I am so excited, so honored, so expectant to be here in the
House of God with each and every one of us.
Next level church family. We're one house with many rooms,
so I want to welcome every single room in to our worship
service today. Maybe you're with us in Cape
Coral. I hear Cape Coral's on fire
right now. Come on, East location downtown,
right here in this room in Fort Myers.
Maybe you're an additional seating or maybe you're one of
our online family. Hey, come on.
Can we give God praise for everyone who's worshiping with
us today? What incredible day to be here
in the House of the Lord. And my name is Pastor Charles
Ross. If I haven't had the opportunity
to meet you and I get the pleasure to serve under the
leadership and guidance of our pastors, Pastors Matt and Sarah
Keller, we have now known them for I think about 15 years on
staff for the last 10. And can I just tell you as they
are leading us this year to prioritize God, this hunger and
thirst series, The thing that I love about our pastors is that
they truly live and breathe what they teach.
So not just words that come from a platform, but it is truly how
they live. And I'm grateful for pastors
like that. Aren't you?
Come on, aren't you grateful for our pastors?
I'm grateful for our pastors. Well, we we've been in a series
called hunger and thirst, hunger and thirst.
And I want to end this series where we started in Matthew
chapter 5. These are the words of Jesus.
He said blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness. The promise of God is that they
will be filled. Jesus is a saying, in the midst
of everything that you could hunger for, I want you to choose
to hunger and thirst. Direct that hunger towards
righteousness. And Speaking of hunger, I've
been fasting for the last couple of weeks and I've had a few
hungry cravings. Anyone else?
Right. Anyone else have some hungry
cravings that, that sometimes these hungry cravings are, are
distracting? I'm fasting right now from some
of my favorite things in over the holidays.
I, I, I fell in love with cinnamon rolls.
OK, don't tell my wife. We went to one of our favorite
breakfast restaurants in Fort Myers Beach and, and had a plan
as I was in the back of the line.
I'm going to order 1 cinnamon roll and when I got up to the
front my, my stomach grabbed my mouth and said five please 5
cinnamon rolls. One for now and many for later.
And a few pounds later I found myself in the kitchen and I was
talking to my wife and I said, honey, how am I ever going to
stick to my diet with so many cinnamon rolls in the kitchen?
You ever feel like maybe the world is like that?
If God wanted us to stick to a diet of righteousness, then why
did he leave us in the kitchen of this world with so many sweet
temptations all around us? So many sweet things like the
pursuit of money or or the pursuit of pleasure, so many
sweet things that we can snack on.
But yet Jesus speaks to this tension of of us being here with
all these temptations as he prayed for us and as he prayed
for his disciples. In John chapter 17, he said
this. He said, God, I don't pray that
you should take these followers out of the world, but I pray
that you should keep them from the evil one.
In other words, keep the world out of them.
He goes on to say they're not of the world, just as I'm not of
the world. And and that's what God wants
us. He wants us right there where we
are in the world, but not of the world.
That's what I want to talk about for the rest of the day.
Would you pray with me? Heavenly Father, I thank you
that our ears are open, our hearts are open.
Would you move in us now in Jesus name let everyone say
Amen. What did Jesus say or what was
he referring to when he said he doesn't want us of the world?
And who is the world anyway? What is Jesus referring to?
Well, we know that Jesus referred to the world as having
the evil 1 and the world in fact is a place where there is an
evil one who rules and a culture of evil.
In Romans chapter 12 verse 2, the apostle Paul said this do
not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by
the renewing of your mind. And if we can do that, then we
would be able to test and approve what God's will is.
So the world is not only a place where the evil 1 exists, but the
world also has a pattern, a pattern, a patternistic way of
living, a a patternistic way of thinking.
And if we live that way and if we conform to that pattern, then
we find ourselves out of God's will.
What is the world and will? In first John chapter 2, verse
16, the Bible teaches us that everything in the world, the
lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of
life, well, that doesn't come from my Heavenly Father, but it
comes from where the world, the world in, in verse 17, he says
in this world and its desires, they're perishing, they're
passing away. Yet whoever does the will of God
will will live forever. The world is a perishing place
with values opposing God's will. And if that's the world, if, if
the world is filled with these temptations of the evil 1 if the
world is a place where, where it's perishing, and if the world
has all of these things and these patterns, then why, oh why
has God placed us in the world? In John chapter 3 verse 16, we
we find the answer for God so loved this world that he gave he
gave his one and only son Jesus Christ and and whoever believes
in him will not perish with the rest of the world, but will have
eternal life And Jesus that same Jesus died for our sins and he
was raised in power from the dead and he looked at his
followers and he looks at us today and he said I want you to
go where Jesus in to the world and preach the good news, preach
my gospel to all creation. Why pursue?
Whosoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but
whoever doesn't will be condemned.
God loves this world and he, he wants us to be on mission in
this world to to seek and save the lost.
It is as though God himself has taken us from a raging ocean
that we were drowning in a raging ocean of sin.
And he's plucked us out of the water and he's placed us onto a
boat, a rescue boat. And now we're in, we're in
safety and, and he wants us to take that boat and to find
others who are drowning in the same sin to rescue them.
But here's the problem. When our boat in the ocean gets
more ocean in the boat, well, all of a sudden that boat isn't
really useful to be on rescue. So what's the answer?
Should I I take my boat and and put it in a boat yard and never
put it in the water? No, a boat that's in a boatyard
can't be on mission to seek and save the lost.
The idea is that we not get water into our boats.
So how oh how can we be in the world but not of the world?
I want to talk about four ways we can be in the world and not
of the world. The 1st is that we must position
our yoke. We must position our yoke in, in
Second Corinthians chapter 6, verse 14, the Bible says we're
encouraged to not be yoked together with unbelievers.
Come on, who? Who read this the first time?
And they were like, OK, this is an egg Mcmuffin.
We're talking about eggs right here.
Egg yolk. That's not the kind of yolk that
the apostle Paul is talking about this, this yolk I've got a
picture of, of two oxen that are bound together by yolk.
A yolk is a, a wooden device that binds 2 animals together.
And here's the the wonderful thing, when you have oxen that
are of equal stature and size and they're bound together,
well, these two can do more together than they can do on
their own. They can plow more of the field
and produce more harvest together.
This is what God desires for us, that we would be in partnership
and being bonded together with someone who believes like us.
And but the warning is against being unequally yoked.
And I've got a picture of, of unequal yoke and that poor
little oxen. As you can see, the, the work
here of those bound together will be unproductive.
They'll end up just being going in circles.
And in fact, the, the small one will eventually fall and, and
hurt its neck and then it would break the neck of the large one
as well. That is unequally yoked.
But the Bible is not saying that we should never associate with
the unbeliever or be unloving to the unbeliever.
Paul's not warning against basic associations and relationships.
He is warning US against a shared direction, a a spiritual
entanglement with those who do not believe like us.
And I know many of us are probably wondering, OK, I've got
some friendships, people in the neighborhood that I hang out
with, some maybe people that I go golfing with.
Am I unequally yoked? What I love is that Paul breaks
this down. I want to break this down for
us. He goes on to say, for what do
righteousness and wickedness have in common?
Would you look at your neighbor and say in common, what are the
things we have in common with people?
Maybe you like to golf. I like to fish.
I don't know how to golf, but I like to fish like and, and So
what what happens is this is a different kind of in common.
It's not where we just share hobbies in common.
It's been when we begin to share values in common with
unbelievers, where we begin to share priorities and goals in
life with, with unbelievers. This was me when I was coming
back to the Lord and, and I first moved to Fort Myers.
I, I, I had some unbelieving friends and we shared some
things in common. We like to work out together and
we had similar jobs, but but yet their values began to become my
values and their priorities began to be my values.
I was unequally yoked and I was off of alignment with God.
He goes on to say what fellowship can light have with
darkness? Look to your neighbor and tell
him fellowship, right? Fellowship is beyond just casual
interactions with an unbeliever. This is where those casual
interactions turn into a mutual submission, a a, a mutual
dependence and shared rhythms. What this looks like is when
we're unequally yoked in fellowship, that their rhythms
become our rhythms. And we used to have a rhythm
where we prioritize the things of God, but now those rhythms
make coming to church an inconvenience.
We've been unequally yoked in fellowship.
It he, he says, what harmony is there between Christ and Bella?
That's another word for the enemy.
And harmony we know is the sound.
It's a sound when we sing together, we're in, we're in
harmony. And, and what ends up happening
is when we're yoked together, maybe following a, an influencer
on social media who is not a believer, we begin to sound like
them and our sound becomes in tune with the unbelieving
generation as opposed to being in tune with God.
Finally, this is the deepest part of of being unequally yoked
together is agreement, he says. What agreement is there between
the temple of God and idols and and this is a, a, a sad and and
and harsh place for us to be when we're unequally yoked
because an unbeliever's influence begins to take over
our obedience to God. We begin to agree on things and
we offer approval and those convictions that we once had for
God. We begin to compromise those in
order to prioritize the agreement for peace.
This passage isn't about avoiding unbelievers.
It is about being in alignment with Jesus.
And in fact, He wants us yoked together with those who are
following Jesus like us. That's what we get to do this
weekend. It is Better Together weekend.
We get to be yoked together with other men of God.
Come on, brothers, we need to be around other men of God who are
pursuing God like we are. I need to be around men of God
who love their wives and who aren't always looking around to
see what else is on the menu. Sisters, we need to be around
other women of God who are going to hold us accountable to the
things of God's remaining pure. We are Better Together.
What can we do to get ourselves equally yoked?
If yoke is about alignment with God, then we also need this next
thing. We need to be the salt of the
world around us. Come on, look to your neighbor
and say, do you have any salt? Oh, you do.
You do have salt, right? I'm looking at a lot of salt.
Why? Because Jesus said this in
Matthew chapter 5. He said you are the salt of the
earth. I love it.
It's not just that we have salt, we are salt.
But here's the warning. If the salt loses its saltiness,
how can it be made salty? Again, Jesus's words, not mine.
If we lose that saltiness, it's therefore good for nothing
except to be thrown out. And Jesus is saying we're salt.
And what I love about salt is salt influences flavor.
Here's a picture of my favorite food group, French fries.
OK, All right, French fries. This is this is one of the food
groups. OK.
And here's the thing about French fries.
I'm going to help. I'm going to help many of us
today. This is why you came to church.
French fries, plain by themselves, without salt,
they're boring. They're plain.
It's just a potato that's cut up.
But when you add a little bit of heat oil and some salt, come on,
somebody. That is the taste the Lord
implied for us, right? It is just something about salt.
When it's salty, when it has that distinct flavor, it brings
out the flavor. And here's the thing, the the
world around us, they're used to the same old French fries
situations. And it and if the salt that the
believer has to to bring it doesn't taste like salt, but it
tastes like the French fry, then why do we sprinkle it?
Here's what I mean. Here's a French fry situation.
You're our homeowners association.
OK, All right, altars are open. Let's say you've got an HOA and
they make a decision to use up a bunch of the budget on something
that many people in the neighborhood disagree with.
I know it's not a real situation, but maybe.
And people in the neighborhood are beginning to gossip and
they're they're angry and, and they're posting, 'cause I know
y'all have a Facebook page, right?
They're posting things on the Facebook page and they're
looking at the HOA president and they're calling him names that
his mom did not give him. If we end up jumping in the
anger, if we end up jumping in the gossip, we lose our salt
taste, we lose our saltiness, and all of a sudden the
influence that God intended for us is gone.
But in the midst of disagreement, salt of an of a
believer offers gentleness. The salt of a follower of Jesus
offers truth and offers grace. And that just tastes different
in that scenario. Here's another French fries
situation that that maybe hit a little home a little more.
And that's maybe a political figure makes a decision that we
don't agree with. Maybe it's locally or, or, or
somewhere internationally. And, and what ends up happening
as we've seen in the world today, that the rest of the
world just begins to be in disunity and they're disparaging
one another or disparaging the political figure.
And, and there's bullying towards one another and bullying
online and there's anger and there's words of dishonor, but
not the follower of Jesus, not the one who has that salt taste.
They're going to come in to that French fry situation and they're
going to offer a little sprinkle of love, a sprinkle of
gentleness as Jesus would. These are the characteristics of
Jesus. He is the salt that that causes
us to be salty and offer a different taste to the culture
of this world. My, my, we need to remember that
we're foreigners in this world. As believers, as followers of
Christ, we are foreigners in this world, and Jesus Christ
defines our culture, not our country of origin.
What do we taste like? Do we taste like the rest of the
world around us or do we challenge the rest of the world
around us to taste more like Jesus?
If if yoke aligns us with God in the world and salt offers us
influence in the world for Jesus, then we also need this
third thing. We need to be light.
Come on.
Can you turn to your neighbor and tell them turn the lights
on? We got to turn the lights on.
The Bible teaches us in John chapter one that Jesus is the
light, that Jesus was the light that came into the world and he
shined in the world and the darkness was dispelled when he
was shined into the world. And I love what the Bible says.
It says that Jesus was the light and he was the life, the life.
The life was the light. The life was the light.
The life of Jesus is the light. Then later on Matthew chapter 5,
Jesus would say in the same way, let your light shine before
others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your
Father in heaven. So what are we saying?
We're saying that the life that we live that models and reflects
our Savior, our Lord, our Messiah, that brings light into
the World of Darkness around us. Light does something
interesting. It reveals things, it reveals
what's in the dark and the darkness dissipates.
In fact, church, family, darkness is all around us.
And when I say darkness, the darkness that he's referring to
of Jesus life, the darkness is death.
Darkness is separation from a God who loves us.
Darkness separates those around us, not just in the world.
When we say the World of Darkness, we're not just talking
about some other continent, but we're talking about the World of
Darkness in our neighborhoods, the World of Darkness on our
jobs, the World of Darkness in the stores that we shop in, and
even in our own families. And those who are in darkness
stand to be eternally separated from God unless the light
shines. So here's the good news.
We can allow our light to shine. We can allow the truth of God's
ways to shine. Jesus would would have us walk
in truth to dispel the lies around us.
He would have us walk in purity even in the midst of a sinful
world that is light. And yet there's a warning that
we see in Scripture 2 warnings. The first is that our light can
become dim, it can become dark and our light becomes dim or
dark when we begin to take on the ways and the things of this
world. If we begin to post like the
rest of this world, our our light that once shined bright
begins to dim a little bit. If we begin to excuse sin, if we
begin to have sex before marriage, then we're allowing
some of that darkness things that are against the word of
God. We're we're allowing that light
to become dim and a dim or dark light cannot reveal things that
those in darkness need revealed. The revelation is that there is
a God who loves us and there is a savior of the world whose name
is Jesus. The second warning is that not
only can our lights become dim, but often if we are afraid, we
can hide our light. And Jesus said, don't take your
light and put it under a basket or under a bushel.
No, no, no, shine that light boldly.
And I believe God wants us to be brave and to be bold and to
shine our lights. Lights don't have to argue.
You turn on the light in A room, the darkness just gets goes
away. So church family, here's the
good news is we live in truth. We don't have to argue with
anyone about the life that we live.
We just get to declare it with our lives.
How is our light shining today? If yoke aligns us with God in a
fallen world and salt influences the world for Jesus around us
will light brings revelation, the revelation that so many that
are suffering and darkness need to the end that they don't have
to perish with this world. Well then we also need this one
final thing. We need to be rooted in the
vine. We need to be rooted in the
vine. John chapter 15.
Jesus is speaking to his disciples and in this very
important message he says remain in me as I also remain in you.
Some versions would say abide, live, dwell, be with me.
And then he says I want to be with you.
I want to remain in you. In other words, there's a
relationship, he says. He says no branch can bear fruit
by itself. It must remain, remain in the
vine. Neither can we bear fruit unless
we remain in me. Jesus said to clarify this,
Jesus said, just in case you were wondering, I, he said, I'm
the vine and you, you are the branches.
And, and if you remain in me, Jesus would say, and I in you,
here's the good news, you'll bear much fruit.
Jesus is asking his followers to simply remain, don't go be with
me, remain rooted in me. And when I think about a tree
that's, that's rooted, you know, this tree is vibrant and it's,
it's, it's rooted. Well, why?
Because it's staying in the ground.
It's not being plucked up and moved around by everything
that's happening in the world. It's, it's rooted.
And this is the picture of a vibrant spiritual life that God
desires for us. And here's what I know.
I know in the, the midst of remaining, we can remain in so
many ways. We can pray, we can make a, a, a
point to open our eyes and, and open our Bibles and and begin to
study. We can prioritize time with
Jesus. That's what it looks like to
remain. We can be constant in prayer and
think about Jesus throughout the day.
And when we have different interactions, we can ask
ourselves, how would my Lord desire me to respond?
That's remaining. We can worship, we can
prioritize the things of God like coming to church,
prioritize groups that's remaining rooted.
And as long as we remain rooted, the promise of God is that we'll
be vibrant like this and bear much fruit.
You know what I love about fruit trees?
And I'm not a botanist, but here's what I know.
I I don't need to look at the roots or dissect this tree to
know what kind of tree it is. Why?
Because the fruit says what type of tree it is, Church, family.
What does our fruit say about our roots?
Would someone look at us and say that is so clear that that
person is rooted in Jesus? Or would they look at our fruit
and say they're rooted in a political party, or they're
rooted in the modern generational culture, or they're
rooted with this influencer, or they're rooted with their
family? I don't know about you, but I, I
want the world around me to see my fruit and, and to say
clearly, this person must have been with Jesus because our
fruit defines what type of tree it is.
Fruit is not needed by the tree. The tree doesn't need to eat its
own fruit. No, this, this fruit is actually
for others. It's for you and for me.
It's for the world around us to enjoy.
And, and so it is with our fruit as we're rooted in Jesus, the
fruit that we produce in our lives.
It's not for us, it's for others to taste and see that the Lord
is good. What is the fruit that we're
referring to? Galatians 522 speaks to the
fruit of the Spirit. My little girls can can name all
of the fruit of the spirit 'cause they sing it in songs.
What is the fruit is love. It's joy, it's peace, it's
patience, it's kindness, it's goodness, it's faithfulness,
it's gentleness, it's self-control.
It's not anger, it's not hot temperedness.
It's not a cancel culture. It it it's not anger and
division and separation. It's none of those.
This is the fruit of the spirit. When we're rooted.
What I love is that this fruit, others tell me it's healthy to
eat fruit. I know I like French fries, but
but when you eat fruit, it's healthy.
And our fruit, that fruit of love and joy and peace actually
offers health and healing to those around us.
That fruit is not just designed that kindness is not just
designed for those who are kind to us, but when we're kind to
the person who offended us, when we're loving and we're patient
for the to the person who gossiped about us.
Do you know that that type of fruit, the fruit that only comes
from being rooted in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, That
fruit can actually bring healing to even our enemies.
Wow fruit, fruit of the spirit is amazing in this fruit.
The last thing I love about this fruit is that when you receive
the fruit, when you take the fruit in, the fruit bears seeds,
seeds that when planted will multiply into a harvest.
The fruit that we bear as believers and as followers of
Christ can bear fruit full harvest of those who do not yet
know Jesus, Church family. Our lives can bear fruit that
evangelizes the world around us to the end that they no longer
have to be in darkness, separated from a God who loves
it, that loves them so much. We can offer salt to them.
We can influence them with the taste of God in normal, plain,
or harmful situations. We can be light.
We can bring revelation that there's a better way.
There's a a better way of life. And his name is Jesus.
We can offer all of these things for our lives.
Bear fruit. John 15 verse 8 Jesus concludes
by saying this is to my Father's glory, that you what bear much
fruit and that fruit will show yourselves to be my disciples
church family. Jesus wants us in this world.
He wants us present right here. He prayed, he prayed for us to
be present in this world, but he doesn't want the world in us.
He wants us to align our yoke and and keep the saltiness in
our walk and he wants us to shine our light in darkness and
he wants us to bear fruit by being rooted in him to the end
that there might be a great harvest.
John 1723 He concludes I and them and you and me so that they
may be brought complete unity and then the world, the world
that's perishing, the world around us, the world that's
struggling. They'll know they will know that
you sent me and that you've loved them even as you've loved
me with every head bowed and every eye closed.
They're three groups of, of people that God has been
burdening my heart for and, and our hearts for.
And I want to pray for each one of those groups.
Heavenly Father, I thank you for those of us here who are saved.
We know you, God. Maybe we've been saved recently.
And yet in the midst of our walk, we have allowed ourselves
to be equally yoked with unbelievers.
We've crossed the line from association to participation,
and we're bringing people not only onto our boat, but we're
bringing their buckets of water onto our boat and we're
beginning to sink. God, I pray that you would
embolden us, make us brave right now.
Help us to break the yoke to find ourselves a way to be yoked
together with those who believe like us, not to stop loving the
unbeliever, but help us to get that water out of our boat.
God, I pray for that person who has been saved for a while.
God in the midst of their salvation, they've made their
faith walk all about themselves. Those of us where it's so
tempting to to keep our boat in the boatyard to to not step out
in faith and and be a part of serving another.
Those of us maybe because of shame or because of fear, we've,
we've hidden the light that we have.
God, today I believe you desire us to be bold and and to be
brave to share with that person in the neighborhood that we have
a hope and we have a faith that is beyond ourselves and beyond
the things in this natural world.
God, would you give them strength and boldness to let
their light shine? Would you encourage them, God,
to take a step today to be a part of a serve team to to sign
up to serve the city, to be bold for you to get that boat in the
water? God, I pray for this last group
of people, those of us who are actually in the water, we're
drowning right now. Maybe that's you with every head
bowed and every eye closed in the the same atmosphere of
prayer as I described that sense of darkness, something left in
your heart and you said, that's me.
And can I tell you this? That was me, the age of 18,
found myself in a church where my life was was being led by my
own temptations and by my own desires.
And I found myself filled with my own mistakes and my own
shame. And I kept trying to fix it on
my own. And I realized I didn't have the
power in enough myself to fix it.
In fact, none of us do. The Bible declares that we have
all sinned. We we've all fallen short of the
glory of God. In other words, we've done
things to violate what our Creator has asked us to do and
not do. Because of that, there are wages
that need to be paid, and the wages of that sin is death.
Eternal death, eternal separation from the God who
loves us. When we couldn't pay our way
back to God, God decided to step in.
He stepped in by coming close to us and drawing close in the form
of his Son Jesus. And Jesus came to not only walk
this earth, but he came to take every single sin and every pain
on the cross. He died for our sins.
He allowed himself to be persecuted and killed on the
cross, but because of his love for us, because the the grave
could not hold him, He was raised in power.
And those who confess Jesus as Lord and as Savior, the Bible
says they will be saved, plucked out of the ocean, placed in a
boat. They'll walk from darkness into
the light. Maybe that's you.
If you want to say yes to a relationship with Jesus, I'd be
honored to pray with you right now.
Every location downtown E Cape Coral, right here in Fort Myers.
If that's you, every head bowed, every eye closed, would you
simply slip your hand up? I want to pray with you.
One 2-3. Come on.
Hands are going up all around the room.
If that's you see, I want to be saved.
I don't want to be separated from my Heavenly Father any
longer. I want to be saved.
In the privacy of this moment, we will pray.
You can put your hands down. Come on.
Would you pray with me? God, I thank you so much for
bringing me here. Thank you, God, for loving me so
much that you would save me from my sins.
I confess that I have sinned, I have fallen short of your best.
I believe that you sent Jesus, the Son of God, to live for me,
to die for my sins, and that you raised him from the dead.
And right now you are raising me to new life.
I am born again, I am saved in Jesus name, Amen.
Come on church family, will you celebrate across every single
room because God has rescued more and he is sending us all on
mission together. Heavenly Father, I thank you for
your word. Seal it in our hearts now.
Jesus name, Amen. Let's give God break.