Untitled Sermon (38)

Call to Worship

Reading of

Prayer

Singing of songs

Update from NOLA

Announcements:

Elders class tonight.

Bible Study tonight @6:30

Article on Alcohol and my position/unwise but not sinful and don’t use the Bible to say that it is sin.

Fellowship time

Second call to worship Girls singing

Sermon:

I want to start out today’s sermon with a story.

The man in this story is a man by the name of Paul.

And Paul had what most people in the Bible belt would call a good home.

He grew up in the Church.

Was active in so many ways that from the outside looking in, Paul appeared to be a Christian.

He sang in the Church choir.

He hung out with the other Christian kids and often times was the one who had the right answers.

If the typical youth pastor could point to a young man in the congregation and say that he knew for sure that one was redeemed, it was Paul.

But little did the people around Paul know, he was wrestling with some of the biggest doubts and conflicts that he has ever encountered.

Some days Paul would wake up and wonder whether he was actually even a Christian.

Truth be told, though his outward actions looked the part, his inward thoughts seemed to be far from being right.

Often times in his mind he was but one step away from encountering the thoughts of his mind through physical actions.

And he wrestled with this.

He like everyone around him thought of himself as a Christian but in reality, Paul was missing the most important part.

His heart had yet to be transformed by all that he knew in his mind.

On the one side of him he desperately wanted the things that the pastor and others in his Church would talk about.

But on the other hand, he longed for the day that the chains of bondage slipped onto his heart by his parents would be removed.

He longed for the day that the thoughts of his mind could be acted upon without feeling like he needed to confess these things to his youth group.

Then one day it finally happened.

Paul moved out of his parent’s house and off to college and now he was finally free to do the things that he had been so deeply desiring.

Here’s my question for you this morning, did Paul act upon them?

Did Paul leave home and walk into open rebellion against the Lord and against his parents?

In order to answer that question, I want to take you to our text for this morning.

I’m reading today out of the New King James Translation.

“But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain. Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. You have not injured me at all. You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first. And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth? They zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them. But it is good to be zealous in a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you. My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you, I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you.”

Pray

Paul, the man in that story a minute ago is not merely an imagined person.

In fact, I have met many Paul’s throughout my short tenure of ministry which is just over 11 years.

Some of them have been people who if I described that story to them they would have honestly thought I was speaking about them.

They would have assumed I had the power to read their minds.

Others that I have met, their situation might have been different.

They might have been in the middle of their life and contemplating their middle age and how sheltered of a life they’ve lived.

In fact, I think of Theodore.

A man that Wesley and I just met this last Saturday night.

Grew up in a great Christian home.

Surrounded by godly people all of his life and when I encountered him, he was slurring his words from being drunk.

As we began to have a conversation with him, his heart was beginning to resonate with the things that were being said.

In fact, after pointing out how God will see him on Judgment day, I asked him what his response would be and he walked me through the Gospel.

This man who was drunk as can be walked me through the Gospel.

I then asked him why he was out there at Mardi Gras and his response was immediate guilt.

He had tears running down his cheeks and you could see the guilt on his heart.

Now you might be asking yourself why I’m bringing all of this up.

Why would I be talking about this because it’s pretty obvious that none of y’all are out there drinking and living depraved lives.

Let me explain something to you for just a moment.

Many of you in this Church this morning are just like Paul.

You have lived sheltered lives whereas brother Steve put it, your hands have been able to remain clean.

There’s no blood on them.

You’ve been kept as a set apart people who have been called to live a better life and many of you know only of most sin in a hypothetical way.

You’ve heard of the devastation it has caused in people’s lives but you’ve never encountered it yourself.

You’ve never seen it first-hand and never took part in it yourself and because of that you have hands that are clean before the Lord in ways that many others in this room have not.

And while this is a beautiful thing.

It’s also very deceitful in many ways.

In many ways you could be used by the Lord in ways that others cannot.

Yet because you have not encountered it, something about it seems attractive.

That’s the very nature of sin.

From the outside it looks wonderful.

Sin in its lightest form is attractive and it looks like there are no consequences for taking part.

Not only is it attractive but it doesn’t ever start with an all-out binge.

Instead it starts with a little by little.

A little bit here and a little bit here and before you know it you have encountered some of the biggest hurdles you will ever see in your life.

And they weren’t challenges the Lord led you through, they were challenges that you yourself walked right into.

But you didn’t go blindly.

Many times over you were warned.

Many times over you were called to check your heart.

But because of the attractive nature of sin, you, like Paul chose to seek after the sinful thoughts and change them into actions.

Can I just for a moment be the first one to tell you that you’re not alone in this.

Many before you have fallen right into this trap and many more after you will as well.

Now maybe that’s not you.

Maybe these thoughts have only been that.

They’ve remained dormant in the midst of your mind and you have never acted upon them.

To you I tell you that this morning, take heart to what were soon to find in this passage.

This could very likely be your warning.

Paul begins this little section here with the words, But then.

That automatically tells us we need to look backward at what he is telling them.

The Apostle has just went through this wonderful explanation of our position in Christ Jesus and how that because of Him, there is no longer any call for division.

Because of the work that Christ did upon Calvary, every single person who belongs to Him has now been made an heir and is to receive the full inheritance that is due to Christ.

That because of Christ you can now cry out in the most intimate and loving way to the Lord of all creation and call Him your Father.

Paul is illustrating the distinction between the old person here in verse 8.

He talks about those who did not know God served those by nature that are not gods.

Listen to me for a minute.

Most of you.

Most of you are the Paul from that story earlier.

You have been brought up in good Bible believing homes where the Gospel of Jesus Christ was proclaimed.

Where moral standards were set forth because this is what the Lord requires of us.

But then you have a completely different group.

You have the group that includes men such as myself and brother Steve.

Men and women who weren’t brought upon being told that the Lord requires of us this form of behavior.

People who never truly heard the Gospel of Jesus until later on in their lives.

People who at one point in their life were held captive to other things.

I don’t talk about this much because I don’t want my children to see me the way that I saw my father but today I guess it’s going to come out.

For me, my master was methamphetamines.

Its what I served.

It became the Lord of my heart.

That and everything that went alongside of it.

Deeper than that though, I served myself.

I was the king of my life.

I only had this one life and I was going to do everything I wanted to do for me.

For number one!

From drunkenness to fornication to anything that would make me feel good for just a moment.

I was the god of my life and anyone who tried to get in my way was destroyed.

Now I want you to hear me because I don’t want this to be misunderstood.

I’m not telling you these things that they may be a stumbling block for you or an excuse for you to look at me and think that I turned out just fine.

I carry more baggage from those days than I will ever be able to unpack until the Lord calls me home.

And only on that day will I finally be free from all of that baggage that sticks beside me.

Instead I’m telling you that because I want you to see how blessed in the Lord Jesus Christ you who are like Paul truly are.

As one who knows deep sin in far more than a hypothetical way, I weep when I hear of people who have come to be known by God turning back to their sin.

My heart is shattered every single time that I encounter people on the street who merely wanted to let their hair down.

I cannot even begin to explain to you how that hurts my heart as one who has been called out from that life.

Why in a million years would someone who has been known since their Childhood by the Lord almighty ever turn to the weak and worthless elements of the world.

Those sins which seek after enslaving you at the very core of who you are.

Drunkenness, fornication, adultery, lying, whatever those may be pale in comparison to sin grabbing and consuming your life in such a way that they hold you prisoner.

Those of us who have been there can see both sides of the field and we stand here ready to attest to you that only one of them is truly beautiful.

And that beautiful side of the field is where the God of all creation is the Lord of your life.

Where you don’t seek after that which by nature are not gods.

If I could only get you to see what I see.

What the men who have lived lives like mine would tell you.

You younger generations.

Listen to these words.

Don’t allow the fleeting temptations of sin to captivate your hearts.

Don’t allow those thoughts of curiosity to entangle you into a web of ruin that will only lead you away from the Lord and dirty your hands.

Look around and listen to those who have been entangled in the life that you’re seeking after.

That’s one of Paul’s points here in this passage.

This section of Scripture reveals the pastoral heart of the Apostle Paul.

He is no longer addressing them as some random Christian who would try to encourage them to do right.

Instead this is the heart of the pastor.

His imploring for his people to live a right life before the Lord.

Look at verse 19.

My little Children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.

Think about this for a moment.

You mothers in the room.

You know of the moment that Paul is talking about.

That moment where you know that the suffering of the last 9 months is finally going to pay off, but the worst part of the pregnancy is about to happen.

You are soon to deliver a child and that is the most painful part.

But at the end of that delivery you have in your arms a child.

The most precious of all that you shall ever possess.

And because of what you get at the end of the delivery process, that momentary pain is totally worth it.

And that is the Pastors heart in reference to raising up Christians.

The Apostle Paul is crying out to the people that He was given an authority over and reminding them of what they had been brought out of.

The wickedness of the world which they had been drawn out of was no longer what they served.

Those things that held them captive and made them serve them as false god’s, they are no longer rule over their life.

Instead they have been set free.

The King of all the universe has come to know them personally through Christ.

They have truly received the greatest blessing that they could ever know, so why would they want to run back to those other things?

For those who have been brought out of them I honestly have no clue.

What would make someone who has been set free from something and who knew the power of that over their lives ever want to return to it.

Heavens knows I have zero desire to run back to Methamphetamines.

Not only do I have no desire for them but I abhor such things.

Wesley and I spoke with a woman named Kay who openly admitted to us that she is addicted to Heroin.

A drug that will one day kill her because of its impact on her heart and her respiratory system but none the less, at the end of the day she longs for that drug.

I look at that and my heart breaks because I know first-hand the power that something like that can have over a persons heart.

They no longer seek after what’s best for them but they strive and put forth all of their effort to serving that which has conquered their life.

The same goes for meth addiction.

Those who are addicted serve drug and in many ways it becomes a god to them.

I abhor that which has dominion over that persons life but I have a care for that person because I understand where they’re at.

They have been overcome in such a way that they cannot set aside this god and they must serve it.

But this doesn’t merely apply to narcotics or drug use.

This can be in the web of anything.

Anything under the sun can become a god to you and you don’t even know it.

For some, money is their god.

For others, fame is their god.

Experience, travel, education, whatever you can put there in its place can very quickly become a god to you.

And it does so because the human heart has an idolatry problem.

We don’t like to admit it but that is the deeper portion of this issue.

The human heart has a desire to seek after anything that is not the Lord’s.

And until you have been made new through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, this is where you’re going to remain.

You cannot help but do anything besides that.

But once you’ve been made new through Christ, you have become known by the High King of heaven.

And after being known to Him, you now get to choose what portion you shall have.

But for those of you who’ve never been in that setting and this isn’t your life experience, you have don’t truly understand what I’m saying to you.

Much of it is purely hypothetical.

You might have heard stories.

You might have even seen pictures which you googled on your smart phone.

But you’ve not experienced it and you should be praising God for that!

You should be praising God that He has kept your hands clean unlike mine.

You can be used by God in ways that I cannot.

But the question is, are you going to be like Theodore.

Are you going to take all of this knowledge and all of this warning and run to the things that you’ve been warned about?

I plead with you today not to.

There is grace and forgiveness for our sin in Christ Jesus but there are consequences for those very same sins in this life.

The young woman who though she knew better, chose to give herself to her boyfriend and then conviction sets in and she repents.

Is she forgiven?

Absolutely!

Does that mean though that the child that was created that night somehow disappears?

No.

Does that mean that the Christian who took their liberty and fell into a black hole with alcohol cannot be forgiven?

No.

But it does mean that the DWI that is on their record will not just disappear.

You see.

There is always consequences for our sin.

And each of will have to face them.

The years of Meth use that I had surely has impacted by respiratory system and my brain.

It wasn’t merely sin kept hidden or in a corner.

Sin done in the body will have consequences unless God by His grace removes them for you.

Maybe you’re here today and you’re not a young adult.

Maybe you’re in your thirties or forties but you’re wondering what it is that you have missed all of these years where you remained sheltered.

I don’t know of any other way but to implore you to take heed to what is being said today.

The grass isn’t greener on the other side.

The Kingdom of Heaven has roads paved with Gold.

The road to sin is littered with corpses of the fallen.

I implore you to think about these things.

Think about the implications of sin in your own lives.

5 or 6 years ago not a person in this Church was allowed to have a smart phone.

Do you think that was all bad?

I’d guarantee you that very few of the men or women in the Church had an issue with pornography either.

But here we are today, years after that and basically everyone in this Church has a smartphone.

Do you see what I’m saying here?

This is precisely my point.

You had hands that were kept clean and even though you knew the dangers of turning back, you chose to do so.

And now where are you?

Are you stuck in the midst of this sin consisting of lustful thoughts and desires?

Listen to me, there seems to be this attitude here that talks so badly about the past of this Church.

Were some things done wrong?

Sure!

What Church doesn’t?

Every Church that you ever go to is going to be made up of sinful human beings who WILL make mistakes.

But that doesn’t mean that the Lord doesn’t use those Church’s and those men.

Just think for one moment about all of wrong that pops into your head but compare that to all of the sin you were kept from.

Do you see what I mean?

The Lord used the mistakes of men to glorify His name by keeping you away from sin.

By keeping you distant from the sin of this world.

But now that the Law has been removed, what are you going to do?

Are you going to run to that which you were kept from?

That which place you under bondage?

Or are you going to rejoice that you are known by the High King of Heaven and that you have forgiveness in Jesus Christ?

I implore you, seek after the latter.

It is the only choice that will breathe into you hope and new life.

Now I want to end this sermon with a time of confession.