Scripture referenced 10 passages
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Ephesians 4:1-16 described as covering how the church should operate, framing the broader section of study
1 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to walk worthily of the calling with which you were called,
2 with all lowliness and humility, with patience, bearing with one another in love;
3 being eager to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as you also were called in one hope of your calling;
5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all.
7 But to each one of us was the grace given according to the measure of the gift of Christ.
8 Therefore he says, “When he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.”
9 Now this, “He ascended”, what is it but that he also first descended into the lower parts of the earth?
10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.
11 He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers;
12 for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ;
13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;
14 that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;
15 but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, Christ;
16 from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love.
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Keep this verse
Ephesians 4:17-6:20
identified as the section on how holiness should make a practical difference in the believer's life
Keep this verseEphesians 4:22-24
quoted on putting off the old self corrupted by deceitful desires and putting on the new self created in true righteousness and holiness
22 that you put away, as concerning your former way of life, the old man, that grows corrupt after the lusts of deceit;
23 and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
24 and put on the new man, who in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.
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Ephesians 5:1-2
quoted as the command to be imitators of God and walk in love as Christ loved us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice
1 Be therefore imitators of God, as beloved children.
2 Walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance.
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Ephesians 5:3-16
the main passage for the sermon, covering sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, filthiness, foolish talk, crude joking, and the call to walk as children of light
3 But sexual immorality, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not even be mentioned among you, as becomes saints;
4 nor filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not appropriate; but rather giving of thanks.
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.
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words. For because of these things, the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience.
7 Therefore don’t be partakers with them.
8 For you were once darkness, but are now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,
9 for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth,
10 proving what is well pleasing to the Lord.
11 Have no fellowship with the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather even reprove them.
12 For the things which are done by them in secret, it is a shame even to speak of.
13 But all things, when they are reproved, are revealed by the light, for everything that reveals is light.
14 Therefore he says, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
15 Therefore watch carefully how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise;
16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
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Romans 1:24-27
quoted to define impurity, including God giving people over to dishonoring their bodies and the exchange of natural relations
24 Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves;
25 who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26 For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature.
27 Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error.
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Matthew 15:19
quoted as Jesus listing evil thoughts, murder, adultery, and sexual immorality as things that defile a person, coming from the heart
19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies.
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John 8:41
quoted as the Pharisees saying they were not born of sexual immorality, understood as an ad hominem attack on Jesus regarding Mary
41 You do the works of your father.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father, God.”
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Ephesians 2:1-5
quoted on being dead in trespasses, following the prince of the power of the air, and God making believers alive together with Christ by grace
1 You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins,
2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience;
3 among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
4 But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,
5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),
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Colossians 4:5
briefly referenced in connection with redeeming the time because the days are evil
5 Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.
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Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
This message came from Ephesians 5:3-16, part of a years-long study of the New Testament that First Baptist Jackson has been working through together. The passage lands in the middle of a longer section on how the gospel should change the way Christians actually live. The sermon is direct and at times uncomfortable, which is exactly the point.
What was said
Pastor Carl opened by placing the passage in its setting. The commands to "be imitators of God" and "be walking in love" from the previous week govern everything that follows, but the passage turns hard on the word "but." What comes next is not addressed to the surrounding culture. It is addressed to Christians, people who have already believed and surrendered, and who are now called to live differently from the world around them.
He worked through six things Paul says must not be found among Christians, taking each term back to the Greek. Porneia, sexual immorality, he understood primarily as premarital sexual relations, grounded in several other New Testament uses of the word and distinguished from moikea, which is adultery. Akatharsia, impurity, he described as the more degrading expressions of sexual behavior, and used Romans 1 to show that homosexuality, both male and female, falls within that definition. Pleonexia, covetousness, he treated as the addictive, always-wanting quality of lust, the tenth commandment showing up inside sexual sin.
The next three don'ts shift from acts to words. Filthiness is obscenity and baseness, cheapening what God made sacred. Morologia, foolish talk, is speech that flows from a mind that has lost its grip on the truth of God, talk that replaces the Creator with the creature. The last, eutrapelia, coarse jesting, is the sharper and more dangerous kind of crude humor, where real wit is turned into a weapon to belittle people. He read at length from Charles Spurgeon to make the point that there is a real difference between holy cheerfulness and the levity that trifles with everything.
Having laid out all six don'ts, he stopped on the single "do" Paul offers: let there be thanksgiving. He admitted this seems like a strange antidote. If he were writing the letter, he said, he would have matched each don't with its obvious opposite. But Paul does not do that. Every item on the don't list is about gratifying self, wanting what you do not have, consuming more, going further. Thanksgiving is the opposite posture entirely. It is recognizing what God has actually given and calling it good.
He then walked through the warning that follows: those who are defined by these sins, who are idolaters in the sense that they put self before God, have no inheritance in the kingdom. He was careful to hold that alongside Ephesians 2, which he returned to at length. The binary is position: you are either in sins or in Christ. Practice is a different matter, and every person in the room has failed somewhere on the don't list. The grace of God is precisely the answer to that, and that grace is what makes gratitude possible at all.
He closed not with a hymn but with a poem by Michel Quoist, written as a confession of falling into sin and then receiving God's reply. The line he landed on was God's response to the person lying in shame: it is not falling that is the worst, but staying on the ground.
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.
- The pastor opened by connecting the hymn 'There Shall Be Showers of Blessing' to the hurricanes happening at the time, and later in the sermon he talked about how the current of society can carry us along without us noticing. Where in your own life have you found yourself simply drifting with a current rather than swimming against it?
- The pastor said Christianity is not a list of do's and don'ts, and then acknowledged that this particular passage is exactly that. How do you hold those two things together in your own understanding of what it means to follow Christ?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Read the full transcript 9,518 words
0:00
Speaker 1How are you this morning? Good. Well, we're glad to be back in and as we remember, as we remember those I saw the title this morning of There Shall Be Showers of Blessing with the Hurricanes that we've experienced and the ones we're going through. Let's pray for those that are in the midst of hurricane or dealing with Harvey or about to be dealing with Irma. I want to start off with that and then we're going to follow it up with this.
0:25
Lord, would you please, lord, you super intend, and there's nothing that's outside of your scope. We pray that, Lord, what follows these hurricanes will be showers of blessing, that people will recognize who you are because of what has come to pass. In Jesus' name, Lord, we ask you to protect lives and to draw people to yourself in the midst of this difficult time. In Jesus name, amen. So would you stand with me to hymn number four thirty?
0:52
We're going to sing, there shall be showers of blessing. The words will come up on the wall, but if you want to find your part, hymn number four thirty in the book in the rack in front of you in that chair.
1:08
Speaker 2There shall be showers of blessing this is the promise of love there shall be seasons refreshing sent from the savior showers of blessing showers of blessing we need mercy drops around us but for the showers we plead there shall be showers of blessing precious reviving again over the hills and the valleys sound of abundance of rain showers of blessing showers of blessing we need mercy drops around us are falling but for the showers we plead there shall be showers of blessing send them upon us oh Lord grant to us now a refreshing come and now of blessing we need mercy drops around us are falling but for the showers we plead on the last there shall be showers of oh that today they might fall now as to God we're confessing now as on Jesus we call showers of blessing showers of blessing we need mercy drops around us are falling for the showers we Amen.
3:15
Speaker 1That'll sound good this morning. How about hymn number four ninety two at Calvary? I love this one.
3:28
Speaker 2Years I spent in vanity and pride, caring not my lord was crucified, knowing not it was for me mercy there was great and grace was free pardon there was multiplied to me there my burdened soul found liberty by God's word at last my sin I trembled at the Lord my guilty soul imploring mercy there was great and grace was free pardon there was multiplied to me my burden soul found liberty now I've given Jesus everything now I gladly own him as my king now my raptured soul can only grace that brought oh the mighty gulf that God did span mercy there was great and grace was free pardon there was multiplied to me bear my burden soul found liberty
5:41
Speaker 1Amen. Y'all can have a seat. Have a few announcements this morning and they are, we just start off right right at the beginning. If you're looking for a way or a place to begin serving in the church, you want to plug in somewhere, we could use volunteers in at least these four areas. Youth group is looking for volunteers.
6:02
The nursery, actually, you know the hardest job in the church is not being preacher, even on a day like today. The hardest job to seem to keep on fulfilling is the nursery coordinator, the person who's in charge of getting the volunteers to do the nursery, and that is Bailey Morley in this church. And she could use your help in the nursery, whether it be on Sunday mornings during the nine or Sunday morning during the eleven or Monday nights during the Monday night at first B, she could use your help. So Monday night cooking, if you wanted to cook or a small group, one of your small groups wants to cook for a Monday night, every Monday night we do meal, music, and a message down in the fellowship hall, You could do that or the connect hour, that hour between services from ten to eleven where there are snacks out there. If you'd like to volunteer, you're welcome to do that.
6:49
Old Bills. Do you all know what Old Bills is? The ones of you who live here definitely know what it is. The ones of you who don't live here, Old Bills works as an organization that helps to amplify charitable giving, if that makes any sense. They've taken Mr.
7:07
And Mrs. Old Bill's money and a lot of other co challengers and they want to support the things that this community wants to support. And so if you donate through the Community Foundation of Jackson Hole to First Baptist Church, we use that donated money that goes through the Community Foundation or Old Bill's. We use that for the local benevolence fund here. If somebody comes in and says, I've had a car breakdown.
7:32
We're trying to get across the country. We were coming through here and we're just stuck. We need a hotel room and somebody knows something about cars. Then we can say yes, get them a hotel room, we might even be able to fix the car. And we do that, actually we do that quite a bit because y'all give to that local benevolence fund, we're able to say yes.
7:52
So that's some of what we do. Old bills, when I say they amplify donations, it depends on the year how many co challengers they are and how much they give. But last year for every dollar that was donated through Old Bills to our local benevolence, we had $1.55 come to us. So that's a pretty big deal. The same is true for Turning Point.
8:13
So Turning Point takes in through Community Foundation. They're one of the charitable organizations. And the same is true for Good Samaritan. So if you wanted to donate to the homeless shelter Good Samaritan here and you gave to them through the Community Foundation, then that would be given. Like I said, time and a half is kind of normal.
8:32
Just so you know what it is, that's the way that goes. Old Bills Fun Run, it happened yesterday too. If you didn't know what all the hubbub was downtown, it was the actual Fun Run race. But you can continue giving to any of those folks that I just mentioned and a long list of others. There are 300 charitable organizations in Jackson, mainly because Old Bills is in Jackson.
8:54
Does that make sense? I'm not joking. We have one called Dog is My Copilot. I'm not joking. It's a charitable organization that rescues dogs from the Korean food market.
9:05
I am not joking. So there are lots of charitable organizations out there. Some of them are ridiculous and profane, if you ask my opinion. And then there are others that are really, really doing the job that got us set before them, and old bills. That's a long enough commercial for that.
9:22
Children in church. So the nursery is available for kids zero to three, and children's church happens during the first service at nine, and that's for ages four up through the fifth grade. And I was thankful to have children's church this morning because the subject matter of the day today is a little bit weighty for a third grader, okay? So that's happening. Awana Club is starting tomorrow, so 06:00 in the evening tomorrow evening.
9:45
Lots of pitter patter of little feet will be in this room right here. We have the big Awana circle on the floor that you see. That's the game circle that starts tomorrow night at 06:00. If you know of anybody, children, grandchildren, any little kids that are from age three through fifth grade, bring them on in for Awana. It happens at the same time as Monday nights at first b happens down the hall.
10:09
So Monday nights, tomorrow night, Carl is going be preaching on Philippians four one through nine about conflict resolution straight from the text of Paul's epistle to the Philippians, and every Monday night we do meal first, then music, then a message. Meal, music, and a message on Monday nights. This is still on there. We're we're doing Facebook nowadays so that in the 09:00 service, we set up a camera back in the back and we try to get it set up so that the slides are up there and so that the song service and everything is up there on Facebook live. It's about fifteen seconds delay.
10:45
So if you miss a Sunday or you feel like I didn't get what he said, you can go back and watch it on Facebook if you want to. And that works. We're doing Sunday and Monday nights on that. And for any other announcements, are there any that I've forgotten? Precept on Thursday, 09:00.
11:01
I don't yet have a slide for that, but I'll make one. Any other announcements or prayer requests, you could check your bulletin and they should be in there. Anybody else? Anything else? Alright.
11:11
Would you all stand up and just greet one another, and we'll bring you back together with a song. Him number five zero one, if you want to join.
11:34
Speaker 2Jesus, my lord, will love me forever from him no power of evil can sever he gave his life to ransom my soul now I belong to him now I belong to Jesus
11:56
Speaker 1Jesus to belongs to me not for the years of time alone but for eternity I
12:10
Speaker 2once I was lost in sins degradation Jesus came down to bring me salvation his sorrow and shame now I belong
13:25
Speaker 1Amen. Yep. How about hymn number three eighty two, Come Holy Spirit? Y'all can have a seat tonight. We're gonna invite the frontline team to come forward.
16:16
Would you pray with me? God, I thank you for the good gifts that you have given us, Lord. All of the things that we enjoy. And Lord, all of those things that right now in Florida are under threat. I think of those things.
16:33
I see several people out here who have homes there. I see others who have friends there. And and it's kind of it's in our minds because we know about it, Lord, the news, it's all over all the time. And this is a huge storm. And as we think about that, Lord, we recognize the blessings that we are given that can be so easily taken away.
16:57
So God, I pray that we would feel right now what it is that you have given us and that we're thankful. And Lord that we would be motivated to give so that others may know about you. I pray that you would use the tithes and offerings that go into these plates to help with the needs of people. Primarily, lord, the need of the gospel and the advance of the gospel in this state, in this country, in this region, in this world, to the ends of the earth But Lord also, Lord, that you would take care of others. And if we may be a part of a holistic ministry in Texas or in Florida or Georgia, some of those places, Lord, would you give us the wherewithal to be able to do that?
17:43
Would you accept these offerings, Lord, and do with them as you would please, in Jesus name, amen. Amen. What a beautiful song. Can you just hear the words going in your head while she's playing? Thank you very much, Judy.
20:37
Gorgeous. Summer and winter and springtime and harvest. Man, it's great. So here we go. We have been studying together here at First Bee for the last five years.
20:51
We have been studying the New Testament together and we've been going through it in a systematic fashion. I see several visitors here this morning. So, I'm going tell you the way that we have been doing things is first of all, we started out with the gospel of John. The life of Jesus and the gospel of John. We got to know Jesus, who he is, it's the gospel of belief, and it's about knowing who he is, knowing him experientially, and coming into a saving faith.
21:16
We then went forward and studied the history of the Christian church from the earliest days from Pentecost forward in Acts, and we studied Acts, so the life of the early church. And then we have used Acts as a framework to discern and determine who was where and when, and who the letters were going to at what times and we've tried to order the letters epistles of the church so that we know James, we studied first because James was a very early book that was written. Then, we've studied Paul's letters in order and so for those of you who are just coming in, you happen to hit on the Sunday where we have found ourself at Ephesians five:three-sixteen. And I don't think anything's by accident, no such thing as luck or coincidence, but I will say that it was not chosen specifically for you by me, okay? I am going forward in our study.
22:08
And the last time that I got a chance to preach, reminded y'all that we are drawing on this section especially, we're drawing from a greater section of thought. It starts in four seventeen and goes through six twenty. Four:one through 16 is about the church. It's a good description of how the church should operate. And then 17 through six twenty is about personally how holiness and theology that has been described in the first three chapters, how that should make a difference in our lives.
22:40
So four seventeen, we get to four twenty two, and he says, put off the old self and put on the new self. And that figures into what we're gonna be studying today. The last time I had a chance to preach, and you see this is a slightly different shade of black. It's really purple on my computer. The background here, any time that you see that today, that's gonna be something we've already studied previously in our study.
23:06
So we hit one month ago today, therefore be imitators of God. Mimics, do you remember that? Be mimicking God. Be imitators of God as dearly beloved children. And how the dearly beloved children begin to act like their parents?
23:21
They're around them all the time. They spend time with them. They know what they're like. They know what to expect. Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love or more progressive the verb is and be walking in love just as Christ loved us and he gave himself up for us a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
23:43
So, that's the last time I preached on Ephesians. That's what I preached. This portion leads into today's message but it also ended the section previous. So, I ended with this one for one message and I'm going to begin with it today because it's central, these things, the commands that lead off in this passage are these: be imitators of God and be walking in love. That kind of governs the passage.
24:08
That is two initial commands for this thought. But it turns very quickly on the next word is but in Ephesians five three through 16. Here it is. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you. This is a letter written to Christians.
24:30
This is not a letter that's written to the community at large. Paul is writing specifically to Christians. He's covered that they have already believed. He's covered that they've already surrendered their will and that they should walk in holiness. So, this is a letter to Christians.
24:44
Some of y'all are going to hear it and say, amen because you want the world to live like this. Well, Paul would say and has said for the first three chapters that it is only possible to live a holy and upright life with the Holy Spirit directing and with God's power through his Holy Spirit and power. It is not possible to live a holy life by yourself. Right here, be imitators of God, be walking in love, but sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, church, as is proper among the saints. The saints are all of those church triumphant, everyone who's ever believed in Jesus.
25:26
So as is proper among the saints, there are some things that are proper for Christians, and there are some things that are improper for Christians. He goes on to say, let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking which are out of place. Again, like the propriety he mentions which is proper. He says, there are some things that are out of place. In Christian life, it is out of place, filthiness, foolish talk, or crude joking.
25:53
So here we go. I usually like to say Christianity is not a list of do's and don'ts. And I can say it again. Christianity is not a list of do's and don'ts. It's about a relationship with the Christ, the one who came to save us from our sins.
26:08
But today's message is about do's and don'ts. And there are six don'ts, and there's only one do. I'm gonna try to present this as straightforward as possible directly from scripture. I'm gonna use for all of these six don'ts, I'm gonna use the Greek words with a definition and let you just hear what it would be, especially letting scripture interpret scripture, because sexual immorality is a very broad term. Would you agree?
26:35
So the term for sexual immorality is porneia. Does that look like anything you recognize? Porn. Yes, it's right there. Do y'all realize that we are in the most pornographic age in recent history, at least, in recent history?
26:50
It has gotten to be more and more and more pornographic, just in life general. So look at the root of this is what we use for pornography or pornographic, which is derived from perneo, to sell off. It is properly a selling off or surrendering of one's sexual purity. It is promiscuity of any and every type. Pornea, just like sexual immorality, is a very, very broad term.
27:19
But there are some clues as to what Paul is getting at because of like this. See also this contrasting term, moikea, which is marital unfaithfulness or adultery. So if you, I don't see any kids, not many kids in the room. It may get to a point where you want to carry them out. I don't know.
27:37
I told everybody this morning, all the kids go to children's church even if you don't normally go to children's church, and the only one in here this morning was Paschal. She missed that little instruction. A selling off of one's sexual purity, promiscuity of any or every type. I think that what Paul is getting at right here is premarital sexual gratification, premarital sexual. And I can say that because of a few verses, a few places in Scripture.
28:04
There are about six other places where he uses this. Because of the temptation of sexual immorality, premarital sexual relations, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. And if you disagree with what that says, you can go further in the text and see that it is that a man and a woman for this reason, blah blah blah. It goes on. But I think that this is saying before.
28:26
There's another reason I say that because Matthew fifteen nineteen, Jesus is talking about what defiles a person. And the Pharisees are arguing that he doesn't wash his cup right or that he doesn't do things the right way. And he is saying it's not what goes in to your body that defiles you. It's what comes out. And the words for out of the mouth, the overflow of the heart.
28:55
And the heart, out of the heart come evil thoughts and murder and adultery and sexual immorality and theft. And if you see adultery and sexual immorality right there listed separately, it points to them being slightly different. Adultery is any kind of sexual gratification outside of marriage, and then sexual immorality is that specifically before. Theft, false witness, slander, these are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone. He challenged the Pharisees quite often, and if we pay attention to their arguments, they escalated over time.
29:31
And this is one in John eight forty one where the period of conflict was getting to be more pronounced, and they were arguing with him. The Pharisees, the religious folk, were arguing with with him, and they were saying, we're of our father, Abraham. We're we're we're the right ones. We're following after. We're doing everything, but Jesus is saying you're not.
29:54
I knew Abraham. I know why he did what he did. I knew what motivated him, and what motivates you and what motivated him are different things. And as he was winning the argument, they said, we were not born of sexual immorality. And you might think, well, what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?
30:09
That doesn't make any sense at all for you to bring that up right here. It's the old revised standard version and the AV and the King James all say, we were not born of fornication. So fornication typically we think of as premarital sex. Sexual immorality is a broader term, probably a better fit for the word porneia. What was the indication that they were given right there to say we were not born of sexual immorality?
30:35
That had nothing to do with their argument. It was an ad hominem attack on Jesus. They were attacking him because they knew that Mary was not married when she was pregnant. What they were saying is we were not the we're not the ones born of fornication. You are.
30:52
Therefore, you're not to be trusted. They had no idea who his father was. Actually, the argument in chapter eight was we're of our father Abraham and he says, no, you're not. You're of your father, the devil and Jesus was, in fact, the son of God. They did not know, and they argued with him trying to bash him or his mom, actually.
31:14
So that's sexual immorality. I think that that is primarily sex before marriage. Six don'ts. Are you all having fun yet? Because there are five more of these.
31:27
Impurity. Impurity is the next one. So we've covered fornication or sexual immorality outside of before marriage. Now we're hitting impurity. The word for that is acarthesia, and if you look at that and you try to determine an English word that you can find, what do you see?
31:45
Catharsis. You know what a catharsis is? When you come upon a situation that brings you to a point of either tears or bowing down and crying over something, and then you look back on it going, really? That was a cathartic situation. It was a cleansing.
32:02
It was a place where I was cleansed and free. A lot of people would describe that walking down the aisle in the Southern Baptist Church and coming up to the preacher and speaking to him and shaking hand, being embraced and just flowing forth with tears as a catharsis, as a cleansing. Well, ah, abnormal, amoral, acatharsis, is the opposite of that. It is a dirtiness that comes about, an uncleanness or an impurity. And if I study scripture to figure out what impurity means, in other places it becomes more obvious.
32:37
The most obvious in this example is in Romans, I think. Impurity can mean it's a broad term also, but I think that it is the more base or I heard a pastor say one time, grosser I don't like the term, but the more base or degrading types of sexual behavior. Certainly impurity would include the viewing of pornography for self gratification. But I think it tends to be the more outlandish. Because sexual immorality in general, it starts and one wants to get that next high or the same high that they got last time, and it never satisfies.
33:19
It never lives up to that. And impurity is when people go beyond the norm, and I'll just use Romans to say this. Great passage from scripture. Paul is in Romans given a great theological treaties, and he is saying this is the way that it is. This is how it has gotten to be the way that it is.
33:39
And in Romans one, he says, therefore, God gave them up in their lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. So, he is defining what impurity is. The dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and they worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator. I dot dot dot it out a verse and a half right there because it continues in thought right here. Their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature, and their men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another.
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Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. So impurity certainly includes homosexuality. Both gay men, lesbian women, it's both included in this definition. The Bible says it. I'm not making it up.
34:40
Our society certainly disagrees. Impurity. I think you like I also included pornography. I think we could also include even further degrading shameful acts like bestiality. It's impurity.
35:01
Covetousness. I think covetousness kind of holds a clue for the other two, and it also speaks to our addictive cycles of behavior as human beings. And so covetousness is next. This is the word, pleonexia, and it means covetousness or avarice, jealousy. It is looking at what someone else has and wanting it to be your own.
35:22
So covetousness so obviously it's the tenth commandment that we should not covet, look upon what our neighbor has and want what he has. In this case, I think it is more looking upon his wife and wanting her rather than looking upon his things because it is grouped with other sexual things. So covetousness or avarice, especially wanting what you do not have sexually. So those are the first three. Anybody having fun yet?
35:52
The second three are not so much about the act itself, but about words. I heard somebody after the first service that said that they had noticed that they have begun to swear, and quite frequently. And she said, I have no idea why that is. I mean, I have not been in that place for a long time where I just say dirty, ugly, nasty things. But I've been watching something on TV, Netflix or whatever, and that's the way they talk on there and it's just coming back like that.
36:25
Filthiness is about the, especially obscenity, indecency, or baseness. Now some of y'all, I know are from the South. I've talked to you. I can hear it in your accent if I just met you. And I am.
36:38
I'm from Georgia. We still have blue laws in Georgia. We still have some laws about indecency, obscenity, or baseness. But the thing I'm thinking about is something we used to hear rather frequently. As children, if you were skirting the line on something and you were getting to the place of saying something that was obscene or indecent or base, your mother might turn to you and say, Ray, do not be common.
37:03
Have you all heard that? That is so common. Yeah, it's funny to everybody. It's low brow humor, and it's not something that you should do. It's obscenity.
37:14
It's indecent. It's base. And it does, though, do something within us. When we hear somebody step over a line and say something for humor's sake that is obscene, you go, woah. But there's a little bit of a, that's funny.
37:28
And you get that. But it's toying with something that is divine and profound. And it's making something that really, really, really does matter into something that is of no consequence. It's cheapening the gift of God, in this case specifically, as sex is concerned. And foolish talk.
37:51
Foolish talk is next, and I like the Greek on this one, morologia, you know, the logia or logos of each of these type words is the study of, or a word about. And then moros in this one is the same as our root for moron, a dull person. Someone who doesn't get it in moros in Lego, speaking to a conclusion, someone who is speaking without any edge to a conclusion. Literally, it is foolish words, speech that flow out of a dull or sluggish heart mind that lost its edge or its grip on reality. The truth of God, the truth of God is what we should be concentrating our life on.
38:33
The truth of being in Christ and the truth of being whole and one and accepting the good gifts that God has given for the purpose and intent that he had given him. Instead of that, morologia, foolish talk is when we spend time talking to a conclusion from a dull mind that's lost its grip on that actually being reality. It is turning your back on the truth of God and accepting the lie, the creature rather than the creator. This is the talk of fools. It involves foolishness and sinning together and it's interesting that he says sinning together because it seems to always be that way.
39:10
The foolish talking encourages more of the same, does it not? The next one is crude joking or coarse jesting, your translation may say. Coarse jesting. When I was growing up, I remember a sermon specifically about this, and the preacher said that it is when someone is joking with you about something that they believe to be true, but they're trying to pass it off as a joke, And it's coarse. It's like sandpaper grading against you.
39:39
I like that. I don't see that in the actual definition. I still think that there are other places in scripture where he's saying to be straightforward with people, but don't do it in a way that is belittling. This one is specifically belittling, whereas Morologia, the foolish talk is from a place of being dull or base, not very smart, doesn't take much to make a joke about genitalia. So we have in this church a bunch of people, like five people, that are part of the improv comedy troupe here in Jackson called the Laugh Staff.
40:15
And they're funny. They're really funny. But they have made a pact among themselves that they're not gonna go for the cheap, dull, moronic joke that's really easy that everybody laughs at every time about the human anatomy or whatever. They're they're not gonna go for that. They're gonna go for more elevated humor.
40:32
Well, there's the danger of going across what is acceptable into this place of utropilia. Utopilia is where it's low jesting, ribaldry, ready wit, and it's from being really, really bright. It takes brains to be able to turn a phrase, easily turning, nimble, witted, witty, sharp, to be so sharp that you can turn what someone has said back on them and make them look foolish. Does that make sense? So it kinda is what that pastor had said.
41:04
It's turning people's words on them. I feel less comfortable in this service than I did in the last. You're the age of this group. Y'all remember what it was like when people were polite? Not a lot of people do these days.
41:24
It is everywhere all the time. And people are in both ditches, either turning phrases or just moronic foolish talk. And it's always been with us, don't get me wrong. What the president called locker room talk has always existed. But it used to exist in locker rooms.
41:46
I like this. It's long. I'm gonna read it anyway. This is from Chuck Spurgeon, Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Great, great preacher, 1800s.
41:54
He is speaking specifically to preachers in this instance, and so I took it to heart. I read it this week and thought, whew, that's heavy. But I get to share with you all. So here you go. We must, some of us especially must, conquer our tendency toward levity.
42:13
Now levity is the translation for that last word, crude jesting or crude joking. We must, some of us especially must, conquer our tendency toward levity. A great distinction exists between holy cheerfulness, which is a virtue, and that general levity which is a vice. There is a levity which has not enough heart to laugh, but trifles with everything. It is flippant, it is hollow, and it is unreal.
42:43
Now, just stopping right there. Have y'all watched any stand up comedy lately? Oh my goodness. It is so, so filthy. And I I have been watching some lately just in preparation for this watching it, I go, I can't believe they just said that.
42:58
It's funny. I'm sorry. It's profane too. But it is something that I put behind me because that is something that's awful and leads to even more foolish talking. Listen to this.
43:12
A hearty laugh is no more levity. A hearty laugh's a good thing, he's saying. A hearty laugh is good and it's great to be cheerful and to be happy. A hearty laugh is no more levity than a hearty cry. I speak of that religious veneering which is pretentious but thin, superficial, insincere about the weightiest of matters.
43:34
Our sexuality is one of the weightiest matters, and to speak of it in a way that is flippant is to deny the creator, really. Godliness is no jest nor is it a mere form. Beware of being actors, Jesus would say hypocrites. Never give earnest men the impression that you do not mean what you say and are mere professionals. He's speaking specifically to preachers.
44:01
To be burning at the lip and freezing at the soul is a mark of reprobation. God deliver us from being either superfine or superficial. May we never be the butterflies of the garden of God where we just light upon one thing and bounce to another without it really taking an effect on us. Now, I'm saying all this to you. Every single one of us has something in this list of don'ts.
44:25
Every single one of us. I have no doubt about that. Sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness. If you feel like you get out away from it on on sexual immorality and purity, is there anything that you don't look to and covet? I think Paul broke down at the tenth commandment of covetousness.
44:46
Filthiness, foolish talk, or crude joking, we fail in this. There is one do and this is it but instead, let there be Thanksgiving. Now, when I said this in the first service, I got an amen right there. I just said, but instead, let there be Thanksgiving and the lady said, amen and I thought, amen. There are six don'ts in their heavy duty list.
45:09
And then he says, let there be Thanksgiving. We're putting off these six things and what we're putting on is Thanksgiving? That seems weird to me, especially as I study this. Think about it. So there's six don'ts, one do, and I think, how can that be?
45:22
How can that be the answer to this list? Why is it gratitude or why is it Thanksgiving that is kind of the antidote? I've already talked about the putting off and putting on. If I were to preach this message or if I were to write this letter to Ephesus, I probably would have said, put off sexual immorality and put on morality. Those are the balancing items right there, aren't they?
45:46
Put off impurity and put on purity. Put off the covetousness that you feel where you're always wanting more, more, more, more, more, more, and it's typically unsatisfying once you get it, and put on contentment. Be thankful for what you have rather than wanting that which you don't. Filthiness to cleanliness, foolish talk to positive communication, build one another up as I said last week from Thessalonians. Crude joking can be exchanged for uplift and humor and if I were to present that message, I'd probably get a lot of amens but that's not what Paul says.
46:18
What Paul says is gratitude. Now, it's drawn from that greater section of thought. Like I said, from 04/17 to 06/20 is about how we should live our lives in the light of the gospel, in the light of the freeing liberty of God's gospel and we see this in Ephesians four twenty two to 24, to put off your old self which belongs to the former manner of life and it's corrupt through deceitful desires. Above all, it is deceitful because it makes you or it puts you in a place of wanting what you don't have thinking that's what's going to satisfy me. But ultimately, does it satisfy?
46:56
No. He says, put off your old self which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. Even your lenses right there show you a bad picture of what is to be. But be renewed in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self that's created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and true holiness. It's a concentrating on the truth and righteousness and holiness being set apart from that which is common or base or low brow.
47:28
Does that make sense? Yes? Okay, I see some nodding heads, but it's pretty quiet. All right, so there we are. If we're putting off and we're putting on, he's asked us to put off these sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, and filthiness, foolish talk, and crude joking, and put on Thanksgiving.
47:51
Thanksgiving is about gratitude, and that's the one due. And all of these others are about the gratification of self. Every single one of the others are about gratifying some desire. It may be the sight of it, and I will have to tell you that pornography nowadays is more accessible than it's ever been. It's just as damaging as it has ever been, and it is something that draws people in a little at a time.
48:18
I used to if I'd done this sermon twenty years ago, thank God I did not have to, if I had done this twenty years ago, I probably would have said, guys, get into pornography this way. Nowadays, there are tons of women and girls who have gotten into it. And to see a little bit more flesh does something to a young person. And to see a naked body does something. And then when people concentrate on doing that and gratifying self, they go beyond that and they want to see not just a still image, but then maybe a video.
48:56
And then not just of someone, but of someone actually in the act. And then not just the act that is normal, but going beyond that with multiple people or multiple partners. All of those things, it's a progressive thing. And as people watch that, Shelley Donahue when she came up said that pornography is so insidious because it grows and grows and grows, and things get to be more outlandish. And not only does it get to be more outlandish for you, requiring a greater baseness or depravity to continue the process, it also makes your expectations on your future loved one greater and greater, and different and more perverse.
49:40
Gratification of self through any of these is the enemy of ourselves. It's not good. It's not good for us, and God knows that. Through Paul, he presents that to us. So that is it.
49:55
Now, wanting that which you do not have is to be looking to gratify self. Recognizing what it is that you do have. Whether that is singleness and I should go even further. Whether it is singleness and virginity and recognizing that as a gift from God and being thankful for that gift, That's gratitude. Thank you lord.
50:19
Instead of saying, oh, but I want somebody. I want somebody or a husband to say, oh, I want somebody prettier, younger, more adventurous for a wife to say, I want somebody that is more handsome, vigorous, whatever. That is looking to gratify self instead of saying thank you God for the one that you have given me in the case of married folk or the one that you will give perhaps in the case of single. Gratification versus gratitude. Now he goes on from that and he says, for you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater.
51:02
He gives us a little bit more when he says that about covetousness and immorality and impurity. He says that those folks are idolaters, excuse me. Where is it? I'm missing a slide. It's alright.
51:17
Who is an idolater? Actually, check out this wooden translation. This is a very literal, straightforward translation. It's not as readable in English, but I think it helped. This indeed you know, Christian.
51:28
He's speaking to Christians. He's not speaking to outsiders. And I'm asking you to take this message for yourself. Don't listen to this for your spouse. Don't listen to this for anyone else.
51:37
Listen to for yourself. This indeed you know, Christian, Asserting that any fornicator or unclean person or covetous man who is an idolater. Not has, does not have an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Now, this may prompt the question, can you lose your salvation? Because he's warning you to do something as a Christian that you shouldn't do, and then he says that you don't have an inheritance, that hell is the consequence for these things.
52:04
Well, the reason I use this wooden translation is because these are each people, a fornicator, an unclean person, or a covetous person, man, it says, but man or woman, is an idolater, and someone who puts anything at all before Christ does not have an inheritance in Christ. I say that because this is about how you define yourself. No inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God is an idolater. Excuse me for the misspelling. Fornicator, impure person, or covetous person.
52:40
That is saying those people are defined by their sin. Now, we have been preaching all throughout Ephesians that there are two. It's a binary position. Either you are in sins or you're in Christ. In sins or in Christ.
52:53
You are one or the other. You cannot be both. You are in sins or you are in Christ. And that is the binary position of our position in Christ. Now, our practice, I have said throughout Ephesians, is there's a gray area between the two.
53:08
We have a choice to feed the spirit and grow in our similitude to God and to Christ by his power, by his spirit, or we can feed the flesh and we can grow further in our walk and in our practice away from God, away from Christ, making it more difficult on ourself to hear the voice of God through his spirit. There's a binary position on position, and then there's in practice this walking that has to take place. So here we go forward. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, sexual immorality, impurity, covetousness, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. It is precisely because of sin that the wrath of God is coming.
53:57
It's precisely because of sin that the gospel has been offered because there is no way out on our own. Jesus is the way out. Don't let anyone deceive you. If you listen to our society, what will you hear? Anything you want to do is fine.
54:15
Be true to yourself. Whatever it is that you want to do. Now we say that about sexuality. Is thievery okay? It's listed in the same list.
54:25
To steal, is that okay? Is gossip okay? Slander? No. Let no one deceive you with empty words.
54:37
The current of our society runs counter to the word of God. It runs counter to the truth. It is deceptive and it is misleading. Let no one deceive you with empty words because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. So, therefore, Paul says, do not become partners with them.
54:57
It's something that's going to be going on all the time but don't be partakers or partners with them. You do not have to join in to that thought. You do not have to join into that act. You do not have to join into that kind of talk. For at one time, you were darkness but now, Christian, you are light in the Lord.
55:14
Walk as children of light. Be walking as children of light. For the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. Good and right and true is over here, right? Do you remember this from earlier in Ephesians?
55:26
This is the theological undergirding that we got from Ephesians two and you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air. The spirit that it's now in work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived. Don't start to pretend that you've always been in Christ. We all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and we were by nature children of wrath just like the rest of mankind. Remember that, he says, but God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he has loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, has made us alive together with Christ, it is by grace that you've been saved.
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Now the grace of God is the bright spot right there because all of us have sinned and those six don'ts. All of us have, and we should not say that we haven't. John says, if you say that you haven't, you're a liar. You missed it on that one. It's by the grace of God that we've been saved.
56:24
It's by the grace of God because we cannot do it for ourselves. Now thank God for that. And that's where Paul says gratitude, not gratification. And then I love this. This sounds just like a it sounds like my dad, quite honestly.
56:37
It sounds like me. He goes, just try to figure out what it is that's pleasing to God. You know? Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Now we will find ourselves in situations and circumstances if we're mixing it up and being in the world, we will find chances where we can go one way and it be wrong and one way it be right.
56:56
And sometimes it's unclear what that is. Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Ask him. Ask for his spirit to guide you and listen to the still small voice, not the screaming of the pornographic ad industry that's trying to sell you everything with sexual immorality. So verse seven says, therefore, don't become partners with them.
57:17
10 or 11 says, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. Do you all recognize like the addictive cycle? You want a new blank, whatever it is. You want a new thing. Maybe it's an iPhone seven, eight, whatever it is now.
57:33
You want something new. So you get it. You get a temporary feeling of gratification. Yeah, this thing is awesome. It's amazing.
57:41
It's wonderful. That feeling quickly begins to fade. The feeling is replaced by a desire for more gratification. Oh, I gotta have such and such else. So you start looking for or desiring this new material thing, whatever it is, cooler than the last one.
57:56
You get it. There's more temporary gratification, but it starts to fade. You keep on repeating this throughout life. That is an addictive cycle. Maybe alcohol, maybe drugs, maybe sex, maybe golf.
58:09
I don't know. It could be anything, you know? You keep on repeating this for life. Gotta have, gotta have, gotta have. Instead of the gratitude thing, which is instead of wanting that which you do not have, it is being thankful for that which God has given.
58:25
Appreciation of the small things matter, acknowledging the value of what you have been given is great. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them, for it's shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. Standing up here and presenting this message to Christians right now, I'm exposing what God says. I'm saying, this is what the light of his word says. Even though every other voice that you will hear on television and in the radio and in the community may tell you otherwise.
59:02
When anything is exposed by light, it becomes visible. For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says, awake, oh sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. Now that reminds me of a Spanish idiom. Some of y'all know Spanish.
59:17
There were several Spanish teachers in the first service. And there's this great Spanish idiom that says This, when you say it in Mexico or in Spain, The current of our society is flowing this way. It is pushing all who will go with it or all who will sleep are gonna go that way with it. Like I said, the lady came up to me afterwards. She says, I'm swearing.
59:59
I don't wanna do that, But it is so of the day, of the current that she's just going with it. So the command is, awake, oh sleeper, wake up. You gotta be swimming, shrimp, okay? Go forward, comer on, go. You go forward and you swim for all your worth.
1:00:22
You'll be empowered by God. He says that, awake, oh sleeper, and arise from the dead and Christ will shine upon you. He's given you his spirit, he's given you the power, and he will continue to do so. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise. That's that's clever.
1:00:38
Somebody set their alarm for 12:05. That's alright. That's okay. I don't mean to embarrass anybody. There was better there was a guy who used to clip his nails at 12:05.
1:00:47
That was my sign. So look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise. Making the best use of the time. This sounds like in the Colossians, redeeming the time because the days you live in, people are evil. All around you, your milieu, what you live in is evil.
1:01:06
And if you sleep, you will just start to go along with it. But if you will arise and awake and look to Christ, he will draw you into that perfect peace. In Jesus' name, that was the word for today. Amen. Alright.
1:01:21
Now, that sermon and that song don't go together at all. So I don't even know how to end this, but I'm gonna end it. Alright? So would you pray with oh, do know how to end it. How about this?
1:01:32
We end with a poem rather than a song today. The name of this poem is called Thin. Alright? Just a light ending. Sin.
1:01:44
Michael Koist was a French cleric who wrote this poem, and he wrote a lot of poems. This whole book is full of them where he writes the prayer. It's called prayers is the name of the book. He writes this prayer and at the end, he gives God's response to the prayer. So, he writes the whole thing and then he puts a little star.
1:02:01
This is God's response. It's a little bit long. Stick with me. It's not as long as if we had sung a song, okay? I have fallen, lord.
1:02:10
Once more, I can't go on. I'll never succeed. I am ashamed. I don't dare look at you. And yet I struggled, Lord, for I knew you were right near me bending over me and watching me.
1:02:25
But temptation blew like a hurricane, and instead of looking at you, I turned my head away. I stepped aside while you stood silent and sorrowful like the spurned fiance who sees his loved one carried away by the enemy. When the wind died down as suddenly as it had arisen, when the lightning ceased after proudly streaking the darkness, all of a sudden I found myself alone, ashamed, disgusted with my sin in my hands. This sin that I selected the way a customer makes his purchase. This sin that I have paid for and cannot return for the storekeeper is no longer there.
1:03:12
This tasteless sin, this odorless sin, this sin that sickens me, this I have wanted, but I want no more. This I have imagined and have sought, have played with, have fondled for a long time, That I have finally embraced while turning coldly away from you, my arms outstretched, my eyes and heart irresistibly drawn. This sin that I have grasped and consumed with gluttony, it's mine now, but it possesses me as the spider holds captive the gnat. It is mine. It sticks to me.
1:03:50
It flows in my veins. It fills my heart. It has slipped in everywhere, so darkness slips into the forest and dusk and fills all of the patches of light. I can't get rid of it. I run from it the way that one tries to lose a stray dog, but it catches up with me and bounds joyfully against my legs.
1:04:14
Everyone must notice it. I'm so ashamed that I feel like crawling to avoid being seen. I'm ashamed of being seen by my friends. I'm ashamed of being seen by you, Lord, for you loved me and I forgot you. I forgot you because I was thinking to myself, and one can't think of several persons at once.
1:04:33
One must choose, and I chose. And your voice and your look and your love hurt me. They weigh me down. They weigh me down more than my sin. Lord, don't look at me like that for I'm naked and I'm dirty and I'm down.
1:04:48
I'm shattered with no strength left. I dare make no more promises. I can only lie bowed before you. And then there's the star where God's response comes in. You see, you feel the shame that he's feeling.
1:05:02
God's response is, come son, look up. Isn't it mainly your vanity that is wounded? If you loved me, you would grieve but you would trust. Do you think that there's a limit to God's love? Do you think that for a moment I stop loving you but you still rely on yourself, son?
1:05:20
You must rely only on me. Ask my pardon and get up quickly. You see, it's not falling that is the worst but staying on the ground. Lord God, in Jesus' name, I pray that you would apply this word, this good word to our lives this week. May we see, Lord, not only our shortfall, but your grace that is sufficient.
1:05:48
May we see and hear your voice where we see your face. May we be drawn into greater, deeper, closer communion with you. And Lord, may you shine the light and reflect it off of us onto others. May we confront our own sin by the power of the cross. In Jesus name, amen.
1:06:10
Amen. Y'all are dismissed. I know you're not standing but y'all can go. How about that last one? Go in peace.
1:06:17
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Since as members of one body, you are called to peace and be thankful. Amen.
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