back to index2018-05-06 Awake from Sleep (Part 2)
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If you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 13, I'll be reading from verse 11 00:00:09.640 |
And this will be a second part of what we started last week. 00:00:16.520 |
"Besides this, you know the time that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep, 00:00:21.480 |
for salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. 00:00:27.680 |
So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 00:00:30.860 |
Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality, 00:00:36.320 |
not in sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make 00:00:41.240 |
no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires." 00:00:48.920 |
Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this morning. 00:00:52.840 |
You are a God who truly is worthy of our affections. 00:01:02.440 |
Help us, Lord God, to be mindful of what it is that we have in Christ, that we may live 00:01:07.200 |
lives truly worthy of the gospel you've given us. 00:01:13.460 |
Help us, Lord God, to worship you in spirit and in truth. 00:01:19.620 |
Last week we looked at the first part of what Paul was saying in verse 11 and on, where 00:01:22.980 |
Paul is urging the church to live with a sense of urgency. 00:01:28.060 |
Now living in Orange County, the challenge that we have is that nothing external reminds 00:01:36.300 |
So we are constantly reminded in the church, in Bible study, sometimes in fellowship, that 00:01:44.700 |
But our environment naturally does not push us toward that direction. 00:01:48.960 |
How do we live with a sense of urgency and not just come to church and just check off 00:01:54.900 |
and do Bible study, I did quiet time and I did this and I did that, but with a sense 00:02:00.720 |
of urgency because you know how your spiritual life is affected when you have that sense 00:02:07.260 |
If you've ever been out to short-term missions, you know what that feels like. 00:02:11.180 |
That short period of time, whether it's 10 days or three weeks or a month, during that 00:02:15.260 |
short period of time, you're so focused in your energy, we need to evangelize. 00:02:24.100 |
You get together and you share about what you did during that day. 00:02:27.260 |
And then you encourage each other and you go out. 00:02:28.980 |
And so every single day is lived with a sense of urgency. 00:02:35.220 |
And that's part of the benefit of going out to short-term missions because for a short 00:02:38.960 |
period of time, you're able to live the way God really wants us to live. 00:02:43.740 |
And for many Christians, that's exactly how we want to live. 00:02:46.580 |
But how do we live with that sense of urgency while we're at home, taking care of our children, 00:02:56.080 |
You know, there's a kind of urgency that we feel because of our environment. 00:03:01.460 |
You know, if you happen to be around certain people who are doing certain things, and just 00:03:06.280 |
like I mentioned, you go out to short-term missions or you're in the mission field for 00:03:09.900 |
a period, and your environment causes you to have a sense of urgency. 00:03:21.880 |
But the problem with an environmental urgency is that that environment is not dictated by 00:03:29.540 |
So a lot of people come back from missions always fantasizing about, "What would it be 00:03:36.060 |
And even though 99% of us will be living here, and a small amount of us experience what it's 00:03:42.740 |
like to go out to China for a period and then come back, and they begin to live with this 00:03:47.300 |
like, "Man, I was such a great Christian when I was there. 00:03:50.380 |
If I was in this group, if I was in that group, it would be different." 00:03:54.700 |
But the reality is that environment, if our urgency is dictated by our environment, you 00:03:59.940 |
will always be dependent on whatever environment that you're in. 00:04:03.180 |
So if you happen to be in a lukewarm environment, you become lukewarm. 00:04:06.420 |
If you happen to be in an environment where there's a sense of urgency, then you live 00:04:11.460 |
So the sense of urgency is not coming from within. 00:04:17.940 |
And so our spiritual lives goes up and down based upon who we're with. 00:04:26.020 |
Whether you are in the middle of a job, or there's a sickness or illness, or something 00:04:30.900 |
has happened, persecution is happening, natural disaster, there are certain things that are 00:04:35.300 |
happening in our life that causes us to be urgent. 00:04:39.940 |
But even that, if it's based upon our circumstance, we don't have control over that. 00:04:45.460 |
We can look at, "Wow, those people were persecuted. 00:04:47.860 |
They really love Christ and it purifies the church." 00:04:50.380 |
But what if you're living in a place where the persecution is not happening, where you 00:04:54.980 |
The persecution is what's causing the sense of urgency, which it does, but if we're dependent 00:05:00.940 |
upon that, then we will always be dependent upon our circumstance and whatever is happening 00:05:07.580 |
So our spiritual life isn't grounded in Christ. 00:05:10.700 |
It's grounded upon whatever changing circumstance or environment that we're in. 00:05:17.180 |
Sometimes God will bring us to those circumstances. 00:05:20.340 |
Sometimes in our environment, there are things that are external that are going to push us 00:05:25.220 |
But the kind of urgency that Paul is talking about is not talking about circumstantial 00:05:30.900 |
He's talking about value or truth-based urgency that does not change because you're young 00:05:37.500 |
or you're older, or before you were married, or after you were married, or because you 00:05:41.020 |
have a certain group of friends, or because you don't have a certain group of friends. 00:05:44.580 |
A certain kind of urgency that comes from believing in the truth of the gospel. 00:05:49.940 |
But like Paul said, when he says, "I have found the secret of being content in every 00:05:53.660 |
and all situation, having a lot or not having it at all," Paul said that his life and his 00:06:00.660 |
passion for Christ and his joy is not based upon whether he's in prison or out of prison, 00:06:10.460 |
Ultimately, our sense of urgency is grounded in the gospel itself. 00:06:17.100 |
We talked about that last week, how the gospel message, "Eugengelion," basically means "good 00:06:29.140 |
There's a sense of urgency in the very word "gospel" itself. 00:06:34.580 |
So if our urgency and sense of importance of what we're doing and how we ought to live 00:06:40.700 |
isn't grounded on the things that we believe already, and we're constantly waiting for 00:06:46.320 |
something to happen outside of us to move us, sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn't. 00:07:03.020 |
Most of our lives, you go to work in the morning, you clock out at night, you come home, you 00:07:08.340 |
eat your dinner, you take care of your children, and in your fatigue, you try to fit in your 00:07:13.620 |
quiet time and do what you need to do, and then you put the kids to sleep, and this is 00:07:17.180 |
what five, six days out of the week it looks like. 00:07:21.100 |
Majority of our lives, the environment that we're in doesn't push us toward Christ. 00:07:29.300 |
In fact, it fights against that because we live in a world where everything, especially 00:07:34.020 |
here in Orange County, where everything is safe, everything is good. 00:07:38.340 |
And every once in a while, you may experience something in your life, whether individually 00:07:42.420 |
or maybe in a large scale, something happens to remind us that we need Christ. 00:07:50.300 |
But if our sense of worship, if our sense of urgency is dependent upon things that are 00:07:55.180 |
outside and not the truth of the gospel, it means that majority of our lives, majority 00:08:01.620 |
of our lives, we're going to be living thinking that it would be great if I was in this situation. 00:08:09.060 |
It would be great if that happened, and living envying other people, envying other circumstances. 00:08:14.620 |
So we read testimonies of pastors who are sacrificing their lives to get the gospel 00:08:22.700 |
Or every once in a while, you'll hear a missionary or a pastor or somebody who's doing something 00:08:26.660 |
fantastic for God, and we live vicariously through the testimonies of other people. 00:08:31.700 |
But for us, we're just living day to day, hoping, frustrated that maybe the circumstances 00:08:39.820 |
today, only if this changed, only if that changed, only if these people were in my life, 00:08:46.020 |
And we drift from year to year, sometimes decade to decade, not passionately serving 00:08:55.860 |
Paul reminded us last week in verse 11 and on, he says four separate times, he says, 00:09:00.980 |
"This thing you know, you know the time, that the hour has come, that the night is 00:09:09.260 |
And so he gives a sense of urgency to not only to live for Christ and to honor Christ, 00:09:16.580 |
but to recognize that today, you only have today, today. 00:09:22.140 |
Once today passes, you can't look back and say, "Oh, I wish I could do that again." 00:09:32.180 |
You only have your children when they're young once. 00:09:37.860 |
And that's why the scripture reminds us to redeem the time that God has given us. 00:09:43.360 |
That we would not simply be hearers of the word, but when we hear it, that we would have 00:09:46.620 |
a sense of urgency today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart. 00:09:51.700 |
Do not go back into your old routine, but just carefully examine what does it mean to 00:09:58.740 |
So this morning, I want to look at three separate things that the scripture teaches in the text 00:10:12.660 |
And those of you who are already aware, like a lot of you have a smirk on your face, so 00:10:17.100 |
I can already tell you know what I'm getting at. 00:10:22.420 |
In modern day, the slang that they use for woke, and I'm going to give you the urban 00:10:27.580 |
For those of you who don't know what an urban dictionary is, you're going to have to look 00:10:33.820 |
So urban dictionary basically is the modern definition of things that are kind of new 00:10:37.320 |
vocabularies that are coming into the culture. 00:10:41.820 |
All right, so that's basically what's happening. 00:10:44.220 |
So the urban dictionary, what it means to be woke, if you haven't heard that yet, it 00:10:49.900 |
says getting woke is like being in a matrix and taking the red pill. 00:10:54.340 |
So if you don't know the matrix, you're already lost, so I can't help you. 00:11:01.500 |
So those of you who know and you've watched that movie, the greatest movie ever made, 00:11:07.860 |
You get a sudden understanding of what's really going on and find out you were wrong about 00:11:14.800 |
So to be woke basically means that you were thinking one way and all of a sudden something 00:11:19.340 |
happens, you're enlightened, and you're able to see the world in a completely different 00:11:27.180 |
The reason I'm using that term to refer to what Paul is saying because it does relate, 00:11:32.220 |
because Paul says considering the time, considering the hour, considering the season that you 00:11:39.220 |
and I are living in, he says let us wake up from our slumber. 00:11:43.520 |
And he describes in chapter 13, 12 to 14, what does it mean to be woke? 00:11:50.420 |
A biblical definition, not the urban dictionary, but the ESV dictionary. 00:12:03.100 |
Just to go off the definition of what the urban dictionary says, to be able to see, 00:12:07.060 |
to understand truth, that changes everything. 00:12:12.580 |
Doesn't that describe every single Christian? 00:12:16.500 |
I remember part of the reason why I enjoyed that movie Matrix so much is that when they 00:12:24.100 |
So if you don't know this movie, I can't help you, but if you remember this movie, they 00:12:27.260 |
offer that red pill and they take the red pill, and as a result of taking the red pill, 00:12:34.400 |
It's the truth, but it wasn't a truth that was pleasant, and yet it was truth. 00:12:40.900 |
And we realize that everything that they knew about the world was fake, right? 00:12:48.180 |
If you just never saw it, if you never took the pill, you would have never known, and 00:12:52.060 |
you would have just lived like everybody else, but because you took the pill and your eyes 00:13:00.460 |
Every Christian, when we come to Christ and the gospel opens our eyes, we can never go 00:13:08.380 |
back unless you never believe it to begin with. 00:13:11.940 |
If all you were really committed to was the religious life of being a Christian where 00:13:16.300 |
you go to church and you do certain things and maybe God's going to bless you, so you're 00:13:21.280 |
basically asking God to help you with life, help you with your business, help you with 00:13:27.440 |
If that's the reason why you came to church, then your eyes were never really open to begin 00:13:33.540 |
But if you came and you were confronted with the gospel truth that the world that you and 00:13:38.240 |
I are living in is under the condemnation of God, it's under God's judgment, and death 00:13:44.060 |
And so the truth of the gospel opens our eyes to see that everything that you and I have 00:13:49.940 |
been experiencing was under the reign of the God of this age. 00:13:55.340 |
Music, culture, what we value, our sense of safety, our sense of security, all of that 00:14:17.760 |
And if you were truly awakened, you could never close that again unless you never really 00:14:27.420 |
They were completely blind until Jesus goes to the cross. 00:14:30.580 |
Jesus is telling them he's going to die, resurrect. 00:14:32.920 |
And during that whole time, you could completely tell they don't get it. 00:14:36.240 |
Their idea of the kingdom just didn't fit what Jesus was doing until he was resurrected. 00:14:42.520 |
And all of a sudden, you could see the light bulbs going off. 00:14:49.440 |
Now I see why Jesus was willing to go to the cross. 00:14:52.120 |
Now I see what he meant by picking up your cross. 00:14:54.220 |
Now I see, he said, if he who finds his life will lose it. 00:14:57.800 |
He who loses his life for my sake, he will find it. 00:15:01.080 |
All these things that probably didn't make much sense to them, it all of a sudden began 00:15:06.800 |
And once their eyes got open, they looked at their life differently. 00:15:12.400 |
Even in the book of Acts, as they're standing before the Sanhedrin, commanding them to not 00:15:18.960 |
They said, you tell me if it's right or wrong to obey you or obey God. 00:15:23.960 |
And they defiantly continued to preach the gospel. 00:15:31.320 |
Apostle Paul, on the road to Damascus, he encounters this Christ that he thought, ultimately, 00:15:39.640 |
And then God knocks him off a horse and he's in anti- what is it? 00:15:53.040 |
You guys all knew it, but you didn't want to say anything. 00:16:00.880 |
He's there for three days, scale on his eyes. 00:16:03.880 |
So can you imagine what he was thinking for those three days? 00:16:11.740 |
Everything that he thought he was doing for God was wrong. 00:16:14.740 |
So once the scale falls off and he's encountered God, he's a completely different person. 00:16:26.220 |
He's a completely different person because he opened his eyes. 00:16:33.220 |
Was it like 15 years of intense training that he went through? 00:16:36.560 |
That all of a sudden that he was willing to give his life? 00:16:41.200 |
Like today we think like discipleship, if you just put them through the right training 00:16:45.080 |
program, you have a guy who doesn't love God, all of a sudden he's going to love God. 00:16:49.840 |
But if you look at the scripture, people who are running full speed ahead one direction, 00:16:55.640 |
all of a sudden change, and then they're giving their lives, they become generous, they're 00:17:01.480 |
living with boldness, they have intimate fellowship, and all because God opened their eyes. 00:17:14.520 |
It happens to every single one of us when we genuinely encounter Christ. 00:17:20.520 |
So being sober is not necessarily about our circumstance. 00:17:27.760 |
It's about believing what we already profess to believe, really believing what we already 00:17:32.760 |
I want to point out three things that he says about being awake or woke. 00:17:37.640 |
Number one, being woke is being mindful of who we are. 00:17:42.720 |
Really remembering and our life being consistent with the things that we profess. 00:17:52.480 |
Slumber basically means not living according to what we profess. 00:17:56.760 |
In 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, 2-4, Paul describes what it will be like before he comes, before 00:18:02.280 |
Jesus comes back, and this is how he describes it. 00:18:04.800 |
For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in 00:18:08.160 |
the night, while people are saying there is peace and security. 00:18:14.480 |
That sudden destruction will come upon them in labor pains, come upon a pregnant woman, 00:18:20.600 |
But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. 00:18:26.560 |
Paul describes the end times before Jesus comes back, that they're seeking for peace 00:18:37.000 |
He's not talking about setting up idols and worshipping it. 00:18:40.680 |
And all of these things may be true, but predominantly, the way he describes it is, people are just 00:18:45.360 |
going to be living their normal lives, which is what everybody seeks. 00:18:52.920 |
They're going to be seeking peace and security. 00:18:57.240 |
That's how he describes slumber, not being awake. 00:19:01.280 |
They're just living their lives like everybody else. 00:19:03.320 |
Again, in Matthew 24, 37, 39, Jesus himself describes the end times this way. 00:19:09.000 |
As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 00:19:13.400 |
For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving 00:19:17.440 |
in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark. 00:19:21.340 |
And they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming 00:19:30.360 |
They were just eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage. 00:19:38.200 |
They set up idols and they sacrificed everything. 00:19:42.320 |
No, he said they were just eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage, just 00:19:56.720 |
See, it's understandable that if you do not believe the gospel truth, that we would 00:20:06.240 |
So it would make sense that our goal is to have peace and security if this is it. 00:20:13.320 |
If this is everything that we have, if these 70, 80 years that we have on this earth, if 00:20:20.700 |
But once our eyes become open to the gospel truth, that everything that you and I experience 00:20:26.320 |
in this world is under condemnation of God, that when he comes, all of it is under God's 00:20:34.480 |
Everything that we experience is under the reign of death, and that ultimately, God is 00:20:39.600 |
preparing us to go into eternity because of what Christ has done. 00:20:43.640 |
If we've opened our eyes to that truth and continue to live like the rest of the world, 00:20:52.880 |
Either you have drifted away from the truth of the gospel, or you never believed it to 00:20:58.960 |
It's like somebody who wakes up in the middle of the night and sees his house burning down. 00:21:05.040 |
That truth, if you believe it, no matter how tired you are, no matter how fatigued you 00:21:12.920 |
You will grab your children and run out of the house. 00:21:16.520 |
You're not going to sit there and say, "Well, I know the house is burning down. 00:21:19.400 |
I believe it with all my heart, but I'm going to give it another five minutes because I'm 00:21:26.880 |
Maybe five minutes later, maybe ten minutes later, you won't do that. 00:21:31.360 |
If you wake up in the middle of the night and you realize what is happening to your 00:21:35.120 |
house, that truth is going to get you moving. 00:21:39.600 |
It's going to get you to be running out of the house. 00:21:42.320 |
So a Christian who has professed to believe this gospel and to live like the rest of the 00:21:47.800 |
world, either he has drifted so far away from the thing that he professed that he has fallen 00:21:52.920 |
asleep and has completely forgot who he is, or he never believed it to begin with. 00:21:59.040 |
But somebody who has opened his eyes to this truth can't one day just decide to not see. 00:22:07.040 |
It's no different than an individual who sees the fire and just goes back to sleep. 00:22:12.960 |
So the first thing that he calls us is to get up from our slumber. 00:22:22.440 |
You don't have to go to ten years of discipleship training. 00:22:25.720 |
You don't have to have an MDiv degree to know this. 00:22:30.160 |
This is the reality of the truth from day one. 00:22:39.480 |
You don't need to know all the intricate details of the Trinity. 00:22:42.740 |
The fact that you have confessed to believe that Jesus was crucified and was resurrected 00:22:49.120 |
from the dead, that that truth from day one opens our eyes and we are changed. 00:22:56.600 |
So the first thing that he calls us to is to wake up. 00:23:02.240 |
In Ezekiel, God says that he has established us as watchmen. 00:23:11.000 |
And if our job is to be watchmen, the worst thing that a watchman can do is to fall asleep. 00:23:17.520 |
Because his job is to warn the people that danger is coming. 00:23:21.520 |
And so he says to the watchman, "I tell you that danger is coming. 00:23:25.520 |
I say to you, unrighteous man, that if he doesn't repent, judgment is coming, and you 00:23:29.600 |
fall asleep and you don't tell him, not only will he be judged, but so will you for not 00:23:34.920 |
But he says, "I tell you to tell a wicked man to turn from his sin, and you tell him 00:23:38.720 |
and he doesn't turn from his sin, he will be judged, but you have done your job." 00:23:44.640 |
God says that he purchased us for the purpose of declaring his glory. 00:23:49.560 |
Our very identity is to be the light of this world. 00:23:53.240 |
He says you are salt for the purpose of preservation, and yet if the salt loses its flavor, what 00:24:01.360 |
If a watchman is standing as a watchman to warn the people and you fall asleep, what 00:24:07.980 |
The whole purpose of why you and I exist, he says, while we're here, while we're not 00:24:12.440 |
in heaven, the moment that we meet Christ, while we're not in heaven, is so that we can 00:24:16.920 |
be the mediator to warn the church, to warn the world that Christ is coming to prepare. 00:24:25.080 |
That's why the first thing about being awake, being woke, is to recognize who we are, that 00:24:30.440 |
we don't live like the rest of the world, that we don't follow what the world goes after. 00:24:37.520 |
We look at people who win the lottery and we say, "Wow." 00:24:41.500 |
We look at guys who are getting drafted in the NBA and like, "Oh, I wish." 00:24:46.940 |
We look at guys who started great business and they have multiple businesses all over 00:24:53.420 |
We look at people who have great houses and driving around with nice cars, and we look 00:24:57.140 |
with them with envy and we covet, because we have forgotten who they are. 00:25:12.300 |
The blood of Christ has covered us, and our destiny is eternity in heaven. 00:25:18.380 |
So for us to look at the world and the trivial things, even at their greatest success, to 00:25:24.180 |
covet that, is to forget who we are, is to forget what we have been given in Christ. 00:25:31.260 |
That's why in Ephesians 4, 1-3, Paul says, "I therefore, prisoner for the Lord, urge 00:25:36.940 |
you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called." 00:25:41.860 |
You and I have been called as children of the Most High God. 00:25:47.460 |
If we're not careful, we can pursue trivial things in this world, just like the rest of 00:25:51.420 |
the world, seeking peace and comfort and wealth, and at the end, all of that is going to be 00:26:00.540 |
So the first thing about being awake is to know who we are, to remember who we are, remember 00:26:06.940 |
the height from which we have fallen, to repent and redo the things that we did at first. 00:26:11.660 |
Philippians 1-27, "Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so 00:26:16.500 |
that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you, that you are standing firm 00:26:21.400 |
in one spirit with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel." 00:26:25.500 |
To live a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:26:29.060 |
And obviously, he's not saying you have to earn your salvation. 00:26:33.940 |
He said, "Consider what you have been given." 00:26:41.860 |
The fact that you're able to come to church and worship God, do you realize what a tremendous 00:26:51.220 |
Because if the condemnation of man came because we have fallen short of the glory of God, 00:26:58.140 |
because mankind had rebelled and they are living their life for their own glory, living 00:27:01.580 |
their life for their own satisfaction, and then to be able to have access to this God 00:27:05.580 |
to come back and worship is to restore what was lost in creation. 00:27:09.380 |
So the fact that you and I can come, listen to his word, pray songs, fellowship together 00:27:15.220 |
with other Christians, the tremendous gift, sacrifice that went to, to bring us to this 00:27:27.060 |
You know, we complain so much about fellowship, about other people and how, what they have 00:27:38.060 |
And we don't proclaim enough about the gift of fellowship we have with God. 00:27:44.300 |
It doesn't make sense to spend all our time discouraged by people when the greatest thing 00:27:50.180 |
that we have in God never comes out of our mouth. 00:27:56.460 |
That's just like winning the lottery and complaining about a parking ticket. 00:28:04.660 |
Everything that we have for life of godliness has been given to us in Jesus Christ. 00:28:11.260 |
So it doesn't make sense for us to celebrate the gift of life and the Son of God and complain 00:28:24.180 |
If we have forgotten what we have, that's the first thing that he calls us to, to wake 00:28:31.700 |
Secondly, he says, to be woke means to put off the works of darkness. 00:28:38.260 |
If we know who we are, and if we believe the things that we profess, then put off the things 00:28:43.740 |
that is inconsistent with the things that we profess. 00:28:46.340 |
He says, let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. 00:28:57.940 |
Obviously there's a long list of things that he could easily put in saying that you should 00:29:04.240 |
But almost always on the top of this list is sexual immorality. 00:29:08.780 |
Not in orgies, drunkenness, not in sexual immorality, not in sensuality. 00:29:12.460 |
And the scripture says to flee from sexual immorality. 00:29:18.420 |
The number one on the sins to flee is sexual immorality. 00:29:29.860 |
I mean, all of these things hurt other people. 00:29:34.220 |
And I can, I can understand why the world pushes the envelope with sexuality. 00:29:39.820 |
Because if the worst thing that you can do is to hurt other people, sexuality, like who 00:29:46.680 |
you have sex with, why you have sex with them, as long as the two consensual adults don't 00:29:56.520 |
If I wasn't a Christian, I completely understand where their mindset is coming from. 00:30:01.180 |
Who are you when two consensual adults, whether it's man or man, woman or woman, or it's sex 00:30:06.740 |
outside of marriage, who cares if they're okay with it? 00:30:16.160 |
Why is this on the top of the list when it really, I mean, consider the damage it does 00:30:21.060 |
for murder, for hatred, for slander, for stealing, and then sexuality to people who are just 00:30:25.780 |
having fun and they enjoy it and no one is hurt by that, so what do you care about it? 00:30:36.720 |
Sex is at the core, human sexuality is at the core of God's purpose in creation. 00:30:42.940 |
God created Adam and Eve and he gave the command to be fruitful and multiply, so our very existence 00:30:55.680 |
God ordained sex to procreate other human beings. 00:30:58.860 |
Every single one of us is a result of somebody having sex. 00:31:01.940 |
I know you're going to be grossed out thinking about it, but that's, you're adults here, 00:31:08.260 |
Every single one of us are here because of sexual encounter between husband and wife, 00:31:12.940 |
and God ordained this from the beginning, that the union between husband and wife was 00:31:24.680 |
Every other relationship in creation stemmed from the relationship between husband and 00:31:34.500 |
God didn't create grandparents and grandfather and grandmother, aunts and uncles, God created 00:31:39.660 |
husband and wife, and from that came children, and from that came grandchildren, from that 00:31:44.820 |
came aunts and uncles, so all other relationships stem from the relationship between husband 00:31:51.500 |
And it all came because of the sexual relationship between husband and wife. 00:31:55.620 |
So if God ordained that for the purpose of creation to bring glory to him and mankind 00:32:02.580 |
fell because they disobeyed God and ate of the fruit that God told them not to because 00:32:07.700 |
of this tree of knowledge of good and evil, how much more would it be offensive if it's 00:32:13.660 |
at the core of our existence what God has ordained we pervert? 00:32:20.100 |
If the marriage bed is perverted, it overflows to their children. 00:32:26.620 |
It overflows eventually and affects every other relationship. 00:32:32.180 |
It's not simply about whether it bothers you or whether people are bothered or not bothered. 00:32:38.300 |
At the core of God's purpose of creation was sexuality. 00:32:41.860 |
So the perversion of what God intended is an offense to God. 00:32:47.140 |
And that's why it says in 1 Peter 2.11, "Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain 00:32:51.900 |
from passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul." 00:32:58.420 |
It is not just me, it doesn't bother me or maybe it just only affects me. 00:33:02.980 |
He says no, it is waging war against your soul. 00:33:12.660 |
He goes on and he says not only does that, he says to flee from quarreling and jealousy. 00:33:20.200 |
The scripture says before you go to the altar, if somebody has something against you, deal 00:33:25.740 |
Come to the Lord and say, "Forgive me as I have forgiven my brothers," to be reconciled. 00:33:32.540 |
And again in James chapter 4, 1-3, "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? 00:33:37.820 |
Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?" 00:33:43.780 |
There's something internal going on and there's some frustration, certain desires that I have 00:33:50.580 |
and it is not met and when that becomes expressed, it becomes a conflict and he says, "Isn't 00:34:01.020 |
You desire and you do not have, so you murder, you coven, you cannot obtain, so you fight 00:34:08.420 |
And you ask and you do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your own passions." 00:34:13.860 |
See, he's saying that these things are inconsistent with somebody whose eyes have become open. 00:34:22.580 |
To acknowledge God as our Lord and Savior is to acknowledge God's intent in our life 00:34:30.420 |
You can't simply confess and say, "You know, I've opened my eyes and I've seen the truth 00:34:35.900 |
God did tell us to teach them to observe all that I have commanded you." 00:34:39.820 |
He's simply saying, "Do you believe this truth or not? 00:34:45.100 |
Do you actually believe the gospel that we profess or not? 00:35:04.680 |
Either you've opened your eyes and you confess this truth and that changed your outlook on 00:35:16.040 |
It doesn't require years of discipleship to make a commitment and to say, "I believe." 00:35:25.260 |
He said, "If you know who you are, live according to what you profess. 00:35:31.700 |
And then he says, thirdly, "To put on the armor of light and to put on the Lord Jesus 00:35:40.420 |
In Isaiah 61, it says, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. 00:35:42.780 |
My soul shall exalt in my God, for he has clothed me with garments of salvation. 00:35:47.060 |
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest 00:35:52.100 |
with a beautiful headdress and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." 00:35:57.020 |
As you and I have been studying through the book of Leviticus, in Leviticus it makes it 00:36:01.620 |
very clear when the priests were to give sacrifices or take something out of the camp, they had 00:36:08.340 |
And the priestly garment separated them from common and holy. 00:36:13.340 |
And so what it meant was to put on the garment means that they are different from the other 00:36:16.940 |
people who are coming into the tabernacle because they are preparing for worship. 00:36:23.740 |
So a Jew, when they heard the idea of putting off and putting on, automatically had this 00:36:28.620 |
image of becoming a priest for God's kingdom. 00:36:31.760 |
And that's exactly what he's telling us to do. 00:36:43.640 |
You put on the armor because you're preparing for some kind of battle. 00:36:48.980 |
And that's exactly what he is calling us to do. 00:36:55.980 |
That's why Paul says in 2 Timothy 4, 7, "I have fought the good fight. 00:37:02.620 |
This is Paul at the end of his life describing the totality of his life after he met Christ. 00:37:10.980 |
Think about how hard we work because we don't want to fight. 00:37:16.740 |
Think about how we automatically have a knee-jerk reaction to anything that's going to cause 00:37:23.680 |
Maybe sometimes we don't even want to hear sermons that's going to poke at things that 00:37:29.140 |
You kind of turn your ear or turn your face because you don't want to hear the truth because 00:37:33.340 |
that means, the truth means, it's going to challenge the things that you hold on to dearly. 00:37:40.060 |
But if you profess to be a believer of the gospel of Jesus Christ and you have committed 00:37:45.140 |
to live consistently with what you believe, he says, put on the armor. 00:37:58.780 |
That everything that we have is basically to portray Christ. 00:38:07.260 |
So we are called to do what he would do if he was in this situation. 00:38:12.740 |
And finally he says, to make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desire, to live 00:38:17.340 |
in such a way where you're not living by the flesh but living by the spirit. 00:38:21.900 |
Martin Luther said, "I cannot keep sparrows from flying about my head, but I can keep 00:38:38.340 |
We can't help at times wanting security and safety. 00:38:44.460 |
But when you embrace that, when you entertain that, when you make that your goal in life, 00:38:51.900 |
you have to take a step back and ask yourself, do I believe this gospel? 00:38:58.500 |
Do I believe that the world is on fire or not? 00:39:02.980 |
Do I believe that Christ is coming with righteous judgment or not? 00:39:07.980 |
When I read the book of Revelation, is that true or not? 00:39:12.180 |
When I read the book of Romans, that Christ came to save sinners and as a result of this 00:39:17.700 |
mercy and grace, the challenge to live a life worthy of the gospel, to give our lives as 00:39:22.940 |
a living sacrifice, do I believe this or not? 00:39:29.900 |
Either our eyes are open and we can never go back to our old life or we can live a lie, 00:39:37.580 |
all our lives, thinking that we have some sort of fire insurance and then coming to 00:39:43.740 |
meet the Lord saying, "Not everyone who calls me Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven." 00:39:53.500 |
That's why Paul says in Philippians 3, 13, "Brothers, I do not consider that I have made 00:39:56.700 |
it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what is behind and straining toward what lies 00:40:01.860 |
ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ 00:40:07.980 |
Let those of us who are mature think this way and if anything you think otherwise, God 00:40:15.060 |
Only let us hold true to what we have already attained. 00:40:19.100 |
Hold true, be honest with what you profess, be honest with what you sing, be honest with 00:40:24.900 |
the passages that you read, be honest with the sermons that you hear, have integrity, 00:40:30.140 |
be true to yourself, be true to the things that you confess. 00:40:37.260 |
Don't say that Jesus died for your sins and that heaven is waiting for us and then live 00:40:42.740 |
completely contradicting everything that we profess every Sunday. 00:40:56.140 |
You know, with all the stuff happening in North Korea and South Korea, because I am 00:41:01.300 |
a Korean fob, people ask me, "Give me your expert political advice on how to think of 00:41:10.500 |
I really don't know what to think of it because just a few months ago and years ago, we were 00:41:17.060 |
hearing news about how Kim Jong-un, the dictator of North Korea, was killing his own brother, 00:41:25.300 |
And prior to that, in the previous regime, for the last 30, 40, 50 years, they were killing 00:41:29.180 |
their own people, propping up a communist army, and the eight billions of money, dollar 00:41:35.740 |
that went into North Korea was used to prop up their regime and to make nuclear bombs. 00:41:46.060 |
Recently, they've been threatening, you know, nuclear bomb, nuclear attack, and so everybody 00:41:50.660 |
was kind of on the edge, and now they seem like they're going to have a peace accord 00:41:55.540 |
And historically, it's crazy that the North Korean dictator actually crossed over to South 00:42:00.860 |
Korea and the South Korean president actually crossed over to North Korea, and then soon 00:42:05.260 |
Donald Trump is going to meet them at the same place where they did that, and the world 00:42:14.780 |
What does it mean to make peace with somebody who's killing their own people? 00:42:18.180 |
Again, you know, I don't get into politics here, you know, because there's, I know there's 00:42:22.940 |
all kinds of opinions, but what does it mean to shake hands with somebody who previously 00:42:29.340 |
used all the aid that you've given them for the poor and use it to build a nuclear bomb? 00:42:34.820 |
Now I'm optimistic and I'm praying that it will lead to something good, but I don't know 00:42:43.220 |
I don't know what to think of it because the whole purpose of this is like, we'll give 00:42:51.780 |
So you can continue to do what you're doing, you can continue to let your people suffer, 00:42:56.980 |
you can continue to kill anybody who opposes you, but just don't have a nuclear bomb. 00:43:04.820 |
So making peace with North Korea, I don't know what to make of it. 00:43:10.680 |
What does it mean for Christians to make peace in this world? 00:43:15.800 |
The scripture says the God of this age is Satan. 00:43:20.000 |
He has blinded the mind of the unbelievers so they do not see the gospel and the glory 00:43:25.720 |
What does it mean to make peace in a world that is under condemnation? 00:43:31.960 |
I don't know what to make of Christians who profess to believe this and live and decide 00:43:38.840 |
and everything that they do is to live a peaceful and quiet life on this earth. 00:43:49.000 |
What does it mean for Christians to live peacefully here, knowing that judgment is coming? 00:43:59.400 |
The scripture says broad is the path that leads to destruction and many will be found 00:44:02.880 |
on it, but narrow is the way to eternal life and few will be found on it. 00:44:10.040 |
Don't forfeit your passion because you see a few. 00:44:17.960 |
We always seek safety and comfort in numbers, but there's great danger in crowds. 00:44:34.160 |
It was the large crowds who persecuted the few Christians. 00:44:39.000 |
Revival never came with a movement of the crowds, but when God empowered the few. 00:44:47.200 |
Don't wait for urgency to happen with the crowd for you to commit your life to Christ. 00:44:55.200 |
The crowds only come when they see other crowds coming. 00:44:59.480 |
The remnant move wherever and whenever God moves. 00:45:18.120 |
If he opened your eyes and you believe the truth, live up to the calling that God has