THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING - The Lie That Launches a Million Sins

well we've been in the book of James and James been talking about trials difficult circumstances in life and he said it in verse two when you face trials not if you face them but when he's saying everybody is gonna go through difficult moments in life challenges even to our very faith and so he said but you can rejoice in the midst of those trials to the degree that you understand that all of our problems have potential in them to make us better people to build into his perseverance and to give us perspective that God uses trials to make us better people if you'll allow him and so that was last time talking about how trials are used by God but they're coming for us and now today he's gonna warn us about a reality within the trials that we must anticipate and respond to accordingly and he saw in verse 13 he says when you are tempted that when we face a difficult moment a trial thoughts will be solicited to our mind that will present to us options ways of responding than if we were in neutral territory taking a quiz on morality we would say that's an inappropriate course of action not best not good and yet in the midst of that trial we might say you know what that feels justified that feels appropriate that feels good and so we need to understand that every trial will bring with it a temptation so for example let's say you're at the MTV Music Awards and you believe beyond saying should win the award for best music video and then you have to sit there as they give that award to Taylor Swift now that is a trial difficult circumstance in life and in the middle of that a thought may be solicited your mind you should walk up on the stage grab the mic from that teenage girl and chastise this crowd for their poor decision-making and in that moment that decision will feel appropriate even good or let's say that you're a pro athlete you're a cyclist racing in the Tour de France and you want to win but you're getting older that's a trial and in that moment the thought may be Felicity to your mind I should take it's enhancing drugs now if someone asked you on a quiz is that right you'd say no but in that moment it suddenly feels justified appropriate even right or let's say that you got a high-powered job you were getting Congress here in the business world high-powered job brings a lot of pressure a lot of stress and in the middle of that you're looking for a release valve from all that pressure and all that stress in the midst of that trial the thought may be solicited your mind well you should find relief in the arms of that 20 year old girl in your office who's not your wife and in that moment even though you know that's wrong in the middle of that trial that temptation will feel so right so these are all hypothetical situations that are just kind of made-up but let's talk about your own life let's say that you have a co-worker who's really getting on your nerves I mean they're annoying to you in the middle of that trial thoughts will be solicited to your mind options of how to respond and some of you might feel gravitation towards the aggressive response I want to punch them I want to cuss them out others of you you made me go I would never do that you offed more for the passive-aggressive option where you know you just roll your eyes whenever they talk or you say did now you're Hitler say that once someone his speeches whenever they talk things like that or maybe you just go full passive where you're really nice to them to their face and then as soon as they leave the room you just throw them under the bus to everyone else in the room and really subvert their ability to have quality relationships I don't know that's an option for somebody or maybe school is stressful for you finances are stressful for you home pressures are difficult in the middle of all that pressure maybe the thoughts solicited your mind to find solace in a bottle whether beverage or pills so I know this doesn't solve my problems but they make them go away and I'll do that or maybe the ache of loneliness is too much it's too much and so you go you know what I can't find the love of my life but maybe I'll just use your body tonight whether in person or through a screen he's reality everyone's gonna face every single one of us nobody's away from that and every single one of us when we face trials we will face temptations thoughts that in a neutral ground we'd say this isn't the best way to act but in that moment even though we know that path is destructive it suddenly seems desirable we have to know that's coming for us difficult circumstances can drive us to make destructive decisions and we need to know that we need to be aware it's coming and we don't just need to be aware it's coming we have to ask the question where is this coming from how does it work on us and then how do we respond if we know this is coming if we know every trial carries a temptation where is this coming from how does it work on us and then how do we respond now let me say this in none of this am i trying to guilt trip any of you we all succumb to this challenge and so I don't want to heap shame on anybody if anything I want almost in an unemotional way just kind of evaluate what's happening here not to beat us up but to give us a path to victory so we can win General Patton World War two a lot of people were nervous as he faced off against the German general Rommel because Rommel had literally written the book on tank warfare and yet as Pat went out against this more distinguished general he completely routed his army and I remember when they did the movie as you see the Nazi forces decimated Patton's standing on a mountainside and triumph in that moment of glory he raised a hand and says Robbo I read your book and that's what I want to do if we know temptations coming for us let's read its book let's see how it works on us so we can work a different way you understand it so let's see where it's coming from and the first thing James says is not God verse 13 he says let no one say when he's tempted I'm being tempted by God why not say that James he says for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself attempts no one it's inconsistent with God's nature so he won't do it to you sin is an impulse to take a conscious step away from the of God God is not interested with stepping away from the will of God that's not an impulse that tempts him and so it's not an impulse with which he will tempt you so be careful because I'll hear some people say sometimes well you know what I don't know why God gave me this desire if he doesn't want me to act on it you be careful don't suddenly slap the deity on every one of your desires all that we feel isn't necessarily good and we need to be able to evaluate that so if it doesn't come from God where does it come from well let me ask this first God won't tempt you but will God test you well he puts you in difficult circumstances the answer is yes he does it all the time you saw it in Deuteronomy with his people in the Old Testament says the Lord led you into that wilderness for forty years to test you he said I put you in a difficult pressure filled society or environment to see what was in your heart he told him in judges God said I will not drive out these foreign nations from among you in order to test you he told his people I'm gonna give you really annoying neighbors and I'm gonna do it to test you to see what comes out of your heart he told Hezekiah hey I'm gonna send envoy's from Babylon and I'm gonna back off and let you make your own decisions will you interact with him with integrity or out of insecurity we try to show off that you're big-time and thereby subvert your entire nation I'm just gonna let you roll Hezekiah to test you to see what's in your heart will God test you he will put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil right in your front yard but what he won't do is come around next to you and say hey man you should eat some of that fruit yeah I know I said it was evil but it looks so good right he's not gonna do that that's not how he works God puts you in difficult circumstances like a good parent or a good coach he puts you in difficulty to develop you not to destroy you God will put us in tests to build our faith not destroy our faith he's a good dad or a good coach in that sense and yet when that trial comes the temptation will come with it so where does it come from not God and then James won't even blame the devil either he says in verse 14 but each person is tempted when he is Lord and enticed by his own desire where does that temptation come from James will say it comes from you Philo said it this way he said for all the wars of Greeks and barbarians between themselves are against each other are sprung from this one source desire or lust same word the desire for money or glory or pleasure these it is that brings disaster to the human race not as James believe in the devil yes he will name-drop the devil later in this letter and yet in this moment he doesn't want to point out to you an external tempter he wants to point out to you an internal traitor that inside each one of us is a little voice that loves that which is destructive to us we all got a little traitor in us a little deposed dictator you don't have to obey Him but he's making crazy demands and you got to know he's in there and you got to know how to respond to him so he wants to let you know temptation is not an attack from without it arises from within that's where it comes from Taylor Swift winning that award does not necessitate you get on stage that decision came from inside of you your girlfriend breaking up with you does not necessitate that you get hammered drunk that night that was your choice right that trial is coming for you ready or not but that temptation rises right out of you it's not an attack from without but it arises from within our own dysfunctional thoughts bolstered by broken emotion now how does it work well he says but each one is lured and enticed by his own desire Lord is about the minds attention and entice to stirring the hearts affections and then when you enact the will you sin take a conscious step away from the expressed will of God but that luring of the minds attention and stirring in the hearts of fat that's what James calls temptation how does it work he even uses the word lure it's like fishing we call it a lure we've talked about this what do you do when you put a lure in front of a fish maybe you pick one that looks like a frog what do you do you want to swim it past them maybe you do it in an angle so it looks wounded and delicious what's your goal you want to get that fish's attention hey there little buddy but you don't want just want to get his attention you want to stir as fetch as I can look at you okay right but what's the end goal you want it to enact the will and when it does it it never sees the hook you see I get your minds attention I stir your hearts affections and then when you take that step I got you but it says each one is lured and enticed by his own desire this whole process is tailor-made for you so some might go a frog really gross like you're into that that turns you on that's disgusting I got it oh how you can call yourself a real fish if you're into that kazoo okay and it says okay it's no problem got a different lure for you we'll just put something else out there new shiny right and off you go each one is tempted by his own desire nobody in here is perfect everybody's got those little broken thoughts inside of us there's something wrong with all of you and me too and we need to know that and some of the best self knowledge we can have is how does it get to us because it's gonna work in us differently we all struggle but in a variety of ways but the humility can come and go and we all struggle here right and we're all looking at this but the best knowledge you can have is how does it get at me what's the thing that gets at me what's the thing that I know is destructive but again and again I come back to it when I'm lonely when I'm tired when I feel entitled when I'm hungry when I'm sad what's the broken will I go to drink from even though no I'll be first thirsty the next morning what is it because you need to know what you think about is what you'll care about and what you care about you will chase so what do you entertain in your mind because what you ponder in your mind will be what you love and what you love you will pursue and that will determine what you become so I want you to think about what you think about let me say that again I want you to think about what you think about many of us just wake up and go through our day and thoughts just come and we just accept them and operate out of them and we don't analyze is that true is that right is that good where is it leading me do I accept or do I reject this way of thinking this way of seeing myself God others and that my course of action I want you to think about what you think about and then like I saw on a t-shirt in Denver I remember it said don't believe everything that you think and I think that's good not just because I saw a t-shirt I usually don't take the advice of t-shirts nor do I buy a lot of shirts with words on them I prefer solids but that's true we don't need to believe everything that we think not every thoughts valid but we need to take them and test them Paul told Timothy that watch your life and your doctrine closely you said watch what you believe Timothy and then watch yourself he said persevere in this because in doing so you'll save both yourself and your here's for your sake Timothy and for everyone who looks to you for guidance watch your life know what you believe know what you're tempted by and Timothy be wise and what you get led away by because what you think about will determine what you care about and what you care about will determine what you chase what do you entertain in your mind and so all of us will struggle every single one of us will battle this so then the question becomes well then what do I do and James will give us some things to do if I know this pull is coming this addiction this repeated pattern that is keeping me stuck in life and keeping me in Arrested Development and not moving forward if I keep repeating this pattern how do I get off this ride how do I get out of that stream how do I quit flowing to that destination what he'll say is the first thing is look on stream and see the conclusion he says the trick with temptation is it wants to get close to your face so that you believe it's the only option there's no other way to respond the only way to respond to this pain is to drink that some of them do this believe that go to that feel sorry for myself I'm gonna keep going back to the same pattern temptation wants to keep putting itself in your face I'm the only option and you have to develop the discipline to push it down and look past and say if I engage in this where will it lead me if I jump in this boat where will this stream go and is that a place I want to be an Alcoholics Anonymous they say you need to think through the drink then a hard day of loneliness an emotional ache will lead you to go you know what I can find solace in this drink and they say okay everyone experiences that temptation that's in a a but think about it if you start drinking that where will you go next where will you go next where will it lead think about your dad or your mom your family members who followed that same path think about your friends that have done it think about your past life is that where you want to be if you don't want to be there then don't start going here and step out of this temptation but you got to look downstream and see where is this path going and it's that a place I want to be now it's interesting James by saying that really doesn't use path imagery and frankly he doesn't use fishing imagery either he actually uses sexual imagery when he's displaying all this because in Greek the language he wrote this in there are masculine and feminine words like Spanish you know Spanish La Mesa is table and it's in feminine in this passage the word desire is feminine now that doesn't mean that all bad desires come from women or something don't go there with this I'm just saying go with the imagery here what he says is you will be lured and enticed by your own desire right and he gives you this picture like you see in the wisdom literature like proverbs 7 the adulterous woman should wear a luring clothes she'll speak in provocative statements my husband's gone on a long journey you won't get caught my bed is amazing I well good let's do this in Proverbs 7 says you don't even know you're an ox to the slaughter you need to look and say where is this leading me and he says desire she will lure and she will entice but then what he says and desire when she's conceived gives birth to sin see every single one of us is gonna hear the voice of temptation you can't help it but you can decide do I want to jump in bed with that desire and because of me and desire unite if I bring my will in unity with that desire she gets pregnant and she has a baby called sin and some of us hear that you go yeah man but but I don't care if I sin doesn't matter to me well here's what's interesting sin is a feminine word - and sin has a baby yareta he says when desire has conceived she gives birth to sin and sin when she's fully grown brings forth death says that's where this is going and then he does something so weird there he uses pregnancy imagery of bringing forth but then he says bring forth death startling image because there's never for many people a more enjoyable moment than the moment of the birth of their child why because it's it's the arrival of life I mean I remember for me in my 20s my buddies would make fun of everybody relentlessly constantly the only way he knew how to interact is mockery and sarcasm and yet there was a special dispensation around the birth of a baby you would watch your friend cry and make them silly noises and snot coming out of their nose when they're holding this little baby because you know you don't make fun of them this is magic he knit together with the person he loves and the two of them created a living thing that is so amazing and they'd hold up that baby and even if the baby was ugly you'd be like oh yeah baby you know cuz not all babies are cute you know I mean like they turn out fine but some of them you know I remember my brother they handed him to my mom like well he's husky he turned out fine but you know sometimes you gotta invest in hats something to distract the eye but they hold up their little baby and even if their babies like who's ahead gonna stay that shape you don't worry about it cuz you go this is the most exciting day of your life you knit together with someone else and you brought forth life a living person in James takes that imagery of that room of that day he says when you unite you bring forth death the opposite of life you bring something horrible into the world why does he do that he does it to shock you he does it to startle you he does it to break the spell because temptation is luring in the moment of trial but she looks way less sexy in the cold light of day and he says you need to see this moment clearly look downstream and say it looks good here but where will it lead me and is that where I want to be we look downstream to the conclusion I think one of the most you know I was kind of making you know poking fun at Kanye earlier with the Taylor Swift thing but one of the things I loved when he apologized to her he said on TV he said when I made that decision I brought forth pain into the world and I don't want to do that and I just thought what a mature way to respond he said my decision to unite with desire brought forth pain and I don't want to be the kind of person who does that and so it's important to be able to do that look downstream so what does this action produce what does it create I have a friend and I've mentioned it before he is a pastor and in his prayer closet all along the wall when he exits our newspaper clippings of men who threw infidelity to their wives pastors have lost their marriages and lost their ministries it's the most depressing collage ever and you go why does he do that that seems grim well he does it because he knows when he rises up out of his prayer closet and goes out to minister to people he'll often meet people who are really hurting emotionally and he'll come to them an emotionally vulnerable place and as he provides love and care and concern and truth there's the potential to create a bond there that if you're not careful can turn sinister and begin to violate your marriage vows and he says I know that happens I've seen it happen to others I don't want to do that because I love my wife I love my kids and I don't want to damage a vulnerable person I don't want to be anywhere near that situation but I've seen it happen enough out there I need to be wise that that can happen in life and so he has these pictures up and I remember one of them there's a picture of a guy as the paparazzi surrounding his car and he's still lying about what he had done my buddy had circled the guy's wife's face and written next to it look at her eyes look at her eyes because she had a dead look in her face and she can't fake it anymore and my buddy looks at that because sin looks a lot less sexy in the cold light of day and if that man had seen that picture back here he might have made a different choice and so James says before you take a particularly conspicuously evil act look downstream and see where it leads and say it's not where I want to be you see it but he doesn't end there he says now after you've looked down now you need to look upstream you look downstream to see the conclusion then you look upstream to see the source because for many of us we know what our temptations are and we know it's not good I know I don't want to keep making this decision I know I don't want to go back to this relationship I know I don't want to keep interacting with a screen that way I know I don't want to keep interacting with pills and substances way I know I don't want to keep making these decisions but for some reason the right experiences of chaos in my life make that alluring and I stay on the cycle why do I do that what's the emotional energy that keeps driving me in this direction and you got to go upstream and say what's providing the power to these rapids how is this working and James will say it's a deception issue in verse 14 he says do not be deceived my beloved brothers he says the end of temptations destruction the beginning is deception he says something's breaking our thought processes that's leading us to think something destructive his life-enhancing what's breaking in our thought processes and then he does something really interesting he doesn't point downstream he doesn't say the problem is using this really on healthy foods actually nutritious you need to read a book he doesn't say that the problem is you think that dating six people at once is a good strategy when actually it's not he doesn't point downstream he says don't be deceived my beloved brothers every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from your father of lights and there's no variation or shadow due to change he says the lie that launches a million sins is that God is not a good dad who cares about you he says the problem with a lot of our activity begins in our theology I don't think God's gonna take care of me and I don't think God's gonna take care of me then I better take care of me and we have wandered down many broken roads looking for satisfaction that only he can give you know but where does James get this idea deception leading to destruction where does even come from we got it from Genesis 3 that's what happened with Eve right what happened with Eve when when the devil came to Tim turn notice he didn't start with the activity he didn't come up and say you know what I've been thinking about lately Eve fruit you know nothing about fruit how delicious it is and so I cut some up why don't you jump in here Adam get over here try this I paired it with some cheese he doesn't do that what does he do did God really say he says let's talk theology let's go to church let's talk about God the God really say he can't eat from every tree in the garden and he does something interesting there 12 times before that God is called the Lord God the Lord God the Lord God the Lord God that word Lord is a translation of the Hebrew word Yahweh that means the Covenant Oh God the God owes close to you as your own breath and what's to bind himself to you and love he drops that covenant ill name why because it's much easier to transgress a distant deity than to hurt a loving God so he distances her relations from God just a little bit and then he starts the question God's character hey Eve he's knob servation looks like you don't get to do everything you want looks like your allegiance to God is costing you Eve I'm just looking around here noticing that because of your allegiance to him you can't do certain things there's something in your life that would be life enhancing Eve but he's not letting you do it there's something that could add value to your life that your God's keeping from you even seems to me that your religious adherence is keeping you from really enjoying life seems to me Eve that if you really want to experience life you need to walk away from the author of life why because he's not good he doesn't care about you his rules are gonna cheat you Robbi from key experiences and so if you really want to have a full life you got to get out of there Eve and that lie has been tricking us ever since man if I trust God and the way he talks about sexuality he's gonna cheat me he's gonna keep me from experiences I want I'm never getting experienced with the worlds I'm gonna miss out I'm gonna miss out on being able to experience all that r1 experience sexually it's the only way to really live sexually is to walk away from him hey financially I don't want to trust his way if I trust him he's gonna rob from me he's gonna keep me back from my dreams he didn't hold me back from what I want to accomplish he's gonna leave me poor and destitute an out in the streets in the name of Jesus and I'm not gonna do that so I gotta go for mine that's not how it works in DC hey you know what if I follow him I'm not gonna be able to use my gifts I'm never actualized my purpose I'll never be all that I'm meant to be and so the in order to really live my life thank you God I'm gonna put you over here I'll pray every now to get what I need you but I'm going for mine in a pursuit of life we walk away from the author of life why because we believe the lie he's not a good dad and he doesn't take care of us so I got to do it on my own it's fascinating man I I remember reading Patrick Carnes he's one of the leading voices on addiction and he's talking about why do people go to things they know is destructive for them you know what he said he says the root of addiction is feeling unloved and unlovable that addiction is an intimacy disorder if I don't think anybody loves me I don't think anybody cares if I'm not enough if I don't measure up if I feel like I can't measure up get enough success enough approval like jaylen was talking about in order to be somebody to be approved be accepted if I can't get there then I'll just sink down into something to make me feel good and so I'll chase chase chase and violate a lot of people in things to get approval or I'll sink down and settle an addiction if that's what I need and yet the root of all of it is feeling unlovable and unloved and that's why James says oh don't be deceived my beloved brothers every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above from your father and lights you want good things and he wants them for you you want perfect things and he wants them for you and your God is good he's not gonna promise you something not deliver he's not gonna offer you life and then hold it back from you there's no shadow or variation with him he delights to give to you your father cares about you even if your earthly one never did your heavenly one does and when you understand the love of God it makes this look a lot less alluring and so what do we do we don't try to fight the deception and that's what so many people do I got a knuckle down my discipline stop thinking about that stop going there stop texting him stop looking at that go to bed earlier and some of that stuff's good but what do we do we hold back for a while and get into the cycle beat ourselves up and we go through that cycle again what does James say he says don't get in that stream and keep trying to paddle up switch streams you're in this desire stream of taking legitimate desires to an illegitimate place he says you know you need to switch streams stop looking to broken things to satisfy you you need to go to your father who's the superior pleasure because he gives good gifts and perfect gifts when you ride with him you need to switch streams the Puritans used to say it this way how do you dislodge a beautiful thing from the human heart they said you replace it with a more beautiful thing we've talked about this how did Romeo get rid of Rosalyn how did Romeo get rid of Rosalyn anybody remember Rosalyn okay front row yeah thank you ladies Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare what's happening at the beginning Romeo is pining away about Rosslyn you remember that I love Rosalyn so much and then finally his buddy Benvolio is annoyed and he was like hey man I'm taking you to a party tonight and there's like a hundred girls there hotter than Rosalyn it's like the rough translation the message version but read it it's there what happens Romeo says the all-seeing Sun has near met her match since first the world began whoa there is no one harder than Rosalyn then he goes to the party and it's his Juliet and that night he sneaks into her yard and he says but soft what light through yonder window breaks is the east and Juliet is the Sun arise fair Sun and kill the envious moon which is already sick and pale with grief that thou her maid art far more fair than she Rosalind who and for many of us there are appropriate boundaries to put in your life and there's other text to speak to that but for many of us we need to switch streams and say I've been looking for a heart level satisfaction in broken places and I need to get into a different stream I need to replace a Roselyn for Juliet I need to dislodge this beautiful thing by replacing it with a more beautiful thing I need to fix my eyes on my father of Lights who every good gift and he repeats the word gift every good gift and every perfect gift why he's trying to drill it into you comes down from your father and whom there is no shadow or variation due to change he is like the sun shining in the sky except he never disappears over the horizon and he's never covered by a cloud he is there for you he is consistent with you and he loves you and exhibit a of his love for you he tells you of his own will that is his fellow ma his desire because he wanted to he brought you forth by the word of truth he uses pregnancy imagery again everybody's having babies and James everyone desires having baby sins having a baby gods having a baby says God of his own will cuz he wanted to not because he had to not cuz of his obligations as a deity but because he wanted to he brought you forth by the word of truth that you would be wrong the firstfruits of his creatures how do you know God loves you look back look forward see what he's done it's interesting Philip Zimbardo is a psychologist who did the Stanford experiment you know he used college kids to imprison other college kids it's kind of weird don't have time to go into it but anyway he gave a talk about resisting temptation one time and he said the key to it is the past positive view in a future positive view that I see good in my past even though there may be a lot of wreckage in it and I see good in my future even though there may be challenges ahead he's basically summarizing James except James looks up and says look what your God did of his own will he brought you forth by the word of truth think about the day he brought you to life through his word for some of you you were five years old you were a sweet little girl and someone took you by the hand of Sunday School and told you Jesus loves you and you said this I know and you didn't know anything about epistemology or metaphysics and he didn't care he knew you loved him because he loved you first and he brought you from death to life and out of his own desire he made you his child and he loves you others of you it was this last year or last month and you didn't do it as a kid you walked down many winding broken roads and you ended up in some dark and sad places and while you were a long way off he lifted your gaze and you said at my father's house there was food for many and I am here eating among the pigs and while you were a long way off you looked up and your father was running for you and he embraced you and he pulled you out of that mire and he sets you on a rock and he put a new song in your mouth a hymn of praise to your God that he delighted to save you as big a mess you are he delighted to save you cuz he wanted to know could you deserved it because he delighted to do it that's who your God is of his own will he brought you forth because he loves you when you understand that I have the pleasure of God spoken over my life that will give you what you need to resist the pressure of this world our global pastor Louie was talking to a group of us pastors the other day it was amazing he was talking about the Ministry of Jesus that when Jesus began his earthly ministry began it he stepped down into the water to be baptized and what happened the spirit descended on him as a dove and then a voice spoke from heaven this is my son and whom I am well-pleased and Louie painted out did you notice this is the beginning of his ministry so why is God pleased he's haven't done anything have you healed anybody blind guys still blind getting forgiven anybody yet even walks on any water yet so what is God pleased with he's pleased with this kid cuz he's my kid and I get that I got it when we had our kids I mean I remember what our little sparrow was born so many complications so many questions of whether she was gonna come into the world but I remember when that beautiful little girl arrived with that crazy full head of hair I just loved her right away and she hadn't done a thing actually she had been kind of a hassle already from the jump and she certainly wasn't contributing or pulling her weight in any way but I delighted in her why because she's mine she's mine and God looks at Jesus and says that's my son and whom I'm well pleased and then what happens next then he is led out into that desert and the devil tries to tempt him and how does he start it if you really are the son of God he never starts with the activity he assaults the identity do you think God really cares about you if God really cared about you why are you out here starving to death if God really cared about you how come he hasn't exalted you yet I'll come here out here in the desert if God really cares about you how come you don't have power I'm here out here in obscurity and the devil keeps trying to get at him but it doesn't work why Jesus is fighting him off with deuteronomy quotes left and right why because he knows I have the pleasure of my dad and so the allure of sin just isn't getting to me you fight with the superior firepower of knowing your God loves you he loves you he delights in you and the more you rest in that before you've done a thing he loves me then you know you struggle you know you're a mess but you don't lose hope and rather than run from him until you've earned his approval you bask in his love and in his love the things of this world grow strangely dim and the light of his glorious grace that's how it works that's what the early church figured out that's why they love to their baptism to reenact Jesus they would walk up to that water and right before they stepped in they would turn around and say I renounce you Satan and all your pomp and they would turn around and they would walk into that water and they pictured it like Jesus did I'm standing here with the Son of God who loves me the Spirit of God is dwelling in with me inside me forever and my father in heaven is speaking over me that's my girl that's my boy and whom I'm well pleased and I'm United in community with the Trinity and then you would step out and you weren't just United with the Trinity you were United with the community the whole church was standing on the other banks and when you got out there they would clothed you in a new bright clean robe and then they would go nuts celebrating that you were lost and you were now found that you were dead but you were alive you went from darkness into his marvelous light and they threw a party because that empathy dissolves that shame that community gives you the power to walk out of all those lesser depravity and you see that I meant to walk together he said of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth so let me encourage some of you Jesus brought forth and us when you come to him were born individually but were born into a family and one of the greatest gifts he's given us is us the community group we didn't just come up to those because churches needed something to do we know that one of God's greatest gifts for us is us James will say later confess your sins one to another and pray for one another that you might be healed that doesn't mean this week when you go to community group you have to confess all your sins that's not how community group works okay so confess all the darkness inside go to your turn Bob like it's not how it works but you can come up and rather than for some of us dealing with the loneliness of this city by shrinking into ourselves and becoming a self-immolated victim we can step into community and say you know what I'm gonna put myself out there and I'm gonna make some friends I'm gonna love some people I'm gonna serve in the city with these people I mean I'm gonna live out of integrity who I say I want to be and what I want to be true of me when I die I'm gonna do that with these people show up at community group and then out of community group we have Fight Club so that's where you do get with to three people that you choose and you get with those people and you do share everything I have those men in my life that all the lights are on they know everything about me and they love me but they are not impressed with me and I love to talk with men like that on the phone and I don't text them because it's not the same because then you can be vague struggling today yeah man struggle me too when you're on the phone that I know with what why with who where and start to push on you and say hey that's a lie don't believe that those are bad decisions don't dwell on that that way of thinking it's gonna lead you some activity that's not life-giving to you and then they'll say things like and I love you and God loves you and you're forgiven in Jesus name and if you don't have someone speaking those words over you you need it we're meant to journey together of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth and then if you haven't yet you need to put your faith in Jesus that's the greatest exhibit of God's love of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth when the truth is spoken son of God loved you came for you lived for you died for you rose for you and you believe that you are brought to death from death life and the more I focus on that the relentless love of God for me the easier it becomes to walk away from the fleeting promises of sin so there's no promises to make to God tonight there's just the reception of his promise to love you there's no big things you have to say to him to get his approval he's done all for you we sang earlier about the reckless love of God it's a controversial song because there's a way to define the word reckless which means without thought to its implications or repercussions and that's not true of God God thought a lot about what he was doing when he sent Jesus into the darkness so if you saying his reckless love means he thought nothing about the implications that's bad theology been singing as a heretic and you need to repent but if you think of reckless like there is nothing he wouldn't wreck to get to you that out of his own desire he brought you forth he knew I'm going to get my kid and I will go through anything to get to you to bring you home if you think of him like Liam Neeson in taken then you sing that song cuz it's true there is no shadow Liam wouldn't light up to save his stolen daughter right with explosions lots of fire guns there is no chain he wouldn't break through just with a stolen car break through those gates to get to his kid to bring her home that was the movie taken my father will break through anything to come get me cuz he loves me and that's what your gods like his reckless love there's no shadow he won't light up there's no mountain he won't climb up he's coming after you and when you know you're loved by that when you embrace that kind of love I am a beloved child it becomes easier to let his voice amplify and let that voice of sweet escape diminish and as you walk with us in him you begin to see I'm living out of integrity and I love this my deep desires are met in a deep well and deep cost a deep and I am more alive than ever and I have watched people change who I didn't think was possible but Oh behold the Magnificent inexhaustible love of God there is nobody too far and when you come to know and dwell in and read about and soak in that love you watch what God can do with a human life that will walk humbly with their loving dad he will lead you places you do not think as possible and it isn't in your own power but it's enough for him

Channel: Passion City Church DC

Views: 46,611

Keywords: passion city church, passion church, passion city church worship, passion city, passion, city church, washington dc, ben stuart, Ben, stuart, sin, sins, lies

Id: laoypavZUuY

Length: 44min 57sec (2697 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 10 2019