SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: So this looks a little different, huh?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
SPEAKER_00: Um so if this is your first time here, um I am typically standing over there leading worship, so you've chosen to come when the worship pastor is speaking, and so for that I apologize.
SPEAKER_00: It's like the worship guy or the youth guy speaking, and it's always like, this is my first time, you know.
SPEAKER_00: So I'm sorry for that ahead of time.
SPEAKER_00: Uh a little bit about myself.
SPEAKER_00: Uh my name is Joey Porter, and I moved uh to Austin in 2015 from Clovis, New Mexico, where I spent most of my life.
SPEAKER_00: We got any green chili fans out there?
SPEAKER_00: Does anybody know what green chili is?
SPEAKER_00: So we got a couple New Mexico people around here.
SPEAKER_00: We all bonded over that, so I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so I grew up in Clovis, New Mexico, like I said, and I got saved at the age of 17, February 3rd of 2000, at first Baptist Church in Clovis.
SPEAKER_00: And around 19, I felt like the Lord was calling me into ministry.
SPEAKER_00: And so I started uh pursuing that, and most of my ministry has been uh doing worship, a couple little stint as a youth pastor in there, which I got out of there as fast as I could, and and back to back to worship only.
SPEAKER_00: And I actually didn't don't haven't preached a whole lot, which you're all gonna be uh it's gonna be made very obvious uh today.
SPEAKER_00: And uh also one last thing before I really get into it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be gone next week.
SPEAKER_00: So it's not that I got fired after speaking to you today.
SPEAKER_00: It's already planned for me to be gone.
SPEAKER_00: Mandy's gonna be leading worship next week, so just know that I'm okay.
SPEAKER_00: All right.
SPEAKER_00: So uh I've actually had a real opportunity to be a part of a lot of great ministries over the 20 years plus years that I've been doing it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, one of my favorites is uh something called MKR.
SPEAKER_00: It stands for Missionary Kid Retreat.
SPEAKER_00: Uh there was a part, there's an organization that would gather money all year long, and uh at the end of the year would come together and put on a youth camp for missionary kids overseas in Europe, kids that don't really have an opportunity to have youth camps very often.
SPEAKER_00: So I got to be a part of that, and I did this for five or six years.
SPEAKER_00: Uh my me and my team would go over there and I would uh lead worship uh for this camp.
SPEAKER_00: Uh one of these days uh that we were with the students, uh we it this was in Prague.
SPEAKER_00: I forgot to mention that.
SPEAKER_00: We uh the main uh place that it would be held was in the Czech Republic in Prague.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've never been, it's like being in a Disney movie.
SPEAKER_00: Uh there's cobblestone streets, structures that are 2,000 plus years old.
SPEAKER_00: It's a beautiful place to be.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but there's also they have these uh Christmas markets uh that you can go to, and there's lots of vendors that sell things.
SPEAKER_00: And we took the kids out to this market one evening, and while we were there, I went to go order some food.
SPEAKER_00: There was a sausage vendor, uh, and so I stepped up to the sausage vendor.
SPEAKER_00: I asked for my food.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I was there was people in line behind me, and uh to my left was a trash can.
SPEAKER_00: And there was a man that walked up to that trash can and kind of rifled through it a little bit.
SPEAKER_00: And after he rifled through it a little bit, he walks over to me and he just holds his hand out and just stares at me.
SPEAKER_00: And it was awkward like this.
SPEAKER_00: And I just stared at him like, hey, there's people behind me that are now staring at me, going, what's this guy gonna do?
SPEAKER_00: The sausage man is staring at me.
SPEAKER_00: You know, he's ready to hand a sausage to the homeless man if I give him some money, or if I pay him, hey man, give this man a sausage.
SPEAKER_00: But I didn't do anything, I just stood there and awkwardly waited for my food.
SPEAKER_00: And eventually the man got the hint that I wasn't going to give him any food or money, and he walked away.
SPEAKER_00: I took my sausage, got my drink, went over to my group, and my buddy who was with me, who's my best friend, he said, Hey man, what was that all about?
SPEAKER_00: He could kind of see that what was going on over there.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_00: This guy he just held his hand out to me and everybody was staring at me.
SPEAKER_00: He was really awkward, and and I said, I think he wanted me to give him some food.
SPEAKER_00: And he was like, Well, why didn't you give him some food?
SPEAKER_00: And in that moment, it was like a stab in my heart.
SPEAKER_00: Like, why didn't I give him some food?
SPEAKER_00: Like, why did I just awkwardly stare at him?
SPEAKER_00: You know, and I don't really remember what I was thinking much in that moment, but maybe it was like something like uh, you know, the typical things.
SPEAKER_00: Like, this man just needs to get a job.
SPEAKER_00: Like, why is he hassling me for my money?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was something a little more practical, like I'm overseas and I didn't have a lot of money at the time, and I've got to feed myself for the remainder of the week, so I don't I don't have a lot of money to give this man.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was something more uh nefarious, like this man's not gonna take my five dollars, go around the corner and get in his Ferrari and go home.
SPEAKER_00: You know, mama didn't raise no fool.
SPEAKER_00: The truth is I was just resting in my own wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Like I was just thinking the way Joey thinks.
SPEAKER_00: And that's uh that's not a good place to be, really.
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't walking in love, and I definitely wasn't walking in God's wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: I was walking in my own wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: And I know we can't help uh or feed every homeless person that that crosses our paths, but I knew on this day that I was supposed to have responded differently, and I didn't.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I didn't want to be duped or made a fool, uh, or maybe, like I said, I was just being selfish with what I had.
SPEAKER_00: But I was I wasn't considering my own righteousness or my own holiness and being an example of how the Lord has asked me to live.
SPEAKER_00: And so my question for us today is uh do you struggle to strive for righteousness or holiness in your own daily lives?
SPEAKER_00: And not even like achieve righteousness, but do you just strive for it?
SPEAKER_00: Do you struggle to strive for it?
SPEAKER_00: Is it even a thought of your daily lives?
SPEAKER_00: When you wake up, are you thinking, how can I strive for righteousness today?
SPEAKER_00: And I assume uh many of us, like myself, I don't consciously or actively uh process on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_00: Am I living righteously today?
SPEAKER_00: It's not a thought that those words don't penetrate my mind uh as I'm going through my day.
SPEAKER_00: Um and so maybe you've never really, uh it's never really crossed your mind, or maybe you've never been taught that you should live in a righteous or a holy way.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you aren't sure what it means to live righteously or understand uh any of that.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe like me, you are aware of what you should be doing.
SPEAKER_00: You just choose to do it your own way anyway.
SPEAKER_00: And that's probably more so of myself.
SPEAKER_00: I choose myself, and I choose my wisdom over the Lord's wisdom probably more often than not.
SPEAKER_00: Um, according to a quick Google search, the definition of righteousness is morally right, virtuous, or conforming to accepted standards of morality and justice.
SPEAKER_00: And that sounds pretty good until you ask what's the accepted standard of morality and justice, and you get back a hundred different answers.
SPEAKER_00: Biblical definition is that it's not just about behavior, but it's about being in a real a right relationship with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: It's about bringing the Lord uh glory with your every action.
SPEAKER_00: That's righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Being in a right relationship with the Lord, and bringing him glory and honor uh with what you do.
SPEAKER_00: And the Lord in his wisdom defines what the church's standards of morality and justice are.
SPEAKER_00: God's in control of that, not culture.
SPEAKER_00: Uh Micah 6 8 says, He has told you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with our God.
SPEAKER_00: Biblical righteousness is not only to be right in standing with the Lord, but also to be in right standing with each other, to live in unity with the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Unity and righteousness, they go hand in hand.
SPEAKER_00: Unity is easy if you don't care about righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: Uh you can just say you can, you it's the you do you system of living.
SPEAKER_00: And that sounds good, but you do you is a human system of morality that destroys unity and it drives people to hell.
SPEAKER_00: Righteousness is easy if you don't care about unity.
SPEAKER_00: It's like I can I can worry about my own righteousness, not worry about what you're doing, and I'm just gonna go over here and live the way that I feel like I should live.
SPEAKER_00: But the Lord cares about both things and ask us to pursue both unity and righteousness among the church.
SPEAKER_00: So, what does that look like?
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians can be split up into two main sections, and we've been working our way through it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you guys have heard a lot of the things that I'm gonna say today.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of repetition and a big theme in the book of Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but chapters one through three, uh you could kind of break those down into worship and truth.
SPEAKER_00: And chapters four and six would be mission, and that's where we're at here.
SPEAKER_00: The mission grown organically out of the love for what the Lord has done for us.
SPEAKER_00: So as we learn who God is and how good God is and the things that He's done for us, out of that, organically, we should want to be on mission for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We should want to give back to the Lord uh our our righteousness, our holiness, our actions, and dedicate those things to him.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so uh again, four through six can be broken down further into unity and holiness.
SPEAKER_00: Unity and righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: So uh our first mission is to bring glory to God with everything that we do and say.
SPEAKER_00: And so, how do we do that?
SPEAKER_00: To display God's wisdom to the world.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, our mission for the church is to be a mini model of a new creation to the world.
SPEAKER_00: That's our mission.
SPEAKER_00: We are supposed to take the wisdom of the Lord, live that out in our daily lives, and show people there's a better way for us to live.
SPEAKER_00: The point of the church as the Messiah's body is to display to the world the fullness of him who fills all in all.
SPEAKER_00: That's Ephesians 1.23, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
SPEAKER_00: And we are to do this not only through our words, but our actions.
SPEAKER_00: Last week James uh began the first half of this section of teaching with 17 through 32, I believe, uh chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll continue on today with the Lord describing how he wants our actions to look.
SPEAKER_00: Our actions are important.
SPEAKER_00: God absolutely uh loves us the way that we are, and God wants to uh change us and help us be molded and sanctified to look and more and act like Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't want to leave us uh exactly where we're at.
SPEAKER_00: So uh, yes, Ephesians 4, 17 and through 5 through 20, which we'll get to today, uh, describes a new life.
SPEAKER_00: It describes this new creation, uh, this new created body of people.
SPEAKER_00: And these verses are simply not simply about a list of do's and don'ts.
SPEAKER_00: It's about showing the world that there's a better way to live.
SPEAKER_00: We were meant for more than just to exist and to do our own thing.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord calls the church to be a working mini model of a better way to live.
SPEAKER_00: And our goal is to have the outside world looking in going, Wait, I can live like that.
SPEAKER_00: One of the greatest compliments that Julie and I have ever received, at least to me, is uh for our marriage, is we had a single friend uh a couple years ago, and we were hanging out with her and talking about relationships and things, and she said, you know, I want what you guys have.
SPEAKER_00: I thought, man.
SPEAKER_00: Like I wanted to high-five Julie in that moment, like we're doing something right, you know.
SPEAKER_00: I didn't.
SPEAKER_00: I just, you know, awkwardly said, Oh, that's great, thank you.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Because that's how I take compliments, I get real awkward about it.
SPEAKER_00: That's a whole nother story.
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, we are to be uh a mini model of a new creation.
SPEAKER_00: Like we are to display that you can have a home with a mom and a dad that's filled with joy and love.
SPEAKER_00: You can live a life free from substance abuse and free from being subservient to different vices.
SPEAKER_00: You can have a life filled with peace regardless of circumstance.
SPEAKER_00: You can live a life set on serving others and seeing others succeed, a life filled with purpose, a home filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, goodness, and self-control.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe this home doesn't sound all that strange to you.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe uh you've grown up in the burbs your whole life, and this is just kind of how people live.
SPEAKER_00: It seems on the outside, at least, that this is a normal home for you.
SPEAKER_00: And in American culture, we have been spoiled with mostly Christian values and morality being the dominant worldview for quite a long time.
SPEAKER_00: However, as America goes away from the more traditional moralities, this mini-model of new creation that we are to display will become more and more radical.
SPEAKER_00: Even basic Christian things today are more, are becoming more and more radical compared to culture.
SPEAKER_00: And as culture moves further away from God, we need to stay unified and stay firmly planted in the wisdom of how the Lord says to live.
SPEAKER_00: We need to be a consistent beacon that screams there's a better way to live.
SPEAKER_00: And in Ephesians, uh, it would have been revolutionary to see this modeled for them.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesus was filled with many different gods, sexual licentiousness and debauchery ran rampant, and the home in Ephesus was definitely not modeled the way the Lord has asked us to model it.
SPEAKER_00: So, how do we achieve this mini model of new creation?
SPEAKER_00: How do we strive for righteousness in our daily lives?
SPEAKER_00: So we'll get into Ephesians.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to go through Ephesians 5, 1 through 20 today.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 5 1 and 2 says this.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 1 begins with, therefore.
SPEAKER_00: And whenever you see therefore, you need to ask what it's there for.
SPEAKER_00: And so we back up one verse, we go to Ephesians 4.32, and it ends with Paul saying, Forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you.
SPEAKER_00: So because God forgave you, become imitators of God as his children.
SPEAKER_00: We're at the stage in our life where uh our children are very much picking up the things that we are saying and doing, and I have to be very conscious about the saying the things that I say and do, because our children will use those things against us if we if we're not careful.
SPEAKER_00: Uh and uh, you know, they pick up the bad things way better than they do the good things.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's what we're to be like.
SPEAKER_00: Like that little child who's learning to be like his father.
SPEAKER_00: We need to pick up all the things that the Lord is teaching us.
SPEAKER_00: We need to implement those things in our life.
SPEAKER_00: Again, out of the love for him, out of all the things that God has done for us, out of his goodness to us, we need to learn to be imitators of that.
SPEAKER_00: And so, out of our thankfulness and love for Jesus, forgive others and keep his commandments.
SPEAKER_00: Let's move to Ephesians 5, 3.
SPEAKER_00: It says, But sexual immorality in all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among the saints.
SPEAKER_00: So, what is sexual immorality?
SPEAKER_00: I think it would be a lot easier if we just defined what was sexually moral.
SPEAKER_00: Uh sex is to be had in the confines of marriage between one man and one woman.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: Anything else outside of that definition is sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_00: It's a pretty narrow definition.
SPEAKER_00: First and foremost, what is sex for?
SPEAKER_00: Procreation.
SPEAKER_00: God gave it to us as a way to make more of us.
SPEAKER_00: That's how we obviously this is goes without saying that's how we make babies.
SPEAKER_00: And so, uh, but God could have left it there.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, this is what it's for, and that's it.
SPEAKER_00: But in God's good, in God's goodness, he didn't stop there.
SPEAKER_00: He also made sex really pleasurable.
SPEAKER_00: And an act that means uh that is meant to bond a husband and a wife together.
SPEAKER_00: In God's wisdom and knowing how sex is made, he says uh to keep it uh within a healthy one-man and one-woman marriage, sex will bring joy, togetherness, love, and life.
SPEAKER_00: Now, because people are flawed, and because two people uh we've all got sins, uh sex isn't always this beacon of love and unity within a marriage.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes there are different expectations that are brought into the marriage, differing opinions that'll need to be worked through.
SPEAKER_00: And sex within a marriage can be work, no doubt.
SPEAKER_00: It's not all daisies and roses as the single man would hope.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but on the other side of the struggle, sex has the potential to produce joy, togetherness, love, and life for a husband and wife.
SPEAKER_00: And alternatively, pursued outside of this boundary, it will bring, it will bring destruction, darkness, and death.
SPEAKER_00: Sex is very potent.
SPEAKER_00: Death of relationships, death of marriages, death of businesses or organizations.
SPEAKER_00: Throughout the Bible, sexual immorality is the beginning of a lot of terrible outcomes.
SPEAKER_00: We as a body need to fight to keep all sin from running rampant in the church, but there is something specifically dangerous about letting sexual immorality go unchecked in the church.
SPEAKER_00: Sin is sin, and all sin separates us from the Lord, and no matter the sin, the wages end the same.
SPEAKER_00: That is true, but it's not, but not all sin is equal in earthly consequence.
SPEAKER_00: Sexual sin can pack a big punch and bring heavy darkness.
SPEAKER_00: And done improperly, it will destroy definitely outside of God's goodness.
SPEAKER_00: So, according according to Pew Research, half of self-identified Christians in America say casual sex is something is sometimes or always acceptable.
SPEAKER_00: Casual sex being defined as sex between consulting adults who are not in a committed or a romantic relationship.
SPEAKER_00: That's half of self-identified Christians say that this is okay.
SPEAKER_00: Like we literally couldn't be more divided on the subject.
SPEAKER_00: 50-50.
SPEAKER_00: So why does it matter?
SPEAKER_00: Uh we as a church have forgotten a fundamental biblical truth that because we belong to Jesus, God alone determines the use of our bodies, not us.
SPEAKER_00: Our bodies belong to Him.
SPEAKER_00: And God says, This is how I want you to use it.
SPEAKER_00: The culture in Ephesus embraced all forms of licentiousness and sexual sin.
SPEAKER_00: And Paul was telling the body of Christ in Ephesus, as he tells us today, to not let the culture set the standards for us.
SPEAKER_00: God set the standards, and as saints, we are called to something better.
SPEAKER_00: As a church, we we need to unify and join together to overcome this and help and encourage one another through various sexual immoralities and eliminate this and all sin from our body as much as we can.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 4.
SPEAKER_00: Let there be no filthiness or foolish talk or crude joking which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: It's crazy to me uh how much you can stand out in the world today if you don't cuss.
SPEAKER_00: Uh before I moved to Austin, I worked for a construction company.
SPEAKER_00: And if you've ever been around the construction uh atmosphere, it's pretty filthy.
SPEAKER_00: And so uh one day we were sitting around with a group of guys, and uh one of the guys asked me, uh, hey Joey, you one of them preachers?
SPEAKER_00: I said, Well, you know, I I am, yeah, I lead worship for my my church.
SPEAKER_00: I said, What made you say that?
SPEAKER_00: He said, Well, I noticed you didn't cuss.
SPEAKER_00: Like every other word out of everybody else's mouth is the F-word.
SPEAKER_00: It's a verb, a noun, you know, it's whatever, it's all the things.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so I just didn't say that.
SPEAKER_00: And I stood out as different for that one thing.
SPEAKER_00: And so how we speak really does matter.
SPEAKER_00: How we speak and what we say are a great, a great way to be a mini model of new creation when we speak to bring glory to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I chose not to do that because I feel like it grieves the Lord when we speak uh crudely or uh jokes, bad you know, dirty jokes and things like that.
SPEAKER_00: And I choose to try and honor the Lord with how I speak.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not perfect at it.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not you know sometimes if you have kids, you know how it goes.
SPEAKER_00: Uh so uh we need to speak with kindness, love, softness, uh, and still be bold and speak truth.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I want us to understand that compassion, love, kindness, and truth are not separate paths.
SPEAKER_00: We can be compassionate and still deliver truth to people uh in a way that's loving and kind.
SPEAKER_00: Uh we don't have to eliminate truth to be compassionate.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, uh we're being quite non-compassionate when we withhold the truth from the lost.
SPEAKER_00: But we can deliver the truth in a compassionate way, a way that brings honor and glory to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not up to us, it's not fully up to us whether the person we're speaking to is offended or not.
SPEAKER_00: Uh I mean, we have our own conscience, and you can say, Yes, I I delivered what I had to say in a compassionate and loving way.
SPEAKER_00: And if that person gets offended, it's not our fault.
SPEAKER_00: Now, you know if you delivered in an offensive way.
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's that's up to you, and you can tell when you've done or said something in a way that you shouldn't.
SPEAKER_00: But somebody's offense is not always uh our responsibility.
SPEAKER_00: The truth is just offensive, as to our nature.
SPEAKER_00: I I want to I want to hear what I want to hear.
SPEAKER_00: I want to be told that I'm perfect, that I'm awesome.
SPEAKER_00: And when the truth comes at me and God says there's some things you need to work on, that's offensive to me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm offended.
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to do that.
SPEAKER_00: You mean to tell me I'm not perfect the way that I am?
SPEAKER_00: That's news to me.
SPEAKER_00: You know, so it's naturally the truth is just naturally offensive to us as people.
SPEAKER_00: We don't want to hear that.
SPEAKER_00: Now God does something in moments for us where the truth becomes life.
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's something that God does that's beyond me.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's why it's sometimes received and accepted and other times rejected.
SPEAKER_00: It's not up to us to make that decision.
SPEAKER_00: We just deliver it with compassion and love.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 5 7.
SPEAKER_00: 5 through 7.
SPEAKER_00: For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetousness, that is an an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ in God.
SPEAKER_00: Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, do not become partners with them.
SPEAKER_00: When you become a Christian, your identity is now child of God.
SPEAKER_00: You've been covered by the blood of Christ, and when God looks at you, he sees the snowy white righteousness of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: When you became a Christian, you didn't just add a new star to your solar system.
SPEAKER_00: You completely started to orbit around a new sun.
SPEAKER_00: Like you are a totally new creation.
SPEAKER_00: So this is not saying, if you've ever committed sexual immorality or you've done impure things, that you're not going to inherit the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: If that was the case, none of us would inherit it.
SPEAKER_00: All of us have sinned and fallen short.
SPEAKER_00: So those who it's uh it's saying that those who ident those whose identity is not in Christ, those who have chosen to reject taking on Christ's identity, those whose lifestyle identity is something other than Christ will not inherit the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: What Paul is saying here is don't let your lifestyle mimic their lifestyle.
SPEAKER_00: God wants us to see sin the way that he sees sin, not the way that culture sees sin.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians eight through fourteen, five, eight through fourteen.
SPEAKER_00: For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true, and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them.
SPEAKER_00: For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.
SPEAKER_00: But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore it says, Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the light of the world, therefore we need to be the light as well.
SPEAKER_00: And although we're not the source of the light, we must be the light in ref we must be in the light to reflect the light, kind of like the moon reflects the light of the sun.
SPEAKER_00: When we're walking in the light, we will produce good fruit, and no fruit is produced in the darkness.
SPEAKER_00: The light is what helps fruit grow and flourish.
SPEAKER_00: We are told to expose the darkness, and that doesn't mean that we're supposed to go around tattletelling on people.
SPEAKER_00: When we live in God's wisdom, when we live in the light, when we choose to be a mini model of new creation, the darkness gets exposed by comparison.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to call out every sin we see.
SPEAKER_00: When the world looks at us and compares Christians to culture, the darkness naturally gets exposed.
SPEAKER_00: And this is for sure, there is for sure a time and a place to call out sin and injustice, but Paul here is simply saying, You were no longer supposed to live like the worldly culture, you are now a new creation.
SPEAKER_00: 15 through 17.
SPEAKER_00: Look carefully then how you walk, not as wise but as but as not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore do not be foolish, but understand that what the will of the Lord is.
SPEAKER_00: Today is the day.
SPEAKER_00: The word is filled the world is filled with darkness, and it needs the example of goodness that pours out of a life, live for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: What is the will of the Lord?
SPEAKER_00: Simply to love him and to love others.
SPEAKER_00: God calls us to himself and to his service.
SPEAKER_00: So as you are going, love him and live in his service.
SPEAKER_00: 18.
SPEAKER_00: And do not get drunk with wine, but this is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Don't allow yourself to be controlled by anything other than the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: The church needs to be a Holy Spirit controlled environment.
SPEAKER_00: And there are different religions and spiritual ceremonies that use substances to alter states of minds and things like that.
SPEAKER_00: But again, the wisdom of Christ says to avoid such things, even something as common as allowing alcohol to temporarily alter the state of mind and decision-making ability.
SPEAKER_00: Pretty straightforward.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 19 through 20.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians 5, 19 through 20.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: This is a reminder to keep God at the center of our church and our individual lives.
SPEAKER_00: We need to regularly meet together to worship, to give thanks to God and encourage one another.
SPEAKER_00: We are like buckets with holes in them.
SPEAKER_00: As we are meeting with each other, as we are spending time with the Lord, righteousness and holiness gets poured into us and we get filled up.
SPEAKER_00: But if we separate ourselves from that, as we stop doing those things, it's like it seeps out of us and the culture comes back in.
SPEAKER_00: Myself comes back in.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's important for us to regularly be filled with God's perspective.
SPEAKER_00: In the Pew Research survey I mentioned about sex outside of marriage, of those surveyed, the less frequently you attended a regular Sunday service, the more likely you were to say that there's nothing wrong with casual sex.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how it goes.
SPEAKER_00: We are becoming like something.
SPEAKER_00: Whether we think or are conscious of it or not, we're either becoming like Christ or we're becoming like the world we're in.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's important, like that bucket with holes, it just seeps out of us.
SPEAKER_00: We got to keep putting it in.
SPEAKER_00: We got to keep coming to church.
SPEAKER_00: We got to keep being around other believers.
SPEAKER_00: We got to keep spending time with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: We got to keep encouraging each other.
SPEAKER_00: All of that is very important for the walk that we're trying to accomplish with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If we're not regularly being filled up with the Holy Spirit, the culture will begin to control our perspective and become the dominating voice in our heads.
SPEAKER_00: And we're not meant to do it alone.
SPEAKER_00: So back to the question I started with today.
SPEAKER_00: Do you struggle to strive for righteousness in your daily lives?
SPEAKER_00: Is that a struggle for you?
SPEAKER_00: Again, I'm not asking if you're living a perfect life.
SPEAKER_00: I'm asking you that as you're going, are you considering whose model you're being an example of, cultures or gods?
SPEAKER_00: And as you process through the question, a lot of us might be thinking, I'm not doing so hot.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've messed up big on some things and you're not sure how you're going to recover.
SPEAKER_00: And to that I would say, join the club.
SPEAKER_00: This is the place for you.
SPEAKER_00: And in the Lord, there is forgiveness for you and help for you in your time of need.
SPEAKER_00: The body of Christ works a lot like your actual body.
SPEAKER_00: If I was to cut this hand, what's the first thing that will happen?
SPEAKER_00: This hand goes to try and soothe that hand.
SPEAKER_00: This hand's got its own cuts, it's got its own bruises, it's got its own problems, its knuckles hurt from age.
SPEAKER_00: But when this hand is injured, it's always there to help soothe, to help heal, to help bandage.
SPEAKER_00: And that's how the body of Christ works as well.
SPEAKER_00: Even though you may have messed up, you may have made a mistake, you may be hurting, even though the rest of us got our own stuff, we're right there with you to help you heal, to help you bandage, to help you overcome.
SPEAKER_00: And none of us have achieved perfect holiness.
SPEAKER_00: All of us have and are currently going through or will need help to recover from deep wounds throughout life.
SPEAKER_00: The body of Christ can be a resource for healing and celebrating your sanctification, your being made like Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus was over there and you imagine there was a whole bunch of dashes on the floor.
SPEAKER_00: And as you're trying to become more and more like Christ, you click closer to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And let's say you're spending more time with the Lord, you're clicking closer to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And you've overcome something, and you're clicking closer to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And so we want to celebrate together with you the clicks.
SPEAKER_00: None of us are over there, and maybe somebody else is further along.
SPEAKER_00: But you, we celebrate that click, every click you make.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the body of Christ is for.
SPEAKER_00: To join together, to celebrate that sanctification, that process that's happening for you as you are journeying with the Lord and figuring your own stuff out.
SPEAKER_00: So we celebrate the clicks.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, righteousness is not simply about do's and don'ts.
SPEAKER_00: It's about being in right standing with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And because the Lord's forgiveness, it is always possible to get back in right standing after we confess and repent.
SPEAKER_00: God is good and He is faithful to forgive us, no matter how many times we mess up, no matter how many times we make mistakes.
SPEAKER_00: And there's consequences for those things, no doubt.
SPEAKER_00: But forgiveness is always available.
SPEAKER_00: As individuals, we should strive for righteousness with the help of the Holy Spirit and the body of Christ, the church.
SPEAKER_00: And as a church, we join together, we unify under these truths and wisdom to live out this model as a church and be an example of a better way to live.
SPEAKER_00: It's also important to stress that our goal is not to bring the lost to righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: As we're meeting people in the world, it's natural for us to want to correct behavior.
SPEAKER_00: But our first and foremost goal is not to bring them to righteousness, but to bring them to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus handles all that other stuff.
SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, he might use us to after that.
SPEAKER_00: But initially, our first goal is to bring people to Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we will have no effect on the culture or even the individual outside of the power of Jesus, at least not in effect that matters.
SPEAKER_00: We are to be unified through truth and wisdom, the worship and worship the Lord because uh we love him and we're grateful.
SPEAKER_00: We need to let God work through us to achieve righteousness and to be that mini model of new creation.
SPEAKER_00: And then when people ask us why, why you, why your family, why your church are different, you open your mouth, you open your mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Living this way has natural benefits to all who partake in it.
SPEAKER_00: Uh they will benefit from it somehow.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, just trying to uh live a joyful life, um like there's just natural benefits to that.
SPEAKER_00: God's uh wisdom is wisdom outside of him, but there's still a piece missing.
SPEAKER_00: Uh how, you know, living that way outside of Christ will never bring ultimate fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: American culture has seen the natural benefits of Christ's morality for a long time, but is still searching for the ultimate fulfillment because they have pushed away the most important piece, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: The church is meant to bring joy and glory to Christ by being a mini model of new creation, and then we are to share what makes that life so great to begin with, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: So whose model are you displaying?
SPEAKER_00: Your own cultures or Christ's?
SPEAKER_00: It's a question we should be asking ourselves on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_00: Who are you bringing glory to?
SPEAKER_00: You, culture, or Christ?
SPEAKER_00: And remember, our mission is to be a mini model of a new creation of the world.
SPEAKER_00: So as a church, let's unify behind Christ, his glory and his truth, live in his wisdom, a wisdom that draws people to his love, his goodness, and his power to save, and be ready to give an account when an onlooking world wants to know why.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.