SPEAKER_00: You are listening to the Gateway Franklin Church podcast.
SPEAKER_00: To learn more about Gateway Franklin Church, including our service times here in Franklin, Tennessee, visit us online at GatewayFranklin.com.
SPEAKER_00: And now, here is this week's message.
SPEAKER_02: My name is Tori.
SPEAKER_02: I'm the associate pastor here at Gateway.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, to those of you who are joining us online, wherever you're watching from, I'm sure so glad that you can be a part of today's service as well.
SPEAKER_02: To our new friends who are here.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, maybe you're here visiting after Easter.
SPEAKER_02: I want to say thank you guys for joining us again.
SPEAKER_02: We're so glad that you could be a part of what God's doing here at Gateway.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna be starting something new this morning, and so we're gonna dig in today and to help in our digging.
SPEAKER_02: I brought a shovel.
SPEAKER_02: Um, it's not my shovel.
SPEAKER_02: My shovel got lost when I moved from Florida somewhere in the move.
SPEAKER_02: So this is my father-in-law's shovel.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Dave, for letting me borrow this.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, when we moved up to Franklin in let's see, October 2024, um, man, were we greeted with some beautiful weather.
SPEAKER_02: And we have the coldest winter I've had in six years because we live in Florida.
SPEAKER_02: We didn't have winter down there.
SPEAKER_02: But then when springtime came back, man, the weather was just so beautiful.
SPEAKER_02: I wanted to spend all of my time outside.
SPEAKER_02: And so we have this covered kind of patio porch area.
SPEAKER_02: It's it's slightly elevated.
SPEAKER_02: Uh it's great.
SPEAKER_02: There's just not enough room, and so I decided I'm going to build a deck.
SPEAKER_02: Um I've never built a deck before.
SPEAKER_02: Um, looking at me, you may not realize this.
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm decently handy.
SPEAKER_02: You know, I'm not a construction or builder guy by trade, but I've done my fair share of DIY projects, and over the years I've collected an arsenal of tools, some of which I've brought with you this morning, uh, or brought with me this morning.
SPEAKER_02: I um, you know, watch some YouTube videos, which may sound kind of silly, but believe it or not, it's super helpful.
SPEAKER_02: And at the end of the videos, I realized, hey, I've got everything I need, so let's go ahead and take a stab at this thing.
SPEAKER_02: So I've got my saw this morning, which now I need to point out.
SPEAKER_02: You know, women, they have handbags, right, and they judge each other by the brands they wear.
SPEAKER_02: We men judge each other by the color tools we have, right?
SPEAKER_02: So the who's the who's a yellow tool guy in here?
SPEAKER_02: Anybody DeWalt?
SPEAKER_02: All right, yeah, you guys are subtle and confident about that.
SPEAKER_02: Who's my Milwaukee people?
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02: See what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_02: And my budget brand.
SPEAKER_02: All right, here's the cobalt team.
SPEAKER_02: It's the blue packet lows, all right?
SPEAKER_02: Got it on sale.
SPEAKER_02: Let's see what else I've got.
SPEAKER_02: I got my drill.
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, I have an impact driver too.
SPEAKER_02: Uh I can, you know, double go after it, you know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_02: And so got my drill, gonna need that.
SPEAKER_02: I've got a tape measure to make sure I get everything aligned and square and everything's all good.
SPEAKER_02: I've I got a uh a wrench.
SPEAKER_02: I needed that for carriage bolts.
SPEAKER_02: Anybody know what a carriage bolt is?
SPEAKER_02: I didn't until I built a deck, and now I do.
SPEAKER_02: Um and then lastly, I've got you know, one of my favorite tools, and I gotta say, I'm a little reluctant to even pull this out because I know as soon as I do, I'm gonna catch some judgment from every guy in the room.
SPEAKER_02: Um so let me just say before I I had a real one, but it got lost in the move too.
SPEAKER_02: But but this is my hammer.
SPEAKER_02: No, this is not my four-year-old's hammer, this is my hammer.
SPEAKER_02: Like I mentioned, I'm a cheap guy, so I went to Harbor Freight for this project and I said, give me the cheapest hammer you got.
SPEAKER_02: And they said, Well, we got this guy.
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, I'll take it, you know.
SPEAKER_02: So uh so yeah, there's that.
SPEAKER_02: Before you judge me, I don't I don't do a lot of hammering, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Leave me alone.
SPEAKER_02: So I'm excited to begin this project, and uh I do a lot of research, I go out and get all the supplies that I'm gonna need.
SPEAKER_02: It's time to get started.
SPEAKER_02: And the first thing I gotta do is take the measurement and dig the footers.
SPEAKER_02: So if you're not familiar with building a deck, the footers are the concrete things that go in the ground that the vertical post is gonna come out of that's gonna support the whole deck.
SPEAKER_02: And so I take this shovel, which used to have a pointy end on it, um, and I start digging this hole, and I get about three inches into the dirt.
SPEAKER_02: And Morgan, who was out there with me, my four-year-old, I looked at him and I said, Todo, I don't think we're in Florida anymore.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, man, I was I was so underprepared for how hard that ground was gonna be.
SPEAKER_02: And so I'm out there and I'm laboring, I'm sweating, I'm almost crying, I'm not cussing because my son's watching me and got to hold it together.
SPEAKER_02: Well, I get about eight to ten inches deep into the ground after a not insignificant amount of time.
SPEAKER_02: And uh, I had encountered something that any person who's ever dug a hole in Tennessee probably encountered when you take that shovel and you strike it in and you hear tink rock.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't know what to do there.
SPEAKER_02: Alright, I'm from Florida.
SPEAKER_02: We got sand soil.
SPEAKER_02: All right, if you have determination and a plastic spoon, you can dig your way through the state.
SPEAKER_02: And what I realized, standing over this hole, is as prepared as I thought I was to build this deck, I have now encountered something that, quite frankly, I just don't have the tools for.
SPEAKER_02: Now, I hadn't gotten deep enough into this hole to just say, forget it and move on, right?
SPEAKER_02: Because the footers are a structural part of the deck, they're not decorative, and so I wasn't deep enough, and there's this rock here, so if I build the deck on this foundation, that rock could slip or shift, and if that does, then it's gonna destabilize the deck.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not below the frost line, so if it gets really cold, that frost heave could come up.
SPEAKER_02: And there's just a number of things that could go wrong if I decided to call it quids.
SPEAKER_02: Now, we're gonna get back to the deck in just a minute, but today we're starting a brand new series about joy.
SPEAKER_02: What it is, how to get it, how to keep it, and how to deal with the things that seem to rob us of it.
SPEAKER_02: Now, the good news is we have a common starting point in this series.
SPEAKER_02: And that starting point isn't how much joy you have, right?
SPEAKER_02: Some of you may be coming in here and you feel like your joy meter's on empty.
SPEAKER_02: Some of you, on the other hand, have come in here and you're just overflowing with joy.
SPEAKER_02: It's just been a good season in your life.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_02: But the common starting point that we have is that joy is something that we all long for.
SPEAKER_02: We all want it.
SPEAKER_02: And we want as much of it as we can get.
SPEAKER_02: And that desire for joy isn't by accident or coincident.
SPEAKER_02: It's actually an intrinsic part of our divine design.
SPEAKER_02: In the latter part of his life, C.
SPEAKER_02: S.
SPEAKER_02: Lewis was writing a partial autobiography about his journey from atheism into Christianity.
SPEAKER_02: And C.
SPEAKER_02: S.
SPEAKER_02: Lewis, if you're not familiar with who he is beyond maybe the Chronicles of Narnia, he was a very rational guy.
SPEAKER_02: He was all about reason.
SPEAKER_02: He he logically worked his way into Christianity.
SPEAKER_02: And he recounts that while he was an atheist, he had this one thing that he couldn't seem to figure out, which was that he had this longing on the inside of him that he had no explanation for.
SPEAKER_02: It just didn't make sense that he would go through life hungering for something that he couldn't even put his finger on.
SPEAKER_02: And as he goes through life trying to satisfy this desire, he realizes there's not an experience or a relationship or an accomplishment or anything else that he can find under the sun that would satisfy this longing that he had.
SPEAKER_02: And in his book, Surprised by Joy, he eventually concludes that the longing itself is a clue designed to lead us back to God.
SPEAKER_02: He describes this longing as we long for joy, or this ultimate satisfaction.
SPEAKER_02: And that longing that we possess functions in each of us almost like a homing device.
SPEAKER_02: And so what I love about his analogy here is that scripture seems to confirm that.
SPEAKER_02: In Psalm 1611, the psalmist writes, In your presence there is fullness of joy.
SPEAKER_02: So what we see is that joy isn't created, it's found.
SPEAKER_02: And it's located in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_02: And how beautiful is this, right?
SPEAKER_02: That God has designed us in such a way, designed us with such a need, that that need ultimately leads us back into relationship with Him.
SPEAKER_02: And here's what that means for you.
SPEAKER_02: No matter what you've done, no matter where you've been, no matter what's been done to you, that God has not written you off.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_02: That God is not in heaven arbitrarily picking who's in and who's out and who's on the team and who's getting cut.
SPEAKER_02: But each and every one of us have been uniquely fashioned by our Creator with this desire to find out who He is and enter into a relationship with Him.
SPEAKER_02: It's God's will that everyone would come to the knowledge of the truth.
SPEAKER_02: In John chapter 15, on the night before his crucifixion, Jesus is sitting with his disciples, and this is what he says about his mission.
SPEAKER_02: He says, These things that I have spoken to you, I've done so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
SPEAKER_02: As we mentioned, joy is found in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_02: So it only makes sense that Jesus' joy is full because he is God.
SPEAKER_02: But what he's saying is that this joy, this connection and relationship that I have with the ultimate satisfaction, it's my heart and desire for each of you that you would have joy like I have.
SPEAKER_02: That you would feel as connected to God as I am.
SPEAKER_02: And that's his vision.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: His joy in you, filled to the brim with the fullness of him.
SPEAKER_02: That's the design.
SPEAKER_02: That's what God wants for all of us.
SPEAKER_02: And yet, when we look at the current state of our world, by all available metrics, joy is in free fall.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Gallup had a recent global emotions report, just surveying people from all countries across the world and found that we are at near decades low.
SPEAKER_02: And you might think, okay, well, it's just a decade.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we can have a bad season, the world can get a little crazy every now and then.
SPEAKER_02: But you zoom out of this data, right, and what you see is over several decades, it's just been consistently falling.
SPEAKER_02: The U.S.
SPEAKER_02: Surgeon General has declared that loneliness is an epidemic.
SPEAKER_02: Let me put that in perspective.
SPEAKER_02: The Surgeon General is in charge of health.
SPEAKER_02: And what they're recognizing is that we are so lonely as a people that it's creating health problems.
SPEAKER_02: That because of our loneliness, there are physiological effects taking place.
SPEAKER_02: We can see anxiety disorders are now the most common mental health condition in the country affecting roughly 40 million adults.
SPEAKER_02: The self-help industry, a large economy in and of itself designed to help people experience joy and how to help people deal with the lack of joy in their life, that they're expecting that market to exceed$50 billion this year.
SPEAKER_02: Put that in perspective, 10 years ago the market was$6 billion.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, we're talking about an almost 500% increase here.
SPEAKER_02: So what we see is that in spite of all these resources, right, we're living in the greatest full court press of us using the powers and information that we have available to us to help people live more fulfilled lives, but in spite of all of our efforts, it doesn't seem to be working.
SPEAKER_02: When we get to a point where things aren't working, then we move to the blaming phase.
SPEAKER_02: And at this point, I think everything has been blamed for the falling joy levels in our country.
SPEAKER_02: Some people say it's the food, right?
SPEAKER_02: Or it's the screens, it's social media, it's big pharma, it's the economy, they're putting stuff in the water, right?
SPEAKER_02: Like it's whatever you could possibly think of.
SPEAKER_02: There's somebody out there pointing their finger at that thing.
SPEAKER_02: Now, are there any validity to those claims?
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
SPEAKER_02: You don't pay me to research that.
SPEAKER_02: You pay me to tell you this.
SPEAKER_02: I've read some pretty convincing Facebook posts.
SPEAKER_02: Here's what I do know.
SPEAKER_02: I know it could be a combination of a lot of those things, but I also know that it's not just those things.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: As we've already talked about, the fullness of joy can only be found in one place.
SPEAKER_02: Which means that while there might be some truth to these other issues in a lot of layers here, this issue is more spiritual than we realize.
SPEAKER_02: Now I know that when I say that, I can already feel some defensive walls going up in the room.
SPEAKER_02: Because this is the kind of message that you have learned to be leery of.
SPEAKER_02: And if that's the case, it might be because you've had an experience in a church where you know maybe real help was neglected at the expense of faith.
SPEAKER_02: You know, you grew up in an environment that spiritualized everything, or if you're struggling with anxiety, then all you gotta do is pray harder.
SPEAKER_02: Right, if you're depressed, then you just need to speak life.
SPEAKER_02: Or don't say anything at all, because God forbid you speak something negative, then you're gonna speak that into existence.
SPEAKER_02: Are you having a bad day?
SPEAKER_02: Just rebuke it.
SPEAKER_02: And if it doesn't work, go find the woman who doesn't miss prayer meeting, ask her to rebuke it, she'll take care of it.
SPEAKER_02: Have you heard these messages before?
SPEAKER_02: Look, the church never bats a thousand, right?
SPEAKER_02: But I think when we look at how the church has handled some of these issues, even if your experience has been bad or maybe there's been some disappointing experiences, I don't think it's to our benefit to take the church's failures and use that as an opportunity to hand this issue over to a secular world that would keep God out of it altogether.
SPEAKER_02: Of course, this is a spiritual issue.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe not exclusively, but definitely.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: To say that our lives have our spiritual lives have nothing to do with our emotional health or a mental health or our capacity for joy.
SPEAKER_02: That would just be naive at best.
SPEAKER_02: And so while we can gather here together, I think it's perfectly fair to recognize there are a lot of great tools out there.
SPEAKER_02: Therapy and counseling can be great.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Medication, when properly administered, is a blessing.
SPEAKER_02: Rest, right?
SPEAKER_02: Just getting enough sleep is a real thing.
SPEAKER_02: Exercising is great.
SPEAKER_02: Being a part of a community is great.
SPEAKER_02: And I don't think any reasonable person would argue that those things aren't helpful tools in experiencing joy.
SPEAKER_02: But in our search for joy, just like building my deck, I think we've got to get to a point where we realize we have all of these great tools that are available to us that can do a lot of great things.
SPEAKER_02: But we're dealing with some foundational issues that we just don't have the tools for.
SPEAKER_02: And if we don't get serious about solving what's beneath the surface of a lot of these issues, then we're gonna find ourselves in a place where we're hurt and disappointed and we build something only to be crushed when we see it fall apart because it never had a good foundation.
SPEAKER_02: So this series is not going to be addressing all of these other tools out there.
SPEAKER_02: But for the next three weeks, what I want us to do is identify some rocks, right?
SPEAKER_02: Some things that we gotta take on if we want to live a life of sustained joy, that we gotta clear out of the way, make room for God to come in and move, and access the tools that really only God can provide.
SPEAKER_02: And so we're gonna start this first week.
SPEAKER_02: It's gonna be a difficult series.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna talk about a lot of tough topics, and so we might as well just come out the gate swinging.
SPEAKER_02: Today we're gonna get ready for some old school preaching.
SPEAKER_02: We're talking about sin.
SPEAKER_02: Look at your neighbor, say sin.
SPEAKER_02: Look at your other neighbor say don't do it.
SPEAKER_02: Man, y'all preach that message better than I can.
SPEAKER_02: We can go ahead and get out of here.
SPEAKER_02: No, I'm kidding.
SPEAKER_02: What is sin?
SPEAKER_02: Sin's been described a lot of different ways.
SPEAKER_02: It's been described as missing the mark.
SPEAKER_02: This comes from the Greek word hamardia, which was a uh archery word, right?
SPEAKER_02: It means we have to aim at the bullseye and to come up short, right?
SPEAKER_02: To miss it, right?
SPEAKER_02: That that gap between what you're aiming for and where you landed, that that sin.
SPEAKER_02: Some people have said it has nothing to do with missing the target, it has everything to do with taking that arrow and shooting the person beside you.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_02: It's not that you were given your best effort and you came up a little short, it's that you actually use the free will that God gave you to advance your own good and not shoot for the things He was pointing at.
unknown: St.
SPEAKER_02: Augustine had a unique understanding of what sin is.
SPEAKER_02: He he described it essentially as disordered love.
SPEAKER_02: It's to love lesser things more than greater things, and the actions that come as a result of that love, right, that would be sin.
SPEAKER_02: So, like when you love pizza more than you love your family.
SPEAKER_02: But that's not good.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_02: But when you love, unless it's Bob's pizza, I heard you, Bob.
SPEAKER_02: That's funny.
SPEAKER_02: Right, but on a more serious note, what if you love your family more than you love God?
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't seem bad, but it's disordered.
SPEAKER_02: And the fruit that comes as a result of that would lead to sin.
SPEAKER_02: And of course, St.
SPEAKER_02: August or St.
SPEAKER_02: Thomas Aquinas, who's one of my favorite, he kind of takes the more legal academic approach here.
SPEAKER_02: He said, sin is an act, word, or desire contrary to the eternal law of God.
SPEAKER_02: And if that's too sophisticated, I can give you the VBS version of that, which happens to be my favorite, which is sin is anything I say, think, or do that makes God unhappy.
SPEAKER_02: Simple enough, right?
SPEAKER_02: So the question is: if sin makes God unhappy, if it's disordered, if it disrupts our relationship with Him, if we believe what Scripture says about it, which is in the end it leads to death, then I think it's only a fair question to ask, why do we keep doing it?
SPEAKER_02: And we could have a lot of conversation here.
SPEAKER_02: We could talk about sin nature, we could talk about the curse of Adam, we could talk about the perversity of the human heart.
SPEAKER_02: But I think if you just boil it down to, you know, meat and potatoes, what you're left with is that sin is fun.
SPEAKER_02: Not in a not in a silly, arbitrary way, but in the technical way.
SPEAKER_02: It gives us pleasure.
SPEAKER_02: It offers something real, it gives us a feeling that we're trying to get.
SPEAKER_02: It creates real relief.
SPEAKER_02: It it scratches an itch.
SPEAKER_02: There's something inside of us that we're longing for, and we think that sin is this shortcut to give us that thing that we want.
SPEAKER_02: And and if sin wasn't fun, if it didn't actually deliver those things that we were longing for, the truth is we wouldn't keep doing it.
SPEAKER_02: The problem with sin is that whatever pleasure it seems to offer, that pleasure is never sustained.
SPEAKER_02: The enemy's not dumb.
SPEAKER_02: In his temptation, he never leads with the cost of sin.
SPEAKER_02: He only leads with the goods that it provides.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: He he shows you what you're getting and he hides what it's gonna cost.
SPEAKER_02: Well, Romans reveals what it costs.
SPEAKER_02: He says, the wages of sin is death.
SPEAKER_02: And there's a guy who said this, I'm not sure who it was, but I love that he said it.
SPEAKER_02: He says, you know, if the wages of sin were paid immediately, there'd probably be a lot less of it.
SPEAKER_02: Happened to agree with the guy.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: But that's not the way it works.
SPEAKER_02: When it comes to sin, the bill always comes later.
SPEAKER_02: But it always comes.
SPEAKER_02: And when it shows up, it it always has fine print that you didn't expect to see.
SPEAKER_02: It always comes with consequences that you couldn't have foresaw, it always comes with baggage that you're not prepared to carry.
SPEAKER_02: So we can say with confidence, yeah, sin is fun until it isn't.
SPEAKER_02: But by the time you get to that point, often it's taken you further than you wanted to go.
SPEAKER_02: And now you're stuck.
SPEAKER_02: Hebrews 3.13 calls this the deceitfulness of sin.
SPEAKER_02: And so while sin is deceitful, what we can trust is that the pattern of sin is always the same.
SPEAKER_02: And James 1 lays out this pattern so that we can go through life informed.
SPEAKER_02: He says, desire is what leads to sin.
SPEAKER_02: And it's when we capitulate to that desire, and sin runs its course in our life, ultimately that's when sin leads to death.
SPEAKER_02: And there's a temptation for all of us to dismiss the effects of sin when we haven't seen them yet.
SPEAKER_02: To assume that we've escaped, or that we dodged a bullet, or that we are the exception, or that something about us is different.
SPEAKER_02: But can I tell you, while the the timing of the bill may vary, right?
SPEAKER_02: The destination never does.
SPEAKER_02: In the end, it always leads to death.
SPEAKER_02: And here's what I want you to stay with me because this is important.
SPEAKER_02: Oftentimes, when we talk about the consequences of sin and we talk about death, most of the time we think of that in eternal terms.
SPEAKER_02: This is a matter of heaven and it's a matter of hell.
SPEAKER_02: We have a responsibility to get that bill settled up before we cross the great horizon and find ourselves in one of two forever locations.
SPEAKER_02: And while that's true to a degree.
SPEAKER_02: The consequences are also temporal, meaning they're physical and they're here and now and they have a real effect on our lives.
SPEAKER_02: And it's not just spiritual that you might feel this sadness in your heart.
SPEAKER_02: The effects of sin are felt all around us.
SPEAKER_02: And it manifests in very real, tangible ways.
SPEAKER_02: And the reason that's what happens with sin is because of this really fancy theological word that we're going to use today called hylomorphism.
SPEAKER_02: And I don't like using words like this because I think it can take something practical and make it feel too abstract.
SPEAKER_02: But the meaning of this word is simple and it really has real effect in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: And what hilomorphism states is that our body, our physical form, and our spirit, this part of us that has a capacity for a relationship with God, that these aren't two things that just exist.
SPEAKER_02: But while we're alive on this earth, our body and our spirit are inextricably linked together.
SPEAKER_02: And what happens in your spirit actually affects your body.
SPEAKER_02: What this means for us is that it's just not possible to live in ongoing sin, and be that something we're saying or thinking or doing, and not be affected by that in the present in both a spiritual and a physical way.
SPEAKER_02: And while the effects of sin might be subtle at first, they they always build and they're always moving in the same direction, which is away from peace and away from joy.
SPEAKER_02: We could spend an infinitely long series talking about the consequence of our sin in eternity.
SPEAKER_02: When sin enters the picture, it's like a stone in a steel pond, it just creates ripples that go further than you can see.
SPEAKER_02: But what I want to talk about for this series is what are the effects of sin in our life now?
SPEAKER_02: Because there's a temptation to bite off more than we can chew.
SPEAKER_02: But what I want to show you is that there's a better way to do this thing.
SPEAKER_02: And whatever joy you think sin is bringing into your life, it just doesn't match the joy that God can bring.
SPEAKER_02: So I want to give you three immediate effects of sin.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the first one: shame.
SPEAKER_02: And not just shame, but the isolation that it produces.
SPEAKER_02: Typically, in the order of events, shame is the uh the first effect we experience as well.
SPEAKER_02: If we go back to Genesis 3, the moment that Adam and Eve eat of the fruit that they were told not to eat from, what do they do?
SPEAKER_02: They hide before God shows up, before he ever delivers a consequence, before they even know that God knows what they did, they're hiding.
SPEAKER_02: Notice that the shame that they feel, the response wasn't just emotional, it was physical.
SPEAKER_02: It caused them to run from God, and just as they were hiding, that's what we do today.
SPEAKER_02: We we hide.
SPEAKER_02: We hide from God, we hide from the people closest to us, we hide from the people who would actually want to help us.
SPEAKER_02: Because shame makes us feel like a relationship with those people is impossible.
SPEAKER_02: To be known is to be seen, and what shame does is convince you that uh being seen is like the worst thing ever.
SPEAKER_02: Because if they could actually see you as you are and in all of your hurt and all of your failure, then there's no way that they could ever love you.
SPEAKER_02: You know there's really only two lies that the enemy tells.
SPEAKER_02: The first lie is that sin isn't a big deal.
SPEAKER_02: That's how we get you to sin.
SPEAKER_02: Of course it's a big deal.
SPEAKER_02: You are offending an infinitely holy God, incurring a debt of cosmic proportion.
SPEAKER_02: It's a massive deal.
SPEAKER_02: But the second lie he tells after you've committed this offense is that now there's no way God could ever forgive you.
SPEAKER_02: Out of the same mouth, he speaks both of these, and of course, that's a lie too, because yes, while you did incur a cosmic and divine debt, that debt has been paid because it was nailed to the cross.
SPEAKER_02: But shame prevents us from seeing that.
SPEAKER_02: And it isolates us from the only one who can make us whole.
SPEAKER_02: What does Psalm 16 say?
SPEAKER_02: That the fullness of joy is found in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_02: So the isolating effect of sh sin isn't that you just feel guilty and you feel a little bad, it's that it is moving you away from the only one who can help you.
SPEAKER_02: So I want you to see in this regard, joy isn't just something we generate, it's a proximity problem.
SPEAKER_02: And the more we isolate ourselves, the more we're going to find ourselves lacking in that joy that we're after.
SPEAKER_02: Here's the second effect anxiety and angst.
SPEAKER_02: You know, the word anxiety has become almost ubiquitous in our culture.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it shows up everywhere and in conversations and social media and marketing and jokes, and it's it's almost because of its popularity become kind of a junk drawer word.
SPEAKER_02: You know, it does it it's it's hard to almost take it seriously because it's used so much, and that's not a good thing either, because for those that experience it underneath the word is something very, very real.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_02: The last thing we want to do is minimize that or dismiss that.
SPEAKER_02: And I want to be careful here because what I I don't want you to mishear me and hear what I'm not saying.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_02: I'm not telling you that if you struggle with anxiety, that it's just because you're a filthy, rotten sinner and you need to repent.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: If you just repent and stop doing that thing, then you'd feel better.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Because we've we've heard that message before.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Anxiety is complex, it has layers.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_02: So today's conversation isn't even about anxiety and all of its causes.
SPEAKER_02: Today's message is about sin and its effects.
SPEAKER_02: And I know that this can be a hard conversation, but the truth of the matter is we do a huge, huge disservice to ourselves if we don't recognize the very real connection between the choices that we make and the lifestyle that we live and the anxiety that we feel.
SPEAKER_02: Listen to how Isaiah describes the state of those whose lifestyle are outside the boundary lines of what God says is good.
SPEAKER_02: He says, But the wicked are like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up mire and dirt.
SPEAKER_02: There's no peace for the wicked, says my God.
SPEAKER_02: And notice the image here.
SPEAKER_02: The image is not a storm which blows in and can blow out.
SPEAKER_02: The image is a sea that that won't relent, that just won't be quiet.
SPEAKER_02: It's it's it's constant, it's the agitation that just follows us follows us everywhere we go, even when nothing is outwardly wrong.
SPEAKER_02: In Proverbs 28, verse 1, the the writer says uh or describes another perspective on this angst.
SPEAKER_02: He says, the wicked flee when none pursueth.
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever been in a position where you were doing something you know you weren't supposed to do?
SPEAKER_02: And you just like knew that you're gonna be found out, you're constantly like looking over your shoulder, you're just anxious, you're uneasy.
SPEAKER_02: This is how I feel anytime I'm driving through Spring Hill.
SPEAKER_02: Because those police are relentless.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not even sure what I'm doing, but I know I'm doing something wrong.
SPEAKER_02: But I'm speeding, I'm texting, I'm doing something.
SPEAKER_02: Don't do that.
SPEAKER_02: That's sin.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but seriously, you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_02: You're you're nervous.
SPEAKER_02: That's not a way to live.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: And so what we see here is that that no peace goes hand in hand with no joy.
SPEAKER_02: Because peace and joy are linked together, they're inseparable.
SPEAKER_02: Now, the third effect we see is physical and emotional exhaustion.
SPEAKER_02: In Psalm 32, David writes about a season in his life when he was engaged in behavior that he shouldn't have been, and he was just holding on to this and not confessing it.
SPEAKER_02: And uh, this is what he writes about this.
SPEAKER_02: He says, When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
SPEAKER_02: For day and night your hand was heavy upon me.
SPEAKER_02: My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
SPEAKER_02: This guy is down bad.
SPEAKER_02: Bones wasting, strength drained, groaning all day long.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that is depression language.
SPEAKER_02: And notice how David is connecting this physical experience that he's having directly to unconfessed sin.
SPEAKER_02: All right, this isn't just mopiness, this is physical debilitation.
SPEAKER_02: How many of you have ever been heat stroke before?
SPEAKER_02: And we just feel completely zapped.
SPEAKER_02: All right?
SPEAKER_02: That's what sin does to us.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you might be better than me, but I can remember times in my life when I was engaged in behavior that I shouldn't have been in.
SPEAKER_02: I was living a life that was really double-minded, where I had one foot in this camp over here where I wanted to be, you know, a follower of God, I wanted to be used by Him, and this other foot over here where I wanted to live my life and do things my way and make decisions the way that I want to make them.
SPEAKER_02: And can I just tell you, in that season, there was no joy there.
SPEAKER_02: I felt heavy.
SPEAKER_02: I felt tired.
SPEAKER_02: I felt like I didn't want to eat, I didn't want to do any of the things that bring me pleasure.
SPEAKER_02: It was like this cloud that was following me.
SPEAKER_02: And if you live under that conviction and state of guilt for long enough, this has a way of having a real effect in your body.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I say this not jokingly, but seriously, I mean, it has a way of aging this prematurely.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, some of you know this experience, and I'm not trying to be unkind when I say this, but but when you think about people that you know in your life or your circle that just have a real ugliness on the inside of them.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_02: They could be just angry or mean or unkind or spiteful or resentful or unforgiving or whatever topic you want to use.
SPEAKER_02: Have you ever noticed that the people who live like that long enough, it just has a w that ugliness that's on the inside has a way of coming out.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: You can see it on people.
SPEAKER_02: What I'm not suggesting is that we go around and see people and think their ugliness is showing.
SPEAKER_02: Know what kind of person that is.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm just trying to make the connection.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, think about it this way.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I look at some people who have lived hard, hard lives.
SPEAKER_02: But there comes a point where they have an encounter with Jesus and they get forgiven, and they get free, and they're walking in purpose, and they're full of joy, and it's almost like the color comes back to their face, and their eyes light up again, and there's a different countenance about them, and there's a new pep in their step, and they have energy.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you see it.
SPEAKER_02: This is not just physical and spiritual, they're interrelated.
SPEAKER_02: And so we have a responsibility to take note of when this is happening.
SPEAKER_02: Because when we feel any of these three signs, be it shame or anxiety or this physical heaviness that is associated with sin, we can have one of two responses to it, and neither of them are good.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: The first response is to dismiss the possibility that these things are connected and that there actually is something spiritual going on.
SPEAKER_02: And if that's the case, we just try to medicate whatever we're feeling.
SPEAKER_02: We just assume that something is offline or off or uh out of out of alignment, and we got to figure out what it is, and we can tweak that, be it medicine or talk therapy, or uh, you know, finding better friends to hang out with or starting a new diet.
SPEAKER_02: And and and all you're doing is trying to mask a spiritual problem.
SPEAKER_02: Now, on the flip side, there's a spiritual error we can make, it's just to assume that anytime we feel anything negative at all, it must be the devil.
SPEAKER_02: The devil's messing.
SPEAKER_02: When the Lord be blessing, the devil be messing.
SPEAKER_02: That's what they say, right?
SPEAKER_02: But can I just tell you that not all guilt?
SPEAKER_02: Not all negative is the devil.
SPEAKER_02: There's an actually a bit of grace from God and the fact that we're able to discern when we're not doing things the way that we're supposed to.
SPEAKER_02: Is it possible that that could be that homing device that he's giving us?
SPEAKER_02: It's starting to give you some warning signals to say that you're not on the right track.
unknown: St.
SPEAKER_02: Thomas Aquinas, who I mentioned earlier, a big fan of his, he had this to say about conscience.
SPEAKER_02: He said that the conscience exists to witness, to bind, to incite.
SPEAKER_02: We can get on board with that.
SPEAKER_02: But he also said it exists to accuse, torment, and rebuke.
SPEAKER_02: And he described this as a gift of grace from God.
SPEAKER_02: So that no matter how far we get out of relationship with him, there is something on the inside of us that has a way of letting us know that we are not on the right track and we need to turn around.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe the best physical example I can think of is like a check engine light.
SPEAKER_02: I had this guy I knew in college.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I don't know how his car made it to school, let alone survive through school.
SPEAKER_02: This thing lit up like a Christmas tree.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, every light that could go on was going on.
SPEAKER_02: And so he needed to get this car fixed.
SPEAKER_02: And so he went to AutoZone to buy one of those uh OBD scanners, you know, that you can plug in and it'll tell you what the lights are.
SPEAKER_02: And so he bought this thing and he's hooking it up, and I asked him what's wrong with it.
SPEAKER_02: He said, I don't know, I just cleared them.
SPEAKER_02: And they would come on, he'd plug that thing in again and clear them again.
SPEAKER_02: He never wanted to fix the car.
SPEAKER_02: He said, I don't have any money for that, right?
SPEAKER_02: But I don't want this negativity in my life.
SPEAKER_02: I want to just clear those signals out.
SPEAKER_02: Makes me feel better.
SPEAKER_02: Also doesn't help when you're on a date and you got 13 check engine lights on in your car.
SPEAKER_02: So you know, when we ignore the spiritual nature of some of these problems, now look, I'm not saying that every time you feel anxiety that it's because there's unrepentant sin in your life.
SPEAKER_02: Or I'm not suggesting that just because you're dealing with depression, it's because there's something that you haven't turned over to the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: I'm just saying when these signals are going off, if we neglect the fact that this might actually be spiritual in nature, we might be clearing a code that we're meant to be paying attention to.
SPEAKER_02: So what do we do then?
SPEAKER_02: Right, how do we deal with the problem?
SPEAKER_02: Because what we need to recognize is sin isn't just a moral issue.
SPEAKER_02: The reason it matters so much is because it is a relational rupture.
SPEAKER_02: Isaiah chapter 59, verse 2 says, Your iniquities have made a separation between you and God.
SPEAKER_02: And if this separation continues, not only are you moving further and further away from the joy that God wants you to walk in, but you're getting to a place where it's harder to find your way back.
SPEAKER_02: The signal is meant to guide us.
SPEAKER_02: And we don't believe that this is just some signal in the abstract.
SPEAKER_02: This is a person, this is the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: This is how he works.
SPEAKER_02: And if you will, like David, right, bring your sin to God, he can deal with it.
SPEAKER_02: What I love about the conclusion of David's story in this passage where he's talking about the sin that he was holding on to, he says in verse 5, he says, That I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity.
SPEAKER_02: I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
SPEAKER_02: And as a result of him confessing and receiving forgiveness from God, this is what we see in verse 11.
SPEAKER_02: This is the end of the song.
SPEAKER_02: He says, Rejoice in the Lord and be glad.
SPEAKER_02: You righteous, sing.
SPEAKER_02: All of you who were upright in heart.
SPEAKER_02: Hold on now.
SPEAKER_02: I thought the whole point of David writing this is that he was not righteous.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: The whole thing starts with him being in a position of being out of favor with God.
SPEAKER_02: But by the end of the Psalm, he's taking on this new identity.
SPEAKER_02: You see, that's the beauty of confession.
SPEAKER_02: Is that when we confess and when we repent, what we're doing is we're inviting God to come in and forgive us.
SPEAKER_02: It's not anything that he did, right?
SPEAKER_02: Like to earn his way back into good graces.
SPEAKER_02: It was the simple act of honest conversation and reconciliation with a God who is ready to receive him.
SPEAKER_02: 1 John 1 says this about as clearly as possible.
SPEAKER_02: It says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: His mercy is everlasting to everlasting.
SPEAKER_02: There is nothing you can do to get outside of his graces.
SPEAKER_02: Romans says, where sin abounds, his grace abounds all the more.
SPEAKER_02: There's nothing that you could bring to him that would surprise him or cause him to recoil.
SPEAKER_02: But sometimes that healing, it starts with us bringing this to him and letting it go.
SPEAKER_02: I use the analogy of, because a lot of people want to say, Well, are you saying if I don't confess, I'm not going to go to heaven?
SPEAKER_02: I think that's the wrong lens to take.
SPEAKER_02: Right, as we've already established, this isn't just about righteousness and unrighteousness, this is about relationship with the God who loves you.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_02: If you're married or you're in a relationship, imagine if you had an argument with the person that you're married to.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Every time you have an argument, you don't bring divorce on the table.
SPEAKER_02: You shouldn't.
SPEAKER_02: When you have an argument, if you just decided that, okay, well, let's just pretend that didn't happen and we move on.
SPEAKER_02: And there's never a point where you actually try to come back together to ask for forgiveness where you went a little wrong.
SPEAKER_02: Well then you missed the best part of argument, which is making up.
SPEAKER_02: Come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: But how often do we do that with God?
SPEAKER_02: But we know his grace forgives us.
SPEAKER_02: We know that we have right standing with him.
SPEAKER_02: Yet when we fall short, there's this temptation for us just to pretend like it didn't happen and to just get up and go again.
SPEAKER_02: And can I tell you, it's not that God needs you to get on your knees and grovel and complain and put on a repentant performance.
SPEAKER_02: But there is something so sweet when you can go to God and say, God, I missed.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't get that right.
SPEAKER_02: I didn't respond the way that I should have.
SPEAKER_02: God, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_02: In that posture, the Holy Spirit has a way of coming and meeting you, in healing you, in restoring joy, and restoring identity, and restoring confidence, and giving you strength in exchange for weakness and the sin that was gripping you and trying to hold you hostage.
SPEAKER_02: Now, it's the strength of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: In my weakness, his power is made perfect.
SPEAKER_02: In my confession, I provide an opportunity for God to reveal a dimension of his love that I desperately need in that moment.
SPEAKER_02: And it's when I confess these things that I open up the opportunity to encounter my God in a way that I need to.
SPEAKER_02: And he's always available.
SPEAKER_02: But it's on us to bring about that conversation.
SPEAKER_02: You know, when I was in middle school, it seemed like the only thing that we could talk about in middle high school in my youth group was revival.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it was just a buzzword, right?
SPEAKER_02: We want revival, we want revival, Lord, send revival.
SPEAKER_02: I want revival too.
SPEAKER_02: Problem is you talk about we want revival, you never talk about what revival looks like.
SPEAKER_02: So what should I be looking for when revival comes?
SPEAKER_02: You know, what's interesting if you actually study revivals throughout the history and you kind of look for these hallmark indicators.
SPEAKER_02: One of the most recent revivals that I think we actually got a real picture of was Asbury in about 2023.
SPEAKER_02: I was in Orlando at the time, and this started breaking out after a chapel service.
SPEAKER_02: We had people from Florida that were driving all the way up to Kentucky just to see what was going on.
SPEAKER_02: Because they heard God was on the move.
SPEAKER_02: And what I love about this revival is that there was nothing flashy about it.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, the pastor who spoke that day, after he walked off the stage, he'd text his wife, another stinker.
SPEAKER_02: There were no lights.
SPEAKER_02: It was a minimized service in between classes.
SPEAKER_02: But something happened in the hearts of people when the Holy Spirit came rushing in and people began to confess their sins and make room for God because they were clearing out all of that junk that had been in the way.
SPEAKER_02: And when you look at revival, the hallmark indicator is mass confession and repentance.
SPEAKER_02: Is people saying, Enough of my way and more of your way.
SPEAKER_02: Now, look, we're not here to manufacture moments.
SPEAKER_02: We're not here to try to recreate anything, but I know corporate revival only happens because individual revival happens in its place.
SPEAKER_02: And this morning, as we close and we enter into a time of worship and prayer, I think we would be remiss if we didn't create space for that.
SPEAKER_02: So I want to invite some of our prayer team forward.
SPEAKER_02: I want to invite our pastoral pastors, if you're in the room, I'd like to invite you to come down forward.
SPEAKER_02: And if there's anything in your life that you just feel like, I've got to get this off my chest.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to carry this anymore.
SPEAKER_02: I'm tired of it.
SPEAKER_02: Blocking the work that God wants to do in my life, and I want more of Him and less of me.
SPEAKER_02: This is your opportunity to bring that confession.
SPEAKER_02: And here's what you're going to find.
SPEAKER_02: You're not going to find that because you confess it here, these people will forgive you, and now that you're forgiven.
SPEAKER_02: You're not going to find that these people are very interested in your story.
SPEAKER_02: But they're interested in you.
SPEAKER_02: And they're interested in seeing you healthy and whole.
SPEAKER_02: And so, from great to small, whatever it is that you feel like is serving as a barrier, let's bring it before the Lord today.
SPEAKER_02: Let's leave it here.
SPEAKER_02: And instead of leaving full of rocks in our heart, let's leave full of his Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe a little more pep in our step.
SPEAKER_02: Heavenly Father, we thank you for the opportunity to be in your house with your people.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, I thank you for your good presence that's with us.
SPEAKER_02: Give us the confidence to trust your word that says that you are faithful to forgive and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_02: And Lord, I just pray that as your Holy Spirit moves over us today.
SPEAKER_02: I pray that you would reveal where we've missed it.
SPEAKER_02: And Lord, I pray that you would make us right.
SPEAKER_02: Draw us close to you so we can live in the joy that we're meant to.
SPEAKER_02: We thank you in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: We hope you were encouraged and challenged by today's message.
SPEAKER_00: Again, to learn more about Gateway Franklin Church, find us online at gatewayfranklin.com.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us today.