually have to know anyone or leave my house. It's like, well, um, okay. Like, you know, we have these, I'm, I'm Italian, so I yell and throw things when I get mad. It's like, well, um, but like we have a lot of space for, a lot of grace for when our own ability to change and the amount of time it takes to change.

I noticed this a lot in, um, we have very little space or time for when it, for someone else. And I noticed this a lot in young married couples in our church family where they'll sit us down. They've been married for like a year, six months. And they're like, if this doesn't change, I just don't even know. And we've talked about it twice. It's been seven days.

And I just don't even know if we're going to, it's like, slow, slow your roll a little bit. Like I brought it up and, and then it happened again four days later. What do you want me to do? Bring it up again? And it's like, just, but I, I, I see, I always, I, you know, I feel for him, but I'm also entertained every time I get to have that conversation. Cause I get to see me in that where it's like, I want to look at my wife and be like, I already told you this was a problem.

I don't know why you fixed it. We've been married going on nine years. Now there are still things that she'll bring up that she's been talking to me about for nine years. And I'm like, Hey, I'm trying. I'm working, baby, I'm working on it. And it's like, I'm doing a terrible Job working on it, but I'm working on it.

Like let's, let's give some. And so change is hard. And that's the text that we're in today where Paul is just writing to the church. And here's what he says, change, be different. He's, we, we spent time last week as, as Spencer was reading through where he says, put off the old self and put on the new self. He says, this is a, he talks about your former life and how you chased sin and how you lived pursuing your desires.

And he says, that's not how you learned Christ. As you've been taught in him, put off the old self, put on the new self. And so what we get to look at today in this text is him walking through and giving us pictures of old self, new self. He's giving us pictures. He's given us, um, categories for put this off, put this on. And so here's what I want us to do today.

I want you to see that. Let's say you started here, old self, then you became a Christian. You placed your faith in Jesus. You realized I'm a sinner. I've got problems. I've got things that I've done that I shouldn't have done.

I've got heart issues. I need Christ to save me. And now he's saved you. He's coming to your life and you've got some things to get rid of. You've got some growing to do. You've got to put off some things and put on some things and you've got to move this direction.

You've got to have a trajectory of growth, a trajectory of change. So that when it comes to anger and how you respond to situations, you've got to go over time from this spot down there. When it comes to work ethic, when it comes to how you treat people and respond to people, and when it comes to your ability to forgive and to love and to be gracious, you've got to work yourself from here to there. That when we become Christians, we are now on a trajectory to change. And so what I want us to do today is as we read through this, I want you to prayerfully, if you're a Christian, if you believe in Christ, I want you to just start asking, have I put that off and have I put on the new action?

So when we talk about anger, just kind of gauge yourself, where am I? Have I put away anger? Have I put on the new action? Kind of where do I fall in this? And so we're going to spend some time just kind of evaluating, kind of investigating our own hearts. And then we're going to try to understand why Paul approaches it the way he does and why he has the confidence that he has.

So let's pray and then we'll read the entire text together and then we'll walk through it. God, we ask for your grace today that we might see ourselves rightly. That you might be good enough to us that we would accurately begin to see where we need to change. What about us needs to be different, where we need to grow. And we ask for your help as we do this this morning in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Verse 25, chapter 4, verse 25 through 5 to therefore, having put away, put it, put away falsehood. Let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share.

Let the devil's hear with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up as fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

I think you're going to have to wrestle with yourself a little bit as we go through this text today, because we are tempted culturally to just kind of lean into identity. That's who I am. That's just what I'm like. We have a whole lot of like if people don't like you for you, just get rid of them. And Paul steps in and says, maybe you need to change. Maybe you need to grow.

Maybe there needs to be something different about you. And he steps in and begins to say, this has got to go. This has got to come. You've got to get rid of this. You've got to put this on. And so that's what we're going to walk through and look at.

Let's start in verse 25. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. So he begins by saying, OK, if you if you're in Christ, put away falsehood. Have having done this, he's just assuming that falsehood has left, that when you became a Christian, that when you place your faith in Christ, one of the first things to get rid of was your falseness. You're faking your pretense. You're lying that you came to God and were open and honest with.

I'm a sinner. I'm in need of help. I'm admitting the worst about me and I'm getting rid of all my falsehood. And the reason he gives, he says, get rid of falsehood. Let each of you speak the truth with his neighbor. And this is kind of the pattern that he'll follow.

He'll say, get rid of this. Start doing this. Here's why. That's kind of the pattern he's going to follow. There's a few times where he he doesn't follow that, but mostly that's what he says. So he says, get having put away falsehood, speak the truth with his neighbor for we are members one of another.

And the way Paul uses the word member, it's not like a member of a club that he uses to to kind of illustrations to explain member. And he uses member throughout his letters. He means body member and family member. He does not mean member of an organization. So if you said of your A.V. club in high school, yeah, last year we had 10 members and this year we have eight.

OK, if you said that same sentence about your family last year, we had 10 members and this year we have eight. That's a completely different sentence. Body members, family members is a different. It's an intensely connected. So the reason why he says to be honest is that we are intensely connected with one another.

The same way that your body parts are members of your body are connected to one another. This past weekend, if I had been working with a saw and cut my hand off and you saw me and said, how are you doing? I wouldn't say, well, you know, 90 percent of me is doing great. I think I mostly focus on the hand issue that I had. And that's the point he's talking about is is that we're deeply entrenched, intensely connected with one another. And therefore, honesty, falsehood is gone and honesty is here.

And I want to tell you what that means. That means that when you hang out with your community group. You don't fake. You don't pretend. When you're hanging out with your church family, you're not trying to make it look like you've got yourself more put together than you do. You're not trying to act like, oh, I've got everything in order and I'm fine and everything's good.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. When that's not what's going on. That we've put away falsehood and that we're honest with one another. We speak the truth. It also means that when someone in your group is sinning or they have an issue or they ask you a question, you respond honestly.

Hey, do you think this is a problem? Do you think I was wrong there? No. No, you're not wrong. I bet they just had a bad attitude. And then later, because you're Southern, you say no.

And then later you go to the other person and go, can you believe that person over there? And it's like, no, you were supposed to speak the truth, which was, yes, I think that is an issue. I think that is a problem. I'm glad you brought it up because I was going to have to. That we're honest. I want to give a quick caveat to this for two particular individuals.

If you don't fit in one of these categories, just zone out for 30 seconds. But if you fit in this category, I need to help you out. There's a person in here. Not a specific person. I know y'all, so don't be like, oh, he's talking about me. Calm down.

A type of person in here who will overthink some of this stuff and will be like, okay, I have to put away falsehood. Okay. Okay. And then you'll go to the DMV and they'll be like, how are you doing? And you'll say, fine. And then you'll get in your car and go, I'm not fine.

I didn't put away falsehood. And then you'll walk back in the DMV and go, I have problems. Yes, you need to be transparent. You need to be honest. But with a specific group of people, a certain group of people in a certain setting at a certain time.

It's okay to say I'm doing well. It's okay to say I'm not doing great. When you come hang out on Sunday and someone says, I'm not doing great. But I got some people I'm talking to about that. I got some people I'm walking in life with. Just be praying for me if you get a chance.

You don't have to paint a smile on, but you also don't have to go every time someone says, how are you doing? Go, let me reconfess my sins. So you don't have to do that. Jesus, I'm going to give you a quick example of this. Jesus is with his disciples. He feeds 5,000 people.

He sends his disciples off in a boat. And then later, he dismisses the crowds. And he walks on water across the lake to where they're going. People look for him the next day where they know he was. And they also know all the boats left. They then circle around the lake.

They find him. And the first question they ask, which is an intelligent, reasonable question, how did you get over here? Now, the answer to that question is, I walked on water. Do you know how he responds to that question? The only reason y'all were looking for me is because I fed y'all last time. He does not answer their question.

You don't have to answer every question to every person. You do have to answer questions to certain people. And so the second group of person I just need to address real quick is the person who said, put away falsehood. Put down pretense. Quit faking. Not happening.

Be transparent. No, sir. No, you have to. You have to with some people. You have to with your community group. You have some people in your life that you've got to tell how you're doing.

And it can't be, I talk to my cousin in Tulsa on the phone once a month and tell them how I'm doing. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. You've got to have some people around you that know how you're doing, that know your sin, that are walking deeply with you so that you can repent, be open. With the members of your family, with the members of your church family who you belong to, we put away falsehood. 26. Be angry.

Oh, before we move on to 26, you can keep it up on the screen. How you doing? When it comes to putting away falsehood, how you doing? When it comes to being honest, how often are you finding in yourself that you're only given half truth? How often when it's time for your group to confess, are you only confessing this thing but keeping this back? How often are you finding when it's time to pray about something, you come to the moment of, I really should talk about this, and then you just back up?

Because you just can't stand to have people know really how you're doing and what's really going on. He says, put away falsehood. Start speaking the truth. 26. Be angry and do not sin. Now some of y'all, right when we started reading verse 26, you got excited.

Paul said, be angry. You were like, amen, close the book, let's head home. I got it. I'm done. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil.

There's some freedom in this verse because he does say be angry. It's okay to be angry. It's not a Christian virtue to be just stoic all the time and to always just be perfectly calm. No, there was, Jesus was calm in the middle of situations. There were also times that Jesus, you know, flipped over some tables and had a whip and was very angry. Startling.

It would have made little church people freak out. He was angry. It's okay to be angry. You just can't sin when you're angry, in your anger. It says, be angry and do not sin. So you can get angry.

You can get frustrated. There are times that you should be angry. It's at sin at work in the world. There are times that you should be angry, but then you have to process it. Well, you have to not sin in your anger. And he covers more anger issues later, but he says, do not let the sun go down on your anger and do not give up, give no opportunity to the devil.

Here's what that means. Anger does not get a resting place with you. It has a place, but it doesn't get to stay. It can visit, but it doesn't get to dwell with you. It doesn't get to live with you. It doesn't get to stay overnight.

Anger is like your boyfriend or girlfriend. When it gets dark, they've got to go home. All right. Don't let the sun go down on your anger. Give no opportunity to the devil. So anger, you don't get to let it fester.

You don't get to let it dwell. It doesn't get to keep hanging out. Anger is a, so here me explain what happens. Something happens and you're angry, rightfully angry. What they did was wrong. What they did was messed up.

What they did was busted. That's one of the things that we have all the time. People go, they really did this. It's like, I know. Yeah, it's a real thing. They sinned.

They harmed you. That shouldn't have happened. But then you got to keep a short account. You got to go address it with people. You got to go talk to them. You got to go say, hey, this really bothered me.

This hurt me. Let me explain how this goes to work. And I want to show you all the reason he gives should terrify us a little bit. Should startle us a little bit. Do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil. Okay, we're Christians.

We believe that there is a good, holy, righteous being that exists in the world and is at work for our good. That God is good and holy and righteous and he's at work for our good. And we also believe that there is evil in the world. Spiritual evil that we can't see that is at work for our destruction. And he says that if you have untended anger, that you're allowing it to stay with you, you are giving an opportunity to Satan. Now, I don't know about y'all, but if there's people, if there's someone on earth you didn't want to give opportunity to, it's Satan.

We recently had a lot of car break-ins in my neighborhood. And people just go through and just pull on car doors. That's the extent of their effort. If your car door is unlocked, opportunity. If your car door is locked, next house. And what he's saying is if you allow anger to hang out, to dwell with you, you unlock the doors for Satan to come join.

You allow him to hop in. You allow him to begin to mess with things. Let me explain how this works because I get to see this a good bit. You're hanging out with your group and you're talking through something and someone in your group says something. And it's like, okay, that felt like that was aimed at me. They know me well enough.

I feel like that little comment was a shot. Well, then you start thinking about all the terrible things you know about that person because you know them well enough. You start working on your own little shot you might take and then you're like, no, I'm better than that. No, I'm a good person. I'm not going to do that. So now you're a little frustrated with him, but you think, I'm going to let it go.

You don't, but you think that. You tell yourself that. And then you go home. You go to sleep. The sun sets. You unlock your doors.

So here's what happens. It starts to hang around. The next time you're hanging out with your group, you go, you know what? They did that last time. Let me listen. Let me see if they're going to keep that up.

Now you're looking for it. So you'll find something that just kind of fits. That was it. If you can't find one that fits you, you'll go, that was aimed at them. This is just something they do. Now you've got a little lens you're working on with this person.

Slowly you start growing cold towards them. Slowly stuff begins to grow up between you and them. Slowly when they're now talking, you have a hard time even listening to the word they say because you've got this anger growing. You've got this bitterness that's working towards them. And here's what happens. The enemy comes along, puts his arm around you and says, you are so right.

They're doing it on purpose. You start hanging out on a Sunday. You show up. You see them. You look at them. They look at you.

They made a little face. I think they made a face. They look right past you. They wave at the person behind you. That was on purpose. And you don't think that maybe that unfortunately due to genetics, this is just what their face looks like when they're thinking.

And they can't help it. You also don't realize that maybe they just look past you. You also don't realize the fact that you did not wave to them. You did not say hey to them. And the enemy's coming along. At this point, he's rubbing your back.

Yeah. They're doing it on purpose. And suddenly, you have someone in your community group that you have a hard time even hanging out because they're being so fake when the truth is, that's you. You're pretending. You're lying. You're faking.

And we don't even know what's going on with them. And so here's what happens. You have to keep a short account. Something makes you angry? Fine. Go talk to them.

Hey, were you trying to take a shot at me? Here's now you have a couple options. You started the conversation. That's a little scary, but it's good. Were you trying to take a shot at me? Was that aimed at me on purpose?

A couple options. It was. They lie. No. Okay, well, they're sinning. You can't help that.

Maybe the Lord will bring them to repentance at some point. But you're doing what you're supposed to. Other option. Yes. It was passive aggressive, and I'm sorry. I shouldn't do that.

But I do need to talk to you about this issue. Cool. Now y'all are growing. This is healthy. Third option. No.

But I see how you took it that way. And I just wanted you to know I'm not malicious. I'm just dumb. I absolutely shouldn't have said that. Because I do know your story. But I'm so sorry.

And then guess what? You get to go home. The sun sets, but not on your anger. Americans are really bad at that, so get over it, and you just got to work on it. We're really good at being like, well, I'll just see, and if this gets weird enough, I'll go somewhere else. And we just don't have to be friends.

And no, that's not a biblical concept. So talk to them. Work it out. If you don't know how to go about that, we will help. We will help set the stage for that. Help work that out with your group, with your group leader, whoever.

28. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. So Paul says, if you've been getting your financial stability unlawfully, stop it. If you've been shoplifting, if you've been stealing, if you've been cheating, if you've been lying, stop it. Let the person who went out of his way to send emails to trick people and to get their social security, stop it. Let him no longer steal.

Now, he's talking about thieves. I would say, I think this probably also applies to lazy people. Just inserting that. Thief seems further down the line than just lazy. What he says is, stop stealing, start working. That Christians are to do honest labor with their hands.

They're to labor. They're to do hard work. To get effort in. That's what Christians do. They work. And then he gives the reason why.

He says, let the thief no longer steal. Let him get a job. And let me tell you something. If you've been stealing, jobs are the worst. If you've been selling weed, a nine to five at Best Buy. Oh, it feels like murder.

I'm just being honest. It's good for you. It's what Christians are supposed to do. If you've just been being lazy and just hanging out because you can get assistance from your family or from some kind of other source and you just haven't been working. Get a job. It's good for you.

It's what we're supposed to do. It's godly. But he says, go to work, start laboring. And then he says, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. So, you stealing? You're getting your provision in an unhonest way?

Are you pretending to be unhealthy to get medical assistance? Are you pretending to be mentally unstable to get medical? Are you doing something that's getting by on the system? Stop. Start working. The question now is, are you working hard?

Are you laboring? When you go to work, when you go home, would Jesus look and go, that was labor? Or was it only labor when somebody was watching? Third question. Is a portion of your income intended for sharing? Is a portion of your income intended for sharing?

When someone in your group says, hey, guys, I really have a need, do you immediately go, yeah, ready? Now, how beautiful is that? If every person who is a Christian just had a whole set aside. He doesn't say give it all away. He says share. Had a share.

Had a set aside portion that was ready for needs. Isn't that beautiful? When Jesus comes along, thieves get jobs and begin to share. They do the exact opposite of what they had been doing. 29. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths.

29. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths. But only such as is good for building up. 30. 30. 30.

30. 30. 30. 30. That it may give grace to those who hear and do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. So the Holy Spirit has sealed you.

He's talked about that in Ephesians already, that the Holy Spirit has sealed you. He's claimed you. He's made you his. And that when we speak in a corrupting way, in a way that corrodes, in a way that destroys, in a way that harms, the Holy Spirit is grieved. It hurts him. The Holy Spirit is a person.

He's not a force. He's hurt. It's harmful. It's almost as if, have you ever been in an argument where these two people are arguing, but their mom's there, or their grandma's there, and that's the person who cries? Do you know what I'm talking about? Like these people are saying the most harmful things, but they're so angry, and there's another person at the table who just is so hurt.

Because that's not what that's supposed to look like. That's the Holy Spirit in you when you're tearing somebody down. That he's just hurt. Because that's not what that's supposed to look like. That's not how Christians are supposed to speak. So he says, let no corrupting talk, which means that anything that works to harm, to corrode, to destroy, to rust.

Sometimes I think about it like the tin man. He was out working, doing his thing, and then it started raining, and then he turned into, he locked all up. I've seen this movie. You know what I'm talking about. And somebody had to come back along, and put oil on him, to try to get him working again. Some of us, you're like that.

You know that. You know things that someone said to you, that worked its way into your joints, and there's a whole part of your life, that just doesn't work right anymore. It just doesn't move like it should. You had somebody speak something into you, and you know, sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will harm me forever. That's really how that ought to work. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will crawl into my soul, and destroy me.

That's how it works. You have stuff that somebody said to you, that your father said to you, that your uncle said to you, that mean girls in middle school said to you, that still sticks with you. You can't curl your hair to this day, because of some random thing somebody said to you. There's this whole part of your life, that just doesn't work right. And that's not how Christians, are supposed to talk to each other. We give grace.

We give oil. We free people up to move. And so we fan the flame. We put wind in people's sails. That's how we talk to each other. Now he says, as fits the occasion, which means that sometimes it is gracious, fitting words to correct someone.

That's what Proverbs says, that profuse are the kisses of an enemy, and beautiful are the blows of a friend. That sometimes correction comes from those who love us, and cherish us, and that's gracious. That's good. That's what Jesus does. He corrects us in our sin. So sometimes you could say something really nice.

It doesn't fit the occasion. It didn't help. But Christians come along, and they say words of encouragement. They spur people on. They challenge people to do better, to work harder, to follow Jesus, to have more faith. And one of the ways I know that we need this, is if you ever take the time to just go up to somebody, most of us are thinking nice things all the time, by the way.

You think nice things about people. Man, it was so nice that they did that. And then what you say out loud is, your friend walks over, he's wearing pink striped shorts. He says, hey man. And you say, I'm sorry I couldn't hear you, your shorts are too loud. That's what you say out loud.

You don't think, I just want to let you know how good of a friend you are, and how much I appreciate that you're here. And here's one of the reasons I know that we need this, is that if you'll take the time to actually go over to someone and just say something encouraging, you will make grown adults cry. If you just grab someone and say, I just want to let you know, I see Jesus at work in you. And when you called our group to this the other day, I was so proud. And I just want to let you know, you make our community group better. You'll see people's eyes just glisten up, and they'll go, well, thank you.

Sometimes they just go, and it's like, oh man, we so need this. The leadership of our church gets to take a couple days during the summer usually to pray and just kind of to work on some stuff. And we did competitive encouragement, which Romans 12 says to outdo one another in showing honor. And so we just went in a circle, and it was this person's turn, and everybody in the room just said nice things. It was the weirdest thing for us, you guys. It was terrible.

And by the end of it, we were all like, okay, well, that was lame. Because we need this, and this is how we're supposed to talk to one another. We're supposed to give words that build up, that encourage, that move people forward. That's how the church talks. And that's when the Holy Spirit in you is going, that's exactly what I wanted to say. That's exactly what I would have told them if I could have pulled them aside.

So many of us are right now working our whole lives against a negative internal self-talk. about what we can't do, how ugly we are, how dumb we are, how much we ruin everything, and we have been filled by a Holy Spirit, and we've been surrounded by other people filled by a Holy Spirit who needs to come along and grab you up and say, let me tell you how great you are and how much I see Jesus at work in you and how much I believe in you and how much potential you have. 31, on that, on that, some of y'all need to repent for some things you said to some people. You need to go talk to them. And some of y'all need to repent for some things you didn't say to people and you need to go say some encouraging stuff that you've thought.

31, Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you along with all malice. Okay, so earlier he said be angry, now he says put it away. And here's the thing, it's like as a pattern of life, wrath and bitterness and anger and clamor and slander don't have a place with us. They don't belong in the church, they don't belong among God's people. Bitterness is where we slowly just grow this frustration, hatred towards somebody, this anger towards somebody. Who in your group begins to talk and you start to roll your eyes?

Who in your group starts to talk and you go, here we go again. Who is it they can't even get a word out, they just go, well, and you go, oh my gosh. Who is it that you have malice towards? I hope, I hope they see what happens in their life. I hope, I hope that this finally catches up towards them. You just have ill will towards them.

How many of you when you get angry have clamor, which means loudness? Shouting. saying harmful words. How many of you as a posture of life just have wrath? Anger is what drives you, it's what motivates you, it's how you go to work. Slander is speaking, speaking unhelpful, wrong, evil things about somebody to somebody else. That's why as a posture of our church, one of the things we say is that when you come to me and say, this person did this, my response is, what did they say when you told them?

Because we don't practice slander. Then he says, be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you. this one messes with me a little bit because tender hearted is a cut down in my family. He might as well have said, be kind to one another, be a sissy, forgive one another. Like that's really, that's the way it hits me, like it just, it's kind of, and he just says, be it. Like the most tender hearted member of my family is my brother Vince and I sometimes, like I'll do it at some point, like tell him I'm sorry for all the stuff we did to him. That's a joke, I need to refer to him.

But like he's not like a super tender hearted person, he was just the most in my family and so we were really, really hard on him. I remember one time I had read the book of Mice and Men so I knew how it worked and then I rented the movie and he was watching with me and I knew what was going to happen at the end of Mice and Men. If you don't know what's going to happen at the end of Mice and Men, the guy that you like the most is going to die. So you should check it out sometime. And the way he's going to die is that his friend is going to shoot him to be gracious to him because he's mentally handicapped, he causes some harm that he didn't mean to cause, he's going to spend the rest of his time in prison and so his friend thinks it's nicer to just kill him than to let him live and so I, this is when we have VCRs and so rewinding was easier.

You know, like rewinding was just easier with VCR, it wasn't as quick but you could get where you wanted to go way better than you can get where you want to go with this other stuff. You're like, oh let me see who that person was and then you're 30 minutes behind now, it's all messed up. Anyway, I had a VCR and it was easy to rewind and so I sat and I knew it was about to happen and right when he got shot and fell over, I just went, and you know, still like for just a second and then he was right back up and I did it like seven times. My brother, who was in middle school, was sitting in his little chair and I just looked at him and he was like, and little tears were rolling down his face and I was going, and then Paul says, if you're in Christ, be tender hearted, care, love, when someone's hurting, that should hurt you too.

And he just comes to me and says, do it. Change. Be kind to one another that we as Christians would care about what was happening with each other. when someone in your group ran against the same wall over and over and over and over again, when other people would grow bitter, when other people would grow frustrated, when other people, you would care more almost every single time because not only are they still hitting that wall, but they don't know how to stop hitting it. And we would be kind and we would be tender hearted and we would come to him and say, this is the fourth time you've blown past your budget and you're making your life hard and I'm sorry, but how do we help?

How do I feel what you feel rather than just being frustrated with you? Forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you. That's one of the, I love that, that that is there. If you haven't been around for a while, I want to give you a promise. If you stay as a part of our church family for long enough, we will hurt you. We'll sin against you.

We'll do something so messed up that you'll think Christians should have never done that and you're right, we shouldn't have. And that's why Paul follows this list up with forgive. Forgive. People, I sit with people sometimes and I'm like, I just don't know how to be in that group anymore. And it's like, yeah, I know how you can be in that group. You forgive.

You confront, you get them to repent. They confess their sin and you forgive. You hug them, you tell them you love them. And how do you do that? Because Christ forgave you. That's what we're supposed to look like.

That's who we're supposed to be and he just says, do it. Imagine this for a second. Let's just think about this list that we just walked through. If you were hanging out with a community group, maybe it's the first time you ever went and got around a community group, but if they were actually practicing this, let me tell you what would happen. You'd show up and they would say nice things to each other. And that would be weird because we're just not used to that.

But they would just be going out of their way. You'd start realizing like, man, this is a weird like complimentary, like, is this a cult? Like, you just would start being like, they're just too, there's a little bit too much caring about each other. They'd come in and ask about life things. Hey, you said this last week. How's that going?

How's work going? You still having the issue with your boss? Man, I'm so sorry. You'd have people saying, I just want to tell you how much you blessed our group last week when this happened. They'd get angry with each other and then they would just address it. Some of you, the first time you ever go hang out with a group is going to be the night they're just addressing how mad they are at each other.

Those happen. Let me tell you, those are actually good nights for you to see because it's really healthy for you to see someone say, hey, I need to talk to how, how I don't even want to be here and I'm mad at everybody in this group. And you're like, whoa. And then they talk it out. And they're like, hug and pray and it's weird and sometimes they're like, okay, well, we're still mad. Well, we're going to see each other again.

Like, this is how we deal with it. We got to keep being around each other. You start seeing them forgive one another. You start seeing them say encouraging things. You start seeing them correct one another. In love, you'll start seeing them.

Someone will say, hey guys, I really need something. And everybody in the room hand will just like reach for their wallet. What do you need? It's not weird for you to have a need and it's not weird for you to ask for it. It's beautiful when this starts to work its way around among a group of people as Jesus works in their hearts. Here's what I want to point out as we finish up.

I watched a sketch on MADtv one time where they were doing a thing where, yeah, I've watched MADtv. It used to come on Comedy Central. Don't judge me. Where they were doing a thing where a guy was being a counselor and so somebody would come in and they would tell him his problems and he would sit with his little pen and his legs crossed and then when they finished talking he would go, okay, stop it. And they would just look and he would say, stop it. And he would just yell at them, stop it.

And then he would send them out and charge them and then somebody else would come in and he would do the same thing. And that's ridiculous to us. That's crazy. That's the worst way to counsel ever because we all know that doesn't work and then the Apostle Paul just said, stop it. That's what he said. Put this away.

Pick that up. I want to point this out in this last verse but he's been doing it the whole time. He says, be put away from you. He says, just let that be put away from you. Throw it away. Get rid of it.

And then he just says, be. Stop it. Start. You're welcome. Counseling session over. That's what he does.

It's just like, of course, don't be angry. Like all of us are like, I already knew all these things. Don't steal. But then I'm somewhere and it just feels like, oh, no, no, no, and life's hard and I really gotta, oh, and I don't know what I'd do if I'd quit getting this benefit if I was honest about the fact that I can go back to work. Like, he just says, stop. Start.

Stop. Looking at someone who's bitter and they sit down and say, I'm just so bitter. I just go, oh, let me help you out. Paul says, don't be. You just got pastored. It's a good thing I don't charge for that kind of thing, right?

Like you would just be like, what? That's what he says. Guys, I want to help you see why. Chapter 5, verses 1 and 2. See, he's gotta have this confidence coming from somewhere. Either he's just saying it and he's assuming that we won't really be able to do it, but from what I've read of the Apostle Paul, that doesn't seem right.

Seems like he pretty much believes this is gonna happen. He says, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. Be imitators of God as beloved children. Some of us know all you've got is the imitate God part. You've got the what would Jesus do? And you think the role, the job of a Christian is to work really hard to be good.

And we are. You are supposed to. You're supposed to obey. You're supposed to repent. You're supposed to work really hard to be good. But you're supposed to do it, comma, as beloved children.

You're supposed to imitate God, which means you need to be reading your Bible to see what he's like. Not just winging it on what you think God should be like. Yeah, you need to imitate him. You need to know what he's like. You need to know what he does. You need to know how he responds to sin.

But you do it as a beloved child, which is so helpful. I've got two boys now, which I'm pretty excited about. The one's three weeks old. And yesterday, somebody was over at our house. I was in our community group and she'd been watching them so that we could go get a date. And then we came home.

We were just hanging out a little bit and talking. And my little boy was crying and my three-year-old was sitting there and she looked at him and said to my three-year-old son Archer, she said, tell Ellis to stop crying. Tell him to calm down. And he looked at her and said, he doesn't speak English. I thought, that's my boy. And it's true.

My son Ellis does not speak English. But one day he will and he has no chance of speaking any other language growing up in our house. He's not going to pick up Spanish. One day he's not going to pop out with Portuguese. That cat is going to speak English. He doesn't yet.

My son was right. Telling him things doesn't help yet. But he's going to. That we're going to, because we are God's children, we're going to be formed into the image of God. That we're told in Romans that we're predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ. It is going to happen.

If you belong to Jesus, if he has claimed your soul and you have been adopted by the Father, guess what? You're going to look like him. I have a buddy of mine that I went to middle school and high school with. He's a good friend of mine. I liked him. We had a lot of fun together.

And I doubt he listens to this. But he was just kind of goofy. He's real thin. He's funny. But he wasn't super coordinated.

And one day he said, I'm going to join the Marines. And I was like, hmm. Okay. You got any other things you're thinking about or just that one? He said, I'm going to go be a Marine. And I was like, okay.

Now, if you saw him, you would not think, I'm a Marine. If you knew him, really got to know him, you would not think, I'm a Marine. Like you just wouldn't. And this cat, went to camp with June. And then later, I see pictures of him. And he's a Marine.

He's wearing the uniform. Cat's got a sword. People don't get to carry swords. Marines do. Like if I just went and got a sword. Nah, man.

Put it up. But how cool is it to get a sword? And it'd be like an acceptable, yeah, you know, you can carry a sword. Like we've looked at certain people in our society and like carry it around. You got it. He became one.

And here's how the Marines work. You go to basic. You sign. It's over. You are like, it's going to happen. You're in.

Deal with it. And here's what happens. They recycle you. So if you don't get the physical portion down, you don't get to go home. They just start you back over. Everybody else gets to move on.

If you finally get that and you don't get the gun portion down, guess what? You don't go home. They just recycle you. Now eventually that breaks down. But guess what?

With Jesus, it doesn't. If you're down here on anger, guess what? Eventually you're going to look like Jesus. If you're down here when it comes to hard work and sharing, guess what? Eventually you're going to look like Jesus. And that's why Paul just says, stop it and pick it up because he believes that the Holy Spirit is going to work in you, that you are a beloved child of God and that you're going to imitate Him because you belong to Him and eventually you're going to make it.

Now that is extremely encouraging because some of you are in here today thinking, will I ever stop? Will this always win? Will I ever accomplish this? And guess what? At one point, you get a uniform and a sword. You get to look like Jesus.

It's going to happen. And that's why we all aggressively work this direction and expect this out of each other. You don't get to peg a person in your group and say they're just like that. No, they are now. But they're not going to be.

You don't get to peg yourself and say that's just who I am. No, it is who you are now but you're not going to be. I have a son who cannot speak English who every time you wake him up poops on himself. He's like that now. He's not going to be. And that's us in Christ.

And here's why. Walk in love, verse 2, as Christ loved us. And gave himself up for us. A fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God.

Put on the New Self

Put on the New Self

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Good morning. My name is Spencer Carey. I'm a pastor in training here with Mill City Church. We're going to be in Ephesians 4, verses 17 through 24 today. So you can go ahead and turn there in your blue Bibles.

It should be on page 569. If you don't have a blue Bible, please take that home. That is our gift to you. So growing up, I grew up in the lake, and one of the things my brother and I love to do is we love to go to this bridge. It's called Jake Knott's Bridge. It's on 378 going towards Saluda from Lexington.

And we love to go to that bridge and jump off of it. It was one of the best bridges on the lake to do it. It was like 35, 40 feet, but once the water went down, because they repaired the dam for like seven years, it was a 55-foot jump. And it was a lot of fun. You'd go, and you'd get there, and you'd climb the rocks. You'd come up the side of the bridge, and then you'd look over the edge.

It's a highway. It's 378, so cars are going 55, 60, 70 miles an hour. You had to wait until you found a solid gap of cars, and then you'd jump the fence. You'd run straight in the middle of the bridge, jump up on the ledge, look down, and jump. I mean, it was a thrill. And we probably jumped off that bridge, no doubt, like 200-plus times.

And you'd go, and you'd get as many jumps in as you could, because at some point somebody was going to call the cops or DNR, and it was over. So you had to get a bunch of jumps in really quickly and then hit the road. The last time that I jumped, I was getting ready to go to college, and we got one of our friends. Her name is Sarah, and she never did anything wrong. She followed all the rules, and we somehow convinced her to do it with us. So we take her out there, and we look over the ledge.

We see the gap, and we jump over, help her get over that fence, run to the center of the bridge. It took a little longer to get to the center of the bridge, and all of a sudden, the car is getting closer and closer and closer, and that car has lights on it. We step up on the ledge. I'm like, Sarah, that's a cop. We've got to jump. And I did the honorable thing.

I jumped and left her behind. And she wouldn't jump, so the police officer pulled over. He was really kind and let us off and said, just go home. But we had so much fun doing that as kids. And it wasn't until years later that I realized something. We did all those jumps, and not once did we ever have a spotter.

We never had anybody looking at below the bridge because this is how the bridge looked. It's a four-lane bridge, the open lake, and there was a cove behind it. And in this cove, there were boats, and there were docks, and there were people that lived there. And it was also a big fishing cove. So there are boats coming underneath that bridge all the time.

Not once did we think about, maybe we should put somebody at the bottom of the bridge to give us the go-ahead. We never thought about that, not realizing that one of those days, we're going to time it horribly, jump off the bridge as a boat comes underneath and crash into the boat. Did not think about that one time in our entire time of jumping. And you don't think about that kind of stuff when you're kids. You don't. You don't think about the consequences for your actions.

You just live in the moment, and you do what feels right. The foolishness and ignorance of that is a picture of all of us outside of the grace of God. Just looking for momentary fun, not realizing the consequences for our actions. And today, in our text, we're going to see a clear picture that Paul paints of the old self and the new self. The old self outside of life with God and the new self that has been transformed with Christ. And as we walk through this, I want us to be honest.

I want us to sit back. I don't care if you've been walking with the Lord for 30 plus years or if you're just now starting to explore Christianity. I want us to approach today and just be honest and ask ourselves, where are we in light of these two pictures? Where do we fall? So as we walk through this, verse 17 through 24.

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ, assuming that you've heard about him and were taught in him as the truth is in Jesus. To put off your old self, which belongs to your form and manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful practices, deceitful desires.

And to be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God and true righteousness and holiness. Let's pray and we'll dive in. God, thank you for your word. I pray that we would be present this morning. You would show us who we are in light of this text and you would let the word pierce our hearts. We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen. Alright, so this passage bridges the beginning of chapter 4. So we started off Ephesians 4 and we talked about how the call is God wants to unify his church. And then out of that, last week, Raph talked about how he has raised up leaders in the church to equip the saints, to equip the church for the work of ministry, for the building up the body, to grow into maturity. This comes right after that. And what Paul's doing, he's giving a clear picture of the old and new before he starts issuing commands.

What follows after this is going to be clear commands for the church and how to live this out. And he starts by giving a vivid picture of the old self. He says, verse 17, Now this I say and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as Gentiles do in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart. Now, we're to understand what Paul's doing here. You have to work through his logic.

And to do that, you have to work backwards. You have to get to the end here where he says the hardness of heart. All right, so what he's saying there, hardness is a hardened heart is a dead heart. It is cold. It is unable to love God. And out of that, out of a hardened heart, flows those descriptions he gives when he says ignorant, alienated, darkened in understanding, futile in mind.

So out of a hardness of heart flows those descriptions. And that's true for anything. If you are hardened towards anything, there's going to be a lot of baggage that comes with it. Like if you are hardened towards trying new, really good foods. Like my toddler, Ellie, she, the first time that she, that I ever put bacon in front of her. I was like, you, I was like, Ellie, you need to try this.

And she says, mm-mm. I was like, no, no, no, no. That's for me and my household. We eat bacon. So I did the most PETA-approved thing in the world.

And I forced it into her mouth. And she tasted it. And her eyes just lit up. And it's one of her favorite foods. And she would have never known. I had to push a little bit.

But as a toddler, she's growing. And hopefully one day she's going to continue to try new foods and expand her understanding of the food universe and what is so great out there. Some people never grow out of that. One of my wife's friends, her husband doesn't eat hardly anything. He's a grown man with two kids. I think he eats steak, chicken, french fries.

And that's about it. Like we went to a Mexican restaurant one time. And you could tell he was nervous. He didn't want to eat it. I think he might have even ordered chicken figures. And I was like, what, what's going on there?

He just, I don't eat anything. He has a hardened attitude towards food. And if you have a hardened attitude towards trying new food, you are ignorant of all the amazing flavors that you're missing out. You are alienated yourself. You alienate yourself from all the different categories of food, from Mexican food. And I know in Colombia, that's the only Latin food we have that we know about.

But there's more. There's Cuban and there's Ecuadorian. There's Peruvian. There's all kinds of flavors out there. You've alienated yourself from Chinese food and Thai food and all these other things that you could experience. And you live in the dark, not knowing what else is out there.

And your palate is futile. It's futile. It's worthless. And the same way, hardened hearts are ignorant to what is good, alienated from God, walking in darkness with no purpose in mind. That is the logic that Paul works through. So now that we have the logic, let's work through the top going down.

He says that you no longer walk as Gentiles do. So Gentiles being anyone who's not Jewish. And for this context, that's many people. And the way that New Testament uses Gentile even broadens it out to say that anyone who's outside of Christ. So that picture for those who are hearing this letter read is going to bring up all the memories of who they used to be when they were formerly outside of the family of God.

And that's a helpful picture for us because for many of us, we can remember what it was like to not know Christ and how we used to live before them. Some of you became Christians at a young age. My wife, she became a Christian at seven. She doesn't really remember a whole lot beforehand. But she's been walking in obedience and growing ever since.

And that's the kind of testimony we want for our kids. But others of you, if you're like me, you remember clearly what the old life used to look like. Like I can clearly remember some of the most fallen moments before I became a Christian when I was 17. I remember in high school, my brother called me. And he called me and he said, hey man, I need you to come home. I just left for school.

And I was like, why? He said, I need you to come pee in a cup. And I was like, what? He's like, I'm getting drug tested this morning. Mom and Norm, my stepdad, Mom and Norm are taking me to get drug tested. I need you to come home.

I said, Mikey, that will not do you any good because you and I both know we would both fail that test. So I was like, I did see on TV that if you put bleach in it, like you just take a little bottle of bleach, it'll kill the test. You'll pass it. You'll be good. He said, all right. All day, I'm waiting.

I get home. I can tell the mood is not well. My mom sits me down and she says, I have something to tell you. We took your brother to get drug tested. And he failed. I mean, he failed after like four attempts.

He kept putting, what we found out was bleach in it. I don't know where he got that idea. But he ran out of bleach and he finally failed the last test. And I don't know what we're going to do with you boys. I thought we knew what was going on. I feel like I need to get you drug tested too.

And I said, Mom, I understand. I understand. Like if you feel like you need to do that, then we can do that. I mean, it's going to mess with our trust. But if you want me to do this, just name the place.

I'll go and do it. So my first thing was manipulate. Manipulate lie. Get through the situation. The next day, I went to GNC. I got a drink that's supposed to cleanse out all the toxins.

Drank it. Puked my guts out. Ended up the lie worked. I got through it all. And then years later when I became a Christian, I was trying to explain to my mom, no, clearly there was an old life and I was explaining it to her. And I used that example and she was floored.

And I was like, yeah, I used to enjoy the world. I would lie and manipulate to get out of things. That's who I was. And some of you, you can clearly remember pictures of your old self. Maybe you were like me and there were weekends of heavy drinking. The next drink and the next drink and the next drink to drown out the world.

Maybe your story is before being changed by the gospel, sex in and of itself was just a means to an end. It was just meant to be enjoyed. It wasn't how God had created in the confines of marriage to be joy between man and woman. No, like it was just a means to an end. And it was the next person, the next person, and the next person. Maybe you were also like me and you didn't just tell lies.

You were a liar and you manipulated. Ephesians 5.25. We're going to get to that next week. He's going to address that. Maybe you didn't just struggle with anger now and then. You were an angry person.

Like a wrath-filled, angry, maybe even violent person. And that's who you were. And Paul's going to address that next week as well. Fill in the blank with whatever that picture is. He's trying to draw out an image of who you used to be as Gentiles. It's who you were outside the family of God.

And then he gives the picture. And then he kind of goes behind the picture explaining what's going on. In the same way that every year my wife and I, we do a Christmas photo with our kids. In the past few years, we've crushed it. We've like nailed the Christmas photo. Partly because my sister-in-law is a professional photographer.

She's really good. But the other part of it is, is that we do a lot of work to get that one photo that we send out. Because my daughter, while she is cute as a button, she's not photogenic. Because when you tell her to smile, she sneers. She's like, nobody tells me what to do. I'm like, we're working on that obedience stuff later.

But for right now, we've got to get this picture done. And we run around being silly, going around in circles, and then finally crash together for the one moment of a good snapshot. There's a whole lot that goes in behind the picture. And that's what Paul is explaining as he keeps going. When he says, in the futility of their minds. Futility means without purpose.

Without meaning. That your mind is not grounded in purpose. It's not grounded in meaning. And this comes off the heels of last week. When the call was for the church to grow into maturity. That we might stand firm.

Not being driven to and fro. Not being driven to and fro by the winds of false doctrine. Know that we'd stand firm, rooted in the gospel. Because our minds are rooted in purpose and meaning. And man, the futility of our minds. Like that is the picture of America right now.

Like I feel like America is like the kids. We're like the kids from Ricky Bobby and Talladega Nights. Like running around the house screaming, anarchy, anarchy. And the other kid goes, what's that? I don't know. We're just screaming stuff and jumping on the bandwagon of whatever trend comes up.

Like there's been a lot of protests that have happened over the past six, seven years. I remember back to the Occupy Wall Street protests. And not making a statement on protests. I'm for them when they're what they're supposed to be. But just interviewing the people at protests has been hilarious.

They interviewed people at the Occupy Wall Street protests years ago. And it's like some of them had no idea what was going on. They were clueless. They just jumped on board because that was the next trend. There's a guy who lectures around the country. He's Jewish.

He's an intellectual. And he lectures at different colleges. And people will protest his stuff because he can be inflammatory at times. And people will literally show up these protests and they will scream Nazi at him. And I'm like, aside from the fact that, no, none of what he's saying is actually Nazism. He's Jewish.

Like what? And it's like we jump on every single trend, jump on the bandwagon. And it's kind of humorous and sad when it's stuff like that. But it's so much less humorous when our culture is jumping on the bandwagon of completely redefining entire categories of gender. And making gender so fluid that we don't even know what it is by having so many different categories of sexuality. It's a whole lot less humor when that kind of utility shows up.

And we as the church are called to stay grounded and rooted in the gospel. Rooted our minds. Rooted in his word. So that when those trends come, we don't jump on the bandwagon. And we might get called every name in the book. You might be called backward and bigots and archaic and old or whatever.

But no, we stand firm because we're rooted in purpose. Rooted in truth. And it also means that we think through stuff. We actually use our minds. We don't mindlessly, here's one, we don't mindlessly share things on Facebook. Like sometimes I see Christians and they share things on Facebook that are blatantly not true.

It's either from a fake website or whatever. And it's like, no, that kills your testimony when you share things. It's actually lying when you're sharing things that are false. Like we are called to be rooted in truth. Rooted in the gospel. Having minds that are rooted in purpose.

Because hardened hearts are ignorant to what is good. Alienated from God. Walking in darkness with no purpose in mind. So then Paul, he makes the shift to the next picture. He says darkened and understanding. Now this is similar to the futility of the mind.

It's just a little more descriptive in the reasoning process. And how the understanding process is darkened by sin. On a large scale level, what does that look like? One of the biggest pictures we have of this is the Holocaust. Like historians will ask consistently. Like they'll ask how did the Holocaust happen?

How did six million Jews get murdered in an attempt to exterminate an entire race of people? Well it started because darkened minds began to reason together. If you look at German history leading up to the rise of Hitler. There were philosophers. There were political people. There were even some theologians.

That were stained by the prejudice against Jewish people. And that grew and it grew and it grew. And until finally someone came along. And when Hitler came along with his rise. The spread of Nazism spread throughout Europe. Which I didn't.

I thought honestly. I thought that Nazism was just a German thing. I didn't realize how far it had spread. But my wife and I were watching The Crown recently. The Crown is a Netflix series on Queen Elizabeth and the monarchy. And I didn't realize that her uncle.

The former king of the British Empire. That he was a Nazi sympathizer. There are pictures of him at concentration camps. With Hitler. And there are statements of him saying all kinds of stuff about Jewish people. And that sentiment grew and darkened minds began to justify themselves and reason more and reason more.

To where Jewish businesses started getting destroyed. And people started getting shipped off to Auschwitz. Darkened minds justify every step along the way. Anything from yeah I think it's reasonable that the Jews caused our problems. To I was just following my orders when I put them in the gas chamber. Darkened minds will reason every step along the way.

The Holocaust and anti-Semitism. That's a large scale picture of that. Well how does that happen on a practical level? On an everyday level? How do darkened minds justify anything else? It looks like when you worship success.

Like if you worship success. And you idolize and you make it a false God. You will do anything to get it. You will backstab. You will manipulate. You will lie.

There are entire TV shows and movies and books dedicated to this. When success is God. You will do anything. You will justify every step along the way. Same thing happens with our kids. I love my kids.

Kids are awesome. Kids are terrible gods. They are terrible idols. And when you worship your kid. You will do anything and everything for their comfort. For their peace.

For their happiness. For their joy. And it shows up at football games. Like I told my wife. We will not be that family. I will not be that dad.

That verbally and physically assaults coaches and referees. Like I'm fairly athletic. There's a lot of the rest of my family that's not. There's probably a good chance that our kids are just not going to be that great. And when the coach puts them on second string. They put them on second string.

And I'll try to support them as much as I can. But I'm not going to go punch a coach out. I'm not going to go scream at a referee. When you elevate your kids to the level of worship. They are terrible idols. And you will justify every step along the way.

It looks like when God has given us gifts. Like common gifts. Like beer and wine. Alcohol is a gift that he's given to creation. I know that some of you are going to push back on that. And try to point to the Bible.

You're going to have a really tough time. Explaining that from the scriptures. But God has given us a good gift. And what happens is we take that good gift and we want to abuse it. With the next drink. And the next weekend.

And the next party. And the next sip. All the way down the line. We will justify ourselves to drunkenness. That's how loneliness makes its way all the way down to pornography. And every click along the way can get darker and darker.

And every justification. Every step of justification will lead you down that path. That's how the pursuit of power has resulted in a sexual harassment and assault epidemic. I mean not every single story that has come out of the Me Too movement has been legit. I recognize that. But it has shown us a ton.

A ton of destruction in women's lives. In some men's lives. Because people worship power. And when you worship power. One of the darkest ways that shows up. Is I will use you for my sexual benefit.

And I will show my power and dominance over you. All of this and so much more happens. Because hardened hearts are ignorant to what is good. Alienated from God. Walking in darkness. With no purpose in mind.

And Paul he keeps moving. He gives two more pictures. He says alienated from the life of God. Because of the ignorance that is in them. So this first picture.

Alienated from the life of God. That is those who are outside of the family of God. They are outsiders. They are foreigners. Which honestly I feel like is one of the sadder pictures that we have here. Because of what you are missing out on.

Outside of Christ. You are missing out on a relationship. With a good heavenly father. We are like the kids in Home Alone. In the very beginning of Home Alone. Kevin.

Played by Macaulay Cogan. He is at the window. And his brother comes in with a friend. And he says. See that old man. Remember this?

See that old man. He goes. That is the South Bend Shovel Slayer. And he makes up this whole back story. For this old man. He is like.

Yeah. He murdered his whole family. With a shovel. And he buried them in salt. And he goes around. Shoveling the sidewalks.

Remembering. As a kid. When I watched it. It is terrifying. The whole movie. As Kevin is dodging this old man.

His neighbor. You are terrified too. And then. At the end of the movie. Kevin is at a Christmas Eve. Church service.

And the old man shows up. And there is that moment of tension. And then he sits down beside him. And what you quickly realize. Is that all those stories. Are a lie.

He is actually. A really sweet old man. Who loves his family. He can kill his family. His granddaughter is on stage. Singing in the choir.

And he loves his family. And he is a good man. At the end of the movie. The South Bend Shovel Slayer. Comes in. And he knocks out the wet bandits.

And saves the day. Right? In the same way. In the same way. When you are alienated from the world. You believe lies about who God is.

Because the world makes God to be. An angry. Violent. Old man. When in fact. We know through belief in Jesus.

Our God is not. Angry and violent. In the picture. That is so negatively. Pam. By the world.

That while he does. Have justice. He also is a God. Who cares deeply for us. And defends us. From evil.

And many. Miss out on that relationship. Because of the ignorance. That is in them. When you are ignorant. You don't know any better.

You don't know. What you are missing out on. Recently. My wife and I. We got. My brother.

My brother got us a reservation. At the private opening. Of Allo Diaz. I don't know if you know. Allo Diaz. It is a restaurant.

In Ballantyne. It is an Italian restaurant. It is a finer Italian restaurant. They just open up a location. In Lexington. And they do private openings.

So that you can. Basically go. And you eat for free. And they get to work out. All the kinks. Before they actually open.

The restaurant. So we got to go. And we. I mean. We. We enjoyed it man.

We ordered. Appetizer. We got two of the more expensive. Entrees. We got two. Really good desserts.

And man. We. Enjoyed. This great Italian meal. Ignorance. Would be like.

If I had a table for four. And I got to invite. Some of you. And I said. Listen. We got a table for four.

A free meal. Whatever you want. At Allodias. It's going to be amazing. And you come back and say. Allodias.

No. No. Allodias. It's Italian. Oh. I don't like Italian.

Oh. Did you have like a bad experience? Like. There's always. What's going on? No.

I had a hot pocket. I had Italian sausage. And I hated it. So I hate Italian food. And I'm like. No.

No. No. No. No. No. No.

This is not the same. The hot pocket is not Allodias. They're completely different. And you are just standing firm. Saying. No.

No. No. I'm not having it. It's like you're ignorant to what you're missing out on. You're missing out on a free feast. That is amazing.

And the same way you are missing out. On a free life with God. That begins right now. through belief in Him and extends into eternity and gets better because at the end we're in the presence of a holy and perfect and good God. What's worse is that you are also ignorant of some of the pitfalls that come with that and some of the dangers that lie in that when you're missing out on. And the picture is that you're like ignorant teenagers jumping off a bridge not realizing that one day you will not land safely in the water. Eventually sin is going to catch up to you it will destroy you and you will miss out on what God has to offer because hardened hearts are ignorant to what is good alienated from God walking in darkness with no purpose in mind.

And Paul he keeps going he shows the hardened hearts towards God and then he moves through that and he gives another picture of heart and he says callous callous which is also hardness and when you are callous you're given into sensuality greedy to practice every kind of impurity. Now the way that Paul uses sensuality and greedy to practice every kind of impurity in other texts one of the pictures it brings up for this culture specifically is sexuality and how that it can be greedy to practice every type of that and that's the first image that comes up when these words are being used but it's also broadened out to mean every other kind of impurity every other type of sin that a callous and hardened heart will try to fill that void with whatever you can you will pursue every type of impurity to bring fleeting happiness that will never actually satisfy. So that's the picture that Paul gives us on the front end and you might be wondering like why does he go so descriptive on the negative? Like why does he use such strong descriptive turns?

The reason he does this I think the reason he does this is because we need to feel the weight of hopelessness that comes with our former life.

Equip the Saints

Equip the Saints

Raz Bradley

Transcript

G'day guys, my name is Raz. It's good to be with you this morning. Excuse me, I'm sorry, I was singing so loud that my throat is super parched. I want to begin this morning with a simple, pretty easy question. What does a mature church look like? That's really the question.

What does the mature church look like? What are the marks of a mature church? What kind of things do they do? What is it that qualifies them to be called a mature church? Typically, when you talk about maturity, a good starting place is age. Typically, youngers, kids are not so mature.

You could say, oh, he's mature for a nine-year-old, but really you're saying he Acts 10. But otherwise, age plays a factor. And our church is just about to turn five. We started about five years ago in March. Are we, by nature, an immature church because we're only five years old? Is a more established church, maybe 50, 100, 150 years old, are they inherently more mature because of their age as an establishment?

Maybe not. Maybe it's more to do with the age of the people in the church, right? Not the establishment, but the people who make up the church. Maybe their age plays some kind of a part in it. If you look at our church with the current rate of reproduction, our average age is going down month to month as kids are added over there. But if you exclude Kid City and just kind of ballpark this room, my guess is somewhere in the mid-30s would be where our kind of spectrum meets, somewhere in the mid-30s.

So because we're a church with an average age of mid-30s, are we inherently immature because of that when there's other churches out there where everyone's in their mid-70s? Are they inherently more mature? Maybe age has nothing to do with it. Maybe it's to do with tenure. Tenure would refer to how long the people in the church have been Christians. So if this church, the average tenure is eight years, and that church, the average tenure is 30 years, are they inherently more mature as a church based off of the amount of time people in there have been Christians?

Maybe. Maybe it has nothing to do with age or years or tenure or anything like that. Maybe it's more to do with how is this church structured versus how is that church structured? What is their position on this doctrine? How strict are they when it comes to that thing or that thing? Maybe it's how good is this church at engaging the culture where they're at?

How good is this church at bringing new people in? Maybe all of these different things factor into what it is that makes a church mature. How do we measure that? When we see it, how do we know? What is the metric? That's kind of the question that I want to open with today.

Um, we're in this middle of this Ephesians series. Last week, we kind of turned the page. We moved from the first half of Ephesians into the second half. So Ephesians is a six chapter book, six chapter letter, really. The first three chapters really cover a lot of theological ground. They cover a lot of these things are true about Jesus.

These things about true about the gospel. These things are true about who you are as Christians. And then in the second half, it kind of says, because of all these true things, this is what life looks like. Because of all these true things, here's how you go and do marriage, how you go and do life together. This is how you go and do work. This is how you go and do submission to leadership, that kind of stuff.

That's all true. This is how we live. And we turned that page last week and entered into chapter four. And we talked a lot about unity, how unity in the church is one of the big goals. And we had that recurring theme of one, one, one, one God, one faith, one baptism, one Holy Spirit. And this week, we're going to move pretty quickly from that idea of unity to the idea of diversity and how those go hand in hand in the life of the church so that we can have one kind of vision, one kind of goal for the church.

But it actually takes a pretty diverse crowd to make that goal happen. I'm going to pray for us as we as we open up the word and then we're going to get into Ephesians four. Father, we thank you for the opportunity to learn from your word this morning. I pray that it can be foundational for us as a church, as we understand who we are, how we factor into your big picture and what we can contribute. I pray that as we look at Paul's words to the Ephesian church, that that can be mirrored, that their strengths can be mirrored in our church and in our lives. It's in Jesus name we pray.

Amen. If you've got a Bible, open up to Ephesians four. If you've got one of these blue guys on one of the chairs in front of you, it's going to be on page 568, but only for a little bit. Then it's going to go into 569. So kind of a deceiving slide up there.

It's a bit of both. We're going to be reading starting in verse seven. It says, but grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says, when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. And saying he ascended, what does it mean? But that he had also descended to the lower regions, the earth.

He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens that he might fill all things. Now, in this, we're going to keep reading. But in this first little section, there's a little quotey bit there that's indented and quoted and that kind of thing. That's a little chunk out of Psalm 68. And what Paul is doing is he's referring to some Old Testament history, a little bit of Old Testament foresight and prophecy, and also a little bit of Old Testament, old fashioned imagery of what kind of happened back in the day. So these words were actually written by David, King David, a thousand years before Jesus was even a part of the picture, really.

I mean, Jesus has been a part of the picture forever. But before Jesus was born as a baby into the world, this happened a thousand years before then. And back then, what would happen is when the kings would go to war, there's all these different nations, everyone's vying for power. The kings would go to war, and when they would conquer a particular area or a city or a village or whatever, they'd beat the other army, and then they'd loot all of the villages and that kind of stuff, and all of the valuable things they would collect. And they would bring it all back before the king, and the king would give portions of those as gifts to the people who were pivotal in the military conquest.

And so the commanders or the guys who fought bravely or whoever trained the horses, I don't really know who got the gifts. The king would say, you were important, here's your share in the loot, basically. And so what Paul is doing in this little section here is he's laying the groundwork to say, Jesus also does that for us. When Jesus conquers death, conquers sin, he is also a king who destroys all of his enemies, and he gives gifts to the church just as a king used to do back in the day. So that little brackety part and the quotey part, that's what's going on there, is Paul saying, just as David talked about this back in the day, Jesus both fulfills that and does that for the church today.

We're going to talk a little bit today about what those gifts are and how that plays out. Now, before we keep reading, before we get into the next chunk, I want to kind of illustrate like ahead of the game so that I can refer back to the picture that I'm about to paint for you. And I thought, what better way to appeal to my audience is to speak in American isms. And I would normally, you know, kind of lean into my foreignness and come up with some interesting foreign thing to explain. But I actually think this is going to be helpful.

I get the opportunity now to explain American football to you. And I'm obviously going to crush it because you guys have no idea and I know everything about it. And so bear with me as I struggle my way through this. And it's relevant because I just watched a game for the first time last week. I'm kidding. I've seen more than one game.

But I did watch the Super Bowl last week. So it's fresh in my mind. I'm going to crush this. It's going to be great. In football, I'm just, I only know half the game. So I'm just going to refer to the offensive team.

Because in America, you have multiple teams on your team. And that gets confusing. So I'm just going to, let's pretend we're only on offense. Okay, we're only on offense. Now, the offensive team has one goal. That one goal is get the ball that way, like down the field.

It doesn't matter. I mean, it's got to get a certain distance. You've got to get to the line that the TV magic's on there. And then you've got to get beyond there. And you've got to just keep going until you get to the logo, right? That's called the end zone.

See, guys, I know some stuff. Your goal, get the ball to the end zone, make the touchdowns, get the Ws, that kind of stuff. As a team, all of our team is united in our effort to move that direction. As a team, we want the first down. As a team, we want the end zone. As a team, we're working together to just go that way.

And when somebody doesn't go that way, everyone goes, no, go that way. Because that way is the goal, right? But within the team, there's all these different people who have different jobs. And I am about to crush this as I explain all the different jobs on the offensive team. You have the catchy dudes on the side. Their job is to catch.

They line up with everybody else. They stand on the side. They run forward. And they go that way. And then that guy throws the ball. And they catch it.

And sometimes they do the flip. Sometimes they do the thing where they jump over the other guy. They're the nimbly, bimbly dudes who spin around and keep running. They're quick. You can't catch them if they take off. They're the catchy dudes.

They stand on the sides on either end. They're called receivers, guys. I looked it up. Don't worry. Then you have the running guys.

They're called running backs. I don't really know the difference except that these guys aren't expected to catch the ball. So you give it to them. I guess they can't catch. So rather than standing on the side and running that way, they have to run across, grab the ball in the middle, then keep running.

And they either run straight into all the people and stop or they run around and they go all the way. That's the running dudes. So you've got catching dudes. You've got running dudes. You've got big dudes. They form the line.

I don't really know what their job is except weigh 600 pounds and start here and go to here. That's their job. And then there's one special big dude. He's in the middle. I don't know if he's called the snapper, but that's what I call him. He gets the ball and he goes like that.

And then he goes like that. Two jobs. Gets the ball. One Job. Second Job. Two jobs.

Snappy dude. And if he does any of those jobs badly, he gets in a lot of trouble. Two jobs. Then there's the tight end. He thought I was going to skip the tight end, but I'll look this one up too. I didn't look up what he does.

I just looked up the name. So I might not get this bit right. The tight end, I think, is probably the most multi-talented person on the offensive team. I don't know for sure, but he seems like he's got a lot going on because he's expected to be able to do this. But if there's nobody to do this to, he's expected to run and then catch the ball as well.

And if somebody else catches the ball, it's his job to stop the other people from stopping the guy who catches the ball. And then sometimes he's expected to come this way. And if that guy doesn't get the ball, he's got to get the ball and run all the way around. So the tight end, he's got a lot going on. But he's bigger than most of the other people.

So he's not that fast. So he normally gets stopped. He's a little bulldozer-y. He can kind of plow his way through some people. But anyway, that's the tight end.

Then there's that guy. He stands back here. This is the stud muffin of the team. The quarterback, I think, if my movies have taught me well, he's the prom king. He dates the head cheerleader. He gets paid like $300 billion a year.

And his jobs are to catch the ball and throw the ball and not get injured. I think prom king paid lots of money. Don't get injured. That's pretty much what he's... That's his job. And it's actually pretty cool.

Like, I've been... When I first moved here, I thought, you know, the quarterback does absolutely nothing. But then, you know, when they play the highlights, it's pretty awesome. When he throws... Like, he does math in his head. Like, that guy's running that way.

That guy's running that way. I know he's going to turn. So I'm just going to throw it there. And he's going to... Like, that's pretty cool when that happens. Like, it doesn't happen all the time, especially when you're watching college football.

But when you're watching NFL, it happens all the time. And it's really cool. All of that is to say, everybody on the team working together, one goal. Move the ball that way. Everybody on the team, diverse in their skill sets. They're not all expected to do all the things.

They're all expected to do one thing pretty well. And if you mess up your one thing, like, everyone gets real mad at you. You've got to be able to do your one thing. You've got to be able to do your one thing super well. The point is, unity in the mission, strength as a team, only when everybody's doing their part, right? So that's the goal of the illustration.

Now, it's not perfect, but it is going to help explain what's about to come next. Because just as a strong football team needs that diverse set of skills, so also a mature church is going to need a variety of strengths, too. We're going to look at verse 11. Verse 11 through 14, actually. And it says, So when it says, and he gave, it's talking about when we talked about earlier the conquering king giving gifts. This is Jesus, our conquering king, giving gifts to the church.

It says, And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds, and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Paul is saying this. He's saying, The church is gifted with different kinds of complementary leadership, whose Job it is to equip the saints for ministry, so that we will attain unity of the faith, become mature, and reach the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. That's what he's saying.

Now, that's a complicated sentence, so we'll break it down. Now, to be clear, those five categories that he lists, apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers, it says that those five categories are given to equip the saints, to equip the church. That gives us an indication that these five people are leaders in the church, and what Christ is doing is he's giving these forms of leadership to the church to equip the church. Now, I don't think that list of leaders is exhaustive. I think there's other ways you can lead the church as well. But I do think that they give a good picture of what it looks like, at least as far as a team that is functional, what kind of five categories of strength are needed in order for the church to be strong.

Paul is saying that these five types of leadership are present in the church to equip the saints for ministry. Now, a mature church, a strong team that can get the ball to the end zone, a good team, a good church that can move the ball down the field, needs to show signs of these five different types of leadership. They need to show signs that all five of them are present and working together at the same time. We're only going to really scratch the surface on this, but in order to explain the strengths of each one of those, I'm going to do a little bit of defining those strengths. And I say that deliberately as defining strengths, because when I was talking about the football team, I was really trying to distinguish different players from each other and say, this is how they're different.

And I don't so much want to make you think of these leadership characters, these leadership positions as distinct from each other, so much as each one has a particular strength, a particular leaning that they're better at. So it's not to the exclusion of all others, so much as this one is stronger over here, that kind of thing. So we'll walk through them. They're apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, and teachers. Apostle literally, when translated from Greek, it means sent one, a person who is sent. Apostles lend themselves towards entrepreneurship.

They're really leaders. They're pioneers in their field. In the church, they have a vision for the gospel moving forward, and they rally people together to do that mission. And they're church planters. They're missionaries. They're the people who train future leaders because their vision for the future of the church is specific, and they want to move people towards that area.

That's kind of how an apostle leans in its strength. Prophets is the next one. Prophets are mostly concerned with maintaining faithfulness to God. That's true in the Old Testament when we think of the word prophet. Israel would stray from God's path, or Judah would do something that's in conflict with what God has instructed them to do, and he would send a prophet, and that prophet would just be the person who's supposed to correct the direction that the church or the nation at the time was headed. And they function, you know, we don't have this title of prophet today, but the leadership function is pretty similar.

These guys are concerned with holiness in the church. They're concerned with calling out sin. They're concerned with pointing people back to the truth. And it's not just in the church. It's in society as a whole. People who show that prophet leadership style are fairly politically engaged.

They stay up to date on the controversial issues of the time, and they're not really afraid to hold their ground in those situations. The next one is evangelist. Evangelists proclaim the gospel. The gift of evangelism is really the ability to speak to people about Jesus in a way that is easily received. So these guys are typically pretty convincing, pretty lovable.

They're good storytellers. They're naturally infectious. That kind of personality that draws you in and is easily able to explain to you why something is better than something else. And the next one is shepherds. Shepherds are mainly concerned with relationship. They're mainly concerned with community.

They're mainly concerned with family. They want to make sure that the relationships are working the way that they're supposed to. And so when they see conflict, they help other people solve conflict. When they see weakness because of, you know, this area of the church or this area of this group of people are fighting about something, it's the shepherds who want to maintain that unity in the family. Teachers are mainly concerned with the transfer of knowledge and wisdom from one generation to the next. So for millennia, we have relied on the Bible for all of our source of truth.

It is the teachers in the church who really take that to heart. This is what we have believed forever. This is the truth. This book is foundational for us. We must make sure that the next generation believes that about this book as well. That's essentially the function and the role of the teacher.

So you can see even with a basic overview, apostles being the leaders and the pioneers, the prophets being the ones who maintain faithfulness, encourage others to maintain faithfulness to God, the evangelists who are proclaiming the gospel, the shepherds who are concerned with maintaining unity in the church, and the teachers who want to make sure that the next generation is equipped as well. With all of those playing at the same time, you can see how that would contribute positively to the life of the church, at least to make that team strong so that as we're moving towards Christ-likeness as our end zone, we stand a chance because we've got those five different categories leading well. So we have these five categories of leadership in the church. The question becomes, what do they do?

Now we're going to pick it up in verse 12. It says, They equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. I think that this verse in particular, verse 12 in particular, it raises an important question because we've just discussed that it is the leader's Job to equip. The question in this verse becomes, whose Job is it to do the work of the ministry? And it says that the leaders equip the saints for the work of the ministry, right?

So whose Job is it to do the work? Typically, I think the cultural understanding, the normal social understanding of whose Job is it to do ministry would be ministers, pastors, church staff, employees kind of deal. That's certainly what, when you would ask that question without any context, whose Job is it? To do ministry, people would typically fall back on minister or pastor. Maybe a little, but that's certainly not how Ephesians 4 reads, right? Now, for definition's sake, there's a word in there that might trip us up.

That's the word saint. Saint, certainly if you look in a dictionary or just general life, typically brings with it this idea of the person who's super holy, has a little halo that buzzes around their head. In the Catholic Church, it has a lot to do with how well a person lives their life so that they can be sainted in the next life and intercede on behalf of us in different ways, the patron saint of this and the patron saint of that. Most of that seems arbitrary and outside of the authority of Scripture, certainly outside of the context of the book of Ephesians. So in Ephesians, a saint is basically any Christian in the church.

If you are in the room and you are a Christian, you are a saint. Welcome to the club. It's great. You can pick up your halos on the way out. The saints, actually in verse 1 of Ephesians, chapter 1, verse 1, this book is addressed, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus. He's talking to all of them.

He's talking to the church. He's talking to everyone who is a Christian, who is a believer in the church. So when it says, when we read this passage and it says that the leaders equip the saints for the work of the ministry, what he's saying is the leadership, the apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, and teachers, their job is to equip the church. It is then the church's Job, the church's responsibility to do the work of the ministry. That's not exactly what we expect. So what does it look like?

What happens when the everyday missionary, the everyday pew sitter or ugly green chair sitter in our case, what happens when that person takes ownership of their responsibility to do the work of the ministry? Well, this passage says a couple of things. It says they attain the unity of the faith, that they grow in their understanding of the knowledge of Jesus, that they mature, and that they move towards the fullness of Christ. As a church, that sounds like our end zone to me. That sounds like the direction that our team is moving towards. That's what happens first.

And as a result, this is in verse 14. As a result, we see that the church is strengthened. It says, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness, and deceitful schemes. That's what the church looks like. So at the beginning, when I said, what does a mature church look like?

That's a pretty good answer. The mature church looks like this, moving towards that goal, and unshakable. Unmovable, not tossed about, not easily deceived. They're strong, they're capable, and they're unified. The church, I think, starts to look a lot more like Jesus. The church starts to exhibit some of those qualities that we talked about in the leadership.

So the leadership who is equipping the church, the church starts to look a little bit more like that leadership. The church is strengthened based on its ability to be like Christ. Now you might be wondering what that toss to and fro about by the waves would look like. In 2003, I was 14 at the time, so glorious middle school years, a little known author called Dan Brown released a book called The Da Vinci Code. Now it didn't blow up immediately, but it blew up pretty quick after that.

It became a movie, it became all sorts of like conspiracy theories and everything. Now this book, to be clear, is a fictional book. It is on the same bookshelf in the stores as Harry Potter, as Lord of the Rings. It is in the fiction section. This is not a real book. Well, it's a real book, but the content is not genuine history.

But, because it refers to some historical characters, people lost their minds. And so at its core, this fictional book, I'm emphasizing fictional. This fictional book is really just a quest for the Holy Grail novel. There's a bunch of them out there. This book in particular, quest for the Holy Grail novel. And it really, the whole conspiracy about it rests on the fact that back in the day, the symbol for cup is the same as the symbol for woman.

Right? Obviously, guys, woman and cup, same thing. So whenever back in the day, this cryptographer or whatever in the movie says that that mistake was made back in the day and the Holy Grail became this big thing. And so he even bases his argument on Leonardo da Vinci's painting of the Last Supper. You've all seen the Last Supper, the big painting. It's got people eating around.

It's a picture of Jesus and that kind of stuff. It was painted in the 15th century, guys. That's 1,480 something years after Jesus walked the earth. This painting was way after Jesus. And this whole movie, this whole story, based on the fact that they couldn't count 12 disciples in that photo and it looked like one of them might have been a girl. And because cup and girl and woman are the same thing, it must mean that the Holy Grail is actually a woman.

And it must have been the woman in that painting that was painted 1,400 years after Jesus. And you know what? I bet Jesus was married to her. And when Jesus was married to her, that girl must have been Mary Magdalene. And so if Mary Magdalene is the Holy Grail and Jesus married Mary Magdalene and they had kids, then those kids are still in the world today. And those kids in the world today have part of the blood of the Holy Grail in them.

You guys, I might be the Holy Grail. That was the point of that book. And in 2003, 4 and 5, the church lost its mind. And the church went, what if Jesus did get married? What if it was to Mary Magdalene? What if I have the blood of Jesus in my veins?

And it just went, and all the pastors all across the world were going, guys, what are you doing? Wrong book. And it's because the church was deceived. And the crazy part is, the crazy part is, when Dan Brown wrote the book, it was not his goal to try and screw up the church. His goal was to write an entertaining novel that would be interesting for people to read and I assume make lots of money doing it. And yet the church, for some reason, was deceived anyway.

That's what it looks like. That is like the furthest it can get for the church to look like to be weak, for the church to look like immaturity, for the church to be deceived and thrown about by the waves. And so for us, it probably won't, look, I hope it won't be that again. But it might come in the form of the next book that talks about how everybody is going to get into heaven. or the next book that, you know, somebody has a dream or a vision and they have a conversation with Jesus and they write it down to try and convince the church that the new thing is this other thing that we've been wrong all this time and we now have to do this other thing.

The next time one of those books comes out, the mature church says, this book over that other book. That's what it looks like for the church to not be tossed about to and fro by the waves. So it continues in verse 15 and he concludes with this. He says, rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head into Christ from whom the whole body joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. And I think that really seals the deal, right? This whole idea of the team needs to work together for the team to advance is really summed up in that.

They grow up in every way into him who is the head Christ when each part is working properly makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. When everyone is playing their part on the team, the team gets stronger. The team looks more unified and the team has less weaknesses. And on our team, on the church's team, that team is growing towards Christ. That is our end zone, the fullness, the stature of the fullness of Christ. So I think that what we get to say is the mature church looks like Jesus.

And I think a good way to think about it is back in the day when the Truman Show came out, I remember this distinctly for some reason, the Truman Show came out and the movie poster for the Truman Show was like a million little snapshots from his life. And you know, there was the one little, when you look up close, there's a little photo of him walking his dog and riding his bike and eating food and at the store and at his job and all these little photos of him. And when you stand back, it's actually a collage and you see his face, right? And I think that's the same for the church because we have some people who are really good at conversations with married couples who are struggling.

We have some people who are really good with their finances and coaching other people how to make a budget and be generous with their finances. We have other people who are really good and compassionate with how do we reach out to the homeless and how do we reach out to the people who don't feel loved? And we have all these different people who make up this bigger picture that when we step back and we see the church, hopefully it looks like Jesus. That's kind of how I pictured that, right? So a mature church has all kinds of people with all kinds of talents in every walk of life, all with unity in the spirit, working together to do the work of the ministry, building each other up to grow more like Christ.

So the question becomes, what does that mean for us? How do we become more mature? What steps do I have to take in that direction? I don't think it's too much of a stretch. It's a little bit of a stretch, but it's not too much of a stretch for us to say that the church, us Christians in the room, we should start looking more like Jesus and we should start looking more like those five, at least corporately as a church, our church should start showing signs of those five different strengths, those five different areas, prophet, apostle, evangelist, shepherd, teacher. I think that corporately, if we lack any of those, if we start leaning too much towards, you know, our church is very leadership oriented, our church is very groundbreaking, we're very apostolate, but we're really not shepherdy or teachery or we're really not evangelistic, then we start to topple this direction and be really, show a lot of weaknesses over here in that direction as well.

And so we see that the mature church, not just in the leadership, but in the people as well, is really going to show all five of those different areas. To explain a little how that works, I'll talk a bit about us as a church. And some of this is going to be a little critical, it might hurt a little, I'm not sure how you guys are going to feel sensitivity wise to this. But I'll talk about strengths first. I think as a church, we're pretty strong on that, on the prophety side. I think we're pretty strong on, you know, we believe this book and we don't really move from it.

And so society can come up with a new definition of marriage, society can come up with a new definition of gender, society can tell us when people are allowed to sleep with each other and we say, no, we land here. And I think as a church, that is a strength of ours. Now we don't go out and pick fights. There's some people out there who, you know, just inject themselves into politics for the purpose of ramming the book down people's throats. But as, as those issues come up, I think our church stays, stays pretty true to the word, pretty true to the Bible.

And we don't really have any intention on believing anything that's outside of this anyway. So I think that's a strength for us. I also think that we're pretty good at shepherding and teaching. I don't know if you know this, maybe you haven't been around long enough, maybe you're super new here, in which case, this might just be good information for you about our church. We, we are really into this idea of building up leadership from within. Anytime there's an area in our church that we, we want to see growth, we will do what we can to empower the people that we've got with the, the equipment, with the equipment that they need, with the stuff that they need, with the training that they need to be able to go and do that job so that when Kid City blows up, we take the people we've got and we, we help them lead that well.

When the next thing comes up that we're going to want to corporately sponsor or corporately get behind, we're going to get the people that we've got and we're going to equip them to be able to go and do that. What we don't do is something that's pretty common in every other church is that when a vacancy appears, they form a committee and they hire someone from Texas, Nebraska, someone who Skyped in for an interview and they get someone else to come in and fix the problems that are here. That is a pretty normal thing in the church these days and I think for us as a church, we're pretty strong in that category, it's pretty strong in that area. We take training the next generation pretty seriously and we build up from within and I think that's good for us.

Some areas, one particular area that I think we're not as strong in. When it comes to those five areas, I think we're not the most evangelistic church ever. This is where I get a little bit self-critical of us. I think we're not the most evangelistic church ever. I mentioned earlier that we're coming up on five years old. When we started five years ago, there was eight people in a living room.

Obviously, we have grown since then. But anyone who's been around for a while knows this because we've talked about it some, is that somewhere about probably just over a year ago, we hit the ceiling. We've created our own ceiling. It's somewhere around 100 people so that every time our church grows a little bit, we hit 100 and then we bounce back down. Then we hit 100 again and then we bounce back down.

And something's going on there where as a church, we've just kind of lost our hustle on growth, on expansion. And I think that plays against our evangelistic ability. And so that's why as a leadership, we've come up with this idea for the, you've heard it the last couple weeks and we're doing an everyday missionary training thing. It starts in a couple weeks where we really want to be doing exactly what we're supposed to, equipping the saints for the work of the ministry. And if equipping the saints means identifying that we've got a weakness here in evangelism, we've got a weakness here in this evangelistic category, how do we help our people see that weakness and want to overcome it?

See, identify the issues there that are preventing us from being successful in that area, being strong here and overcome it. So we see the weakness and we're doing what we can starting in a couple weeks trying to raise awareness for this to try and get stronger in that particular area. Because as an organization, we're kind of leaning this way and that area over there, the evangelism category is a weakness for us. Now, I don't think that's a deal breaker. I don't think that makes us a bad church or an immature church, but we need to address that so that we can be mature and continue to grow as a church.

Because if you've got a weakness on your team, you need to fix that weakness or the whole team is going to struggle to move forward. Does that make sense? So, I think that we will see our church mature as we continue to identify our weaknesses and make them grow. So I want to help you out here because maybe you've also seen some weaknesses or maybe you've, it's not necessarily that you've seen a weakness, but you've seen an area where maybe we're just not strong. Maybe it's not necessarily that we're bad or that we're weak at it, we're just not strong there. Um, maybe you've, uh, some examples might be that maybe you've, you've, you've been around for a while and you think, man, I just wish that our church did more for the homeless.

I just wish that our church got behind helping the poor, helping the poor. Sorry. Uh, maybe you, maybe you're thinking, uh, our church doesn't have a very good system for helping people who are struggling with anxiety or depression. Maybe, maybe you think, uh, maybe you think our church, uh, could, could use some help in, in working out how to help new believers take that next step, how to, how to help new believers understand where to start when they want to study the Bible. people. And chances are, if you're asking or, or thinking any of those things, uh, you may not think immediately that you're gifted or strong in that area, but you're certainly passionate about it where perhaps not enough other people are.

And so I think your role in that situation is, is to be the one who identifies that weakness for us, uh, and helps us take, take steps towards, you know, what, what is it going to look like to equip the saints to, to handle that issue? And let me tell you this, if this starts happening, it'll probably happen first at a groups level for us. Uh, you spend enough time around us, you're just going to feel like we're ringing a gong for groups. And we are, and we will, and we will continue to, until the gong breaks. Because we believe in our community groups, and we believe that that is the best way for, um, for people in our church and people in general to relate in such a way that they can grow, uh, on the back of the, the word of the, of truth that comes out of scripture.

So every week we'll, we'll have a sermon, we'll, we'll have a, um, something going on on Sundays. And then throughout the week, we'll have opportunities to live out that truth in community groups. Uh, and I think, especially when we're talking about teamwork and what it looks like to have different strengths in the team and move that team forward, that becomes most obvious in groups because you know each other well and you know what you want to achieve as a group. So a couple things on that. If you're not in a group, that would be a great first step for you because, uh, that would really be you getting on a team in order to play a team sport.

And if you're not in a team, it's really tough to play a team sport. Um, church is a team sport. Uh, if you're already in a community group, uh, first thing would be to be fully invested in that group. Uh, and that means, that means a couple things, but, but first it means be there. That's it. Be there because we, we kind of, there's a trend.

I don't know if it's a trend so much as it's just human nature is we, we, we make poor excuses for why we don't have to be there. Things like, I'm kind of tired or I'm kind of hungry or I have an exam in a week. All these kinds of things, uh, they, they just come up and they get in the way and, and when you're not there because you were tired or when you're not there because you had an exam, the team feels it because it's a team sport. And if you're not there, the team misses you and you also don't get the benefit of the team. It's, it's a two-way street. You need to be there for the team and you also need the team in your life.

And so when the quarterback is missing, somebody else has to play quarterback and the ball doesn't move down the field. When there's no receivers, the quarterback has nobody to throw it to and we've got to let the running dudes do all the work. That's how it works in community groups. So if you're in a community group, be invested and be there. Unless you have the flu, stay home. If you're already a group, in a group and you're already there and you're already invested, help that group get stronger.

Your role in the group is to play your position well, play to your strengths well, help the group identify weaknesses and grow in those areas. Find its weaknesses and this is what Spencer was talking about last week, what it means to be unified in this effort. With humility, gentleness and patience, speak the truth in love so that your group can find those weaknesses and instead of hating you for pointing the finger at the weakness, they want to be on your side so that your group can grow up to the stature of the fullness of Christ. That's your role if you're already in a group and you're already there all the time.

Help that group get stronger. The band's going to make its way back up and this is where we're going to land the plane and this is what I'm going to leave you with. There is no sitting on the bench on this team. We have a much higher calling than coasting. This is not a spectator sport where in American football you get to say I'm an Eagles fan and therefore I celebrate because the Eagles won. That doesn't work in the church.

You're either on the team or you are not. There is no bench warming. We have been given the responsibility of doing the work of the ministry. That is not a spectator sport. And until we all attain the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, we haven't done that yet. This is what the mature church looks like.

It looks like Jesus. It looks like a team that needs each other, that complements each other, that each person is doing their part on the team so that the ball can move forward. That's what a mature team looks like. And when that's happening, that team is impenetrable. It does not show weakness. It can't be moved.

And when each person is doing their part, working together, the team grows, the church grows up into Christ and is built up in love. That's what a mature church looks like. And that's the kind of church that we get to be. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for the opportunity that you have given us to learn from your word. And I just pray that we can show those five signs.

I show that our team can be united in our effort to grow into the fullness of Christ and that we can take seriously our responsibility to contribute to that. I pray that that will rest with us not just for this week but for the rest of the year, the rest of our lives. That we can contribute something valuable to the church that the church may grow. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Unity

Unity

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm a pastor in training here with Mill City Church. We are in Ephesians 4. We've been in like Ephesians 3 for four months. I know that's not completely accurate because we had a couple series in between them, but we have finally made the shift into four, which in Ephesians, the first three chapters are doctrine and theology for the church as an encouragement.

The next three chapters from four to six are the application of that, how we actually live that out. So we finally made it. We're in Ephesians 4, verses 1 through 6 today, which is going to be on page 568 in your blue Bible that is near you. If you don't have a Bible, please take that home. That is our gift to you. In high school, I played two sports.

I played football and I played baseball. Now, I realize when I say that some of you just died inside because you heard a sports reference. It's the Super Bowl, so it's a little bit appropriate today. But I can't give you a whole lot of musical ones. I love music, but I was not good at music and still not. I was in orchestra in the fifth and sixth grade, and I was last chair of the cello section.

I might as well have been last chair for the entire orchestra because I was terrible at it. So I've got sports to work with. And in football and baseball, I had two vastly different experiences. My football team was a unified bunch of guys. We loved one another. It started at the top.

We had a coach that loved us, that invested in us, that spent time with us, that built the identity of family that we were supposed to play with. And we did. We loved playing together. We had each other's back. My sophomore and junior year, it doesn't matter how much you love one another. If you don't have the talent, you don't win games.

So we didn't win a whole lot of games. But my senior year, we finally had the talent to compete, and we won a lot of games because we were a team. One of my favorite experiences from that senior year was the last summer practice before the school year started. We had a guy that missed practice, a senior that missed practice. And he got there for the last five minutes, and he explained the situation, and it was a difficult one. He was working a job.

That job helped support his family, and he could not miss that shift. But we had rules. We had rules on the team, and if he wanted to be on the team still, he was going to have to run for it. And what we did, because we were a family, is a dude, you know you're in a tough spot. We're going to run with you. So we ran all the sprints together, and that kind of set the tone for the whole season.

We ended up losing the semifinals, but it was a great season. My senior year of baseball, or just my baseball team in general in high school, was a completely different experience. It was different for a lot of reasons. We had a strong tradition of winning. Won a lot of titles over the years. Our coach had a great baseball mind, but we were not a team.

We just weren't. We weren't a unified bunch. From the top down, our coach, he knew baseball, but he didn't really show a lot of investment in us. He didn't really care for us off the field. It just was a different feel altogether. So we won a lot of games until my junior year, when the talent ran out, which is when I also started playing.

And the talent ran out. We weren't a team. And man, for two years, we didn't win as many games as we had in the past. There was a lot of finger pointing, a lot of clicks on the team. It was just weird. Some of the same guys I played football with were on the baseball team.

And it was just weird. One of the worst moments I remember was there was a game where I was in second base, and I ran out to catch a ball between me and right field. And the ball dropped right between us. It was my fault. When I got back to the dugout, my coach laid in to me, which is fine in sports. But then he got two former players from our freshman state title team who were in the stands to come around to the dugout and to shame me in front of all the other players.

And it was the most embarrassing moment I've had in sports. And on top of that, none of my teammates backed me up. It just was that that was us. We just weren't a unified bunch of players at all. Unity is vital for the health of any organization, for the growth of any organization. I mean, companies get this.

They spend millions of dollars every year investing in team building. There's entire team building recreational centers that are designed for this, that you might grow in being a unified organization. There are tons of books. There's tons of thought on it. I think if you boil down unity in a team, unity in an organization into three things, there are three things that rise to the surface. There's a culture, firstly, of team over individual.

A culture of team over individual. There's usually a leader or a set of leaders that everyone can get behind, that everyone will rally behind. And then lastly, there is a cause that everyone's bought into. Those three elements show up in unified teams. And the reason that this is true is because God has designed us this way. We have been designed to function and to flourish as a unified team when these three things are present.

And they show up in our text today. We're in Ephesians 4, verses 1 through 6. And in this text, we're going to see a culture of unity, a culture of team over individual, a culture of whole church over individual Christian. We're going to see the leader that we rally behind. And then we're going to see the cause that we're bought into. So I'm going to read the text.

We will pray. And then we will dive in. Verse 1. Verse 1. Let's pray.

God, I'm thankful for this word. I pray that we would receive it. I pray that we'd be able to be present. And I pray that you would go to work on our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, so he starts out, verse 1.

He says, I therefore. So that therefore is the big shift. From the first three chapters to the next three chapters as he closes out. I love it because it builds off of what was preached last week, Chet. Preached on the love of Christ. It was a summary of the first three chapters.

And the depth of the love. The height of the love of Christ. The greatness of the love of Christ. So everything in those first three chapters. All the force of that gets pulled in to these first few verses. And he says, I therefore a prisoner for the Lord.

So that little insertion there is him saying, I'm in prison for you. He's writing this letter from prison to this church. And he's letting them know, I'm in prison so that you would believe the gospel. I'm in prison so that you would get this. So that you would walk in a manner worthy of the calling.

So he's heightening it up. Showing the importance of what he's getting ready to say. He says, I therefore a prisoner for the Lord. Urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. And this is when the shift happens. All the theology and doctrine of the first three chapters.

Everything that he says from chapter one. That you were chosen. That you were adopted. That you were sealed by the Holy Spirit. That you were dead in sin. That you received grace that you could not earn.

All of that that went into your redemption. You were called to walk in a manner worthy of that. So he's continuing to heighten it up. And at this point, the Ephesian church imagined when they originally heard this. They kind of saw what was coming. These letters, like the Ephesians and Galatians and 1st and 2nd Corinthians.

These letters circulated throughout all the churches. So they're probably familiar with how Paul writes. And they're probably wondering what's coming up. That he's getting ready to address some things that are going on in this church. So they're nervously awaiting.

And then he shifts into the next verse. He says, with all humility and gentleness. With patience. Bearing with one another in love. Eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit. In the bond of peace.

And when they get to that. At that point, they see it coming. I mean, he kind of tipped his hand a little bit in chapter two. When he mentioned that the wall of hostility. That was between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. Those who were not Jewish.

That there is disunity in this church. And he is going to address it. And he starts by addressing it with the first principle. A culture of team over individual. It is not about you. It's about the church as a whole.

Disunity was a major problem in the Ephesian church. And many other churches in the New Testament. Because of these differences between Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians. And he starts by addressing it. Addressing the pride that is dividing them. By mentioning with humility.

With humility. Alright, so that word humility. In the Greek. In the original language that this was written in. Was not a word that Greco-Romans across the Roman Empire were familiar with. It's not a word that they used.

In fact, we don't really even see it show up. Until the New Testament starts using it. They basically had to invent this word. Because in Greco-Roman culture. Humility was not a quality. Being proud.

Being confident. That was a quality. That they upheld. But they didn't. Humility wasn't a thing for them. So they had to invent a word.

And a concept. For a culture that didn't understand it. Which I think. Is actually really cool. That they got to invent something. We actually don't see this word used.

In contemporary non-Christian sources. Until after the early churches begun. I think that's pretty cool. They got to invent a word. And a concept. For a culture.

That didn't really understand humility. And the English language. We don't get to do that. I mean. We don't get to invent cool things. The words that we get.

Introduced in our language now. Are words like yellow. Which somebody should punch Drake in the face. Forever mentioning that word. We get words like squad goals. And phrases like that.

We get words like clap back. Right? I was in the office the other day. And I was talking to Matt. I was talking to Chet. And I used clap back.

It just came out of my mouth. And they said. What? What did you say? I said. You know.

I clapped back. And I could look into their eyes. And I could tell. What they were thinking. Like we had so much hope for you. Like when you came here.

We had so much hope for you. And you just crushed it. Because you used the word clap back in the sentence. And I was like. It's like. You know.

You say something to somebody. And you insult them. And they clap back. And they insult you back. Like I saw it on Twitter. I won't use it again.

Like we. We even had the dumbest things. We even had things like triggered. And microaggressions. Which are my two favorite awful ones now. That you.

Someone could say something to you. That would so offend you. It would trigger you. And cause microaggressions. Small aggressions. Like that.

That blows my mind. That we invent stupid things like that. We don't get to invent cool words. And cool concepts. Like humility. But they did.

They got to bring that into their language. To show them. The value of humility. And Paul. He goes after their pride with it. He goes after their pride.

To show. How these Jews and these Gentiles. Have been divided. Because both of these groups. Jews and Gentiles. Both thought that their backgrounds were better.

They both thought that their culture was more superior. So you can imagine. How their early community groups were. How they were. I mean. You had.

If there was ever a problem in them. You had Jews on one side. That were like. Listen. We're the chosen ones. We've been here.

For like 2,000 years. You guys just got brought into this. Like. The problem must be with you guys. We certainly can't be the problem. On the other side.

You got Romans. And Greeks. And Africans. Who are like. What are you talking about? Like.

We're Roman citizens. We're dignified. We've. Guess what. We just got a copy of the Old Testament. And we've seen your history.

You guys fight all the time. It has to be on you. And these two sides. Are. Are completely. Divided.

In a lot of ways. Because of their cultural backgrounds. Because they both. Are prideful. And they think. That they're better than one another.

Because here's the deal. Pride. It kills humility. Because if you think you're better than someone else. If you think that you're always right. That you've always got the right answers.

You've always got the right ideas. You can't actually ever be truly unified. I mean. Many of us. We've been in community groups. In churches.

With people. That are just like this. They always think that they're right. The church that I came from previously. Was in a. A seminary.

A city. With a big seminary. And there's a lot of groups. That had seminary people in it. And man. Sometimes seminary people are the worst.

I was one of them. But man. They. They would argue over the smallest of things. And they always. Always.

Always had to be right. Always had to get the last word in. And it's like. Then arguments can come out of that. And people can get upset. And then you might go to reconcile with someone.

Who always thinks they're right. You might go and say. Man. I'm sorry. I got. I got heated.

And then they'll come back with. Oh. I'm sorry. You got upset. That's a non-apology. That's.

I mean. That's not. An apology is. I'm sorry. I sinned against you. Will you forgive me?

It's not. I'm sorry. You got upset. And. And. And you see this happen.

In community groups. And if you're like. Man. I've never seen this. I've never actually. I don't think I've ever come across people like that.

There may be people in your group. That are thinking it's you. Pride shows up in a lot of different ways. It shows up when. Maybe you have someone in your group. That you were just annoyed by.

Like man. Because. Because sometimes you get in groups of people that have. Completely different personalities. And you're like. Man.

That person annoys the crap out of me. And I know. That. I know I can't just like dip out. I know that we're supposed to stay in this together. But man.

I can. I can avoid them. I can not return their texts. If they want to hang out. I don't have to return their phone calls. You know what?

I think it's time for us to launch a new group. We need to be more missional. You know what we'll do? We'll launch a new group. And when we launch this new group. We're going to send them out.

And then I'm good. I don't have to hang out with them anymore. Listen. If that is your mindset. You need to know. This is free.

That our God is a God of irony. He just is. And if that's your mindset. Get ready. You will be with that person. For the next three group cycles.

Like it's just. That. Because. If we just get to hang out with people. That are just like us. If we just hang out with people.

That have the same interests. And that don't bug us. How are we ever going to grow. In actually loving people? How are we ever going to grow. And actually be able to.

To endure different personalities. No. We have to grow in this. The last way I see pride. There's many ways. But the last one I'll mention.

As far as that I see pride. Sometimes. Some of us. Will listen to sermons. Or will read the Bible. And will think.

This is good for somebody else. Now. Encouraging someone with. A word. Encouraging somebody with. Something you heard in a sermon.

Is fine. But here's the deal. If you're listening to a sermon. Or you're reading the Bible. And you're not letting it impact. Your own heart first.

And at the overflow of that. Encouraging others. It comes from a place of pride. Pride. Destroys. Unity.

And that's why Paul addresses it. On the front end. And then he goes into the next part of the approach. He goes into. Gentleness. He calls them to gentleness.

Now. If you're like me. This is a struggle. Gentleness for me. Is a struggle. Because.

I go hard after everything. I will bring a sledgehammer. To take out a tiny nail. That's just my MO. Like I just get excited about things. And Matt and Chet first realized this.

Really early on. When I got here. That I would get excited about the smallest of things. And would get all intense about the smallest of things. That is why you've heard so many jokes about Chipotle over the last year. It's brilliant.

Because the Chipotle MO's debate. It illustrates two things. It illustrates the differences that are there. Petting one against the other. But underneath it all.

It's Chet just giving a small dig. Because he knows. That gets me stirred up. Because I'm like. Listen. Chipotle's obviously better.

Mo's has rice pellets. You can't call that a burrito. Just because you have queso. That's not how that works. And I get all excited about this kind of stuff. And it's.

And it's fun. Right? But gentle. The lack of gentleness is not fun when it's my daughter. It's not fun when I'm raising my daughter. And my wife reminds me of this consistently.

She's like. You can't have the same tone. For every misstep that she has. You can't be that way. And I just come hard after every little thing. Like when she.

Is spazzing out. And swings at my wife. That ain't gonna fly in our house. The tone needs to be sharp. But that is not the same.

As when she smells juice on the couch. Or when she does something small. And the wife says. You can't. You can't blow up over every little thing. You can't get intense about every little thing.

You have to have a tone difference. You have to learn. Gentleness. So my wife comes. In a spirit of gentleness. To correct me in this.

And to help me see. And I am. I am trying to grow. In gentleness. But I am thankful.

That she comes alongside. In a spirit of gentleness. As Galatians 6 says. To help me on this. And the same way. That is what we are called to do.

With other people in our group. With other Christians. That we are walking alongside of. We are called to. When. Maybe someone gets offended.

Maybe you get offended. By what someone says. Or someone says something mean to you. Or your wife. Or your friend. Man.

You don't respond with a sledgehammer. You don't come hard. We come with a spirit of gentleness. How. How much more unified. Would the church be.

If we address one another. Like surgeons. With a scalpel. As opposed to coming out. With some brute force. We are called.

To gentleness. To strive for it. And then Paul keeps going. He says. With. Patience.

With patience. Patience. Patience is not putting up. With somebody. For. For a few different.

Community group meeting times. That's not patience. We have a warped. Sense of time. Because of our culture. Because in our culture.

Everything happens. Instantly. I can pull out my phone. Order food. It comes in less than 30 minutes. I can look at news.

That is happening. In remote parts of the world. All the way across the globe. Everything is happening. Like that. And we have this.

Warped sense of time. That we bring into the church. That we think. Relationships. Should happen. Just like that.

And it messes with the fact. That relationships. Take time. Life together. Takes time. It is walking with someone.

For a year. For two years. For five years. As they learn to walk. In the grace. That Jesus provides.

That's why Jesus says. You don't forgive seven times. No. You forgive. 77 times. I mean.

Think about how long. That kind of relationship is. You need to forgive someone. 77 times. Some of you are like. Man.

You didn't see in our group. That's like a week. Maybe. For most of us. That is a long period of time. Of enduring.

It takes. Patience. As we walk with one another. Which means. That you don't get to run. At the first sign of trouble.

At the first sign of trouble. You don't get to dip out. And switch groups. And leave churches. That's not how this works. Like you don't get to do that.

With your own family. Most of the time. Like with my daughter. When she wakes up from a nap. Sometimes she just wakes up angry. Like I always walk in.

I'm like. How's it going to be? Is she going to be happy? Or is she going to be ticked? And then sometimes she wakes up. And she's ticked.

I'm like. You were too. What possibly. Could you be angry about? I don't get to just shut the door. And say.

You're in here all day. Deuces. And walk out. That's. You don't get to do that with your own family. You don't get to do that with church family.

You don't get to just dip out. The first sign of trouble. Leave group. Leave the church. Nah. It's patience.

We're called to walk in patience. And then Paul. He keeps going. He says bearing with one another in love. Bearing with one another in love. Man.

I'm thankful for the sermon last week. I encourage you to go listen to it if you were not here. We need to grow in reclaiming the depth and the height and the beauty of the love of Christ. Because here's what happened in the American church. In the American church throughout the 60s and the 70s the hippie movement happened. And then like the hippie movement got attached to.

That free love and everything else got attached to Jesus. And the picture of Jesus in the 70s was. He was a hippie. And he. He was like. I love everyone.

Doesn't matter how you live. It's just. It's all. You just love everybody. It's all good. And then.

In the American church. There was a response. Because we saw that. And it's cheap in love. And we said. No.

No. No. No. I like the picture of Jesus. When he's making a whip. And he's beating people out of the temple.

Because our Jesus is about truth. And then a lot of us just bang the truth drum. Man. We bang the heck out of it. We're about truth. And theology.

It's not about this cheap version of love. It's about truth. And doctrine. And theology. And we go all hyped up. And excited.

And we listen to pastors online. And what we did. Was we pitted truth against love. We create a false dichotomy. Which is two different truths. They can go together.

But we say that they don't. We love on one side. And truth on the other. And it's like. That's. Maturity is realizing that those two go together.

I mean. Jesus sums up the entire Old Testament law. All the theology in two ways. Love God. Love your neighbor. Love your neighbor.

So we. We. We fail to. To grow into this. If we don't realize that those. Go together.

If we don't deepen our understanding. Of love. Loving. And bearing with one another in love. Looks like. It looks like.

When you're a mom. And another mom in our church. Or in our community group. This happened a lot in the church that I was at previously. Some mom posts. The most ridiculous.

Over the top. Judgmental. Opinionated mom blog. And it's like. If you don't rub essential oils. On your child's eyes.

Before they go to bed. You hate them. And they will grow up awful. It's like. What. What is this?

Like there are so many. Terrible mom blogs. They're the worst. And someone would post something. That was so outrageous. And so over the top.

And it would make other moms. Like man. I'm a bad mom. I'm a. And then. And then.

What happens out of that. Is. I'm done with her. I don't want to hang out with her. I'm unfriending her on Facebook. I don't want to be in community group with her.

I don't want to deal with her. I was like. No. That's not the response of a Christian. That's not what we're called to. We're called to bear with one another in love.

Now there may be a conversation. That comes out of that. That is. That is reconciled. That said. This isn't helpful.

This is actually hurtful. But you don't get to just block people out. Because. Of stuff like this. We're called to bear with one another in love. This looks like when.

Again. If you've got someone who's just got a different personality than you. It's like. No. You don't get to block them out. This looks when.

When someone hurts you. When someone offends you. When someone sins against you. You don't get to just say. I'm done. We're called to bear with one another.

In love. So Paul. He's driving this home. For the Ephesian church. And for us. He starts to.

To show us. The culture of team. And one another. Over individual. And then he starts to transition. Into the leader that we rallied behind.

He says in verse 3. Eager to maintain. The unity of the spirit. In the bond. Of peace. And what we see here.

To start out with. Is that our leader. Is our God. Spoiler alert. I bet you didn't see that coming. Like our leader.

Is our God. And he focuses on the Holy Spirit. And he's getting ready to unpack the Trinity. That's showing up in verses 4 through 6. But he starts with the Holy Spirit here.

And it's a good reminder for us. Because the Holy Spirit. Is inside each of us. Those who believe the gospel. He reigns inside of us. The understanding is.

Is that the church. Is the new temple of God. The Old Testament. There was the temple. And that's where God's presence was. And that's where he ruled and reigned from.

In the New Testament. We are the church. We are the temple. And God resides in us. And his Holy Spirit. Is inside of us.

And why that's important here. Is because we are all bound together. By the spirit. We are all bound together. By peace. Which means.

We're not meant to be divided. Because God doesn't want his spirit. Divided against one another. So he says the bond of peace here. And the word for bond here. Conveys a couple ideas.

It's used in the bonding together of a building. Into a sturdy structure. This word bond is also used. Into the binding together of individual threads. That make up an entire garment. Paul in Colossians.

He uses it. As how ligaments. Bind a body together. And hold a body together. And out of that. He says there's no individual here.

There's no Jew. There's no Greek. There's one body. Bound by one spirit. Which means there's no more hostility. There's no more hostility.

Because of the peace of Christ. Because individualism. Crushes unity. And that individualism. It took a hard turn in the 16th century. When the enlightenment happened.

And the enlightenment happened. And we took the focus off of God. And creation. And we turned it on ourselves. And we thought about how great we were. And then modernism happened.

And then recently. We're in the age of post-modernism. And we're on the back end of post-modernism. The narcissistic. Inwardly focused version of it. That means it's all about you.

Our culture says it's all about you. Your thoughts. Your ideas. Your feelings. Your truth. You have to live your truth.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard some version of that. Now we in the church understand there's absolute truth. And that that is a ridiculous statement. A ridiculous thought. But here's how that kind of individualism seeps into the church on a practical level.

It shows up when somebody is. Maybe they're sleeping with their boyfriend or their girlfriend. Or maybe they're doing something they're not supposed to do. Or maybe they're choosing something that is just not good for them. And someone else in their community group. Or a group of people in their community group are saying.

I don't know if you should be doing. I'm looking at the Bible. And we're praying. We love you. We don't think that you should be. We don't think this isn't good for you.

And the hyper-spiritualized version of individualism. A person says, no, no, no, no. This is. It's about. God wants me to be happy. Or the even hyper-spiritual version is.

Is that. No, God told me. The Holy Spirit told me. And everyone else who loves them. Who has the same Holy Spirit inside them. Is praying to the same God.

And looking at the same Bible. Saying, no, no, no. I think you're an heir. And we make it about ourselves. And that kind of individualism. It crushes unity.

So he starts in this. And he kind of completes the thought here. Of team over individual. And he introduces leader. And then the leader that we follow really shows up. In verses 4 through 6.

He says, there is one body. And one spirit. Just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord. One faith. One baptism.

One God and Father of all. Who is over all and through all. And in all. So Paul, he attaches that culture of unity that he's been building. To the leader that we follow. And the cause that unites us.

And he drives home that unity idea. By using the same word seven times. And when you hear it. You're supposed to feel the force of it. He says one. One.

One. One. One. One. One. One.

One. It is supposed to be that forceful. That you would understand. The oneness. That he is striving for here. The oneness.

That is in the Trinity. He introduces Father, Son, and Holy Spirit here. And we are called to reflect. The God that we're made in his image. We're called to reflect. The unity.

Of our God. That there's one spirit. That unifies us. That we belong to one Lord. Jesus. That there's one God.

And Father of all. And in order to understand that. We need to have a better understanding. Of the oneness that is within the Trinity. That our trinean God. Is one.

He's eternally. Existed. As three. And as one. Before time was created. God has perfectly been unified.

In himself. Now there's a lot of attempts. There has been a lot of attempts. To oversimplify. Our understanding of the Trinity. I've heard people say.

It's kind of like water. It's when it's frozen. It's ice. But when it melts. It's water. And then when you heat it up.

It's gas. It's like our God is one. He's got three forms. Or I hear people say. No. It's like a man who's.

He has one role as a father. He has another role as a son. And he has another role as a brother. Any explanation like that. Is actually a heretical understanding of the Trinity. That goes back to the third, fourth, and fifth century.

It's not one God, three modes. We don't try to oversimplify who our God is. He is three. And he is one. I had a professor once tell me. That when you think of his threeness.

And you thought of his threeness too long. You shift back to his oneness. And when you thought of his oneness too long. You think of his threeness. And the beauty of this. Is that our God is in perfect relationship with himself.

He is perfectly unified. And we are made in his image. Which is why. When our community groups. Are great. Like we are loving one another.

We're serving one another. We're unified. We love it. We love our community group. We love when we meet. It's awesome.

But man. When somebody is mad at someone else. When there's bitterness. When there's sin. That's breaking people up. Man.

How fun is our community group then? How fun is meeting together once a week then? Man. It can be brutal. Because we are not imaging our God. We're not flourishing in the way that we're supposed to.

And being made in his image. God wants us to be unified. As he is unified. God. And he wants us to buy into the cause that unites us. Which is what we see in these final verses.

He says. Just as you were called. To the one hope that belongs to your call. One Lord. One faith. One baptism.

One God and Father of all. Who is over all. And through all. And in all. And the cause is this. The cause is the gospel.

That's what we talk about all the time. And it shows up here. And the one hope. That binds us together. The one hope. That is actualized.

That is real. That Peter. And first Peter calls a living hope. It is alive. We get to see it. In part now.

And we get to fully take part in it. In the future. That right now. God. The hope we have. Is he has made us new.

And that one day. Down the line. There's a day coming. When everything is going to be made new. When everyone is going to be made new. There will be no more sin.

There will be no more pain. We will forever be in the presence. Of our God. That is the hope. That we get to see in part now. We're united by the one faith.

That he mentions here. The one faith. That we could not earn. The one faith. That was given to us. The one faith.

That was secured. By the life. Death. And resurrection. Of our Savior. And we're bound together.

By the sign of the one baptism. Now that's the internal baptism. The changing of our hearts. That is also. What we get to celebrate. Here.

Coming up on this Easter Sunday. That we're going to have some people. In a heated tub. Right in front of us. They're going to step into the waters. And they're going to say.

Jesus is Lord. And they're going to be dunked in the water. Which is a sign that you were dead in sin. And they're going to be brought back up. That you are alive. In Christ.

We are bound together. By that sign. We are bound together. And unified. By the gospel. So the hope coming out of this.

Is that if you've not fully bought into this. If you've been trusting in anything else. Other than the finished work. Of Jesus on the cross. If you thought that your good works can save you. If you thought that your church attendance could save you.

If you thought that anything else. Could stand in your place. And the hope and the appeal is this. That you would believe this. That you would be fully bought in. That you would trust in Jesus as your only hope.

And that you would see that Jesus is better. Than everything else. And that out of that. We would continue to apply the gospel. That's why we talk so much about. Gospel fluency in our church.

That we would apply the gospel. In every aspect of our life. Because that is the cause that unites us. That is the cause that keeps us together. The beauty of it is. Is that we have a father.

Who sent his son. To purchase us his bride. And that as Ephesians says. He has sent the Holy Spirit. As our guarantee. As our down payment.

That we have a triune God. Who is the leader of our church. And we have a cause. The cause of the gospel. That unites us. And that out of that.

We strive. For a culture of unity. We strive. For it to be more about ourselves. More than about ourselves. But about the church.

About one another. Another. So that's what we're going to. Practice this morning.

The Love of Christ

The Love of Christ

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Good morning. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab your Bibles. Let's go to Ephesians chapter 3.

So we are back in our Ephesians series. We spent a good bit of time in the fall walking verse by verse through the book of Ephesians. And we are going to spend a good bit of time in the spring doing the exact same thing. So we took a little break for our Give series. We started this year off talking about Jesus is better than everything else. And now we are back in Ephesians.

How familiar are y'all with the pole vault? Moderately, like I'm a pole vault tier. If that's not what they're called, that's what they should be called. Like I'm not that familiar with the pole vault, so I'm going to explain it to y'all. So the pole vault is an athlete, a track athlete, a pole vault tier, dresses up in like a track outfit or looks kind of like a wrestling singlet.

Don't call it a onesie. They get upset. It's a singlet. And they have a big stick. It's a pole is the technical term. And it is bendy, the stick is.

So it's not like a super rigid stick. It's like a long bendy stick. And they run quickly holding their stick as fast as they can. And then there's like a football goal post thing set up here with another stick across it. I don't think that one's as bendy as the one they're holding. It could be the same type of stick.

I don't know. But it's running across here. And the goal is to take this stick, stick it in the ground. That's why it's called that. And then run. It bends.

And then they jump. And they fly through the air holding on to their stick. At some point they let go. And the goal is to get their feet and then the rest of their body over the... I don't know which one's the pole. This is the pole or that's the pole.

Maybe they're both the pole. But maybe they're vaulting with a pole or over a pole. But they've got to get over. Over... This is the vault part. They get over that.

And then on the other side there's like a big... Like a big mat or air mattress. Like the air mattress you sleep on at your grandma's house. But like... Like also like a gym mat. Like if they had a really big baby.

Like that's what's on the other side. And they fall on top of that. And they do a good job if they get over the goal post. That's like... That was like a win. And then they raise it.

And it's like the opposite of the limbo. They keep raising it. And then eventually they hit the stick. And I think everybody laughs. And then it's over with. And so...

That's what Paul's doing in this letter. And we've reached the moment in the letter where he sticks the stick in the ground. That's where we are today. So the fall... We spent him building momentum. We looked at all the theology behind his letter.

So he... In the fall is building up. He's running towards the goal. He's running towards what he's going to eventually vault us into. And so the fall has been him saying in chapter 1 that all this truth about who God is and what he's like and what he's done. And so he's...

He says that we've been blessed by the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who's blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. That he chose us before... Chose us in him before the foundation of the world. That he predestined us for the adoption of sons. That he loves us. That he redeems us.

That he gives us an inheritance. That he sealed us with the Holy Spirit. And then he kind of says, so... Because that's true, I pray that you would know this. So the back half of chapter 1 is he just saying, I pray that you would know all that he's done for you in Christ.

All of this rich and deep theology, I pray that you would know it. Then he goes into chapter 2 saying... That you've been saved by grace. You didn't earn this. You weren't good. You weren't special.

You weren't holy. You weren't moral. You weren't smarter. He says, you were dead. You were useless. You were trapped in your sin.

And then by grace, Jesus Christ swapped places with you. That he died for you. That you were saved by grace. And then he says, and you've been now saved by grace. Equipped for works. And then he goes into saying, because we've been saved by grace, we actually get to relate to one another.

And so we spent some time talking about racism. Because that's what he begins to address. Is that both Jewish and Gentile believers need to get along and grow together. And then today, the back half of chapter 3, we're going to pick up in verse 14. He says, for this reason. And so he begins this.

He's saying, because of all this stuff back here. For this reason. For all the stuff I've already said. And then at the end of this, he's going to say, amen. And the next verse is going to be, walk in a manner worthy of the Lord. And so what he does is, he takes all of this theology.

All of this dense, rich. I'm going to be careful what I'm saying here. Dense, rich truth about Christ and his work and his goodness for us. And he uses it to build momentum. That's him sprinting. You don't get over that by just sticking it in the ground and trying to build momentum.

Today, he sticks the pole in the ground. And again, I'm not a pole vaulter. Father, I'm assuming where you put the end of that stick matters. I'm assuming that if you do it too soon or too late or at a different wrong angle. I'm assuming that this really matters. That you get it right in the exact spot.

So that with all the momentum that you've built. You can propel yourself towards the work you're supposed to do. And that's what's happening in this letter. That Paul's running full speed with all of this truth. And all this momentum of the truth of the gospel for us in Christ. And his love for us.

And his adoption of us. And his salvation for us. And then today he sticks. That truth. Anchors it. And uses it for the rest of the letter.

He's going to say, now here's how we live that. Here's what we look like to live that. And so today is actually a really important day for us. As we get to see, what is he anchoring in? What was all of that building to put us in? And then the rest of the letter he's going to say, here's how to live.

Here's how to relate to each other. Here's how to love one another. Here's how to get along with one another. And so we're going to pick up verse 14. This is where Paul anchors this to propel us into everything else that we're going to look at. And we'll pray before we read this whole passage together.

God, I pray that you would give us grace today. That as Paul says this prayer and as he transitions this letter from all the true things about you into all the things that we're supposed to do, how we're supposed to respond and live in light of that. God, I pray that you would help us to see this clearly, to feel it deep inside of our hearts, that your Holy Spirit would empower it in us and that you would help us to know your love and walk in a manner worthy of you. In Jesus' name, amen. Chapter 3, starting in verse 14. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.

So he begins by saying, because of all this truth about Jesus and what he's accomplished for us in the gospel, here's what I pray. That's what he means by I bow my knee. I submit myself in prayer to the Father. And then when he says, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, what he means is he's the father of everybody. He's in charge of everybody. There's nobody outside of his scope that he's the God of everything.

I like the movie, Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? And throughout that movie, he's going to try to find his family after he escapes from prison. And he keeps saying, I'm the paterfamilias, which means I'm the daddy. I'm the father of this family. Like nobody can replace me. And that's what he's saying here is that God is the paterfamilias.

He's the father of the family of everybody. He's in charge of everybody. And then he says, that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. So he's built all of this momentum. And this is where he's sticking his pole in the ground and saying, this is what we land in in order for us to move forward. And so his prayer, his request is, and we're going to highlight this, that he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being.

So he prays, his request, the thing he gets down and asks the father for this church in Ephesus. And as we read this for all Christians, is that the Holy Spirit would strengthen us, strengthen them in their inner being. And this is one of the beautiful things about Christianity, is that you can be weak physically, and you can be weak mentally, and you can have a ferocious spirit. That you can have an inner strength beyond compare, and be built in by the Holy Spirit, with a power and a strength that is unapproachable. And that's what he says, is that I pray that he would strengthen you by the power of his spirit, strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being.

And then he says, so that. And so these words are important when you're reading your Bible, so that. So now he's giving us what will happen if that happens. So he's saying, so that. Yeah, I want him to do this, so that. Here's the result.

Here's what will happen. That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. So he's saying, I pray that the Holy Spirit would come in your heart, and give you the ability to contain Christ, to have Christ dwell in you through faith. That you would believe in Christ, that's faith. That you would trust in him, and that he would dwell, live in your heart. And I pray that the Holy Spirit would give you strength to handle that, strength so that this will happen.

That's the result. And so look at the rest of verse 17. It says, That you being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth and length, and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. And so he says, I pray that you would be strengthened in your heart, so that Christ would dwell in you. And he says, that you, so now we're seeing, he's making another point. And then it says, comma, being rooted and grounded in love.

And so we're going to highlight that. That is, that's just kind of inserted into the sentence. So the sentence is going to keep going here in a second, but that's just inserted in there. And I just want to pause for a second, because Paul just inserts that in the middle of his sentence. So what he's saying is, I pray that he'd give you strength, so that Christ will dwell in your heart.

That you, and he's about to say the reason, but then he just inserts in the middle, now being rooted and grounded in love, it'd be a little bit like, if you had a commanding officer in the military, and he said, okay, you went to boot camp, we trained you, we made you mean, we didn't make you ugly, you were ugly when you came here, but we made you mean. And now, we did that, so that you, and then he just stopped and said, with all the equipment we've given you, can go win the battle. Like he just pauses in the middle. That's not the reason they did it, but he's just saying, with all this. And so I just want to pause, because I think this is a beautiful picture that he gives.

So he says, that you, and he just kind of pauses and says, being rooted and grounded in love. And he gives two pictures here. I want to take a second for us to picture this. And I got really kind of increasingly encouraged as I thought about this. So the first picture is rooted.

That we're rooted in love. So that we would be planted in, and begin to dig roots in, and grow in love. Now, as he's used love in this letter so far, that's the love of God for us. That's our love for God. And that's our love for each other. And other people's love for us.

The church's love for us. And so he means love. Like all the love between the church, between each other. The love between him and you. And so that we would dig roots in love. Now, the reason this encouraged me was, I have before seen a small, we'll say sapling.

A thin tree. And wanted it to not be there. And so I've just grabbed it with my hands, and tried to just pull it out of the ground. Because this weak little tree can't hang with me. And guess what? Yeah, it could.

Because it had a whole lot of roots. I couldn't see. It had been there for, I don't know how long, and it had big roots, that grew into smaller roots, that went and touched everything, and were just, it held on with a strength, that was beyond mine. That I grabbed it, and went to pull it, and I could twist it, and I could get it down, and I could, but I couldn't get it out of the ground. I couldn't just snatch it up. And what's beautiful, is he's saying, that's us, that's the church.

And we've dug roots in, the love of Christ, our love for Christ, our love for each other, their love for us, and it makes it hard for us to move. That we can't be taken down. The other thing, I got encouraged thinking about roots in a tree, was that I had a tree in my backyard, that was crooked, and so I took an axe, and I cut it down. And then, I looked out in my yard one day, and it had sprouted, like 15 little sticks out the top of it, with leaves growing on it. That tree said, you can cut down this one, I'll grow 15 trees. It's like, I'm re-treeing right now.

So here's what he's saying. Life, your circumstances, difficulty, can come through, and mow you down. Where are your roots? And the love that Christ has for you, and the love that you have for Christ, and the love that you have for his church, and the love that church has for you, and guess what? You're coming back. You're not going anywhere.

Life can try to manhandle you, but you have an inner strength, that's beyond what they can see in you, because Christ dwells in your heart, and the Holy Spirit has given you power, and through faith he dwells in you, and you're not going anywhere. The second one he says is grounded, which means have a foundation in, that we would be rooted in love, and then he just gives another picture, that we'd be grounded on it. That's what we'd be built off of. That's where we would anchor in. I remember getting to go, on a mission service trip, to Louisiana, and we were working with a church, that had just been completely devastated, by one of the hurricanes, that came through right around Katrina.

It wasn't Katrina, but one had come through, and just hit this different part of Louisiana, and just wiped it out. And I remember standing with them, on a very flat piece of concrete, and they were telling me, what used to be there. Because there used to be a building, on top of this foundation, and the hurricane said, not anymore. And you know what they were telling me then? Here's what we're about to build here. And they were laying it out, and saying here's what's going to come in here, and they were actually kind of excited, because they were like, we've actually been able to raise some support, so people gave us some money, we're actually going to get to do something, a little different than what this was.

That's what he's saying. Life can just completely, just knock you over, but it can't take away, the love that you're built on. And guess what? We're going to rebuild. That's not his main point here, but it was important enough, for him to just insert it, in the middle of a sentence, and so I wanted us to take a second, just to think about it. It keeps going.

So we're going to take that away, because we're not, so he says, that you may have strength to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth. So can we highlight that? That's not a real complete thought, because he just says, what's the breadth, and length, and height, and depth, and you're going, and then he just says comma, and it confused me for a while, but it's the love of Christ, the next thing he's going to mention. So we're going to highlight that. So he says, I pray, his request is that God would give you strength, in your inner being, so that the result would be, that Christ would dwell in your hearts, and then he says his reason, that you may comprehend, the length, and breadth, and height, and depth, of the love of Christ.

That by Christ dwelling in us, we might begin to see, how massive, how beautiful, how uncomparable, is the love of Christ. Now, this is his point. This is what he was getting at. This is where he drove, his momentum into the ground. The love of Christ. I'm going to read a poem, because I think it helps us begin to see this, imagine a little bit, the length, and breadth, and height, and depth.

It says, Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made, were every stalk on earth, a quill, and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of God above, would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll, contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky. So he says, if, you filled up the ocean with ink, you turned the sky into paper, you made everything that was pointy, into a writing utensil, and you made every person on earth, fully just devote all of their time to writing, we couldn't write out the love of God. Before we drained the ocean, we wouldn't fill the sky, we would be done. We would not be able to finish the work.

We would run out of sky. We'd run out of ocean. We wouldn't run out of the love of Christ. That you, being rooted, and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints, what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth. I love that it says breadth, so that's width, length, and then he says height, and depth. Most things don't have height, and depth, unless they are both above ground, and below ground.

Like they don't usually have height, and depth. Like if you're, if you're looking at a building, and you go, how deep is it? Your friend's going to say, you mean tall? And if you were with them later, and you looked at a swimming pool, and you said, how, what's the height? How tall is it? Your friend's going to say, you mean deep?

And then they're going to think to themselves, I don't need to be your friend anymore. Like you, I either got to help you out, or I got to be done with this. But what he's saying is that God's love has both. That it's in the sky, and it's in the ground, that it's wide, and long, that it's all around. And he's saying, I pray that the Holy Spirit of God, would let Christ dwell in your heart, so that you might comprehend. That this love might start getting into your head.

And you might begin to wrap your mind around it. And, to know, oh, can we take some of that green away? We're going to take some of that green away, so that's just, he may have strength to comprehend, because otherwise, this is going to get way too colorful, and look kind of crazy. So he says, I pray that you may have strength to comprehend. That's the, that's the, the reason he wants us to have Christ in us. And then he says, to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.

That's the, the reason why he wants us to have the strength to comprehend. So he's saying, I want you to begin to wrap your mind around this. And then he says, so that, not just so that we would all go, hmm, yes, I see now. He's saying, no, so that you would know it. So that it would go from your head to your heart, so that it would, that it would become part, you would become intimate with it.

That Christ would dwell in your heart, so that you would comprehend it, and you would know it. That it would become real to you. That you would know the love of Christ, that surpasses knowledge. And I love, that our goal, is to comprehend something, that is incomprehensible. He says, I want you to know, something that surpasses knowledge. I want you to know the unknowable.

That's why he's praying about this, and asking the Holy Spirit to do it. And then he says, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. So that, that you again, is just kind of giving you the transition, it may be filled with all the fullness of God. So he wants us to know the love of Christ, so that all the fullness of God, can be in us. So that we'd be filled with the fullness of God.

Now, sorry, let's show a recap, kind of give us what he just prayed here. His request, that God would, through his riches of his mercy, would grant you to be strengthened. The result would be, that Christ would dwell in our hearts. The reason was, so that we may comprehend, the length and height, and breadth and width, so that we would know the love of Christ, for the reason that we'd be filled with the fullness of God. That's his prayer. So he says, all of this deep, rich theology, he's building all this momentum, and then he says, I want, I get on my face before God, and I pray that you'd begin to see how big his love is, and I pray that you'd begin to know it.

Now, I'm willing to bet, that if we had to guess, if we just at the beginning of this, passed out a little sheet, and said, Paul's big prayer here. Halfway through the letter, his big transition thing, what's he going to pray for us, before he starts telling us how to live, and how to walk, and how to act, and how to treat each other, and how to be married, and how to work, and how to raise kids, and like, he's going to do all of that in the back half of this letter, but before he does that, what's the big thing he wants us to know? What's his big prayer? When he gets to beg God for something, what's he going to beg?

And I don't think all of us would go, oh, to know the love of Christ. Maybe you would, and we're proud of you. I wouldn't. If I just had to guess, I'd have been like, ah, that we would stay far away from sin, that we would do what we're supposed to, that we would look the way, like, that we would be effective for mission, that we'd see people come to know Jesus, and what he says is, no, I pray, I pray, I beg, that you'd begin to see how big his love is, and that you would know it. Now, I'm also willing to bet that most of us go, oh yeah, Jesus loves me. Good.

How much longer is this sermon going to be? Because I got that. I got that Jesus loves me. I want to read a few quotes, because I disagree with you. I think you don't got that. I'm going to read a few quotes, and then I'm going to try to illustrate this, and then we're going to spend the rest of our time trying to get it a little bit.

So he says, I pray that you would know the love, so that you'd have the fullness of Christ, that we'd be full, that we'd be complete, that we'd be whole. 1 John 4.8 says, Perfect love drives out fear. Are we fearful? We anxious? We're plagued by doubt, unsteadiness? Maybe we hadn't comprehended the length and breadth and depth and height of the love of Christ.

A Protestant Puritan pastor says this about the love of Christ. He says, How often has God loved his haters? How often has he loved his mortal enemies with an everlasting love? There is such love and such grace in the heart of God that if you understood the length and breadth and height and depth of it, you would never be discouraged. Are we discouraged? Hard to wake up sometimes?

Hard to do what we're supposed to? Hard to follow? Hard to pray? Maybe we don't know the love of Christ. Augustine, the early church father, says the essence of sin is disordered love. Meaning that we love something too much.

Over and above God that we've gotten our loves out of order. Are we fighting sin? Are we losing? Maybe we don't fully know the love of Christ. Maybe we don't fully grasp it. If we're discouraged and fearful and weak and filled with doubts, maybe we hadn't fully gazed into the length and height and breadth and depth.

Maybe we don't understand it yet. I looked this up because I was trying to think like what's big and what also is something that we might feel like we kind of know. So I looked it up. I went with the ocean. So y'all know the ocean, right?

Familiar with it? Heard about it? Okay. Maybe you've seen it. How much of the ocean and this isn't just the United States, it's not like the World Series where we, you know, we do, we play and then we say we're the champions of the world which is fine. I'm cool with that.

I live in America. It's not like that. This is all of humanity together. How much of the ocean do y'all think is unexplored? Because you've heard that there are parts of the ocean we still haven't explored, right? You've heard that.

You know that stat. Like Bill Nye the science guy probably said it. How much do you think we haven't explored? Okay. Who would say 10%? 10% of the ocean we just don't know anything about.

Who'd say that? Do you mind raising your hand? Can we do that? Can this, can y'all participate? Nobody says 10%? That's too high?

No, you're going to keep our hands up. We're going to keep moving. So it's 10%, at least 10. How about that? Who would say at least 10% we don't know anything about? All right.

Who would say at least 20%? Like we just haven't explored at least 20%. Who would say 30%? Who would say 50%? We just don't, half the ocean we just don't know anything about. 60%?

Some of you are saying, no, we got, we got, okay. Who would say 75%? 75% of the ocean we hadn't seen, we don't know anything about. 85? It's 95. So some of y'all are on track with that.

It's 95% of the ocean hasn't been explored. So people can tell you mermaids don't exist. They don't know. 95% of the ocean. The ocean floor, 99% of the ocean floor. Unexplored.

We haven't even seen it. We don't even know what it looks like. It may not even be there, you guys. At this point, it's a theory. We know about 5% of the ocean, about 1% of the ocean floor. Now, I would have thought more.

I did think more. I looked this up and then I looked it up a couple of times because I was like, that's probably, come on. And now that's what it is. And this is from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This is their job, y'all. 5%.

Like we mapped out the moon, what y'all been doing? The ocean is very deep. I don't know if, did I tell you something y'all didn't know? You could stick Mount Everest in it and it would be a mile and a half from the surface at the deepest part. So if you just sunk Mount Everest, mile and a half.

It's 36,000 feet. So if you, if, if, if God took you out over it, the deepest part and then he just removed the water and let you go, you would fall for 136 seconds. And we assume you would hit a floor. We don't really know. 136 seconds, you would just free fall. And we're all going to stand here silently for 136 seconds and picture falling.

No, we're not actually going to do that, but. So here's what, here's what happens. When we say, I know the love of God, like I know it, I got it, I got it. When somebody starts saying, we're going to talk about the love of God, when Paul says, this is my big prayer and we go, let's get to the good stuff in Ephesians. I think it's kind of like being like, yeah, I know everything there is to know about the ocean. I've been to Myrtle Beach.

I think it's kind of like that. Like, you know, some stuff, like, I mean, when you stand on the edge of the sand and you look and you're like, whoa, it's really big. Look, it's as far as you go. Just whoa. And what Paul's saying is, yeah, you've gotten a taste of it. You're rooted and grounded in it.

Yeah, you're not going anywhere because of the love of Christ, but I'm praying that he'll pick you up by the scruff of your neck and just start flying you around. I'm praying that he'll walk to the edges of it. I'm praying that he'll take you and just dip you to the depths of it. I'm praying that he'll get to see the length, the height, the breadth, the depth. I'm praying that through his Holy Spirit, he'll begin to let you see how massive it is. And so let's just assume because of our doubt and our fear and our sin and our discouragement and let's just assume we've got a Myrtle Beach understanding of God's love.

Now, here's what we're going to do with the rest of our time today. We're going to look at a couple of pictures that the Bible gives us of his love. And then we're going to spend time singing about his love. But if we're going to know his love, we've got to do what Paul did. We've got to start getting on our face and asking the Holy Spirit to give us the strength to handle it. We've got to have Christ dwelling in our hearts so that we might begin to comprehend.

So we're going to take a shot at it today to know something that is unknowable to hopefully just pique our interest. to as much as you're going to go home and Google our mermaid's real to hopefully have us go do that as well with God's love that we might begin to realize I don't fully know this. So I want to give three quick pictures that the Bible gives and all we're going to do is just talk through some of the pictures the Bible gives. We're going to try to imagine this type of love and then we're just going to say okay, if we know that type of love God has that type of love for us but bigger. That's all we're going to do.

If you know that type of love it's that but bigger. The first one is friend. The God in the Bible calls humans friends. This is crazy because Abraham is friend. John 15, 15 Jesus tells the disciples he says I don't call you servants anymore I call you friends. Psalm 25 says that God treats us like friends that he loves us like friends.

There's a Jesus actually tells his disciples no greater love has a man than this that he lay down his life for his friends. So I just want us to for a second because we can't fully see the height and length and depth of the love of Christ I want us just for a second to picture the love of a friend and what that's like and to think about the fact that God would love you like that. So a good friend enjoys you and you enjoy them. You want to be around each other. You want to talk to each other. You want to know each other.

You want to serve each other. Good friends are the people that you want when everything is terrible it's fine for them to be there. When everything's just falling apart you just walk over the door you open it for them they come in they sit next to you. Good friends are the people that you want there when everything is great. You want to celebrate with that you want to walk through life with. As I was thinking about this when I was in college there was a couple of us were friends and we lived near each other in a dorm room there was a guy that used to come by and just bust up in our rooms because we always had our doors open and he would he would overstay his welcome.

Granted his welcome was relatively short so it wasn't hard for him to overstay it. I'd like to think I've grown some since then but we just didn't like this cap. Hopefully it would be more gracious now but I'm just telling you about I'm just a story you guys about a thing in the past. Actually I probably I would just I would know I had to be more gracious now. Is that fair? Like I might not actually feel more gracious but I would be like no Jesus help me.

At this point we were just like we ain't trying to so what we started to do was lock our doors and you would just hear boom and he would just smack his head into the thing and you just kind of knew okay and so then he learned to start knocking but we also we would knock on each other's doors or whatever but it just got to where like you know knocking doesn't always work because it could still be him when you open the door so we just came up with a secret knock. Matt Freeman still knocks on my door this way when he shows up at my house. Like you'll hear a knock at your house and I don't know if y'all are like me you're like why is this in my house? Like why is there a person here?

Because we don't visit each other anymore. Every time I'm knocking on one of my neighbor's doors they come to the door like what? Like they're ready to fight me or whatever. if they come at all sometimes you just hear noise and you're like they're not coming. He'll knock on the door and I'll hear the knock and I'll be like hey Matt's here. Like I just why are you busting up at my house? But it's fine.

I know who it is. And I just got to think about the fact that if God loves us that's my love for a friend. You guys it's not great. But if God loves us even just like that that he wants to see you wants to spend time with you wants to be around you enjoys you looks forward to it goes out of his way to be around you when he doesn't have to. That's the thing about friends. You don't have to be around them.

That's a love we know and his love is unknowable. Myrtle Beach Ocean of God's love so that everything that is true about true friendship and true love within friendship is true about God's love for you. So every good and true thing you can think about about love for a friend is true about God's love for you in Christ. The second picture that is given to us throughout the Bible and given to us often is the image of a father. The Ephesians begins by saying he adopted us to himself and I love that he says to himself that he actually wanted us to belong to him. Have you ever seen any of those videos online of people being adopted like they finally sign the papers or they give it as a gift and they open it up and the person's like 18 or 17 and they see that they've finally been adopted and they just start weeping?

That's what Christ has done that God the Father has adopted us through Christ. Proverbs 3.12 says that he corrects us like a father. Hebrews is going to say the same thing that he disciplines us because he cares about us. Psalm 103 says that he pities those who fear him like a father does his son. It's cool with as many children being born in our church family when we're hanging out sometimes and you'll hear a cry and everybody listens for a second and then people go not mine because you've learned. you've learned what your kid sounds like and you'll go okay hold on a second guys like this one's me.

You know this one's me. Tomorrow morning at 9.30 my wife will go in for a C-section we'll have our second our second son we're very excited about. Yeah. Woo! Y'all have had to stay up with a kid before you know what's up. You're like woo!

Woo! No but I'm excited tomorrow I'll get to I'll get to meet him. My wife's kind of gotten to know him a little bit more than I have you know because he's been like hanging out with her this whole time and so I'll get to meet him tomorrow and what's cool is I'll get to hold him and he doesn't know it yet but he has no choice I'm on his team. For better or worse I'm on his team and here's what that means and it's what the Bible just said about God as a father is that he disciplines us because he cares about us. You know whose kids I don't discipline? The ones that aren't mine.

Does that make sense? You know the kids I don't discipline? The ones that aren't mine. Like I've never just spanked a child in Walmart that didn't belong to me. I have spanked a child in Walmart but just the one that belonged to me. Like I am bent on making him grow into what he's supposed to grow into and he has no choice I belong to him but guess what?

I'm for him for his discipline for his training for his good and I'm for him against everything else. I remember in high school this is just a picture of what a father can be like. You maybe don't have to be like this as a father. Maybe you can. I'm not trying to say whether or not this is good. I'm just trying to tell you a story.

I get corrected sometimes after the stories I tell so I'm giving a caveat. So I remember in high school my brother had a couple of guys that said they were going to maybe they were going to fight him. This had gotten out that he was going to have a couple of guys fight him. It's possible it was something I had done. That doesn't really affect the story. So they were going to fight him and so he went home he had a block a class and he went home and got a t-ball bat because he just thought me versus three guys t-ball bat will help.

So my dad saw him come home walk in and get a t-ball bat and my dad said hold on hold on what are you doing? And he said well there's a couple guys that might jump me and I thought if there's three of them maybe a t-ball bat would help. My dad went you want me to hide in the back of your truck? That way when they show up I can jump out. My older brother Logan sat there and thought for a second and was like um and I really think he was thinking if I do this by myself there's a chance that we don't all go to the penitentiary but if you're there there's a chance that we all do. So he just said I think I got this one and I was like just let me know if you need help.

And tomorrow I have a son who gets me on his team. And for better or for worse from now on and that's what that's messed up sinful human fatherly love. Some of y'all had terrible fathers and I'm sorry because they were meant to be a small picture and a stand in of what the good glorious father you have is like. But that God says he loves us like a father which means that we belong to him he is for us and he's not going anywhere. That he's for our discipline he's for our health he's for our training and he's against all that would come against us. This is what we read earlier which is if he's for us what can stand against us?

C.S. Lewis has a quote where he says that when it comes to the love of God we don't have a senile benevolence that drowsily wishes you to be happy in your own way. And we don't it's not the cold philanthropy of a conscientious magistrate. Nor is it the care of a host that feels responsible for the comfort of his guests. But we have the consuming fire himself the love that made the worlds.

But we have the consuming fire himself the love that made the worlds. And when we picture the best father the most loving the most gracious the kindest and gracious and stern and disciplined with love like when we picture the best father that would go to the ends of the world for his children what we've pictured is a Myrtle Beach version of the love that God has

For us. The third one he gives is husband so he friend father and whatever's true about true fatherly love is also true about God but further and greater and bigger and he says husband it's another picture that the Bible gives it Isaiah 62 5 says as the bridegroom

Rejoices over the bride so shall your God rejoice over you Ephesians 5 which we're going to get to in a little bit says that husbands are to love their wives like Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her so that the story of the Bible is that God has this love and that Christ comes and rescues his bride that he makes

Her spotless and clean and holy that he draws her to himself this is why we love love stories because it all flows downhill from a good and loving God this is why people love a good father and get to see it and it's joy filled and this is why people love a good romance story this is why we love these stories because it comes from him

I was thinking about this morning Sleeping Beauty Sleeping good gosh I was thinking about this this morning Sleeping Beauty the Disney version not the version I said the Disney version is this story of this wickedness that has come over this girl that she's completely helpless and people get mad about this story now that she's helpless and he has to come

Rescue her but this is our story we're Sleeping Beauty we're helpless that's what Ephesians chapter 2 said that we were dead in our trespasses and sins that we had nothing we could offer that we were helpless and then what happens in the story is this guy Prince Charming his name's Prince Philip rides in he has the sword of truth and the wickedness that was pretty turns into a dragon and he kills her

That's the story of the Bible and then he claims his bride that Jesus Christ rides in with the sword of truth and destroys the dragon and sin and wakes us up from our sleep that would have been dead and claims us the song the song of Solomon stands in the middle of the Bible and throughout years centuries

It has been people have understood it as just a picture of the love that Christ has for the church which I'm going to tell you if you've ever read the Song of Solomon it makes me uncomfortable people now are just saying no it's a really good picture of a husband's love for his wife and it is but most of these theologians will say but secondarily first it is a picture of the love that Christ has for the church and you guys it's like gushy and poetic

And like and I'm bad I'm bad at that kind of stuff like when I want to say something nice to my wife I just go girl I got it that's it I don't have I don't have good words so I have read the Song of Solomon and they use like weird pick up lines so everyone's all text her and be like your teeth are like two sheep that have just come down from the shearing she's like what does that mean I was like

I don't know but it worked for Solomon so the love that Christ has for the church the marriage that he has when he claims his bride and destroys Satan and sin is not a marriage of convenience but it is one enraptured with love that he desires his bride that he longs for his bride that he rejoices in his bride that he celebrates his bride and the most beautiful

Captivating love story we've ever told is Myrtle Beach compared to the love that Christ has for the church the overwhelming overcoming love that he has for his bride so that everything that is true about the love of a husband for a wife in the truest most beautiful sense is true in Christ but exponentially more those are just three small pictures that if you can take the best friend

You've ever had and you can apply the truths of the love that they've shared with you Christ is like that but better if you can take the best father you've ever known God is like that but better his love is greater it's deeper if you can take the greatest husband the greatest love story that you've ever seen that God in Christ is like that but bigger and greater and more and we need

The Holy Spirit in us giving us faith in Christ so that he can dwell in our hearts so that we might begin to comprehend this so that we can know it and here's the thing all of the truth of the gospel has built up to this moment that you might know the love of Christ he wants you engulfed in his love then as Paul says now we get to walk in that but we walk in that as people who are loved people who are cherished people who are cared for

That he delights in us that he desires us that he prefers us that's the love of Christ and I recoil from it because I know I don't deserve it and that's what he said in chapter 2 you don't but he loves you anyway because he's loving and gracious and good not because we were the most beautiful or the most lovely but because he is the most loving and that he rescued and claimed us those are three pictures I want to give us proof the proof is simple

As the Bible tells this story 1 John 3 16 says for we know by this we know love that he laid down his life for us Ephesians 2 4 says 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 that the love that God has for us is known in the cross that that's where we see it that's where we that's where he proves it that when we look and say well how do I know

That he loves us how do I know this is for me we look to the cross I have one more C.S. Lewis quote he says God who needs nothing loves into existence holy unnecessary creatures in order that he may love and perfect them he creates the universe already for seeing he said or should we say seeing because there are no tenses in God so he's not seeing in the future he just sees it because everything exists before God already seeing

The buzzing cloud of flies about the cross the flayed back pressed against the uneven stake the nails driven through the messial nerves the repeated incipient suffocation as the body droops the repeated torture of back and arms as it is time after time for breath's sake hitched up if I may dare the biological image God is a host who deliberately creates his own parasites causes us to be that we may exploit and take advantage

Of him here in his love this is the diagram of love itself the inventor of all loves that when God created humanity he did it so that he might love us and he did it knowing full well the cost to himself to claim his bride that the proof of God's love is in the cross that we might know how loved we are how fully loved we are last two verses as Paul

Ends this section of the text and begins to move into the next part of Ephesians he says now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than we ask or think according to the power at work within us to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever amen so he says now who now to him

Who is able to do far more abundantly than all we can ask or think to him be all the glory forever and ever and so what we're going to do the way we're going to finish today is we're just going to sing about the love of Christ that we might begin to comprehend it we're going to sing and proclaim and give glory to God that he loves

Us in a way that we don't understand and hopefully in the singing we'll begin to absorb some of this truth so we're going to stand we're going to give glory to God and we're going to sing about this love that's incomprehensible and we're going to ask as we sing and I would encourage you if you are a Christian and if you're not to begin to ask

That the Holy Spirit would empower you to see this that he would give you faith in your heart as Christ would dwell in your heart that you might know this type of love that throws out fear that throws out discouragement that wraps us up that makes us his and that loves us beyond anything we can imagine that our world is so caught up in beautiful love stories and the reason is because we have a beautiful loving God who created the world

That he might share his love with us so y'all stand we're going to sing

Jesus is Better Than Everything Else for Everyone

Jesus is Better Than Everything Else for Everyone

Chet Phillips

Transcript

How we doing this morning? All right. Flu season got all y'all, huh? My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. We're in our third week of our Jesus is Better Than Everything Else series.

And really, we're kind of shifting how we talk about what we do as a church and how we think about who we are as a church. And so we just kind of are taking this three weeks as we started this year to begin to highlight what we mean when we say Jesus is better than everything else. And so we're in our third week, and we're going to be in Isaiah 55 today as we kind of finish this up. I was watching. I have a three-year-old son, and we watch TV together, and he does not mind watching the same thing over and over again. But I do, and so I have to find different things for us to start watching.

And so we started watching Planet Earth 2. It's the same Planet Earth. They just did another one video of it. And so we're watching the first episode of Planet Earth 2, and they're showing us iguanas on a little island. And all these iguanas are over here. And then it kind of goes to this, like, rock bed area where there's this gravel and then these stones all around it.

And it shows this little baby iguana crawling out of the ground, his first little peeking out into the world. And you can just kind of see in his face, like, oh, what a wonderful day. Like, you know, I'm alive. I made it out of this egg. I get to go start the adventure that is life. Could this day get any better?

And the British guy is like, today is about to get terrible. Like, he pops out, and there are just snakes everywhere. Now, I don't know if you watch nature shows. I think it's probably a good, like, psychological indicator when you're watching a nature show as to whether or not you root for the predator or the prey. Like, are you wanting the deer to get away? Or are you like, get them, wolf, let's go.

Like, I don't know what you're... But I'm not rooting for snakes. So this iguana pops out. I'm not cheering for a snake. And these snakes, like, as soon as they see movement, all these little heads go... And then there's like 30 of them.

I mean, just chasing after this iguana. And I've never been this into a documentary about lizards. Like, I've never cheered for a lizard before in my life. I mean, we've caught them before, used them to terrify my grandmother, but I never was, like, on the lizard's team. Like, he was on my team. But like this, I'm like, I'm rooting for this lizard.

And he's running, and these snakes are just chasing after him. And the snakes can't see real well, so there were times when the lizard would just freeze. The snake, like, crawled up all across his tail. And you're going, oh, keep it together, keep it together. And then he just, he bolts, and the snake's snapping. He runs.

He, at one point, gets hit by the snakes. He gets wrapped up by the snakes. There's all these other little baby lizards that are getting eaten. And it's like, I made my wife watch this. And she was like, what is wrong with you? Then I have to watch this.

He gets hit, and she's like, really? And then he squirms out. And the snakes are, like, wrapped. There's, like, four snakes wrapped around each other. And he, like, you know, the thing they do in cartoons where the person getting beat up at the bottom of the pile sneaks out, and they keep fighting. This happened with these snakes.

They're, like, biting each other. And this little lizard escapes. He runs. These snakes chase him. He finally jumps. He jumps across this pit.

The snake bites a rock, and he gets away. And I was like, yes! And I look over, and my three-year-old son's standing like this. He did it! And it was this, like, he lands on this rock, and you kind of just, you know, the music changes. It calms down.

You realize they're not going to have a secret snake pop out and get him. And you're like, okay. And then I thought, now all you have to do, little buddy, is that exact same thing every day for the rest of your life. You have to beat the snakes. You have to escape all the things that are going to try to destroy you. And then I just got to thinking about it, and honestly, I feel like we can all relate to that lizard, that we were born into a world where it feels like things are out to get us, that the world just doesn't work the way it's supposed to, that it's way more difficult than it ought to be in so many respects.

Like, you think about that perfect pairing and how it really does describe the existence that we have, that this miracle of a lizard can lay an egg in gravel, and then it can just form from, I don't know, scientific, biological magic, and this lizard can jump out and take off running. Like, that thing was quick. Looking at my kid who's three, and I'm like, man, it took you forever to get it together. Of course, it would be real bad if humans were like that, because we'd have to, like, the whole operating room would be different, because if he could hit the ground and take off running like that, he was already all greased up, hospitals would be a trip.

But life, life's like that. There's this very moment when this magical, beautiful, like, mind-blowing thing is happening, snakes surround you and try to kill you. Like, that's what it feels like our world is so much, is that everything is beautiful and good, and then at the same time so broken, so fractured, so despairing, so dark, and that some of you feel this very, very active and present in your life right now. That you're like, yes, I am fighting daily to not get caught, to not get taken down, to not lose to sickness or depression, or to not lose my job, or to not have this relationship fall apart.

Like, I am laboring. Some of you are cynical, and things are good right now. But you're like, yeah, but there's probably a sneaky snake right behind me. Like, everything's good now, but at any moment the music will change, and I'll be... We just live in a world where things are beautiful and painful and difficult all at once. And that, honestly, is the story of the Bible.

That we were created by a good and holy God who made the world beautiful and lovely, and we were designed to relate to Him. That everything was supposed to be at peace. Was supposed to be right with the world. You ever just said, like, this feels like hard... This feels like it's harder than it should be. About anything?

Like, it just feels like this shouldn't be this difficult. This relationship shouldn't be this difficult. Raising children shouldn't be this difficult. Finding a job just shouldn't be this difficult. And the truth is, it was meant to be harmonious. But that humanity sinned and rebelled against God, and that our own wickedness, our own flesh, our own sinfulness, broke and fractured God's good design, and that's called the fall, theologically.

That there was creation, and then there was a fall. A fall from grace. A fall from a good relationship with God. And that all of us are more like that lizard than we would want to admit. That we're all actively having to fight against everything that swarms around us to destroy us. And we have, as humans, actively chosen to sin and tear things up ourselves.

And so we're in this spot where the question in the Bible, and the question throughout the Old Testament, and the question that the Bible is answering is, what does God do with us in our sin? What is the response now that we're in this world that is broken? How do we get out of it? How do we move back to what we were supposed to be in the first place? In a good relationship with each other, in a good relationship with God. And so in Isaiah 55, what we're going to see is this invitation made by God, through the prophet Isaiah, and it's almost as if he's standing at this point in history where there's this brokenness of his good design, and he's saying, here's how to fix it.

Here's the invitation. Here's the hope. Here's the call to all those who will listen. And so let's pray, and then we'll read all of Isaiah 55 together this morning. God, I pray that we would listen. That we would listen well to the invitation that you make to the prophet Isaiah.

That we would respond. And that whether we currently feel like life is good and things are going well, or we currently feel completely out of sorts, and as if this could all fall apart at any moment. I pray that for the time that we have this morning, that we would listen well to your word, and respond actively to your invitation. In Jesus' name, amen. Isaiah 55, verse 1. Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.

And he who has no money, come, buy and eat. So he says, come, everyone who thirsts. So what he's saying is, anyone who feels a longing. Anyone who feels a sense of emptiness. Anyone who feels this ache. I love that God in this passage, the prophet Isaiah is speaking on behalf of God.

So this is God's word. This is God speaking. I love that God is saying, for everyone who thirsts, I love that he chooses thirst. Because you can go for a while without sunlight before you'll go crazy. You will go crazy, but you can go a while before that happens. You can go a while without food before your body will shut down.

The thing you need most is water. And we live in a society where most of us don't know thirst. I've got to think about it. I'm thirsty all the time. And so I just get to drink liquids all the time. I have perfect access to...

I very rarely have to deal with the thirst for a very long time. He's writing this to a people that grew up in it, that lived in an arid climate in the Middle East. When there was drought, they didn't have a way to get water. And he's telling that for those of you who are aching, who are empty, come to the waters. So the invitation is, for those who are empty, for those who are aching, for those who are in need, for those who feel this sense.

And then he immediately says, I have the answer. I can fill you up. You can come to the waters. You can have it restore you. When I was playing football in high school, there was one day where I was evidently getting dehydrated because I could feel my mouth just get, I mean, incredibly dry. And so I ran over to my coach, and I was just going to ask.

It wasn't a time for us to go get water, but I was going to ask, can I go get water? Because I felt like I'm having some problems here. And so I ran over and I said, coach. And when I said coach, my next sentence, I had to stick my tongue to the roof of my mouth, and it just stuck to the roof of my mouth and did not move. And so I said, coach. He looked at me.

And then I went to talk, and I stuck my lips together to try to fix this, and my lips just stuck together. So then I just went. He said, look at me like, you okay? And I was like, he said, you need water? I said, okay. So I went.

I had to like squirt water on my mouth just to get it to loosen up enough so I could open and drink water. And he's saying, some of you in life, you feel like that right now. I may shut down at any moment. Like when he says, come, those of you who thirst, if you're feeling that, if you're feeling this, I don't know if I'm going to make it. He says, come, you who thirst. I have water.

Come to the waters. And then he says, and he who has no money, come, buy, and eat. So that for all of us who would respond, that's a great invitation, but I don't have anything to offer you. He says, yeah, I know. I know you don't have anything to offer. I know you can't do this on your own.

I know you're not rich. I know you're not able to buy this on your own. Come, buy, and eat. Come be filled. Come buy wine and milk without money and without price. All right.

So this just got exciting. The invitation that God makes into human history for us who are lacking, who are thirsting, who are broken, who are in the midst of sin, who are needy, is come be revived. Come get water. Then he says, and wine and milk. So we need life.

We need restoration. We need the refreshing that comes from water. But we don't just drink water forever. That's not like his table gets more beautiful. It goes from just finding life, just being refreshed, to now you get a glass of wine. Now, when it's not being mishandled, wine is beautiful.

It's used in celebration. The Bible says that it's used as a picture of wealth and of fullness, and God gave it to us for joy. So what he's saying is that this isn't just find restoration, but it's find peace, find rest, celebrate, find joy. And he says, and milk, which the promise of the promised land was. He was taken to a place filled with milk and honey, and what that means is that there's fullness. There's protein in milk.

There's energy in it. There's life in it. And so this invitation to this table that is well set. And then he says, come by without money, without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good.

Delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear and come to me. Hear that your soul may live. So this invitation to everything rich and delightful and good is an invitation to God. He says, come to me. So he gives us all these pictures of being thirsty and getting water, of being hungry, and without any money, and without anything that could give this to you.

And he's going to feed you, and he's going to make you full. And what he's saying is, I'm the one who does this. The invitation that God gives in human history is to come to him. That with him is delight and fullness and richness. And so let's look back up where he says, why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? There's two types of people in this room right now.

All of us ultimately are in the same boat, but at this very moment, you may be the type of person who is saying, I'm thirsting. And I have no money, and I have no energy, and I have no life in me. And he's saying, come. I have water. I have food. Without price.

Come. I'll fill you up. And then, maybe at this very moment, you're one of the people who says, that he looks at and says, why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? That at this moment in life, you're saying, no, I got this. I got a little money in my pocket. I got some energy in me.

I'm going to make it work. I'm going to satisfy myself. I'm going to fill myself up. The truth is, at all times, we're both. We may feel one or the other. That even if you say, I have money, and I have labor, and I can do this, you're actually one of the people who's thirsting, and that won't satisfy.

And if you're one of the people who's saying, I'm thirsting right now, there's this tendency in us to chase after things that won't satisfy. It actually won't fill us up. That we're running to a bunch of smaller tables that are meagerly spread, and that ultimately can't fill us up when he's saying, I've set a table for you in my presence that'll satisfy. That'll make you full. That'll make you whole. That'll fix the ache in your soul.

So I don't know what it is that we're laboring for. I don't know what it is that you're laboring for, that you think will satisfy, that'll fix you. I don't know what it is that you're looking at right now and saying, you know, if I could just get this, then I'd be fine. If I could just have this, if this would just work out, then we'll be okay. Then everything will be good.

If I could, if I know that if I could just get in this relationship, I know if I could just get out of school, I know that if I could just get this much money, if I could just have a salary that paid this, then everything would be good. We wouldn't have problems anymore. We wouldn't argue anymore. And honestly, if you're a Christian, that should sound so silly to us. We do this all the time, but what we're telling ourselves is, if I could just have, if I could just get paid this much money, I'd stop being a sinner. And so would my husband.

No, I'd stop longing. One of the, I love this quote by Jim Carrey. He says, I think everyone should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it's not the answer. I honestly think celebrities should prove to us, verse two, I think we should believe God when he says it, but I think celebrities should prove it to us because all of us somewhere, because we're Americans, have in the back of our mind, if we were just rich enough, I was just rich enough, I'd be fine. You can't be sad and rich. I don't suggest you spend a lot of time paying attention to celebrities.

I think you have better things to do with your time. But those people aren't the happiest people in the world. They're not all fulfilled, and everything's working out fine, and they're all happy and joyous and get along, like, that's not how it works. Now, we're all poor enough that we can keep telling ourselves that's what'll happen if we get rich enough. You can keep telling yourself that because you're not Jim Carrey. But Jim Carrey's had all the money he could ever dream of, done everything he's ever wanted to do, and said, it wasn't it, you guys.

I read an article one time about a person who was a waiter in the Hollywood area, and they said that all the people who were striving to become famous were fine. They could be friends with them, that worked well. But they said as soon as they got famous, they were horrible. They said because it made them miserable. As soon as they got everything they ever dreamed of, they were miserable because they realized it hadn't fixed them. And that's what he's saying, and that's what this is saying, is that you're spending your money for something that won't satisfy.

You're buying bread. You're buying things that aren't bread and labor for what doesn't satisfy. And he says, listen diligently to me. Eat what is good. Delight yourselves in rich food. Okay.

The Bible tells us that we were designed to exist in a perfect relationship with God, that we rebelled against God, that we sinned, that we ran from him, that we hate him. John says that, the gospel of John says that we hate the light, we love the darkness because our ways are evil. And we're told that God designed, that there was a snake in the garden that tricked our first parents into rebelling against God, and that ultimately that snake was Satan, and that God has designed a place of destruction and torment and pain for Satan, and that humans who do not repent of their sin and follow Jesus will follow the way of that snake ultimately to destruction and to eternal torment in hell. We're told that.

But that's not the invitation. The invitation is, I've set a rich table full of satisfaction, food, beauty, fullness come to me. He doesn't say, let me tell you exactly what's going to happen to you if you don't listen. Like, that's mentioned, it's talked about, but the primary invitation is, come back. I don't want that for you. I don't want pain and destruction for you.

He's not standing over us and go, you're going to face the air of your way. Like, he's saying, no, come, come to me. Listen. Hear every word. Listen diligently means hear every word. I'm saying, come to me.

Let your soul live. Delight yourself within rich food. Now, somehow it has crept in that to be Christian is to reject everything good and delicious. And to be, the invitation to God is somehow this invitation into just pain, just suffering. Now, what he says is, come delight yourselves in what is rich and delicious and good. Now, that's by way of a cross, so there is pain and suffering for Christians, but we hold out through the cross, through the pain, through the suffering, through the sacrifice, that the ultimate thing we're going to get is this, rich food.

When God spreads the table in heaven, there's no kale on the plate. It's rich food. Now, I know what you're saying. Now, you got to be rich to buy kale all the time. I got, I got, rich food. It's dense.

It's flavorful. Kale sits next to your steak to remind you of the fall so that you might worship while you eat your steak. My wife and I got a gift card to Ruth's Chris one time. So we went to Ruth's Chris one time. We were in there and I ordered a filet mignon and when they brought it out it was about this thick and it was in a plate with butter that was still like bubbling and I thought this is what food is supposed to look like. We ate that at one point they came by and they said um, is this a special occasion?

And I just thought is that obvious we don't belong here? Like, did I use the wrong fork? Like, what was I supposed to do, Ruth? Or Chris? Who's in charge here? So we just were like, yes, it's our anniversary.

They said, okay, would you mind if we brought by cake? And I was like, we will never mind that. They came back and they brought us a slice of cake. I'm not kidding you, it was this tall. I didn't even know you could make cake that tall. It's like, I thought after that I was like, everybody who's ever made cake needs to step their game up.

This is amazing. The table that God sets in His presence makes Ruth's Chris look like a Burger King. Burger King may be a little bit high on the totem pole compared to what God has for those who love Him and those who chase Him and those who belong to Him that we would delight ourselves in rich food. He steps into the middle of the chaos and says, come to me. You're longing, you're thirsty, you're weak, you have this spot in your soul that forever tells you that things in this world are wrong and broken and should not be like this and He's saying, yes, they shouldn't. Come to me where everything is good and everything is delightful and you will be full and satisfied.

That's the invitation. Verse 3, incline your ear, come to me, hear, that your soul may live. This is what Jesus says repeatedly in John 4 and John 7 where He's saying that this thirst is not a thirst that is quenched for a short time and you get it again. He's saying, no, this is soul level, heart fulfilling, thirst quenching. You will be forever full, forever satisfied. So He's saying this is just your soul.

This isn't just earthly richness, earthly wine, earthly milk. No, He's saying it's soul level, eternal level fulfillment. I will make with you an everlasting covenant. My steadfast, sure love for David. Now if you don't know the story of the Bible, that may not be as impactful and as exciting as it is meant to be when God utters it through the prophet Isaiah.

God came to King David and He made an everlasting covenant with David. He said, you are going to be a king forever and you can't mess this up. Like, I'm going to fulfill this promise to you. And He does fulfill that promise through Jesus Christ. That Jesus is the root of Jesse and Jesse is David's father. That He's the root of Jesse.

He's the root of David. That He's this promised Messiah, this promised king who's going to reign forever. And so what He just said was, I'm going to love you the way I love David, the way I love Jesus. That I'm going to make this covenant with you. If you come to me, you'll have the covenant I give to King David, the covenant I gave through Jesus, you will belong to me forever and you can't mess it up. So if you were a Jewish person and He says, the invitation to everyone is the invitation I made to David, you're like, what?

Everybody gets what David got? You come to, like He came to David, one specific human and said, I'll make this promise to you. And now Isaiah is saying, the promise is to everyone, they can have the same promise that was made to David. That you will forever be loved and welcomed. He says, behold, I made him a witness to the people. So He's talking about David, but He's also pointing forward to the Messiah, to Christ.

And so He says, I made him a witness to the people. What He means is not that He saw the people, that He witnessed the people, but that He put on display for the people this promise. So that God, in the midst of our rebellion, in the midst of our brokenness, calls out to us to come to Him and to be fulfilled. And then He sends Christ and Christ comes not to destroy us, but to be destroyed for us. So that He displays for us what God is like.

That Jesus is God's character witness. That He takes the stand and says, here's how much God loves you. Here's how good He is. And here's how honest He is to this offer. that He's made. That you might receive only good from Him. So that Jesus Christ goes to the cross so that we might see how much God loves us and that we might be redeemed from our sin because Jesus paid for it.

And so that when He says, I'm going to give you my sure covenant, what He means is that Jesus has already accomplished it. And when you place your faith in Him, you get all that Jesus deserved because He took all that you deserve. A leader and a commander for the peoples. Behold, you shall call a nation. Now He's talking to this leader, to this commander.

Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know and a nation that did not know you shall run to you because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for He has glorified you. So what He's saying, when we find all this out later as Scripture helps us understand what the prophet meant, was that it's not just Jewish people who will be saved. Which, since I know most of you, is very good news for the people in this room. That everyone gets to be included. That this Messiah is going to call a nation that hadn't belonged previously to God and make it His. Seek the Lord while He may be found.

Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man His thoughts. Let Him return to the Lord that He may have compassion on Him and to our God for He will abundantly pardon. So what it just said was, the invitation was, come to me, I'll make everything delightful and good. And then He says, stop your evil and come right now while the invitation is open. Come before the party starts.

Show up before we close the door. Repent of your sin, your wickedness. He says your wicked ways, meaning all the actions that we do that are evil. And then He says the unrighteous man, and His thoughts. There are some of us in this room who think this isn't bad because it hasn't left my brain. And He says, no, it's bad.

I'm not actually cheating on my wife. I'm just thinking about it. I'm not actually an angry person. I don't act on any of these things. I just run through scenarios in my head where I choke my boss. He says, no.

Get rid of not only your actions, but your evil thoughts and come to me while the door is still open. I was talking to a student at the University of South Carolina that I know. And we were talking about this. And he had grown up in a Christian home. And I just knew he kind of wasn't walking with Jesus. And so I just kind of said, at what point did you just decide that you didn't really believe what your parents believed?

And he said, no, that's not it. Like I, I know what they believe is true. I just know that if I believe it right now, I'll have to change the stuff I'm doing. And I'm really young. And there's still time. So what I want to do is get to just kind of enjoy college.

And then, at some point, I know I'll follow Jesus. It was a very sad conversation. Because he was very mistaken in two different distinct ways. One, he thinks that all the stuff he's going to chase after in college is actually more enjoyable than Jesus. And it is not. He thinks it will satisfy him when it is not bread.

And it does not satisfy. And two, he's confident about something he cannot be confident about, which is that he has all the time he needs. See, this invitation is Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts. What that means is that there will be a time when he cannot be found.

And there will be a time when he is not near. And when people beg and plead and weep and grind their teeth and scream as loud as they possibly can. Please, please, please, please. And he says, No. No. The door is closed.

I am not near. I cannot be found. The party has already begun for all those who ran from their sin and ran to me. The invitation was made to you. And you said, No. That moment is not this moment, but that moment is coming.

And so at this moment, I urge you, seek him, turn from your sin, and run to the table that he set where true satisfaction and joy can be found. Let him return to the Lord. This is the back half of verse 7. That he may have compassion on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. Presidential pardons, I always find them very interesting. The president, right when he gets to the end of his time, he just starts releasing people from prison.

And he does it right at the end of his time because he doesn't want to have to hear about it. He knows people are already kind of moving on. They're going to talk about it a little bit, but they're paying attention to who the next president is. The reason presidents don't just show up and start releasing people from prison is because they'd have to deal with all the people who were like, What the heck are you doing? But they do it right at the end of time and they just let people go.

And as the president, once they let you go, you're done. You get to go. It has to be a certain set of crimes that the president has oversight over. But once they say you're free, you're free. Nobody gets to round you back up. Nobody's sending a U.S.

Marshal after that guy. You're free. And what he just said was that the God of the universe who has oversight over all of our sin abundantly pardons. He signs the paperwork and you're free. That nobody can round you up because he's the king of the universe. That if we turn from our sin, we run to him and he says, free.

And he makes the covenant he made with David which was, you will forever belong to me. And the way he does it is that Jesus Christ paid our punishment so that we could go free. Verse 8. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. I don't know if this is the case, but if any of y'all just thought, that doesn't sound fair. I'm glad his thoughts aren't your thoughts and his ways aren't your ways.

He decided to redeem those who don't deserve to be redeemed through the blood of his own son because he's good and because he's smarter than us and better than us. For as high as the heavens are higher than the earth, for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

Meaning, he's going to do what he wants to do. He's declared this and this is how it's going to work. I also want to just tag this. I don't think this is what the author is saying, but I want to tag it. He says that the word of God is like rain that falls down, that it brings forth life. And for those of you in this room who are Christians, if you feel dry and withered, weary and exhausted, I just want to ask, have you been pulling up to the table lately?

Have you been studying the word? Have you been letting it soak into you? Have you been letting it give you life? Have you been drawing yourself close to the God of the universe who says he has milk and water and wine? If you feel like you have no energy, he has milk. If you feel like you're about to die, he has water.

And if you just need some joy, he has wine. And it's better than what you bought at Walmart. It's verifiable. Read John 2. God makes good wine. Verse 12.

For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace. If you right now knew that there could be a promise over your life of joy and peace, you take it. Honestly, if I could just know that my life would be filled with joy and peace, that just sounds wonderful. I pray for that all the time, that my house would be filled with joy and be filled with peace. And he's saying that's what belongs to those who will belong to him. And it's not just here, it's an eternal promise.

The mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Those who belong to Jesus get to live in a Disney movie. You guys. Instead of the thorn, there shall come up the cypress. Instead of the briar, shall come up the myrtle. And it shall make a name for the Lord, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

The invitation is that we would turn from our sin, be abundantly pardoned, welcomed in the celebration, and enter into a place that forever, that is an everlasting, eternal home where there is no more sin and destruction. There is no Me Too movement in eternity with Jesus. There are no protest marches, no sit-ins, there is no weeping in eternity with Jesus that we have all been invited into and welcomed at a table that belongs to Him. That's a promise made in Isaiah. This idea of flowing water is mentioned in John 4 and mentioned in John 7. It's mentioned in Zechariah.

It's mentioned in Jeremiah. It's mentioned throughout the Old Testament in Ezekiel. It's this idea that God would give joy and peace and an overflowing well of water that would not run dry. Revelation chapter 22 says this and this is where we'll end today. The spirit and the bride say come and let the one who hears say come and let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

Just leave that up there for a little while for a little while. We're told in Isaiah that the God of the universe steps into the brokenness and says come to me if you're thirsty come drink. And the book of Revelation says that the spirit spirit of God and the bride of Christ that's the church stand together and make the same invitation. That the church that belongs to Jesus will be so filled with the spirit that we would be inviting everyone we can to come. That our role because we actually believe this is to stand and say no, no, no, no, no. I know of something that does satisfy.

I know of one who does fill the longings of your heart. I know of something that will fill you up. I know of water while you thirst and long. I know of a much better invitation that's made to you. This is why I had someone the other day was saying like why do we tell people they should break up with people? We don't always do that.

Some people shouldn't break up. A lot of people should. And here's why we tell people that. We actually believe verse 2 why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which does not satisfy? We believe that a lot of people are in relationships and they're actively running away from Jesus. They're actively pursuing sexual sin.

They're actively chasing after things that will not satisfy. And without hesitation without blinking we can look at them and say stop. There's a much better invitation made to you that will not be found in this relationship. This is why we can look at someone and say I don't think you should take that promotion. This is why we can look at someone and say I think your job's too big of a deal. This is why we can look at someone and say I think you're placing too much weight in this area because we believe that it's in our hearts to chase after and labor for things that won't fill us up but that God promises that he will.

And that we get to join the spirit of God, the prophet of God echoing the voice of God and say come. All of you who are thirsty come. There's a beautiful invitation for you. There's richness and depth that you can't even imagine. That's what the church gets to do. That's who we get to be.

That's one of the reasons why we exist in community groups because we get to be a small picture of this party, this celebration that is coming. We've had recently a couple of stories that came out of our community groups that were really encouraging to me. There was somebody hanging out with the group. It was his first time hanging out and after he'd been there for a little while he goes, okay, can I say something? Am I allowed to talk? They were like, sure.

He said, um, my roommate had been inviting me to this for a long time and now I see. I see why he likes it. This is just great. So I don't know if I'm supposed to say stuff like this but this is great. And can I keep coming? That group they said absolutely.

This is why he kept inviting you. He knew it was great. You thought he was weird. He didn't care. He kept inviting you because he knew what was on the other side. He knew what was set at the table.

Somebody would come hang out with a group and they were just playing poker together. They were just sitting here for a while and after a while he just said, how do y'all know each other? Because I just haven't been around people like this. His assumption was y'all have to have been friends for a really long time. Y'all have to have really deep meaningful relationships. And they were like, we just met.

It was just kind of like, we all were part of the same church? And what it was, he had gotten a glimpse into what it looks like for a group of people to be sitting at a table who had been brought in because their sins had been pardoned. Who had been brought in because they knew they had been eating dirt and now were getting to eat bread. They had been brought in because they knew. And there's a grace and a peace and a joy and an ability to talk about really serious things and really jokey, frivolous things and swap back and forth with ease because they're people who've been invited to a table where they didn't have to earn their way in.

My group is going to need to multiply at some point. Dawn Gooch, who's on the video, she's in my community group. I don't want our group to multiply, if I'm honest with y'all. Can I confess sin up here? But I remind myself about Dawn and then I do want our group to multiply because there's other Dawns out there that need to be on a video four years from now saying, I'm so glad they harassed me.

I think she said, I'm glad that Kelly stalked me. Super weird. If this is your first time, I'm sorry. That was creepy, you guys. Here's the thing. We are too.

And if you actually get to take a seat at that table where the food is rich and the God is good who pardons sin, you'll get to say the same thing two, three years from now. You see, we believe that Jesus is better than everything else for you, that you should put your sin down and you should chase after him. And we believe that Jesus is better than everything else for the people in your group, that you should look at them and say, you need to run after him headlong and you need to run away from your wickedness and you need you and he'll make you whole. And we believe that Jesus is better than everything else for everyone else.

And our prayer is that two years from now, you get to stand right here in a portable hot tub, put your hand on the back of your neighbor, put your hand on the back of your co-worker, put your hand on the back of your roommate who currently has no desire for anything that has to do with Jesus and actually is a little bit annoyed with you every time you bring it up. Put your hand on their back and say, who is your Lord and Savior? And have them say, with tears rolling down their face, Jesus Christ. And for you to slam dunk them in some water, because it represents that they have died with Christ, that their sin has been taken away, that they've risen with him, and that they will forever have a seat at that table.

Our prayer is that four years from now, we'll be sitting with someone who right now you haven't even met yet, but you're about to this week, because they're about to get a job, two cubicles down from you. And we'll be laying our hands on them, and praying over them, and weeping over them, because we're not going to see them again for a while, because they're going overseas to tell everybody that there's a God of the universe who stepped into our brokenness, and he says, come, come to me, find fulfillment, find joy, find satisfaction, quit eating dirt. that's our hope, that's our prayer. So we're going to keep actively running from sin and helping each other run from sin, and we're going to keep actively trying to equip ourselves and grow in what it means to be gospel-centered and to love Jesus and to exist in relationships with each other, and we're going to continue to multiply groups and train group leaders, and we're going to continue to repent of sin and practice church discipline, and we're going to continue to do all of these things, because we know there's a moment in time when the door gets shut and the king of the universe starts to party. And we want as many people as possible at that table, and we honestly don't care if they want to hear it or not, because we know what's at the table and who makes the invitation and how good and satisfying it is.

Matt's going to come back up here. We're going to sing. During this next song, you have the opportunity, to sing. You have the opportunity to sit and pray. Maybe you have some people right now that you know you need to begin telling. You need to begin standing with the Holy Spirit as the bride of Christ and saying, come.

Everyone, come. I love in that verse where it says, let the one who hears say, come. That's who we're praying for right now. That's who I was just talking about. That's your co-worker who's going to get to do the same thing, who's going to get to go to someone right now. They don't know Jesus right now, but at some point, they're going to have heard it and they're going to begin to shout alongside you and alongside the Spirit of God, come, this invitation is beautiful and good.

In a minute, as we've repented, as we've reflected, we'll be able to take communion, which is our promise of the future hope of the resurrection. It's us remembering the cross and looking forward to the hope that we have forever in Jesus, that his body was broken for us, that his blood was shed for us, that he invited us in. If you're a Christian, that's for you. If you're not a Christian, we'd ask you to not partake in communion because you don't fully know what it means at this point. So during this next song, Matt will sing, we'll pray, we'll take communion, and then in a minute we'll have a chance to stand and sing together as a church.

Let's pray. God, we ask that we could stand shoulder to shoulder with your spirit, that he would dwell in us and empower us as your bride to invite to an unending supply to invite everyone we know to true satisfaction, true hope, true fulfillment, to proclaim Christ. We ask for those in this room right now that need to turn from their sin, that need to run to you, that they'd find you with open arms ready to abundantly pardon. We love you. We praise you in Jesus' name.

Jesus is Better Than Everything Else for You

Jesus is Better Than Everything For You

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Over the past several months, we're looking at who we've been as a church, where we're wanting to go, what we've always kind of tried to claim and point people to, and we just came up with this as a helpful way to say kind of the heart behind everything else we're going for. So last week, we specifically spent some time talking about Jesus is better than everything else for you. For you personally, for you as an individual, that Jesus is better than everything else for me, that he's better than everything else, he's more enjoyable, more lovely, more to be pursued, more to be chased after, more to be desired than all the other things that I could desire. And now today, we're talking about Jesus is better than everything else for those around you, those next to you, those who walk in life with you that are believers.

So that Jesus is better than everything else for me, and Jesus is better than everything else for you. For the people in your group and in your family, that we would take the time to intentionally point them towards Jesus. We said last week that the whole point of the gospel was for joy, for enjoyment. That Hebrews 12 says that it was for the joy set before him that Jesus endured the cross and scorned its shame. That he went for our joy in his glory and in a relationship with him, and that we are meant to find our fulfillment, our pleasure, our happiness, our joy in him. So as we get started this morning, I have a personal question for you.

How argumentative are you? Not you, don't like look at your spouse. How argumentative are you? Are you the type of person who just enjoys a good exchange of ideas? You don't even like the word argue, because it's like, I'm not mad. You're just wrong, and I'm trying to help.

That you don't mind hopping in. You don't mind correcting. You don't mind engaging. That you'll actually, you don't have to raise your hand or raise your spouse's hand, but you'll overhear a conversation and just hop in. I'm sorry, what? No, Thai food is terrible.

Like you just, it's like they were talking to you. You like that movie? Like you just jump in to start an argument. To engage in a discussion. Robust dialogue. Whatever you call it.

Now, there's other people on the other side of the spectrum. How many of you in this room are just not? You're not going to correct people. You're not going to disagree with people. Either it makes you feel uncomfortable, or you just don't care. So like there's some people who watch someone do something wrong, and they'll be like, hey, I know it's none of my business, but can I help you?

Can I tell you what you're doing wrong here? And there are those of you in this room who will watch someone try and fail, and try and fail, and you'll sit back and go, idiot. But you're not going to tell them. You're not going to tell them they're wrong. Maybe you know they're wrong. You just don't want to.

Maybe you're not mad at them, or you're not judging them. You're just thinking, maybe they know a different way, and it's just not working for them. I don't know. My wife, I'm the type of person, I don't mind getting into engaging in an argument, a discussion. I don't mind it at all. My wife is on the opposite end of the spectrum.

So like we've been places before where she's like, when we're showing up, she's like, oh, they think my name's Tina. It's like you haven't corrected them on your name? Like, she will. She'll let somebody call her. I'll be like, I'll fix this. Like, I'll walk in and like announce your name loudly.

And like, she's just that type of person. She has to care a lot. So if you're the type of person who doesn't engage, how much do you have to care? How close do you have to be to the situation before you'll wait in, before you'll correct, before you'll... So like I've had people say like, I could just never imagine your wife getting upset.

It's like, I can imagine it. I've seen it. Because she cares. She's invested. She's close. And so some of you, it takes a whole lot.

And what we're going to look at today in this section in Titus, so if you want to grab your Bibles and head to Titus chapter 2, we're picking up with the Apostle Paul. He's writing to a pastor. And he's saying, here's something worth engaging over. Here's something worth waiting in. Here's something worth discomfort, frustration. This is worth your hopping in, arguing, declaring, insisting.

So let's pray for our time as we begin to read this this morning. We're going to read a good bit and just kind of try to walk through it together where Paul is saying, hey, this needs to be engaged. Father, we ask that your word would train us, that it would show us your glory and your grace, that you might equip us to love and to follow you and to care enough for those around us. To point them to Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

You see, we naturally point people towards things that we think are better. We naturally will point someone towards something that we think is good. You do this with mechanics. You do this with movies. I had a friend of mine who told me he'd moved up here from Florida and he's like, yeah, I've never had fried chicken. And I was like, get in the truck.

Like, we're going now. You need to eat fried chicken. Like, he got him a chicken breast. He looked at it and said, okay, now what do I do? I was like, bite that part. He's like, just grab it.

I was like, yes. He ate a little bit and then he put it down and he said, I see why everybody talks about this. I was like, yes, fried chicken is amazing. But we do that. When we know something is better, we know something is good, we point people to it. And this is where we're looking at actually pointing each other towards Jesus, which we would say as Christian is supreme, that he is above everything else, that he is what is most good for us.

We're going to pick up in verse 11 of chapter 2. For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works. Okay, so look back. We're going to look at verses 11 and 12 together. They'll be on the screen. As Christians, our goal is to remain Christians.

Once you believe in Jesus, you want to continue to believe. You want to continue to have him at work in your soul. You don't want to drift. You don't want to run away. You want to stay tethered to Christ. You want him to be at work in your heart to make you look more and more like him.

Now, we believe that he does that in us through the power of his spirit, but that we collectively work together to continue to point each other back towards what most matters so that we might most enjoy, love, and follow Jesus. And so what he says at the beginning of this passage is he says, For the grace of God has appeared. Well, what's he talking about? What's the grace of God that has appeared? We'll have that on the screen. The grace of God has appeared.

And then he says, bringing salvation for all people. So that tells us what the grace of God is, that the salvation brought for all people, we know, is Christ. So what he's saying is that when Jesus showed up and went to the cross, that grace appeared, appeared, and this grace brought salvation for all people. That Jesus Christ lived perfectly on our behalf. That he died a sinner's death. That all sinners deserve to die, but that he didn't deserve to die.

And that he was laid in the tomb, and that he rose again. That he conquered sin and death on our behalf so that we might be saved. That that's grace. That that's what's appeared. That it's God showed up in history. That the grace of God appeared, bringing salvation.

And then he says this, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. All right. As we want to follow Jesus, we want to grow. And what it means to be healthy, and to walking away from sin, and walking closer to Jesus. And one of the things that happens, on a regular basis, is that someone becomes a Christian, and that we step in and say, okay, they're a Christian now, and it's almost like, you need grace. You need Jesus to save you.

You're a sinner, and you need grace. You need to be saved from your sin, by no work of your own, but you need Jesus to redeem you, and then you become a Christian, and it's like, okay, now there's a lot of rules you need to learn. You've got to get your stuff together. Now that you're a Christian, there's a whole lot of mess in your life, that we've got to work on. And sometimes it can feel like, what we think is, no, no, I needed grace to be saved, but now I need the rules to grow. But what's he saying?

When he says, training us to renounce ungodliness, and worldly passions, what trained us? The grace of God that appeared. That it's grace that trains us. It's grace that calls us out of our sin. That it's God's grace on our behalf that keeps us from chasing after our old worldly passions. And worldly passions are the things that we used to love and desire.

I love the word passion is there. Something that you're just passionate about. Your face lights up when you think about it. And it's one of the things that you used to just chase after. Your world was built around it. And how did your passions change?

Grace came in. How did your loves change? He began to love something more. That's what the next verse is. I want to show this to you. I find it so encouraging.

He says, We're waiting for our blessed hope. The appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. So that what happened was, he stepped in and we, our hope, our longing, our desire changed. Our passions changed. So that what you used to be passionate about, what you used to look forward to, what you used to build your calendar around, what you used to change.

And now you have a blessed hope that your passions changed to a longing and a deep desire. I love when you get to see at like airports and stuff where someone's waiting on a soldier to return. A spouse is waiting with a family and they've got those sons that they just can't wait. And the ones that truly just waited, longed for them, couldn't wait for them to get back. That life wasn't the same without them. It's so beautiful to see that and to see them reunited.

To see tears. I love the ones where it's like the dad shows up at someone's school and just appears like he's the chicken. He takes the mascot head off and all of a sudden it's like, oh my goodness! Like I love those where it's like life wasn't the same without you. You now become so ingrained in us, so longing to see you, longing to enjoy you, longing to have you. And that's what happened.

That we had worldly passions but that Jesus changed our hearts and we now have a deep, blessed hope, a longing and a desire that won't be the same until he comes back. I have a two-year-old and I drop him off at different places and dropping him off isn't that much fun, picking him up is like to see his little face light up and he'll say, Dad, you came back for me. And that's us. That we're waiting for Jesus to come back for us that our hope is now the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ that we want to see him glorified, that we want to see him lifted up so that we used to love worldly passions.

We used to have things that we chased after but that he wooed us, that he stole our hearts. And here's how he did it. He gave himself up for us to redeem us from all lawlessness. That we used to have things that we loved. My wife and I started dating in high school and she, the first time she ever like saw me, someone pointed me out to her and was talking about me or whatever. The first words my wife ever said about me out loud, she looked at me, she really soaked it in, I think, like if I'm going to picture this in my head.

And then she said, I don't like him to the person next to her. And her friend was like, okay, like, it's fine with that. Some of you are like, hey, I have something in common with your wife. But here's what happened. Here's what happened. I wooed her.

I stole her heart. She can't at this moment now even hear my voice without her heart just almost skipping a beat, you guys. And that's what happened. We had worldly passions and worldly pleasures and the grace of God appeared in Jesus Christ who came and gave himself up for us to redeem us. That he came and laid his life down that we might be his. And what happened in that moment was that he stole our hearts and our passions changed and our longings changed and our desires changed because we saw that he was better and more glorious and more to be desired.

That's what Paul's saying. That he came and changed our desires. That he called us out of that and into something else. That he made a people that belonged to him for his own possession who were zealous for good works. Verse 15. Declare these things.

And he's going to say stuff like that several times throughout this text. He's going to talk about these things. And what are these things? The gospel. That the grace of God appeared. That he called us away from our sin, away from our old passions, gave us a new hope and new longing and new desire through what Jesus accomplished on the cross.

And that we declare those things. Now, Titus was a pastor. He was an elder in a church and so Paul when he's writing this is giving specific instructions to Titus as a pastor. But when we read it as the church at large what we just see is what's valuable for churches to talk about, what pastors to talk about and so therefore what's valuable for us to talk about. So when he says declare these things, he's specifically talking to Titus as a pastor, as a shepherd, as a teacher but it's also for us to do the same.

So what he says is declare these things, exhort and rebuke. So that's encourage and correct. That's clap and slap. Exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you. And I love that he says let no one disregard you.

Do you want to know why I love that? Because so often in our lives we're going to want to tell someone this truth about Jesus and they're not going to want to hear it. We don't go, oh they don't want to hear it. We go, hey! No, no, no. This is what we're talking about.

You're going to have friends that are going to say, hey can't we talk about something else? Like I know we've been friends for a while and I was walking in your group for a while but I've made my decision. I'm chasing after this and every time we get together all you want to do is tell me that Jesus is better and that I need to turn from my sin and I need to can't we talk about something else? And you get to say, no. No we can't. But I am willing to continue to hang out with you forever.

Every day for the rest of your life. Not allowing you to disregard me. So that's how we exhort, that's how we encourage and it's how we correct, it's how we rebuke. So that what he's saying is that he called us away from sin and he called us to good work so that when someone in your group is just exhausted, they just don't, like I just can't, I just can't anymore. Like I just, if they call me one more time, I'm just, I just can't, I'm just not going to answer. Like I just have no desire to do anymore.

Like I'm done with them. And what you get to step in and say, no, let me encourage you in how good the gospel is and how grace has worked on your behalf and how you've been equipped and called for good works. And when someone's chasing after old sin, you get to step in and say, no, let me tell you how we've been called out of that. Not so that you might earn your salvation, but because Jesus has already laid down his life for you and you have a better savior. You have a greater love that we exhort and rebuke with it. Now, we're going to move into chapter three and chapters and verses in the Bible were added later.

They are helpful because they help you find things. It'd be really hard if you were like, hey, turn, if we stood up and said, turn to the middle of Isaiah, kind of under, like it would take us forever. So they were added later to help us find things. But Paul didn't write that giant three right there. So one of the problems that I have sometimes is that you're reading, you hit the end of two, you see that giant three and you think, well, I should be done for a little while.

He stopped his thought. It's like, no, he didn't. He just wrote a letter. We added the three later. So ignore the three and let's move on.

He says, remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle and to show perfect courtesy toward all people. I love the beginning of this verse, these few verses we just read. Remind them. Isn't that encouraging? You know what Paul just assumed? We're going to forget this.

You're not going to be gentle. You're going to not want to submit to rulers and authorities. You're not going to want to be ready for every good work. Like, that we're going to drift from where we're supposed to be and that one of the things we're supposed to do collectively as pastors and as each other in church families is to remind each other, hey, no, that actually isn't the best. Like, you shouldn't be doing that. Like, he assumes that our hearts will drift and he keeps going.

Verse 3. 4. So he says, this is what you do. Remind them. Call them back to the good things because, that's what 4 means, for we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. He said, this is what we used to be like.

You've got to remind them because here's what we used to be like. And I love the phrase where he says, slaves to various passions and pleasures. That one of the reasons we need to be reminded about the goodness of Jesus, that we need to exhort and declare to one another about the gospel is because we used to have another master. We used to be enslaved to our desires. We used to be enslaved to our passions. We used to build our life around our pleasures and we're called now to a greater love, a greater hope, a better master.

We're betrothed to one who is greater and more enjoyable and more to be desired. I played football throughout my life. I started when, I used to play baseball and then I started playing football when I was like 11 and I went home one day and was like, football is better than baseball and I will never play baseball again because I get to, one of the things that had a problem with baseball was when they hit you with the ball, you just get to take, you just get to go to first base. You don't get to try to hurt them. I mean, you can't in the pros some. They really frowned on it in the little league.

But in football, if you hurt me, hey, next play, bro. Like I get to try to come back and I remember being in football in college. I was playing in college and it was right before, it was the most depressing hour of the day, right before we began to stretch and have to start practice and all the guys are just kind of standing around talking to each other and I remember picking up one of the footballs and I was just kind of looking at it and I held up and said, hey, just a few guys around me and I said, hey, you ever thought about how much of your time, how much of your energy, your life, your sweat has been devoted to this oddly shaped brown object? You ever thought about that?

And I said to one of the guys, his name was Antoine, he was All-American and he went, hey, y'all shut up. Everybody shut up. Listen to this. Say it again. And I was like, nobody was paying attention to me but they listened to Antoine so everybody now, all the defensive players are looking at me and I said, have you ever thought about how much time, how much of your life you've devoted to this? And I just, I remember them just looking at it and going, like there were some guys that you were like, that guy's doing some good math and you're like, your math's not great but you know it's a lot.

And when he says that you used to be slaves to various passions and pleasures, what that means is they used to tell you where to go, what to do. You weren't at liberty. They owned you. They owned your schedule. They told you how to spend your time, how to spend your money. They told you what life was going to look like for you.

That your passions owned you. And so I don't know what I could, if I had a big bag, if I could pull something out. I don't know for you what would be the thing that you've devoted so much of your life to. I don't know if I could pick out a mirror. I don't know if I could pick up a paycheck. I don't know if I could hold up a title. or a plaque that you'd set on a really nice mahogany desk.

I don't know if I could pull out of this bag and hold up something that was, I don't know. I don't know for you what would be the thing that you could look at, the object that you could look at and say, no, I've really spent a lot of my life obeying that. I don't know if you spent your time chasing after being admired or being desired. But what we know is we as Christians were slaves. We have former masters that told us where to go and what to do and what mattered and how to spend our time and how to make friends. Which friends to keep, which friends to lose.

We have masters that have owned us. For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaved to various passions and pleasures, passing our day in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But, when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, that's verse 4, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy. by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. Alright, so this passage, this verse, what He says, just parallels perfectly with what He said earlier. So what He says is, but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, so what did He say appeared earlier?

Grace. What's He saying appeared now? Goodness and love and kindness from God. It's the same thing. It's the same thing that appeared. It's Jesus.

That when Jesus showed up, we saw how good God was. We saw how loving He was. We saw how kind He is that He would redeem, that He would lay His life down. And He says the same thing. Earlier He said, bringing salvation for all people. What's He say here?

He saved us. That His goodness, His loving, His kindness saved us and now it's more personal. So what He's saying is for your life, there was a moment where God's goodness intercepted you. Where He claimed you. Where He made you His. If you're a Christian, there's a moment where His goodness and His kindness saved you.

And then He says, not because of works done by us in righteousness. So earlier He was saving us away from the sinful things and here He says it in a different way but what He says is, God did not save you because you had it together, because you were good, because you were holy, because you were perfect. He wasn't looking around going, who do I need on my team? That person. No, He chose us while we were in the midst of being slaves to our passions and our pleasures. Setting our whole calendars around food and sex and drink.

Setting our whole calendars around ambition. That He redeemed us in the middle of that. And that He washed us, renewed us through the Holy Spirit. And then in verse 6, talking about the Holy Spirit, He says, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. And so that's the same thing where we have a blessed hope, now He says it's according to the hope of eternal life. We have a new hope, a new longing that we're now heirs belonging to Jesus.

Verse 8. The saying is trustworthy and I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for the people. So He says, this saying is trustworthy, this gospel saying I just said, and then He says, I want you to insist on these things. And so the two words here is insist on these things. I want you to hammer on this.

I want you to pound on this. I want you to make this the thing that you talk about. And these things, He says that a couple of times. I want you to declare these things. I want you to insist on these things. It's this truth about the gospel that He said.

But I want you all to notice who He says to insist on this too. So that those who have believed. Who are you insisting on the gospel to? The people who need to be reminded. The people who used to have a former master. You're insisting on the gospel to them so that they might be changed, be claimed, continue to run towards Jesus.

That they might have grace change their hearts and call them away from them worldly passions. That grace might train them. We insist on the gospel repeatedly over and over and over and over and over and over again. That's our job as Christians with each other because Jesus is better. So when someone's drifting and running after something else, we try to remind them and insist and declare.

And this is what He's saying. This is worth waiting in. I was at a football game for my younger brother and we were watching and they had a running back that had just marched the ball down the field. They get right at the goal line and they start trying to throw some passes. It's an incomplete pass. Incomplete pass.

My dad's sitting there like just, you know, like he's just getting, he's just crawling all over him. Finally, he just, they throw another pass that's incomplete and he stands up and yells at the top of his lungs. Dance with the one what brung ya! You guys, I was so excited. I just froze. I smiled.

I turned at him and I said, what? What on earth are you talking about? He's like, you know, a pretty girl takes a guy to a dance and then when they get there she dances with everybody else. Dance with the one what brung ya. He marched it all the way down the field. Let him score the touchdown.

Quit trying to get cute. Hand the ball off. He's gotten five yards every daggum time. Oh, dance with the one what brung ya. Okay. I will totally use this again in life.

I'm ready. That's what Paul's saying. When he says insist on these things, he's saying dance with the one what brung ya. He's saying that Jesus got us here. Grace got us here. It wasn't about you learning all these new and wonderful things and learning all these rules, but it was that Jesus stole your heart and so that when someone's drifting, when someone's chasing after something else, that we collectively as a church sit them down and say dance with the one what brung ya.

We sit them down and say Jesus is better. He's more glorious, more holy, more to be desired, more lovely than the thing you're chasing after. That he ultimately is what will fulfill your soul, your desires, your hope, and that he's brought you this far and we're not changing the story and we're not changing the things that we declare. We're insisting on this. I often, when I'm reading the Bible, look up words. I just hit a word and it's like, I kind of know what that means.

I think I could use it in a sentence and not look like a moron, but I want to know what it means. I want to fully, and so I just, in this one, I just looked up the word insist. Like I know the word insist. I got it. But I wanted to read and I love the definition.

There's two. Demanding something forcefully, not accepting refusal. And Paul says, insist on this. He means demand forcefully and don't accept refusal. Don't let them squirm out. The second one is this.

Persist in doing something even though it is annoying or odd. When the people in our church family come to you and they're in the middle of sin or they're talking about their life or they're confessing things or they're just talking, like a lot of times when people are doing that, they really want three things. One of three things. They may want you to advise them. You're close enough. You're in a relationship to where it's like that.

I just want some life coaching here. I want some good ideas here. They may want you to empathize with them. They just want you to look at them and say, I'm so sorry. It sounds so tough. And the person who wants advice doesn't really care about your empathy.

That's so hard. It's like, yeah, okay. You got any ideas? It's like, I ain't trying to get a hug. I ain't telling you this just because of that. And the person who wants you to empathize is so mad at you when you give advice.

They're like, I just wanted you to say it was terrible and give me a hug. And you're like, well, but here's what you really need to do. They maybe just want you to listen. A good way to tell is if it's a phone conversation. Right after they're done talking and you start talking, they get really busy. They've said all their stuff and you're like, well, hey, let me, oh, well, look at that.

My cat just caught on fire and they just hang out the phone. They didn't want you to say anything. They really, empathy would be okay. Advice is terrible. And you know what we do? As Christians, as church families, those who belong to one another and belong to Jesus, we do something very odd and annoying and we don't stop.

We say, you need Jesus. If you're tired, you need Jesus. If you're sad and lonely, you need Jesus. You need to remember the gospel. If you're frustrated, if you're hurting, if you're in the middle of sin, if you need to be encouraged or you need to be rebuked, I have one message. I have one thing to insist on.

I may have some coaching later. I may have some advice later. Certainly, you can have some empathy, but the one main thing you need to get out of this is that you need Jesus, that He's ultimately better. You just lost your job? I'm so sorry. You didn't lose Jesus.

When you just lost your job, it's like, shut up. No. No, I'm not going to because He says, these things are excellent and profitable for people. You want empathy, but you really need a balm that heals. You need wounds that are bound up and guess what? Jesus does that.

You need to run from your sin and guess what? Jesus works in that. You need to be redeemed and forgiven and guess what? Jesus works in that. You need to calm and quiet your soul. You need to know that someone else rules over the universe and guess what?

Jesus does that. And so that when we are walking with people in life and something happens, our response is, Jesus is better and more glorious. That at the end of this, I have nothing better to offer you than Jesus. And even if you follow my wonderful, intelligent, super great advice and you don't end up with Jesus, I've failed you. I haven't helped you because what you need is Him. And so we insist so they won't ignore us and we persist in it even though it's annoying.

This is as a church when we say like, you'll hear someone say, yeah, I had the chance to gospel them. That's what we mean. I had the chance to tell them this message again. These things again. I insisted once again on these things for them. You'll hear someone talk about gospel fluency and that's what we've taught before.

It's just that the gospel is our native language. This is what we talk about. We say that we give good news before good advice or that we talk about Jesus before we talk about you. We've labeled it with 13,000 different things but it's this, that we insist on this message. So when He says these things, it's the two things that He said multiple times.

We'll reread verses 4 through 7. That's the most close one but He said the same thing earlier when He said declare these things. He was talking about that same kind of framework of grace has appeared, it saved us, that He called us away from our worldly passions, that He gave up His life for us. So let's read verses 4 through 7 where He's saying the same thing. He even does it in this passage. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness but according to His own mercy by the washing of regeneration and the renewal of the Holy Spirit whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

So that being justified by His grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. So that's the message. a good, loving, kind God had grace breakthrough in your life and He saved you away from your worldly passions, your sin, and your former slave master and towards, and not because, any of your own good work, merit, effort. Washed you, cleansed you, gave you a new hope, a new longing, a new desire, and, on the back end of that, some good work to do. That's what we declare, that's what we proclaim over and over and over again. So that when someone's lonely and sad, we say, hey, I insist that there's a good and loving and kind God that wants to redeem you and make you His.

I insist that He made you an heir, which means He made you family. When someone's chasing after something, they say, if I could just have this, then everything would be fine. And you say, I insist that you have a better hope. I insist that there's something more to be looked forward to and more to be desired than that. When someone's chasing after sin, we sit down with them and we say, I insist that God's called you away from that, that He's a better master, that He's a better lover, that He's a better, that He can woo you and steal your heart than that thing will ever be. And we do this over and over and over again.

And we have to remind one another over and over and over again because you know who can be tricked by their former masters? All of us. You know who can be called back into their past pleasures and passions? All of us. I want to talk to y'all. I think it's a good example of this.

It's one of the great characters in American theater. Ron Swanson. He's a character on Parks and Rec if you're unfamiliar with the show. He is one of my favorite characters ever. He's one of the most put together people in the show. Like he has some eccentric.

He's eccentric. But he's kind of even keely kind of like for the most part. And one of the big storylines with him is that he has some former wives named Tammy. They're different wives from different stages in life but they're both named Tammy. And he's terrified of them because they're crazy. That's the way I'm not saying all ex-wives are.

I'm just saying these are in the story. All right. So he's terrified of them because they're crazy. And what we see is that he's got all these plans and all these things and all these guardrails up to keep them away from him. But there are a few times in the show when they show back up and he's suddenly like, you know, they're not as bad as we like made out to be.

And the people around him are going, no, yes they are. And he's like, well, one lunch won't hurt. And the people around him are going, yes it will. One lunch will hurt. And he's like, no. And then what happens in these few episodes where they do this, he completely gets owned by these ladies.

They change his whole personality. They change everything about him. And they reclaim him. And it's his friends around him that have to step in and fight on his behalf even though he doesn't want to hear it. Because he's lost his senses and re-submitted himself to a former master. That's you.

You have a former master. In Jesus, he's stolen your heart. And there are moments in your life when you're going, I'll never, ever look longingly at that again because he's so glorious. And the people around you are going, yeah, that's right. You do confession and sin. You go, I just am so free from this.

And your group's like, yeah, that's right. You're free from that. That's beautiful. And then six months later you're like, well, you know a little bit of that. And your group's going, what? Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho.

And you're going, no, no, no, it's not that big a deal. Like I just, we just kind of, you know, I just picked up a little bit of that. I just started a little bit. It's just online. It's just, and you have all these lame excuses, but you're unwilling to listen to anybody in your group's going, whoa, ho, ho, ho, and we're designed as church family to grab you and smack your head against the wall and say, no, no, no, no, no. Jesus is better and that's about to reclaim you and I insist that you remember the basics.

Not, you need to behave. Not, this is going to, like, no, Jesus is more glorious and more holy and more beautiful and he can steal your heart and his grace is for you and you never earned this in the first place and you need him and we're meant to do that because we all so easily can go astray that you are not responsible for the people around you. You cannot repent for them, you cannot make them behave, but you have a responsibility to them to insist on the gospel, to hold up for them these things that Jesus Christ is good and glorious and gracious and that he saves based off of his good work, not ours, that he calls us away from our effort, our self-sufficiency, that he calls us away from our former slavery to passions and pleasures and that he calls us into a better family with a better hope. And if you are a Christian, you need to memorize these things so that you can insist on them.

That's step one. If you're a Christian and when you go to talk to somebody about this, you just kind of don't have, you need to start memorizing some Bible verses, you need to start memorizing and reciting this for yourself so that you can point other people back to it because we believe that Jesus is better and so that when someone in our church family is sitting with you and they said, well, I just don't see why God would say no to this if it makes me so happy, you can say, whoa, the reason he'd say no to that is because he gave himself up for you that you might be ultimately happy and joyous and engulfed in an eternity of joy rather than this little thing that's right in front of you right now. When someone in our church family looks at you and says, well, I prayed about it, I just don't feel convicted which, by the way, please never say that. If the Bible specifically says something is to be repented of, don't announce I'm so far away from Jesus I can't even hear that anymore.

That's all you're saying and when someone says that to you, you can say, okay, I honestly don't care. We're sinful. You're messed up. Of course you're not convicted. You love this thing. It's your former slave owner.

You can't see it but I can and I'm insisting that Jesus is better. Like we said last week when someone says, well, I think God just wants me to be happy. You can agree wholeheartedly but their happiness will be found only in him and so you're willing to fight alongside of them so that they'll ultimately get Jesus. The band's going to come back up. This is the message that we declare. We have been invited to the dance by Jesus.

He's the one who saved us. He's the one who's redeemed us. He's the one who's claimed us. He bought our corsage. We're going to keep dancing with Jesus. We weren't perfected by good works.

We weren't welcomed in because we got in our mess together. We were invited in in spite of our mess and without any good works to present. We weren't the ugly girl at the beginning of the rom-com who later fixes her hair and gets her glasses off and is now beautiful. We're ugly when we showed up to the dance. But that we belong to him and that he changes our hearts and he claims us and makes us his and we will forever point to one thing and one thing only.

Jesus. That he's better, that he's more glorious, that he redeems, that he claims, and that you want him above everything else. Let's pray. God, I pray that our church family would so believe that you are better, that it would be natural and easy and unacceptable in our own hearts to point to anything else. And I pray, Lord, that you would bless our church with the grace to when others point us to Jesus that we would yield, that we would bend, that we would listen. And I pray that you'd bless our church with the grace to be unyielding, to declare, to insist that you are better.

May this grace forever apply to us. And for those in this room this morning who need to stop pointing people to something else, I pray that they would. And for those in this room this morning that needed to hear that you are ultimately better, I pray that they would believe it. That your grace would train them to turn away from their old passions. And to be swept up in your love. In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Jesus is Better than Everything Else For Me

Jesus is Better than Everything Else for Me

Chet Phillips

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Transcript

Good morning. How's 2018 treating you? This is the first time that I, today was the first time I did not mind the bridge being out at all and me having to drive a little more because I'm trying to get my carbon footprint up to get that global warming started back up. Because, man, it is not working right now. One of the things I love about the beginning of the year, this time of year, is just how much kind of collectively we all begin to look back and to look forward. So there's just this time of year, this kind of season, everybody just kind of, the year ends and everybody begins to look back at what was 2017 like, what was the last year like, how did it go, what was good, what was bad.

I mean, there's a lot of articles and things and news reports of the 10 best movies that happened, the five best this, the seven worst these, and then there's this consistent like looking forward into where are we going from here. And it's just this season of re-evaluating our lives, re-evaluating, re-deciding what has value, what matters, what is good, what's worth pursuing, what's worth changing so that we might gain what we truly desire. Desire. I know for me, usually the last couple months of the year, I'm not thinking ahead. I just, I'm not. I think in my head, it's like, it's like, I'll get it together in January.

I know for a fact, one of the indications of this for me was coffee cake. My mom makes a coffee cake that's, the bottom layer is like a half, like an inch of bisquick. And then the top layer is like an inch, inch and a half of brown sugar. That's pretty much what it is. You melt butter on the brown sugar to make it stick together, right? So it's like a stick of butter, brown sugar.

And so I would eat that at my parents' house. And I was like, you know, it's only Christmas once. So I ate like half of it. But I said it's only Christmas once. But I also made it at my house on Christmas Day.

And I also made the same thing to take to my group when we hung out. And I ate a pile of it. And it was like, that was kind of my mentality during the season. It's like, well, you know, I really value sweets. And I really value anything that I can just put in a bowl that's hot and put crackers in. And like dip a biscuit in.

So like, this is my season of just getting to eat piles of food out of a bowl. Like, I just really value that. And I would tell myself, you know, it's only Christmas once. But it was like the third Christmas party I'd been to that week where I was just eating carbohydrates. Or just drinking like two glasses of eggnog every night at 10 right before I went to sleep. And so now it's January.

And I'm like, you know what? Yes, eggnog is delicious. But I want to make it to like 60. Walking is good. Like, I just want to be able to like get it together enough to. And so there's just that kind of season.

And we're starting this year with three weeks of Jesus is better than everything else. Where we are just intentionally trying to reevaluate and re-remember what actually matters. What is actually good. What is actually worth pursuing. Reorient our hearts to Jesus. So if you'll grab your Bibles.

Go to Philippians chapter 3. It'll be on page 571. If you have one of the blue Bibles that's in the row. We'll be in Philippians chapter 3. And we'll be in this series for three weeks. And then we will pick back up in Ephesians.

And finish the back half of Ephesians. Kind of in the spring. We have that board that Matt Davis had. That says Jesus is better is right over there. And as we go through this series. It'll be over there.

If you want to write something. If you want to take a picture of yourself. If you want to remind yourself. Holding it like this is what he's better than for me. If that's personal. And you just want to put it on your refrigerator.

So that you see it every day. If you just want to make that the background of your phone. So that you see that every day. That you'll remember. Jesus is actually better than this thing. I'm tempted to pursue.

I'm tempted to love. If you want to share that. You can. You can put it on Instagram. Facebook. That's not really the point.

But if you want other people to know. What he's better than for you. You can do that. But it's intentionally reminding ourselves. That he is good. And he's worth pursuing.

So what we're going to do. Is we're going to read the first 11 verses of chapter 3. We'll talk a little bit about what Paul is saying. The point he's making. And then I just want to pull out a few things. That just kind of flow out of him.

As he makes this point. That I think are very helpful for us. That are core to Christianity. And core to our life with Jesus. So let's pray.

And then we'll read these verses together. God our hearts are deceitful. And they're cluttered. We're pulled in so many directions to go pursue and love other things more than you. And we are often tricked. By hooks that are baited with something that we desire.

But that ultimately lead us to destruction. And so we pray that for these three weeks. And for this time we have this morning. That you'd help us to remember that you truly are better than everything else. We love you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen.

So today we're going to be talking about Jesus is better than everything else for me. For me personally. For you personally. That he's better than everything else for you. Next week we'll talk about Jesus is better than everything else for the people in our church family. For the people in my community group.

And then finally last week we'll talk about he's better than everything else for everyone else. That we would be intentional about seeing other people come to know the goodness of Jesus. Philippians 3 verse 1. Finally my brothers rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you is no trouble to me and is safe for you. So he starts off with finally.

He's wrapping this letter up and he says alright here's my last main point. Like I want this to be impressed in your head. Finally rejoice in the Lord. Verse 2. Look out for the dogs. Look out for the evildoers.

Look out for those who mutilate the flesh. That's weird. He's going to clarify. That seems like yeah okay. If there are dogs evildoers and flesh mutilators we probably should have our our eyes peeled. He has a specific group in mind.

He's about to tell him for we are the circumcision. Who worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh. So he had a specific group in mind when he said dogs evildoers and those who mutilate the flesh. He was talking. We figured this out when he says we are the circumcision. So what he's saying is circumcision was a sign that was given to the people of Israel.

It was given to Abraham and it became the covenant Mark of we're in. We belong. And then the law was given. And so they the circumcision began to be just the term they used for those who belong to Israel. Those who belong to the God of Israel and those who followed the law. Well Jesus comes along and Jesus says that he saves by grace.

Meaning that the law was only ever going to teach us how sinful we were. That God's moral rule was only ever going to teach us how pitiful we are. How far short we fall. And then there was a group of people that came along and said okay yes Jesus saves by grace. Yes Jesus was good on your behalf. But also you need to follow the Jewish law.

If you're non-Jewish you need to get circumcised. You need to begin to follow the law. And so what they were saying was it's Jesus certainly plus this other stuff. And so Paul says they're just mutilating the flesh. They're dogs. They're evildoers.

They're leading you away from Jesus. Rather than glorifying him and honoring him and saying that he's accomplished everything. That when he said on the cross it's finished he meant it. They're saying no you need Jesus plus this other stuff. And so Paul goes after it because it stands in the way of Jesus. It robs glory from the cross.

And that's why he says we're the circumcision. We're the true Israel. Those who glorify God and put no hope. No trust in the flesh. In our ability to accomplish this. That's what he's saying.

Four. Though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh. I have more. He's disarming. Right now he's about to disarm one of the arguments that they would have come back with.

Which was of course you Christians say God saves by grace. And you don't have to follow the law. And the reason is y'all can't get it together. You can't follow the law. Of course you think basketball is stupid. You're uncoordinated.

You can't even dribble. Like that's what they would be following up with. And he just immediately is just knocking that down and saying no. If we wanted to boast in what you want to boast in. I'll win. I'll dunk on you.

I still think basketball is stupid. That's what he's saying. If anyone thinks he has confidence in the flesh. This is the back of verse four. I have more. As to zeal.

Circumcised on the eighth day. Of the people of Israel. Of the tribe of Benjamin. A Hebrew of Hebrews. As to the law. A Pharisee.

That's one of the most strict sects inside of Judaism. As to zeal. If you want to say I was a lazy Pharisee. Nuh-uh. As to zeal. A persecutor of the church.

When I found out about this Jesus that you're trying to get in the way of. I started killing people. That's how into being a Pharisee and the law I was. As to righteousness under the law. Blameless. But.

Whatever gain I had. I counted as loss. For the sake of Christ. Indeed I count everything as loss. Because of the surpassing worth. Of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

For his sake. I have suffered the loss of all things. And count them as rubbish. Now. I want to tell you one quick thing about Bible translation. Sometimes the Bible uses words.

That good Christian Bible translators aren't comfortable with. Because you know like kids read this. And people tell you like you should. That word rubbish. We don't use the word rubbish. If you're from Australia you might.

But we don't use the word rubbish. You might would say garbage. The word is scubula. Which better translates to crap. Or a less. Appropriate version of that.

A word I'm not really allowed to say from up here. Because people get upset. That. Um. So he just used a really strong word.

The Bible translators hit and go. What's a word that's kind of like that. But that doesn't make our Bible be the one that cusses. And they went with rubbish. Paul used strong language. Because he was making a strong point.

And some of you are like. Do you hear that honey? That's all I'm doing. No. He doesn't do it all the time. Um.

Count them as rubbish. In order that I might gain Christ. And be found in him. Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law. But that which comes through faith in Christ.

The righteousness that's from God. That depends on faith. That I may know him. And the power of his resurrection. And may share his sufferings. Becoming like him in his death.

That by any means possible. I may attain the resurrection from the dead. So what Paul just said. Is that anything that stands in the way of Jesus. Is garbage. That he even would look back on his life.

And the things that he devoted himself to. The things that he poured himself into. That he was zealous for. That he would fight for. Very literally. That once he realized those stood in the way of Jesus.

That they gave glory to him. That they stole glory from Jesus. That anything that would stand in the way. And rob value and worth from Jesus. Because what the law did for Paul. And what the law did for these people when they came in.

And that's why Paul was arguing. Was that the law became a. Here's how I build myself up. Here's how I save myself. And here's how I make myself good. And every time anyone steps in and does that.

They're beginning to say. Jesus has less value. I have a little more. Maybe not more than Jesus. But I got some of it.

I'm adding in a little bit. And Paul says no. It's not Jesus plus anything. It's Jesus. And all the glory. And all the worth.

And all the value go to him. So that anything that stands in the way. Is garbage. Now. Paul's primary point in this passage. Is that you will not earn your own righteousness.

But as he writes this. In that section. As he's writing that. He frames it in this concept. That I just think is so helpful for us. As we think about.

Just the general idea. That Jesus is better. Than everything else. Not just for our salvation. Not just for our righteousness. But that he is genuinely.

Actually. Just better. So I want you to go back up to the first verse. Paul says. Finally my brothers. Rejoice.

In the Lord. Now. He. Quickly. He goes. Rejoice in the Lord.

And then he quickly is like. Look out for the evil people. And it feels like he's changed the topic. But he hasn't. He's telling us. How to rejoice.

He's beginning to give us the idea. Of what rejoicing looks like. Because he bookends it. At the end of this. He says. Stand firm in Jesus.

And then he says. Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I'll say. Rejoice. Like he's putting. Our joy.

He's hanging it around the fact. That Jesus saves. By grace. But I want to talk about the word. Rejoice real quick. Most of us.

Don't use that word. You may have sung it. In some Christmas carols. But you don't use it in real life. You weren't like. Oh.

I was at the game. And when he broke free. Got into the secondary. Juke that guy. And ran into the end zone. The entire stadium stood and rejoiced.

You don't say that. You say. We went nuts. It's crazy. But. You don't say.

We rejoiced. Now. The word. Means. To delight in. To be.

Swept up in. To be captivated by. To have deep. Joy. In. So there are things.

That you rejoice in. You don't use the word. But you do it. Maybe some of you. Over this past season. Rejoiced in.

Delighted in. Family. That you look forward to it. Much of our church family is young. Many of you traveled. Traveled.

I don't know how that was. Like Anna. Anna and I. We used to travel together. It was four hours. We hit four hours.

Argument. It's like all we could take. We started listening to books. We don't argue anymore. We just listen. Like I wonder what's going to happen.

With that Harry Potter character. And we just don't argue with each other. But we hit four hours. We start arguing. And I know for some of y'all. You traveled.

And you got there. And then you walked in. To where your family was. And maybe it just melted away. Maybe it was just like. We're out of the car.

I think you're great again. It's Christmas. Let's go. Like I. I don't know. That you rejoice.

And stuff. You spent time with family. Some of us are in the season of life. Where people come to us. For Christmas. Some of you got to.

Spend different time. Maybe you rejoiced in something else. Maybe for you. It was. The second half. Of the Michigan game.

Was rejoicing. The Outback Bowl. Was good. You went and got a blooming onion. For some of you. Maybe it was that you made it.

To the college playoff. Maybe not rejoicing much. After that. But you made it. And the most of the season. Was really good.

It was delightful. Beautiful. I don't know. I don't know what you rejoiced in. Over this past season. But we have things.

That we enjoy. That we look forward to. That we delight in. And I think. If we're honest. For Paul to say.

Delight. In the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Enjoy. Jesus. I think that's harder for us.

I think maybe we trip. Over that. I think. We might go. Yeah. Mmm.

But I'm going to be honest with you. Sometimes it feels easier. To rejoice in. To delight in. Bread that just came out of an oven. Than Jesus.

That I actually know. How to enjoy. Some things. Better. Than I know how to enjoy. Jesus.

Now that's a problem. For a couple of reasons. One is. If I have things. On the regular. In my life.

That I. Pursue. Seek after. Set time aside for. Because I enjoy them deeply. And Jesus isn't one of them.

I've got two primary issues. One is. I'm robbing glory. From Jesus. Because I have a list of things. That are more enjoyable.

Than he is. More delightful. Than he is. And two is. They actually aren't. More enjoyable.

Or delightful. Than Jesus. So I'm robbing myself. Of enjoyment. We're robbing Jesus. Of glory.

And we're robbing ourselves. Of delight. And I want you to see. That by the reason. Paul says rejoice. And then he talks about the cross.

And he talks about. Salvation through Jesus. And he talks about. Righteousness coming through faith. And then he says. Rejoice again.

Is because the purpose. Of the cross. Is joy. God's goal. Was. Joy.

Was. Was. Restoration. Was. Happiness. Was.

Fullness. Was. Completeness. That's why Hebrews 12. Says this. That's why Hebrews 12.

Says this. Looking to Jesus. Jesus. The founder. The founder. And perfecter.

Of our faith. Who for the joy. That was set before him. Endured the cross. Despising the shame. And is seated at the right hand.

Of the throne of God. When Jesus looked at the cross. He looked beyond it. To joy. That the cross. Was the road.

To victory. And joy. The English. And Scottish church. Got together. In 1646.

And they wrote. The Westminster. Shorter. Catechism. Some of you. Just got excited.

Some of you. Were like. What are you even talking about? Some of you. Were like. I don't believe in anything.

Somebody said. I'm like. Just. All it was. Was a doctrinal. Q&A.

For people. Who are trying to grow. In their faith. That it was just a. For those who were young. For you training your children.

For training your family. It was just. That we're going to get together. And write. Some doctrine. Question and answer form.

To just try to help people. Begin to learn. The faith. The first question. They put on there. Was.

What. Is. Man's. Chief. End. That's not how we would say it now.

We would say. What's the point? Why do humans exist? Why are we here? That's what they wrote first. First question.

Why. Why did God make humans? What's the point of humanity? And this is the way they answered it. The chief end of man. Or man's chief end.

Is to glorify. God. And enjoy him. Forever. Because they were reading passages like this. They were seeing where.

The point of the cross. The point of salvation. The point. Of God's rescue. For humanity. Was.

Joy. And enjoyment. Now. If it just said. The chief end of man. Was to glorify God.

I'm ready. I got that. That fits in my head. That he's glorious. That he's holy. And so my goal.

The purpose of my existence. Is to. Bring him glory. But it says. And enjoy him. Forever.

And it's like. Ah. How do you. Enjoy. What does that look like? What does that mean?

John Piper actually steps in. He's a pastor. In the Midwest. And. He's written a lot of theology. He steps in and says.

That actually. You could say. The chief end of man. Is to glorify God. By. Enjoying him.

Forever. That actually. In our enjoyment of God. We display his glory. We display. How good.

He is. You. Were designed. For enjoyment. And pleasure. You know that right?

There's a reason why pain. Is the worst. And pleasure. Is great. This is super simple stuff. You guys.

But that's the way it works. You're designed. To like things. You just are. And there are some things. You just like.

And you naturally think. I like that. I will have some more please. You. Go to a buffet. And you just put a bunch of little things.

On your plate. And that's just your tester plate. My wife's plate. Always looks like a tester plate. This is. No.

This is pre-plate. This is one bite of this. And it's like. Nope. One bite of that. Yep.

And you go back. And your next plate. Is just like three things. In giant mounds. Because you figured out. What you liked.

And didn't like. There is no virtue. In just partaking. In the things you don't like. We naturally do this. I have a two year old.

He naturally does this. And it was really difficult. At our house for a while. Because the way he said. He liked something. Was he would say.

I like it. And the way he didn't like. Say. Say he didn't like something. Was he would say. I like it.

We had to use context clues. So you give him something. He'd go. I like it. You start giving more. And he'd be like.

I like it. It was like. You better calm yourself down. And learn the word don't. Because you're going to have problems. You keep tricking me.

But we're designed. To pursue the things we enjoy. To pursue pleasure. To pursue the things that we like. God put that in us. There is no virtue.

There is no. There's no. Something extra special good. About like. You ever taste something. And think this tastes terrible.

And I will eat that every day. From now on. That I might be more holy. No. You think this tastes terrible. Throw it away.

Get rid of it. I don't know. Feed it to someone else. Who likes it. Like. We get an argument about Moe's.

And Chipotle. Underneath that argument. That has always been assumed. Is the goal. Is enjoyment. The goal is pleasure.

We don't even have to talk about that. I've never once been in that argument. And been like. Wait. Time out. Let's set the parameters.

Are you somehow pursuing. Your own sanctification. By eating dirt. Do you like. Cold chairs. Paying more for.

A dry burrito. In a place where everybody. Makes you feel ugly. Is that the goal. Like we never done that. We just assume.

We're going for enjoyment. We're going for maximization. Of pleasure. Now we can have our argument. That's at the bottom of everything. And God designed that in us.

But then. He stands. And says. I am most enjoyable. I am most pleasurable. I am most to be desired.

That's why. Matthew. Luke. Someone comes to Jesus. And says. What's the greatest commandment?

What's the biggest rule? Some of you rule followers. It's like your favorite. Like your little heart. Best rule. What's the best rule?

What's he say? To love the Lord your God. With all your heart. With all your soul. With all your mind. With all your strength.

To love him. Not obey. Not serve. Those are. Those are in there. They come later.

Love. Primary goal. Love. Now. I will tell you something about love. It is not made more pure.

More beautiful. The highest pinnacle. Apex of love. Love. Is not. Just devotion.

For devotion's sake. It is not just. Obligation. My wife and I. We've been married. Nine years.

I can't mess that up you guys. Nine years. This year. We're going on ten years. I wouldn't stand up here and say. Yeah.

We've only been married about ten years. And so we're really kind of in the JV version of love. Where we still enjoy each other. Where there's still some of. Some of my love is really just that I like her. And I kind of delight.

In our relationship. And I like talking to her. And like we're working. We're working to get to where. We've been married for 30 or 40 years. And it's pure obligation.

Where we display our love. By the fact that we have no enjoyment of one another whatsoever. But we're. We're in it. Because we've made a commitment. Like that's not what love is.

Now sometimes love entails that. There are days that my wife. Continues to love me. And pursue me. Even though she didn't get up. And write in her diary.

Dear diary. Chet was so delightful yesterday. We've moved from one stage of euphoria to the next. Like she did. She. She could stay married.

She could keep fighting. But. The goal of love is that we would delight in one another. That we would enjoy one another. And so when he says. Love the Lord your God.

I don't know how we've somehow. Replace that with. Pursue. Serve. Obey. And taken out of it.

Enjoy. Delight. Run to. Sit with. Speak to. Grow in.

Have this be. One of the things in your life. That you look forward to. That makes everything else good. Makes everything else make sense. Colors everything.

I don't. But that's there. That's the point. It was. Joy was beyond the cross. Not just salvation.

That's why Paul says. Rejoice. You've been saved by grace. Rejoice. Jesus is better than everything else. C.S.

Lewis. When talking about this idea. In his sermon. The Weight of Glory. He says that if you. If you asked 20 people.

What the greatest virtue was. He said he thinks. 19 of them would say unselfishness. They would just say do not be selfish. He said. But if you asked 20 Christians.

From history. They would say love. And he said. What's happened is. We've taken a negative term. To withhold from ourselves.

To not be selfish. And we've replaced a positive term. Which was to look out for the good. Of those around us. He begins to point out. That the Bible.

Doesn't make this. This isn't a Christian virtue. He says. The New Testament. Has lots to say. About self-denial.

But not of self-denial. As an end in itself. So self-denial isn't the point. We are told to deny ourselves. And to take up our crosses. In order that we might follow Christ.

And nearly every description. Of what we shall ultimately find. If we do so. Contains an appeal. To desire. That heaven is good.

That God is loving. That what we read. At the beginning of this. Is that there's pleasures. At his right hand. Forevermore.

He said. If there lurks. In the modern minds. The notion. That to desire. Our own good.

And to earnestly hope. For the enjoyment of it. Is a bad thing. I submit to you. That this notion. Has crept in.

From Kant. And the Stoics. And it is no part. Of the Christian faith. Indeed. If we consider.

The unblushing promises. Of reward. And the staggering. Nature of the rewards. Promised in the gospels. It would seem.

That our Lord. Finds our desires. Not too strong. But too weak. We are half-hearted creatures. Fooling about.

With drink. And sex. And ambition. When infinite joy. Is offered us. Like an ignorant child.

Who wants to go on. Making mud pies. In a slum. Because he cannot imagine. What is meant. By the offer.

Of a holiday. At sea. We are. Far too easily. Pleased. I used to say.

God doesn't care. About your happiness. I'm pretty sure. I said it. From this beautiful. Green carpet.

I don't say that anymore. The point. I was trying to make. Was. And because I was so. Furious.

At everybody. Who says. Well God just wants me. To be happy. So I can just chase.

After this thing. That's right in front of me. I said. God doesn't care about your happiness. And it was really just. I don't.

This. That's not the point. God does. He cares about your infinite joy. Your infinite happiness. So much so that he would go to a cross.

So that you might have it. He doesn't care about this moment. He cares about eternity. Where moments don't even make sense anymore. That his goal. Was our happiness.

In him. That we might rejoice in him. That we might delight in him. That we might enjoy him. Forever. He cares infinitely more.

About your happiness. Than you do. I talk about him a lot. But that's because he takes up. So much of my time.

I have a two year old. And I fight him every day. For his happiness. He fights me for his happiness. That's what we're in a battle over. Because all he can see.

Is that candy will make him happy. And staying up late at night. Will make him happy. And watching that show. I just told him he couldn't watch. Will make him happy.

And I know. That eating just candy. Will make you miserable. And staying up late at night. All the time. Will make you miserable.

And not only will it make him miserable. Make everybody in our house miserable. He shares it with us. I know. That if he throws a fit. And then gets a reward for it.

The only thing he'll learn. Is that having a bad attitude. And being miserable. Is the best way to be happy. Now tell me.

That's not something messed up. So when he starts crying. And throwing a fit. I just will look at him. And say. You better get it together.

Because all fun will die. Everything good. Will leave the world. You won't get that. You won't have this. You'll get spanked.

You'll sit in your room. Until you get it together. The goal is not his misery. The goal is that he would learn. How to enjoy life. And have better things.

And God steps in at times. And says. No. Put it down. Walk away. Get rid of it.

Not because he hates your happiness. But because he wants it so much more infinitely for you. Beyond your ability to understand. So much so that he would die for it. So yes.

Next time your friend says. God just wants me to be happy. High five him. Say thank you so much that you understand the gospel. Now break up with your boyfriend and let's rock on.

I'm so excited that you understand eternity. And the cross. And the pain that Jesus went through. So let's put the bong down. Let's move.

Let's not take that promotion. I'm so proud of you. Because you understand that infinite joy is offered for you. And you don't want to sit and make mud pies in a slump. Let's move to verse 7.

Verse 7. The point of life. The goal of the cross. The purpose. The end of joy. Is that we would know the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus.

That we would understand he has surpassing worth. That if you take anything and you put it in the balance. And you put Jesus here. And you put something else here. Jesus outweighs it. He is more valuable.

More enjoyable. More good. You could put everything here. And Jesus will outweigh it. That he has a surpassing worth. And Paul says.

I counted the loss of all things. I count them as garbage. In order that I might gain Christ. And be found in him. If you are a Christian. That's your goal.

And if you are not a Christian. It should be. That one day. You might get Christ. You might get him. That you might be found in him.

Later he says in the same chapter. I don't chase after this to make it my own. I do it because he has already made me his own. That he has already wrapped me up in himself. That he has already claimed me. That he has already taken me.

He already loves me. That he has already taken me. It's one of the things we work hard in. And I get so frustrated in. It's one of the reasons why we talk about. Jesus is better than everything else.

Or why we talk about gospel fluency. For those of you who have been around for a while. We talk about. We talk about Jesus. We do give good news. Before good advice.

Is because Jesus is the goal. He's the hope. He is better. That if you get him. You got it. That everything else can be thrown away.

Everything else can fall. Everything else will fade. Everything else will die. Everything else will fail. But then we might have him.

We've succeeded. We've won. It's ours. This is why I get so frustrated. I've sat in sermons before. And I know people love Jesus.

And they mean well. But there are times where I've sat in a sermon. And I've listened. And the goal was. Work really hard. So that you might gain the perfect spouse.

Spouse is good. It's not the goal. It's not Jesus. Won't redeem you. Won't save you. Won't fix your soul.

This is actually why God set things up in the world the way he did. Here's how it works. Everything in your life. Really needs to fit in one of two categories. It's garbage. Or it points you to Jesus.

It's garbage. Or it gets you more Jesus. When we get off stage. We can use the word other than garbage. It either pulls you away from Jesus. It stands in the way of Jesus.

Or it points you to Jesus. So this is why in the Old Testament. God gave a calendar. He gave feasts. Fast. Festivals.

He gave them times when they would withdraw from food. When they would mourn. When they would rub dirt on their head. Put on uncomfortable clothes. And then he gave them times where they would celebrate. Where they would party.

And he held this very strictly. There's passages in the Old Testament where God says. If you show up to the party late I will kill you. And some of you type A people were like. Yes and amen. I said seven fools.

If you work an extra day. It's going to go bad for you. And here's why. When we take everything off our plate. When we give up something. When we fast from food.

We're doing it to remind ourselves. That Jesus is better than food. That God is more fulfilling. And more satisfying. And guess what? When we feast.

When we enjoy the deep. Flavorful. Savory. Carbohydrate filled. Fat covered. Feast.

We do it to remind ourselves. That Jesus is better than food. That he's savory. That he's flavorful. That he's good. That when we have festivals.

When we celebrate. I love our church. We've got a younger church. We're working on it. If you're not considered younger. Stick.

Help us. Talk to people who. Aren't younger. When they show up. We have a younger church. There's a lot of people getting married.

I love going to weddings. It's a small picture. Of the party. The celebration. That heaven will get to be. This is why.

The Bible says. That Jesus is claiming. A bride for himself. That marriage. Is just a little picture. Of what he's going to get to be like.

It's a sign post. That points up towards him. And if we just enjoy it. As an end in itself. Then we rob from Jesus.

We've got it. Mixed up in our mind. If we just enjoy food. As an end in itself. If we rob from Jesus. But if we use it as a way.

To roll up and praise for him. If the next time you're at a wedding. And it feels like. This is just so good. You remember. It's going to be infinitely better.

When Jesus claims his bride. And the celebration. The celebration will never end. The next time you go hungry. You remember. Yeah.

This hungry reminds me. That there's a gnawing pain. In my soul. That will never be satisfied. Outside of Christ. But that I might give everything up.

That I might gain him. And the next time you enjoy. The most beautifully prepared. Plate of food. You say. Yeah.

This is so it'll roll up. And praise to God. You see. Your friends who don't know Jesus. Will only ever enjoy a steak. They'll only ever enjoy.

A good glass of wine. It'll never roll up in praise. It never goes beyond the table. But Christians get to gather. Around a table. And have it all roll up.

Into eternity. Into a God. Who's more enjoyable. And more delightful. More flavorful. So this is why.

There's some things in your life. That's standing in the way of Jesus. That he's prohibited. And you're saying. No I believe it's better. I believe it has more worth.

And your. Your role. Your job. Your response. Is to get rid of it. It is to break up.

It is to quit. It is to walk away. And this is why sometimes. We're supposed to stay in something. That isn't going very well. Because God tells us to.

And it. The point of it. Isn't. That this will fulfill us. But that ultimately he will.

Some of you long to be married. And marriage is a good gift. That points to Jesus. Jesus. And you may never get married. But you can still get Jesus.

Which was the point of marriage in the first place. Some of you long. To have a child. And maybe that's not going to work out for you. We don't know why this side of eternity. But we do know.

That family. And bloodline. And last names. Are all fulfilled in Christ. That he has better blood. And he's got a better name.

That we might fully partake in one day. Some of you are married. And it is excruciating. But you stay. And you fight. Because you know your marriage is just a signpost.

To the gospel. And Jesus is at work in your heart. That you might one day. Gain him. This is why when we're resting. We rest in Jesus.

And while we're working. We work in Jesus. This is where all the times the Bible is going to say. Do this in Christ. And do this for Christ. Is because all of it is meant.

To point us to him. And if it doesn't. It's garbage. Write it off. Count it as a loss. Get rid of it.

Now. Here's my fear. So we finish up today. Here's my fear. My fear is that for many of us. Hearing that Jesus is better than everything else.

You just go. Yeah. Okay. You'll get in your car. And you'll think he is better. Neat.

And you just go. That's my temptation. After our work on this stuff. Sometimes people will say. Like what did you preach two weeks ago? I'm like.

I don't know. That's why I like doing a whole book series. Something in Ephesians. Nailed it. It's so easy for us. To just say.

Yeah. I knew that. Here's the danger. I want to tell y'all a Bible story. Second Corinthians. Nope.

I'm not going to tell you a story from there. Second Kings. Chapter 17. The Assyrians show up. Nope. That shouldn't be there yet.

Sorry. The Assyrians. Thank you. The Assyrians show up. Gave away the end. The Assyrians show up.

They destroy. And they take captive the people of Israel. And they carry them off to Assyria. And they did this all the time. So then they would take a group of other people from different places.

And they would just put them together. And they took them back down to where they had taken them. From Samaria. And they just put them all back in Samaria. And said y'all live here now. And they did this to destabilize people.

To not have one whole big people group together. They were too worried about getting along with each other. Than trying to lead an uprising. And so they did this. They brought them down there. And so what 2 Kings chapter 17 tells us.

Is that lions started eating people. They were in Samaria. It says they did not know how to worship the Lord. And so he sent lions to eat them. Some of you know the movie Ghost in the Darkness. It was like that.

Terrifying. Some of you don't know what that movie was about. It was about lions eating people. And so they. It's such a big deal. Such a big problem.

That they actually go back to Assyria. They send people to Assyria. And say send us some of the Jewish people. Who used to live here. Because the God of this land does not like us. And we got to figure out what to do.

This is not going well. Lions are eating people. So they send some Jewish people back. They send them some priests. And the priests teach them. How to serve the Lord.

And what it says is. They start. They start serving the Lord. Lions stop eating people. And then it says. But.

None of them quit serving. The gods from their hometown. And it ends with this. So they feared the Lord. But. Also served.

Their own gods. And my fear for us. Is that some of us. Had life. Running into the wall. Had a lot of pain.

Had a lot of problems. And we figured out. How do I begin to worship Jesus? And how do I begin to believe. Some of these things the Bible says. And how do I begin to change some stuff?

But. We still have other things. That we don't mind. Stealing glory from him. We still have other things. That we don't mind.

That when he just faces off against them. He can just lose in these three categories. These can be more glorious. And more enjoyable. And more delightful. And more lovely.

And I can pursue them. Over and against what he says. And I can pursue them. Over and against who he is. And I can give them. Surpassing worth.

Over Jesus. As long as I mostly. Am here. We lie about Jesus. We rob ourselves of joy. And we sin.

We lie about Jesus. So. How do we cultivate a delight for Jesus? Well you make time for the things you enjoy. Sometimes you get less time. Sometimes it feels harder.

But you make time for the things you enjoy. You're going to see the new Star Wars movie. Eventually. You'll figure it out. You're going to find a time to sit. You're going to find a time to play video games.

You're going to find a time to read a book or to sit, whatever it is that you enjoy, you make time for. And so that's what always, whenever we say, just so you know, when you say, I really don't have time to pray. I really don't have time to read the Bible. I just really hadn't had time for our community group. All you have really articulated is I don't enjoy it that much. I don't think it's that glorious.

I don't really think Jesus has surpassing worth. And that should scare you and that should draw you into figuring out how to actually enjoy him. What I'm not saying is that you need to pretend that Jesus has surpassing worth. What I am saying is you need to enjoy the fact that he does. That actually spending time with him is your best spent time. That working towards him is how work was meant to be done.

That parenting in a way that is for him and in him is how parenting was meant to be done. So I would argue, I would say, first step, make some time. And I will tell you that it will be awkward at first. It's like a first date. First date is, I'm hoping you're not a terrible person. I suggest people get coffee for their first date.

If it's good, get a second cup. If it's bad, chug it and say, this was great. Well, my coffee's done. Bye. And sometimes reading your Bible, sometimes praying, sometimes you're going to have to get with someone else to help you do that. You're going to need to talk with someone in your community group and say, help me study the Bible.

Help me learn how to do this. And sometimes it's going to feel awkward. But the point is that the more you get to know Jesus, the more he'll matter, the more you'll see his glory, the more captivated you'll be, the more lovely he is. And you are wrong if you think, if I spend time doing that, I won't actually find anything glorious about him. You haven't met the Jesus I know. He is infinitely glorious.

He has surpassing worth. We just got to find the time to get around him and enjoy it. Jesus is better than everything else for you. He just is. And he's invited us into his goodness and his glory and joy so much so that he died for us to welcome us, to belong to him. The band's going to come back up.

The way we're going to respond right now in reminding ourselves and partaking in the goodness of Jesus is that you are a Christian. We're going to take communion.

The Incarnation

The Incarnation

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Good morning. This is our Christmas gathering. We finished up our three-week Give Series this past week. And so what we do in our Give Series, we spend some time talking about generosity and how we ought to think about and handle money. And so I got kind of a report on our Give project and how some things went. So we threw a party with Midtown Two Notch.

And so what we did was we had three kind of aspects of our Give project. We were going to gather gifts to give to the children in the neighborhood, in the Two Notch area, the Pinehurst area, so that they could. The plan was, and this is not how it worked out. I'll explain how it worked out in a second. But the plan was that parents would be able to come.

We would distract the children with shenanigans and s'mores. We would stuff them full of chocolate, make them jump on a bounce house, let them see Santa Claus. And parents would get to go pick out gifts for the children to be able to have at Christmas. And so you can see in the background the bounce house. We actually went over to Midtown Two Notch's area and made a Christmas kind of shop. And so this is one of the rooms that we set up with all the gifts that y'all, our church kind of gathered together and brought over here.

If you were to turn back the other way, there's the other side of the room that looked like that. But the whole room was just filled with toys. It was really cool to see. And so parents were going to get to go in there and pick out gifts while their children were on a bounce house. And while we were giving them s'mores, we had a whole s'more set up. And it was actually really cool because a lot of the adults that ended up coming out had never had a s'more.

And so we got to coach them up on how to do that and how to make them. And it's really fun to get to watch a 30-year-old take a bite of a s'more and look at like, it's like, yeah, you've missed out on a lot, man. Like, yeah, your whole life, this is simple and you've missed out, you know. But we were able to do that. But here's what happened.

We learned a thing. And I think Midtown Two Notch learned a thing. So we came to them and asked them what they wanted us to do. They said they wanted us to throw this party. They wanted to gather gifts. They wanted to empower parents to be able to give gifts to their children.

And so we said, yeah, that sounds great. And so they said that's going to be a secret, though. And they sent out flyers and they kept it a secret on the flyer. But the problem was if it's that good of a secret, the parents don't know. So we had a pile of children showing up with no adults.

And so about 30 minutes in or something, the Midtown guys come around and they're like, hey, change of plans. We're giving gifts to children right now because we're not sending kids home without getting something. And if their parents aren't coming, we don't know how to fix that. And we were like, fine, sounds good. So they got to go in and see Santa Claus.

And so some of our people showed up early and set up a whole big Santa Claus area and made it look really beautiful. The only thing that was borrowed, I think, was chairs. Everything else was brought in and set up and made amazing. And so Santa Claus got to sit right there. And kids got to go see Santa Claus. And then they got to immediately go pick out a gift.

We had kids coming out with gifts. And they were like, I'm going to keep playing on the bounce house, but I'm going to go home first. We had some kids go home. They said, they were like, I'm going to open one now and I'm going to save one for Christmas. And there was these two boys. They were brothers.

Open one now. Save one for Christmas. That's a great idea. And they came back and they said, Grandmama said, we've got to save both of them for Christmas. I was like, all right, man, hop in the bounce house. That's a good idea.

Your grandmama ain't wrong. But the kids did really enjoy getting to see Santa Claus. Some had a wonderful time getting to see Santa Claus. Some of them not as good a time. But she ended up fine.

She and Santa Claus ended up getting along. But what we were able to do was give gifts to children and spend some time with them and just kind of love on them. And there was a lot of children. I remember there was a lot of children, you guys. And at one point I was like, okay, how are we doing? I looked at my watch.

The party was from 2 to 5. I looked at my watch. It was 2.20. I was like, I've got to quit looking at my watch. It's going to be a long day. I've got to just be happy, smile, walk around.

We had a really good time. And before we left, Mark Shingler, one of the leaders over at Midtown Two Notch, grabbed Raz by his collar. And he said, Mill City Church made a difference in Pinehurst today. And Raz was like, okay. And he said, no. You need tomorrow to tell them, Mill City Church, tell your church family y'all made a difference.

This was huge. And so they were very excited and got to have conversations with parents. And one of the cool things was, some kids were there. As soon as we said, hey, we're giving out gifts, they left. They were coming over to me saying, we're meeting people who live in this neighborhood we've never met. Because I'm meeting kids and parents and saying, hey, where are y'all from?

They're saying the neighborhood. It's like, oh, okay. So we hadn't gotten to meet these people, but as soon as we were able to do this, they started showing up. And so it was a really cool thing to be able to do. And just really excited that we got to be a part of that and see how Jesus worked through y'all. It's a fun thing.

The other part of our Give project was that we wanted to raise support for Aunt Frederick. Because he has to consistently raise support to be full-time in that area, which is a lower resourced area. It's high poverty, high crime, low education levels. They have to raise support all the time for him to be able to be full-time there. And so we just said we wanted to join in on that for our Give project. We wanted to not only give gifts.

We needed to do that first, but then we wanted to raise money. And so, so far, and we're still, you can give today towards the Give project by the envelopes that go in the box. Or you can give online if you do the drop-down tab that says Give. You can do that today. And through the middle of this week or so, we'll still be taking Give donations online. When you get online and click the little drop-down and there's no more Give drop-down, we have written a check.

We are done taking money, raising money for Give. We have so far raised about $5,500. So $5,500 will go towards his salary. That's exciting. We should be happy about that. $5,500 will be money he doesn't have to raise. And we're still raising some money.

And so we'll be able to, at the beginning of the year, say, here was the final amount that went on a check. That we just said, hey, we love y'all. We love what y'all are doing. And we want you to be able to keep doing it. And so really, really exciting, really encouraging. And so what we're going to do today, we have our Christmas gathering today.

And then we have our worship night this Thursday. And so we're going to study in the book of John this morning. So grab your Bibles, go to John chapter 1. And here's what we're going to do. We're going to look at what John has to say about Jesus coming. There was a famous author who was talking about her remembering her first journalism class.

And she was in high school. And her journalism teacher gets up and says, all right, I want to teach y'all how to write a lead. And a lead is the headline of a story. So the way a good newspaper article works is that the main thing that you need to get is in the headline. That's the information. Most good news articles do not work like internet things where they're like, you won't believe what this article has to say.

The third paragraph is going to be amazing. Like, they don't do that. That's not how news works. It gives you the information you need at the beginning. And then it works its way down so that the last sentence is the least important sentence. That's the way they're supposed to work.

So he's teaching them how to write a lead, which is, this is the main point of what we're talking about. And so he says, all right, I want y'all to write your first lead. He says, here's the information. This is the story you're going to write your headline for. Next Thursday, Principal Williams, so they're in high school, Principal Williams, is taking the faculty and staff to a symposium in the state capitol where they will train for the entire day. And he starts listening to the main speakers.

And everybody's writing down all the information, you know, who, what, when, where, why. They're writing it all down. And he says, now I want you to write your headline. So all the students sit out. They type out their first headline. They get it up.

They turn in their sheets. And she said that he took them and he flips through them really quickly and says, nope, none of y'all did this correctly. The headline is, no school next Thursday. That's the headline. He said everybody was just writing regurgitated parts of that information. He said, you missed the point.

And so what we're going to look at in John chapter 1, John was the last gospel to be written. Matthew, Mark, and Luke have already been written. And Matthew and Luke spend time talking about the birth of Jesus and give us some of the information about it. From Matthew, we learned that there were wise men that came, magi that had studied the stars and came. And we hear the story about them having to run to Egypt to escape the fact that King Herod is trying to kill all the children that were born in that area. From Luke, we learn about John the Baptist's birth and the fact that Jesus and John are cousins.

And we get all of this stuff and all these stories that go along with it. And we learn all the things that we celebrate and we put in the nativity. And John gives us none of that. John just says, no school on Thursday. Like he just cuts right to why all of that matters. What actually happened?

What was the main point of Jesus coming? And so that's what we're going to look at today. So on Thursday, we'll get to read some of the birth story and some of the stuff that we look at a lot at Christmas. Today, we're going to look at John where he just cuts right to here's what happened when Jesus came. So that for us, as we try to in this season, when everyone feels like they have a little too much to do, a little too much going on, a little bit too much pressure, a little bit too much weight, and it can easily get cluttered.

But we're just going to focus in on why the incarnation, why Jesus' birth, why his coming to earth matters. Just for a little while to be encouraged today, to be reminded today of the miracle that God was born as a human. And so let's pray for our time. And then we'll begin looking at John together. Father, I pray that as we study this this morning, that you would help it sink into our hearts. That we wouldn't just be reminded of things we already know, or we wouldn't just get to learn something new, but that it would become real to us so that we might actually worship.

So that today, our gaze might be turned to you. And we might grow a little more in awe of your goodness. And that as we go the rest of this week or so into Christmas, and as we celebrate with friends and family, and in all the different ways we're going to celebrate, that we might have a better handle on why we're celebrating, and why it matters. We ask for your help in this, in Jesus' name. Amen. John 1, verse 1.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. So that's the first two verses. That's what he says. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

Now, when this was passed out as a gospel of John, people at this point would have known that he's talking about Jesus. He gets down there in a couple of verses and says, this is Jesus Christ. So most people would have known, this is who I'm reading about, this is what's going on. And so he begins with, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Now, that's kind of confusing, but what he's saying was, when he says in the beginning, he's immediately making us remember that's how the Old Testament begins. That's how Genesis starts.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And so when John starts his gospel off with, in the beginning, what he's saying is, that beginning you already know about from Genesis, that's the beginning I'm talking about. And Jesus was there. As the divine Word of God, Christ was there. And so what he says was, Jesus was with God. So the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Now, as we believe in a Trinitarian God, that God is one God who exists eternally in three persons, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, that's what John's talking about. It's confusing, but that's what he's saying, that he was with God as the Son of God, and that he was God as God the Son. So Jesus, the preexistent Creator, was in the beginning, and all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. My son is about to be three. He goes to a preschool that's like a Christian preschool at one of the churches down the road. And one day he just started asking me, he would be like, Jesus made this?

And he just pointed at the thing. And I'm great at that game, you guys, because I know John chapter 1, that disappeared, but it's still in your Bibles. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. John says that really confusingly, but he's making a point. It's just like when your mom says, I'm the only one who ever cleans around this house, and then doubles down on it and says, Not one single thing that has ever been cleaned in our home has been cleaned by anyone but me. So what are you doing?

All things were made through him, and without him was not one single thing. He's driving that point home that Jesus, this divine Word of God, was in the beginning and created everything. And so when you play with a three-year-old that did Jesus make this game, the answer is yes. We're walking down the road. He's like, Jesus made that tree? Yes.

That's an easy one, you guys. Trees? Yes. He pointed at a basketball goal. Jesus made that? And I was like, ah, yes.

Because all the things that were made were made when Jesus made them. Later, some people formed it into a basketball goal. But they're made. Now, at some point, he's going to be like, well, then why does my shirt say made in China? And I'll be like, who made China? I'm ready, you guys.

He made everything. It also says he was in the beginning with God. So this word is personal and masculine. He's getting to, it's Jesus. So verse 4.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. So the first thing that John tells us is that God has come. That it's God himself. When he gets to Jesus has joined us, he plants his foot. He makes it clear that this was divine, preexistent, eternal creator of all things that I'm talking about.

The eternal God is who I'm talking about. And then he says, and I love verse 4 and 5 because it's drenched with hope. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. I love that the creator of the world, and I'm assuming when he created light and darkness, he did this on purpose. Designed it the way he designed it so that he might later say, I am light, and we would understand what he's talking about.

Light always wins. Darkness cannot overcome light. You've never been in a place that was so dark that you couldn't see your hand, and when you turned your flashlight on, the darkness was just so thick it swallowed your flashlight. That's not how it works. That light always wins. And so when he says that in Jesus was life, and that life was the light of men, and the light has come into the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it, there's an immediate call to hope and joy in the coming of Christ.

That he brings life, and he brings a light that cannot be conquered. I love also how clearly that works in our mind when we think about darkness. That we would say to someone, yeah, man, it's just been, I'm going through a really dark time. It's been a really dark year. And nobody's ever responded to you like, what, you need like halogen bulbs? Everybody knows immediately what you're talking about.

It's been hard. It's been rough. It's been sad. It's been dismal. I can't see, but a foot in front of my face, like I don't know where I'm going. And the promise that we have at Christmas is that there is a light that brings life in Jesus that the dark times can't overcome.

That no amount of sin, and no amount of shame, and no amount of brokenness, and no amount of pain, and no amount of lies, and no amount of anything can overcome what's brought to us in Christ. Verse 6. We're going to read verse 6, 7, and 8 fairly quickly, because John is not talking about Jesus. He's talking about John the Baptist. So, there was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him.

He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. So, John's just saying, John, the author John, is talking about John the Baptist, not the same guy. And he says, this guy came to proclaim and point to Jesus. He wasn't Jesus. He's not the light, but he came to point to him so that we might believe in the light. Then keep going, 9.

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him. Yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. So, what this is saying is that God, the creator God, who made everything, in eternity past, when he started time and began everything rolling, he created everything. And then he comes to the world that he created, and the world didn't recognize him.

Which is just baffling, but it's also amazingly beautiful to see how God humbled himself, that he would fit in. Like, that's, every little new show about an alien that comes to earth, or a robot, the whole funny part is that they don't really fit. Like, they're just weird, and they do, all the hijinks ensues when they do things that only an alien would do. And we're like, oh, this is, Jesus comes, and he's a builder for 30 years? Nobody notices? Like, even his parents, who had the angels come, and all the things happen, when he starts going and preaching, they show up, and they're like, hey, you need to come home, like, you're not, oh, I don't know what you're doing right now.

And how much honor God gives to humanity by joining us, it's, it's, it's baffling and beautiful that he would, that he would become one of us and fit in with us. And there are some things where he consistently, as we read the gospel, says some things that only someone who's existed for eternity and is God would say. Like, I'm God. And all the things we just talked about with how he talks about money and everything, but there are, it's just so honoring and beautiful that he would join humanity and live as a human, that he didn't just float down here, that he didn't just light up when he walked around, that, that he didn't, you know, he, he had feet, he had to walk places, he gets tired.

We get stories of him taking naps and eating food, that he joined us. The world didn't recognize him. It says he came to his own people, and his own people did not receive him. That's the Jewish people, that Jesus was Jewish, and he comes as the Jewish Messiah, and the Jewish people reject him. Because he turns their system upside down, and he calls them to something different, and they don't receive him. Verse 12.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. So what he's saying is that it was God's will that all who would believe in Jesus would be welcomed into his family, would become children of God. And so at this point, John is continuing to just say, here's, here's the point, here's the reason he came, so that God became human. He joined us, he came into the world, and he came into the world so that all who would believe in him would become children of God.

That at Christmas we celebrate that God was reclaiming his children. That he was broadening his family. That what he had created in the beginning to be a beautiful relationship between humanity and himself, and had been broken by sin. That at Christmas, Jesus is coming, born into the world that he might claim those in the world to be his children. All those who would believe. And so that's why at Christmas, as you get to, over the next week or so, we get to celebrate family, and we mourn family.

That's what happens at Christmas. That at Christmas, and during this season, we celebrate family. And for some of us, it's like, you have those moments when you're like, this is just right. And it's just a moment. You have this moment where you're like, oh, this is what it's supposed to be like. And then it's gone.

Because your mother-in-law says something, and your uncle does something, or one of your nieces or nephews smacks your kid. Like, whatever. Like, there's this moment where you're like, oh, happy family. And then you're like, okay, that's enough. But we also mourn family, so that there's moments over the next week or so that are going to be very painful.

As we miss loved ones, or as we feel like we're missing out, or that something is missing in life and in relationships. And one of the beautiful things about Christmas is that Jesus came to invite all those who would believe in him into his family. That he's the son of God who wants brothers and sisters. He's the good older brother who comes to rescue and redeem those who've wondered, so that we might all call God the Father, Father. And we might all join his table. And so, as you, over the next week or so, get to celebrate with family, remember that all the beautiful parts of that point you towards your ultimate family.

And as you, over the next week or so, mourn, and have places in your heart that just feel broken, that just feel empty, remember that that longing and that brokenness will never actually be filled up here, but is meant to call you towards something that will be able to fulfill it. something that is eternal and is joy-bringing, that Jesus Christ came so that you might be his brother or sister and children of God through belief in his name. 14. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. So this divine creating Word that was God and was with God, becomes human, dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

15. John bore witness about him and cried out, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me. Verse 16. For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Christ. This is the main point of the incarnation. This is the crux of it. This is what he's getting at. That the eternal God who created everything joins us in humanity, puts on flesh, and that from him we receive grace. So here's grace.

Grace is receiving something good that you do not deserve. If we can go ahead and have 16 and 17 up, we'll spin. That from his fullness we've all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. That we receive what we don't deserve.

We receive something good that we have not earned. That it's a gift. That it's something applied to our account that we haven't gotten. One of the ways that we've talked about this before is that when you have sin in your life, a lot of times we feel like Jesus comes and he cleans our slate. Then he hands it back to us and says, Okay.

Keep it together. That's not grace. Grace is that he takes our slate and hands us his. And if he had not come, if he had not been born, he can't do that. You see, what it says here is so helpful. It says, For the law was given through Moses.

Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. The law is the Old Testament law that was given to the people of Israel. That was Moses. A cloud comes down on the mountain. And Moses goes up and he meets with God. And he comes down with tablets.

And then later he writes out the rest of what God says. And what it was was, Here are the things that we have to do to be God's people. Here are the things that we have to do to be treasured, to be loved, to remain where he is. And the truth is that every philosophy and every belief system can only ever give us what the law gave the people of Israel. Here's the way to think. Here's the way to live.

Here's what you have to do to be happy, to be fulfilled, to be a good person, to have God love you, to be moral, to be free. That's everything we have. It can only ever give us advice. It can only ever tell us how to live and what to do. It cannot give us grace. Jesus coming as a human is what offers us grace.

My grandparents were missionaries in Nigeria, West Africa. And so they were in areas where they would have to travel. There were times where my granddad would ride a bicycle with vaccinations. He was a doctor and they did medical missionaries and they would ride and they would give vaccinations. They would deliver babies. They did a lot of different things.

But they also, because the church was growing in that area, they would do conferences and they would do trainings. And so my granddad was going to be speaking at a WMU training in West Africa. And the WMU is the Women's Missionary Union. I was going to say alliance and I was like, that's an A. It's the Women's Missionary Union. And so they were, all the WMU people in that area, all the ladies were going to be coming to this thing.

He was going to go speak. And so he's riding in West Africa down one of the roads in the middle of nowhere. And there are two seasons in that area in Nigeria. There's the dry season and the rainy season. It was the rainy season. And so he's riding, sloshing through mud and muck on this lonely road by himself.

And then he gets a flat tire. And so he's sitting in his car, rain pouring down. It's muddy and terrible outside. And he's wearing his suit that he's going to go speak in. And he's trying to decide what he needs to do. In the middle of nowhere, he has one suit.

He's got to go speak in it. Strips down to his underwear, climbs out of the car. And gets in the mud and begins changing this tire. One of the things that is nice about being out in the middle of nowhere in this area in West Africa is that you can do these things. You can take your suit off so you don't get it muddy and climb out in your underwear and work on a car. If you did this on Highway 26, I don't know how well that would work out for you.

I mean, you could go for it, but probably not great. One of the bad things about being in the middle of nowhere in West Africa is that you're on one of the only roads. That's heading to the place that you're heading to. So while he's in the middle of changing this, he hears a vehicle coming and he looks. And it's not just one vehicle. It's several vehicles.

Actually, several vans filled with WMU ladies headed to the conference. He stands up. He looks at them. And he sees faces he recognizes. People are looking at him as they're driving through the mud. And he just stands in his underwear.

He's like, ah. And they go on. And he changes his tire. And he puts on his suit and heads on to the conference where, you know how sometimes they'll say, like, if you're public speaking, you should picture people. I think it worked the opposite that day. Like, they were picturing him in his underwear.

It was probably hard for them to listen as he opened the Bible and taught them things. But all other belief systems, all other philosophies just tell us what to do. And in the gospel, we're met with a God who stripped himself down, humiliated himself to get dirty to fix the problem. We're met with a God who is born as an infant. Now, think about this for a second. God is infinitely useful.

That all that he thinks and does immediately works out. That he works everything out beautifully to his will. There's that Christmas song. We sang it with, we sang it last night as we were putting Archer to bed, but it says, the cattle were lowing, the baby he wakes, but the little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes. Like he's some sort of an infant, but he's also perfectly a God in the middle of that. And so he would just wake up and be like, hmm.

But that's not what happened. He cried. He wept. He had to grow in wisdom and stature. He fell down. He skinned his knees.

He had to clip his toenails. He had to cut his hair. He humiliated himself. Babies are cute, but useless. They're cute. But they don't accomplish much.

They're not pulling their weight. And the infinite God, who's infinitely useful, stripped himself to join us in the darkness, in the pain, in death, that he might share his life, and his light, and his hope, so that we might be free. That's what we celebrate at Christmas. That he stripped himself down and joined us in the mess, and that everything else is just going to give us law. Everything else is just going to say, here's what you have to do to be good, but from his fullness, we have received grace upon grace. That's the gospel.

That we believe that from Jesus' fullness, we receive grace upon grace. That he is a fountain that overflows, and it's not because he's lacking, but because he has so much that he shares with us. That's our hope in Jesus. That's what we believe. That's why we gather. That's why we celebrate Christmas.

Not that Jesus has given us law to teach us how to be full, but that we might believe in his name, and from his fullness, we receive grace. That he earned what we could not earn, that he accomplished what we could not accomplish, that he did for us what we could not do for ourselves, and that we trust in Jesus, and he gives us his fullness. We believe that he's strong, and he's smart, and he's good, and he's righteous, and he's holy, and that we get to be all of those things through grace from his fullness that's given to us. So it says, the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

So grace is that Jesus did for us what we could not do for ourselves, that he joined us in humanity and offered us something that cannot be offered to you anywhere else, that he would do the work on your behalf, and then it says we receive truth. Jesus later in this gospel is going to say that he is truth, so that we get him, but I want to share one of the truths that I think is clearly shown to us in Jesus' birth, that God would become a human. One of the truths that I think becomes so clear. Have you ever lied a lot and had to keep building off of your other lie, and you have to kind of reconnect things, and because you're not in reality anymore, so you have to just keep tying lies together.

My brother and I were in high school, and we were at a friend's house, and he wanted to show us a shotgun, so he walked into the room and fired it into the ceiling because he had done none of the things that you were supposed to do if you're going to show someone a gun. After that, when he's like, hey, you want to say, no, no, don't want to be around you in a weapon. You're terrible. But he walks in the room and a group of people and just shoots it into the ceiling and then was like, oh, and he was like, it's not supposed to be loaded. It's like, what's that not supposed to be loaded? Your finger, what was your finger on the trigger?

It's not supposed to have a safety. Go, go away. Like, but what we did, because we're kind, is we went to our house and got some stuff and fixed his ceiling, which was in his parents' room. We actually, Logan did this, but he patched the ceiling and then we took white out and drew little dots because we didn't have the little bubbly stuff, but we tried to make it look like it had some contour and we did pretty good. And then we all came up with, like, here's what happened this evening. And we just kind of, you know, just omit the thing in the middle and some of the story didn't quite make a whole lot of sense, but we were just like, we got it.

And so then we proceeded to just lie about this for a while. And then my parents say, Logan, check, come in this room. That's my dad. That's my mom. You know, if y'all could tell. We walk in the room and that was never like a, hey, y'all come in this room.

It was never like you walked in and they were like, we got pie. Like it just was never, you could tell the tone. You're walking in the room immediately. Like, it's just like you hear that voice guilt, just like you put a blanket of guilt on. You start walking in, you're going, okay, hold on a second now. And you're trying to think, what did I do?

When did I do that? Maybe it's mostly Logan. Maybe it was a thing he did. And I just get to be like, yeah, it wasn't me. You walk in, you know, you don't know you're going to walk in. He's holding a can of dip.

Like, you don't know what you're walking into. You're just walking in. And so you walk in and they were like, um, they started asking a few questions about this event. And we were both like, you know, there's this moment where you're looking at your brother like, I don't, are we, we stick into our thing? Like, am I going to mess you up? If I like, what do we do here?

But you also have a pretty good understanding if they're asking questions about this, they maybe have some information that you didn't want them to have. And so we're sitting there and we kind of like, well, you know, being mumbly. And then my dad just kind of with the truth and it really felt like we had had this elaborate system and that once truth hit it, it just kind of cut through like a stick through a, through a cobweb. I could just immediately, once truth hits lies, the lies just fall all apart. And so he was like, what about this? And we were like, oh yeah, no, yeah, that's a good point.

And it ended up not being too bad because we were just helping our friend out. Like, he didn't know at this point who had done what with what weapon that caused their roof to leak. We didn't think about that part. Yep. We didn't caulk their roof. So anyway, we, and honestly, when it says that grace and truth came through Jesus, it feels like the God of the universe took truth and he just broke right through time and history and space and he just landed so clearly.

I want to share some reality and just brought it down. And here's the truth at Christmas that needs to seep into our souls. The sheer fact that the eternal creator God humbles himself to become a human so that he might live a relatively short life to die a brutal, painful death on a cross declares definitively, eternally, that you were not going to get this together on your own. That the law that was given to Moses was insufficient as are all other rules and philosophies that say, you need this to be okay. That he came as a rescuer because we needed to be rescued. And for any of us who are saying, I'm going to be moral, I'm going to be good, I'm going to live a right life, all we are saying is, I definitively reject Jesus.

That's why it says that those who would believe in his name would be welcomed in. That we believe and trust in him and him alone and what he has accomplished, not our good works, not our morals, that we trust in him definitively have been declared that we need a savior, that we need someone to do this on our behalf and that we trust in him and from his fullness, we receive grace upon grace. That's what we sing about. That's what we celebrate at Christmas. That we have a God who loved us so much that he would send his son, that he would join us in humanity, humble himself, that he might do for us what we could not accomplish for ourselves.

And I pray and I hope that all of that was stuff you already know and believe and trust in and hope in and that maybe just a little bit of this today reminds us to focus on that and to have his light shine into the middle of this darkness and have his life buoy us and call us into hope and that we might remember again that it's not about our works and it's not about our effort but it's about what he's accomplished for us. That from his fullness we might receive grace. And if that's the first time you've heard it, the first time you've really thought about it, I want you to know that you can trust in his name. You can place everything on the name of Jesus so you can believe in what he's done and from his fullness you will be made full and you will receive grace and you will be given hope and you'll be invited into what happened in that moment a long time ago when a little baby was born in a podunk town in Judea that ended up being the light of the world and the hope for all humanity.

A band's going to come back up and we're going to celebrate today. We're going to remind ourselves of this and walk in this as we take communion. So communion is a celebration of the meal that Jesus had with his disciples the night before he was going to go to the cross and he takes a cup and he says, this is my blood shed for you and he takes bread and he breaks it and he says, this is my body broken for you and he says, do this in remembrance of me that as often as we do this that we would proclaim Jesus' death until he comes. You see, right now we get a communion meal. We get a meal that looks forward and backward.

We get a meal that looks back to Jesus' death and looks forward to his coming. And then when he comes we get a wedding meal. We get a consummation meal. We get invited to an eternal celebration where God the Father welcomes all his children home. And so today I want us as we take communion to do exactly that. I want us to look back and I want us to look forward.

I want us to hold the realness of the bread. Feel it. And realize that Jesus took on flesh. He became tangible for us to see and touch and hear that he was broken and that he bled so that from his fullness we might be made full. That we need him today. So if you're a Christian and you're part of our church family we invite you to pray.

We invite you to repent where you need to. Spend time with Jesus and then during this next song as they sing when you get ready come up take the bread dip it in the cup. Remembering that Jesus died for you and looking forward to the day when light fully pierces the darkness. And we're taking home to belong to him forever. Lord, let's pray. Let's pray.

God, we thank you for your grace. Thank you for your goodness towards us that through you we can be made full. And we ask that over the next week or so as we celebrate Christmas with friends, family as we walk through this season whether it's joy filled or mournful that we might remember the hope and the truth and the grace that we have in you. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Lifetime Generosity

Lifetime Generosity

Spencer Cary

Transcript

Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm a pastor in training here with Mill City Church. We're going to be in 2 Corinthians 9 today, which is on page 563, if you have a white Bible. If you do not have a Bible, please take that home. That is our gift to you.

We are currently in our gift series. If you're new here, we do this gift series every year. It's a time for us in a culture that pushes possessions and material things all year, and it really heightens up right now. This is a time for us every year to reset and be reminded with the Bibles how it talks about money, how it talks about generosity, so that we can kind of reset and remember what the Bible teaches on it. So we're going to be in 2 Corinthians.

We'll get to that in a second. In seminary, I worked at a coffee shop. And this time every year in December was the best time to work at a coffee shop. It was my favorite time for a lot of different reasons. Firstly, this was the time of year that people, this is the season of generosity, that people would do one of those things where we had a coffee shop with a drive-thru, and the person at the drive-thru would say, I want to pay for the person behind me. And they'd start a chain.

You ever seen those or heard of those? So the person would pay for the person behind them, and then the next person would get really, really excited, and they'd say, oh, I've always wanted to be a part of one of these. I'll pay for the next person, the next person. The reason why I love this was because eventually someone was going to come up, and it was going to get awkward. And I just love to let awkward situations just simmer, let it go for a little bit. So someone's going to come up, and they're going to get a small coffee, which is like $2.

And then they're going to pay for the person behind them, and the next person, they're going to have the small coffee, and they're going to go, okay, well, that person paid for me. That's really cool. Like what? What did the next person get? I was like, well, they bought coffee for the office. Five drinks, all large, with espresso shots, $25.

And they would go, okay, and I just let it sit for a second. And eventually they'd either say like, I guess I'll do it, like reluctantly, or they'd just say, I can't do it. That was fun. That was a big part of December. Another big part of December, because this season, just a generous season, was you made more tips. This was the time of the year you could make the most tips.

So people would be dropping extra change in, extra dollars. I mean, this is the time of year that you would make the most money. And then January came. And when January came, it was like the holiday hangover. Everyone's 10 pounds heavier. They just got their credit card bills from December.

And they're like, how did this just happen? And then generosity culturally just goes to die in January. And that's kind of the cycle every year. It picks back up right around December. Remember, nonprofits that raise money for the next calendar year, they know this is the time of year where you're going to get the most donations. This is the time where you fundraise.

Like Giving Tuesday wasn't even a thing five years ago. And now, like the first Tuesday in December, there's a huge push because this is the time when people are culturally generous. So what I have for us today is to look at the season that we're in. To look at the season we're in and ask, do we want to be like the culture where generosity is just seasonal? Or do we want generosity to be a part of the regular fabric of who we are? Because the Bible calls us to regular generosity.

So as we take on this gift project, as we take on this gift series, I want to cast a vision for us that we might grow past this season. Because regular generosity is a Mark of maturity in the Christian life. And we're going to look at 2 Corinthians 9 today in verses 6 through 10. And we're going to see the vision he puts forth for this. We're going to see why it's good and give some practicals how we can actually get there. So I'll read it.

And then we'll dive in. Verse 6. I'll pray and we'll dive in. God, thank you for your word. Thank you that you speak tough truth to us. Money is such a difficult subject to grapple with because it's so connected to our heart.

God, I pray that you would help us put down our swords, that we would receive this, that you would speak powerfully to us and give us a vision for long-term generosity. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, so. All right, so.

The context for 2 Corinthians here. All right, so. The context, if we go back to chapter 8. Paul is doing basically two chapters of expanding the Corinthian church's vision for generosity. And what he does in chapter 8, the beginning of chapter 8, is he gives an example. He gives an example of another church that's called the Church of Macedonia.

So this Macedonian church heard there was a need. There was a need amongst some of the churches in Jerusalem who were struggling. And the Macedonian church, he upholds this church as an example. This church being, we know from the context, being fairly poor. They didn't have a whole lot. And they responded in generosity in a big way.

He says in verse 3 of chapter 8, he says, for they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. So this church didn't have a whole lot. They were begging to take part that they might be able to contribute to help this church. So he walks through that in chapter 8. He gives this example. And then we get to verse 6 in chapter 9 when he says, the point is this.

Meaning he's laying out the why behind all this. The point is this. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. And whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So he uses this language of reaping and sowing.

It's agricultural language that they would be familiar with. So in their culture, every year when they would harvest grain, they would bring in grain that they would use for bread. And if they ate all the grain at once for that year, they'd starve the next year. That's not how you farm. You have to set aside grain for the future, for future harvest. If you didn't have grain to plant for seeds for next year, you were not going to have grain for future harvest.

This language is built off of that. They might give to something in the future that will reap something, that will sow, that you'll reap something later. Now, prosperity preachers, they will hijack this passage. And they'll say, you see, if you give to our ministry, if you give to what we're doing, God's going to bless you. You're going to have material blessings right now. Your business will grow and you'll get cars.

Look at our ministry. We've got Learjets. It's awesome. And prosperity preachers, typically you'll see on TV, rule of thumb, nine times out of ten, if they're preaching on TV, they're probably a prosperity preacher. And they're going to stand up there and they're going to use this about the material now. If you give now, you'll reap material benefits now.

And they've completely ripped this from its context. This is not about the material now. This is about the eternal later. Now, there's an element for right now when we get to verse 10 where God provides for your needs right now. But it isn't the fleshly desires that you hear from some of those guys.

No, this is about the eternal later. It's building off the same idea that we've been building off the past few weeks. It's not about storing up treasures here. It's about storing up treasures in heaven. That's why I love what Chad did last week. If you weren't here, I encourage you to listen to the podcast.

But the visual, you won't be able to see. He took this long spool of thread. And he took this long spool of thread. At the very end, he taped one small piece of it. And he held it up and he said, this is your life. You're born here.

You die here. The rest of this string, and he kept unraveling and unraveling it, helping us see. The rest of this string is eternity. And it's not even to scale. Because eternity goes on and on and on. And what he helped us see was that we think about money in the context of this right here.

We don't think about it in the context of what the Bible calls us to. We have an eternal outlook on the way we spend money and the way that we think about money. That was a helpful visual for us. And that's what they are trying to communicate in this passage as well. Because culturally, we just don't do this well. We don't think forward enough.

I mean, the best kind of picture of how culture thinks forward and investing in something down the road is retirement. That's pretty much it. And retirement's a good thing. I mean, the Bible, the Proverbs teach about storing up for later, about leaving stuff for your kids. Somewhat downplaying retirement. You should be investing in retirement for later.

But, man, the way the retirement gets pitched in our culture is sad. I mean, the retirement commercials that you see, it's usually like a couple and they're on a boat. And maybe that boat, like the name of the boat is their retirement fund. And it's always on the Gulf because it's blue waters. They don't ever do it in the Atlantic where it's a little bit muddy. It's always blue waters.

And you work your whole life and invest in this retirement fund so you can get the boat, buy the ocean, and it's going to be great. And it's a sad picture for layers of reasons. Practically, how many hurricanes hit the Gulf on a regular basis? That boat isn't going to exist past a few years. Your beach home is going to get jacked up. And to think that we would invest so much and put so many eggs in that basket that for like 10 years we could actually enjoy that.

And then, I mean, you'll enjoy it for a moment and then it's gone. To think that we would put so much hope in the last few years of our life instead of thinking about the eternity that is to come is sad. And that's the best example we have of our culture investing in something down the road. So Paul is trying to expand the Corinthians, their understanding of this, that storing up treasures here is foolish. They're here for a moment and then they're gone. So he teaches on this and he's teaching on the heels of using this example of this Macedonian church, how they responded greatly in generosity.

And I think that's helpful. I think having examples of how other people, other churches have responded radically and generously, that's helpful. I don't remember a whole lot of sermons from when I was a kid. I didn't become a Christian until I was 17. But I do remember one sermon specifically.

And it was about, he used this example of this guy who had built this construction business. And he built this very successful multi-million dollar construction business. And he lived on 10% of what he made. And he gave 90% of the church, 90% to see the mission go forward. And I was like, man, that has always stuck with me, that kind of radical generosity. It's helpful when you hear about villages in Africa where churches don't have hardly anything and they come together and they pull the resources to be able to help somebody.

It's helpful to see stories like when Jesus told the parable of the woman, the widow, who gave everything she had. It was just two pennies, but she gave everything she had. Those stories are helpful because they give us a picture of what radical generosity looks like. But sometimes, if we're honest, sometimes they can be a little bit discouraging. Because hear this, if you're giving like 40 bucks a month and you hear stories like that, you're like, man, I am never going to get there. I can help out with your gift project.

I can pitch in a little bit there. But, man, I've got diapers I've got to pay for. And my kid's 529 educational account has like 80 bucks in it. And some of you are like, I don't even know what a 529 educational account is. Like, I've got needs that I'm trying to take care of right now. So I'll help a little bit.

But, man, I don't think I can do much more. Or maybe you've been in a state where you've been able to give for a season. And then all of a sudden some bills came. And it just, you got scared. And it was like, I don't know if I can keep this going. The credit card bills are coming in.

I don't know if I can do this. So if that is where you're at, if that's the zone that you're in, what Paul says next in verse 7 is of great value to us. Because he's going to expand our understanding of giving in a big way. In verse 7 he says, All right, so where he wants to move us to is regular sacrificial generosity that is cheerful. So if you're in the zone where it's like, I'm currently not giving at all.

Or maybe you're in the zone that I'm giving a little bit. It's not sacrificial. You may even be the person that's actually giving somewhat sacrificial. Maybe you heard about tithing growing up and you've always given 10%. That's been your mindset. But you don't do it cheerfully.

You do it because it's what you've always done. Or you do it reluctantly. Or maybe in your mindset it's like, this is how I peace God in some way. That I just give 10%. That's what I'm supposed to do. And Paul's trying to move us to know.

Sacrificial giving that is cheerful. If you do a word study and the word cheerful, it comes back cheerful. Joyful. That you might be excited about how you can give. Now in order to get there.

Which I don't know the word. In order to get there. We have to look at what he says here. When he says decision of the heart. Because that is huge for us. He says it's a decision of the heart.

That phrase right there is helpful. Because it reminds us. That this is a heart process. That giving is a part of our heart process. It's a part of our maturity. It's a part of what the Bible says is our sanctification.

Which is growing in holiness. Which is growing into Christ. It's a part of the process of maturity. And hear this. Maturity doesn't happen in a moment. It doesn't.

It takes time. My daughter. She's two and a half. And she's learning how to use sentences. So she's.

She'll come to me. Have you ever seen my daughter? She's really stinking cute. She's got blonde curls. And she comes up to me. And she'll go.

Daddy. Hold you. And I'm like. Oh. That's so sweet. Pick her up and say.

You mean. Daddy. Will you hold me? Daddy. Daddy. Hold you.

I was like. All right. We're working on that. Sometimes. Sometimes. She'll.

She'll get to talking. And she'll say. Daddy. Can you please. And she hears us talk. And we talk fast.

And she'll just all of a sudden go. Daddy. Can you please. Oh. And she starts speaking in gibberish. And I'm like.

Child. Are you speaking in tongues? What's going on here? Slow down. Like. You need to just.

Use. Like. Slow down. Work. And we work on that. Now.

Here's the deal. What kind of dad would I be. If my cute little daughter comes up to me. And says. Daddy. Hold you.

I say. Child. Please. No. You use correct English. We'll get somewhere.

Until then. Talk to your mom. Like. What. What kind of dad would I be. If I wasn't patient with her.

Knowing that. She's got a long way to go. She's got a long way to mature. And in the same way. We have a God who is gracious. A gracious heavenly father.

Who is waiting for us to mature. Waiting for us to grow. I mean. That's true for any part of your process of growing into Christ. Right? Like.

When you first learn. That. As a Christian. You're actually supposed to. To be reconciled in relationships. That you get angry with another Christian.

Like. You're not supposed to just be passively aggressive. And just. Let anger just brood inside. And never talk to them. No.

Like. You're actually supposed to address them. The first time you actually go. And try biblical reconciliation. Like. You may go for it.

And you may. Man. I just. I'm so angry with you. And it may come out complete. Gibberish.

But God's patient with us. Until we speak the gospel fluently. He's patient with us. Until we grow. In maturity. And we have to have that mindset.

And apply it. To our generosity. You have a ways to go. I have a ways to go. But we have a father who is generous with us.

Who is patient. With us. And who's given us the Holy Spirit. To work in us. I love the picture that Ezekiel 36. 20, 60, 27 gives.

It's looking into the New Testament. How the Spirit is going to work in the church. He says. And I will give you a new heart. And a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh.

And give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you. And hear this. And cause you to walk in my statutes. And be careful to obey my rules. The picture is that he's traded out a heart of stone.

And he's put in a heart of flesh. And he's put the spirit inside of us. Who is going to cause us to walk in his statutes. Who is going to cause us to walk in his ways. We're not alone. The spirit is working through us.

And we have to have a long term picture of what that looks like. So that we can extend our generosity past this current season. So if you're currently not living generously. If you're currently not giving to the church. If you're currently not living generously towards the needs of people in your community group. Like hear this encouragement.

You can get there. You can get there. The Holy Spirit is in you. Working in you. He can grow you in this. But it's going to take some time.

And it's going to take some intentionality. And that's true for anything. It takes time. It takes intentionality. This is the time of year we're getting ready to have New Year's. And with New Year's comes New Year's resolutions.

Which means the gyms are about to be packed. They are. Jeremy Powell is a personal trainer here. My father is a personal trainer. They call this season tourist season. Because this is the time when everyone shows up to the gym.

And they're like, I'm going to get fit. This is going to be my year. And I personally, I hate working out. Like I hate it. Like I despise working out. Like if you want to play basketball.

And I do like being active like that. But man, going to a gym working out is just not my thing. I hate it. There have been seasons where I was like, man, I think I could be a gym person. And I would go. And the only time I've ever worked out consistently was when I was in high school training when I was playing baseball and football.

And I'd go in the gym. And I'd pick up right where I left off and do hour workouts and work out early. And then two weeks in, I'd be like, what am I doing? Like I'm trying to pick up where I left off. I'm trying to be the most advanced version of what I was doing. Like what am I doing?

You just don't jump into the gym and start killing it. The same thing happens with diets. Like you don't go from McDonald's to Whole30. You just don't. Like I've tried. My wife does Whole30 about once a year.

It's coming up again. And the first time she ever did Whole30, I was like, baby, I'm going to come alongside you. I'm going to help you do this. And I did Whole30. Because it's the worst diet ever. You can eat like air, water, and squash spaghetti.

And squash spaghetti is terrible. It's an abomination of foods. Like it's awful. Like it's not spaghetti. If you just want to call it squash and eat it and realize you're eating something that's objectively terrible, go for it. But don't make spaghetti out of it and say, oh, this is great.

No. It's terrible. And I made it three days because I'm like, this is the worst diet ever. Because you don't go from McDonald's, which I enjoy sometimes. You have a McDonald's app. You can get $354 deals.

You probably judge me, but that's okay. You don't jump from McDonald's to Whole30. It takes time. If you actually want to have a diet and sustainable and go long term, you cut out some things. You introduce some vegetables. You introduce some whole grains.

Right? So in the same way, this give project. This give project is a small start for us. Right? Like it's a way for us to go check out the gym. It's a way for us to introduce some whole grains to start getting a little more healthy.

But we don't go from zero to 100 just like that. You just don't. That's not a sustainable outlook on giving. That's why I don't really like the language of tithe when it comes to giving. I just don't for a couple of reasons. Like tithe is an Old Testament concept.

It's an Old Testament concept of you would give a tenth of what they made to the temple. And then they've, you know, scholars have done the research and they've seen that it's a tithe on what they would make, a tithe on certain harvests, a tithe on certain festivals. And it ends up being somewhere between 20 and 30 percent. But they don't really know. There's not a New Testament command to go and tithe. The New Testament command is to give and give sacrificially.

And some of the reasons I don't like tithe is that for some of you, you're not feeling 10 percent. That's not sacrificial. You can just put auto-give 10 percent of your income and you'll never feel it. And it robs you of actually being able to grow into sacrificial giving. But the other reason I don't like the language of tithe is that if you're not giving at all, or if you're giving a few bucks a month, and your understanding of giving is I have to give 10 percent, you're like, I'm out.

I'm never actually going to get there. Like, what's the point? If giving is 10 percent, I'm never actually going to get there. So a more realistic outlook, a more realistic approach is to look at 2018 and think, you know what? I think if we move some things around, I think we can do 2 percent this year. We can do 2 percent this year.

And then having a long-term outlook that says maybe in 2019, we can give 4 percent. And maybe in 2020, we can give 6 percent. And having a long-term vision of slowly growing in this so that you can actually get to sacrificial giving. And as you do this, and as you think through this, we do it prayerfully. We don't do it reluctantly. We don't do it under compulsion.

We do it prayerfully. And we ask God to go to work in our hearts. We might do this cheerfully. And once you've prayed, and once you feel like God is calling you to give something, like this is a time to look at our budgets going into 2018. If you don't have a budget, you should. You should have a budget.

If you are currently struggling to live within your means, you should have a budget. And here's the deal. At our church, we have a toast team. They are our financially wise people in our church. They're here to help serve us. And they want to meet with you.

If you don't know how to make a budget, if you will help with your budget, if you're looking to get out of debt, we have a team that will sit down with you. And they will help draw up a plan. They will help you figure out how to grow in this. And this will actually help free you up to be able to start giving. And when you look at your budget, I just want to give you a few quick ways. If you look at these right now, you'd find some ways to grow and be able to give.

If you have cable, and you're like paying hundreds of dollars, if you switch to like Sling TV, which is like 40 channels, it's 20 bucks a month. If some of you can be looking at cheaper phone plans, some of us can start shopping for insurance rates. Because what I've noticed the last few years, there's like zero incentive to actually stay with an insurance company. They will just jack up the rates on you. For some of you, it's going to be looking at how many times a week you eat out. Because if you're eating out seven times a week and getting drinks five times a week, maybe it's time to pare that down a little bit.

For some of you, it's not jumping on every single Lula Rowe outfit that comes out, but thinking about Target. And for some of us who are due a pay raise coming up, so much of this is realizing that we either worship God or we worship money, like what Chet talked about last week. When it comes to getting a pay raise, it's having our mindset adjusted. When we get that pay raise, it's not how much more can I get? It's like, God, what do you want to do with this? What do you want me to give?

How do you want me to grow here? We had someone during this series who came up and said, I have a brand new car and I want to start living within my means. And I want to figure out how to sell this car and see if I can get a used car to have smaller payments. That's the kind of response that I love seeing. And the way we do this is we look at our budgets and we do some praying and we start considering things. And we also, maybe for some of us, is bringing people into this.

Because, man, I am naturally prone to worship money. And if I have my budget in front of me, I will try to justify it to myself in any way possible. But when I bring in somebody else and they're looking at it, it helps me think through what am I actually doing with my finances. All of us, this is a heart-level process. And, man, it's a heart-level process that we go to war in. It just is.

Because when you start to do this, temptation is coming. From your flesh, from the world, from the devil. Like, it is going to come. And you're going to feel the pull to want to focus on the possessions of this world as we strive to have a long-term vision of generosity. So, at this point, at this point, you may be frustrated. Like, you may be ready to, like, bow up or walk out.

Right? Because, I mean, talking about money, it causes us to sit in our seat a little bit. And you may even be a little bit discouraged. I feel like that Paul felt the same thing. And that's why in verse 8 he gives a pretty solid encouragement in verse 8. He says in verse 8, And God is able to make all grace abound to you.

What Paul gives here is that God is the sufficiency for our change. God is the one who's sufficient. He's the one that makes all grace abound. He's the one that is going to grow us. He's the one that is going to help us change. Because here's the deal.

If you try to muscle change yourself here, like, you're going to fail. Because we're not the ones that are sufficient to change our views on giving, to grow us in this. That Jesus is our sufficiency for change. He's the one that will change us. He's the one that will form us. And that comes, firstly, through believing the gospel.

Which is why I love what Paul says in verse 9. He says, As it is written, He has distributed freely. He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. Paul quotes Psalm 112 here. And I love what he's doing here.

Because when we connect this to the gospel, we see that Jesus embodied this perfectly. That he's the one who perfectly distributed freely and helped the poor. And that he distributed grace to those of us who are spiritually poor and spiritually bankrupt. That we might have a righteousness that endures forever. The God who generously poured out his son for us is the one who enables us. He is the sufficiency for our change.

And then he goes on to show us how we can continue to trust him in this. He says in verse 10, He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase your harvest. Increase the harvest of your righteousness. So Paul gives a picture of God as the one who provides here. Like God's the provider. He's the one who supplies.

I think oftentimes the reason that we get discouraged when we do this, when we try to step into this and live generously, is we just get scared. Like how am I going to do this? I'm looking at my bills. I'm looking at my income. How in the world am I going to actually begin to do this? Here's the deal.

I've never met anyone who began to trust Jesus with their finances. I've never met anyone who started to do this, and all of a sudden everything fell apart and God didn't provide. Like usually the story that you hear is, I don't know how all this worked out. I don't. Like I don't know how the math worked out, but God continued to provide. And as I increased my giving, God met me where I was at and he provided for my needs.

And as that process goes, you start to trust God. You start to realize how awesome this is to take part. And you start to grow cheerfully to the point where you're like waiting for someone in the church to have a medical bill or to lose a job because you're ready to come alongside and see, how can I come alongside this and give? God provides. We trust him with our finances. He provides.

And when we trust and have an eternal outlook on our finances in the way that we give, and when we do that and we give to the mission of God, what that means is it frees us up to be able to do more ministry. When we give to the church, it allows, like we have two full-time pastors. We have Matt and Chet that are full-time. It allows them to not have to go and get jobs. They can be able to strategically focus here. It allows us to be able to meet here on a Sunday.

I know you're thinking, this place ain't amazing, but if you actually took a step back and realized how many stories have changed happened in this building, it puts it in perspective. It puts it in perspective when you have eternal mindset that there are neighbors and coworkers and friends and family members who can come and hear the gospel here. That's eternal. It puts it in perspective when you think about our kids that are up in Kid City right now and someone is walking them through the gospel that one day we might stand in a baptism pool. And they might say, Jesus is Lord. That's an eternal outlook on the way that we give.

That's the eternal nature of what we're giving to. Because here's the deal. A thousand years from now, a thousand years from now, you're not going to care about that top-of-the-line remodel that you missed out on. You're not going to care about that you didn't have the newest and the nicest cars. You're not going to care about that you didn't have the newest and the nicest gadgets. What you will care about is who is standing with you in the presence of God for eternity.

You will care about your family, your friends, your coworkers and kids who through being here in community groups on a Sunday heard the gospel and were changed. That's the vision of long-term generosity that we have to have. Because we want to see long-term change happen in this city. Matt and Bianca are going to come up. We're going to close this in a song, a couple songs. A easy step to move into generosity right now is owning this gift project.

We've been doing this gift project, and there's been kind of two main goals here. The first, if you haven't heard what we've been doing yet, we're partnering with Midtown Two Notch. It's a church over on Two Notch on the other side of Columbia, and it's in an area of town that is way under-resourced. The average household income is like $18,000, and like the normal household income for the state is around $50,000. So they don't have a lot.

And there's a lot of families there that aren't going to be able to celebrate Christmas by getting their kids gifts. So one of the things that we're doing is we've been collecting gifts like this because this Saturday we're going to do a toy shop. So throughout the week we're still collecting gifts. This Thursday is the cutoff day. Please bring gifts by the office for kids ages 3 to 18. We're expecting 100 to 150 kids, so we need more gifts.

So if you're at Target this week or you're at Walmart, please pick up some more gifts and bring them by the office on Thursday. If you'd like to serve this Saturday for the toy shop that we're running at their church, you can sign up online. Please do this as soon as possible so we can have some Numbers of what we're going to do. And this Saturday we're going to show up, and we're going to play the background. We're going to serve, and we're going to let Midtown Two Notch be the face of who is helping do this. And there's going to be a toy shop for parents to go inside and be able to pick out toys for their kids.

And we're going to be outside doing games with kids like bouncy houses and hot chocolate and fire pits and crafts. And then the next Sunday, these families are going to be able to show up at Midtown Two Notch's gathering. And they're going to collect these gifts for their kids, and they're going to connect that to this as a church who is in our area, who is serving us in a big way. And God willing, we hope to see some people that will meet Jesus because of this. So if you want to serve in that, please sign up for that as soon as possible.

The last way we're serving that church, their lead pastor, Aunt Frederick, is support raised because he's in that area and it's underfunded. Like he may never be fully supported by the church, so he fundraises every year to get by, and we just want to bless him. We're collecting money right now to be able to help ease the burden of his 2018 salary.

Faithful in Small Things

Faithful in Small Things

Chet Phillips

Transcript

I was reminded this week, more specifically this week than in other weeks, that pastors and preachers are not supposed to strut. They're not supposed to have swagger. There's not supposed to be, in pastoring and relating to people, you're not supposed to hold yourself too highly, and in preaching, you're not supposed to strut out to preach that actually good pastoring and good preaching is done. Our view of our finances, our view of our money, our view of eternity, what I was reminded of was that I like stuff. I have. One of the running jokes in my family that they point out was that when I was younger, when I would have a birthday or when I would have Christmas or whatever, my birthday's in the fall, that I would have a birthday, and I would open all my gifts, and I'd be all excited, and then the next day I'd start saying stuff like, hey, let me tell you what I want for Christmas.

I had in my mind all of this, and I already see that in my two-year-old. He does the same thing. You can buy him a toy, and he will play with it, and then he'll look at the box on the back and say, I want that, I want that, like I want. There was a little train set thing. He was like, he could barely talk, and it came with a little brochure for more train set stuff, and he started flipping through it, and he was like, I need a purple one. And I was like, that's the most coherent sentence you've ever said.

That came directly from me. Like I know where that comes from. And so it's like I just know that. Like I know as we talk about generosity in our gift series, which every year around Christmas we just take a couple of weeks to talk through how we view money and how that affects our hearts and how we walk in generosity. I'm sorry, this is distracting me. Can we get the lights, these two pole lights up?

Y'all seem like y'all are really dark back there. We've got to do some things to adjust with lights around here because it's not the brightest room in the world. Oh, no, sorry, that's not on y'all. That's on a switch up there. My bad. That was not for y'all.

That was for the, there we go. See, all right. We'll edit all that out of the online recording and make it seem really smooth. All right, anyway, as we talk about this at this time of year, this generosity, this walk in finances, I just got to thinking about the fact that really what I want, if I was completely honest, I want to be generous enough. That's what I want. I want to be generous enough.

I know that if I got more money, I don't know if my percentage of generosity would increase. I know overall, financially, I would increase in generosity because, you know, 10% of 100 is different from 10% of 1,000 or whatever. But my percentage would probably stay the same. I don't know if I would get more generous. I do know I'd have more stuff. And I'd feel fine with it because it'd be a smaller percentage of my budget.

Like, if I got more money, I would also have more stuff. I might have some land. You guys, you don't even know how much I want to just live around trees and not people. You have no clue. I would have more land. I would have, like, I just know that about myself.

And as I read this passage this week, I just was convicted. And so I just want to say that I feel like I have limped up here this morning. And I am a sinner in need of a Savior and in need of this truth and just trying to study it with you. That's not, that's not, the goal is not, hey, listen to what Jesus said and look at how awesome I do it. That's not what this is. That's not what this has ever been.

This has been, we're sinners in need of a Savior and in need of Him to go to work in our hearts. So let's study that together and let's walk in that together. So we're going to be in Luke chapter 16 and Jesus is going to tell a story that confuses people. I know it confuses people because as I read commentaries on it, they said, we're confused. It's not exactly what they said, but that's what they communicated. It confuses people, but I actually think it's a really straightforward story.

And so we're going to take the time to understand the story that Jesus is teaching so that we can understand His point. But His point is very simple. His point is this. Christians do not handle money well in light of the fact that they will exist for eternity. That's the point. And in general, Christians do not handle money well in light of the fact that they will exist for eternity.

That's what we're going to see today. So we're going to pray and ask the Lord to help us as we study this. And we're going to look at this story that Jesus tells. God, we thank You for this time we get to spend in Your Word. And we thank You that Your Word, through the power of Your Spirit, that You may have to ask for the ability to convict, the ability to speak into our souls, and the ability to actually change us and to save us. And so I pray, Lord, that we would not enter into this lightly this morning.

But with the weight of the task that we all endeavor to accomplish this morning, would be present and that we would study Your Word well, that You might work in our souls through it. We love You and we thank You in Jesus' name. Amen. Luke chapter 16, verse 1 is where we'll pick up. It says, He also said to His disciples, this is Jesus speaking to His followers. If you're a Christian, just kind of you can put yourself in the role of a disciple, someone who's trying to follow the will of Jesus, trying to be a follower of His.

When He leaves, He tells His disciples, those who He had trained to make more disciples. And so that's kind of the position we're in, is those who follow Jesus now are still disciples of Jesus. So He tells them a story. There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. And he called him and said to him, What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management, for you can no longer be manager.

And the manager said to himself, What shall I do since my master is taking the management away from me? I'm not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do. It's kind of like an aha moment is verse 4. I have decided what to do. So that when I am removed from management, people may receive me into their houses.

So, summoning his managers, summoning his master's debtors, one by one, he said to the first, How much do you owe my master? And he said, A hundred measures of oil. And he said to him, Take your bill, sit down and quickly, and write fifty. And he said to another, How much do you owe? And he said, A hundred measures of wheat. He said to him, Take your bill, and write eighty.

Okay, so that's the basis of the story. Jesus is going to kind of sum it up in verse 8. The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, so now he finishes the story, now he's making a statement, a command to his disciples. I tell you, make friends for yourselves by the means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into eternal dwellings.

Okay, let's retell this story, just make sure we got it in our head, and then we're going to zoom in on verses 8 and 9. And we're going to take a minute to walk through 8 and 9, because if we understand 8 and 9, we understand what Jesus is saying. If we miss 8 and 9, this is going to be a long day. All right. So, here's the story. There's a man who's so rich that he just has a manager to handle his wealth.

He's so wealthy, he just has a manager to handle his wealth, and he gets a report that this manager is doing a poor Job, so he comes to him and says, hey, turn in your books, you're done. So, the manager freaks out. He says, I'm not strong enough to dig. Like, I'm not a manual labor person. I'm a management person. And he says that I'm too proud to beg.

You know that song, Ain't Too Proud to Beg? He hated that song. He's too proud to beg. He's not going to. He says, I've got to figure out something to do, and he says, I got it. I got it.

I am going to cheat the master out of things, because he's firing me anyway. I'm going to cheat him out of what is due him, and I'm going to make people like me by doing this. That was his plan. And so what happens in verse 8 and 9, let's pull this back up, this story is weird. It's weird because it seems like Jesus just told a story about a crooked man and said, good Job. And we have a hard time with Jesus saying that.

And we should, because why would he say that? So here's what's happening in this story. Jesus is telling us a story of a crooked man, of a dishonest man, and saying, even crooked, dishonest people know how to do this. And then he says, and you don't. That's his point. Even crooked, dishonest people know how to do this, and you're not even doing that.

That's the point he's making. So let me show my work on that so that we can see this clearly. So it says, the master commended this honest manager for his shrewdness. Now, this is the first time dishonest shows up in the text. Earlier he was inept. The beginning he was mishandling things.

Now he's a liar. He wasn't, earlier he wasn't in the beginning of the text in verses 1 through 7, he wasn't called dishonest. It just said he was mishandling things. He wasn't being a good manager. Now he's called dishonest, which means that the transaction he just made, the list of bringing people in and saying, quickly, change the amount you owed, was cheating and stealing.

It was not, some people write that it was like him getting rid of his own commission. There's nothing in the text that says that. It says he's dishonest. Okay. He's dishonest. He's commended, not for his honesty, but for his shrewdness.

Now, shrewdness, we most often, you hear it in a negative context, but it really just means he's astute. He made a good decision based off of his position he was in. He made a good decision, a good business decision. He looked out for his own interests. That's what it means. So if you hear that someone's a shrewd businessman, it just means he doesn't do deals that are good for you and not good for him.

If you've ever watched Shark Tank, the people doing the business deals are shrewd. You'll see them put people in really bad situations. They'll make a terrible deal, but it's a good one for them. They'll make a terrible offer. It's a good one for them because they're shrewd businessmen. And so what it says is, he hands the books back to the rich man.

The rich man sees scribbles and Numbers changed and says, well played. Now get the heck out. Like that's what's kind of, it's understood in the text here. Okay. So then Jesus says, so he's not honest, he's shrewd.

He made a good business decision in his own self-interest. Okay. Then Jesus says this, for the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. Everything in yellow, we got to define because otherwise we won't know what he's talking about. Okay. Sons of this world versus sons of light.

Sons of this world are those whose existence, whose home is this world. And that's why he says their own generation, meaning that they exist around those who will be on earth while they're on earth and earth is their home. And he compares that to sons of light. And I want to show you this. So, uh, uh, John 12, 34, uh, 35 and 36 says this. Jesus said to them, the light is among you for a little while longer.

Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light that you may become sons of light. Jesus is talking about himself in John 12. What he's saying is it's where the light came into the world. Jesus says he's the light of the world.

So what he's saying is the lights in the world for a little while and your role is to believe in me, to believe in Jesus and you become a son of light. So go back to the, the colorful one that we just had. That's what a son of light is. It's a person who's believed in Jesus and has eternal life in Jesus. So a son of this world is someone whose life is here and then they will enter into eternal death, separated from Jesus and paying the penalty of their sin.

And a son of light is someone who has an eternal life through Jesus. Now, this does not happen often in scripture and I think Jesus did this on purpose to hurt our feelings a little bit. He says, the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. So, what we want to say is, oh, being more shrewd is bad because the sons of light aren't. We want to automatically say that those who are Christians are the good guys and those who aren't Christians have done it poorly. That's what we want to do.

I don't think that's what Jesus is doing in the text and the reason I don't think that's what he's doing is because his next sentence doesn't, doesn't hint towards that. So look at verse 9. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of the unrighteous wealth. So that first little part where he says, and I tell you, he looks at his disciples and says, sons of this world are better at, are more shrewd, make better business decisions than sons of light. And I'm telling you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous, oh, good one. You good.

Make friends for yourself by means of unrighteous wealth so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwelling. So what he's saying is he's then taking his story that he just had and he's using that idea from the story and saying, what I'm telling you is to be like the manager. Because the manager used the wealth he had at his disposal, which wasn't his, used the wealth he had at his disposal to create friends for himself and he says, I tell you, do the same thing. So go to the one that's just verse 9. Let's look at just verse 9 together.

And I tell you, make friends for yourself by means of unrighteous wealth so that when it fails they may receive you into eternal dwellings. That's a really confusing sentence but here's what I think Jesus' point is. When he says, make friends for yourself by means of unrighteous wealth, he's going to use unrighteous wealth throughout the rest of this passage and all he means, and he says it here so that when it fails, all he means is the money and possessions that won't last forever. Non-eternal wealth. It's not in and of itself unrighteous, but what he's saying is the stuff that won't last forever, the stuff that's going to fail.

That's what he's talking about. When he says, make friends for yourself, I read a lot of commentaries that were like, we've got to figure out who the friends are. I don't think we have to figure out who the friends are. I think he's just stealing the idea from the passage, from the story he told. So the story was, manager mishandles his stuff, he's going to get fired, so he uses his master's wealth to gain friends.

And he's just using the concept of gaining friends, meaning, use your money now for your benefit later. Use your money now for your benefit later. The reason I think that's what he's doing is because I do this all the time. And so I'm meeting him like, oh yeah, I see what you're doing there, Jesus. He just in the middle of, he just tells him a random story. He's trying to teach him something and he tells him a random story.

Instead of just saying what it is, he tells a story. And I do this all the time. I'll be like, all right, it's like this. If we're all trees, and I do this over coffee, I do this over, I'll tell a story about scuba diving or I'll tell a story about, like I'll end with, I won't end and go so, and translate it, I'll end and say, so, be willing to share your scuba mask. Like I've really made some mm point. And you gotta figure out what the heck I was just talking about.

I do that all the time. I do it so much that I was, two days ago, I was at my house, my wife and I were having a discussion about something, and I said, well, it's like this. And she goes, no! She's on the couch across the room. She said, no, it's not like something. You were doing so good.

You were about to say something real. It is something. It's not like something. Please just say it in words. I was like, imagine you're at the Daytona 500. Like, I just can't not tell a random story and then say, so, put the pedal to the metal.

It's the last lap. I can't do it. I can't not do it. And so when he says, make friends for yourself, I think that's all he's doing. He just told you a story, and the guy in the story uses the rich man's wealth to gain his own friends. And so when he says, so make friends for yourself, I think what he's saying is this one simple concept.

See that word eternal? I think that's the main point here. And I tell you, make friends for yourself by means of unrighteous wealth so that when it fails, it will not last. When it fails, they, those are the friends, that we don't know exactly who they are, may receive you into the eternal dwellings. Okay. Luke only uses the word eternal when he's talking about eternal life.

In all of his writing, we got Luke and Acts, he only uses the word eternal when he's talking about eternal life. Dwellings is the word for tabernacle or home. So he is not saying this sarcastically as use your money how you want and then you can go to hell. That's not what Jesus is saying. He's saying, use your money here that's going to fail for your own future eternal benefit. And this lines up with a lot of other things that Jesus says, even in Luke 12, what we looked at last week.

That there is a way for us to use our possessions, our finances here for our own eternal benefit. We would like to say, because it sounds more holy and pious, that we should not look out for ourselves. That sacrifice here should just be that, just painful, not self-serving at all. But when Jesus teaches on money, that's not what he says. What he says is, give it up here for your own eternal future. He doesn't say, get rid of money bags in last week because money bags are bad.

He says, sell your possessions, give to the needy, and buy for yourself money bags that don't go away, that last forever. True riches in heaven that doesn't fade, that can't be stolen. That's what he's saying here. Use the money you have now for your own eternal good, that you would be welcomed, that you would be accepted, that you would be brought in. So, recap, real quick. Sons of light, wild dishonest, wild crooked.

It's like when my dad used to fuss at us if we were mistreating my mom. He would, my dad would say stuff like, let me tell you something, you want to challenge me? We'll find out who's bad real quick. He says, you try something with your mama, I will kill you. And he says, boy, he would say, boy, sorry people are nice to their mamas. People in jail are nice to their mamas.

Criminals are nice to their mamas. The worst thug you can find anywhere that's running the mafia is nice to his mama. Don't you dare not be nice to your mama. His whole point was, even crooked dishonest people, that's what Jesus is doing. Even crooked dishonest liars who can't, who are inept, and then cheat people, still understand, I should make decisions that make sense for my own future. That's why he says, for their generation.

Okay. I don't usually do this, but I think it's helpful today. Now this is not to scale. Bianca, I'm still in your pen. This is not to scale, but this is a generation. So this is a timeline of life.

It's lime green. Can you see it over there? It's lovely. It's a string with duct tape on it. Right here is when you were born. This is right here.

A doctor slapped you, and you went, ah! And right over here, you went, ah! First one, last one. That's what that is. And if that scared you, I'm sorry, that's happening. All right.

We tracking? Somewhere right around in here. This is a generation. This is all the people you're on earth with. Y'all know some people, this little green piece of tape was 16 years. You know some people the green piece of tape was 55.

You know some people the green piece of tape is rocking on up to 95. For the sake of argument, let's say about 80. Okay? About 80. Somewhere around in here, you learned how to read and write and tie your shoes and some of you it was closer over here, some of you it was further over here, but you figured it out. Somewhere around in here, you kind of decided, here's what I want to do and be in life.

There's a lot of anguish over it. You're trying to figure it out. Some of you are still there. Trying to figure out, like, where am I going? What am I going to do? Who am I going to be?

What's this going to look like? Somewhere around here, you made a really good business decision or a really good relational decision. Somewhere around here, you made a really terrible one. Maybe around here, you got a bad diagnosis. Maybe around here, it got a good one. Eventually, though, everyone hits this.

And that's it. Sons of this world, that's it. You see, we're people who believe in eternal life. There are eternal dwellings. That's what we believe. And we believe that in Christ, there are sons of light who this life is as bad and as painful and as difficult and as much heartache as it will ever be.

You are as depressed here as you'll ever be if you're in Christ. You are as anxious here as you'll ever be if you're in Christ. Life is as difficult. If you don't know Christ, this is as good as it gets. So, Jesus says, sons of this world make good business decisions. They're shrewd.

They're astute because they make them based off of this. And that's as good as it gets. They make them based off of this. He says that sons of light don't make good business decisions. And that's because sons of light live well beyond this little green piece of tape. So, sons of light, when they go to make a business decision, when they go to make a financial decision, when someone who's going to exist for eternity tries to decide what to do with money, you see, their timeline, their generation is just different.

The decision making process should just look different. Because they're only going to be here for a little while. And then there's a life that's to come. There's time that's got to pass somewhere else. There's a future and a hope purchased by Christ. that financial decisions that only take into account the piece of tape are not good financial decisions. They're silly.

That sons of light aren't shrewd. Aren't good business deciders. Aren't good investors. Because they don't pay attention to their generation. They don't think about the amount of time that they're going to spend. The amount of life that they're going to have.

Let me explain something to you. If you're going to exist in Christ for eternity and this is not to scale. I said that earlier. This isn't how this would work. If this was eternal if this was eternal you wouldn't be able to see this and this part of the string would keep going so much that it would suffocate all of us destroy this building take over South Carolina engulf the world and swallow the cosmos. because that's how eternity works. But what he's saying is that sons of light if this is as good as it gets certainly make really good decisions for this amount of time.

If you're a son of this world and this is as good as it gets make good decisions here. But if you're a son of light making all your decisions for this is silly that we ought to that's why he says and I tell you make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth so that you'll have an eternal welcome. Not that using your money will save you but that there is a way to use your money with an eternity in mind. So let's read through the rest of the passage to understand what we're looking at here. That Jesus is saying use the money you have here for this amount of time that is to come. verse 10 one who is faithful in very little is also faithful in much.

One who is dishonest in very little is also dishonest in much. That's a basic life principle. If someone can't borrow a DVD without scratching it all up don't let them borrow your car. They'll say well no it's your car it means more it's like yeah it means more and you can't even handle like no no thank you like that's kind of the small principle that's where someone says I'm a terrible boyfriend I'll be a great husband. I know I can't even show up to work when I'm here to cook fries but I could totally be a manager. No you couldn't.

Good managers can cook fries. That's the point. But what he's saying is that that principle applies to this. If you don't handle this well very little why would you get much? He tells parables like this all the time where he says that a rich man gave a bunch of people money that was his money and he left and then he comes back and says what did you do with my money and one guy was like I turned it into a whole bunch of money and he says cool you can be in charge of some cities. One guy was like I buried it in the ground and he was like okay you don't get to be in charge of anything.

Don't banks exist? That's what he responds. At least could have gotten interest. I don't care how much money you make on earth it will only ever be very little when compared with this. it's very little. This is much. This is a funny looking timeline but it's much.

If then you have not been faithful in unrighteous wealth who will entrust to you true riches? this is not true riches. Lifestyles of the rich and famous not true riches. It's not. It has nothing on this. This has nothing on just what I can hold in my hand. It has nothing on eternity.

This next one was messing with me all week. And if you have not been faithful in that which is another's who will give you that which is your own? Now think about this for a second. Everything that you have on the green tape is on loan. You're a manager. It belongs to the rich man.

At some point he says turn in the account. At some point we walk to the rich man and we open the books. Everything. I don't care. I don't care what it is. I don't care if you have a prized possession so you wear it on a chain around your neck.

At some point that is no longer yours. Every piece of land you own own paid cash. It's mine. I pay taxes so I'm kind of renting it from the government but I own it. it was owned by someone else and it will be owned by someone else and ultimately it belongs to God. Everything on earth is on loan but guess what? When you get to eternity and he gives you something it's yours because this string doesn't end.

Now that's crazy. You get to own stuff. That's what he says. If you can't handle stuff that's borrowed who's going to ever give you something that you get to own? I was just blown away by thinking about I get to own things in eternity. That's crazy.

No servant can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or he'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Okay now here's the way he says this. He does not say you cannot serve God with your money and serve money. He says you cannot serve God the whole big concept and serve money. Cannot serve God and money.

Why is that? Why can't we just be unfaithful in money but faithful in everything else? Why can't we just say I don't serve God with my money but I serve God and everything else? I think it's because in order to serve God with our money which is so tangible, so clear, so clear. If I said would you like a thousand dollars? The answer is yes.

Yes I would like a thousand dollars. Would you like five thousand dollars? Yes. Would you like fifteen thousand dollars? Yes. Nobody's going I don't know if that's going to probably mess up my budget.

You're all saying yes. Because it's so tangible, it's so clear, I know exactly like that sounds wonderful. So clear. What we would use it for is so visible. And do you know what we have to have in order to handle money the way that Jesus tells us to handle money? Faith.

I've seen this. I know what this looks like. I know the palpable fear of having bills show up and not enough money to pay them. I know the fear of losing your job and not knowing what's going to happen next. I know the fear, I've seen it when people enter into a retirement and do not have enough money to pay their bills. I know that, I've seen it, I don't have to have faith.

I've also tasted steak, ridden a roller coaster, sat in a leather seat. I know what it's like. I know the promises it makes. I know what sitting in a hot tub is like. Nice. I've got to believe Jesus to do anything else.

I've got to actually believe. I've got to actually believe. Not just say I believe, actually believe. If I told you, if someone came to you and said, I've got a sure thing business investment, sure thing. Okay. Okay. how much money are you willing to put towards a sure thing business investment from a friend of yours?

What kind of sure thing trust you got? We've got some questions. Who's the friend? What else have they told me in the past? What is their job? Is this insider trading?

Well, I go to jail. We've got questions. I've been in multiple conversations where people talked about and argued about what to go, like if you could go back in time and invest in something, what you would invest in? Coca-Cola. If you could be in the ground floor. Microsoft.

That's what investing is, is people trying to figure out right now what's the thing that's going to, I looked it up, you guys. In 2010, there was a guy named Laszlo. I can't say his last name. His first name was Laszlo. He used 10,000 bitcoins to buy two pizzas. Now, if you are unfamiliar with bitcoin, it is online, encrypted, digital money, and it is insanely expensive right now.

2010. This isn't a long time ago. This isn't like the guy who messed something up in 1910 and if he had actually just kept blah, blah, blah. This is seven years ago. 2010, he bought two pepperoni pizzas with 10,000 bitcoins. If you could have gone to him and said, Laszlo, I'll tell you what, hold on to those 10,000 bitcoins for seven years and instead of two pepperoni pizzas, I'm assuming pepperoni, maybe he got pineapple and that just indicates how dumb this guy is. just messing with you all.

I just felt like alienating two people. I don't know. I do that every once time. If you could go to him and say, Laszlo, hold on to that for seven years and instead of two pepperoni or two pizzas, sorry, I just wanted to be pepperoni. Instead of two pizzas, you can have 110 million dollars. A Bitcoin right now costs $10,000, $11,000.

For what? I don't even know. I don't even understand it. I had to Google, like, what is a Bitcoin? It was like internet money and I was like, that's not real, you guys. Two pizzas, $110 million over seven years.

Now, if you told Laszlo, Laszlo, Laszlo, just, just don't eat pizza today or get a job, use cash. You can have $110 million and he responded to you, but it's meat lovers. If he looked back and went, oh, stuff crossed, you guys don't even understand how hungry I am right now. So the question would be, for Laszlo, how much did he believe you? How much did he think you knew what you were talking about? That's the question.

And I think the reason why finances are set up the way they are in the world and the reason why Jesus calls us to handle them the way he does is because the only way for us to handle money the way Jesus tells us to handle money is we have to believe that Jesus knows what he's talking about. And we have to believe that he's good. You see, we actually have to believe the gospel. in order for me to handle money for this, I don't have to believe in anything other than what I like or don't like. If I use my money for comfort my whole life and you use your money for security your whole life, neither one of us really had to believe much of anything.

I have to believe that I am a sinner who deserved the wrath of God, but that on Christmas, the God of the universe became a baby and that he lived a perfect life and that he went to a cross to bear the wrath of God on my behalf and one day when I take my last breath, I will take my next breath, entering into an eternity where I walk before the king of the universe. He says, open the books, it's time to turn in the account of your management and I will step into a life that does not end. I have to believe that to handle money the way Jesus wants me to handle it. And that's why I think he says. Handle money this way and you'll receive great reward.

You'll get to own something. You'll get to have true riches. You'll be welcomed in because it'll be a faith exercise for our entire life where we use our money and we say, I think that Jesus is real and I'm willing to bank on it. And I think that's why it says you can't serve God and money because what we want to do, what I want to do is kind to serve God with my money and then say I'll do the rest of my life for this. But the problem is money is so tangible and so real that if I'm only using it for here, there's a good chance I also don't care about my neighbors.

And if I'm only using my money for here, it's a good chance I'm not thinking about this very often. There's a saying that says someone's so heavenly minded that they're no earthly good and Jesus disagrees with that. The Bible disagrees with that, that we would think so much about an eternity that we would become extremely helpful on earth through generosity, through love, through sacrifice. Now, the question for us today and every day until this day is do we trust Jesus? Did he mean what he said? And I just want to tell you that the end of this gospel, if you keep flipping ahead in Luke, Jesus Christ goes to a cross because he so believed in this, he was willing to come just so that he, the eternal God, could take a last breath and make sons of life.

He so believed that all of us were headed for a Christless eternity of destruction and pain and hopelessness and despair where this is as good as it gets, that he was willing to come and die so that we could have hope, that we could be sons of life. And the question is for each of us today and every day, how much do we believe Jesus when he says he knows a sure thing? How much do we trust him when he says that what we're messing with right now is very little and one day there will be much? What we're messing with right now is on loan, but one day we get to own something. What we're messing with right now will fail, but one day we will enter into something that doesn't.

So here's what we're doing with our give series. we're trying to respond to right now. To begin to press our hearts right now to believe this so that we might believe it from now on. So what we do with our gift series is we intentionally try to give money away. Spencer earlier said that we're in the Advent season, which is where we kind of partner with the Old Testament church where they were looking forward to Christ, that he would come, that someone would rescue, that someone would redeem, that we as Christians remember that time and look forward to this eternity. And so one of the ways that we practice that here is that we have a give series where we give money away in looking forward to eternity, in looking forward towards a future hope that is offered to us only in Christ. that we remember and make good business decisions.

So we as a church family pick something, church leadership, we pick something around the give time of year to intentionally give money to, to intentionally cost a sacrifice for. Our hope is that we would grow as a church and we would grow collectively as a people in always picking something that's around you, that you would always be looking and saying, I'd love to give money to this, I'd love to help with this, and coming and even talking to your group and saying, hey guys, I'm working on this, can we rally for this, can we give support towards this? We just pick something on around Christmas for us to try to do collectively and we hope that we do this all the time. So here's what we're doing, we're partnering with Midtown Two Notch, which is a church plant in inner city Columbia.

I said last week that they're in a part of the city where people won't even deliver pizza. Because it's not a safe place in the city, that it's not a safe place to be, and so they intentionally went there and ordered to plant a church so that they might hold out the hope of the gospel towards people in an area where it's few and far between, where people are going in there intentionally. And here's what we're doing, we're doing three things. First one, is we're getting gifts, new toys, new and used, gently used clothing so that the Midtown Two Notch church family might serve the families in that area.

So here's what we did. We went to them and said, hey, we want to partner with y'all, we want to serve y'all, what would y'all like to do? And we just kind of held it out to their leadership team for them to say, here's what we think would be helpful and good in our area of the city. One of the things they said was around Christmas, a lot of the people right around where they are don't celebrate Christmas, they wait till tax time, or they do celebrate Christmas, but they really didn't have the means to do that. And they said, we'd love to just bless this part of our city, to just hold out a little bit of hope and a little bit of joy and cause a little less stress this time of year by having a party where we allow parents to come in and basically shop.

They pick out what they want to give their children. We don't let their children know. We don't give the gifts to the children. The parents get to give the gifts to the children. That's what they wanted to do. So we said, that sounds great.

We'll partner with that. So here's what we're looking at. Gifts need to be somewhere in the five to $15 range. I mean, they can be less. I'm just, this is kind of ballpark in it. They want gifts for ages three to 18 with giving a little more weight towards the younger ages.

Just because an eight year old doesn't handle disappointment as well as an 18 year old. They think they'll have a hundred to 150 children from right around that area. Like that we need gifts for. So that means if we got $5 gifts for a hundred kids, that's $500. If we get $15 gifts for 150 kids, that's $2,500 ish dollars. I'm just trying to give us a ballpark on what we're shooting for, what we have to accomplish here.

Boys and girls, for the older kids, you're looking more at gently used clothes. They even said you could go to Burger King and get $5 and $10 gift cards. You can go to McDonald's and get $5 and $10 gift cards. That's a cool gift for a 13, 14, 15, 16 year old. They also said, because they know their area of the city well, soccer balls are great, but not for that area of the city. Basketballs and footballs are going to get more traction.

They just kind of pointed out some like, here's some things that would be helpful for us. I'm sure getting soccer balls, if you already got one, somebody's going to love that. But that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to build a toy shop so that parents can come in and pick things out, so that Midtown Two Notch can take the credit and ultimately point to Jesus and his graciousness and love for that part of the city. And we're collectively trying to remind ourselves that our eternity is where our good things are. The second part of that is we're going to have a party, Saturday, December 16th.

They want to do the party from 2 to 5 p.m. So we said, sounds good if that's what you think will be best for this neighborhood. We probably need volunteers from 12 to 6 p.m. because we'll need some people to show up and help set everything up. We'll need people to be at the party from 2 to 5 and we'll need people to help tear everything down, clean everything up. Setting up takes longer than tearing everything down. We need two to three volunteers per station.

If you have a station idea, we're going to do some fire pits, some s'mores. If you want to face paint, if you want to say, hey, let's try to figure out how to do a bounce house, as much as we can set up so that parents can bring kids, kids can play, parents can shop. We want to do a Santa Claus. We're in talks with them right now as to whether or not we need to provide a Santa Claus or just a Santa Claus outfit. If they want to have one of their people be Santa Claus, we've intentionally said, look, we want to, as much as we can, be invisible here. Serve y'all so that y'all can take the credit.

Not just roll in and make it real obvious that some other people were doing this. That's our hope with them, but we're also going to let them set the pace for what they want done because we're serving them. And we know that they know their areas and good missionaries to that part of the city. So we'll need probably 15 to 25 volunteers for the party and probably another 20 to 30 for setting up and tearing down. Or 15 really exhausted, grumpy volunteers. Now you're going to have a good attitude if you come.

But we'd like to have a lot of volunteers, people who would show up, help set things up, people who would stay and run stations from two to five and people who would help clean up. Then the third thing. So we need to do this really well. We need to knock one and two out of the park. Given the amount of money we've raised in the past and the amount of gifts we've given in the past, I think we can. The third thing we want to do is intentionally help Aunt Frederick with his pay, with his salary.

He has to raise support all the time to be a pastor in this area. And we want to be able to say we want you to be able to minister and pastor there without having to worry about as much support as you raise. So we just want to raise support for it. That's our gift project this year. And hopefully our goal is not that we as a church would collectively think for a couple of weeks, oh, yay, eternity. Be real generous right now in a time when it's actually pretty hard to be generous.

We're trying to be generous with our church, with our family members and our church family and those around us. But that actually we would begin a lifetime process of thinking about eternity when it comes to our finances, holding out for ourselves the hope that Jesus holds out for us and trusting that he's good and he knows what he's talking about. The band's going to come back up. We're going to sing together. And prayerfully begin to ask Jesus. To help us to trust him.

To help us to remember that all we'll ever have here is on loan. All we'll ever have here is going to fail. All we'll ever have here is very little. All we'll ever have here is unrighteous wealth and that one day there's a hope for us in Christ that we would step into an eternity where there's life and joy, true riches, something that gets to belong to us because we've been welcomed into the eternal family that's provided for us and the eternal salvation that's provided for us through Christ. So when he says, make for yourself friends so that you'll be welcomed into eternal homes.

I think he's just taken the picture of the story where this guy used someone else's stuff to gain himself some good and saying, wise sons of light do the same thing. They take the stuff I've let them borrow and they intentionally let it walk out the door towards people who can't pay them back. They let it walk out the door for things they won't ever get credit for. They let it walk out the door in so many ways that honestly point to the fact that they trust that I'll make good on my promise to save, to redeem and to give them an eternal home. Let's pray.

God, we ask that through your Holy Spirit, you'd help us to have faith. To look beyond everything that we can see and feel everything that we know to be true because it's right in front of us, but that through faith in Christ, we would know your word to be true and the hope of the gospel to be true, that we might live wisely as eternal people. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

The Abundance of Possessions

The Abundance of Possessions

Chet Phillips

Transcript

Well, good morning. It's our first week of our Give Series. Grab your Bibles, go to Luke chapter 12. What we do in our Give Series is we take just a little time to focus our attention on God's generosity towards us and how we might in turn be generous, how we ought to think about our finances, how we ought to think about our possessions and our money. And so we just every year around this time, we try to just kind of push back on the cultural current of consumption and try to intentionally put our eyes on generosity and living in a way that makes sense financially. And so what we're going to do for the next couple of weeks is just spend some time looking at money and how to think about money and how to handle money.

And today we're looking at Jesus teaching on the concept of possessions. And we're going to pray and then we will begin looking at this passage together. God, I pray that as we enter this room, as people who have been blessed with possessions, and maybe a little bit different from the person sitting next to us, but as far as history goes, very blessed. And so I pray that you would help us to rightly look at this and to listen to what you have to say to us through your word, that we might repent where we need to repent, that we might grow in generosity where we need to grow in generosity, and that we might not be tricked by owning the things that we own.

And so God, we love you and we ask for your help this morning through the empowerment of your spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, Luke chapter 12, we're going to read from verses 13 to verse 34, and we're really going to just kind of hone in on three verses. So we're going to read a lot of the text, and then we're going to spend most of our time talking about three verses and trying to dig as much out of them as we can. So let's pick up in verse 13.

Jesus is teaching a crowd at this point, and then he's interrupted, and that's kind of where we pick up this story. So someone in the crowd said to him, teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me. But he said to him, man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you? And he said to them, so first he says to him, he responds to the guy who just interrupted him, and then he says to them, the rest of the crowd. And he said to them, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. The word covetousness there means to desire something that's not yours or to yearn to possess or have something.

So he's referring both to, I think at this point he's responding to both the brothers. He's responding to the brother who does not have the inheritance and wants it, and he's responding to the brother who does have the inheritance and also wants it and does not want to share it to the point that it's become an argument. And when a traveling prophet and teacher comes through the town, this guy interrupts him and tries to get some of the inheritance. He's like, hey, you don't know me, you don't know my brother, but could you real quick, because you're a prophet and you speak on behalf of God, tell him to give me some of this money.

And Jesus is like, slow down. I have nothing to do with that. And then he just turns and immediately starts teaching on this. He's like, but while you brought up the subject and while you're here, let's talk about the issue that's going on in your heart and your brother's heart. And I think that guy thought, you know, I probably shouldn't do that again. Next time I'll wait until it's not a crowd, and maybe I'll just slip him a note or something.

Anyway, he turns and he starts teaching. So he says, take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. And he told them a parable, saying, the land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, what shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. Then he said, I will do this.

I will tear down my barns and build larger ones. And there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry. But God said to him, fool, this night your soul is required of you.

And the things you have prepared, whose will they be? So it is with the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God. Jesus tells this story, and in his mind, he's demonstrating something that most people believe, that people at this time definitely believe, and that we as Christians believe, which is that at some point this life will end, and when it does, we will be accountable to God. And I know this is a Christmas series, and so I hate to bring up the fact that the mortality rate in this room is 100%. That at some point we will die, and in that moment we will be accountable to God.

We will stand before God and enter into an eternity. And what Jesus is saying is that all that we see here and all that we handle here does not just terminate here, but it actually rolls up into an eternity that matters. But I want us to look at what he says at the very beginning of this in verse 15. Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions. That's the first verse we're going to focus in on. He starts off by saying take care, be on your guard.

When do we say that? When would you look at someone and say watch out, be careful? We say that when there's a danger, when there's something to watch out for, when there's something to be afraid of, when there's something that is around us that could harm us. And so Jesus is saying, I'm about to tell you about something that could harm you. I got to thinking about this. What he says is, he says, watch out that you don't believe that life is found in your possessions.

And I got to thinking about what are the things that I'm on guard against. I used to didn't think about this stuff very often. I got married to my wife and immediately when I got married, I felt this weight of responsibility of if anything bad happens, I'm supposed to like protect her. Now, some of you, maybe your wife is a black belt. Mine is not. She weighs about 90 pounds.

She does not think about this at all. And one of the other things that she's given me a complex is she watches all these like forensic files and Dateline and all of these like any kind of creepy murder thing. And then she just is like, she's just, she can immediately just fall asleep. And it's just amping up this like fear intensity. Like I'm on guard. So one of the things that happens now is if I come home and realize that we left our back door open or I see the little stick out, I will walk through our entire house and check all the closets and stuff.

Because I've seen on those shows someone hid in a closet for five hours. And I know that I'd be like, oh, it's not that big a deal. And I'd lay in bed and it'd be about 10 o'clock and I'd be like, I wonder if there's someone in our closet. So I'm just skipping that step. I don't get ready for bed first. I have to fight someone in my underwear.

I walk around the house and I check all the closets. But what Jesus is saying is I'm on guard against that. What he's saying is that I've never once come and opened my closet and looked at my possessions and been like, what you playing at, shirts? Why do I need 45 flannel shirts? I've never looked and been like, why do I have five pairs of boots that look about the same, but I only got two feet? Like what?

I've never, I've never just been really concerned that my possessions were out to get me. I've never been on guard against my stuff. My radar is not up there. But what Jesus says is be watchful. Be on your guard against, and it's not just your stuff, it's this idea that's attached to your stuff. Be on your guard against the belief that life is found in your possessions.

Now, what does he mean by that? What does he mean that we would begin to believe that our life is found in our possessions, in the abundance of possessions? Because most of us would not say that our life is actually connected to it to the point that if you took my stuff, I would fall over dead. But he gives an example when he tells this story. What does the man say to himself? He says he's already rich, and then his land produces plentifully, and he says, I'll tear down my barns, I'll build larger ones.

And then I'll say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry. What the temptation is with possessions is that we would somehow convince ourselves that the good life is found in them, that true comfort, that you'll say to yourself, you know, if I could just have this much money, then I'll finally be able to relax. Yeah, yeah, I'm tense now, and yeah, I've got stress now, and I'm on my grind now, but if I could just get to this place, if I could just get this promotion, if I could just get this job, then I'll relax. Then I'll finally be able to quiet my soul.

Or that you'll look and say, if I could just have that, then I'd be happy. That's why he says, eat, drink, be merry. That really what I need is, the reason I'm so frustrated, the reason that life is so difficult, the reason that I don't have any joy is that I'm stuck in this spot, and if I could just get this, or have this, or this vacation, or this amount of money, or this much in the bank, then finally I could be happy. That we've begun to believe that the abundance, the accumulation of possessions will give us joy. And this is a danger both for the brother that has the inheritance and the brother that doesn't.

So even as we begin this, don't sit and think, oh, that doesn't affect me because I don't have anything. It absolutely does. We can still begin to believe that the good life is found in possessions. One of the ways to help you think about this is when do you say in your head, or out loud, must be nice, must be nice. Like I have seen people pull up in beautiful trucks. Now you might not describe a truck as beautiful, and you would be wrong.

There are some trucks that are beautiful. I've seen them ride up, and I thought, oh, it must be nice. You ever just open the door to a brand new vehicle? Like if a friend of mine gets a new vehicle, I'm just like, hey, can I go sit in it? Like I just want to, just to see, just pretend, like what would this be like? Like I, just there's something new, there's something about like a big truck, but you have to actually like use a ladder to climb in, and you can ride around traffic and spit on other people's cars.

Like I, there's just something, and I've thought, man, it must be nice. I've never once had a friend show up to something, I was waiting on in the parking lot, and you can hear their vehicle coming, like from around the other side of the building. Like it announces that they're on their way, and I've never, and they pull around, and they've got one door that's a different color from the rest of their car, and I've never once thought, man, it must be nice to be free from this longing for possessions to define you. I've never been like, I'm so proud of you. You know what I've assumed? Oh, bro, you just only got the money to get a car that all the doors match.

Like I just, I didn't think you've taken a vow of poverty, I just thought, that's all you can handle right now. That's cool, I'm not judging you, but I didn't think, man, you must be, you must be so free from the love of possessions. I've never thought that. I've never been in someone's house that was just, you know, small and okay, and wanted to take pictures. I've been in rich people's houses and pulled my phone out because I know what type of person I am. I take pictures real quick and I'll show my wife, like, did you see this kitchen?

I think you could bowl in here. And what I'm saying, what I'm betraying in my heart every time I do that is this is the goal and this is where you'll finally reach. Like if I had this house, if I had this car, then, then I could say to my soul, soul, be happy. Soul, be at rest. You've done it. Hey soul, up top.

High five. We made it. That's what I'm saying. That's what we're betraying in our hearts. I don't know for you what it is. I don't know where you set your sights.

I don't know if you see somebody. There's a new eBay commercial that is, it is just covetousness, which by the way, that's what commercials are. This is a commercial about covetousness. It's like layers deep, like inception. It's like five. We're going in pretty deep.

It's an eBay commercial and what it is is it's like they see somebody walking and they see their boots and they're like, they immediately get their phone out and what it's telling you is when you see something you want, don't even wait. Get it right now. Which I don't know why I licked my finger. That's not how you use phones, you guys. If you're doing that, gross. But you don't even have to wait.

You can do it right now. Let's see somebody with a shirt and they immediately pull out and just, and that, honestly, I was watching that and I thought, no, that's us. How many products have you bought because you saw it at someone else's house or you saw someone else wearing it and you said, hey, where'd you get that? Where do you have that? That's covetousness and that's growing in our souls. That's, Pinterest is great in so many helpful ways and it's also covetousness, which is saying, if I could just have my house look like that, if it could just be like this, HGTV is covetousness.

It helps breed it in our souls. I'm not saying it's immediately evil. I'm not saying go home and get rid of HGTV, maybe, but I'm just saying that we have our whole economic system built around this and this time of year is that the goal of our economy is to whip us into a frenzy to buy things that we don't actually have to have, to accumulate an abundance of possessions with the belief that life will somehow be added to and made better and Jesus says, watch out. Watch out. I'm willing to bet many of us had a pretty good Christmas last year. I'm also willing to bet that most of us didn't roll into this Christmas and go, oh no, I did it last year.

I'm good. I got the thing. Life is complete. No, we're always consistently setting our sights a little higher and beginning to believe a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more would finally fix me, would finally make me happy. It doesn't matter where you are on the scale. If this is the poorest American and that's the richest American and all of us are lined up with this belief that possessions and vacations and corner offices that somehow fix us would somehow finally make us okay, if we're all on that scale, what happens to most of us if we stand right here and say, this isn't a problem for me, look at how far away I am from the top.

And it's a little bit like Jesus walked over to a cow and said, you're in line for the slaughterhouse. And they went, yeah, but I'm like 20th in line. I'm really far away. It's like the line still gets you slaughtered. It's a bad line to be in. And so for us, what happens is that there's this chance there's this possibility that we slowly over time begin to believe the lie that possessions will finally make us comfortable, will finally let us rest, will finally give us joy, and we keep kicking it further and further down the road.

I thought it was this amount of money, but it's actually not. It's got to be that amount of money. I thought it was this type of car, but it's actually not. It's got to be that type of car. And so what I'd like for us to do as we move into what else Jesus says here is to at least admit that this is a temptation and that this is a problem and that this is something that we should be concerned about, that we can actually begin to believe that life, that joy and fullness and satisfaction are found in our stuff. You see, as we desire possessions, pursue possessions, gain and accumulate possessions, we can begin to believe the lie that they offer us the good life.

All right, now we're going to keep reading from 22 on down to 32. And he said to his disciples, therefore, so therefore meaning because I said all this stuff about money and not being rich towards God and because I told you that your possessions can't give you life, therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat, nor about your body, what you will put on, for life is more than food and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens, they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds?

And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? If then you were not able to do such a small thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass, which is alive in the field today, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you? O you of little faith. And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be worried, for all the nations of the world seek after these things, and your Father knows that you need them.

Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things will be added to you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. All right, we're going to spend just a minute in verse 32. So he tells this whole big thing, and he's saying, don't be anxious. Don't be anxious about what you're going to eat. Don't be anxious about what you're going to wear.

Don't have your life and your anxiety wrapped up in finances. Don't have your life and your anxiety wrapped up in, how am I going to make it? He then says, fear not, little flock. That's graciously, lovingly, condescending to us. Calm down, little flock. Fear not.

He looks at us like we're a bunch of sheep that he's the shepherd over because we're a bunch of sheep that he's the shepherd over. And he says, fear not, calm down, quiet your soul a little bit. You see, when it comes to money, we actually do have a lot of fear. There's a lot of them. I'm going to quickly tell you four. I think there's more.

I just want to share four that I think we have wrapped up when it comes to money. I think one of the first and main fears is that we just have a fear of pain, suffering, difficulty. That our fear is placed on this idea that money would fix that. That's what he's talking about here. He's talking about eating and drinking and having your clothes. Like he's just, there's something about like I'm, we're not going to be able to make it if we don't have money.

When he's talking about, he says you'll eat, you'll wear clothes. Like that's bare minimum for existence. He says, calm down, you're going to be okay. But we have this fear of I won't make it if I can't, if I don't have stuff, if I don't have possessions, if I can't, I won't eat. I won't be okay. I think that when it comes to money, there's a fear of failure.

It's often hard to quantify how we're doing and money and possessions just makes it easy. I'm doing good. I'm doing this much, this amount, good. How am I doing? This amount in the bank, good. It's a quantifiable number that tells us we're okay, that tells us life is good.

People can actually look around and look around at their house and their possessions and go, okay, we're doing all right. Like I can see, I can see it and there's this idea that if I don't have that, then who am I and am I okay? And so there's this fear of if we don't have finances, we don't have possessions, how do we know, how do we know how we're doing? I think there's a fear of the future and uncertainty. All right, look, CrossFit's great.

Essential oils are fine. Drinking tea is good. From what I understand, if you do all three of those, you become immortal. If you read the stuff people say on Facebook. But there's no better way to prepare for the future than being really, really rich.

That's what we tell ourselves. Sure, being in shape's fine. But having a lot of money will fix that problem. Drinking tea is great, sure. But having money, like there's just this, nothing can get to me if I have a pad of money around me.

And so there's this amount of, I have to have this to be okay. And the last one, and I think this may be particular to us, I don't know. Maybe it's exacerbated in us, but there's a fear of missing out. My dad growing up would always say, he's like, money isn't that great, but the stuff it can get for you is. Like money itself isn't great, but it can buy you a boat. Like he just kind of has that, like that's good.

And I realize I just quoted the country song and you're welcome. But there's like, this idea that, like if I don't have money, if I don't work real hard, if I don't save my possessions, if I just give my money away, like everybody else gets to go to Disney World, I gotta go to Dollywood. Or tweets he railroaded. Like, there's this idea that like, I'll miss out. Everybody else is gonna have these good experiences. Everybody else will get to, like have you ever said to yourself, like I wonder if my whole life I'll never own a new car.

I wonder if my whole life I'll just always rent a house. You ever said that? Because what you're communicating to yourself is I'm going to forever miss out. I'm going to forever miss out on the thing that would fix me, that would make me okay, that would make life better. But I want to tell you why I think Jesus says it's dangerous.

Why we ought to be on our guard against it. Verse 32, some of this will be on the screen to help us see it. Fear not, little flock, for it's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. You see what he did there? What he did there, I want to show this to you before we move into why it's dangerous. Fear not, little flock, it's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

He just swapped it out on us. He doesn't say, fear not, little flock, it's your father's good pleasure to give you a bunch of possessions. No, he said he's going to give you something better. That the reason why possessions and the belief that they give us life is dangerous, we should be on our guard against it, is because he has something better to offer. And here's what we actually miss out on. You know when someone tells you you should wear a helmet when you ride a motorcycle?

Or that if you've got little kids, you should watch out for them when you're out places. Do you know why we have to be on guard for things? It's because we have something of value that we might lose. I don't care how fast you're going, you can still flip a motorcycle over a curb and hit a tree. We have something valuable that we might lose. And so we're told to be on guard and to be watchful and to be mindful of the situations that we're in.

And so here's what he's saying that's valuable that we might lose if we believe the lie that possessions give us life. Fear not, little flock, it's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail. Let's highlight that.

Where no thief approaches, no moth destroys, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Here's the danger when it comes to believing that possessions give us life. First, we'll miss out on true treasure. What he does not say is money bags are bad. He just says your money bags will wear out. Get ones that don't.

He does not say treasure is bad. He says you're chasing fool's gold. There's a better treasure. See, if we believe the lie that our possessions here will give us life, we will miss life and we will never actually get true treasure. Secondly, the danger is that they can lead our heart astray. For most of us in this room, we love Jesus.

We want to follow Jesus. We want our life to mean something for Him. We want to be devoted to Him. And what he's saying is that your possessions pull at your heart. That if we're, as Christians, supposed to look beyond the horizon into an eternity where souls hang in the balance, where people will either spend eternity with Jesus in worship and in rescue because He died for their sins or an eternity separated from Him paying the penalty of their sin. And if we're supposed to believe that and know that and our value system is supposed to be different and we're supposed to look beyond the horizon, that possessions clutter up the view.

And rather than helping us look upward, they force us to look down and they can begin to lead our hearts astray. That's what's at stake when it comes to believing the lie that our possessions will fill us up and give us hope. They trick us. They trick us into believing to changing our value system and they lead our hearts astray. But Jesus came to wreck our value system and to steal our hearts.

Jesus comes from heaven, which is really nice. He leaves heaven and comes here and is born in a stable. We sang about that earlier, that He left the riches of heaven and was born in a stable and that He intentionally lived His life on purpose so that He could die in our place for our sin. And when He did this, He did this to wreck our value system so that if you belong to Jesus, what you value does not look like what your neighbor values. that He's changed our understanding of eternity and He's changed our understanding of what has value and what doesn't. And He came and when He died for us, He did this also to steal our hearts and He is not okay with us sharing our hearts.

They belong wholly to Him and they are not to be spent on loving and believing in our possessions. Jesus came to wreck our value system and steal our hearts. Paul talks about the same idea in Timothy and I want us to look at this real quick because I think it's clarifying. As for the rich in this present age, charge them, that means aggressively tell them, give them a rule, charge them not to be haughty nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share.

So what He says is to the rich in this present age, tell them not to strut around and be all excited about being rich. Tell them not to place their hope in their riches. So what He's basically saying is tell them, set their hopes on God. Not on the uncertainty of riches but on God. So He's saying, tell them to set their hopes on God.

So let me point out a few things that I think are helpful from this passage. Paul does not say, tell all the rich people, you terrible, terrible person, don't be rich. He does not say, tell all the rich people to give everything they have away. No, He says, tell them not to hope in it. Tell them to realize where it comes from. Tell them to be generous and ready to share.

One of our general reactions to this when we start talking about this and we see how blatantly and bluntly Jesus says things is to go, oh, so I can't own a hot tub, I can't enjoy life, I can't, Disney World's wrong, I went to Disney World last year, it was alright. I've been to Tweezy Railroad too, it was alright too. Like, like to have this like, but what's He say? who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. Oh God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. That we actually can enjoy the things we're given. That we can, that it's okay, but that we can't, can't, place our trust in them.

That we can't let them begin to lie to us and tell us that they'll give us life. I'm going to tell you a situation that'll play out in a community group if you're in one long enough. You'll see something, something like this will happen. There'll be someone in the community group who will pull money out of their savings account or their retirement account, pay extra penalties on it, and use it to buy a hot tub. And they'll say things like, yeah, but I'm not going to retire for like 20 years and I can own this hot tub for 20 years. And there's someone else in your group who's like, I'm going to punch you in the face.

Because not only did you have to pay taxes on that, but now you paid extra penalties and taxes and also, that hot tub didn't going to last 20 years. And in the middle of that argument, you know what might, might be happening? You might have two people who both believe that possessions give them life, they just have a difference about going, a different way to go about it. You might have one that believes that possessing money in the bank helps you have security and hope that you can look at your soul and say, relax. And you might have someone else who's more going to say eat, drink, and be merry, but they both believe the same lie.

That possessions give us life and they're both confused. Now, that may be happening. The guy who bought a hot tub probably, wisdom-wise, is making a worse decision, but they both still have an issue. Could be. Could be that when we get in arguments with your spouse, my wife recently was saying, when we were coming up for Christmas and we were talking about my parents were saying, hey, what should we give Archer? And she was like, I wonder if they'd give money to his so that we can open a mutual fund for him.

Because she's been saving up and she wants a little bit more so we can open a mutual fund. And I was like, you're ruining Christmas. That sounds terrible. But the truth is, maybe in the middle of that argument, I'm saying the good life comes from eating, drinking, and being merry. And she's saying the good life comes from security. And I think that has a lot to do with how she and I argue about money.

But neither of us have looked beyond the horizon to an eternity where things actually matter more. Where we can give some stuff away and have treasure that doesn't fail. So let me ask, has it worked? Has it ever worked for you? Have you ever gotten to the point where you said, I did it, I reached the amount that I had set out to reach and now I'm fulfilled and now life is here and now everything's good? Let's imagine that you had a friend who told you every year, I save up $2,500.

I have a set amount that I set out of every single paycheck. And every year, I save up $2,500. And then, in October, when the state fair comes, I take a week off of work, I rent a hotel, and I go to the fair from open to close every single day. Now, even if you love the fair, you're saying, dude, that is the worst vacation I have ever heard of. Like, you can only eat so many elephant ears, you can only watch so many pig races, you can only spin counterclockwise and clockwise so many times. I don't care how many times you ride a camel, like, at some point, you are placing way too much weight, way too much pressure on the state fair to accomplish something for you that something else would do a better Job at.

How do we know that? We've seen the something else. We've seen the state fair. Jesus looks at us and says, if you believe and if you buy into, this is all we'll get, so I might as well get as much as I can. You're placing too much weight here and it will not accomplish what you want it to accomplish. Why?

Because he's seen this and he's seen the money bags in heaven. He's seen this and he's seen eternity. And he's saying, I've got a better deal for you. Can we enjoy the things we have here? Yes. Is it wrong to own a hot tub?

No. Not in and of itself. Maybe for you, yes. Is it wrong to save for retirement? No. It's actually a good idea.

But maybe for you, it's drifted into a place where you've begun to believe the lie that this will somehow fix you and this will somehow give you hope and this will somehow allow you to relax and yes. You've made a bad choice. You've made a bad switch. Jesus has seen both and he says, don't do it. So how do we fight it?

Jesus gives a very simple command on what to do to fix this in our souls. Verse 32, fear not little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the needy. That that's actually how you provide yourself with money bags that do not grow old with the treasure in the heavens that does not fail where no thief approaches, no moth destroys for where your treasure is there will your heart be also. What he says is sell your possessions, get rid of the things in your house, give to the needy. Sell your possessions, give to the needy.

That provides for you money bags in heaven. Now, does that mean you cannot own a thing? I don't think so. Does that mean you have to sell all your possessions? I don't think so. I think there's actually some wisdom to having an income, having a home, having some things set up where you can consistently forever give to the needy.

But I will tell you this, I think as Americans, we try to talk ourselves out of this way too much. And we try to lower the bar way too much. And we even try to talk others out of it. Now, you should give some, but no, not like that. No, no, no, no. Like, I wouldn't make that decision.

Like, it's okay to, like, we try to talk each other into having extra things. And I honestly think Jesus would stand alongside us and nod us along on everything we decided to give away and everything we decided to pass along and to give to the needy. There's a missionary named Jim Elliott who eventually died for going and being a missionary. And one of the things he wrote in his journal was, he is no fool who gives away that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. The truth is, all the things you own, you won't keep. Everything you give away, you won't lose.

You'll keep forever. But I do think that this is a pattern of life more than it is a one-time thing. There's a pattern of life that we are on our guard against our possessions, that we fight our possessions and their ability to claim our hearts, that we sell them, that we give them away, and that we consistently let our money walk out the door. So sometimes when we do stuff like this or when we're called to give or when we're looking at it, we honestly just say, I don't have the income to do this. Like I'm strapped as far as income and so that's why Jesus says, sell your possessions. Some of us need a lower car payment.

Maybe some of us as we pray about this are going to be called to sell our beautiful truck, pay cash for one that's not as beautiful and every day when we crank it up and it cranks on the second try, we remember that eternity exists and that we've got better money bags and we've made a good investment. That this is to be a pattern of life, that maybe some groups are going to have some yard sales, but the way that we fight this is that we begin to give our money away. That if your possessions have begun to claim your heart, the way to move your heart is to begin to give them away. So here's our give project this year.

As we actively as a church fight our desire to spend all of our vacation time at the fair, that's what we're doing. We're actively as a church fighting our desire to put all of our eggs here and to believe that everything here and all of our possessions and having a hot tub and having a nicer house and finally getting that new iPhone X because it's a thousand dollars and apparently someone reviewed it and it's better than the Samsung. Like, ooh, like fight the desire to think that'll fix us so that'll make us happy as we fight that. One of the ways that we're going to begin is our give series.

But I do think this needs to be a pattern of life for all of us. So here's what we're going to do this year. Midtown Two Notch is a church plant in inner city Columbia off of Two Notch and Schoolhouse Road. They have a building that they lease over there. I was out there one time for a, I know Aunt Frederick was one of the pastors there. We actually kind of launched that at the same time.

I was out there for a pastor's like lunch thing and they had ordered pizza and so we're all sitting around, pastors are all sitting around waiting for pizza and they get a, they come back in and go, sorry guys, we're going to have to send someone to get it because when we told them the address, they said they don't deliver pizza here. And I was like, I didn't even know that was a thing. But they got a spot in Columbia that's marked off that they're not sending a truck. They're not sending someone to drive in there and deliver pizza because it has gone so poorly for them. Aunt Frederick felt called to plant in this area.

Let me explain to you about church planting. It is difficult. Financially, it is hard. They planted a church where there's no way to financially succeed. If he's going to be full time, if they're going to do the things they need to do to minister to these people, the average household income in that city, in that part of the city is $18,000 household. The average for the state is $56,000.

The average household income in that part of the city is $18,000. One of the issues with inner city church planting is that guys like Aunt will go to a place, try to plant a church. They consistently have to be raising support because they are missionaries where they are. They're running out of money and then a nice church in the suburbs that has a lot of money and is trying to grow in diversity goes to Aunt Frederick and says, hey, we'll pay you X amount of dollars to come be on staff here. And we, collectively, with the Grassroots Church Planting Network, never want that to sound like a good option and so we intentionally try to support this church plan.

And so we called them as we went in this next year and we just said, hey man, I think for our gift project we just want to love y'all. We want to bless y'all. We appreciate what you're doing. We want to help. And so there's three ways we're going to partner. We started talking to them about how we could bless that part of our city and how we could not just bless that part of our city.

See, it'd be cool if we just picked and said this is an area in our city that needs blessing. We're going to go bless. What we've actually said is this is an area in our city that needs blessing but they also need to be blessed by the local church and so we're going to partner with a church that's right there so that they can continue to walk with all the people that are blessed to see them grow in their love for Jesus and have their lives changed. So we, the first way that we're going to do this, Midtown Fellowship Two Notch, our first part of our give project is this. New toys, new and gently used children's clothing and shoes.

New toys, new and gently used children's clothing and shoes. So here's, here's why that we're doing this. They said, they have some people that work in social services and they said one of the biggest issues in that part of the city at Christmas, a couple things happen. People feel like they have to celebrate Christmas. They're going to and so they make poor financial decisions to do so because they don't really have the means to do it but they want to be able to give their kids something. They want to be able to have some kind of a Christmas.

A lot of them do not celebrate Christmas, wait and give their kids Christmas gifts at tax time when their tax return comes. And one of the things that they noticed was that for people who at times when they're given a gift, people do show up and make sure the kids have gifts, that organization gives them. And what they said they'd like to do is help parents be able to come and actually set up a toy shop at their building that they lease and let parents come pick out gifts and then they'll help so that the parents at Christmas can give the gift to their child and take all the credit for it. So that it empowers what they're doing and makes them feel like they were able to do it and the kids don't feel like somebody else had to come in and do this.

And so what the plan is is that we would get to be elves for three weeks, $15, $20 or less. We don't need to have some really big things stuck in there. We need to have a pile of things that parents can go in and pick out a few things for boys and girls. And so we're just looking at all new, $15, $20 or less on toys. Clothing, I don't know how much that's going to cost but just kind of find some things. But we're going to try to have new toys, new and used, gently used clothing and shoes.

And we're going to fill up a room. So here's what we're going to do. We're going to fill up that room. The second thing we're going to do is have a Christmas party where we're going to go volunteer to man all the stations so that the people of Midtown Two Notch can interact with everybody so that we're going to be the ones making sure everything's tended to so that they can be having all the conversations, loving and serving them. They want a Santa Claus. So if you feel like, I get Santa Claus, let's talk.

They want a Santa Claus. They want us to do s'mores and any other fun things that we can come up with so that the families can come, we can watch the children so the parents can go pick out what they're going to get. They won't take it with them right then. They're going to get to come back and pick it up later, but it gives a time for a whole big party. Kids get to talk to Santa Claus. Parents get to go pick out toys.

We get to be a loving, beautiful diversion. We're going to get to love and trick children and it's going to be awesome because I think that's what Christmas is about. So that's the second part. We want you to sign up. We're going to need people to show up early and set things up. We're going to need people there during the party.

We're going to need people to tear things down. You'll actually be able to sign up online tomorrow. So that's the second part of our Give Christmas project. We're going to help them bless these families with a Christmas as we sell our possessions and give our money away to the needy, intentionally setting our sights beyond the horizon. The third thing we're going to do, and if I'm honest, I'm a little more excited about the third thing, but we've got to do one and two first. We're going to actually give financial support to Aunt Frederick for his salary.

He has to raise support every year. We want to make that easier for him. This is his family. He has a young daughter now that's just been born, but I couldn't find a picture of all of them on Facebook. I guess I could have asked him to send me one, but I didn't. Those are his two boys, Colby and Malachi.

Malachi is the one on the right. He has venous vascular malformation in his face, head, and neck. We asked Aunt, hey, would you be willing to come and just kind of talk to us during the gift series? He said, no, I'm heading to Boston for surgeries number 19 and 20. What happens with Malachi's face is that the blood vessels don't close off properly, so his face just kind of fills up with blood. They go in, they open him up, they cauterize a few of the blood vessels, and they immediately have to close him up because his whole face is going to swell.

Then they wait until it goes back down and do it again. He's on surgeries number 19 and 20. So that this pastor who's in a difficult part of the city, actively having to raise support, he's also having to fly on a regular basis to Boston. There have been weeks where he said he spent 40 hours on the phone with insurance companies just having to get him to commit to do the next surgery. And that's a regular thing. He said he's getting pretty good at it, but he has to do it a lot.

And so one of the things I'd love for us to do is for us to collectively as a church start buying toys, you can bring them by the office during the week which is right down the hall, you can bring them on Sunday and we'll just pile them up here to start bringing used clothes and shoes and buying new clothes and shoes to sign up to serve on the party we're going to help throw.

Mystery of The Gospel

Mystery of the Gospel

Spencer Cary