SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Church of the Lookout is in Boulder, Colorado, and our vision is Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love.
SPEAKER_00: Visit us online at the lookout.church.
SPEAKER_00: So if you have your Bible, open up to Ephesians chapter five.
SPEAKER_00: Ephesians chapter five.
SPEAKER_00: While you do that, big shout out to Amy Joyner who preached last weekend.
SPEAKER_00: You guys are thankful for Amy.
SPEAKER_00: It's so good to have different voices to be able to bring sermons, messages to this community.
SPEAKER_00: We need many voices.
SPEAKER_00: And uh, you know, as as we've been going through the series in Ephesians, um, you know, I hope that you're catching a vision of what life in the kingdom of God, how full and expansive it can be.
SPEAKER_00: It's so easy to just get tunnel vision, to get so narrow-minded.
SPEAKER_00: As Paul's writing, he's he said, listen, no, I'm writing that you may be filled with the fullness of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And his expectation is that even as the church, that what we're doing here becomes a small working model of new creation.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: This is a small working model of everything that God is doing in heaven and on earth.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we read together this passage, the other thing to remember is that when when the first readers would have read this letter to the Ephesians, they probably read the entire thing in one sitting.
SPEAKER_00: So we're chunking it up over like eight to ten weeks going through Ephesians, and and some of the stuff we're gonna get in today is very practical.
SPEAKER_00: Paul's gonna say, this is how you ought to behave and how you ought to walk.
SPEAKER_00: And so the temptation, when we when we don't remember everything he said before this, especially today, because it gets way more specific and practical, the temptation is to is to think that we behave so that we can be accepted by God.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: That's how we sometimes read the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: I better do these things he's saying so that I can earn something from God.
SPEAKER_00: That's how a lot of people think about God.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not what Paul's saying, that's not what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is rather you are accepted, so this is how now you can live.
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel is you are forgiven, you are the beloved, this is what's true about you.
SPEAKER_00: And in light of that, here's how we ought to walk.
SPEAKER_00: Are we preaching this morning?
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: So we we walk with God in such a way to cooperate with what he says about us, and that's what Amy talked about last week, our identity in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So before we open up to Ephesians, I just want to invite you across the room.
SPEAKER_00: Let's just close our eyes for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to take a minute of stillness before the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And uh let's quiet our hearts to receive his word.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna give a moment to be silent together before God.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, be imitators of God, his beloved children, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_00: But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not be even named among you, as is proper among saints.
SPEAKER_00: Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: For you may be sure of this that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous, that is, an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and 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, 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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, for it is shameful even to speak of the things 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: Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of time, because the days are evil.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.
SPEAKER_00: 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 our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_00: So it's a lengthy passage, and this is where Paul is starting to get traction to all the foundation he's been laying for the first uh for the first three chapters, first four chapters, really.
SPEAKER_00: This is Ephesians 5.
SPEAKER_00: And he starts with this brilliant invitation, therefore the imitators of God as beloved children.
SPEAKER_00: I remember what it was like when my son, my first son was born.
SPEAKER_00: And uh and I loved that when I got to hold him, I just remember just, I just couldn't even look away.
SPEAKER_00: There's something about holding a baby in your arms and you lock eyes, and I couldn't believe how much love I had capacity for.
SPEAKER_00: But I was shocked how much love he had capacity for.
SPEAKER_00: This little baby, this little eight-pounder.
SPEAKER_00: When he looked at me, there was just what he what he pulled out of me was shocking.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what kids do.
SPEAKER_00: Somehow they have the capacity to love us back, and what happens is they start to watch us, they behold us, and as they start growing, they simply watch what we're doing and then do what we do.
SPEAKER_00: That's what children do.
SPEAKER_00: They learn to imitate the ones who are caring for them.
SPEAKER_00: Am I right?
SPEAKER_00: And uh that's what I love.
SPEAKER_00: I love that there's moments in my kids' life that they act like me, it's beautiful.
SPEAKER_00: And then there are moments when they act like me, and I think, oh God, save them from their sin.
SPEAKER_00: They learned that from me, oh Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't even know that was possible, and they learned it from me because I saw it in me, I saw it in them.
SPEAKER_00: But it's it's inherent as beloved children, as children, to to learn from us and even in the first days.
SPEAKER_00: I want to take a look at this quick video, you'll see what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Can you play this?
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly, exactly.
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
SPEAKER_00: They just they just know they watch and they do, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so as Paul is kind of coming, he's setting up where he's about to go, he's saying, Listen, your beloved children, just remember, you're you get to imitate your father who's in heaven, right?
SPEAKER_00: You get to imitate, and and it goes so much more than believing in God, but to doing what God does, right?
SPEAKER_00: We model our lives, we pattern our lives after his very being, his very nature.
SPEAKER_00: Um, why?
SPEAKER_00: Because we're not employees in the kingdom, we're not performers in the kingdom, we're not servants in the kingdom, and we are children in the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: This is a family of God, not a business.
SPEAKER_00: This is a family, which means that we learn from our Father who is in heaven, and what is he like?
SPEAKER_00: He's the one who loves us with a love that goes deeper than anything we've ever known.
SPEAKER_00: And and and what is it like to know that your main job as a child of God is to be loved by God, and then whatever the overflow of that is, that is the life that you live in this world.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where Paul then he starts talking about be imitators of God.
SPEAKER_00: And as you imitate him, you are to walk like him.
SPEAKER_00: You are to walk like him.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what we do.
SPEAKER_00: We're walking with God.
SPEAKER_00: We're not we're not running, we're not squatting, we're walking with God.
SPEAKER_00: I just can we just for a moment just imagine this.
SPEAKER_00: We we talk a lot about our walks with God, but how significant that is, that what we're doing is we're literally every day of our life.
SPEAKER_00: It's just we're on a walk with God.
SPEAKER_00: Who loves taking a walk?
SPEAKER_00: I love taking walks with my wife.
SPEAKER_00: I love walking around the neighborhood, I love the sunshine and just walking.
SPEAKER_00: And the picture that Paul starts to invite us into in this chapter says, listen, your life with God is you're going on a walk with him.
SPEAKER_00: You're not staying where you are, you're not running ahead, you're simply walking with him.
SPEAKER_00: And this is a good image for us because sometimes we, some of us can get in a rush with where we're going.
SPEAKER_00: Some of us can get impatient with where we're going, or we're afraid to even move in the first place.
SPEAKER_00: And and and the Father, I believe, we just once invited us, hey, come on a walk with me.
SPEAKER_00: I want to show you how to walk with me, because it's the way of life.
SPEAKER_00: And so Paul says, walk in love as the father has loved you, as Christ loved us.
SPEAKER_00: But then a little later on he says, walk as children of light.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: And then at the end of the passage, he says, walk in wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: So he gives us three ways to walk.
SPEAKER_00: He said, You're you're to walk, walk this out, to walk in love, to walk in as children of light, and to walk in wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: And as we walk with him, we start to imitate him in the way that he walks.
SPEAKER_00: And it's not pretty all the time.
SPEAKER_00: I remember hiking with one of my sons and teaching him, trying really just desperately wanting him to love hiking with us, and then just realizing like we could get him up the mountain, but then coming down the mountain, it was gonna, it was a disaster.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, because the entire time he's like, I hate hiking! I'm not like you.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember like, okay.
SPEAKER_00: At some point, either he's going to be scarred for life and never hike again, or he's gonna be Colorado's premier hiking instructor at some point in his life.
SPEAKER_00: And so we don't always like where we're walking to you, but God says, Come and walk with me, come and walk like me.
SPEAKER_00: So this first invitation from Paul is to walk in love, as Christ loved us.
SPEAKER_00: It's the first language with God.
SPEAKER_00: And what is the quality of love?
SPEAKER_00: It's Christ who loved himself and gave himself up for us.
SPEAKER_00: We're to model ourselves, the self-giving, sacrificial, others-oriented kind of life.
SPEAKER_00: This is the measure of maturity in the kingdom of God, is the quality of love, not what I can take, but what I can give.
SPEAKER_00: This is what marks our life, right?
SPEAKER_00: And so this is what's interesting is Paul goes immediately from this idea and then he immediately contrasts this with distorted love.
SPEAKER_00: And we see in this passage, he he drops into this whole section about sexual immorality and impurity and covetousness.
SPEAKER_00: You're like, okay.
SPEAKER_00: And it appears as if he's taking a really sharp left turn.
SPEAKER_00: We're just talking about being imitating of God, being imitating God, but now he's like, we need to talk about sexual immorality.
SPEAKER_00: And it is important, even as a church, we talk about sexual immorality in the culture that we live in.
SPEAKER_00: Because sexual immorality, what it is, is it's a perversion of God's love.
SPEAKER_00: It's how love gets bent inward.
SPEAKER_00: And can we just acknowledge that for a second?
SPEAKER_00: We're living in a time where love can get bent inward.
SPEAKER_00: Love can be twisted into all kinds of things.
SPEAKER_00: It can be distorted, it can be redefined, it can get vague, it can get sentimental.
SPEAKER_00: But love is defined as what Jesus showed us as the person of God, the one who laid down his life for us.
SPEAKER_00: That is the definition definition of love.
SPEAKER_00: This is how we know what love is, that Christ died for us.
SPEAKER_00: And so we have to talk about things like sexuality because sex is a gift from God.
SPEAKER_00: Sex is powerful.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and and just for the sake of clarity this morning, we've talked about this before a few couple years ago.
SPEAKER_00: We did a whole sermon series on sex, love, and Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_00: And it's not a taboo subject, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: This is all over the scriptures, and it permeates all of our life and the things that we consume all the time.
SPEAKER_00: Um, but just for the sake of clarity, as the scripture that like a New Testament ethic would define it, sexual immorality is any kind of sexual activity outside of God's design.
SPEAKER_00: So sex is a gift from God, intentional and sacred, but it's designed for a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the scriptures would say.
SPEAKER_00: And and that's a hard one sometimes for us to digest in our culture.
SPEAKER_00: And we we think, well, is that because God doesn't want us to have fun?
SPEAKER_00: Is it because he's got, he just wants to like have one thing over us?
SPEAKER_00: It's like, no, no, he doesn't want us to have fun.
SPEAKER_00: You kidding me?
SPEAKER_00: This was his idea.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, let's make life fun.
SPEAKER_00: But it was it's powerful.
SPEAKER_00: This thing is sexuality is powerful.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and we'll get to that in a second.
SPEAKER_00: Another common question is okay, to bar us from sexual immorality, does God want us to live constricted lives and just to be narrow and limited?
SPEAKER_00: No, he doesn't.
SPEAKER_00: But because he loves us and because he's a good father, he created us with boundaries so that we can experience the fullness of life, relationships, and love.
SPEAKER_00: This is out of his love for us.
SPEAKER_00: And this is started in Genesis chapter one.
SPEAKER_00: He said, I've given you this entire garden.
SPEAKER_00: Go and just knock yourself out.
SPEAKER_00: But that tree, don't eat from that tree.
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
SPEAKER_00: Now we can resist that all day.
SPEAKER_00: We can talk about why why or why not.
SPEAKER_00: God would limit us from one thing, but we we have to start in this place.
SPEAKER_00: He is God and we are not.
SPEAKER_00: He is God and He are not.
SPEAKER_00: There's time and we are not.
SPEAKER_00: There's sometimes He creates boundaries for our lives.
SPEAKER_00: You may do this, you may not do this, just like we do for our kids, right?
SPEAKER_00: Just like any caring father and mother would do for our kids.
SPEAKER_00: You may do this, you may not do that.
SPEAKER_00: Our kids don't always understand why we allow some things and not others.
SPEAKER_00: But you guys know this.
SPEAKER_00: It's not out of I want you to be limited, it's of I want to help you live the most full, flourishing, robust life of vitality and color and vibrance that you can imagine.
SPEAKER_00: And so when Paul is saying, listen, guys, here's what the world is doing with sexuality, but this isn't to be the case for you.
SPEAKER_00: He's actually inviting him into a pathway of life.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes in our culture, we see sex as just this neutral activity.
SPEAKER_00: It's just one, just neutral, it's in one activity that I do with another person that makes you feel good.
SPEAKER_00: But from a biblical point of view, sex is powerful.
SPEAKER_00: It joins two spirits together.
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's actually the mingling of soul and spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's not a neutral activity, it's a binding activity, is what it what it does.
SPEAKER_00: And it's like a fire.
SPEAKER_00: Sex is so powerful, it's like a fire.
SPEAKER_00: And like when you go into the mountains and you camp, you don't just start a fire.
SPEAKER_00: There's oftentimes fire rings.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because you have to have a ring to contain the power of the fire, lest it consume everything else in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what Paul is actually trying to do, he's trying to give us a picture of love that goes beyond kind of a vague, ambiguous picture of what we get to do with our bodies.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens with sexual activity outside of marriage is we take from somebody's body without a covenant commitment to them.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: This is what's happening.
SPEAKER_00: We take from somebody's body, and it's like we're saying, I value how you make me feel, but not enough for me to give my whole life to.
SPEAKER_00: And what God is trying to say, no, there's something, there's a different kind and quality of love that Christ has shown us.
SPEAKER_00: And so when we say, I'm not gonna take from some from you until I've committed my life to you, what we're what we're doing is mimicking what God, we're imitating what God has done for us in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He gave his whole self to us.
SPEAKER_00: He didn't come to us to use us, he came to us to love us and then invite us into life with him, an intimate life with him.
SPEAKER_00: Are you guys hearing me?
SPEAKER_00: But what if we love each other?
SPEAKER_00: Then get married.
SPEAKER_00: Get married and enjoy a life of covenant love together.
SPEAKER_00: God lays his life down for us.
SPEAKER_00: And so the biblical sexual ethic, it's not, I just I want us to get this here today.
SPEAKER_00: I know this like Paul's language can sound heavy on the surface.
SPEAKER_00: This is about life and fullness.
SPEAKER_00: Okay?
SPEAKER_00: This isn't about rule following, it's be it's about the kind of people we're becoming.
SPEAKER_00: We're becoming a people of love, is what we're doing.
SPEAKER_00: And so we model that in our singleness, we model that in our marriages, we model that in the way that we relate to each other, not taking from each other, but choosing to lay our lives down the way that Jesus did for us.
SPEAKER_00: And I know that that probably finds some of us in different areas in the room.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, this isn't a shame message.
SPEAKER_00: It's not a thing of how dare you, you ought to be ashamed of anything.
SPEAKER_00: All of us, listen, across the room today, all of us have experienced sexual brokenness in one way or the other.
SPEAKER_00: Some in greater versions than others, but all of us have experienced sexual brokenness either done to us or things that we participated in one way or another.
SPEAKER_00: But the grace of God is here for us to walk in the light and to actually receive the gift of grace, forgiveness, and wholeness so we can live right before God and before others.
SPEAKER_00: It's a gift that's given to us.
SPEAKER_00: So there's no shame here, guys, by the way.
SPEAKER_00: There's no shame.
SPEAKER_00: This is a shame-free zone because we are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: So we get to talk about the lives that we've been given.
SPEAKER_00: You know, and when Paul says things like, there's for these kinds of people, there's no inheritance of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just explain that verse for a second, because that can seem kind of heavy-handed.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes we say no inheritance of the kingdom of God, we think that means we immediately go to heaven and hell of life after death.
SPEAKER_00: And like, listen, it may mean that in this passage, but no inheritance means that when we choose to participate in things without repentance, when we choose to participate in brokenness and darkness without a turning toward God, what that means is that we don't get to participate in the life that God has given us here and now.
SPEAKER_00: It means that we're forsaking something we could be experiencing now.
SPEAKER_00: That's our inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: And so our inheritance of the kingdom of God is freedom and love and peace and joy.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what God wants for us to be, have access to even here and now, not just for later, but here and now.
SPEAKER_00: And so if we continue to participate in brokenness without a turning to God, we're just basically saying, I don't want the life that you've given me to live here and now, so we don't get to participate in the inheritance.
SPEAKER_00: Are you guys hearing that?
SPEAKER_00: But as we do, as we come to Him, He can do anything with our lives.
SPEAKER_00: And He can restore, He can heal, He can make us whole.
SPEAKER_00: And He does that with all of us.
SPEAKER_00: Are you guys with me this morning?
SPEAKER_00: And so He builds on that and said, Listen, don't let anybody deceive you with their empty words.
SPEAKER_00: And so He goes, moves straight from sexual immorality to empty words.
SPEAKER_00: And he's in you got to be careful how you talk and what the words come out of your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: Be careful what you listen to.
SPEAKER_00: Let nobody deceive you with empty words.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of people that are speaking empty and twisted words in our time.
SPEAKER_00: And you have all the access, you can find somebody to agree with you on any topic that you think of, any take on anything.
SPEAKER_00: Flat Earth, you can go find people that will do that will convince you that the earth is flat.
SPEAKER_00: Round earth, there's plenty of those too.
SPEAKER_00: You take any topic, and uh and you can find an influencer, a thought leader, who will make you feel quite at home with that particular thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's it's kind of a sobering time to live in, is it not?
SPEAKER_00: And so we have to be wise with who we listen to and words that have weight and power versus words that are hollow and empty.
SPEAKER_00: Let me just give you one more example.
SPEAKER_00: Recently there was a bill that was that was proposed that would legalize prostitution in Colorado.
SPEAKER_00: And uh it was one of those kind of wild bills.
SPEAKER_00: I just wouldn't even imagine why that would be become a bill.
SPEAKER_00: And the and and and and the bill that was proposed would uh change Colorado law to make sex work uh it would make sex work illegal and uh not a criminal activity.
SPEAKER_00: And I think uh many of us in the church rightly said that's that can't happen here.
SPEAKER_00: That's not that's not a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: That shouldn't happen for a lot of reasons, particularly our own humanity and and what that means about the bodies that we've been given.
SPEAKER_00: Uh it has everything to do with human trafficking and the the issue with human trafficking in Colorado and all across our uh states, but even outside of a Christian perspective, just for civilization people.
SPEAKER_00: This isn't good.
SPEAKER_00: And yet I was I was shocked because uh uh I I encountered some Christians who were taking a different view, and they they were saying, I can't, you know, they were condemning the church, and they were saying, we cannot believe that people would oppose the right to go earn a living wage from people.
SPEAKER_00: And I and they're like, Jesus would never have allowed that, you know, that would put you know, stop somebody from actually using their bodies to produce a living wage.
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, you have got to be absolutely insane.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, I mean, I can't mince words here.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it is it's it's shocking.
SPEAKER_00: The bodies he's given us matter.
SPEAKER_00: Your body is sacred and holy, your body is a temple that has been given to you by God.
SPEAKER_00: You are not to abuse your body, and you are not to abuse anybody else's body.
SPEAKER_00: I don't care if you're making money for it or not.
SPEAKER_00: And we're not doing that in our state, right?
SPEAKER_00: And uh, and and it, but that kind of view, a world view that says our bodies are a gift from God is a thought that's given to us in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone is building their life on a standard of truth and reality.
SPEAKER_00: But we have to be careful, church.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to me.
SPEAKER_00: We have to be careful.
SPEAKER_00: Do not build your lives on hollow philosophies that tickle your ears but leave you empty.
SPEAKER_00: You can do that if you want, but this is why we must become people of the word to be able to discern the difference between the spirit and the world.
SPEAKER_00: Not every way leads to life, even though even though if it sounds good, there's so many things that sound good, they don't all lead to life.
SPEAKER_00: We must discern with the Spirit of God what leads to life, the path of life.
SPEAKER_00: So we walk in love and we walk in the light.
SPEAKER_00: He said, at one time you were in darkness, but now you are light.
SPEAKER_00: And this is such an important shift because he says you're walking in love, but you're also walking in the light of God.
SPEAKER_00: And where we fall short as people of love, which we all do, which I do, when we fall short in our thoughts, our attitudes, our behaviors, as we do, we get to walk in the light.
SPEAKER_00: And we get to confess the shortcomings, not so that we can be ashamed, but so that we can receive healing and freedom.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what light does, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Like when you talk about light, light really does two things.
SPEAKER_00: Number one, it reveals, um, it reveals what exists.
SPEAKER_00: And this is so important, you know, even in the church, it's so easy to live these lives.
SPEAKER_00: People ask us how we're doing.
SPEAKER_00: We're like, oh, I'm fine, I'm fine.
SPEAKER_00: And it's this kind of version of Christian nice.
SPEAKER_00: You guys know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_00: It's Christian nice.
SPEAKER_00: People ask you, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: Ah, well, you know, doing my best today, you know, praise God.
SPEAKER_00: It's Christian nice.
SPEAKER_00: It's not always true.
SPEAKER_00: But the church ought to be the kind of place where it's maybe it's not always appropriate to just air all your dirty laundry.
SPEAKER_00: That's not what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying you, everybody ought to have a place, though, where you can be honest with the contents of your life, the questions that you have, the doubts that you face, the shortcomings and failures, not to be exposed unto shame, but to be exposed to the healing grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Um there's it's a wild thing that the the way that we're wired, we cannot actually receive love until we are seen.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe you know what this feels like to when somebody tells you that they love you, but you know there's a part of your life that they haven't seen.
SPEAKER_00: And so there's always this little hitch inside of you, like, yeah, I know that you say you love me, but it can't really get into the core of me because if you actually saw that piece of me, you would change your mind.
SPEAKER_00: But when we come into the light, what happens, and we even practice just the simple practice of confessing our sins to one another.
SPEAKER_00: Small sins, big sins, whatever.
SPEAKER_00: It it should be more normal in the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: What happens is it gives us the chance to extend the mercy and grace of God to each other.
SPEAKER_00: And even the scripture says, confess your sins to one another that you may be healed, that you may be healed.
SPEAKER_00: It's about our healing, which is the other thing that light does.
SPEAKER_00: It reveals, not just to expose to shame, but reveals what is lovable and what is deserving of mercy.
SPEAKER_00: But it also heals, and that's the thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's like when a plant, a tree comes and is exposed to the light, there's healing properties in the light.
SPEAKER_00: God doesn't expose things to humiliate us, he exposes things to heal us.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's like, you know, maybe maybe you've lived that sense of just chronic shame.
SPEAKER_00: Shame.
SPEAKER_00: Um, maybe you've been shamed by others, and so it's caused you to turn in on yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Like I'll never share anything again.
SPEAKER_00: It makes us want to hide.
SPEAKER_00: If you've ever been shamed by others, be it your parents, your friends, your family, people that you trusted, what it does is it makes us want to say, I'm never doing that again.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're afraid that if you if you if you say, if you bring the contents of your life and your heart to the surface, um, it's gonna be another chance to be rejected by others.
SPEAKER_00: And and maybe, maybe you're here and you're thinking, There's no way I will tell anybody what's going on in my life because I'm probably the only one.
SPEAKER_00: Can I just tell you something this morning?
SPEAKER_00: You're not the only one.
SPEAKER_00: You're not that special.
SPEAKER_00: We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
SPEAKER_00: The level of darkness goes deep.
SPEAKER_00: And that's why we're followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Because He's the one that can heal even the darkest parts of our lives, He can heal the most dead parts of our lives, he can mend the most broken parts of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: Only Jesus can do that.
SPEAKER_00: So why not?
SPEAKER_00: Why what's stopping us from practicing that with each other so that we can become full and healed in Jesus' name?
SPEAKER_00: We get to walk in the light.
SPEAKER_00: And so, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: It means like if you're a woman here, great opportunity to go to the Lady's Bible study on Wednesdays, to go to the ladies' night once a month on a Monday night, second Monday of the month.
SPEAKER_00: And as you get a chance to pray, if somebody asks you, how are you doing, to say, you know, I need to talk about this area of my life.
SPEAKER_00: I need to talk about something I've done or something I've been thinking.
SPEAKER_00: And to trust, and it may take time, but to trust that what you're gonna receive is not shame and heaviness and disappointment, but you're gonna receive a community who says, I hear you, I see you, I've been there too.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together to receive the mercy and grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Men, same thing.
SPEAKER_00: It's way as men, it's really easy to hide.
SPEAKER_00: Most men will let you get away with it.
SPEAKER_00: But even as men, when we come together, men's nights or any other environment, to be able to say, like, just to have a level of honesty and say, Man, I can't kid myself.
SPEAKER_00: I cannot pretend to be something that I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what's going on, here's what I've been looking at, here's what I've been participating in.
SPEAKER_00: And just to understand that number one, you're not the only one.
SPEAKER_00: Number two, there is a wealth and a resource of forgiveness and mercy that God is longing for you to have access to so that you can be free from the inside out.
SPEAKER_00: Um, in youth group, but we all know our youth are in, but students do this too, to do it in youth group to start young.
SPEAKER_00: You can do this with a prayer team after service, to come to a prayer team and say, I need prayer today, and I need to confess what's going on in my life, because I want to experience the goodness and the grace of God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm thankful for myself.
SPEAKER_00: I'm thankful for the elders for our lead team, I'm thankful for my wife.
SPEAKER_00: I'm thankful for the people, the other men in my life.
SPEAKER_00: I get to confess things too.
SPEAKER_00: I get to say, here's what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: Here's what's going on in my actual life.
SPEAKER_00: I know I'm the pastor, and pastors don't get to sin because we're professional Christians, right?
SPEAKER_00: You guys laugh.
SPEAKER_00: I'm a professional Christian.
SPEAKER_00: I've I was I've been done with sin for years.
SPEAKER_00: It's like, no, that's not how this works.
SPEAKER_00: This is, I'm walking with God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm walking with God.
SPEAKER_00: Oops.
SPEAKER_00: Confess to that.
SPEAKER_00: I'm walking with God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm receiving grace and mercy in my time of need.
SPEAKER_00: And I've been healed.
SPEAKER_00: As I've learned to do that, I have tendencies to hide as well.
SPEAKER_00: But in the body of Christ, we're to become the kind of people who can absorb the weight with each other, surrender it back to God, and become a healing agent in this world.
SPEAKER_00: We do that with each other first.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah?
SPEAKER_00: We walk in love, we walk in wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, we walk in love, we walk in light, but we walk in wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Paul says, look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise.
SPEAKER_00: He said, you gotta be wise for the day that you're living in.
SPEAKER_00: You gotta learn to pay attention to your life, to not be careless, but to be careful, to be intentional, not just drift, to be wise, not foolish.
SPEAKER_00: And I more so than ever, I just believe that with the currents of our world, it's like we're standing in a river.
SPEAKER_00: If you're not if you're not going one way, you're going another.
SPEAKER_00: There is no such thing as neutral right now.
SPEAKER_00: We're all being shaped by some kind of current.
SPEAKER_00: We're being formed from the inside out, whether we think we are or not.
SPEAKER_00: We're being formed into certain kinds of people.
SPEAKER_00: With what you consume online, you're being formed into a certain kind of people, certain mindset.
SPEAKER_00: The people you follow, the people you read, the podcasts you listen to, the people you spend time with, we are being formed into kind of people.
SPEAKER_00: Are we being formed into people of love, people of Christ-likeness, or are we being formed into something else?
SPEAKER_00: And this is what Paul is saying.
SPEAKER_00: Listen, don't walk as unwise, but as wise.
SPEAKER_00: It's easy to drift in our world.
SPEAKER_00: And so the wisdom is choosing what will shape us.
SPEAKER_00: It's about recognizing the times that we live in.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're going with the flow, if you're kind of going with the flow person, man, I I love I love the heart and the posture, but we but there's like there is a diligence to the time that we live in and just knowing that every thought builds upon another thought.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that we participate has a way of building a life over time.
SPEAKER_00: Are we aligning with what God's doing or aligning with something else?
SPEAKER_00: Are you guys hearing me?
SPEAKER_00: So we walk in wisdom, we know the times in which we live.
SPEAKER_00: We lock, we walk in love, we walk in light, and we lock in, we walk in wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: But all of this really culminates.
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the best parts of chapter five here.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, listen, you guys get to learn to walk.
SPEAKER_00: As a toddler is learning to walk, you're learning to walk.
SPEAKER_00: You're learning the movements of love, you're learning the movements of light, you're learning the movements of wisdom as you walk.
SPEAKER_00: It's actually a really good thing.
SPEAKER_00: It does take a different way of thinking, but it's it's about learning, like a little toddler holding the hand of their caretaker, you're learning to walk forward.
SPEAKER_00: And where he ends in this particular movement here, and he says, Listen, really what this is about.
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there it is.
SPEAKER_00: Really, what this is about, as we're learning to walk, is not being filled with all of these things, but it's being filled with the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: It's being filled with the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where his last kind of movement in this passage, kind of midway through chapter 5, before he starts getting into relationships, he says, Listen, I want you to be filled with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Be filled with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: How are we filled with the Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: By 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 our Lord Jesus Christ, and submitting to one another out of our reverence for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that beautiful?
SPEAKER_00: It's another fullness passage.
SPEAKER_00: He said, listen, this is about the fullness of life in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And so you ought to be filled with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: There's all kinds of things we can fill ourselves with.
SPEAKER_00: There's you just take your pick in this world.
SPEAKER_00: We can be filled with all kinds of things.
SPEAKER_00: We said, be filled in the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And how do we do that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, one of the movements is that we address each other with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.
SPEAKER_00: And so this is what's fun about this, is part of what we do, even gathering together to sing songs together.
SPEAKER_00: It's not just glorified, it's not just holy karaoke, all right?
SPEAKER_00: Got the words on the screen.
SPEAKER_00: I'm just gonna sing the song, you know, whatever's on the screen, and we're gonna have fun and pat each other on the back.
SPEAKER_00: Do you know there's something healing about hearing the person next to you sing out of dependence and worship to God?
SPEAKER_00: There is something about hearing other voices in the room declare who God is and declare a need for them, for Him.
SPEAKER_00: There's something about movements of thanksgiving, always giving thanks to God.
SPEAKER_00: So this whole part about being filled, it's not a solo activity, it's a communal activity.
SPEAKER_00: We're filled with the Spirit, and as we're filled with the Spirit, we we recognize that we're not just alone on this walk.
SPEAKER_00: We are hand in hand with the family of God, and we're all in this because we need Him.
SPEAKER_00: We're all in this because we need saving.
SPEAKER_00: And so out of that, we submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Not a one-time thing, it's a continuous thing, it's an ongoing thing, it's the way of life.
SPEAKER_00: We walk together in love and light and wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: And in doing so, we're saying, God, we need you to fill us with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot do this on our no on our own.
SPEAKER_00: We need the power of the Holy Spirit to fill us from the inside out.
SPEAKER_00: And so this morning, uh, with that in mind, the worship team is gonna play and uh and we're gonna have a chance to respond in songs and hymns and spiritual songs.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna chance to declare our love for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But I just want to invite us this morning as we think about our walks with God, just across the room, close your eyes with me.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about a few different things this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about walking in love, a love marked by giving, not getting.
SPEAKER_00: Walking in the light rather than staying hidden in dark places, walking in wisdom, not foolishness.
SPEAKER_00: We're walking in wisdom to know the times that we live in.
SPEAKER_00: And all of this is unto you being filled with the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: This morning, maybe God is speaking something to you about some of these movements: walking in love, walking in light, walking in wisdom, that you know that you just want to pray with somebody here today.
SPEAKER_00: You just you just want the help of God to walk in these kinds of ways.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to tell you today, the power of God is available to you, and the Spirit of God is available to you with whatever is surfacing in your life.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna invite our ministry team, our prayer team.
SPEAKER_00: If you're here and you you're on the prayer team, I just want to just a couple people, a few people on each side of the room, you can just get up now.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to invite you, these people that are on our ministry team or prayer team are people that are trusted, they're trustworthy.
SPEAKER_00: They're available to pray with you for anything.
SPEAKER_00: Whether you need to confess something or you just need someone just say, can you stand with me for this area of my life?
SPEAKER_00: Can you come to God with me so I can hear God's voice and experience his power?
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're here today and you haven't yet taken that, made that decision to make God, to make Jesus the Lord of your life.
SPEAKER_00: If today is your day, I'm just saying, today is a great day, to say yes to God.
SPEAKER_00: He loves you, he is merciful towards you, he is gracious towards you, and he has a life, a full life, awaiting you.
SPEAKER_00: And if that's you, you can at any point in time go to anybody that's standing with this badge and they'd be willing to pray with you.
SPEAKER_00: But for the rest of us, as we as we kind of share this moment, I just want to invite you guys to stand with me.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna sing a song that probably a lot of us know very well.
SPEAKER_00: It's a song about living our life before him and building our life on him.
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna sing it together, and then we're gonna take a chance to just hear the voices in the room.
SPEAKER_00: And I just want you, as we sing, to pay attention not just to your own voice and what you're contributing to, but to hear others singing this as well, declaring the love of God.
SPEAKER_00: And as you hear the other voices, let them fill you with the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: That we get to address each other with songs and hymns and spiritual songs and become the people that God's made us to be.
SPEAKER_00: Let's sing this together.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, be imitators of God as beloved children and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us a fragrant offering in sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that we can build our lives on you.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you that we can encourage and build one another up even with as we sing.
SPEAKER_00: I just ask that we just be filled with the Spirit of God in this room.
SPEAKER_00: Fill us with your spirit, fill us with your life and your love, God.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for mercy today.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for grace.
SPEAKER_00: And today, God, as we go into our week, I thank you that anything we need, you have richly provided.
SPEAKER_00: We love you in this place.
SPEAKER_00: And it's in Jesus' name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Can we thank Jesus together for what he's given us?
SPEAKER_00: Come on.
SPEAKER_00: So it's a big week, and again, we want to invite you to join us this weekend.
SPEAKER_00: Good Friday, Easter Sunday.
SPEAKER_00: And as we go into our week, though, be mindful of the cross, be mindful of what he gave on behalf of you.
SPEAKER_00: The God who gave himself up for you.
SPEAKER_00: And so may the Lord bless you and keep you, may He make His face to shine upon you, may He be gracious to you, may He lift his countenance upon you and give you peace.
SPEAKER_00: Go in the peace of God.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks, guys.