May 27, 2010

Don’t Be a Fool Series #4

What Do We Do Since We’ve All Been Fools? (Romans 7:15-8:17)

Let’s pray…
Please turn to Romans 7:15

So I have been reading an incredible book. I would strongly suggest you grab a copy from Amazon, or have someone order it for you at the one of the local bookstores. The book is by Paul Tripp. It’s called Instruments in the Redeemer’s Hands: People in Need of Change, Helping People in Need of Change. His book and a series of 22 sermons by John Piper were big helps as I came to tackle the text that we are going to cover here tonight. I will have links to both once tonight’s sermon notes get loaded on to the CITG Web site. (Look for sermons from 2001 and 2002 beginning at Romans 7:15 through Romans 8:17 if you follow the link to the Piper)

Until then, while you’re here with us, let me catch you up. To review, we are in the middle of a series called “Don’t Be a Fool.” And what we’ve been doing is looking through passages in Proverbs, mainly, and discussing some of the common pitfalls in life, in the life of believers and non-believers.
And, so far we’ve talked about listening before you talk. The Bible says, if you talk before you listen, You are a Fool.

And then we talked about the importance of speaking life into people’s situations instead of speaking death. And specifically, we showed in Scriptures where you and I are fools if we gossip, or spread slander or if we criticize others or if we… if we bring death with our mouths.

Then last week was really hard hitting. We talked about the way in which sexual sin, sexual immorality – which we cast the biblical net over to call anything outside of sex between a man and a women IN MARRIAGE as sexual sin. We unpacked Proverbs 7 and just let it show us the way we become fools when we submit to the slave master of sexual sin.
Now, we’ve still got a couple of other areas that we are going to hit in this series. I’m going to talk about foolishness in how we handle our money and Andy is going to tackle foolishness in how we deal with anger. Those sermons are coming down the pike.

But, today I wanted to pull us into a rest stop and just revive us with the waterfall of grace that is found in Christ Jesus.
Because if we only focus on “The Bible Says this is foolish, the Bible says this is sin. You and I do this stuff, therefore we are foolish sinners.”
Then we are going to just hang down our heads and cry and we’re going to say what’s the point?

If we only focus on the sin and the foolishness that leads to that sin then what good are we. We are a Gospel saturated church, which by definition means that we are marinated in the Gospel, which is literally THE GOOD NEWS.

If we are marinating in the good news, then you should be able to taste the good news, you should be experiencing the Good news in every message.

Because of that, I have been purposeful in bringing every message in this series back to Jesus. But, sometimes when we are really confronted with biblical truth about OUR sin.

Sometimes when we hear what the Word of God calls us to and what He calls us AWAY FROM, we feel it like a truck hitting us. If the Spirit is working in my heart, then seeing a clear picture of my sin is going to knock the wind out of me. He has to give us a spiritual emptying of all the evil of our heart before He can pour in the good.

But it has been true for me that I have heard some sermons in the past where the cutting away was so painful so eye-opening and frankly, so traumatic, that I left without hearing the rest of a message that would have brought me to Christ as the “re-filler” restorer, reconciler of my soul.
So this message tonight is going to serve the purpose of catching you up onto the goodness of God, despite our foolishness and despite the SIN that our foolishness has lead us to.

And again this week, we are diving in to so much text that we are just going to read and unpack, read and unpack. So let’s get started in Romans 7:15 where Paul talks about indwelling sin in the life of believers…

15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21 So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law; 23 but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

Paul is a really interesting guy. This is the guy who wrote a majority of the New Testament. He started a ton of churches and is given a great portion of the human credit for the spread of the gospel in what were considered untouchable areas of the Roman Empire. And because of all of that, we sometimes forget that he was just another dude. In his own estimation Paul states in 1 Timothy 1:15 that he is chief among sinners.

And he didn’t say this because he had been worse than the murderers and the corrupt politicians of his day. He didn’t say it because he thought of himself as worse than the child molester that might live down the street.

We like to compare ourselves to the worst people around us, “at least I’m not _______!”

Paul was different and we should follow his model. He saw his sin in comparison to the Holy God of the universe. And Paul realized that it was against that perfection, the perfection of God, that He would be judged, if not for Jesus Christ.

And here in the end of Chapter 7 Paul says, I lean into the truth of my sinfulness and my need for Jesus’ Righteousness to cover me, I lean into that, I depend on that as much now as I ever have.

And His dependence on God was fostered by an honest appraisal of what indwelling sin was still doing in his life.

The truth that I’ve found as I’ve looked deeper into the Word, the thing that hits me again and again is the fact of my continual battle with sin and my deep love and gratitude for Jesus who died to free me from that sin through justification and through my progressive sanctification.

That’s what Paul is getting to in this section. He says, my life is living proof that, although I have been eternally and instantly freed from the punishment that I deserved for my sin – a punishment of death and Hell – I am still at war against the lingering effects of sin that I grapple with until Christ comes back or until I die.

To you and to me, to us - To believers in the church, Paul shows us that this is why we yelled at our kids or our spouse when we should have shown kindness. This is why we pad our accounts, this is why we over eat, this is why we look with an intent to lust at men or women around us, this is why we hold onto hate and refuse to forgive. This is why we throw in the towel when things get rough. This is why we are bold when we talk about the last restaurant we ate at and the last movie we saw, but we lose that boldness when it really counts for something eternal and we shy away from sharing the Gospel with a stranger, or a friend, or an enemy that God has placed in our path.

This indwelling sin is, Paul says, why we do the things we don’t want to do and why we don’t do what we know that God would have us do.
But! That is not where it ends. I am sad to say that I spent years of my Christian walk with this wrong notion that, since indwelling sin would always be at war with me, that I might as well just give up on battling the sin and just go through life waiting for Jesus so that He could finally make me pure.

I thought, “Well, Paul the super Christian couldn’t defeat sin, so I shouldn’t expect to in this life either.”

The problem with that mindset is Romans 8. Paul doesn’t just write these first 7-1/2 chapters in order to say, “Oh, well. It’s all hopeless.”

No, Instead he continues and says there is hope. The hope for you and the hope for me as we deal with indwelling sin is in Christ. And by the power of Christ, through the Holy Spirit, we do not have to sit like P.O.W.s in the enemy’s camp, waiting for the end of the war. No we can break free and fight back. Let’s read through Romans 8:17 and unpack a bit more of this truth. And as we read this, let me quote Paul Tripp as sort of a primer for this passage. Tripp wrote that “In Romans 8:1-17, Paul presents the gospel as a comfort and a call.”

In other words, like I said from the outset, I deeply desire for this to be an encouraging night for you, for you to know that IF you are in Christ that the storms of sin from others and the sins that wage war against you are not the final word on the matter. Be encouraged by that!

But also see this as a call to take action, because of Jesus, because of your love for God, because of your faith that you are His – take action don’t be a pacifist in this war on your sin, NO! Kill the sin that tries again and again to enslave you. This gospel pronouncement IS a comfort and a call for those of us who are in Christ. Let’s read…


Repeat that with me. This is one of the most comforting verses in the Bible IF you are a Christian. If you are, let it wash over you. As you read this I want you to tuck it away into your heart.

That way when the enemy comes and tells you that God can't love you or won't love you because of all that you have done, or because of the thoughts that rattle around in your mind, or because of the words that you have spoken you can confront the enemy with this powerful weapon of truth. Say it with me: Therefore, there is NOW NO CONDEMNATION for those who are in Christ Jesus!!!!!!!!

(Verse 3 and 4 are heavily weighted toward the salvation, or justification by faith in Christ)

5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7 the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. 8 Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

 12 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,

(BE AT WAR AGAINST SIN! John Owen wrote be killing sin, or sin will be killing you)


All this is to say that You are not defeated by sin, if this sermon series and the rest of the messages here bring on conviction, a feeling of sorrow because of the sin in your life now, or un-confessed sin from the past than we praise God! If that is where you stand, then you stand with Paul and me and every other believer. We praise the Holy Spirit of God for showing us the evil that still lurks in our hearts trying to steal kill and destroy us.

Because we can’t take aim at an enemy that we can’t see.

Be encouraged! You are on the winning side of this battle. Keep Fighting! Fight by the word of God and prayer, fight by holding tight to the promise at the end of Romans 8. Be convinced as Paul is convinced, (vv. 38-39)...

Let’s Pray…
Communion…
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May 24, 2010

Don’t Be A Fool – Series #3

Flee from Slavery!
Proverbs 7 (ALL) & 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Hello family, we have a lot to cover so let’s dig in.
First, let’s pray…

Okay we are in the third week of a series called, “Don’t Be a Fool” where we are unpacking things that trip up Christians on our path. And listen the great news for you if you are here and you are not a Christian yet, is that this series includes some VERY practical teaching. So even if you aren’t sure about God and the bible and sin and hell and Heaven and all of that, you can still get something out of this.

All that said, we are praying constantly for your souls around here. We have experienced an encounter with the living God of the universe and we believe that a relationship with Him and being part of His kingdom are the only things worth pursuing.

In other words, we say this in a lot of ways and we say it a lot – that we are not the morality police!

So, we are going to talk about everyone’s favorite topic tonight, we’re going to talk about sex and particularly, how sex can be a snare for the foolish if used outside of God’s design of marriage.

But beyond that, we are going to look at how violating God’s design in this area is going to enslave us. And so I’m NOT going to say all of what I have to say because we are a bunch of prudes.

On the contrary, we are teaching on this because we have seen how violating these teachings WRECK so many areas of our lives. We know this because of what we’ve heard while working with people who have been through this and to one degree or another, we have seen the wreckage from first hand experience – from our own lives.
But, if you are a believer or a pagan and you leave here tonight thinking, “You’re right, I’m going to follow this teaching and then I’ll be a better person… Or, …then I’ll be acceptable to God!” Then you will have fallen into a completely different kind of foolishness - a completely different kind of slavery, which we call works based righteousness, and that will kill you as fast as sexual sin, because that strips the glory of God’s grace away from Him as you try take part of the credit.

God doesn’t play around with or share His glory. It’s His. So before we finish up tonight, I’m going to do what I always try to do, I’m going to point you back to Jesus Christ and show you how this relates to your relationship to Him more than to anyone around you.

Again, we’ve got a lot to cover so we’re going to just dive in headlong and unpack as we go.

Proverbs 7, starting at verse 1:Notice as we read this together - there are several people in this word picture, in this chapter of the proverbs and regardless of your gender or age, ask yourself who you are in this chapter.

Now, we all want to be the wise parent looking from the window. But are you? Or are you the simple one who is about to walk into a foolish, devastating sin? Or are you the one tempting? The temptress could just as easily be a man, right? The truth is many of us have been in each of these roles. Keep that in mind as we read.

Unpack: Picture the writer here as a father sitting down with a child who is about to become an adult, about to take off into the world on his own.



Unpack: Notice the word simple, not the same as a fool. This implies more ignorance that accompanies youth. But, simple turns to foolishness if we don’t take warnings to heart.


Unpack: Don’t think that the temptress or the male tempter is always going to come from outside the church. Again and again, we are told to be on guard against the wolves who come into the church as well as those among us who might draw people away. For example, Paul warned Timothy, in 2 Timothy 3:1-6, saying:


Now pay attention to this last part. At the end of that long list of sinfulness, Paul warns that some people – in the church – will be…


Now tying this to our point, the temptress from Proverbs 7, says to the young dude, hey, I’ve offered sacrifices, I’m right with God. As Andy Stanley said when teaching on this passage, “I’ve emptied my bucket of sin, why don’t you help me refill it.”


As if this blatant sexual immorality wasn’t bad enough, she kicks it into high gear here…


Unpack: Now we will see this little man move from simple, or ignorant to full blown foolishness. He was already walking in an area he shouldn’t have been in at a time he shouldn’t have been there, but then after she actually propositions sex AND tells the kid that she is married, then even a man who has NO teaching about God under his belt should have the common sense to GET OUT! But he disregards common sense in pursuit of a moment of pleasure…
That last part is so true and we have all seen it haven’t we? Many are her victims. Many are the victims of sexual sin. And among the victims, you can count the careers, and marriages and families and reputations that have been destroyed by consensual sex between partners who were not married to one another.
And you can count among the victims the thousands upon thousands of men women and children who have been literally made slaves in the sex slave market – made to be prostitutes and used for pornography.

And you can count among the victims, millions of men and women who took one or two looks at pornography in magazines, or movies, or online and before long found them selves addicted to the pornography in the same way an alcoholic is addicted to the drink, in the same way an compulsive gambler is addicted to the next bet.

On that point you may think I am going too far. You may think that pornography cannot be as bad as those other addictions. You may have bought into the lie of our culture that says porn is a victimless pastime. If that is what you think, I would say you have never heard the devastating stories that have started, “I was just curious and took a look, or clicked on that sight or went to that club and…”
I’ve seen it rob marriages of intimacy, I have also seen where it has led to rape, and molestation, and on and on...

The point is our culture is littered with victims of sexual sin. It’s across the board. And listen if you decide that this is all just alarmist nonsense and you decide to skip over the passages in the Bible that talk about sex and you decide instead to go by culture, you are on shaky ground.

This is by far not the worst time in history for sexual deviance, nor is it the best. Societies seem to have an ebb and flow of wretchedness in this area. There were times in the early church where people were in incestuous relationships. Some of the cultures of that day had prostitutes that actually worked in temples to pagan gods and they believed that sex with these prostitutes was an act of worship.

Then we’ve had times in this country when – at least in the mainstream – women would be ostracized for showing any skin beyond the neck, head and hands.

Going sleeveless was shocking.

So instead of looking to culture which changes constantly. And even in our day and age, it changes from region to region. And instead of asking the question of “How close to the line can I get?”

Instead of that, let’s take our guidance from the Scriptures. From the Word of God, from the creator and sustainer of the universe, from the One who truly knows how we were designed to live and from the One who sees through all of our smoke screens.

Let’s move into one more passage, in the New Testament 1 Corinthians 6:12-20


Now get this, get where Paul goes next. Paul doesn’t say fight sexual temptations. Paul doesn’t say toe the line. He doesn’t say you can look at this, but not that. No, look in verse 18 He says what? FLEE!


We want to sluff off sexual sin, we want to say it is no big deal, but Paul says this is different. This is different. Sexual sin affects you differently. He continues…


That brings to mind the temple of the Old Testament. Time and again we saw that a desecration of the Temple, the dwelling place of God was met with severe consequences.

The people of God, the faithful among the nation of Israel, would not stand for it.

This points us to the “fruit and the root” principle that Jesus taught us about in the Sermon on the Mount.
If you are of the faith, if you are counted among God’s people. If you have been saved, justified by the blood of Christ on the Cross then you have been given the Holy Spirit to dwell within you. See your body as a temple of God, see your body as Not made for sexual immorality but made for the Lord. Consider your body in the same way that the nation of Israel looked to the holy of holies within the temple, as the dwelling place of God, to be treated with reverence, with a fear of the Lord on their hearts.

Finally one more picture, the picture we’ve taken you back to every week in this series…


That is to say, you were a slave to the sin. You were on the auction block. You and I once followed our sinful desires and we were held captive by the destructive forces of sin.

But God, in His infinite mercy came down from Heaven to rescue us, to rescue you and me from our sin. So LIVE! LIVE in the freedom. Flee from sexual immorality, which we define as any sex outside of the marriage bond. Flee not because we are a bunch of killjoys. Flee because the father, God the Father is looking from His window and He sees past the first and second glance, He sees past the flirtation, He sees past the mugging, and past the, well, we’ll just sleep in the same place, but we won’t do anything… He see past all of the excuses all of the rationalizations and justifications and He tells us, He tells His children, THAT is slavery, that is death. Sexual sin, no matter how tempting it is in that moment of passion, will lead you to death like an ox to the slaughter…


Now, I’m not going to get into a long list of do’s and don’ts here to explain how to honor God with YOUR body.

In Genesis 2:23-24, we see that man and wife will become one flesh (that’s speaking physically, sexually, relationally and emotionally). That’s were we land on this issue as a church.

If it is sexual gratification with anyone outside of a husband and wife relationship it is sin.

So that covers adultery, friends with benefits, pre-marital hook-ups, porn, lust in the heart toward co-workers, toward people on the street, etc, and the rest. If you are into that now, if you are into sexual immorality in your life, repent and believe in the Gospel.

And understand this, just like alcoholism, or drug addiction, sexual sin may have crossed over into full-blown addiction.

And as with ANY sin, you will NOT conquer this on your own. The only way we can defeat sin like this is to ask God for strength from the Holy Spirit to defeat this sin in our lives; and to pick up the spiritual tools that He has given us.

Tools like prayer and meditation on the Word. And tools like the church — A body of Christ centered believers as a whole — and within that group, a core of church family members that you begin to form close trusting relationships with. A core of people who you let in to your life. A core of people who agree to hold you accountable. A core of people that you help in the same way, to keep them accountable.

And we don’t let up! We continue to push forward to the call in which Jesus has called us. We keep pushing forward, co-laboring with the Holy Spirit on our road of progressive sanctification.

And we take each day as it comes and we place our trust in the Lord – moment to moment, decision to decision, glory to glory.

Now listen, we are going to close up. Because of the nature of this conversation, I know you might have a lot of questions, or a lot of guilt or a lot of anger or you name it. This kind of material stirs our hearts in a lot of different ways.

Instead of keeping us here all night and trying to cover us all in a comprehensive blanket, I would ask this instead:
If you have specific questions, get with me afterward face to face or by e-mail me or call or whatever. If you are a woman who wants counseling on this, I am going to refer you to my wife.

Men, we can talk.

Next week we are going to take this discussion where it needs to go and we are going to answer the question, what if you’ve already committed grievous sexual sins. And what if you have been the victim on the other side of that, a victim of someone else’s sexual sin.

Until then and aside from that, let’s pray…
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May 12, 2010

Don’t Be a Fool Series #2

Watch Your Mouth (Continued)
Proverbs 18:6-8, 17, 21 & Ephesians 4:29-30
Okay, so we started this series last week called “Don’t Be a Fool!” It’s a series based on the contrast in God’s Word between wisdom – what we think of “the good”, with foolishness – “the bad”.
Last week’s message centered on listening before we speak, or take action, or let our thoughts loose – listen first.

And if you are like me last week’s message could have been called STOP being a fool! Don’t is a warning, STOP is a correction.
Last week’s message was a correction for me and I can safely say I wasn’t alone based on some of the responses that I’ve gotten.

Like me, some of you have opened your mouth long before you should have. And like me, you have had a problem listening to other people and that may have gotten you into some trouble once or twice in your life, just like me.

And if you remember, last week, we looked at how NOT listening to other people’s words can hurt our understanding with one another.

But even more importantly, when we don’t listen to God, as He has revealed Himself to us in the Scriptures, that can devastate or at the very least hinder our vertical relationship with our Father in Heaven.

And before we go on tonight I want to reiterate a point I want to make it clear, that we are contrasting wisdom – the good, with foolishness – the bad.

And we are spending most of our time in this series unpacking verses from Proverbs, which is a “Wisdom” book in the Bible. But, I don’t want you to simply see these as fortune cookie sayings that you can toss in the trash later on, and I don’t want any of us to think that this is simply a self-help, make my life easier, series.

At the base level, this series is about who God is: That He is the author of all truth and wisdom.
Who we are: Usually fools, but wise when we listen to Him and follow His design.
What our relationship is: God showers us with Love, even though we have been fools, even though some of us maybe are fools now, and even though we will all likely be foolish again.

Our relationship is such, in this broken world, that we have to continually turn away from our foolish – and many times sinful ways – and turn back to the wisdom of God to guide us.
And to repent, to turn and to depend on the grace and compassion and mercy AND WISDOM of God, found through Jesus Christ – through Jesus Christ, our redeemer, who covers us with His righteousness through His work on the cross – work that was required because of our foolishness leading to sin.

Now, with that understanding, with those lenses on, with all that said, tonight’s sermon is called “Don’t Be a Fool: Watch Your Mouth” (Continued)

For tonight’s message, we’re going to read a few verses from Proverbs, then we’re going to spend most of our time in the New Testament, in Ephesians Chapter 4. We’ll read and unpack as we go…but first, Let’s pray…

Let’s take two chunks from Proverbs 18 first:

The first thing that we see here is that, while we know that words hurt the people we talk about, they are also our undoing and bring harm on us if we use our words foolishly.

The proverbs oftentimes paint these really nice pictures that we can use to keep these in our minds. It is very good for me, that's the way that I learn, that's how my mind is wired. Here’s how we can see Verse six. These are how I picture it.

First, the writer tells us that foolish words don’t come to the table alone, he tells us that there’s a combination platter here.

You tell the waiter, I want to have fool’s lips, that is I want to speak foolishly, I want to talk before I listen, I want to gossip, I want to tear people, (my friends and family, and co-workers and boss and landlord) and organizations down (the company I work for, the banks, the government systems {local and state and national}), I want to tear those things down with my words, I want to be the one who always shares his opinion – I want the fool’s lips please.

And the waiter in this little word picture says very good, sir. That selection comes with a free side of strife. With those foolish words you also get a heaping of arguments, hurt feelings, avoidance or isolation from loved ones. No substitutions.

I'm not going to paint a word picture for a fool's lips inviting a beating, we get that right? Some of us have gotten that in a tangible way. Let's move on...

Moving now to verse 7 we see that:
Now, in the Hebrew, undoing is Ma-hetta. Another word could be destruction or ruin - and we see how this works in the second part of the verse.

His lips are a snare to his soul. So, in the next word picture I want you to see the fool walking through the woods - and see it like a cartoon, and as he speaks foolish words I want you to picture bear traps springing from his mouth and landing along his path to snap onto his ankles later on.

We do this relationally, professionally and socially all the time when we speak foolishly.

Now we’re going to dive into what foolish speaking is in a few minutes but as we’re going along, think about your history. Think about those words that you have said. When you were RIGHT, and you felt like it was your obligation to let you spouse or parent know it. (There springs a trap along your path – have you stepped into one of your own traps there?)

Or when someone was talking well of a person and you thought it was your duty to let them know all the dirt on that person and all the reasons they shouldn’t be liked or trusted or respected. (There springs a trap along your path – have you stepped into one of your own traps there? It’s always odd when someone feels the need to gossip around me. All that comes to mind is this, “They talk that way about their enemies, they talk that way about their friends, they talk that way about their family, they talk that way about the church or the people in the church, I wonder what they say when my name comes up in conversation?”)

Those are just two examples. I’m not going to ask you to come up here to the stand and tell us about your experiences, but think back to the times when you have been in the middle of the storm and said, why did I say that? What good did that do?

Now for the second chunk:

Listen, I think the best way to look at gossip is to see it as poison, when someone starts talking to you about someone who isn’t around and that talk is not complimentary, get away from that junk! Look at those words like a skull and crossbones on a bottle.

Because that talk is going to cause you to deteriorate, down in your innermost parts.
Verse 17 is brilliant. The bulk of Proverbs 18 pictures a courtroom setting and this is very clear in verse 17. But we’re not in a court of law, but think of the court of popular opinion:

I’ve been in situations where I had yet to meet a person, a new person at work or the new boyfriend or girlfriend of a relative, and before meeting that person, I was told all their dirt. Sometimes from another person who never met them before, but had just heard some things, or (this has come up a lot lately) they had checked the person’s Facebook page and formed opinions based on tiny snippets of information.

There are two sad parts to this story, first is I listened to the gossip and the slander. The writer says gossip is like choice morsels.
If someone says, “Hey I’m going to bash this person and poison your relationship before you even get introduced.” Then I’m hopefully going to say no thanks, back off.

But if they mix that poison in to something that grabs me…it’s a different story all together, right?

More often than not the gossips in my sphere of relationships begin with, “I’m worried about…” or “Hey Ken, could you pray for so and so, you know she…” or “I don’t care one way or another, but…” or “Oh? I’m glad you two met. I’m glad you get along. I used to like him until…”

And I bite, I listen and all of a sudden, usually WAY too late, I feel sick. I’ve been poisoned. That wasn’t cake! That was arsenic! And, what gets harmed by the poison? Me, the person talking the trash and the person being slandered.

And listen, no matter what I hear when the actual person shows up and presents their case; there will always be that little cloud, that residue, the lasting affects of the poison, a scar on my soul and a handicap to the relationship.

Now look again at verse 21

If this is true, and we believe it is, then there are two choices we either speak life or death. None of us seem to be consistently death speakers. And sadly, none of us are always speaking life. But ask your friends (if they’ll be honest with you) which camp you fall into.

But just as important, look back over a week or a month’s worth of conversations at work, at home, to people at church or in the coffee shops. Look back and determine what you are listening to – not just what you have said and what you are saying – but what you listen to. What kinds of words do you play the audience for? 21 The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
IT is the word, it brings us back to life or death, those who love life will eat it’s fruit, those who love death, will eat it’s fruit.

What are you hungry for in conversation? What satisfies you when you talk around the water cooler? Is it life?
Does hearing about the accomplishments and success of others satisfy you? Or do you want the dirt?
This is a heart issue and this is where we are going to zero in on quickly in Ephesians 4.

The fruit is what you listen to the fruit is what you say.
Those words that came most naturally from your lips this week – that’s fruit. That thing you heard and thought, “Yes! More of that, I’m hungry!”
That’s fruit, but what’s at the heart? What guides your heart? What’s at the root? Is your heart guided by the Spirit of God or by worldly wisdom and sinful desires?

We have to go where we are going. We have to! Otherwise, all we have are some really good bits of information and those little nuggets might help to really improve our morality if we apply them. I can just send you away and say Stop Talking like that! Don’t Listen To that JUNK!

The problem is that making us more moral doesn’t necessarily bring us any closer to God. So let’s push just a little bit further in to God’s Word. Turn to Ephesians 4:29-30.


Now, despite everything I just said, Paul DOES SAY “Stop talking like that!” (Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths). But, there are two very important things that you have to catch. Catch this or go home empty. Catch this or go home with a WASTED hour under your belt.

In order here, Paul says, don’t just stop talking bad, don’t just stop speaking evil and death, don’t just pour out your bucket of sin and leave it empty. Fill it back up with virtue, with righteous speech, with LIFE!

We used to tear people apart with our words. We need to empty our heart of that garbage, yes! But then what, start building people up with our words (but only {say} what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen).
Stop the slander, the gossip, the vicious sarcasm, the backhanded compliments, the outright hateful speech, and BEGIN encouraging, begin looking for and speaking about the best parts of a person, start looking for where a person might need to be built up and speak and act and live toward THAT aim, that target. And do it so that it may benefit those who listen.

It’s that last little slice of verse 29 and all of verse 30 that rips this message out of “Morality 101” and brings us to the Gospel. It’s that last slice that says, “that it may benefit those who listen” That nugget brings us out of the flesh and bone and temporal and catapults us into the spiritual realm, into the Kingdom mission for our lives.

How does it benefit the people who hear?
Simple, IF, if, if, if we do this; if we pray that God would beat this into our heads and hearts in such a way that it becomes repulsive to us when we speak or listen to death conversations. IF He will place a passion in our hearts to SPEAK LIFE about the people we love and the people the world says we should HATE, IF we start doing what God has called us to do, people will wonder why!

Why are you talking nice about him, you called him a jerk last week? Why aren’t you listening to our new dirt on her when you used to dish out the BEST dirt? What’s your problem? What’s gotten into you?

The answer is in verse 30.

Paul says don’t grieve the Holy Spirit. Don’t grieve God. Don’t break your Father’s heart.
Paul is very intentional, as he is in all of his letters to BELIEVERS. He is very intentional about reminding us about our relationship with God and our identity that that entails.

Don’t grieve the Holy Spirit, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption

YOU – if you are a Christian – you are SEALED for the day of redemption. That means that the wrath of God will not be poured out on you because what you deserved has already been taken by Jesus. And that Means that YOU – if you are a Christ follower – you are not a slave to the patterns and demands of this world anymore.

They all talk like that, so What?! You aren’t a slave anymore. Act like the free man or free woman that you ARE – the free person that you are RIGHT NOW!

And the fact that you have been sealed with the Holy Spirit for the day of redemption means that you are empowered by God to overcome your old sin, to persevere. And you aren’t sealed and empowered just for your benefit! You have been adopted to be a beacon that shines a siren that screams out in joy about the glory of our God! You have been sealed and filled with the Holy Spirit to spread the kingdom out as a bright and shining light as an ambassador to the Kingdom.

It’s a fact.
It’s who you are.
Go LIVE it!

Let’s pray…
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May 8, 2010

Don’t Be a Fool Series #1


When I told my wife what I was planning to preach on, she had a hard time keeping back her laughter. She wasn’t trying to be contentious or discouraging. It’s just that, she saw the irony in the fact that I would teach on THIS.

You see on Monday, God willing, we will have been married for 13 years and at the end of this month, we will have been a couple for 17 years.

Now, as husbands go, I think I’m a pretty good catch. That wasn’t always true, but God has been at work in my heart and I am quite a bit better than I was.
I’m not husband of the year, but I do all right.

All that said, tonight we are going to talk about the importance of listening and watching what we say until we have heard everything out.

When I read the verses to Monica, the verses that we just read together, God opened my eyes in a split second. He does that at times. I’ve read theses verses before. They weren’t new. But as I read them aloud, to Monica and I saw the glimmer in her eye – before the laughter – it dawned on me…

I am the FOOL! Let’s read it again
My name might as well be written there. Not in every circumstance, but with my wife and I, in a lot of our talks, this absolutely applies.

I don’t know how it happened, but I’m that guy, who never waits for her to finish her sentence. I think I know where she’s going to go so I just try to show her a shortcut.

But, time and again, when I finish the sentence, it doesn’t go where she was heading. I goes something like:
Today I had to go to the—
Doctor?
No. I had to go to the grocery store because we needed some—
Soda.
No. We needed some bread and some milk. Dominic didn’t have enough for his—
Breakfast this morning?
NO! For his lunches this week.

Now, that might sound funny to some of you, but to me it was heartbreaking. You see I don’t do that to everyone. Least I don’t think I do, but to the people I love the most, the people that I’ve been close to for the longest, I’m so quick to interrupt. And the Bible says that is FOOLISH. It is to my shame, to speak without hearing my wife or others out.
But, enough about me for now, let me turn this around and let me tell you where we are going for the next few weeks.

We normally preach through a book of the Bible or at least a very large chunk of Scripture. We just finished the letter to the Philippians and before that, we went through the Sermon on the Mount.

Soon we will dig into the Gospel of Mark, the second book in the New Testament.

But before we do that, I wanted to take some time out for a series that I have had on my heart because I believe that for the regular, daily-living-it-out Christian, this will hit home.

For you, one week may touch you more than others in this series, but I think this is going to be very practical teaching, firmly rooted in the Scriptures.

At times, I hope that it will convict your heart of areas that you have been blind to, like I was toward my interrupting ways, and with that conviction, I pray your heart will then be healed by the very same word of God, namely, by the Gospel.

The series is called “Don’t be a Fool”. This week’s message is titled, “Listen Up and Watch Your Mouth”. As I’ve introduced it, we are going to talk about listening before we speak or act.

Next week we’ll continue to talk about our words, specifically dealing with gossip, slander and cursing others.

Then we’ll talk about watching our anger; then watching our eyes to avoid temptations of sex, and other sin that robs us of our fellowship with — and joy in — God; then we’ll talk about watching our wealth and possessions.

And we are tackling these issues because the Scriptures deal with them all in the context that we will be considered wise or foolish, biblically wise or foolish, based on how we navigate our lives in these areas.

So with listening before we speak or act, where do you stand? We’re going to look at this question horizontally, in the way we deal with each other and vertically, the way we interact with God.

This is so convicting because I had to ask “why do I do this, why do WE do this to one another.”

One of the key reasons for me is familiarity, but the other source is pride or arrogance.

With my wife, I think that we have somehow developed a shorthand communication. After all these years, we’ve had almost every kind of talk there is: romantic talks, debates, consoling talks, encouragement talks, business of the day talks, parenting talks, dealing with our parents talks, and the list goes on.

So in that familiarity, it’s like I have just begun to categorize what our conversations will include and I start filing before I’ve really read the words.

I start jumping ahead and trying to finish her sentences and completing her thoughts, all the time forgetting that, while the category of the conversation may fit something familiar, the content is different. Are you tracking with that?

Her day today is not the same as last week, or two years ago. Her joys or frustrations with family or coworkers may be familiar, but they affect her heart differently each time.

To put myself into these proverbs:
(Ken’s the) fool who finds no pleasure in understanding (what’s new in other people’s lives)
but (Ken) delights in airing his own opinions…
(Ken) answers before listening —
that is his folly and his shame…

Am I the only one here? I know that some of you don’t do this as noticeably, some of you simply disengage completely and just stop listening and stop giving feedback at all.

This is you if you never get told to stop interrupting, but you are often asked to repeat what was just said to you. I got this a lot as a kid. If I knew I was in trouble I just tuned my mom and dad out when they’d lecture me.

Listen for you it may not be in the same area. Maybe you do this at work. You know how your boss or co-worker or client is going to respond to whatever stimulus is coming down the pike, so you just push through without asking for (or listening to) their input.
Or here is a key problem that many, many, many of us deal with.

We become fools when we disregard other people’s perceived understanding our wrongs when they bring them to light and we delight in making our point, our argument known and proving them wrong.

Or we push away from people who are trying to provide correction and only hang with people who won’t confront us.

This happens in parent/child relationships, husband/wife, friend/friend, church/member, employee/employer and it can kill every one of those relationships. (Unpack if there’s time)
The Writer of Ecclesiastes said it like this:

The worst case of this that we see though is not when a person runs to another job, or church, or friend, or spouse because the old one didn’t “get them” and the new person, job, spouse or church accepts them better. Those are all terrible painful situations. But the worst is when we do this to God. When we turn away from Him.

The saddest thing that we see is when a person who was once close to the church, and seemed to be walking with God, drifts away.

A lot of times this happens as a teen grows up and moves away. They get to a new city and meet new people and they don’t stay connected to a church family that helps to encourage and equip them in the Word of God.

Eventually, one small choice to compromise on a “small” sin happens. And there is no big problem, then a few more…and the world isn’t crashing down around them.
Maybe this is your story I’m telling. One day God sends a friend from the past, who pays a visit or “happens to” run into them on the street and the changes in the person who had drifted away are becoming more and more noticeable.

So this old family friend or church friend or relative, tries to shine some light on the decisions that have been made and the defenses go up.

Who are they to judge me, the person asks, and they push away from the “judgmental, fundamental legalist” and they gravitate toward the people of like-sins or to people who are too ignorant of Scriptures or to cowardly or unloving to confront the person and the drift continues.

Many of the people that I have talked to who have fought addictions and substance abuse, or who have been trapped by sexual abuse or exploitation, they have often – NOT ALWAYS – but often told this kind of story.

What started with small decisions and what started with drifting away from people who might call them out, eventually led to the person making decisions that they would never have thought possible. And by then it literally took a miracle to escape the hell they were living in.

Now, that’s not the only case. Some off you are like me and you never grew up around the church, so it took some real work of the Spirit of God, just to get us near the Bible.

Unfortunately, there are others, maybe in this crowd, who were tormented and abused by broken and evil people in the CHURCH! And you may have written off Church all together.

I want to apologize to you for anything people in the church have done to tarnish the reputation of God. Some people may have acted out of ignorance, but I know there are some who where completely wicked.

But, PLEASE do not forsake God. Don’t turn away from Jesus, because of a wicked false ambassador. Don’t turn away from the church as a whole because of a specific church.
PLEASE go back to the Word. Back to Scriptures. God will deal with the sins of others. Don’t suffer for their sins anymore.

Listen, listen, no matter where you came from, whether you were un-churched, or de-churched, or if you simply walked away because sin looked more inviting for a time before it became destructive — God is ready to bring you to Him today.

Get to know Him and don’t be like me, thinking you know everything He has to tell you before you listen.

And don’t be like the fool who is more concerned with making your ideas and opinions known.

Hear God out. Take Him up on His promises. Promises of a healed and regenerated spirit, of redemption, of cleansing.

Hear Him out and find out what His design for living is. What His design for YOUR LIFE is. Read His Word. It will protect and heal and keep your heart better than any of the changing ideas of our culture ever can.

We’re going to end today with a reading From Psalm 119, where the palmist lays out what we need to listen to.
If you don’t want to listen to me or some other preacher – if you aren’t ready for that, but you are tired of listening to yourself and all the ideas that rattle around up in your head, then Listen to God.

Just close your eyes and listen to this passage…

I pray that God will give us this kind of love for the Bible. It will absolutely kill off any idols that get in the way of your love for God.

Do Not Be A Fool. Embrace the Word of God.

Start reading this for yourself. Don’t just think you know, read it and hear Him out.

When I listen to my wife, our relationship grows, when I wait to speak until I know where she is going, we can go further, our love can grow deeper.

The same is true between me and God – between YOU and God.

If you are tired of being stagnant in this life, and in your faith walk, if you wonder “why them and not me?” I pray that you stop looking for answers in the next promotion or the next fix, or the next drink, or the next relationship. Go to the source to feed you. Devour the Word of God. IF you do, it will give you wisdom. If you do, it will kill that old fool that used to guide you through life.

Let’s pray…
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Who Are We? ~ Message from the Relaunch Party

Welcome to the Church in the Grass. We’re glad you are here. Tonight is a bit different than our regular gathering format. If you are a member of the Church in the Grass, set aside what you are used to. Tonight is more like a party than a church service. Although there will be some of what you are used to.

Come back next week for our “normal” format.
Tonight we are celebrating our RE-LAUNCH.

Let me explain that if you are unfamiliar. We are one church in two locations. In the warm weather months we are here. When it gets cold — and on weeks this summer when it rains — we meet in the Old Eggleston School building down the street.

So this Re-launch party is simply our way of celebrating the fact that God has blessed us with another season in this beautiful sanctuary.

This party is also an outreach to the community — to Walnut, and East Street, to Third, Fourth, Spring, Aleunbach Ave. and to Madison and Jefferson County at large — to remind you that we are here to serve the community and if this is your first introduction to us, this is a event where we’ll tell you what we’re about.

But first and foremost, we want you to enjoy some great food, we’ve got 20 pizzas, we’ve got great music from Saving Vegas and we’re hoping this will be a great time of fellowship and community. Dance and sing and talk and just enjoy this beautiful night that God has given us and after a few songs, I’ll have a short message that will highlight our mission as the Church in the Grass and who we are here to serve and that whole bit.

Let’s get things moving now. Go grab some pizza if you haven’t already and here is Saving Vegas…


…Okay, we are going to give Saving Vegas a few minutes to breathe then we’ll have more music.

In the meantime, if I could have you all gather around. I want to talk for just a few minutes about the Church in the Grass. We just want to let you know a little bit about who we are, about our DNA as a church. This is not your typical sermon; it’s just our way of expressing what we are all about. Everything we do is shaped and informed and dictated by what we see in the Bible. Most of the time we go through a lot of scriptures. If you can’t find what I’m saying in the Bible, then don’t believe it. That goes for any preacher.

Tonight, because this isn’t a typical sermon, we won’t be reading a lot from the Bible, but we will talk quickly about the biblical principles that guide us. So, if you don’t have your Bible here tonight, don’t sweat it, just come back next week.

And, we’re going to roll through this pretty quickly, so if you have any questions, get with Andy or me after this and we’d be glad to answer anything we can answer.

First let me answer the two questions that we always get.

We are a church, a real church. We worship God every week in song and in the preaching of the Word of God, the Bible. We share communion every month and, though we haven’t been blessed to have any baptisms yet, we will do that when the chance arises.

So, although we meet in an un-traditional location and we don’t play dress up, we are an actual church. I’m an ordained minister, we are registered with the state and feds, and we’re a 501c3 and all of that.

The next question that we get from church people and non-church people is about out denomination. We are non-denominational. The people who are a part of this church come from a wide range of backgrounds, some Methodist, some Presbyterian, a person from the Christian church, and other non-denominational churches.

We have nothing against denominations; we just don’t tag any of their labels on this, on the Church in the Grass.

Now, that hopefully covers those questions.

Let me quickly tell you about our mission and then we’ll get back to the music.

The Church in the Grass is here to:
— Simply express God’s message of Salvation
— Show the importance of a church family for the life of EVERY believer and
— To push all believers OUT into the mission fields that God already has you in.

When we say that we want to simply express God’s message of salvation, we mean just that. We are what you might call a Gospel SATURATED church. No matter what the subject matter that we preach on, we believe that it all ties back into the cross of Christ, to His death, burial and resurrection, which defeated sin and death for everyone who comes to a saving faith in Jesus.

And as Jesus told His crew after the resurrection, all the Scriptures are about Him. We just unpack that truth as we go.

We believe that the Gospel saves people, so it HAS TO PREACHED for that reason.

But salvation isn’t the end of the story.

The Gospel also keeps us as new and long time believers firmly rooted in the faith that preserves us and allows us to hold fast when the storms of life come at us. And The Gospel preached consistently and repeatedly in a million different ways, keeps us on track as believers who get to participate in God’s kingdom mission.

And if you keep coming back we try to keep getting that message across every week. We say it in different ways and it seems to sink into people’s hearts at different times and in different ways, but that’s a core focus for the church in the Grass. The Gospel.

And I know we have a lot of believers here, but if you’ve never heard the Gospel before here it is at a very simple level: We’re broke and separated from God because of sin. Jesus came and took our punishment, took our sins away and covered us in His righteousness. He saved us by going to the cross and taking all of our sin on His shoulders.

He lived the sinless life that we couldn’t live and died the death that we should have died for our sin and in that death; Jesus adopted us into the family of God.

The Good News is that if you place your faith in Jesus Christ and what He did for you, you are then made right with God. Jesus takes your sin and transforms you from an enemy of God to a son or daughter of God.

Now, after we come to faith in Christ, we believe that we need to be plugged in and participating as a part of a local church. I used to say this, “I am a believer, but my faith is private, I don’t need to go to church and get into all of that mess.”

And I hear this from other people all the time and the only problem with that are the Scriptures themselves.

The importance of a church family is made clear throughout the Scriptures. God designed the church to be where we go to be encouraged when things are rough. It is where we go to be equipped for the work He has called us to as individuals and as a group. Jesus tells us that it is in a church context that we are to correct our brothers and sisters when they fall into sin AND it is where we are supposed to be intimate enough and trusting enough to receive correction and rebuke when we fall into sin or begin to drift from God.

According to the Bible, being a part of the church is VITAL to your faith walk. So we hit that point constantly.
And on a side note, we don’t try to twist a person’s arm to make them join this church. If this outdoors stuff is weird to you and you want something more traditional, then praise God! We can help you get connected at another Gospel centered church in the area.

Our mission is not to build our Kingdom, it is to build God’s Kingdom, one person at a time, and you are a part of that. If you are a believer, we want to get you into the family so that you can grow in your faith and so you can help others do the same thing.

We’re almost done, and then back to the music. The last piece to our mission at the church in the grass is this: As Christians, we believe that we are failing at our primary mission if we are not pushing the Gospel out into the world, starting with our own neighborhoods, workplaces, families and in the places that we congregate — coffee shops, restaurants, bars, grocery stores, parks — wherever you are is your mission field.

You, you, you and I, if we are believers, are called out of our sin by God, and out of our old ways of doing things, but we aren’t called out so that we can hide in little Christian bubbles, reading Left Behind books until Jesus finally rescues us from the heathens.

We are saved and we are still alive with hearts beating and breath in our lungs in order to become the light in the darkness. We are showered with the love of God, so that we can then love Him back and love others, love believers and love the lost in such a way that our identity in Jesus draws other people to Him.

When people are struggling in the darkness of their sin, we are called to be the light that they can go toward in order to find salvation, in order to find peace in a turbulent world and in order that they can be transformed by the Gospel, connected to a local church and then sent back out into the darkness as a new candle, as a new beacon of hope.

That’s the plan. That’s how God designed us to function as believers.

That’s what we are all about as the Church in the Grass. If you are not already a part of a church — whether you consider yourself lost or found, or even if you don’t know where you land in your faith — we would love for you to join us here. We want you to come back whether you are a Christian already or if you are still searching.

And if you are already a part of another church, we want to thank you for coming tonight and please, please stay and enjoy the band, they’ll be playing for a while. And, if this all piques an interest in you and you want to know how you can partner with us, we’d love to sit down with you. We are looking for a youth pastor at the moment and some other volunteer opportunities are open. This may be your mission field. If that’s the case, pray, talk to you pastor about helping us here. Who knows what God will do? We know what He can do and that’s an exciting prospect.

Until then let’s pray…

Now, let’s welcome back Saving Vegas for the second half of their set.

While they are playing, if you have any questions for us or if you are here and you need prayer for anything, come and find me or Andy or Ryan or Monica.

Be blessed, here’s Saving Vegas…
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Series on Philippians #20

You are NOT Alone! (a Review)


We are not going to go long tonight. This is the last in a series of messages from the book of Philippians. So, I want to hit what I think is one of the key elements of this letter then move into the conclusion and then we’re out.

Let’s pray…

Since this is the end of the series on Philippians, I was going to do a quick review of the “Greatest hits” from the letter.

But then when I started pouring over it, I couldn’t find anything to cut and I would have ended up going over the entire letter. There is too much good material.

Instead I am going to review what I think is a key theme that we find throughout, and that theme is fellowship, or partnership in the Gospel.

Over and over Paul uses his words to gather the people together like a sheep dog would to a flock.

And he begins by providing a basis for the fellowship. Right from the start, He reminds the Philippians that they have an identity that is in Christ. And nothing else.
While they came from many different social and economic and religious backgrounds; the thing that brings all the church together is Jesus.

This tells us that there is no place in the Kingdom for a white church or a black church, for a poor church and a rich church, for a blue collar and white collar church, or for a democratic and republican church.
No! It is The Church. Let’s read 1:1 as a reminder


Paul says the glue for the church is Jesus. We as believers are to set aside ALL other identification to a secondary position – I’m not saying get rid of it — but it need to be secondary. Any other distinctive in you and in me has to take a place in line AFTER our identification as believers in the risen Lord, Jesus Christ.

In other words, you can be a democrat or a republican or a libertarian — or a cop or an ex-con — or a factory worker or a teacher — or a musician or a painter, or a physicist or a banker. Or a parent or a... But when the world sees you they should FIRST see you as a Christian.

And Paul makes it clear, that isn’t going to happen. The world won’t see you or me as a Christian unless we see OURSELVES that way first.

So this letter starts off by reminding us, from greatest to the least we are servants of Christ AND Saints in Christ.

People will see us as Christians; we will more fully shine the light of God’s glory into the darkness, only when we take on that servant attitude of our Lord.

When we stop trying to fight for our rights and start investing that same energy into helping our neighbors and relying on God to keep us in His hands. This takes us back to Jesus who washed the nasty mud and dung-covered feet of His disciples and then told them, now you go and do the same for others.

And it doesn’t stop with servant attitudes. We also need to see ourselves as saints. To do that we might need to throw away all the religious baggage that the word Saint has with it.
Biblically – not religiously sainthood is our position AS SOON AS we come to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.

It has nothing to do with your good works or mine; it has nothing to do with miracles that you preformed. It doesn’t take a vote from a group of other men. That mindset is antithetical to the BIBLE.

Sainthood is not about what you have done; it is all about what Jesus did for you. When God the Father looks down and sees you if you are a believer, He sees a saint. Used to see a sinner. Now He sees a saint. Why?

Because of the cross of Christ! Because at the cross, Jesus took the sin that kept you and me far from God and in that gracious transaction, He covered us in His righteousness. The Bible says it like this in Isaiah 61:10:


He did it. And it is done. If you are a believer, you are a Saint. Don’t work to hopefully get a far off sainthood. Live and breathe and identify in the Sainthood that Jesus already gave you through the cross. Amen?

Okay that’s just the first verse of the letter. See why we couldn’t review the whole thing tonight? It was important to get this identity piece because – again – that’s keeps the fellowship together.

Now, lets go through and hit and quickly unpack some areas where Paul fleshes out this fellowship in Christ.

First Paul is grateful for the fellowship:

Next Paul carefully ties our fellowship to our effectiveness as Christ’s ambassadors in the world.




2:14-15:14 Do everything without complaining or arguing, 15 so that you (you individually and collectively) may become (Become here is actually the Greek word ginomai, better English translation would be appear or show oneself to be…) blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe

Then Paul defends the fellowship against false teachers by stressing the need for sound doctrine:
3:2-3: 2 Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh (After this Paul lists a long resume of worldly and humanistic reasons for confidence and then says it all amounts to a pile of crap in comparison to what he holds to now – the greatness of Jesus).

(Then skip down to vv 17-18)

Then he addresses an inner-church conflict by encouraging fellowship and Christ centered partnership


Finally, Paul writes a reminder for us to support one another and the Kingdom Mission with our Time, Talent, and Treasure; with EVERYTHING we have


With all of that said, I can still think of a million things we have to leave out for the sake of time.

The NOTES for every sermon are posted online at churchinthegrasssermons.blogspot.com. If you want a more thorough review, go there.

With all of that incredible instruction, encouragement and correction from Paul behind us, we now close the series with the last three verses And here’s what we’re going to see,

Paul is going to beautifully leave us by once again connecting us individually and as a body of believers to the common bond of Jesus Christ, and he begins by reminding us of the ULTIMATE reason for our fellowship, the ULTIMATE reason for our love, The ULTIMATE reason that we share the Gospel with the lost and the ULTIMATE reason that God saved sinners like you and me…

IT was and is and will forever be, for His glory:


One thing I haven’t addressed tonight, is what’s this letter mean for the non-believer?
I hope this letter and this review has given a glimpse of what the Christian life is Biblically supposed to be like.

Paul clearly and deliberately laid out life in Christ. He answered the question that my old pastor in Ohio used to ask all the time, “You’re saved, Now what are you going to do with that?”

The answer is, we believers are now called to live lives that are worthy of the Gospel by serving and loving and forgiving and being patient with other believers in order to show a glimpse of God’s great grace, love and compassion to the world.

It is a calling that is worth any cost. And in the moments that we are actually living out this Biblical design, we find it is a calling that provides an avenue to a greater freedom and joy than we have ever found anywhere else.

That’s what we invite you to join.
Let’s Pray…
Join in communion…
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