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Speaker 2There we are. Good morning, everyone. What a gorgeous morning. I'm glad to see you all. Listen.
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We're here to praise God. So would you stand up with me? We're gonna sing what a friend we've got in Jesus. Alright. What a friend.
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What a friend we We're the midst everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace. Oh, what peace we often for fear. Oh, in the span we bear, all because we do not care. Every thanks you got in prayer.
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Alright. Happy trials and temptations. Let's bring it to him. Happy trials and temptations. Is there trouble anywhere?
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We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord every week. Are we weak and heavy laden? Let's sing. And are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care.
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Precious savior still Amen. Would you pray with me? God, thank you for this morning. Thank you that we can come to you and that we can lay our our burdens down before you and you lift us up and I pray that you you would indeed this morning and that we would come to you fully and freely. In Jesus name, amen.
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Amen. You can all have a seat.
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Speaker 1Amen. Got a few announcements this morning. First of all, just straight off the bat, we've got some places for some volunteers. Y'all know that fall is the time when we kick off all of our programs and so, September, October, we're rolling out the whole new lineup of what's going on for which groups. So if you would like to, you may volunteer for helping out with youth group or nursery or Monday night for cooking on Monday nights or for the connect hour.
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That's something that's available and ready. If you want to be a part, that's four of the different ways you can be a part. Old Bills Fun Run. If y'all have not heard of this, you must not live anywhere near Jackson. This is something you get covered up with.
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My mailbox has been covered. Every time you go to the mailbox, you get all of the nonprofit organizations literature in your mailbox every single day. So this is a community foundation of Jackson Hole runs Old Bills Fun Run. They had the run yesterday, but it's to raise money for charities. So they amplify donations.
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What we have used Old Bills money for in the past is our local benevolence fund. So we are able to say yes when somebody is broken down here and needs a tank of gas or needs a hotel room for the night or something like that. A local benevolence fund is what First B uses donations through old bills. And those are going to be accepted through the fifteenth. That's the way this thing works.
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If you give a dollar through old bills to First B's Benevolence Fund, it'll be amplified. Sometimes it's 40%, sometimes it's 50%, but last year for every dollar somebody donated through Old Bills, we got $1.55 So that's pretty good return. And Turning Point is one of the registered nonprofits, our Pregnancy Resource Center here. So is a Good Samaritan Mission y'all heard from Chuck a few weeks ago. So if you want to do that, Old Bills Fun Run is still accepting donations through the fifteenth for all of the nonprofits in town.
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And that's all of the nonprofits, and there are 300 and something based in Jackson primarily because of Old Bills. Okay. Alright. There we are. Children in church.
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Okay. The nursery is available for ages zero to three, that's downstairs during this service, and we do that in the second service too. And children's churches for ages four through fifth grade. The subject matter of the sermon today, I'll go ahead and tell you, even if you don't normally send your kids downstairs for children's church, please do. It'll be good for them.
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It'll be good for me. Alright? That's just the way that it is. Alright. Awana Club starts tomorrow.
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That's tomorrow night at 06:00. Awana is getting going. If you haven't registered, you're like almost everybody else. You can come a few minutes early to register. So Awana Club starts right here in this room.
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You see the big circle on the floor. Kids matter to God, and this is about getting scripture into their hearts into into their minds so that it'll get into their hearts and lives. We have a great staff of volunteers that come in and put that on each week. So Iwana happens at 06:00. During the same time, it's at the same time as Monday nights at first b.
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Tomorrow night, Carl is gonna be start talking on Philippians four one through nine. It
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Speaker 2is. Know that you're invited. And and we're talking about dealing with conflict, which we all do. Yep. Meal music message tomorrow at six.
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Speaker 1Meal music and a message down the hall in the fellowship hall. We are on Facebook and YouTube. If you wanna log on. If you missed something in the sermon and you want to go back to it or if you're not able to be here, you can do that on Sunday and even Monday night. We have started doing Monday night sermons on Facebook Live.
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Anything else should be in the bulletin. Is there something that I've forgotten that's just a burning question that you all know? Good. Anything else should be covered in the weekly bulletin. If you didn't get one on the way in, you can get one on the way out.
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And would you stand up and just greet one another? We will bring you back together with a peppy song.
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Speaker 2To sing our dreams. Streams of mercy never ceasing. Offer songs of loudest praise. And teach me some melodious song, sung by flaming tongues on the earth. Praise his name I'm fixed upon the name of God's Alright.
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Beautiful and free. Beautiful and free. The song of the sun. Come on. Let's sing it loud.
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The music of the universe stars declare who you are. Will sing of how great you are. Would you pray with me? God, indeed, you are holy. You are other, spotless, blameless.
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And here we are, just plain old people. But we've fallen short, and we know it. And, I thank you, God, for drawing us to yourself. I thank you that your kindness leads us to repentance. I thank you God for just being willing to, to meet us where we're at and I pray that that's exactly what you would do today.
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Amen. From revelation in, 20, it says that we will overcome the enemy and there is a real enemy. By the blood of the lamb and the word of the test of our testimony, that's how we overcome the evil one, by Christ's blood and our faith in him. Power and hand speaking the father's prayer, sending sour light Jesus, awesome and bow forever. Awesome and great is your name.
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You overcame, and we will overcome, and we will overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. Amen. You all can be seated and invite the worship the frontline team to to come forward here as we participate in the worship of giving, and I'd I'd like to pray. God, I I thank you for your your triumph over sin, death, hell, and the grave, and because you overcame, we can too. And, I I pray, God, that we would not forget every spiritual blessing that you have given us.
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And thank you, of course, God, for our physical blessings, and this is a time to give. But I pray that we would remember both because every spiritual blessing that we experience, it just it invokes worship. It invokes praise. And I pray God that it would also in in invoke a heart that is just willing to give and to love freely just as you have loved us. In Jesus name, amen.
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Speaker 1Children are dismissed to go down to Peak Children's Church. Excuse me. And there they go. So if y'all are sitting in the back and you wanna come forward, that leaves a lot of holes in the congregation. You're welcome to come on forward.
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We are in a long, long range study of if of the New Testament actually. We started five years ago with the gospel of John. We studied the life of Jesus and the gospel of John and then we went into the life of the early church in the book of Acts. We have been progressing forward since then through the epistles in the order in which they were written. So we've covered a lot of ground.
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We're over two thirds of the way through. And for me, it's been a really fruitful time of just really digging in and systematically going through it. It also gives me the confidence of knowing that what I this is the first time I've ever done this. I don't know if you all knew that. Been doing it for five years, but it's the first time that I have done this.
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So it gives me the confidence of knowing I'm preaching what's there. I don't wanna hit hot button subjects, things that are particular for me, and I wanna just go through even handedly and present it as scripture presents it. So today, we find ourselves up to Ephesians five three through 16, which is a heavy duty passage. Alright? It's heavy duty in that it hits us right where we live life, all of us, where we live life.
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And so Ephesians five three through 16 is what we're gonna go through. It's drawn from a greater section of thought though, and I wanna call your attention to that. When I got to four seventeen, I said, starting at four seventeen, it goes almost to the end of the book and this is how to apply the theological truth of the first three chapters. Paul says, put off and put on verses 22 through 24, but that greater section of thought is really important and to meditate on those things would be really, really fruitful and helpful in your life. So Ephesians five three through 16, I'm gonna start off with the last Ephesians passage that I preached.
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Therefore, be imitators of God. And if you see a purple background, that's purple. It looks like lighter black in this room, but that's a purple background. If you see that purple background, it's gonna be something we've covered in our study already. Okay?
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Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love or be walking in love. It's a progressive verb. Be walking in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and a sacrifice to God. So these two commands lead off this passage. It's a part of that greater line of thought.
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So I ended with five one and two for the last passage. I'm beginning with it for this one. It's a command that leads the passage. It's a positive command to be imitating God. Act like you see God acting.
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He acts with grace. He acts with love. He acts with great care. So be imitating God and be walking in love, continually be walking in love. Those are the commands that lead the passage.
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And then we hit Ephesians three through 16, and it says, but sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you. This is a letter to Christians. It's a letter that was written to Christians in Ephesus and to us today. Sexual immorality and all impurity church or covetous must not even be named among you as is proper among the saints. Those are things that just don't fit.
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As is fitting is the way actually that the Greek reads, as is fitting among the saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joke joking which are out of place. He says as is proper, and then he says these things are out of place. So I hit that and I go, man, I usually stand up and I go, Christianity is not a list of dos and don'ts, and it's not. And the gospel is offered free, absolutely free.
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But when you are a believer in Jesus, there are things that are fitting and there are things that are not fitting. So this sermon is six don'ts and one do. Oh, if this thing doesn't click. There it is. Six don'ts.
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First thing he lists is sexual immorality. And we see that and it's a vague term. It's a broad term, but it's a fairly vague term. The term for that in Greek is porneia. Does that look familiar?
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Porneia. And I just used the real dictionary definition straight up from, I think it's Thayer's lexicon. The root of the English terms, pornography or pornographic, which is ever present in today's life. Do you all agree? It's everywhere, all the time.
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Which is derived from perneo, which is to sell off. Well, it's fitting that it would be selling things because nothing is sold without a little bit of pornography these days. Right? Whether you're selling cars or alcohol, it's always got some aspect of sexuality, it seems. So it's derived from perneo to sell off properly.
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It is a selling off or a surrendering of one's sexual purity. It's promiscuity of any and every type. But it's interesting in the way he presents it here and the way Paul presents it almost every time that he uses this word, I think I can make a case for it being premarital sexuality. It's premarital sex or any gratification of self before marriage. And you can see that in the contrasting term as marital unfaithfulness or adultery, moi kai.
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I'm going to hit this just as it is, straight out, present you the truth because I think everybody in the room's got something to deal with with six don'ts today. So I'm going to present the information, not hide, not try to run away, and not skip. That is a broad term, but I think if we look at these examples, which we've already covered, but because of the temptation towards sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife. It's saying, Mary. Each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.
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It goes on from there to say how the marital relationship should work. That's one of them. Matthew fifteen nineteen. I didn't cover it in my study, but Carl has been going forward in scripture also, and he he used the gospel of Matthew instead of John, starting out on Monday nights. And out of Matthew fifteen nineteen, Jesus is describing that it's not a lot of times in in marriage and in other resolution of conflict, people say, well, it's just communication.
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It's just communication. And Jesus kinda stops that thought, and he goes, actually, it's not communication. Your heart is desperately wicked, and out of the heart come evil thoughts and murder and adultery and sexual immorality. And it's right up against adultery, so it's saying it's somehow different. It is sex before or outside of marriage.
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Theft, false slander, false witness slander. These things are what defile a person. He's talking to the Pharisees. And often we see an escalating conflict with the Pharisees because they're not getting it, and they're trying to apply things in the wrong way, and Jesus says, actually what defiles you is what comes out of your mouth, what goes in, not about washing the cup. It is not about washing the hands.
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It's about what comes out of the mouth, and what comes out of the mouth is out of the overflow of the heart. Okay. So the last one is from one of those interchanges with the Pharisees. The Pharisees are fussing at him, and they're saying, we're of our father Abraham. And he said, you're not doing what Abraham did.
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Trust me. I know. And when he is kind of gaining ground in the argument, the Pharisees take on an ad hominem attack. They attack Jesus and this is how they do it. They say, we were not born of sexual immorality Or if you like the old RSV, King James, whatever, it's fornication.
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We were not born of fornication. Now you might think, what does that have to do with the price of tea in China? Why would they bring that up? That's not what the argument was even about. But what they're saying is, we were not born of fornication, but we know.
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We know where you came from. Your mom was not married, right? When she got pregnant. You were born in sexual immorality. We weren't.
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We have the upper hand in this argument because of that. They did not know what they're talking about. By the end of the paragraph, Jesus says, you're of your father, the devil. So I think that we can make a case from here that porneia stands for outside of marriage, premarital primarily sexual relations. I just love talking about this stuff.
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Can you tell? The six don't. This is just the second one, so y'all hold your breath. Impurity. Impurity is the next of these, and it is akatharsia.
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And if you look at that word in Greek, might think, oh, I recognize that. Catharsis, the word in English, catharsis, is a cleansing moment. Often it is when someone just breaks down and they break down into tears or they break down and they hit a place of complete surrender and that is known as a catharsis. It's a cleansing. Well, a catharsis like abnormal or amoral.
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A catharsia is uncleanness or impurity. It's the place of filthiness, ugliness. In this particular case, is sexual uncleanness. He starts it off with sexual immorality, but uncleanness or impurity. And if I had to make a case for what this one means, it is incredibly unpopular to say in our world today, but it is what it is.
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Impurity is another place that it's used is Romans one twenty four. Therefore, God gave them up into their lusts, the lust of their hearts, into impurity, into 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. Their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves a due penalty for their error. This is the very beginning of the great theological treatise of Romans where goddess, through Paul, saying, this is the way that it is.
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People resisted the truth of God. They shielded it. They hid from it. And if you resist and shield and hide from the truth of God, eventually it works itself out in having a reprobate mind. And this impurity points towards homosexuality as sin, as impurity.
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Now it's a broad term too, and it can be seen in more than just that, but it would be the more depraved acts of sexuality, abnormal sexuality. And I think that pornography, as rampant as it is in our society today, you can see the progression that happens. To begin with, a young person I used to probably would have said just guys before, but pornography is growing among women too. And so there is this place where it starts out with a little bit of, wow, she's not wearing much to, woah, she's naked to, but she's just still. And there then needs to be some movement there or life.
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And then beyond the act of just seeing that, it needs to go a little further and it needs to go a little further because isn't that the way sin is, any sin? If it's alcohol or drugs, people are chasing the very first high that they had, and that happens in the case of image as visual images, and that is impurity. And it is leading you to change the truth of God for a lie and to worship the creature rather than the creator. It's dangerous. I would say sexual immorality is premarital.
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Impurity is the more base or depraved sexuality. And I know that when I say that right now in our society, I know that there is an incredible resistance to that. Whatever anybody wants to do, that's up to them. That's true. That's also true for gossip.
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That's also true for theft. That's also true for lying. But all of those things are listed as sin in the Bible. And if we're gonna stand true to what it says, we have to say what it says. I'm trying to help.
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Covetousness. Covetousness, we can look on and say, covetousness is wishing or desiring that which you do not have, wanting that. In this case, I believe that it is sexual in nature. It is looking for more different, strange, bizarre, gratifying experiences that you do not currently have. Covetousness is looking for that.
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Pleonexia, covetousness or avarice. It is envy. It is looking for that which someone else has that you want, what they have. It may be in the sexual case, oh, rock stars. And actually, I will say the progression.
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If you look at famous peoples and powerful peoples, there is a tendency to go from a what we would consider a normal biblical view of sexuality and to get to be more and more and more extreme, and to get outside of the bounds of normal heterosexual contact, homosexual contact too, even further than that, and I hate to quote him but I will. Elton John, way back when when they asked him about his sexuality, first of all, he didn't think they should be asking because it's up to him. That's fine. I wouldn't ask him myself. But he said he drew the line at goats.
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Filthiness. Great segue. Filthiness is next. And I separated these two because these first three are actions that are deeds, and the second three I'm gonna talk about are primarily verbal. And so filthiness, the word is ice grown test, which is obscenity, indecency, or baseness.
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You can look at just about anything on television and see that. When I was a little kid I thought that my pastor was crazy because he didn't own a television. And maybe it's just because he was so busy. You know what I'm saying? That's what I thought.
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Maybe he's just so busy he doesn't have time to watch television because but he saw most of what was on television even then in the seventies as obscenity and decency or baseness. And I you can't watch anything today without it being in some way obscene and decent or bass. Do you agree with me? Filthiness is all around us all the time. So I don't think I need to explain that one any further.
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Foolish talk. This one is the word is morologia. You remember logi is like the biology is the study of bios life, and doxology is a word about glory. Doxology. This is morology from the word we get moron from.
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It's dull and lego speaking to a conclusion. Having a decisive word to say that is dull without an edge. Literally, it is foolish or moronic words. Speech that flows out of a dull, sluggish heart or mind that has lost its edge or grip on reality. This is the talk of fools.
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It involves foolishness and sinning together. Now it's funny he says sinning together because just below this, he's gonna go to a place that he says, do not be partakers with them. Sinning together. There's something in the South they don't say it as much anymore, but when I was little, it was like, Ray, don't be common. Like, it's something that everybody hears and goes, oh, that was kind of and it's funny.
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And it gives you that little bit of a, oh, that was a little bit out there. Like shock jocks, the people on radio who say things that are outlandish, and they've had to go further and further in how outlandish they have to be to get that little bit of a titillation. Right? The talk of fools involving foolishness or sinning together. And then the next one is crude joking.
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And I up here have to stand up and present whatever is said, and I have to tiptoe around double entendres every week. When I'm preparing to stand up here, I think, oh, I can't say that. Because if I say that, there's gonna be half the congregation that goes, that's what she said, in their head. Right? When I am going through and I'm thinking about the words I'm gonna put for one of these little synopsis, this is the bumper sticker.
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You can remember, I have to look at it from every different direction to make sure it's not in some way crude. It's a shame that I have to do that, right? Crude joking is all around us all the time. It is part of the culture that we live in to just be crude, and especially at other people's expense. When someone is gracious and helpful and loving and generous toward other people, it stands out because it's not common today.
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It's not normal today to be like that. Crude joking. Eutrapelia is what this comes from. Low jesting or ribaldry, ready wit or coarse jesting. Now where the moronic or foolish talk was talking about from a dull mind, this one is based on two Greek words, eu is which is good, like eulogy is a good word.
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Eurythmics is good rhythm for those of you who were children in the eighties. Entrepo, which is to turn. So something that is easily turning. They take whatever is said and they can spin it to be funny, nimble witted, witty, or sharp, and they usually do it to other people's downgrading. Does that make sense?
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So I'm always talking about balance. I've worn a rug out up here walking back and forth. And so on the one hand he's saying don't be this dull moronic mind, and on the other he's saying and don't use your wit to sharply cut someone else down. So there's a balance between those two. Even if you think it, don't say it.
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How about that? Chuck Spurgeon. I like Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and I know that the words are really small. I want you to listen to this though. He's speaking in this to preachers.
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He's writing a commentary about Ephesians, and he's written a lot of other things. I pulled this up from just looking at what he had to say because levity is the word they used to use. And nowadays, I think of injecting levity into a situation as being a good thing. When there's something hard that I have to talk about up here, I try to do it with enough humor so you can sit there. Right?
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Chuck Spurgeon from long ago, 1800, says, we must, and some of us especially must, conquer our tendency toward levity. A great distinction exists between a holy cheerfulness, which is a virtue, and that of general or common levity, which is a vice. There is a levity which has not enough heart to laugh, but it trifles with everything. It is flippant, hollow, and unreal. Have you all watched much stand up comedy lately?
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Oh my goodness. They're so flippant with the sacred that they turn it profane. Not everyone. I know we have some members of the laugh staff who are here, and they work with all their might against the crowd most nights to not go blue, not to go there. They work on not doing that.
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And I and I thank you for doing that. I appreciate it. He goes on to say, flippant, hollow, unreal. He goes on to say this, a hearty laugh is no more levity than a hearty cry. I speak of that religious veneering which is pretentious but thin, it's superficial and insincere about the weightiest of matters.
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And what we're talking about, human sexuality today, is the weightiest of matters. We don't get here without it. We don't continue without it. It is a gift from God. It's the weightiest of matters.
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Godliness is no just nor is it just a mere form. Beware of being actors or Jesus would say hypocrites. Never give earnest men the impression that you do not mean what you say and are just mere professionals. To be burning at the lip and freezing at the soul is a mark of reprobation. If you're able to say one thing and believe something completely different, God deliver us from being either superfine or superficial.
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May we never be the butterflies of the garden of God. I get to read stuff like that all week. So those are the six don'ts. And against those six don'ts, he lists only one do. Now he says, but instead, let there be thanksgiving.
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I'm glad I got a name, man. When I saw it, I said, what? One do. Thanksgiving against those six very heavy don'ts. Why Thanksgiving or why gratitude?
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If you're studying it and you're looking at it and you and you look at it, you might wanna do this. If I'm standing up here preaching instead of sexual immorality, put on sexual morality. Put off impurity and put on purity and that would make a great, you know, parallel kind of sermon right there. Covetousness is wanting what you don't have, but contentment is being thankful for what oh, there it comes in right there. It's being thankful for what you do have.
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Gratitude. And I could go filthiness cleanliness. Foolish talk is positive communication, uplifting humor rather than crude jesting or joking. But why gratitude? It's because it's drawn from this greater section of thought.
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Right? He's already told us this. Put off your old self which belongs to the former manner of life. It is corrupt through its deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds and put on the new self which is created after the likeness of God, and it is true righteousness. So it's deceit and the deceit of sexuality we see every day, but that's not true.
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It is not fulfilling. It does not satisfy, but the truth of God does. The truth of God's gift the way he gave it does. God in true righteousness and in holiness, it's being called out from the common into the divine. So putting off these and putting on Thanksgiving, gratitude versus gratification.
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Have you all noticed the pattern of gratification? I mentioned it quickly earlier. There are also in the audience. There are some folks that got married like day before yesterday, and there are some folks that I'm going to marry tomorrow. And if I have one session with someone, I usually don't start with sexuality.
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I start with forgiveness. Everything can be forgiven, and God offers forgiveness full and free. It is something that has to come up. It is something that needs to be talked about. I'm looking for something.
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So gratification. Which is more important to you? Having what you want or really wanting that which you already have? Having what you want is all about feeding gratification. So an addictive cycle begins.
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You want a new blank or better blank, whatever it is. This is about covetousness. You get it. You feel a temporary feeling of gratification, whether it's a new iPhone, new car, new whatever, younger wife. You feel a temporary and fading feeling of gratification.
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The feeling in three begins to fade even faster the further you are from that moment. The feeling is replaced by a desire for even more gratification, so you start looking for or desiring a new thing. And then you get it. You get temporary gratification, more emptiness, and need of more. And you keep on repeating that for life, and the sum total of this is short bursts of apparent happiness, but overall there's a feeling of emptiness and a longing for something more.
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Really wanting what you have is gratitude, being thankful for it. Have any of y'all ever cursed a blue streak when you were really thankful for what you had? I knew a guy in seminary that had learned that when he dropped something on his toe instead of cursing, he would recite an imprecatory psalm. He was thinking the same thing. He was thankful that he had a god that would heal, that would get him through it, and he wanted to make that apparent because he didn't want anybody around him to just hear him being common base.
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And you might say, yeah, but that's being real. It is being real. But what God has called us out of is real. To really real, the divine reality that he's offering is not this commonplace life full of temporary gratification. So we still have a lot more verses left.
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I'm gonna go through them faster because I think you got the idea of what it's about, I think every one of us has got something to deal with and these six don'ts. So here we go. Why why he uses gratitude instead of hitting them? Because he could have hit them with covetousness. He said commandment number 10, thou shalt not covet.
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But when you do that, you set up that chain of, oh, I gotta I gotta concentrate. I gotta concentrate all my effort on not doing that, not doing that, not doing that because it's thou shalt not. Oh, it's outside authority. He's speaking to Christians who already believe in Christ and already have the Holy Spirit in their life and already have the power available. He's speaking to you.
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He's not trying to hit you with a law that you know that you've already failed on. He's trying to say, this is bad for you. This backs you up and brings you further away. It also hurts the kingdom. So wouldn't it be better to just be thankful for the wife that you have or the husband that you have?
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Wouldn't it be better to appreciate your singleness instead of longing for everything the Internet has to offer? Now after that, he goes straight to this. For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater. He adds a little bit more to the picture by throwing idolatry out there. He lists that and then says, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
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Now we've talked about a binary function. Either you are in your sins or you are in Christ, and we've talked about the practice which is more gray in the middle that we're walking towards one or the other, and we're always walking towards one or the other. There's no neutral there. A wooden translation of this one, I like this better, is this. This indeed you know, Christians, you know this already, ascertaining that any ascertaining that any fornicator or unclean person or covetous man because that makes it about the person.
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How are they defined? They're defined by their sin in all three of these cases, defined by being a fornicator. That is listing them as in sin. What defines you? Is it your sin, or is it Christ?
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Paul's argument he's making here is if it's Christ, then be walking that way. Be walking towards him. Don't be an idolater, and I spelled that wrong. I just realized. Idolater is someone who puts anything, absolutely anything in the place that God deserves.
51:28
So if you remove God from the throne and you put sexuality on that throne, impurity, or just the wanting for what other people have, you have become an idolater, and you have no inheritance in the kingdom of God. Can you lose your salvation? This is not answering that question. This is saying evaluate self. Look at yourself and see how it is that you live life.
52:01
You have the power to put off and put on. You've already been given that believer. If you don't believe in Jesus, you are powerless against sin. You will die in your sins. You will spend eternity separated from God.
52:18
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things, the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Are there plenty of people speaking empty words every day going, that preacher doesn't have any idea what he's talking about. Religion is the opiate of the masses. And as it turns out, opium is the opiate of the masses. Have y'all heard about the opium problem?
52:40
Let no one deceive you with empty words. The culture that you live in is evil. Do not become partakers with them or partners with them in this. For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.
53:04
And does that sound like anything we've heard before? Ephesians two, the theological base for everything he's saying in four through six. And and you, you are dead in your trespasses and sin in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that's now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom 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, but God. Thank you, Lord. Being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ.
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It is by grace that you've been saved. Amen. Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Can you do that? Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.
53:58
We hit up against gray areas. Not all not all situations are as easy as do this instead of that. Try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Ask him. Ask him.
54:08
You have the spirit living inside of you, and he can and will direct. Listen to the still small voice. Seven says, don't become partakers with them or partners with them. And if I if I change a word up here, I'm adding to what's up there. Just a different way of saying it.
54:25
Partner, partaker. The the word partaker is probably better, but partners flow better in English. So I'm not I I can read. Okay? I'm not I'm not misreading it.
54:34
Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness because they leave you wanting more, and it's temporary. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them for it's shameful to even speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed, and by that it may be going to your best friend and saying, I have a problem that I can't get out of. I've never told anybody about it. I need for you to trust me and love me and help me through this.
55:07
Anything that's exposed by the light, it becomes visible. For anything that becomes visible is light, and therefore it says, awake, oh sleeper, and arise from the dead and Christ will shine upon you. Paul has taken several Old Testament quotes, putting them together, and saying that if you will wake up and turn to Christ, he will shine upon you. This reminds me of a Spanish idiom for those of you who there are a few Spanish teachers in here. Are folks that love it.
55:32
And I love this saying. And all you have to say is the front part of it in Spanish and they know exactly what you mean. Speak of the devil. Here in English, we say speak of the devil and you know somebody's just walked in that you were just talking about. A Spanish idiom is The shrimp that sleeps will be carried away by the Does it sound ridiculous in English?
55:59
The shrimp that sleeps will be carried away by the current. This is a constant swimming. The current is flowing that way. Okay? This is a constant swimming and it requires you to be vigilant.
56:13
He says, awake or arise, oh sleeper. Arise and Christ will shine upon you. He's promised that he would. Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time. This sounds a lot like one of the portions of Colossians.
56:37
The last part of Colossians, he says the same thing, redeeming the time, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. The current in which you currently live is evil, and we should be swimming against it for all that we're worth in Christ. In Jesus' name. Amen. I think that's it.
56:59
Carl, would you come up? Bam, would you come up? Y'all can stand with us. We're gonna sing a song called Your Grace Is Enough.
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Speaker 2Yes. And amen for grace. Yeah? Would you agree? Can we pray together?
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God, I pray that you would take this word and let it be make a deep impression on us, God. Would it would you continue to let it work on us throughout this week? Would you continually move us out of darkness and into light to be continually thankful for what you have given us. Let it let it right there be that sweet spot of life that we are in. In Jesus' name.
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Amen. You wrestle with us sinners hard. You lead us by still waters and still mercy. And nothing can keep us apart. So remember, so remember your people.
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Remember your children. Remember your promise, oh, God. Your graces. Your grace is enough. Your grace is enough.
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Your grace is enough for me. Great is your love. Great is your love and justice, God. In name name the your children. Remember And your promise, oh, Your grace is enough.
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Your grace is enough. Your grace is enough for me. Let's sing that again. Your grace is. Grace is enough.
1:00:04
Your grace is
1:00:23
Speaker 1is this, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts since as members of one body you are called to peace and be thankful. But as I was as we were going through the grace right there, I thought of this poem that I brought and I was gonna use earlier, and I resisted. Would you listen to this? Especially the end. This guy was a French cleric, and he wrote this very, very personally.
1:00:47
He wrote a prayer and then he wrote God's response to that prayer. Okay? Okay. I have fallen, Lord, once more. The name of it is sin, by the way.
1:01:00
I have fallen, Lord, once more. I can't go on. I'll never succeed. I am ashamed. I don't dare look at you, and yet I struggle, Lord, for I knew that you were right near me.
1:01:11
You were bending over me watching, 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 love 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, found myself alone and ashamed, disgusted with my sin in my hands. This sin that I selected the way a customer makes his purchase, this sin that I've paid for and cannot return for the storekeeper is no longer there, this tasteless sin, this odorless sin, this sin that sickens me, that I have wanted but I want no more, that I have imagined, that I have sought, that I've played with, that I've fondled for a long time, that I have finally embraced while turning coldly away from you, Lord, my arms out stretched, my eyes and my heart irresistibly drawn.
1:02:12
The sin that I've grasped and consumed with gluttony, it's mine now. But it possesses me as the spider web holds captive the gnat. It is mine. It sticks to me. It flows in my veins.
1:02:23
It fills my heart. It has slipped in everywhere as darkness slips into the forest at dusk and fills all the patches of light. I can't get rid of it. I run from it the way one tries to lose a stray dog, but it catches up with me and it bounds joyfully against my legs. Everyone else must notice it.
1:02:43
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 of myself, and one can't think of several persons at once. One must choose, and I chose.
1:03:00
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. I'm dirty.
1:03:10
I'm down. I'm shattered with no strength left. I dare make you no more promises. I can only lie bowed before you. And then God's response is the reason I'm reading this.
1:03:20
Okay? Come, son. Look up. Isn't it mainly your vanity that's wounded? If you love me, you would grieve, but you would trust.
1:03:28
Do you think there's any limit to God's love? Do you think there's a moment that I stop loving you? But you're still relying on yourself, son. You must rely on me, on my grace. Ask my pardon and get up quickly.
1:03:41
You see, it's not falling that is the worst, but it's staying on the ground. Amen. Amen.
