Crossing family, it is my honor to introduce you to our preacher
this weekend, Ted Max Ted has been in ministry for the last 25
years and the last 13 years he served as the lead pastor of two
influential churches in Illinois.
He's married to his wife, Amy, and they have three children.
He also sits on the board of the Empowering Church Network.
He loves to train pastors and he spends some of his time
traveling around the country speaking to churches.
He loves to help churches maximize their impact through
their unique DNA. I met Ted a couple years ago at
a gathering of pastors, and he's been a guy who's helped spark
ideas and helped me realize how we can do even more to reach
people for Jesus Christ. So would you put a warm crossing
welcome together from my friend and our preacher, Ted Max?
Well, good morning crossing family.
My name's Ted Max is Clayton setting.
I just want to kind of just real quick shout out to your pastor.
I love your pastor and I got a chance to spend some value.
You can give it up for him. That's amazing.
I got a chance to spend some time with him and just kind of
ask, you know, hey, like what's God doing in your church?
Staff people? And man, he just he lit up about
you guys like he just is so excited and he's so proud of you
and what you're doing and accomplishing across the region.
And so I just want you to know you guys are in a great church
doing great things and the Kingdom is is happening here in
this place. And so I'm excited to be here
today as we kind of continue in this series through Corinthians.
And I was like kind of just in this space where I've been like
watching from A and like kind of taking it in.
And then Clayton gave me the passage I got to preach on.
And so I've been kind of just like letting it kind of sink
into my soul for the last like 6 weeks as I've been getting ready
and prepping. And I really do think God's got
something good for us today. I think there's something in
this for someone today. And I, and this is what I know
about church. Every week when you come to
church, not every week is the message for you.
Like if you notice that there's some weeks you come in like,
well, I don't know if that was for me, but every week the
message is for someone, Like every week someone comes in with
something, they're walking through a place they're in a
season they're in, and something will get said from this place
and it goes out over the waves, over the Internet into the
world. And someone hears it and God
does something powerful with it. And that is my prayer today is
that God would do that in and through what it is that we're
going to talk about today. And so I kind of want to set
this up because Paul has been going through and he in this
letter that gets written to this church, if you, if you know
anything about kind of the early church, when he would write a
letter, they would actually read this letter publicly.
Like, so like they get up in front of everyone and say,
here's what Paul has to say to you.
Here's the shepherd's heart, the pastor's heart, some things he
wants you to know. And in this chapter we're about
to read, he, he keeps this constant statement.
It's this question actually, he keeps asking over and over
again. He actually says this, do you
not know? Do you not know?
It's like he's basically saying, Hey, you should know.
These are some things that you should know in your life, but,
but, but you're not really living them.
And so he, he's kind of like asking the question, do you not
know? And then he's going to tell them
what they should know. Like, Hey, if you can remember
the thing you should know. If you do the thing you're
supposed to do, then you're going to look like the way that
God wants you to look and you're going to live the way he wants
you to live. And it's really, really good.
But do you not know? And so here's where he's going
to kind of dig into, he's going to basically say, listen, I want
to remind you who you are and I want to remind you what God did
for you. I want to remind you who you
are. And I want to, I want to remind
you what God did for you. And so he's going to touch on a
couple subjects and I'm going to go and just give you what they
what they're going to kind of be.
He's going to touch on immorality.
He's going to talk about lawsuits that were going on like
in the early church, things they were doing, they shouldn't be
doing. And he's going to talk about
identity. In fact, throughout the book,
he's going to talk about identity and he says it's one of
the most important things about you, who you are and who God
wants you to be. And so the big question that
we're going to answer today is this right here.
And it's 1 you have to answer. It's personal for each and every
single one of us, including me. It's will you live like the
world or will you live like you belong to Christ?
Will you live like the world or you live like you belong to
Christ? So Paul has this message for the
church in Corinth and I believe it's a message for us today.
And so before we get into it, before we dive in, I want you to
just help me out with something. I come from a church and
background of churches where the people in the church help me
preach. And what that means is like,
like if I say something that connects with you, I want you to
respond with like, like, Amen. And so we're going to practice
it across all of our locations. I'm going to count to 3 and I
want you to give me the best Amen that you got.
Are you ready 123? Hey, man, that's good.
That's good. You help me while I preach to
you because I'm just preaching to myself up here, right?
So let's get into this. Here's the first thing that Paul
says. It's the first idea He says,
listen, the thing I want you to know church is I want you to
live differently. He's like you and I belong to a
higher court. We belong to a different
Kingdom. And what he's going to teach her
is really countercultural. Like it goes against what the
world says. He says the world says one
thing, God says something different.
So let's pick up verse 1, chapter 6.
Here's what he says. He says if any of you has a
dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the
ungodly for judgement instead of before the Lord's people?
Or do you not know that the Lord's people will judge the
world? He says someday you're going to
judge the world. And if you are to judge the
world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases, small
things? Do you not know that we will
judge angels? How much more of the things of
this life, Therefore, if you have a dispute about such
matters, do you ask for the ruling from those whose way of
life is scorned in the church? I say this to shame you.
He says, man, this is to shame you.
I'm gonna call this out in you. He says this.
Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to
judge a dispute between believers, but instead one
brother takes another to court? And this in front of
unbelievers. So Paul kind of digs in and he
confronts these believers who were kind of suing each other.
You know, they were like, hey, listen, I don't like something
you did. And so I'm going to take it to a
public court and and we're going to get out there and we're going
to air it in front of all these people.
And it's just like court today, you know, like if you were to
sue someone, it's public record. You can find out like you can
Google someone and like, you can find out if they've been
involved in a suit. It pops up usually pretty quick
and you can go read about it. That's still true today.
And it was true then when they would sue, they would take you
to this secular open air court and they would get a magistrate
or a local governor to preside over it.
And then they would bring you out there.
And then anyone who's walking by in this open court could just
like, oh, yeah, what's going on? What's up, What's up?
What are you suing about? You know, what are you mad
about? You know, and we kind of have
that, don't we? There's a little piece of us
that when something's going on, we want to know, right?
Like, I don't know if you're that way.
Like, like we can doom scroll on social media just for that
alone. Like what's going on in the
world, What's happening with what they say, what they do, You
know, we want to know. And he said this is kind of a
problem. He says, listen, there's going
to come a day that we because we're Co heirs with Christ,
we're going to judge the world. We're going to judge Angel
angels. He says, can't you handle these
little disputes on your own? He says, here's where the
problem comes. He says you're actually
affecting your witness. Like if you are Christians and
non Christians are watching you handle situations and you can't
handle them in a godly way, you basically are ruining your
witness with all the people around you.
And this isn't just like whether they had a right legal system.
It's about whether they were showing the world the love and
the unity of Christ. He said that's a real problem.
In fact, John 13 says it this way.
It says by this everyone will know that you are my disciples
if you have love for one another.
He said you want to know how how people are going to know that
you are with Jesus, that you were bought with a price and
that you live for him, that you follow him.
It's going to be based on the way that we, the church,
actually love one another. That means when a dispute comes
up like, like, am I going to love you in the midst of the
dispute and can I disagree with you and still love you?
I always like to use the statement.
I've said this in church for a long time as a pastor, which is
like a dangerous thing to say. I always would tell my church, I
love you, but I don't like you all the time.
I think about that. I can love you and not like I
got kids. I love my kids, but I don't like
them all the time. And they hate it when I say that
I'll look at them and I'll be like, listen, right now, I don't
like you, but I love you. And there's truth to it.
He says the love is what you've got to be able to show.
Listen, you can disagree, but can you do it in a loving way?
And listen, this isn't just about suing people.
Let me breakthrough the actual issue here, Paul.
Paul is saying there's a problem when it's public.
It's more about public. Did you know that you can
actually do this in the court of public opinion?
Like you might be sitting here right now, all of the locations
online, which we're glad that we're together today.
But like you might be saying, well, I've never sued anyone, so
this passage isn't for me. It's not for me, and I have no
intentions of suing anyone, so I'm good.
Let me ask this question in a different way.
How many of you show of hands all locations?
Help me out. How many of you in the last two
weeks have seen something someone has posted online, a
dispute towards another believer in some capacity that you've
read in the last two weeks? Let me see real quick, if your
hands not up, it means you're not on social media because
that's happening. And listen, I'm not saying that
you can't say something that's true, like like why I posted it,
It was true. That might be true.
It might be true that it's true, But was it loving?
Did you give him truth with love?
Like Jesus was masterful. If he had no problem, he would
never stray away from truth. In fact, I'm really kind of sick
and tired of what's going on in the American church and what's
going on in the American church today when it comes to truth.
There's a whole bunch of churches and pastors that are
like holding back from telling the truth because they think
it's kind not to tell people what the Bible says.
And I would disagree with them. I think that truth and clarity
is kindness. When we tell people what God has
to say as the creator and the designer, we are not being mean
when we do it, even if it contradicts their lifestyle or
their choices. What we are doing is we are
being kind because we're saying there's a God who loves you that
might just disagree with you and his way is a better way.
That's what we're teaching. And listen, this is what Paul is
saying. He says, listen, listen, listen.
When you dispute with other Christians and you take it
public from the outside, we as Christians look ridiculous.
And we're like, no, no, we want to invite you to be a part of
our family. It's such a beautiful thing.
Join the church. And then they're watching the
church fight with each other. And like, I don't know about
that. I don't know if that looks good.
I don't know if I want to be a part of that.
Maybe I'll just stay where I am. And Paul says, man, you've
already been defeated. Listen, God has called us to
handle things with grace inside the family.
It's kind of like a story I heard several years ago about
two neighbors. A guy owned a house and the
house next door went up for sale.
And between the house there was a fence.
And so when the new person came in, they wanted to build the
rest of the fence out around their property.
And so like, oh, this is great. One side's done.
And as someone who is usually pretty cheap and thrifty, I'm
like, sweet, that's 1/3 of this project I do not have to pay
for. And so they got in.
And so they got a survey done of their property.
And so someone came out and found the like basically the,
the, the, the lines of the property line and they trace it
all out and gave them a drawing. Well, they found out that the
fence that was established and in place was actually on their
property. And the person that built the
fence, they built it on the property.
And when they bought the property, they didn't know about
it. They didn't care about it.
They were excited about the fence.
But when they saw that now the fence was on some of their
property, they were like, Oh no, no, no.
And so they went to the neighbor and said, hey, listen, you're
going to have to move your fence.
You're on our property. And they're like, what?
It's like that fence has been here for years and you want this
little tiny corner. What are you going to do with
the corner back here of your property that you didn't even
know it was yours, but now you want it?
It's like, listen, you're going to move the fence or I'm going
to take you to court. And so they went to court over
this that paid all these lawyers this money and stuff.
The fence gets fixed, but now it's crooked and it's janky
looking. And at the end of it, the
lawyers made more money than the neighbors did.
And the fence is still crooked and the relationship is broken.
Like, don't tell me that after that was done, they're like,
well, I'm glad we got that fence thing working out.
Would you like to come over for dinner?
Not happening, right? Would you like to come to church
with me? Not happening, I see.
When Christians put their witness in the hands of the
world instead of living out reconciliations.
Paul's warning is if you handle conflict like the world, it will
destroy our credibility. In fact, we're, we're more
public now than we've ever been, aren't we?
Like we're more public than everything.
I, I like to tell my kids like, like I was in college before the
Internet was readily accessible. And, and that's when my kids go,
man, you're old. You know, like, like, I remember
when, like if you wanted to make a phone call, I had to go to a
pay phone. Like, come on, some of you, some
of you are giving your age right now.
You're like, yes, a man. I remember that like, like, I'd
have to find the phone, get the quarter, put it in.
And you know what? We had a little trick.
This is terrible, but I'm going to confess to it.
We would go and I needed to call my parents to tell them to pick
me up. I didn't have 1/4.
So there's a little trick. You dial the operator.
There was actually a person on the other side, you know, they
answered who you want to call. You know, you tell them where
you want to call and then, hey, as soon as it beeps, as soon as
they pick up, you say your name and then we'll ask if they want
to accept the charges. And so when it beeps and it says
say your name, we would say pick me up, no collect charge.
You know, that's how we had to call to get a ride home.
But I share that because that's changed, hasn't it?
Like we are, we are more connected.
Like, like now you, you, you, someone could move out of your
neighborhood 10/15/20 years ago and they just disappeared.
They're just gone. We don't know.
I hope they're living life out there somewhere.
Now you can follow people wherever they go, like like you
follow them on social media. You become friends on Facebook.
You know what they ate this morning Because they're like,
this is my breakfast for the world.
You're welcome. We send it out And So what
happens is, is that now we are under watch more than ever.
People know where you are, what you believe, what you think.
In fact, I, I spoke to church like a month ago and I was, I
was preaching and I, I kind of went off on a tangent that
wasn't in my notes. I just said something and the
media team picked it up. They liked it.
And so they snipped it and they put it out online.
And after about a couple days after I just finished preaching
there, I started getting calls and texts and emails from
friends all over the country who are pastors.
They go, man, that clip of yours was, was really good.
That thing's blowing up. And I'm like, what clip?
What did I say? Where was I I got real nervous.
So I was like, I don't what do you mean?
They said well hey, did you preach just recently this
church? And I was like, so I went online
to find the clip and I found the clip and it's got the little
view hashed and Shahani people watched it and it was just at
this church and I didn't look at the shares or anything, just the
church's views. It was like 250,000 views
already. And I was like, oh, I better
watch this. Like what did I say?
I hope it was theologically accurate.
So I went through and watched it.
Thank God it was OK. It was fine.
I approve of this message. But then I did made the mistake
of it and read the comments. Yeah, that's a mistake.
It's a trap. Don't do it.
Like I got in there. And of course, the first ones,
the top ones were like fire preach.
Who's this pastor? I'm like, OK, let's go.
All right. And then there were other ones
that I didn't like. You see, we live in the space
where we're in the world of public opinion.
Listen, right now I'm speaking. There's thousands of people that
are hearing the words that I say right now between online and
between what gets posted later, maybe 10s of thousands, you see.
And when you think about that, just think about this.
Our words and what we say has the power to shape people's
perception. And when conflict comes and
listen, it will and it will. Can I give you a truth about you
and conflict? You're in one of three spaces
with conflict right now. You are either in the middle of
conflict right now in some aspect, an area of your life,
you are coming out of conflict right now, or you're about to go
into conflict. Those are your three positions
in this world, in this life. God says, listen, in this, in
this world, you're going to have troubles, you're going to face
tribulation. And I think that's been really
true in the last couple weeks as we're watching what's going on,
not just in the US but around the world.
There's a lot of stuff happening, there's trouble,
there's tribulation. He says you got to ask yourself,
when you walk into conflict, am I more concerned with winning
the argument? Am I more concerned with winning
the fight? Or am I more concerned with
honoring Christ with my life and my words?
And Paul says, listen, listen, live different.
The second thing is he says this.
He says, I want you to live transformed.
He's going to speak to your identity.
He says, listen, I want you to remember who you were, and I
want you to know who you are. I want you to remember who you
were, and I want you to know who you are.
Here's what he says. He says it this way in First
Corinthians. He says the very fact that you
have lawsuits among you means that you have been completely
defeated already. Why not rather be wronged?
Why not rather be cheated instead?
You yourselves cheat and do wrong.
And you do this to your own brothers and sisters.
Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the
Kingdom of God? And this is where Paul just kind
of goes off. Now remember this.
This is being read publicly. Here's what he says.
Do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the Kingdom of
God? Do not be deceived, neither the
sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers nor men who have
sex with men. He goes on and says, nor
thieves, nor the greedy, nor the drunkards, nor the slanders, nor
the swindlers will inherit the Kingdom of God.
He says that's the list and the list goes on, but he kind of
just lumps this thing in. He says, listen, if you're
living this way, you're not going to inherit what God has
for you. And that is what some of you
were. That's what some of you were.
That's what some of you might even be right now.
And today in this place, that's who I am right now.
That's either who you were or who you are.
And then he says this. He says, but, and I love this
because I love big butts and I will not lie like I love this.
This is like one of the best butts in the Bible.
He says, but you were washed, say washed.
I love this. He says, you were washed, you
were sanctified. Say sanctified.
And then he goes on. He says you were justified.
He says this is the thing you were, but it's not who you are.
He says Jesus showed up and he washed you.
He sanctified you. He justified you in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
Do you not know? He says, listen, I know who you
were. I know what you've done, I know
the life you've been living. He says, but don't forget who
Jesus is and what he did. He says this crazy thing.
He said, why would you not rather just be wronged or
cheated? And that sounds crazy that
Paul's saying that he's like, listen, I'd rather you get this
right, but wouldn't you rather be wronged or cheated?
And they're like, no, I don't want to be wronged.
I don't want to be cheated. But why does he ask this?
Because it's a crazy question until you remember Jesus.
Like, think about Jesus. Jesus was wronged, Jesus was
cheated, and then Jesus was crucified.
Like when they arrested him. I don't know how many of you
know this, but when they went and got Jesus, the night that he
was in the garden, he was praying.
He was there with his disciples. They'd fallen asleep.
Jesus is there. He's asking God if this cup can
pass me by, Not my will, but your will be done.
And then they come and Judas now betrays him.
They take him to the Sanhedrin, to this court at night.
It was illegal to do court proceedings at night in Jewish
custom. So they did it under the guise
of night. They brought in false testimony.
They can't catch Jesus in anything.
And so finally someone accuses him of being the Son of God.
And then when Jesus doesn't deny it, he actually even says the
words like, well, you said it. I didn't say it, you said it.
They were like, that's enough blasphemy.
And so they take him to Pilate to get permission to kill him.
Pilate doesn't see any problem with him, but the people are
adamant. So he hasn't flogged and beaten,
trying to like, is that enough? They're like, no, we need to
kill him. He tries to release Barabbas to
him, and they're like, we don't want Barabbas set Barabbas free.
We want Jesus to die, crucify him.
And so they take him. They strip him, they mock him,
they spit on him. He's so beaten up at this point
that they make him carry across a beam through the city, through
the Via Delarosa, the way of pain in the way of suffering,
and he can't carry it. So they find this guy, Simon, a
sirene, and they say you're going to carry it for him.
And it helps Jesus get to the hill where they're going to kill
him. They draw Dr. Stakes through his
wrists and through his feet and they suspend him there between
heaven and earth. And as he's on the cross.
The way that the cross kills you is excruciating.
In fact, the word excruciating comes from 2 words X crucio out
of the cross. Is where we get the word and you
don't die from bleeding out on a cross.
You die from suffocation on a cross.
Because what you have to do is as your body begins to sink on
the cross, you have to rise up with the strength that you have
on the nails so that you can put breath in your lungs.
And then you come back down and you breathe as long as you can.
And what eventually gets you is when you run out of air and your
body has no more strength, you die because you cannot breathe
while you are surrounded by the thing that could give you life.
And while Jesus is in that pain and he's on that cross, and he's
been utterly wronged at every turn, Jesus speaks with the air
that he's put in his lungs. And he speaks to his Father who
is in heaven, and he says, Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. Paul says don't forget what he
did for you and live as if it's true.
He says this is what some of you were.
You were greed. You were sexual morality.
You were idolatry, You were drunkenness.
He gives us a list. He says.
But that's who you were. Who you are is someone who has
been washed, sanctified, justified.
Here's what it means. Yeah.
Come on. Somebody give me that.
Come on. Here's what they mean.
Here's what he's saying to you and me.
I need you to hear this because these are words, right?
They're kind of spiritual, churchy words.
What does it mean? It means he cleans you up.
Wash means he cleans you. The second word means he sets
you apart. He has a plan for you, a
purpose. Like when you come to Jesus,
he's like, hey, I just saved you, so you're welcome.
He says, I saved you for a purpose.
I saved you because I got some work for you to do.
I got something inside you that's been in there, that's
been a gift of yours since you were born.
You didn't know what it was there for, but I know it was
there for because I put it there.
And now that I've set you aside, I put you on a path, now walk it
out. That's what I've got for you.
And then he says the third thing.
I've made you righteous before God.
That's what Jesus does, just cover your sins.
He wipes them out. Psalm 103 says this.
Have you seen this first? I love this first, here's what
he says about God. He says as far as the east is
from the West. So far has he removed our
transgressions from us. I love this verse.
It means that all the things I've done wrong, my past, my
present, my future sin, Jesus isn't like, all right, listen,
I'm going to cover it up and keep it temporarily covered.
But man, if you don't walk straight, I'm going to remind
you of it. I'm going to, I'm going to keep
it out here in front of you just so you can know, like I'm going
to calculate it and hold it and just, hey, just don't don't
forget. And what we do is some of us, we
tend to walk that way. Can I just speak to someone here
today? Let me say this, Some of you who
have been saved for a long time, you are still walking around
like you are the old you. You're still walking around
like, well, you know, I did this, I made the mistake.
I don't know if God can use me, man.
I know the crossing needs someone to lead a small group,
but I just don't know if I'm qualified.
You're not. Let me just say that to you.
I can say that about everybody. I can say about Clayton.
I can say about me. You're not Jesus is qualified
and he's qualifying you. He's saving you, redeeming you,
giving a hope and a future. He's the one that works it out
in you. Stop walking around like you're
the old you. Do you know who holds on to the
past really, really well? We do, don't we?
Maybe it's not you. All right, I'll just talk to me.
Maybe it's just me. All right.
I have a tendency that I can tell people that I've forgiven
them of something like, oh, it's fine.
It's in the past, man. Just it's buried, right?
No big deal. Why is it then when I see them
or something that is said triggers me that I can all of a
sudden get in touch with the feeling real fast of when they
hurt me or betrayed me? Obviously it's just me.
I see all the nodding heads but none of y'all are with me.
Like like like for real like oh I forgive you.
But then I see you. I'm like I don't like you still
like I want to. And I know what Jesus does.
I know Jesus wants me to, but I don't want to right now.
That's where I'm at. Why?
Because I'm holding on even when I don't want to be.
I'm holding on. You know who doesn't hold on to
the past? God.
God's like, I don't have any use for that.
It's not going to do you any good.
It's not going to do me any good.
I'm more concerned about your present and your future because
listen, can I just say this to you?
You can't do anything about yesterday, but you got a whole
lot you can do about tomorrow. Somebody say Amen.
That's just true. And God's like, I got that for
you. I want to give you one last
thing. We were Speaking of final words,
right? Final words on the cross.
You said it is finished. At the very end of his life.
He said it is finished. You know, he said Father,
forgive him. There's all these statements
from the cross, but he says this statement at the very end of his
life is the Bible says that He says it is finished.
And it says he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit.
It was like with his last breath he went up for his last bit of
air. He got a hold of it, and then he
cried something out from the cross.
And it says that then when he came down from that breath, when
it left his body, it was the last one he had and he died.
I want to give you the word that he used.
It was actually a singular word that has a meaning, a very deep
meaning, but he used this word to Telestai.
He shouted out his last breath as he rose up on the cross.
He breathed in to tell us die, and he died.
Now to tell us die, This word means to bring to an end, to
complete, to accomplish, to fulfill.
Jesus wasn't just saying something has ended.
He was saying something's been accomplished forever.
Can I just give you this two different areas theologically?
Here's what it meant. It meant that Jesus had declared
his mission in bearing sin, fulfilling prophecy, and
securing salvation was completely and permanently
accomplished. He said that's theologically
what that word means. Can I give you practically and
culturally when Jesus shouted it out, remember he was surrounded
on the cross by a bunch of people, 1st century Christians.
They heard this word to Telestai.
It meant something very different to them.
There was no theological understanding behind it at this
point. Like there weren't a bunch of
like scholars sitting around going to Telestai.
It's good, yes, theologically it's beautiful.
No one's doing that. But he shouted out to Telestai
and all the people around the cross heard something very
unique because in the 1st century to Telestye is what you
would write on a receipt. So if you weren't to go into
business with someone, let's say I walk up to you, ma'am, and I
say I love what you're doing. I like to buy some of your
goods. I'd like to purchase them.
I don't have all the cash right now, but I'd like to pay them
off over time. You agree?
She writes me a receipt. On the receipt it says you owe
this much. She would keep the receipt.
I would get a copy of the receipt.
And what happened is as I make payments to it, each time I make
a payment, they would add the sum on to the parchment or on to
the animal skin. When I finally get my final
payment together and I come in and I bring my bag of coins and
I place them down, please count them.
And it's zeroed out the sum. They wouldn't just write 0,
they'd write to Telestai. And here's what it means.
It means the receipt has been paid in full.
It means that the debt that was owed is done for all time.
And I love this because Jesus uses this very practical word in
that moment. And he said, listen, you and I
owe a death. Let me show you.
Here's what the Bible says. The Bible says this way in
Romans 6. It says for the wages of sin is
death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our
Lord. It means that you and I, when we
first sin, from the moment we sin, we automatically owe a
death for that sin. Have you noticed that it became
really easy for us to sin? Let me just give it to you this
way. I'm a parent.
I got 3 kids and I, and I love them and I had my kids, man.
It was like the most, it was beautiful, right?
These cute little things come out, they're just sinless and
they're spotless. And you know, I'm sure they're a
little messy. They puke, they poop, they want
to eat everything. But you know, you have dreams
for your kids right out of the gate.
Like I wept when I held my daughter for the very first
time. My, my oldest, Addison, I cried
like a baby. But I remember early on, we
wanted her to learn to walk. And then as soon as she walked,
I, I wished that she didn't walk.
I was like, no, no, stay out of that.
Holy cow. You're quick, you know, And then
I wanted her to talk and I remember.
I like, I like, all right. Hey, listen, I want her first
words to be daddy. And so anytime mommy wasn't
around, I'd be like, Dad, dad, dad, dad, Mom comes in.
I'm like Mama. Yeah, you know, like, like I
wanted to be first words. So once they got through first
words, then I was like, right, well, that's good.
You don't need any other words because you know what happened?
I remember. I remember clearly as I can
close my eyes and see it, I was feeding my first born daughter.
I was giving her food. We were doing the airplane game.
You've done that with your kids. We're like open there, you know,
like trying to get in there. And I remember the first time
that my daughter just like all of a sudden locked eyes with me.
She just locked eyes. And as I was about to feed her,
I was like, open your mouth, Daddy has something for you.
She looked at me and she goes, no, I was like, who taught you
that word, mom? You know, like like I was like I
said, where did that come from? Right, Because sin, nature is in
US, but it's natural. And Paul's like kind of calling
this out. He says, listen, I need you to
see this. Like, like, like, like it's
going to be in you, but what are you going to do with it?
Are you going to fight it? You're going to step away from
it. You're going to step out of it.
He says, remember who you were, but remember, it's not who you
are. And then he kind of changed his
gears here. I'm going to give you the last
thing. It's the third thing.
He does this. He says, I want you to live
pure. He says, I want you to live
pure. Listen, your body is God's
temple. It's actually His dwelling
place. It's what He has for you.
In fact, let me read it for you. First Corinthians 6, He says it
this way. He says I have the right to do
anything you say. I have the right to do anything
you say, but, but not everything is beneficial.
I have the right to do anything, but I will not be mastered by
anything you say. Food is for the stomach and the
stomach for food, and God will destroy them both because he's
not in the carnal things, He's not in the physical things, He's
in the spiritual things. He says the body, however, is
not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord and the Lord
for the body. It was made, designed by His
power. God raised the Lord from the
dead, and He will also raise us. Do you not know that your bodies
are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of
Christ and unite them with a prostitute?
He's like no, never. Do you not know that who unites
himself with a prostitute is one with her and body?
For it is said the two will become one flesh.
But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits
are outside of the body, but whoever sins sexually sins
against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies
are temples of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have
received from God? You are not your own.
You were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your
bodies. See, Paul turns this, this this
really kind of specific sin and the reason I want to, I want to
highlight this one just for a minute and I don't have much
time, but I really want to get this.
He said. This is the one that I'm going
to call out in almost a separate way because it's the one that
was affecting the church then. I still think it affects the
church now. In fact, culturally, sex is kind
of a big topic. And I'm not gonna go into a
whole diatribe on sex, but I can tell you that we live in a
culture more and more where the idea that sexual purity is kind
of like an old idea. In fact, I, I as a pastor 25
years, I've spoken to tons of young people, tons of college
students, and it's always amazing.
It feels like every four or five years the pendulum shifts a
little bit more that when I get up there and say, Hey, listen,
God doesn't want you to be having sex with anybody other
than the person he has designed and planned for you.
And, and that's what he wants for you because it's the best
for you. They're like, that's an old idea
and you're an old man. Thank you for sharing our
thoughts, old man. And I'm like, wow, like, like,
has it been that long? Like, like I, I, I feel like,
like, like, I remember when I was a kid, I remember my parents
said to me and I kind of had that little, oh, is that, is
that really true? And, and then now they've got
data out there that says it's true.
Like there's this whole thing. I, I, I always talk to young
people and they're like, well, yeah, Ted, I just, I get what
God says. I know what the Bible says, but
you know, in the world, it's kind of a we're going to try
before you buy kind of state. Like I just, you know, we're
going to move in together. And some of you have done this.
And listen, no condemnation from me.
I'm not judging that you up here.
No one judges you but God. But there's some things he says
about this. He says, listen, I don't have
that plan. If you're like, well, we're
going to move in together and try it.
And then if it's good, then we'll make it permanent.
And you know, if it's not good, then, you know, then we can kind
of, you know, go the other way. And the problem is, is that
people move in almost with the mindset of no commitment.
It's like they move in together and they're like, oh, we could
make this work unless, but you're not committed, you're not
enough real, you haven't you haven't fully committed.
So that way if something doesn't go good and I got news for you,
if you're married, someone who's married can say this.
It doesn't always go good in marriage.
It's not always fun to be married.
Can I just say that? No one says that at the wedding.
Like the pastor needs to be like, listen, you're about to
get married. This is such a beautiful,
amazing thing. It's going to be really tough
and some days you won't like each other.
No one says that at a wedding. But the reality is, is that
they've come out with the data. Here's they find, they find out
the people that are practicing marriage before they get married
end up breaking up at least 5 to 6 times.
They said it's the average 5 to 6.
And and what they say is what you've done is you've now
practiced not just for marriage 5 or 6 times.
You've practiced for marriage or divorced 5 or 6 times.
And so when you actually get married, it's no wonder that our
divorce rates are so high. You've been practicing the
entire time to leave, to bail, to quit.
And if you've been through that, you've been through a divorce.
Can I just say I'm so sorry that you've gone through it.
And I think the church has handled it horribly when people
have gone through it. We need to stand with people who
have gone through it and not stand against them because
there's a God who loves them that died and bled so that they
could be forgiven and we move forward because we can't do
anything about yesterday. But man, just for you young
people, he says. Listen.
Sexual morality, stepping outside of God's plan.
It's bad. And God doesn't say because he's
trying to ruin your fun, He's saying it because he's a good
father and he loves you. He says, listen, not everything
is beneficial that the world is going to throw at you.
He says, but I will be mastered by nothing.
He says why? Because your bodies are not your
own. You are not your own.
You were bought at a price there for honor God with your body.
I want to show you something that I I saw when I was a young
man. It stuck with me and it was it
was this right here. It was this picture that when we
come to this world, this is what we come in as we come in clean,
we come in pure. We come in with no spot, no
blemish. And that's kind of this
beautiful thing. But it doesn't take very long.
Like I shared about my daughter, doesn't take very long before
all of a sudden we make a choice and we go against something that
God has planned and we mar we same what God created.
And as time goes on, we, we, we tend to do a little bit more and
a little bit more. And depending on what life
you've lived and what you've done, we find ourselves in a
space where we no longer look pure.
We no longer have that, that that feeling of like we can just
stand before God is righteous. We can't anymore because we've
already failed. We've fallen short.
I've fallen short. And I remember someone shared
this to me and said, listen, you know what, what God wants to do?
God sends his son Jesus to live a perfect life.
And if this is Jesus, Jesus comes and he lives the life I
couldn't live and he never sins and he remains blameless and
pure. And he gets to stand for God as
that purity. And he says, listen, I want this
for you. I want you to be able to stand
for God pure. I want you to come stand before
God and be righteous. And so Jesus says, listen,
here's what I'll do. I will die in your place and I
will give my life for your life. And all you have to do is
receive it. And then when you receive it,
God says, I'm going to put my power in you.
I'm going to fill you with my spirit.
And when I fill you with my spirit, I make you clean again.
Like what was broken, what was dirty is no longer broken, and
what was dirty is now clean. And he says, don't call unclean
what I call clean. And so many of us, we get to
this space and like, well, now that I'm clean, what do I do?
And Paul says, listen, live pure.
But it's impossible to live pure, isn't it?
Like, like, I don't know about you, but like even after I came
to Jesus, I'm still like, Oh, I still messed that up.
Oh, I still fall short still. And what's crazy, it's like he
just keeps cleaning me up. He just keeps me righteous.
He just keeps me pure. It's like, Jesus does this work?
But but what I want to remind you is when I saw that as a
young man, I was like, oh, I can just keep sinning then.
And so many people make this mistake.
They're like, well, you were saved by grace through faith.
And so now I'm just going to go live my life the way I want to
live my life. And Paul says, no, you were
saved by grace through faith so you could live the way that
Jesus lived. And listen, you won't become
sinless. Like you're not going to be
sinless. Can I just say that like, like,
like when I came to Jesus, I really thought I was going to be
sinless. Like the moment I finally gave
my life, when it really took hold that I'd be sinless, found
out that's not the case. But I did find this, that the
more that I follow Jesus, the more I trust his word, the more
I put his life into my life, I sin less.
And that's what Paul's saying. Paul says I just want you to sin
less. He says, listen, take care of
this possession because it's not a playground.
He says ownership means stewardship.
And here's the question, what in my life is mastering me?
What sin is trying to reclaim ownership of what Christ already
purchased. He says live differently, don't
handle life like the world, Live transformed.
Don't forget who you are in Christ and live pure.
Honor God with your body. It's his temple.
Listen, I'm out of time, but I want to, I want to just share a
small piece of my story. Small piece of my story.
I grew up in the church, but I did not like the church.
I didn't, you know, I had a problem with, with God's people,
not with God. I read about Jesus and I was
like, I really like Jesus. I don't know how many of you
felt that way. Like when you first read about
Jesus, I was like, yes, Jesus, I'm, I'm into Jesus, but then I
melt Jesus's people. And I was like, I don't like his
people because I grew up in a very, very charismatic church
that was very, very rule, rule, rule, rule, rule.
And I've realized I'm not a great rule follower unless I'm
the one making the rules. Can I just say that?
And so I struggled to follow the rules and I saw people who would
preach one thing and then live a different way and they were
hypocrites. And I hated it so much that I
just, I didn't get into it. And so I found myself kind of
exploring what the world had. And so I began to drink and I
began to party. And then someone introduced me
to drugs. Then I started doing drugs.
And I realized the drugs are really expensive.
And so they were like, well, the best way to pay for drugs,
obviously is to sell drugs, Duh. And so I began to sell drugs.
And then I found myself doing things that I never thought I
would be doing. I found myself taking trips and
transporting stuff, not even knowing what's in it.
In fact, at one point I knew one thing that I transported that if
I'd been caught, I would have just got out of prison about two
years ago for what I could have been caught doing.
And I want to take you to the bottom, which is where God found
me. I was in Florida after taking a
trip down, transporting some stuff I should have been
transporting. And I was so empty and so
broken, and I just wanted it to stop.
And so I stood on the 17th floor of a building and I climbed out
on top of the balcony and I stood on the railing and I
looked down at the concrete pad and I thought, just one step and
I can stop hurting. And I can, I can finally be done
with the pain that I've caused my parents and the pain that
I've caused my friends and the mistakes that I've made in the
church and, and how much I've displeased God.
And it was in that moment, in the middle of the night on the
17th floor of that building, as I thought about one step
changing everything I heard for the very first time in my life,
the voice of God speak to me. And that moment the Creator of
the universe saw me, and I know now that He had never left me.
It wasn't like I had to walk to the edge to get God's attention.
I'd always had God's attention. I just wasn't paying attention.
And it was on that moment that he got me off, not just that
balcony, but he moved me and shaped me into a different
person. And here it is.
I stand today because God had a different path and a different
plan. And he said, listen, I want you
to live differently. I want you to live transformed,
and I want you to live pure. And you're not going to do it
perfectly. And I never have and I never
will. But I serve a God who is good,
who is great, who is loving, and he's inviting and he wants that
for you. And if you were in this room and
you have not given your life to Jesus, I want you to look at me.
God's plan for you. Is He wants to remind you that
you are not who you were. You are not your own.
You were bought at a price. So honor God with everything
that you are because you are His.
And with that, we're moving to a time of decision.
So I want to stay there with you.
For those of you in my in this room and watching online, I'm
talking to those who've never started that intimate personal
relationship with Jesus Christ. For those who've never accepted
that free gift of grace, I hope you heard that good word today.
I hope you saw that great illustration today.
I hope you hear the words of Jesus Christ on the cross when
He said to tell us die. It is finished, it's complete,
it is paid for in full. And so whatever you're going
through, whatever trials, whatever sin is separating you
from God, here's what you have. When you accept his free gift of
grace, know that it has been paid in full.
The receipt is right there on your your chair, but here it is.
He writes it, it's it's bought, it's taken care of.
It's no longer yours to bear. He, he already bore it and he
wants to give you new life that is only found in Jesus Christ.
And so if you've never started that walk, here's the best thing
you could do is you could just say, I want him.
I want to walk in his ways. I want to continue to be
justified and I want to continue to be be made new and I want to
continue to be sanctified. I want to look less and less
like me and I want to look more and more like Jesus.
And so today and then just a little bit when the music
starts, if you're in this room or you're online and you say,
hey, I want to, I want to take that step.
You can move and you could talk, You can ask questions.
There's going to be a pastor right underneath the screen
right over by the baptistry that you can ask those questions to.
I'm going to be right here in the front.
If you're online, somebody's in the chat.
They would love to help you start that relationship with
Jesus Christ. You don't have to pay the bill.
He already did. And so I'm hoping someone walks
into that, that new relationship with Jesus today.
Do it take the step for the rest of us in this room for those of
us who have been walking with Jesus.
I'm sure there's a part in that sermon.
You're just like, wow, how did he know that I was going through
this? How did he know I was actually
in this stage of life? How did he know that I I kind of
look more like the world right now.
I don't really look different than the world and and right now
I don't feel very transformed. And right now my life is not.
If you were looking at my life pure would not be one of those
words that would describe how I live.
But it doesn't have to stay that way, my friends.
It doesn't have to stay that way.
You don't have to walk out of here the same person and just a
little bit for you. You know that these steps are
always open a time for you to come up and you can just lay
those things down and you can just be like, Lord, you know my
heart. You know that I have not been
living differently. I've been looking a lot like the
world. I've been wearing camo in the
world. I look very similar to the
world. I talk like the world does.
I act like the world does. I do things that the world does,
but not today. I'm going to walk out of here
and I'm going to start being a light to this Dark World.
I'm going to start living according to what His word tells
me to. And maybe for you, you're like,
man, there's just some things I just, I'm not.
It's not up to a standard. There's some impure thoughts,
there's some impure motives, there's some impure action.
And today you can just lay that at his feet and just confess to
him, but not just confess to him.
You can leave it and allow him to take it and allow that burden
to be left here. Don't take it back home with
you. Church.
I know we have the opportunity every single week to to respond
and we give you an invitation. We give ourselves invitation.
This isn't just us as pastors and a staff saying this is what
you should do. This is what I should do.
There's things in my life that is not according to to what he
wants me to live that I have to lay down.
There's things that I wrestle with, so we've got to make some
action. We've got to do something
differently. We've got to be transformed.
Let the Word of God continue to transform us and move us and
change us and convict us. The Holy Spirit's going to go
with you, and that's what I'm banking on.
Would you stand your feet as we move to this time is this
movement to to come forward and just take a step.
Jesus, we invite you in this moment right now, Holy Spirit,
through this room and through the the ears of people who are
watching wherever they're watching from.
Would you do a work inside of us?
God, would you draw us closer to you?
Things that we need to lay down. I pray that we lay down things
that we're just holding on to. I pray, Lord, we just let go of
and Lord, I pray that you do what only you can do.
You cleanse us. You set us apart and you call us
to live differently. You call us to be transformed.
You call us to live pure lives. And so God, whatever is getting
in the way of that, I pray in this moment would would we just
be bold enough to just come lay it at your feet and leave it
there and trust that your way is the best way?
Lord, we love you and we thank you for moments like this.
In Jesus name, Amen.