Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Weekly sermons from our Central Lutheran Church preaching team plus quick reflections from Pastor Ryan Braley.
Real talk, ancient wisdom, and honest questions — all designed to help you learn, grow, and find encouragement when you need it most.
At Central, our mission is simple: FOLLOW Jesus together, be a community where you BELONG, and LOVE our neighbors across the street and around the world.
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Central Lutheran Church - Elk River
Just Kidding with Ben Carruthers
What does it mean when Paul warns against "obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking" in Ephesians 5:4? Contrary to some interpretations, this isn't a blanket prohibition against humor and joy - God clearly has a sense of humor! Just look at the platypus, the grumpy black rain frog, or the bizarre blobfish.
Diving into the original Greek words reveals Paul's true concern: speech that wounds rather than heals. "Aischrotēs" (obscenity) refers to deliberately hurtful language aimed at causing pain. "Mōrologia" (foolish talk) combines the roots for "stupid" and "speaking" - those words we blurt without thinking and immediately regret. "Eutrapelia" (coarse joking) was actually positive in earlier Greek literature but had been corrupted by culture into something harmful.
The deeper message transcends simple word policing. Paul challenges believers to examine what their speech reveals about their hearts. Like a panda among snowmen, Christians should stand out rather than blend in with the surrounding culture. Our words should reflect our identity as disciples of Jesus - not because of rigid rules, but because of the transformation Christ has already worked in us.
A powerful illustration shows how words can strip away someone's sense of worth like petals from a rose. A woman who begins her day feeling beautiful and confident can end it feeling worthless after enduring a barrage of cutting remarks, backhanded compliments, and thoughtless criticisms from family, coworkers, and strangers.
Paul spent four chapters in Ephesians reminding readers of God's immense love and Christ's sacrifice before addressing behavior. This reminds us that our distinctive speech flows from gratitude for what God has done, not from obligation to a checklist. Do your words set you apart as someone transformed by grace? Join us as we explore how speech reveals the condition of our hearts.
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God, we give you thanks and praise for the opportunity to gather for the baptism of Young River and the reminder of the gifts that you give to each one of us, not because of anything we do, but because we are called children of God and Lord. We thank you for this question, this series of questions that have come from the body here at Central, and the opportunity to dive into scripture to find some kind of answer, to make better sense of what's going on in these passages and in these stories. Lord, I pray for open hearts and open minds to receive your word this morning, and may we open up the deepest parts of our hearts, the places where we hide our maybe our most secrets, and to allow you to come in this morning. It's your name. We pray Amen. Please be seated. Yeah, welcome once again. Glad to be worshiping with you this morning and if there's anyone new here, just a big welcome. Man, we're so glad you're here and please take time to visit Kirsten or myself out in the Connect Center. Out there we have a little gift for you. I believe Ryan calls it a swag bag. So if you're interested in what a swag bag has, go check it out. But yeah, man'm just glad you're here. Thanks for checking us out and for those of you online, welcome.
Speaker 1:Before we get started, it is someone's birthday in the house today, peter Deusteman, who is back there running slides for us. It is his birthday today, so we can show him some love. So when you see him out there, go and wish him a happy birthday and if you're interested in joining a life group here, also talk to Peter. So thanks, peter, appreciate all you do. Man, this morning we are continuing our sermon series on the you Pick series, which is the series where you guys pick the questions, and normally, preparing for a sermon man, it's always a little nerve-wracking and more excited than nerves. But this morning this week, I turned to my wife and said man, this is the last sermon that I'm going to give before the vote. And so I said there's a little bit extra stress in this one, so we'll see how it goes.
Speaker 1:But the question we had lots of questions so we couldn't answer them all, but this one I found pretty interesting. It came from this passage from Ephesians 5, verse 4 in particular. Verse 4 from Ephesians 5 says this nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. These are one of those verses I call them footloose verses, based on the movie Footloose starring Kevin Bacon where you can take a verse out of context and make it sound like there's absolutely no part of this behavior. In the life of a Christian, in a disciple of Christ, there is no spot for jokes or humor or laughter or dancing. If you're Kevin Bacon, whatever it might be, there's no place for it, and sometimes this verse is often used in that. And the exact opposite is true.
Speaker 1:We know God has a sense of humor. We know God loves to bring joy into our life, where laughter is a sign of that, and we see it. You don't have to look any further than creation itself, right? God has created this creature here known as the platypus, right? You look at this thing and there's no reason. It doesn't make any sense.
Speaker 1:How about this one here? Yeah, that is the proscibus monkey, and no joke. This is the face that my teenage children look at me when I try to say cool things like six, seven or sheesh, all those things. She's dying right now. She's dying, right. What is this? This is a sign of God having a sense of humor. How about this guy? This is the black rain frog. I don't know if he's so much as funny or I feel like he might murder me in my sleep. It's one of the two. How about this one? The blobfish? Right? What is the purpose? What is the purpose? But yet for God to laugh and create this and for us to laugh and there's no other creature on planet earth more evidence that God has a sense of humor than these poor individuals. That's right. When Ryan's away, the children will play. So take that. Our lead pastor Ryan is a Denver Broncos fan, so, and he's not here today. So, hey, all right, he's in the woods. He can't even probably watch, so I'm safe, it's fine. It's obvious from creation that God has a sense of humor. It's obvious from scripture itself.
Speaker 1:These couple of verses here talk about joy and laughter. Proverbs 17, 22,. A joyful heart is good medicine. A couple of weeks ago I was lying in bed just scrolling watching silly videos and there was a video of this dad watching a scary movie and on it something scared him and he immediately said nope, and he turned the channel to Bluey and he was like yay, and I died laughing. I'm not kidding. Tears rolling down my face could not breathe Closest to death I've ever been. It was so funny. It's good medicine for the heart. John 15, 11,. Jesus says these things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and your joy will be full. So in this verse, this passage, paul is not saying that laughter is bad, that humor is bad, but he is directing us at the power of our words. He's directing us at the power of our words and the effect that they have on not just other people but us as well. He's also calling to attention of how easy it is for us to slip away from words that bring life, from words that encourage. How easy it is to be pulled into what the culture says is acceptable speech is acceptable way to speak to one another. It's incredibly easy to be pulled in to that.
Speaker 1:A couple of years ago my youngest, ezra, started kindergarten and a couple months in we started to notice that he was using language that we thought was pretty inappropriate for a kindergartner. And so if you have delicate ears, plug your ears. But he would start using words like oh, this sucks, so not super delicate, but you know what I'm saying, or he'd say crap, and we're like what is going on? You're in kindergarten already. The culture has got your hooks in. And so we sat him down. We said, ezzie, where who are you hanging out with in school, or who's your friends? Where have you heard this kind of talk? And a big smile on his face and he said you, daddy. Yeah. And then I turned to my wife and she had a bigger smile on her face.
Speaker 1:You know we talk about in baptism. We say it every week, every time there's a baptism, we say as you, as parents and godparents, and influence in this child. They are watching, they are listening. And it's so true. And the words we speak and the way we speak to people is so easily taken off the path as what it looks like to be a follower of Christ and sucked into. What the world says is okay and what the world says is acceptable. And so Paul is not writing this piece of his letter to the church of Ephesus saying no joking, no laughter, no joy. He's saying those are good things given to you from God, but what and how are you using your words? Does it model that of Jesus or does it model that of the world? And so, as we dive into this passage, there's really a message within the message. This is the last one before the vote, so it's a two-for-one today. So there's a message within the message.
Speaker 1:We're going to look at these words because the question really did ask what is the meaning of these words? What is Paul getting at here? But there is a bigger, greater message going on here, so we do want to look at these words. What did Paul mean when he spoke these words? Which means we have to dig into our Greek bag this morning and look at some Greek words. The first one is this bag this morning and look at some Greek words.
Speaker 1:The first one is this Paul says there should be no obscenity, which the Greek word is eros krotos. Everyone say eros krotos. Well done, eros krotos. The meaning of this word. There's a couple different thoughts here. One they believe that it refers back to the verse right before where Paul is talking about sexual immorality, back to the verse right before where Paul is talking about sexual immorality, and so talk of that nature.
Speaker 1:But more people, more scholars, more commentaries lean towards a different meaning. They lean towards this eros krotos meaning deliberate, hurtful language, deliberate hurtful words to one another, words that is not one of those accidental slip up or you didn't mean it, but words where you wound up and just took a shot with a hurtful word with the intention of hurting someone. You know my two boys we hear this every now and then. They'll be scrapping in their room and we don't know what they're fighting or arguing about. But one of them has been known to yell you are the worst brother ever and we're like geez, what is going on, that such hurtful words could be said and we go in there and they're fighting over the Lego piece or something like that. But it's intentional words meant to hurt someone. Right, we do this, and the reason might be because that person has hurt us, or we have a lot of hurt and pain that we're dealing with and we want to get that out, and maybe that's one way that we do it. Or we do it because we want to make ourselves look better to other people or look better than other people. We want to bring others down, and so we use words, eroskrotes, words that intentionally hurt, obscenity. This is what Paul is speaking about.
Speaker 1:The second word was absolutely my favorite is morolegio. Everyone say morologeo Probably just botched the Greek, but that's okay. My Greek professor's not watching, it's fine. This means foolish talk. This is what Paul says foolish talk. It's translated as foolish talk, but when you break down the word, it's two Greek words put together. The first one says moros, which means stupid. It's also where we get our word moron from Moros. Stupid legio speaking, moron speaking that's what this word means Stupid speaking. This is that type of language that where we wish, once we say it, we could get it back in our mouth as fast as we can. There's a perfect example of this almost happening yesterday, and I kid you not, I almost said it if it wasn't for this message this morning. Okay, Almost got in big trouble.
Speaker 1:We're on the way to football early morning. My son Arlo plays some football, and we had to get to Anoka by eight o'clock in the morning, and so I set an alarm for 6.30. My wife sets an alarm for six. She wants to get up a little bit earlier than I, so that's fine, no worries. Her alarm goes off at six and she likes the snooze button. Now there's no snooze button. That's a really outdated reference. She just says Alexa, snooze. Right, that's really what we do nowadays Snooze, snooze, snooze. I hear it a couple of times and all of a sudden my alarm for 630 goes off and we arise together and so we get ready and it's chaos. Man, we got these kids that we had to get ready for. We had to pack lunches, make sure all his golf is football gear. It's crazy. This hour that we have is absolutely chaos. We get into the car. We're both sweating my wife's sweating. She's trying to put her makeup on and she says I should have got up earlier Now if not for Morologio. I'm not kidding.
Speaker 1:I had the phrase ready to come out of my mouth that says maybe you shouldn't have snoozed so many times. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the definition of moron speaking Right there. Sometimes we don't catch the words before they leave our mouth. We don't think before we speak. Another way that we see this a lot is when we say something, maybe with a little bit of truth, but when we say it, we realize we hurt somebody. When we say it, we realize that it had effects that we didn't want it to have. Or maybe not. Maybe we said it because we knew the effects that it would have, and we add two little words onto that. Anyone know what they are. Just kidding, I just said something about you that caused you pain. Just kidding Like that makes it all better.
Speaker 1:I've had talks with lots of students on Wednesday night about these two words and it's just not students, it's adults that use this as a parachute to get out of something that we didn't want to get into, because you might have been just kidding and you may have realized that you crossed the line in what you said, but those words have struck the heart that person's not forgetting. The words have already caused their damage. We can't pull them back. That's what morologio means. It means thinking before you speak. Eros crotes words that are meant to cause harm. Morologio, moron speaking.
Speaker 1:And the last one is this one here, paul, the translation is coarse joking. But eutropalia, eutropalia Everyone say eutropalia. This is a really interesting word. This means coarse joking, lewd or profane behavior or words. But what's interesting about this is this exact Greek word goes back hundreds of years before Paul. We see it in writings of Aristotle and we see him using it as a form of humor that brings joy, that brings pure laughter, that uplifts people's spirits, not in the way that Paul is using it here. Why would Paul use this word that for hundreds of years has been a positive spin on joy and laughter, and here he's using it as a negative connotation. I think it's because he realizes that the culture has taken something that's meant to be good, meant to be uplifting, meant to bring us joy and happiness, and the culture. We've gotten hold of it and we've tainted it and we've corrupted it, and now something that was good has now become harmful.
Speaker 1:These are the words that Paul used to describe the words that we speak to one another. These are the words that Paul used to describe the words that we speak to one another and he says stay away from these things. Now, all these words have multiple things in common, but the first is obvious that these words are used to hurt or tear down individuals. The second is this these words are used as a gauge for what's really going on inside of us. Matthew says this as a gauge for what's really going on inside of us. Matthew says this, for the mouth speaks.
Speaker 1:What the heart is full of, what's in here, comes out here. So, if you just pause for a moment and think about the words that you spoke this week, and to who, what does your heart look like? Is it joy? Is it uplifting? Is it, like Paul says it should be, that of thanksgiving? Or if you take a step back. What is going on in our hearts? Is it anger? Is it hurt and pain? Is it gossip? Is it a desire to make ourselves look better than others or elevate ours over other people? What is being reflected of our heart in the words that we speak?
Speaker 1:And the third thing that he's having in common is that Paul is really telling us again the message within the message, that it's more than just the words that we speak. He's not giving us a guideline or words that are good or words that are bad, which of course we want right as Christians. We want. We wish Paul would just say come out and say these are the good words, these are the bad words. Say these words, don't say these Great thanks, appreciate it. That's a lot easier. That's not what he's saying here. The deeper message here is that you should not use these words or speak in this manner to other people, not because it's in this realm of bad or naughty words, but because that does not reflect a person who follows Christ, because that does not reflect a person who follows Christ. This type of words and language does not reflect the type of person who calls themselves a disciple, the type of person who calls themselves a follower of Jesus. We are called to be different. See, at the time where Paul wrote this, this was the culture, this is what they were living in. And he says no, don't use those words, don't speak that. Look different in how you speak, because you are called to be a follower, a disciple, of Jesus.
Speaker 1:I encourage you to go and read Acts chapter 19 sometime today or over the weekend. Read Acts chapter 19. Acts chapter 19 tells the story of when Paul was in Ephesus. Okay, so the letter that we have of Ephesians is from Paul, written in a Roman prison and written to the church of Ephesus. Four years earlier he was in Ephesus doing ministry, and so Acts chapter 19 lays it out of what his journey looked like in Ephesus. And an incredibly crazy story happens in Acts chapter 19. And I'm going to tell you the story, but go home and read it. It's absolutely insane.
Speaker 1:So Paul is in Ephesus and when Paul's there, he's doing incredible things through the power of the Holy Spirit, through God, doing incredible, amazing things. He's healing people, doing all the things that Jesus was doing. And these gentlemen in the Bible they're Jewish men, is what it says. But really, when you dive down deep. It's really these con men, these men who did not follow Jesus, these men who did not know Jesus but were looking to make bucks. Everywhere they went and they saw Paul doing these incredible, amazing things, including getting these demons out of people, bringing these people to healing from being oppressed and possessed from these demons. And they think to themselves man, this is a way to make a buck, man, if we can kind of pull a demon out of someone, man, people will pay big money for that.
Speaker 1:And in Ephesus there was a man who was possessed by a demon. And so these three gentlemen go up to this man. They get a crowd around them to watch the show, put out the hat so they can put a couple bucks in. And they said we are going to heal this man from this possession. And so in a big showboating way, they say in the name of Jesus and in the workings of Paul, be free. And the man stops in his track.
Speaker 1:The man possessed by this demon just stops and he looks at these three men in the eye and scripture tells us this is what he says. He says I know Jesus, I know who he is, I know who Paul is. I have no idea who you are. You see, he knows Jesus because even the demons tremble at the name of Jesus. He knows Paul because you know what Paul talks and acts a lot like Jesus. He doesn't know these three guys, and so this man jumps on these three false preachers and teachers and the scripture tells him that this guy just beats him senselessly and these three guys run off naked. That's a sermon for another day. We're not going to go down that road. I don't know what that's about. It's pretty crazy though. But he looked at him and he said you may be speaking the name of Jesus, but you don't know Jesus because you don't speak like him and you don't act like him. That happened when Paul was in Ephesus, and now, here we are, four years later, and he's writing to the church where this happened. He says this is important because we are called to be followers of Jesus. We are called to look different, to speak different.
Speaker 1:I want to show you this picture up here. I'm a youth director, have been for a long time, so this is a little trivia game I got for you Students. We've done this before you, so you can't answer. Besides the blue, cold, smiley face, or not smiley face, what in this picture, stands out to you? What's different? Santa hat, there's something even more scarves. There's something even more right there. Nice job, kelsey, you'll see the arrow. There's a panda bear in the midst of the snowmen. Yeah, that's some of the fun we have on Wednesday nights. Come on, check it out.
Speaker 1:So my question to you, central, is do people have to really really really listen hard? Do they really really really have to look hard to notice that you stand out, or do you blend in with the culture? Do the words that you speak and the way that you speak to people about people, does it look just like everybody else? Does the way that you act and treat people? Does it stand out or does it blend in with the rest of the culture? Because this is what Paul is writing about. This is why our words are so important, because we are called to look and act and speak different. I think it starts with our words, because words have power.
Speaker 1:This rose we're going to call Sally. This rose is going to represent Sally, and Sally is a young woman who woke up one morning and is feeling absolutely beautiful, is feeling absolutely ready to tackle the day. You know, she checked her aura ring, her iPhone watch and she said she got great sleep, great readiness, she's ready to tackle the day, she's feeling good, she wakes up on time, didn't hit the snooze button, she's ready to go. She gets dressed, she does her hair, she does her makeup and she's feeling absolutely beautiful. And she goes to the kitchen table and there are her two amazing adult or not adult teenage children having their bowl of cereal before they go to school. She walks in good morning, kisses them on the head and her teenage daughter turns and looks at her and says are you wearing that? Is that how you're doing your hair? Are you wearing that? Is that how you're doing your hair? That's all right, that's fine. She's still feeling great, she's still feeling beautiful and she kisses them.
Speaker 1:Goodbye and heads to work. And on the way to work she's rocking out to KTIS, listening to some worship music maybe Nickelback, I don't know whoever this person is and she's loving lifestyle. And this guy comes up, speeding up behind her. She gets out of the way to make room for him. He comes flying by and you can see that he's just yelling out some just derogatory stuff and giving her the bird for no reason whatsoever. Maybe that guy got late in that morning. Maybe he's having a rough morning but he is just taking his day out on her. But it's all right. She's still feeling pretty good.
Speaker 1:She gets to work and she sees her friends and her coworkers. But there's something off, there's something weird. They're kind of ignoring her, they're not talking to her and as the day goes on she goes into the break room to get some coffee and she can overhear them talking about her, talking about the way she looks, talking about the way she speaks, talking about her family, talking about her job performance and how it's not very good. So the day goes on. She's feeling a little bit less but she's still hanging in there and later in that afternoon she's about ready to leave and someone makes one more comment about her brand new dress that she bought and she wore and she felt great in. And she's they said, is where'd you get that? Is that a hand-me-down? And then someone looks at her and says you know, we're a little worried about you. You look really tired. And they kept saying things that kind of hurt and tore apart, but they ended it by saying just kidding.
Speaker 1:So on the drive home she's not feeling as great as she did that morning. She gets home, cooks dinner, eats dinner with the family it's pretty quiet Lying in bed with her husband. Before they go to bed, she turns and says goodnight and her husband doesn't say a thing. He just turns and goes to sleep. And this woman who woke up that morning feeling absolutely beautiful, feeling absolutely worth it, has now gone to bed feeling like nothing because of the words of other people.
Speaker 1:This is not who we're called to be. We are called to be people who speak life. We are called to be people who speak truth. We are called to be people who uplift people. The end of that chapter says we are called to be people who uplift people. The end of that chapter says we are called to be light to people. We're called to stand out. I'm going to leave you with this.
Speaker 1:There's always a question of why, right? Why would Paul say these things? What's going on? And to answer that question, why? I think it's very clear. Because our passage from today started at chapter 5 in the book of Ephesians, which means there's four chapters before we came to this.
Speaker 1:In those four chapters of the book of Ephesians, paul takes four chapters to write and remind the people of Ephesus about the gospel.
Speaker 1:He takes four chapters to remind them of how much God loves them for who they are. He takes four chapters in the book of Ephesians to remind them of what God did for them through Christ coming, living and dying, and the power that's in God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He takes four chapters to remind them who they are. And then, in chapter five, he says therefore, which means the why is because of everything else I've told you. Because of everything else I've told you, why speak different, why look different? Why stand out? Because of what Jesus has done for you, for what Jesus has done for me, not because of anything we have done to deserve or earn it, but purely that we are sons and daughters of God. So, people of Central, do we stand out? Do our words sound different than the culture around us? Do we represent Christ to those around us? Not because of a checklist, not because of a demand, but purely because what Christ has done for us. Amen.
