Welcome to the River City Church podcast and a message by our
lead pastor, Jason Powers. Our prayer is that this message
would inspire and encourage you, build your faith and point you
to the life changing love of Jesus.
May you enjoy the goodness of God as you follow Him today.
I'm glad that you're here. It's a full room.
And so I'm great. I want to kind of let you know
up front, like we've been working through Ephesians and
we've been, you know, the front part is kind of loaded with
theology, which is great. The great thing about the
theology is you can kind of wrestle with what does it mean?
The dividing line has been down, the wall has been torn down.
We're about to get real specific, and I just want you to
know the point of this thing that we do is never, ever, ever,
ever, ever to be able to do it without Jesus.
And what that means is you should expect for the rest of
your life to wake up and go, I'm not there.
Yet I'm not. There yet, which brings us to
the question, to the decision, what do we do when we're not
there yet? Well, what did you do the first
time, that first time? And this is what I want.
To ask like that. First time that you had that
sense like. God is real and he has something
to say to my life and I need to respond.
But that first moment where you said, I think I'm going to do
it. I think I'm going to do it.
That moment you didn't have your life together.
That was maybe the moment that you were the most put up, put
apart and torn up, or you most desperately needed Him the most.
So what I want to ask you now is if you will wake up in the
morning and you have that sense. I know my life doesn't meet the
standard that God has set before me.
I know I'm not quite there yet. If He chased you down at the
beginning when you weren't looking for Him, why do you
think now? That your desire is to follow
him and to honor him and to please him.
Why do you think now he's going to like hit you with a stick?
So here's what I want you to know.
We're going to confront some things today that my guess is my
hope is get in your grill. We're going to confront, talk
about some things today that are going to probably make you like,
I wish you hadn't said that because now I got to think we're
going to deal with it. And here's what I want you to
know. The Lord's desire for you.
Is goodness when we see in the beginning of the story in
Genesis chapter 1 and everything is flowing and growing and His
presence is there and He loves us and we experience him.
That's His desire for you when he could have made it any way
that he wanted to. That's what he did.
And we read at the at the end, right?
And Jason talks about a feast, the marriage feast of the lamb.
Can you imagine the bride, those pictures, right?
And you see those goofy pictures on YouTube right, where the
groom turns around and he sees his bride and he's just like,
breaks down here like, well. That's a little weird.
I think Jesus is going to look at you like that, and he's going
to look at us like that. That's the why when we talk
about some behavioral things that just we don't like very
much, that's the why. The reason that we do it is so
that we can have an experience of His love and our lives and
our habits and our behaviors forever.
That's what it means when we say as His church, our confession
every week. We are badly broken.
Yes, you are. Listen, we have to fight for
both of those. We can never get to a place
where we say, oh, we're pretty good.
I'm, I'm pretty good. Not really.
Compared to Jesus, Not, not really.
Are you nicer than you were? Before I hope.
We're not there yet, but we also have to contend for the fact
that this is for love. This isn't to earn the favor of
Jesus. This isn't to make him like us
more. This is he loves you as much as
he possibly could. He conquered death for you and
he invited you. Listen, He invited you into a
way of life that goes beyond that.
The great has been conquered. Death is not a part of your
story anymore. If you're a follower of him.
The question is, are we followers of him or are we
simply believers? I don't know.
Johnny started last week pulling on this really beautiful thing,
right? Like this apocalypse, an
apocalypse. When we talk about the word
apocalypse, apocalypse is like an unveiling, right?
It's like the the scales falling off the blinds coming off our
eyes to where we see reality differently.
We see the spiritual reality that what what Paul calls the
powers, the powers of of darkness that separate us and
divide us. And what Johnny pulled on last
week is that this apocalypse, when we apply it to our lives
and the power of the Holy Spirit, not like.
OK, I'm going to go do everything good and I'm going to
be better and I'm not going to need Jesus.
I'm going to conquer all my sins and all my addictions.
No, you're not. When we begin to apply the power
of the Holy Spirit into our lives, it doesn't just put a new
coat of paint on us, it transforms who we are.
This isn't like like this isn't like, like washing your Yugo.
You remember Yugos? Like from the 80s?
This isn't like this isn't like taking your Yugo to big league
car wash and and getting the works on it.
This is like taking your Yugo to the car dealership and they hand
you a Maserati. Yeah.
All right. Maserati fans here, it
transforms us to the point when we look at our lives and the
person that we are now, it breaks down nicely and neatly
into old and new. The old person, the person that
you were, the things that drove you, that moved you, that
captured your heart and the new you with new motives, with new
desires, with new impulses and new stinks.
We're not just talking about a philosophical musing here.
And that's so important because if you think Jesus just came
with new ideas, we'll miss the transformation that happens in
our heart. What we're talking about now is
transformation. The very desires of our heart,
the very way that we respond to people who are like us and who
are not like us, are transformed.
They're made new in every way. And as Johnny said last week,
and this is so important, are you listening?
The kind of transformation that we're talking about, it's not
just transformation, it's counter formation.
And this is so important because what this assumes is we've
already been formed. You're sitting here having been
formed by everything that's happened in your life.
The way that you were raised, the way that your mother and
father loved you, the way that your mother and father talked to
you about Jesus or didn't talk to you about Jesus.
The way that you understood your value to a community, The way
you understood your sexuality in terms of a of a community and
your identity. In every way we have been formed
and these powers, these spiritual realities that act on
us and move in US and transform us.
What Jesus has come, what we've been reading in Ephesians that
Paul tells us is Jesus has come and has overcome these powers
and so that all the things that separate us and divide us are
now done. This is what when Jesus says
your will be done on earth as in heaven, what Paul's saying now
is that's not just an idea that we can cling to, it's an actual
reality that we have. Access to.
I was talking to Johnny on the way in and I see a couple Dodger
hats in here and wrestled with asking you to take them off, but
Johnny reminded me that the walls of division have been torn
down. And so I reach out to you my
brother, in the name of the Lord, pray for me.
My heart is dark. I know this is good, I
understand it, I get it. So if.
We're going to be. Counter formed though, what that
means is that we have to be unformed.
What that means is that we have to take a good hard look.
That I had negative thoughts about this guy when he walked in
the door and all I know about him is what had he's got on it
right? I need to acknowledge and
recognize that they are instincts and there are motives
in my heart that will not lead me towards the kind of life and
goodness that God has for me. And in order to begin, what we
have to do is we. Have, and this is what Johnny
talked about last week, a new vision of what the good life
means. And this is a reality for all of
us. You are chasing in your life
what you think the good life is. And whatever way you go at that,
that's what you're after. And you think if I could just
get a little more what? A little more time, a little
bit, a little more money. If somebody saw me differently,
if somebody knew how much I cared, if somebody knew how much
I loved, if they just knew and saw me, then we would be better
if I just had a little bigger house, a little.
More money, a little more peace, a little less sickness, then I
would be fine. That's not good news, is it?
I just need a little bit more to finally get there because I know
people who have a lot. And you know what?
More always wants more. If your desire is for more of
something, you'll never get there.
But what if Jesus has given you everything?
What if it's all? Set out there for you, and
that's what the good life is. The good life is to receive
everything that you have and everything that you need in this
life and for the next life, right?
That's the redeemed vision of the good life.
Not going and taking what we need, but God and His goodness
giving us what we need. And a big part of that is the
way that we see and respond to other people.
See, this apocalypse, this apocalypse of love is what we're
calling today. An apocalypse of love changes
the way that we understand people fundamentally.
My brother is not just a Dodgers fan.
My brother is a beloved child of a risen king.
And my King has watched his steps every moment of his life
from before he was born. What I believe is that my God
knit him together in his mother's womb and shepherded him
through some things that maybe he doesn't like, maybe some
things that he doesn't want, maybe some things that he.
Wished had gone and the Lord is just saying, hang with me.
We're going to redeem it. You're going to see it.
You're going to know what it means.
But this is who we are and every person that we have been divided
and separated against that. Is how the Lord sees them.
People now aren't enemies to be opposed or overcome or
manipulated or coerced or torn into.
People are how God shows his love and grace towards us
people. Broken, fallen, hurting Dodger
fan people are how God helps me grow.
I'm glad you're here today man. That's good stuff.
So Johnny laid this table for us last week.
The Spirit is at work in our world to transform us from
people who are separated from God and people who are separated
from each other. And he's transformed us now into
a people who are connected, fundamentally connected by the
very spirit that flows in us. Here's the great thing that that
communion is such a powerful. It's not just a symbol.
Something powerful happens. Listen from.
Wherever you've come today, whatever your skin color is or
your bank account color is, or your politics are, we took the
same bread and the same wine, the same spirit, the same body
on us all. That is our fundamental reality.
That is what God has transformed us into.
That is what God's redeeming and renewing love looks like.
And so now we've got that in mind.
Right now our, our mind is that God has done something great.
And with that in mind, we turn to Ephesians chapter 5.
And what I want to show is right?
So this is. A big turning point, right?
And what I want to show you is what I want to say is all the
things that come up when we start chapter 5.
We begin with one of the most important words that we've seen
in Paul's letter. It's the word, therefore, so
Paul says to us, we've been made new.
If you're in Christ, you have been made new.
And then comes this word, therefore, Ephesians 5 one and
two, since you have been made new, therefore be imitators of
God as beloved children and walk in love just as Christ also
loved you as that word as is important, right?
In the same way, be an imitator of God and do what Jesus did be
an imitator of God and walked the way that he walked.
Now how did he walk, we're told in love and how what does that
look like? He gave himself as a up for us
and offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.
So the picture is since God has done this for you, since God has
torn down the wall, since he has transformed us in our hearts
with his spirit in us, since he has done all that, we are to
imitate him. And so imitate.
You're like, yes, I'm going to go out and I'm like sinners.
I don't like them. I tell them I'm standing, I'm
different. Let's listen.
Here's the truth. This is the truth.
It is inescapable. It has been borne out through
all of history, through church history.
We look most like our Father when we are loving like Jesus.
You will never look more like the Father in heaven than when
you love your enemy as yourself and sacrifice them.
You're like, well, I don't know, Jason.
I quit cussing mostly often, sometimes once.
I passed passed up an opportunity to say a bad word
one time like. Isn't the Lord please?
Sure, that's growth, that's transformation, but if you
really. Want to look like the Father?
What you need to go to is a place where your tribe and your
people hate them and you need to go and just start loving and
serving and washing, feed and cleaning up.
We know this because this is what the scripture tells us,
right? We read in John chapter 3 verse
16. What does it say for God?
So what that he his only son, I mean, my daughter Madison read
the scripture and I just want to tell you like, I love you.
There's a lot of things that I would do for you.
I'm not giving up my kid. I love her that much, right?
But what we're told is that Jesus is the gift of love from
the Father. So now we go to the end of the
book, John chapter 13, verse 34. Jesus with his disciples.
The same meal that Jason just shared with us, right?
It's around that exact same table.
He just gave his body and his blood.
And what did he say? I'm now giving you a new command
that you love one another just as I have loved you.
He didn't say go figure out what the best is.
He didn't say go be generally nice towards somebody.
He didn't say go have generally positive feelings about another
person. He said love them as I have
loved you. And I said by this all people
will know that you are my disciples if you have love for
one another. This is one of the ways that I
think the church in the West has kind of gotten off track.
We've said we want to be known by our wealth, by our politics,
by our place, by like, by all kinds of different things.
And what Jesus said is love. When you love your enemies the
same way that I loved you, then people will know that this is.
For real. And then he went and got on the
cross. What is he saying?
Matthew chapter 22, verse 37. Right.
Someone asked him what's the greatest command, Right.
Because that's what us like. Listen, I don't want to
contribute. To that, if it's like if God,
you're going. To be mad at me, right?
Like what's the command? Tell me what to do.
And Jesus said love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your mind.
Love the Lord your God more than you love your job more than you
love your sports team, more than you love your bank account, more
than you love anything in this world.
Love God. And then he said that's the
first and the second one is like it.
It's like it. If you want to know what it's
like to love God with all your heart and soul and mind and your
strength, you want to know what that's like.
It's like love your neighbor as yourself.
Love your neighbor. You want to know how to love God
with all your heart and mind and soul and strength.
You love your neighbor as yourself.
So how do you how do you love yourself?
How do you love yourself right in this?
Well, when you screw up, you feel bad.
And you think of all the reasons why it happened.
Oh well, I had this and I did this.
You know what you do? You know how you love yourself,
You give yourself the benefit of the doubt, love your neighbor as
yourself. When they do that thing that you
don't like, it's what Jesus said, forgive them because they
don't know what they're doing. They think they're just filling
this out. When you look at your neighbor
and he's doing the thing that you don't like and they're, you
know, where don't you don't like and all the things right, you
can just say, well, Lord, it's because they're dumb.
It's because they're evil. We say this, we say it right out
loud and in public. We like write it down in social
media and post it and post it and post it and post it until it
becomes like it's banging and people are wondering like that's
not love. That's not the church over and
over again. They're bad, they're evil.
They hate us, they're mean, they're destroying things.
They're terrible and awful. You don't say that about
yourself when you screw up. He says love your neighbor as
yourself. See, love is the defining mark
of God's people. That's the defining mark.
You want to know how? People are supposed to be known
by the way that they love each other.
That's their that that's. The thing, right?
They should be able to say, you know that guy?
He reminds me of somebody. Jesus, chip off the old.
Block that guy. I pick the family resemblance
anywhere. Man looks just like his dad.
But the point isn't just love for some like touchy feely
thing, right? So we can all like watch a
romantic comedy. That's dumb.
I don't want that. That's weird, right?
I like this. So the point of love is
specific. It's for specific purpose.
And this comes back to what Paul had taught us earlier, right
when he was talking about ourselves, right.
And he says. Being rooted and grounded in
love and being built up, right? He was talking about, remember
the temple when he says you are the temple.
This new church that he's building, he's not building
bricks and mortar and a roof and windows.
He's building a temple out of his people.
And what's the purpose of the temple?
The temple is where you could bring your sacrifice and be made
right with God, right? The word for that, you know what
the word is? Reconciliation, being reconciled
to God by the sacrifice. God sacrificed himself so that
we could be included in him forever.
He gave himself up for us. So the message that Paul is
telling us to be imitators of Jesus, he doesn't just say, hey,
go be nice, go be a nice person. What he says is go be a
reconciler. And you know what's not nice
about that? If I'm going to be a reconciler,
if I'm going to bring people to the Lord, that means that I'm
going to have to stand in the face of some powers who aren't
interested in that. That means I'm going to have to
speak boldly and prophetically in some places that may not want
to hear it because I'm calling us to something different.
I'm not just calling you to be nice or be good or be moral.
We can take that anyway when I what I'm asking is give up this
life and hope of something better for somebody that doesn't
know Jesus. You be that example all y'all.
Be a place where the Kingdom comes, not in brick and mortar,
but in the way that we love people that are different from
us, from the way that we love people who aren't yet following
Jesus. Not for us, for him.
Jesus isn't up there standing, looking at us and going.
They're screwed up. I'm not interested in them being
a part of me. If we look at somebody and think
that they are screwed up in some area of their life, that should
be a bell and a whistle on our soul that person needs.
Jesus real. Bad, and so I'm surely not going
to yell at them from across the way.
Well, what did Jesus do? He left heaven and earth, and he
came and lived like us and with us and sat at our table.
And by the way, he let us kill him.
Greater love is no man than this.
And he laid down his life for his friend, and that is our
mission. Listen, he says it's
specifically in Second Corinthians chapter 5.
It's one of my favorite passages of Scripture because it's hope.
Listen, 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 16.
Therefore, from now on we recognize no one by the flesh.
Because here's what happened when you start following Jesus
and you. Get the the Spirit.
Your flesh doesn't change. I'm still bald.
I wish it wasn't so. We don't judge by what's going
on out here. What we look like we look for is
the Spirit, even though we have known.
Christ by the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer.
Therefore there's that word. Therefore, if anyone's in.
Christ, this person is a new creation.
The old things have passed away and behold, new things have
come. This is for you.
If you're in Christ, you're not the same that you were.
Now I want you to look at the person around the room.
Same is true for them. They're in Christ, they're in
new creation. They're not.
Just what you've seen, and they're not just what you think.
Now all these things are from God.
Listen, He reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave
us the ministry of reconciliation.
Great. Well, let's go round him up.
Let's bring him in. What?
That's not how it goes, he tells.
Us what it looks like. Namely, that God was in Christ
reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their
wrongdoings against them, and He has committed to.
Us the word of reconciliation. The goal isn't moral
performance. It's relational restoration.
The goal isn't for you to go out there and be better than
everybody. The goal is for us to love.
Well, and I, I'm just going to say, you can tell by the way
that the, the movies that we watch and the songs that we've
seen, we've got a screwed up idea of love.
And there's there's no shame in this.
There's no shame in that. But listen, the problem with the
movie kind of Love is it never works out that way, right?
If I can fall in love with someone else just because I see
them across a crowded St. well, guess what?
What if somebody else walks across a crowded St.
Another day? Love isn't just.
I feel so good. Been married 2122 years.
I I can honestly say I love my wife more now than I ever have
ever have before. And most days it's just getting
up and her looking at this face and going OK right.
If I left my wife every time she upset me, every time there was a
pattern of poor behavior, she left me every time I gave into
my dumb, stupid addictive desires.
What? We would have nothing.
We'd have nothing. Brokenness and hurt.
And listen, we got to know as we start unpacking some of these
things that Jesus calls us out of, as we start unpacking some
of these things that that we're going to show or not love, the
enemy is going to whisper in your ear that you're, that
you've missed it. The enemy that powers are going
to whisper in your ear that you need to feel shame and
condemnation. And what I want to tell you is
you don't, you don't need to feel shame and condemnation.
You can feel conviction. And take this to the Lord and
go, Lord, what do we need to do about this?
Because there may be some fundamental changes that you
can't just change one day. Right now, they're deep.
They're tied into some things, right?
So what do we do? This next section is, well,
let's say this. We have to acknowledge, we can
look at the world and we have to acknowledge what's happening
isn't working, right? We can say that it's not, it's
not working. And So what I want to say to us
is we can't keep walking the path of division and expect
someday to arrive at reconciliation.
We have to be different. We have to the way that we see
the world, the way that we see others, the way that we see
ourselves. It has to be different.
And that's why this next section that we're about to read is both
crucial and difficult. It is non negotiable and it is
maybe a difficult pill for us to swallow, right?
The reality is some behaviors serve the purpose of
reconciliation and other behaviors serve the powers that
Jesus defeated. That's it.
It's binary. We choose.
Will we choose the behaviors? Not perfectly, but increasingly,
will we choose the behaviors that Jesus says lead to
reconciliation or will we choose the behaviors that Jesus see
lead to division and separation? So he goes on in Ephesians
chapter 5, verse 3. So what he's going to do now is
he's going to set tell us in verse 3 and 4, two different
sets of behaviors and how these and how these work, right?
These aren't random lists. These aren't things that just
popped into his brain. These are signs of the age.
These are signs of the fallenness that the powers have
that still used to try to bring separation and division.
Verse three, he says sexual immorality or impurity or greed
must not even be mentioned among among you, as is proper among
the Saints. OK, so we love to pick on the
ones that like we. You've probably, if you've been
to church anytime, you've probably heard a sermon series
on sexual immorality. You should have.
If you've been to church a long time, you probably haven't heard
nearly enough sermons on greed. Do.
You know why? Because of a lot of us are much
better at keeping our sexual immorality hidden than we are
our greed. And So what we do is we justify
the one and we put the other one on a post and make that big.
The word for sexual immorality here in Greek is porneia.
And so it covers all of those sexual sins that that you're
thinking of and even the one probably that you're hoping it's
not thinking of. Because the thing that happens
when we start talking about this is these things, sexual
immorality and greed, what is it?
And impurity, right? It says don't even mention them.
Because what these things do is these things disintegrate our
experience of community. You thought God and Jesus and
Paul were just prudes. You thought they just have this
horrible, uptight, prudish sexual ethic to try to keep us
from being, you know, from having life.
But here's the thing. How many of you have ever had
sexual experience outside of marriage and your spouse was
just OK with it? How would your spouse feel if
you walked into them this week and just said, hey, I just want
you to know I've got a raging pornography addiction.
Would it hurt them? Right.
We know it. And listen again, I'm not
calling on shame here. This isn't to make you feel
terrible, but this is to hold a light up on those things that we
hide and our soul, they separate us, they divide us.
That's a piece that I can never let somebody.
See. Because I'm embarrassed of it
and I'm ashamed of it, right? And So what happens is we walk
around our marriages, right? The whole point of marriage in
the Garden of Eden is we were naked and unashamed.
He wasn't worried about whether she had a few extra pounds,
right? Adam wasn't worried about about
the thing because she knew he only sees me and the Father, and
that's good enough. And so you know, there's a high.
Sexual ethic in the Christian faith.
And it's not because God is approved and it's not because
Jesus it's approved, but it's because affairs and pornography
and addiction, they destroy relationships.
They separate us from each other and like, and, and you know,
greed works the same way. How many marriages have been
destroyed by workaholism? Why?
Because you need more. Why do you need more?
More what? More money for what?
To do what? What do you need to do?
You need to go. Somewhere.
Listen, there's trees there too. Mountains.
What? Whatever.
Like what do you like right? So we chase.
That, and things fall away. We chase these things, we chase
sexual experience, we chase an identity in in our sexuality.
We change all of these things. And the idea is sex isn't just
about a feeling, and it's certainly, it is certainly not
about our identity. Do you know what the role of
sexist is supposed to be? Sex is the way that we as human
beings get to participate in the miracle of creation, the
Trinity, the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, this
eternal dance of love coming together.
And in love He created them, and in love He created us.
And so now we get to do the same thing.
We get to participate in love for someone.
We get to come together and we get to create something that is
better and bigger than us. It is a testament and it is a
testimony. Look, sex isn't and guess it.
Listen, here's how good God is that thing that sex that create
something beautiful or kids and all this.
The good news is. It feels good too, doesn't It?
Feels good, It's nice. God, you are wise and good and
abundant in your creation and your goodness.
But if we take a good thing and make it the main thing, it
ceases to be a good thing at all.
And what happens is it becomes something that bonds us, that
binds us. Because here's the thing I know
about sex. When it's over, it's over.
And if that is what I need for my identity, if that is what I
need for my feeling, if that is what I need for my purpose, well
then I got to go get something else and I got to go get some
more. And So what happens then is it
becomes a non-stop, endless chasing of something that is
good and it's fine, but it's not ultimate.
I want to say this as clearly and as plainly as I can.
There are absolutely strings attached to your sexual
relationship. Absolutely.
It is a soul connection. I know because I used to be a
youth pastor and I would watch these kids and I could tell you
at a breakup which kids had crossed physical boundaries
because it looks like a little divorce got these juniors in
high school that are grieving and breaking in their hearts
because they've given something that wasn't supposed to be
given. Now, let me tell you the truth
here, man, I've got so little time left.
But listen, here's the thing, my wife protected her purity.
I didn't and I want you to know right And listen, so there's no
shame, there's no condemnation. But what I want to say for those
of you particularly like we have kids that are going out there,
listen, I knew it, I knew it. I knew my wife was bringing me
something that I couldn't give back to her.
And if it wasn't what I wanted. Now the Lord is good and he
redeems and restores and we've had a great thing.
But here's what I want to say. A marriage, a relationship built
on purity and integrity and honesty and transparency, It is
geometrically better than one where we are just chasing a
feeling or, or an instinct. And what I want to say is
listen, if you're caught up in pornography or in a sexual
addiction, if you're caught up that and you're a little
uncomfortable right now, listen, I get it.
I know, I understand. But here's what I want to tell
you. Here's.
What the secret isn't the secret isn't to go home and try harder.
You've tried that, it doesn't work.
It isn't to go home and be meaner to yourself.
You've tried that it doesn't work.
What you need to do is you need to pray for an apocalypse of
love, that the skills would be revealed and that you would
know. Lord, if you'll give me the
courage and the strength in this moment to walk in the purity
that I need, I'll do it in this moment.
And Lord, all I ask is that you would make it worth.
It. That you would show me.
Watch your relationships get better when you stop talking and
thinking about more money, more sex, more for me.
And he goes on in verse 4 for this, you know, with certainty,
Oh no, no, verse 4, there must be no filthiness.
Or foolish talk. Or vulgar joking.
And as I read this this week, I had to come to terms with
realize this excludes almost the entirety of social media I love.
You don't say mm hmm. And then go home and post it on
Facebook. Hey, listen, I love you.
I love your guts. I love you.
I have to tell you the truth, it's not working.
I know you go on there and you're going to share your daily
devotional. The problem is you start
scrolling. And then you get hooked.
You know how I know? Because I go to post my daily
devotional, I start scrolling, I get hooked.
And So what I'm saying is, what does Paul say?
Don't even talk about it in your gatherings.
Just don't even mention it. Honest question, what are you
getting from your social media experience?
What is it contributing to your life?
Will it last forever? Will you take it with you to
eternity? What if?
What if God has something special for you?
What if God has something more for you?
Right? And So what does he say then at
the end, right? But rather the giving of thanks.
The problem is that we complain, but we don't give thanks.
The problem is we gripe about that, but we don't have
gratitude in our heart. And So what Paul does is say,
don't do these things. Don't focus on greed and sexual
immorality. Those are more.
Don't focus on more on what you don't have, focus on what you do
have. Gratitude is the killer app.
Gratitude is what allows you to see the things in your life and
to name them as gifts. Rather than an entitlement and
let me just tell you, it's. The same thing with my kids,
man. Entitlement destroys everything.
Whatever it is that they think they're entitled to #1 they're
almost certainly not. And #2 it puts me in a weird
position to have to show them not.
But what if we just go to God and say, Father, thank you for
this day, Father, thank you for this beat down old car that's
probably about to break and I have to sink a lot of money into
it because you're going to meet that need to.
Father, you've never left me stranded.
You have never left me down, and if I don't train or practice
gratitude, I feel entitled. And entitlement will destroy
every good thing in your life. Gratitude spoils entitlement,
and it protects me from wrath. Gratitude protects me from
wrath. Aren't you glad we started to
talk about wrath today? I want to be very, very careful.
Very careful. But I want you to hear me.
Are you listening closely to this verse 5 for this you?
Who's you all y'all for this? You know with certainty that no
sexually immoral or impure or greedy person and greed amounts
to idolatry. Has an inheritance in the
Kingdom of Christ and God. I see that no one deceives you
with empty words. For because of these things, the
wrath of God comes upon the sons of obedience.
So now we got the inheritance, we got the Kingdom of God, and
we've got wrath. How are you feeling?
Good. We got to be very careful here
and we got to make sure that we're using the words the way
that Paul used the words and not just the way that I use the
words. Because when I read these, when
I read these words, what I read is immoral.
People are going to hell. That's what the world.
Thinks you mean. Immoral people are all going to
hell. And what we mean, This is why we
divide up into tribes, right? Because what we mean is immoral
people means people that are not like me, people that sin in a
way that I don't sin. And we believe those people are
going to hell, right? Well, he didn't say going to
hell. Paul didn't talk about hell at
all. What did he talk about?
An inheritance in the Kingdom. So let's see what that is.
What happens in Ephesians chapter one, verse 11.
In him we also haven't obtained an inheritance.
Having been predestined according to the.
Purpose of him who works all things in accordance to the
will. You know what the inheritance
this it's a community with no walls, with no boundaries, where
you can be known and loved and chased into eternity with love
and goodness and kindness and healing and restoration and
goodness. Inheritance this participation
in God's in redeemed Kingdom. Now it's here.
And what he's saying is you can't experience new life with
God until you abandon the old way of life.
You live without him. Listen, the inheritance is a
life where we're not scrapping for everything, but where Jesus
gives us and where he loves us. And what he says is when we
trade our inheritance, what we get is wrath.
Less chuckling at the Wrath line.
And that's fine, because what I mean when I say Wrath, right my
way is something is. Wrong in the.
World. This is how Tim Mackey
described, right? Something is wrong in the world.
I therefore have righteous anger.
And because of my righteous anger, what I'm going to do is
destroy it. I see something bad that I know
is bad, I will destroy it. That's the old way of wrath.
But did you know the Scripture actually tells us?
There's a long passage that actually says several times what
God's wrath is like. And it's probably surprising for
some of you. You're going to wish that I had
just left it the way that it. Was the place where he loves.
To talk about wrath is in Romans.
Chapter 1 I should find it Acts Romans have you Mark Luke John
actor I'm talk amongst yourselves while I do my
homework Romans chapter 1 and we're going to read verse 18
verse 18 says for the wrath of God is.
Revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of people who suppress the truth and unrighteousness.
OK, so now we've got this picture of wrath and what it
does. It says it's being revealed,
right? It doesn't say he's throwing
lightning bolts, he's saying. We're.
Seeing God's wrath in front of us, right?
And So what? What are we seeing?
It says by those who suppress the truth.
So what would suppressing the truth be?
Suppressing the truth would be God hasn't torn down the
dividing line. The truth would be, no, that
person is a bad person fundamentally, and I need to
separate from them and be away from them and have nothing to do
with them. What the truth would be that God
isn't in control. What would be an untruth is God
doesn't care about how I practice my identity, how I
practice my sexuality, how I spend my money.
God doesn't care about any of those things.
That would be a lie because we've seen throughout the
Scripture, through the telling of a story that he absolutely
does. And so we're told is his wrath
is being revealed against that, against the suppression of the
truth, which is keeping down the order, the way of things that
God wants. So now we go to verse 20.
For since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes,
that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly
perceived, being understood by what has been made, so that no
one is without excuse is. That what it says.
Everyone is without excuse, so there's no excuse.
So the idea is we should be able to look.
Around and just go, yeah, there's something else going on
here. I'm not the ultimate king of
this. And you know how I know I'm not
the ultimate king? Because I can't make the seasons
turn, I can't make it rain. I can't make you do anything.
So there is a God and God is good and God is in control.
And now we go to verse 24 and what does it say?
Therefore, what does it say? God what?
Say it out loud. It's OK, say it.
He gave them up. God gave them up to vile
impurity in the lusts of their heart so that their bodies would
be dis among them. And you're like, Nah, I see
that. I know what he's talking about.
They're right. Listen, no, he's talking about
greed. He's talking about sexual
impurity. He's talking about all of it.
When we go, this doesn't affect me, we are covering it up and
what he says is the wrath of God is giving us exactly what we
want until we destroy ourselves in it.
As long as you believe that you are nothing more than your
sexual identity, you will miss the fullness of everything that
God has for you. As long as you believe that your
identity is your job, or your income, or your politics, or
where you come from or who you are, you will miss the goodness
that God has for you. And that is what He calls.
Wrath. Wrath is giving people what they
want until they end up destroying themselves.
This isn't a scold. I don't want you to hear me
yelling at you. What I want you to hear is an
invitation. Identify yourself by the love of
Christ, which covers all things, which reveals all things.
The wrath of God. Is for the dark powers the wrath
of God is for the enemy. It was created for him and for
him alone. But if you want to ride the
dragon, there's plenty. And so Paul says, leave the
lifestyle of fallenness, leave the broken and empty way and
walk in and follow him. That's what rescue is, be
rescued. But being rescued from a burning
building can't mean staying in the building, can it?
If I want to rescue you from a burning building, I'm going to
get you out of the building. So Paul transitions from don't
stay in a burning building to step into the light.
And he does it with that word again, therefore, right.
So we go back to Ephesians chapter 5 and we read verse 7.
Therefore, do not become partners with them.
It doesn't say, it doesn't say hate them and just says don't
latch up. Listen, my hope is that you have
lots of people in your life that aren't following Jesus.
My hope is just that you're not following them.
My hope is that you're leading them into something new.
So he says don't become partners with them.
For you are once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
Walk as children of light, for the fruit of the light consists
in all goodness and righteousness and truth.
As you try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord, Do not
participate in the useless deeds of darkness, but instead even
expose them. We're going to talk about that
in just a second. That's good, right?
Expose them. For it is.
Disgraceful to even speak of the things which are done by them in
secret, I all think. But all things become visible
when they are exposed to the light.
For everything that becomes visible is light.
And for this reason it says, awake sleeper and arise from the
dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Paul's command is simple, wake up, wake up to reality, wake up
to the new, wake up. What's going on?
Anytime that you read Paul and he writes about light and dark,
he has one thing in his mind. It's Genesis 1 talking about
creation, which is so in line with everything that he said
throughout this whole book, his whole message to.
You is you're a new creation. You are made new in your heart
and in your spirit and not only that, but you're a part of a
community that is a new creation.
Everything about you is made made new.
His command is wake up and see that and then walk in it and
when he says expose the deeds of darkness.
I used to listen to a radio. Talk.
Show in San Antonio and they would put that verse as the
bumper on the thing and what the radio host meant was go yell at
people who are doing it wrong and what he said is not that he
didn't say go make enemies in the way This is why we This is
why it like we had for Halloween.
We had people over to our house right and lots of people like I
got some emails right more darkness on Halloween.
That's the Satanist favorite day.
And you know what I'd say maybe that's so maybe that's that's
right. But guess what?
I'm not going to freaking concede it.
I'm not letting them have it. So you know what we're going to
do? What I don't do is put a sign in
my yard that says darkness sucks, right?
Like do that. You know what I do?
Turn the freaking lights on to call my friends over and we sit
in my house and we pray for people as they come by and we.
Laugh and we tell stories and we have a great time and we
celebrate community and we love each other's presence.
And what we're doing is building something on a day that the
world says, Oh no, that's a day for destruction.
And get a day, not today, not tomorrow, not any day.
Shine the light. But we expose darkness when we
go. Yeah, guess what?
We don't. We don't care as much about our
money. Oh, you want money?
Money Here, here's money. But we care a great deal about
our bodies. We protect our bodies fiercely
because these are going to spend eternity with him.
Not this resurrected, changed and transformed.
But God gave us this money. Oh, I'll give you all the money
you want. Oh, but you want to mess with
this? My heart, my soul.
And no, I'm not. No, we're not going to do that.
Instead of doing deeds of darkness.
You deeds of light So what are deeds of darkness hate when you
go online and I go online and I respond to hate with hate.
I have now introduced more hate into a world that Jesus wants
more love from hate that wish I didn't do that all says the
light is you all y'all all us. We are the light to live out
loud in public. What he's not doing here, Paul's
not shaking his first at you, right?
He's not, he's not calling you a prude, He's not trying to to
beat you up in your heart or anything like that.
He's begging us to see and respond to the reality of a new
creation. One of my favorite quotes in all
the world is from a guy called CS Lewis from a book called
Weight of Glory. I'm going to read it for you,
right? 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?
Stop. Which one of those are you?
When Infinite joy. Is offered us.
Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies and a
slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer.
Of a holiday at the sea, we are far too easily pleased.
Our high sexual ethic is rooted in the truth that there is
something better. And while this isn't, this
message isn't entirely about our sexual ethic, it's a lot about
it. Because that has consumed our
culture. So how do we wake up to this?
It is simple, it is uncomplicated, and it will come
up against every single instinct that the powers have planted
deep in your soul and cultivated with intentionality.
All is about to show us how to live wide, live wide open within
the world instead of hiding from it or participating in right.
So I'm going to read the passage and then I'm just going to tell
us three things real quick, Verse 15.
So then be careful how you walk. Not as unwise people, but as
wise making the most. Of your 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 in which there is debauchery, but be
filled with the Spirit speaking to one another in psalms and
hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with
your hearts to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ for our God and Father.
So what we need to do is we need to take our spiritual practices
and pursuit of holiness seriously.
Holiness is serious business. So what do we do?
The first thing you do is check your perspective.
The question is, am I? Am I?
Like it says, don't walk foolishly.
Don't walk like the old creation is still in play.
Don't walk like Jesus isn't seated at the right hand of the
Father. Don't walk like you're still a
slave and captive to the Powers. That be right.
Check your perspective. The question is, am I responding
in line with a new creation or the old?
Am I responding like that person who is different from me, is bad
or evil or unlovable? Or am I responding like that is
a person that the Lord loves deeply?
Am I protective? Am I greedy?
Like take my desire first, Do I see people as enemies and
threats or as part of the family?
Check your perspective. Second, check your power source
says don't be drunk with wine. In which there is debauchery.
Some translations the CSB says don't be drunk with wine, in
which there's a reckless living. The new King James version calls
it dissipation. The literal standard version
calls it wastefulness. What he's talking about here in
this park. He's not saying don't drink.
Churches say that a lot. They're telling you don't drink
any alcohol and they do it because it's easier to control
people than just to let them have the spirit.
But what he's talking about is these animating forces.
When you get together as your people, when you get your crowd
together, what's the animating force in there?
Is it, Hey, we got to have a drink to take the edge off,
right? Is it, Hey, if I just, if I can
just get a little bit drunk, then I'll be fine.
Then I'll be fun. I'm like, I'm much funnier when
I have a drink in me. Like what's what's the idea,
right? So what's the thing that moves
your community or your spirit? The Holy Spirit of God or wine?
And here's. Here's the deal.
You'll get what you choose, you'll get whatever you want,
and your life will bear fruit based on your power source.
And what I want to say is, if your power source is wine or
spirits or beer or whatever it is, there will never be enough.
But if you are being filled with the Holy Spirit moment by moment
and day by day, you'll be satisfied as much as a person
can be satisfied. What is it that controls your
gatherings? And you remove wine from your
gatherings and still have the time that you want?
Can you remove gossip? Can you remove anger?
And you remove politics? What's your power to relax?
What is your power to speak freely?
What is your power to enjoy your evening?
The third thing, Check your output.
Do you leave places filled up, encouraged, hopeful, joyful,
grateful, focused on the good reality that God is redeeming
all things around you? Or are you more noise than
truth? Are you more volume than
substance? Do you encourage the people that
you're with, or do you compete with them?
What is the fruit of the life that you walk with God?
We are saved to be loved by God through the sacrificial love of
Jesus, or us by the power of the Holy Spirit within us.
Paul has been pulling back the curtain on this apocalypse of
love, and it is an invitation to live differently in the world
and experience a new kind of humanity rooted in a new kind of
love. And next week we're going to see
what love looks like in terms of power, which will immediately
and drastically affect every relationship of our lives.
So you're not going to want to miss that.
But I want to close us today, not with shame, but with an
encouragement. Jesus has something amazing to
give you life. His body, soul is an invitation
to wholeness. And he's not mad at you that
you're not there yet. He's inviting you to taste and
see his goodness. But Jesus, I pray that you will
open our eyes to that. We love you, and we thank you,
and we ask these things in your name.
Amen. Thank you for joining us today.
River City Church is all about experiencing and expressing
God's love in our lives and community, and we hope that
you've been able to experience that today.
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May the Lord bless and keep you in all grace and peace.