cited as the source for the song Made for More: 'For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared for us beforehand that we should walk in them'
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.
the corrupting speech verse quoted: 'let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth, but only such as is good for building up as it fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear'
29 Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but only what is good for building others up as the need may be, that it may give grace to those who hear.
certainty stated that no sexually immoral, impure, or greedy person has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God
5 Know this for sure, that no sexually immoral person, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and God.
used as the benediction: run from evil things and pursue righteousness, godly life, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness; fight the good fight for the true faith
1 Let as many as are bondservants under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and the doctrine not be blasphemed.
2 Those who have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brothers, but rather let them serve them, because those who partake of the benefit are believing and beloved. Teach and exhort these things.
3 If anyone teaches a different doctrine, and doesn’t consent to sound words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness,
4 he is conceited, knowing nothing, but obsessed with arguments, disputes, and word battles, from which come envy, strife, insulting, evil suspicions,
5 constant friction of people of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. Withdraw yourself from such.
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain.
7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we certainly can’t carry anything out.
8 But having food and clothing, we will be content with that.
9 But those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and destruction.
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been led astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
11 But you, man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.
12 Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you confessed the good confession in the sight of many witnesses.
13 I command you before God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate testified the good confession,
14 that you keep the commandment without spot, blameless, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ;
15 which in its own times he will show, who is the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;
16 who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and eternal power. Amen.
17 Charge those who are rich in this present world that they not be haughty, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on the living God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy;
18 that they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to distribute, willing to share;
19 laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold of eternal life.
20 Timothy, guard that which is committed to you, turning away from the empty chatter and oppositions of what is falsely called knowledge;
21 which some profess, and thus have wandered from the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Pastor Ryan picked up mid-series in Ephesians, working through a paragraph he described as hard not to understand but hard to live. He connected it to themes from the previous week about words and the heart, and he said plainly that everyone in the room would be convicted by it.
What was said
He started by finishing something left undone from last Sunday: a definition of corrupt speech. He put up a list of New Testament vice lists and walked through how many of them come out of the mouth. Dissensions, slander, reviling, lying, gossip, boasting, deceit, quarreling. He noted that most people in the room are probably more regularly guilty of corrupting speech than of the sexual sins that follow in the text, but that all of it belongs to the same list.
From there the passage moves abruptly: from Christ as a fragrant offering to a flat prohibition. Sexual immorality, any impurity, greed. Pastor Ryan let the Bible define each term the same way he let it define corrupt speech, running through the vice lists attached to each one. He spent time on greed in particular, noting it rarely gets the pulpit attention the others do, and pointing back to the minor prophets where God says he is not interested in religious songs from people who are gouging their neighbors.
The passage says these things must not even be named among you, and Pastor Ryan drew a distinction there. Being known for something in the past is the goal, he said. That is what the church is meant to be full of. But insisting that a former sin is still your identity, whatever it is from the list, is a way of walking backward toward the darkness you came out of, and he said that raises a serious question about where your allegiance actually sits.
He then worked through filthiness, foolish talk, and coarse jesting, the last of which he said is the habit of keeping part of your mind tuned to the base and dirty so you can flip an innocent phrase into something vulgar. He acknowledged that some people in the congregation work hard at comedy and said the point is not to stop being funny but to work harder than the easy lowest-common-denominator laugh. The opposite Paul offers for all of this is thanksgiving, because a lot of that kind of humor, he said, comes from a place of discontent.
The passage calls Christians to walk as children of light and to try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Pastor Ryan said he loves that Paul left room in the word "try," because it means Christ can correct him on things he is currently confident about. He said his own instinct is to bend the text toward his opinion, and that the prayer instead has to be asking God to bend him toward the text.
The paragraph closes with what Pastor Ryan called an untraceable quote, one he could not find sourced cleanly in the Old Testament: "Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine upon you." He said the plain meaning is that being buried with Christ in baptism is not the destination. You are raised to walk in newness of life, and this paragraph is instruction on what that walking looks like. He closed with a story from when he was nineteen and received a business card from a traveling evangelist that had that same line printed on it, and then prayed that the work would start in himself first.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Pastor Ray said this paragraph is one where all of us in the room will be convicted, and that if we are not, we are probably thinking 'I wish so and so was here to hear this.' Which parts of this passage hit closest to home for you personally, and why is it easier to apply it to someone else?
Pastor Ray walked through the New Testament vice lists and pointed out that corrupting speech shows up more often than sexual immorality. Why do you think the way we use our words tends to get less attention than other sins on that list?
Speaker 2Good morning, First Bead. Thanks for being here today. We appreciate you, coming. And, although we are not qualified to lead you in worship, we're gonna try our best. We are volunteers after all.
Would you stand and join us in song? Here's a good word from Psalm one forty seven to lead us into worship. How good to sing praises to our God, how delightful, and how fitting. We're gonna sing all creatures of our God and king. Can you have a seat?
Speaker 3Good morning, class. It's time for your morning announcements. Welcome. Glad to have you. Mule Music and a Message is back over in Driggs.
It's a Mule Music and a Message over at Driggs Fairground. It's usually, like, 70 people that show up. So come join us, would you? It's usually really worshipful and wonderful and a uniting way to get the churches together over there. My Sister's Closet is on on May 30 here in First Baptist Church.
So next next week is when you can start bringing stuff in. So if you give us one more week before you start bringing stuff in, then we'll store it on the stage down in the hall. But we're looking for new and gently used clothes, shoes, jewelry, hats, accessories, those sorts of things. Casey's right here in the white sweater if you have any questions or you can give us a call at the church office. Vacation Bible School is coming quick.
We've already got some songs picked out. We need volunteers though. When we need things donated, if you go to that QR code or you can talk to us, we'll get you that information in the church office as well. We can get you guys lined out for that, but it's it's coming up quick. Be praying for that, and please invite your neighbors.
We have tons of posters in the copy room. Grab some, hang them up around the the the town. Church cleanup is happening May 23. We would love to have you help out. I guess a lot of people are gonna be out of town.
So if you're still in town, please please please please please please come. 9AM to 1PM. If you can, sign up with Tim Dalton or you can let us know in the office too and we'll we'll get you in there. We need all skill levels. If you just wanna clean windows or if you wanna stain and paint or rake stuff, like we've we've got something for you.
Please please come and participate. First BBQ, as you saw outside, it's not happening this week because there's supposed to be snow on the ground. It's waiting. It's gonna it's gonna wait. So May 24, next week will be the first BBQ, but we do have connect hour down the hall.
Couple volunteers down there slicing and dicing, gonna get ready for you. So come connect with each other. It's there so that we can meet each other, shake a hand, and meet somebody new, and welcome somebody new. So would you come down the hall? And next week, join us outside on the lawn.
Church camp out has been announced July tenth through twelfth down in Palisades Lake. If you have any questions, Brian McCooey is right here. This section, this whole row right here is really making it happen this week. It's a blast. Come if you if you tent camp, if you got an RV, if you just wanna stop by for the day and hang out, there's always so much activity going on.
It's really exciting and fun. And for more information, hit the church website. As usual, we need folks to open up some seats. If you would please, move towards the middle aisle. If you got seats between you, just stand up and move towards the middle aisle.
We got lots of people crowded down there. And if you're out back, would you consider coming forward? We got loads of room up here at the front, and we'll bring you back with some music. Stand up, greet each other, and welcome to First Baptist Church.
Speaker 2Amen. We're gonna sing another song, Made For More. And, this comes from Ephesians two ten. For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared for us beforehand that we should walk in them. Let's sing.
You can have a seat. We're gonna go into a time of worship through giving. If you feel compelled to give, feel free. In the last song made for more of, again, Ephesians two ten talked about us being God's workmanship, and he created good works for us to walk to walk in. For operatory, we're gonna have a really nice piano duet by Judy and and Lisa.
But before that, Ray, would you pray? Sure.
Speaker 1God, thank you for the place to gather this morning and the people that are gathered here in your name, Lord. Seeing faces come back from miles and miles away and having sort of a homecoming here gathered around your word, singing your praises. Lord, it feels just amazing. So, foretaste a foretaste of glory of heaven. God, thank you for what you've given to us and I pray that we'd be all employing it for the upbuilding of your kingdom.
Lord, that the gospel would be advancing, that the sanctifying work of God would be having, word of God would be having its work in us and it would be surrendered to it, lord, that we would lay down all that we think that we are and just ask you who you want us to be. Lord, would you take right now us and do with us as you will? Would you take these offerings and do with them as you will? We want this to be a part of your will, lord, being done in your way. In Jesus name, amen.
Amen. And it is time for children's church downstairs. Thank you, Judy. Thank you, Lisa. Greatest thy faithfulness.
I was sitting in my office this morning before sound check for the band and just sitting down there and I heard the piano from downstairs going off and I thought, how does somebody play in that much music with two hands? I I was I was last to hear about the duet this morning, I guess. I was like, that's a lot of music for two hands. Wow. Usually, have a slide up here that says exactly what we're covering.
I think I left that slide out this week. It is Ephesians. We're really gonna be concentrating from verse three to verse 14. I'll start off with something from last week that I I flipped the slide up last week and when I saw it, it was blank and I said I'll come back to that next week so I'm gonna do that this morning. But this is one of those sermons like last week that it's not hard to understand.
I don't think that the terms are hard to understand, but it's hard to do. And so when I had that chance in seminary to preach to all those seminary professors mainly, and I just chose something that they couldn't argue the Greek on it. Right? It's easy to understand, but it's hard to do. And so many y'all responded this week.
A lot of folks before the second service had already texted. I'll leave my phone somewhere else usually, but had already texted and said, hey, that one's really good when I needed it three months ago. Because it had a lot to do with our words and the meditations of our heart and that sort of stuff is what comes out of our mouth. This is another one of those. I'm just gonna give you a fair warning.
It's one of them that the more I wanted to hurry through it, the less God would allow me to hurry through it. So it's a paragraph, and this paragraph is one that I'm gonna just go, here you go, and sit it in your lap and let you deal with it. Okay? Now I say that because all of us will be I think, all of us in the whole room will be convicted by this paragraph. If we're not, we're probably guilty of thinking, oh, I wish so and so was here to hear this.
Right? Well, the reason we showed up this morning individually, the reason we got here is because we won't forgot to speak to us individually. And so I've been carrying this one around for about the last two or three weeks and praying through it and trying to work through it. One other report before I get going in the text. Eric Anderson, who's a dear friend and he's Danny Chervin's stepdad and Diane Geek who worked here in the church offices for twenty two years.
It's her brother-in-law. Tanya and Pascal and I went up. We are all good friends with Eric and we love him dearly. And he is dying of ALS. And I mentioned him several times from up here, but man, the wisdom that is coming out of this guy's mouth right now.
Everything that he is saying is just absolutely beautiful, and God is processing through him a lot of truth. He's been sober for a long time. He's helped hundreds of people get sober and I just wanna pray for him before we get rolling. Lord, for Joanne and for Eric, this morning, I pray. Lord, as he is decreasing and you and him, lord, you are increasing and so I pray lord that his pastor there and his counselors there and his friends who are showing up and his friends who are calling would be blessed by the purity of the words that you're processing through all of this pain.
So, the physical pain lord and the spiritual clarity that he is living in right now. I pray that it would be a blessing that would continue with Joanne and with the family with his with all of those of us who love him and lord, I pray that you would impress upon us as we go forward to that you would teach us lord to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom and may we may apply that wisdom to this life and to the next generation. In Jesus name, ask your blessing on Eric Anderson and his family. Amen. Amen.
So, the place I left off last week was that I said, I looked at a blank slide. It was that. I looked up there and I thought, oh, yeah, I meant to define that. Corrupt speech according to the Bible. So, this is let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth, but only that such as is good for building up as it fits the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear.
And then I flipped to that and I went, oh, I forgot to do that. So first of all, corrupting speech or corrupt speech, the word corrupt means rotten or putrid. And if you think rotten and you think putrid and then you think it comes out of your mouth, it's gross. So according to the Bible, hey, here's that slide again. I thought you would never see this one again.
I used this a lot when we were going through the 12 steps. And when we get to the fourth step and we're doing a fearless and searching moral inventory of our own lives, like I said, this sermon is for each of us individually, not just for that guy, wish so and so would hear this, but that I would hear this. This is a list of the New Testament's vice lists. So all of the different vices that are listed in the New Testament. It's only the New Testament.
There are, of course, analogies all over the Old Testament and the list would be a whole lot longer if we took the list from the Old Testament. But here they are. And this is kind of the fourth step if you if you're wondering when you're doing a fearless and searching moral inventory of yourself and trying to see what the problem is that you can't do anything about, step one, and that there is a higher power who can restore me to sanity. Step two, I'm gonna turn my will and my way over to God as I understand him. Step three, and then it's the fearless and searching moral inventory.
So you look at your life and if you need a a cheat sheet for what are some of the vices that I might find looking fearlessly and searching my these are some of them. When I was going through that series, Pascal said, after about the seventh or eighth step, she said, are you really going to read that list one more time again? I said, I think they got the point. I don't think I have to read it again. But this is something that should ever be before us because we tend to look at ones that are not ours and we make the print this big on those.
And then the ones that are ours are a little bit of you little bit. Let's shrink the fine print down on that. If you're looking for corrupting speech in this list, that's how many of them hit corrupting speech. Dissensions, you could argue that that's not the case, but usually you don't know about dissensions until they come out of your mouth. Right?
Slander, I mentioned last week, reviling. Oh, the two thieves, they were crucified on either side of Jesus. It says and they were, both of them were reviling him. That's ugliness coming out of their mouths about Jesus. Now, one of them had a change of heart.
Lying, obviously, thou shalt not lies. Old Testament is New Testament. Speak the truth and love has already come up in Ephesians a lot. Evil talking, slander, abusive language, being double tongued, speaking out of both sides of your mouth, quarrelsome, always intent on an argument, deceit, craftiness, gossip, slander, being insolent, boastful, being boasters, slander, they come up a lot. So that's the corrupting talk slide.
And you can probably go with filled with a morbid craving for controversy, that one, or overtaken with stupid and senseless controversies, ruthlessness. Yeah. That those those could probably be added in there too. Those are specific ones that have to do with that corrupt and talk. Now we got up to this, I ended on first two verses of chapter five last week.
Therefore, be imitators, mimics of God, copies as best you can imitate God and do so as beloved children. And I said the reason the way that it's the easiest to imitate somebody is you spend a lot of time with them. Spend a lot of time and you get their mannerisms down and you get their cadence down and you know when they're gonna say something and when they're not gonna say something and so be imitators of God therefore as dearly beloved children and be walking in love. Just as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us. So he loves you, you all, y'all, that's plural, but it's also just as God through Christ loved y'all and he gave himself up for us.
It brings us back to the collective. You know, it is you individually as a part of this group though. Christ did that for you and he gave himself up for all of us and we together, according to Ephesians two, are the way that God is gonna express his glory to the whole cosmos. All of the spiritual realm, all of the powers under his great and almighty power. All of the powers, all of the world, all the cosmos.
Christ, an offering and sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. So that's where we left off last week, and then it immediately says, however or but, and it kinda stomps the ground a little bit right there. It's emphatic. So Christ is this beautiful, blessed aroma that's completely selfless but sexual immorality and it starts off. Now, I've told you several times before that if you don't get the first three chapters of Ephesians about what God has already made true in Christ.
You are seated with him in the heavenlies. If you have believed in Christ, you are removed from the kingdom of darkness and you are placed in the kingdom of marvelous light and it is by Christ's work and he is working on you. Now, your walk may not immediately reflect that. It should and this is instruction. It should begin to look more and more like Christ.
This imitators of God, he is not immoral. He's not impure. He is not greedy. This starts off, but sexual immorality. Since I just let the Bible define corrupting talk, let's let the Bible go for sexual immorality.
Sexual immorality, it says so just like that. Sensuality, a preoccupation with the things of the body and its senses and its lusts. Lust is in there. Orgies and things like the sexual immorality, adultery, homosexual activity, it's in the list. Fornication, inventing new ways of evil.
Pornea is the word that comes up right there. That's what sexual immorality in this verse. That's what it is, pornea. And pornea goes everything. It runs the gamut from images, pornography, that's where we get the word, that are indulgent images for sensual pleasure all the way up to the act with another human being or more than one according to orgies and things like these.
So any kind of sexual activity that takes place outside of marriage is listed right there, and it's an abrupt shift. Right? It goes, be imitators of God, just as God loved you, and Christ died for us. He's a fragrant aroma, but listen, sexual immorality. You gotta get out of there.
Get away from that. So there it is. Those are the places where it hits the list. You know that there were more places, just say, more places about the way we use our speech than there are about this. And we're probably most of us are more likely to be guilty of the corrupting speech than we are all of this.
But we're all susceptible to all of these. Sexual immorality, oh, or any impurity. You thought you had somewhere to hide, didn't you? Well, that's not mine. Thank God.
Showed up today. That's not me. Any impurity. You wanna see the list on this one? Bam.
Any impurity, that's what it means. Anything that's not straight up godliness. Gosh. Or greed. Oh, wait a second.
Now, you're going to meddling. Right? Stomping on toes now. We don't mention this one very often. We should.
Sexual morality, any impurity, or greed, covetousness, wanting to have more than you have is greed. And that hits the list pretty pretty regularly too. Idolatry is when you desire something more than you desire God. You worship things, idolatry is in there. Enmity, jealousy, rivalries, envy.
He's got more than I've got. Why does he have more than I have, God? Idolatry, thievery, greed, despising the words of the prophets. That one's in there too. That's one of those.
We were in the prophets for a long time. Probably too long, honestly. But switching back over to Ephesians and seeing the light of the New Testament, you can see a lot of the stuff that the prophets were talking about that the the state that God's people had gotten into is where they were not paying attention to the things of God. And sexual immorality definitely was present when the prophets were speaking. And any impurity, yeah, obviously.
But greed. When Amos says, hey, I'm not paying any attention to your religious assemblies. God says, I don't care about your songs. They don't mean anything. You're worshiping with your lips, but then you're going after and you're gouging your neighbor to get what you want.
Greed was the main thing I see in the minor prophets especially. Covetousness, envy field, strive to seek craftiness, craftiness. I had a friend who went to work for he was as a salesman. I won't go into what kind of salesman, but he went there and they said, we're not really selling the product. What we're selling is the financing on the product.
And you've really got to sell the financing. He said, but that's gonna cost them three times as much. And they said, yeah. And we're the ones they're paying. If you're gonna keep doing this, you got to become more crafty.
And he said, I didn't really know what he meant by crafty. I went home and looked it up in my concordance. The only place I saw it was right here. It's on the list of vices, craftiness. It is like the evil scheming devil.
I don't wanna do this. He went back and quit the job. Haughty, boastful, ungrateful, lovers of money, ruthless, swollen with conceit. But sexual immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be mentioned among you as is proper among the saints. When it says it must not even be mentioned, it's named among you.
Like, there is someone among you who that is how they are known. Now, that is how they used to be known is great. That's what we want. We want a room full of people that used to be known. Right?
But he's saying in this latter half of Ephesians is, hey, you were in the kingdom of darkness and now you're in the kingdom of light. You were on your own and did not have the power. Now you have the power of God. And so these things should be things of the past. You should be letting go of them.
Because you're saints. And I've mentioned it several times since we got into Ephesians into these chapters. If you just kinda intently say, well, I'm just a sinner saved by grace. I'm just a sinner. I'm just a sinner.
I'm just a sinner. Sinner saved by grace. Yep. The definition of sinner saved by grace is saint, which means holy one. You have been called holy.
You have been baptized with the blood of Christ that makes clean. Yeah. Yeah. Amen. So, walk in it.
Walk that way. There must be no filthiness. Filthiness. That's what it means. I looked it up in Greek.
You know what it means? Filthiness. It's the only time it's used actually in the New Testament. It's the only time this word is used. Or foolish talk, silly, just plain silliness.
This one is morologia, moronic language. It's great. Talk of fools, meaningless chatter, or vulgar joking. And vulgar joking or coarse jesting. There are a lot of different ways that people define this, and I've heard it from preachers in the past.
And basically, they say, when you say you're joking but you're not joking, you're saying it to intimate to somebody something that you want them to change but you're just joking. He's joking. That's not really it. This is the turn of a phrase. This is quickly turning.
I'm gonna say this once, probably should not even be mentioned among us, but I'm going say this once because I think it's it lets you know what I'm talking about. The the turn of a phrase, the quickness of the turn is the the that's what she said jokes. It's where you're listening out and you're hearing something and your mind is always concentrating on something that's pretty base, common, dirty, filthy, foolish, whatever. And you sit there and you're just waiting for a moment when you could turn that phrase and say, that's what she's saying. Do you get that?
That's what that is. It's just kinda like, come on. I know that there's several members of our our congregation here who are part of the laugh staff who are constantly working to make people laugh. And I love that. And I think it's wonderful.
And part of the job of the ones who are here with us is they're trying to keep it away from that common base easy joke. Right? Because those are really easy. It takes a little bit more to work through that because if you hit the least common denominator, just go for the easy one, vulgar stuff, then yes, it's going to be an uncomfortable laugh, but it's a guarantee uncomfortable laugh, right? Work a little harder for that.
Be smarter about it. So Paul is saying that and I've mentioned a couple weeks ago. First, be and then do. Right? Recognize that you are the first three chapters of Ephesians says, you are this.
You are a saint. You're a holy one. You've been called out. You've been given all the power of the Holy Spirit. You have been given a task.
You have been given a message. You are empowered to go with that message. And then over here, it's like this is how you deliver that message. This is where you do. Now between those two things, I think that being and doing is great.
Thinking comes in the middle of that, and he's appealing right now to your intellect. Paul is. He's appealing to our intellect. He's saying, the things that you keep on saying are the things that you're gonna be doing. Does that make sense?
Yeah. Which are not fitting. So these things, filthiness, foolish talk, vulgar joking, they're just not fitting. Locker room talk doesn't really have a place here. They're not fitting.
And he had just said earlier, be ready to use your words to give grace as it fits the occasion. And it's just not something that usually or ever fits the occasion to be filthy or foolish or vulgar. But rather, he says the opposite of these things is giving thanks. A lot of comedy comes from a place of being discontented. A lot of this this kind of humor comes from a place of, that's my luck, of course.
That's the way it's gonna be. Yeah. We're kinda griping with that. And God is saying, hey, you got breath in your lungs. You can feel your muscles.
You you have life left in you. Appreciate the life that God has given, you know? Appreciating what you have is the opposite of the filthiness, foolish talking, vulgar joke, and so but rather be giving thanks. For you know this with certainty, and this is another one of those where it kinda stomps its foot a bit. The emphasis here is you know this with certainty that no sexually immoral or impure or greedy person, and that is the same list as above.
Right? You know this with certainty that these folks, which amount to be in an idolater, somebody who has put other things in front of God. Now, as a Christian, you've been removed from the darkness and brought into the light, and he's shown you the peril of your former way, and he's brought you miraculously into this new way, if you insist on spending your time and your effort walking backwards towards the darkness, you have to consider that he's not your lord. You have to at least consider that. Where do you identify?
And I I know sinner saved by grace is saint. I've said that over and over. Sinner saved by grace is saint. But sinner is sinner and saint is saint. So, if you insist on identifying with the sin, whatever it is from that long list, if you insist on no, but that's who I am.
No matter which one it is, that's who I am. Then, you're resisting going towards Christ. This says that no one who insists on this being who they are has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Christ is saying, come all, come to me. All you who labor and are heavy laden, all of that stuff that does not satisfy that you're working on so hard, come on to me all you who labor and I will give you rest and you will have rest.
Walking away from those things, the former things. See that no one deceives you with empty words. It's another way. I guess this is another corrupting speech. Empty words, the the sales pitch.
No, no, no, That's not the way it is. This is not the way that's defined. You got to look at it this way and consider all these different things. See that no one deceives you with empty words. For it is because of these things and these things are those things, sexual immorality and impurity greed, filthiness, foolish talk, vulgar joking, sexually immoral, impure, greedy person, corrupting talk from last week, all of that stuff, all the heavy stuff from last week too, all that stuff.
It says, it's because of these things that the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, don't become partners with them. Don't link up with them and and agree with them that it's okay. For you once were darkness, but now you're light in the Lord. You once were darkness and you didn't know and last week it said you were ignorant of those things and because of your hardness of heart, you were resistant.
But now, you're light in the Lord. So either you're in sins or you're in Christ, that's your position. And yeah, you can say that's lost or found, lost or saved in darkness or in light, but this is instruction for those who are it's a letter to Christians in a Gentile context in Ephesus. It's a letter to Christians who have left the kingdom of darkness and come into the kingdom of light, but how do we walk that out? He says be walking, actually be walking, present tense, as children of light.
For the fruit of light consistent all goodness. Just like all impurity was up there, this is kind of a counter balance to that. It's saying, the fruit of light consist in all goodness, in all righteousness, and in truth. Don't believe the lie and don't go for it. All goodness, righteousness, and truth, and walk towards Christ.
Walk towards the light. And this I love. It's such a great statement. As you try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord, Discernment is important. And there are some things that we need to discern, and we don't know whether they're right or they're wrong.
And if it's if it's in our own life and the Holy Spirit is convicting us in our own heart and he's saying, trust me with this. Trust me with this. You talk too much. Right. I don't know what it is.
But trust me with this. You cheat. You you you count double your points in basketball and you minimize the other points. When they say, what's the score? You go 20 to 19, when you know darn well it was tied.
Whatever. I don't know what it is for you. What is it in your heart of hearts? As you try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. As you try, I love that Paul gave us that because that says to me that there are things today that I think I know.
And it leaves the possibility open that Christ can say, hey, that point that you pounded the pulpit on, this is true. This is right. Now, I'm trying my best to stick with exactly what it says and not go beyond what is written because I feel like really, really uncomfortable just telling my opinion. In fact, a lot of things that are my opinion go against what this says. Just have to say, I want my opinion to bend to what this says, and I don't want to bend this to what my opinion says.
Does that make sense to y'all? Like, it makes sense to me. It scares me to death to be up here to deliver a message that is like so in your face. As you try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do you remember the section where Jesus is saying, listen, there's coming a time when people will kill you and think they're doing God a favor.
They think that they're doing something that's pleasing to the Lord. The guys who stoned Stephen thought they were doing something pleasing to the Lord. As you try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. So, I'd say this sanctification slide I've used for years, the yielding to righteousness for your sanctification, humbling yourself before God and saying, lord, rather than me bending what it says to my opinion, will you bend me and my will to what it says? I'm yielding to you.
I'm turning over my will and my life to you as I understand you. Recognizing that I might have a clearer picture down the road than I have right now. I'm trusting you with it, Lord. Would you show me the way? I wanna walk in it.
Now, next verse, same paragraph. Do not participate in. Do not be partners with them, it says up above, but do not participate in, what, the useless deeds of darkness. Don't do it. But instead, even expose them.
When somebody comes to a support group and says, I've never told anybody this ever before, but I'm so and so, and I'm an alcoholic, or I'm so and so, and I'm an addict. I'm so and so, and I struggle with this. They come to a counselor and they say, I am wrong in this way, and I don't know what to do about it. They're exposing it themselves. That's good.
I think a lot of us are just wanna root around and find somebody else's sin and expose that. But this, we have to start with ourselves. Don't participate in the useless deeds of darkness when you see them. Just expose them. Bring them to the light for it's disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret.
But all things become visible when they're exposed by the light. If we're walking as children of light, is what it said to do, that's characterized in our life and our walk, and that in itself is gonna cast light on the things that are surrounding us. So all things become visible when they're exposed to light. For everything that becomes visible is light. Be walking in the light as John says.
And for this reason it says this is an interesting one. This is a quote. For this reason it says, usually when he says that we know exactly where it came from. In this case, it says, for this reason it says, awake sleeper and arise from the dead and Christ will shine up on you or upon you. And this one, where does it say that?
It doesn't. As far as I can tell, I can't find it anywhere in the in the Old Testament. And if you look it up on Bible Gateway or Bible Hub or anywhere else, they do all kinds of Olympics to make it somewhere, but it's not. It's like five different passages from Isaiah has a word each and they put them all together, but that's not the way we quote scripture. This could have been just a saying in that neighborhood.
It could have been something Maimonides said, you know, years before that. Could I don't know where it came from, But I will say this, all truth is God's truth. And if it's quote Led Zeppelin, but it's still true, you know, okay. There are two paths you can go by. I'm with you so far.
Yeah. Yeah. But then it turns. Right? Awake sleeper and rise from the dead.
Do you all have any friends that say, oh, man, don't sleep on those bran muffins or don't sleep on whatever. Have you heard this phrase? We are living with a 28 year old right now And she says things and I'm like, don't sleep on it. We're insomniacs. We don't ever sleep anyway, you know?
It's don't sleep on the oh, don't sleep on such and such. Don't sleep on this band or don't sleep on this whatever. Oh, don't sleep on that. Oh, I was man, was sleeping on that. And that's being dulled to whatever is going on.
Oh, you need to know about this brand muffin. You need to know about this band. You need to know what's going on. This is the plain sense of what he's saying is awake, sleeper, and rise from the dead. I got one quick story.
When I was 19, 19 years old, I was elected to be the preacher at the Ocean Park RV Resort in Panama City, Florida. I had no business. When Ryan said we're not qualified, I had no business doing it. But they handed it to me, and I'm gonna try my best to deliver biblical sermon. And I knew what I was saying was from the Bible because I was reading it from the Bible.
And I was trying to keep it, you know, dead center of the plate. And at the end, I called on a guy to pray. He had a Southern Baptist haircut. He had on a three piece suit. We were at the beach.
I'm not joking. Had on a vest and everything. Tie, his hair said, Baptist preacher. And so I said, brother, would you stand and close us with prayer? And he stood up and he said, he had a big old Bible and he said, Lord, thank you for sending this young man to try to preach to us.
When it was over, he brought forward a King James Bible and he said, here's a King James Bible. Don't ever preach from anything else. And he gave me his business card which I carried for years. I still have it somewhere. I couldn't find it this morning.
But it said, O sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine upon you. And he was a traveling evangelist. That's what he did. And I I thought the guy was great. It was funny.
But this Awaco sleeper is not some politically right now. If you say, oh, stay woke. Woah. People run from the building. This is saying you've been exposed to the truth of God.
Don't go sleeping on it. Don't ignore it. Awake, sleeper. Arise from the dead. What if a couple weeks ago, what if the what if the baptism or week ago was buried with Christ?
You gotta be raised to walk in newness of life. Right? It's saying, don't just be buried with Christ and that's it. You're saved. Good to go.
No. You're raised to walk in newness of life. If you will, let this sit in your heart and not argue with what it is that the Holy Spirit is saying and not argue your position but say, God, I want to walk out the position that I have in the kingdom of light. I want for the light that shines off of me that comes from you to expose the things and bring people into the kingdom. That's what this is talking about.
So, it's better not where where does it say that? Why does it say that? It says that because we need to wake up to the things of God and recognize that he will shine on us. If we wake up, that's it. I heard a.
Well, I get the man back up here and I wanna pray. God help us. God help us. Revival begins. Amen.
Where we surrender. So lord, I pray that you'd start the work in me. I thought I pray that you'd start the work in us, that you'd continue the work through your humble and obedient servants of leaning forward towards the light. Lord, like a plant leans toward the sun. May we get more and more light and be able to reflect more and more light.
In Jesus name, I pray that the truth of scripture that now sits in our laps, Lord, would get into our hearts and would motivate us to walk. Amen. Would you sing out? The altar is always open for prayer and I'll be around this week. Would you sing out?
Benediction today is from first Timothy six and it says this, so run. Run from all these evil things and pursue righteousness and a godly life along with faith and love and perseverance and gentleness and fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life which God has called you into. May it be so, lord. May we be doing that in our own lives in such a way that just draws people to you.
May we lift you up and have you draw them in. In Jesus name, amen. Amen. I kept punching the microphone by accident. I don't know how it, like, moved, but
