Lake Martin Presbyterian Church April 12, 2026 Podcast

This week, Rev. James Williams joined LMPC. James has served as an ordained PCA teaching elder for over thirty years. In 2020, he was called jointly by the PCA Mission to North America and the Southeast Alabama Presbytery to the role of Evanglist. He founded the Center for Urban Renewal and Evangelism (CURE). They seek to develop biblical and evangelical leaders to impact our world. James mentors younger pastors and conducts training for individuals and churches.

To learn more, go to https://www.curegospelmovement.com/

To learn more about Lake Martin Presbyterian Church, visit us at htpps://lakemartinpca.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to the Lake Martin Presbyterian Church Podcast. We're glad you're listening. Lake Martin Presbyterian Church is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America, located near Lake Martin, Alabama. Each week we share the preaching ministry of our church and pray it encourages you in your walk with Christ. Here's this week's message.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

This past week I was at a pastor's conference in Mississippi, and I'm very grateful to have gotten the opportunity to go to that. And because I was there, uh we have a guest preacher this morning. James Williams is uh going to be preaching for us this morning, and we're very I'm very grateful to him for coming. Um but James is also going to be our missions update of the week. He's one of the supported campus ministers of our church. So, brother, if you'd come up and give us just a quick update on um how you're doing and your ministry.

SPEAKER_00 0:55

All right. Good morning, everyone. Really like to apologize for being late. Been excited about being here. And uh, as you would have it, things go the way they go. And I just want to say we're very excited about part of what we're trying to do is reach out to Alabama State University. And we got Chris Phillips here and Dominale Trainer, and they uh new students we've met recently who are interested in knowing more about what it means to believe in Christ, and they believe in him, but they want to understand more about what it means to how do we know in and those kinds of things, those questions that we have. Um just real quick, we started Cure as a with a vision to reach out to historic black campuses across America, but we went to start at Alabama State, and we launched this past fall, and God has blessed us. We've had a weekly Bible study, had a favor with the administration, had a Bible study with some of the uh administrative people. A couple of them have prayed with me to see Christ and for the assurance. And uh, we've led about 14 students to Christ, and we've been meeting on a regular basis, and we became an official campus ministry just a few weeks ago, and we're excited about what the Lord's doing and the potential of it. And we got three students that are praying about going with us to Kenya in August, so you can be praying for all of that. Praise the Lord, amen. You may be seated. Can't tell you how excited Barbara and I are to be here, and I'm really, really thrilled that these uh juniors in college there uh decided to come with us to a strange place out in the woods with a bunch of white people. It's a brand new experience. But we're glad to be here. We we love y'all. Man, we come a long way, haven't we? We were just talking about the fireplace. Anybody remember the fireplace? Um uh the pastor has something to give you. I want to share that with you at the end, so if everybody can get one, so you'll have it, so at the end you can look at it. Uh it's something I wrote. It's called The Cure for Life, and it's gonna inspire you to share the gospel. That's what it's gonna do. Um, so let's pray and ask the Lord to bless this time, the brief time we have, and uh, and that I could condense all this theological truth that I want to unpack into a few minutes. Father, we love you. We thank you for loving us. You thank you for your grace, we thank you that you saved us. We thank you that we can call on your name and you hear us. We can cry out to you, Lord, and you answer. You have blessed us beyond anything we deserve. Thank you for eternal life. Thank you for the gift of this church. Father, just it was a dream three years ago. Now, call the pastor. Oh God, what do you want to do in Lake Martin? Oh God, let us be a part of it. Bless us now. Use this time, glorify yourself now. Unveil your word to our hearts in a fresh way. Jesus, in your powerful name we come. Amen. Ephesians chapter 5, verses 15 through 21, Ephesians 5, 15 through 21. Look carefully then now how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is, and do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. This message has been influenced by Brian LaRitz. I make no apology for it. It was very powerful what he reminded me of. We learned these things in seminary, and he brought it together in a way for me that helped me put some things together. Most of this is me, but it's definitely been influenced by him. Um but one of the things he shared with us at this conference we were at in 2010, there were a couple of women who did some amazing things on the ocean. Um, they were young women in 2010 and they did it separate. That was Katie Sparts and Laura uh Decker. Sparts in January 2010 decided she would row the Atlantic Ocean from Dakar Senagogue at West Africa and uh all the way to Guyana, South America, in a rowboat. She did it in 70 days through bleeding hands and calluses, eight to ten hours a day, and eating chocolate bars. She made it. In that same year, in July 2010, a Laura Decker at 15 years old, her father allowed her, gave her permission to circumnavigate the earth in a sailboat. And she was 16 by the time she finished. And uh quite an accomplishment. Now, the reason I give that to you, and the reason Brian gave it to us, it was two different things about what they did. They did the same thing in a sort of way, but they did it differently. One did it the old-fashioned hard, rowing tough in an out way, while uh Miss Decker sat on the deck with the wind blowing through her hair, drinking lemonade, and watching the wind fill the sails and blow. And that's that's the idea here of our Christian life. God is calling us to allow him to live his life in and through us, fill ourselves with the wind of the life of Christ and the grace of God to sustain us in everything, and especially how we relate and love and act with each other and the people around us and how we take this good news to the world. It's in as MacArthur says, it's not an experience that people see, it's just a one-time experience. It's not even just this picture of being filled, it's not this filled up, you know, just filled up, but it's this ongoing. The context is this ongoing God carrying you along. It's God carrying us, it's his grace blessing us, the presence of God with us, his Holy Spirit in us and through us. Making a difference. And so there are things that we didn't think we could do. God says, Yes, you can. You're not on your own. I believe the Lord wants to remind us this morning. That's a real force. I believe all the things that allow the Holy Spirit to feel your fail. And live his life of love and power. It'll make a difference how you interact with your children and your grandchildren. It makes a difference how your husbands and wives interact. It'll make a difference in how people see you and perceive Christianity. Not as this hard, crusty, judgmental, condemning thing, but this thing that's full of life and grace. So my theme, to give you a theme, God wants us to live in love and unite in Christ by his power, not our own. I know that's a long, but I'll say it again. God wants us to live in love and unite in Christ by his power, not our own. So Paul is addressing the Ephesians. This is a church he started, Acts 19, you can hear all about it. He was there like several years, two or three years, and the church developed and and and then he ruined the business of this guy. Darnabas was talking about because Diane, they worshiped Diane, they had this temple, 125 yards long, had columns that were 40 feet high, 120 of them around it. It was like one of the wonders of the world, and they they did all kinds of idol worship there, and had temple prostitutes, etc. And um, and now these folks are coming out of this life, and so it's the Gentiles, the Greeks, and then it's the Jews. And and Paul is writing this letter in Ephesus back to them saying, God has called you to be one in Christ. He wants you to unite. He's assuring them that they can't do it on their own, but they can do it by the power of the Holy Spirit. So let me get a little technical, so be a patient with me a little bit. The first chapters, first three chapters, one through three, the verb tenses are indicative. It's this idea of this is who you are, this is this is what Christ has done for you. So it's just reality of being connected to him. And so I want to suggest that that he gives us this idea of this is who we are in Christ, so we can understand that now that we know who we are, now he's given us an ability to sustain us. So when we get to chapters uh four through six, it be the verse tends to just become imperative. You can see it in the Greek as you read it, and and it basically tells us, he gives us a command be, do, be, be. And you're like, how can I do be, be, be? And he says, by the grace and the power of the Holy Spirit, you can do and be all that God intends you to do and be. And one of the things you can do and be, and chapter one, Jews and Gentiles, we're all one because we were chosen before the foundations, and the Holy Spirit was given to us as an inheritance, a guarantee for us. You are under one dominion, the head of the church, that's Jesus Christ. So we have one heat leader of our church, so we're already connected to one another, whether we're Jew, whether we're Gentile, because Christ has chosen us before the foundations, and we have that Holy Spirit, that same one person of the Holy Spirit in connecting us, whether we're Jew or Greek. And we are under the Lordship of Christ. He leads on to say in chapter 2, the Gentiles were far away, but they're not brought near. And the wall that separates, he is destroyed. Because God is trying to establish one humanity under Christ. That's the kingdom of God we're going to experience. That's the one Jesus is coming back for. Amen. And so He wants, God wants one house with one head, and we're all part of it. And he says, it's all by grace, and because you've been given the Holy Spirit, it's by grace you've been saved through faith, not of yourself, not of yourself. It's the gift of God. That's how we receive our justification. Christ comes in and he indwells us, and then he justifies us based on Christ in Christ alone, nothing else. We are saved simply because God has had mercy on whom he will have mercy. And so that's who we are. In Christ. And then in the later chapters, he's implying to us, and he's saying to us directly, that's how we continue to live is by grace. The sanctification is by grace. One of the beautiful pictures of this idea of this one thing. I just love the Artemis II team. When they came back, they kept hugging and they were talking about their unity, and they had to work together to make sure everything came together. And they were so precise to hit the right spot to land that rocket and get those shoots right. They're coming at what was it, 34,000, 24,000 miles an hour. Then they got to hit this thing and all its heat and then slow down to 24 miles an hour and get caught. And then and they timed it so that it was precise to the minute they will arrive at 7.07, and that's exactly what happened. They were focused on one purpose: looping around the moon and getting back safe. Praise God, they made it back. And God has given us one purpose: the gospel, the good news. And we need to loop around each other and unite as a team for that purpose. And it doesn't matter how chocolate I am and lovely, it doesn't matter how white you are and wonderful, it matters that we are in Christ. And the world needs to see it. So God wants us to live in love and unite by his power so that the world can see the cornerstone, Christ. And in chapter three, he basically says it's a love that has no length, no height, no depth. It's just beyond comparison. And he says, God will do exceedingly, abundantly beyond anything you can ask to match. So, what is it you're saying that you can't do? What are you asking the Holy Spirit to do in and through you? I couldn't believe that God would have me go to India and train pastors, but we've done it. Just got a report back that the pastors we influence, they influenced about 15,000 to 20,000 people because they were influencing other churches and they taught what we taught to them. And now the culture in those villages are being changed, according to the leader, because the people in India, um, the men in India are now helping their wives and treating their wives with a lot more decency because they've been taught. And we were there, and they're using that as an example of what the gospel does. United by one spirit. So when he gets to chapter four, he basically says, We're all united together. We need to bear with one another. And God has given us gifts. The gifts are so that we can build each other up. The church shouldn't be defined by gossip and all the other stuff and the commandments that our pastor just prayed for us. The church should be defined by love and unity and building each other up. And so he says, Therefore, put off all that stuff. I won't detail it. You can read it. It's exciting. Go home and read Ephesians 4, 5 and 6. Put off that stuff. These are the imperatives. And so then he gets to chapter 5 and he says, Therefore, since God has done all this wonderful stuff for us, since we know who we are in Christ and He wants us to unite and love and care for each other, and since it takes us putting off this hole so we won't be selfish and be the people we've been in, therefore be defined by something new. Therefore, verse 1, therefore be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love just as Jesus also loves you and gave himself for us. Therefore, follow God, look like God, act like God. And how in how? In how he loves. When people encounter you, do they encounter mean-spiritedness, doubt, or do they encounter gentleness, peace, joy, kindness instead of rage, self-control. A lot like you know, you pray over a message like this, and then God testes you. I pull out in traffic, and this guy, he was way down the road, but he saw me coming, he sped up. Even though he had another lane over here, he comes up behind me, honking his horn as loud as he could, and he cuts me off, like, get out of the way. And I was like, so holy. I called him uh, well, I won't say what I called him, but it was a name of choice. And I said, and right by the time I got to the light, he was sitting there, and I was like, Oh, it's my turn. And then the Holy Spirit was like, No, it's not. And I said, Oh, this is the sermon. Lord, give me the grace to love like you love, and walk in it, live there, be like little children, be dependent on it. Don't count on anything less than trusting Christ with all your heart because you're a helpless child. You need his grace at every moment of every day. And so, because it's a fragrance, it's a sacrifice, and we want to be like Christ at a rumor. And so then he basically says, otherwise, it'll lead to all this immoral stuff you see the world's doing. And he's making a contrast. Don't be like the world. That's foolishness, it's stupidity. So he says, Wake up. The definition of insanity, keep doing the same thing you've been doing and expecting a new result. Keep doing the same old thing. You did that, you live that life. He's saying, Wake up, come out of that, arise from that. And then verse 15, look carefully, be very intentional, watch, be circumspect, be very precise in how you walk. Watch where you put your feet, watch where you go. Feet tell you where your faith is. If you're at the club every night, if you're sitting in the alcohol room, if you're wherever you are, if you're at the church, if you're in prayer on your knees, your feet tell you what you really believe. Not as unwise, but as wise. Unwise in Paul being a great Hebrew, this unwise idea is foolish. And in the and the Bible says in Psalm 53, the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. So that's foolish to live a life that's not wise, that's like God doesn't exist. You used to do that. Now you must do something better. How? By being wise. How? By making the best use of the time because the days are evil. People are doing that. They don't need more evil. What does this mean, the best use of the time? It really says redeem the time. It really means kind of rescue the time. You've wasted the time on sinful behavior, bad attitudes. Okay, so you you've argued with your wife and you fell in out with her, and y'all got all these fights that you've had year after year after year. Okay, you've spent enough time on that now. Now redeem it. Let the rest of your years, Lord, I'll speak to my wife in gentleness and kindness and thankfulness. That you gave her to me, and she's still with me. So I want to respect her every day, every moment. Please don't let me be foolish to keep acting like it's all about me. Well, how are you gonna do that? Well, I'm gonna do that by not getting drunk with wine, verse 18. But that's debauchery. That's all kinds of sinfulness. But be filled with the Holy Spirit. Wait, you just said imitate God. I can't imitate God. What are you talking about? I can't do that. You're right, I can't either. And then he says, be filled with the Holy Spirit. What does that mean? Does that mean we run into walls and some kind of spooky stuff with charm snakes? What do we do? Well, this picture here, MacArthur reminded me that this picture here, and he well, he actually taught me that the the the culture was they would drink and get drunk to identify with their deity. And the deity was immoral, so they could do all kinds of crazy immoral stuff, and they were in a temple and they had these temple prostitutes and etc. And so Paul is saying, don't do any more of that stuff, don't go into that stuff, don't be carried away like that, because that leads back to all that immoral stuff. But by contrast, but by contrast, you don't have to get drunk to connect with your deity. You are connected to your deity already. And if you're gonna get drunk, don't get drunk on your idols, whatever they are. Let Jesus be your idol, let him carry you away, let him feel yourself. So, so it it it it is intellectual, I need to know that I need to be filled with the spirit. It is emotional, I need to feel like and be uh committed to it that I I need to see God do something in me and get excited about God doing something in me, but it doesn't depend on my feelings, it only depends on the feeling. It doesn't depend on my feelings, it does I can't let my feelings define it or my experiences define it, but what defines it is God's grace defines it. And so the comparisons is Colossians 3. I don't have time to go into it, but if you see, he said, let the word of Christ richly dwell in you, and then he gives you all the same results, speaking to one another, hymns and songs, and then let it be defined by love and unity. Let that be your perfect bond of peace. The exact same results of Ephesians of Colossians 3 is the exact same results of Ephesians 5. So it's this idea of allowing the Holy Spirit and the Word of God to grab your mind and hold on to your mind and your heart to such a degree that you got the I can't help it but overflow with the love of God. I can't help it but talk about Jesus. Am I making sense? I cannot do it. I cannot. And so I'll close with this. Only had a few more things to say, but I'll I'll just close with this. It's this idea of we mankind trust an equal to God. They try they try to be like God on their own. And and and it's this picture of Satan, I will be like the most high. Good illustration is Belshezah was basically he was doing this crazy thing. Let's go get the you remember the story, right? Um I don't have to tell you. He goes to get the the, he's having this party, go get the cups that got from from the Jerusalem. Let's drink out of those cups. And they're doing this wild party, and while he's doing that, a handwriting, a hand comes out of nowhere and writes on the wall, meany, meany, pelco, teres. And then they send for Daniel, and Daniel interprets it, and he basically says, You've been weighed in the balance and found wanting. And and tonight, judgment's right at your door. And and I like to focus on that part, weighed in the balance. It's this idea of something on a scale. And God says basically, okay, you you big and bad Bell Shelter, you think you can drink out of my cups? Well, I'm gonna get on one side of the scale. We're gonna measure who who's God and who's not, and then I'm gonna put you on the other side. Well, what you it didn't move. You you don't weigh enough. And I got this years ago from uh Tony Evans, and he said the beauty is when we allow Christ to come and be on the scale in our place. The scale equals out because God equals God. And that's the picture here. We're like children, we're constantly every day, every hour, and not waiting a long time. Look, I say something weird to my wife, and I go immediately, you know, that's just my pride, that's just me and my ego right now. I'm I'm impatient. Please, please forgive me. I should not treat you that way, shouldn't have never said anything like that to you. And Lord, please give me your grace to say what I need to say because sometimes I'm so arrogant and stubborn, I don't even want to say anything. Well, if you hadn't been, you know, it's basically your fault that I'm messed up. Uh don't we do it? And so Ian Bound says the church is looking for better methods, God is looking for better men. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but he flows through men. And so, how do you know he's flowing through you? You will see the results, you will make melody in your heart, you'll speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, you'll have joy and peace, you'll be thankful all the time for what God's done in your life and for everything. And to God the Father, at all times, in the name of the Lord Jesus, you know that this eternity means something and it should be passed on. Submitting to one another out of love and reverence for Christ. People skip that part because when the next line is wives, submit to your husbands. But it's the whole idea of submitting to one another, it creates better family relationships, husbands and wives, children and parents, employees and employers. It's through the Holy Spirit. And then He gives us spiritual battle. We can fight it and win it because of the grace of the Holy Spirit. Anybody hearing me? Anybody feeling me? As I submit it to you, God wants us to live and love and unite in Christ by the power, by his power and not our own. Lord, we need you. We need your hand, we need your help. Teach us what it really means to be filled and empowered by you. Be glorified here today. Jesus in your name. For those uh flyers that we're handing out, I won't take the time to go through it. But it basically talks about how to know for sure you're gonna have eternal life, and it's called a cure for life. It's a simple process. Christ offers unhappy, unfulfilled people uh renewal and eternal life. People unhappy because of their sin. Jesus died as a ransom for those sins. And he says, put faith in him, and then on the back it explains there's a prayer you can pray. He stands at the door and knock, I'll receive it. If you hadn't done that, it's a simple prayer. You can just say, Lord, I need you. Please come into my heart. Make me who you want me to be. Amen. Oh, if you already know it, please share it with somebody today.

SPEAKER_02 30:17

Thank you for listening to the Lake Martin Presbyterian Church Podcast. If this message encouraged you, please consider sharing it with someone else. To learn more about our church, including worship times and upcoming events, visit LakemartinPCA.com. We'd love to have you join us.