WEBVTT 00:00:03.766 --> 00:00:13.211 So today, I want us to take a look and begin it in Genesis, chapter 3, and if you want to get your Bible ready, or watch up here, we're going to pray and we'll get right into it. 00:00:13.211 --> 00:00:20.062 So, father, we're just grateful to be here together, all together in one place, and so we don't discount that. 00:00:20.062 --> 00:00:31.507 Lord for what you want to do, lord today in each of our hearts, lord for what you want to do, lord today in each of our hearts, we ask you, holy Spirit, even now, lord, that you'd be glorified, the Holy Spirit, you would glorify Jesus. 00:00:31.507 --> 00:00:35.052 Lord, you'd open up your word and teach us. 00:00:35.052 --> 00:00:36.414 That's what you say. 00:00:36.414 --> 00:00:37.137 You will do so. 00:00:37.137 --> 00:00:46.170 Open our minds and our hearts and our understanding to receive your word, and may it transform us for your glory, in Jesus' name, amen. 00:00:46.170 --> 00:00:53.332 Well, let's look in Genesis, chapter 3, and we're going to look at verses 6 through 13 and begin right there. 00:00:53.332 --> 00:00:54.039 It says so. 00:00:54.079 --> 00:01:10.632 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. 00:01:10.632 --> 00:01:19.751 Then the eyes of both were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. 00:01:19.751 --> 00:01:32.820 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 00:01:32.820 --> 00:01:37.390 But the Lord called to the man and said to him where are you? 00:01:37.390 --> 00:01:45.775 And he said I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. 00:01:45.775 --> 00:01:48.281 He said who told you that you were naked? 00:01:48.281 --> 00:01:52.409 Have you eaten of the tree of which I command you not to eat? 00:01:52.409 --> 00:01:56.665 The man said the woman, whom you gave to be with me. 00:01:56.665 --> 00:01:59.251 She gave me fruit of the tree and I ate. 00:01:59.251 --> 00:02:03.484 Then the Lord God said to the woman what is this that you have done? 00:02:03.484 --> 00:02:07.453 The woman said the serpent deceived me and I ate. 00:02:09.300 --> 00:02:18.319 And one of the greatest challenges that we face as Christians and in the life of the church, I believe, is how to deal with our desires. 00:02:18.319 --> 00:02:28.429 This passage is about the desires of the man and woman at the beginning and if you look at that passage, there's nothing inherently wrong with food and beauty and wisdom. 00:02:28.429 --> 00:02:40.614 But as St Augustine said, he said sin comes when we takea perfectly natural desire or longing or ambition and try desperately to fulfill it without God. 00:02:40.614 --> 00:02:46.932 Not only is it sin, it is a perverse distortion of the image of the Creator in us. 00:02:46.932 --> 00:02:54.334 All these good things and all our security are rightly found only and completely in Him. 00:02:54.334 --> 00:02:58.748 And you see, as we go through this, we consider Adam and Eve's story. 00:02:58.868 --> 00:03:03.192 As John last week told us that we were created for community, we're made for it. 00:03:03.192 --> 00:03:09.389 There came the fall and then God comes along and he's going to do something significant to change all that. 00:03:09.389 --> 00:03:19.602 You see, on our own, we're relentlessly self-focused people and we tend to be that way simply because of our fallen condition. 00:03:19.602 --> 00:03:22.487 And we don't really want to be, if we're honest. 00:03:22.487 --> 00:03:28.269 We don't want to be discovered for who we really are, and so we hide, just like Adam and Eve. 00:03:28.269 --> 00:03:31.568 But thankfully, god doesn't leave us where we are. 00:03:32.620 --> 00:03:35.699 God uses community to do some things in our lives. 00:03:35.699 --> 00:03:50.951 He uses community to expose our sin, to invite us to believe the gospel which Tyler clearly presented to us today, and he uses it to allow us to work change gospel which Tyler clearly presented to us today, and he uses it to allow, to work change in our lives, and that doesn't come in any other way. 00:03:50.951 --> 00:03:56.651 It brings change more deeply to our attitudes, our values, our words, our actions. 00:03:56.651 --> 00:03:58.638 And what is he doing? 00:03:58.638 --> 00:04:05.579 He's calling us out of hiding into the light of his glory, and that's what I want to talk to you about today. 00:04:05.579 --> 00:04:10.116 So today we're going to talk about how the gospel shapes us in community. 00:04:10.116 --> 00:04:11.781 That's the title of the message this morning. 00:04:11.781 --> 00:04:13.344 So think about it. 00:04:13.384 --> 00:04:39.821 Desire is a really it's a very powerful force in our lives, and I think it's the core of why we sometimes act like we do in church and in our society, in our workplaces, in our marriages, and our desire sometimes gets the best of us, and the reason we get into trouble is because our desires simply are not aligned with the desires of God, and the enemy deceives us in that way. 00:04:39.821 --> 00:04:40.641 So let's look at it. 00:04:40.641 --> 00:04:45.148 There are three things I want to focus on, three big ways of looking at this this morning. 00:04:45.148 --> 00:04:48.913 The first one is this our desires distort reality. 00:04:48.913 --> 00:04:53.124 Our desires distort reality Looking back at Genesis 3, what happened? 00:04:53.124 --> 00:05:01.411 Satan appealed to their desires, and that's how he still operates to deceive us today, even though we have the gospel. 00:05:01.411 --> 00:05:08.423 The enemy still works in our desires and through our desires to deceive us and to cause us to miss what God has for us. 00:05:08.964 --> 00:05:29.295 You know, this past Friday I went with some friends out to a restaurant and after we got finished with the meal I went up and got ready to pay the bill and talked to the man paid my bill and I was looking as he was getting the register and getting it finished, there was on the wall a $20 bill taped up on the wall. 00:05:29.295 --> 00:05:35.713 It was just taped right there and I looked a little closer and it said on the bill not good. 00:05:35.713 --> 00:05:38.346 And I thought hmm. 00:05:38.346 --> 00:05:40.002 And so I asked the man. 00:05:40.002 --> 00:05:41.286 I said is that a counterfeit? 00:05:41.286 --> 00:05:42.430 He said yeah, it is. 00:05:42.430 --> 00:05:45.389 So I got up closer because it looked just like the real thing. 00:05:45.389 --> 00:05:47.757 I mean, I was like I couldn't tell the difference. 00:05:47.757 --> 00:05:51.045 And so I got up a little closer, saw the words more clearly not good. 00:05:51.045 --> 00:05:53.531 And I couldn't tell at all. 00:05:53.531 --> 00:05:54.699 I don't know how they picked it up. 00:05:54.699 --> 00:05:55.480 So I asked the guy. 00:05:55.480 --> 00:05:57.141 I said how did you know? 00:05:57.141 --> 00:05:59.283 He said fill the paper. 00:05:59.283 --> 00:06:00.983 And I began I put my fingers up there and felt it. 00:06:00.983 --> 00:06:04.024 And I began I put my fingers up there and felt it and I thought that's different. 00:06:04.024 --> 00:06:05.225 But boy is it subtle. 00:06:05.225 --> 00:06:08.247 Boy is it subtle and in the same way. 00:06:08.288 --> 00:06:16.232 That's the way the enemy works with us to make us think we have something that has value in it, and yet it's a deception. 00:06:16.232 --> 00:06:27.658 It causes us to miss the reality and sometimes what we do is substitute counterfeits for the real thing, which is God. 00:06:27.658 --> 00:06:37.072 It's important to note, as we look at this, by the way, that the image of God following the fall was not destroyed, but it was distorted. 00:06:37.072 --> 00:06:40.505 We didn't lose it, it was marred by sin. 00:06:40.505 --> 00:06:43.648 And so there is that opportunity. 00:06:43.899 --> 00:06:58.947 As God takes note of what Adam and Eve did, he pursues them and their pursuit sort of opened up a Pandora's box, if you will, that they couldn't close on their own, and yet God wouldn't leave them as they were. 00:06:58.947 --> 00:07:03.923 And so he calls out to Adam and he says where are you? 00:07:03.923 --> 00:07:09.362 Of course, adam didn't know really where he was, but God knew where he was. 00:07:09.362 --> 00:07:13.194 He's God, right, but Adam didn't know where he was in relation to God. 00:07:13.194 --> 00:07:15.422 He had hidden among the trees. 00:07:15.422 --> 00:07:17.367 And God says where are you, adam? 00:07:17.367 --> 00:07:25.812 And he asked that question of us how far sometimes we get away from the presence of God and we don't even realize where we are. 00:07:25.812 --> 00:07:26.682 Where are you? 00:07:26.682 --> 00:07:30.113 Where are you today in relation to God? 00:07:30.334 --> 00:07:38.603 Well, there's three significantly terrible things that come out of what happened, what occurred in the fall when they pursued their desires without God. 00:07:38.603 --> 00:07:44.172 The first one is this that the man and woman felt shame for their nakedness. 00:07:44.172 --> 00:07:45.314 That's what it says. 00:07:45.314 --> 00:07:49.120 They were naked and they felt shame. 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:53.331 They weren't safe with each other anymore, and so we've all experienced that. 00:07:53.331 --> 00:08:14.122 You know, we think about people who might see us when we're most vulnerable and we don't want to share the things that are close to us, and we're afraid of what might happen if we did share, and they might say something that was really devastating and would make this wound never really get healed in this relationship. 00:08:14.122 --> 00:08:15.326 Go on in this way. 00:08:15.326 --> 00:08:16.728 That makes it terrible. 00:08:16.728 --> 00:08:20.016 So they felt shame for their nakedness. 00:08:20.100 --> 00:08:27.605 Second thing happened is that the man and the woman feel fear for their vulnerability Fear for their vulnerability. 00:08:27.605 --> 00:08:29.730 So what do they do? 00:08:29.730 --> 00:08:34.269 They hide themselves from one another and they use what do they say fig leaves to cover. 00:08:34.269 --> 00:08:36.384 Have you ever seen a fig leaf? 00:08:36.384 --> 00:09:00.201 It's really small, deceptively small, and what we use to cover ourselves in our sin sometimes is just a facade, it really doesn't do the job, and though we think it will make things better, we hide just like they hid. 00:09:00.201 --> 00:09:01.403 They hid in the trees. 00:09:02.285 --> 00:09:06.513 And, notably, this is the very first mention of fear in the Bible. 00:09:06.513 --> 00:09:07.754 Don't miss that. 00:09:07.754 --> 00:09:13.131 Where fear begins is out of the presence of God. 00:09:13.131 --> 00:09:22.370 So the third thing we see not only shame and fear, but the man and woman blame God and others for their sin. 00:09:22.370 --> 00:09:23.946 Boy, this is a big one, isn't it? 00:09:23.946 --> 00:09:34.072 Walt Brueggemann, in his commentary on Genesis, says this the speech of the indicted couple is revealing, for it is all I. 00:09:34.072 --> 00:09:37.121 Therein lies the primal offense. 00:09:37.121 --> 00:09:37.962 I heard. 00:09:37.962 --> 00:09:47.015 I was afraid I was naked, I hid, I ate, and the woman says I ate. 00:09:47.015 --> 00:09:50.903 Their own speech indicts them. 00:09:50.903 --> 00:09:52.528 He says so. 00:09:52.528 --> 00:09:53.549 It's a clear focus. 00:09:53.549 --> 00:10:04.227 It's clear that their focus has moved away from the God who called them to a paradise, to a focus on themselves, a preoccupation with themselves. 00:10:05.308 --> 00:10:15.216 And so I want us to sort of apply this idea of community into the church today, and I want us to begin with a couple of key distinctions here. 00:10:15.216 --> 00:10:25.653 This is in your book, if you've read it, but how we often view community, if you will, and it's between two words, between what is called functional and formative community. 00:10:25.653 --> 00:10:31.807 I put a couple of diagrams up here and the first one is about functional. 00:10:31.807 --> 00:10:33.125 What is functional community? 00:10:33.125 --> 00:10:42.110 Functional community you look at the diagram, you see the man who is at the center of the circle and you've got people waiting on him serving him. 00:10:42.580 --> 00:10:54.671 And functional community is our view of ourselves, with ourselves at the center, and we value relationships, knowingly or unknowingly, for how well they function to serve and fulfill our needs. 00:10:54.671 --> 00:10:57.427 And we come to church for that. 00:10:57.427 --> 00:10:59.666 What do they do for me? 00:10:59.666 --> 00:11:05.907 And if they don't function well or they aren't meeting my needs, I really have no need for them. 00:11:05.907 --> 00:11:10.549 And that's the dominant worldview in our culture, isn't it? 00:11:10.549 --> 00:11:14.027 It's all about me, it's all about me and my values. 00:11:14.027 --> 00:11:31.908 So the driving force that sometimes we capture in our own thinking is that we are looking for meaning and purpose and significance and we'll do just about anything to get it, including go outside of God's will. 00:11:33.279 --> 00:11:36.289 Problems and struggles and relationships result in what? 00:11:36.289 --> 00:11:39.770 And I've seen this and you've seen it in fighting or fleeing. 00:11:39.770 --> 00:11:48.090 How many people that I've seen come into churches I've served, who are here for a moment and the least little thing and they're gone. 00:11:48.090 --> 00:11:51.990 They're hurt, get hurt, feeling someone says something and they're gone. 00:11:51.990 --> 00:11:57.028 Someone didn't pay attention to them or didn't meet their needs because it was all about them. 00:11:57.028 --> 00:12:00.500 We're going to find that this is an important thing to consider. 00:12:00.500 --> 00:12:10.392 All of that reflects unbelief on my part in the power of Christ in me to stay and let God do a work that he couldn't do outside of community. 00:12:11.135 --> 00:12:19.056 Now let's contrast that with another way we can view community, and this is the way God desires us to think, and it's called formative community. 00:12:19.056 --> 00:12:21.144 This is about spiritual formation. 00:12:21.144 --> 00:12:25.166 And so now, instead of man being at the center, what do we see? 00:12:25.166 --> 00:12:26.331 Formative community? 00:12:26.331 --> 00:12:27.154 Let me bring that one up. 00:12:27.154 --> 00:12:30.788 Who is at the center? 00:12:30.788 --> 00:12:48.091 Christ is at the center, and so I value relationships in my life as part of what God's will is for me, what it means to change me and remake me to reflect His image. 00:12:48.091 --> 00:12:49.759 It's spiritual formation. 00:12:49.980 --> 00:12:53.490 So problems and struggles in relationships what are they seen as? 00:12:53.490 --> 00:12:56.549 They're not something to run away from or fight against. 00:12:56.549 --> 00:13:15.722 They're seen as an opportunity to change me, and so we come with that in mind to believe the promises of the gospel more than the problems that I struggle with, and to let the Holy Spirit begin to work and make changes and adjustments in our life that actually make me look just like Christ. 00:13:15.722 --> 00:13:20.572 By and by, to look just like Christ, you say well, wait a minute. 00:13:20.572 --> 00:13:21.173 I thought. 00:13:21.700 --> 00:13:25.248 I thought the hospital and I've heard it before it's a hospital for sinners. 00:13:25.248 --> 00:13:29.504 Yeah, it is, but you don't want to stay in the hospital forever, do you? 00:13:29.504 --> 00:13:32.773 None of us wants to be in the hospital forever. 00:13:32.773 --> 00:13:37.145 Maybe a day or two, but if we stay there a long time, we wish we were out of there. 00:13:37.145 --> 00:13:49.682 And so sometimes we can live in that state that I am being served and my needs are being met, I'm getting people to work on me and it's all about me. 00:13:49.682 --> 00:14:00.535 And I'm in the hospital, and I will grant you that there are times when we've been so hurt by places we've been that we need some time just to heal. 00:14:00.535 --> 00:14:02.922 But you don't stay there forever. 00:14:02.922 --> 00:14:04.947 You don't stay there forever. 00:14:04.947 --> 00:14:09.825 And the problem is and the Bible talks about it like this the problem calls it the flesh. 00:14:09.825 --> 00:14:14.553 Now, he's not talking about your skin and bones, he's talking about the self-life. 00:14:14.553 --> 00:14:23.274 And Paul, in Romans 5, describes it Romans 8, verses 5 through 8, he describes it as a mindset. 00:14:23.274 --> 00:14:40.249 A mindset the mindset on the flesh, he says, is death, but the mindset on the spirit is life and peace in Christ Jesus, and so our desires often distort reality because we're typically focused on ourselves. 00:14:40.249 --> 00:14:43.201 Now I want to kind of give you an illustration of this. 00:14:43.241 --> 00:14:44.245 I love one of this movie. 00:14:44.245 --> 00:14:44.866 Maybe you've seen it. 00:14:44.866 --> 00:14:46.772 It's called called what about Bob. 00:14:46.772 --> 00:14:57.049 And what about Bob is a movie about a guy who is dreadfully fearful of just about everything, and so he stays inside alone to himself. 00:14:57.049 --> 00:15:10.799 He never gets out because his fears have so co-opted his ability to be in community, and he comes to see the doctor to get the things resolved. 00:15:10.799 --> 00:15:13.590 And so watch this clip and then we'll talk about it here in a moment. 00:15:13.590 --> 00:15:21.811 Bob is a lot like us at times. 00:15:21.811 --> 00:15:26.125 I need, I need right, because it's all about us. 00:15:26.125 --> 00:15:29.020 You know, it's interesting as you go. 00:15:29.020 --> 00:15:38.600 Later in this movie Bob has gone to the seraphs because he's fearful and he's needy and he's a little crazy. 00:15:38.600 --> 00:15:48.748 But by and by, by, a little bit further into the movie, bob slowly steps away and out of his problems, out of his darkness, and at one point in the movie Bob has gotten to be a little bit better and he's began. 00:15:48.748 --> 00:15:58.668 He goes to this place to get healed, a facility, and it shows this scene where all the doctors and nurses are surrounding him and he is telling jokes. 00:15:58.668 --> 00:16:03.804 He's holding them in the palm of his hand and he says Roses are red, violets are blue. 00:16:03.804 --> 00:16:05.831 I'm a schizophrenic, and so am I. 00:16:05.831 --> 00:16:24.110 By the end of the movie, though, bob is healed of his social anxiety and he sort of makes his therapist crazy, or at least reveals that he's got an anger problem. 00:16:26.140 --> 00:16:30.211 But this is the way that the Holy Spirit wants to use the church. 00:16:30.211 --> 00:16:33.630 You see, our biggest problem, folks, is ourselves. 00:16:33.630 --> 00:16:41.578 Our desires distort reality, and so we ask them what is the real source of our problems? 00:16:41.578 --> 00:16:46.697 The Bible teaches us and this is our second point our desires are rooted in the heart. 00:16:46.697 --> 00:16:49.724 In other words, it all begins from within. 00:16:49.724 --> 00:16:53.730 So James 1, let's look at that. 00:16:53.730 --> 00:17:01.551 James 1, 14 and 15 says but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. 00:17:01.551 --> 00:17:09.993 Then desire, when it is conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. 00:17:10.420 --> 00:17:18.347 And notice, james says four things about desire here that I think will help us as we consider how we need to live in community together. 00:17:18.347 --> 00:17:21.141 The first thing he says is desire is personal. 00:17:21.141 --> 00:17:25.868 Each person is tempted by his own desire. 00:17:25.868 --> 00:17:29.815 See, temptations are tailor-made. 00:17:29.815 --> 00:17:37.767 What is tempting for me might not be tempting for you, and what that person struggles with might not be what you struggle with. 00:17:37.767 --> 00:17:39.191 And so what do we have to do? 00:17:39.191 --> 00:17:40.761 We have to give each other grace. 00:17:40.761 --> 00:17:49.248 Because we're not struggling with it Doesn't mean someone else isn't, and so our desires often lead us into temptation. 00:17:49.248 --> 00:17:52.013 And but from there it's because of the deception. 00:17:52.013 --> 00:18:01.102 And so these inner longings that we have and we all have them tend to pull us away from the Lord, and that's what happens, not only does our personal. 00:18:01.122 --> 00:18:04.050 He says a second thing that desire is powerful. 00:18:04.050 --> 00:18:05.582 It's powerful. 00:18:05.582 --> 00:18:07.669 He is lured and enticed. 00:18:07.669 --> 00:18:08.922 You say, how does that happen? 00:18:08.922 --> 00:18:12.089 He uses two metaphors here, from fishing and hunting. 00:18:12.089 --> 00:18:24.973 Fishing is like you know, you have a lure that is dangled out there for the fish, and Satan puts out there in front of you that what he knows is going to get you, what is going to get your attention. 00:18:24.973 --> 00:18:28.727 And I believe, as we've said before, I think Satan must study us. 00:18:28.727 --> 00:18:33.848 He knows what our Achilles heel is and he knows how to get our attention. 00:18:33.848 --> 00:18:39.290 And so there is that idea, that metaphor of a lure, and he also talks about a fishing. 00:18:39.290 --> 00:18:46.092 It's almost like he's saying that Satan not only lures us, but he traps us and we get caught up in it. 00:18:46.653 --> 00:18:50.287 And the cycle of our sin doesn't just stop with one little thing. 00:18:50.287 --> 00:18:53.933 It goes over and over and over till we're caught up in it. 00:18:53.933 --> 00:18:58.607 So what begins as a casual glance turns into an affair. 00:18:58.607 --> 00:19:05.989 What is said to us as a slight becomes a root of bitterness that grows up in us and we need to forgive. 00:19:05.989 --> 00:19:09.361 So desire is personal, it's powerful. 00:19:09.361 --> 00:19:12.546 And then he says a third thing that desire is progressive. 00:19:12.546 --> 00:19:13.407 Look at it. 00:19:13.407 --> 00:19:21.226 He says then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. 00:19:21.226 --> 00:19:22.588 So the metaphor. 00:19:22.588 --> 00:19:30.853 He moves it to the imagery of the reproductive process and by it he reveals to us the cycle of sin. 00:19:30.853 --> 00:19:37.631 Notice, it's a secret of events, sequence of events that follows one after another. 00:19:37.631 --> 00:19:39.912 So we have inner cravings. 00:19:39.912 --> 00:19:44.250 Those inner cravings turn into some sinful action. 00:19:44.250 --> 00:19:47.470 As I said, it doesn't often end with that one thing. 00:19:47.470 --> 00:19:49.728 He wants to get us and trap us in it. 00:19:49.728 --> 00:19:55.423 It goes where we are caught up in that sinful action and becomes a sinful habit. 00:19:55.423 --> 00:19:59.050 And then that habit turns into a lifestyle if we're not careful. 00:19:59.050 --> 00:20:03.807 And so that inner craving turns to sinful action, and then he says it ends in death. 00:20:04.429 --> 00:20:08.344 Undesire can wreak havoc in your spiritual life. 00:20:08.344 --> 00:20:13.453 Desire is personal, it's powerful, it's progressive. 00:20:13.453 --> 00:20:15.868 Then he says a fourth thing desire is perilous. 00:20:15.868 --> 00:20:23.590 He says it brings forth death, and I think this can occur in both the physical and spiritual sense. 00:20:23.590 --> 00:20:26.380 You might say well, that can't be as a Christian. 00:20:26.380 --> 00:20:34.709 Well, james is talking to Christians here, and so, in some fashion, sin kills spiritual life. 00:20:34.709 --> 00:20:42.941 What is going on with us is shut down, and it doesn't mean that we're spiritually dead or that we can lose our salvation. 00:20:42.941 --> 00:20:57.694 What it means is that there is a loss of life in the spirit, and in some cases, sin can even result in physical death, and I can give you a number of scriptures that speak of that in the New Testament. 00:20:58.280 --> 00:21:00.208 Let's look at this idea, though, of desire. 00:21:00.208 --> 00:21:02.007 What does desire mean? 00:21:02.007 --> 00:21:14.131 The word desire refers to any intense longing for an improper object, that is, anything that gets in the way of our pursuit of God. 00:21:14.131 --> 00:21:18.640 An intense longing for an improper object. 00:21:18.640 --> 00:21:25.932 Do you have any longings today that you know hinder your pursuit of God? 00:21:25.932 --> 00:21:33.907 Think about that, and I would imagine all of us do, and the Holy Spirit will pinpoint those and say let's work on that. 00:21:33.907 --> 00:21:35.746 Let's work on that want. 00:21:35.746 --> 00:21:41.723 You know, judy had a scripture this morning that talks about the Lord is my shepherd. 00:21:41.723 --> 00:21:43.422 I shall not want, we're going to get there. 00:21:44.404 --> 00:21:51.372 But we have to understand the problem right that our desires can cause, can wreak havoc in our spiritual life. 00:21:51.372 --> 00:21:52.904 So what does that mean? 00:21:52.904 --> 00:21:53.703 The desires? 00:21:53.703 --> 00:21:54.005 Then? 00:21:54.005 --> 00:21:59.387 There's good news, because we're not trapped by our desires. 00:21:59.468 --> 00:22:02.032 The gospel brings us hope. 00:22:02.032 --> 00:22:08.551 There's good news in the gospel that Christians' desires are shaped by and for God. 00:22:08.551 --> 00:22:14.269 See, when you come to Christ, the Lord doesn't just reform you. 00:22:14.269 --> 00:22:18.426 You're not like Plato and he's going to shape you like a piece of Plato. 00:22:18.426 --> 00:22:20.070 Guess what he replaces you? 00:22:20.070 --> 00:22:32.483 He brings new life to you, he makes you a new creation, and so he's not just reforming the old you, he's creating a brand new you. 00:22:32.483 --> 00:22:39.067 That means that you are no longer subject to the power of sin and you're not defined by your past. 00:22:39.067 --> 00:22:42.388 So those people who say, well, that's just the way I am? 00:22:42.388 --> 00:22:44.407 No, not anymore if you're in Christ. 00:22:46.119 --> 00:23:03.152 Christ invites us out of that darkness and those things that we need to be pulled away from, and he brings us into fellowship with him, out of hiding, out of fear, and he brings us into a relationship with himself and with others who struggle just like we do. 00:23:03.152 --> 00:23:04.865 That's what the church is. 00:23:04.865 --> 00:23:08.029 When I talk about community, I'm not just talking about the Lions Club. 00:23:08.029 --> 00:23:17.755 You can go to a number of places and find fellowship, but there's no place like the church. 00:23:17.755 --> 00:23:22.230 When we're together, something special and spiritual happens. 00:23:22.230 --> 00:23:26.170 Folks, there's grace in this place and God is moving. 00:23:26.170 --> 00:23:31.011 And so when we come into the light of the community, he begins to change our desires. 00:23:31.011 --> 00:23:33.611 He gives us his desire and it says he gives us both the desire and the begins to change our desires. 00:23:33.611 --> 00:23:36.563 He gives us his desire and it says he gives us both the desire and the ability to do his will. 00:23:37.244 --> 00:23:38.448 Philippians 2.13,. 00:23:38.448 --> 00:23:44.928 So that the Christian life is really about becoming who we are in Christ. 00:23:44.928 --> 00:23:47.251 So he declares us righteous. 00:23:47.251 --> 00:23:48.434 That's justification. 00:23:48.434 --> 00:23:52.105 But you know what sanctification is, which is what we're talking about. 00:23:52.105 --> 00:23:54.952 It's actually him making you righteous. 00:23:54.952 --> 00:23:58.586 So he declares that that's judicial. 00:23:58.586 --> 00:23:59.805 That's the way he sees you. 00:23:59.805 --> 00:24:02.066 When he looks at you, he sees Christ. 00:24:02.066 --> 00:24:03.109 But guess what? 00:24:03.109 --> 00:24:04.685 We all struggle in many ways. 00:24:04.726 --> 00:24:23.228 The Scripture says and so sanctification requires the Holy Spirit to work on us, to change us and to make us into the image of Jesus, and of course, that doesn't mean that we won't struggle, does it? 00:24:23.228 --> 00:24:31.703 And a true saying goes like this you've heard it you do what you want to do, isn't that true? 00:24:31.703 --> 00:24:34.259 You do what you want to do, and so what we should do is ask God to teach us and change us and give us his wants. 00:24:34.259 --> 00:24:39.490 We should ask him to give us the desires that are Christ's desires. 00:24:39.490 --> 00:24:40.393 That's a great prayer. 00:24:40.393 --> 00:24:44.029 God, would you make my desires line up with your desires? 00:24:44.029 --> 00:24:54.587 And I'll tell you when we make that prayer, we can't just say, well, give it to me God, zap me and make me like Jesus. 00:24:54.587 --> 00:25:05.213 No, we'll have to go to war with our desires to fight for that, to make it happen, we surrender ourselves and we cooperate with the Holy Spirit. 00:25:05.213 --> 00:25:06.060 Because why? 00:25:06.060 --> 00:25:11.922 Because it remains in our body, that old, unredeemed self called the flesh, as I talked about. 00:25:11.922 --> 00:25:17.226 It's still out there trying to pull us back into the old life, that's the dead life. 00:25:17.226 --> 00:25:23.230 And he calls us out of death into the kingdom of his beloved son. 00:25:23.230 --> 00:25:25.114 And we do that. 00:25:25.114 --> 00:25:31.106 When we receive Christ by faith, the Holy Spirit moves in and he begins to work to change us. 00:25:32.799 --> 00:25:35.669 John Piper tells a humorous story. 00:25:35.669 --> 00:25:39.932 He makes it up, but it's a story about celebrating his wife's 45th anniversary. 00:25:39.932 --> 00:25:48.461 And he fronts the story with a question he asked what should motivate a guy to bring flowers to his wife on their anniversary. 00:25:48.461 --> 00:25:59.942 So he says I bring my wife a bunch of a big bundle of daisies and I ring the doorbell, go to the door, ring the doorbell and my wife comes to the door and she says, oh, he whips out the daisies. 00:25:59.942 --> 00:26:02.248 Oh honey, why did you do that? 00:26:02.248 --> 00:26:04.050 Why did you do that? 00:26:04.050 --> 00:26:08.422 And I say it's my duty, it's my duty. 00:26:08.422 --> 00:26:12.904 Well, you kind of get the idea that that's the wrong motivation. 00:26:12.904 --> 00:26:16.948 And so he goes on, piper, he changes the story a bit. 00:26:16.948 --> 00:26:18.307 He has the same idea. 00:26:18.307 --> 00:26:21.230 By this time he rings the doorbell Happy anniversary. 00:26:21.230 --> 00:26:22.371 He pulls out the flowers. 00:26:22.371 --> 00:26:25.173 Why did you, john, why did you do that? 00:26:25.173 --> 00:26:27.054 Well, I couldn't help myself. 00:26:27.054 --> 00:26:32.137 Bringing flowers makes me happy, bringing you flowers makes me happy. 00:26:32.137 --> 00:26:35.528 And of course, again, it's the wrong motivation. 00:26:36.680 --> 00:26:39.609 But then Piper flips it to the last version. 00:26:39.609 --> 00:26:44.092 He has the same idea, but this time he rings the doorbell Happy anniversary. 00:26:44.092 --> 00:26:47.461 There's nothing. 00:26:47.461 --> 00:26:55.027 He says I would rather do than to be with you Makes all the difference, doesn't it? 00:26:55.027 --> 00:27:04.520 When you come to church every Sunday, is that your heart and mind God. 00:27:04.520 --> 00:27:09.152 There's nothing I'd rather do today than be with you. 00:27:11.020 --> 00:27:12.145 Brooke talked about our worship. 00:27:12.145 --> 00:27:15.743 That's what worship is all about, and here's the real thing. 00:27:15.743 --> 00:27:27.210 Get this thought If you change your desires, that changes your actions and ultimately it will change your life. 00:27:27.210 --> 00:27:36.499 If you change your desires, it will change your actions and ultimately it will change your actions and ultimately it will change your life. 00:27:36.499 --> 00:27:44.030 And the way that happens is that God changes our hearts and he does so in large measure, in community. 00:27:44.030 --> 00:27:48.086 So listen, church is not an option. 00:27:48.165 --> 00:27:57.644 For us who are Christians, it's essential, and we're not coming with a laissez-faire attitude saying what am I going to get today? 00:27:57.644 --> 00:28:00.451 Who's going to minister to me today? 00:28:00.451 --> 00:28:03.463 In fact, we don't go even. 00:28:03.463 --> 00:28:04.887 It's like who can I serve today? 00:28:04.887 --> 00:28:07.121 We go with Lord. 00:28:07.121 --> 00:28:09.887 I'm just here for you Doesn't mean we don't serve. 00:28:09.887 --> 00:28:14.508 It doesn't mean we don't love, but our primary focus is God. 00:28:14.508 --> 00:28:20.269 I'm so glad I can be with you today and that's why God asked Adam in the garden. 00:28:20.269 --> 00:28:28.832 He says because of Adam's being alone where are you? 00:28:28.832 --> 00:28:31.555 Where are you? 00:28:31.555 --> 00:28:34.967 And why is this needed? 00:28:34.967 --> 00:28:40.532 Because alone, you can't see yourself as you really are. 00:28:41.740 --> 00:29:02.387 I can't tell you how many times that I've been in community, in church, and you have too when someone kind of tells me the honest truth and I might not want to hear it, but if they do it in love, as the Scripture says, it makes me think about it and makes me evaluate is this really what I need to be working on? 00:29:02.387 --> 00:29:21.913 And so I brought today a block of wood and a piece of sandpaper, because sometimes we come to church and people that we come and get around are like spiritual sandpaper. 00:29:21.913 --> 00:29:27.824 But you know what God does Instead of us being. 00:29:27.824 --> 00:29:39.089 You know we feel it's abrasive to us what people say and sometimes it hurts and it doesn't feel good, but you know how God thinks of community and about the church. 00:29:39.089 --> 00:29:50.167 It's like I've got a rough edge and someone speaks to me and says something I don't like to hear and what happens? 00:29:50.167 --> 00:29:55.364 It's a little bit smoother In another sense. 00:29:55.364 --> 00:30:18.721 Someone says something encouraging to me and when I felt rejection or feel like I'm not enough or I lack hope, somebody says something to me and things get a little bit smoother, little bit smoother. 00:30:18.721 --> 00:30:33.454 Someone tells me something that is encouraging to me or really hard to hear and I don't want to do it, but he tells me anyway, and pretty soon all my rough edges are smooth and I begin to look more and more like Jesus Christ. 00:30:33.454 --> 00:30:35.000 That's what happens in community. 00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:37.605 Folks so important. 00:30:37.605 --> 00:30:44.742 All the stuff that God wants to heal can only be on the surface in relationship until you get into community. 00:30:45.144 --> 00:30:51.743 Christ's very own desires entice us to live as Paul describes it in Galatians 2, verse 20. 00:30:51.743 --> 00:30:54.711 He says I have been crucified with Christ. 00:30:54.711 --> 00:31:01.067 It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh. 00:31:01.067 --> 00:31:05.592 I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. 00:31:05.592 --> 00:31:09.169 So it's no longer me who lives. 00:31:09.169 --> 00:31:11.070 Think of that. 00:31:11.070 --> 00:31:17.711 Christ literally lives in me and he lives in you. 00:31:17.832 --> 00:31:30.492 If you're a believer, and because Christ lives in me and he lives in you, it means in a very real sense I dare not waste Christ's life because he's living it through me. 00:31:30.492 --> 00:31:34.185 How is this possible? 00:31:34.185 --> 00:31:39.210 How do you experience Christ living through you? 00:31:39.210 --> 00:31:41.384 Well, he tells us later in Galatians 5,. 00:31:41.384 --> 00:31:58.507 He says but I say walk by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh, you'll not be that old self that no one wants to get along with, for the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the Spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other. 00:31:58.507 --> 00:32:00.126 They're in war with each other. 00:32:00.126 --> 00:32:11.491 Your old self is at war with your new self to keep you from doing the things you want to do, but if you are led by the Spirit, you're not under law. 00:32:11.491 --> 00:32:13.299 In other words, there's no rules and regulations. 00:32:13.299 --> 00:32:14.946 All there is, it summarized. 00:32:14.987 --> 00:32:21.008 Paul Jesus summarized the law and he says love God, love people. 00:32:21.008 --> 00:32:27.236 How do you know, then, if you're driven by your desires? 00:32:27.236 --> 00:32:30.165 Well, I would say one thing is listen to how you talk. 00:32:30.165 --> 00:32:34.923 Is it all about I, me, my and mine, what I want and what I need? 00:32:34.923 --> 00:32:38.271 Well, here's what he says later in Galatians 5. 00:32:38.579 --> 00:32:40.347 Now, the works of the flesh are evident. 00:32:40.347 --> 00:32:49.588 In other words, when you're living that way and your desires are running your life, your own selfish desires are running your life, it's obvious to everybody around you. 00:32:49.588 --> 00:32:53.651 It might not be obvious to you, but he says they're evident. 00:32:53.651 --> 00:32:56.079 The works of the flesh are evident. 00:32:56.079 --> 00:33:02.247 Note, underline the word or circle it works, works, it's effort to live like this. 00:33:02.247 --> 00:33:04.061 They're evident. 00:33:04.061 --> 00:33:17.869 Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and things like these. 00:33:17.869 --> 00:33:25.901 He's given a representative list of all these things that look like the self-life when our desires take over. 00:33:27.765 --> 00:33:33.242 I warn you, he says, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 00:33:33.242 --> 00:33:35.828 And then he presents this contrast. 00:33:35.828 --> 00:33:40.086 But the fruit of the Spirit, it's not works anymore, it's fruit. 00:33:40.086 --> 00:33:44.961 And so you don't have to groan and strain to let the Spirit do His work in you. 00:33:44.961 --> 00:33:46.526 You, just you cooperate. 00:33:46.526 --> 00:33:54.023 The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. 00:33:54.023 --> 00:34:00.211 And he says against that there is no law, because you're free to live in love. 00:34:00.211 --> 00:34:07.403 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 00:34:07.403 --> 00:34:13.001 If we live by the spirit and I love this let us keep in step with the spirit. 00:34:13.001 --> 00:34:17.248 Baby steps, baby steps. 00:34:17.248 --> 00:34:24.041 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. 00:34:24.722 --> 00:34:34.746 Folks he's talking to the church here, and how often our own self can get in the way of what the Holy Spirit wants to do. 00:34:34.746 --> 00:34:36.068 We talk about revival. 00:34:36.068 --> 00:34:41.510 You know, revival comes in large measure when we repent of the things that are displeasing to God. 00:34:41.510 --> 00:34:47.532 I don't have any problems with me myself and I, I love myself. 00:34:47.532 --> 00:34:51.306 I can spend time with myself. 00:34:51.306 --> 00:34:53.331 We get along so well together. 00:34:53.331 --> 00:35:03.693 But put me with someone who rubs me the wrong way or says something I don't want to hear, or with whom I disagree, and guess what? 00:35:03.693 --> 00:35:05.365 Myself rises up. 00:35:05.365 --> 00:35:10.351 I might not say things, but boy, it's in there. 00:35:10.351 --> 00:35:12.686 And so you know. 00:35:12.728 --> 00:35:25.106 My grandmother used to say well, when someone was doing something that they shouldn't be doing, well, he's just showing out, we act out, we work out the flesh, we work out the flesh. 00:35:25.106 --> 00:35:40.911 But when we let the Holy Spirit control us, we surrender ourselves, we cooperate with the Spirit, say yes to God, and he begins to take over, even to the point of agreeing with a thing that we don't see but everybody else does. 00:35:40.911 --> 00:35:44.708 And sometimes that is so hidden. 00:35:44.708 --> 00:35:55.713 We don't want anybody else to see that we're living in unforgiveness or bitterness or hatred or disagreement. 00:35:55.713 --> 00:35:57.987 I don't like what's going on there. 00:35:57.987 --> 00:36:05.028 Well, I is the word that starts that very sentence. 00:36:05.028 --> 00:36:07.574 Right, here's the truth. 00:36:07.574 --> 00:36:13.130 I must be in community for my self-life to be healed. 00:36:13.130 --> 00:36:17.440 You want to be healed, you want to be healed. 00:36:17.440 --> 00:36:20.048 Invest yourself in the life of the church. 00:36:20.048 --> 00:36:23.487 And yeah, the church isn't perfect. 00:36:23.487 --> 00:36:28.501 Find me a perfect church and I'll leave Trinity and go join it. 00:36:28.501 --> 00:36:30.567 There's not one. 00:36:30.567 --> 00:36:40.585 Every one of us are flawed and fallen, and only because and through Christ Jesus have we the capacity to be conformed to the image of Christ. 00:36:40.585 --> 00:36:46.987 But you can't do that outside of community, and I'm not talking about just sitting and watching what goes on on Sunday. 00:36:46.987 --> 00:36:57.744 I'm talking about investing your gifts and your ministry that God has given you to serve the body and find out, you know what, if you do that, he's going to bring someone to you, that he's going to let work on you. 00:36:57.744 --> 00:37:05.576 Get ready if you do that. 00:37:05.576 --> 00:37:16.766 Speaking let me give you some examples Speaking against one another is a primary example of how we can act on selfish ambition. 00:37:17.367 --> 00:37:22.190 Here's what James 4 says what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? 00:37:22.190 --> 00:37:28.068 Is it not this that your passions, desires, are at war with you within you? 00:37:28.068 --> 00:37:31.177 You desire and do not have, so you murder. 00:37:31.177 --> 00:37:43.032