SPEAKER_00: Self-importance is a prelude to self-deception.
SPEAKER_00: And self-deception makes one opposed to God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Galatians 6.3 says.
SPEAKER_00: For if anyone thinks he is something when he's nothing, he deceives himself.
SPEAKER_00: Deceives himself.
SPEAKER_00: And when that self-importance and self-deception begins to work its way into the local church, it undermines the authority of the Word of God and begins to lead the church astray.
SPEAKER_00: One of the clearest examples of self-importance and self-deception is found in the Old Testament book of Esther.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps you're familiar with that story.
SPEAKER_00: Esther was the Jewish queen of a Persian king, sometime around 480 BC.
SPEAKER_00: But in becoming queen, Esther was put in the crosshairs of a racially motivated political controversy.
SPEAKER_00: Because over the course of time, the king, her husband, promoted a man named Haman to be his second in command.
SPEAKER_00: And then he ordered all who were at the king's gate to bow in honor and reverence of this man named Haman.
SPEAKER_00: But there was one man who refused to bow.
SPEAKER_00: His name was Mordecai, a very close relative of Queen Esther.
SPEAKER_00: Mordecai's refusal to bow to Haman infuriated the man.
SPEAKER_00: And so he sought to eliminate not just Mordecai, but the entire Jewish people, entire Jewish race living in the Persian kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: His sense of self-importance was greater than the value of an entire group of people.
SPEAKER_00: That self-importance led Haman to a place of self-deception.
SPEAKER_00: His every thought and action was determined through the lens of his own self-importance.
SPEAKER_00: So he deceived himself into believing that he was ultimately powerful, that he was safe, that he was right, and that he was untouchable.
SPEAKER_00: But he was foolish.
SPEAKER_00: In thinking he was wise, he became opposed to God as a fool.
SPEAKER_00: And so God, in the end of the story, rescued his own people, and the death that Haman had determined for God's people became his own death.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're anything like me, your tendency might be to think, what an idiot.
SPEAKER_00: Who would do that?
SPEAKER_00: Why would you do that?
SPEAKER_00: But we must not think that way because apart from the grace of God, we are no different.
SPEAKER_00: All of humanity is filled with self-importance that leads to self-deception.
SPEAKER_00: And therefore being opposed to God.
SPEAKER_00: Apart from Christ, we are Haman.
SPEAKER_00: Does that sound extreme to you?
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it sounds extreme to me, but when we look at the pages of Scripture, we learn that it's not extreme.
SPEAKER_00: For example, consider what may be a familiar passage to you in Romans chapter 1, beginning in verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: It says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress or push down or tread on the truth.
SPEAKER_00: Self-importance causes one to suppress the clear expression of God's truth that leads then to self-deception.
SPEAKER_00: In the same passage we read, For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, nor did they give thanks to Him.
SPEAKER_00: But instead they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
SPEAKER_00: Claiming to be wise, they became fools.
SPEAKER_00: And then a little bit later in that same passage is the demonstration, the outworking of their self-deception.
SPEAKER_00: And they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
SPEAKER_00: Their self-deception displayed itself in the thought process that somehow, in some way, it is good and proper to worship the creation rather than the creator.
SPEAKER_00: Thus, their self-importance led them to improper thinking, which led to opposing God.
SPEAKER_00: And that is a description of every human being apart from Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you have experienced the grace of God in Christ, you have been rescued from that automatic suppression of the truth.
SPEAKER_00: You are now able to see the beauty of the truth and the word of God, and hopefully you begin to long for it rather than to tread on it.
SPEAKER_00: Even though we have been rescued from that automatic suppression of the truth and been redeemed from the power of sin in life, we still give in to the pull of self-importance, don't we?
SPEAKER_00: Like Adam and Eve, we occasionally believe we know better than God.
SPEAKER_00: There are times when we believe that our experience trumps the revealed word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And there are times too, if we're willing to admit it, that we just, plain and simple, want to sin.
SPEAKER_00: We want to experience that temporary thrill of sin.
SPEAKER_00: And in so doing, we demonstrate the thinking that we are more important than God.
SPEAKER_00: That our desire for pleasure or thrills or power rules over God's law.
SPEAKER_00: Did you know there's biblical evidence for that within the church?
SPEAKER_00: There is.
SPEAKER_00: Husband and wife team by the name of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: They believed that they were greater than God.
SPEAKER_00: This husband and wife team cooked up the idea, the scheme, to make themselves look good before the church, all while lying to God.
SPEAKER_00: Listen to the biblical record in Acts chapter 5.
SPEAKER_00: A man named Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property.
SPEAKER_00: And with his wife's knowledge, he kept back for himself some of the proceeds, and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostle's feet.
SPEAKER_00: But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land?
SPEAKER_00: While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?
SPEAKER_00: And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal?
SPEAKER_00: Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart?
SPEAKER_00: You have not lied to man, but to God.
SPEAKER_00: Apparently, they decided to present the idea that instead of selling the property for this much, they sold it for this much, and so they could bring this much to the church and give the impression that look at what they're doing.
SPEAKER_00: When in fact, in fact, they were duplicitous in keeping some of it back for themselves.
SPEAKER_00: They thought that they were more important than God, and that led to deceiving themselves, which then led to their death.
SPEAKER_00: Now, some might argue that it is debatable whether Ananias and Sapphira were genuine believers, and so maybe we shouldn't use them as examples of believers being self-deceived, because some might say, you know what, Pastor, the Holy Spirit has come to live within us, and so we can't be deceived any longer.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not what the scriptures show.
SPEAKER_00: Because the New Testament describes the possibility of believers being self-deceived again and again and again.
SPEAKER_00: Consider just four simple passages.
SPEAKER_00: One is one that I already mentioned in Galatians chapter 6, verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone thinks he is something, when he's nothing, he deceives whom?
SPEAKER_00: Himself.
SPEAKER_00: Deceives himself.
SPEAKER_00: So there's a thought process that's been going on, and as a result of that thought process, we have been deceived by ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: It's not somebody else's fault.
SPEAKER_00: We cannot blame anyone else but ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: James talks about this a couple of times, James chapter 1, verse 22.
SPEAKER_00: Perhaps a familiar verse to you.
SPEAKER_00: But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
SPEAKER_00: If we take in the word of God over and over and over again, and even if we become saturated with it in our minds, but it does not live itself out in daily expression, we are deceiving ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: A little bit later in the same chapter in verse 26, James says, if anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart, that person's religion is worthless.
SPEAKER_00: And one more, perhaps the key verse for self-deception in the New Testament is 1 John 1.8.
SPEAKER_00: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
SPEAKER_00: Self-importance leads to self-deception.
SPEAKER_00: And when self-deceived people begin to impact the local church, we end up like the church in Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: Corinth had spiritually immature, self-important, influential, and deceived people in the church.
SPEAKER_00: And that led them away from the simple truth of the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Going to finish up our walk in the first three chapters of 1 Corinthians this morning, and it's an appropriate place, I think, to conclude it.
SPEAKER_00: So if you would take your Bible and open it to 1 Corinthians chapter 3, I would like to direct your attention to verses 18 through the end of the chapter.
SPEAKER_00: 1 Corinthians chapter 3, beginning in verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: Let no one deceive himself.
SPEAKER_00: Sound familiar yet?
SPEAKER_00: Let no one deceive himself.
SPEAKER_00: If any one among you thinks that he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
SPEAKER_00: For the wisdom of this world is folly with God, for it is written, He catches the wise in their craftiness, and again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise that they are futile.
SPEAKER_00: So let no one boast in men, for all things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas, or the world or life or death, or the present or the future, all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.
SPEAKER_00: There's a challenge for us here.
SPEAKER_00: And the challenge is to recognize the foolishness of the world in which we live while at the same time relishing in what is ours in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There are three steps that are given to us to follow.
SPEAKER_00: The first step is that we must beware of self-deception.
SPEAKER_00: Speaking to everyone in the church, the apostle says, let no one deceive himself.
SPEAKER_00: Beware lest you become the Christian version of Haman.
SPEAKER_00: Beware lest you become like Ananias and Sapphira.
SPEAKER_00: Self-deception always plays off of our pride.
SPEAKER_00: We feel good about ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We feel confident.
SPEAKER_00: We feel proud of our abilities and our accomplishments.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe we're rewarded in some way or congratulated in some fashion.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's simply that we are rarely corrected.
SPEAKER_00: And our world teaches us those characteristics.
SPEAKER_00: We are taught to feel good about ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We are taught to feel proud of our abilities and our accomplishments.
SPEAKER_00: We are ingrained with being praised.
SPEAKER_00: And as they are fed, they grow and they become inflated until our egos drive us.
SPEAKER_00: And before we know it, we have become self-important and we have deceived ourselves into believing something that is not true.
SPEAKER_00: For the Corinthians, it was all about wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone among you thinks that he is wise in this age.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see the pride there?
SPEAKER_00: If anyone among you thinks he is wise.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's not, please understand, it's not being wise that's the problem.
SPEAKER_00: It's thinking that you're wise.
SPEAKER_00: It's not learning that is troublesome.
SPEAKER_00: It's thinking you know it all that is the problem.
SPEAKER_00: And notice the qualifier.
SPEAKER_00: In this age, in this age, there are many, many good and beneficial areas of learning and wisdom in the world in which we live.
SPEAKER_00: There are areas of mathematics, of history, of science, of business, and many, many more that are appropriate categories to study and to know.
SPEAKER_00: And it's possible to become quite knowledgeable about those subjects without any shred of spiritual insight.
SPEAKER_00: The issue here is thinking that what we learn and know and experience in this life, in the wisdom of this world, is sufficient to get us through this life and through eternity.
SPEAKER_00: The reality is that when human wisdom is applied to areas concerning God, concerning salvation, concerning eternal life, and any other spiritual truth, it comes up lacking.
SPEAKER_00: The Corinthians had deceived themselves into believing that the cross of Christ was not a necessary element in the church's message.
SPEAKER_00: Their own wisdom, founded in the knowledge and the experience of this world, moved them to pride and self-importance, so that they were deceived into thinking something that was not true.
SPEAKER_00: And that self-sufficient pride led to deception regarding the truth, and that deception regarding the truth led to division within the church.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, God says, if anyone among you thinks he is wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.
SPEAKER_00: That word fool is the basis for which we get our present word moron.
SPEAKER_00: If anyone thinks he is wise in this world, in this age, let him become a moron so that he can gain some wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Do you see how lowly God thinks of earthly wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't rank very high on God's list of important things.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, what does earthly wisdom accomplish?
SPEAKER_00: If we think about it, we realize it is a basis for pride, and that pride then leads to self-sufficiency.
SPEAKER_00: We think we've got it, we know it.
SPEAKER_00: We've got everything under control.
SPEAKER_00: And in that unrighteousness, we begin to suppress the truth.
SPEAKER_00: The wisdom of this world, we are told in 1 Corinthians chapters 1 through 3, leads to viewing the cross as weak, as foolish, and as unnecessary.
SPEAKER_00: It leads to believing that I don't need God.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need God's provisions.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need God's salvation.
SPEAKER_00: I don't need God's mercy or forgiveness or grace.
SPEAKER_00: It says I'm a sinner, but I'm still a good person.
SPEAKER_00: It says I can work my way to eternity.
SPEAKER_00: But if we rely on earthly wisdom in such a way that we begin to apply it to spiritual truth, to understanding God or to explaining Scripture, then we are well on our way to self-deception.
SPEAKER_00: But the challenge is to not be deceived.
SPEAKER_00: The challenge is to be discerning so that we do not go down the road of being deceived.
SPEAKER_00: The challenge is to see the foolishness of the wisdom of this world when it is applied to eternal things.
SPEAKER_00: So we must first of all recognize that we can indeed be deceived.
SPEAKER_00: We can deceive ourselves by giving too much credence to our own knowledge, to our own experience as we apply it to the things of God.
SPEAKER_00: The second part of this challenge is that we must learn to think the way God thinks.
SPEAKER_00: Being a fool in the eyes of the world is the only path to true wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: The world approaches the truth of Scripture with no spiritual understanding.
SPEAKER_00: No ability, even, as we've seen, to understand.
SPEAKER_00: And so it discards the truth of God's word as childish, as foolish, as full of nonsense.
SPEAKER_00: Anyone who trusts in the Bible, then, who believes it's the word of God, is considered a fool.
SPEAKER_00: But God says the only path to genuine, lasting, true wisdom is by seeing the cross the way God sees it.
SPEAKER_00: By acknowledging the truth of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: That means that we submit ourselves to the word of God and we honor it as the supreme authority.
SPEAKER_00: That means we see all human thought and all human opinion as submitting to what God has revealed, including our own opinions.
SPEAKER_00: And as we immerse ourselves in God's words and his thoughts, we find that our perspectives begin to shift.
SPEAKER_00: No longer do we see God's ways as foolish, but as wise.
SPEAKER_00: And we begin to see that the so-called wisdom that the world presents to us, while perhaps beneficial for this present life, has no eternal benefit.
SPEAKER_00: For the wisdom of this world is folly with God.
SPEAKER_00: I trust that you are beginning to see that self-importance has no place in this picture.
SPEAKER_00: If we are to submit ourselves to God's word, and if we are to recognize that his way of thinking is truly wise, then we must also then acknowledge that mankind's opinions and knowledge apart from the word of God is not so important.
SPEAKER_00: And when we begin to acknowledge that, that's the first step towards humility.
SPEAKER_00: Humility begins to push out pride when we submit our own wisdom to the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: And as humility begins to rule in us through our submission to the word of God, self-deception is held at bay.
SPEAKER_00: Let me give you an example.
SPEAKER_00: Genesis chapter 3.
SPEAKER_00: In case you're not familiar with that, that's where Adam and Eve ate a piece of fruit.
SPEAKER_00: And you know the rest of the story.
SPEAKER_00: Pride began to rule in Adam and Eve when they thought they knew better than God.
SPEAKER_00: That led to their deception and to their eating the fruit in disobedience.
SPEAKER_00: But if they had humbled themselves before God's command, understanding and knowing and acknowledging that God knew best and that God's commands were wisest.
SPEAKER_00: And they submitted their own opinions and their own thoughts to God's word, they would not have been deceived.
SPEAKER_00: We must relax our grip on the foolish wisdom of this world.
SPEAKER_00: Of the thinking that I know better.
SPEAKER_00: That my opinions, my feelings, and my experience supersedes the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: But if we're going to relax our grip on those things, it requires humility.
SPEAKER_00: It requires an acknowledgement that God is sovereign and that his wisdom, recorded in the pages of Scripture for us, is not foolishness, but is the premium kind of wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: There's an interesting image here in the last part of verse 19 and into verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: It's the image of a hunter.
SPEAKER_00: For it is written, he catches the wise in their craftiness.
SPEAKER_00: He catches the wise in their craftiness.
SPEAKER_00: Let's go back to thinking about Haman for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: Haman thought he had the perfect plan.
SPEAKER_00: You know, you know when you were a child and your parents said, don't do this, and you decided you were going to do it anyway, and you figured out how to get that accomplished without mom and dad knowing?
SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of perfect plan that we're talking about here.
SPEAKER_00: Haman thought he had the ideal plan.
SPEAKER_00: It was foolproof in his mind to be able to exterminate God's people from his land.
SPEAKER_00: In the book of Esther, Haman is pictured as this horrendous, evil villain hunting God's people.
SPEAKER_00: He was the crafty one.
SPEAKER_00: He had the ideal plan, devising a plan in his mind that even the king could not undo.
SPEAKER_00: Have you ever watched one of those Discovery Channel or Nat Geo programs where there's a tiny little creature that's being hunted by a bigger creature?
SPEAKER_00: And then the camera pans out a little bit, and you see that that bigger creature is being hunted by an even bigger creature.
SPEAKER_00: That's what's going on here.
SPEAKER_00: The picture of the book of Esther is that Haman is hunting God's people.
SPEAKER_00: But if you pan back a little bit and take in all of Scripture, what we see is that God caught Haman in the midst of his own craftiness.
SPEAKER_00: And the pointed truth here is that God doesn't think too highly of human wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: Quoting from Psalm 94, 11, the Apostle Paul writes, The Lord knows in verse 20, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise that they are futile.
SPEAKER_00: Wise there is those who are full of worldly wisdom, who've deceived themselves into thinking they're wise.
SPEAKER_00: But God knows that their way of thinking is all messed up.
SPEAKER_00: It's futile.
SPEAKER_00: What the world thinks is wise is really foolish.
SPEAKER_00: And what the world thinks is foolish is really wise.
SPEAKER_00: So mankind, full of self-importance, who has deceived themselves into thinking, I'm it, I've reached the pinnacle, or my way is better than God's way, receive a divine blow in verse 20.
SPEAKER_00: What this world considers wise and lasting is only a breath.
SPEAKER_00: It's like the steam that comes off of your coffee cup on a cold morning that's there and then gone.
SPEAKER_00: The unwritten question is, do you want to be like Haman thinking you have everything all worked out, but only to end up in God's trap because you followed your own wisdom?
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to rely on wisdom and learning that will only last you until you die?
SPEAKER_00: Or do you want to rest in God's truth that will make you truly wise, not just now, but for all eternity?
SPEAKER_00: But let's not forget the context.
SPEAKER_00: This is in the context of problems in the local church.
SPEAKER_00: Specifically, the the context is what the basis of ministry was in Corinth.
SPEAKER_00: They had become so self-important that they thought they knew better than God.
SPEAKER_00: They thought that God's ways were not the best ways.
SPEAKER_00: They believed that the scriptures had to be contextualized somehow to include cultural expectations, that human opinions and ideals needed to be added to the simple explanation of God's word in order to make it applicable.
SPEAKER_00: They were more interested in displaying their own thinking, their own experience and their own culture than they were interested in God's way of thinking.
SPEAKER_00: In their self-importance self-deception, they failed to see that the Lord's church will be around far longer than any of this world's wisdom and learning.
SPEAKER_00: So it makes greater sense then to base our ministry on God's wisdom, not our own, on eternal words, not on temporary experiences or patterns.
SPEAKER_00: So that brings us to some questions.
SPEAKER_00: What do we put out there?
SPEAKER_00: For the people that come through the doors of this building, what do we offer them?
SPEAKER_00: Do we offer them the temporary hope of someone else's opinions?
SPEAKER_00: Do we offer them self-help for this life only?
SPEAKER_00: Do we encourage them and tell them how to live your best life now, but never end up giving them how to live their best life for eternity?
SPEAKER_00: Do we show them and demonstrate for them the absolute sufficiency of Scripture?
SPEAKER_00: Do we live out the truth that Peter so clearly expressed?
SPEAKER_00: His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Christ who called us to his own glory and excellence.
SPEAKER_00: Or do we give the church and anyone who enters a slow and agonizing death by teaching them to question Scripture?
SPEAKER_00: Or by feeding them an insufficient diet of men's opinions that will slowly starve their faith and ultimately lead to self-deception and a mistrust of God's inerrant word.
SPEAKER_00: Do you ever look back at Genesis 3 and wonder how in the world that ever happened?
SPEAKER_00: I do that occasionally.
SPEAKER_00: Adam and Eve were placed in a perfect, sinless world in which they walked and talked with God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: How is it that they were willing to discard all of that that we long to experience and just say, it's not worth it?
SPEAKER_00: How is it that they were able to see a single tree and a single piece of fruit as worth more than obedience?
SPEAKER_00: How is it that they thought trading the temporary pleasure of a perfect piece of fruit was worth death?
SPEAKER_00: How is it that they came to believe the serpent more than God?
SPEAKER_00: I hope you recognize that those same questions can be asked of us each time we sin.
SPEAKER_00: Really?
SPEAKER_00: How in the world did you think it was worth it?
SPEAKER_00: But because Adam and Eve are sort of so far off and sometimes just mental images painted with the words of Scripture, we somehow think that they're far different than us.
SPEAKER_00: So how in the world could Adam and Eve, perfect creatures, get to that place?
SPEAKER_00: There are three reasons.
SPEAKER_00: And they are the same three reasons the church in Corinth departed from the simple truth of the gospel, and they are the same three reasons that you and I give into sin each and every day.
SPEAKER_00: They failed to think the way God thinks.
SPEAKER_00: They were self-deceived into thinking they knew better.
SPEAKER_00: And third, they did not fully know what God had given them.
SPEAKER_00: That's the third part of our challenge is to know the rewards of belonging to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For all things are yours.
SPEAKER_00: Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future, all are yours, and you are Christ's, and Christ is God's.
SPEAKER_00: Someone who does not think the way that God thinks, and who has deceived themselves, is not able to see the good that God gives.
SPEAKER_00: They only see what God has placed off limits rather than what God has given to enjoy.
SPEAKER_00: There are boundary lines in athletics.
SPEAKER_00: Football game, basketball game, baseball game, whatever, hockey, there are boundaries.
SPEAKER_00: Athletes could approach those boundary lines as something that keeps them from fully experiencing the game.
SPEAKER_00: Or they could think of them as guides that keep everyone together so that everyone can have the freedom to play within those limits.
SPEAKER_00: We often approach God's word with negativity.
SPEAKER_00: We see it as full of rules and regulations, as guidelines keeping out the good things in life, right?
SPEAKER_00: But to view Scripture that way is to deceive ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: Adam and Eve began to view the Garden of Eden not as being full of God's good gifts made even better by his own presence, but as limiting, as restrictive because of the one thing that God kept off limits.
SPEAKER_00: Rather than focus on the very good things in the garden, they came to believe that God Himself was not good because of the one thing that he kept from them.
SPEAKER_00: That's how we approach our own temptations.
SPEAKER_00: We fail to see all that God has given us, and instead we focus on what God has kept from us.
SPEAKER_00: Like that angry child, like that child who becomes angry when one toy is kept from him in the middle of a room full of toys.
SPEAKER_00: We focus on the small thing.
SPEAKER_00: Don't ask me how I know that.
SPEAKER_00: What we must do is begin to see all that God has given us in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For the Corinthians, that meant getting their eyes off of their favorite teachers and their favorite teaching styles.
SPEAKER_00: They were lining up behind their favorite teachers and pastors and speakers like groupies.
SPEAKER_00: It would be like us saying, I'm with John MacArthur or I'm with John Piper.
SPEAKER_00: But Paul comes along and says, wait a minute, don't you see that all of these teachers have been given to you, the church, by God to enjoy?
SPEAKER_00: The reality is not that we belong to a certain teacher, but that they belong to us.
SPEAKER_00: They are God's good gifts to his church.
SPEAKER_00: Paul goes even further.
SPEAKER_00: He says, the world is ours.
SPEAKER_00: The world.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ, we are not even ultimately subject to life or death.
SPEAKER_00: We are more than conquerors in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, we do not even fall under time.
SPEAKER_00: The present and the future belong to those who are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's the practical outworking of John 1.12.
SPEAKER_00: But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if the king is here and we become his children, what does that make us?
SPEAKER_00: Children of the king.
SPEAKER_00: And what belongs to the king now belongs to the children.
SPEAKER_00: If we are children of God, then all is ours.
SPEAKER_00: We will even inherit the world along with the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Peter meant when he wrote that we have been born again to a living hope, to an inheritance that is imperishable, that is undefiled, that is unfading, that is kept in heaven for you.
SPEAKER_00: And yet we want this toy that God says no to.
SPEAKER_00: The Apostle Paul says, look at all that God has given you, church.
SPEAKER_00: Look at who you are in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: You are Christ's.
SPEAKER_00: You belong to Him, you are in Him, and because He is in God, look at all that is yours.
SPEAKER_00: When we guard against self-deception, by working to think the way that God thinks, and by keeping all of eternity in focus, we will be well on our way to maturity in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And when we are on our way to maturity in Christ, we are well on our way to unity within the church.
SPEAKER_00: And when the church is full of mature people and functioning in unity, it begins to display to the world exactly who Christ crucified is.
SPEAKER_00: That is our challenge to display that to a watching world.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, we confess to you that so often we fail.
SPEAKER_00: So often we want the one thing that you have said no to, all along ignoring what is ours in you.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive us.
SPEAKER_00: Cleanse us and enable us to see that we are children of the King.
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we sin, but we have been granted the freedom to come to the throne of grace to find help in our time of need, to be cleansed of our forgiveness, and we do that.
SPEAKER_00: Asking that you would enable us to be discerning people, to be a group of people that understands the difference between God's truth and what the world thinks is true.
SPEAKER_00: To be discerning people who know what is wise and what is foolish.
SPEAKER_00: We ask this, Lord, because we want to give glory to you by enabling people to see that we belong to you.
SPEAKER_00: May you answer our prayer and so be glorified.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.