>> Is really about being anchored in Christ. And I've got the first leg of what it means to be anchored in Christ as an individual Christian. And then Pastor Mark is gonna take that baton in the afternoon and talk about what it means to be anchored in Christ as a family unit.
And Pastor Peter tomorrow will be sharing with us about how as a church, we are anchored in Christ. So why don't we pray and we'll begin just our time of worship. Father, we are so thankful that you've gathered us here this morning and this weekend here in Palm Desert.
And I'm sure Lord that there are many of us who really need this time to just commune with you. And we are so thankful that you give us a church body where we can gather together as a family, really to face in the same direction. And Lord, I pray that we would all leave here facing God and Christ for just a little bit more.
So we pray for your help as we just look at your word, study your word and share about how your word is moving in our lives and in our hearts and the areas of our lives that we need to bring in submission to your word. I do pray that you would help us just to really have ears to hear your truth.
Hear fruit through your truth. Our greatest things in Jesus name. I've done a lot of counseling of, I guess, dating couples over the last several years. And just a few premarital counseling sessions as well. And when I do premarital counseling with engaged couples or talk to just couples that are dating, looking to get married.
One of the first questions that I ask is this. I ask them, what is the purpose of marriage? What is the purpose of marriage? And in each case, there's usually a little bit of a fumbling around and a nervous scramble in search for the right answer. And that's okay, it's not a trick question.
But it throws people off because when a pastor asks it, it almost seems like you have to give a holy answer. Usually when a question like this is posed, the couple answers something like, well, to glorify God by raising a godly family. It always goes up, cuz you're not a 100% sure.
And that's not an incorrect answer. But this is actually a question that's very important. But one that married people seldom ask themselves. And because it is not often asked, it is seldom reflected on. So most of you guys are familiar with marriage. What is the purpose of marriage? And how often do we ask this of ourselves?
And probably not too often, because we're just trying to survive day to day just doing life together. And here's another important question that is all too seldom asked. What is the purpose of my Christian life? What is the purpose of my Christian faith? Or in other words, to what purpose or for what purpose have I been saved?
And again, because we seldom ask this of ourselves, it's seldom reflected upon and we get in trouble. So in scripture, the answer to this question is very clear. But what I wanna do is I wanna ask to actually read Genesis 1-1, John 17-3, and then we will look into our Ephesians chapter 2 passage, okay?
Genesis 1-1, you don't need to turn there. If anything, just keep your finger on Ephesians. Genesis 1-1, you guys are probably very familiar with this. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And you guys know this passage. Usually when one year Bible class starts, this is the first sentence that's read.
Usually when people try to read through the scripture. So this is probably the sentence in the Bible that's read the most, okay? The gospel of Jesus Christ begins with the creator God of purpose, a God who creates everything good. So we see in Genesis chapter 1, the word good is used after each of the first five days of creation, and the words very good after everything is completed in day six.
So God created everything very good. In fact, it's not until Genesis 2-18 where the words not good are used to describe man's lack of community, his lack of an equal not only to subdue, but to enjoy all the good that God had created. So you and I have been created by a very, very good, creative God who is longing to be good to us.
And this good God has given us the gift of eternal life. And what does this eternal life entail? What does it revolve around? I'm gonna just quote to you John 17, 3. It says, now this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
Eternal life is not just about avoiding hell. Eternal life is about knowing for whom you have been created eternally, and just being lavished with goodness upon goodness in the knowledge of God and of his Christ. Okay? Ephesians 2-10. So this is where we're gonna be looking at our passage for today.
You guys, most of you guys probably looked at this or you're moaning emotional. I'm gonna start with verse 10, and then we're gonna work our way from verse 1 after I read to you the purpose of our existence and our Christian life. Ephesians 2-10 reads, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
So before all of these things were created, very good, and before sin entered the world to corrupt everything, God had ordained an eternal purpose for your life, and he's ordained an eternal purpose for mine. And it was for the purpose of good works that we would walk continually in these good works and give him glory.
So what is the purpose of our Christian faith? What is the purpose of my existence? What is the purpose of my life? Well, here it is. And I'm gonna repeat this about 15 times in this sermon, so you're gonna remember this and memorize it and leave here annoyed by my voice in your head.
Here we go. This is the purpose for which you're created. You were created by God and for God to love God and to serve God. And I'll say it again, some of you guys are scrambling. You were created by God and for God to love God and to serve God.
You were created by God and for God to love God and to serve God. And this is the meta-narrative that begins in Genesis and ends with ultimate glory to this creator God in the book of Revelation. So this is our purpose. And what a glorious purpose it is. The purpose of our lives is to know this God and make him known in our lives.
And it's a privilege that we will spend eternity growing in knowledge of this God and giving glory to this great God who is due worship. So this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you are saved. And eternal life, for those of you who have been saved, has already started.
So this knowledge of God has already begun. So you were created by God and for God to love God and to serve God. Amen? And here's the bonus answer. What is the purpose of marriage? I say it simply as a strategic alliance where two believers join forces and become far more useful to this purpose where they come together to do far greater things than what they could have done as individuals.
All right? So the purpose of marriage is to give God even more glory that you can possibly give as a family unit together. You were created by God and for God to love God and to serve God. But there's a problem here. This is something we can all say amen to, but we actually have a hard time submitting to this purpose.
There is a part of us, even if we have submitted to the Lordship of Christ in our lives, that remains offended by this purpose. And if you've been a Christian for a length of time, you've observed seasons of wandering and strain from this purpose. And part of this is because our flesh has been so fully corrupted by sin.
And though sin is dead in us, it is still dying in us. So I want us to read Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 through 3. I'll be reading out of the NASB. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Among them, we too all formerly live in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. So verse 1 says, you were, past tense, you were dead in your trespasses and sins. So I have a question that's very important for us to address.
What is sin? It is a very important question. And this is something you have to be very careful not to misdefine. An inaccurate definition of sin leads to a misdiagnosis and a misapplication. And so what is sin? Be careful not to misdiagnose. A misdiagnosis is a dangerous thing. A misdiagnosis of a disease can be fatal.
So what is sin? When we say sin, we naturally think of things like murder, theft, alcoholism, pornography, embezzlement, lying, cheating, and things like that. And yes, they can be categorized as sins, but those things are symptomatic of deeper problems. Sin, in the original language, is hamartia, H-A-M-A-R-T-I-A, hamartia. And basically, it just means to miss the mark.
So what is our purpose? We are created by God, for God, to love God, and to serve God. And sin is not doing that. Hamartia means failing to hit its purpose. It means living in opposition and outright rebellion toward this purpose. Failed, we are to live up to the holy standard that has been set by our holy, holy, worthy, worthy creator.
And sin has so tainted us that we are offended by this purpose when we actually think upon it. Because in our flesh, we want a God that is a better version of us. We want a God who will love us and who will serve us. We want a God who will do our bidding.
And in our flesh, we absolutely hate our purpose. And we struggle passionately against it. No, we are not created by you and for you to serve you and to love you. We are created...you are here for us, is our flesh's natural response. Murder, drug abuse, theft, lying, stealing, cheating, idolatry, all of these things, yes, they are sins.
But essentially and basically, these outward deeds are a byproduct of an even more corrupted condition. So we enter the world hostile toward the ways of God. And this, you guys acknowledge, right? We have entered into this world missing the mark from the very get-go. So do not miscategorize and misdefine sin.
In November 2017, three UCLA basketball players were in Shanghai, and they were arrested for shoplifting at a Louis Vuitton store. One of the three was none other than LeAngelo Ball, brother to the then later Lonzo Ball. You guys remember this? Not sure if you remember this. Yeah, okay. So he got caught.
And here's what he said in an interview while he was still in China. "We all went out one night, went to the malls, went to the Louis Vuitton store, and people started taking stuff. And then, you know me, just not thinking and being with them, I took something too.
And we left thinking, 'We'll just get away.' You know how kids think. I didn't realize until I got back to my hotel. I'm like, 'That was stupid.' But then I read, 'It was too late.' And then sure enough, the next morning, the police came and got us. I feel embarrassed, but I assure you, this is not who I am." So basically, he said that his teammates influenced him to do this, so he blame-shifted.
And then he said that this kind of behavior is not really indicative of who he really is. You know what I thought when I read the interview from this press release? Initially, because it happens all the time, people blame-shift. I thought, "No, D'Angelo, that is who you really and truly are.
You are walking according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air. You are a son of disobedience." And not just being baller brand. "You are a son of disobedience. You are living in the lust of your flesh, indulging the desires of your flesh, and of the mind.
That's who you are." As was I. This is my 19th year of pastoral ministry, so my original youth, who are actually in this room now, as old people, okay? This is my 27th year as a Christian, and I'm becoming more and more convinced that there is absolutely nothing good in me outside of Christ.
You ain't meant to that. There's nothing good in you. There's nothing good in me outside of Christ. In my flesh, I'm going to include you, in your flesh, there is zero good. Only in and through Christ have I become a saint. Only in and through Christ have I become a saint.
Sin at its roots is living in rebellion to the God or purpose for which you and I have been created. Everything that disgusts and discourages us in this fallen world, all the stuff that you see on the news, all the just... I don't even want to read the news anymore, right?
All of that stuff is an outward expression of the internal condition of fallen man. Sin. You were created by God and for God to love God and to serve God, and sin is living in hostility toward this divine purpose. And what are the consequences? There are three. First one is corruption of the spirit that is now continually working in the sense of disobedience, corruption.
So, no one, and Pastor Peter's mentioned this before on a Sunday, left to his own becomes less sinful. Without the intervention of God, man becomes more and more rotten. And the rotting gets worse and worse. And as the rotting gets worse and worse, the pain becomes more and more unbearable, and sin perverts and corrupts everything.
And the things that are good in life, sin corrupts it even more to make it worse. Corruption is the first one. Second consequence of sin is separation. Sin always separates. It causes a separation between man and God. You guys know this feeling when you're in a sin, you don't want to go pray to the Lord.
Sin separates God and man. Sin separates man and creation. Sin separates man and man. Sin separates even man and self. Hatred, fear, separation. Given enough time, sin will cause a rift in every single relationship that you will ever have. Corruption, separation. The third one is death. And it says, "And you were dead," past tense.
Romans 6.23, where the wages of sin is? Death. So, when Adam and Eve sinned against God, death entered the world and tainted and killed everything. Perhaps not immediately. God told them, "You shall surely die." And as a result, death has come to all of us. Physical death is now a certainty.
Spiritual death, however, is a much scarier prospect that should make all of us shiver to some degree. Verse 2, it says, "We were once sons of disobedience." Verse 3, "We were by nature children of wrath." Technon, child of wrath. This is one of the reasons I don't like the NIV.
The NIV has done a major disservice to this verse. We were deserving of wrath. No, no, no. The original language is very strong. You were a child of wrath. You were basically the spawn of scum and filth to be immediately and wrathfully wiped out. You, by your spiritual DNA, are an object of derision, should be wiped out immediately.
That's what it's saying. Not just deserving of wrath. So, from the day of our conception, Psalm 51, 5, from the very day of our conception, we should have and would have been prepared for the full grunt of the wrath of God because we were conceived in sin. Let me illustrate this for you.
I do teach to the children, so I can make this a little bit fun. Mosquitoes. I hate them. I use the word hate seldomly, but for mosquitoes, I will use the H word hate. I hate mosquitoes. I have yet to meet a single person in my life that loves mosquitoes.
And one of the reasons I hate them even more is because they love me. They don't love my wife as much. So, it's a frustrating thing in the middle of the night. I love just killing them. In the middle, in Korea, we used to have these tennis racket things that would kill bugs.
We had so many in our apartment on the 18th floor. You hear that? Just pop. It would just make my slumber so sweet. I hate them. And as I've killed my many fair share of mosquitoes over the years, I've realized one tragic fact is that they die too quickly.
They're easy to catch, hard to keep alive. Because in the middle of the night, when I'm not thinking straight, I've got bumps on my arm and my legs. I actually want to just catch it and torment it. I want to just rip off a wing at the time. I advise you to do that, right?
I want to rip off its wings. I want to cut the nose off of its scissors. I want to put it in the microwave and let it explode. I want to torture it because it caused me so much torment. But when I grab the mosquito, it's usually dead and bloody, full of not my wives, but my blood.
Now, I am not the only one who hates mosquitoes. If a mosquito were flying around my head right now and I killed it, I doubt that any of you would call the authorities on me. If a mosquito was on the wall and you guys killed it, someone next to you killed it, no problemo.
Even if a mosquito did not bite any one of us, its very presence would trigger in us a desire to kill it. Why? Because mosquitoes represent disease, corruption, and in some places in the world, death. If we were in areas where malaria, Zika, dengue were prevalent, we actually would encourage all of us to kill every mosquito on sight.
I hate mosquitoes. Some people hate roaches more than mosquitoes. It's because you guys don't get bit. But I hate them with a passion. And why do I share this silly illustration? To remind you that the distance between you and God is infinitely greater than the distance between you and a mosquito.
There is even less to love in you and me than there is to love in a mosquito or a cockroach. We were by nature, tapped on, spawned of wrath. See remember I said that we have to be careful not to mystify sin. The problem of sin is not primarily an external one, it is thoroughly internal.
It has corrupted everything in our lives. And one of the things that religious people make, the primary misdiagnosis, is in focusing on the external, seeking to address the symptoms and not the disease. Just as cold medicine does not cure the cold, but rather just temporarily hides the symptoms, good effort toward godliness and piety does not cure the cold.
It is a good effort toward the good. And I'm not saying that you should be doing that. I'm saying that you should be doing that. I'm not saying that you should be doing that. I'm saying that you should be doing that. I'm saying that you should be doing that.
I'm saying that you should be doing that. I'm saying that you should be doing that. I'm saying that you should be doing that. I'm saying that you should be doing that. You should be doing that. You should be doing that. You should be doing that. You should be doing that.
You should be doing that. You should be doing that. You should be doing that. You should be doing that. You should be doing that. You should be doing that. You should be doing that. And on my deathbed, I leave all that I have to Him." You laugh! But it's even sillier that God would make us alive together with Christ.
Verse five. See, we serve a strange God, and why do I affectionately call Him strange? I don't call Him strange because He chose to withhold wrath. I don't call Him strange because He extends mercy. There have been wicked leaders in the history of the world that have been occasionally merciful.
There have been wicked leaders in the world that have just kind of withheld wrath. There have been man-made gods who have been known to be occasionally kind. I call our God strange because He didn't just not send us to hell, He raised us up with Christ, seated us with Christ in the heavenly places.
And our destiny as children of God is to spend eternity being showered with kindness upon kindness upon kindness by this God of love. He will even let once sin-tainted, fallen, hostile man to see Him face to face. First John 3.2, "Beloved, we are now children of God, and He has not appeared as yet what we will be, but we know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is." This is grace.
Absolutely wonderful, absolutely silly, dumbfounding grace. I almost want to change that song from "Amazing Grace" to "Dumbfounding Grace" or "Absurdly Strange Grace" because "amazing" sometimes doesn't quite cut it. So there is now a cure for sin, and you and I have believed and placed our faith in Christ. We have been saved, and now we have been restored to the purpose for which we have been created for His glory, and as a result, we will experience immense satisfaction and joy.
So how did we become saved? It's even sillier. Do you guys know John 3.16? "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, and whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." I've heard many a sermon that says, "For God so loved the world." That's actually inaccurate because the Greek word there is "koutos" which is "thus," like this, in this way, in this manner, is the word "so." Like so.
And you have to look at John 3.14 and 15, "For just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up. For God in this silly, absurd way loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, and whoever looks up in faith will not perish but have eternal life." Numbers 21.
We see the people in the wilderness doing what they do best, and we've been in Hebrews, right? What do they do best? Drift, rebel, lay hands on. Numbers 21, God sends fiery serpents, and in verse 7 of Numbers 21, we see a kind of repentance, and they say, "We have sinned, Moses, because we have spoken against the Lord and you.
We are scared of the consequences. Intercede with the Lord that He may remove the serpent from us." So God told Moses to fashion a bronze serpent and to raise it up on a staff, and all they have to do to be saved from these fiery serpents is just to look.
Basically the message is, "Look and live." For God in this way loved the world. He made Him who knew no sin to become sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God. So the appropriate response when you and I find ourselves drifting as individuals, when you and I find ourselves in sin, isn't primarily greater religious effort.
Sometimes our efforts are based more on superstition than on truth. God cares if you agree. Sometimes we are more afraid of the wrath and the judgment of God who already adopted us, who loves us as His children. We're more afraid of consequences. "Oh, my business is going to fail if I don't do this." We're more superstitious than we are faith-filled.
And the appropriate response is not greater effort. You know what the people of God were doing to this bronze serpent from about 1500 to 700 BC? For 800 years, they saw a mystical power in this thing. It became a stone of legend. So they were burning incest to this thing.
They even gave it a name, "Negushtan." Basically, it just means bronze serpent. They weren't that creative. They gave it a name. King Hezekiah, the righteous king, one of the first things that he did was just break it in pieces. This has no power to save you. You see, when we misdiagnose our problem of sin and of our flesh, we naturally try to be more moral.
We naturally conform to the church's expectations. We naturally just try and get more vital knowledge in our heads. But that, in and of itself, those are good things. But that doesn't cure this problem of drifting. So then the question is, how do we stay anchored in Christ? How do we stay anchored in Christ?
That's actually a misleading question because if you're a child of God, guess what? Not by works. For by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he prepared beforehand that we would walk in them.
It is not based on us. So if you are a child of God, you are already anchored in Christ. Hebrews 6, it says, "These are things God cannot buy," it says in Hebrews 6. And so we have this hope as an anchor for the soul. And so we have this hope as an anchor for the soul.
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And so we have this hope as an anchor for the soul. relationship that we have with Christ. So the application I'm going to leave you with is, simply tighten the slack on the anchor. Because at the end of the day, too much slack, what happens when a big wave comes?
Damage! My encouragement and exhortation is simply this. Remember that you are a child of God, an heir to the kingdom of God, and that He loves you with an absurd, silly, reckless love. And His desire for you is just to understand fully and appreciate and be free in His love.
That's it. There is no step one, step two, step three to having a good relationship with God, just like there is no step one, step two, step three to having a solid marriage. There's a constant adjustment that's needed. But our anchor that is sure and steadfast on the back of our shirts, what is the anchor?
What Christ has done and what He is continuing to do now. Jesus Himself praised, John 17, 17 sanctified that in your truth, your word is truth. So whatever you can do to incline your ear to hear the voice of your Heavenly Father, do it. And naturally you will see yourself just tightening that slack.
And who knows that will impact your family. Who knows you tightening that slack will encourage other members of this body of Christ. Religious effort will lead you to discouragement. Now that's not, I'm not saying don't try, but don't put your hope in yourself because there's nothing good in you outside of Christ.
Amen? May the Lord remind us of His love afresh in this retreat. And may He astound us with more and more truths of how silly His love is that we would respond appropriately. Let's pray together. Lord we need you. Lord we so desperately need you. We are forgetful, rebellious people and we keep returning to our folly.
So we pray knowing that the only hope for all of this is Christ. Lord draw near to us so that we may see you as you are and be changed by your nearness. We plead with you to draw near. In this we pray. In Jesus' name.